“Religious fervor is not a constant. When it flames most brightly, it transforms not only individuals but history; yet among the same people it may die down into smoldering ashes that give no heat to personal life nor any energy to national life”

James G. Leyburn ‘The Scotch-Irish, p.47

CHURCH HISTORY IICHURCH HISTORY IILesson 22Lesson 22

EVANGELICAL REVIVAL IN GREAT EVANGELICAL REVIVAL IN GREAT

BRITAINBRITAIN

I.THE SITUATION IN ENGLAND

Social Chaos

Religious Decline “The Vanishing Gospel”

Church of England

Latitudinarian

“You should remove the ‘not’ from the 10 Commandments and insert it into the Apostle’s creed!”

The Dissenters

“The most numerous and rich of the dissenters in England were the Presbyterians; who were also the leaders of the general apostasy of the dissenters from the principles of the Reformation”

Samuel Davies

Isaac Watts (1674-1748)

II. The Evangelical Revival

A. The Moravians

January 1, 1739 “Pentecost at New Year”

Fetter Lane Society

Benjamin Ingham; John Cennick

The Moravians did not set out to establish their own churches but to be useful in the renewal of all denominations

B. John Wesley and the Methodists

1. Wesley’s Life & Work

Samuel & Susanna

“The Holy Club”

In Georgia

“But John and Charles did not learn from their parents, and did not learn from their home and their church, the grace and truth of Christ’s justification by faith alone”

Dr. David Calhoun

Four encounters with the Moravians;1. On passage to Georgia

2. Savannah

3. London/Peter Bohler

4. Hernhutt

Conversion: “My heart Strangely Warmed”

May 24, 1738 Aldersgate Street

Conversion makes him a “Flaming Evangelist”

2. Wesley’s Theology

“Peace to his ashes, death to his errors, life to all the truth he preached…” CH Spurgeon

Evangelical Arminianism

Perfectionism

1703-1791

“The trouble with John Wesley was that he was too logical…he took certain statements and pressed them to their logical conclusion, irrespective of other statements of Scripture” MLJ

4. Hernhutt

3. John and Charles Wesley’s Hymns

CHARLES WESLEY

1707-1788

4. The Methodists

“Long my imprisioned spirit layFast bound in sin and nature’s nigth; Thine eye diffused a quick’ning ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;My chains fell off, my heart was free,I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.”

C. George Whitefield (1714-1770)

Early Life and Conversion

Life of God in the Soul of Man Henry Scogal

Whitefield and Scotland

“If the pope himself would lend me his pulpit, I would gladly proclaim the righteousness of Jesus Christ therein.”

Whitefield and Wales

Griffith Jones (1683-1761)

Daniel Rowland (1713-1790)

Howell Harris (1714-1773)

William Williams (1717-1791)

Whitefield and America

Lady Huntingdon

(Lady Selina Shirley (1707-1791)

Chapel of Huntingdon’s Connexion

C. The Anglican Evangelicals

William Romaine (1714-1795)

William Grimshaw (1708-63) “The Apostle of the North”

“When I die, I shall have my greatest grief and my greatest joy; my greatest grief that I have done so little for Jesus, and my greatest joy that Jesus has done so much for me.”

John Berridge (1719-93) “Apostle of Cam and Fen”

Henry Venn (1724-97)

John Newton (1725-1807)

Hannah More (1745-1833)

J.C. Ryle’s summation of the J.C. Ryle’s summation of the theological principles of the theological principles of the

Evangelical RevivalEvangelical Revival The “absolute supremacy” of the Bible “as The “absolute supremacy” of the Bible “as

the only rule of faith and practice, the only the only rule of faith and practice, the only test of truth, the only judge of controversy.”test of truth, the only judge of controversy.”

The corruption of human nature by sinThe corruption of human nature by sin The centrality of the atonementThe centrality of the atonement The necessity of an “experimental The necessity of an “experimental

knowledge of Christ crucified” and “the knowledge of Christ crucified” and “the inward work of the Holy Spirit in the heart inward work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of men”of men”

The requirement of a serious, holy life as The requirement of a serious, holy life as “the only certain evidence of a man’s “the only certain evidence of a man’s spiritual condition”spiritual condition”

The Great AwakeningThe Great Awakening

Religious Condition in the Colonies

Spiritual Deadness

“The body of the rising generation is a poor, perishing, unconverted (except the Lord pour down his Spirit) an undone generation” Increase Mather, 1678

Symbols of deadness and decline:

Half-way Covenant

Theological Liberalism

Beginnings of revival

Theodore Frelinghuysen1691-1747

Gilbert Tennant 1703-1764

Log College, Nashaminy, PA

New Brunswick

Jonathan Edwards 1703-1758

George Whitefield 1714-1770

Bethesda in Georgia 1738

2nd Trip 1739, 40, 41

13 Crossings

732 days on the water!