Charles Grandison Finney on Spiritual warfare
None of the stances fits without misdescribing the figure
Every listed stance was tested against the sources, and each asserts something the figure does not. The reasoning is recorded in full, and it is the content.
"The Christian warfare is a war between the will and Satan. It is his great object to keep the will in subjection to the propensities of the sensibility."
THE POSITION
Finney calls the Christian warfare a war between the will and Satan, but he folds Satan in with the world, temperament, imagination and wandering thoughts as forms of one pressure on the sensibility. The victory is depending wholly on Christ's strength, and he contrasts this with the legalist who relies on watchfulness, prayer and resolutions.
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want.
WHAT OTHERS HOLD HERE
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Law student turned revivalist of the Second Great Awakening, licensed and ordained by a Presbyterian presbytery in 1824, later professor of theology and president at Oberlin College. His Lectures on Revivals of Religion argued that a revival is the right use of means and not a miracle. His Systematic Theology built a doctrine of salvation on moral government and on the sinner's natural ability, and denied original sin as a sinful nature, imputed righteousness, and that the atonement paid what sinners owed. This entry rests on that Systematic Theology (1878 edition), the Revival Lectures, one chapter of the Memoirs, three Oberlin Evangelist pieces and one letter.
Cite this page
"Charles Grandison Finney on Spiritual warfare", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/finney/spiritual-warfare (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/finney/spiritual-warfare).