Everyday I hear a new report revealing ways my Christian faith will be put to the test. The world wants Christians to be accepting of any behaviour or we are deemed “intolerant.” We pray fervently for revival in our land … another great awakening. But what about the First Great Awakening?
George Whitefield, 17th century British evangelist was one of the preachers most used by God in starting the First Great Awakening. He warned fellow believers: “If you are going to walk with Christ, you are going to be opposed” and added, “In our day, to be a true Christian is really to become a scandal.” He was once quoted, “I will not be a velvet-mouthed preacher!” George Whitefield stood for Jesus through 18,000 sermons and 12,000 talks and exhortations until a moral and spiritual awakening transformed the Colonies. He spoke more than he slept.
He was a phenomenon not just of his age, but in the entire 2000-year history of Christian preaching. What was the key to his power? At one level, his power was the natural power of eloquence, and at another it was the spiritual power of God to convert sinners and transform communities. It is believed he was the instrument of God in the salvation of thousands. The impact Whitefield had on Jonathon Edwards and William Wilberforce was profound, resulting in the First Great Awakening and changing the face of the English nation as well as the United States.
But something happened to Whitefield early in his life. It was the spring of 1735. He was 20 years old. He was part of the Holy Club at Oxford with John and Charles Wesley, and the pursuit of God was his passion. It was Charles Wesley who gave him the book, The Life of God and the Soul of Man, whereby God showed him that he must be born again. Upon reading it, he was quoted as saying: “Lord, if I am not a Christian, if I am not a real one, for Jesus Christ’s sake, show me what Christianity is, that I may not be damned at last. I read a little further, and the cheat was discovered; oh, says the author, they that know anything of religion know it is a vital union with the son of God, Christ formed in the heart; oh what a way of divine life did break in upon my poor soul. . . . Oh! With what joy—Joy unspeakable—even joy that was full of, and big with glory, was my soul filled.”
Whitefield was thoroughly human. Throughout his life he fought pride. Who doesn’t? He fought it on a daily basis. “It is difficult,” he said, “to go through the fiery trial of popularity and applause untainted.” He confessed publicly the foolishness and mistakes of his earlier years. Whitefield was a changed man.
Unlike so much preaching today, the preaching of the First Great Awakening was doctrinally specific and not vague. When you read the sermons of Whitefield, you are struck with how amazingly doctrinal they are. What Whitefield saw within months after his conversion was the preciousness and power of the “doctrines of grace.”
George Whitefield, considered by many to be the greatest preacher of the 18th-century, perhaps in the history of the Christian Church, was a contradictory figure. He freely admitted and confessed sin remaining in him. And that is what is comforting – that there is sin in every human soul on earth, except One, and God continues to use the humble among us to His Glory. Our lives are meant to point to Him. “I know no other reason,” Whitefield said, “why Jesus has put me into the ministry, than because I am the chief of sinners, and therefore fittest to preach free grace to a world lying in the wicked one.”
I believe the next Great Awakening and revival are just around the corner – all we need are humbled hearts and bended knees.
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14
