Awakenings Among the Lost

Part 2-of-3

Great Awakenings invite the presence of God, often to an entire nation. The result is renewal—not only spiritually, but also in law, government, and literature. Be sure America’s Great Awakening took on much grander proportions than the Enlightenment, said to have guided many of America’s founding fathers.

• The First Great Awakening (c. 1730–1755ff).
Early on, tens of thousands of colonists came to hear George Whitefield preach and, as a result, experienced “new birth.” In 1775 alone, more than three thousand religious organizations took root in the colonies. Moreover, higher education flourished in the wake of spiritual renewal. Of nine colonial colleges in America, most sprang from awakenings—namely, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, Rutgers Universities and Dartmouth College. Perhaps for this reason Webster defines “awakening” as “an act or moment of becoming suddenly aware of something.”

When Jonathan Edwards from North Hampton, Massachusetts, preached his fiery sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” his congregation fell under conviction and, then, cried out for mercy. The impact of sudden awareness so profoundly transformed the entire nation that “even hardened skeptics could not deny it.”

• The Second Great Awakening (c. 1790–1840)
Five-time Governor of Virginia, Patrick Henry (1736-1799) once remarked, "It cannot be emphasized too strongly nor too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ." Ignited by the preaching of Presbyterian James McGready in Logan County, Kentucky, this second renewal left a legacy of many established Christian churches while, at the same time, it ushered in social reform.

America’s history clearly demonstrates that the best impulses for social reform come on the heels of spiritual awakenings. Historians concur that the anti-slavery movement in America was mainly a part of the reform movement generated by the Second Great Awakening. This rings true of movements for prison reform, child labor laws, women’s rights, inner-city missions, and many more.

• The Third Great Awakening (late 1850s to the 1900s)
The Third Great Awakening started with a 48-year-old businessman, Jeremiah Lanphier, who in July 1857 began work as an urban missionary for the North Dutch Reformed Church. Within six months ten thousand gathered daily for prayer throughout New York. Historian J. Edwin Orr wrote that “the influence of the awakening was felt everywhere in the nation. It first captured great cities, but it also spread through every town and village and country hamlet. It swamped schools and colleges.”

What impressed observers (the press even!) was little preaching, but much prayer. As people gathered, they remained largely silent while maintaining an overarching attitude of worship. It was reported that each week the number of conversions soon reached an astounding fifty thousand.

In summary, the first Great Awakening started with Jonathan Edwards who had a humble desire for God to revive his Christian congregation. The Second was ignited by James McGready, burdened for the restoration of the Christian church at large, and the Third by Jeremiah Lanphier in order to pray for national and spiritual renewal. All three awakenings left the indelible stamp of Christianity on these United States of America.

Some credit Benjamin Franklin as the most influential American to invent the type of society America would become, but I disagree. More so than any other revival, or natural influence, the Second Great Awakening exerted a lasting impact on American society.

Next: Our Nation's Foundational Quandary