God's Story: A Student Guide to Church History (10 page)

One of these dissenters, John Flavel (c.1630-1691) suffered continual persec-ution from state officials while trying to lead his congregation in the city of Dartmouth. He also suffered grief from the loss of three wives, a son, and his parents who died from being incarcerated for holding a “nonconformist” worship service. However, being forced from his town of ministry afforded Flavel (like many other Puritans) time to write. This is one of the reasons why we have so much Puritan literature from the later 17
^th
century!

Another one of these dissenters, John Bunyan (1628-1688), was confined to the Bedford jail for over twelve years of his life, preaching in secret and often barely avoiding execution.
¹
While there—making shoelaces for a wage—he began to write what would become one of the greatest pieces of literature,
The Pilgrim’s Progress.
No other book in English, except the Bible, has been so widely read over such a long period. First published in 1678, it has never been out of print and has been translated into over 200 languages!

After Charles II died in 1685, his brother James II took the throne. James was a Roman Catholic and the nation erupted in protest—many out of fear—at a Catholic sitting on the throne. After only three years, James was forced out with the peaceful “invasion” of William and Mary, an event known as the Glorious Revolution. In 1689, they enacted the Act of Toleration, which finally granted religious freedom to the Puritans.

During the 16
^th
and 17
^th
centuries, England witnessed a turbulent Reformation and
Post
-Reformation, as the nation tried to implement the new changes of theology and worship into their everyday lives. Through war, persecution, and triumph, England—which began as a decisively Roman Catholic nation—had become a decisively Protestant nation. This had a profound impact on the establishment of the New World.

1. How did the Church of England officially
   begin? Did Henry VIII really like Protestant
   (Reformed) theology?
   
2. If someone were to ask you, “Who was a
   Puritan?” what would you say? What’s the
   first thought that comes to your head when
   you think of a “Puritan”?
   
3. Many Puritans spent time in jail for their
   faith. What would happen if the nation you
   lived in suddenly turned strongly against the
   Christian faith and put Christians in prison?
   How would you react?
   

1
For an overview of Bunyan’s life, see Brian H. Cosby, John Bunyan:
The Journey of a Pilgrim
(Ross-Shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2009).

L
ike most teenagers I know, I’ve struggled with early mornings. As I passed through my 20s and now into my 30s, I’m
still
not a morning person. But the dark colored, rich tasting, simmering hot, earthy smell of coffee in the morning awakens me to realize that coffee is a wonderful proof that God loves us. At least, that’s my take on it! Being energized after feeling lifeless has also been witnessed in the church at various times through its history. But spiritual vitality usually falls on the heels of lukewarm lethargy.

In 1620 one hundred Separatists—those wanting to leave England mainly because of religious persecution—left for the New World on the
Mayflower
and landed in Massachusetts (they had intended on landing further south in Virginia). They quickly set up civil laws that required a close connection with God’s laws, to the point that only those converted to Christianity were allowed to vote!

Several prominent people had qualms about this, including the Baptist Separatist, Roger Williams (1603-1683), who objected to the idea of civil judges enforcing religious beliefs. In 1635, they banished Williams from the colony and he travelled southwest to a little bay, which he bought from some local Native Americans and called it “Providence.” He declared that no person would be called into question regarding matters of religion—welcoming any and all—and established the first Baptist Church in America. Williams would later welcome the exiled spiritualist, Anne Hutchinson, to Providence. These little ideas of religious liberty and the separation of church and state would change the world and set the agenda for the American spirit.

In Europe, people began rejecting the older institutional religion of their forefathers; some rejected certain core doctrines of the Christian faith while others pulled away from the faith altogether. Still others rejected the older forms of church government and embraced an individual spiritual experience with God apart from the institution of the church. However the pieces fell, one thing was clear: people questioned and rejected the institutional Christianity of the past.

One of these movements began during the later 1600s, when many began insisting that truth could be obtained simply through reason, observation, and experiment. By arriving at “truth” from this angle, they argued, differing religions and world-views should tolerate one another though all should reject the mystical and superstitious elements of religious faith. This movement eventually mushroomed in the 1700s into what we now call the
Enlightenment.

One of the principal early movers of the Enlightenment was Isaac Newton (1642-1727), the English physicist and mathematician who sought to explain the observable universe not through the lens of the Bible, but through science and math—especially through the laws of motion and gravity. At one point, Newton said, “Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who set the planets in motion.”

Newton, who considered himself a “Christian” and yet rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, added fuel to the growing belief of his time,
Deism.
Deism is a system of natural religion that sees God as the first Cause (or first Mover), the being who set the solar system in motion under a variety of secondary laws and then sits back to let it be governed on its own
by
those laws. In other words, God was seen as the great Clock-Maker who created all things (wound up the clock) and then let it go. Thus, deists reject miracles, divine providence, and God’s continuing involvement in the world (ironically, though they reject miracles, they affirm the “miracle” of creation!).

But not everybody was abandoning the faith and explaining the world through purely secular means. Some, like the
Pietists
, moved in the opposite direction of the Deists toward a deeply spiritual expression of the Christian faith. A German named Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705)—who had been influenced by the writings of the Reformers and the Puritans—witnessed the spiritual decline of the Lutheran church into a state of apathy.

Wanting to revive the sterile spiritual condition of the people, Spener began hosting devotional meetings in his house twice a week, which he called
Collegia Pietatis
(“schools of piety”). During that time, he also wrote
Pia Desideria
(1675), which sought to supplant the emphasis on the institution of the church with an emphasis on personal piety and spirituality. His followers soon became known as the Pietists and, while they wanted to see and experience greater zeal for God within the church, many didn’t want to simply form a new church or separate from Lutheranism.

In the early stages, Pietism was underfunded and didn’t gain much traction until the contribution of the wealthy Count, Nicolaus Zinzendorf (1700-1760). Spener had a profound effect upon the young Zinzendorf, even becoming the latter’s godfather! Moreover, Zinzendorf attended Halle University, a Pietist stronghold, and later settled down on a large estate and began printing inexpensive Bibles, catechisms, hymnals, and various Christian books. Like Spener, Zinzendorf wanted to revive the “dead” (as he saw it) Christianity in Europe.

In 1722, Protestant immigrants (many from Moravia) who also supported the spiritual emphasis of Pietism began showing up at his door asking for asylum and assistance. He welcomed them with open arms, allowing them to take up residence on his expansive estate. As time went on and more immigrants flooded his estate, he began devoting himself to their spiritual care.

They set up their own town, called Herrnhut, a few miles away, and became known as the Moravian Brethren. However, due to their emphasis on personal piety over and against the hierarchy of the church, Zinzendorf and many of Herrnhut’s leaders were exiled. Zinzendorf soon established Pietist communities all over, notably in the Netherlands, England, the West Indies, South Africa, and North America.

The Moravian message eventually reached the ears of a young minister in the Church of England, John Wesley (1703-1791). While at Oxford University, Wesley and his brother Charles (the great hymn writer) started the “Holy Club,” which strove to attain a holy lifestyle through various
methods
, including Bible reading, prayer, fasting, personal examination, and meeting together. Over time, their fellow students began calling them methods, who derided their methodical structure of the Christian life.

In 1735, after his time at Oxford, John sailed for Savannah, Georgia, to be the minister of the newly formed church there. At one point on the voyage, a violent storm came upon them. The crew and its travellers feared for their lives, except for a small group of Moravian Brethren who joyfully sang psalms and prayed. Wesley immediately knew they possessed a spirituality that he lacked.

After Wesley’s disastrous experience in Georgia, he returned to England and joined a Moravian community. One day, while walking outside of a Moravian meeting on Aldersgate Street in London, he overheard the reading of one of Martin Luther’s sermons on the book of Romans. Wesley, recognizing both his sin and God’s grace, was saved! He later recounted of that event, “I felt my heart strangely warmed.”

Because of Wesley’s involvement with the Moravians, he was banned from preaching in the Church of England. Thus, he decided to join his friend and former Holy Club member, George Whitefield (1714-1770), who had been preaching out in the open air. For the next fifty years, Wesley became known for his open-air preaching in fields, cottages, and chapels. Over time, he also organized his followers in the Methodist Society in England.

Like the Pietists in Germany, Wesley and his Methodists wanted to bring spiritual revival to the Church of England. However, it soon became clear that his vision would not be realized and so the Methodists became organized into a separate structure and denomination, the Methodist Church. Wesley briefly parted ways with Whitefield in 1741 over the doctrine of predestination as Wesley was Arminian and Whitefield affirmed the doctrines of grace from the Reformation. While the two never agreed on this issue, they reunited and remained friends for the rest of their lives.

George Whitefield, himself aligned with the Calvinistic strand of Methodism, also had interests in Georgia where he set up a well-known orphanage. But Whitefield soon became known for much more than his care for orphans; his preaching up and down the eastern coast of New England would spark the
Great Awakening
.

The Great Awakening was a widespread revival during the 1730s and 40s, but reached its peak in New England during that time. Those who heard Whitefield—known for his ability to project his voice to thousands—often became deeply aware of their own personal need for salvation in Christ. His preaching circuit during 1739 and 1740 catapulted him to celebrity status, even winning the applause of notables such as Benjamin Franklin (though Franklin rejected Whitefield’s theology). But while the rumblings of revival were beginning to shake the American colonies, it was not until the rather dispassionate preaching of one New Englander that the true zenith of the Great Awakening began. That preacher was Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758).

As early as 1734, Edwards witnessed some early revivals in his church in Northampton, Massachusetts.  Edwards’ sermons usually lasted upwards of two hours with him simply reading his manuscript in a mono-tone voice. But the Spirit of God attended the Word of God as it was preached and revival broke out in the Northampton church. Hundreds came to saving faith in Christ and parishioners became passionately and emotionally involved in their affections for God and his Word. Soon, the contagious spirit of revival spread and New England became caught up in the Awakening.