Featured Salvation the Arminian Way

I live in between the Wabash and Cripple Creek campgrounds, where the old Methodist circuit rider, Robert Sheffey would evangelize. And to let George Clark Rankin tell it....

The famous Cripple Creek Campground was on that work. They have kept up campmeetings there for more than a hundred years. It is still the great rallying point for the Methodists of all that section. I have never heard such singing and preaching and shouting anywhere else in my life. I met the Rev. John Boring there and heard him preach. He was a well-known preacher in the conference; original, peculiar, strikingly odd, but a great revival preacher.

One morning in the beginning of the service he was to preach and he called the people to prayer. He prayed loud and long and told the Lord just what sort of a meeting we were expecting and really exhorted the people as to their conduct on the grounds. Among other things, he said we wanted no horse- trading and then related that just before kneeling he had seen a man just outside the encampment looking into the mouth of a horse and he made such a peculiar sound as he described the incident that I lifted up my head to look at him, and he was holding his mouth open with his hands just as the man had done in looking into the horse's mouth! But he was a man of power and wrought well for the Church and for humanity.

The rarest character I ever met in my life I met at that campmeeting in the person of Rev. Robert Sheffy, known as "Bob" Sheffy. He was recognized all over Southwest Virginia as the most eccentric preacher of that country. He was a local preacher; crude, illiterate, queer and the oddest specimen known among preachers. But he was saintly in his life, devout in his experience and a man of unbounded faith. He wandered hither and thither over that section attending meetings, holding revivals and living among the people. He was great in prayer, and Cripple Creek campground was not complete without "Bob" Sheffy. They wanted him there to pray and work in the altar.

He was wonderful with penitents. And he was great in following up the sermon with his exhortations and appeals. He would sometimes spend nearly the whole night in the straw with mourners; and now and then if the meeting lagged he would go out on the mountain and spend the entire night in prayer, and the next morning he would come rushing into the service with his face all aglow shouting at the top of his voice. And then the meeting always broke loose with a floodtide.

He could say the oddest things, hold the most unique interviews with God, break forth in the most unexpected spasms of praise, use the homeliest illustrations, do the funniest things and go through with the most grotesque performances of any man born of woman.

It was just "Bob" Sheffy, and nobody thought anything of what he did and said, except to let him have his own way and do exactly as he pleased. In anybody else it would not have been tolerated for a moment. In fact, he acted more like a crazy man than otherwise, but he was wonderful in a meeting. He would stir the people, crowd the mourner's bench with crying penitents and have genuine conversions by the score. I doubt if any man in all that conference has as many souls to his credit in the Lamb's Book of Life as old "Bob" Sheffy.

 

Robert Sheffey also got saved the Arminian way, with all the emotion and hurrah....

The Story of Robert Sheffey begins on his 18th birthday, July 4, 1838, on the streets of Abington, VA. Having being orphaned as a child he is being brought up in a Calvinistic type atmosphere in the home of the well to do Colonel James and Elizabeth White, sister to his departed mother. He would work his late teenage years as a store clerk, and then spend his nights at a local tavern, partying it up with the people of his age. One evening he and his friends notice the people leaving the tavern.

“Say, what’s all the people leaving for?” his friend Clefus asked.

“I ain’t sure,” Muley said, looking toward the door. “Most times they stay till the doors are locked, and the night ain’t hardIy started. Something is going on.” He came back on the run. “They's a revival happening up over Greenway’s store! Some of the fellers is going and make it hot for the old sin-socker.”

Clefus shook the arm of Shem and brought his sleepy head from his forearms. “We’re going to sober you up or we’re going to let that there evangelist do it for us. How’d you like to wake up in the mornin’ and know you was plumb, teetotally saved!”

Muley laughed as heartily as Clefus. The three of them reached the door before Muley relinquished his hold on Shem so that he could pass through the entrance. When they reached the top of the stairs over Greenway’s store, there were still vacant seats. Robert could tell the serious worshipers from most of the faces he had seen in the tavern. There could not have been more than thirty people in attendance but now the congregation numbered seventy. The old man who stood before them thin and tall and had an inquiring look on his face. It was not hard to see the brightness in the aged man’s eyes when he first began to notice the empty benches starting to fill.

Although the revival must have been half finished, the countenance of this old evangelist strongly suggested his willingness to start the meeting all over again if their attendance was sincere. Bony hands caressed each other as the old man smiled and welcomed the newcomers. The skin of his face was wrinkled and loose, and he stooped slightly, though he tried to stand erect. He walked across the front of the room to pick up something, and the arch of his back became much more apparent.

The object the old man fetched was a pitch pipe. “The Lord has blessed us with many who have come late. Since they have not joined us in fellowship by the singing of a hymn, we will sing together that old hymn you all know, ‘Blessed Be the Name of the Lord.’ Sister Louise will pass out the songbooks, but we don’t have many. Please share them with a Christian brother by your side.”

The preacher blew the “C” note on the pitch pipe, and led the singing. Those near the front sang vigorously, but only a few in the back joined in, and then only until they were stared down by their fellow tavern patrons. By the middle of the second verse the copper kettle sitting to the side of the single Ben Franklin stove began to yield what few corncobs yet remained of the kindling.

A corncob was passed to Robert. Not a corncob was in sight when the hymn was concluded; each man concealed his weapon with the same skill with which he concealed his intentions. Robert knew about when to expect the onslaught. They would let the visiting itinerant work himself into a sweat, and when the altar call was issued the corncobs would begin to fly through the air until the helpless preacher looked like an awkward schoolboy fighting off a swarm of bees.

 

The crowd all listened, and Robert sensed something different about this man, some of the men sitting close to him were looking on with a degree of concentration that was not just good acting. The white-thatched preacher pushed a strand of hair from his forehead and announced his text.

“Our Scripture tonight will be taken from Second Kings. To those of you who do not have your Bibles, our Scripture deals with the last days of Elijah and his companion, Elisha. In this chapter we see by the hand of God, Elijah taken into heaven in a fiery chariot, drawn by fiery horses.”

A grunt and then a snicker originated from someone near the stove. Robert saw Shem sit up straight and slap his knee “You reckon my mules will catch fire on the way back to Baltimore, Preacher?”

Although Shem laughed heartily and Muley and Clefus chuckled, few others made any sound. The old preacher ignored the outburst and continued.

“When Elisha received the powers originally bestowed on Elijah, he went and stood by the river Jordan and smote it with the cloak of Elijah, and it parted so that he walked across the river on dry land. Elisha used his God-given power to purify the water and enrich the land so the people might prosper. But, my friends, I must tell you tonight that everyone did not receive God’s servant Elisha without mockery. We must examine what happened to God’s servant Elisha in the closing verses of the chapter. Follow me in the Scriptures if you will:

“And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou baldhead! And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the woods, and tare forty forth two children of them.”

Suddenly Shem hurled a cob, which missed its mark.

“My brothers and sisters, it is not God’s will that any should perish but that all should have everlasting life. Are there those among us tonight who search for something without knowing for what they search? Or those who forsake God to seek their own selfish desires? What would you give in exchange for your soul? Is God your loving father, who walks with you each day, holding your hand as a little child? Does He give you the wind and the sun and the rain and the flowers and the trees and smile down at you with His blessing to enjoy them and use them?”

Shem and Muley were both on their feet now, letting a barrage of corncobs fly with all their might. At the beginning the preacher tried to dodge the cutting objects, but as they kept coming he stood immobile. His strategy stopped the cob throwers only for a moment; then they were incited to throw harder and faster. Muley connected with a hit directly on the nose and Clefus, after two tries, knocked the preacher’s glasses to the floor.

 

When Robert saw blood dripping from the face of the old man, he could stand it no longer. Leaping over three other men, he picked up the copper kettle by the stove and brought it down hard on the heads of Shem and Clefus. He then turned it over, brought it down on the head of Muley and left it there.

The preacher wiped the blood from his face and proceeded to speak. His sermon consumed the better part of an hour but even before he had ended his pleas, a line had formed. His invitation to more penitents was all that remained. Robert sat on his bench with head bowed and his eyes wet with tears. He resisted raising his head for fear the pleading eyes of the older man would be there searching out his own. Presently an unsteady arm rested on his shoulder.

“Let’s get out of here, Robert. I didn’t know we was makin’ you mad. You plumb near knocked me senseless. Clefus and Shem still can’t hardly get on their feet.”

“Go away,” Robert whispered.

Women and children near the front of the room started to sing…

“Come on Robert.”

“I’ve got to go down there.”

“You outa’ your head? Why that old sin-socker is just runnin’ this business for the money,” Muley argued.

“Not this one. He didn’t even take up a collection, and it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. I’ve got to go down there. Get out of my way.”

Muley stood aside until Robert made his way down the aisle and fell upon the wrinkled neck of his deliverer.

 

When the building was cleared Robert faced the elderly preacher, who now stood shivering from the cold. He picked up two of the corncobs at thePreacher’s feet…

“Maybe if I put a few of these in the stove we could get some heat back in this place,” Robert said.

The older man stopped blotting the shallow cuts on his face, “I can’t think of any better use for them.” He chuckled and assisted Robert.

“I want to apologize for the way the men from the tavern acted,” Robert began.

“They’re not such bad people – not so bad at all.”

“Most of the smoke and anguish of hell will surely come from people who don’t think themselves bad.”

Robert swallowed hard and made his confession complete. “I was with them. I came from the tavern. So were three other men who were in the line and made their professions of faith in Christ.”

“God bless each of you” – the older man smiled again “and we’ll keep working on all the rest of them.”

“I will certainly do my best to see that no rowdy crowd comes up here again and bothers you – even if I have to knock them down the stairs with this poker.”

“That is not the way of the Savior, my young brother. He who would be more like the Christ must study the Bible and learn of His life. Imitate Him in all your thoughts and deeds. You are not so foolish as to think that that will come easy?”

“No,” Robert said.

 

I believe that salvation the Arminian way is also outlined in the Pilgrims Progress

1. The start of the journey - The invitation to revival by an anointed evangelist (noting that the anointing is not ego)
2.The Wicket Gate - Salvation through a profession in Christ Jesus
3. The Interpreters House - The revival - With it's bible preaching and anointed music...

And if the revival is good the Christ will be received, just like the story of GC Rankin given in the OP....

Now I saw in my dream, that the highway up which Christian was to go, was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called Salvation. [isa. 26:1] Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back.

He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending, and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do, till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.

Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said, with a merry heart, "He hath given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death." Then he stood still awhile to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him, that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden. He looked therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks. [Zech. 12:10] Now, as he stood looking and weeping (noting the emotion and hurrah), behold three Shining Ones came to him and saluted him with "Peace be unto thee". So the first said to him, "Thy sins be forgiven thee" [Mark 2:5]; the second stripped him of his rags, and clothed him with change of raiment [Zech. 3:4]; the third also set a mark on his forehead, and gave him a roll with a seal upon it, which he bade him look on as he ran, and that he should give it in at the Celestial Gate. [Eph. 1:13] So they went their way. - The Pilgrims Progress

 

For the salvation to be picked up in these methods two things must accompany the revival...

1. The Spirit - Must be sensed in the service
2. The Word - Must be preached by an anointed Man of God

Much like the ministry teams....

1. DL Moody and Ira Sankey
2. Billy Sunday and Homer Rodeheaver
3. Billy Graham and GB Shea

These are the two trumpets of the book of Numbers!