The Awakening Church
© John Stevenson, 2008
Session 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 Objectives
•
To describe the growth and influence of
foreign missions in the 19th Century.
Christian Experience Report is
due in two Weeks
1
500
The
Ancient
Church
1000
The
Medieval
Church
1500
2000
The
Reformed
Church
Renaissance
Reformation
Man-Centered
God-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
1623-1662
• French philosopher,
mathematician
• Struggled with faith in
God
• Near death experience
and crisis of faith
• Continued to be skeptical
of the church
1623-1662
• Pensées (“Thoughts”)
• Original title” “Defense of
the Christian Religion”
• Philosophical treatise
that pushes unbeliever to
his logical conclusions
• Not completed at his
death
1623-1662
“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)
1623-1662
“…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)
1623-1662
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)
Reformation
Enlightenment
(Age of Reason)
Renaissance
1400
1500
1600
1700
Luther
Rousseau
Calvin
Pascal
Erasmus
Da Vinci
Michelangelo
1800
Voltaire
Newton
Kepler
Franklin
Disenchantment
Science &
Learning
Deism
What are some of the
Factors that brought
about the
Enlightenment?
List some of the
scientific discoveries
and developments of
the Age of Reason.
What influence did
these discoveries and
ideas have on the
Church?
95
Theses
1500
King Westminster
James Assembly
Version
1550
1600
Luther
Zwingli
Arminius
Calvin
Knox
1650
1700
1750
1800
Read the Five
Articles of the
Remonstrants (pg
282-284) & discuss
what are the primary
differences between
Calvinism versus
Arminianism.
Arminians
Calvinists
God determined to save
whoever would believe in
Jesus
God determined to save
certain people and bring
them to faith in Jesus
Christ died for each and
every man
Christ’s death brought
some men to salvation
Men are saved by using
their own free will to
accept God’s grace
God’s grace is resistible
Men are saved as God
draws them to His grace
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 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
Puritans
Wanted to separate
from the Church of
England
Remained loyal to the
Church of England
Poorer class
Upper middle class
Antagonistic to the king
Loyal to the king
Wanted a separate
church
Plymouth Colony
Wanted to purify the
church
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.
1635-1705
• 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
95
Theses
1500
1550
Luther
Zwingli
King Westminster
James Assembly
Version
1600
1650
1700
1750
Spener
Zinzendorf
Calvin
Knox
1800
1700-1760
• 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
spiritual life in an
individual?
What are the signs of
spiritual life in a church?
How can you tell that a
church is dead or
dying?
95
Theses
1500
1550
Luther
Zwingli
King Westminster
James Assembly
First Great
Version
Awakening
1600
1650
1700
1750
Spener
Zinzendorf
Calvin
Knox
Whitefield
1800
1714-1770
• Friends with John &
Charles Wesley
• Open Air Preacher
• Rejected Arminianism
• Revival meetings in the
Americas
1714-1770
“It is a poor sermon
that gives no offense;
that neither makes the
hearer displeased
with himself nor with
the preacher. ”
1714-1770
“We are
immortal until
our work on
earth is done”
1714-1770
He lived. Other men
seemed to be only
half-alive; but
Whitefield was all
life, fire, wing ,
force.
― Spurgeon’s
description of
Whitefield
1703-1758
• 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
1703-1758
… 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
the hands of an Angry God
1703-1758
• 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
95
Theses
1500
1550
Luther
Zwingli
King Westminster
James Assembly
First Great
Version
Awakening
1600
1650
1700
1750
Spener
Zinzendorf
Calvin
Whitefield
Knox
Wesley
1800
1703-1791
• Friend of George
Whitefield
• “Holy Club”
• Impressed by
Moravians and their
faith and prayer
• “Do you know Jesus
has saved you?”
1703-1791
“I went to
America to
convert the
Indians, but who
shall convert
me?”
1703-1791
• 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”
1703-1791
• 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
evangelism similar to what
you see in Wesley?
In what ways is contemporary
evangelism different to what
you see in Wesley?
What causes people and
churches to lose their spiritual
vitality?
Factors in the Spiritual Decline
after 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%
95
Theses
1500
1550
Luther
Zwingli
King Westminster
James Assembly
First Great
Version
Awakening
Second
Great
Awakening
1600
1800
1650
1700
1750
Spener
Zinzendorf
Calvin
Whitefield
Knox
Wesley
1752-1817
• Grandson of Jonathan
Edwards
• President of Yale College
• Revival at Yale
– Lyman Beecher
– Asahel Nettleton
1783-1844
• 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
Second Great
Awakening
1730’s – 1750’s
1790’s – 1840’s
Focused primarily in
the colonies along the
eastern seaboard
Felt throughout the
new nation
George Whitefield
Jonathan Edwards
John Wesley
Charles Finney
Lyman Beecher
Peter Cartwright
Largely Calvinistic
Largely Arminian
Camp Meeting
Revivals
Circuit Riding
Preachers
1785-1872
• 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)
1792-1875
• Presbyterian
evangelist
• Revivalist
preacher in
New York City
• Abolitionist
1792-1875
“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.”
1792-1875
“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.”
1775-1863
• 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
Awakening
• The Christianization of America
• The Democratization of American
Christianity
• The Decline of Calvinism among
American Christians