The First Great Awakening

The Origins of the First Great Awakening

The first awakening began when some people experienced first-hand what it means to know God personally! This spiritual transformation of a handful of individuals went on to impact communities and even whole countries on both sides of the Atlantic. People like George Whitfield (1714-1770) and John Wesley (1703-1791) both experienced profound conversion experiences and were highly motivated to tell others what they had found. It was their preaching that ignited what came to be known as First Great Awakening when people flocked in their tens of thousands to hear the Gospel message. As those who followed Jesus in the early church, the Gospel of Jesus enabled them to know God and His wonderful love for them. Jesus was the answer to their heart’s search for life and meaning that ‘kindled a flame of Holy Love’ in the lives of many thousands of people.

O Thou Who camest from above,

The pure celestial fire to impart,

Kindle a flame of sacred love

Upon the mean altar of my heart.

— Charles Wesley (1707-1788).

Personal Transformations and Gospel Preaching

After these men had been transformed by their personal experience with the risen Saviour, they couldn’t help tell others about the wonderful blessing they had discovered. It was as though heaven was opened and the light from heaven began to open the eyes of a nation. When churches closed their doors to these ordained clergymen, they began to preach in the fields and on any available common land so the fire and love of the gospel were brought to the common people. The diaries of both Whitfield and Wesley record crowds of 10,000, 30,00, and even 50,000 people in an age when public address systems were unknown. Whitfield proclaimed the good news of Jesus throughout England Scotland and Wales and then in the colonies of what was later to become the United States.

Spreading the Flame: The Impact of George Whitfield and John Wesley

As with the other mighty moves of God, the First Great Awakening was ignited at a time when the Gospel was at its lowest ebb. By way of example, Voltaire (1694-1778) famously predicted that Christianity would be dead within 30 years. This high tide of skepticism in the academic community had resulted in a low tide of faith and belief in God. This in turn resulted in widespread social and moral disintegration throughout society.

Overcoming Skepticism and Doubt

First came the Great Awakening, which dates to around 1740. The writings of the French skeptics and the Enlightenment thinkers so pervaded the Colonies that churches struggled to remain open. Colleges became hotbeds of humanism, and Christian students, what few there were, practiced their faith secretly. Robert J. Morgan

The Presence of God in the First Great Awakening

During this time of awakening, the presence of God was felt by those outside, as well as inside the church on both sides of the Atlantic. In revival, God works in the lives of people irrespective of their demographic and across the theological spectrum. In the accounts of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) from Northampton, Massachusetts in 1735, he described how the whole town seemed to be full of the presence of God.

The Glorious Alteration: The Impact of the First Great Awakening on Society

This work of God, as it was carried on, and 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. There were remarkable tokens of God's presence in almost every house. 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. - Jonathan Edwards.

——-

Get the book: Turning The Tide In The West