Global Awakenings in the 20th Century

I originally posted this in Google Reader, but now I'd like to share it here.

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This is a very helpful look at revivals and awakenings from a global perspective. Shaw's introductory and concluding chapters are extremely useful. Check it out!

Mark Shaw, Global Awakening: How 20th-Century Revivals Triggered a Christian Revolution. IVP, 2010. Paperback.

Here's a little bit about the book. 

Shaw defines revivals as such: "charismatic people movements that seek to change their world by translating Christian truth and transferring power." Note that the "people movement" concept is qualified by "charismatic." Although the majority of the revivals he studies in this book are a result of the growing Pentecostal movement, I don't think we should confuse "charismatic" with Pentecostalism, per se. Shaw clarifies this by arguing that 

God is the primary agent of all that happens but that he chooses secondary causes through which he exercises his sovereign rule and causation. As a believer I affirm the concursus as the way God advances his mission in the world. He produces these theanthropic (divine-human) events called revivals. (p. 207)

What I've found most interesting about this book is his identification of common strands between the various revivals in the 20th-century. Four "spiritual norms" he identifies are 1) personal liberation, 2) eschatological vision, 3) radical community, and 4) evangelical activism.

Another helpful section distinguished between three types of people: Nativists, Vitalists and Revivalists (maybe I can highlight these in another blog post).

He concludes with a very positivistic view of the future shaped by revivals. He claims that revivals "will change our world in powerful ways as they subvert ideological and religious monopolies now dominating our world" (213). When you consider how recent globalization has affected every nation on so many levels, how the modern missions movement has expanded so rapidly, the progress we've made in translating and distributing the scriptures and other advances, his conclusion seems to make very good sense. Just like the Reformation propelled academic and scientific studies, the modern revivals have contributed to massive decolonization and empowerment of many third-world peoples. We definitely haven't arrived and he doesn't claim that all has been perfect or even deeply orthodox. However, we've seen a lot of change in the past century due specifically to the revival movements of the 20th-century.

Global Awakenings in the 20th Century

Edward D. Griffin - Revival Pastor

In the early morning hours of November 8, 1837 Edward Dorr Griffin fell into a gentle sleep and passed into the presence of his Savior. He had suffered a slight paralytic stroke a few years earlier, followed by a dropsical condition (retention of serous fluid) in his chest a few months before his death. Despite pain and discomfort Griffin was not gloomy, but expectant. He anticipated seeing the One to whom he had led so many others, and he urged his family and friends to trust only in Christ. When a visiting friend expressed the desire to be as faithful as Griffin so she could experience God's kindness when she died, he said to her, "Don't say that again, sister; it is not because I am good, but because Christ has died."

Born on January 6, 1770 to a wealthy farmer in East Haddam, Connecticut, Edward D. Griffin attended Yale College and graduated with honors, intending to become a lawyer. However, he soon came under the sound of the Gospel, joined the Congregational church, and began theological studies. He was licensed to preach on October 31, 1792.

Griffin served as pastor of churches in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey, beginning with the Congregational church in New Hartford, Connecticut in 1795. In 1800 his wife's health required a trip to New Jersey. While there Griffin received a call to be pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Newark. (There was much cooperation in those days between Presbyterians and Congregationalists, sometimes referred to as "Presbygationalists.") He accepted this call and became co-pastor with Dr. Alexander McWhorter. Griffin later served a church in Boston, then back to Newark in 1815 to become pastor of the newly-formed Second Presbyterian Church.

During his pastorates Griffin was involved in other ministries, too, such as the American Bible Society, which he helped to found, and the United Foreign Missionary Society. He also received calls from at least three colleges to become president. He accepted the call from Williams College in Massachusetts and was inaugurated as president there in 1821. Griffin remained at Williams College until 1836 when he resigned because of failing health and moved back to Newark to live with his daughter and her family.

Edward Griffin ministered during the time of national revival we know as the Second Great Awakening. After years of spiritual decline following the American Revolution, revival fires began springing up around the time Griffin began preaching. Revivals were being reported in areas from the Kentucky frontier to the institutions of higher learning on the East coast. Though little known today, Edward Griffin played no small part in this spiritual stirring.

Griffin's ministry met with much success, along with controversies. Many souls were won to Christ through his preaching and his godly example. He believed that revival is the result of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, not something worked up by man. Yet he was no fatalist; his preaching was passionate, like his praying. He was urgent in his appeals to sinners to trust Christ. When engaged in controversy, Griffin stayed true to Scripture and always tried to display the kindness of God. His maxim was, "Crush heresy, but spare the heretic" (William B. Sprague, The Life and Sermons of Edward D. Griffin, Vol 1. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1987. p. 252, reprint).

Griffin's words and demeanor suggest a calm confidence in a sovereign God who orders all things according to His will and for our good. His example was inspiring to people, even in his death. A local minister, "alluding to the providence which brought him back to Newark, beautifully remarked: 'It was fitting that he who came in his youth to teach us how to live should come, when his head was gray, to show us how to die'" (Sprague, p. 237). May this remembrance of Edward Griffin encourage us to trust God and serve Him with all our heart today!
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Resources on Edward D. Griffin:
William B. Sprague, The Life and Sermons of Edward D. Griffin (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1987. reprint) The memoir of Griffin takes up almost half of Vol. 1.

Iain H. Murray, Revival & Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism 1750-1858 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1994) Much edifying information on revivals and many references to Griffin and other leaders of the time.

The memoir of Edward Griffin can be read online at Google Books.

Fire and Ice has several Edwards sermons you can download or read online.

Edward D. Griffin - Revival Pastor

Asahel Nettleton—Evangelist of the 2nd Great Awakening

By the middle of the 19^th Century, two opposing philosophies of revival and evangelism flourished in America. One philosophy, the older one, stressed the work of God in the conversion of souls; the other emphasized the action of man. The older evangelism saw more stable, lasting converts while the chief proponent of the new admitted later in his life that the majority of his converts were a disgrace to the Lord because they didn’t last. The subject of this Happy Birthday is one of the best known proponents of the old paths from that remarkable period of Church history, Asahel Nettleton, who was born on this day, April 21, in 1783.

Nettleton grew up in the farming community of North Killingworth, Connecticut. His early training included discipline, the Bible, and the Westminster Catechism. By outward standards he was an exemplary boy, but he did not yet know the Lord. Sometimes the teaching of Scripture brought him under conviction of sin, but these feelings passed quickly at first.

Around the turn of the 19^th Century the revival fires which had been sweeping the country reached Killingworth, and Nettleton was one of the first converts in his area. He soon developed an interest in foreign missions and decided to go to college. However, the death of his father delayed Nettleton’s entrance to Yale. Working the farm by day and studying with his pastor by night, Nettleton prepared himself for the time when the Lord might open the door for formal schooling. Working as a teacher during a few winters helped him earn money for college.

In 1805 Nettleton attended Yale, graduating in 1809. After his ordination in 1811 he began looking for a mission field while ministering in various places. His intention was to go to the foreign field, but

his ministry was owned with such success that his brethren urged him to delay leaving the country for the missionary work abroad on which he had set his hopes. At a time when itinerant evangelists were virtually unknown among the Congregational churches of New England, the calls for Nettleton’s help were so widespread and the revivals that he witnessed so numerous that he was detained for far more years than he had ever anticipated. It was only after his health failed in 1822 that Nettleton reluctantly gave up his hope of ever being a foreign missionary (Iain Murray, Revival & Revivalism. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1994. p. 196).

Nettleton’s health recovered sufficiently enough for him to resume his itinerant ministry. It is estimated that some 30,000 souls came to Christ through his preaching (Wikipedia). Nettleton’s theology was Reformed in the tradition of Jonathan Edwards. He conducted his evangelism in accordance with that theology. He pressed the claims of the gospel on people and urged them to turn from their sins and trust Christ. But he depended on the Holy Spirit to quicken the spiritually dead that they might respond. The work of conversion was sometimes slow, but it was thorough. Very few of Nettleton’s converts fell away from their profession of faith. Under his ministry faithful, lasting converts were seen as the rule, not the exception.

By 1827 a new style of evangelism had gained popularity. It was characterized by emotionalism and the “anxious seat,” where hearers were urged to come forward and make a visible response to the preaching. Quietness was not part of the “new methods.” People were typically whipped into a frenzy by fiery, flamboyant preachers, most notably Charles G. Finney.

In July 1827 Presbyterian ministers met at New Lebanon, New York to debate the new measures. Some preachers, like Nettleton, recognized a different theology behind the new measures. Other, less discerning men, saw no danger and fell in line with Finney and his followers. What Finney had done was introduce a new form of an old heresy, Pelagianism. According to John F. Thornbury opponents of the older evangelism painted Nettleton as a “crabby old man who stubbornly defended an obsolete system of Calvinism” (God Sent Revival: the Story of Asahel Nettleton and the Second Great Awakening. Evangelical Press, 1977. p. 219).

The showdown at New Lebanon drew the battle lines more clearly. The new methods were increasing in popularity while the older evangelism was waning. But Nettleton continued his itinerant ministry until failing health signaled the end. He died on May 16, 1844.

Though he is remembered mainly for his controversy with Charles Finney, Asahel Nettleton was the foremost evangelist of his time. His converts were many and faithful. He encouraged many others, who entered the ministry, some of them taking the gospel to foreign countries. The hymnal he published, Village Hymns, saw widespread use. And biographies of Nettleton are still in print and still very helpful in encouraging ministers to preach the biblical gospel and to seek the Lord in bringing yet another great revival.

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Recommended reading:

Bennet Tyler & Andrew Bonar, Asahel Nettleton: Life and Labours, (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1996). Written by Nettleton’s friend Bennet Tyler and edited by Bonar. Firsthand accounts of Nettleton’s life and labors.

John F. Thornbury, God Sent Revival: the Story of Asahel Nettleton and the Second Great Awakening, (Evangelical Press, 1977). Thornbury’s book is very readable, and his 20^th Century perspective allows him to assess over a hundred years of “new measures” influence.

Iain H. Murray, Revival & Revivalism: the Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism 1750-1858, (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1994). Murray achieves the aim of his title in a detailed and stimulating way. Highly recommended.

Asahel Nettleton—Evangelist of the 2nd Great Awakening

George Whitefield (Dec. 16, 1714—Sept. 30, 1770)

Evangelist extraordinaire George Whitefield was born on this day, December 16, 1714 at the Bell Inn, Gloucester, England. According to Anglican Bishop J.C. Ryle, Whitefield was “the greatest preacher of the gospel England has ever seen” (Ryle, J.C., Christian Leaders of the 18^th Century. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1990, p. 31). Like the Wesley brothers, Whitefield traveled countless miles spreading the gospel on two continents, frequently preaching in the open air when church doors were closed to him. Writing in 1885, Ryle gives the first place among revival evangelists to Whitefield: “Of all the spiritual heroes of a hundred years ago none saw so soon as Whitefield what the times demanded, and none were so forward in the great work of spiritual aggression” (Ryle, p. 31).

George Whitefield grew up in conditions of poverty, both financial and spiritual. His parents kept the Inn where he was born, but never had much success in business. When he went to Pembroke College, Oxford, he had to hire himself out as a servant to higher class students because he couldn’t afford the tuition.

In college he met John and Charles Wesley. These men had come to the realization that something was amiss in their lives—they were merely products of their times and were not right with God. So they, along with a few friends, formed The Holy Club to help them live lives that they thought would be pleasing to God. Others referred to them derisively as “Methodists” because of their strict method of living. Whitefield was delivered from the darkness of mere self-denial after reading books like Henry Scougal’s The Life of God in the Soul of Man and Matthew Henry’s Commentary. These books pointed him to the Scriptures, which he spent increasing amounts of time reading. After a period of temptation and mourning the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ broke through the darkness and George Whitefield began rejoicing in God his Savior.

Whitfield’s theology was Calvinistic, which caused a break in close fellowship with the Wesleys, but he always urged sinners to come to Christ at the end of his sermons. People flocked to hear him, with reports from England estimating open-air crowds at 25,000 – 30,000 in number, all hearing his voice clearly. The response to Whitefield’s preaching was overwhelming, and churches were established in his name. Critics in the media frequently lampooned him and the attendees of revival meetings, but Whitefield pressed on with the gospel.

In the American colonies Whitefield preached in New England and parts of South Carolina and Georgia. He became the minister of Savannah, GA in 1738 after the hurried departure of John Wesley, who left in defeat. Wesley returned to England where he soon afterward received the light of the gospel at the famous church meeting on Aldersgate Street. Comparing the journals of Whitefield and Wesley from this time period reveals a vast difference of perception between these two men. Whitefield already knew the Lord; John Wesley did not yet know Him. Whitefield’s journal has a ring of worship to it; Wesley’s a note of despair. But Wesley’s journal was soon to change tones as he felt his heart “strangely warmed” at that church meeting. What a difference the Lord makes in a life!

Whitefield was tireless in his labors, preaching all over England and making seven trips to America, where he preached up and down the eastern seaboard. In New England he sometimes worked with Jonathan Edwards in preaching the gospel. In Georgia and South Carolina he preached at churches and founded an orphanage several miles outside of Savannah, the Bethesda Home for Boys, which still operates today. A chapel was later erected on the orphanage’s campus in honor of his ministry.

Whitefield died in Newburyport, Massachusetts on September 30, 1770. At his request he was buried under the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church, which was built for his use.

What made Whitefield’s ministry so attractive and successful? Obviously it was the blessing of God. But on the human level what was it about George Whitefield that drew people to him? His biographer Arnold Dallimore quotes an entry in Whitefield’s journal where the young preacher was fervently describing the joy he experienced while communing with God that day. This doesn’t seem to be unusual for him, but an everyday experience. Dallimore concludes,

Such spiritual joy, explains, in part, the extraordinary attraction which people found in his ministry. Other men might talk of the things of God, but in a way which made them appear little more than dry theories; yet as Whitefield expressed them they were full of life and meaning and power. No wonder neither church nor house would hold the throngs that came to hear! (Dallimore, Arnold, George Whitefield: The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of the 18^th Century Revival, vol. 1. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1970, p. 110)

How do we represent God? What do people think of Jesus Christ based on what they see in us? Is our joy dependent on our circumstances? Is it contrived? Or do we have the real joy of the Lord in our hearts because of the truth of the Lord in our minds? At this time of year more than any other we are reminded that the gospel is good tidings of GREAT JOY to all people. May we really get to know Him so that we may glorify the Lord and enjoy Him forever!

Some resources for learning more about George Whitefield:

Books by Whitefield—

• J. Gillies (ed.), The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, 6 vols. (London: 1771-1772). OOP
  
• George Whitefield’s Journals (London: Banner of Truth, 1960).
• Select Sermons of George Whitefield: With an Account of His Life by J. C. Ryle (Ediburgh: Banner of Truth, 1986)
  

Books about Whitefield—

• Arnold A. Dallimore, George Whitefield, 2 vols. (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1980).

Martyn Lloyd-Jones said of this biography, “Justice has at last been done to the greatest preacher that England has ever produced.”

• Arnold A. Dallimore, George Whitefield: God's Anointed Servant in the Great Revival of the Eighteenth Century (Crossway Books, 1990).
  
• J.C. Ryle, Christian Leaders of the 18^th Century (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1990).

  Ryle has good chapters on Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, Daniel Rowlands, and others.

• H. S. Stout, The Divine Dramatist: George Whitefield and the Rise of Modern Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991).
• F. Lambert, 'Pedlar in Divinity': George Whitefield and the Transatlantic Revivals, 1737-1770 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994).
• Robert Philip, Life and Times of George Whitefield (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2007).

• Mark A. Noll, Rise of Evangelicalism: The Age of Edwards, Whitefield,and the Wesleys (Downer's Grove, IL: IVP, 2004)
  

Internet—

Wikipedia’s article on Whitefield

The George Whitefield Homepage

Monergism’s article on Whitefield

George Whitefield (Dec. 16, 1714—Sept. 30, 1770)

David Brainerd (April 20, 1718—Oct. 9, 1747)

David Brainerd, missionary to Native Americans in New England, died 260 years ago today. It is widely believed today that Brainerd suffered from tuberculosis, which was at that time called consumption. Though he died young (age 29) and was a missionary for only the last four years of his life, Brainerd wields an influence that extends far beyond his short life.

David Brainerd was born in Haddam, Connecticut. Orphaned at 14, young Brainerd was more given to soul-searching and performing religious duties than to frolicking with friends. He came at times under conviction of sin and hoped that he was converted, but he didn’t have assurance. After years of struggling to obey God’s law and failing, at age 21 Brainerd’s eyes were opened and God brought him to a saving understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He saw Christ’s sacrifice of Himself as the propitiation for all his sins. All he had to do was believe, and God granted him the faith. The lessons Brainerd learned about his own wicked, deceitful heart during the years of conviction would come into play in his ministry with people who had never heard the Gospel and had never considered themselves sinners.

Brainerd entered Yale to prepare for the ministry, but he was expelled during his junior year. A student overheard him say to a friend that a certain tutor at the school had “no more grace than this chair.” That was all it took, and Brainerd’s hopes for a pastorate were dashed. A law in Connecticut required that all pastors be trained at Harvard, Yale, or a European divinity school. Brainerd testified in his journal that it would be hard seeing his friends receive their degrees when he wasn’t allowed to finish. But the Lord subdued his spirit, and he was content with his situation.

Brainerd still wanted to serve God and continued his preparation for the ministry. He received a license to preach in 1742 and soon afterward, under the auspices of the Scottish Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, became a missionary to Native Americans. Traveling on horseback, and sometimes on foot, he ministered to tribes in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. During this time Brainerd was not a well man. He already had the tuberculosis that would eventually claim his life, and being exposed to the elements so often hastened his death.

At first he had little results from his ministry to comfort him. Adversity would reveal things in his heart that repulsed him, and he longed for more holiness and more of the sense of God’s smile on him. Sometimes he was favored with a greater sense of God’s presence, giving him much cause for rejoicing.

After a while he began noticing what he could describe only as a moving of the Spirit among the Indians. Many were becoming concerned for their souls, having been shown the heart-wickedness they were never aware of before. Brainerd had been preaching the doctrines of grace, beginning with the need for salvation: our great and incurable sin before a holy God. The people finally became convinced that they could do nothing to please God or appease His wrath, and the Lord opened their eyes the way He had done with Brainerd years earlier. Looking back on nearly a year of success, Brainerd could only give glory to God for the change wrought in people who, only nine months earlier, had been worshiping false gods and living savage, immoral lives.

David Brainerd was enabled to establish a congregation and a school among the Indians and secured the services of his brother John to oversee the congregation. But his failing health caused him to decide to take a trip in hopes of improving his condition. He visited his congregation once more, but he was never to minister among them again. Brainerd eventually traveled to Northampton, Massachusetts to see Jonathan Edwards, who had preached at Yale when Brainerd was a student. Edwards took in the ailing young preacher, and his daughter Jerusha acted as Brainerd’s nurse until he died.

During his last few months Brainerd sometimes became distressed that he was no longer able to participate in the work of preaching and ministering in the community. Once again he felt the coldness of his own heart and wished for more of God’s presence. He also wished that God would take him and relieve his suffering through death. In those days there was no real treatment for what was bringing Brainerd down, nor was pain medication available.

However, Brainerd learned some spiritual lessons through his illness, things he already believed but that seemed to crystallize under this final adversity. Sometimes we don’t thoroughly believe what we believe until that belief is put to the test. In one journal entry he says, “Towards noon, I saw that the grace of God in Christ is infinitely free towards sinners and such sinners as I was. I also saw that God is the supreme good, that in His presence is life. I began to long to die that I might be with Him in a state of freedom from all sin.” Less than three weeks before his death another spiritual struggle compounded the physical pain he felt. His mind registered an accusation: “you are filthy, not fit for heaven.” Brainerd continues, “Hereupon instantly appeared the blessed robes of Christ’s righteousness which I could not but exult and triumph in.” Brainerd saw that Christ’s grace is all-sufficient; sufficient to lead him from sin to salvation, sufficient to lead him from trial to trial, sufficient to lead him from earth to heaven.

Jonathan Edwards testified that it was his privilege to host this dying saint and to observe his faith. Edwards was so impressed that he edited Brainerd’s diary for publication. I have heard that this book has never been out of print and is a missionary classic that influenced Henry Martyn and William Carey.

Why is a man who ministered a short time in obscurity and died young so influential 260 years later? It is because of the spirituality revealed in his diary. Here is a man learning to be content. Redirected by God through expulsion from college, serving in the wilderness under hard conditions instead of a comfortable pastorate, enduring bad health and seeming lack of success; in all these things David Brainerd learned to submit to God in all of His dealings with His servant. Through it all he learned to delight in God. Brainerd desired two things: to be like God and to be with God. On October 9, 1747 God gave him his desire.

The Life and Diary of David Brainerd is still available. My copy is a paperback from Baker Book House, 1995. It is included in the two-volume Works of Jonathan Edwards by Banner of Truth. It is also available as an audio book.

In addition to the diary I found a good lecture on Brainerd which is available as an mp3 download.

Feel free to inform us of any biographies or other resources on Brainerd.

David Brainerd (April 20, 1718—Oct. 9, 1747)

"The Event of the Century"

That’s the way some have described the Prayer Meeting Revival, which began 150 years ago today in New York City and spread across the country and the Atlantic to the British Isles. The events of 1857-59 started with a layman named Jeremiah C. Lanphier, who began holding noon prayer meetings at the Dutch Reformed Church on Fulton Street in New York. The meetings lasted approximately one hour once a week. Anyone desiring to attend could come and go anytime during that hour. At first hardly anyone came; three weeks later daily prayer meetings were requested, so the church was opened everyday at noon for prayer. Other churches began doing this, and soon the fire spread to other cities until most of the country was experiencing revival.

So how did these meetings spontaneously spring up across the land until the phenomenon became known as America’s “Third Great Awakening”? America had seen great revivals before, the last one dying out about twenty years earlier. By 1857 many areas of the country had become known as “burned-over districts” because of excesses that became prominent toward the end of the Second Great Awakening. Many people had come to accept the “New Measures” of Charles Finney as the way to do evangelism, exciting people’s emotions and trying to coerce them to make decisions, not realizing that the new measures represented a doctrinal departure into heresy. A large number of these converts fell away and became harder to reach. Ministers were always trying new ideas to interest people, but weren’t emphasizing the scriptural gospel and sound theology.

No doubt, the Lord used several circumstances to awaken people from their lethargy. The abolition issue was reaching fever pitch in the North while State’s Rights and Secession were doing the same in the South. The country was headed toward war. In 1857 an economic depression hit the country and brought about a “pall of mourning over every house” (words of J.W. Alexander, quoted by Iain H. Murray in Revival and Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism 1750-1858, p. 341). So, tempers were rising and spirits were falling.

However, God had certain men still preaching sound gospel. One of the most prominent of these men was James Waddell Alexander, a Presbyterian minister in New York City and son of Archibald Alexander, who was a leader in the Second Great Awakening. J.W. Alexander had been preaching to his people about the Holy Spirit’s role in conversion. The Lord blessed his preaching by granting his church a measure of revival in the years before 1857. One of the men blessed by such preaching was Jeremiah Lanphier, who later went to the Dutch Reformed Church and became a lay-evangelist. So, apparently, God brought about a sense of need in people and put some well-trained leaders in place to point needy people to the divine Supply.

This revival had at least three benefits for America: 1) it steeled the country for the destruction and debauchery of war that followed in the 1860s; 2) it produced a new generation of ministers and missionaries; and 3) it caused many people to change their focus from things temporal to things eternal. The revival that sprang from these prayer meetings caused many to think about their souls and to seek Christ and His salvation. How good of the Lord, in a time of national crisis, to send a national moving of His Spirit! We haven’t seen the like since. But God is the same, and He can send revival to needy people absorbed with the troubled affairs of modern-day life in America. We should be praying, “Lord, send a revival, and let it begin in me.”

Though there seems to be no definitive history written about the Prayer Meeting Revival, eyewitness accounts are available. The best one seems to be The Power of Prayer: Illustrated in the Wonderful Displays of Divine Grace at the Fulton Street and Other Meetings, in New York, and Elsewhere, in 1857 and 1858 by Samuel I. Prime, reprinted by Banner of Truth in 1991. J.W. Alexander wrote booklets about the revival, but I don’t know if these are in print. Iain Murray puts together a good account of this revival in his book Revival and Revivalism, also by Banner of Truth, 1994. Do you know of other accounts of this lively period of God’s extraordinary work?

"The Event of the Century"

Cane Ridge Revival (August 6, 1801)

Today is the 206^th anniversary of the beginning of the revival in Cane Ridge, Kentucky, the largest camp meeting of the Second Great Awakening. By 1785 a few dozen churches, mostly Presbyterian and Baptist, had been established in the frontier of Kentucky. These churches eventually started combining for large outdoor communion services in the Scottish Presbyterian tradition. People flocked from all around to escape the isolation of frontier life, partake of the Lord’s Table, and fellowship with other believers. Thus, the camp meeting was born. Distances were great and travel was sometimes hard, so people packed provisions for several days. During these times preachers heralded the Word of God with power, and multitudes came under conviction of sin. In the local churches revival flames had already started, especially under the ministries of such men as James M’Gready, a fiery Presbyterian preacher from North Carolina, who served three congregations in Logan County, Kentucky.

By 1801 revival had spread throughout the region, as it had in other parts of the young nation. God was once again blessing the country with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which Americans soon started calling the Second Great Awakening. In August 1801 the Presbyterians, led by Barton W. Stone, held a large outdoor communion service at Cane Ridge and were joined by the Baptists and a now sizable number of Methodists. Iain Murray tells us that “in addition to eighteen Presbyterian ministers, Baptist and Methodist preachers also took part in the services which lasted for a week. A temporary village of tents, ‘laid off in regular streets’, was estimated to shelter between 10,000 and 21,000 people” (Revival and Revivalism, p. 152). Some sources say the crowd numbered 25,000; astonishing, considering that nearby Lexington claimed a population of about 1800.

Cane Ridge was the largest camp meeting, but definitely not the last. The camp meeting came to symbolize the revival in the West. At Cane Ridge “preachers addressed the crowds from hastily erected speaker’s stands, from stumps, or even the lower limbs of trees. Often several exhorters would thunder their messages to different parts of the crowd at the same time” (Mark Sidwell, ed. Faith of Our Fathers: Scenes from American Church History, [Amazon | CBD] p. 63). This form of worship would extend throughout the 19^th Century, eventually being taken over by the Methodists.

There was a mixture of good and bad in the Western Revivals. Multitudes heard the Gospel and came under conviction of sin. From the resulting change in the moral climate it is evident that many souls were converted under the fiery frontier preaching. More churches were planted, and the Gospel extended even further.

However, several excesses surfaced during Cane Ridge, which signaled the emergence of revivalism, an attempt to perpetuate revival by promoting the emotionalism that sometimes attends conviction of sin. Some people experienced “the jerks,” a phenomenon difficult for even witnesses to describe. Others under conviction made barking sounds. But the most common excesses were screaming out and/or falling flat on the back. Other, more serious, excesses included doctrinal departure. Several sects spun off from the camp meetings.

Was it the fault of the people for having such experiences? Maybe not. Intense conviction of sin sometimes produces such reactions. These things were not unique to the Western Revivals; they had shown up in New England in the Great Awakening under men like Jonathan Edwards, but these leaders sought to keep the people under control and not allow the excesses to take over, discredit, and kill the revival. The leaders of the Second Great Awakening in the East conducted revivals the same way until Charles Finney and his followers changed the religious landscape with their new measures, which many people didn’t realize were prompted by a different theology. Maybe that topic can be explored in another article.

So how should revival be promoted or handled today? Christians in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries were praying for the Lord to send revival again, so a burden for the Lord to shower a dry and thirsty land with His Spirit is a prerequisite for revival. Do we see ourselves and our culture as needing the intervention of God, or do we believe we can make the needed improvements? What about the changes that are needed; are they merely outward, social reforms, or do we see the problem as the dire need for God to stir sinners from their spiritual lethargy and self-righteousness? It seems to me that the first way to promote revival is to be thoroughly impressed with our need for God.

How do we promote a spiritual awakening when it occurs? An unfortunate legacy of Cane Ridge and the camp meetings is that the incidentals of revival are perpetuated in order to promote revival. Perhaps we’ve been in a service where the Spirit seemed to move during the singing of a particular song or during the ministry of a particular singer. I’ve seen preachers try to recreate that in subsequent meetings by insisting on the same songs/singers, explaining that the last time this song was sung, revival broke out, as though revival is the product of a magic formula or the result of pushing the right buttons. I’ve seen preachers and song leaders try to whip up emotions from the congregation, equating emotional display with revival. We need to realize that these things sometimes attend revival, but are not themselves revival.

Having made this criticism and issued this caution, I would like to say that the Cane Ridge Revival was a good thing. Yes, there were excesses, but there was also genuine conviction of sin, the Holy Spirit turning people from their sins and drawing them to Jesus Christ. The Gospel went forth in power; people’s lives were changed for the better. God can work in people’s hearts even when such excesses are present. But the leaders of revival in the East believed that the Spirit does a more thorough work in hearts that are encouraged to be calm and to listen to and meditate on the Word of God. Whether dealing with people en masse or one on one, let’s stress the fundamentals of God’s Word, not the incidentals of man’s reaction.

For more information of the Cane Ridge Revival see:

Murray, Iain H. Revival & Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism 1750-1858, Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1994. (WTS | Amazon | CBD)

Johnson, Charles A. The Frontier Camp Meeting: Religion’s Harvest Time, Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1985. (Amazon)

On the web:

Cane Ridge Meeting House

Wikipedia

Cane Ridge Revival (August 6, 1801)

A Prayer for America

After watching the fury and confusion of a night battle one man wrote these lines:

O thus be it ever when free-men shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation;
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserved us a nation!

The man was Francis Scott Key, who was near Fort McHenry during the British bombardment in 1814. The words quoted are from “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which Key wrote as a hymn of thanksgiving to God for sparing them and as a prayer that Americans would always “praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.” This hymn, which became our national anthem, was written during a time of national revival, known as the Second Great Awakening. It started in the late 1700s and continued through about the first three decades of the 1800s.

America has seen many large revivals of the work of God in the past; not the man-made extravaganzas common in our day, but large-scale, genuine turning to Christ under a compulsion that can be explained only as the work of the Holy Spirit. This is not to complain in a doleful way about the current state of religious affairs, but to urge Americans from Scripture and our own history to return to God. We truly are a “heav’n-rescued land.” And this is in answer to the prayers of His people all the way back to early colonial times.

Many of those who emigrated here to carve out a life in this country hoped and prayed that this land would be true to God and be blessed by Him. The great New England preacher Cotton Mather wrote a two-volume magnum opus called The Great Works of Christ in America (Magnalia Christi Americana; or, the History of New-England). It opens with these words of introduction by John Higginson, a contemporary of Mather:

It hath been deservedly esteemed one of the great and wonderful works of God in this last age, that the Lord stirred up the spirits of so many thousands of his servants, to leave the pleasant land of England, the land of their nativity, and to transport themselves, and families, over the ocean sea, into a desert land in America, at the distance of a thousand leagues from their own country; and this, merely on the account of pure and undefiled Religion, not knowing how they should have their daily bread, but trusting God for that, in the way of seeking first the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof: And that the Lord was pleased to grant such a gracious presence of his with them, and such a blessing upon their undertakings, that within a few years a wilderness was subdued before them, and so many Colonies planted, Towns erected, and Churches settled, wherein the true and living God in Christ Jesus, is worshipped and served, in a place where, time out of mind, had been nothing before but Heathenism, Idolatry, and Devil-worship; and that the Lord has added so many of the blessings of Heaven and earth for the comfortable subsistence of his people in these ends of the earth. Surely of this work, and of this time, it shall be said, what hath God wrought? And, this is the Lord’s doings, it is marvelous in our eyes! Even so (O Lord) didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name! Now, one generation passeth away, and another cometh…. There is also a third generation, who are grown up, and begin to stand thick upon the stage of action, at this day, and these were all born in the country, and may call New-England their native land. Now, in respect of what the Lord hath done for these generations, succeeding one another, we have aboundant cause of Thanksgiving to the Lord our God, who hath so increased and blessed this people, that from a day of small things, he has brought us to be, what we now are. We may set up an Ebenezer, and say, “Hitherto the Lord hath helped us.” Yet in respect of our present state, we have need earnestly to pray, as we are directed, “let thy work farther appear unto thy servants, and let thy beauty be upon us, and thy glory upon our children; establish thou the works of these our hands; yea, the works of our hands, establish thou them” (p. 13).

God has answered such prayers countless times, and will do so again if His people, who are called by His name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways. May multitudes turn to Christ and be freed from the tyranny of sin and self-will. May God continue to have mercy on America and preserve us a nation that will seek Him and reflect His glory.

Some recommended books on the history of Christianity in America:

Mark Sidwell, ed. Faith of Our Fathers: Scenes from American Church History. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 1991. Good historical vignettes.

Mark A. Noll, Nathan O. Hatch, George M. Marsden, David F. Wells, John D. Woodbridge, eds. Eerdmans’ Handbook to Christianity in America. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1983. Very informative. Includes pictures, charts and maps.

Thomas J. Nettles. By His Grace and for His Glory. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1986. “A Historical, Theological, and Practical Study of the Doctrines of Grace in Baptist Life.”

Cotton Mather. The Great Works of Christ in America. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1979.

A Prayer for America

Book Giveaway

The Thirsty Theologian is having a drawing for a free book to be given away the first week of July. The book is Iain Murray's Revival and Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism, 1750-1850 from Banner of Truth. Whether or not you get the freebie, this is an excellent book and well worth the money. Murray provides much detail on the theology and activities of the people who ministered in this era. I read this book ten years ago and came away with a better understanding of the current state of American Christianity and with encouragement that God can once again revive His doctrine and His people.

Book Giveaway