New Bitesize Biography on George Whitefield by Michael Haykin

By Dustin Bruce

Today, December 16^th, 2014, marks the 300^th anniversary of the birth of the great eighteenth century revivalist George Whitefield. Born at the Bell Inn in Gloucester in 1714, Whitefield shaped the trans-Atlantic British community through his participation in what came to be known as The Great Awakening.

In celebration of this anniversary, a number of works on Whitefield have come out, including a new critical work by Dr. Thomas S. Kidd of Baylor. Making a unique contribution to Whitefield literature is a new work by Fuller Center Director, Dr. Michael Haykin.

Haykin has recently released a new work in an ongoing Evangelical Press series, entitled Bitesize Biographies: George Whitefield. In the work, Haykin captures the key facets of Whitefield’s life and theology through nine brief chapters of edifying material drawn from years of study. He summarizes his book this way,

So, after outlining the era in which Whitefield lived and ministered in chapter 2 and giving an overview of Whitefield’s life and ministry in chapter 3, the next five chapters look at five key areas of his ministry: his passion for preaching the gospel, his emphasis on the new birth and justification by faith alone, his defence of a biblical understanding of holiness especially in contrast to John Wesley’s view of Christian perfection, his commitment to Calvinism and its distinctive spirituality, and finally the example of his impact upon one denominational grouping, the Baptists.

For a rich and accessible biography of Whitefield, I heartily recommend picking up a copy of Haykin’s work. There is no better time than the 300-year anniversary of Whitefield’s birth to learn about his remarkable contribution to Evangelical life and spirituality.

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Dustin Bruce lives in Louisville, KY where he is pursuing a PhD in Biblical Spirituality at Southern Seminary. He is a graduate of Auburn University and Southwestern Seminary. Dustin and his wife, Whitney, originally hail from Alabama.

Audio for "George Whitefield and the Great Awakening" Conference at West Toronto Baptist Church

By Ian Hugh Clary

On November 15, 2014, West Toronto Baptist Church was happy to join in on international Whitefield celebrations. This year marks the tercentenary of Whitefield's birth, and it was the church’s privilege to co-host a conference with the Andrew Fuller Center over the course of a Saturday morning. Michael Haykin was the special speaker, while I preached a sermon by the Grand Itinerant on Sunday morning.

Below you can find Dr. Haykin’s two lectures and the sermon I preached.

Lecture 1 – Background to the Great Awakening (Michael Haykin)

Lecture 2 – George Whitefield’s Life (Michael Haykin)

Sermon – “The Marks of True Conversion: Matthew 18:3” (Ian Clary)

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Ian Hugh Clary is finishing doctoral studies under Adriaan Neele at Universiteit van die Vrystaat (Blomfontein), where he is writing a dissertation on the evangelical historiography of Arnold Dallimore. He has co-authored two local church histories with Michael Haykin and contributed articles to numerous scholarly journals. Ian lives in Toronto with his wife and two children.

The Evangelical Gifts of Whitefield and Edwards

By Evan D. Burns

George Whitefield (1714-1770) and Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) both ministered during the First Great Awakening (c. 1731-1755).  Both men were evangelical Calvinists and both were mightily used by the Spirit of Christ to breathe fresh life into the church.  Nevertheless, they were quite different and inimitable in their own ways.

In his book, Evangelical Spirituality, James M. Gordon briefly compares and contrasts George Whitefield with Jonathan Edwards.  Where Edwards was the philosopher-theologian, Whitefield was the evangelist-theologian.  Both men were mightily used by God, but in different ways, often depending upon their God-given temperaments and capacities.  Gordon observes that Whitefield was a “dramatic, colourful orator,” and Edwards was “much more controlled.”  In Whitefield’s sermon delivery, he was “forceful… and unrivaled in his day.”  The pathos of his sermons was found in his “presence and personality.”  Yet, Edwards was compelling in his “firm grasp” of the gospel and his commanding ability to extrapolate “a reasoned, biblical psychology of Christian experience.”  Whitefield was a “restless, energetic activist,” while Edwards “lived in a relatively small area.”  They both promoted evangelical Calvinism, but in Whitefield’s sermons, “there is little that is new or subtle.”  Yet, “by contrast Edwards conveyed a towering sense of the majesty of God.”[1]  The Holy Spirit empowered both of them uniquely to awaken and provoke renewal in ways that still deserve celebration and emulation today.

[1]James M. Gordon, Evangelical Spirituality (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1991), 63--64.

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Evan D. Burns (Ph.D. Candidate, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is on faculty at Asia Biblical Theological Seminary, and he lives in Southeast Asia with his wife and twin sons.  They are missionaries with Training Leaders International.

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On Tuesday and Wednesday, October 21st-22nd, a conference will be held on the campus of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary on George Whitefield and the Great Awakening. You can watch the conference via livestream here.

Whitefield’s "Joy Unspeakable"

By Evan D. Burns

While studying at Oxford, George Whitefield (1714-1770) participated in the Holy Club alongside John Wesley (1703-1791) and his brother, Charles (1707-1788). He employed strict rules of discipline for the sake of attaining holiness. After leaving Oxford for a time, he read a book by Henry Scougal (1650-1678), called The Life of God in the Soul of Man. Whitefield was consequently born again. In a sermon in 1769, he testified of his new birth:

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. [Henry 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.[1]

[1]Michael A G. Haykin, ed., The Revived Puritan: The Spirituality of George Whitefield, Classics of Reformed Spirituality (Dundas, Ontario: Joshua Press, 2000), 25–26.

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Please make plans to join us on the beautiful campus of Southern Seminary on October 21-22, 2014 for this one-of-a-kind celebration of the three hundredth year of George Whitefield’s birth with some of the best Whitefieldian scholars in the world .

For more information and to register, please visit events.sbts.edu/andrewfuller.

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Evan D. Burns (Ph.D. Candidate, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is on faculty at Asia Biblical Theological Seminary, and he lives in Southeast Asia with his wife and twin sons.  They are missionaries with Training Leaders International.

"Whitefield and the Great Awakening": An Invitation from Michael Haykin

By Michael A.G. Haykin

George Whitefield was not only the most celebrated preacher of the eighteenth century, but he was also a central figure in the creation of modern Evangelicalism. His emphasis on the new birth, his passion for evangelism, his ability to cross denominational boundaries and build networks of Christians based on the gospel and Reformation convictions were central features in what we know today as Evangelicalism. In this conference celebrating the tercentennial (1714) birth of Whitefield, we will explore these key themes of this remarkable Christian’s life and what they meant for his day and mean for ours.

Please make plans to join us on the beautiful campus of Southern Seminary on October 21-22, 2014 for this one-of-a-kind celebration of the three hundredth year of George Whitefield's birth with some of the best Whitefieldian scholars in the world .

For more information and to register, please visit events.sbts.edu/andrewfuller.

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Michael A.G. Haykin is the director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies. He also serves as Professor of Church History and Biblical Spirituality at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Haykin and his wife Alison have two grown children, Victoria and Nigel.

Spurgeon’s Kind of Revival

By Evan D. Burns

In his day, Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) called for Christians to labor in prayer for revival.  He outlined a few facets of genuine revival:  First of all, revival, if is authentic, should be “real and lasting” as opposed to “feverish and transient.”  Second, genuine revival should emphasize “old-fashioned doctrine,” including teaching the infallibility of the Scriptures and doctrines such as “the ruin, redemption and regeneration of mankind.”  Third, true revival would see the rise of “genuine godliness” and men who are “consecrated to the Lord and sanctified by His truth.”  Fourth, real revival should affect “domestic religion” in such a way that families are “trained in the fear of God.”  And fifth, the revival that Spurgeon prayed earnestly for was a revival of “vigorous, consecrated strength” where men of God find power in secret prayer.  Let us heed Spurgeon’s call for genuine revival in our day:

Saints acquire nobility from their constant resort to the place where the Lord meets with them. There they also acquire that power in prayer which we so greatly need. Oh, that we had more men like John Knox, whose prayers were more terrible to Queen Mary than 10,000 men! Oh, that we had more Elijahs by whose faith the windows of heavens should be shut or opened!  This power comes not by a sudden effort; it is the outcome of a life devoted to the God of Israel! If our life is all in public, it will be a frothy, vapoury ineffectual existence; but if we hold high converse with God in secret, we shall be mighty for good. He that is a prince with God will take high rank with men, after the true measure of nobility….  Given a host of men who are steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, the glory of God’s grace will be clearly manifested, not only in them, but in those round about them. The Lord send us a revival of consecrated strength, and heavenly energy![1]

[1]Charles Spurgeon, The Kind of Revival We Need.

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Evan D. Burns (Ph.D. Candidate, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is on faculty at Asia Biblical Theological Seminary, and he lives in Southeast Asia with his wife and twin sons.  They are missionaries with Training Leaders International.

International Conference on Baptist Studies VII

Luther King House

Manchester, England

15-18 July 2015

Following six successful International Conferences on Baptist Studies around the world beginning at Oxford in 1997, there is to be a seventh at Luther King House, Manchester, England, the home of the Northern Baptist Learning Community, from Wednesday 15 to Saturday 18 July 2015.  All of these conferences have taken the history of the Baptists throughout the world as their subject matter, and participation has been open to all, both as speakers and attenders.  The theme this time is ‘Baptists and Revival’, a topic which includes traditional revivals, modern crusades and the more general reinvigoration of Baptist life.  The theme will be explored by means of case studies, some of which will be very specific in time and place while others will cover long periods and more than one country. All will be based on original research.

A number of main papers will address key aspects of the subject, but offers of short papers to last no more than 25 minutes in delivery are very much welcome as well.  They should relate in some way to the theme of ‘Baptists and Revival’.  The proposed title should be submitted to Professor D. W. Bebbington, School of History and Politics, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, Scotland, United Kingdom (e-mail: d.w.bebbington@stir.ac.uk).  Papers from the first conference have appeared as The Gospel in the World: International Baptist Studies, edited by David Bebbington, and volumes representing nearly all the subsequent conferences have also been published in the series of Studies in Baptist History and Thought published by Paternoster Press.  We intend that a volume containing some of the papers will again appear after the seventh conference.

Luther King House is generously providing meals, accommodation and facilities for the three days for the remarkably low figure of £200.   The capacity of the House is limited to 59 and so early booking is advisable. Nevertheless additional attenders will be welcome if they are willing to make their own bed and breakfast arrangements and pay £80 for lunch, dinner, refreshments and facilities at Luther King House. Registration forms are available from Beverley Bartram, Conference Office, Luther King House, Brighton Grove, Manchester M14 5JP, United Kingdom (e-mail: LKHConferenceOffice@lkh.co.uk; tel: +44 (0)161 249 2539).  Further information is available from Nathan Finn, Associate Professor of Historical Theology and Baptist Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina (e-mail: nfinn@sebts.edu).

Registration Now Open for "Whitefield & the Great Awakening"

By Steve Weaver

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Registration is now open for this year's conference on George Whitefield and the Great Awakening. This will be the eighth annual conference of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies at Southern Seminary and it promises to be one of the best. The conference speakers are some of the top scholars who have published on George Whitefield and the Great Awakening. The conference schedule is packed with excellent topics being addressed by the most well-respected authors on Whitefield. The parallel sessions are filled with excellent papers by accomplished scholars.

The conference will be a tercentenary celebration of the birth of Whitefield, occurring as it does on the 300th anniversary of the year of his birth.  This year will also mark the release of a major new work on Whitefield by Thomas S. Kidd to be published by Yale University Press, hopefully in time for the conference.

I am sure there will be no better celebration of George Whitefield and the Great Awakening anywhere else in 2014. Make plans to join us in Louisville, Kentucky on October 21-22 for a concentrated two days focused on George Whitefield and his legacy.

Register now!

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Steve Weaver serves as a research assistant to the director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies and a fellow of the Center. He also serves as senior pastor of Farmdale Baptist Church in Frankfort, KY. Steve and his wife Gretta have six children.

Samuel Davies on the Nature of the Spiritual Life

By Joe Harrod

Samuel Davies (1723–1761) used the language of communion or fellowship when describing the nature of spiritual life: “If you love God and the Lord Jesus Christ, you delight in communion with them.”[1] True friends seized every opportunity for fellowship and a dear companion’s “absence is tedious and painful to them.”[2] God was such a friend to believers. Davies balanced God’s transcendence and immanence:

Though God be a spirit, and infinitely above all sensible converse with the sons of men, yet he does not keep himself at a distance from his people. He has access to their spirits, and allows them to carry on a spiritual commerce with him, which is the greatest happiness of their lives.[3]

Jesus had promised this communion (c.f. John 14:21–23) and it was a “mystical fellowship” that believers enjoyed, which sinners knew not.[4] Just as friends experienced communion through mutual exchanges, so God drew near to his people as a father might approach his child, showering grace, kindling love, and fostering assurance of his closeness. For their part, Christians had freedom to approach God through acts of devotion, especially prayer:

And oh! how divinely sweet in some happy hours of sacred intimacy! This indeed is heaven upon earth: and, might it but continue without interruption, the life of a lover of God would be a constant series of pure, unmingled happiness.[5]

Contrary to the opinion of some detractors, religion provided “a happiness more pure, more noble, and more durable than all the world can give.”[6] Such happiness was the believer’s present joy, and consisted of “the pleasures of a peaceful, approving conscience, of communion with God, the supreme good, of the most noble dispositions and most delightful contemplations.”[7] These blessings were gospel fruits and it was through Christ that believers had “sweet communion” with God, “the reviving communications of divine love, to sweeten the affections of life; and the constant assistance of divine grace to bear us up under every burden, and to enable us to persevere in the midst of many temptations to apostacy [sic], deliverance from hell, and all the consequences of sin.”[8]

Occasionally the believer’s experience of God did not seem so intimate, for “at times their Beloved withdraws himself, and goes from them, and then they languish, and pine away, and mourn.”[9] He recognized that the deep communion with God that he described was foreign to many, and he anticipated objections that such talk was “enthusiasm, fanaticism, or heated imagination.”[10] He appealed to more than a  half-dozen passages of Scripture (James 4:8; Hebrews 7:19 and 10:22; Psalms 69:18 and 73:28; Lamentations 3:57; and 1 John 1:3) which promised such intimacy, but replied that such communion was indeed true of God’s friends and if some critics questioned the possibility of such a close relationship, then their distance from God testified to their alienation.[11]

[1]Davies, “Nature of Love to God and Christ Opened and Enforced,” in Sermons by the Rev. Samuel Davies, A.M. President of the College of New Jersey, vol. 2 (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1854, repr. 1993), 463. Cited henceforth as Sermons.

[2]Davies, “Nature of Love to God,” in Sermons, 2:463.

[3]Davies, “Nature of Love to God,” in Sermons, 2:463.

[4]Davies, “Nature of Love to God,” in Sermons, 2:463.

[5]Davies, “Nature of Love to God,” in Sermons, 2:464.

[6]Samuel Davies, “The Ways of Sin Hard and Difficult,” in Sermons, 2:549.

[7]Davies, “Ways of Sin,” in Sermons, 2:549.

[8]Samuel Davies, “The Gospel Invitation,” in Sermons, 2:631.

[9]Davies, “Nature of Love to God,” in Sermons, 2:464.

[10]Davies, “Nature of Love to God,” in Sermons, 2:464.

[11]Davies, “Nature of Love to God,” in Sermons, 2:463–64.

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jch_crop

Joe Harrod serves as Director for Institutional Assessment at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, where he is a doctoral candidate in the areas of Biblical Spirituality and Church History. He and his wife, Tracy, have three sons.

Introducing Samuel Davies

By Joe Harrod

In November, 1752, Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) wrote a Scottish correspondent describing a young minister with whom he had recently spent an afternoon’s conversation: “He seems to be very solid and discreet, and of a very civil, genteel behavior, as well as fervent and zealous in religion.”[1] Nearly four years before the aforementioned meeting, Edwards had called the same young preacher “a very ingenious and pious young man.”[2] For all that he knew of this godly young man in 1752, Jonathan Edwards could never have known that within a decade their bodies would be buried just yards apart, about a half mile north of the yellow clapboard house in which both men had lived and died. Samuel Davies (1723­–1761), the minister whose character Edwards described, was the reluctant fourth president of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton), a champion for religious toleration and civil rights for dissenters in Virginia, and a poet whose verses constitute some of the earliest North American hymnody. Davies was a husband and father who had lost both wife and children, a pioneer missionary to African slaves, and a New Side Presbyterian revivalist whom D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones has described as "the greatest preacher" America ever produced. Yet a decade into the twenty-first century, Davies remains relatively unnoticed among American Evangelicals.[3]

Moreover, for all of his remarkable public accomplishments, those who knew Davies most closely esteemed his personal holiness. Upon learning of Samuel Davies’ death, his long-time friend and London correspondent Thomas Gibbons (d. 1785) remarked,

what crowned all, or advanced his distinction as a man and a scholar into the highest value and lustre, was, that his pious character appeared not at all inferior to his great intellect and acquired accomplishments…His pious character as much surpassed all else that was remarkable in him, as the sparkling eye in the countenance of a great genius does all the other features of the face.[4]

Samuel Finley (1715–1766), Davies’ successor as president at the college, noted that “from twelve or fourteen years of age, [Davies] had continually maintained the strictest watch over his thoughts and actions, and daily lived under a deep sense of his own unworthiness,” and “of the transcendent excellency of the Christian religion.”[5] In reading Davies’ sermons, treatises, hymns, correspondence, and diary, one gains a sense of what his friends knew personally: Samuel Davies articulated a warm and Evangelical piety, rooted in theological reflection upon Scripture.

For the past two and a half years, I have become increasingly familiar with Davies’ works during my doctoral thesis research. In the weeks ahead, I hope to share a portion of the fruit of this research with readers of this blog. Though I don’t follow Davies’ theology on every point, I think his reflections on divinity and piety commend wider appreciation among contemporary Evangelicals.

[1]Jonathan Edwards, letter to William McCulloch, November 24, 1752, in Letters and Personal Writings, ed. George S. Claghorn, in TheWorks of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 16 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 544.

[2]Jonathan Edwards, letter to James Robe, May 23, 1749, in Letters and Personal Writings, ed. Claghorn, Works 16:276.

[3]D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Knowing the Times: Addresses Delivered on Various Occasions 1942–1977 (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1989), 263.

[4]Thomas Gibbons, “A Portion of Two Discourses, Preached at Haberdashers-Hall, London, March 29, A.D. 1761, occasioned by the Decease of the Rev. Samuel Davies, A. M., Late President of the College of Nassau Hall, in New Jersey,” in Sermons by the Rev. Samuel Davies, A.M. President of the College of New Jersey, vol. 1 (New York: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1854; repr., Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1993), 56.

[5]Samuel Finley, “The Disinterested Christian: A Sermon, Preached at Nassau-Hall, Princeton, May 28, 1761. Occasioned by the Death of the Rev. Samuel Davies, A. M. Late President of the College of New Jersey,” Sermons, 1:53.

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jch_crop

Joe Harrod serves as Director for Institutional Assessment at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, where he is a doctoral candidate in the areas of Biblical Spirituality and Church History. He and his wife, Tracy, have three sons.

A new book by Dr. Michael Haykin: Ardent Love for Jesus: Learning from the eighteenth-century Baptist revival

By Dustin Bruce

Building on years of teaching experience, D.A. Carson is quoted at saying, “students don’t learn everything I teach them. What they learn is what I am excited about, the kinds of things I emphasize again and again and again and again.” Michael Haykin’s new book, Ardent Love for Jesus, is this concept translated into book form. Each chapter may be compared to having one’s ear to the door of a classroom, listening intently as Haykin delivers a passionate lecture on a favorite subject: a band of eighteenth-century Baptists whose pursuit of the Risen Lord changed their denomination and the world.

Haykin begins by setting the context of the Baptist revivals, establishing a complicated British history and the rise of hyper-Calvinism as the winds that cooled the piety of Baptist churches in Britain. Yet, with men like John Gill, who fought to preserve the ember of orthodoxy among Baptist ranks, the spark remained for a fresh awakening when the Spirit would blow and ignite Baptist churches once again.

This book is about that fire of revival experienced by eighteenth-century Baptist men and women and what it can teach us today.

Chapters include:

1. ‘A very dunghill in society’: The Calvinistic Baptists and their need for revival

2. ‘The Saviour calls’: The ministry and piety of Benjamin Francis and Anne Steele

3. ‘A little band of brothers’: Friendship and revival in the life of John Ryland Jr.

4. ‘I wish I had prayed more’: John Sutcliff and the Concert of Prayer for revival

5. ‘A dull flint’: Andrew Fuller and theological reformation

6. ‘What a soul’: The revival piety of Samuel Pearce

7. ‘A wretched, poor and helpless worm’: Revival activism–the legacy of William Carey

Appendix: Eighteenth-century Baptists and the gifts of the Holy Spirit in revival

I encourage you to pick up this helpful volume and have your heart warmed in love for Jesus.

Available at Amazon and The Book Depository.

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Dustin Bruce lives in Louisville, KY where he is pursuing a PhD in Biblical Spirituality at Southern Seminary. He is a graduate of Auburn University and Southwestern Seminary. Dustin and his wife, Whitney, originally hail from Alabama.

New Book by Dr. Haykin: Travel With Jonathan Edwards

By Steve Weaver

Dr. Haykin has authored a book with Ron Baines for by the UK publisher Day One. The book is part of Day One's Travel Guides series and traces the footsteps of the colonial American theologian Jonathan Edwards. The volume includes a biographical introduction to Edwards with full-color maps and photographs highlighting key sites related to his life and ministry. For more details on the volume, see the info sheet provided by the publisher. The book is available for order from Amazon.com.

Dr. Douglas A. Sweeney of the the Jonathan Edwards Center at TEDS recently gave his recommendation to the book on the Edwards Center's blog. He wrote that the volume "is a wonderful travel guide to the the world of Jonathan Edwards. It is historically-informed, biographically-detailed, and designed for use by church historical tourists."

Be sure to check out this and the other Travel Guides offered by Day One. They are excellent companions as you travel in North America, the United Kingdom and beyond.

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Steve Weaver serves as a research assistant to the director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies and a junior fellow of the Center. He also serves as senior pastor of Farmdale Baptist Church in Frankfort, KY. Steve and his wife Gretta have six children between the ages of 2 and 14.

Summary of "Mapping Revivals"

By Dustin Bruce

Catching up on some periodical reading over the weekend, I noticed an article on revival by The Andrew Fuller Center's very own Dr. Michael Haykin appeared in the July issue of The Banner of Truth Magazine.

I found the article, "Mapping Revivals: Five Marks," to be quite excellent and would like to share a brief summary with the hopes of piquing your interest.[1]

Haykin begins the essay by turning to the great theologian of revival, Jonathan Edwards, to link genuine revival with the work of the Holy Spirit. Haykin rightly understands that one’s understanding of Pentecost frames one’s theology of revival. He summarizes the options for interpretation,

Was that remarkable Sunday [Pentecost] a once-and-for-all event that established the ongoing presence of the Spirit in the church and is it henceforth foolish to pray for his coming? ...Or was Pentecost a paradigm of what happens from time to time as the church wanes and desperately needs reviving and renewing?[2]

For Haykin, the book of Ephesians offers a brief answer to the complex question. He summarizes,

There [in the book of Ephesians] the apostle affirms that genuine faith in Christ is accompanied by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which Paul describes as being sealed with the Spirit, a metaphor that speaks of a reality that cannot be lost. Yet, at the same time, the apostle can urge his readers in Ephesians 5:18 to ‘be filled with the Spirit,’ which implies that a genuine believer who is indwelt by the Spirit can live in such a way that while he does not lose the Spirit’s presence, he nonetheless stands in need of spiritual renewal and empowerment.[3]

The need for spiritual renewal and empowerment is not limited to individual Christians. Haykin goes on,

Now what is true on an individual level is also true on a corporate level: due to a multitude of reasons, God’s holy people can live at a level that really is sub-standard from a biblical perspective and that can only be rectified by what Christian authors have called a fresh outpouring of the Spirit.[4]

After establishing the biblical paradigm for understanding revival, Haykin then turns to three examples of revivals in church history. Citing the far-reaching French Reformation at the hands of John Calvin, the one-day revival experienced by the Puritan John Livingstone, and the extraordinary ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Haykin argues for an understanding of revival large enough to encompass various outpourings of genuine revival.

While revival has manifested itself in sundry ways, Haykin does isolate five marks of genuine revival. He summarizes,

1.    Revival is a work of God in which God takes the initiative and presences himself in power and glory.

2.    In times of revival, according to Jonathan Edwards, the Spirit used the Word of God to make a powerful impact upon people.

3.    Revival is a powerful intensification of the Holy Spirit’s normal activity of convicting, converting, regenerating, sanctifying, and empowering.

4.    Revival involves also a powerful intensification of the Holy Spirit’s normal activity of testifying to the Saviour–in other words, revival is a Christ-centred event.

5.    Revival leads to the diminution of sinful practices in the community.[5]

The remainder of the essay involves Haykin elaborating on each of the five marks of revival.[6]

This short piece provides one of the clearest paradigms for understanding and evaluating revival that I have encountered. In a day and time when churches think so-called ‘revivals’ occur because they get scheduled on the church calendar, Haykin provides a needed corrective by offering a simple, but biblical, paradigm for understanding great outpourings of the Spirit of God.

---

[1]Michael A.G. Haykin, “Mapping Revivals: Five Marks­—1,” The Banner of Truth Magazine 598 (July 2012), 20–28. This article is part one of a two-part series.

[2]Haykin, “Mapping Revivals,” 21.

[3]Haykin, “Mapping Revivals,” 21.

[4]Haykin, “Mapping Spiritual Revivals,” 21.

[5]Haykin, “Mapping Spiritual Revivals,” 26. This list is drawn from Stuart Piggin, Firestorm of the Lord: The History of Prospects for Revival in the Church and the World (Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 2000), 11.

[6]Though he only elaborates on the first mark in the July issue, the remainder is forthcoming.

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Dustin Bruce lives in Louisville, KY where he is pursuing a PhD in Biblical Spirituality at Southern Seminary. He is a graduate of Auburn University and Southwestern Seminary. Dustin and his wife, Whitney, originally hail from Alabama.

A Sweet Solemnity: The Preaching of George Whitefield

By Dustin W. Benge

Next year is the 300th anniversary of the birth of the great evangelist, George Whitefield (1714–1770). There will be several conferences held in his honor and books written about his life and legacy. I have recently re-aquatinted myself with Whitefield and found a man all ministers need to emulate in many areas. One of the great sources for learning about George Whitefield are from the countless eyewitness accounts given of his ministry.

On the morning of October 23, 1740, in a field of Kensington Parish (near Berlin, Connecticut), Nathan Cole unexpectedly receives the news that the great evangelist George Whitefield would be preaching in the nearby city of Middleton. He immediately dropped his farming tools and ran to his house, hastily grabbing his wife, and rushing to the announced site of Whitefield’s meeting. Saddling his horse, Cole and his wife alternated between riding and running to Middleton for he simply must be present to hear this celebrated preacher about whom he had heard so much.

Still quite a distance from the city, Cole and his wife observed the hillsides being covered in what seemed to be a great fog. As they came closer to the venue, they discovered the fog was in fact the dust cloud from the road as a flood of people descended upon Middleton with horses and carriages. Eager to hear Whitefield preach, 3,000 to 4,000 people had already assembled at the old meeting house. Cole admitted, “When I saw Mr. Whitefield come up upon the scaffold, he looked almost angelic.” He described Whitefield as “a young, slim, slender youth before thousands of people, and with bold undaunted countenance.” The buzz among the great crowd was “God was with him everywhere.”

As Whitefield began to preach, Cole sensed a great fear fall over him. The young preacher “looked as if he was clothed with authority from the great God” as the preaching of the Word fell with great power upon Cole’s wayward heart. “A sweet solemnity sat upon his brow,” Cole testified, “and my hearing him preach gave me a heart wound. By God’s blessing, my old foundation was broken up and I saw my righteousness would not save me.”[1] The full force of Whitefield’s penetrating preaching proved to be irresistible. Cole would harken back to this day and the effect of the Word of God upon his heart after he was born again a full two years later.

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[1] Arnold Dallimore, George Whitefield: The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of the 18^th Century Revival, Vol I (1970, repr.; Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1995), 540-541.

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Dustin W. Benge (Ph.D. Candidate, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) serves as Associate Pastor and Pastor for Family Ministries at Christ Fellowship Baptist Church in Mobile, AL. Dustin is a junior fellow of the Andrew Fuller Center and lives with his wife, Molli, in Mobile.

On Assessing Historical Revivals

By Nathan A. Finn

One of the courses I teach at Southeastern Seminary is a PhD seminar on The History and Theology of Spiritual Awakening. The seminar is cross-listed in the fields of historical theology and evangelism, so the participants include a mix of students studying church history, systematic theology, and evangelism. I have also co-taught a masters-level elective on this same topic with my colleague Alvin Reid, who is an evangelism professor and co-author of a textbook on revival history.

Last summer, I had a conversation with the historian David Bebbington about the difficulties of being a Christian historian who studies revival. We agreed it can be tricky for a variety of reasons. First, there is nothing approaching a universal definition of such terms as revival and awakening among either everyday Christians or scholars. Is revival a surprising work of God or a pre-planned event? Is revival a return to what ought to be normal Christianity or a season of heightened spiritual experience? Is revival primarily about spiritual renewal among believers, gospel advance among unbelievers, or both?  (Bebbington argues for at least five different ways to define revival.)

Second, many folks read their theological biases into various revivals, assessing them as true or false revival based upon their degree of conformity to the presupposed theological criteria. This leads some cessationists to completely dismiss Charismatic revivals, some Calvinists to treat much of the Second Great Awakening with suspicion, and some theological liberals to treat most any revival as little more than social forces influencing the church. Hank Hanegraaff, Iain Murray, and William McGloughlin are representatives of these respective tendencies.

Third, there is the balancing act of being both a historian who wants to treat historical revivals with some degree of critical distance and an evangelical Christian who longs for revival in my own life and church. Finding a balance between cold detachment and filiopietistic preachiness is easier said than done. Harry Stout probably titled to far in the former direction in his controversial biography of George Whitefield, while the works of popular revival historians such as J. Edwin Orr are more about edifying the saints than they are interpreting historical revivals.

Nigel Scotland of Trinity College at Bristol University (UK) is a church historian who has written extensively on the history of evangelicalism in the British Isles. He is also a believing Christian who both writes about and longs for spiritual awakening. In an article in the most recent issue of the journal Evangelical Quarterly, Scotland offers his own definition of revival and suggests nine characteristics that can be used to assess the authenticity of historical revivals. He defines revival as “a sovereign work of God the Father, consisting of a powerful intensification of God’s saving work in and through his people.” His nine characteristics are as follows:

1. A sovereign work of God
2. A work which repeats New Testament Christianity
3. A work which renews the church
4. An enduring work of God
5. A work which magnifies Jesus Christ
6. A work of God brought about by biblically appointed means
7. A work which releases the gifts and fruit of the Holy Spirit
8. A work which often included the conversion of large numbers of people
9. A work which transforms the community in which it is located

My point in passing on Scotland’s list is not to suggest that he has solved the dilemma. Frankly, I have questions about some of his characteristics. (What does it mean to “repeat” NT Christianity?) I simply want to point out how one evangelical historian is thinking through this particular dilemma. The next time I teach my doctoral seminar, I suspect we’ll spend some time talking through Scotland’s article as we try to balance being revival-minded Christians and careful historians and theologians of revival.

If you want to read the article for yourself, see Nigel Scotland, “Towards a Biblical Understanding and Assessment of Revival,” Evangelical Quarterly 85.2 (Spring 2013): 121–34.

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Nathan A. Finn is associate professor of historical theology and Baptist Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is also an elder at First Baptist Church of Durham, NC and a senior fellow of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies.