Tuesday, July 18, 2023

It is the 18th of July, 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Throughout the history of the church, one method for combatting heresy or defining right theology and practice is the holding of a council. These have been almost fully ecumenical, like that of Nicea and Constantinople, or primarily for one faction of the church, like the Second Vatican Council in the Roman Catholic Church. Such was the case in America in 1827. Lyman Beecher, famous preacher (and father of novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe), wrote to a colleague,

“We are in the confines of universal misrule and moral desolation…. No time is to be lost… ministers must come together and consult.”

The problem was Charles Finney and his “New Measures,” and the result of Beecher’s campaign was the Conference in New Lebanon which began on this day, the 18th of July in 1827.

The conference almost didn’t take place. Many, including Beecher’s friend and colleague Asahel Nettleton, worried that, like earlier attempts to censure Finney, it would only serve to fan the flames of Finney’s fame. Finney and his supporters would use any criticism by the establishment as proof that his ways were justified.

So, just who was Finney, and what were his “New Measures”? Finney was a lawyer in New York who, at the age of 29, had a powerful conversion experience in the woods near his house. He left his job at the law firm and began preparing for full-time work in the church. He would work for the “Female Missionary Society” and would hold open-air evangelistic meetings. It was at these meetings that he established his “new Measures” for evangelism. They included speaking directly at the crowd- using common language, speaking about the need to “will one’s conversion,” something that made Calvinists uneasy. At one service, he asked everyone who had truly converted to stand up. No one did, and he was run out of the service, but word spread of his unorthodox techniques.  He would hold evening meetings that would last until the early hours of the morning, and he not only allowed men and women to sit together (seating segregated by sex was still the common practice), he allowed women to pray aloud. But his most memorable practice was his use of the “anxious bench.” It should be noted that he didn’t invent this. In fact, he invented very little but rather borrowed from others in the new school of evangelism and then wrote his “Lectures on Revivals of Religion,” which codified measures and practices like the “anxious bench.” It was a seat placed in the front of the church, next to the pulpit, where alone unsure about the spiritual state could come and sit. Here the preacher could personally exhort that individual until they experienced conversion or repentance.

The concerns of Beecher and others were twofold. The first was that by stressing human emotion and will, they were teaching a theology contrary to the Calvinism of the Presbyterian church’s confession. The second complaint was that the services were literally “out of order.” The conference in New Lebanon, New York, which began on this day in 1827, was notable for having ministers invited from both the pro and anti-New Measures camps. The problem with that, however, was that when it came to voting on resolutions, nothing could be agreed upon. But the conference did draw the lines more clearly, and many, including Finney, would leave the Presbyterian church. Finney’s congregants would build him the Broadway Tabernacle but he only lasted a year before heading out west to Ohio. There he would become pastor of an independent church and the president of Oberlin College, where he would, somewhat ironically, become known alongside Lyman Beecher as a proponent of abolition. XX But they wouldn’t come together theologically, as was seen from their confrontation at the New Lebanon conference, which commenced on this day in 1827.

The last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and the book of Ephesians:

29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 18th of July 2023 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who believes that a special form of grieving the Holy Spirit is bad coffee served on church patios- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man for whom “new measures” include meters and kilometers and will never learn what they are- Imperial Units forever! I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.