George Whitefield FBC – Young Biographers Series 2 June 2013 THE HISTORIC BACKDROP The Monarchy of King Charles I was deposed in1649. Oliver Cromwell ruled for a short while with military successes in Scotland and Ireland. After that, Charles II was restored to the throne and 8 Proprietors who helped him and they were given the Carolinas. Charles brother, The Duke of York was given New Amsterdam (now New York) in 1665. When Charles II died, his brother James II took over. Like Charles II, James II was a Catholic, and hated the Colonies because of their independence. James II was very heavy handed and took all of New England and put them into one colony. He was also very heavy handed in England and tried to dissolve the Parliament. Parliament got rid of James and brought in William III and Mary II. Mary was protestant and, one of the conditions to them becoming co-regants was that they accepted the Bill of Rights in 1689 giving Parliament and the People rights over the monarchy. This is the “Glorious Revolution” and resulted in some of the Colonies getting rid of the colonies like Edmond Andros in 1689. This was followed by fifty years and more of imperial skirmishes between Britain and France and the American colonists saw this as a great struggle between Protestantism and Catholicism. By the 1720s and 30s because of the conditions of war, because of ongoing conflict with Native Americans, because of feelings of fear about theological innovation and what they would call liberalism at the time they had a strong sense that their culture was really becoming decayed and at risk of becoming really ungodly. And this is the context in which pastors began to call on lay people to pray for revival, to pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit for revival. Starting in the mid-1730s they get answers to their prayer. Like the return to churches after 9/11, the Great Awakening is born out of a spirit of a desperate sense of cultural crisis. 1714 Born in Gloucester, England, December 16 – youngest of 6 boys 1716 Father, Thomas; an inkeeper, dies. 1718 Blackbeard the Pirate beheaded 1722 Mother, Elizabeth, marries Capel Longden, an ironmonger, who seizes control of the family tavern (The Bell Inn). 1726 George enrolls at St. Mary de Crypt grammar school, where he enjoys reading plays and acting. Later drops out to help his mother with the inn. 1727 George II becomes king of England 1728 George’s mother leaves her husband. Family conflicts cause George to leave the Bell Inn and cease “drawing wine for drunkards.” 1729 Ben Franklin begins Pennsylvania Gazette 1730 Returns to his studies at St. Mary’s. On Christmas, receives the Lord’s Supper for the first time and determines to be more watchful over his thoughts, words, and actions. 1732 Enrolls at Pembroke College, Oxford University. Pays expenses by working as a servitor (errand boy for other students). Begins praying three times a day and fasting weekly. 1733 Georgia, last of 13 colonies, settled 1733 Invited to breakfast by Charles Wesley and introduced to the Holy Club’s 10 or 11 earnest members. Like his Holy Club friends, seeks salvation through severe discipline and good works, which causes a breakdown of his health from which he never fully recovers. 1735 Borrows from Wesley The Life of God in the Soul of Man by Henry Scougal, which “showed me that I must be born again, or be damned!” Following years of penitence, Whitefield becomes first of the Oxford methodists to experience “a full assurance of faith broke in upon my disconsolate soul!” Begins evangelizing, with converts organized into a society. 1735 Leads the Holy Club (the Wesleys had become missionaries to Georgia). Completes his degree, is ordained a deacon in the Church of England, and preaches his first sermon. Returns to Oxford to pursue graduate studies, but then leaves to substitute preach for various friends. Decides to become a missionary to Georgia. CONVERSION, CONVICTION & OPPOSITION Conversion I must bear testimony to my old friend Mr. Charles Wesley, he put a book into my hands, called, The Life of God and the soul of man, whereby God showed me, that I must be born again, or be damned. I know the place: it may be superstitious, perhaps, but whenever I go to Oxford, I cannot help running to that place where Jesus Christ first revealed himself to me, and gave me the new birth. Scougal says, a man may go to church, say his prayers, receive the sacrament, and yet, my brethren, not be a Christian. How did my heart rise, how did my heart shutter, like a poor man that is afraid to look into his account-books, lest he should find himself a bankrupt: yet shall I burn that book, shall I throw it down, shall I put it by, or shall I search into it? I did, and, holding the book in my hand, thus addressed the God of heaven and earth: Lord, if I am not a Christian, if I am not a real one, for Jesus Christ’s sake, show me what Christianity is, that I may not be damned at last. I read a little further, and the cheat was discovered; oh, says the author, they that know anything of religion know it is a vital union with the son of God, Christ formed in the heart; oh what a way of divine life did break in upon my poor soul. Oh! With what joy—Joy unspeakable—even joy that was full of, and big with glory, was my soul filled. George Whitefield – Sermon 1779 From the time of his conversion in 1735, Whitefield had been profoundly conscious of man's entire depravity, his need of the new birth, and the fact that God can save and God alone. Describing an experience which occurred a few weeks after his conversion, he wrote: "About this time God was pleased to enlighten my soul, and bring me into the knowledge of His free grace . ." Strengthened by his reading of the Scriptures, the Reformers and the Puritans, Whitefield gradually grasped the great related chain of truths revealed in the New Testament—the Father's electing love, Christ's substitutionary death on behalf of those whom the Father had given Him, and the Spirit's infallible work in bringing to salvation those for whom it was appointed. These doctrines of "free grace" were the essential theology of his ministry from the very first and consequently the theology of the movement which began under his preaching in 1737. Conviction Righteousness Imputed & Preeminent Justification “After these inward conflicts, were you ever enabled to reach out the arm of faith, and embrace the blessed Jesus in your souls, so that you could say, ‘my beloved is mine, and I am his?’ If so, fear not, whoever you are. Hail, all hail, you happy souls! The Lord, the Lord Christ, the everlasting God, is your righteousness. Christ has justified you, who is he that condemneth you? Christ has died for you, nay rather is risen again, and ever liveth to make intercession for you. Being now justified by his grace, you have peace with God, and shall, ere long, be with Jesus in glory, reaping everlasting and unspeakable fruits both in body and soul. For there is no condemnation to those that are really in Christ Jesus. Whether Paul or Apollos, or life or death, all is yours if you are Christ’s, for Christ is God’s. My brethren, my heart is enlarged towards you! O think of the love of Christ in dying for you! Talk of, O talk of, and recommend the righteousness of Christ, when you lie down, and when you rise up, at your going out and coming in! Think of the greatness of the gift, as well as the giver! George Whitefield – Sermon on Jeremiah 23:6 - The Lord Our Righteousness He never elevated justification to the exclusion of regeneration and sanctification. In fact, he was explicit in his effort to keep them in balance: We must not put asunder what God has joined together; we must keep the medium between the two extremes; not insist so much on the one hand upon Christ without, as to exclude Christ within, as evidence of our being his, and as a preparation for future happiness; nor on the other hand, so depend on inherent righteousness or holiness wrought in us, as to exclude the righteousness of Jesus Christ without us. George Whitefield – Sermon on Jeremiah 23:6 - The Lord Our Righteousness Sanctification – The Imputation Of Christ’s Obedience / Good Works Whitefield would press home the particularities of this doctrine, especially the imputation of Christ’s obedience. I fear they understand justification in that low sense, which I understood it in a few years ago, as implying no more than remission of sins; but it not only signifies remission of sins past, but also a federal right to all good things to come. As the obedience of Christ is imputed to believers so his perseverance in that obedience is to be imputed to them also. Never did greater or more absurdities flow from the denying any doctrine, than will flow form denying the doctrine of Christ’s imputed righteousness. The world says, because we preach faith we deny good works; this is the usual objection against the doctrine of imputed righteousness. But it is a slander, an impudent slander. George Whitefield - Michael A. G. Haykin, editor, The Revived Puritan: The Spirituality of George Whitefield Benjamin Franklin, who enjoyed one of the warmest friendship’s Whitefield ever had, in spite of their huge religious differences, said, “Whitefield’s integrity, disinterestedness and indefatigable zeal in prosecuting every good work, I have never seen equaled, I shall never see excelled.” Whitefield’s impassioned belief in the imputation of Christ’s righteousness did not hinder the practical pursuit of justice and love, it empowered it.