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29 min read
by Randall McElwain
By the end of this lesson, the student should:
(1) Understand how the Enlightenment replaced godly wisdom with human reason.
(2) See the fruit of Enlightenment philosophy in the French Revolution.
(3) Trace the strengths and weaknesses of the Pietistic response to Rationalism.
(4) Appreciate the missionary influence of the Moravians.
(5) Recognize the impact of the Methodist Revival and the Great Awakening in England and America.
In this lesson, we will look at the period of history that begins with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 and ends with the French Revolution in 1789. We will look at two contrasting developments.
First, man’s reason was the final authority for many people. This period is often called the “Enlightenment” or the “Age of Reason.” However, a more appropriate name is the “Age of Rationalism.” Christians have always valued reason, but during the Enlightenment, reason became the only authority for many people.
The Age of Rationalism gave birth to secularization, a philosophy that denies God or, at least, assumes that his existence is unimportant. By substituting human reason for God’s wisdom, Enlightenment philosophers laid the foundation for the social chaos that swept Europe at the end of the nineteenth century, for the totalitarian governments of the twentieth century, and for much of the despair that continues to affect the world of the twenty-first century.
Second, during these years, revival swept England and the American colonies. As a result of this revival, the modern missionary movement was born, British and American society was transformed, and personal spiritual vitality was renewed.
| Date (A.D.) | Event |
|---|---|
| 1648 | End of Thirty Years War |
| 18th century | The Enlightenment |
| 1720s-1740s | The Great Awakening |
| 1738 | John Wesley’s Aldersgate Experience |
| 1784 | Methodist Conference Formed |
| 1789 | French Revolution |
Shortly before his death, Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter in which he described his religious beliefs. Franklin did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God, but he concluded, “I see no harm in [Christian belief] if that belief has good consequences.” For Franklin, the truth of Christianity was not important; as long as Christianity caused people to behave better, it was good.
Benjamin Franklin represents the spirit of rationalism and the Enlightenment. Many philosophers in the Enlightenment either denied God’s existence (atheism) or assumed that God has no real involvement in our daily life (deism). Either belief made God unimportant in human life.
During the Middle Ages and Reformation, reason was important. However, revelation was the final authority. The Reformers showed that Scripture is God’s authoritative revelation. Reason helped the Reformers understand God’s truth; it did not contradict God’s truth.
During the Enlightenment, this balance changed. Reason replaced faith as the final authority. Christianity is fine, Benjamin Franklin said, because it improves our behavior and quality of life. To Enlightenment thinkers, Christianity was not about a cross, discipleship, and submission to God’s authority; Christianity was a tool for improving your quality of life in this world.
Roots in the Renaissance (1300-1700)
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, interest in the study of Scripture was paralleled by a new interest in the writings of the ancient Greeks. Erasmus, who reintroduced the Greek New Testament, also reintroduced the study of the Greek classics.
This period of history is called the “Renaissance.” The name “Renaissance” means “rebirth.” It does not refer to specific dates; it refers to a way of thinking or a philosophical movement. These centuries saw a rebirth of interest in ancient philosophy and literature.
The Renaissance and Reformation movements both occurred during the same period of time, but they had two very different views of man. The Reformers saw humanity as fallen; his greatest need was God’s grace. Renaissance philosophers saw humanity as full of unlimited potential; his greatest need was education.
For Renaissance thinkers, man is the final authority. Descartes (1596-1650) personifies this approach. In order to find what is undeniably true, Descartes decided to doubt everything. However, he could not doubt his own existence. Starting from that truth, he then reasoned to all other truths, including the existence of God.
Descartes arrived at the truth that God exists, but his way of arriving at this conclusion was much different than the Reformers. For the Reformers, God’s Word was the final authority; for Descartes and other Renaissance thinkers, God’s Word had to be confirmed by human reason. This marked a new view of authority. Man’s reason, not God’s revelation, became the final authority. This new understanding laid the foundation for later philosophers who denied God’s Word.
The Enlightenment (1650-1800)
In the late seventeenth century, Isaac Newton published a treatise explaining gravity as the basic principle of motion in the universe. Newton’s research unleashed a century of scientific progress. There were two responses to Newton’s discoveries and this new world of science.
Believers responded to Newton’s discoveries by trying to harmonize reason and faith. Christians understood that God has spoken in two ways: the Bible and nature. Nature is a source of God’s revelation. The Psalmist wrote, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” However, God’s Word is the ultimate revelation. The Psalmist continued, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.”[1]
While Christians valued both faith and reason, skeptics appealed to reason alone as the source for truth. Skeptics decided, “If we can understand nature through human reason, we no longer need the Bible.” For enlightenment thinkers, Scripture was no longer important; reason alone was sufficient for truth.
The earliest Enlightenment philosophers continued to profess Christian faith, but they accepted it only as far as it could be proven by human reason. For example, one of the most important Enlightenment thinkers was John Locke (1632-1704). Locke never denied Christianity; but since he limited Christianity to principles that could be proven by human reason apart from revelation, he laid the foundation for the next generation to deny Christianity itself.
By the eighteenth century, French deists taught that even if God exists, he is not the God revealed in Scripture. Deists portrayed God as a “watchmaker” who created the world and then left it to operate on its own. They claimed that the miracles recorded in Scripture (including the resurrection) were later distortions invented by human writers. Scripture was no longer seen as the revelation of God.
Led by Voltaire (1694-1778), deists sought to replace biblical revelation with human reason. After an earthquake destroyed most of Lisbon in 1755, Voltaire wrote Candide, a novel in which he mocked belief in the God that is revealed in the Bible. The deists insisted that God created the world and then left it to govern itself.
Enlightenment philosophers claimed to be seeking “truth.” However, they defined truth in a way that denied Christian doctrine from the start. They insisted that “truth” must be verified and proved by human standards apart from God.
For instance, the Scottish philosopher, David Hume (1711-1776) rejected belief in miracles. He claimed that since we cannot prove that the New Testament miracles happened, it is unreasonable to believe them. Scripture was no longer sufficient authority. Biblical revelation was denied as sufficient evidence for any belief; even historical support for the resurrection was ignored.
In effect, the Enlightenment assumed that Scripture was unreliable and then refused to consider any historical evidence in support of Scripture. They believed that a person’s religious beliefs were entirely personal. Faith was not allowed to affect one’s public actions. There was a strict wall between private faith and public “reason.”
…From Then to Now…
The ideas of the Enlightenment are still popular. Many people accept the Enlightenment principle that “private faith should not affect public behavior.” For example:
► In your society, how much respect is given to the authority of the Bible? In your society, how are religious faith and public life separated? Are the ideas of the Enlightenment still affecting your culture? As Christians, how can you respond to these ideas?
The French Revolution (1789)
When man tries to operate his world apart from God, the result is chaos. In the Enlightenment, men like Voltaire and David Hume tried to create a world in which God had no place. They created a world in which mankind operates apart from God’s law.
What were the results of their philosophy? The fruits of the Enlightenment can be seen in the 1789 French Revolution. On July 14, 1789, a mob gathered outside the Bastille prison in Paris. The leaders of the Revolution told the mob that this prison held patriots who had been arrested for defending liberty.
Rather than risking losing the lives of his soldiers, the governor of the Bastille agreed to surrender the prison if he and his 110 soldiers were allowed to withdraw safely. Instead, the mob killed the governor and opened the doors to the dungeon. There they found the truth. The prison held seven prisoners; five ordinary criminals and two men who were insane. There were no patriots held in the Bastille.
The “storming of the Bastille” shows the failure of the French Revolution. Coming ten years after the American Revolution, many people hoped that the French Revolution would bring similar freedom to France. Instead, the Reign of Terror resulted in 40,000 deaths.
The leaders of the French Revolution were bitter opponents of Christianity. More than 30,000 priests were forced into hiding, a new calendar removed all religious references, churches were converted into “Temples of Reason,” and the altar of the Cathedral of Notre Dame was turned into a throne for an actress dressed as the “Goddess of Reason.”
In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the Revolution and, in 1804, declared himself Emperor. The Revolution had failed.
What happened? One reason for the failure of the French Revolution is that it was grounded not on biblical respect for human rights, but on an Enlightenment philosophy that ignored God. The French Revolution was built on the glorification of man rather than of God; it shows the failure of Enlightenment rationalism.
[1] Psalm 19:1, 7
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Christians had to decide on their response to the challenges of rationalism. How would Christians maintain their faith in the face of philosophers and thinkers who insisted that Christianity was a myth?
The response of a group called the Pietists was to emphasize personal faith. They emphasized a “religion of the heart” more than organized church structures and intellectual questions. German Pietism developed in response to two problems:
Philip Jacob Spener (1635-1705)
Philip Jacob Spener was a Lutheran pastor in Frankfort, Germany. When he found that few professed Christians in this city lived godly lives, he began to preach sermons on repentance and discipleship. As they listened to his messages on the Sermon on the Mount, many church members were converted for the first time. Although they had professed to be Christians, they had never known the reality of the new birth.
These new converts began to meet at Spener’s home for weekly Bible study. People mocked these meetings as “gatherings of the pious,” and called those who attended “Pietists.” This was the beginnings of Pietism.
Spener proposed six areas for reform. These became the primary emphases of the Pietist movement. Spener proposed:
As you can see, many of these concerns were a return to the earlier themes of Luther. The Pietists sought to bring Lutheranism back to an authentic spiritual emphasis.
August Hermann Francke (1663-1727)
As part of his reform efforts, Philip Spener helped found the University of Halle, near Berlin. This university was started to show how Pietism could be put into practice in the training of ministers.
In 1691, August Francke was appointed professor of Hebrew and theology at the University of Halle. Francke became a leader in the Pietist movement and continued the promote the message of personal conversion and discipleship that Philip Spener had preached. He taught at the University and pastored a church in the town, making the city of Halle a center of Pietism.
Like later evangelicals, Francke sought to live his faith in practical ways. He started a school for the poor, built an orphanage and hospital, built homes for widows, and organized a Bible printing company. In 1705, one of Francke’s followers, Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg, became the first Protestant missionary to India.
Count von Zinzendorf[2] (1700-1760) and the Moravians
The Moravians trace their history to the Bohemian Brethren, followers of Jan Hus. The Moravians were often persecuted and had to flee from their homes in Bohemia. In 1732, a group of Moravians asked Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf for protection.
Zinzendorf grew up in a Pietist family in Halle, under the influence of August Francke. He was expected to serve in government like his father, but soon left his position and bought an estate. This estate became the home of the Moravians. Zinzendorf soon became a leader in this community called Herrnhut, which means “The Lord’s Watch.”
The initial group of ten refugees at Herrnhut grew to more than 300 within a few years. These believers sought to live simple, godly lives. Like John Wesley in the next generation and Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the twentieth century, Zinzendorf insisted that holy lives must be lived in the context of other believers. He said, “There can be no Christianity without community.” Similarly, John Wesley would later say, “All holiness is social holiness.” Christians live as part of a body.
Several characteristics marked the Moravians:
The Moravians shared the Pietists’ commitment to true conversion of the heart. Like the Pietists, Moravians valued personal experience over creedal statements.
The Moravians put great emphasis on prayer. On May 12, 1727 the Moravians experienced an outpouring of the Holy Spirit during a Wednesday prayer meeting. In August, they began a twenty-four hour prayer vigil that continued for more than one hundred years. Within six months after this, twenty-six young Moravians had volunteered for missionary service – in a time when foreign missions were almost unknown among Protestants.
As we study the spread of global missions during the late eighteenth century, remember that the Moravian prayer meeting was continuing throughout these years. World missions grew out of prayer.
The Moravians were the most mission minded Christians of the middle eighteenth century. Some of the earliest Protestant missions were sent by the Moravians.
[1] This list is adapted from Mark Noll, Turning Points, (MI: Baker Academic, 2012), 224-225.
[2]“I have only one passion.
It is he, none but he.”
- Count Zinzendorf
In 1731, Count Zinzendorf attended the coronation of King Christian VI of Denmark. There he met two native Greenlanders and an African slave from the West Indies. These converts told of hearing the name of Christ for the first time and asked for missionaries to their homelands. The following year, the Moravians sent two missionaries to the Virgin Islands.
This was the beginning of the first large-scale Protestant missionary effort. During the eighteenth century, Moravians sent more than 300 missionaries to the Caribbean, Greenland, Africa, Ceylon, Algeria, and South America.
Moravians were drawn largely from the working class, particularly tradesmen. (The first two missionaries to the Virgin Islands were Leonard Potter, a potter, and David Nitschmann, a carpenter.) Like the Apostle Paul, Moravian missionaries went as “tentmakers” who supported themselves. They then taught their trades to native converts. Moravian missionaries served both the spiritual and the economic needs of the people to whom they ministered.
Moravian missionary efforts include:
1733 – A mission to Greenland.
1736 – A mission among the Nenets people in northern Russia.
1738 – George Schmidt worked among the Khoikhoi people in South Africa.
1740 – David Zeisberger worked among the Creek people of Georgia in America.
1771 – Moravians established a mission to the Eskimos of Labrador.
The Moravians believed that every Christian was an evangelist; they did not limit evangelism to a special group. They made little distinction between those who witnessed at home and those who witnessed abroad. Every believer was expected to fulfill the Great Commission. One historian said that so many Moravians went to the mission field that it “never creates surprise.”[1] Some studies estimate that one of every sixty Moravians served as a missionary.[2]
The Moravian commitment to missions came at great cost. Nine of the first eighteen Moravian missionaries sent to St. Thomas died within six months. Seventy-five of 160 missionaries to Guyana died from tropical fever and poisoning. This pattern was not unusual. Moravians willingly gave their lives for the cause of the gospel.
[1] A.C. Thompson, quoted in Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne, editors, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (CA: William Carey Library, 1999), 275
[2] Ruth A. Tucker, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 97-113
The Impact of Pietism
Although it was a German movement, Pietism had a worldwide impact. Through John Wesley and George Whitefield, Pietism had an important influence on the later evangelical church. Among the contributions of the Pietists are:
Perhaps the greatest danger for Pietism was an emphasis on emotion to the exclusion of reason. Pietists rarely confronted the spread of secularism; instead, they focused on personal faith while ignoring the changing world around them. Later evangelicals sometimes followed the same tendency and failed to relate the message of the gospel to the world in which they lived.
At its best, the Pietistic emphasis on “religion of the heart” influenced John Wesley’s message of personal conversion and assurance. At its worst, the Pietistic emphasis on emotion separated rational understanding of doctrine from personal experience.
In the nineteenth century, the liberal German theologian Schleiermacher argued that religion is pure feeling, with no historical or theological basis. This became known as “romantic theology.” Schleiermacher used the arguments of the Pietists to support his teaching, although the Pietists would not have agreed with his conclusions. According to romantic theology, religion is not primarily a matter of doctrinal orthodoxy or right behavior. Instead, religion is primarily a “feeling” of dependence on God. According to the romantic theologians, it does not matter if the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is historically true; all that matters is the feelings that this story creates in the believer. This shows the danger of separating doctrine from experience.
► Earlier in this lesson, I asked you to discuss the impact of Enlightenment ideas on your culture. Now, discuss your response to these ideas. What are some benefits of the Pietist response to rationalism? What are some dangers?
In the seventeenth century, Puritans attempted national reform through the political process. In England and in the American colonies, Puritans attempted to create a “holy commonwealth.” Eighteenth century evangelicals shared many of the doctrinal beliefs of the Puritans (the sinfulness of man, the atoning death of Christ, salvation by grace), but not their focus on political involvement. Evangelicals did not avoid politics to the degree of the Pietists, but their primary focus was conversion of the lost. The birth of evangelicalism is seen in the Great Awakening in the colonies and the Methodist revival in England.
The Great Awakening in America
In the 1630s, approximately 20,000 Puritans emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony from Europe. The Puritans sought to establish a Christian political system. Civil covenants established laws based on biblical principles. Only church members were allowed to vote.
Many second generation Puritans could not give testimony to a definite conversion. In 1662, the churches implemented a “Half-Way Covenant” that allowed partial membership to those who could not testify to conversion. This allowed the unconverted to participate in civic affairs. By 1691, church membership was no longer required for voters. There were now two types of Puritans: “spiritual Puritans” who served God faithfully and “worldly Puritans” who maintained civic and social order but did not testify to a spiritual experience.
In 1720, a Dutch Reformed minister, Theodore J. Frelinghuysen, began to preach revival messages in New Jersey. Churches in New Jersey began to experience a new move of the Holy Spirit. Soon, a small school in New Jersey (called a “Log College” by skeptical academics) started by William Tennent began to graduate preachers committed to revival.[1] The revival soon spread to Presbyterian and Baptist congregations throughout Virginia and the Carolinas.
A few years later, in 1734, Northampton, Massachusetts, began to experience revival under the preaching of Jonathan Edwards. Though Edwards was not a powerful speaker, God used him to spread revival through New England. After a series of sermons in which Edwards warned about “spiritual dullness” among church members, God began to bring revival to New England.
In the months between John Wesley’s Aldersgate experience and the beginnings of his field preaching, he read Jonathan Edwards’ account of the New England revival. This report (A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God) had a great influence on Wesley. He became hungry to see the same movement of God in England. The Great Awakening in America had an impact on the Methodist Revival in England.
Then in 1739, George Whitefield traveled to America where thousands heard his outdoor preaching. Whitefield preached from Georgia in the south to New York in the north. He preached in Jonathan Edwards’ town of Northampton and inspired Edwards to visit other towns with the revival message. By 1741, much of New England was moved by revival.
The effects of the revival were remarkable. At least 30,000 members were added to churches in the colonies between 1740 and 1742. Nine colleges were established to train ministers. The frontier was evangelized. The roots of nineteenth century missions were laid through early missionary outreaches to the Native Americans.
The Methodist Revival in England
The eighteenth century Church of England was a church in dire need of revival. By then, the Church of England had regained political power from the Puritans. Other churches (Baptists, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians) needed a special license to hold worship services. Only Anglicans could hold political office. Politically, the Church of England was strong; spiritually, it was empty.[2]
The Anglican Church was divided into two parties. The Calvinist wing saw no need to preach the gospel outside the walls of the church since God had sovereignly elected those who would be saved. The Arminian wing had twisted the doctrine of Arminius into a Pelagian teaching of salvation through good works and moral effort.
Deism influenced the church until little or no gospel was preached in most Anglican churches. “Latitudinarians” stressed proper behavior and courteous conduct, but they expected no heart change. They denounced “enthusiasm,” a term that meant fanaticism. Many Anglicans considered any emotional expression in worship or even personal assurance of salvation as fanaticism.
Although the Wesleys grew up in the Anglican church, attended Oxford, and were ordained in the Church of England, their assurance of faith in 1738 transformed their preaching. John and Charles, along with George Whitefield, another member of the Holy Club at Oxford, began to preach justification by faith and the assurance of salvation.
In 1739, Whitefield began preaching in the open fields near Bristol. He soon convinced John Wesley to follow him. Wesley, who at first believed that preaching should be done only in a proper church building, was astounded by the reaction of these coal miners who rarely entered a church building. For the rest of his life, John preached throughout the British Isles. He travelled an estimated 250,000 miles on horseback and preached 40,000 sermons (more than twice a day for fifty years).[3]
Neither John nor Charles Wesley planned to start churches separate from the Church of England. However, their lower class converts found that they were unwelcome in their local Anglican parish churches. The Methodist societies became their spiritual home.
With increasing numbers of converts, John Wesley needed spiritual leaders for the societies. He began to appoint “lay preachers” to guide the societies. By 1744 (only five years after the beginning of the revival), there were enough societies that Wesley found it necessary to establish an Annual Conference to guide the movement. Like the Pietist movement within the German Lutheran Church, the Methodists became a “church within the Anglican Church.”
The separation between the British Methodists and the Anglican Church was speeded by the growth of Methodism in America. In 1771, Wesley asked the Annual Conference for volunteers to minister in America. Francis Asbury, a twenty-six year old Methodist preacher volunteered. When he arrived in Philadelphia, there were 600 Methodists in America. In 1784, with English bishops refusing to ordain ministers for American churches, Wesley appointed Thomas Coke as “Superintendent” of the American Methodists. With this, the Methodist Church in America became a new denomination.
The growth of the American Methodist church encouraged greater separation between the Church of England and the Methodists. By 1795, four years after the death of John Wesley, the Wesleyan Methodist church had separated from the Church of England.
By Wesley’s death in 1791, there were 79,000 Methodists in England and 40,000 in North America. By Asbury’s death in 1816, the American Methodist Church had grown to 200,000 members; in forty-five years, Asbury ordained 4,000 Methodist ministers. Today, approximately eighty million Christians trace their theological roots to the Methodist movement.
…From Then to Now…
► The field preaching of the Wesleys was based on their passion for evangelizing the lost. The Methodist societies were based on their conviction that only through careful discipleship would the fruit of evangelistic efforts be preserved. Evaluate your ministry today. Do you pay attention to both of these aspects? Are you winning the lost to Christ? Are you discipling new believers and bringing them to maturity? If either area is weak, discuss ways to strengthen your ministry.
[1] “Log College” later became Princeton University.
[2] The terms Church of England and Anglican Church both refer to the state church of England.
[3]“I look upon all the world as my parish.”
- John Wesley
John (1703-1791) and Charles (1707-1789) Wesley were sons of Samuel and Susanna Wesley. Samuel was an Anglican minister; Susanna was a powerful spiritual influence on her ten children who survived infancy.
John .jpg)
[3]
Charles .jpg)
[4]
The brothers were educated at Oxford. As students, they organized a discipleship group for young men seeking spiritual growth. Because of their “methodical” pursuit of spiritual discipline, they were soon nicknamed the “Holy Club” or “Methodists.”
In 1735, John and Charles crossed the Atlantic to minister in the new American colony of Georgia. Neither brother was successful in their mission efforts. Charles had been reluctant to come to Georgia and soon returned home. John stirred up opposition when he insisted on following Anglican liturgical practices in the informal colonial society and returned to England in 1737.
On his way to Georgia, John Wesley met a group of Moravians from Herrnhut. During a severe storm, the Moravians calmly sang hymns. When Wesley asked about their lack of fear, a Moravian assured him that they did not fear death because of their confidence of salvation. Upon his return to England, Wesley began to seek the assurance to which the Moravians testified. Like most eighteenth century Anglicans, the Wesleys assumed that no one could be sure of salvation until death.
Back in London, the brothers began to visit Peter Bohler, a Moravian. Bohler emphasized justification by faith as a personal experience, not simply a doctrinal statement. On Pentecost Sunday 1738, Charles testified to the assurance of faith. Three days later, at a chapel on Aldersgate Street, John “felt his heart strangely warmed.” He testified that “an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
For the next fifty years, the brothers preached the gospel throughout the British Isles. When they were rejected in Anglican pulpits, they followed the example of their colleague George Whitfield and preached in the open air.
Philip Watson summarized the message of the Methodist revival in four statements:[1]
(1) All men need to be saved. – Original Sin. Eighteenth century Anglicans assumed that man was basically good. The Wesleys taught that “all have sinned” and stand condemned before a holy God. This message shocked polite Anglican society. After hearing a Methodist sermon, the Duchess of Buckingham complained, “It is monstrous to be told that you have a heart as sinful as the common wretches that crawl on the earth.”
(2) All men can be saved. – Unlimited Atonement. In response to Calvinists who taught that only the elect can be saved, the Wesleys taught that “whosoever believeth shall have eternal life.”[2]
(3) All men can know they are saved. – Assurance. Eighteenth century Anglicans believed that few people know for certain that they are saved. The most startling aspect of the Wesleyan message may have been the news that a Christian can know they are in right relationship with God.
(4) All men can be saved to the uttermost. – Christian Perfection. To the assumption that God’s call to a holy life can never be achieved in this life, John responded that God’s commands are implied promises. The God who calls us to be holy will make us holy.
This was the core of the Wesleyan message. As this message spread through England, thousands were converted, and English society was transformed. This message was grounded in God’s free grace rather than human achievement, but it recognized man’s responsibility to respond in faith to God’s call.
John was the organizer. His “societies” provided structure for discipleship. Charles was the poet. He wrote more than 6,000 hymns. These hymns spread the Methodist message far beyond the Methodist societies. Christians of many denominations sang Wesley’s message of assurance (“Arise, my soul, arise; shake off thy guilty fears”) and the possibility of a pure heart (“O for a heart to praise my God, a heart from sin set free”).
The message that all men need to be saved, all men can be saved, all men can know they are saved, and all men can be saved to the uttermost is still a powerful revival message in the twenty-first century.
[1] Philip S. Watson, Anatomy of a Conversion: The Message and Mission of John and Charles Wesley (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990).
[2]“And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died he for me, who caused his pain?
For me, who him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be
That thou, my God, should die for me?”
- Charles Wesley
[3]Image: "Bildnis des John Wesley", by John Greenwood, retrieved from the Leipzig University Library https://www.flickr.com/photos/ubleipzig/17059576182/, public domain.
[4]Image: "Charles Wesley", Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru – The National Library of Wales, retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Wesley_(5349088).jpg, public domain.
Lessons from the Revivals in England and America
There are several important lessons that can be drawn from the Great Awakening in America and the Methodist revival in England. These lessons should inspire us as we seek revival in the twenty-first century.
First, these revivals show that God works in very different ways and through very different people to accomplish his purposes. George Whitefield was a powerful speaker who preached without amplification to as many as 30,000 people. He was a gifted orator who held audiences spellbound.
Jonathan Edwards, by contrast, was not a powerful speaker. He read his sermons from a manuscript and often read hesitantly and with little expression. His sermons are dramatic on paper; they were rarely dramatic in person. God used both of these evangelists to spark revival.
John and Charles Wesley were scholars trained at Oxford University; in contrast, graduates of William Tennent’s “Log College” had less academic training. But God used both to spark revival. God worked through anyone who yielded themselves fully to his use.
Second, these revivals show the power of prayer. We have seen the impact of prayer on Moravian missions. This same impact is seen in the revivals in England and America. Whitefield, Edwards, and the Wesleys were men of prayer who sought God earnestly before entering the pulpit. Revival came in response to fervent prayer.
Third, these revivals show the lasting impact of true revival. The French Revolution was the culminating event of the Age of Rationalism. As we saw earlier in this lesson, the French Revolution was a bloodbath led by godless leaders who killed thousands in the name of “liberty.” The result of the French Revolution was a dictatorship led by Napoleon.
The American Revolution, starting twenty-five years after the Great Awakening, took a much different road than the French Revolution. The American Revolution was led by men who either held a deep faith, or at the very least, respected the Christian faith. The result of the American Revolution was a constitution guaranteeing every citizen the freedom to worship without government opposition.
Both America and England avoided the horrors of the French Revolution. Many historians credit the difference to the Great Awakening and the Methodist Revival. These countries may have been spared the horrors of the French Revolution because of the remarkable move of God during the mid-eighteenth century.
While reading this lesson, did you think, “That sounds much like today”? The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have much in common with the 21st century. As in eighteenth century France, twenty-first century “intellectuals” deny the truth of Scripture. They claim that we cannot trust the Bible. However, just as God worked through the Moravians, Methodists, and others to bring revival in the eighteenth century, God can bring revival in our day.
As in the eighteenth century, some Christians today withdraw from the world and seek to separate their personal Christian faith from daily life in the “secular” world. The example of the early Methodists offers a different path, the choice to be salt and light in our world. As the Methodists confronted their world with the gospel, British society was changed. As we confront our world with the gospel, God can change our society. I encourage you to do more than withdraw from your world. Be light; be salt; be a world-changer. In other words, be a disciple.
| Date (A.D.) | Event |
|---|---|
| 1648 | The Treaty of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years War. |
| 1720s-1740s | Great Awakening in the American Colonies. |
| 1733 | Moravian missionary movement begins. |
| 1738 | Beginning of the Methodist revival in England. |
| 1784 | The Methodist Conference is formed. |
| 1789 | The French Revolution begins. |
Asbury, Francis (1745-1816): Methodist bishop sent to America by John Wesley in 1771. After 1784, he and Thomas Coke became joint superintendents of the Methodist Church in America.
Edwards, Jonathan (1703-1758): American theologian and leader in the Great Awakening. He is considered Americaʼs greatest theologian.
Spener, Philip Jacob (1635-1705): German Lutheran whose book, Pia Desideria, became the foundation for the Pietist movement. Founded the University of Halle in 1694 as a center for Pietism and missionary training.
Wesley, Charles (1707-1788): Prolific English hymn-writer (over 6000 hymns), including such favorites as “And Can It Be” and “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.”
Wesley, John (1703-1791): Founder of the Methodist movement and leader of the English evangelical revival.
Whitefield, George (1714-1770): English Calvinist Methodist evangelist whose revivals brought spiritual renewal in both America and England.
Zinzendorf, Count Nicolaus Ludwig von (1700-1760): Leader of the Moravians at Herrnhut. He was concerned with a genuine religion of the heart and was influential in the worldwide missions movement.
(1) Take a test on this lesson. The test will include dates from the “Key Events in Church History” timeline (1648-1789).
(2) Biographical Application: Give 2 specific lessons we can learn from the life of each of the following church leaders. You can share this in your next class session.
(1) The period from 1684 to 1789 can be called the Age of Rationalism or the ___________________.
(2) ___________ assumes that God created the world and then left it to operate on its own.
(3) The leader of the French Deists was ____________________.
(4) The culminating failure of the Age of Rationalism was the _____________________ in 1789.
(5) The ___________________ movement within German Lutheranism was a response to empty orthodoxy in the official Lutheran church.
(6) Count ________________ became the leader of the Moravians in the eighteenth century.
(7) The Latitudinarians in the Church of England emphasized proper ______________ and opposed “enthusiasm,” or emotion in worship and preaching.
(8) The three leaders of the English Evangelical Revival were John and Charles Wesley and their friend __________________________.
(9) The four statements that sum up the message of the Methodist revival are:
(10) The leader of the Great Awakening in Northampton, Massachusetts, was ____________.
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