CHARLES G. FINNEY, (1792-1875) - revivalist preacher, religious
humanist, heretic
"We deny that the human constitution is morally
depraved, because it is impossible that sin should be a quality of the substance of the
soul or body. It is, and must be, a quality of choice or intention, and not of substance.
To represent the constitution as sinful, is to represent God, Who is the author of the
constitution, as the author of sin. What ground is there for the assertion that Adam's
nature became in itself sinful by the Fall? This is a groundless, not to say ridiculous,
assumption, and an absurdity."
"That which the precept [law] demands must be possible
to the subject. That which demands a natural impossibility is not, and cannot be, moral
law. To talk of inability to obey moral law, is to talk nonsense."
Finney's Systematic Theology, pp. 249, 250; 2; also see pp.
236, 245.
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