1. The Second Great Awakening was neither great, nor an awakening.
2. It resulted in the opposite of what it was claimed to be--burned-over districts and the rise of various heretical cults.
3. Charles Grandison Finney was a heretic who, along with others, replaced sacraments and catechizing with emotional manipulation and coercive techniques.
4. The adoption of those techniques by orthodox Christian denominations has borne bad fruit everywhere it has been tried. They continue to have the same results they had in Finney's day.
5. They therefore ought not be used in the Churches.
6. The liturgy (whether formal or informal) is to be oriented towards God's desires and feelings, not ours. God's response should be the one we care about. And He cannot be manipulated.
7. God-honoring worship through Word and Sacrament is the only means of true national awakening.
3 comments:
Loving this post, but I really shouldn't bring it up during the "altar call" at my parents' church last week. :-)
keep 'em coming!
I like the reference to both formal and informal liturgy. Much of the non-formal service leaders convey that liturgy is only formal so anything goes in a non-formal format.
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