Baptist HistoryLesson 24

Revival, Reunion, Expansion

“The Baptists asked it through Washington; the request commended itself to Madison; and to the Baptists, beyond a doubt, belongs the glory of engrafting its best articles on the noblest Constitution ever framed for the government of mankind”

Cathcart, Centennial Offering

Four Periods of ‘Awakening’ Activity

I. The Great Awakening (1730’s-1750’s)

II. The 2nd Great Awakening (1790’s-1830”’s)

III. Prayer Meetings through New Pentecostalism (1857-1910’s)

IV. 1940’s – 1950’s Billy Graham

1300 miles N/S

50 miles width

1,000,000 population

150,000 negro slaves

2nd trip: Oct 31, 1739

“Thus he had come to a position in which not denominational adherence but evangelical soundness was the criterion, and his work had become non-denominational in character”

AD, Vol 1, pg 438

What did Whitefield preach?

1720’s - The Middle Colonies

1730’s – The New England Colonies

1740 – 1750’s – The Southern Colonies

The 1st Great Awakening

EVANGELICAL:•Authority of scripture•Necessity of new birth•Intent to spread the gospel•True conversion worked out in the believer’s life

“God graciously intervened in the affairs of man”

Results of the Great Awakening

1. Conversions2. Increase in churches and church membership3. Increase awareness of the necessity of the new birth4. No tolerance for an unconverted minister5. Building of new evangelical schools:

Princeton

Dartmouth

Rutgers

Brown

6. Calvinism strengthened and preserved in American churches for another hundred years

POSITIVE:

Western Migration

Mass Migration to the Continent

Why did religious fervor fade after the 1st Great Awakening?

The Disruption of the American Revolution

The Rise of English Deism & French Skepticism

The 2nd Great Awakening

East Coast Western Frontier New England

The East Coast

Colleges

Hampton- Sidney College – 1787, students pry for revival

Yale – 1802, Timothy Dwight

Princeton – 1813 Daniel Baker, Pry Mtg 1813 – 1815 40 converted

Harvard, Bowdin, Brown, Dartmouth, Middlebury, Williams, and Andover

Methodism

Frances Asbury

The Frontier

Logan, KY - 1797

Camp Meeting

Cane Ridge, KY - 1801

The Frontier

Logan, KY - 1797

Cane Ridge - 1801

Methodist Circuit Riders

Baptist

Camp Meeting

Presbyterian Split

The Cumberland Presbyterian ChurchThe Christian ChurchThe Church of Disciples

The Circuit Riders went after the frontier people.

Francis Asbury/Peter Cartwright -

Farmer/Sunday Preacher

The Results of the 2nd Great Awakening

The Rise of revivalism – the idea that revivals could be planned.

The American Revolution established a new context for the churches, in whichvoluntary patterns for survival and growth had to be established.

The Democratization of Christianity – Christian organizations based upon theindividual. Away from creeds, confessions. We will see divisions and the riseof denominations and para-church organizations.

The Decline of Calvinism – it will be replaced by Arminian Evangelization

The 2nd Great Awakening will delay the dissent into paganism

Union of Separate and Regular Baptists

Virginia

1776: United Baptists Churches of Virginia

North Carolina

Separates Sandy Creek Association 1758

Regulars Kehukee Association 1765

1775-1800 Period of Unusual Growth

1800: 48 Associations

1775 1 in 264 a Baptist

1800 1 in 53 a Baptist

Why such growth?

1. The granting of religious liberty

2. Missionary activity of pioneer preachers

3. Harmony between democratic spirit among the people and congregational polity of the Baptists

Kentucky 1790 42 churches; 3100 members

Tennessee 1765 first church in Nashville area

1790 18 churches; 900 members

1801 Union of Elkhorn and Separates of South Kentucky

“And that the preaching Christ tasted death for every man shall be no bar to communion” 9th Article

What did Baptists in the South look like?

1. Associational

2. Confessional

Abstracts rather than full confessions

3. Calvinistic Soteriology

4. Committed Congregationalists

5. Evangelistic

John A. Broadus “The American Baptist Minister of 100 years ago”

1. Felt inward call to the ministry

2. Endured hardships

3. Erred about ministerial support

4. Generally favored ministerial education

5. The character of their preaching was eminently Biblical

“it suffices to add that the preachers of that day depended much on the aid of the Holy Spirit to give them liberty in speaking and the hearts of their hearers…And it is a great fundamental truth, to which we must cling, that God will help us in preaching, and himself ‘giveth the increase.’”