Shocking Beliefs of D.L. Moody

May 25, 2015 by Frank Viola 6 Comments

“God never gives us discernment in order that we may criticize, but that we may intercede.” 
~ Oswald Chambers
If you’re new to the “Shocking Beliefs” series, I’ll open this post by quoting from the preface to the first installment on the Shocking Beliefs of C.S. Lewis.
This explains why – precisely – I’m producing this series.

A well-known Christian author whom I greatly respect encouraged me to begin a series on the shocking beliefs of some of the great Christians who have impacted church history.

Every follower of Jesus is a rough draft. Over time, the great Editor – the Holy Spirit – shapes our lives and views. But until we see the Lord and “know even as we are known,” we’re are in process.

This is also true for those Christians who have gone before us.

Therefore, one of the mistakes that we must guard against is to dismiss a person’s entire contribution because they may hold (or have held) to ideas that we find hard to stomach.

Speaking personally, if I demanded that a person’s views on every subject under the sun be identical to mine as a condition to be helped by them, then if I had met myself 20 years ago, I’d have to disfellowship myself!

The truth is, my views on some topics have changed over the years.

And so have yours.

Point: we are all in process. None of us gets everything right all the time. That stands true for every Christian who has ever breathed oxygen.

So my purpose in highlighting some of “the shocking beliefs” of those upon whose shoulders we all stand is not to burn these folks in effigy. Nor is it to dismiss their positive contribution to church history.

Rather, it’s to demonstrate that even though they may have held to views that would raise the eyebrows of most evangelicals today, that doesn’t overturn nor negate the valuable ideas they contributed to the body of Christ.

Unfortunately, many evangelicals are quick to discount — and even damn — their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ over alleged doctrinal trespasses, even if those same brothers and sisters hold to the historical orthodox creeds (Apostle’s Creed, Nicene Creed, etc.). Such discounting and damning can always be avoided and it serves no one on the Kingdom side of the aisle.

When diversity within orthodoxy is encountered, grace should be extended. Just as we would want grace extended to us, seeing that none of us sees perfectly (Matthew 7:12).

The words of Paul of Tarsus contain thunder and lightning for us all, “Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete . . .” (1 Corinthians 13:9, NLT).

Today, we’ll be looking at some of the surprising and controversial beliefs of D.L. Moody.

In many respects, D.L. Moody is one of my favorite movers-and-shakers in church history.
He — along with A.W. Tozer, Charles Spurgeon, G. Campbell Morgan — was a powerful witness to God’s sod-turning penchant for greatly using people who didn’t have formal theological educations.
In Moody’s case, he was poorly educated across the board. Yet the hand of God was undeniably upon him.
Interestingly, the first time Moody applied to be a member of a local church, he was denied because he failed an oral exam on Christian doctrine!
Moody ministered to the soldiers in the Civil War. President Lincoln visited his Sunday School, and President Grant attended one of his revival meetings.
He was famously nicknamed “Crazy Moody,” and it’s reported that he reached 100 million people with the gospel, in a day when televangelists, radio preachers, and Al Gore (the Internet, ahem) didn’t exist.
If you’ve ever heard the statement, “God hates sin, but loves the sinner,” that’s been ascribed to Moody. Here are three other Moodyisms:

“Character is what a man is in the dark.”

“If there had been a committee appointed, Noah’s ark would never have been built.”

And my favorite one of all,

“Some men grow smaller and smaller on an intimate acquaintance; but my experience is that the more and more you know of Christ, the larger He becomes.”

Armed with a 5th grade education, noted as a horrible speller with a poor vocabulary, and void of any theological training, Moody founded several schools. In addition, a Bible college and publishing house which still exist were both named after him. Rather surprising given how poorly educated he was.
Moody was essentially a “lay-evangelist.” He wasn’t an ordained minister nor a theologian or scholar. In fact, observers got the impression that he was little more than a “country bumpkin.” Yet he was incredibly effective in reaching people with the gospel of Christ.
Another thing that impresses me about Moody was his heart for the poor. When he began his ministry in the Chicago slums (called “Little Hell” because of its danger), Moody was barely into his 20s. He had a heart for “the lest, the last, and the lost,” spending all of his savings to help the indigent, even risking harm to himself.
NOW HOLSTER YOUR WEAPONS AND READ THIS BEFORE PROCEEDING: The following beliefs aren’t shocking to me necessarily. They were, however, surprising and disturbing to many evangelical Christian’s during Moody’s day. And they will trouble some evangelicals today.
The Blog Manager tells me that if you post a comment that says (with chest thrown outward), “I don’t find any of these to be shocking!,” your comment will be deleted. We’ve already covered this in the above statement; so there’s no need for you to tell the world what we already know.
All told, here are some beliefs that Moody held that were shocking in his time, some of which will unsettle some evangelicals today.
1. Moody seldom preached on hell. This was shocking in a day when 18th-19th century Revivalists and evangelists made “hell” a major point in their preaching. When Moody caught criticism for this, his response was, “A great many people say I don’t preach on the terrors of religion. I don’t want to — don’t want to scare men into the kingdom of God.” Because the love of God broke his own heart, Moody opted to preach God’s love and avoid the subject of hell in most of his sermons.
2. Moody believed that Jesus would take the church away from the earth before He comes in judgment. Moody was the first famous premillenialist in North American history. It is not clear, however, if he ascribed to the tight dispensationalism of a secret rapture followed by a seven-year Tribulation, an idea spawned by John Nelson Darby in the mid 1800s.
However, Moody did believe that the Christ would take the bride out of the world to the place He had prepared for her before He came in judgment. This of course sounds like Darby’s secret rapture theory, but Moody was not precise about the details, so we cannot be sure of his exact views on the subject.
Nevertheless, many who regard Moody to be a “hero” in the faith today reject the idea that Jesus will remove His bride from the earth before He comes in judgment as well rejecting premillenialism.
3. Moody embraced the Christian evolutionist Henry Drummond as being “the most Christ-like man I ever knew.” Such an “endorsement” was shocking in Moody’s day. And it will certainly raise the ire of those Christians who damn other believers with the “guilt-by-association” card today.
Moody was viciously attacked as a “heretic” simply because he allowed Drummond to speak at some of his Christian conferences. And there’s good reason to believe that he lost sizeable financial support as a result.
Drummond was written off by many Christians because he believed that God created humans through the mechanism of evolution. Moody rejected evolutionary theory, but that didn’t dissuade him from befriending and endorsing Henry Drummond. Nor did it dissuade others from condemning Moody with the same vitriol that they leveled against Drummond. (Regrettably, this sort of thing still happens today in the Christian world.)
4. Moody didn’t exclude women from ministry and even permitted them to preach from the pulpit. Again, a shocker for his time. And in the minds of contemporary “Complementarians” who believe women should be muzzled (I mean excluded) from ministering to men, what Moody believed about this is considered “unbiblical.”
5. Moody didn’t believe in making doctrine an issue. For this reason, both Calvinists and Arminians claimed him on the one hand, but they were infuriated him on other other.
The Arminians had running fits over his “once in grace, always in grace” view and Calvinists had apoplexy over his emphasis on human responsibility, faith-is-a-choice view, and his belief in the universal provision of salvation.
According to Moody, “I don’t try to reconcile God’s sovereignty and man’s free agency.” That statement didn’t endear him to either Calvinists or Arminians.
6. Moody believed in interdenominational ecumenicism. This also disturbed hardcore Calvinists and Arminians.
Moody embraced the “liberal” causes of social reform, church unity, and ecumenism, but he also embraced the “conservative” causes of premillenialism in evangelistic efforts (believing that the world was a sinking ship, and Christians were obligated to rescue as many as possible before the ship sank).
Moody was seen as a bridge between conservatives and liberals, combining issues that polarized both sides. (Parenthetically, this is why one of the reasons why I love Moody so much. See my 20 Reasons Why the Christian Left and the Christian Right Won’t Adopt Me).
This quote by Moody captures his heart on the matter:

“Talk not of this sect and that sect, of this party and that party, but solely and exclusively of the great comprehensive cause of Christ … There should be one faith, one mind, one spirit – and in this city let us … actualize this glorious truth … Let us contend for Christ only … May the Spirit of God may give us one mind and one spirit to glorify His holy name.”

Moody quickly learned, however, that transcending the hardcore left and the hardcore right is a dangerous place in which to live because both sides take dead aim at you!
7. Moody found some of the Catholic mystics to be helpful. This one would have gotten him roasted over a slow spit by some Christian groups today. In his One Thousand and One Thoughts from My Library, Moody cites 225 authors. And they include the Christian mystics Madame Guyon and Madame Swetchine.
8. Moody believed all Ten Commandments were binding on Christians with penalties for violators, and he criticized preachers for not emphasizing them enough. What makes this surprising is that he criticized his mentor Charles Spurgeon on these very grounds saying,

“I do not remember ever to have heard a sermon preached on the commandments. I have an index of two thousand five hundred sermons preached by Spurgeon, and not one of them selects its text from the first seventeen verses of Exodus 20. The people must be made to understand that the Ten Commandments are still binding, and that there is a penalty attached to their violation. We do not want a gospel of mere sentiment. The Sermon on the Mount did not blot out the Ten Commandments.”

Many Christians today are divided over the role of the Law of Moses in the life of the Christian. And still more believe that the Sabbath command was fulfilled in Christ, feeling that Christians aren’t obligated to keep Saturday (which is the Sabbath) holy.
On the other hand, Moody believed that a countless number of “careless Christians” will get to heaven by “the skin of their teeth.” On this score, he wrote,

“Moreover, it seems highly probable; indeed I think it is clearly taught by Scripture, that a great many careless Christians will get into heaven. There will be a great many who will get in by the skin of their teeth, or as Lot was saved from Sodom, so as by fire. They will barely get in, but there will be no crown of rejoicing. But everybody is not going to rush into heaven. There are a great many who won’t be there.”

WARNING: The Blog Manager who moderates comments appreciates D.L. Moody. Therefore, if anyone wields accusations like “D.L. Moody is the mouthpiece of Satan” and other such sentiments, our beloved Blog Manager says he won’t approve the comment.
So to the both of you who found this post on the Web somewhere and are starting to march toward the comments box with pitch forks, blow torches, and blunt objects in order to delegitimize, castigate, or marginalize Lewis beyond repair, your remark will vanish into the electricity after he hits the DELETE key.
In addition, the Blog Manager says that those of you who repeat what’s already stated in the blue note at the top — that some will not find this list to be shocking or surprising (especially non-evangelicals), he will not approve the comment. He wants to keep the comments thread uncluttered to focus on this singular question.
Can you add any other surprising or controversial beliefs that Moody held? If so, please provide a source also. Note that we’re not interested in behaviors, but beliefs.
Other Posts in the Series with More to Come
Shocking Beliefs of John Calvin
Shocking Beliefs of Jonathan Edwards
Shocking Beliefs of John Wesley
Shocking Beliefs of C.S. Lewis

Subscribe to the blog (scroll down) so you don’t miss the next installment of the series.
SOURCES

D.L. Moody – A Life by Kevin Belmonte

Dwight L. Moody: American Evangelist by James Findlay

The Life of Dwight L. Moody by William Moody

The Wit and Wisdom of D.L. Moody by Stanley and Patricia Gundry

D.L. Moody: A Worker in Souls by Gamaliel Bradford

The Incredible Cover Up by Dave MacPherson

Christian History, Issue 25, Vol. IX, No. 1

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