Alliance History and Thought
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Readings in Alliance History and Thought Compiled by Kenneth L. Draper 2009 Table of Contents Part 1 Alliance History Preface Kenneth L. Draper, Living Tradition ............................................................................ 1 1. Simpson: His Life 1.1 Emma Beere, Simpson Anecdotes ................................................................................. 4 1.2 A.B. Simpson, My Own Story ....................................................................................... 8 1.3 A.B. Simpson Chronology ............................................................................................ 14 2. Simpson: Spiritual Crises 2.1 A.B. Simpson, A Solemn Covenant ............................................................................... 17 2.2 A.B. Simpson, Personal Testimony - Sanctification ..................................................... 18 2.3 A.B. Simpson, A Larger Christian Life......................................................................... 20 2.4 A.B. Simpson, The Gospel of Healing .......................................................................... 21 3. Simpson’s Hymns and Alliance Hymnody 3.1 Gene Rivard, Rediscovering the Music of A.B. Simpson .............................................. 25 4. The Founding of the Alliance 4.1 A.B. Simpson, Story of Providence ............................................................................... 35 4.2 Constitution of Christian Alliance, 1887 ...................................................................... 41 4.3 Constitution of Evangelical Missionary Alliance, 1887 ............................................... 42 5. The Work of the Early Alliance 5.1 Excerpts from The Story of the Christian and Missionary Alliance ............................. 45 5.2 John Dahms, The Social Interest and Concern of A.B. Simpson .................................. 50 5.3 Leslie Andrews, A.B. Simpson’s Understanding of the Role of Women in Ministry ......................................................................................................................... 60 6. The Alliance After Simpson 6.1 General Constitution and Principles .............................................................................. 70 6.2 Paul Rader, Annual Report of the President, 1920 ....................................................... 74 6.3 W.M. Turnbull and C.H. Chrisman, The Message of The Christian and Missionary Alliance, 1927............................................................................................. 77 7. Alliance Missions 7.1 A.B. Simpson, Aggressive Christianity ......................................................................... 84 7.2 L.L. King, Indigenous Church Policy of the C&MA ..................................................... 87 7.3 David Moore, How the C&MA Relates to Overseas Churches .................................... 97 Part 2 Alliance Thought 8. The Fourfold Gospel 8.1 David Schroeder, The Centrality of Jesus Christ in the Fourfold Gospel ....................10 7 9. The Early Alliance View of Sanctification 9.1 A.B. Simpson, The Baptism of the Holy Spirit: A Crisis or an Evolution? .................11 2 9.2 George Pardington, The Crisis of the Deeper Life ....................................................... .11 6 9.4 A.B. Simpson, How to Abide.........................................................................................12 1 10. Developments in the Alliance View of Sanctification 10.1 Charles Nienkirchen, ‗Deep Calleth Unto Deep,’ Stillness in Early Alliance Spirituality .....................................................................................................................1 25 10.3 Gordon T. Smith, Conversion and Sanctification in the Christian and Missionary Alliance.......................................................................................................1 36 10.4 Bernie A. Van De Walle, “How High of a Christian Life?” A. B. Simpson and the Classic Doctrine of Theosis ..............................................................................14 4 11. Healing 11.1 A.B. Simpson, Divine Healing in the Atonement ..........................................................15 3 11.2 A.B. Simpson, How to Receive Divine Healing ............................................................15 5 11.3 A.B. Simpson, Divine Healing and Medical Science ...................................................1 58 11.4 Excerpts from A Cloud of Witnesses Concerning Divine Healing ................................1 60 12. Developments in the Alliance View of Healing 12.1 Rev. David John Smith, The Psycho-Spiritual Dynamics of Physical Healing 165 in Alliance Spirituality .................................................................................................. 12.2 Andy M. Reimer, Healing: Biblical Basis and Procedure ..........................................1 82 12.3 Bernie A. Van De Walle, Cautious Co-belligerence? The Late Nineteenth- Century American Divine Healing Movement and the Promise of Medical Science ...........................................................................................................................1 88 13. The Coming King 13.1 A.B. Simpson, Practical Influence of the Blessed Hope ...............................................1 97 13.2 A.B. Simpson, The Lord’s Coming and Missions .........................................................199 14. Developments in Alliance Eschatology 14.1 Franklin Pyles, The Missionary Eschatology of A.B. Simpson .....................................20 4 14.2 Michael Tymchak, Ethics and the Coming King ..........................................................21 1 15. Toward a Doctrinal Statement 15.1 Scott Russell Borderud, Creeds and the Statement of Faith .........................................2 19 15.2 Conference for Prayer and Counsel, 1906 ....................................................................23 1 15.3 Doctrinal Statement for Alliance Bible Schools, 1928 .................................................23 2 15.4 Statement of Faith (1965) ..............................................................................................23 3 15.6 Statement of Faith (2000) .............................................................................................2 34 - iv - Part 1 Alliance History Binghamton Convention, 1921 Binghamton, New York Preface Living Tradition Kenneth L. Draper In an age when everything is new and improved, are popular. Students see the relevance of learning how tradition seems to have taken a backseat. It is still to read and interpret Scripture well. Sociology, evoked nostalgically; to create an illusion of stability in psychology and literature can help students understand an otherwise chaotic world. Reference is made to the themselves and their world more clearly. But what is the traditional turkey dinner or to that semi-mythical age point of denominational history? After all, this ―stuff‖ when things were simpler and children were better happened long ago and only serves to remind us that we behaved. Tradition in this sense may generate some are pretty small fish in the big pond of church history. good feelings but is not something to give direction to Would it not make more sense to spend time on things our lives. that really matter? In the business world and sometimes in churches, In asking these sorts of questions, my students were ―tradition‖ is commonly used to dismiss something as clearly in a broad stream of thinking flowing out of the backward-looking and stodgy. This rejection of tradition Enlightenment which views particular traditions, like grows directly out of an eagerness to distance ourselves denominational histories, as irrelevant. Worse still, such from our own pasta central characteristic of western traditions are held to actually distort truth and thus must culture since the Enlightenment of the eighteenth be abandoned. The Enlightenment approach is perhaps century. best typified by the seventeenth century French thinker Whether we like the feelings associated with René Descartes. Descartes regarded knowledge based on tradition in the sense of the turkey dinner, or regard it as any tradition or authority as suspect. He decided he must something which blinds us to current needs, it is perhaps discover a firm foundation for knowledge and so time we reassessed the role of tradition in our society. resolved to disbelieve anything and everything that Tradition has the potential to play a more powerful role could be disbelieved. This systematic process of doubt by providing a clear identity for us as individuals and led to the speculation that God might be an evil joker communities of faith. If tradition is to serve such a and thus nothing, not even Descartes‘ own existence, purpose, we must understand it as a living part of us, could be sure. A this point Descartes discovered his rather than something dead and past and commemorated foundation for all true knowledge, for even in doubting on plaques. all, he was aware of the working of his own mind. His An important part of my teaching role at Canadian famous conclusion cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I Bible College is to teach a course called Alliance am), was the beginning of the modern view of truth in History and Thought. This course has developed a rather the western world. unenviable reputation over the years. Believe it or not, it Now the free use of reason unencumbered by any has been commonly referred to by students (in hushed preconception or tradition has become the sure guide