Chapter 8: Simpson’s Message and Its Ramifications on the Church Today
VIII
Simpson’s Message and Its Ramifications on the Church Today
In the first chapter, this author attempted to explain how A. B. Simpson has been ignored and neglected by much of modern scholarship in American church history. In many cases, Simpson is simply a footnote at the bottom of a page. Many historians have overlooked or forgotten Simpson and the message of the Fourfold Gospel. They seemed to have missed the key role that Simpson and his message played in the Third Great Awakening, though Simpson’s impact was well known by those of his era.
A recent issue of New Man magazine, a publication for Christian laymen, featured an article by Simpson in its “spiritual classics” section. The article, entitled “A Larger Christian Life,” spoke about what it would take to reach the world for Christ. In his introduction to the article, the editor of the periodical wrote, “A century ago, no one asked, ‘Who is Simpson?’ He was as well-known as Dwight L. Moody, Andrew Murray or C. I. Scofield—contemporaries who, like him, shaped today’s evangelical church.”
Simpson and his writings are also finding their way into other types of journals. For instance, Simpson’s famous message on sanctification, “Himself,” was published under the heading “Thunder in the Pulpit” in The Fundamentalist Journal. In Enrichment, the Assemblies of God journal, author Gary McGee comments on Simpson’s impact on the pentecostal movement in the past and present. He writes, “The interest among contemporary pentecostals, charismatics and ‘third wavers’ in ‘power evangelism’ can be traced back to Simpson, the Alliance and other radical evangelicals a century ago.” McGee concludes that Simpson is still inspiring believers today: “Decades after his death, the ministry of A. B. Simpson still inspires believers to experience the truths in the fourfold gospel and sacrificially devote their time and treasures to God.” Simpson’s approach in presenting his message is amazing because it attracted Christians from both the fundamentalist and charismatic circles. Both groups lay claim to him, and in fact, his view of sanctification presented in “Himself” is not only accepted but embraced by both groups.
Simpson’s popularity is not limited to traditional publications. There are a number of websites that contain articles about Simpson as well as material written by him. One keyword search conducted on April 7, 2003, returned over 3,650 results for “A. B. Simpson.” A number of these sites were hosted by local churches ranging from Episcopal churches to independent charismatic fellowships, and they had posted biographical sketches about Simpson and several had even made the full text of Simpson’s message “Himself” is available online. There are also a number of book distributors selling Simpson’s books in a variety of languages. Many of them have no affiliation with the official publishing arm of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, Christian Publications. It seems that Simpson and the Fourfold Gospel is may be regaining popularity among the younger generation via the Internet.
Why are Simpson’s works popular on the Internet? One of the reasons may be that Simpson’s works explain in a simple and concise way how one can grow in the Christian life. Simpson relates how one can grow in the “deeper Christian life” and is quite pragmatic in his approach to Christian growth. This is a popular area of interest with both the upcoming generation and Christian reading public, and little has been written on it in recent years.
Simpson’s writings also continue to be published as books. His books are helping to spread the Fourfold Gospel. Most of Simpson’s books are written in a way that the average Christian can understand, but one way to appeal to a younger reading audience would be to update and modernize the language. If Christian Publications would take on this task, it could help spread Simpson’s message to a wider Christian audience. Jonathan L. Graf, a former editor for Christian Publications and the current editor for Pray Magazine, began this project but never finished. If this project were completed, it would help disseminate the message of the Fourfold Gospel throughout the Christian church. The best place to begin would be with Simpson’s book The Four-Fold Gospel. Along with an updating of this work, providing a workbook for small groups or Sunday school classes would be helpful in popularizing the message of the Fourfold Gospel and spread Simpson’s message to an even larger reading audience.
This message is not only for North America, but also for the mission field. Simpson’s burden was always to reach the unreached. Many missionary professors consider Simpson to be one of the foremost missionary leaders of the nineteenth century. Simpson, along with D. L. Moody, A. J. Gordon, and A. J. Pierson, helped generate interest in missions and encouraged Christians to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. They truly believed they could reach their generation with the gospel. This fervor inspired men like John Mott and Robert Speer to lead the Student Volunteer Missionary Movement that helped extend the gospel to unreached people groups. Simpson is remembered for his role in the missionary movement and his founding of a missionary denomination in the Christian and Missionary Alliance.
While Simpson is known for his historical contribution to the missionary movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, his contribution to missionary theology, up until recently, has been largely forgotten. The fourth fold in the Fourfold Gospel is Christ as the Coming King. Simpson believed the motivating force for missions was compassion for the lost and the fulfillment of Matt 24:14. This passage states that when the gospel has been preached to all nations, Christ will return. The goal for Simpson and the early Alliance was to take the gospel to all nations. This, they believed, would hasten Christ’s return. The rallying cry was to “bring back the King,” and this would be done by taking the gospel to the “ends of the earth.” This became the great vision and burden for Simpson and the Christian and Missionary Alliance. This theology was taught and embraced in the nineteenth century but lost its appeal in much of the twentieth century. George Reitz, the urban director of the Metropolitan District of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, refers to the idea of “bringing back the King” as “Closure Theology,” saying, “The idea is that we are motivated to put all our effort in missions and bring back Christ the King that will complete the Great Commission.”
This vision to “bring back the King” has been adopted recently by some missionary circles. Peter Nanfelt, current president of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, states that a number of mission societies are now picking up the message that Christ’s return is tied in with the completion of the Great Commission. This view has also been espoused by some leaders at the US Center of World Missions. In Mission Frontiers, the official publication of the US Center of World Missions, Rick Wood and Robert Takenaga published an article entitled “Bring Back the King.” The byline under the title reads, “This vision of Dr. A. B. Simpson launched a missionary movement that changed the world. It can change our world too.”
The US Center of World Missions has been involved in trying to take the gospel to all unreached people groups of the world. The article spoke of Simpson and his impact on the world for missions as well as his burden to bring back the King. It spoke of his influence then and now. Wood and Takenaga ended their article with this challenge:
All of us who look at the life of Dr. A. B. Simpson are challenged by his unswerving dedication to the vision of completing the Great Commission and “Bringing Back the King.” It is my hope that the worldwide body of Christ along with the Christian and Missionary Alliance will learn from Dr. Simpson’s example and dedicate themselves anew to the task of reaching all people with the Gospel. May there be a fresh move of God’s Spirit to burn this vision into the hearts of millions of believers all over this world so as to produce the mighty harvest of souls from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation that Jesus asked us for. Let us commit ourselves to this great cause as Dr. Simpson did one hundred years ago with such wonderful results.
Simpson’s vision to bring back the King is pertinent for all believers. It should be one of the pillars of missionary theology today, for it is a key incentive for preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth. It may become the same motivating force it was at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. It is still one of the main driving forces in the Christian and Missionary Alliance today. One sees in the passion “to bring back the King” in the focus of the Alliance to reach the unreached people in the world. Wood and Takenaga comment,
The Christian and Missionary Alliance, however, has not been satisfied to rest on past laurels but is moving forward with new plans to help finish the task of bringing back the King which A. B. Simpson was so dedicated to. One person who has been making a significant heart-felt difference is Harry Boese, a coordinator for the Alliance’s own “Adopt-A-People” program, which is called, Within Our Reach.
The Alliance currently has a program that has up for adoption a total of 142 unreached groups of people who are within reach of Alliance missions. So far, seventy-six of these groups have been adopted by various congregations of the Christian and Missionary Alliance throughout the United States.
The Alliance is still committed to “bringing back the King.”
Simpson’s Influence on Contemporary Charismatic and Pentecostal Leaders
Simpson’s impact was not only felt in missions, but also in the emerging pentecostal movement. Simpson and the Fourfold Gospel played an integral role in the formulation of the pentecostal movement. Many of the leaders of the pentecostal movement were students from Simpson’s Missionary Training Institute. One can see the influence and the stamp of Simpson on these early leaders and their teaching. Simpson is still impacting the charismatic and pentecostal movements today.
Ron Walborn, a professor of pastoral ministries at Nyack College, shared the story of an incident that shows the impact and influence Simpson still has on one charismatic leader. One of the students in Walborn’s class was a retired New Jersey state trooper. After he retired from the state police, he decided he would go back to school to become a pastor. He enrolled as a student at Nyack College. To support himself and his family, he became a bodyguard for Benny Hinn, a well known, if somewhat controversial, charismatic healing evangelist. In 1999, Hinn claimed to have preached to over one million people in evening audiences in the Philippines and Kenya. He reported that over 750,000 people had made first-time decisions for Christ.
One day, this student was working with Hinn as his bodyguard, and Hinn asked him what he did when he was not working for him. The student replied that he was studying to be a pastor and was a student at Nyack College. Hinn became excited and shouted, “A. B. Simpson—that’s A. B. Simpson’s college!” The student replied, “Yes, it is. I walk by Simpson’s grave every time I go to class.” Hinn then reached into his briefcase and pulled out two books. One was the Bible, and the other was Simpson’s The Gospel of Healing. Hinn said he took these two books wherever he went. Hinn has also given out copies of The Gospel of Healing to many of his supporters. David Fessenden, one of the editors of Christian Publications, stated that one of the largest orders they ever received for any book was for Simpson’s The Gospel of Healing. They received an order for 20,000 copies which was ordered by Benny Hinn.
Another charismatic leader greatly influenced by Simpson was John Wimber, the founder of the Association of Vineyard Churches. Wimber was considered a leader in the charismatic movement in the 1980s and 1990s, having written two important works, Power Evangelism in 1985 and Power Healing in 1987. While Walborn was doing his doctoral work at Fuller Theological Seminary, he had the opportunity to meet and get to know Wimber. One day while Walborn and another pastor were having lunch with John Wimber, Wimber told them one of the primary influences on his life had been Simpson. Wimber had been brought to Christ by a Christian and Missionary Alliance elder in an evangelistic Bible study, and he stated that he had read everything Simpson had ever written. Walborn quoted Wimber as saying, “The Vineyard is simply Christian and Missionary theology.” Wimber felt everything he was doing was in line with Simpson and the teaching of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. In fact, Simpson and his Fourfold Gospel message was the basis for the Vineyard movement.
A Unifying Role
Simpson and his message seem to be popular among fundamentalist and evangelical circles as well as among charismatics and pentecostals. They seem to be accepted into each group. In fact, Simpson’s message “Himself,” which is in tract form, is used by each group. Walborn feels that Simpson and the Christian and Missionary Alliance ministry can act as a bridge to bring those two groups together. The Christian and Missionary Alliance is able to navigate in both groups, and for the most part, is accepted by both. This is an important role that those in the Christian and Missionary Alliance can play; they can help unite both groups to work together to help advance Christ’s kingdom.
During the Third Great Awakening, Simpson acted in that role between the fundamentalists and the pentecostals. Many of Simpson’s students at the Missionary Training Institute and early leaders of the Alliance were integral to the founding of the Assemblies of God and other pentecostal denominations. Many of the early pentecostals held Simpson in high esteem even though they differed with him on the “evidence doctrine,” which held that a believer had to speak in tongues to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The evidence doctrine became a hallmark in many pentecostal denominations. At the same time, C. I. Scofield, a fundamentalist and ardent dispensationalist who was the editor of the Scofield Reference Bible, served on the Christian and Missionary Alliance Board of Managers for twelve years. Simpson and the Fourfold Gospel were accepted by both groups.
Doug Banister has come to the conclusion that congregations need to emphasize both the preaching of the Word and the power of the gospel. Evangelical churches, which would include fundamentalist churches, place most of their emphasis on the preaching of the Word, while pentecostal and charismatic churches place their emphasis on experience. According to Banister, neither group is balanced. Banister’s goal at the church he pastors is to maintain that balance and be a link between these two camps. Banister recognizes that the church needs to have both emphases. He writes, “I saw strengths and weaknesses in both traditions. Both camps hold a piece of the puzzle the other needs.”
Both camps have long been isolated from one another and generally do not know what is going on with the other. Banister goes on to say,
Think of the charismatic and evangelical traditions as two mighty spiritual rivers flowing through our century. Today the two rivers are merging into one mighty flood of spiritual power. God is blending the strengths of both the evangelical and charismatic traditions together in churches across America. I call these “Word and Power Churches.”
Banister feels this combining of the evangelical and charismatic emphases into one church is a new phenomenon. He explains that these two groups have gone their separate ways in much of the twentieth century, although there have been exceptions. One of these exceptions is Simpson and the Christian and Missionary Alliance.
The Christian and Missionary Alliance, however, has not always held a balance between these two traditions. In its recent past, it has leaned more toward the evangelical side than the charismatic. The evangelical side was more accepted in traditional Christianity than the pentecostal or charismatic perspective. The Christian and Missionary Alliance, however, seems to be swinging back to this middle role as a church that emphasizes both strong preaching of the Word and also the importance of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life—a role that Simpson illustrated in both his life and ministry.
The author of this book has seen this change in many Alliance churches in the last twenty years. Worship styles have changed to a more contemporary style that places an emphasis on experience. Leadership from the national level down to the district level has begun to emphasize the importance of the Holy Spirit in a Christian’s life. Alliance churches have been attracting people with both fundamentalist and charismatic leanings who like the strong priority of the Bible and the emphasis on experiencing the Holy Spirit. This change is seen in many of the Alliance churches throughout the United States and Canada.
Simpson always kept Christ at the center of his ministry. A. E. Thompson wrote that Simpson’s message was “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” This became the very heart of Simpson’s message. Thompson goes on to say, “No man since the days of Paul has done more to make this vital truth of Christian life real and practical in the church than A. B. Simpson.” Although this assessment comes from a close friend and admirer, it shows the practicality of Simpson’s ministry and the importance of experience in the Christian life.
The Alliance is presently trying to restore the balance that Simpson once had. Peter Nanfelt, in his presidential report to the Christian and Missionary Alliance General Council in 2002, spoke of this very thing. He said that the Alliance has not always put as much emphasis on its distinctives as it should have. Some of those distinctives have been seen as pentecostal and viewed as extremist. Nanfelt further commented that in the past, the Alliance did not want to be identified with those who were considered “on the fringe,” especially in the holiness and healing movements. The Alliance did not stress these doctrines because it did not want to be labeled as pentecostal or charismatic. Nanfelt stressed the need to preach the Fourfold Gospel the way Simpson and the early Alliance had preached it. God would then use this message to change the world. As Peter Nanfelt went on to say,
The future of the Christian and Missionary Alliance lies in living out the two emphases that gave meaning to the Christian and Missionary Alliance in the first place: the sufficiency of Christ lived out through the power of the Holy Spirit and the whole Bible for the whole world. We are more than a Bible church, and we are more than a Holy Spirit church. We are a church that embraces the Bible as the inerrant Word of God, and we are a church that believes the Holy Spirit applies the Word for holy living and powerful service. This is who we are and if we have drifted personally or corporately from this biblical position, we need to ask God to bring us back to where we need to be.
The Christian and Missionary Alliance can play a vital role as a reconnecting force between the fundamental, evangelical, pentecostal, and charismatic churches. What Banister’s church is doing as an individual church, the Christian and Missionary Alliance can do as a denomination. The Alliance can be a “Word and Power” denomination.
The Necessity of Holiness
How can the church become a “Word and Power” church? Its members must be characterized by holiness. What is “holiness”? This term is interchangeable with the term “sanctification.” Most Christians believe that sanctification includes three things. First of all, the Bible teaches sanctification is in the past, present, and future. Sanctification begins in the past with the separation from sin gained by Christ’s redemption. It is in the present because sanctification describes the practice of cultivating a holy life. Sanctification will be complete upon the return of Christ, when the effects of sin will be removed. Secondly, the process of sanctification requires believers to strive to show God’s love in their lives. They must devote themselves to Christian discipline daily and each day make choices against evil and choose God’s righteousness. Finally, in the process of the struggle against sin in the believer’s life, there is victory through the power of the Holy Spirit. To live a holy life is to live in the power of the Holy Spirit and have victory over sin and the world. This is one of the greatest needs in the church today: holiness in the individual believer and the church as a whole. This includes both the clergy and laity. This lack of holiness is seen throughout the church. Christians need to be filled with the Holy Spirit and meet Christ as their Sanctifier. If this is not obvious to Christians, it certainly is obvious to those in the world. They are looking for people filled with the Holy Spirit to confirm that what the Christian has to say is genuine. They are looking for supernatural confirmation of the gospel message. If they do not see its evidence in the life of the believer, they are not going to accept the message.
This is true in evangelical and fundamental churches as well as pentecostal and charismatic churches. The sanctification, or holiness, aspect is sometimes lacking in even pentecostal and charismatic churches. Considering these churches’ emphasis on the Holy Spirit, one would not think this would be the case, but it certainly can be. In some pentecostal and charismatic circles, there has long been an emphasis on a certain manifestation of the Holy Spirit rather than one living a holy or sanctified life. This neglect of holiness was portrayed by Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart, two charismatic preachers who claimed to be filled with the Holy Spirit yet fell into immorality.
There is a great need for strong preaching and teaching in churches and seminaries on the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit. This must begin with leadership and then be taught to the members of our churches. Randall Nelson reports in an interview with H. B. London, the assistant to the president of Focus on the Family, that 35 percent of the calls they receive per month involve moral and sexual failure. Nelson did another interview with one district superintendent in which he stated that an alarming number of pastors in his district were under discipline or had been removed because of moral or sexual failures. If pastors and leaders are not living holy lives, how can one expect the church members to live Spirit-filled lives?
Bruce Wilkerson, speaking on the pursuit of personal holiness in an interview on Focus on the Family, explained that he believes this to be one of the greatest needs of the clergy and laity. Wilkerson produced a workbook and videotape called Personal Holiness in Times of Temptation for Promise Keepers. In the first year of publication, over 20,000 video and workbook kits were sold. Over 100,000 more readers have purchased the workbook, and Promise Keepers continues to sell over one thousand kits a month. This shows the interest many Christians have in growing in holiness and living a sanctified life.
Wilkerson stated that he had spoken eighty times over an eight-week period to a total of over 50,000 people, and some of those people were from the largest churches in the nation. Over 80 percent said they had never asked God to fill them with the Holy Spirit. Wilkerson said he preached the message of the necessity of being filled with the Holy Spirit at three pastors’ conferences. He preached the need for public repentance and of believers coming forward to pray to receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit. At those conferences, between 50 and 80 percent of pastors and Christian workers came forward to repent their sins and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Both clergy and laity need to meet Christ as Sanctifier. They need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. According to Jerry Bridges, “The goal of the pastor-parishioner pilgrimage is to pursue holiness together.” The Christian church needs men and women of holiness who are filled with the Holy Spirit. Christians can and do minister without the Holy Spirit, but these efforts will not produce eternal results. Bridges wrote that one way to gauge a ministry is to ask, “If the Holy Spirit were to back out of this effort, would it collapse?” Many, of course, would because they are not based on the Holy Spirit but rather on human efforts. The Christian church today needs Spirit-filled men and women to carry out its work.
Over one hundred years ago, E. M. Bounds wrote,
The church today needs praying men to execute her solemn and pressing responsibility to meet the fearful crisis which is facing her. The crying need of the times is for men, in increased numbers—God-fearing men, praying men, Holy Ghost men, men who can endure hardness, but count all things but dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the Savior.
The message of Christ our Sanctifier needs to be preached to the church and the leaders of the church. It is a biblical message that the church needs to hear. This message can be aided by some of Simpson’s writings. Along with his tract “Himself,” other Simpson writings that could help spread the message of the Spirit-filled life include The Four-Fold Gospel, The Holy Spirit, A Larger Christian Life, Wholly Sanctified, and When the Comforter Came. These writings could be distributed not only as books, but also as single chapters that could be used either alone or as part of various websites to help spread the message of holiness throughout the church today. Simpson’s works can have a tremendous impact on an individual. Reitz tells of a Haitian pastor who came to Canada to study for the ministry. He began reading some of Simpson’s works and then went back to Haiti to begin planting Christian and Missionary Alliance churches even though he had no financial support from the denomination. The Fourfold Gospel can have a tremendous impact on an individual.
Simpson’s message of holiness played an important role in the Third Great Awakening. The message of Christ our Sanctifier can play an important role in the next Great Awakening. We will not see another revival until we see pastors and laity broken in repentance, filled with the Holy Spirit, and praying for the church and the world. When we see this, we will see God working in a mighty way, just as he has done in the past.
Conclusion
The purpose of this book has been to show how A. B. Simpson impacted the Third Great Awakening and how his impact still continues to affect the church today. Although Simpson has been forgotten by many church historians and religious scholars, that does not diminish the role he played in the Third Great Awakening. During the time of the Awakening, Simpson was very popular, but as the decades passed his popularity lessened in evangelical circles, except for the Christian and Missionary Alliance. This trend seems to be reversing itself through a resurgence of interest in Simpson and his works within popular Christian literature and the Internet. Simpson’s writings speak to people today just as they did over a hundred years ago. His treatises are both biblical and pragmatic, which is always popular with the Christian public. Perhaps Simpson and his work would become even more popular if a new biography of his life were written. The last biography on Simpson was penned by A. W. Tozer over half a century ago.
Simpson’s message, the Fourfold Gospel, was not unique during his lifetime. Others preached this same message, but Simpson coined the phrase and helped popularize and spread its message. The most important contribution Simpson made to the church was the society he founded, the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Both the message of the Fourfold Gospel and the method he used to take the gospel to the ends of the earth have been adopted by the Christian and Missionary Alliance, which is still proclaiming the gospel throughout the world today. Simpson’s impact and legacy cannot be measured by academicians, but it can be measured by what he left behind. He left behind a denomination that is worldwide in scope and has grown to well over one million members. This is the impact that Simpson and his message has made on the Christian church. The Fourfold Gospel is being preached from major cities to tribal villages all over the world by the Christian and Missionary Alliance and those sympathetic to its message.
During the research for this book, one fact that stood out sharply was how little had been written about the Third Great Awakening. An abundance of material has been written on the First and Second Awakenings, but the Third Great Awakening has been largely neglected. Except for information about the Businessman’s Prayer Revival in New York City from 1857 to 1859, the period has been largely overlooked.
J. Edwin Orr wrote extensively about the Third Great Awakening, and Kathryn Long wrote The Revival of 1857–1859 on the Third Great Awakening, focusing solely on her title’s three-year period. Almost all scholarly focus to date has been on these three years at the expense of the rest of the period. A full-length comprehensive work has yet to be written on this Awakening. Such a work would be of major importance to American church historians. So much more needs to be presented on important historical figures of the Third Great Awakening such as Phoebe Palmer, D. L. Moody, R. A. Torrey, A. J. Pierson, Charles Cullis, and, of course, Simpson himself. There is sufficient information for such a work, but no one has gathered it together into a thorough treatise.
This author’s original research on the divine healing movement revealed little written on that subject either. The only complete work on the divine healing movement at the time was a Drew University dissertation written in 1983; that work was never published. Since then, there has been a number of works on divine healing. One notable work that gives a comprehensive history of divine healing is Nancy A. Hardesty’s history of divine healing titled Faith Cure: Divine Healing in the Holiness and Pentecostal Movements. There is yet to be a comprehensive work on the divine healing movement and its impact on the third Great Awakening.
Another possible direction for further research and writing includes investigations into the impact of Simpson’s missionary theology on the modern missionary movement. Simpson’s focus on the imperative of Matt 24:14—to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth so as to hasten Christ’s return—should be codified. Although Simpson was not alone in this view, he was its most important spokesperson of his day. A study would be helpful to see how this view of “bringing back the King” propelled the missionary movement forward in the Third Great Awakening and in the early Christian and Missionary Alliance. This line of investigation leads to another question: Why did this view lose popularity in the second half of the twentieth century, except in the Christian and Missionary Alliance?
Another area that needs to be explored is Simpson’s relationship with and his influence on other mission boards. Since he was directly involved in the lives of the founders of the Sudan Interior Mission, the African Inland Mission, and the Evangelical Alliance Mission, it would be interesting to compare and contrast these three independent mission boards with the Christian and Missionary Alliance over the last century. It also might be profitable to investigate how Simpson indirectly impacted other mission boards around the world. There are a number of avenues that could be explored concerning Simpson and his involvement in missionary outreach at the end of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries.
The center of Simpson’s message was Christ, and his goal was to reach the entire world with the gospel. Simpson’s message is encapsulated well in the motto of Columbia International University: “To Know Him and Make Him Known.” This was Simpson’s passion for a lost and dying world. It was satiated by preaching the Fourfold Gospel to the entire world—a legacy that lives on in the denomination he founded.
Even one hundred years later, Simpson’s message and method are still burning in the soul of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Simpson never intended to start a denomination, but his goal was to see the world evangelized. He was not interested in getting any credit for himself; he wanted all the glory to go to God. He wanted to see the kingdom of God advanced. Simpson was not concerned with who gained attention so long as the gospel was preached. As a result, Simpson was well received by other Christian leaders. This was not the case with every leader of the Third Great Awakening or even with church leaders today. This is one of the reasons he saw such success. Simpson seemed to attract people he could work with and who could work with him—no small feat in Christian circles, where many Christian leaders prefer to work alone!
Simpson led by example and by being a servant. No one was too unimportant for Simpson. He was concerned even for the smallest child. Evearitt tells of an interview he had with a man who had grown up in Simpson’s Gospel Tabernacle in New York City. The elderly man remembered an incident that happened when he was a small boy no older than seven or eight years old. He recalled that Simpson would enter the pulpit from the back of the church and would walk by in front of the pews before he entered the pulpit. Simpson would come up to where this boy sat at the front pew and kiss him on top of the head. That simple action made an impression on him that lasted over eighty years. No one was insignificant in Simpson’s eyes, not even a little boy. All were servants in Christ’s kingdom and were worthy of his attention. What an insight for all those who serve the Master!
Simpson wanted to see the gospel preached to the world in his generation. This should be the goal of every generation of Christians. He truly believed the teaching of Matt 24:14 and invested his entire life and all his resources to see it come to pass. He saw it as the highest exercise of love for any Christian. This summarizes Simpson’s whole burden and vision for missions. This flame burned in Simpson’s heart his whole life, and his goal was to see it passed on from generation to generation.
Simpson’s message was Jesus Christ, and he wanted Christians to experience Christ in all his fullness. When this happened, believers would naturally take Christ to their neighbors and to the ends of the earth. This was his goal, and it is still a part of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Simpson said, “Some people spend their lives trying to get to heaven, other people get there at the start and spend their lives taking others along.” What a challenge for all believers: to be involved in God’s kingdom and to bring as many people along as possible.
Simpson’s message was the message of Christ. It was a biblical message: the simple gospel message found throughout the Scripture. He took the message and preached it faithfully for over a half-century. It is the same message that needs to be preached today. Simpson may have coined the term “the Fourfold Gospel,” but the message is straight from the heart of God’s Word. Simpson was not a perfect man and had his foibles and weaknesses as all people do, but he was a man who was totally committed to Christ and saw Christ as the central focus of his life. He realized that without Christ, there is no Christianity. Christ was his message, and it was only through the power of Christ that the message could be preached to the entire world. It was only through a surrendered life that the goal of world evangelization could be accomplished. Christ was the answer for a lost world. Simpson wrote,
The mercy of heaven is big enough to take in all our sinful race. The blood of Christ is rich enough to cover the guilt of every child of Adam. The Gospel is broad enough to save and sanctify and keep the myriads of all of our race, if they will accept it. The heaven that He provides is vast enough for all earths lost generations. And the divine plan is grand enough to take in every kindred and tribe and tongue, all earth’s countless inhabitants. There may be limitations in receiving all of God’s grace on our part through ignorance, willfulness or indifference of sinful man, but there is no limitation to the sufficiency of Christ’s redemption and the universal and all-embracing fullness of the Gospel of salvation.
As the church ministers in the twenty-first century, she must be aware that culture and society has changed in many ways since the Third Great Awakening, but both the gospel message and the need for it have remained. The gospel is as appropriate and valid as it was two thousand years ago, and the message still needs to be taken to the ends of the earth. Simpson saw that the key to everything was in Christ. A hymn he wrote titled “Not I, But Christ” illustrates the centrality of Christ in the message of the Fourfold Gospel. It is because of Christ that the Christian takes the gospel to all who have never heard. This hymn is still sung in Alliance churches throughout the land. It envelopes both the message and its outreach. Simpson wrote,
Not I but Christ be honored, loved, exalted; not I but Christ be seen, be known, be heard; not I but Christ in every look and action; not I but Christ in every thought and word.
Not I but Christ to gently soothe in sorrow; not I but Christ to wipe the falling tear: Not I but Christ to lift the weary burden; Not I but Christ to hush away all fear.
Christ, only Christ, no idle word e’er falling; Christ only Christ, no needless bustling sound; Christ, only Christ for body and soul, and spirit; Christ, only Christ live then thy life in me.
Christ, only Christ ere long will fill my vision; glory excelling soon, full soon I’ll see Christ, only Christ my every wish fulfilling; Christ, only Christ my all and all to be.
Refrain:
Oh, to be saved from myself, dear Lord, oh to be loved in thee!
Oh, that it might be no more I, but Christ that lives in me!
It may be in this generation that the goal of Matt 24:14 will be accomplished; this is the goal of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, which is the proper goal of the entire church. The Christian and Missionary Alliance and many other believers are faithfully preaching the Fourfold Gospel and taking the good news to the ends of the earth. Simpson’s message, legacy, and vision to reach the world for Christ is alive and well and is being preached and accomplished in this new millennium.
. Simpson, “Larger Christian Life,” 54–55.
. Ibid., 54–55.
. Simpson, “Himself—A Timeless Testimony,” 44.
. McGee, “All for Jesus,” 85.
. Ibid., 88.
. Daniel J. Evearitt, interview with the author, February 12, 2003.
. Daniel J. Evearitt, interview with the author, March 7, 2003.
. George W. Reitz, interview with the author, February 12, 2003.
. Peter Nanfelt, interview with the author, December 10, 2002.
. Wood and Takenaga, “Bring Back the King,” 1.
. Ibid., 5.
. Ibid., 4.
. Ibid.
. Ron C. Walborn, interview with the author, February 15, 2003.
. Synan, Century of the Holy Spirit, 344.
. Ron C. Walborn, interview with the author, February 15, 2003.
. David E. Fessenden, interview with the author, April 9, 2003.
. Synan, Century of the Holy Spirit, 407.
. Ibid., 439.
. Ron C. Walborn, interview with the author, February 15, 2003.
. Ibid.
. Ibid.
. Ibid.
. Daniel J. Evearitt, interview with the author, March 7, 2003.
. Banister, Word and Power Church, 19–20.
. Ibid., 20.
. Ibid., 21.
. Thompson, A. B. Simpson, 176.
. Ibid.
. Nanfelt, “Once-In-A-Lifetime Opportunity,” 5–6.
. Ibid., 7.
. Gundry, Five Views on Sanctification, 7.
. Stoesz, Sanctification, 9. The Alliance perspective of holiness is defined by Simpson when he writes, “Christian holiness is not a slow and painful attainment, but a free gift of God, through Jesus Christ, a glorious and present obtained, received in faith and retained by abiding ever in Him” (ibid.).
. Hartzfeld and Nienkirchen , Birth of a Vision, 128–29.
. Stoesz, Sanctification, 5.
. Nelson, “Examination of the Exodus from Pastoral Ministry,” 67.
. Ibid.
. See the audiotape of this lecture recorded in Wilkinson, Pastor to Pastor.
. Ibid.
. Ibid.
. Ibid.
. London and Wiseman, Pastors at Risk, 188.
. Ibid., 178–79.
. Ibid., 179.
. Bounds, Best of E. M. Bounds, 146.
. George W. Reitz, interview with the author, February 12, 2003.
. According to an interview with the author conducted February 12, 2003, Daniel Evearitt has been contracted to write a new biography on A. B. Simpson.
. Daniel J. Evearitt, interview with the author, February 12, 2003.
. Simpson, Walking in Love, 111.
. Ibid., Christ in the Bible Commentary, 62.
. Ibid., Cross of Christ, 77–78.
. Christian and Missionary Alliance Committee on Hymnal Revision, Hymns of the Christian Life, 264.