27/05/2024
CHURCH HISTORY
Christianity wouldn’t be what it is if not for several men who labored faithfully to lay the foundation and build the pillars of the Church. To remember and appreciate their legacy, I have compiled a list of twenty-five men whose works still influence us today. This list is neither exhaustive nor comprehensive, so I encourage you to check out the sources in the footnotes for more information.
Onward we go with the leaders of the great awakening!
The Great Awakening and beyond (1700 – 1900)
Throughout this series, we have traveled through significant eras of Church history and identified some key figures starting with our Lord Jesus. We learned more about the lives of some of the apostles, the Church fathers, the reformers, the puritans, and lastly, we are going to look at the revivalists and a couple of modern history makers.
The revivalists ushered the First Great Awakening or Evangelical Revival, which was a period that was marked by several revivals in Britain and the colonies of America between 1730 and 1740.
1. Jonathan Edwards (1703 – 1758)
Jonathan Edwards was a pastor, theologian, and revivalist of the new world. Many consider him as America’s greatest theologian and philosopher.
Edwards was born in East Windsor, Connecticut, seventy years after the first Puritan settlements in New England. His father was a pastor, and his mother was the daughter of Solomon Stoddard, pastor of the largest church in New England.
When Edwards was thirteen, he attended Yale College and graduated top of his class. He decided to remain at Yale to obtain his Master’s, and a year into his program, a significant event happened. Edwards experienced a “delightful conviction” while meditating on 1 Timothy 1:7.
He said, “As I read the words, there came into my soul, and was as it were diffused through it, a sense of the glory of the Divine Being; a new sense, quite different from anything I ever experienced before.”
After that watershed moment, Edwards began to delight in God’s sovereignty and became highly concerned with the expansion of God’s kingdom. Hence, he interrupted his studies to work at a Presbyterian church in New York. But he stayed there for only eight months before returning to Yale.
In 1726, Edwards was invited to preach at his grandfather’s church in Northampton and got ordained in 1727. That same year, he married Sarah Pierrepont, whom he met during his studies at Yale. His grandfather died two years later, and Edwards assumed the full leadership of the church.
Edwards quickly became concerned about the spiritual state of the congregants. Consequently, he began preaching sermons to bring them to repentance.
His fiery sermons caused a multitude of revivals in his church and the new world that saw hundreds of people come to saving faith. It is said that his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (his most famous sermon and one of the most famous sermons in history), convicted many members of the congregation with holy fear.
Edwards faithfully pastored his grandfather’s church for over twenty years. But his fruitful ministry came to an end when the board of his church discharged him in 1750. He found employment a year later in a small church in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He then became the president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton University) in February 1758. But hed died from a fever the following month.
Jonathan Edward’s legacy lives on through his multitudes of writings and sermons still available today. Some of his most popular works include The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards, Charity and Its Fruits, The Religious Affections, and Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
Jonathan Edwards was a pastor, theologian, and revivalist of the new world. Many consider him as America’s greatest theologian and philosopher.
Edwards was born in East Windsor, Connecticut, seventy years after the first Puritan settlements in New England. His father was a pastor, and his mother was the daughter of Solomon Stoddard, pastor of the largest church in New England.
When Edwards was thirteen, he attended Yale College and graduated top of his class. He decided to remain at Yale to obtain his Master’s, and a year into his program, a significant event happened. Edwards experienced a “delightful conviction” while meditating on 1 Timothy 1:7.
He said, “As I read the words, there came into my soul, and was as it were diffused through it, a sense of the glory of the Divine Being; a new sense, quite different from anything I ever experienced before.”
After that watershed moment, Edwards began to delight in God’s sovereignty and became highly concerned with the expansion of God’s kingdom. Hence, he interrupted his studies to work at a Presbyterian church in New York. But he stayed there for only eight months before returning to Yale.
In 1726, Edwards was invited to preach at his grandfather’s church in Northampton and got ordained in 1727. That same year, he married Sarah Pierrepont, whom he met during his studies at Yale. His grandfather died two years later, and Edwards assumed the full leadership of the church.
Edwards quickly became concerned about the spiritual state of the congregants. Consequently, he began preaching sermons to bring them to repentance.
His fiery sermons caused a multitude of revivals in his church and the new world that saw hundreds of people come to saving faith. It is said that his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (his most famous sermon and one of the most famous sermons in history), convicted many members of the congregation with holy fear.
Edwards faithfully pastored his grandfather’s church for over twenty years. But his fruitful ministry came to an end when the board of his church discharged him in 1750. He found employment a year later in a small church in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He then became the president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton University) in February 1758. But hed died from a fever the following month.
Jonathan Edward’s legacy lives on through his multitudes of writings and sermons still available today. Some of his most popular works include The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards, Charity and Its Fruits, The Religious Affections, and Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
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