# Man centered Christianity



## pm (Sep 14, 2008)

Seems to me, many of today's modern preachers dwell on what God can do for us. Give us power, make us rich, give us joy, ease our pain, etc, etc, etc.

But my Bible says it is all about God, His glory, praise, worship.

I don't know when this "man centered" trend started.

I would appreciate comments on when or by whom this all started.

My only thought is possibly by Charles Finny around 1840.
If you are a fan of Finny, forgive me, and please correct me.


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## Pergamum (Sep 14, 2008)

_Come unto me all who labor and are heavy-ladena dn I will give you rest...._

It seems that we ought not to separate Christ and his benefits.


But, 

many current preachers seem to only preach the benefits without Christ.


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## ManleyBeasley (Sep 14, 2008)

It may go to Finny, I'm really not sure where it started. We have to start preaching coming to Christ for Christ's sake again. When calling people to come to Christ for reasons other than Christ we are exhorting them to come to Christ to receive thier idols. God Himself IS the attractiveness of the gospel.


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## DMcFadden (Sep 14, 2008)

Today's preaching tends towards what Luther decried in his 28 (theological) Theses (not the 12 philosophical ones) in the April 26, 1518 Heidelberg Disputation as a "Theology of Glory," emphasizing power, success, benefits for us, the work of Christ as a "added" something to make up for whatever deficiencies we might have. Luther posited a "Theology of the Cross," finding God in the weakness and ugliness of the cross and the foolishness of the Gospel. For Luther, the beginning point is the inability of the will and the law to advance us with God.

If this is the case, then the tendency to flatter and tickle the ears of the listeners is an old phenom indeed. If you want to ask how did the high minded, God-centered theology of the Puritans and of Jonathan Edwards (an honorary Puritan even if he did come decades later!) degenerate into the sappy, sentimental, sugary stuff of today . . . well then, look at Charles Grandison Finney and his application of scientific efficiency to the use of "means" to reach people. Practically all of the most odious features of broad evangelicalism are merely the "fruit of the root" of Finney. But, I would contend, as a comparison with Luther's EARLY theology (1518, just six months after the 95 Theses on the Wittenberg door) shows, Reformation*al* Christianity is 180 degrees off of most of today's Protestantism.

Here are a few of Luther's points:

1. The law of God, the most salutary doctrine of life, cannot advance man on his way to righteousness, but rather hinders him.

2. Much less can human works, which are done over and over again with the aid of natural precepts, so to speak, lead to that end.

13. Free will, after the fall, exists in name only, and as long as it does what it is able to do, it commits a mortal sin.

16. The person who believes that he can obtain grace by doing what is in him adds sin to sin so that he becomes doubly guilty.

18. It is certain that man must utterly despair of his own ability before he is prepared to receive the grace of Christ.

19. That person does not deserve to be called a theologian who looks upon the invisible things of God as though they were clearly perceptible in those things which have actually happened [Rom. 1.20]. 

20. He deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross.

21. A theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theologian of the cross calls the things what it actually is.

22. That wisdom which sees the invisible things of God in works as perceived by man is completely puffed up, blinded and hardened.

23. The law brings the wrath of God, kills, reviles, accuses, judges, and condemns everything that is not in Christ [Rom. 4.15].

24. Yet that wisdom is not of itself evil, nor is the law to be evaded; but without the theology of the cross man misuses the best in the worst manner.

25. He is not righteous who does much, but he who, without work, believes much in Christ.

26. The law says "Do this", and it is never done. Grace says, "believe in this" and everything is already done.

27. Actually one should call the work of Christ an acting work and our work an accomplished work, and thus an accomplished work pleasing to God by the grace of the acting work.

28. The love of God does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it. The love of man comes into being through that which is pleasing to it.


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## pm (Sep 14, 2008)

To DMcFadden:

Most enlighning indeed!


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## JBaldwin (Sep 14, 2008)

Seems to me that the sin of man-centered worship which focuses on what God can do for me goes all the way back to the fall.


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## FrielWatcher (Sep 14, 2008)

Here is from Finney himself which is kind of odd...

How to Preach So As To Convert Nobody.


> 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.
> 
> 2. Aim at pleasing, rather than at converting your hearers.
> 
> ...


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## DMcFadden (Sep 15, 2008)

JBaldwin said:


> Seems to me that the sin of man-centered worship which focuses on what God can do for me goes all the way back to the fall.





Our American penchant for pragmatic efficiency and mechanical use of "means" owes an enormous amount to Finney.

When I had a Church Growth course with C. Peter Wagner back in the 70s, I called it "pastoring by pocket calculator." (Actually, back then, it was more "pastoral strategies by sliderule." )


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