The Great Awakening
Awakening for what? Awakening to what?
What was the Great Awakening? It was a pivotal movement in American history. It was a religious revival that occurred in America and other parts of the world that specifically sparked a growth in American Christianity and a strength that helped tremendously lead to the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary war. It is part of our religious heritage...
Oops. I am not supposed to use those two words together in reference to American history. Our Religious Heritage. Yes we do have one. And it is a strong one. It is strong despite the efforts of many to erase, alter, or demean it.
The Great Awakening is a momentous moment in our history in which is being forgotten and discredited in our history circles today. This 'forgetfulness' is part of the “Great Revision” of our American history.
So what was this Great Awakening? Iconic preachers such as George Whitfield and Jonathan Edwards... Now before you go pointing at Jonathan Edwards saying “Sinners in the hand of an angry God” - “Fire and Brimstone!” That was merely one of an overabundance of sermons that one man of the revival gave, it is mis-interpreted too often to count, and it was an exception, not the rule for sermons of that time period.
The revival focused on independence in relationship with God, in other words, that laymen had the capacity and right to interpret the word of God for themselves. This brave new courage ennobled many to separate from strict denominational lines and many new denominations were created during this time. This laid stepping stones to the freedom that was sought during the Revolutionary war.
The revival brought the people of America away from the strict “orthodox” denominations where bishops or the King or the priests were the only ones able to interpret the Holy Scriptures. The asinine attempt to claim the Founding Fathers to be deists and atheists comes from a misunderstanding of this stage in our history. Every single quote by the Founding Fathers “against Christianity” was an attack on the church, in particular the Church of England and in general the more stringent “orthodox” churches, NOT Christianity itself.
Our text books say a lot of things about the Great Awakening. Things such as “It was a response to the Enlightenment” and “It was in fear of the lack of church membership so they began to scare people into the church”. I am sorry, but this is more than severely misleading. It simply is a flat-out lie.
Scare tactics were not in any way pursued, indeed the revival turned people away from specific church doors and spurred the creation of numerous completely new denominations. It was about religious freedom, not religious feardom.
The Enlightenment did not cause the lack of interest, the Enlightenment was not all godless, only some of it was. Look at the Founding Fathers and you will see that they leaned heavily on enlightenment philosophers, but only so far as they relied upon Christian precepts. They despised and reviled enlightenment thinkers who rejected Jesus Christ. The lack of interest in church was due to persecution of smaller denominations by the larger State-owned Churches (or Church-owned States). The Enlightenment and the Great Awakening worked Hand-In-Hand to build the scaffolding that led to our great Revolution.
There is much history here. A forgotten history. For those who have not forgotten, revised. This is Our history! Leave it be! Speak the truth or get out of the way. It is our American Heritage!
Jared Williams
What was the Great Awakening? It was a pivotal movement in American history. It was a religious revival that occurred in America and other parts of the world that specifically sparked a growth in American Christianity and a strength that helped tremendously lead to the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary war. It is part of our religious heritage...
Oops. I am not supposed to use those two words together in reference to American history. Our Religious Heritage. Yes we do have one. And it is a strong one. It is strong despite the efforts of many to erase, alter, or demean it.
The Great Awakening is a momentous moment in our history in which is being forgotten and discredited in our history circles today. This 'forgetfulness' is part of the “Great Revision” of our American history.
So what was this Great Awakening? Iconic preachers such as George Whitfield and Jonathan Edwards... Now before you go pointing at Jonathan Edwards saying “Sinners in the hand of an angry God” - “Fire and Brimstone!” That was merely one of an overabundance of sermons that one man of the revival gave, it is mis-interpreted too often to count, and it was an exception, not the rule for sermons of that time period.
The revival focused on independence in relationship with God, in other words, that laymen had the capacity and right to interpret the word of God for themselves. This brave new courage ennobled many to separate from strict denominational lines and many new denominations were created during this time. This laid stepping stones to the freedom that was sought during the Revolutionary war.
The revival brought the people of America away from the strict “orthodox” denominations where bishops or the King or the priests were the only ones able to interpret the Holy Scriptures. The asinine attempt to claim the Founding Fathers to be deists and atheists comes from a misunderstanding of this stage in our history. Every single quote by the Founding Fathers “against Christianity” was an attack on the church, in particular the Church of England and in general the more stringent “orthodox” churches, NOT Christianity itself.
Our text books say a lot of things about the Great Awakening. Things such as “It was a response to the Enlightenment” and “It was in fear of the lack of church membership so they began to scare people into the church”. I am sorry, but this is more than severely misleading. It simply is a flat-out lie.
Scare tactics were not in any way pursued, indeed the revival turned people away from specific church doors and spurred the creation of numerous completely new denominations. It was about religious freedom, not religious feardom.
The Enlightenment did not cause the lack of interest, the Enlightenment was not all godless, only some of it was. Look at the Founding Fathers and you will see that they leaned heavily on enlightenment philosophers, but only so far as they relied upon Christian precepts. They despised and reviled enlightenment thinkers who rejected Jesus Christ. The lack of interest in church was due to persecution of smaller denominations by the larger State-owned Churches (or Church-owned States). The Enlightenment and the Great Awakening worked Hand-In-Hand to build the scaffolding that led to our great Revolution.
There is much history here. A forgotten history. For those who have not forgotten, revised. This is Our history! Leave it be! Speak the truth or get out of the way. It is our American Heritage!
Jared Williams
