D.L. Moody—A man who was always had a “child-like thirst” for knowledge

Throughout the next few weeks, this blog will examine certain “snapshots” of D.L. Moody, which I hope will bring a deeper appreciation for this servant and a greater love for the God whom he gave his life to.

Below is an interaction between Dr. William Plumer, professor at Columbia Theological Seminary and D.L. Moody, which gives the reader some insight into his “child-like thirst”:

Mr. Moody: “Is any given amount of distress necessary to genuine conversion?”

Dr. Plumer: “Lydia had no distress—we read of none. God opened her heart, and she attended to the things spoken of by Paul. But the jailer of Philippi would not have accepted Christ without some alarm.”

Mr. Moody: “Well, Doctor, what is conversion?”

Dr. Plumer: “Glory be to God there is such a thing as conversion. To be converted is to turn from self, self-will, self-righteousness, all self-confidence, and from sin itself, and to be turned to Christ.”

Mr. Moody: “Can a man be saved here tonight, before twelve o’clock—saved all at once?”

Dr. Plumer: “Why not? In my Bible I read of three thousand men gathered together one morning, all of them murderers, their hands stained with the blood of the Son of God. They met in the morning, and before night they were all baptized members of Christ.”

Mr. Moody: “How can I know that I am saved?”

Dr. Plumer: “Because of the fact that God is true. Let God be true, but every man a liar. If I accept Jesus Christ, it is not Mr. Moody's word, it is the Word of the living God, whose name is Amen.”

Mr. Moody: “I don’t feel that I love Christ enough.”

Dr. Plumer: “And you never will. To all eternity, you never will love Him as much as He deserves to be loved.”

This interaction blows my mind. Moody is 40 years old, a man of global fame, who has led thousands of people to Christ and yet during a revival in Philadelphia he is genuinely and humbly asking questions to Dr. Plumer (who was in his 70’s) about conversion! Would you ask these questions? Would I?

Moody was different because he was humble.

I spent a few moments thinking about how rare is humility of Moody is. What compels a man to ask such foundational questions, to a man known as a theological giant, without any regard for that man’s opinion of him? It is a man who fully believes the work of an evangelist is solely the work of the Holy Spirit. It is a man that cares only that he was faithful to stand and proclaim the truth. It is a man who believed that if this is God’s task for him, he would empower him and bring the proper results. It is a man who accomplished things beyond human comprehension, simply because he trusted in the power of God, rather than the power of D.L. Moody.

But why don’t more of us live like this? The reasons are many, here are just a few: We love to be comfortable. We love the applause of men. We don’t believe in the power of the gospel. We are practical deists.

All of the above reasons are self-evident, but how are we “practical deists”? A deist believes in a Creator, but not a personal, imminent Creator. In other words, a deist believes in a God that doesn’t care and doesn’t reveal Himself in the affairs of His creation. Christians are practical deists when we live faithless lives. We live how we want; because we believe God doesn’t care and doesn’t engage in the affairs of men. Not so with Moody. He believed that God acts. He believed that God is big enough and powerful enough to breathe life into thousands of rebellious human hearts…in one night.

Moody did not let his lack of training hinder his ministry.

Many people, in their assessment of Moody, called him a “man of common gifts”. He regretted never going to college, but he would always say that “he was doing the best he could without it”. Furthermore, though his oratory skills were often criticized as being “unrefined”, the words of Lord Shaftesbury ring loud and clear. He stated, “ I thank God Mr. Moody was not educated at Oxford for he had a wonderful power of getting at the hearts of men, and while the common people hear him gladly, many persons of high station have been greatly struck with the marvelous simplicity and power of his preaching”.

Many Christians convince themselves that they do not have enough training, intellect or natural abilities to be servants of the King. This thinking, though common, is unfortunate and unbiblical. I am not sure if the problem is the ignorance of scripture as much as a low view of God. Maybe it is a fusion of both. Yet God says that He “chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (I Cor. 1:27). Furthermore, in His infinite wisdom, He prefers to use servants that feel totally inadequate for the appointed task (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

Why is this the way that God works? I believe the primary reason is because the “weak” bring more glory to His Name. Do we think it coincidental that the Jewish leaders were shocked by these common, untrained disciples in Acts 4:13? Or that Israel, God’s chosen people, who were small in number and lacked military strength, were chosen to present God’s glory to the nations (Deut. 7:7-8)? Or that the blind man of John 9 displayed the glory of God, though he had NO human influence and was a social outcast? All of these “weak” examples were used by God to magnify His name, why would we want to live according to our strength?

My interaction with Moody is coming to an end. I leave you with the words of C.I. Scofield spoken at Moody’s funeral:

“He expected the supernatural to work, but through the natural.”  Let’s work hard for the Master!