God's Story: A Student Guide to Church History (11 page)

Not all, of course, were thrilled with the new enthusiasm, as many of the revivalists disparaged church authority and institutionalism. Soon, a split occurred between the Old Lights (the traditionalists) and the New Lights (those in favor of the Awakening).

Edwards would go on to become America’s most significant and original philosophical theologian. A strong Calvinist and supporter of the Awakening, Edwards preached the famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” and he authored a number of books, including
Freedom of the Will
(1754),
A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections
(1746), and his most popular,
The Life and Diary of David Brainerd, Missionary to the Indians
(1749).

In 1748, David Brainerd (1718-1747) a twenty-nine-year-old missionary to the Native Americans died in the home of Jonathan Edwards.
¹
Edwards took the young man’s diary, edited it, and published it the next year, originally titled
An Account of the Life of the Late Rev. David Brainerd
. It would be Edwards’ most frequently reprinted work—having never been out of print since—and influenced the later missionary endeavors of William Carey (1761-1834) and Jim Elliot (1927–1956).

Organized missions to the American Indians had initially taken shape under the ministry of the Puritan John Eliot (1604-1690), often referred to as “the apostle to the Indians.” The early American colonials had regular (and sometimes hostile!) engagement with the Native Americans throughout the 17
^th
century, especially as they expanded westward into Indian territory. Eliot’s missions focused on the Massachusetts Indians and even translated the Bible into their language in 1663.

By the early 1700s, a number of Christian societies had been set up in England, Scotland, and New England for the purpose of reaching the Indians. After being licensed to preach by some “New Light” ministers, David Brainerd benefited from and was approved by the Scottish Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SSPCK) for this purpose. After Brainerd was unduly expelled from Yale for a disparaging remark about a teacher, he embarked on a number of exhausting and unrelenting missions to the Indians in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. All said, Brainerd travelled over 3,000 miles on horseback and continually suffered from chronic illness, fatigue, and the harsh conditions of frontier life. He died from tuberculosis in Edwards’ home at the young age of twenty-nine. Brainerd’s life and ill treatment by the authorities at Yale also inspired the beginnings of a new college, the College of New Jersey (later renamed Princeton University).

While the Great Awakening sparked revival among the American colonies during the 1740s, religious zeal slowly disappeared toward the end of the 18
^th
century. By the 1780s, less than thirty per cent of the population in America held membership in a local church. Moreover, the American Revolution and subsequent split from England also split churches and Christian communions. Anglicans in America became the Protestant Episcopal Church while Deism remained alive and well during the formation of the new American Constitution and society. Confusion and disunity together launched England and New England Christianity into the 19
^th
century.

1. The pilgrims coming to the new world had a
   unique opportunity. But imagine if you could
   set up a new society and establish any system
   of government and religion you chose to set
   up, what would it look like? Why?
   
2. John Wesley and his “Holy Club” sought to
   practice a life of holiness? What is the role of
   the Holy Spirit?
   
3. It has been common to see Christians
   schedule a “revival” at their church. What
   are your thoughts about this practice? Who
   causes a revival to take place?
   
4. Can you think of some difficulties and
   hardships faced by the early American
   settlers? Do you think you could not only
   survive, but thrive and enjoy life back then
   under those conditions?
   

1
For an overview of Brainerd’s life, see Brian H. Cosby,
David Brainerd: A Love for the Lost
(Ross-Shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2011).

I
t’s easy to get lost if you don’t have a map, or it’s raining at night and you don’t have a torch. It’s also easy to get lost if you don’t have the sure rule and guide of faith, the Word of God. But that’s exactly what happened during the 19
^th
century.

The 19
^th
century witnessed a cultural break from historic Christian theology, prominence, and worship. The emphasis on human reason—triumphing during the 18
^th
century—together with the scientific and industrial revolutions during the 19
^th
century, created the platform for the population centers of Europe and America to move away from evangelical Protestant Christianity. This departure may be summarized by the
abandonment
of biblical doctrine and piety in favor of (1) extra-biblical revivalism, (2) liberalism, (3) cults, and (4) evolution.

By the beginning of 1800, Christians began opposing the onslaught of Deism and secular humanism, eventually sparking what has been called the
Second Great Awakening
during the early 1800s. A central belief was the return of Christ after the millennial (one-thousand year) reign of Christ (cf. Rev. 20). This
Postmillennialism
, as it came to be called, taught that it was every Christian’s duty to transform and purify society in preparation for Christ’s return. This effort, of course, fell into a state of disillusionment with the arrival of an even greater abandonment of biblical Christianity.

The Second Great Awakening also coincided with other new forms of Christian practice during the early 1800s. One was the birth of modern
revivalism
, thanks to the efforts of the young American evangelist Charles Finney (1792-1875). Originally a Presbyterian, Finney abandoned historic Reformed forms of Christian practice and worship and set up camp meetings or “tent revivals.”

During these meetings, Finney introduced a number of religious practices that later became galvanized in the culture of American Christianity, which were called Finney’s “new measures”: the anxious bench,
¹
having women pray in public meetings, unrehearsed and dramatized preaching, and an early form of the “altar call.” Many times, local shops and businesses would close down when Finney came to town as his meetings would oftentimes last several days on end, drawing huge crowds.

On the back of these new religious invent-ions of Finney was the belief that humans didn’t have a sinful nature, but a nature that was functionally neutral and therefore could be simply persuaded by human reason and emotional charge to “accept” Jesus. Unlike Jonathan Edwards, who almost a century earlier attributed the First Great Awakening to the supernatural and sovereign work of God, Finney attributed the Awakenings of his day to mere human engineering. Thus, Finney contributed to the growing “New Side” movement that rejected the historic Protestant and Reformed forms of the Christian faith.

Other developments, like the advent of Sunday School in England by Robert Raikes (1736-1811), which quickly invaded the churches in the United States and the growing call for the abolition of slavery in America (following England’s lead) had enormous effects for the churches in the West. The former introduced age-segregated instruction in the church and the decline of parental involvement in the religious education of their children while the latter split the United States, North and South, along with its churches.

Along with the growing revivalism came a new wave of interpreting the Bible:
Dispensationalism
. Made popular by the writings of John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), Dispensationalism taught that God’s work was divided into seven distinct eras (or “dispensations”) throughout redemptive history, which stood opposed to the coven-antal theology from the Reformation. Most Dispensationalists believe that Christians will be taken from the earth before the final judgment, Christ’s establishment of a literal one thousand-year reign, and that the nation of Israel will play a significant role in the end-times events. Dispensationalism became a widespread belief, thanks to the efforts of the
Scofield Reference Bible
, Lewis Sperry Chafer, Charles Ryrie, Dwight Pentecost, Dallas Theological Seminary, and the bestselling series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins,
Left Behind
.

While the United States spiraled into a bloody Civil War during the early 1860s over states rights, money, and slavery, another anti-Christian movement rose in prominence on the Continent of Europe:
liberal theology
. Indeed, the starting ground of liberal theology is a rejection of the Bible
as
the Word of God and a disregard for its inerrant, infallible, and inspired characteristics. Therefore, the Scriptures are not seen as factual, historical, and accurate writings, but rather poetic, purely human accounts of people and events.

Liberal theology rode the coat tails of the Enlightenment and the rejection of the supernatural. But, in opposition to the Enlightenment, liberal theology highlighted emotion and feeling as the dominant force of religion. Most liberal scholars denied the miraculous and supernatural events as recorded in the Bible, such as the Virgin Birth of Christ, Jesus’ healing miracles, the sacrificial atonement of Christ on the cross, and his resurrection.

It began in German higher education (colleges and seminaries) in the early 19
^th
century and grew into an international standard of biblical and theological studies by the early 20
^th
century. Chief among its architects was the German theologian, Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834), known as the “Father of Modern Liberal Theology.”

Schleiermacher emphasized
feeling
as the basis of religion and that all religions—all “valid” and true—experience a feeling of dependence upon the infinite through different expressions, albeit Christianity is the “highest” expression. All that truly mattered, he taught, was what Jesus said about divine love and social justice. His theology was subjective, not basing his ideas upon the concrete objective realities found in Scripture. A long line of liberal theologians has since adorned Schleiermacher’s thought: Henry Ward Beecher, Adolf von Harnack, Albrecht Ritschl, Harry Emerson Fosdick, Rudolf Bultmann, Paul Tillich, John Hick, and John Shelby Spong.

Ironically, during the 20
^th
century, despite the efforts of liberal theologians to be more “tolerant” and “accepting” of all religions (except for conservative Christianity!), liberal denominations of all stripes decreased in membership by
seventy per cent
from 1930 to 2000. Conforming
to
the world was blending in
with
the world, which had the effect of losing its distinction from the world. This is not the faith passed down
from
the apostles and prophets.

A third type of abandonment from historic, biblical Christianity during the 19
^th
century was the advent of various cults, especially
Mormonism
and
Jehovah’s Witnesses
. Both are modern-day heresies that have clouded biblical doctrine and are often taught and viewed under the guise of “Christianity.”

Mormonism—also called the “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints”—began in 1830 when the twenty-four-year-old Joseph Smith (1805-1844) from New York claimed to have received divine revelation on golden tablets, which he recorded as
The Book of Mormon
(these tablets, of course, are nowhere to be found). Mormons teach that after Christ’s resurrection, he visited the Americas and that one day the new Zion will be established in the Western hemisphere. They also believe that Jesus is at war with his brother, Satan, and
Jesus is not God
(remember the Arians?). In fact, Joseph Smith’s own edition of the Bible, which he largely made up, re-translates various passages to reflect the non-deity of Jesus. For example, his edition of the Gospel of John, Chapter 1, begins: “In the beginning was the gospel preached through the Son. And the gospel was the word, and the word was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was of God.” This, as you are probably aware, is very different from what John 1 actually states.