Caner Fired: Finney to Blame

In my recent post on Finney (Finney's Legacy) I posted two papers by Tom Chantry Pastor of Christ Reformed Baptist Church in Milwaukee. In these papers Chantry exposes Finney for the fraud that he was. Chantry says:

By no stretch of the imagination could Finney's Systematic Theology be considered a Christian book, for Christ is as absent from its pages as is God. Finney's christ is the son of god who became man to show us the way to heaven. There is no actual lecture on christ, so the reader might be understandably confused as to exactly what Finney taught about his nature. There are, however, two lectures on the atonement. Most of the material there is a refutation of the Christian doctrine of atonement, which Finney mischaracterizes as a "commercial transaction."

Finney left us with a legacy of deceit and deception. At the end of his manipulative career "...[he] had to acknowledge two facts. One was that the people in the region of western New York where he mainly preached were exhausted with revival and that converts could no longer be generated. The second and grimmer realization was that for all the excitement, the religious character of the region had noticeably deteriorated during [his] day. This area of frontier America became know as the "burned over district." An apt description for the damage Finney did.
Finney's popularity was such that through the years the truth of what Finney had done has beeb softened and morphed to hide that fact that man cannot "choose" to save himself no matter how emotional he becomes nor how many verses of Just As I Am are sung, while "heads are bowed and every eye is closed."
The larger problem, however, is that exageration, emotionalism, hype, and manipulation have become almost standard fare in too many American churches. Billy Graham popularized much of Finney's man-made religious nonsense which has permeated American churches, but now that chicken has come home to roost.
Ergun Caner former Dean of Liberty Baptist University in Lynchburg, Virginia has been fired. Seems he like Finney, embellished, exaggerated, lied, and generally mislead too many people and could not validate his Resume with facts. His lies caught up with him.
Fundamentally Reformed, a blog I read, has now weighed in on the subject. His analysis is well worth the time needed to read it. You can read his post here. In the article he says:

Without Finney, there could have been no Caner. The reason is that Finney’s influence has created an atmosphere within the Evangelical church in which Caner’s style of preaching, and indeed his multiple deceptions, might flourish.

I have argued that the Caner scandal belongs to all evangelicals. His behavior is a reflection on the state of the evangelical church at large, and we must all take ownership of what has happened.
Finney’s manipulation consisted of the “artful, unfair, and insidious” control of the emotional state of his hearers in order to bring about a “decision” which was anything but. We make decisions when we decide to take a certain course of action, generally after thoughtful consideration. Finney’s “decision” had nothing to do with thought. His hearers were whipped into a terror over the thought of hell. This sudden emotional state was a work of Finney’s art, and he knew how to mold it into a decision to follow God. He utilized every form of pressure to bring about the desired end.

So in typical situational ethical fashion, the ends justify the means if the one doing the manipulating is able to further his own prideful ends. Whether it is the "altar call" used to increase the numerical membership count of a church, or the elevation of a nobody into the status of importance of a University Dean, or even a Revivalist like Finney, these men think whatever seems to work for the moment must be right. 
Read what ever you can find about Finney, Caner, revivalism, altar call, etc. It is not a pretty picture.

Chantry on Finney

I was raised in churches which always had altar calls. Like most American Christians I took the word of the preachers and teachers that this is the way Christ had decided to build his church. I didn't question my leaders, I just went along with them as they plied their emotional trade trying my best to "feel good" about my life.

Then something happened. I got into a jam in my life in the midst of which I told God, "I give up. If you don't do it, it doesn't happen." From that point on my life has not been the same. I had admitted to God and to myself - for the first time in my life - that I was not in control of anything. I was at my wits end.

I had to start over and re-think everything about me, particularly my relationship with Christ. I learned the hard way that anything I thought I was doing that might have value to God was viewed by him as "filthy rags."  So I began a journey to understand how it was that I thought just by doing certain things, acting in a certain manner, showing up at the church building each time it was open, being polite, and talking religiously had not protected me from what I had done to myself. After all, I was a Christian, and the churches I attended never talked about Christian suffering: they only talked about doing good, tithing and faith-promise giving and that God would bless everything I did.

I was born, bred, and raised a Pelagian and didn't know it. Everything I had been taught told me I was in charge and that if bad things happened then I had done something wrong. So, I began a journey of self-education to learn if what I had been brain-washed with was actually true. To my profound sadness I learned that most of it was Paganism dressed up as Christianity designed to perpetuate the little empires of the preachers and teachers I had learned from.

Eventually my reading and studies led me to investigate the Reformation. I was stunned by the concepts of Scripture alone and Grace  alone. How could these thing be? I learned that God's Holy Spirit does everything through the "hearing" of His word. I wasn't told I had to do anything. In fact the exact opposite is the message of the Reformation. Inevitably, as I progressed in my search for truth, I came across a guy named Charles Grandison Finney. I learned from his writings that he withheld full disclosure when he was ordained and that was enough for me. He saw no ethical problem with telling a half-truth but I did. So I decided then and there anything he was associated with had to be corrupt. As I read more about him, dug more into his tactics and beliefs, I have no choice but to stay with my conclusions about him. The guy was a fraud and probably not a Christian. But, his legacy as a fraud lives on in most of American Christianity in the "altar call." He invented it, and Billy Graham via television made it famous to modern Americans. Who hasn't heard "every eye closed, every head bowed..."  "your friends will wait for you," followed by "come down the aisle now." Those words are ingrained in Americanized Christianity just as much as "apple pie," and "baseball."

When I have tried to talk to preachers about their use of emotional manipulation begging people to get saved, among other shady tactics, I'm generally blown off as a grouch and trouble-maker. Therefore, I have quietly lived my life - for the most part - putting up with this stuff in the hopes of reaching a friend or two with the truth here and there.

Now comes Pastor Chantry who has written two very good posts about Finney and the legacy he left Christianity in America. Without asking permission, I don't think Pastor Chantry would mind, I have posted his papers under the "Pages" heading at the top of this page as "Finney's Legacy."

I highly recommend everyone read Chantry's papers and finally make an honest "decision." For many it will take a lot of prayer and thinking about things never thought of before, but my prayer is that you will be "quickened" and the truly "narrow way" will be opened to you, as it was for me.

Evading reality

Many years ago I was attempting to witness to a lady who lives near my Baptist church. She looked me in the eyes and said, "that church is a cult." I have never gotten those words out of my mind. Then, I ignored her words and tried to forget them. Now, all these years later I think I am beginning to understand what she was trying to say.

Christianity is a belief system that is given to mankind as the only story of redemption for mankind. Philosophers would call it a narrative, technically it is a meta-narrative, meaning it is the all encompassing story for life. It is the story of redemption given to us by God himself in Scripture. It is the story of God (theology) and man (anthropology) which is all inclusive in describing how we - mankind - are to live in relation to the Holy God.


Given that it is God who has revealed Himself to us, there are no optional choices that can be made concerning our responsibility in our practical application of this narrative in our lives. We are made in such a way that we either must conform to the entire narrative or find in the end that in denying part of it we have become guilty of denying the whole, there is no middle ground.

The reality of the Christian belief system is that its story of redemption cannot be told in part if it is to be affective. If we tell a person he can be saved without explaining to him saved from what and why he needs salvation, the price paid for his redemption is cheapened and thus denied by default. The price paid by Christ was too costly not to be told as the major reason for God's demand that we repent. The gospel (good news) is not good news if any part of it is evaded or omitted in the re-telling. Repentance and redemption are opposite sides of the same coin. One cannot exist without the other.

When we preach "ye must be born again" without explanation of why this "rebirth" is necessary, followed up with explanation of the requirement of repentance, we have effectively nullified a major component of what the Holy God has revealed of Himself. God is a just God and part of His justice demands an acknowledgment from those He is redeeming that they have indeed violated His law and are sorry for their affront to His nature.

The general (overall) narrative in Scripture is a litany of mankind's flouting of God's law and His actions taken to redeem his chosen violators. His plan of redemption began in the Garden of Eden, and ended with the death of Jesus, His Son, on the Cross of Calvary. Without telling others this basic narrative, at some point preaching will deteriorate into a gloss of man-made concepts which quickly slide into no gospel at all. Preaching will become nothing more than psychological manipulation as the Preacher attempts to coerce people into a false sense of security that will soon evaporate - as all of man's desires do.

When someone tells another human being that all they need to do to gain heaven is accept Jesus as their "personal savior," without an explanation of the entire narrative, that person has committed what can only be seen in God's eyes as an usurpation of His authority. Moreover to inform someone that they are "guaranteed" heaven when they die, goes beyond simply usurping authority, it becomes a matter of assuming the role of God. This is a very dangerous enterprise for any human to undertake.

Scripture says that "faith comes by hearing..." but Scripture also says that mankind is born "dead in trespasses and sin." Faith is not something that one man can tell another he has or has been granted. Faith is the ability to believe and only God can give a human that ability. Faith is a change in one's nature that is granted super-naturally by God to His elect after He has "quickened" or regenerated their dead souls. Faith is not something men can casually walk down an aisle and tell a Preacher, "Hey Dude I believe that stuff you said, now what?" Or, more commonly, "I gave my heart to Jesus, what I gotta do now?"

Evading telling the entire story of redemption either for personal or secular reasons, for example, to brag about a tally of numerical conquests, can only be the result of a mind blinded by the particulars of the immediate moment. The particulars of the moment may be as innocuous as a desire to "win the lost," but no matter how one achieves an affirmative response to this kind of spiritual manipulation, it is dangerous work. Whatever the underlying motivation, to imply to another human "you have been granted the faith to believe" is God's prerogative, not ours.

Faith, once it has been given by God is evidenced by a change in desires on the part of the grantee. Scripture calls it "fruit." The evidence of being born again is not in writing the day, date, and time of a "decision" in the front of a Bible; the evidence is shown by a life lived out denying execution to old impulses and desires. It is a costly change for God but for us it is free. Our only job once this faith has been granted is to use it. We do that by taking up our Cross daily as we follow Jesus who gave us the Holy Spirit as our assistant in this endeavor. Anything less than full disclosure of the entire Gospel message is, in my opinion, a terrible sin committed against God. In ethical terms, it is fraud.

Unless we accept the fact that God told us He "added to the church daily those who should be saved," we will continue to have churches in America filled with unregenerate pretenders who are living a reality evading life. Those responsible for this effrontery will, I'm sure, be judged in the end.

For too long I participated in the charade which perpetuates this kind of thing. I have finally learned enough to know that what I was doing was wrong and plan to spend the rest of my life trying to make amends. I've started by trying to educate myself in the meta-narrative as given to us by God and not the particular one men have made up to further their own agendas.

I think I have finally figured out what the neighbor lady meant when she said that church is a "cult." She meant it was mistaken in some of the things it did. I agree and hope to live long enough to see if God will make changes in its narrative to the World.