The Great Awakening Influences the American Revolution

 

In the 1730s and 1740s, a spiritual fervency swept the American colonies. It was called the First Great Awakening. Fiery ministers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield preached about having a deep personal relationship with Jesus Christ and a standard of personal holiness. Many cast off the religious traditions of relying on the religious leaders to tell people what God wanted and started searching the Scriptures and seeking their own relationship with Jesus. Even many church goers had salvation experiences. This caused a revolution in the church, but that was only the beginning of more than one revolution.

Whitefield preached at both Harvard and Yale. At Harvard, it was reported, “The entire college has changed. The students are full of God.” Whitefield became so popular that he drew daily crowds of 8,000 people. In Boston, he drew a crowd of 23,000, larger than the entire population of Boston at the time. Even Benjamin Franklin wrote about the impact of his preaching. He was the cultural hero of the day.

The impact was huge. In New England alone, 25,000 to 50,000 people joined the church and claimed to have salvation experiences. When Jonathan Edwards preached “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, people held on to the posts of the church for hear they would go to Hell before they had a chance to repent. Many universities sprang up for the purpose of training ministers. The colonies united under the umbrella of revival.

It affected the political thought in the colonies as well. People became more democratic believing that the church should be self-governed, not governed by the state. It also welcome people from every walk of life. The church became a melting pot elevating all members of society as equals. As the colonies united in democratic thought, the Church of England – the Anglican Church, sought to crush this awakening causing a divide between England and the colonies.

Founding fathers were also influenced by the Great Awakening:

• John Adams studied at Harvard and considered becoming a minister.
• Samuel Adams was deeply impacted and sought a political revolution to separate the church from England’s influence.
• Benjamin Franklin and George Whitefield were friends. Some believe Franklin might have become a Christian in latter life.
• James Madison was very devout and fought for freedom of religion and checks and balances in government because of the depravity of man.
• John Witherspoon published several books on the Gospel.
• Although there’s no direct connection between George Washington and the Great Awakening, we know that Washington was a devout Christian who even wrote a prayer book.
• 54 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were devout Christians. Only Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were not.
• The first act of the Continental Congress was to pray. They prayed at the beginning of every session, and they prayed before voting to declare independence and signing the Declaration of Independence.

The Great Awakening started a spiritual revival that led to the American Revolution and the birth of modern democracy.

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.

God's Pleasure

"There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God." 

Jonathan Edwards, July 8, 1741 in Enfield, Connecticut

"Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?"

Ezekiel 33:11

Our Holy God, the righteous and just Creator, pleaded with a people who had turned their back on Him. When Israel moved into the Promised Land, God told them not to marry into the nations around them because those nations would turn their hearts from God. Like a husband, God wanted to keep Israel, His bride, pure and separated unto Him only. But Israel flirted with the other nations. She incorporated the religions of those nations into her worship of God, and soon, like an adulterous woman, turned from God, her husband. Indeed, Israel was wicked.

God told His prophet Ezekiel that He took no pleasure in the death of the wicked. What did He want Israel to do? Turn their hearts to Him. What does that entail? The heart refers to the innermost person, the seat of a person's affections and desires. It includes a person's will, thoughts, aspirations. 

To turn your heart to God means your affections are for Him. You desire Him. You submit your will, your thoughts, your philosophies, your aspirations to Him. Not Allah. Not Mohammed. Not Buddha. Not spirits. Not the Devil. Not science. Not creation. Not philosophers or religious leaders, nor any man. You surrender your will, your desires, you affections, your thoughts and ideologies to God and God alone. 

God is our Creator. Because He is our Creator, He has a right to ownership over us, but we sold ourselves into the bondage of sin. That lie you told--that is a work of sin, a work contrary to God's will. And sin pays you the wages of death. God, you see, takes no pleasure in seeing His creation (you) receiving the wages of sin, death and eternity in hell.

We sold ourselves into the bondage of sin, but God bought us back when He  surrendered Jesus Christ, His Only Begotten Son, to die on the cross. Jesus died, was buried, and rose again, conquering death. His shed blood paid the price so that we would not need to shed our own blood, or the blood of animals, for our sins.

How much pleasure does it bring God to keep us out of hell? So great a pleasure that He willingly paid the highest price possible to attain it. He sacrificed Himself. What a phenomenal act.

"For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."  

Romans 10:10

Jonathan Edwards' Sweetly Conversing with Christ

Jonathan Edwards

"...a calm, sweet abstraction of soul from all the concerns of this world; and sometimes a kind of vision, or fixed ideas and imaginations, of being alone in the mountains or some solitary wilderness, far from all mankind, sweetly conversing with Christ and wrapped and swallowed up in God."

Jonathan Edwards, 1703-1758

"And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:7

Jonathan Edwards grew up in a highly religious environment. The son of a minister and grandson of another, his home held an air of religious fervor and serious study. However, not until the end of his college years did he experience a new life in Christ.

When I read the above excerpt from his diary I immediately related. When I look over the storms of my life, I found the same sweet abstraction in my times alone with God. This is the beauty, the "mystic rapture" of an intimate relationship with my Saviour. It isn't something man can understand. You can't dissect it and devise a scientific formula to conjure up the experience.

The "calm, sweet abstraction of soul" belongs to those who experience new life in Christ. When we, as born again believers, turn our imaginations from the world to Christ, we find ourselves engulfed with His love and "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding."

I run to this place each morning, before the sun's rays hit my house. There I open my Bible, close my eyes in prayer and focus on my Lord Jesus Christ. He meets me. I thank Him for the blessings He's given me and rejoice over His grace and mercy extended to me. I let my spirit fill with the knowledge of His love and my ever-increasing understanding of who He is. He talks to me through His Word and His Holy Spirit, blessing me with His wisdom and insight into my life and the trials I face, and He lets me know He, in His Sovereign Grace, will be with me through the day, fighting my battles for me, clearing the way for me to serve Him.

We dance, Him and I. No. Not likely do I get up and dance across the floor. I may wake up the household doing that. Our dance is the harmony that comes when I completely submit my will and my desires to Him. The dance is sweet, graceful, more beautiful than any other. It warms me with His love. It comforts me with His affection. It fills me with the knowledge that I am His and He is mine.

Yes, I agree with Jonathan Edwards. The new life I have found in Christ enables me to experience the "calm, sweet abstraction of soul from all the concerns of this world" and to enjoy "sweetly conversing with Christ and wrapped and swallowed up in God."

Have you experienced the same?