We cannot celebrate America’s 250th birthday without first acknowledging the impact George Whitefield and others in the Great Awakening had in uniting the colonies to seek liberty. By the early 1700’s, many colonial pulpits had become cold. The growing prosperity of the colonies had caused many to neglect spiritual concerns. Some in the colonies worried that Christianity was dying in the New World.
But in God’s providence, German immigrants began to feel the moving of the Holy Spirit under Theodore Frelinghuysen, a German pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church. Then William Tennent, a Scottish-born Presbyterian from Pennsylvania with his Log College, which concentrated on teaching godliness and basic education. Many of his students went on to become pastors. Additionally, upon Tennent’s death, his Log College was moved to New Jersey and became the College of New Jersey. Where, “coincidentally” another Scotsman was summoned to become the president of the college. That man was John Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration of Independence! Then we have Jonathan Edwards and his “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” sermon. Other pastors began to imitate Edwards’ message and the fires of liberty were just beginning to spark.
In 1739 George Whitefield arrived in America – the first of seven trips he would make. His style was to go where the people were. It was called “field preaching”. He traveled up and down the colonies preaching liberty and freedom in Christ to hundreds and even thousands such as in Boston and Philadelphia. A skeptical Benjamin Franklin, using his mathematical calculations wrote in his autobiography, “I computed that he might well be heard by more than thirty thousand.” Even though George Whitefield’s goal was salvation in Christ to the hearer, his preaching helped create the concepts of individual liberty in civil and religious affairs, and resistance to an over-bearing tyrannical king. By the time of his death in 1770, the name Whitefield was the most recognized name in the colonies. Thus, the fires of liberty burst into flames. Yet the colonies were still divided, as America is divided today. It is calculated that only one-third of the colonists actually wanted to take the steps toward freedom, one-third were Tories (loyal to the Crown), one-third were indifferent and didn’t want “to rock the boat”. After years of trying to resolve their issues with King George III, it had become evident to the delegates gathered in Philadelphia in 1776 that it was a lost cause and they had only one path forward – independence! Even then, there were days of fierce debate on both sides.
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