The American Minute: ‘If Our Politics Become Corrupt…the Pulpit is Responsible for It’ -Charles Finney

29-year-old attorney, Charles Finney saw so many Scripture references in Blackstone’s Law Commentaries that he bought a Bible.On October 10, 1821, he decided to head into the woods near his home, saying:”I will give my heart to God, or I never will come down from there.”

After several hours, he returned to his office, later writing:

“The Holy Spirit…seemed to go through me, body and soul… Indeed it seemed to come in waves of liquid love, for I could not express it in any other way.”

The next morning, at his law office, a church deacon suing a fellow-church member asked Finney about his case. Finney replied:

“I have a retainer from the Lord Jesus Christ to plead his cause, and cannot plead yours.”

Finney began presenting the Gospel with a convincing lawyer’s argument.

He would pray using common, colloquial language rather than in formal, traditional King’s English.

Charles Finney began the tradition of an ‘altar call’ in his 1830 revival in Rochester, New York:

“I had found, that with the higher classes especially, the greatest obstacle to be overcome was their fear of being known as anxious inquirers. They were too proud…

Something was needed, to make the impression on them that they were expected at once to give up their hearts;

something that would call them to act, and act as publicly before the world, as they had in their sins;

something that would commit them publicly to the service of Christ…

I had called them simply to stand up in the public congregations…to bring them out from among the mass of the ungodly, to a public renunciation of their sinful ways, and a public committal of themselves to God.”

Finney’s revival preaching paved the way for evangelists Dwight L. Moody, Billy Sunday and Billy Graham.

Charles Finney’s 1835 Revival Lectures inspired George Williams to found the YMCA-Young Men’s Christian Association-in 1844.

Finney inspired William and Catherine Booth to found what would be called The Salvation Army in 1865.

Charles Finney formed the Benevolent Empire, a network of volunteer organizations to aid poor and aged with healthcare and social needs, which in 1834 had a budget rivaling the Federal Government.

Finney organized the Broadway Tabernacle in New York in 1831.

While Charles Finney was president of Oberlin College, 1851-1866, it was a station on the Underground Railroad smuggling slaves to freedom.

Under his leadership, Oberlin College granted the first college degree in the United States to a black woman, Mary Jane Patterson.

Charles Finney died AUGUST 16, 1875.

Concerning the Kingdom of God, he wrote:

“Every member must work or quit. No honorary members.”

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In his article, ‘The Decay of Conscience’ published in THE INDEPENDENT of NEW YORK, December 4, 1873, Charles Finney wrote:

“Christ crucified for the sins of the world is the Christ that the people need.

Let us rid ourselves…of neglecting to preach the law of God until the consciences of men are asleep.

Such a collapse of conscience in this land could never have existed if the Puritan element in our preaching had not in great measure fallen out…”

Finney continued:

“If immorality prevails in the land, the fault is ours in a great degree.

If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it.

If the public press lacks moral discrimination, the pulpit is responsible for it.

If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it.

If the world loses its interest in religion, the pulpit is responsible for it.

If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it.

If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it.

Let us not ignore this fact, my dear brethren; but let us lay it to heart, and be thoroughly awake to our responsibility in respect to the morals of this nation.”

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In Lecture XV ‘Hindrances to Revival’ (Revival Lectures, 1855), Charles Finney wrote:

“The church must take right ground in regard to politics.

Do not suppose, now, that I am going to preach a political sermon, or that I wish to have you join and get up a Christian party in politics.

No, I do not believe in that. But the time has come that Christians must vote for honest men, and take consistent ground in politics, or the Lord will curse them.

They must be honest men themselves, and instead of voting for a man because he belongs to their party, Bank or Anti-Bank, Jackson, or Anti-Jackson, they must find out whether he is honest and upright, and fit to be trusted.

They must let the world see that the church will uphold no man in office, who is known to be a knave, or an adulterer, or a Sabbath-breaker, or a gambler…

Every man can know for whom he gives his vote. And if he will give his vote only for honest men, the country will be obliged to have upright rulers…”

Finney continued:

“The church must act right or the country will be ruined.

God cannot sustain this free and blessed country, which we love and pray for, unless the church will take right ground.

Politics are a part of religion in such a country as this, and Christians must do their duty to the country as a part of their duty to God.

It seems sometimes as if the foundations of the nation were becoming rotten, and Christians seem to act as if they thought God did not see what they do in politics.

But I tell you, he does see it, and he will bless or curse this nation, according to the course they take.”