JOHN WESLEY (Wesleyan Revival Preacher, from 1738 to 1741)

1. Albert Outler’s John Wesley’s Sermons – I will list the sermons Wesley was writing in his study, and preaching from his heart without notes on the streets, during the Wesleyan revival of 1738-1741. According to Timothy L. Smith’s dates.

1738 – Salvation by Faith (Sermon 1)
1739 – The Spirit of Bondage and of Adoption (Sermon 9)
1739 – Free Grace (Sermon 128)
1739-1740 – Upon Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, 1-6 (Sermons 21-26)
1739 – The Great Privilege of Those That Are Born of God (Sermon 19)
1739 – Justification by Faith (Sermon 5)
1739 – Christian Perfection (Sermon 40)
1739 – The Means of Grace (Sermon 16)
1741 – The Marks of the New Birth (Sermon 18)
1741 – True Christianity (Sermon 134)
1741 – The Law Established Through Faith, 1 (Sermon 35)
1741 – The Almost Christian (Sermon 2)
1741 – The Righteousness of Faith (Sermon 6)

2. Steve Harper’s The Way to Heaven
3. Steve Harper’s “Wesleyan Arminianism” in Four Views on Eternal Security
4. Thomas C. Oden’s John Wesley’s Scriptural Christianity, Chapters 6-10
5. Albert Outler’s John Wesley
6. Harald Lindstrom’s Wesley and Sanctification
7. Mildred Wynkoop’s A Theology of Love
8. Mildred Wynkoop’s Foundations of Wesleyan-Arminian Theology
9. Adam Clarke’s Clarke’s Christian Theology (Schmul, Chapters 7-13)
10. Samuel Wakefield’s Wakefield’s Christian Theology (Schmul, Book 4, Chapters 8-12; Book 5, Chapters 1-4, 7-8)
11. Kenneth Kinghorn’s John Wesley on Christian Beliefs: The Standard Sermons in Modern English – This excellent compilation of Wesley’s sermons rivals Albert Outler’s, because a lot of them are about the Gospel and sanctification–but they are IN MODERN ENGLISH!

CHARLES FINNEY (Second Great Awakening Preacher, from 1824 to 1831)

Some of the most powerfully anointed revelations into the Gospel of Jesus Christ are found in these pages. Powerful and lawyerly arguments against atheism and other anti-Christian objections are found as well. Learn how to preach what Finney preached during the Second Great Awakening (1824-1831). These books were written by him after his experience of those revivals.

I do want to warn you though: Finney was not a perfect theologian. Among the things that Finney maintained, were: (1) Revival is not a miracle. It is simply the effect of men choosing to repent and live obediently before God. Most would disagree with Finney on this point, and respond that the Holy Spirit is some way influencing the minds and hearts of those saved in a revival. (2) His moral government view of the atonement. Finney maintained that Jesus’ death on the cross was to set a moral example of self-sacrifice to us. Some say that he denied the penal substitutionary view of the atonement: that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. But I don’t think that is an accurate interpretation of Finney. It might be a straw-man argument to say that he denied substitutionary atonement; it seems that he merely had multiple views of the atonement at the same time. (3) Pelagianism. This truly was an error committed by Finney; and his critics are not misinterpreting him. He gives most expressive voice to this doctrine in the latter half of his Systematic Theology. This was probably Finney’s greatest theological failure. He rejected the Arminian view that the Holy Spirit helps Christians to repent, believe, and obey God’s commandments. He affirmed that all of this is possible by mere human ability and strength, especially the obedience to God’s commandments. This is denied emphatically by the apostle Paul in very many ways, in both Romans and Galatians. (4) His denial of Christ’s imputed righteousness to the Christian. This is also an erroneous doctrine of Finney. The apostle Paul taught the perfect righteousness of Christ is legally imputed to the criminal record of Christians (in Romans). Finney explained this away as a Calvinistic invention; a mere excuse for Antinomians to live unholy lives, and simply profess “once saved, always saved.” But I don’t think he understood that imputation is a matter of justification, not of regeneration or sanctification.

For books by Finney, I recommend Lectures on Revivals of Religion and Lectures on Systematic Theology edited by Richard Friedrich of Alethea in Heart Ministries. And anything by Finney from Bethany House Publishers. Anything else by Finney can be found on Amazon.com from other publishers.

Also, I want to add, that there is a lot of revival material from the publishing house called: Dr. Larry Martin‘s River of Revival Ministries or Christian Life Books. Stuff about the theology and history of the Great Awakenings, the Welsh Revival, Azusa Street, the Brownsville Revival, D. L. Moody, Leonard Ravenhill, Pentecostal Pioneers, Billy Sunday, Winkie Pratney, etc.

1. Charles Finney’s Lectures on Revivals of Religion (1835)
2. Charles Finney’s Sermons on Important Subjects (1836)
3. Charles Finney’s Lectures to Professing Christians (1837)
4. Charles Finney’s Lectures on Systematic Theology (1851, 2 vols)
5. Charles Finney’s Sermons on Gospel Themes (1876) – Contains some powerful arguments against Universalism; and has many other good preachings.