How Not To Convert Souls

Status
Not open for further replies.
E

everready

Guest
:sigh:
PREACHING SO AS TO CONVERT NOBODY.
By: REV. CHARLES G. FINNEY
From: Revivals. How To Promote
This was made available to us by:
Dennis Carroll
Gospel Truth Ministries
P.O. Box 401
Tustin, CA 92681


The design of this article is to propound several rules, by a steady conformity to any one of which a man may preach so as not to convert anybody. It is generally conceded at the present day that the Holy Spirit converts souls to Christ by means of truth adapted to that end.
It follows that a selfish preacher will not skillfully adapt means to convert souls to Christ, for this is not his end.
Rule 1st. Let your supreme motive be to secure your own popularity; then, of course, your preaching will be adapted to that end, and not to convert souls to Christ.
2d. Aim at pleasing, rather than at converting your hearers.
3d. Aim at securing for yourself the reputation of a beautiful writer.
4th. Let your sermons be written with a high degree of literary finish.
5th. Let them be short, occupying in the reading not to exceed from twenty to twenty-five minutes.
6th. Let your style be flowery, ornate, and quite above the comprehension of the common people.
7th. Be sparing of thought, lest your sermon contain truth enough to convert a soul.
8th. Lest your sermon should make a saving impression, announce no distinct propositions or heads, that will be remembered, to disturb the consciences of your hearers.
9th. Make no distinct points, and take no disturbing issues with the consciences of your hearers, lest they remember these issues, and become alarmed about their souls.
10th. Avoid a logical division and sub-division of your subject, lest you should too thoroughly instruct your people.
11th. Give your sermon the form and substance of a flowing, beautifully written, but never-to-be-remembered essay; so that your hearers will say "it was a beautiful sermon," but can give no further account of it.
12th. Avoid preaching doctrines that are offensive to the carnal mind, lest they should say of you, as they did of Christ, "This is a hard saying. Who can hear it?" and that you are injuring your influence.
13th. Denounce sin in the abstract, but make no allusion to the sins of your present audience.
14th. Keep the spirituality of God's holy law, by which is the knowledge of sin, out of sight, lest the sinner should see his lost condition, and flee from the wrath to come.
15th. Preach the Gospel as a remedy, but conceal, or ignore the fatal disease of the sinner.
16th. Preach salvation by grace; but ignore the condemned and lost condition of the sinner, lest he should understand what you mean by grace, and feel his need of it.
17th. Preach Christ as an infinitely amiable and good-natured being; but ignore those scathing rebukes of sinners and hypocrites which so often made his hearers tremble.
18th. Avoid especially preaching to those who are present. Preach about sinners, and not to them. Say they, and not you, lest any one should make a personal and saving application of your subject.
19th. Aim to make your hearers pleased with themselves and pleased with you, and be careful not to wound the feelings of any one.
20th. Preach no searching sermons, lest you convict and convert the worldly members of your church.
21st. Avoid awakening uncomfortable memories by reminding your hearers of their past sins.
22d. Do not make the impression that God commands your hearers now and here to obey the truth.
23d. Do not make the impression that you expect your hearers to commit themselves upon the spot and give their hearts to God.
24th. Leave the impression that they are expected to go away in their sins, and to consider the matter at their convenience.
25th. Dwell much upon their inability to obey, and leave the impression that they must wait for God to change their natures.
26th. Make no appeals to the fears of sinners; but leave the impression that they have no reason to fear.
27th. Say so little of Hell that your people will infer that you do not believe in its existence.
28th. Make the impression that, if God is as good as you are, He will send no one to Hell.
29th. Preach the love of God, but ignore the holiness of His love, that will by no means clear the impenitent sinner.
30th. Often present God in His parental love and relations; but ignore His governmental and legal relations to His subjects, lest the sinner should find himself condemned already, and the wrath of God abiding on him.
31st. Preach God as all mercy, lest a fuller representation of His character should alarm the consciences of your hearers.
32d. Try to convert sinners to Christ without producing any uncomfortable convictions of sin.
33d. Flatter the rich, so as to repel the poor, and you will convert none of either class.
34th. Make no disagreeable allusions to the doctrines of self-denial, cross-bearing, and crucifixion to the world, lest you should convict and convert some of your church members.
35th. Admit, either expressly or impliedly, that all men have some moral goodness in them; lest sinners should understand that they need a radical change of heart, from sin to holiness.
36th. Avoid pressing the doctrine of total moral depravity; lest you should offend, or even convict and convert, the moralist.
37th. Do not rebuke the worldly tendencies of the church, lest you should hurt their feelings, and finally convert some of them.
38th. Should any express anxiety about their souls, do not probe them by any uncomfortable allusion to their sin and ill-desert; but encourage them to join the church at once, and exhort them to assume their perfect safety within the fold.
39th. Preach the love of Christ not as enlightened benevolence, that is holy, just, and sin-hating; but as a sentiment, an involuntary and undiscriminating fondness.
40th. Be sure not to represent religion as a state of loving self-sacrifice for God and soul; but rather as a free and easy state of self-indulgence. By thus doing, you will prevent sound conversions to Christ, and convert your hearers to yourself.
41st. So select your themes, and so present them, as to attract and flatter the wealthy, aristocratic, self-indulgent, extravagant, pleasure-seeking classes, and you will not convert any of them to the cross-bearing religion of Christ.
42d. Be time-serving, or you will endanger your salary and, besides, if you speak out and are faithful, you may convert somebody.
43d. Do not preach with a divine unction, lest your preaching make a saving impression.
44th. To avoid this, do not maintain a close walk with God, but rely upon your learning and study.
45th. Lest you should pray too much, engage in light reading and worldly amusements.
46th. That your people may not think you in earnest to save their souls, and, as a consequence, heed your preaching, encourage church-fairs, lotteries and other gambling and worldly expedients to raise money for church purposes.
47th. If you do not approve of such things, make no public mention of your disapprobation, lest your church should give them up, and turn their attention to saving souls and be saved themselves.
48th. Do not rebuke extravagance in dress, lest you should uncomfortably impress your vain and worldly church-members.
49th. Lest you should be troubled with revival scenes and labors, encourage parties, picnics, excursions, and worldly amusements, so as to divert attention from the serious work of saving souls.
50th. Ridicule solemn earnestness in pulling sinners out of the fire, and recommend, by precept and example, it jovial, fun-loving religion, and sinners will have little respect for your serious preaching.
51st. Cultivate a fastidious taste in your people, by avoiding all disagreeable allusions to the last judgment and final retribution.
52d. Treat such uncomfortable doctrines as obsolete and out of place in these days of Christian refinement.
53d. Do not commit yourself to much-needed reforms, lest you should compromise your popularity and injure your influence. Or you may make some branch of outward reform a hobby, and dwell so much upon it as to divert attention from the great work of converting souls to Christ.
54th. So exhibit religion as to encourage the selfish pursuit of it. Make the impression upon sinners that their own safety and happiness is the supreme motive for being religious.
55th. Do not lay much stress upon the efficacy and necessity of prayer, lest the Holy Spirit should be poured out upon you and the congregation, and sinners should be converted.
56th. Make little or no impression upon your hearers, so that you can repeat your old sermons often without its being noticed.
57th. If your text suggest any alarming thought, pass lightly over it, and by no means dwell upon and enforce it.
58th. Avoid all illustrations, repetitions, and emphatic sentences, that may compel your people to remember what you say.
59th. Avoid all heat and earnestness in your delivery, lest you make the impression that you really believe what you say.
60th. Address the imagination, and not the conscience, of your hearers.
61st. Make it your great aim to be personally popular with all classes of your hearers.
62d. Be tame and timid in presenting the claims of God, as would become you in presenting your own claims.
63d. Be careful not to testify from your own personal experience of the power of the Gospel, lest you should produce the conviction upon your hearers that you have something which they need.
64th. See that you say nothing that will appear to any of your hearers to mean him or her, unless it be something flattering.
65th. Encourage church sociables, and attend them yourself, because they tend so strongly to levity as to compromise Christian dignity and sobriety, and thus paralyze the power of your preaching.
66th. Encourage the cultivation of the social in so many ways as to divert the attention of yourself and your church-members from the infinite guilt and danger of the unconverted among you.
67th. In those sociables talk a little about religion, but avoid any serious appeal to the heart and conscience of those who attend, lest you should discourage their attendance, always remembering that they do not go to socials to be earnestly dealt with in regard to their relations to God. In this way you will effectually so employ yourself and church-members as that your preaching will not convert anybody.
The experience of ministers who have steadily adhered to any of the above rules, will attest the soul-destroying efficacy of such a course, and churches whose ministers have steadily conformed to any of these rules can testify that such preaching does not convert souls to Christ.
 

Timuchin

Regular Member
May 4, 2007
599
30
Visit site
✟8,411.00
Faith
Methodist
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Libertarian
The contrast to that is 1 Cor. 2:1-5.
"When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in much fear & trembling; and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."

In other words, "talk is cheap; God's power says it all."
 
Upvote 0
E

everready

Guest
The contrast to that is 1 Cor. 2:1-5.
"When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in much fear & trembling; and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."

In other words, "talk is cheap; God's power says it all."
:blush:
Granted, talk is cheap but souls aren't.
What do you figure was the population of the U.S. in the 1800's?
It was through this evangelists way of teaching Gods Word that over 500,000 souls are now in paradise:scratch:

So, I guess what I'm saying is, did you look anything up on Charles Finney?

In Christ,
Lee
 
Upvote 0
E

everready

Guest
:)
TAKE HEED TO THYSELF.
By: REV. CHARLES G. FINNEY
From: Revivals. How To Promote
This was made available to us by:
Dennis Carroll
Gospel Truth Ministries
P.O. Box 401
Tustin, CA 92681

"Take heed to thyself, and to the doctrine; continue in them for, in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee." 1 Timothy 4:16.
I am not going to preach to preachers, but to suggest certain conditions upon which the salvation promised in this text may be secured by them.
1st. See that you are constrained by love to preach the Gospel, as Christ was to provide a Gospel.
2d. See that you have the special enduement of power from on high, by the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
3d. See that you have a heart, and not merely a head-call to undertake the preaching of the Gospel. By this I mean, be heartily and most intensely inclined to seek the salvation of souls as the great work of life, and do not undertake what you have no heart to.
4th. Constantly maintain a close walk with God.
5th. Make the Bible your book of books. Study it much, upon your knees, waiting for divine light.
6th. Beware of leaning on commentaries. Consult them when convenient; but judge for yourself, in the light of the Holy Ghost.
7th. Keep yourself pure - in will, in thought, in feeling, in word and action.
8th. Contemplate much the guilt and danger of sinners, that your zeal for their salvation may be intensified.
9th. Also deeply ponder and dwell much upon the boundless love and compassion of Christ for them.
10th. So love them yourself as to be willing to die for them.
11th. Give your most intense thought to the study of ways and means by which you may save them. Make this the great and intense study of your life.
12th. Refuse to be diverted from this work. Guard against every temptation that would abate your interest in it.
13th. Believe the assertion of Christ that he is with you in this work always and everywhere, to give you all the help you need.
14th. "He that winneth souls is wise" and, "if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and he shall receive." "But let him ask in faith." Remember, therefore, that you are bound to have the wisdom that shall win souls to Christ.
15th. Being called of God to the work, make your calling your constant argument with God for all that you need for the accomplishment of the work.
16th. Be diligent and laborious, "in season and out of season."
17th. Converse much with all classes of your hearers on the question of their salvation, that you may understand their opinions, errors, and wants. Ascertain their prejudices, ignorance, temper, habits, and whatever you need to know to adapt your instruction to their necessities.
18th. See that your own habits are in all respects correct; that you are temperate in all things - free from the stain or smell of tobacco, alcohol, drugs, or anything of which you have reason to be ashamed, and which may stumble others.
19th. Be not "light-minded," but "set the Lord always before you."
20th. Bridle your tongue, and be not given to idle and unprofitable conversation.
21st. Always let your people see that you are in solemn earnest with them, both in the pulpit and out of it; and let not your daily intercourse with them nullify your serious teaching on the Sabbath.
22d. Resolve to "know nothing" among your people "save Jesus Christ and him crucified"; and let them understand that, as an ambassador of Christ, your business with them relates wholly to the salvation of their souls.
23d. Be sure to teach them as well by example as by precept. Practice yourself what you preach.
24th. Be especially guarded in your intercourse with women, to raise no thought or suspicion of the least impurity in yourself.
25th. Guard your weak points. If naturally tending to gayety and trifling, watch against occasions of failure in this direction.
26th. If naturally somber and unsocial, guard against moroseness and unsociability.
27th. Avoid all affectation and sham in all things. Be what you profess to be, and you will have no temptation to "make believe."
28th. Let simplicity, sincerity, and Christian propriety stamp your whole life.
29th. Spend much time every day and night in prayer and direct communion with God. This will make you a power for salvation. No amount of learning and study can compensate for the loss of this communion. If you fail to maintain communion with God, you are "weak as another man."
30th, Beware of the error that there are no means of regeneration; and, consequently, no connection of means and ends in the regeneration of souls.
31st. Understand that regeneration is a moral and, therefore, a voluntary change.
32d. Understand that the Gospel is adapted to change the hearts of men, and in a wise presentation of it you may expect the efficient cooperation of the Holy Spirit.
33d. In the selection and treatment of your texts always secure the direct teaching of the Holy Spirit.
34th. Let all your sermons be heart and not merely head sermons.
35th. Preach from experience, and not from hearsay, or mere reading and study.
36th. Always present the subject which the Holy Spirit lays upon your heart for the occasion. Seize the points presented by the Holy Spirit to your own mind, and present them with the greatest possible directness to your congregation.
37th. Be full of prayer whenever you attempt to preach, and go from your closet to your pulpit with the inward groanings of the Spirit pressing for utterance at your lips.
38th. Get your mind fully imbued with your subject, so that it will press for utterance; then open your mouth, and let it forth like a torrent.
39th. See that "the fear of man that bringeth a snare" is not upon you. Let your people understand that you fear God too much to be afraid of them.
40th. Never let the question of your popularity with your people influence your preaching.
41st. Never let the question of salary deter you from "declaring the whole counsel of God, whether men will hear or forbear."
42d. Do not temporize, lest you lose the confidence of your people, and thus fail to save them. They cannot thoroughly respect you as an ambassador of Christ if they see that you dare not do your duty.
43d. Be sure to "commend yourself to every man's conscience in the sight of God."
44th. Be "not a lover of filthy lucre."
45th. Avoid every appearance of vanity.
46th. Compel your people to respect your sincerity and your spiritual wisdom.
47th. Let them not for a moment suppose that you can be influenced in your preaching by any considerations of salary, more or less, or none at all.
48th. Do not make the impression that you are fond of good dinners, and like to be invited out to dine; for this will be a snare to you, and a stumbling block to them.
49th. "Keep under your body, lest, after having preached to others, yourself should be a castaway."
50th. "Watch for souls as one who must give an account to God."
51st. Be a diligent student, and thoroughly instruct your people in all that is essential to their salvation.
52d. Never flatter the rich.
53d. Be especially attentive to the wants and instruction of the poor.
54th. Suffer not yourself to be bribed into a compromise with sin by donation parties.
55th. Suffer not yourself to be publicly treated as a mendicant, or you will come to be despised by a large class of your hearers.
56th. Repel every attempt to close your mouth against whatever is extravagant, wrong, or injurious amongst your people.
57th. Maintain your pastoral integrity and independence, lest you sear your conscience, quench the Holy Spirit, forfeit the confidence of your people, and lose the favor of God.
58th. Be an example to the flock, and let your life illustrate your teaching. Remember that your actions and spirit will teach even more impressively than your sermons.
59th. If you preach that men should offer to God and their neighbor a love service, see that you do this yourself, and avoid all that tends to the belief that you are working for pay.
60th. Give to your people a love service, and encourage them to render to you, not a money equivalent for your labor, but a love reward, that will refresh both you and them.
61st. Repel every proposal to get money for you or for church purposes that will naturally disgust and excite the contempt of worldly but thoughtful men.
62d. Resist the introduction of tea parties, amusing lectures, and dissipating sociables, especially at those seasons most favorable for united efforts to convert souls to Christ. Be sure the Devil will try to head you off in this direction. When you are praying and planning for a revival of God's work, some of your worldly church-members will invite you to a party. Go not, or you are in for a circle of them, that will defeat your prayers.
63d. Do not be deceived. Your spiritual power with your people will never be increased by accepting such invitations at such times. If it is a good time to have parties, because the people have leisure, it is also a good time for religious meetings, and your influence should be used to draw the people to the house of God.
64th. See that you personally know and daily live upon Christ.
In Christ,
Lee
 
Upvote 0
E

everready

Guest
THE PROMISES OF GOD

By Charles Finney

From the OBERLIN EVANGELIST 1839

Public Domain Text Reformatted by Katie Stewart


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Text.--2 Pet. 1:4: "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

I. I am to make several preliminary remarks upon the nature of the promises.

1. The promises made to the church under the old dispensation belong emphatically to the Christian Church. Thus the promise made to Abraham was designed more for his posterity, and for the Christian Church than for himself. That part of the promise which related to the temporal possession of Canaan never was fulfilled to him. He lived and died "a stranger and sojourner in the land of promise." In Heb. 11:13 we are expressly informed that Abraham did not receive the fulfillment of the promises, but that they belonged especially to Christians under the New Testament dispensation. "These all died in faith not having received the promises--but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth," i.e. Abraham and the patriarchs died without receiving the fulfillment of the promises. Again, verses 39-40, --"And these all, having obtained a good report, through faith, received not the promises; God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." So the New Covenant in Jer. 31:31-34: Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; (which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more, every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Also, Jer. 32:39-40: --"And I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever for the good of them, and of their children after them; and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me."
 
Upvote 0
E

everready

Guest
Chapter 4

1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

Is the way Paul the Apostle taught it.
 
Upvote 0
E

everready

Guest
comeback.jpg



"It is the bounden duty of every Christian to pray against Antichrist, and as to what Antichrist is no sane man ought to raise a question. If it be not the Popery in the Church of Rome there is nothing in the world that can be called by that name. It wounds Christ, robs Christ of His glory, puts sacramental efficacy in the place of His atonement, and lifts a piece of bread in the place of the Saviour....If we pray against it, because it is against Him, we shall love the persons though we hate their errors; we shall love their souls, though we loathe and detest their dogmas...."

-- C. H. Spurgeon


" Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time."
1 John 2:18

Well you didn't seem to like Charles Finney I thought you might like Spurgeon a little better.

 
Upvote 0

Jefell

Servant of the Lord
May 19, 2008
242
20
52
NY
Visit site
✟15,467.00
Faith
Christian
That is a crock of nonsense and complete opposite of GOD's Word.

and here you say:
"they do not go to socials to be earnestly dealt with in regard to their relations to God."


They do not want to be earnestly dealt with in regard to their relations to GOD?!? How would Jesus deal with that?



Everyone should say whatever GOD tells them to say to whoever and wherever GOD tells them to say it! Do not ever hold back what GOD tells you to say. TRUST GOD. Completely understand that YOU have nothing to do with ANYONE'S salvation. GOD chooses. And if you are speaking GOD's WORD.. that is the only seed you need.. if it falls on bad ground, move on.. but keep it true and do as GOD tells you.

And another thing.. FOLLOW JESUS.. not Paul. Do as Jesus did.. not anyone else.

With Love,
- Jefell
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
This site stays free and accessible to all because of donations from people like you.
Consider making a one-time or monthly donation. We appreciate your support!
- Dan Doughty and Team Christian Forums
E

everready

Guest
Actually, there is no right way for a man to convert a soul, because it is:
'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Says the LORD of hosts." (Zechariah 4:6 NKJV)

Only God can convert a soul. We are merely instruments through which 'His Power' flows...

LionAndSheepLamb-animal02.jpg


I'm sorry I should have made myself clear, I realize it is only by his amazing grace we are saved > what I should have added was "This Question Is Being Directed At All You Preachers And Teachers" haven't you been to a church where the ones giving the message aren't getting the message, I have sister I've seen too many that by their actions steer many a sinner in the wrong direction, thus the thread title :amen:
 
Upvote 0
Status
Not open for further replies.