How much of the Gospel must one change for it to no longer be the Gospel? In Galatians chapter one the Apostle Paul made severe but proper comments about “another gospel,” going so far as to curse anyone who preaches a false Gospel (Galatians 1.9). It is not my intention to accuse anyone I know of preaching a false Gospel message. However, I do want to warn one and all about the ungodly influences of two men who had a profound and decidedly negative impact on 20th century evangelistic practices and Sunday School philosophy. One man’s name is familiar to most, while the other man is mostly unknown.
Charles Grandison Finney forever changed the face of American Christianity by altering the way large-scale evangelistic efforts were conducted, radically but not beneficially departing from the approaches used by both George Whitefield and John Wesley in the First Great Awakening. It is very easy to get a grip on the principles that drove Finney since he wrote only three books and all three are available to anyone who will take the time to read them. Sadly, few seem interested in finding out the truth about so popular a preacher, despite his obvious dishonesty and clearly unscriptural views about revival and conversion. However, he changed the face of how preachers seek to reach the lost for Christ, and not in a good way. I suggest you follow up on Finney by reading the following and then by reading his books:
As Charles G. Finney left his imprint on the way even 21st-century American preachers seek to evangelize the lost, so Horace Bushnell forever altered the way Churches conduct their Sunday School ministries. Who has ever heard of Horace Bushnell? His book Christian Nurture has been described by one distinguished historian as “one of the most influential books ever to be published in America.” Released in 1860, Bushnell’s book led all other choices in a poll of Christian educators’ listings of which writings they considered indispensable to their field. Virtually no senior pastor in the United States has ever heard of the guy who created the modern Sunday School template, co-founded the University of California at Berkeley, and who was thought by Mark Twain to be one of the greatest clergy of the 19th century.
You would think preachers would be interested in learning about the two men who have most influenced their approach to evangelism and Sunday School. You would be wrong. Guys of my generation think their influentials were men like John R. Rice, Lee Roberson, Jerry Falwell, Bob Grey, or perhaps Jack Hyles. But those prominent 20th-century spiritual leaders did not grow up in a vacuum. They came into the world that was already established by Finney and Bushnell, without even knowing who their predecessors were. Perhaps, in the case of Bushnell, without ever hearing or even reading his name.
Can you take seriously the theology of a man who thought you could lose your salvation for eating graham crackers? Who thought you could lose your salvation even after dying and going to heaven? Who thought that children should never be made uncomfortable in Sunday School by teaching them about their sins, but should be told at an early age (before they were ever exposed to the Gospel) that they loved Jesus? Where do you think the notion that kids could become believers in Christ with no consciousness of personal sin came from?
In my musings about the reasons our young people leave our Churches as they pass from their teen years and the reasons young Gospel ministers leave our movement, I am astonished again and again by the complete absence of interest in real history displayed by our seasoned spiritual leaders. So many men have no regard for Finney’s real beliefs, for Finney’s real practices, and where Finney’s theology came from. And it is even worse with Bushnell because no one has ever heard of him. Two 19th century Christian leaders, one a prototype of the current approach to evangelism and the other influencing almost every aspect of modern Sunday School practice.
Many pastors these days believe they are influenced by these two men. It is impossible to know what effect a man has had on your ministry without knowing what that man believed and did, and the effect he had on his generation. As I muse about such things, my heart is not presently filled with optimism for the men and their ministries who continue to disregard both Finney and Bushnell.
