The Origins of Today’s Evangelical Church
We’re going to go through just a little bit of American church history so we can understand how the modern church has got to where she is today.
We’ll talk about some people and events that we don’t usually hear about but were some major influences in the evangelical church, how those influences changed our view of conversion and worship, and why that matters.
Now, there is way too much history to go through, so for the sake of time I’m just going to kind of follow a particular trend and keep it narrowed and focused to a few specific people and circumstances. And make sure you watch this all the way to the end because, by the time we are finished you’ll be asking yourself the same thing I did, “Why on earth do we do this at church?” and “Where is this in the Bible?”
And I’m going to put the show notes and bibliography in the description and the entire transcript on my website RegularManMinistry.com so if you want to look anything up, I’ve made it really easy and free.
Why Does History Matter?
The average churchgoing Christian relies on the local church for teaching, discipleship, encouragement, fellowship, advice, worship, and really everything pertaining to the Christian life. They rely on the leadership of the church to utilize finances honestly. They rely on the pastor to rightly and effectively exposit and present the Word of God and help the church members actually understand it and apply it to their life. And they rely on the church to understand Christian history and appropriately lead the congregation in corporate worship, liturgy, and the sacraments. But like everything, succussing generations add things, remove things, forget things, and sometimes they even intentionally reject or ignore things. But more often than not, they just don’t know. They just don’t know their history.
Now, I’m going to be critical of one of the newest and largest denominations in America, and if that’s you, don’t get in your feelings. I’m not trashing you or your church. Frankly, I don’t think any denomination has everything 100% right.
But I do think it’s very important to understand how your church understands Scripture and conversion and how that dictates your worship of God. That’s why we have to understand a little bit of liturgy, theology, and doxology, and how that has brought us to where we are today.
Don’t get tripped up over those words.
Theology is the study of God; how you study, interpret, and understand Scripture.
Doxology is how you worship God; a hymn of praise; singing with gratitude and humility.
Liturgy, or “orders of worship,” is just what the congregation does; the pattern of worship. It literally means “work for the people” or “public work.”
So how your local church understands history, Scripture, and the proper worship of God has a direct impact on how you understand history, Scripture, and the proper worship of God.
Some of the biggest influential figures and movements within the rise of today’s American evangelicalism comes from Pentecostalism.
But Before there were Pentecostals, there was the Holiness Movement
Nothing is ever done in a vacuum, especially history. So, we have to know where the country was and in what direction the American Christian orthodoxy was moving before those changes actually happened and we turned the corner.
Read any Christian history book, and you’ll see that everyone always says that Pentecostalism started in Topeka, Kansas in 1901, but that’s only kinda true. Its roots go all the way back to the circuit riders and tent meeting revivals of the Second Great Awakening. The Holiness Movement, along with the “enlightenment,” had widespread and powerful effects on social issues, like the abolition of slavery and women’s suffrage, and eventually that produced the heresy called “the social gospel.”
So what direction were we headed before Topeka, Kansas in 1901?
Second “Great Awakening” and the Holiness Movement
In the early 1800s, recent European events were so far-reaching they were felt in the Christian West. It was in the wake of the French Revolution, the “Enlightenment,” and the advance of secular humanism, that a mix of Methodists, Baptists and a few Presbyterians began evangelizing the frontier in what has been called “The Second Great Awakening.” Itinerate preachers and evangelists would ride horses through particular territories in a circuit. These Circuit Riders would travel from town to town and hold tent meetings, or camp meetings, in order to spread the Gospel in these remote territories. The meetings emphasized revivals through emotionalism and that brought with it several new denominational and societal changes.
Among these changes was the belief that Christians could attain perfect sanctification while here on earth. The emotionalistic and experiential influences from these tent meetings also affected theology by means of increased pietism and what was called a “second blessing,” which largely became the goal of corporate worship and individual prayer life. This was a fundamental change to orthodox Christian theology and, as time progressed, placed an unhealthy pietistic emphasis on the individual’s experiences and feelings during worship.
This was also when Arminianism and Postmillennialism saw significant increase throughout the West and a brand new doctrine called “dispensationalism” was formed and spread like wildfire. Some heresies also sprang up in America, most notably Mormonism.
Social movements like the abolition of slavery started to come to the forefront and feminism quickly took root in America through things like the temperance movement and the restrictions of alcohol. This is also when, for the first time in almost 2 thousand years, these holiness churches began substituting communion wine for grape juice and permitting female leadership in churches. These were huge changes to the church that we never really talk about but we see in every church on every corner.
Now that we have a little bit of historical context about where the country was and where the church was, we will slow down and park around the end of the 1800s. Against this backdrop of liberal European influence, rapid major cultural changes, the advancement of industry, and a flood of grifters and swindlers swarming in and through the West. That is where we turn a corner in the church and find the official beginning of Pentecostalism.
The Beginning of Pentecostalism
In January of 1901, a woman named Agnes Ozman, who was a student at Bethel Bible College, began to speak in an incoherent language that she said was “Chinese” while at the Church of Holiness, ministered by Charles Fox Parham (1873-1929). The movement soon spread from Kansas to Houston where Parham opened a Pentecostal school. A black minister named William J. Seymour (1870-1922), who never went to seminary and had lost an eye to smallpox, traveled through Memphis, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Cincinnati, and Houston to visit a mix of stage performers, grifters, and holiness preachers before attending Parham’s school. There, he met Lucy Farrow, the nanny of Parham’s children. Within a few weeks, Seymour received an invitation to preach at a mission founded by Julia Hutchins and they both went on to Los Angeles. While traveling, he stopped at another holiness church called, “The Pillar of Fire,” in Denver, Colorado. This crazy eccentric holiness church was led by a feminist named Alma White who specialized in “the holy dance,” which she told her followers was evidence of the Holy Spirit.
Seymour arrived in Los Angeles and preached his first sermon in the Holiness Mission on Acts 2:4. But, he was kicked out, and was actually locked out, of the mission by Julia Hutchins after she heard his sermon and became very concerned about what he was saying. Seymour, now homeless, found his way to the home of Richard Asbury, where he began preaching in the living room.
Then, on April 9th, 1906, during one of his sermons, Seymour fell on the floor in convulsions, started either foaming or drooling at the mouth, and began speaking incoherently. Asbury’s daughter ran out of the house terrified by what she’d seen. Personal testimonials from people who were actually there were printed in the local newspaper Los Angeles Times and described the behavior of these meetings as “Weird babble of tongues,” muttering things like, “‘You-oo-oo you-loo-oo come under the bloo-oo-oo boo-loo.’ Swinging their arms wildly, few words are intelligible, which are listened to in awe from the company.”
Soon, other groups gathered and filled Azusa Street with their own practice of “the holy jerks,” “the holy laughter,” “the holy dance,” “the singing in the spirit,” and “the speaking in tongues.” Members of the occult, swindlers, traveling salesmen, and hypnotists also joined Seymour’s months-long street “revival.”
Out of the Azusa Street Revival emerged a number of different Pentecostal churches and groups. Many of these churches actually started to teach classes on how to speak in tongues, receive a second blessing, achieve financial success, and be healed from sicknesses and diseases. Interestingly, most of the Mega Churches, TV Evangelists, and proponents of the Health, Wealth, and Prosperity gospel are Pentecostal.
Distinctive Ideas in Pentecostal Churches:
· Three works of grace are justification, sanctification, and “empowerment.”
· Baptism in the Holy Spirit is viewed as another work of grace in the life of a believer.
· Speaking in tongues is seen as evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit and some Pentecostal churches even teach that you are not saved unless you speak in tongues
· Egalitarian (lady pastors and deacons)
· Premillennial (we’re waiting on the millennial reign of Christ)
· Pre-Tribulation Rapture (Christians will be whisked away before the world gets really bad and will be spared from the tribulation)
· Emphasis on Altar Calls and the “every head bowed and every eye closed” declaration of faith.
· Emphasis on healing ministries and financial blessings
· United Pentecostal churches, Oneness and Apostolic Pentecostals, view their leaders as prophets and modern-day Apostles. Their messages are considered authoritative and they teach a heresy about the godhead called modalism. (these are people like Steven Furtick and TD Jakes)
Pentecostal Churches:
Assemblies of God, Calvary Chapel, Church of God, Congregational Holiness Church, Elim Fellowship, Fellowship of Christian Assemblies, Independent Assemblies of God International, Foursquare Church, International Pentecostal Holiness Church, Open Bible Standard Church, Vineyard Churches International
Major Influences of modern Evangelicalism:
Charles Finney, Billy Sunday, Billy Graham
Everyone knows Billy Graham, and Billy Graham learned from Billy Sunday, and just about everything Billy Sunday used came from Charles Finney.
From the Vineyard movement and the Church Growth Movement to the political and social crusades, televangelism, and Promise Keepers, Finney was a primary influence.
In reaction to the pervasive Calvinism of the First Great Awakening, Finney ministered in the wake of the “Second Awakening,” and placed great emphasis on getting a person to “make a decision.” Finney was a lawyer turner preacher who envisioned a church that was all about personal and social reform. This is where the social gospel actually began to take root. In the nineteenth century, the evangelical movement became increasingly identified with political causes-from the abolition of slavery and child labor laws to women’s rights and the prohibition of alcohol.
In several of his personal writings, Charles Finney described an experience he had one day as “a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost” which was “like a wave of electricity going through and through me …and seemed to come in waves of liquid love.” The next morning, he informed his first client of the day that he would not be pleading his case, but Christ’s case instead.
Refusing to attend Princeton Seminary (or any seminary, for that matter), Finney began conducting revivals in upstate New York. Finney and his followers describe his “New Measures” as the “anxious bench” which was the precursor to today’s altar call, and emotional tactics that lead to fainting and weeping, and other “excitements.”
Finney’s Theology
Finney’s entire theology revolved around human morality. And here is the biggest problem. The problem that literally makes him a heretic and a poison to the Church. In his Systematic Theology, Finney asks and answers the question, “Does a Christian cease to be a Christian, whenever he commits a sin?” Finney answers:
“Whenever he sins, he must be condemned; he must incur the penalty of the law of God …The Christian, therefore, is justified no longer than he obeys, and must be condemned when he disobeys or Antinomianism is true … In these respects, then, the sinning Christian and the unconverted sinner are upon precisely the same ground.” (p. 46)
Finney believed that God demanded absolute perfection, but instead of that leading him to seek his perfect righteousness in Christ, he concluded that “… full present obedience is a condition of justification. (p. 57)
Finney’s doctrine of justification is a complete denial of original sin. That’s the understanding that we inherit the sin of Adam and we sin because we’re sinners- the condition of sin determines the act of sin, not the other way around. But Finney followed Pelagius, and Pelagius was a fifth-century heretic who was condemned by more church councils than any other person in church history.
Finney referred to the doctrine of original sin as an “anti-scriptural nonsensical dogma” (p.179). He taught that Adam leads us into sin, not by inheriting his guilt and corruption but by following his poor example. This completely destroys the significance of Christ’s complete and atoning sacrifice as the Second Adam and places justification in the hands of the us. In other words, Finney taught that Jesus died for a purpose, not for people, and he explicitly denied the substitutionary atonement. “The atonement, of itself, does not secure the salvation of any one.” (pg 217)
Like it or not, modern evangelical and liberal Protestantism have their roots in a heretic. Movements like the Church Growth Movement, Seeker Sensitive Movement, and the Health Wealth and Prosperity Gospel, all use Finney’s “New Measures.”
This is also where evangelical churches got the “every head bowed and every eye closed” stuff. It’s all just emotional manipulation. It’s absolutely nowhere in Scripture.
That Leads us to Revivals
Finney knew that his “revivals” were nothing more than man-made manipulation. He said, “A revival is not a miracle, nor dependent on a miracle, in any sense. It is a purely philosophical result of the right use of the constituted means.” Finney admits that his “revivals” were nothing more than playing with people’s emotions.
When pastors of any church or leaders of any ministry emphasize church attendance and church growth above all, or endorse uncontrolled behaviors like barking, babbling, screaming, convulsing, incoherent languages, or say that doctrines are flexible for “inclusion and diversity,” they are just manipulating you and you need to leave that church.
Now, some do it out of ignorance and honestly just don’t know. They’ve learned this stuff from pastors and ministries over the years and just assume it’s biblical.
And others know exactly what they’re doing and ought to be ashamed of themselves.
But either way, intentionally or not, they are manipulating people, just like Finney did. Charles Finney was not a Christian, he was a heretic. And evangelical churches really need to evaluate any teaching, ministry, or worship that has anything to do with Charles Finney.
Next is Egalitarianism
Most big evangelical churches are Pentecostals, and all Pentecostals are Egalitarian. Christian egalitarianism (also known as evangelical feminism) is a byproduct of European political egalitarianism, born out of the French Revolution of 1789-1799.
What is an Egalitarian?
Egalitarians believe that there are no gender restrictions on what roles men and women fulfill in the church, home, and within the community. However, the pastorship of women directly contradicts Scripture.
In 1 Timothy 2:12-14, Paul writes to Timothy, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.”
This role of leadership of man was established by the order of creation: man, then woman, both with different attributes, gifts, roles, and responsibilities. This reflects the Holy Trinity of the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each has unique roles and responsibilities but are all equal as God. The Father has authority over the Son and Holy Spirit, yet that role/responsibility certainly does not diminish Jesus’ value or that of the Holy Spirit.
The same principle applies to man and woman. Because of God’s will, man has been instructed to have headship over the home as well as spiritual authority within the church.
I’ll go into three of the most common objections that liberal pastors and scholars have, and I’ll respond to them.
Most Common Objections:
1. Paul only gives headship to men because the first century women were uneducated so they couldn’t teach men. Modern culture educates both women and men, so now they can.
However, almost every Apostle and disciple in the first century was uneducated by today’s standards. If education were a requirement for leadership, the Apostles and disciples who Jesus chose, and who spread the Gospel to the entire known world would have been disqualified. Also keep in mind, some women in the New Testament, like Pricilla, Lydia, and Phoebe, were educated, but were not church leaders.
2. These were specific instructions to Timothy and his church in Ephesus and should not be considered an “open letter” to the entire church. Different churches have different rules.
However, Paul also told Titus, who was Pastor in Crete, “The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.” (Titus 1:5-6, NIV) This is clear instruction from Paul that Elders and Pastors must be men of great integrity who have a wife. This shows Paul consistently taught this in other books and to other local churches, and as such, should be considered instructional to the entire church body.
3. Lastly, (and the least likely because it argues that God made a mistake) Paul (and every translator or transliterator for almost two thousand years) meant to say husbands and wives, not men and women. So, the verse should read, “I do not permit a wife to teach or to assume authority over a husband…”
However, it is obvious from the context that Paul is referring to men and women, not husband and wife. It is true that the Greek words “aner,” and “gune” can be used as both man/husband and woman/wife, but, just look at the context of the previous verses, specifically verses 8-10. “Therefore I want the men (aner) everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing. I also want that women (gune) to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women (gune) who profess to worship God. (1 Timothy 2:8-10, NIV).
These are instructions, not just for husbands and wives, but for single people as well. They are understood to be instructions for men and women in general everywhere. The same exact words are used for both verses 8-10 and 12-14. There is absolutely no contextual reason to change the words within the same chapter, same book, same author, and the same audience, only the desire to conform Scripture to modern feminist culture.
Where to go from Here
Now that we know a little recent church history and where some of the church practices come from in today’s evangelical church, let me ask you, is it in Scripture?
Should we be practicing emotional manipulation tactics in church that a heretic and a grifter started?
Does your church turn down the lights, turn up the instrumental music, and speak about overly pietistic spirituality and personal feelings and experiences?
Do you bow your heads and close your eyes as people courageously make a public declaration of their faith, by not being seen by anyone?
Is your pastor to rightly and effectively expositing the Word of God and helping you apply it to your life or are you being led by a lady pastor?
Did you know any of this before listening to this podcast?
Does it even matter to you?
Maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t. But at least you know why you do the things you do.
And that’s why it’s important to know your church’s theology, doxology, and liturgy. Now, if you didn’t know and it does matter to you, you can do some investigating for yourself, do some praying, and make some decisions.
It’s important to know how your local church understands history, Scripture, and the proper worship of God. Because it has a direct impact on how you understand history, Scripture, and the proper worship of God.
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Until Next Time,
Be on alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
1 Corinthians 16:13
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Bibliography
Synan, Vinson. 1971. The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition: Charismatic Movements in the Twentieth Century Wm. B. Erdmans Publishing co.
Robeck, Cecil M. 2006. The Azusa Street Mission and Revival. Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Espinosa. William J. Seymour and the Origins of Global Pentecostalism: A Biography and Documentary History.
Borlase, Craig. William J. Seymour: A Biography. Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2006. Print.
The Apostolic Faith vol. I Nos 1-2, 4-6, 12-13, 1906-1908; C.M. Robeck Jr, art. “Lucy F. Farrow,” The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, Ed. Stanley M. Burgess, 2002.
White, Alma. 1949. Demons and Tongues.
1906, April 18. Most Terrible and Destructive Earthquake. Evening Sentinel (Santa Cruz, CA)
Cox, Harvey. 1995. Fire From Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the 21st Century. De Capo Press.
Parham, Everlasting Gospel, pg 72-73
Brumback, Suddenly from Heaven, pg 64-87; Bartleman, How Pentecost Came to Los Angeles, pg 54-60
Charles G. Finney, Finney’s Systematic Theology. Modern Reformation. (Bethany, 1976).