Category: Christian Education

The Great Awakening

by Debra Conley

In the 1600’s, the founders’ idea of an earthly kingdom in America lifted their thoughts to a purer, holier God. But just over 100 years later, prosperity, exploration, and the daily tasks of colonial survival soon pushed the initial zeal from its prominent place. Church attendance began to dwindle; the gap was filled with such “remedies” as the Half-Way Covenant, which diminished the importance of a salvation testimony and allowed children of saved members to become members without such testimony. They were allowed half status in the church, assuring congregations of enough members for survival. Others, born in the colonies and never having known the fervor of their ancestors, drifted from those founding religious principles.

The great fundamental preacher Jonathan Edwards responded  emphatically to stem the tide and bring the wandering ones back, increasing his preaching against a works’ salvation. In his essay Narrative of Surprising Conversions, Edwards says, “God made it the greatest occasion of awakening to others of anything that ever came to pass in the town.” It was from this phrase that historians claimed the time as the Great Awakening. For the next 30 years, Edwards continued his strong preaching of salvation by grace and not through works, culminating in his most famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Thousands were converted.

So great was the revival that one of England’s most effective evangelists, George Whitefield, spurred by the success of Edwards and by the return of John Wesley from the Americas with stories of conversions of the “heathens”, embarked on a mission to General Oglethorpe’s new colony, Georgia. Used to preaching to thousands in great open fields, Whitefield ignored churches that did not welcome him and preached open air sermons throughout the colonies. Benjamin Franklin, one of only a few non-church goers of our founders, was so fascinated by Whitefield that he attended a number of his services and remarked, “It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were now religious, so that one could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street.”¹ Whitefield continued to preach in the colonies and is buried where he died, under the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church of Newburyport, MA. Modern scholars still attribute these early religious awakenings to the desire for Colonial Independence.²

Notes:

1. Franklin, Benjamin, as told in Pilgrims in Their Own land (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1984)

2. Schweikart, Larry A Patriot’s History of the United States (New York: Penguin Group, 2004) p. 70

Roger Williams

by Debra Conley

Roger Williams is one of the most controversial figures of early Christian history in America. In reading numerous sources, one comes across a succinct dichotomy of opinion as to his character and motives. Some thought he was too stubborn about his beliefs, choosing to voice them rather than to remain silent. One view states, “Let him believe whatever he wants as long as he is quiet about it,” because he was seen as one “continuing in an obsession with doctrinal purity; adamant, intellectual self-righteousness.”¹ The author said he should have been willing to compromise his conscience for the sake of peace in the community. Williams grew up in the Smithfield area of London where hundreds of dissenters were burned to death for their beliefs. This experience most undoubtedly influenced his fervor. The Puritans banished Williams when he refused to sign an oath respecting the orders of their church. He stated his opposition to these practices: forced church attendance under penalty, refusal to completely separate from the Church of England, taking land from the Indians rather than purchasing it, requiring oaths to the colony (thus making theirs another state ordained church), and using civil magistrates to guard the church.² There was no question about his knowledge and scriptural discernment, according to both Governors Bradford and Winthrop, who remained his friends even after they banished him. The Plymouth Pilgrims and the Quakers insisted on public reprimand of Williams for speaking his views, which, as others point out, flies in the face of one of the most cherished principles, freedom of speech. Williams separated from these groups, founding his own colony of true religious freedom, Providence, RI.

These principles form the other opinion of Williams, that freedom of conscience, no matter what that led one to believe, is each man’s right. This particular philosophy is one America treasured enough to place into the Constitution (Amendment One) and of which George Washington said that Rhode Island created an era in the history of true liberty.

“Williams was one of those rare people for whom conviction is everything. Such people live out their conscience, regardless of consequences.”³

And so the contention boils down to the question of whether Williams should have stood firm in what he believed to the point of separation,   answering only to his conscience, and did he have the right to do so?

1. Marshall, Peter The Light and the Glory (Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing, 1977) p. 242, 243

2. Gibbs, Dr. David C. One Nation Under God (Seminole, FL: Christian Law Assn., 2005) p. 49

3. Ibid. p. 48

The Puritans

by Debra Conley

Another prominent Christian settlement in America was the 1630 Puritan colony of Boston. They chose the name Puritan because they wanted to remain within the Church of England but purify its practices. This came to an irreconcilable frustration that prompted the group’s voyage to the new world. Here they hoped to begin the church they envisioned, one free of the corrupt practices they had fought in England. Their leader and governor was John Winthrop. The Pilgrims in Plymouth and the Puritans in Boston had various disagreements over church practices, but each was respectful of the other’s choices for worship. Winthrop, while still on board his transport ship Arbella, said: “Now if the Lord shall please to hear us, and bring us in peace to the place we desire, then He has ratified this covenant and sealed our commission, and will expect a strict performance of the articles contained therein.” This respect for individual and religious freedom within a biblical framework became a primary tenant of early America and one that is woven into our Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

G.K. Chesterton, commenting on this covenant in his book, What I Saw in America, explains his view between America and all other nations: “America is the only nation whose Constitution is established upon a creed. Americans live by this creed; others live by nationalism which could include any moral or non-moral creed or code and thus have not received the blessings of the society found in America. The U.S. Constitution defines the integrity that is expected through this moral creed.” He goes on to explain how this integrity of moral character was written into our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. This, Chesterton asserts, gave America its unique self-governing success. Other nations simply expect nationalism or patriotism without a moral code except as laws regulate them. So those citizens may take any moral path and that diversion creates a kind of moral chaos not conducive to self-government, Chesterton explains.

These two early colonies sought to govern themselves morally in accordance with principles set out by God in His Word. They believed that if each individual followed the Christian precepts, we would remain free from the tyranny they had fled.

1. Winthrop, John “A Model of Christian Charity” of 1630 (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1976) Vol.

^2. Chesterton, G.K. What I Saw in America (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1923) page 4, 10

William Bradford

by Debra Conley

Certainly one of the earliest of our Christian founders was William Bradford, who from 1621 until his death in 1656, was Governor of the Plymouth Plantation settlement in Massachusetts. His early life in England was marked by the death of his parents, so William lived with relatives and soon began attending a Separatist church near Scrooby. It was through the teaching of such pastors as Clyfton, Robinson, and Brewster that Bradford learned about real religious freedom. After fleeing to Amsterdam and Leyden, Bradford and 101 other Pilgrims sailed for America to found a colony where they would be free to worship without the persecution they had suffered under the Bishops of the Church of England.

While still on board the Mayflower, these men of God created a document stressing the laws of liberty that our country has abided with since that time. The Mayflower Compact established the ideas of the worth of the individual and the protection of individual freedoms within the framework of a civil society. The men who signed this document agreed that their new community was “For the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith”¹ as stated in the document. In chapter 4 of his diary, Bradford states that their zeal was to lay the Christian foundation for the kingdom of Christ in the new world. This hope and goal gave them uncommon strength in the face of extreme hardships during those first years in the colony.

Bradford guided the new colony with firm religious principles, laws that required work from all, and continual prayer, Bible study, and fellowship with believers. The church was built in the center of town because Bradford knew that the church ought to be the center of every community. It was through the Biblical teaching each week that the community of Plymouth grew together, solving their problems and strengthening each other by mutual respect and hard work at the local level.

Of Plymouth Plantation is full of Bradford’s praise of God and His many blessings on them. Even though half the original Pilgrims died within the first two years, Bradford saw God’s hand in leading them to this new, free land. Their vision for America was a new kingdom of religious freedom and they were proud to have started the tradition.

*Anyone interested in a complete bibliography of sources I use may email me for that list:  baptist-tours@earthlink.net

1. Bradford, William, Of Plymouth Plantation (New York, Alfred A. Knopf Publisher, 1952), 25.