Chuck Swindoll: Reconstructing John Wesley
Chuck Swindoll, the beloved Christian author and pastor, is best known for his teaching on the evangelical doctrine of grace. The Grace Awakening, Dr. Swindoll’s magnum opus on the topic, is embraced worldwide. Many believers do not know, however, that Chuck Swindoll named this book after the famous worldwide revival known as “The Great Awakening.” On the second page of his introduction Dr. Swindoll wrote:
When the eighteenth-and early nineteenth-century revival spread across Great Britain and into America, preached fervently by John Wesley…and a handful of other risk-taking spokesmen for God, it was again grace that led the way… Interestingly, that sweeping movement came to be known as “The Great Awakening.” What I am sensing these days is yet another awakening in the genre of those history-making movements. Perhaps it is best defined as “The Grace Awakening,” a message whose time has come (The Grace Awakening, p. xiv, xv).
By aligning The Grace Awakening with John Wesley and The Great Awakening Dr. Swindoll surely buttresses the message of his book. Some may view this alignment as a bit inflated, but such doctrinal consistency is striking-if it is true.
Though John Wesley has written volumes Chuck Swindoll offers not a single quote to substantiate his supposed harmony with Wesley. Why? Because John Wesley never taught the biblical themes of grace or freedom in Christ as Chuck Swindoll does.
The Grace Awakening, says Dr. Swindoll, is his attempt at spotlighting the “full extent of grace” (The Grace Awakening p. xv). Certainly there is nothing wrong with such an emphasis depending the meaning assigned to the word “grace.” Throughout his book Chuck Swindoll insists that “grace” means that human “works” (of any kind or degree) never impact final salvation. The following are but a sample from Chuck Swindoll on grace and it’s relation to saving faith:
In other words, salvation is not by faith alone… [ellipsis in original] it requires works. Human achievement must accompany sincere faith before you can be certain of your salvation. We continue to hear that “different gospel” to this day and it is a lie. It is heresy (The Grace Awakening).
Regardless of how you choose to live, you can’t live so bad that God says to you, ‘you’re no longer mine (Shedding Light on Our Dark Side, audiotape sld 1a).
To say that John Wesley never taught anything close to what Swindoll believes to be a sound understanding of grace and saving faith would be an understatement. Yet, Chuck Swindoll bolsters his teaching in The Grace Awakening by dropping John Wesley’s name. Now, either Dr. Swindoll has never read Wesley or he is purposely misusing his good name-you decide. Here is but a sample from John Wesley whom Dr. Swindoll dubs a “risk-taking spokesman for God:”
I testify unto you, that if you still continue in sin, Christ shall profit you nothing; that Christ is no saviour to you, unless he saves you from your sins; and that unless it purify your heart, faith shall profit you nothing. O when will ye understand, that to oppose either inward or outward holiness, under colour of exalting Christ, is directly to act the part of Judas (A Blow At The Root p.4).
They are not Christians. Christians are holy; these are unholy: Christians love God; these love the world. Consequently, they are no more Christians, than they are archangels. Yet they imagine themselves to be (Sermon: The Nature of Enthusiasm).
Swindoll believes that it is heresy and a lie to teach that good works must accompany saving faith. John Wesley, however, plainly asserts this very heresy and lie. Still, Swindoll uses Wesley to establish his mistaken notions leaving the inexperienced reader with the idea that The Grace Awakening and The Great Awakening are built on the same doctrinal foundation-which they are not. Chuck Swindoll is free to teach grace any way he so desires, but to do so in the good name of John Wesley or The Great Awakening is dishonest.
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