John Kennedy, Horatius Bonar and the Moody Mission of 1873-1874
John Kennedy of Dingwall, “Hyper-Evangelism. ‘Another Gospel’”, published in 1874 and reprinted in The Banner of Truth, May, 1957
Was a criticism of D.L. Moody’s 1874 campaign in Scotland
https://www.evangelical-times.org/d-l-moody/
https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/how-moody-changed-revivalism
Horatius Bonar published a response defending Moody the same year; “The Old Gospel: Not ‘Another Gospel’ but the Power of God Unto Salvation”. Bonar was a friend of Moody & Ira Sankey and supported the evangelistic efforts in Scotland.
Kennedy responded in 1875 in “A Reply to Dr Bonar’s Defense of Hyper-Evangelism”. (unfortunately neither is digitized)
“Calvinists in Controversy: John Kennedy, Horatius Bonar and the Moody Mission of 1873-1874” “Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology”
https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/sbet/09-1_051.pdf
To Bonar the Moody mission was a 'revival' comparable with the notable times of blessing recorded in the past. To Kennedy all the excitement was delusory, no lasting benefit could be expected and the innovations brought by the campaign were subversive of the true Calvinist tradition.
From “Hyper-Evangelism. ‘Another Gospel’”
No pains are taken to present the character and claims of God as Lawgiver and Judge, and no indication given of a desire to bring souls in self-condemnation…
It should be an aim of preaching to bring sinners to plead guilty before God; to feel themselves, in excuseless guilt, shut up to the sovereign mercy of Him against whom they have sinned…thus the necessity of the new birth would have to be faced as well as that of atonement.
There can be no faith in Christ without some sense of sin, some knowledge of Christ, such as never was possessed before, and willingness, resulting from renewal, to receive Him as Saviour from sin.
It ignores the sovereignty and power of God in the dispensation of His grace.
In the teaching, there is no exposure of the total depravity and the utter spiritual impotence of souls “dead in trespasses and sins.” To face this reality in the light of God’s word, would be to discover the necessity of the Almighty agency of the Holy Ghost.
The same teacher said “God would not call men to believe, unless they had the power to do so.” How would he expound the words “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God…neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned’? (1 Corinthians 2:14)
The speaker states “You believe, and then you are regenerated” referring to John 1:12, forgetting verse 13 “…born of God” (and John 3:3)
True faith is the act of a soul who, up to that hour, was a lover of sin and an enemy to holiness, but who now cordially receives the Saviour in order to the destruction of what he loved, and to the attainment of what he hated before. Can a man thus believe who has not been regenerated?