HOME PAGE --

THE HEART OF THE TRUTH

1 THE HEART OF THE TRUTH  

2 FINNEY'S LECTURES ON THEOLOGY

3 by Charles G. Finney


4

5 My special thanks to Robert Wynn who edited this whole series and without all his hard work these lectures would not exist.

6


7 CONTENTS

8 PREFACE

9 LECTURE 1. - INTRODUCTION. Define the Study; Requisite Personal Qualifications; Advantages derived from the study of Systematic Theology; Things to be avoided.

10 LECTURE 2. - Some THINGS IMPLIED in the study of Theology. Some things that we know of man, independently of any revelation or knowledge of God.

11 LECTURE 3. - Importance of a correct knowledge of the LAWS OF EVIDENCE; Evidence and Proof, and their difference; Sources of evidence; Kinds and degrees of evidence; When objections are not, and when they are fatal; How objections are to be disposed of; On whom lies the burden of proof; Where proof or argument must begin.

12 LECTURE 4. - EXISTENCE OF GOD. Methods of proof--Their amount.

13 LECTURE 5. - ATHEISM. Definition; different forms; Principal objections to Theism answered; Difficulties of Atheism.

14 LECTURE 6. - DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE. A farther revelation from God than that which is made in the works of nature and providence needed; Such a revelation possible; Such a revelation probable; 'The scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, a direct revelation from God.

15 LECTURE 7. - INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. What is not implied in the inspiration of the bible; What is implied; How a question of this kind cannot be proved; How it can be proved; The Bible an inspired Book; Objections answered.

16 LECTURE 8. - DEISM. Deism defined; different classes of Deists; Their objections to Christianity; Difficulties of Deism.

17 LECTURE 9. - NATURAL ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. A Natural Attribute defined. What are some of the Natural Attributes of God. Prove that God possesses them.

18 LECTURE 10. - MORAL ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. A Moral Attribute defined; Some of the Moral Attributes of God; Prove that God possesses them; Benevolence.

19 LECTURE 11. - JUSTICE OF GOD. The term Justice defined. The several senses in which it is used; God is just; An objection answered.

20 LECTURE 12. - MERCY OF GOD. What Mercy is not; What it is; In what cases it can be exercised; To what extent; On what conditions; Mercy an attribute of God.

21 LECTURE 13. - TRUTH OF GOD. Truth defined; Truth an attribute of God.

22 LECTURE 14. - WISDOM OF GOD. Wisdom defined; Wisdom an attribute of God.

23 LECTURE 15. - HOLINESS OF GOD. Remarks; Holiness defined; Holiness an attribute of God.

24 LECTURE 16. - UNITY OF GOD. Meaning of the term Unity when applied to God; Remarks in respect to the manner in which this subject has been treated in different ages and nations; Unity of God proved.

25 LECTURE 17. - TRINITY OR TRI-UNITY OF GOD. Doctrine stated; The point now under consideration; Sources of evidence; Amount of evidence to be expected, if the doctrine be true; Proof adduced; Objections answered.

26 LECTURE 18. - DIVINITY OF CHRIST. What is intended by the Divinity of Christ; Christ truly divine, or the true God; Objections answered.

27 LECTURE 19. - HUMANITY OF CHRIST. Various opinions noticed; What is intended by the Humanity of Christ; Doctrine proved.

28 LECTURE 20. - PERSONALITY AND DIVINITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. What is not intended by the Divinity of the Holy Spirit; He is truly God; What is intended by the Personality of the Holy Spirit; His Divinity proved.

29 LECTURE 21. - PROVIDENCE OF GOD. What is intended by the Providence of God; God administers over the universe a providential government; Different theories and arguments noticed; Show what seems to be the truth.

30 LECTURE 22. - MORAL GOVERNMENT. Moral Government defined; What it implies.

31 LECTURE 23. - FOUNDATION OF MORAL OBLIGATION. Moral Obligation defined; Conditions of Moral Obligation; Foundation of Moral Obligation.

32 LECTURE 24. - WHOSE RIGHT IT IS TO GOVERN. God a moral being; God a Moral Governor.

33 LECTURE 25. - WHAT IS IMPLIED IN THE RIGHT TO GOVERN. Reciprocal duties of rulers and ruled.

34 LECTURE 26. - MORAL LAW. What Law is; Moral Law defined; Moral Law a unit; No being can make law; The will of the ruler can be obligatory only as it is declaratory of what the Law is.

35 LECTURE 27. - LAW OF GOD. What is intended by the Law of God. The commandments declaratory; The Ten Commandments illustrations of this; Sanctions of the Law; First Commandment. Its true meaning. Second Commandment. Reasons for it; what it prohibits. Third Commandment. Its true spirit; Reasons for this Commandment.

36 LECTURE 28. - FOURTH COMMANDMENT. When the Sabbath was instituted; Its design; Its necessity; Its perpetual and universal obligation; The manner of its observance; Its change from the seventh to the first day of the week.

37 LECTURE 29. - FIFTH COMMANDMENT. Reasons for this Commandment; What it implies; What it prohibits. Sixth Commandment. What its letter prohibits; Its true spirit; What is, and what is not prohibited by its spirit; What its spirit requires; Reasons for it; Violations of it.

38 LECTURE 30. - SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. What it implies; What it prohibits; Reasons for it. Eighth Commandment. What it implies; What it prohibits; Reasons for it; When it is violated.

39 LECTURE 31. - NINTH COMMANDMENT. What it implies; What is not a violation of it; What it prohibits; Reasons for it. Tenth Commandment to What it implies; What is not a breach of it; What it prohibits and enjoys; Reasons for it.

40 LECTURE 32. - SANCTIONS OF LAW. What constitutes sanctions; There can be no Law without them; In what light they are to be regarded; The end to be secured by law and the execution of penal Sanctions; Rule for graduating them.

41 LECTURE 33. - SANCTIONS OF GOD'S LAW. God's law has Sanctions; What constitutes the remuneratory Sanctions of God's Law; Their perfection and duration; What constitutes its vindicatory Sanctions; Their duration.

42 LECTURE 34. - GOVERNMENTAL PRINCIPLES.

43 LECTURE 35. - THE ATONEMENT. Its Intention; The Atonement necessary.

44 LECTURE 36. - REASONS WHY AN ATONEMENT WAS PREFERABLE TO PUNISHMENT, or to the execution of the Divine Law.

45 LECTURE 37. - WHAT CONSTITUTES THE ATONEMENT. Not Christ's obedience to law as a covenant of works; His sufferings and death constitute the Atonement; His taking human nature and obeying unto death a reason for our being treated as righteous: Nature and kind of his sufferings; Amount of his sufferings; The Atonement not a commercial transaction; The Atonement a satisfaction of public justice.

46 LECTURE 38. - VALUE OF THE ATONEMENT. In what its value consists; How great its value is; For whose benefit it was intended.

47 LECTURE 39. - INFLUENCE OF THE ATONEMENT.

48 LECTURE 40. - OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

49 LECTURE 41. - HUMAN GOVERNMENTS a part of the Moral Government of God. Human Governments a necessity of human nature; This necessity will continue as long as men exist in the present world; Human Governments recognized in the Bible as a part of the Government of God; Whose right and duty it is to govern; In what cases human legislation imposes moral obligation, It is the duty of all men to aid in the establishment and support of Human Government; 'The supposition that Human Government can ever be dispensed with in this world, a ridiculous and absurd dream; Objections answered.

50 LECTURE 42. - HUMAN GOVERNMENTS a part of the Moral Government of God. Reasons why God has made no particular form of Church or State Governments universally obligatory; Particular forms of Church and State Government must and will depend upon the intelligence and virtue of the people: True basis on which the right of Human Legislation rests; That form of Government is obligatory, that is best suited to meet the necessities of the people; Revolutions become necessary and obligatory, when the virtue and intelligence, or the vice and ignorance of the people demand them; In what cases Human Legislation is valid, and in what cases it is null and void; In what cases we are bound to disobey Human Governments.