The Awakening Church

© John Stevenson, 2008

Session ObjectivesSession Objectives• To summarize, discuss and evaluate the

relations of Christianity and modern culture from the late 17th through the 19th Centuries and the rise of an evangelical movement.

• To describe and evaluate the effects that the Enlightenment had upon Christianity.

• To define and explain the factors which gave rise to the 1st and 2nd Great Awakenings and analyze the effect they had upon American Christianity.

Session ObjectivesSession Objectives• To describe the growth and influence of

foreign missions in the 19th Century.

Christian Experience Report is Christian Experience Report is due in two Weeksdue in two Weeks

10001 500 1500 2000

TheMedievalChurch

TheReformed

Church

TheAncientChurch

RenaissanceMan-Centered

ReformationGod-Centered

Dignity of man Glory of God

Erasmus

Freedom of the Will

Martin Luther

Bondage of the Will

Luther hatched the egg

That Erasmus laid

1623-16621623-1662

• French philosopher, mathematician

• Struggled with faith in God

• Near death experience and crisis of faith

• Continued to be skeptical of the church

1623-16621623-1662

• Pensées (“Thoughts”)

• Original title” “Defense of the Christian Religion”

• Philosophical treatise that pushes unbeliever to his logical conclusions

• Not completed at his death

1623-16621623-1662

“Men despise religion; they hate it and fear it is true. To remedy this, we must begin by showing

that religion is not contrary to reason…” (Pensées)

1623-16621623-1662

“…that it is venerable, to inspire respect for it; then we must make it lovable,

to make good men hope it is true; finally, we must

prove it is true.” (Pensées)

1623-16621623-1662

Christianity is strange. It bids man recognize that he is vile, even abominable, and bids him desire to be like God.

Without such a counterpoise, this dignity would make him

horribly vain, or this humiliation would make him

terribly abject. (Pensées)

1400 1500 1600 1700 1800

Renaissance

ReformationEnlightenment

(Age of Reason)

Luther

Calvin

Erasmus

Rousseau

Voltaire

Da Vinci

Michelangelo

Newton

FranklinKepler

Pascal

What are some of the What are some of the Factors that brought Factors that brought

about the about the Enlightenment? Enlightenment?

DisenchantmentScience & Learning

Deism

List some of the List some of the scientific discoveries scientific discoveries and developments of and developments of the Age of Reason. the Age of Reason.

What influence did What influence did these discoveries and these discoveries and

ideas have on the ideas have on the Church? Church?

9595ThesesTheses

1500 1550 1600 1650 1700 1750

Luther

1800

Calvin

Knox

Zwingli

King King James James VersionVersion

Westminster Westminster AssemblyAssembly

Arminius

Read the Five Read the Five Articles of the Articles of the

Remonstrants (pg Remonstrants (pg 282-284) & discuss 282-284) & discuss what are the primary what are the primary differences between differences between

Calvinism versus Calvinism versus Arminianism.Arminianism.

Arminians

Christ died for each and every man

Calvinists

Christ’s death brought some men to salvation

God determined to save whoever would believe in

Jesus

God determined to save certain people and bring

them to faith in Jesus

Men are saved by using their own free will to accept God’s grace

Men are saved as God draws them to His grace

God’s grace is resistible God’s grace is irresistible

People retain their salvation only as they

persevere in faith

The Lord will cause all of those whom He has chosen to persevere

Sought to “purify” the churchSought to “purify” the church

• The term “Puritan” was most commonly used by their detractors.

• Felt the Church of England had not gone far enough in departing from Roman Catholicism.

• Characterized by Reformed and Calvinist doctrine.

• Emphasis on education and the Scriptures

Pilgrims

Poorer class

Puritans

Upper middle class

Wanted to separate from the Church of

England

Remained loyal to the Church of England

Antagonistic to the king Loyal to the king

Wanted a separate church

Wanted to purify the church

Plymouth Colony Salem & Boston Colonies

In a sermon in 1630 to members of the

Massachusetts Bay Colony

For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in

this work we have undertaken, and so

cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through

the world.

1635-17051635-1705

• Father of Pietism

• German Theologian and Preacher

• Saw a spiritual deadness in the churches and proposed…– Small group Bible studies– Evangelism of kindness– Importance of a devotional life

9595ThesesTheses

1500 1550 1600 1650 1700 1750

Luther

1800

Calvin

Knox

Zwingli

King King James James VersionVersion

Westminster Westminster AssemblyAssembly

Spener

Zinzendorf

1700-17601700-1760

• Godson to Spener

• Offered asylum on his property to persecuted Christians

• Founded the village of Herrnhut for these refugees

• Missionary enterprises

Zinzendorf preaching to the nations

What are the signs of What are the signs of spiritual life in an spiritual life in an

individual? individual?

What are the signs of What are the signs of spiritual life in a church?spiritual life in a church?

How can you tell that a How can you tell that a church is dead or church is dead or

dying?dying?

9595ThesesTheses

1500 1550 1600 1650 1700 1750

Luther

1800

Calvin

Knox

Zwingli

King King James James VersionVersion

Westminster Westminster AssemblyAssembly

Spener

Zinzendorf

First Great First Great AwakeningAwakening

Whitefield

1714-17701714-1770

• Friends with John & Charles Wesley

• Open Air Preacher

• Rejected Arminianism

• Revival meetings in the Americas

1714-17701714-1770

“It is a poor sermon that gives no offense; that neither makes the

hearer displeased with himself nor with

the preacher. ”

1714-17701714-1770

“We are immortal until our work on

earth is done”

1714-17701714-1770

He lived. Other men seemed to be only

half-alive; but Whitefield was all

life, fire, wing , force.

― Spurgeon’s description of

Whitefield

1703-17581703-1758

• His maternal grandfather was Solomon Stoddard

• Was an assistant pastor under his grandfather

• Became senior pastor at his grandfather’s death

• Revival began in Northampton church

• Emotional manifestations

… here you are in the land of the living and in the house

of God, and have an opportunity to obtain

salvation. What would not those poor damned

hopeless souls give for one day's opportunity such as

you now enjoy! ― ― Sinners in Sinners in the hands of an Angry Godthe hands of an Angry God

1703-17581703-1758

1703-17581703-1758

• Halfway covenant

• Removed from his church

• Took a church in the town of Stockbridge and preached to the Housatonic Indians.

• President of the College of New Jersey (Princeton)

• Smallpox

9595ThesesTheses

1500 1550 1600 1650 1700 1750

Luther

1800

Calvin

Knox

Zwingli

King King James James VersionVersion

Westminster Westminster AssemblyAssembly

Spener

Zinzendorf

First Great First Great AwakeningAwakening

Whitefield

Wesley

1703-17911703-1791

• Friend of George Whitefield

• “Holy Club”

• Impressed by Moravians and their faith and prayer

• “Do you know Jesus has saved you?”

1703-17911703-1791

“I went to America to convert the

Indians, but who shall convert

me?”

1703-17911703-1791

• Return to England

• “Preach faith until you have it; then because you have it, you will preach faith.”

• Heard sermon: My heart was strangely warmed”

1703-17911703-1791

• Excluded from church: “The whole world is my parish”

• Followed Whitefield in outdoor preaching

• Embraced Arminianism

Ten thousand times would I rather have died than part with my old friends. It would have melted any heart, to have heard Mr. Charles Wesley and me weeping, after

prayer, that if possible, the breach might be prevented. Whitefield

His fundamental point was, Give God all the glory of whatever is good in man: set Christ as high, and man as low as possible, in the

business of salvation. All merit is in the blood of Christ, and all power in and from

the Spirit of Christ. John Wesley (speaking of Whitefield).

How is contemporary How is contemporary evangelism similar to what evangelism similar to what

you see in Wesley?you see in Wesley?

In what ways is contemporary In what ways is contemporary evangelism different to what evangelism different to what

you see in Wesley?you see in Wesley?

What causes people and What causes people and churches to lose their spiritual churches to lose their spiritual

vitality?vitality?

Factors in the Spiritual Decline Factors in the Spiritual Decline after the First Great Awakeningafter the First Great Awakening

• The American War for Independence

• The Deistic Teachings of Thomas Paine

The Percentage of Americans who were Church Members after the War for

Independence has been estimated at 15%

9595ThesesTheses

1500 1550 1600 1650 1700 1750

Luther

1800

Calvin

Knox

Zwingli

King King James James VersionVersion

Westminster Westminster AssemblyAssembly

Spener

Zinzendorf

First Great First Great AwakeningAwakening

Whitefield

Second Second Great Great

AwakeningAwakening

Wesley

1752-18171752-1817

• Grandson of Jonathan Edwards

• President of Yale College

• Revival at Yale– Lyman Beecher– Asahel Nettleton

1783-18441783-1844

• Studied at Yale after the revival there had begun

• Reformed and Calvinist Evangelist

• Rejected excesses of other evangelists

These revivals were not temporary excitements,

which like a tornado, sweep through a community, and leave desolations behind them; but they were like showers of rain, which

refresh the dry and thirsty earth, and cause it to bring

forth “herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed.”  These

fruits were permanent.

First Great Awakening

1730’s – 1750’s

Second Great Awakening

1790’s – 1840’s

Focused primarily in the colonies along the

eastern seaboard

Felt throughout the new nation

George WhitefieldJonathan Edwards

John Wesley

Charles FinneyLyman BeecherPeter Cartwright

Largely Calvinistic Largely Arminian

Camp Meeting Revivals

Circuit Riding Preachers

1785-18721785-1872

• Methodist Preacher

• “God’s Plowman”

• Dealt with the “rowdies” by physical confrontation

“…it was a part of my creed to love everybody, but to fear no one; and I did not permit myself to believe any man could whip me till it was tried”

(Chapter 11, Autobiography)

1792-18751792-1875

• Presbyterian evangelist

• Revivalist preacher in New York City

• Abolitionist

1792-18751792-1875

“Should the firemen sleep, and let the whole

city burn down, what would be thought of

such firemen? And yet their guilt would not

compare with the guilt of Christians who sleep

while sinners around them are sinking stupid into the fires of hell.”

1792-18751792-1875

“Instead of telling sinners to use the

means of grace and to pray for a new heart, I call on them to make

themselves a new heart and press the duty of

immediate surrender to God.”

1775-18631775-1863

• Attended Yale with Asahel Nettleton

• Presbyterian minister

• Adopted Finney’s “new measures”

• Spoke against slavery

• His daughter, Harriet Beecher Stowe, wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Results of the Second Great Results of the Second Great AwakeningAwakening

• The Christianization of America

• The Democratization of American Christianity

• The Decline of Calvinism among American Christians