This week in Christian history: Spanish Jesuits in Va., Christian and Missionary Alliance founder ordained, justice statement

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, September 06, 2020

A.B. Simpson ordained — September 12, 1865

Albert Benjamin Simpson (1843-1919), founder of The Christian And Missionary Alliance. | (Photo: Public Domain)

This week marks the anniversary of when Albert Benjamin Simpson, founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance as well as Nyack College of New York, was ordained.

A native of Prince Edward Island, Canada and raised Presbyterian, Simpson was ordained at Knox Church at Hamilton, Ontario, and soon received a pastoral assignment in the United States.

Differences with Presbyterians in New York City led him to found the Christian Alliance and the Evangelical Missionary Alliance, later merged into the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

“God used Simpson to bring thousands to Christ,” wrote Dan Graves of the Christian History Institute. “His booklet The Fourfold Gospel taught that Christ had four major relationships to humanity: Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King. These ideas became key to the theology of the Foursquare churches and Assemblies of God.”