First Awakening There Are Three

¶ … First Awakening

There are three generally accepted Great Awakenings in American history [Great Awakening, 2005]:

The First Great Awakening (1730-1740)

The Second Great Awakening (1820s-1830s)

The Third Great Awakening (1880s-1900s)

Tracy is credited with first introducing the term Great Awakening in his 1842 book of the same name. The Great Awakenings are often credited of having influenced U.S. politics and there is no doubt that religious movements play an important role in public opinion. In the last elections, the religious right is said to have considerable influence in the election of George Bush. Tracy claims that the First (American) Great Awakening played a major role in the War of Independence [Great Awakening, 2005].

Rev. Jonathan Edward's period was of the first Great Awakening and as America celebrated his 300th birthday in 2003, it appeared clear that his influence on religious people has not declined. Jonathan Edwards's views may be out of fashion now but his writings and his sermons revived Christian beliefs of that period. Bible learning was not left to the clergy only that the believers may go to the church once a week and listen to the preacher's sermons. Bible reading at home was encouraged, which gave people an insight into religion and the believers drew strength from religious thoughts.

The reason for the fanaticism or revival can possibly be seen in the change in lifestyle during that period [McIntosh, 2002]. Some historians believe that farmers leaving agrarian life and moving to the larger cities felt guilty of leaving the old ways and values behind. Diphtheria epidemic caused serious loss of life in New England and loss of dear ones; constant fear of attacks from dispossessed Indians, tensions and troubles made people seek shelter of religious beliefs. Evangelicals offered fellowship; solace and emotional release, the religious fervor of Great awakening gave people a sense of hope and solace under difficult circumstances of the period.

George Marsden's new biography Jonathan Edwards: A Life was published by Yale University to observe 300th year birthday of John Edwards. As Marsden writes "For about half a century, Edwards was the polestar of the most formidable and influential American theology....Edwards had a wonderful ability to carry the implications of widely held Christian assumptions to their logical conclusions, sometimes with unnerving results. Not everyone will agree with all his premises and so will not be compelled by all his conclusions. Nevertheless, anyone might do well to contemplate Edwards's view of reality and its awesome implications [Marsden, 2003]."

Jonathan Edward was born on 5th October 1703 in East Windsor, Connecticut. He came from a noble family. His family was closely related with eminent people of the time such as the Mathers, the Chesters, Williams and Partridges. He was taught initially at home by his eminent father and well educated sisters. He was admitted to school at the age of thirteen in 1716. The school was renamed Yale College in 1718. Edwards graduated from Yale College and then completed his masters from the same college. Edwards was considered intelligent and bright but he was not known for being social or friendly with other students. After completing his education at Yale he spent two years to study theology.

During his theological studies and work as tutor at Yale (1720-6), Edwards became convinced that there was nothing horrible in the doctrine that God elects some people to salivation and others to eternal damnation. He actually found the idea "exceedingly pleasant, bright and sweet."

In 1927, Edwards became a minister in Northampton, Massachusetts. He married a very religious woman, Sarah Pierpont daughter of a founder of Yale. Sarah bore him twelve children.

Marsden, 2003] ably describes summary of Jonathan Edwards life works as "His pen brought lasting influence, but Edward's life involved far more. An activist at the center of the most important religious and social movement of his day, he oversaw an amazing local revival, which became a prototype for one of America's most influential religious practices. He worked vigorously both in promoting and in attempting to delimit the momentous colonial and international awakenings that soon followed. A heralded preacher, he delivered what became America's most famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. In his pastorate, he spent years shepherding parishioners through awakenings and declines, and he struggled to define the role of the church in a town and region that were making the transition from a Puritan heritage toward a revolutionary destiny. He sustained deep interests in politics and the military, especially as they bore on the international Protestant cause. In the midst of everything else, he spent much time in disciplined devotion and is sometimes most admired as a contemplative. For seven years Edwards served as a missionary to Indians in a dangerous frontier village. At his death, at age fifty-four, he was the president of the College of New Jersey at Princeton. Throughout his life his experiences were shaped by his relationships to his large immediate and extended family. His wife, Sarah, also became a legendary figure. They reared eleven children and nurtured what became an American dynasty."

Jonathan Edward, the Preacher review of Jonathan Edward: A life was titled 'America's First Superstar Preacher' [D'Evelyn, 2004]. The title of superstar preacher indeed fits him well. The present day televangelists have following of millions but none can claim the devotion that Edwards commanded. He made saints rejoice and sinners quake [D'Evelyn, 2004]. The rampant enthusiasm his sermons generated led to conversions and also to suicides.

Edward preached that sin was inherent enmity against God. Salvation from sin rested on the absolute sovereignty of God. Jonathan Edwards is best known for his sermon 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God' in which he compares sinners to spiders that God is holding over an open flame. He apparently had to stop a few times during his delivery because the shrieks of agony where so loud.

In a work called 'A Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World', Edwards wrote that God's ultimate purpose in creation is not only the personal salvation of man and the redemption of the world -- but the revelation of His own glory, implying that if we deny His glory, the man is doomed for ever to live in hell.

Edward's extreme views on strict application of the punishment and reward philosophy appear to be influenced by his own interpretation of puritanical beliefs. It is true that he came from a deeply religious clergy family and his religious preacher background predestined him for the pulpit.

Edwards believed in Calvinism, to him the easier philosophy of religion of the Armenians was unacceptable. Armenians believed that "God has decreed to save through Jesus Christ, out of fallen and sinful mankind, Christ's death was suffered on behalf of all men, but God elects for salvation only those who believe in Christ. Those of true faith have power given them to enable them to persevere in the faith. But it may be possible for a believer to fall from grace." Edwards's first public speech "God Glorified -in Man's Dependence" was an attack on Armenian philosophy of religion. To him redemption was purely at "Gods pleasure" and that just being baptized as Christians did not entitled us to heaven and that God might deny us this grace without any criticism to any of his perfections. Edwards demanded that people entered into the faith as practicing Christians in all manners of life. Edwards's upbringing in the religious family was more akin to the 17th century Puritanism or perhaps to the old world of medieval Christendom.

According to Marsden, Edward believed that Christians had an option to choose "bliss or punishment for a literal eternity" -- the saved would be with God for eternity and the lost would burn in the fires of hell for eternity. "If life was uncertain and frightful, eternity was more so." The suffering in this life even if terrible, "was short-lived, whereas in hell one suffered 'everlasting burnings.' "Moreover, being saved or lost was a matter of God's grace and our just being born into the Christian faith and being baptized would not exempt us from hell. "Puritans, like others in the Reformed tradition, were insistent on giving God credit for everything. God's saving grace was in no way a reward for good works," Marsden writes.

Edwards's lectures during the 1931-1934 period resulted in major (fanatical) conversion. Other clergymen both in Northampton and outside that Edward was leading people into fanaticism causing a split between the followers of Edwards, the "new light" and those against these fanatical practices, the "old lights."

Edwards did not travel much, but his writings were published throughout America and across the Atlantic in England and Scotland. He was an international figure with international audience. His essay "A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God" published in London in 1737 created much interest among the faithful. {Marsden, 2003] describes its reception as "It served as an inspiration for revivals in both Scotland and England. John Wesley, who in May 1738 had his history-changing experience of having his "heart strangely warmed," was much impressed by Edwards' Faithful Narrative, which he read in October of that same year and which provided one of the models for the revivals he hoped to promote. A few years later, when his own Methodist movement was soaring, he published his own abridgement of Edwards' work, making it standard reading in Methodist circles."

The new fanatic followers even threatened the normal functioning of Northampton. By 1935 the awakening movement of Edwards began to subside but the break in 'awakening' was however short. George Whitefield another Anglican English priest visiting America helped revive the waning movement. Whitefield would compare favorably with today's televangelical priests, was a master of publicity. [Marsden, 2003] describes Whitefield as "being the first to apply modern commercial technique to religious ends." Whitefield and Edwards were the leaders of the Great Awakening. In 1740 Whitefield came to help Edwards and stayed at his home for several days. Marsden writes, "Whitefield's visit changed Edward's life, as it changed New England and the American colonies generally. As Edwards watched Whitefield preach... he was witnessing the dawn of a new age-- the age of the people."

Whitefield's tour was truly an international phenomenon. It was also the first inter-colonial cultural event, the beginning of a common American cultural identity. Moreover... It was founded not so much on what was imposed from above as by the popular response generated from below."

Soon after meeting with George Whitefield, Edwards preached one of his most famous sermons, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." In this sermon Edwards oratory combined with the wrath of God should he become angry with us was vividly described.

Edwards's sermon said, "There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment. Men's hands cannot be strong when God rises up. The strongest have no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of his hands. -He is not only able to cast wicked men into hell, but he can most easily do it. Sometimes an earthly prince meets with a great deal of difficulty to subdue a rebel, who has found means to fortify himself, and has made himself strong by the numbers of his followers. But it is not so with God. There is no fortress that is any defense from the power of God. Though hand join in hand, and vast multitudes of God's enemies combine and associate themselves, they are easily broken in pieces. They are as great heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind; or large quantities of dry stubble before devouring flames. We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; so it is easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that any thing hangs by: thus easy is it for God, when he pleases, to cast his enemies down to hell. What are we, that we should think to stand before him, at whose rebuke the earth trembles, and before whom the rocks are thrown down? [Edwards' Sinners in the hand of an angry God, 2005]"

In Edwards philosophy men will not be spared because he has been baptized as Christian, those who are sinners will be punished and condemned to hell for eternity as "justice calls aloud for infinite punishment for their sins." Edwards warns, "They deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never stands in the way, it makes no objection against God's using his power at any moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, justice calls aloud for an infinite punishment of their sins. Divine justice says of the tree that brings forth such grapes of Sodom, "Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?" Luke xiii. 7. The sword of divine justice is every moment brandished over their heads, and it is nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy, and God's mere will, that holds it back. [Edwards' Sinners in the hand of an angry God, 2005]"

Edwards's mastery of words, his oratory and the image he builds of hell created hysteria among the listeners. The drew a fearful vision of hell and promised that true believers only will be spared and the sinners even those in the congregation cannot expect to be exempt because they have accepted the faith or have been baptized.

The sinners in the hands of an angry God, he reminded, "are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out: and they have no interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of, all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God. [Edwards' Sinners in the hand of an angry God, 2005]"

During the sermon Edwards had to stop several times to help the hysteria generated by his speech to calm down, while many people are believed to have committed suicide of the hopelessness of their redemption.

His strict philosophy and its effect of religious hysteria annoyed many religious balance minded people of the area. In an unpopular move, Edward restricted Lord's Supper to those able to give "heartfelt" testimony to faith in Jesus and to baptize only their children. It was agreed as early as in 1657 that baptism entitled a person the privileges of church membership. Even Edwards's grandfather was relatively liberal and he believed that baptism was sufficient to consider someone a Christian and be a part of the Church. Edward declared his dislike to this practice. Another incident where some young men were accused of reading 'improper books' and by some account teasing women and Edward loss his cool. It is said that the name of accused and witnesses were mixed up which caused an uproar. This incident further soured Edwards's relationship with his congregation. Edward's views became unpopular and his congregation basically abandoned him. In 1748, four years after the last person was admitted to the church when one person offered himself for entry to the church, he refused to take Edwards's test of conviction and reported it to the church hierarchy. The superior officer perhaps waiting for an opportunity stopped Edwards from preaching his views from the pulpit. The ecclesiastical council terminated the pastoral relation and the decision was approved by the church with a massive vote of 200 to 23, even the town meeting wanted Edwards out of Northampton church [Jonathan Edwards theologian, 2005].