(1792-1875) Charles Grandison Finney was one of America’s greatest evangelists and started the second great revival in the United States that brought over 500,000 people to God.

Charles Finney was born in Warren, Connecticut (USA) and raised very far from the Gospel. He is a lawyer by training and if he buys a Bible one day it is to study the Law of Moses. To place this Law in context, he reads the Bible…

At first, he is ashamed of this reading and hides it carefully. He realizes that the greatest obstacles to salvation, for him, are pride and fear of men, of “what will people say” in particular.

But after his conversion in 1821, he no longer had the slightest fear of reading the Bible and praying in public. A great great preacher is about to be born.

Finney realizes he has a gift for preaching the gospel, decides to dedicate himself to God, takes steps to entrust his clients to the care of other attorneys, and holds his first evangelistic and prayer meetings. .

In the context of the time, he needed to have a pastor by his side to be able to express himself. He decides to become a pastor in his turn but refuses to follow the normal course of theology which according to him is useless! He therefore had repeat pastors and studied alone. When he finally got his “license” as a preacher, it was more for political reasons than anything else. What does it matter! He could officially preach!

An itinerant preacher, he goes from city to city and, everywhere, the conversions are more and more numerous. But the harsh and uncompromising tone of his sermons earned him many official criticisms. He ignores it and does what God asks him to do.

His sermons were fiery, his tone was direct and he never hesitated to place his interlocutors, whoever they were, in the face of their responsibilities. Although he spoke willingly of grace, he never forgot the importance of true conversion and sincere repentance. He also strongly emphasized the need to really study the Bible, regardless of the level of education. He always affirmed that through the Bible God gave us all the rules to follow and was persuaded that all the dubious inventions of the churches were leading the crowds to disaster.

This “career” as an itinerant preacher lasted a long time and it was only late, weak and sick, that he became a sedentary pastor in New York and a professor of theology.