“A dead ministry will always make a dead people, whereas of ministers who are warmed with the love of God themselves, they cannot but be instruments of diffusing that love among others.” – George Whitefield “Men who long ago lost their anointing still minister, using the same cliche’s and mannerisms. But they are not feared […]
Frank Di Pietro, Rend the Heavens: “At the age of twenty-one, Whitefield gave his first sermon in the church of St. Mary de Crypt. The people were excited to hear him. When he spoke, the congregation was shaken to the core. A presiding Bishop, who was in attendance, said at least fifteen people were “driven […]
Frank Di Petro, Rend the Heavens: “The English colonies were entering a desperate time with the dawning of the eighteenth century. The church had become inconsequential in the affairs of mankind. Christians had become impotent; instituting little to change society. As the prophet Isaiah foretold, “darkness covered the earth and deep darkness the people…” (Isaiah […]
George Whitefield preached at Jonathan Edwards’ church in Northampton. Many were reminded of the revival they had experienced just a few years earlier. Edwards (1703-1758) was so deeply touched, he wept through the entire service, as did much of his congregation. Shortly thereafter, Edwards preached what would become his most famous sermon: “Sinners in the […]
Pentecost to the Present – Book Two Reformations and Awakenings, Jeff Oliver: “Finally, in 1733, a revival broke out at Jonathan Edwards’ church in Northampton. During one six-month period in 1734, nearly 300 new converts had joined his church. In 1735, he wrote, ‘The town seemed to be full of the Presence of God…There was […]
Douglas Winiarski, University of Richmond, April 9, 2018 writes: Between 1799 and 1805, the backcountry settlements of the early American frontier blazed with religious excitement. From western Pennsylvania to northern Georgia, middle Tennessee to the Carolina piedmont—but especially in the Bluegrass Country of Ohio—tens of thousands of frontier settlers gathered for multi-day, open-air religious meetings […]
Douglas Winiarski: Of the various somatic religious exercises that spread across the trans-Appalachian frontier and southern backcountry during the Great Revival, none drew more astonished commentary or more virulent opposition than “the jerks”: involuntary convulsions in which the subjects’ heads lashed violently backward and forward. More than half a century before the derisive phrase holy […]
