The First Great Awakening Changed America

In the mid 1700s, traveling evangelists like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and John Wesley preached along the countryside of the British colonies, and the seeds were planted for America to become a great nation.

It really started almost 100 years earlier, in 1630, when John Winthrop, one of the Pilgrims, preached a sermon entitled A City on a Hill. The text for the verse was Matthew 5:14  Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Winthrop said that God ordained the colonies in America to be that city on a hill. They were the New Jerusalem that would evangelize the world with the Gospel.

Over the next eighty years, colonists forgot those awesome words and had drawn away from God. Church attendance was at an all time low, and few felt Christianity played a major role in their lives. Church service were dry and dull, and most who did go to church did so out of religious duty.

When these preachers came on the scene it changed America for the better. They were fiery, emotional, and commanded attention. When Jonathan Edwards preached Sinner in the Hands of an Angry God, it was reported members of the congregation held on to the church beams fearing the wrath of God and the fire of Hell. Conviction spread all over the colonies, and people responded by having a "born again" experience with God that changed their lives forever.

Many denominations rose up during this awakening including Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists. Christians now felt they could have a personal experience with God and learn Scripture and doctrine for themselves instead of only relying on church leaders. Congregational leadership was determined by the congregations, not by church headquarters.

One of the biggest changes that took place during this awakening was that everyone was included. Slaves and poor men came to the meetings and were saved. It created a national unity and identity that later set the stage for the American Revolution where men fought for One Nation Under God. not a nation ruled by a denomination or a state church. The colonies had learned that the people decide on the leaders that rule them instead of letting the rulers dictate their nation's politics and religion.

We Are Endowed by Our Creator

"I believer no one can read the history of our country without realizing that the Good Book and the spirit of the Savior have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses...I believe the entire Bill of Rights came into being because of the knowledge our forefathers had of the Bible and their belief in it:"

Former Chief Justice Earl Warren, addressing the annual prayer breakfast of the International Council of Christian Leadership, 1954

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." II Timothy 4:3-4

Our church's home missions conference ended on Tuesday. Pastor and Radio Talk Show Host Jerry Scheidbach reviewed the history of America in his keynote address urging us to be people that have "understanding of the times" (I Chronicles 12:32). He charged us to reclaim America, to no longer be bullied into silence, but to go forth and boldly preach the Gospel and the Bible-based morality and freedoms for which the Continental Soldiers courageously fought and died.Will you accept the challenge?

John Witherspoon (1723-1794), a Presbyterian minister, and one of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence believed that a role of State was to protect Christians and the Church to carry out their God-ordained mission to preach and teach the Gospel.

In the first session of the Continental Congress in 1774 Sam Adams settled a debate for the session to be opened with prayer by stating that it did not become "Christian men, who had come together for solemn deliberation in the hour of their extremity, to say there was so wide a difference in their religious belief that they could not, as one man, bow the knee in prayer to the Almighty, whose advice and assistance they hoped to obtain."

The Declaration of Independence states: "We are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights."

The point is, we were once a Christian nation because the principles of the nation were built upon Biblical truths known to our forefathers as Christian.

But God looked across the ages and saw what would become of our society (as well as the rest of the world) and prompted the Apostle Paul to write the warning he gives in II Timothy 4:3-4.

According to a survey of churchgoers done by LifeWay Research:

"...while 90 percent "desire to please and honor Jesus in all I do,"..." (http://www.lifeway.com/Article/research-survey-bible-engagement-churchgoers) only 19 percent personally read the Bible every day.

How can you know how to please and honor Jesus in all that you do if you do not know what He expects from you? If you spent so little time with your spouse would you know what pleased him or her? Would you even have a good marriage relationship?

Why would anyone forgo immersing herself into God's love letter? I wonder if fear of conviction, which should lead to giving up that which is displeasing to God, keeps one from reading. I wonder if it might be that such a person doesn't want to believe that Jesus is the only way to Heaven, because if he believed such then he'd have to also believe there is a hell and someone he loves is heading there. Could it be that he deems watching the next movie on the Hallmark channel, or watching the next big football game, or playing the latest Wii game is so much more important than studying the Bible it cannot be delayed even 30 minutes to spend time with God? Perhaps he idolizes men or women who deceive him into believing the Bible is not relevant to today's world or that it provides only one of many ways to know God.

"...they will not endure sound doctrine;..."

Doctrine means teaching. Any good teacher will tell you that learning is like building. You have foundational truths upon which you build by adding knowledge and understanding. If your foundational truths are anything but those laid out in Scripture, the structure of your knowledge and understanding will be weak and could easily tumble down. However, in our society relativism has replaced sound doctrine. Here in California they even determined that if a child thinks one plus one equals three, then for that child, that is truth and therefore he should not be corrected.

"...but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears...."

No one wants to be told what they like to do--and indeed are addicted to doing--is wrong and is offensive to, perhaps even an abomination to God. We all want to be patted on the back and told our thinking is right and good. And so we tend to look for those who will tell us it is okay to live our own way; that it is perfectly acceptable and God, being a loving God, would never tell us to be any different. Hmmm. God IS a loving God, and because He is, He makes very clear in His Word what will lead to destruction. He's the Creator. He knows best what will destroy His Creation.

"And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."

And we see that happening. Just watch the news and witness the so called War on Women or the War on Christmas.  But what are we going to do about it?

For months I have pondered this. The presidential election race revealed the ugliness of our nation. If we hadn't seen it before, we have seen it over the past 18 to 24 months.

But I am a mother and wife and a very little known writer. I can't stand up in Congress and tell them to get back to the Bible. I can't stand before the Senate and point them to the laws God has given us by which we should govern ourselves. I can't go to the White House and insist they uphold the Constitution and speak truth.

I am not a pastor. I am not radio host. I am not so many things. But it doesn't matter who I am not. It matters only WHOSE I am.

I am a child of God. I am a sinner redeemed by grace. I am a freed prisoner of sin. I am a member of the elect according to the foreknowledge of God (I Peter 1:2). I am born again of incorruptible seed, by the word of God (I Peter 1:23). I am a member of a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people (I Peter 2:9). And I am a stranger and pilgrim passing through this life on my way to my Heavenly home.

What can I do?

• First pray.

"I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;" I Timothy 2:1

• Live my life in a manner that professes godliness with good works. (I Timothy 2:9-10).

• Sanctify the Lord God in my heart. (I Peter 3:15)

• Always be ready to give an answer, with meekness and fear, to anyone asking me the reason for the hope that is in me. (I Peter 3:15)

• And above all, be willing and ready to suffer for well doing, for Christ's sake. Because, dear friends, suffering will come for those who will stand strong and courageous for the Lord. And through that suffering we will find joy and peace--joy because we suffer for Christ, and peace through the presence of the Holy Spirit because we know that there is nothing they can do that can separate us from the love of God. Ultimately life here on earth ends and eternity begins.

Since my eternity is settled, I say, "Go ahead, make my day: threaten me with Heaven."

"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death."
Revelations 12:11