Charles R (Chuck) Swindoll, the popular Christian author and pastor, is famous for his teaching on the evangelical, Christian doctrine of grace. The Grace Awakening is Dr. Swindoll’s magnum opus on the topic. As popular as Dr Swindoll is, however, many Christians do not know that he named this work after the famed revival referred to as “The Great Awakening.” In the introduction of The Grace Awakening Dr. Swindoll wrote:

When the eighteenth-and early nineteenth-century revival spread across Great Britain and into America, preached fervently by John Wesley…and a handful of other risk-taking spokesmen for God, it was again grace that led the way… Interestingly, that sweeping movement came to be known as “The Great Awakening.” What I am sensing these days is yet another awakening in the genre of those history-making movements. Perhaps it is best defined as “The Grace Awakening,” a message whose time has come (The Grace Awakening, p. xiv, xv).

By claiming foundational similarities between The Grace Awakening and John Wesley’s message during The Great Awakening Dr. Swindoll surely fortifies the theme of his book. While some theologians might consider Swindoll’s comparison exaggerated such doctrinal harmony is significant if it is true, BUT is it true?

In the over 300 pages that fill The Grace Awakening Chuck Swindoll offers not a single quote to validate his claims. Furthermore, anyone even vaguely familiar with the views of John Wesley knows that he absolutely did not understand or teach the biblical themes of grace and freedom in Christ as Swindoll does in his book.

The Grace Awakening, says Dr. Swindoll, is his attempt at spotlighting the “full extent of grace” (The Grace Awakening p. xv). Certainly there is nothing wrong with such an emphasis depending the meaning assigned to the word “grace.” Throughout his book Chuck Swindoll insists that “grace” means that human “works” (of any kind or degree) never impact final salvation. The following are but a sample from Chuck Swindoll on grace and it’s relation to saving faith:

In other words, salvation is not by faith alone… [ellipsis in original] it requires works. Human achievement must accompany sincere faith before you can be certain of your salvation. We continue to hear that “different gospel” to this day and it is a lie. It is heresy (The Grace Awakening).

Regardless of how you choose to live, you can’t live so bad that God says to you, ‘you’re no longer mine (Shedding Light on Our Dark Side, audiotape sld 1a).

Presenting John Wesley as Swindoll’s forerunner regarding biblical grace is not even close to the truth. Even so, Chuck Swindoll surely helps his book by linking it to Mr. Wesley and The Great Awakening. Though Swindoll is free to define “grace” any way he pleases to present it as if Wesley agreed is simply not true. Consider John Wesley on the inevitable union of works and saving faith:

I testify unto you, that if you still continue in sin, Christ shall profit you nothing; that Christ is no Savior to you, unless he saves you from your sins; and that unless it purify your heart, faith shall profit you nothing (A Blow At The Root p.4).

The nature of the covenant of grace gives you no ground, no encouragement at all, to set aside any instance or degree of obedience; any part or measure of holiness (Sermon: The Law Established Through Faith).

Charles R. Swindoll insists that it is heresy and a lie to teach that works must accompany sincere faith. Yet, John Wesley, whom Swindoll inaccurately presents as being his doctrinal forerunner, plainly proclaims this heresy and lie. Still, Swindoll uses Wesley to bolster his notions leaving the uninformed reader with the erroneous notion that The Grace Awakening and The Great Awakening are interchangeable. Chuck Swindoll may misrepresent grace in any way he so desires, but he should not do it in the respected name of John Wesley or The Great Awakening.

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