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SKELETONS
OF
A COURSE OF
THEOLOGICAL LECTURES.
BY REV. C. G. FINNEY
Professor Of Didactic, Polemic, And Pastoral Theology, In The Oberlin Collegiate Institute.
VOL 1. OBERLIN: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY JAMES STEELE.
1840
Entered according to Act of Congress, in 1840, by
CHARLES G. FINNEY,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Ohio.
[Created and used With His Students by Prof. Finney from 1840 and Thereafter]
PREFACE Methods to be used in this course of study. What to expect and what not to expect. What is required.
LECTURE 1. Introduction. Define the Study; Requisite Personal Qualifications; Advantages derived from the study of Systematic Theology; Things to be avoided.
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.
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.
LECTURE 4. Existence of God. Methods of proof; Their amount.
LECTURE 5. Atheism. Definition; Different forms; Principal objections to Theism answered; Difficulties of Atheism.
LECTURE 6. Divine authority of the Bible. A farther revelation from God than that which is made in the works or 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.
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.
Deism. Deism defined; Different classes of Deists; Their objections to Christianity; Difficulties of Deism.
Natural Attributes of God. A Natural Attribute defined; What are some of the Natural Attributes of God; Prove that God possesses them.
Moral Attributes of God. A Moral Attribute defined; Some of the Moral Attributes of God; Prove that God possesses them; Benevolence.
Justice of God. The term Justice defined; The several senses in which it is used; God is just; An objection answered.
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.
Truth of God. Truth defined; Truth an attribute of God.
Wisdom of God. Wisdom defined; Wisdom an attribute of God.
Holiness of God. Remarks; Holiness defined; Holiness an attribute of God.
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.
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.
Divinity of Christ. What is intended by the Divinity of Christ; Christ truly divine, or the true God; Objections answered.
Humanity of Christ. Various opinions noticed; What is intended by the Humanity of Christ; Doctrine proved.
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.
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.
Moral Government. Moral Government defined; What it implies.
Foundation of Moral Obligation. Moral Obligation defined; Conditions of Moral Obligation; Foundation of Moral Obligation.
Whose right it is to govern. God a moral being; God a Moral Governor.
What is implied in the right to Govern. Reciprocal duties of rulers and ruled.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ninth Commandment. What it implies; What is not a violation of it; What it prohibits; Reasons for it. Tenth Commandment. What it implies; What is not a breach of it; What it prohibits and enjoys; Reasons for it.
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.
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.
Governmental principles.
The Atonement. Its Intention; The Atonement necessary.
Reasons why an Atonement was preferable to punishment, or to the execution of the Divine Law.
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.
Value of the Atonement. In what its value consists; How great its value is; For whose benefit it was intended.
Influence of the Atonement.
Objections answered.
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.
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.
Copyright (c)1999, 2000. Gospel Truth Ministries
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