The Awakening Church © John Stevenson, 2008. Session Objectives To summarize, discuss and evaluate...
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Transcript of The Awakening Church © John Stevenson, 2008. Session Objectives To summarize, discuss and evaluate...
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