Musing – Does America Need Another Revival like the First One?

 

Hebraic Musing – Does America Need Another Revival like the First One?

From 1738 until his death in 1770 George Whitefield (pronounced Whit-fild) made seven trips from England to the Colonies in America tirelessly preaching the Gospel to thousands upon thousands each trip.  Time period?  This was leading up to the Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence in 1776.  As a biographer said “Had Whitefield never gone to America, the great revival there might never have happened.  And, had there been no great revival, there may well have been no American Revolution.”  And Whitefield’s death so impacted the colonists that would be suffering from raw conditions during the war – “Thus the fires of revival spread into a blaze of freedom – and forged a nation in the process.”

His biography quoted one of the segments of Whitefield’s poignant messages that makes me wonder if America’s fragmented church is part of our current National problem.  Let me quote –

(Speaking of Whitefield) He used his gifts not only to reach individual sinners, but to pull down the strongholds of religious pride and division. In an oft-repeated sermon that was vintage Whitefield causing whole towns to be changed by its strength – Whitefield pretends he is talking to Abraham in heaven –
“Father Abraham,” he cries. “Whom have you in Heaven?  Any Episcopalians?”    Abe - “No!”
“Any Presbyterians?”      Abe - “No!”
“Any Independents or seceders, New Sides or Old Sides, Any Methodists?”     Abe - “No! No! No!”
Whom have you there, then, Father Abraham?”
Abe - “We don’t know those names here!  All who are here are Christians – Believers in Christ, men who have overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of his Testimony.”
“Oh is that the case?  Then God help me, God help us all, to forget having names and to become Christians in deed and in truth.”

Could pride and division and “names” be hampering God’s Kingdom’s progress here in America?

He used a “Preach and Return” model; first message elicited repentance, the return message was for salvation.

Whitefield believed “to lose one’s life for Jesus meant surrendering every moment of the time in which that life is measured.”     “It is better to wear out rather than rust out.”   “I preach as a dying man to dying men.” “Sudden death is sudden glory!”    “Lord, let Thy presence always follow me, or otherwise I shall be but as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal”   “The Methodist view of holiness taught that belonging to God meant serving him with time well spent.”

“We know that he started preaching in the open air because the clergymen refused him and the church building wouldn’t hold the crowds.”  Sounds like Jesus’ “sermon on the mount” with thousands on a hillside!

A sailmaker, Benjamin Randall, heard the town crier shouting “Whitefield is dead. Whitefield is dead.” At that, he fell to his knees, cried aloud “Whitefield is dead, Whitefield is in heaven, but I am on the road to hell.”  He gave his heart to God on the spot; later he preached the gospel himself and launched the Free-Will Baptist movement in answer to Whitefield’s lifelong prayer – “Let the name of Whitefield die, that the cause of Jesus Christ many live.”

His biographer said “As Whitefield began preaching from Georgia to Massachusetts, the colonies became one.  He was the ‘first inter-colonial event.’”  Has America become divided again? Are we in need of unification?

Point(s) to Ponder

How do our denominations, pride and divisions impact the preaching of the Gospel?

A listener said he “gave me a heart wound”; meanwhile do we avoid hurting people’s feelings!?!?

Whose name is more important?   Ours?  Our Church’s?   or  Jesus Christ’s?

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”  Isaiah 52:7

 Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                         November 24, 2020

Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith” 
“Biblical Marriage (by Yosef)”     Weekly “Hebraic Musings”

Note – Inspired by and excerpted from “Forgotten Founding Father – The Heroic Legacy of George Whitefield”
                        by Stephen Mansfield   2001