Great Awakening and the Revolutionary War

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Evangelical ministers expected a massive Christian awakening similar to the Protestant Reformation. Both scholarly and evangelical ministers thought this revival would start in America and sweep the world. (See Black Robed Regiment for some examples)

The Great Awakening was occurring throughout most of the colonies and notably altered the religious climate. It was the first major event that all the colonies could share. Only the South and frontier areas lagged behind in the religious excitement.

During the Revolutionary war a Philadelphia Lutheran pastor would complain that “The whole country is in perfect enthusiasm for liberty. Would to God that men would become as zealous and unanimous in asserting their spiritual liberty, as they are in vindicating their political freedom.”

** “Seeing themselves as actors on the stage of salvation history, revivalists understood themselves to be playing a pivotal role in bringing about the Second Coming of Christ. Like most apocalyptic thinkers, revivalists envisioned themselves as a part of an epic and age-old battle between Christ and Satan, the forces of light and the forces of darkness. Jonathan Edwards was optimistic that the revivals were the dawning of God’s final plans for the earth, a defining moment for America within salvation history. According to Edwards, “we can’t reasonably think otherwise, than that the beginning of this great work of God must be near. And there are many things that make it probable that this work will begin in America.” ” {Ref 1} **

While John Winthrop may have promised that the Massachusetts Bay Colony would be like “a city upon a hill,” (Mt 5:14) it was the First Great Awakening that truly provided the ground for the American colonists to begin to see themselves as a chosen people. They believed that God was working within the American colonies in a special way.

Many Historians agree the Great Awakening helped prepare the colonies for the American Revolution. Its ethos strengthened the appeal of the ideals of liberty, and its ministers and the members strongly supported the Revolution. The drive for religious liberty against a tyrannical religious authority fed into the movement for civil liberty against the unjust political authority of the British in the 1770s. Likewise, the evangelical teaching that each individual believer was equal before God made it easier for people to accept the radical implications of democracy and to question authority.

The Great Awakening was the most significant religious and cultural upheaval in colonial American history and helped forge U.S. civil and religious liberties emerging in the mid-eighteenth century. (See Black Robed Regiment for how the pastors influenced the colonists)

What fruitage did these spiritual leaders produce? Mt 7:15-20. Consider John 17:16 vs Acts 20:29, 30. What would Jesus have said seeing this?

-Source Links-

{Ref 1} https://allthingsliberty.com/2016/08/great-awakening-american-revolution/#_ednref56

https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/great-awakening

https://billofrightsinstitute.org/essays/the-great-awakening

https://www.ushistory.org/us/7b.asp

https://sites.google.com/a/egc.org/newenglandsbookofacts/new-england-s-book-of-acts/section-one-overview/history-of-revivalism-in-boston