Decisional Regeneration

What is Regeneration?

"Except a man be born again (1), he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John
3:3). Our Lord Jesus Christ taught that the new birth is so important that
no one can see heaven without it. Mistakes concerning this doctrine have
been very destructive to the Church of Christ. Regeneration, or the new
birth, is a work of God. It is not a work of man. It is not something that
man does but something that God does. The new birth is a change wrought in
us, not an act performed by us. This is stated so beautifully by the Apostle
John when in the first chapter of his Gospel he speaks of the children of
God as those "which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God" (v. 13).


What is "Decisional Regeneration"?

The history of the Christian Church has seen many errors concerning the new
birth. These teachings depart from Scripture by attributing to man the
ability to regenerate himself. When these false concepts of man and the new
birth are adopted, churches soon become corrupted with false practices. The
Roman Catholic church, the Anglican church, the Lutheran church and many
other churches have all been corrupted at different times and to different
degrees with the teaching of Baptismal Regeneration. Because of this
erroneous teaching on regeneration, these churches have embraced false
practices.

In the nineteenth century few controversies were so heated as the one over
Baptismal Regeneration. It is interesting to note that C. H. Spurgeon
(1836-1892), the most prolific preacher of that century, had printed in 1864
more copies of his sermon denouncing Baptismal Regeneration than of any
other sermon. Baptismal Regeneration teaches that the new birth is conveyed
by the waters of baptism. The sacrament is performed by man and is in his
control.

But the twentieth century Church has, in "Decisional Regeneration," a more
subtle falsehood to combat. "Decisional Regeneration" differs from Baptismal
Regeneration only in the fact that it attaches the certainty of the new
birth to a different act. This doctrine, just as Baptismal Regeneration,
sees the new birth as the result of a mechanical process that can be
performed by man. What is here called "Decisional Regeneration" has in its
deceptive way permeated much of the Christian Church.


Our Purpose

The methods and theology of those that practice "Decisional Regeneration"
need to be examined-not with a malicious spirit, but with a fervent desire
that all of God's people may be one in doctrine and practice for the glory
of God. We love all that are in Christ. But we agree wholeheartedly with
Charles Spurgeon that "the best way to promote union is to promote truth.

It will not do for us to be all united together by yielding to one another's
mistakes. We are to love each other in Christ; but we are not to be so
united that we are not able to see each other's faults, and especially not
able to see our own. No, purge the house of God, and then shall grand and
blessed times dawn on us," (2). So then our purpose is not to question the
sincerity of some Christians or to malign them, but to unite Christians in
the truth as it is in our Lord. This alone is true Christian unity.

As we earnestly seek to bring unity to the Church of Christ let us turn from
falsehood unto God's truth. The practice of-"Decisional Regeneration" in the
Church must be exposed in order to save men from the damning delusion that
because they have "decided" or "signed a card," they are going to heaven and
are no longer under the wrath of God. The purity of the gospel is of extreme
importance because it alone is the power of God unto salvation and the true
basis of Christian unity.


Decisional Regeneration and Counseling

Some may still not understand exactly what is here meant by this term
"Decisional Regeneration." Perhaps some are unfamiliar with the counseling
courses that are being taught by many organizations in this country and
abroad, and with the numerous "Soul Winning Conferences" that are taking
place. In these meetings counselors are instructed that successful
counseling must conclude with an individual's absolute assurance of
salvation. Counselors are often instructed to assure an individual that his
salvation is certain because he has prayed the prescribed prayer, and he has
said "yes" to all the right questions.

We have an illustration of "Decisional Regeneration" when a popular
present-day preacher prescribes a counseling procedure. He directs "Mr. Soul
Winner" to ask an unconverted "Mr. Blank" a series of questions. If "Mr.
Blank" says "yes" to all the questions, he is asked to pray a prescribed
prayer and is then pronounced saved, (3). For the most part this counseling
results in an individual being "regenerated" through a decision. This is
essentially the same counseling method used in large evangelistic crusades
across the world. These campaigns are like huge factories turning out as
many as ten thousand "decisions" in a week.

Mr. Iain Murray, in his timely book The Forgotten Spurgeon, points out that
this same type of counseling is used in youth work:

"For example, a booklet, which is much circulated in student evangelism at
the present time, lays down 'Three simple steps' to becoming a Christian:
first, personal acknowledgment of sin, and second, personal belief in
Christ's substitutionary work. These two are described as preliminary, but
'the third so final that to take it will make me a Christian. . .I must come
to Christ and claim my personal share in what He did for everybody.' This
all-decisive third step rests with me; Christ 'waits patiently until I open
the door. Then He will come in....' Once I have done this I may immediately
regard myself as a Christian. The advice follows: 'Tell somebody today what
you have done,' "(4).

There are many variations of this type of counseling, but they all have in
common a mechanical element such as the repeating of a prayer or signing of
a card upon the performance of which the individual is assured of his
salvation. Regeneration has thereby been reduced to a procedure which man
performs. How differently did Jesus Christ deal with sinners. He did not
have any instant salvation process. He did not speak to people with a
stereotyped presentation. He dealt with every individual on a personal
basis. Never in the New Testament do we find Christ dealing with any two
persons in the same manner. It is enlightening to compare how differently He
dealt with Nicodemus in John 3, and then with the woman at the well in John
4. Counseling needs to be personal.

There are a number of other problems with a mechanical counseling. Mr.
Murray has pointed out the fact that on the basis of this counseling "a man
may make a profession without ever having his confidence in his own ability
shattered; he has been told absolutely nothing of his need of a change of
nature which is not within his own power, and consequently, if he does not
experience such a radical change, he is not dismayed. He was never told it
was essential so he sees no reason to doubt whether he is a Christian.

Indeed, the teaching he has come under consistently militates against such
doubts arising. It is frequently said that a man who has made a decision
with little evidence of a change of life may be a 'carnal' Christian who
needs instruction in holiness, or if the same individual should gradually
lose his new-found interests, the fault is frequently attributed to lack of
'follow-up,' or prayer, or some other deficiency on the part of the Church.
The possibility that these marks of worldliness and falling away are due to
the absence of a saving experience at the outset is rarely considered; if
this point were faced, then the whole system of appeals, decisions and
counseling would collapse, because it would bring to the fore the fact that
change of nature is not in man's power, and that it takes much longer than a
few hours or days to establish whether a professed response to the gospel is
genuine. But instead of facing this, it is protested that to doubt whether a
man who has 'accepted Christ' is a Christian is tantamount to doubting the
Word of God, and that to abandon 'appeals' and their adjuncts is to give up
evangelism altogether." (5)

The counseling of "Decisional Regeneration" produces statistics that would
encourage any Christian-until he follows up the so-called converts. In one
heartbreaking experience forty "converts" of such counseling were contacted
and only one person of these forty was found who appeared to be a Christian.
One lady may have been reached, but what were the effects of the encounter
on the other thirty-nine? Some of them may believe their eternal destinies
were determined by their decisions, which is a fatal confidence if no change
was wrought in their hearts and lives. The others may have concluded that
they had experienced all that Christianity has to offer. Failing to feel or
see any promised change in themselves, they have become convinced that
Christianity is a fake and that those who hold it are either self-deluded
fanatics or miserable hypocrites.

Robert Dabney, one of the great theologians of the nineteenth century, made
some very penetrating observations concerning the disillusionment of people
that have been counseled for a decision. Some of these individuals, he said:

"feel that a cruel trick has been played upon their inexperience by the
ministers and friends of Christianity in thus thrusting them, in the hour of
their confusion, into false positions, whose duties they do not and cannot
perform, and into sacred professions which they have been compelled
shamefully to repudiate. Their self respect is therefore galled to the
quick, and pride is indignant at the humiliating exposure. No wonder that
they look on religion and its advocates henceforward with suspicion and
anger. Often their feelings do not stop here. They are conscious that they
were thoroughly in earnest in their religious anxieties and resolves at the
time, and that they felt strange and profound exercises. Yet bitter and
mortifying experience has taught them that their new birth and experimental
religion at least was a delusion. How natural to conclude that those of all
others are delusions also? They say: 'the only difference between myself and
these earnest Christians is, that they have not yet detected the cheat as I
have. They are now not a whit more convinced of their sincerity and of the
reality of their exercises than I once was of mine. Yet I know there was no
change in my soul; I do not believe that there is in theirs.' Such is the
fatal process of thought through which thousands have passed; until the
country is sprinkled all over with infidels, who have been made such by
their own experience of spurious religious excitements. They may keep their
hostility to themselves in the main; because Christianity now 'walks in her
silver slippers'; but they are not the less steeled against all saving
impressions of the truth." (6)

Dabney penned these words a hundred years ago, long before the days of the
"mass evangelism" and highly organized campaigns. If a hundred years ago the
country was "sprinkled all over with infidels, who had been made such by
their own experience of spurious religious excitements," what must be the
situation today? This is a serious question for every Christian. To have led
men, even sincerely, into false hope will be an awful condemnation for a
Christian when he stands before Almighty God.


Decisional Regeneration and Altar Calls

One may read thousands of pages of the history of the Christian Church
without finding a single reference to the "old-fashioned altar call" before
the last century. Most Christians are surprised to learn that history before
the time of Charles G. Finney (1792-1875) knows nothing of this type of
"invitation." The practice of urging men and women to make a physical
movement at the conclusion of a meeting was introduced by Mr. Finney in the
second decade of the nineteenth century. Dr. Albert B. Dod, a professor of
theology at Princeton Seminary at the time of Mr. Finney's ministry, pointed
out the newness of the practice and showed that this method was without
historical precedent. In his review of Finney's Lectures on Revival,
Professor Dod stated that one will search the volumes of church history in
vain for a single example of this practice before the 1820's, (7). Instead,
history tells us that whenever the gospel was preached men were invited to
Christ-not to decide at the end of a sermon whether or not to perform some
physical action.

The Apostle Paul, the great evangelist, never heard of an altar call, yet
today some consider the altar call to be a necessary mark of an evangelical
church. In fact, churches which do not practice it are often accused of
having no concern for the lost. Neither Paul nor Peter ever climaxed his
preaching with forcing upon his hearers the decision to walk or not to walk.
It is not only with church history, then, but with Scriptural history as
well that the altar call is in conflict.

One may ask, "How did preachers of the gospel for the previous eighteen
hundred years invite men to Christ without the use of the altar call?" They
did so in much the same way as did the apostles and the other witnesses of
the early Church. Their messages were filled with invitations for all men
everywhere to come to Christ.

Surely it will be admitted that the first sermon of the Christian Church was
not climaxed by an altar call. Peter on the Day of Pentecost concluded his
sermon with these words: "Therefore let all the house of Israel know
assuredly, that God has made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both
Lord and Christ." Peter stopped. Then the divinely inspired record tells us:
"Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said to
Peter and to the rest of the apostles, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do?'
" (Acts 2:36-37). This response was the result of the work of the

Spirit of God, not of clever appeals or psychological pressure. That day the
apostles witnessed the conversion of three thousand people.

C. H. Spurgeon invited men to come to Christ, not to an altar. Listen to him
invite men to Jesus Christ:

"Before you leave this place breathe an earnest prayer to God, saying, 'God
be merciful to me a sinner. Lord, I need to be saved. Save me. I call upon
Thy name....Lord, I am guilty, I deserve Thy wrath. Lord, I cannot save
myself. Lord, I would have a new heart and a right spirit, but what can I
do? Lord, I can do nothing, come and work in me to do of Thy good pleasure.

* Thou alone hast power, I know

* To save a wretch like me;

* To whom, or whither should I go

* If I should run from Thee?

But I now do from my very soul call upon Thy name. Trembling, yet believing,
I cast myself wholly upon Thee, O Lord. I trust the blood and righteousness
of Thy dear Son.... Lord, save me tonight, for Jesus' sake.' "

"Go home alone trusting in Jesus. 'I should like to go into the
enquiry-room.' I dare say you would, but we are not willing to pander to
popular superstition. We fear that in those rooms men are warmed into a
fictitious confidence. Very few of the supposed converts of enquiry-rooms
turn out well. Go to your God at once, even where you now are. Cast yourself
on Christ, at once, ere you stir an inch!" (8)


Invitations such as Spurgeon gave directing men to Christ and not to aisles
are needed today. George Whitefield's sermons were long invitations to men
to come to Christ, not to an altar. The same may be said of the preaching of
Jonathan Edwards, of the Reformers and of others in the past who were
blessed with a harvest of many souls using Scriptural means of inviting men
to Christ. Today the altar call has become the climax and culmination of the
entire meeting. Many stanzas of a hymn are usually sung, during which time
all kinds of appeals are made to the sinner to walk the aisle, and the clear
impression is given to the sinner that his eternal destiny hangs on this
movement of his feet.

"Just As I Am," the precious hymn perhaps most frequently sung for the altar
call, was written in 1836 by Charlotte Elliott:

* Just as I am, without one plea,

* But that Thy blood was shed for me,

* And that Thou bid'st me come to Thee,

* O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

The phrase, "O Lamb of God, I come, I come," has been widely used to
encourage people to "come" down the aisle. But it is significant that Miss
Elliott wrote the hymn for the infirm and that it first appeared in a hymnal
prepared especially for invalids, (9). To Miss Elliott, coming to Christ was
not walking an aisle.

Although most who use the altar call realize that coming to Christ is not
synonymous with coming to the altar, they do give the impression to sinners
that the first step in coming to Christ is walking the aisle. I am
purposefully being very careful not to misstate the case. I understand the
sincerity of those who practice the altar call, it having been a part of
every service from my earliest memory until college. In fact, I grew up in
Christian circles unaware that evangelical Christianity existed without the
altar call. In many services during this time my mind was centered on the
glorious person of Christ and His suffering on the cross only to find the
whole focus of the worship service suddenly changed at the conclusion from
seeing the glories and sufferings of Christ to walking an aisle. Many others
have spoken of the same experience -that the altar call and the clever
appeals at the conclusion of meetings, the decision to walk or not to walk
and the wondering how many will respond, have distracted them from seeking
Christ and from worshipping God in spirit and truth.

Do you remember how the crowds physically followed our Lord Christ until He
began to preach some unpopular truths? Then the crowds turned back (John
6:66). Why? Had they not come to Jesus with their feet? Yes, but this is not
the coming to Him that is necessary for salvation. Christ said, "All that
the Father gives me shall come to me; and him that comes to me I will in no
wise cast out" (John 6:37). And again He said, "No man can come to me except
the Father draw him" (John 6:44). In neither of these instances was Jesus
speaking of the physical movement of the feet.

Men today need to be reminded that coming to Christ is not walking an aisle,
but is casting oneself on Christ for life or death. May God cause the Church
to return to the Scriptures for its methods of winning men to Christ. May
sinners be charged not to come forward in a meeting but to come to the Lord
Jesus Christ.


Decisional Regeneration and Preaching

The false teaching of "Decisional Regeneration" has polluted even the
structure of the sermon. Jack Hyles, considered by many to be an authority
on preaching, gives the following advice to his fellow-ministers:

"Many of us in our preaching will make such statements as, 'Now, in
conclusion'; 'Finally, may I say'; 'My last point is . . .'. These
statements are sometimes dangerous. The sinner knows five minutes before you
finish; hence he digs in and prepares himself for the invitation so that he
does not respond. However, if your closing is abrupt and a lost person does
not suspect that you are about finished, you have crept up on him and he
will not have time to prepare himself for the invitation. Many people may be
reached, using this method," (10).

At the first reading of such a teaching one mignt believe, or at least hope,
that he misread Mr. Hyles. The second, third and fourth readings, however,
confirm that Mr. Hyles actually teaches that men may be converted to Christ
as a result of some clever method a minister uses in his sermon, and that
one's eternal destiny may be determined by the impulse of an unguarded
moment. This idea that a man's salvation may depend upon his being "crept up
on" and giving his unwilling consent is in direct conflict with what the
Scriptures teach concerning the receiving of Jesus Christ. In reality the
kind of Preaching that tries to creep up on sinners results for the most
part in bringing people to religion, not to Christ. Can there be any more
terrible result of a sermon than the bringing of people to something other
than our Lord Jesus Christ?

True preaching is not a clever device of man, but a demonstration of the
Spirit of God as the truth of God is proclaimed. I can never forget hearing
Dr. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones illustrate what true preaching is with an
account of George Whitefield preaching in the church of Jonathan Edwards:

"There was this genius Jonathan Edwards listening to Whitefield, who wasn't
in the same field, of course, from the standpoint of genius and ability and
so on. But as he was listening to Whitefield, his face, says Whitefield,
was shining. Edwards' face was shining and tears were streaming down his
face. Edwards was recognizing this authentic, authoritative note-this
preaching. Whitefield was in the Spirit. Edwards was in the Spirit, and the
two were blended together. The whole congregation and the preacher were one
in the hand of God. That is preaching. May God enable us to practice it and
experience it,"(11).

The preaching of which Dr. Lloyd-Jones is speaking of and which the New
Testament speaks is far removed from the trickery used in much modern
preaching. Biblical preaching declares that men are not born again by the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:13).

"Decisional Regeneration" does not bring men to Christ any more than does
Baptismal Regeneration. It is true that some are converted under such
preaching, but this is in spite of the false methods used, not because of
them. The Bible is clear in its declaration that only by the Spirit of God
can men be born again. True repentance and saving faith come as the result
of the new birth and are never the cause of the great change. Repentance and
faith are the acts of regenerated men, not of men dead in sins (Eph. 2:1,
5). However, God does not act for us; He does not believe for us; and He
surely cannot repent for us-He has no sin for which to repent. We must
personally, knowingly and willingly trust in Christ for salvation. Nor are
we saying that preachers should not urge, yea, plead with men to repent and
believe. Any preaching which merely rehearses the facts of the gospel
without calling men to repentance and faith in Christ as a merciful and
mighty Saviour of sinners is not biblical preaching.

The apostles taught that God saves His elect through the foolishness of
preaching. All new methods devised by man can only fall far short of this
ordained means of converting the sinner. The Church must forsake its carnal
inventions and once again be guided by the teaching of Scripture if it is to
expect God to bless its efforts and multiply its harvest. The Scriptural
means of evangelizing is to "preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a
stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of
God" (I Cor. 1:23-24).


Decisional Regeneration and Theology

Whether it is openly recognized or not, there are always certain doctrinal
presuppositions which underlie the methods used in evangelism. What kind of
teaching, then, has allowed the Church to depart from historic Christianity
and to take up these new devices?

The new birth according to our Lord Jesus Christ is sovereign work of the
spirit of God in the heart of man (John 3:8). Yet in conflict with
Christ's teaching, one of the forefathers of this new evangelism states that
"Religion is the work of man." This is a shocking statement, especially
since it is found on the very first page of Lectures on Revivals of
Religion, the most influential of all of Charles G. Finney's writings, (12).
The great theological difference between modern evangelism and biblical
evangelism hinges on this basic question whether true religion is the work
of God or of man. At best, the doctrine of "Decisional Regeneration"
attributes the new birth partly to man and partly to God.

J. H. Merle d'Aubigne (1794-1872) in his history of the Reformation in
England states that:

"to believe in the power of man in the work of regeneration is the great
heresy of Rome, and from that error has come the ruin of the Church.
Conversion proceeds from the grace of God alone, and the system which
ascribes it partly to man and partly to God is worse than Pelagianism,"
(13).

One of the greatest American theologians, Charles Hodge (1797-1878), also
points out the danger of this teaching:

"No more soul-destroying doctrine could well be devised than the doctrine
that sinners can regenerate themselves, and repent and believe just when
they please. . . As it is a truth both of Scripture and of experience that
the unrenewed man can do nothing of himself to secure his salvation, it is
essential that he should be brought to a practical conviction of that truth.
When thus convicted, and not before, he seeks help from the only source
whence it can be obtained." (14)

In both the above statements stress is put upon man's helplessness to be
born anew, and the necessity for God to create life. It is especially in
these two areas that the doctrine of "Decisional Regeneration" deviates from
the biblical doctrine of regeneration. This brings us to the foundational
issue of "Decisional Regeneration": What is the spiritual condition of man?

Can a man be born again by answering "yes" to a certain group of questions?
Can a man be born from "above" by walking to the front of a building? Can a
man become a true Christian by responding to an invitation as a result of
being "crept up on" unawares? Your answers to these questions will be
determined by your view of man's spiritual condition. What is man's
spiritual state?

The grand old Scottish theologian Thomas Boston (1676-1732) very vividly
illustrated man's spiritual condition by comparing the unconverted person to
a man in a pit. He can only get out of the pit in one of two ways: he may
through much toil and difficulty scale the sides of the pit to the top,
which is the way of works; or, he may grab hold of the rope of grace let
down by Christ and be pulled out of his misery. Yes, he may decide to pull
himself up by the rope of the gospel,
"but, alas! the unconverted man is dead in the pit, and cannot help himself
either of these ways."(15)

Man is spiritually dead in trespasses and sins and cannot please God (Eph.
2:1; Rom. 8:8). Our Saviour Himself portrayed man's condition as one of
utter helplessness: "No man can come to me except the Father who has sent me
draw him"; "No man can come to me except it were given to him of my Father"
(John 6:44, 65).

This state of death and bondage to sin cannot be changed by making a
decision or by walking an aisle. A man cannot make himself a Christian. Only
the Spirit of God can create a new man in Christ. God in His grace gives men
new hearts. Only then can they willingly repent and believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. God Himself has stated this truth by saying: "A new heart also
will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take
away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of
flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my
statutes..." (Ezek. 36:26, 27). Jesus Christ also clearly said, "For just as
the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives
life to whom he wishes" (John 5:21).

The greatness of God's power in saving sinners can only be seen against the
background of man's desperate condition. What a glorious doctrine is the new
birth to the helpless sinner! May the Church return to biblical doctrine so
that it may evangelize again to the glory of God.

How helpless guilty nature lies,

Unconscious of its load!

The heart, unchanged can never rise

To happiness and God.

The will perverse, the passions blind,

In paths of ruin stray;

Reason, debased, can never find

The safe, the narrow way.

Can aught, beneath a power divine,

The stubborn will subdue?

Tis Thine, almighty Saviour, Thine,

To form the heart anew.

O change these wretched hearts of ours,

And give them life divine!

Then shall our passions and our powers,

Almighty Lord, be Thine!


Isaac Watts


What Must we Do?

It is not a time to be silent; it is time to speak out. We have kept quie
too long, somehow feeling that if we opposed these unbiblical practices we
might be hindering the good work of evangelism, believing that among the
multitudes of "decisions" there are some genuine conversions. But with every
passing week thousands are being counseled into a false hope! Men are
directed to walk aisles when they should be pointed to Christ alone. The
high calling of preaching has degenerated into a series of gimmicks and
tricks. These false practices have resulted from the perversion of biblical
doctrine. In the midst of this darkness let us pray that God may be pleased
to revive His Church again. This revival can come only through Christ. Men
must turn afresh to His directions for counseling, to His free invitations
to sinners and to the preaching of His gospel. Only then will our labors
bring glory to God; and if God grants, many sinners will be converted for
His glory.

Endnotes:


* (1) The word "again" is better rendered "from above." It points to the
ultimate source of the new birth, the Triune God.

* (2) C. H. Spurgeon, The New Perk Street Pulpit (London, 1964), Vol. 6, p.
171.

* (3) Jack Hyles, How To Boost Your Church Attendance (Grand Rapids, 1958),
pp. 32-35.

* (4) Iain H. Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon (London, 1966), p. 110. * (5)
Ibid, p. 111.

* (6) Robert L. Dabney, Discussions: Evangelical and Theological (London,
1967), Vol. 2, p. 13.

* (7) Albert B. Dod, "The Origin of the Call for Decisions," The Banner of
Truth Magazine (London, Dec., 1963), Vol. 32, p. 9.

* (8) Murray, op. cit., pp. 107-109.

* (9) John Julian, A Dictionary of Hymnology (London, 1907) p. 609.

* (10) Hyles, op. cit., pp. 43-44.

* (11) Recorded in shorthand from a sermon, "The Responsibility of
Evangelism," preached at Grace Baptist Church, Carlisle, Pa., in June, 1969.

* (12) For the clearest statement of Finney's theory of regeneration read
his sermon, "Sinners Bound To Change their Own Hearts," Sermons on Various
Subjects (New York, 1835). For a detailed examination of Finney's theology
see "Review of Lectures on Systematic Theology," The Biblical Repertory and
Princeton Review (Philadelphia, 1847), Vol. 19, pp. 237-Z77; also Benjamin
B. Warfield, "The Theology of Charles C. Finney," Perfectionism
(Philadelphia, 1967), pp. 166-215.

* (13) J. H. Merle d'Aubigne, The Reformation in England (London, 1962),
Vol. 1, p. 98.

* (14) Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, 1970), Vol. 2, p.
277.

o (15) Thomas Boston, Human Nature in Its Fourfold State (London, 1964), p.
183.

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