America's Providential History Podcast explores the hand of God in our history

>> Stephen McDowell: Welcome to America's Providential History Podcast, where we talk about the real story of America and explore the hand of God in our history. Now here's your host, Steven McDowell. Hello. Glad you're joining us for this edition of America's Providential History Podcast. I, began a few, podcasts ago to cover a five part series on the five most influential early Americans. And as I said, these five, there's many individuals we could put in the top five. I chose five from different, times, different centuries. And also in five that influenced America in, different spheres of life. We looked at William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. We looked at Cyrus Hall McCormick, the inventor of the reaper and the new business of making and selling reapers. Last week we looked at Noah Webster, the father of American scholarship. And this week I want to look at a, gentleman, well, we'd have to call him an honorary American, George Whitefield. Because George Whitefield was born in England, from England, but he traveled here seven times and spent many, many, many, many months traveling all around the colonies in seven different trips to the United States. And it was really because of the influence of this man that we became the United States. As we will see now, George Whitefield, was born in England in the early 1700s. That's his time frame up until just prior to the American Revolution. And as we've covered in past podcasts, we saw that America was birthed by Christian individuals who had a desire to honor God, to enlarge the glory of the gospel, to preach the gospel to those that didn't know him. They were individuals with great, faith for the most part, and sincerity toward God. But over the generations, the great fire with which, the colonies were started began to, go out, began to be extinguished, began to burn, dimly. And so by the time we get to the 1730s, there was, as one gentleman said, a lull in religion. Or as Jonathan Edwards wrote, he said it was a degenerate time, time with dullness of religion. A minister, Reverend Samuel Blair, describing the situation in the colonies in the 1730s, religion lay as it were, dying and ready to expire its last breath of life in this part of the visible church. So certainly aspects of the church that had begun in different sects of the Christian faith, it had begun with great fire, began to go out and, but God had a plan, you know, and by the way, it's. Every generation has a responsibility to pick up the torch, carry on the torch and pass it to the next generations. And if we want to live, and be maintained and continue on for a few more centuries. We need to do our part in this generation and next generation to pick up the torch, to teach truth, to have a living faith in God, and to embrace his truth. Because without that, we will gradually see our nation diminish in many different ways or go backwards. But God had a plan. God, in his mercy, knows the heart and state of man. His spirit is willing, but his flesh is weak. Scripture tells us so. He had a plan. Okay, I'm going to set aflame the colonies because that flame would be necessary in order to support the American Christian revolution that began to take place in the 1760s, 1770s, as we've covered in some of our previous, podcast. And one gentleman that was instrumental that God used to set aflame the colonies was George Whitefield. Now, early in his life, you would never know that he would be such an instrument in the hands of God because, as a boy, he was a liar, a thief and a gambler, addicted to filthy talk, cursing, foolishness and fantasy. He had a love for novels, plays, and a talent for mimicking ministers, as one historian writes. He developed a vivid imagination and a voice which became so powerful and expressive that was later apocryphally rumored that on a clear day you could hear him for five miles. And he certainly had a powerful voice that God used, maybe not to be heard five miles away, but for a long distance, as we'll see now. Whitefield, he grew up in a secular home, but he went to Oxford University and during this time he began to think, pursue, the Lord and to consider, is he real? Is he alive? And there, while at Oxford, he ran into and found out about the Wesleys, Jon and Charles Wesley and the Holy Club that they had started there. So he joined in 1733. Now, the Wesleys and the Holy Club and those in it were scoffed upon by rationalists, though at this time the club was basically a human, ah, ah, attempt to be better. That the Wesley's early on had a heart for God, and Whitefield was beginning to express this, but it was, all based upon human effort and human energy. Now, while part of the Holy Club there at Oxford, George Whitefield read a book, the Life of God and the Soul of Man. And God began to use that to speak to him and reveal things to him. Whitefield wrote, God showed me I must be born again or be damned. I learned a man may go to church, say his prayers, receive the sacraments, and yet not be a Christian. Shall I burn this book? Shall I throw it down or shall I search it? I did search it. And holding the book in my hands, thus addressed the God of heaven and earth. Here's his address. He said, lord, if I am not a Christian or if I am not a real one, for Jesus Christ's sake, show me what Christianity, Christianity is that I may not be damned at last. From that moment did I know that I must become a new creature. So God began to touch the heart and mind of George Whitefield. But though he began to understand some things, true faith didn't immediately follow this, beginning revelation. There was many self efforts at bringing about salvation himself. and in fact, whole days and weeks he spent lying prostrate on the ground bidding Satan depart from me. He writes, depart from me in the name of Jesus, begging for freedom from those proud hellish thoughts that used to crowd in upon and distract my soul. And so he recognized, hey, I need to be a Christian. I need to become a new creature. But he didn't know how. He didn't know the process. He thought, well, what do I need to do? What can I do? And he cried out and prostrated himself and bid Satan to depart from him and begged to be set free. Well, this continued on for about a year. But after a year of self efforts, finally, at the end of all human resources, God revealed himself to this overjoyed young zealot. And as he wrote, oh, what joy, joy unspeakable joy, full and big with glory was my soul filled when the weight of sin came off in an abiding sense of the pardoning love of God and the full assurance of faith broke in on my soul. And so finally God in his mercy, he began to see, you know, it's by faith alone, it's not my effort, it's not what I can do that will bring about this transformation. But it's about what he has done. And so God mercifully saved him, pardoned him, as he said faith broke into his soul. And so he, you know, felt called to the ministry. And that's what he was studying there at school. And so, after this transformation, he began to see, you know, God has called me. So he preached his first sermon on June 27, 1735, at the age of 21 years old. His mother, relatives and some 300 people crowded into this church where he was the kind of the visiting preacher. The presiding bishop said that 15 people were driven mad at his preaching. And so this began the preaching that startled the nation because he preached with, enlightenment, with truth, with fire, when he preached, and it really impacted many people. One historian wrote, from the very first, he obtained a degree of popularity, such as no preacher before since has probably ever reached. So Whitfield would go on to preach for 34 years in England and Scotland and America. His preaching and influence was as great at the end of his day as it was at, the beginning. And so as he traveled around and preached, large crowds of all classes came to hear him. Lord Bolingbroke said, he is the most extraordinary man in our times. He has the most commanding eloquence I ever heard in any person. Historian David Hume said it was worth riding 20 miles to hear him, preach. So at first he began to preach there in, England. And often the established church, didn't, welcome him in, certainly after a while, so he would preach to huge crowds outside that would gather. And then he traveled to America and began to preach in America. Felt called to do that. And in the late 1730s he came to do that. And while here in America, he became friends with Benjamin Franklin. Franklin actually printed on his press a lot of his sermons that were distributed throughout the land. But Franklin became friends. There's a recent movie that depicts the friendship of Franklin and George Whitefield.

George Whitfield preached in America from 1739 to 1770

that's a good film that you can go and watch and go and see. But Franklin observed firsthand the great impact that, that his preaching had in America. In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin writes about this. He said, it was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants from being thoughtless or indifferent about religion. It seemed as if all the world were growing religious. So one could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street. And so it was Whitefield, there were others, Jonathan Edwards, the Tennant brothers, and others God began to raise up to preach around this same time as well. And their preaching by God's grace, began to have great impact throughout all of the colonies. As Franklin, wrote about, said in many places you heard psalms sung in different families. In fact, he wrote that whole towns were converted, during this time. Franklin said of Whitefield that he had a loud and clear voice and articulated his words and sentences so perfectly that he might be heard and understood at a great distance. I, computed that he might be heard by more than 30,000. So he did have a powerful voice. And thousands of people came and listen to his strong, clear preaching. One observer said he preached like a lion. His sermons were life and fire. You must listen whether you like to or not. There is a holy violence about him which firmly took your attention by storm. So George Whitfield would come, and he traveled around all of the colonies and would proclaim, I've not come in my own name. No, I have come in the name of the Lord of hosts, and I must and will be heard. And he certainly was heard. and when he went, he preached. He preached of the new birth. Now, the established church generally rejected him. That was true in England, is true in America, as well. And so when they wouldn't allow him to come into their pulpits, many of the churches he preached outside. In the countryside, in the towns and the cities, he preached to coal miners on their way to work. Crowds gathered in the street. Up to 30,000. As Franklin observed, that many could be heard. Thousands came out early, six o' clock in the morning in the snow. They would come to listen to him preach. Whole cities turned out to hear him preach. And as I said, he conducted seven preaching tours in America, traveled here seven times with extensive stays, traveling all up and down all of the colonies, preaching in towns and cities. And when he would come into a town, the word went out, whitefield is here. And so when the word got to the farmers who were plowing their crops in the field, they'd leave their plow right in the field, run home, get their family, throw them in the wagon, and head off to the town to listen to Whitfield preach. And it was observed that huge clouds of smoke would rise up around the town from all the, carts and carriages that were coming into town to listen to Whitefield preach. Well, he preached 31 years in America, from 1739 to 1770, during which time he entreated men to repent and be saved. And these were all kinds of people who responded to the call. Infidels, those unbelievers, churchgoers who were dead in their religion. Ministers as well, many ministers of the gospel. When Whitefield arrived in Boston in 1740, he noted that it has the form of religion kept up, but has lost much of its power. And so God then used him to help bring back the power to much of the Christian faith in America. In fact, Whitefield blamed the clergy. He said the reason why congregations have been so dead is because they had dead men preaching to them. How can dead men beget living children? So many denounced him. They didn't like them to be called dead men, and the source of the reason that religion was losing its influence. But many of them were saved as well. 20 or so ministers in Boston were converted due to the preaching and influence of George whitefield. And as I said, he traveled throughout all the colonies, from the northern colonies up in massachusetts, all the way down through Virginia and the carolinas. And in all his preaching, God supernaturally confirmed his words. You might say that whitefield was a lightsaber in God's hand, just cutting through the, oppression and darkness and ignorance of, individuals. After preaching one place, he received in the following week 1,000 letters from people who were under spiritual conviction. And 300 of these were admitted to the faith. That's at one preaching place. But, again, he preached hundreds and hundreds of times all over the american colonies as well as in England and Scotland. So in 34 years of ministry, he visited almost every town in england, Scotland and Wales. He crossed the atlantic seven times, and he preached up and down all of the colonies. Now, it's estimated, this is an astounding figure, but it's estimated that 80% of all Americans heard him speak. They would turn out and listen to him. 80% of those, oh, perhaps near 3 million people or so that may have been living here heard Whitefield, speak. And of course, thousands, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, responded to the call of not just whitefield, but others that God raised up as well. So God used George whitefield to set aflame and unite all of the colonies. Again, the common thread of all these 13 colonies was the christian faith, the protestant christian faith. And they were from different sects, but, and there was still a uniting because of that. But this revivalist fire that Whitefield was instrumental in bringing was a very, common thread in all of the colonies because revival spread, as I said, throughout the 13 colonies, hundreds of thousands were converted and many, many, many new churches, sprung out of the first great awakening. And so this move of God, as we've talked about in previous podcasts that occur from the late 1730s up until the 1760s is, what we call, the first great awakening in, the United States or in america is before our independence. And there's great fruit that came out of the first great awakening. Hundreds of thousands converted. Many, many, many new churches. Many churches that existed, were set aflame. They were transformed from being dead in their faith and religion to new life, coming in them. And these new light, new light followers like in the Presbyterian church, some of the old, old light who didn't listen to the, this revivalist message rejected whitefield and others. They kept to what they were doing. They're holding to a form of religion, but Denying the power thereof. But many NewSong Light Presbyterians, and this is true of other churches, began to spring, up, during this time. And many new colleges were started as a way to train ministers in this newfound faith. Princeton University was a product of the first Great Awakening. It was called the College of NewSong Jersey, later named Princeton University. The motto of Princeton, under God's power, she flourishes. So that was one of those colleges that came about because of the first Great Awakening. And so godliness swept the colonies. And this revival shaped the founders of America's faith because you have to. During this time, during the 18, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, most all of the Founding Fathers were young men. Franklin, the oldest one of those who signed the Declaration and Constitution. And he witnessed all this taking place, friends with George Whitefield. We don't know if he ever really was, we don't have record of him personally responding like so many others did and repenting. But he certainly was impacted and influenced and by this. But all the Founding Fathers, every one of them, their faith, their character, their worldview, was impacted. It was shaped because the whole culture was set aflame and it helped prepare them to give birth to the first Christian constitutional republic in history. As we've talked about in previous podcasts, this first Great Awakening educated the American people to live in liberty, having self government, understanding biblical morality, developing biblical worldview. Because as we've discussed earlier, the type of sermons that came out of the first Great Awakening, and yes, they preached the new birth and many were new birth, but it didn't stop there. It wasn't pietistic in the sense that, the only thing God's concerned about is getting us to heaven, our personal relationship with him. But it recognized that God wants to bring heaven to earth.

The first Great Awakening had a tremendous impact upon the American colonies

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so the topics of sermons that were preached and printed and read not only dealt with the new birth, but it dealt with a new worldview, dealt with a biblical, worldview. And it taught principles of liberty and life and, and government and so many other things, that we actually have covered in some previous, podcasts. And so this first Great Awakening had a tremendous impact upon, the American colonies and was really the foundation of the American Christian Revolution. There would have been no American Revolution without the first Great Awakening. And George Whitefield was the most influential of those preachers of the first Great Awakening. Again, there are many others that God used, but he was the man that really helped set aflame the colonies and because of that, that's why I put him number two of the five most influential early Americans. So he was an honorary American. He was the one who really was instrumental in us becoming the United States of America. And so it's very important that we understand this story because today we have need of George Whitefield's men like that, and we have need of those that are like all of these influential men that were, we're, talking about men who impacted education, they impacted social areas, impacted business, invention and they impacted the government and laws and impacted certainly the church and its growth. So George Whitefield number two. Now, next week in our podcast, I'm going to look at the man who I think would be universally selected to be the most impactful early American. He's been called the indispensable man. So I hope you'll come back next week to hear, who that indispensable man was. Well, if you want to learn more about Whitefield and the first Great Awakening, I've written a little book called the Biblical Revival and the Transformation of Nations. And I look at what revival is and how God has sent revivals and I talk about many different revivals in history, but certainly the first Great Awakening, George Whitefield and other individuals, that God used. But you can find that on our website, providencefoundation.com go there, look at our store and look at Biblical revival and the transformation of nations. And we have many free articles and materials and videos and other things as well that you can, take advantage of. So visit providencefoundation.com well, thanks for joining us today and look forward to having you back next week as we look at the number one most influential early American. God bless you. It.