Tuesday, October 29, 2024

*** This is a rough transcript of today’s show ***

It is the 29th of October 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

I’m afraid that sometimes here in the United States, we forget the great heritage and legacies of our neighbors to the north… Oh, Canada- where I am vacationing this summer, I’ll be drinking a London fog tea with a Nanaimo bar while in Vancouver island… hot dog! Canada has given us more than we sometimes give them credit for: they invented basketball (thanks, Naismith) and standard time and the caulking gun; how about peanut butter, the alkaline battery, and the telephone? And when it comes to theologians, how about J.I. Packer and Gordon Fee or Christian philosophers James K.A. Smith and Charles Taylor? And Almanac's favorite Aimee Semple MacPherson came from the land of polar bears and poutine. And so, too, did another key figure in the 20th-century evangelical church, especially its charismatic wing- and if you haven’t heard of him, you may know the denomination he started: he was Albert Benjamin (or A.B. Simpson) who died on this day in 1919, and you may know the denomination this Canadian preacher founded, the Christian & Missionary Alliance (and you may have wondered about the curious “&” in their title).

A.B. Simpson was born in 1843 on Prince Edward Island into a Scottish Calvinist family. Simpson would date his own conversion from 1858 at the age of 15 under the ministry of the evangelist Henry Guinness (yup, same family) and made a covenant with God to enter the ministry. He would attend Knox College at the University of Toronto and enter the ministry in 1865.  

But in 1873, on a trip down south to Kentucky, he witnessed a revival at the Chestnut Street Presbyterian church and claimed to have been baptized in the Spirit- a subsequent experience of grace post-conversion. This began a new phase in his ministry with a greater emphasis on the Holy Spirit and what he called the Four-Fold Gospel- or “Full Gospel,” which referred to Jesus as the savior, sanctifier, sealer, and soon coming to King.

This would become a popular model, and Aimee Semple MacPherson would use a very similar idea for her “Foursquare” church.

In 1883, Simpson did what any good 19th-century evangelist seemingly did: move to a big city and open a “Gospel Tabernacle,” and he would be in New York City.  He would begin a Missionary agency, or “alliance” of people and churches. Later, he began a ministry focused specifically on the Christians and their education- this would be his “Christian Alliance.” And, like the founder of Reese’s, he probably thought- “what if we put these together?” And thus, we get the Christian Alliance and the Missionary Alliance, and together they would become the Christian And Missionary Alliance- a church body with 1/2 million or so members in America, but as you might expect with a ‘missionary’ component, there are over 6 million members worldwide.

Simpson would begin a school out of Nyack, New York- this, the Missionary Training Institute, would be the first Bible college in America, dating from 1882 and providing the inspiration for both the Moody Bible College in Illinois and the Bible Institute of Los Angeles or BIOLA. Nyack would become Alliance University and then Seminary before it was forced to cease operations last year after 135 years.

While Simpson would certainly be recognized as a pioneer, theologically, he would be eclipsed by two things in particular: A.W. Tozer and Pentecostalism.

A.W. Tozer- author of The Pursuit of God and other classics, would become the voice and figurehead for the Christian & Missionary Alliance. And with the rise of Pentecostalism Simpson would be uncomfortable with the dogmatic statements from some about the necessity of particular experiences for assurance of salvation. Simpson’s thought was neither fully in the Keswick Holiness tradition or the new Pentecostalism- the Christian & Missionary Alliance would chart its own course- adopting many of the ideas and practices of the new movement while also serving as the foundation for them. Simpson and the Christian & Missionary Alliance helped shape the coming century of evangelicalism- from Semple Macpherson and Foursquare but also in its own right, 6 million strong today. You might consider the church a click less charismatic than the Assemblies of God and theologically similar to a blend of the EV Free and Nazarene churches. The global church body goes by the “Alliance World Fellowship.” With a distinct eclecticism and an institute in New York, you might think of the C&M Alliance and Alliance World Fellowship as an American church, but it is as Canadian as its founder: A.B. Simpson, born in 1843 he died on the 29th of October in 1919- he was 75 years old.

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary- from Psalm 28: 

Praise be to the Lord,
    for he has heard my cry for mercy.

The Lord is my strength and my shield;

    my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.


My heart leaps for joy,

    and with my song I praise him.

The Lord is the strength of his people,

    a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.

Save your people and bless your inheritance;

    be their shepherd and carry them forever.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 29th of October 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man whose favorite Canadians include Wolverine, Scott Pilgrim, and Anne of Green Gables- he is  Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who wants to give a shoutout to Canada for another brilliant but maligned invention: Hawaiian Pizza- true story, 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.