One Hundred Years After the Death of Albert Benjamin Simpson

On October 29, 1919, Albert Benjamin Simpson died in Nyack, New York. He is not at all a person to ignore and much less forget. Founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance worldwide, the C&MA is a movement that today is trying in many parts of the globe to return to its roots and understand those theological and missionary values that made it different in its beginnings.

Simpson’s personality was of tremendous significance. He was man of deep spiritual life, innovative, creative, and with great skills of administration, vision and above all of passion. Except for the influence of A.W. Tozer years later, there is no other person like Simpson to whom to return again and again as a source of renewal and principles. I welcome the resurgence of studies on theology and the life of Simpson that is taking place today.

Undoubtedly in many countries Alliance theology has been influenced over the decades by other currents of thought. This has led to an impairment of Simpson’s identity. Many Alliance churches have ceased to be Alliance without realizing it.

Simpson’s influence cannot be exhausted in one article. It is worth noting some reflections: Simpson outlined the Fourfold Gospel, which with intellectual honesty was part of the contemporary theological core of his ministry. He assembled it with skill; his focus was totally Christological. In his book on the history of the movement, he says: “…the attitude [underlying the Fourfold Gospel] is strictly evangelical, clinging to the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, the doctrine of the Trinity, the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the need for the regenerating and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.” It is this sanctifying work that was defined with the collaboration of his teólogo de cabecera – his theological friend – G.P. Pardington.

The crisis of the deeper life was emblematic teaching, and not only teaching but also life experience. Perhaps there has been no other “Alliance” experience such as that of the crisis of the deeper life that has been ignored and forgotten in the denomination’s churches. For Simpson, the passion lay in the full life of the Holy Spirit, where the total surrender of the person was sine qua non for his service.

Another very interesting topic was his definition of world evangelization. One had to evangelize to hasten the return of Christ. With the passage of time the reasons were distorted, and the results became different.

Undoubtedly, Simpson was also an outstanding missiologist, not content to look at a map, but a tireless traveler of his world. His vision was as a pioneer in the world of the nineteenth century. The creation of the mission preparation institute, first in New York (1883) and then in Nyack (1897), was transcendent, the first institute ever organized for missions. Thousands and thousands of workers, pastors and missionaries have gone forth from Nyack and have proclaimed the gospel in more than 80 countries. The first missionaries who were sent only knew a one-way trip. What a great example for nowadays.

Logically, Simpson’s outlook was totally premillennialist. Undoubtedly that eschatological conception motivated, promoted and mobilized the Christianity of his time to wake up and go out into the world. Simpson’s phrase was “…if you can’t go, send someone…” Of that missionary fervor, today we have more than six million Alliance people in the world and more than 90 theological preparation centers.

Finally, there is Simpson’s ability as a writer and as a composer of hymns whose lyrics mobilize us even today. He published books that spilled forth from his preaching, and books that emerged from his capacity for intellectual and visionary construction. They included more than forty works, hundreds of articles, and two publications that marked trends in their time – “The Gospel for the World” and then “The Word, the Work and the World.” His books and writings remain an inexhaustible inspiration not only to the Alliance world but also to a broad Christian audience that seeks renewal and spiritual depth.

One hundred years have passed since Simpson went to be with the Lord. He has left us a legacy that we have not always appreciated. We can tirelessly discuss the theological positions of that era in ours. What we cannot discuss is that this passion today is perhaps absent. Undoubtedly, he left us a life marked by the Power from Above.

By: Walter E. Perez Doglio