AMERICA’S REVIVAL TRADITION

THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little leavening leavens the whole lump? Get rid of the old leaven, so that you may be a new batch of

dough, because in reality you are unleavened. For our Passover lamb, the Messiah, has been sacrificed. So let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with

the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

So that he (Messiah) might present himself to the church, having

honor, no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without

defect.

Dear friends, don’t trust every spirit. On the contrary, test the

spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets

have gone out into the world.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,

against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of

wickedness in the heavenly places.

➢ MANY RUSH TO THE

FRONTIER

➢ AMBITION

➢ ADVENTURE

➢ ANARCHY

➢ WILD WEST

➢ MANY RUSH TO THE

COLLEGES

➢ INFLUENCED BY EUROPE

➢ DEISM

➢ NOT INFLUENCED BY FATHERS AND GRANDFATHERS

JUDGES 2:10-11a

▪ HAMPDEN SYDNEY COLLEGE (virginia)

▪ Founded by Princeton Alumni

▪ 0 Professing Christians Among Student Body

▪ Gary Allen/John Blair Smith – Prayer Meetings led to recurring Revival

• YALE

• Timothy Dwight

• Challenged fellow students

over the teaching of Thomas

Paine and others

• PRINCETON

• Ashbel Green

• Students read five pages of Scripture every day

• One out of four graduates went into ministry

MATTHEW 28:18-19

• Present at Hampden

Sydney Revivals

• Present at Hampden

Sydney Revivals

• North Carolina Camp

Meetings

• 3-Day Event

• Communion

• Unchurched

• Moves West

• Red River

• Gasper River

• Muddy River

• ADVERTISES FOUR MONTHS

FOR OCTOBER CAMP MEETING,

1801

• EXPECTS PERHAPS AS MUCH AS

A COUPLE THOUSAND

• REACHES OUT TO OTHER

PASTORS

• RERSERVES THE CHURCH

BUILDING FOR COMMUNION

• DAY ONE, UNEVENTFUL

• DAY TWO, THOUSANDS

SHOW UP

• SET UP TENT CAMPS

• METHODISTS IMPATIENT,

BEGIN PREACHING

OUTSIDE

• CROWDS BEGIN CRYING

OUT, CONFESSING,

CALLING OUT FOR

SALVATION AND

FORGIVENESS

• PREACHING, PRAYING,

SINGING CONTINUE FOR

A WEEK

▪ Reports and Fame of Cane Ridge quickly spread across the country

▪ Camp Meetings become very popular

▪ “Make this Revival like Cane Ridge”

▪ Like an Earthquake

▪ Revivals in the East were tremors

▪ Cane Ridge was the epicenter

▪ Aftershocks continue for a century

▪ Stone would reject Denominationalism, leave the Presbyterian Church▪ Followers would call themselves simply “Christian”

▪ Called for “Restoration” to 1st Century Worship, no creeds but the Bible

▪ Focus was on conversion, unity.

▪ Separate movement in Virginia and Pennsylvania through Thomas Campbell and son Alexander also rejected Denominationalism▪ Followers would call themselves simply “Disciples”

▪ Also called for Restoration

▪ Two movements merged, became “Restoration Movement”

▪ Key Principles▪ Christianity should not be divided, Christ intended one church

▪ Creeds divide, Bible should be creed

▪ Church Traditions divide, traditions should be 1st century only

▪ THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST ON EARTH IS ESSENTIALLY, INTENTIONALLY, AND CONSTITUTIONALLY ONE

▪ NO CREEDS BUT CHRIST, NO BOOK BUT THE BIBLE, NO LAW BUT LOVE, NO NAME BUT THE DIVINE

▪ WHERE THE SCRIPTURES SPEAK, WE SPEAK; WHERE THE SCRIPTURES ARE SILENT, WE ARE SILENT

▪ IN ESSENTIALS, UNITY; IN OPINIONS, LIBERTY; IN ALL THINGS LOVE

• PREACHED IN THE

BURNED OVER DISTRICT

OF WESTERN NEW YORK

• GIFTED PREACHER,

VERY POPULAR TO

LISTEN TO

• HE DIDN’T SEE ANY

REACTION FROM THE

CROWDS TO HIS

PREACHING

• LOOKING FOR CANE

RIDGE STYLE IMPACT

At Evans Mills, he was troubled that the congregations continuously said they were "pleased" with his sermons. He set about to make his message less pleasing and more productive. At the end of his sermon, which stressed the need for conversion, he took a bold step:

"You who have made up your minds to become Christians, and will give your pledge to make your peace with God immediately, should rise up.“ The entire congregation, having never heard such a challenge, remained in their seats.

"You have taken your stand," he said. "You have rejected Christ and his gospel." The congregation was dismissed, and many left angry.

The next evening, Finney preached on wickedness, his voice like "a fire … a hammer … [and] a sword." But he offered no chance to respond. The next night, the entire town turned out, including a man so angry with Finney that he brought a gun and intending to kill the evangelist. But that night, Finney again offered congregants a chance to publicly declare their faith. The church erupted—dozens stood up to give their pledge, while others fell down, groaned, and bellowed. The evangelist continued to speak for several nights, visiting the new converts at their homes and on the streets.

▪ Finney now has his Cane Ridge Impact

▪ He continues to get bolder and bolder in accusing the people of being unconverted – calling out their sin publicly was common

▪ His techniques were long meetings, long nights, long prayers, and very emotional

▪ Set conversion goals for each meeting and continued until he passed those goals

▪ His model of revival preaching became the standard across the West and for the next century and a half – inspired many famous evangelists:▪ Billy Sunday

▪ Oral Roberts

▪ A.A. Allen

▪ Billy Graham

▪ Jimmy Swaggart and more

• WILLIAM MILLER

• BAPTIST LAY PREACHER

• BROUGHT ESCHATOLOGY TO

THE FOREFRONT OF CHURCH

AWARENESS

• BELIEVED THAT THE ADVENT

WOULD OCCUR IN 1843-1844

• THE GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT

• SOME REJECTED CHRIST ALTOGETHER

• SOME ADJUSTED THEOLOGY TO COMPENSATE

• SOME JUST IGNORED THE DATES BUT KEPT THE TEACHING

▪ Fulton Street Church in New York City saw a steep decline in church attendance

▪ Sent Jeremiah Lanpher to reach the unchurched in the city

▪ Lanpher organized a prayer meeting at noon, but no one showed up so he started praying

▪ While praying three people came in to join him

▪ Next week the room filled up. Then two rooms, three, etc.

▪ Concept spread to all parts of the city

▪ Many factories would release employees for lunch so they could rush to a nearby meeting during their lunch breaks

▪ Why pray for one hour?

MATTHEW 26:40

The editor of the Herald Tribune was looking out of his window at a few minutes before twelve and he was shocked to see men running from their places of business, bumping into one another and within a minute they all disappeared into churches. And he said what's going on? So he sent a reporter down to see what it was and he said, 'they are all praying.’

The next day he got all of his reporters together, put them on horses to cover the whole city. They came and said there must be fifteen thousand people. So he began to write stories, and then before you know it, there were twenty-five thousand. The more stories he wrote the bigger the meeting got. And he put them on horse to cover the whole city and they came back and they said there must be about forty thousand men praying through the lunch hour. What's happening here? Because New York was center of the world at that time, all over America, in Cleveland, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, people would read the New York papers and then revival began to break out.

▪ Cbn.com

AMERICA’S REVIVAL TRADITION

THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY

▪ The Gospel is spread across the Continent

▪ Sin is contained – not eliminated, only limited

▪ Literacy and the emergence of magazines

▪ Missions

▪ The NFL

▪ Athletic Clubs

▪ Youth Organizations

▪ Anti-Slavery Movement

▪ Focus on Eschatology

THE BAD

Recall AftershocksRestoration Movement

Finney and Emotional Conversion

Millerites and End Time Focus

▪ From the Autobiography of James Finley:

“The noise was like the roar of Niagara. The vast sea of human beings seemed to be agitated as if by a storm. I counted seven ministers, all preaching at one time, some on stumps, others in wagons …

“Some of the people were singing, others praying, some crying for mercy in the most piteous accents, while others were shouting most vociferously. While witnessing these scenes, a peculiarly – strange sensation, such as I never felt before, came over me. My heart beat tumultuously, my knees trembled, my lip quivered, and I felt as thought I must fall to the ground. A strange supernatural power seemed to pervade the entire mass of mind collected there … I stepped up on to the log, where I could have a better view of the surging sea of humanity. At one time I saw at least five hundred swept down in a moment, as if a battery of a thousand guns had been opened upon them, and the immediately followed by shrieks and shouts that rent the very heavens.”

But by afternoon, the preaching was continual, from both the meetinghouse and the tent. One wild, young minister, Richard McNemar, proclaimed in ecstacy a “true new gospel,” an expression that startled some ministers but fascinated the crowds. Excitement mounted, and amid smoke and sweat, the camp erupted in noise: the cries and shouts of the penitent, the crying of babies, the shrieking of children, and the neighing of horses.

Then the tumultuous bodily “exercises” began. Along with the shouting and crying, some began falling. Some experienced only weakened knees or a light head (including Governor James Garrard). Others fell but remained conscious or talkative; a few fell into a deep coma, displaying the symptoms of a grand mal seizure or a type of hysteria. Though only a minority fell, some parts of the grounds were strewn like a battlefield.

Then something even more strange occurred, later to be called “the jerks.” One witness described those afflicted: “Their heads would jerk back suddenly, frequently causing them to yelp, or make some other involuntary noise. ... Sometimes the head would fly every way so quickly that their features could not be recognized. I have seen their heads fly back and forward so quickly that the hair of females would be made to crack like a carriage whip, but not very loud.”

MATTHEW 7:15-16a

▪ “DURING TEN YEARS, HUNDREDS, AND PERHAPS THOUSANDS, WERE ANNUALLY REPORTED TO BE CONVERTED ON ALL HANDS; BUT NOW IT IS ADMITTED, THAT HIS (FINNEY’S) REAL CONVERTS ARE COMPARATIVELY FEW. IT IS DECLARED, EVEN BY HIMSELF, THAT ‘THE GREAT BODY OF THEM ARE A DISGRACE TO RELIGION’”. James Boyle, 1834

▪ “WHAT WAS THEIR CONDITION WITHIN THREE MONTHS AFTER WE LEFT THEM? I HAVE VISITED AND REVISTED MANY OF THESE FIELDS, AND GROANED IN SPIRIT TO SEE THE SAD, FRIGID, CARNAL, CONTENTIOUS STATE INTO WHICH THE CHURCHES HAVE FALLEN.” Asa Mahan, Oberlin College

▪ “EVERYONE WHO WAS CONCERNED IN THESE REVIVALS SUFFERED A SAD SUBSEQUENT LAPS. THE PEOPLE WERE LEFT LIKE A DEAD COAL WHICH COULDN NOT BE RE-IGNITED.” BB Warfield, 1835

2 TIMOTHY 3:16

▪RESTORE FAITH TO A PURE CHURCH?

▪But don’t use the foundation of Scripture to define what a pure church is?

▪FOCUS ON END TIME THEOLOGY?

▪But insist that the end time only comes when the world converts to your pure church?

▪RELY ON THE SPIRIT TO LEAD YOU?

▪But don’t care which spirit it is so long as your experience happens?

MORMONISM

JEHOVAH’S WITNESS

NEW THOUGHT MOVEMENT

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

THEOSOPHY

▪JOSEPH SMITH

▪A DIVINER WHO USED DIVINATION WITH HIS HAT AND WATER TO FIND GOLD

▪AND GOLD PLATES!

▪FOCUSED ON AN END TIME THAT COMES WHEN THE MORMON CHURCH OVERTAKES THE WORLD

▪THE CHURCH IS CORRUPTED, ONLY THE PURE CHURCH OF MORMONISM IS LEGIT

Everything I am commanding you, you are to take care to do. Do not add to it or subtract from it.

If a prophet or someone who gets messages while dreaming arises among you and he gives you a sign or wonder, and the sign or wonder comes about as he predicted when he said, ‘Let’s follow other gods, which you have not known; and let us serve them,’ you are not to listen to what that prophet or dreamer says. For YHWH your Elohim is testing you, in order to find out whether you really do love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and being. You are to follow YHWH your Elohim, fear him, obey his Commandments, listen to what he says, serve him and cling to him

Dear friends, don’t trust every spirit. On the contrary, test the

spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets

have gone out into the world.

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little leavening leavens the whole lump? Get rid of the old leaven, so that you may be a new batch of

dough, because in reality you are unleavened. For our Passover lamb, the Messiah, has been sacrificed. So let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with

the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,

against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of

wickedness in the heavenly places.

AMERICA’S REVIVAL TRADITION

THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY