Charles g finney biography for kids

They participated together with people of the town in biracial efforts to help fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroadas well as to resist the Fugitive Slave Act. Finney was twice a widower and married three times. They had six children together. In he married Rebecca Allen Rayl —also in Ohio. Each of Finney's three wives accompanied him on his revival tours and joined him in his evangelistic efforts.

Finney's great-grandson, also named Charles Grandison Finneybecame a famous author.

Charles g finney biography for kids: Charles Grandison Finney was an

As a young man Finney was a Master Masonbut after his conversion, he dropped the group as antithetical to Christianity. He was active in Anti-Masonic movements. Finney was a primary influence on the " revival " style of evangelism which emerged in the 19th century. Though coming from a Calvinistic background, Finney rejected tenets of "Old Divinity" Calvinism, which he felt were unbiblical and counter to evangelism and Christian mission.

Finney's theology is difficult to classify.

Charles g finney biography for kids: Early Life of Charles Grandison Finney

In his masterwork, Religious Revivals, he emphasizes the involvement of a person's will in salvation. The latter is part of Calvinist doctrine, in which the will of an elect individual is changed by God so that he or she desires to repent, thus repenting with his or her will and not against it; but the individual is not free in whether to choose repentance, since the choice must be what the will is inclined toward.

Finney, like most Protestants, affirmed salvation by grace through faith alone, not by works or by obedience. Acts of unrepentant sin were signs that a person had not received salvation. Writing in his Systematic TheologyFinney states: "I have felt greater hesitancy in forming and expressing my views upon this Perseverance of the saintsthan upon almost any other question in theology.

The impression of many seems to be, that grace will pardon what it cannot prevent; in other words, that if the grace of the Gospel fails to save people from the commission of sin in this life; it will nevertheless pardon them and save them in sin, if it cannot save them from sin. Now, really, I understand the Gospel as teaching that men are saved from sin first, and as a consequence, from hell; and not that they are saved from hell while they are not saved from sin.

Christ sanctifies when he saves. And this is the very first element or idea of salvation, saving from sin. Finney's understanding of substitutionary atonement was that it satisfied "public justice" and that it opened the way for God to pardon people of their sins. This was part of the theology of the so-called New Divinitywhich was popular at that time period.

In this view, Christ's death satisfied public justice rather than retributive justice. Why he even goes around mocking you all over his college campus! Finney reared back his head and laughed at her honesty. Nor has that ever stopped me from preaching the Gospel. Keeping his sense of humor he said, "Obviously, the family piety hasn't rubbed off on the young upstart.

This should be an interesting service, then. I will preach it after all and see what the Lord does. Charles Finney understood Theodore Weld's brash attitude. He remembered how as a young lawyer, he attended church, sang in the choir, and even read his Bible, yet his heart remained cold and unbelieving. He recalled the day long ago when he settled his questions of faith once and for all.

His journey led him to the peace of a quiet wood. There, Finney knelt by an old log and gave his heart to God. Surrounded by the beauty and splendor of God's creation, Charles confessed his sins and felt God's forgiveness. He emerged from the woods a new man, anxious to share his faith with others. In fact, the very next morning he quit being a lawyer in order to preach the Gospel.

Yes, Charles Finney understood Theodore Weld. He had been there, too, hearing but not understanding or accepting the Good News. Theodore's aunt guided him to her usual pew, nodding and smiling at fellow churchgoers. He found himself wedged between her on one end and a gaggle of her godly friends on the other. Theodore settled in for some daydreaming, as he often did in church.

It wasn't that his father wasn't a good speaker, but he had heard it all before. When he saw Charles Finney take the podium, he gave a start. Aunt Clark held her index finger to her lips to quiet him. Theodore tried to bolt like a squirrel chased by a dog, but his aunt leaned forward in her seat to pray, blocking his exit. When he tried to get out on the other side, her friends did the same thing.

He sank back down, cursing under his breath. The renowned evangelist began preaching on the dangers of using your talents for the wrong reasons. What a waste! Theodore was incensed that his aunt had tricked him into this, and now he felt the slings and arrows of Finney's words. He knew they were meant for him, and he wanted out. Finney departed strongly from traditional Calvinist theology by teaching that people have a completely free will to choose salvation.

He taught that preachers had charles g finney biography for kids roles in producing revival, and wrote in"A revival is not a miracle, or dependent on a miracle, in any sense. It is a purely philosophical result of the right use of the constituted means. Finney's theory of atonement combines principles from different historical theories, notably the governmental and the moral influence theories, but can't be associated solely to one of them.

A major theme of his preaching was the need for what he called conversion. He also focused on the responsibilities that converts had to dedicate themselves to disinterested benevolence and to work to build the kingdom of God on earth. Finney's eschatology was postmillennial, meaning he believed the Millennium a thousand-year reign of Christ on Earth would begin before Christ's Second Coming.

Finney believed Christians could bring in the Millennium by ridding the world of "great and sore evils". Frances FitzGerald wrote, "In his preaching the emphasis was always on the ability of men to choose their own salvation, to work for the general welfare, and to build a new society. Finney was an advocate of perfectionism, the doctrine that through complete faith in Christ believers could receive a "second blessing of the Holy Spirit" and reach Christian perfection, a higher level of sanctification.

For Finney, that meant living in obedience to God's law and loving God and one's neighbors but was not a sinless perfection. For Finney, even sanctified Christians are susceptible to temptation and capable of sin. Finney believed that it is possible for Christians to backslideeven to the point of losing their salvation.

Charles g finney biography for kids: Charles Grandison Finney (August 29,

Benjamin Warfield, a professor of theology at Princeton Theological Seminarywrote, "God might be eliminated from it [Finney's theology] entirely without essentially changing its character. He rejected it as theologically unsound. Dod was a defender of Reformed orthodoxy and was especially critical of Finney's view of the doctrine of total depravity.

For the American fantasy novelist, see Charles G. Refresh and try again. Charles Grandison Finney. Louis Gifford Parkhurst Jr. Bill Nicely. Garth M. Rosell Editor. Richard A. Charles Grandison Finney Editor. Andrew Murray. Finny G.