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Original Source Materials that prove that ALL New Light Calvinists asked for an immediate "Decision For Christ"
This was NOT something started by Charles Finney.
But the New Light Calvinist "Decision for Christ" was not seen as "saving Faith"
and certainly not de facto regeneration as it is today!
PLEASE educate yourself and help fight the HERESY of Decisional Regeneration.
For more on this subject, go to The Inquiry Room by Patrick McIntyre
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Notes on New Light Calvinist Literature:
Many books listed here are important as guideposts of New Light Calvinist thought. For example, the book Glad Tidings To Perishing Sinners (1797) by Abraham Booth is here because Jonathan Edwards, Jr. cited it extensively as a confusing message to sinners that they could presume God would save them. New Light Calvinists like Jonathan Edwards, Jr. always saw such offers of salvation assurance as confusing at best - that was one of the reasons the Inquiry Room was an essential companion to the New Light Calvinist "decision for Christ".

Nathaniel W. Taylor was one of the most unorthodox of the New Light Calvinists. He did not believe in the orthodox view of imputation of original sin and presented the sacrifice of Christ as little more than an example that would inspire men to repent. His view of the sovereignty of God relieved God of all responsibility of sending man to hell, a common goal of New Light Calvinists, but he went further than most in emphasizing man's responsibility for their salvation. Many modern writers tie Taylor to Charles Finney because their systematic theologies both emphasize the moral nature of the Gospel and man's responsibility to repent. Taylor's Correspondence is the most succinct expose of his doctrinal views.Taylor's Review of Dr. Tylers Strictures is a good fleshing out of the prevalent views of regeneration in 1830.

Samuel Mills Memoir is listed as a typical nineteenth century original source material that shows a "decision for Christ" for New Light Calvinists was NOT considered evidence of what is today called "saving faith" and certainly not evidence of regeneration. Consider this entry from 1816 about people in Manhattan, NY: "Generally the people are very ignorant. Ask them if they hope they are Christians, they answer "yes, they have no doubt of that" Ask them whether they have ever been born again... explain to them the nature of regeneration, and you will ascertain they know nothing of the subject.

Samuel Hopkins System of Doctrines is listed as perhaps the most influential New Light Calvinist work. Hopkins was the most influential interpreter of the doctrine of Jonathan Edwards. He took Edwards moral will (regenerated) versus natural will (unregenerated) perspective and fashioned the New Light Calvinist justification for asking people to make a decision for Christ. "There are the following reasons for pointing out to men their duty, and requiring them to repent and embrace the gospel, in order to be saved, though they be now impenitent, and have no heart to comply; and it is certain they never will have, till God gives them a new heart. 1. Because this is their duty, and it is proper and important that they should be told, and be made to know what is their duty ; For, 2. If they know not what is their duty, and what is necessary for them to be and do, in order to be saved, they cannot know what their state and character is, whether they be willing to comply with it or not , and consequently, will not know what obstinate, wicked hearts they have, and that need they stand in of sovereign grace, to give them new hearts ; which is of the greatest importance to be known. 3. Because they must so far actually comply, as to repent and obey the gospel, or perish. Therefore, as they must really do this, and it must be their own voluntary act, in order to be saved, it is proper and necessary, that they should be made to know it, by requiring it of them. And the gospel cannot be preached in any other way." The New Light Calvinist decision for Christ was a decision of the will. But whether a penitent's will was regenerated or the will was unregenerated was determined by private consultation in a place called in the nineteenth century the inquiry room.

Notes on First Awakening Literature:
The most important books listed here are those by Jonathan Edwards. It was his two most prolific disciples Samuel Hopkins and Joseph Bellamy that codified the New Light Calvinist idea of a decision for Christ being the only acceptable response to the gospel. For that reasons, Preparationists sometimes blame Jonathan Edwards for all the errors that have resulted from New Light Calvinism. This criticism is just as misplaced as the criticism of Charles Finney for decisional regeneration.

Notes on Pre-First Awakening Literature:
Many Puritan divines are listed here. All were Preparationists that would have had a problem with the New Light Calvinist abandonment of law works and the means of grace as preparatory to regeneration. The Ann Hutchison affair highlighted the problems of antinomianism and the divorcing of works from grace when religious affections are considered the litmus test for regeneration. Many books are listed here because they are important as guideposts of Puritan thought.

John Locke's The Reasonableness of Christianity (1695) is referred to by orthodox divines as promoting the error of intellectual assent as saving faith very similar to what the Restorationists promoted (with water baptism) after the Second Great Awakening. The Relation of John Locke to English Deism, a 1918 dissertation, is provided to dispell the idea that Locke was merely a deist.

Cyprian Strong's A discourse on Acts 2:42 is a repudiation of the practice of "Owning the Covenant" which was started in conjunction with the Halfway Covenant (1662) in which a person who had been baptized as an infant but not experienced regeneration would be allowed to baptize his children if he "Owned the Covenant", which was a "duty of faith" (common faith, not what people today call saving faith). Owning the Covenant was the precursor to today's "decision for Christ", except the Puritans recognized the person was not regenerated and could not have the Lord's Supper until he was regenerated.

Thomas Hooker's The Soules Preparation For Christ (1632) is perhaps the best single explanation of how the Puritan Preparationists viewed the role of common grace, common repentance and common faith before regeneration. Hooker's The Poor Doubting Christian Drawn to Christ (1629) is usefull in diagnosing and directing sinners and saints in the Inquiry Room.

Thomas Boston's Human Nature In Its Fourfold State contains a wealth of information on Puritan Preparationist thought.

Notes on Assorted Twentieth Century Literature:
Joseph Kemp's The Soul Winner and Soul Winning (1916) is a typical evangelism book before the popularization of the Billy Sunday heresy that all inquirers are "converts" and there is no need for an inquiry room. Kemp warns inquiry room workers, "To take a man into a corner, kneel down beside him, open a Bible, point to a passage, and say, "Can you read that? Do you believe it? Then you are saved" is the most perilous and blasphemous business. I have more than once taken a man by the collar and put him out of the inquiry room for doing that...You are never to tell a man that he is saved. The demonstration, as well as the power, is of the Spirit of God. The last surrender of the soul is to be not to the preacher, but to Christ, and the first impression of possession upon that soul is to come not by something I say, but by Christ's own activity."

Notes on Assorted 19th Century Literature:
A.C. Dixon succeeded Charles Spurgeon as Pastor of the London Tabernacle. You can gain an insight into the DOWNGRADE of theology warned by Spurgeon by reading Dixon's works which redefine spiritual things with a psychological paradigm. Twentieth century books by Dixon are also here.
Charles Hodge was a leader in trying to prevent the New Light Calvinist abstraction of doctrine and promoted the sovereignty of God in supernatural regeneration.
The Presbyterian Quarterly is extremely useful as a real time account of how late nineteenth century New Light Calvinists saw themselves in the light of past generations before the heresy of decisional regeneration was popularized by Billy Sunday. For perhaps the most important article of 1876, go to Revivals_of_the_century_by_Lyman_H_Atwater.htm

Soren A. Kierkegaard, perhaps the first Christian Existentialist, typifies the introspective, self-absorbed tendencies of later Liberals like Henry Ward Beecher. His works are listed here as the best example of psychological soul-searching which many Protestants in the nineteenth century accepted as fulfilling the Gospel as they abandoned the focus on the Person of Christ. This shift from Holy Spirit influence to the influence of psychology prefigures the modern emphasis on the "decision for Christ" being seen as the moment of conversion without the need of supernatural regeneration. Kierkegaard was a "logical positivist" who taught that faith is a metaphysical force.
Sam Jones' autobiography is listed here because he is often cited as a possible influence of Billy Sunday. By reading the writings of Sam Jones you will come to understand what a “decision for Christ” meant just before Billy Sunday changed it's meaning. Sam Jones summed up the significance of a legitimate decision for Christ as “If a man will do before he gets religion (regeneration) just as he thinks he would do after he gets it, he will get it.” One of Jones' famous sermons told how a man who wanted to be saved lived as though he was ...praying, reading scripture, attending church, doing every good work God gave the grace to do. "And he just plowed his furrow along that way for about two weeks, and got the biggest case of religion that any man ever heard of. Now that is the whole thing in a nut-shell. The means of grace will take a man to God. “If any man will do the will of God, he shall know the doctrine.” (John 7:17)

George Soltau's The Enquiry Room is a manual made for the D.L.Moody revivals in England. It is the best example of how late nineteenth century altar workers counselled inquirers who had made a "decision for Christ". The PDF version here is a scan of one of the few remaining copies. For a text version, go to http://www.inquiryroom.com/the_inquiry_room_by_george_soltau.htm

Notes on Assorted 18th Century Literature:
Robert Sandeman is listed here for being an early example of the intellectual assent as "saving faith" heresy. Most New Light Calvinists roundly rejected his convoluted thinking as elevating the Gospel above the Holy Spirit as the agent of regeneration, thus making the reasoning of man the means of regeneration instead sovereign grace causing a change of nature and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Starting in the 1820's, Baptist circular letters regularly cited Sandeman as the influence that gave birth to Campbell's view of water baptism regeneration.

Notes on Restorationist Literature:
The American Restorationist movement was led by Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell. They thought their form of salvation was a "RESTORATION" of the salvation of the first century church. They rejected all creeds and denominationalism as man-made daughter harlots of the mother harlot Roman Catholic Church. Stone had a more enthusiastic, emotional view of salvation than Campbell. In fact, he did not initially believe water baptism was the moment of salvation. Campbell's view of faith was very close to that of John Locke ... an intellectual assent to the truth of the Gospel exhibited in water baptism. The Restorationist acceptance of water baptism as the moment of regeneration was identical to the modern emphasis on the "decision for Christ" being the moment of regeneration. Both ignore the need for a change of heart and a change wrought by the Holy Spirit as confirmation of regeneration. The decision for Christ and water baptism are considered evidence of regeneration in themselves.

Here is the first of seven parts of The Graham Formula video
on www.youtube.com
Go to http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=patrickmcintyre
to watch the remaining six parts of the video

a FREE DVD of the ENTIRE VIDEO is given when you buy 1 or more books. In addition, a FREE CD with the PDF BOOK and a POWERPOINT VERSION is given when you buy 10 or more books. If you want to purchase The Graham Formula, Quantity Discounts are available in DROP DOWN WINDOW above BUY NOW button QUANTITY DISCOUNT ONE BOOK $7.99 TEN BOOKS $30.00 CASE - 92 BOOKS $150.00   Find out how Billy Sunday forever changed the definition of what it meant to be "born again" when he called everyone who came forward in an altar call a "convert". Before Sunday, evangelists invited seekers to an after-meeting to learn about repentance and the means of grace, and to pray that God would save them. After Sunday, salvation was assured if someone took a "step of faith." His wife boasted, "He made it (the question of salvation) so simple that there was no need for inquiry rooms." Find out why Dawson Trotman, after having led numerous people to the Lord, abandoned the "hit-and-run-evangelism he and other had practiced for years" and taught his Navigators to never lead someone to the Lord unless they were able to follow them up. He said "you can lead a man to Christ in a couple of minutes to a couple of hours, but it takes twenty weeks to a couple of years to adequately follow him up." Franklin Graham assumed he was saved when he made an ineffective decision for Christ at age eight. Fourteen years later his famous father told him the truth. Billy Graham said, "You're going to have to make a choice either to accept Christ or reject him. You can't continue to play the middle ground. Either you are going to choose to follow and obey Him or reject Him." Thank God Franklin repented and God saved him when he was twenty-two. Find out why Oswald Chambers said of Billy Sunday evangelism, "When a man is born again, he knows it is because he has received something as a gift from almighty God and not because of his own decision. People register their vows, and sign their pledges, and determine to go through, but none of this is salvation." The 100% salvation rate promoted by Billy Sunday became commonplace, making the phrase "Sunday Convert" a term of derision. Find out what popular evangelical doctrine A. W. Tozer called a heresy. "We are saved by accepting Christ as our savior; we are sanctified by accepting Christ as our Lord; we may do the first without the second. ... What a tragedy in our day we often hear the gospel appeal made on this kind of basis: Come to Jesus! You don't have to obey anyone. You don't have to change anything; you don't have to give up anything ... just come to Him and believe in Him as savior." Find out why Billy Graham brought back the after-meeting and inquiry room. To minimize spurious conversions, Graham developed a three-part formula for success. Click here to see FRONT COVER Click here to see BACK COVER