Implosion (23 page)

The Impact of Jonathan Edwards

Beginning in 1734, Edwards saw God move even more powerfully in his congregation and community. During a short period of time, several people died in a way that rattled observers to the core. One young man whom Edwards described as being “in the bloom of his youth” was unexpectedly stricken with pleurisy (an inflammation in the chest cavity), experienced intense pain, was delirious for two days, and then was gone.
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Then a young married woman unexpectedly developed a terrible illness and passed away. “This was followed with the death of an elderly person, which was attended with many unusual circumstances,” Edwards recalled. The tragic deaths reminded people of their own mortality and focused them on the prospect of spending eternity either in heaven or in hell. Five or six people suddenly came to the church and converted, Edwards observed. Then a well-known immoral woman came to the church and was saved, and something dramatic began to happen.

Concerning this conversion, Edwards would later write:

The news of it seemed to be almost like a flash of lightning, upon the hearts of young people, all over the town, and upon many others. Those persons amongst us, who used to be farthest from seriousness, and that I most feared would make an ill improvement of it, seemed to be awakened with it. Many went to talk with her, concerning what she had met with; and what appeared in her seemed to be to the satisfaction of all that did so.

Presently upon this, a great and earnest concern about the great things of religion and the eternal world, became universal in all parts of the town, and among persons of all degrees, and all ages. . . . Other discourse than of the things of religion would scarcely be tolerated in any company. The minds of people were wonderfully taken off from the world, it was treated amongst us as a thing of very little consequence.
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A revival in Northampton was under way.

Edwards described the events taking place in his community as nothing short of miraculous. He wrote:

The work of conversion was carried on in a most astonishing manner, and increased more and more; souls did as it were come by flocks to Jesus Christ. . . . The number of true saints multiplied, soon made a glorious alteration in the town: so that in the spring and summer following, anno 1735, the town seemed to be full of the presence of God: it never was so full of love, nor of joy, and yet so full of distress, as it was then. . . . It was a time of joy in families on account of salvation being brought to them; parents rejoicing over their children as new born, and husbands over their wives, and wives over their husbands. The doings of God were then seen in His sanctuary, God's day was a delight, and His tabernacles were amiable. Our public assemblies were then beautiful: the congregation was alive in God's service, every one earnestly intent on the public worship, every hearer eager to drink in the words of the minister as they came from his mouth; the assembly in general were, from time to time, in tears while the word was preached; some weeping with sorrow and distress, others with joy and love, others with pity and concern for the souls of their neighbors.
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Edwards called what he was witnessing “a shower of divine blessing.”
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Indeed, to me these accounts of the early days of the revival read like the exciting and supernatural events of Acts 2, when God poured out his Holy Spirit and created the church in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost.

In 1738, Edwards published a powerful tract titled
A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God
. He described what God had just done, why he believed God had done it, and how Edwards and his congregation had responded to this outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He wrote about how people had begun fasting and praying for the lost and how young people had begun to share the gospel with their friends and neighbors and with complete strangers.

In a world without radio, television, or the Internet, the well-written tract caught people's imagination and spread like wildfire. Copies were quickly snapped up, devoured, and shared with others, even as more were being printed. As other ministers and laypeople throughout Massachusetts and the other colonies heard of the revival and read Edwards's pamphlet, many began to beseech the Lord to do in their churches and communities what he had done in Northampton.

And the Lord answered their prayers. The revival soon spread through thirty-two communities near Boston, then throughout New England and the rest of the colonies. Edwards's tract was published in London and spread widely through Great Britain, Scotland, and Wales, where pastors and laypeople were enthralled and began praying and preaching for revivals in their nations as well.

In the years that followed, Edwards went on to plant other church congregations, serve as a missionary to Native Americans, and preach the gospel in congregations throughout New England (including his most famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in 1741).
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But arguably his most lasting impact was through his published works. He produced a series of highly influential publications to help others develop sound biblical theology and further the revival. These included
The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God
(published in 1741),
Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival
(published in 1742), and
A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections
(published in 1746). Each of these was used by God to shape Christian thinking in Edwards's day. In 1758, Edwards accepted the position of president at the College of New Jersey (later renamed Princeton University). The school was founded in 1746 by four pastors specifically for the purpose of “educating Ministers of the Gospel” as well as to be “useful in other learned professions—ornaments of the State as well as the Church.”
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Edwards was increasingly determined to train future pastors, theologians, and Christ-centered laypeople. He felt that by strengthening and revitalizing the college, he could advance the Kingdom of Christ even further. Sadly, he died of complications from a smallpox vaccination only a few months after accepting the post.

Despite his strong faith in Christ and love of the Scriptures, Edwards was by no means a perfect man. Among his flaws was the fact that he could occasionally have an explosive temper. He also, unfortunately, like many men of his day, was a slave owner. In time, however, “he came to oppose the slave trade as an impediment to spreading the gospel in Africa, thereby providing a basis for the abolitionism espoused by his son Jonathan Jr. and disciples such as Samuel Hopkins.”
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God used Edwards despite his flaws, and fortunately the remarkable positive legacy of Jonathan Edwards did not end with his death. In many ways his impact had only begun to be felt throughout the young and growing country. Edwards and his beloved wife, Sarah, had eleven children together, eight daughters and three sons. Ten of their children lived to adulthood, and the Edwardses invested heavily in them all, making certain they were well educated (including the girls), teaching them the Scriptures, praying with them, playing with them, and preparing them to make a difference for Christ in the world. They succeeded beyond their parents' wildest dreams.

In 1900, a reporter by the name of A. E. Winship conducted a study of what had become of the 1,400 descendants of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards. “He found they included thirteen college presidents, sixty-five professors, one hundred lawyers and a dean of a law school, thirty judges, sixty-six physicians and a dean of a medical school, and eighty holders of public office, including three U.S. senators, mayors of three large cities, governors of three states, a vice president of the United States, and a controller of the United States treasury. They had written over 135 books and edited 18 journals and periodicals. Many had entered the ministry. Over one hundred were missionaries and others were on missions boards.”
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The Rise of George Whitefield (1714–1770)

Another incredibly influential figure in the First Great Awakening was George Whitefield
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, a passionate preacher of the gospel and missionary to the American colonies.

Born in 1714 in Gloucester, England, Whitefield was one of seven children. When he was only two years old, his father died, leaving his mother a grieving, struggling widow who would not remarry for another eight years. But George grew into a brilliant young man, and he was determined to make something of himself. He studied hard and eventually attended and graduated from Oxford University. It was there that he met two young men whom God would use to change his life, John Wesley (1703–1791) and Charles Wesley (1707–1788), who eventually became world-famous gospel preachers, teachers, and songwriters, went on to found the Methodist church, and were key figures in revivals going on in England and in the American colonies.

At Oxford, however, the young Whitefield was only beginning his spiritual journeys. Though he had been raised in the church, he was only now taking his quest for God more seriously. It was Charles Wesley who invited Whitefield to get involved in a men's Bible study and prayer group that Wesley led with his older brother John. The group was derided by fellow students as the “Holy Club,” but the Wesleys liked the name and embraced it; Whitefield embraced it as well. Early on, the group consisted of just eight or nine men. At its peak, about two dozen men participated. But few realized then the spiritual revolution that was going to emerge from their midst.

The group resolved to resist what they saw as their fellow students' lives of luxury and waste of time and money. The members of the Holy Club fasted two days a week. They took Communion together. They devoted themselves to caring for the poor. They ministered to prisoners. And all the while they kept rigorous schedules and sought to keep each other accountable to maintaining strict, disciplined, and austere lives. The young men were well meaning, to be sure, but there was a problem: they were trying to earn God's favor through their good works rather than accepting the free gift of God's forgiveness and peace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

Whitefield would become the first to discover his mistake—that while newly religious, he didn't actually have a personal relationship with Christ—and radically change course.

One day, Whitefield asked Charles Wesley for a list of books to read and began to devour them one by one. His favorite was written in 1677 by a Scottish theologian named Henry Scougal, titled
The Life of God in the Soul of Man
. The work had a profound, life-changing impact on Whitefield. “God showed me that I must be born again, or be damned!” he would later write. “I learned that a man may go to church, say prayers, receive the sacrament, and yet not be a Christian.” Whitefield was startled, even offended. “Shall I burn this book? Shall I throw it down? Or shall I search it?” he wondered. “I did search it, and holding the book in my hand I thus addressed the God of heaven and earth: ‘Lord, if I am not a Christian, or if not a real one, for Jesus Christ's sake show me what Christianity is, that I may not be damned at last!' God soon showed me, for in reading a few lines further, that ‘true Christianity is a union of the soul with God, and Christ formed within us,' a ray of divine light was instantaneously darted into my soul, and from that moment, and not till then, did I know I must become a new creature.”
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Such radical new thoughts troubled Whitefield at first. He embarked on a course of deep soul-searching as he completely rethought his understanding of Christianity, his involvement in the Holy Club (which he would leave for a time), and his place in the world. Whitefield bought a Greek copy of the New Testament and began studying it, reading it whenever and wherever he could. As he did, God began to open the young scholar's eyes, ears, and heart to the truths in his Word of what it means to be born again. He learned how a man can—and must—be saved and be adopted into God's family not through being religious but through receiving the free gift of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. And then one day in 1735, it was as though the clouds over the young man parted. The gospel suddenly made sense, and Whitefield—at the age of twenty—got down on his knees and said “Yes!” to Christ. “God was pleased to remove the heavy load, to enable me to lay hold of his dear Son by a living faith, and by giving me the Spirit of adoption, to seal me, even to the day of everlasting redemption,” Whitefield later wrote. “O . . . what joy—joy unspeakable—even joy that was full of and big with glory!”
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Whitefield began to wake at five each morning for prayer and Bible study in both Greek and English, praying over every word and line. “I began to read the Holy Scriptures upon my knees,” he recalled. “This proved meat indeed and drink indeed to my soul. I daily received fresh life, light, and power from above. . . . Oh, what sweet communion had I daily.”
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Whitefield immediately started sharing his faith in Christ with others and was excited when “God made [him] instrumental to awaken several young people.”
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By the following year, he had completed his schooling, become an ordained Anglican minister, and preached his first sermon. He found it exhilarating. He had found his life's calling, and he continued preaching as opportunities presented themselves. He also served for a while as a missionary in what eventually became the American state of Georgia, where in addition to preaching, he helped start an orphanage.

But it was after Whitefield's return to England that the Lord's favor truly came upon him. The young Christian was soon preaching the life-changing gospel message with more conviction and power than anyone in the U.K. had ever seen before. Churches were packed wherever he spoke, and people were getting saved. The problem was that many of the Anglican clergymen Whitefield encountered were not born again themselves and were cold to his series of messages, which he called “The New Birth,” based on John 3. Before long, Whitefield found himself banned from one pulpit after another and under severe criticism from the religious establishment.