The American Republic, A Nation of Christians

by Paul R Dienstberger

Self Published 2000

http://www.prdienstberger.com/

Cover “Constitution Day Montage” from www.gettyimages.com, not with original ebook.

From web page (below)

If you have read David Barton, Gary DeMar, or Catherine Millard, then you have an expectation of the type of book that I've written.

If you are frustrated about the content of American history textbooks and you are looking for a Christian perspective, then this book may be of interest to you.

Do you feel history has been revised, rewritten, maybe censored, or Christian influence has just been omitted?

If you are looking for an American history supplemental textbook, that attempts to show a Christian bearing on the USA, then glance at the table of contents below.

The Prelude

When an author starts a text, one expected perspective is that he will be neutral and just present the facts. The writer should be a third person. The classroom teacher or college professor is challenged with the same position, since he or she might influence the formative minds of his students.

I submit to you upfront and from the beginning that this is a near impossible tenet to be impartial, unbiased, and totally objective. I appreciated Vern Bullough's statements, when he said, "everything seems to be relative to the point of view of the observer. Presuppositions do play an important role...it is impossible to have a "view from nowhere."

Anyone worth their salt has a zeal, a passion, a persuasion that makes them interesting. Can you imagine Dan Rather or Sam Donelson being accused of bland neutrality. Oprah, Rosie, Phil Donahue, Rush Limbaugh, Jerry Falwell and the like all have followers, who faithfully watch their shows just because of this appeal. The listener expects some degree of persuasion.

Any public forum whether it be the news, or the entertainment field, or a public speaker ends with an opinion. It is a part of the responsibility to stand in front of any assemblage and perform.

As one prepares, studies, practices, develops that public presence, he or she reaches a conviction and even a confidence that they have something worthwhile to say. I find that the better educated people, such as teachers-professors, media-communicators, and the professional types, are usually well read and well informed; and they have a point of view.

Even the audience is going to grant approval based on the emotion displayed by the presenter or the resulting impact on the listeners. You usually hear: wasn't that a good sermon, or did you like that movie, or what did you think of the program. Right now you are already starting to form your conclusions whether this book has your interest, and if you are going to continue further into these opinions.

As a college graduate and a classroom teacher for 36 years no one ever told me that I was being indoctrinated or inculcated by those teachers or the books, but I sure disliked the ones, who would not give their opinions. I mistrusted their subtle intents and their hidden dockets; and I wondered, "What do they really mean?"

Today we find a strong emphasis on "the agenda." There is almost needs to be a warning or a disclaimer on every PBS documentary, radio-TV show, movie, book, etc that it's slanted toward their favorite opinion. USA Today has daily columns in every section which specialize in reviewing the news from their point of view, but no one calls it prejudice or even hints at partiality. Al Neuharth encourages a "forum" of opinions.

If the presentation involves a historical event, then it probably has some revisionist perspective. Someone claims to have new evidence or an updated version, but certainly it must have the hype packaging so others will watch it or read it. No one ever claims to have a distorted view of history that it is twisted to justify their narrow position.

This brings me to the main perspective that motivates this book. There is a school of thought that believes God is being driven from the public school classroom, and Christianity is being deliberately purged from our textbooks, and those academic atheists are corrupting our morals by omitting religion from our values.

At this point from what you have read you would not expect me give an opinion of bland, lukewarm neutrality.

The textbook never was a source of much God stuff. Historically it has been a collection of people, places, dates, and events. The three G's of Gold, Gospel, Glory never put much gospel in the textbook. Manifest destiny emphasized land expansion not the God-given right to the land. It is almost never written that the President was a devote Christian.

The main source of biblical material came from the teacher and the students, who interjected their personal information. The most memorable statement that I remember from my high school teachers was made by Mr. Simkims, a science teacher. When he started to teach evolution and to show the movie Hemo the Magnificent, he gave this disclaimer, "Before you run to your preacher and say that I'm against The Bible and I'm teaching evolution, let me say that evolution is only a theory." Can you imagine that kind of warning from today's science teachers. It's only a theory! Let's face the facts. Today evolution is taught as the only logical explanation for the beginning mankind.

God is a God of history. When one reads The Bible and the massive details in the stories and the lives of the people and nations particularly Israel, the response is almost why is it so verbose. One verse sticks out to me. In Acts 17:26 Paul writes that God has determined the times and the places where people will live and move. We have God-given boundaries.

In my teaching career I taught the flow of history from two different perspectives. The first method was the sequence of historical events that had cause and effect so the past bumped the future along. I ended up almost emphasizing the old posthole method of stop-action or a time-frame position around the person or the events during that date in history.

The direction of history was like a ripple effect. I could choose any individual, event, date, idea, movement, etc and then tie it to the next era. It was an endless glorification of the past that only led to the present. History really had no ultimate goal that I was leading toward except the present.

My second method was a panoramic position or a view of history from a beginning to an end. It wasn't until I became a born again Christian that this view dominated my philosophy of history.

The question of "how the world began" certainly influences a teacher's vista through the flow of history. The evolutionists tell us that life began with slime in a sunlit pool of water. The creationists say that God spoke everything into existence in six days.

Either starting point leads to a pre-supposition that sways the historian's overview throughout all of history. Regardless of what chronological trail the historian pursues, I want to ask, "what is the final goal of all this?" Is mankind to exist continuously? Are we making progress and improving or not? Will the world just continue until it wears out or is used up. Or will some violent men end up destroying the world with a nuclear war?

My perspective of history can be best explained by this example. President John F. Kennedy was visiting with Billy Graham. Kennedy, a keen history student and the author of Why England Slept and Profiles in Courage, asked Graham, "Where do you see history leading?" The world famous evangelist answered, "History will climax with the personal return of Jesus Christ." The President acknowledged that this outlook gave a perspective to history. I, too, cherish Rev. Graham's position, but it also defines the boundaries and the framework for a comprehensive historical philosophy.

Our nation still sings "God shed His grace on thee." We claim to be "One nation under God." We know that a politician is on his last paragraph, when he invokes, "And God bless America." If this is true, then historians should be able to justify the viewpoint with the events and individuals in American history. As David Maines calls them, we should make "God sightings."

I appreciate the Hebrew writers in the Old Testament because they interpreted the past events and their present condition in terms of God's covenant with them, and their obedience or disobedience to Him. As a student of history, who believes that there is a God in control of world events, then I must search to evaluate the times by asking, "What is God trying to say to us through these events?"

With this providential intervention viewpoint I agree in part with Shakespeare that "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em." I do not believe that great men or women make the times and the seasons. Events provide opportunity for great people to come to the forefront. Again people are restrained by the Acts 17 verse. Besides there is only one great man in history - Jesus Christ, and were it not for two events - the crucifixion and the resurrection, He would not be a great man.

In writing this historical survey I intend this book to be a supplement to American history textbooks. I, also, anticipate that the reader is either an experienced US history teacher or he or she is informed and knowledgeable on the topic. I will not cover some of the details of US history. Hopefully, this is mostly additional information.

I am challenged from the OT writer Isaiah (43:9) "Let all nations gather together and let the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this, and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to justify them, and let them hear and say, It is true."

My thesis is that the USA does have a great Christian heritage, and numerous Christian individuals have contributed to that heritage. We are a Republic with Christians, who have made an impact. Also, the Creator of this universe has blessed and providentially worked in this nation for His purpose.

Many voices are crying out that US history today fails to tell the truth about these facts. The Christian past is either untold, omitted, forgotten, de-emphasized, even distorted, but it is certainly neglected in many textbooks and only given tokenism.

We need a summons like from the Jewish writers and events as in the Passover and Joshua's stones upon entering the Promised land...Remember! When your children ask..Remember! The history that we are expected to remember is NOT about the great Christian legacy or about the Christians, who have been a force for good, but it's a rewritten and revised version by today's courts, textbooks, and curriculum writers.

Regardless, I need to remind myself and the reader of the great story of Esther and the Jewish Feast of Purim. Amazing providential events took place throughout the story to Mordecai, Esther, Haman, and even King Ahasuerus, who couldn't sleep. God was never once mentioned in the book. Nevertheless, He was always at work in those events. The same is true today whether we write it or not in our books or newspapers. He always works through the lives of believers and non-believers to accomplish His purpose. I originally selected the ten chapter format because there appeared to be cycles like the book of Judges. First a period of spiritual fervor and blessing, then a falling away, then a revival of spiritual activity, then religious regression, and the cycles continued to repeat the pattern. But the Philistines and the Midianites never took over the USA, so I chose to survey the five spiritual revival eras and the five search settings between them. Nevertheless, I have researched to "remember" that America does have a Christian tradition and, but more than that - it has been a nation with Christians, who did make a difference in the development of this Republic.

Chapter 1, The Search For Spiritual Purpose

The Renaissance and The Reformation

Why did the settlement of North America take place during the 17'th Century and by Protestant Europeans? The sea-faring Phoenicians with their Baal-god could have settled in the 9th Century BCE. The pagan Vikings could have succeeded when Erik's son Leif attempted colonization around 1000 AD. Sixteenth Century Roman Catholic Spain could just as easily settled North America as they did South America.

Some humanists would explain the timing as the inevitable made possible by theposition in history of the so-called "rebirth of learning" or the Renaissance. However, on the other hand, if a providential God was responsible, then North America was colonized by Protestant Europeans with a Calvinist Reformation theology at God's designed time in history.

Two great movements have been vying for the hearts of Europe and Americaduring the last half of the second millennium anno domini. They are the philosophy of the Renaissance and the theology of the Reformation.

The Renaissance, which originally intended to glorify God, has placed man at the center of history and made him the hero of the world. Through science and art, it is reasoned that man and his society can be perfected. And that man is basically good and the enlightened man is able to direct the progress of civilization because his mind makes him superior to all other creatures in the world.

At the other pole, the Reformation has placed God as the center of His universe. As the absolute Lord of His creation, He has revealed Himself through His Word. The Bible, which was translated and placed in the hands of the common person, is considered the final authority on man's relationship to God and the universe. It states that man is a sinner, and his redemption is through spotless Lamb of God, His incarnate Son---Jesus Christ.

As these movements grew, the Reformation held the upper hand during the 17th Century the era of North American colonization. However, since that time the Renaissance-based ideas have evolved into a secular humanism type philosophy as Kenneth Clark would say, "Man the measure of all things." The Reformation remnant has resided within the pale of fundamental, evangelical Christianity. These acts are well-described by Francis Schaeffer in his book How Should We Then Live?

Christopher Columbus

In the trans-Atlantic drama of Western exploration, two events possess the marks of providential touch. The discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus for Spain in 1492, and the defeat of the Spanish Armada by England in 1588 established the course of American settlement and development.

Christopher Columbus, regardless of whether he was re-discovering lost knowledge or just confirming that the world was really round, made the greatest geographic discovery in history. His voyage to the New World altered the direction of the trade routes and the course of world leadership. The long-standing Crusades-Marco Polo route, which brought trade domination to Italy and the Hanseatic League, was replaced by the ripples of Western European mariners splashing for what historians have called the Three G's: gold, gospel, and glory.

As Robert Flood wrote, "Secular historians have underplayed the greatest single driving force behind the voyage of Columbus." Columbus saw a sign in his name (Cristoforo or Christ-bearer) that he was destined to bring Christ across the sea to men who knew Him not. The only book that he wrote, Book of Prophecies, reveals his deep conviction that the second coming of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ would take place in his lifetime. As a self-taught layman, who was a diligent student of the Holy Scriptures and of great Bible commentators, Columbus was motivated by the Great Commission (Matthew 28) to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

All of Columbus' sailing journals and most of his private letters are saturated with biblical references and his heart-felt love for The Lord. The flagship, Santa Maria, was named for the Virgin Mary, and his ship's sails boldly displayed the red cross of Calvary. Every morning Columbus held Vesper services which included the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ava Maria. When land was sighted on the 33rd day, a number suggesting a divine blessing, Columbus thankfully knelt and named the island San Salvador which means Holy Savior.

His homeward cargo included two Indians, who desired Christian baptism. In his report to Spain's General Treasurer, Columbus included this testimony: "Therefore let the King and Queen, our princes and their most happy kingdoms, and all the other provinces of Christendom, render thanks to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who granted us so great a victory and such prosperity. Let processions be made, and sacred feasts be held, and the temples be adorned with festive boughs - Let Christ rejoice on earth, as He rejoices in heaven in the prospect of the salvation of the souls of so many hitherto lost. Let us also rejoice, as well on account of the exaltation of our faith, as on account of our temporal prosperity of which not only Spain, but all Christendom will be partakers. Such are the events which I have briefly described. Farewell. Charles Beard's US history suggested that the Voyages of Discovery were inspired, when Constantinople fell "into hands of men who were deadly enemies of Christian traders." However, the acts of Columbus and what he did in the sight of His Lord are well chronicled by Samuel Eliot Morison, Robert Flood, and August Kling.

The Defeat of the Spanish Armada

The second pivotal maritime event that re-directed the crossroads to America was the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Philip II, King of Spain and husband of the late Mary Tudor, at the urging of the Pope sought to regain England for Roman Catholicism through another matrimonial union. Queen Elizabeth I, a devout Protestant Christian, said that her only marriage was to her beloved subjects.

When her famed sea dogs of Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake pirated the Spanish shipping, Philip planned to send Spain's foremost seaman Santa Cruz with 556 ships to overthrow Elizabeth and the Church of England. But when Cruz died, Spain decided on a commander (Guzman) with no experience and to send an "invincible" enough Armada of 130 ships and 30,000 men.

Elizabeth was apprised that the Spanish would not invade. She did not even prepare an army, but she did call on the churches for prayer. Her bold proclamation about the threat ended with "We shall shortly have a famous victory over the enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people." The Armada anchored in the English Channel and only waited for a British force to challenge them.

Historians have explained that the deciding factor in the five-day battle was the keen strategy by the English. They employed smaller coastal vessels with long-range broadside bombardments, and the Spanish favored the Mediterranean method of ramming and boarding.

While the Armada rested in Calais, the English made a midnight raid with eight fire ships. The Spanish fleet attempted to make an end run around the British Isles. However, a violent storm separated the two fleets, and strong gales pummeled the Spanish Armada. The final tally was four ships lost in battle and 59 ships sunk by the weather. The force limped home with widespread sickness on board. Not one English seaman died in the battle, but several thousand Spaniards died from shipboard sicknesses.

Conjecture may label these events as a coincidental circumstance of history. Perhaps it was Mother Nature! One wonders! Regardless, the event ended Spain's domination of the Atlantic. It moved England toward undisputed leadership of the seas. It, also, opened the Atlantic waters for a stream of Protestant colonists to America.

Hakluyt & Purchas and Jamestown & Pocahontas

The 16th Century experienced exciting expansion by the European explorers, but a clear vision of purpose did not unify their motives. While gold, gospel, and glory stimulated some, others searched for fins, fur, and faith.

The Spanish made only sporadic spiritual impacts on North America. When Ponce de Leon discovered Florida on Easter Sunday he wrote his hope "that the name of Christ may be praised there." Emperor Charles V charged Vasquez de Ayllon, who explored from Florida to the Chesapeake, that the principal intent was for the natives to "come to a knowledge thereof and become Christians and be saved and this is the chief motive." When Coronado left Dominican friars in the mid continent, one was martyred and the other two left no report.

Only the great Las Casas seemed to voice a clarion focus on the Indian's spiritual needs. But he languished that too many Indians recognized that the Christian god was gold. Too often the reports were tradegies on both sides. Most of the famed explorers were lost at sea, or in the wilderness, or at the hand of some natives.

The English also struggled with their direction to discovery. Ironically when Francis Drake returned from his famous 1573 raid on Panama with a ballast cargo of Spanish treasure, the Plymouth congregation was called out of church on a Sunday morning to be awed by the booty. Nevertheless, Drake did carry Bibles, prayer books, and Foxe's Book of Martyrs, while pirating around the world.

After Richard Hakluyt, an Anglican clergyman, visited North America and at the counsel of Sir Walter Raleigh, he authored A Discourse on Western Planting in 1584. It was a call to colonize for evangelism of the Indians.

Hakluyt wrote, "It remains to be thoroughly weighed and considered by what means and by whom this most godly and Christian work may be performed of enlarging the glorious gospel of Christ, and leading of infinite multitudes of these simple people that are in error into the right and perfect way of salvation...(He argued from Romans 10..how shall they be saved without a preacher and how shall they preach unless sent)...Then it is necessary, for the salvation of those poor people who sat so long in darkness and in the shadow of death, that preachers should be sent to them. But by whom should these preachers be sent? By them no doubt who have taken upon them the protection and defense of the Christian faith. Now the Kings and Queens of England have the name Defenders of the Faith. By which title I think they are not only charged to maintain and patronize the Faith of Christ, but also to enlarge and advance the same."

Samuel Purchas, a clergyman of the Church of England, had this world view of Christianity. He was saddened by the behavior of Englishmen; their profanity, drunkenness, etc. He surveyed the world as even less Christian, and preached that the future needed a change of course: "To the glory of God, and to the good of my Country."

Finally in 1606 King James I authorized the Virginia Charter to establish a permanent settlement at Jamestown. This first document made a clear statement of purpose: "We greatly commend...so noble a work, which may by the Providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the Glory of His Divine Majesty, in propagating of Christian religion to such people, as yet live in Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true Knowledge and Worship of God..."

When the three tiny ships with 144 men anchored, Capt. John Smith was in charge and one minister Robert Hunt had been sent. They landed at Cape Henry on April 29, 1607, and erected a wooden cross that they had carried from England. Next the colonist knelt down and prayed. Then they celebrated The Last Supper with Reverend Hunt presiding. The communion rail was made of tree branches from this new land.

The Virginia colony is remembered for the many failures such as the Roanoke disaster, the poor location of Jamestown, and the high death rate throughout the 17th Century. However, the early spiritual highlights are usually downplayed.

The first recorded Thanksgiving took place in Jamestown in 1610, but it was not an annual event until 1619. Another group wrote on their arrival that on Dec. 4th "the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a Thanksgiving to Almighty God."

Clearly the most attractive story to England and to future history was Pocahontas. As the daughter of Powhatan, she became the legendary intercessor for John Smith's life. She was also the most famous Indian convert to Christianity. In 1613 she was baptized "Lady Rebeckak," and a painting of the event still hangs today in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington.

The Jamestown settlement did not earn any prosperity until the success of their tobacco crops or as it was called "that stinking weed." The founder of the industry was John Rolfe, who married Pocahontas. He revealed his motives in a letter to Governor Thomas Dale by asking permission to marry her. "striving for the good of this plantation, for the honor of our country, for the glory of God and Jesus Christ of an unbelieving creature, namely Pocahontas."

It was the first white man-Indian marriage April, 1614. The next year tobacco exports increased ten-fold. The Rolfe's made a grand tour to England, which stimulated much interest in Virginia and a mild interest in Indians missions. All the fashionable figures of English society including King James desired an audience with Pocahontas. She was endeared to the English, who were impressed by her grace and charm. Before she could return to America in 1618, she died and was buried in St. George's Church at Gravesend, England.

The Pilgrims, The Mayflower, and Squanto

Many colonial stories are dotted with providential phenomenon's, but the Pilgrim's story is an epic of fortuitous fate. The events of the Mayflower voyage and the lands of the Plymouth settlement reach supernatural proportions.

The Mayflower was forced to make the seven week crossing alone, when their damaged co-ship the Speedwell returned to England. During the passage on the overcrowded vessel only two people died. One seaman died, who mocked the Pilgrims, and the other death was a servant, who refused to drink lemon juice for scurvy.

Just beyond the halfway point a furious storm cracked the ship's main-cross beam, and the damage knelled throughout the ship. The Pilgrims prayed and Capt. Jones hoped their faith would prevail. They supported the beam with a great iron screw from William Brewster's printing press.

The vessel had been blow off course, and they arrived Cape Cod outside the Virginia Company's jurisdiction. They embarked for a Hudson River destination, but strong head winds forced the ship back out to the ocean. It was after this dilemma and a day of prayer that the company drew up the Mayflower Compact. The document is mainly glorified for its declaration of self government, but the initial statement clearly shows their religious intentions: "In the name of God. Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc., having undertaken for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic." After the winter of the "General Sickness" the Pilgrims learned of the unusual surroundings that had been prepared for them. They feared the Roanoke-Jamestown Indian reports, but such was not the case at Plymouth Plantation.

The previous Plymouth tenants were the Patuxet Indians, who were notorious for trying to murder every white person, who landed on the Massachusetts shores. An Algonquin named Samoset explained that four years earlier a mysterious plague killed every member of the local tribe. Now, the superstitious Indians shunned the domain because of the supernatural pestilence. The land was not only cleared of Indians, but it was avoided by them.

After their "starving time" the Pilgrims met the Indian Squanto, who greeted them in clear English with a "How are you brothers in Christ?" He converted to Christianity in England where he had been taken as a captive slave. After nine year he hitched a ride back to New England with the famous Captain John Smith. He arrived six months before the Pilgrims, but his friends, his family, and his tribe had disappeared.

When the Pilgrims arrived, Squanto became their provider and a multiple blessing to them. He taught them to live off the land by planting twenty acres of corn, and to fish and trap for game. He not only showed them how to be self-sufficient; he, even, helped negotiate the first American Indian treaty.

Squanto became the close friend and disciple of William Bradford, the longtime governor of Plymouth. Squanto was forced to live the remainder of his life on Pilgrim lands, when he was caught in the lie that the white men had the plague in a box, and he could unleash it on the Indians. In1624 at Plymouth Squanto died the final Patuxet Indian and a Christian.

The acts of the Pilgrims and their first Thanksgiving with the Indians are better written by others and especially by Marshall and Manuel in The Light and The Glory.

The Great Migration

If the colonial lands were prepared for European transplants, evenmore unique was the British seed which was shipped to North America. Between 1500 and 1800 AD there were two periods when a country with naval power could deliver a people with a spiritual zeal. Great Britain was available with these two zeniths. The times were the Great Migration of the 1630's and the Wesley Revivals of the 1740's.

The political and religious repression of the 1630's was among the worst of times in English history. Charles I, a despotic and stubborn Stuart king, dismissed the Parliament. When he called them back into session after eleven years, he promptly arrested three leaders. Charles, also, appointed William Laud as Anglican archbishop. Laud oppressed any Calvinists and tried to dictate the former Romanism practices within the Church of England. However, he was beheaded for treason in 1649. To further trouble the nation a depression occurred in the wool industry.

These conditions left the Puritans with three alternatives: conform, die, or emigrate. An estimated 50,000 left in the Great Migration. Some of them were the best English minds, and most of them chose New England. They swelled their population to about 40,000 by 1645, and probably made the area the highest per capitia of college graduates in the world. Almost 100 of them were Puritan ministers, who graduated from Oxford or Cambridge. William Stoughton's evaluation of the cause for this Great Migration was "God sifted a whole nation to bring choice grain into the wilderness."

After the English civil war between the King's royal forces and Parliament's army under Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell, the King Charles I was found guilty of treason and beheaded. The New Commonwealth run by Puritans, who sent pleas to America for their return to a now safe Puritan England. However, they had made their move and they were Englishmen, who had emigrated to the colonies.

Colonial Laws and Charters

Colony after colony followed a similar pattern. They pledged themselves to a covenant with each other and God. Their writings, charters, and constitutions disclose a consistent religious purpose for their foundations.

The settlements during their first century were a series of intrusions into the seaboard, but few intercultural exchanges occurred until the 18th Century. Nevertheless, the first five English colonies emphasized a common desire for a liberty of Christian worship and an obligation to evangelism.

In Virginia the first charter set a goal "in propagating of Christian religion." After Pocahontas' conversion a great, almost forgotten vision happened at Henrico College. The Virginia legislature petitioned the Virginia Company to establish a school. One goal was "to civilizing and Christianizing young Indians" so the school "should also prepare some of them as missionaries to their own people." Gifts, books, and buildings started the three-thousand acre college plantation. But on Good Friday 1622, an Indian attack by Chief Opechancanough ended the endeavor. Ironically Pocahontas' widower John Rolfe died in the attack.

In the second colony a great historical account was The History of Plimoth Plantation by William Bradford. It was a record of how God providentially led in establishing this new society. Bradford, the 37-year governor, explained why they came to America: "They cherished a great hope and inward zeal they had of laying good foundations, or at least making some ways towards it, for the propagation and advance of the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in the remote parts of the world."

The first Charter of Massachusetts in 1629 said, "Our said people...may be so religiously, peaceably, and civilly governed, as their good life and orderly conversation may win and incite the natives to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Savior of mankind, and the Christian faith which in our intention is...the principal end of this plantation." John Winthrop, leader of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, called for a Christian lifestyle that would be a witness known as "a City upon a Hill."

Rhode Island was co-founded by Roger Williams at Providence and John Clarke at Newport. This first American Baptist community agreed in 1638 to this: "in the presence of Jehovah...incorporate in a Body Politic, as He shall help us, will submit our persons, lives, and estates into our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings the Lord of Lord."

The first written Constitution in US history was the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639). The opening paragraph reads: "Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield..an orderly and decent government according to God...for ourselves and our successors..together to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus which we now profess.."

In 1643 New Haven, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Connecticut (all of New England except Rhode Island) joined a common protection agreement known as the New England Confederation. The opening line reads: "Whereas we all came into these parts of America with one and the same end and aim, namely, to advance the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and to enjoy the liberties of the Gospel in purity with peace;"

In 1649 the Maryland Colonial Assembly enacted the much called for, but seldom read Toleration Act. Over half the sixteen representatives were Roman Catholic and their document said that any person: "Who shall from henceforth blaspheme God..or shall deny our Savior Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, or shall deny the Holy Trinity the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, or the Godhead of any of the said Three persons of the Trinity or the Unity of the Godhead..shall be punished with death and confiscation or forfeiture of all his or her lands."

The document then stated that no person within the province, who professed belief in Jesus Christ:

"shall henceforth be in any way troubled, molested, or discountenced for or in respect to his or her religion nor in the free exercise of thereof, nor any way compelled to the belief or exercise of any religion against his or her consent."

The idea of toleration was for Christians only and for nothing but Christian denominations. When the other colonial charters, documents, and governments are examined the same foundation was laid. Everything was based on Christianity and Christian principles.

Colonial Education

These Protestant sojourners, who braved the dangerous Atlantic crossing considered themselves a peculiar people and equated their position with Old Testament Israel. Particularly the New England colonist held to the conviction that they were the modern-day parallel of a chosen people taking possession of the promised land. Virginia and Massachusetts was the wilderness. Their literature alludes to Europe as the house of bondage, and America as the land of Canaan. They studied the Scriptures daily as a family, named their children after Biblical people, considered their daily existence God's providence, and praised Him for all of it. It was at least a partial theocracy, and Perry Miller, the great expert on New England wrote, "the Old Testament is truly omnipresent in American culture into the 19th century."

They even explained the Indians as the so-called Lost Tribes of Israel. By the mid-17th Century colonial writers had coined the word "Iewes" by obviously merging Indians and Jews.

The preeminence of the Scriptures in their lives manifested the need for education and particularly reading. They practiced the proverb "train up a child in the way he should go and he will not depart." They wanted biblical principles taught at home, at church, and at school.

Also, part of their motivation for literacy came from the Protestant Reformation. The Bible translators and 16th Century reformers like Calvin, Luther, and others had challenged the Roman Catholic Church by quoting the Holy Scriptures. Each Protestant was expected to be Bible literate rather than relying on the interpretation by a Priest or the Church of Rome. The believer was expected to search the Word for themselves and to make a self examination in the light of Scripture.

Consequently, an education system began immediately. The Puritans on John Winthrop's Arbella ordered "two dussen and ten" catechisms for the voyage. The first "Latin" school was established in Boston in 1636 and by 1640 three grammar or secondary schools existed in New England. Virginia's earliest school was opened in 1636 through the last will and testament of Benjamin Symms. By 1671 all the Puritans in New England had a system of compulsory education. By the close of the century there were 45 grammar schools in the colonies with half of them in Massachusetts. Every colony north of the Carolinas had a grammar school except Rhode Island.

The most famous education ordinance in US history is the 1647 "Common School Law" which was passed by the General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony. It is referred to as "the mother of our school laws" and the earliest general education act of modern times. It was a mandate to place The Bible at the center of the curriculum, and it established the practice of tax supported public schools. The writ clearly stated the mission of education:

"It being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from a knowledge of the Scriptures...It is therefore ordered...that every township in this jurisdiction after The Lord hath increased to 50 households...one qualified school master...teach all such children..to write and read."

New England was blessed with an abundance of learned men. By 1640 there were 113 university men in New England. Massachusetts alone had 71 of them. Nearly one-quarter of these erudite men were trained at Emmanuel College, a division of Cambridge University.

One of them Ezekiel Cheever became the greatest schoolmaster of New England. His longevity record spanned a seventy-year teaching career in four New England communities and the final 38-years in Boston. His Accidence was the first great colonial textbook and the only beginning Latin book in the colonies for 40 years.

The greatest textbook that stood as the perpetual cornerstone of American education for two centuries was the New England Primer. It was called "the Little Bible of New England." Printer-bookseller Benjamin Harris was responsible for the first Primer circa 1687-1690. It was circulated until 1886.

Paul Leicester Ford in his history of The Primer claimed conservatively that three million copies were printed. Other estimates run as high as 6-8 million copies. The famous praise ascribed to the textbook was that "it taught millions to read and not one to sin."

The Primer featured a prelude: the burning of John Rogers, who was converted by the English New Testament translator William Tyndale, and Rogers became the first Protestant martyr under Bloody Mary's reign. Each Primer included phonic syllables, The Lord's Prayer, The Apostle's Creed, The Ten Commandments, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and a rhymed alphabet with 24 pictures.

The alphabet was dominated by the Scriptures from A to Z:

A In Adams' Fall B Thy Life to Mend Z Zacheus he did Climb the Tree We Sinned All This Book Attend His Lord to See

Eventually the alphabet became almost totally Bible based as a source. One change was: C The Cat doth play, and after slay. It was changed to: Christ crucify'd, for sinners dy'd.

From early on higher education began to produce American trained ministers, teachers, and educated laymen. In 1636 John Harvard, a little known Emmanuel graduate, left his estate and entire library to a college in his name. Another Emmanuel grad Henry Dunster was its first tutor and President until 1654. Dunster resigned because of his Anabaptist conviction that only the penitent believers should be baptized.

American higher education was born with the same Christian roots as the governments. The 1642 "Rules and Precepts" for Harvard College set this goal:

2. "Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life John 17:3 and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. And seeing the Lord only givest wisdom, let everyone seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seek it of him Proverbs 2:3."

The second American college founded was William and Mary in 1693. The English rulers granted this charter:

"Forasmuch as our well-beloved and faithful subjects, constituting the General Assembly of our colony of Virginia, have had it in their minds, and have proposed to themselves, to the end that the Church of Virginia may be furnished with a seminary of ministers of the gospel, and that the Christian faith may be propagated amongst the western Indians, to the glory of Almighty God: to make, found, and establish a certain place of universal, or perpetual College of Divinity, Philosophy, Languages and other good Arts and Sciences..."

When the Episcopalian Pastor James Blair of the famous Bruton Parish Church knelt before King William, he interceded for a college because "the people of Virginia had souls to be saved." Their first President faithfully served for 50 years at the Williamsburg, Virginia college. Pastor Blair administered the tobacco-tax financed school from the Wren Building with this four-fold purpose:

"A seminary of ministers of the gospel and that, the youth may be piously educated in good letters and manners and that, the Christian faith may be propagated amongst the Western Indians, to the glory of Almighty God."

The founders of Yale observed a spiritual decline at Harvard, and they established another Ivy League school in 1701. They reiterated the John 17:3 verse from Harvard and added this demand:

"All students shall live religiously, godly, and blameless lives according to the rules of God's Word, diligently reading the Holy Scriptures, the foundation of light and truth; and constantly attend upon all duties of religion, both in public and private."

In fact every Ivy League college except Penn and Cornell was established primarily to trained clergymen and to evangelize the East coast.

Colonial Literature

The literature retained from this era is almost totally religious. Journals by John Smith, John Winthrop, and William Bradford chronicled the early history of their colonies. Time has added interest to the literature as in the case of Bradford's Plimoth Plantation. His manuscript was not edited until 1856 by Reverend Dr. John Waddington and that was 206 years after the last word was written. The first English book was the Bay Psalm Book by John Eliot, who collaborated with Richard Mather and Thomas Welde.

The most ambitious writer was Cotton Mather. Magnalia Christi Americana was a historical and biographical record of the first three generation in New England. He wrote 450 books, and fourteen were printed in one year.

The Dairy of Samuel Sewell provides a popular insight into the Salem Witchcraft trials. Samuel Willard's sermons the Compleat Body of Divinity were published posthumously in 1726.

Many of the lasting works were written for spiritual growth. John Cotton's Spiritual Milk for American Babes was a 1646 catechism that was used for more than a century. The New England Primer was of course the preeminent textbook for two centuries.

The Puritans wrote little imaginative literature. The London theaters were closed by the Puritans in 1642. The novel and fiction had hardly started in England, so none could be found in the colonies. Poetry was the only creative outlet in literature. The poets who have endured are Anne Bradstreet, Michael Wigglesworth, and Edward Taylor. Taylor was not published until 1939. After all the Puritans expected logic and reason especially in the weekly sermons from the pulpit, and they didn't mind if the entire sermon was read to them even if it was two hours long.

The Puritans and John Calvin

The dominant force in New England during the first century of American growth was Puritanism, and the dominant influence on Puritanism was John Calvin (1509-1564) of Geneva. While the Puritans desired to remain in the Church of England, they hoped to "purify" it with Swiss reforms.

The Puritans accepted Calvin's "tulip" theology that man was a sinner, predestined for heaven or hell, the elect were atoned by Christ's work on the Cross, desiring grace through the Holy Spirit, and persevering as converted saints. The Calvinists exalted the Bible as the infallible rule of faith and life.

They opposed such Roman Catholic practices as Saints' day, absolution (forgiveness by the priests), the sign of the Cross, godparents at baptism, kneeling at Communion, the Priest's white gown, and extravagant church buildings. Like other the other Protestant churches they rejected the Catholic doctrine of salvation through their seven sacraments.

The Puritan church wanted a greater emphasis on preaching from the Scriptures, less formality in worship, and no liturgy. They also wanted their preachers chosen by their elders. This local control became known as the Presbyterian or Congregational church government. They used the Geneva Bible rather than the new "authorized" King James version of 1611.

They expected long rational sermons that espoused the "priesthood of all believers," who had direct access to God through the Holy Spirit. Critics have belittled their "legalism." But the Calvinist were convinced by the Scriptures that they were to be a holy people, and that their lives of moral piety and holiness would show them as "visible saints."

In their daily lives the Puritans practiced the famous Protestant work ethic which had been changed by the Reformation. A dedication to one's calling in labor for economic gain was now considered an ethical duty to the glory of God. It was the Christian's moral obligation to choose a gainful occupation. Poverty and idleness were not virtues, and money was not evil, and usury or lending was now in vogue. Consequently, thrift, frugality, and saving were encouraged practices. Unemployment was practically non-existent.

Divine Providence, God's help or care, became a Puritan preoccupation. The Calvin doctrine of the elect or predestination did not always give the saint an assurance of his or her salvation. But if the church member had a good family, proper income, lands, and status in the church and the community, then it must be God's providential blessing, and he must be one of God's chosen saints. Upward mobility might be a good justification for one's faith, unless he read the Bible. The economic result of the Puritan's behavior was great impetus for capitalism.

How widespread was the Puritan influence? Reformed scholar Loraine Boettner said that, "the United States became the brightest pages of all Calvinistic history ...and ...two-thirds of the colonial population (that declared independence) had been trained in the school of Calvin."

The dean of Puritan scholars Harvard's Perry Miller said of the people, who declared independence "all the German, Swiss, French, Dutch, and Scottish people whose forebearers bore the "stamp of Geneva" in some sense, 85 or 90 percent would not be an extravagant estimate."

The unfortunate myth debasing the Puritans is derived from Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter, a book written in 1850. This inaccurate and harsh portrait is even the highest recommended book for high school seniors by the 1994 College Board people. However, a fairer evaluation comes from L. Ethan Ellis in his 40 Million Schoolbooks Can't Be Wrong.

Indian Evangelism

The obvious feature of European emigration to North America was the religious freedom that was available. However, the secondary story is their missionary efforts toward the Indians.

Perhaps, the finest Puritan missionary epic was the story of John Eliot, the "Apostle of the Indians." He learned the Algonquian language from an Indian named Cockenoe, who had been captured in the Pequot War of 1637. Within a decade Eliot was able to fluently preach a 75-minute sermon to the Indians in their native tongue. His text was Ezekiel 27:9.

During the next thirty years Eliot established 24 congregations with an estimated 11,000 conversions to faith in Christ. The Algonquians earned the title "the praying Indians." Eliot arranged clothes, jobs, houses, and land for them. His teachings included abstinence from alcohol and tobacco.

Another crowning achievement was Eliot's literary zeal in translating tracts for the Indians. Early on he gave them the Ten Commandments and The Lord's Prayer in their language. A Catechism was completed in 1653. A 10-year effort produced the famous Up-Biblum, the Old and New Testament in the Algonquian language. In 1663 two hundred leather bound copies were printed on Harvard's Cambridge Press. They were the first Bibles printed in America.

John Eliot also served the Roxbury church as Pastor for 57-years until his death in 1690. His evangelistic heart for the Indians was best expressed in his words, "Pity to the poor Indians, and desire to make the name of Christ chief in these dark ends of the earth - and not the rewards of men - were the very first and chief moves, if I know what did first and chiefly move my heart, when God was pleased to put upon me that work of preaching to them."

The far-reaching result of John Eliot's ministry was the SPG, the first cornerstone of English overseas missions. In 1643 Thomas Shepard and John Wilson published a promotional pamphlet on Indian conversions called New England's First Fruits. They had hoped to gain funds for Harvard College and Indian missions. However, the famous Long Parliament seized the opportunity and legislated the "Society for Propagation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England." On July 27, 1649 the SPG became law until Charles II became king.

A second remarkable ministry to the Indians was the Mayhew family, who for five generations labored at Martha's Vineyard. In 1631 Thomas Sr. founded a work that continued until Zachariah Mayhew's 40-year ministry ended in 1806. In 1643 Thomas Mayhew Jr., a contemporary of John Eliot, met Hiacoomes, the first of several hundred converts to Christianity. By the time the family mantle had passed to the fourth generation, Experience Mayhew reported that on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket there were 1500 praying Indians and only two pagans. He sent a prayer request back to England for their intercession on the matter. Only God knows how many Indians the Mayhews brought to faith in Christ.

The missionary endeavors toward the Indians received a serious setback in 1675 when King Philip's War broke out. Some judged the event to be a divine punishment for the general decline in spiritual zeal. Others said that the children of the founding fathers lost the faith like the children of Eli, Samuel, and David.

Jeremiads: Falling Away in New England

Jeremiads, which warned of a lukewarm faith, began appearing by the 3rd and 4th generations and calling them to repentance. Solomon Stoddard, Northhampton pastor for 57 years and grandfather of Jonathan Edwards, took the clergy to task for the falling away. Samuel Willard exhorted the laymen for only holding to a form of godliness. Even Cotton Mather observed the signs of apostasy in his generation. Michael Wigglesworth lamented the state of the Puritan's New Israel in his 1662 Day of Doom.

Their departure from the founding faith was exposed by such conduct as the neglect of family worship, the secular business on Sabbath days, and the rebellious children who loved drink and game. The annual day of fasting and humiliation was dropped in the 1660's. The principal ecclesiastical questions centered around baptism, church membership, and communion. Should church membership be approved for the children of godly parents, who had been baptized as infants? If they showed no visible signs of regeneration, should they be granted church membership? Without a conversion experience should they be permitted at the Lord's Supper table?

Three assemblies manifested the compromising trend which the Puritans yielded to leniency on these spiritual issues.

First, the Cambridge Synod of 1646-48 produced a statement of doctrine known as the New England Way. Their platform established polity for church authority and church membership which became the basis for Congregationalism. A strict condition for membership included only the elect and the redeemed, who had a personal knowledge of salvation. Their personal "upright" lives and their children's conduct would bear visible evidence of their position in the body of Christ.

The Massachusetts General Court revised the membership requirement at the Synod of 1662. Their dual concept of membership was known as the "Half-Way Covenant." It permitted children of uncommitted parents to receive baptism. Either generation would be granted church membership provided that they were "not scandalous in life." However, they were excluded from the Lord's Supper and church elections. This notorious compromise placed moral responsibility as the crux of their religion rather than spiritual rebirth in Christ. The Boston Synod of 1679 discussed the need for reform, but the controversy did not restrain the widespread adoption of the Half-Way Covenant toward the end of the century.

The third conflict was between the clergy and the merchant class. Some emotional pulpit preaching centered on their daily morals and a practical message on such issues as labor, civic duties, and education. Preachers pointed to wars, epidemics, and the Edmund Andros' attempted Anglican takeover by the Dominion of New England, as God's divine punishment for their dwindling piety. The clergy called for a "rule of the saints" to stay the backslidden situation.

It seemed that no human authority was secure. When Parliament deposed King James II in the Bloodless Revolution, the divine right monarchy was seriously being questioned. Also, the clerical image was badly damaged by the infamous Salem witchcraft trials of 1692, and the prestige of the merchant class as "the elect" was leavening. A confrontation climaxed with the Brattle Street Church controversy.

A group of Boston merchants led by John Leverett and the Brattle brothers formed a new church. Their Brattle Street Church dropped the half-way status and gave full membership and communicant standing for all, who professed to be Christians. Every member was given a voice in the call of the minister. Then, a crushing blow to the clerical faction occurred with the removal of Harvard President Increase Mather and the Vice President Samuel Willard. College affairs were being influenced by laymen from the business world.

Connecticut ministers discerned the Boston decisions with mistrust and they founded Yale University under the clerical control of ten ministers as their trustees. In 1708 the Saybrook Platform affirmed their convictions that the Westminster Confession was the ensign of their theology. They, also, moved to a semi-Presbyterian position under the authority of the ministers.

The greatest tension and most remembered notoriety was caused by the Salem Witchcraft trials of 1692. Witch-hunts had happened in other times and other places. In Europe the hysteria of witches resulted in the accused being burned, hanged, or drowned. An estimated half million executions had occurred during the previous four centuries. During this period ten people were executed in other Massachusetts towns, but Salem was the most criticized. They had 150 arrests and twenty executions. Nineteen were hanged. Fifteen of them were women, and an 80-year old man was stoned for refusing to testify against his wife.

Cotton Mather, who believed in witches, wrote a defense of the trials, but denounced the way that they were handled. His father Increase Mather persuaded the governor to end the trials. In 1697 Samuel Sewall, one of the judges, asked, "God..would pardon that sin." That year the Massachusett General Court set aside a day of prayer and fasting to beg a Divine pardon. The whole episode was small in comparison to Europe, however, it was still a dark but over-glamorized page in New England history.

The vision of the Bible Commonwealth had been tarnished. Harvard was no longer the intellectual center. The worldly Puritans seemed to rule and as Cotton Mather said, "Religion brought forth prosperity, and the daughter destroyed the mother." Nevertheless, the hope for renewal and their cry for revival would come in the Great Awakening, and Indian evangelism would be revived.

Other Colonies

In other parts of the American colonies the search for a spiritual purpose took on different dimensions and problems for the various nationalities and religious groups.

The first American migration within the colonies for religious freedom was Roger William's exile to Rhode Island in 1635. He was separated from Boston over the responsibilities of the church and the state. In his 1644 and 1652 treatises The Bloody Tenet he charged the state with the temporal affairs of the civil government and the church with the spiritual affairs of Christ. These pioneer principles opposed any action by the state in coercing any individual's religious behavior. A pamphlet war ensued with John Cotton and several contemporaries writing on the issue. Future generations revised it, and called it the doctrine of separation of church and state.

The colony became a model for religious toleration. As a haven for other dissenters like Anne Hutchinson and John Clarke, Rhode Island attracted a diverse number of religious groups. It was the first American Baptist colony. Also, Quakers, Anglicans, Congregationalists, and eventually even Jews and Catholics enjoyed the open door of religious liberty. If there was a providential plan for America to become a melting pot of religious and ethnic diversity, then Rhode was the miniature version of what the Middle Colonies became.

The widest variety of groups settled in the Middle Colonies. The Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam practiced the same moderation on religion and acceptance that their homeland did. Eighteen different languages were spoken there. The Lutherans arrived from Sweden and settled Delaware. Their famed missionary John Campanius sought to convert Indians with is translation of Luther's Catechism. In New Jersey the Puritans settled in the West and the Quakers stayed in the East. In Maryland the Roman Catholics sought protection from the Protestants and the English kings.

In 1664 England re-instated her claim to the Hudson River area by granting the region to the King's brother James the Duke of York. They called it New York and Anglican churches sprang up throughout the Middle colonies and even overflowed in the Southern colonies.

A new Anglican zeal appeared when Dr. Thomas Bray was appointed commissary (organizer) to Maryland. He nurtured two societies: the S.P.C.K. (the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge), and the new S.P.G. (the Society for Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts). His great influence was the establishment of 40 libraries from Boston to Charlestown. A second great work was his concern to evangelize the Indians and to deal with Negro problems. Anglicanism spread throughout the Southern colonies, and Dr. Bray even joined Oglethorpe's Georgia vision.

While pluralism characterized the Middle colonies, Pennsylvania attracted the most varied groups. William Penn, the pacifist son of a naval hero, used his family inheritance to found the colony. His theological and governmental policies were based on his acceptance of Quakerism, the "Society of Friends." While imprisoned for his faith, he wrote No Cross, No Crown.

With a charter from King Charles II in 1682, Penn set up his "Holy Experiment" as the most notable shelter for all religious and political refugees. In the first of his four "Frames of Government" Penn wrote, "All persons who profess to believe Jesus Christ the Savior of the world, shall be capable to serve this government in any capacity, both legislatively and executively." He also set a pattern of fair and just treatment of the Indians by purchasing the land from them.

The Pennsylvania colony was settled by not only the Quakers, but by the German Lutherans, Calvinists, Mennonites, and Brethren or Dunkers. In the 18th Century Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, Anglicans, Amish, Moravians, and Jews enjoyed the welcomed liberty. Some have suggested Pennsylvania foreshadowed the nation's destiny by establishing a providential training ground for all peoples. Their pattern was a melting-pot experiment in brotherly love for all people under God.

The first court case on religious freedom occurred in 1707. A Scotch-Irish Presbyterian preacher Francis Makemie was arrested by the New York Governor Lord Cornbury for preaching without a license. He won the case, and Cornbury was recalled to England.

Unlike the other nationalities the Scotch-Irish immigrants stayed with one church The Presbyterian. Although they suffered from internal struggles, the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians grew rapidly in the 18th Century. The Great Awakening would be greatly influenced by their leaders.

During the first century of colonial expansion the Southern colonies experienced a delayed settlement and a later religious development than the North. It was due partly to a greater emphasis on the commercial and mercantile pursuits and only mild interest in the church. The smaller scattered population attracted fewer ministers and also less European financial support was sent to the region. By 1700 the only large city was Charleston with a population of 16,000 in the vicinity and half of them were slaves.

Carolina was officially a Church of England undertaking, but it was a fainthearted project until the 18th century. The Quakers sent the first missionary to the colony. The French Huguenots came after 1685 and slowly other groups arrived such as the Baptists and Presbyterians.

The last colony Georgia was a grant to the war veteran General James Oglethorpe from King George II in 1732. In part the foundation was laid for the "poor of the kingdom," who were imprisoned debtors and those persecuted for religion. Initially Oglethorpe purchased land from the Creek Indians and refused to admit slaves and rum, but later leaders repealed those noble goals. Nevertheless, the benevolent effort did receive many gifts of charity. Georgia was intended to be a buffer colony on the frontier of Spanish Florida and French Louisiana. The Indians who crossed the border were seen more as menace than a missionary project.

The Georgia colony was blessed with some very important spiritual leaders. Dr. Bray of the SPG set up funds to evangelize the Negroes. The Wesley brothers John and Charles began their ministry here in 1736. John testified that his conversion experience happened through the discipleship of the Moravian missionary Peter Boehler.

The ambitious dream of the Moravian church for world missions was encouraged by their Georgia efforts. Count Nicolaus Zinzendorf sent missionaries to five continents, and even made a "witnessing trip" to North America and Georgia in 1741.

Another famous name was the "Grand Itinerant" George Whitefield, the Methodist evangelist of the Great Awakening. His visit and subsequent donations resulted in the Bethesda orphanage near Savannah. But for all the illustrious names, the Georgia colony only had a few local churches to touch the lives of the settlers.

A summary of the early Christian influence in North America would be remiss, if the Spanish and French missionaries outside the thirteen colonies were not given their just dues. The Franciscan, Dominican, and Jesuit priests planted The Cross wherever the Spanish influence spread. Jesuit Father Kino in Arizona and Franciscan Father Junipero Serra in California left important spiritual legacies in the American Southwest.

When LaSalle (Robert Chevalier) claimed all of the lands of the Mississippi for French King Louis XIV, he placed a cross and a leaden plate with the French coat of arms, then said, "The banners of Heaven's King advance, The mystery of the Cross shine forth." So began the greatest US land claim known as Louisiana.

The French missionaries made huge impacts among the Indians. Jesuit Father Marquette spoke six Indian languages and may have been the first European in the Mississippi Valley. Father Allouez is said to have baptized 10,000 Indians in his lifetime.

Influential Biographies

The fruits of the faith in our founding fathers grew into a spiritual heritage for this nation. Their good report through faith is neglected in our modern textbooks. The evidence of things not seen is recorded for us today as a glorification of our forefather's perseverance, good olde Yankee ingenuity, wisdom, and progress. However, we have so great a cloud of witnesses, who fixed out roots with an assurance of divine purpose, that this chapter only highlights the faith and the contributions of a selected few. Catherine Millard, David Barton, Gary Demar, and others have recently written with the same intention to glorify the spiritual achievements in our past.

As a final summary this is a quick thumbnail sketch of some important biographies from this early colonial period.

1.               Leif Erikson - converted to Christianity in the King of Norway's court at age 19. The first European to North America called Vinland circa 1000 AD.

2.               Christopher Columbus - (1451-1506) 4 voyages which opened the Western Hemisphere to Christianity and European exploration and settlement.

3.               Pocahontas - (c.1595-1616) daughter of Powhatan and wife of John Rolfe. A convert to Christianity, who was baptized Lady Rebecca.

4.               William Bradford (1590-1657) author of the History of Plimoth Plantation and the governor of the colony for 37 years.

5.               Squanto (??-1623) a Patuxet, English-speaking, Christian Indian, who befriended Bradford and the Plymouth Colony and was a reason for the famous Thanksgiving.

6.               John Winthrop (1588-1649) leader of the Puritan's Arabella fleet to Boston and was the first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

7.               Roger Williams (1599-1683) founded Providence, Rhode Island. Wrote the first Indian lexicon. Wrote the Bloudy Tenant of Persecution.

8.               John Cotton (1584-1652) called "the Patriarch of New England" at Boston's First Church. He was involved in Roger Williams & Anne Hutchinson's exile.

9.               Richard Mather (1596-1669) Dorchester preacher for 30 years and early Puritan giant, who co-authored the Bay Psalm Book.

10.         Increase Mather (1639-1723) Boston's Second (old North) Church pastor for 59 years. Also, President of Harvard & leader of the Middle Era of the Puritans.

11.         Cotton Mather (1663-1728) Pastor of Boston's Second Church for 50 years. A Puritan scholar & most productive writer. Wrote Magnalia Christi America.

12.         Thomas Hooker (1586-1647) founder of Connecticut and author of the Fundamental Orders - the first American Constitution.

13.         Thomas Shepard (1605-1649) co-author of First Fruits a promotion of New England John Eliot (1604-1690) The Apostle to the Indians and author of Up-Biblum, the Indian translation of the Bible.

14.         John Campanius - Swedish Lutheran apostle to the Delaware Indians from 1643-48.

15.         Henry Muhlenberg (1711-1787) Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America

16.         James the Duke of York - the peaceful surrender of New York in 1664 to the English.

17.         Francis Makemie (1658-1708) Scotch-Irish missionary & founder of US Presbyterian Church.

18.         Cecil Calvert (1605-1675) or Lord Baltimore Maryland's Roman Catholic proprietor for 43 years and noted for the Toleration Act of 1649.

19.         Thomas Bray (1656-1730) commissary for Maryland, the SPG, and founder of over 40 colonial libraries for the SPCK.

20.         William Penn (1644-1718) Quaker founder of Pennsylvania, the "Holy Experiment," a shelter for all Christian groups.

21.         James Blair (1656-1743) first President of William & Mary and Pastor of the Williamsburg Bruton Parish Church.

22.         James Oglethorpe - founder of the Georgia debtors' colony

Chapter 2, The First Great Awakening

Between 1720 and about 1760 a time of spiritual refreshment spread throughout the American colonies. Christians were aware of the religious term revival, but these events did not have any one origin or style. It wasn't until the next century that Joseph Tracy coined a title for this momentous occurrence. In 1841 he published The Great Awakening which described the revival in New England only. Thus the term "Great Awakening" was born.

It was characterized by intense emotional preaching and a call for a response by the hearer. The target was not just the mind as the earlier Puritan sermons, but the heart and especially the sinful heart and the behavior of the unconverted. The excitement cut across denominational lines. The Puritans and Congregationalists in New England, the Dutch Reformed and the Friends in the Middle Colonies, and the Presbyterians and Baptists in the Southern colonies were all changed by the Awakening.

The previous generations had been influenced by Calvinism and especially the doctrine of election or predestination. Calvin said that believers, the "elect," had been chosen for salvation before the foundation of the world as Paul had written in Ephesian. This new era of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield called for a conversion experience, a new birth, born again, and some change in the believer's lifestyle.

Arminianism appeared in the 17th Century as a controversial doctrine in opposition to Calvinism. There was division over the salvation issue. The struggle was over what part was God's hand and what part was man's response. Calvin had called it irresistible grace; Jacob Arminius introduced the principle that salvation was for all who would believe. Salvation by faith was nothing new after all Paul, Luther, and others had said the same thing. Now an appeal for a dramatic conversion experience was being made by the emotional traveling evangelists, who were called "itinerants."

A second controversy was that the fruits of salvation by this new birth would be seen in the believer's good works. Some criticized Arminianism by saying that grace was being earned by earnest aspirations, and it just a Protestant version of the Catholic Church's accent on salvation by good works.

A future term that applies to this epoch is revivalism. The evangelist with his songleader making an appeal for an alter call had not appeared in Christianity yet. But, the mass outdoor rally with an emotional message by a non-pastor calling for a personal religious experience made the word "conversion" a regular topic of street conversation.

The importance of some kind of personal choice during the Great Awakening fueled the excitement. In the past the established churches only seemed to offer a cold, formal routine of the sermon and the sacraments. Now, people's heart were moved to alter their talk and their walk by a "New-Birth."

The melodrama of the Great Awakening was not localized to the American colonies. In England the ado was called the Evangelical or Wesley revivals in the new Methodist church and in Germany they were called Pietists. However, historian Samuel Eliot Morison said of Northampton, Massachusetts it was "the womb of all modern revivalism" in the Protestant churches of the English speaking world. If this is true, then Jonathan Edwards was most assuredly the "Great Awakener" and George Whitefield (pronounced WHITfield) was the first great Protestant evangelist.

The Early Stirrings

American preachers had spent a generation admonishing this age of unbelief. The "jeremiads" tied every war and disaster to the spiritual climate of the churches. The 1679 Boston "Reforming Synod" listed the specific indiscretions of the so-called Christians. The calls for renewal continued into the 18th Century. The 1727 New England earthquake was seen as another warning. One writer exclaimed, "religion is on the wane."

An early dawning of the awakening was in the Raritan Valley in New Jersey. Theodore Frelinghuysen, a Calvinist and a Pietist, arrived in 1720 to pastor the Dutch Reformed congregations in the area. He soon began condemning his flock for being "hypocrites, and dissemblers, and deceivers." Some responded and some were alienated, but George Whitefield said of him, "He is a worthy soldier of Jesus Christ, and was the beginner of the great work which I trust the Lord is carrying on in these parts."

Another initial work was that of Gilbert Tennent, a Presbyterian pastor at New Brunswick four miles away in New Jersey. In 1726 he began preaching with the same strong fervor as Frelinghuysen. His cry, "Awake, sinners" was followed by they were all "damned, damned, damned."

He did not limit his preaching to the laymen, but he portrayed the ministers as hypocrites too in his sermon The Danger of an Unconverted Ministry. His text was from the "sheep not having a shepherd" verse in the Book of Matthew.

His father William Tennent was the Presbyterian minister at Neshaminy, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He instructed his three younger sons and fifteen others in a log cabin in their yard. They were prepared for ministry and learned the evangelical zeal. The school was given the name "Log College." In 1746 the alumni of the school chartered a proper college known as the College of New Jersey now called by the more prestigious name Princeton.

In New England the daybreak of the revival came to pass under the preaching of Solomon Stoddard. He served the First Church of Northampton his entire ministry for 60 years from 1669 until his death in 1729. He was known as a powerful preacher, who wholly insisted on conversion, while using the theme of judgment and damnation. He observed that prayer and preaching brought five "harvests" by the Holy Spirit during his ministry. When Pastor Stoddard's health began to fail in 1727, the Congregational Church gave the call to an associate pastor, his grandson, named Jonathan Edwards.

Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards was a pastor's only son with ten sisters. He entered Yale College at age 12 and was a very bright student. The precocious young Edwards was convicted of his need for faith in Christ by the I Timothy 1:17 verse about the "Omnipotent God" Jesus Christ.

His ministry began with the same soft-spoken, low key approach that was characteristic of his Northampton career. His sermons were full of ideas and thought provoking; they were based on Scripture and logical. He would spend 13 to 14 hours a day studying and writing.

Edwards considered the spiritual condition of Western Massachusetts at a low ebb especially among the young people. He felt that their licentiousness, lewd practices of night walking and tavern visiting, and a lack of regard for family order was typical of the breakdown of the family in his town.

In 1735 Pastor Edwards began a series of evangelical sermons on justification by faith. In December a young lady with a notorious reputation was converted, and it had a dramatic impact on the young people. Edwards said, "The Spirit of God began extraordinarily to set in," and that "more than 300 souls were savingly brought home to Christ, in this Town, in the space of half a Year."

When fellow New England clergymen requested letters of explanation about the awakening, Edwards wrote about the events in his Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God. The report went through 20 printings by1738 and was widely read in the colonies and England. His account contained interviews with those who had experienced changed behaviors. Also, some unusual manifestations began to occur during his sermons with outcries, faintings, and convulsions by those under conviction.

The revival reached a high water mark during 1740-41. His most famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God was given at Enfield on July 8, 1741. He read the discourse with smooth clear diction. Though it is remember as a hellfire and damnation message, Edwards relied on the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the guilt of each listener with such lines as: "all you that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether inexperienced, light and life, are in the hands of an angry God."

The address has become a classic in high school and college literature textbooks over the past two centuries.

In 1743 Christian History, the first specifically religious magazine in the colonies, announced the events. The revival historian Thomas Prince Jr. related that part of the sudden conversions of the young people was due to the fear lingering from the 1721 and 1729 smallpox epidemics. Prince's magazine tried to faithfully report authentic accounts of this occurrence. Soon the awakening spread throughout the entire thirteen colonies. It was the first national experience and Jonathan Edwards would be called the "Great Awakener".

In the meantime, Jonathan Edwards was dismissed by his Northampton Church in 1750. He would only permit persons, who made a profession of faith to the Lord's Supper. This policy revoked his grandfather's offer of "open to all who would come." Edwards would spend the next seven years as a missionary to the Indians at Stockbridge. He, also, wrote theological defenses of Calvinism. He died on 1758 as President of Princeton. He was age 55.

Today, he is now called the greatest Christian mind America has ever produced. He wrote over 1,000 sermons and many other substantial works on the Bible and theology. The Jonathan and Sarah Edwards marriage produced eleven children. By the 20th Century they had over 1,400 descendants, who have been a fruitful blessing on this country as missionaries, doctors, lawyers, college presidents, senators, and governors. They have authored over 135 books.

George Whitefield

Meanwhile on the other side of the Atlantic a similar religious stirring was occurring with the Methodists. At Oxford a small group of students formed the "Holy Club" to promote religion and morality. After coming to a spiritual experience with Jesus Christ, they set England aglow with revival fires. The most distinguished members were John and Charles Wesley and the greatest preacher of that age George Whitefield.

As a child Whitefield worked as a waiter in the family tavern. In college he had dreams of an acting career in the English theater. During the Easter Week of 1735 he became in his words a "fool for Christ." The pilgrimage would put him on a different stage that faced perhaps ten million hearers with 18,000 sermons.

The energetic "boy preacher" brought a new style of preaching and a call for a "New Birth" in Christ. He preached outside of the churches. It was open-air in the fields and in the public market places. His forceful voice was able to reach crowds estimated at 20-30,000. He had a passionate flair of body language, heightened emotion, even tears as the crowd hung on his every word.

His message was not complicated by logic, but it a simple Biblical appeal like "Come, Poor, Lost Undone Sinner." He was also the first evangelist to use the newspaper to attract the crowds. He was quite the opposite of Jonathan Edwards in style and message.

In 1739 Whitefield made the first of seven missionary tours to America. Beginning in Philadelphia colossal crowds showed up to hear his messages. He went to New York and returned to record audiences. In Philadelphia before 8,000 listeners from the Courthouse balcony his typical non-denominational sermon included this cry:

"Father Abraham, whom have you in heaven? Any Episcopalians? ....... No. Any Presbyterians? ....... No. Have you any Independents or Seceders? .......NO! Have you any Methodists? ..NO, NO, NO! Whom have you there? ...... We don't know those names here. All who are here are Christians..believers in Christ men who have overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of His testimony."

The Great Awakening reached its pinnacle with his preaching. He went to New England to meet Jonathan Edwards and preach 175 sermons over seventy-five days while traveling 800 miles. He kept journals of his messages, salvations, and crowds. He enjoyed a freedom from denominational bias and was welcomed in all pulpits in America. This was a report of his greatest triumph.

On Sunday Sept. 14, 1740 he landed at Newport and began his greatest and most decisive triumph a solid week of preaching at Boston. On Thursday morning there were prayers at King's Chapel; preaching to an overflow crowd at Brattle Street Church in the afternoon; preaching to a vast auditory in South Church on Friday morning, and to 5,000 people on the Common in the afternoon. He preached on Sunday afternoon in the First (Old Brick) Church, and afterward outside to 8,000 who could not gain entrance. On Monday he preached to two large outdoor audiences; on Tuesday at Second Church, Wednesday at Harvard, and on the last day, he honored the "Great and Thursday Lecture" at First Church, where Edwards nine years previously had made his Boston debut.

When Whitefield preached in Boston, twenty-two preachers were converted. The crowd at the farewell sermon on the Boston Commons was estimated at 23,000 people more than the population of Boston. Another awesome assessment is that 80 percent of the American people in this generation heard George Whitefield preach at least one sermon.

The most famous friend that Whitefield made in America was Benjamin Franklin. Franklin printed Whitefield's sermons in the Pennsylvania Gazette. He admitted that Whitefield's preaching was the only time he ever emptied the money from his pockets into the offering. Franklin, also, boasted that his friend George Whitefield prayed for his soul. Although they were at opposite theological positions on Jesus Christ, Franklin was one of the trustees, who had a building 100 feet by 70 feet erected for Whitefield and the other itinerants to preach in. It became the first building of the University of Pennsylvania.

The great evangelist visited America in every decade the rest of his life. His favorite project was the Bethesda orphanage in Georgia which he raised the equivalent of millions of dollars. He died in 1770 at age 55, too, like Jonathan Edwards

Old Lights and New Lights

The Great Awakening and the two great leaders did have critics. Those who favored a middle course for the awakening were called "New Lights". Some opposed the excess emotionalism in the Great Awakening. They became known as the "Old Lights." Among the Presbyterians the schism was called the Old Side and the New Side. Gilbert Tennent was a leader of the New Lights and he was joined by many of the ministers who had been trained in his father's log college. The leading foe for the Old Lights was Charles Chauncy of Harvard College. He opposed the "overheated passions" generated by Whitefield, Edwards, Tennent, Zinzendorf, and others.

Once when Whitefield returned to Boston, he saw Chauncy on the street. Chauncy said to him, "I'm sorry to see you here again, Mr. Whitefield." Whitefield replied to him, "And so is the Devil."

The itinerant revival preachers emphasized instant conversions and exhorted the New-born to devotion. Their message also accused the ordained clergy of spiritual darkness. The "Old Lights" accused the revivalists of preaching moral laws and practicing mindless enthusiasm.

It was Jonathan Edwards, who sought to find a congenial middle ground between the two groups. In 1754 he wrote Freedom of the Will. It was a monumental work that wrestled with the relationship of God's love drawing men to Himself and to His service after they become Christians. But as for Edwards, he resolved "to cast and venture my whole soul on the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust and confide in Him, and consecrate myself wholly to Him."

Disregarding their differences on church government, membership, forms of worship, communion, etc. the watershed of the revival was faith in Jesus Christ. All men on both sides of the dispute were sincere believers. The center of the dispute seemed to be on how a sinner comes to faith in Christ, which is nothing new in the history of Christianity and the same issue of the Reformation...justification by faith.

The South

As the Awakening expanded revival-minded churches grew and even the so-called "dead" churches caught fire in the 1740's. New England experienced a church growth of 50,000 new members from the estimated 300,000 population. By 1742, 150 new churches were started. They experienced an unusual enthusiasm with the young people, who crowd the pews to hear the revival preaching. The controversial James Davenport even preached a 24-hour sermon, and persuaded a crowd in New London to burn luxury items and books written by his enemies.

The moral climate changed. It was said that the face of Boston was altered. In Philadelphia Ben Franklin noted in his Autobiography, "It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless and indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk thro' the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street."

Late in the decade Virginia and North Carolina became the cradle of the Great Awakening in the South. In 1747 Samuel Davies, a "Log College" graduate became a leader of the Presbyterians in Hanover County, Virginia. He made a call for religious liberty for all denominations and even admitted Negroes to the Lord Supper table. Samuel Morse founded the "reading house" by inviting friends into his home to hear copies of northern sermons which he had secured.

Revival fires spread among the Baptists in the Sandy Creek region of Guilford County in North Carolina. In 1755 Shubal Stearns and his brother-in-law Daniel Marshall, converts of the Great Awakening in New England, saw the Sandy Creek church grow from 16 to 606. Their grassroots revival preaching was more exhilarating than that of the established churches. By 1775 the Baptist church membership in the thirteen colonies was exceeded by only the Congregational and Presbyterian churches. A former Anglican Devereux Jarratt nurtured the small Methodist following in the South. Their influence was only slight, but he set a pattern of circuit riding lay preacher that would lay the groundwork for future greats like Francis Asbury. Ironically the greatest preacher for the Methodists, George Whitefield left no church, no doctrine, and no college with his name.

The revival atmosphere in the colonies attracted missionaries from the Old World churches since there was an immediate opportunity to build evangelical churches. The front-runner was the Moravian church in Georgia. Count Nicolaus von Zinzendorf became a German-speaking version of Whitefield. In the 1740's the Moravians flocked to Nazareth and Bethlehem in Pennsylvania.

The Impact on Society

Any time a revival or an awakening happened a change took place in the believers, the Church, and the society around them. Almost always the first impact occurred in education. The convert was expected to read the Bible. Christians were expected to know what they believe. Critics have maligned them as mindless, emotion-driven, fanatics, who have gone off the deep end. Apologetics, the defense and proofs of Christianity, are not just for the erudite person. Even those unlearned fishermen like Peter, James, and John became Bible scholars and authors.

The most distinct educational change from the Great Awakening was the influence of the "log colleges." From William Tennent's original log school one of his graduates Jonathan Dickinson founded the first Log College. It was the College of New Jersey later Princeton. Ironically, it was started the year that William Tennet Sr. died 1746.

No less than 62 American colleges can be traced to the log college pattern. These schools in particular made their entrance requirement a salvation experience in Jesus Christ. One's stated purpose for graduation was to propagate the gospel. Whether training to be civic leaders, lawyers, teachers, or ministers, these schools had a curriculum priority of full knowledge of the Bible.

The trend continued at King's College (later Columbia), which was founded in 1754 by a former missionary of the gospel to America Dr. Samuel Johnson. The Baptist Church founded Rhode Island (Brown) in 1764. Dartmouth was founded for missionaries to the Indians. In 1766 Queen's College (Rutgers) was located in New Jersey. Every Ivy League college was founded primarily to train clergymen, except Pennsylvania. Nevertheless their trustees, including Benjamin Franklin, wanted the school open to "any preacher of any religious persuasion" which was consistent with the pluralistic tolerance of Pennsylvania.

A second impact of the Great Awakening was the heightened social consciousness toward the Indians and Negroes. David Brainerd became the most famous. He was engaged to Jonathan Edwards' daughter. Brainerd visited Indians in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. His diary and early death at age 29 made a deep impression on the people of his time.

Eleazar Wheelock established Dartmouth to train missionaries to the Indians. The motto on their seal was "the voice of one crying in the wilderness."

The most successful Indian missions were by the Moravians. The work of David Zeisberger at Gnadenhutten and Schonbrunn is still remember today. Every summer an outdoor drama "Trumpet in the Land" at New Philadelphia, Ohio retells their witness to Simon Girty and the Indians.

Regarding the Negro slaves one colonial writer said that the Negroes were "strangers to Christianity and still under the influence of pagan Africa." Only a few successes are mentioned. John Woolman a Quaker took a stand in 1743 for abolition of slavery. At the Quaker's Yearly Meeting he brought it up as an issue in 1758. Samuel Hopkins of the Newport Congregational Church took an active position against the importation slaves which he observed at their shipyards. Mostly the churches and their pastors did little within their denominations about the issue and even owned slaves. The Baptists in the South claimed some success at evangelizing the Negro souls. Very little was written, but judging by the number of believers among the slaves later on, there appears to have been a fine harvest of Black souls during the Great Awakening.

The most famous attempt at social justice was the Bethesda orphanage in Georgia which George Whitefield started in 1740.

In 1700 there were virtually no English hymns in any Protestant church. America did not produce any great songwriters during the Great Awakening, but they certainly benefited from those who did. John Wesley, Charles Wesley, and John Newton of "Amazing Grace" fame were all converted during the revival and began the "Golden Age of Hymns.". The great Isaac Watts wrote his hymns during this century. These greats wrote thousands of hymns for worship.

The Great Awakening introduced the English hymns to America. By the second half of the 18th Century they were a common part of the Sunday worship service. The only influential American religious music of the century came from the Negro Spirituals that the Black slaves sang. The first hymnal of their songs was published in 1794. Evidently, evangelism of the African-Americans was more widespread that the historians are able to evaluate through statistical verification.

Any renewal seems to be accompanied with a future hope of a better world. The most obvious Biblical view ends with the Millennium the thousand reign of Christ on earth from Revelation Chapter 20. Speculation arose about how the event would be ushered in. Some like Aaron Burr, Jonathan Edwards' son-in-law and father of the Vice President, argued that a violent destruction of evil would occur first. Others felt that a period of love and unity would be the prelude to Christ's reign on earth. A few, even, began setting dates on Christ's return.

When the Great Awakening started the only thing the thirteen colonies had in common was that they were loosely tied to the English crown. At the close the most noteworthy feature of the event was that it was the first national experience in American history. From New England to Georgia an inter-colonial visitation by the Holy Spirit had touched America. In every colony a new enthusiasm for Christianity appeared. The awakening even reached over denominational lines; churches cooperated with each other in a spirit of Christian brotherhood. When it was over, no one doubted that God had moved across America.

The prominent people of the Great Awakening:

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) Northampton, MA Congregational pastor known as the Great Awakener, who preached Sinners in the hands of an Angry God.

George Whitefield (1714-1770) the greatest preacher of the Great Awakening, who made seven missionary visits to the American colonies. The Grand Itinerant.

John Wesley (1703-1791) founder of the Methodist church and leader of the Evangelical Awakening in England.

Theodore Frelinghuysen (1691-1747) A Dutch Reformed minister in New Jersey, who was one of the first revival preachers.

William Tennent (1673-1746) founded the "log college" in Neshaminy, PA and father of four famous preaching sons Gilbert, William Jr, John, and Charles.

Gilbert Tennent (1703-1764) early leader of the revival preachers, who was a Presbyterian pastor in New Jersey and Philadelphia.

Eleazer Wheelock (1711-1779) Connecticut Congregational minister, who planned to educated and evangelize Indians. First President of Dartmouth.

Solomon Stoddard (1643-1729) Puritan pastor for 60 years at Northampton, MA the cradle of the Great Awakening.

Charles Chauney (1705-1787) Boston pastor & Harvard voice for the Old Lights.

Samuel Davies (1723-1761) founder of Southern Presbyterianism in Virginia and President of the College of New Jersey 1759-61.

Chapter 3, The Search for Reason

Introduction in 1760

In the year of 1760 Britain under William Pitt and young King George III had reached a zenith in their struggle for a mercantile rule. The fourth French-British war of the century was coming to a close. In 1759 British successes were unparalleled with victories in India at Plassey, in Africa at Senegal, in the West Indes at Guadelope, and in North America at Quebec. The French had lost everywhere. Prime Minister Pitt's plans had added to the British empire, however the cost had doubled their debts and the realm was almost too big to govern.

In the American colonies the interest in the Great Awakening was waning. The colonists had contributed to the English success at Port Royal and Louisburg in all four wars. For the Englishmen in North America the French threat was now eliminated. Only the Indians stood in the way of western expansion. The colonial population was nearing three million, and they were spilling across the Appalachians.

There was no reason not to enjoy the blessings of the liberty that they had outside the British Isles. The parliament had permitted the policy of "salutary neglect" to free the colonist for most of the century. An ocean and the Great Awakening had deflected any expansion of Anglican or Popish control. The variety of Christian groups just defused any establishment of one dominant church.

At the closing of the colonial period there were an estimated one thousand religious organizations in each of the three sections of America. The Congregationalists had 658 mostly in New England, and the Presbyterians had 543 mostly in the Middle colonies. The others followed with Baptists 498, Anglicans 480, Quakers 295, German and Dutch Reformed 251, Lutherans 151, Catholics 50, and the Methodists with 37 circuits. Nine of the 13 colonies had "established" churches. In Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire the Congregational church was supported by taxes and the law. In the five Southern colonies and New York the Anglican Church was the established church.

By 1760 the spiritual interests and emotional fervor of the revival were receding while political problems and rational pursuits were rising. The Great Awakening had provided the first common intercolonial experience, and leaders like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and other itinerants had name recognition in every colony. But in the future names like Franklin, Washington, Adams, and Patrick Henry would join the voices from New England to Georgia. Revival would be replaced by revolution.

Congregational and Republican Governments

The religious roots in America provided a platform for the political direction that led to independence. In the Congregational and Presbyterian churches the leadership and the voice came from the lay people. Their church government was a simple democracy with lay elders selected and problems solved in open discussion by their members. In political terms it was a representative democracy or a republic. The great Christian Edmund Burke told Parliament that the American religious beliefs and practices were far advanced in their Protestantism, and Americans were accustomed to free debate on all religious questions.

The parallel is seldom admitted, but the British-American form of representative government with power from the people matches with the Protestant lay elders' polity. The nations with a divine right monarchy and power at the top correspond with the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope in Rome making decrees throughout the realm. Thus in each case the church and the state are homogeneous.

In reality a New England Congregational church meeting had an open exchange of ideas; and when they went to the town meeting, they practiced the same procedures in their political assembly.

Even the pulpit became a forum for subjects on the public good like patriotism, tyranny, the causes of liberty, the right of resistance, and eventually war. Back in the homeland they blamed those descendants of John Knox for this sedition, and they believed that those "sessions" of the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians were the source of this rebellion and protest. The change was disastrous to American spiritual life because revivals were sporadic and localized.

Prelude to Independence

The prelude to colonial separation began when Britain ended Walpole's policy of salutary neglect. Although the British intentions were almost innocent at times and partially in America's best interest, the English measures and taxes stumbled into a position which resulted in a mutual antagonism. Their attempts to regulate the western lands, the currency, the smuggling, the sale of enumerated products, and to search and quarter troops in their homes only provoked the colonists, especially without their consent. However, the Americans quickly learned of the power behind their economic boycotts.

The Stamp Act was the most direct and most unifying provocation, and the colonial non-importation agreements resulted in a repeal. When the Townshend duties renewed England's taxation attempts, the colonists developed a propaganda network known as the Committees of Correspondence. Samuel Adams was the founder of a circular letter writing campaign that was given the unofficial salutation "No King but King Jesus."

Samuel Adams, a devoutly religious man, held morning and evening prayers with daily Bible readings in his home and revered the Sabbath. Nevertheless the "Father of the American Revolution" would be remember more for his Sons of Liberty at the Boston Tea Party.

After a decade of British policies only the Tea tax survived, and it was no more than a nuisance until the East India Company was given a tax break. The colonists responded with the Boston Tea Party by Adams' Sons of Liberty. Parliament retaliated with the Intolerable Acts. One of the five measures closed the port of Boston. Another part closed the West with the Quebec Act.

Earlier the Proclamation of 1763 was intended to prevent conflicts between the settlers and Indians beyond the Appalachian Mountains. But now the Quebec Act (1774) gave the Roman Catholics free exercise of their religion in the future Northwest Territories, and they could collect a tithe of the settlers. The easterners were angered and they interpreted the policy to be an "establishment" of a state religion. Most of the colonies had western land claims.

The Intolerable or Coercive Acts generated a surprising and unifying response by the colonists. They took a page from Cromwell's day. On June 1, 1774 Great Britain closed the port of Boston. Many colonists followed the example in Williamsburg. They held a day of prayer and fasting by attending church, and to "implore divine intervention to avert a calamity." George Washington recorded in his diary that he went to Bruton Parish Church and fasted all that day.

In Sept. the First Continental Congress met at Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia. They unanimously agreed to open in prayer which was led by Reverend Jacob Duche. The famous stained-glass picture of the event was called the "Liberty Window" at Christ Church in Philadelphia. The famous Episcopalian Church where so many forefathers worshipped, also, had the equally famous "Patriot's Window" installed in 1861.

The intercolonial assembly agreed to suspend all trade with Great Britain, and to petition King George III, and to convene again the next spring. Before they could meet a second time bloodshed occurred at Lexington and Concord. It was the British who initiated the attack and fired the first shots after the famous partial ride of Paul Revere. In fact throughout the war it was the British who attacked. The "alleged" colonial revolutionaries mostly "rebelled" from a defensive position.

For the next 15 months everyone debated the relationship between Britain and the colonies, and The King and his subjects. John Dickinson called "the penman of the Revolution" had written in his Pennsylvania letter, "we are united by religion, liberty, laws, affections, relation, language, and commerce.." Dr. Samuel Langdon, the Harvard President, said, "We have rebelled against God..let us repent and implore the divine mercy." Patrick Henry said to the House of Burgesses, "There is no longer room for hope. If we wish to be free, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left for us!"

The Second Continental Congress decreed July 20, 1775 as the First National Day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer. They again petitioned The King. Meanwhile in Parliament, Edmund Burke made has famous "Conciliation with the colonies" speech. He was joined in sympathy for the colonials by William Pitt, Fox, John Wilkes, Conway, Amherst, and some other famous Englishmen. Tensions and struggles escalated, however there was no consensus on the issues of reconciliation or independence.

Year One: The New England Phase

From the outset any oddsmaker would have given the mother country a huge advantage over her colonist. How could there be an American Revolution when never in the history of the world had a colony successfully broken away? The British army was nearly 60,000 well-trained and well-financed redcoats. The British navy, the finest in the world, started the war with 80 men-of-war and 22,000 men against a colonial fleet of four ships. King George III also hired 20,000 Hessian mercenaries. How could three million scattered colonists stretching over a 1500 mile coastline win a war of independence? In early 1776 only four delegations favored independence and possibly three Southern colonies favored re-joining Britain. The Second Continental Congress was indecisive, inept at financing the war, and bankrupt by 1779. Generals were selected out of sectional jealousies. The Colonial Blue and Whites served only for short-term enlistments. They were ill-clothed, ill-trained, and the worst paid lot. Regardless a Lexington-Concord mentality existed. All that was needed was a call to arms and the minutemen could be gathered from the countryside at a moments notice. The riflemen would show up with that bloody weapon the Pennsylvania flintlock with rifling. In spite of this, the wisest decision was to accept John Adams' nomination of George Washington as the Commander of the colonial army.

Phase One of the undeclared war was in New England. Captain Parker gave his famous command against Pitcairn's Royal Marines. The first bloodshed was spilled over a 16 mile gauntlet between Charlestown and Concord. On Day One the Massachusetts militia gained confidence for harrying the Redcoats back to Boston.

The next month a bold strategic move was made on Fort Ticonderoga by Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen. To their astonishment the front gate was wide open. At daylight 6'4" Ethan Allen made a flying tackle on the lone sentry, whose weapon mis-fired at point blank range. Allen demanded that the commander Delaplace wake up and surrender, "in the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress." In ten bloodless minutes without firing a shot the Americans were miraculously delivered 60 tons of artillery and 30,000 flints.

The final and most glorious battle in New England was Bunker Hill. General William Howe order three frontal assaults on the American redoubt at Breed's Hill. The Americans defended against Europe's best army in European styled-combat and inflicted heavy casualties on nearly half the enemy's force. The Yankees gracefully retreated with a morale victory, when Prescott's patriots ran out of powder. The only failure in New England was the expedition on Canada. Everything went wrong. The maps were inaccurate, their boats capsized, supplies were lost, and the force was exhausted by the time they reached Quebec. The first commander Schuyler got sick, his replacement Richard Montgomery was killed, Morgan was captured, and Benedict Arnold was wounded. The attack on the final night of the year was in a blinding snowstorm. By springtime a surviving remnant limped home under Arnold's command. They believed that Divine Providence was against the invasion of Canada.

As the first year came to a close only Boston remained in British hands. During the winter Henry Knox took advantage of the snow to drag some fifty pieces of Fort Ticonderoga's artillery on a 42-sled oxen train to Boston. General Washington selected the sixth anniversary of the Boston Massacre to fortify Dorchester Heights that overlooked Boston. The work party was blessed with a full moon on the high ground. Meanwhile unusual weather conditions existed around Boston. A northeasterly breeze brought a dense fog to Boston harbor and a noise barrier to the moonlit, nighttime, American activities on the hill.

In the morning Howe and Burgoyne were awed at the single night's accomplishment as they looked up at the Ticonderoga's cannons. Days later they sent an assault force to the high ground, but a wild storm soaked the powder and repulsed the attack without a shot. With over 40 weapons pointed at Boston Howe chose to evacuate the 7,000 troops and over a thousand Tories to Canada. The City of Boston was returned to American control without the loss of a single life on either side.

One sidelight to the northern events in 1776 was Charleston, South Carolina. Postwar appraisers have admonished the English for not first taking advantage of the numerous Tories in the South. But before the Declaration of Independence on June 28th a combined attack by Sir Peter Parker's fleet and Henry Clinton's ground forces was made on Fort Sullivan in Charleston harbor. Parker's 11-ships had ten times the 26-gun fire power of the American fort. William Moultrie's defenses gathered behind a 16-foot pile of palmetto logs and sand. The British misjudged the vulnerability of the earthenwork fort. Three British naval vessels ran aground on the Charleston shoal. The British fleet fired 7,000 cannonballs which were absorbed by the mud fort and killed on 12 Americans. Clinton's ground force was unable to traverse the water to Sullivan's Island. When their attack appeared ineffective, the British over-charged their cannons causing some to explode and damage their own ships.

After nightfall Parker abandoned the invasion. Major Barnard Elliot, the American artillery officer, said, "So wonderfully did God work in our behalf, that the men-of-war cut their cables in the dead of night and stole away." At that point none of the 13 colonies was occupied by one British redcoat or sailor.

Declaration of Independence

The drift toward independence was slow and reasoned out. Historically, the thought of rebellion against a divine right king was paralleled to rebellion against God. But English history was on their side. The English had beheaded Charles I and ousted James II without bloodshed. In the 17th Century John Locke had theorized that Christians had the right of revolution against tyrannical kings. Samuel Rutherford in Lex Rex rationalized that the Bible was the final authority not the king or the law. Furthermore these Hanover kings were Germans anyway, and the first two didn't use much English.

In March 1775 Ben Franklin confessed that he had not heard one person, drunk or sober, suggest breaking with the mother country. Although Britain voted for a state of war in late 1775, the tone in America was conciliation not separation.

In January 1776 Thomas Paine argued in Common Sense," In no instance hath nature made the satellite larger than its primary planet." He said, "I rejected the hardened, sullen-tempered Pharaoh of England forever," and he urged, "Tis time to part." Paine's reasons were so widely read and seemed to align with John Locke's logic that people began leaning toward independence.

On May 17, 1776, Congress declared the second national day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer. Abigail Adams reported that the clergy of every denomination in large numbers seemed to have turned from gospel to revolution.

Later they were referred to as the "black regiments" and the "fighting parsons" as especially the Congregational and Presbyterian clergymen, who admonished, recruited, and even marched their laymen to the battlefield. One spiritual leader exhorted, "cleanse yourself, then shoot the Redcoats." Spiritually the war was disastrous because churches were pastorless; the buildings became hospitals, barracks, and stables; and worship was neglected. Thus immorality and unbelief grew.

While the revival churches supported the revolution, the "peace sects" the Quakers, the Mennonites, and Moravians suffered rejection as "Conscientious Objectors." As for the Methodists John Wesley recalled all the English preachers and only Francis Asbury remained in America.

In June after Howe withdrew from Boston and word came that George III was hiring Hessian mercenaries, Richard Henry Lee proposed that a resolution for independence be drawn up by a five-man committee. Although at that time only four colonies supported independence, the Second Continental Congress agreed to recess and solicit their constituents' opinions.

The task of drafting the document was left to Thomas Jefferson. The talented writer in 18 days penned the American birth certificate. His proposal was altered 26 times by the committee and the Congress. By his own admission Jefferson said that it was not written with any new principles or on things never said before, but to express the common spirit of the American mind of that time for that occasion. Some historians have charged Jefferson and the Declaration with deist and Enlightenment principles, but the document expresses the Christian view of Locke, Rutherford, and the mostly Christian signers in the Congress.

After the three-week June adjournment the mood in Congress changed. Word arrived that Maryland and New Jersey now favored independence. The famous Dickinson-Adams debate was climaxed by the arrival of the New Jersey delegation led by John Witherspoon, President of Princeton and the only clergyman in the Congress.

The next day the final vote was dramatically disrupted by Caesar Rodney, who had ridden all night through a storm, to cast the tie-breaking vote in the Delaware deadlock. The final vote was unanimous: twelve colonies for independence and New York abstained.

Now after fifteen months of fighting without a national cause, they had a reason for the war. It was Independence. On July 4th they adopted as their as their official seal for the revolution a picture depicting the Exodus with Moses and Pharaoh at the Red Sea. The inscription read "Rebellion against tyranny is Obedience to God." After listing 27 grievances against King George III, they closed the document with this line: "with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

The War for Independence:

Now that the confederation of the United States had declared its will to be a free and independent people, phase two of the war followed. England responded with William Howe's invasion of New York and with the largest army of the century over 30,000 troops. The Americans were outnumbered three to one and George Washington defended with a series of retreats. Washington's reputation for miraculous escapes continued in the New York episode.

The first week of the Long Island invasion found Washington's force dwindling and defending Brooklyn's Heights. On August 27th an imminent defeat was delayed by a northeastern thunderstorm. That night Washington evacuated his 9,000 troops across the East River. Another miracle was claimed when an all night breeze aided the 13-hour ferry service by Massachusetts marbleheaders, who ironically arrived as Washington gave his evacuation orders. The last boats were covered by a morning fog as the British discovered the retreat and fired on the General in the last boat.

Howe's invasion at Kips Bay again nearly trapped Washington at the battle of Harlem Heights. But the cautious Howe feared over-extending his lines so the Americans slipped away. Washington escaped again, when the first heroine of the war a Quaker patriot Mrs. Robert Murray, who had dated Howe in England, delayed the British officers with an afternoon of cake and wine on the Murray Hill estate.

Howe's pursuit up Manhattan Island was interrupted at the battle of Pelham by John Glover's rear-guard action. Howe decided to retire at what was called Throg's Neck. But it was really a peninsula and when Westchester flooded around the British encampment, they were trapped for six days.

Washington's flight continued with losses at White Plains and Fort Washington, the last American foothold in New York. A second escape was cooked up by Mrs. Murray again from the west side of the Hudson. The ragged remnant limped into New Jersey depleted by expired enlistments and desertions. Howe retired for the winter in New York City and left a line of outposts in New Jersey. Thomas Paine would write in The Crisis, "These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country."

By Christmas time the flame of liberty was barely flickering on the darkest days. The end of US history seemed to be only one Washington defeat away. However, the boldest strike of the war and another peculiar fluke happened at Trenton. It was the famous crossing of the Delaware on Christmas night, which ironically Emanuel Leutze painted in 1851 on the Rhine River in Germany.

The Trenton barracks was made up of over a thousand Hessian soldiers under the command of Johann Ralls. Undercover of a snowstorm the attack surprised the Germans and resulted in a victory, while not one American soldier killed in the battle. However, in the spoils of victory in the dead commander Ralls' pocket was an unopened Tory note. The message was intended to expose Washington's plan to re-cross the Delaware and attack Trenton, but it remained unread. Luck again?

Rather than return with a victory Washington took the offensive again and attacked Princeton. His charmed protection continued when he fearlessly rode into the midst of his retreating army at Stony Brook Bridge. His mounted figure was engulfed in a savage crossfire. Waving his hat, he called to his men, "Bring up the troops, the day is ours!" Washington had turned defeat into victory. In the heat of the battle a dramatic aura surrounded him, as if death and danger had no power to touch him. In the brilliant ten-day reversal he had mauled the New Jersey outposts and rekindled a hope for victory

The next summer of 1777 the British devised a comprehensive three-pronged offensive in New York to finish off the American malcontents. It would split the colonies through the Hudson Valley by linking up Burgoyne from the north, St. Leger from the west, and Howe from the south. Howbeit that Howe was never involved in the plan? Did Prime Minister Germain not inform him of the grandiose scheme? Or did Howe just use make a command decision that he would not go? It was the biggest blunder of the war.

Howe engaged Washington at Brandywine and the took Philadelphia. St. Leger was turned back along the Mohawk by Herkimer and that early-on hero Benedict Arnold. Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne with a cumbersome baggage lumbered toward Saratoga. Because of the success at Bennington and the propaganda of the Jane McCrea massacre the American forces increased daily. The four-month British invasion was swallowed up by a makeshift American army.

Saratoga was the turning point of the war. At the climatic fighting around Bemus Heights Benedict Arnold was omnipresent as he galloped throughout the fighting. Britain's battlefield commander Simon Fraser was killed by one of Morgan's riflemen. A cold rain flooded Burgoyne's camp as he parlayed for a convention. On the evening of his surrender Henry Clinton's re-enforcement's arrived too late, as Gentleman Johnny kept his word and laid down their arms.

Europe was astonished at the new Republic's success. France and other enemies of Britain sided with the American cause. Ben Franklin negotiated the Treaty of Alliance with France. And Ezra Stiles, President of Yale, observed that unusually contrary winds on the Atlantic had prevented British logistics from reaching Burgoyne's army.

Meanwhile Washington lost to Howe at Germantown in a blind fog. Then suffered through Valley Forge the next winter. And was nearly replaced by the bankrupt Continental Congress in the Conway Cabal. After a near victory at Monmouth, the last great battle in the North, only New York City remained in British hands.

A campaign of almost little concern proved to by the most visionary action of the war. George Rogers Clark led 175 Kentucky "long knives" to the Illinois frontier. He captured five forts and eventually the "infamous" Hairbuyer Henry Hamilton. Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, Cahokia, Vincennes, and Fort Sackville all fell without a shot or an American lost through enemy action. This phenomenal endeavor added a territory half the size of the original thirteen colonies. It also established a precedent to inherit the eastern half of America from the Atlantic to the Mississippi at the Paris peace discussions.

During the final 18-months fighting was conducted in the South. For the patriots a 45-day siege of Charleston ended with British control of the city. "Butcher" Tarleton earned notoriety for a massacre in the Waxhaws. Horatio Gates of Saratoga fame was given an ignominious defeat at Camden. Benedict Arnold, who was overlooked for the southern command, shocked the nation with his treason at West Point.

Nathaniel Greene, who replaced Gates, began a guerrilla strategy against the superior forces of Cornwallis. His fight, lose, rise, and fight again tactics wore away at the British. Greene lost all four battles so he could hang on and win the South. Only the all-American battle at King's Mountain where the white-flag slaughter occurred was an patriot victory.

A favorable timing of events sealed Cornwallis' final and decisive surrender at Yorktown. Washington expressed the need for a "lucky coincidence of naval superiority" in the Chesapeake Bay. It happened when Count de Grasse's French fleet arrived from the Caribbean to engaged the Royal Navy under the command of Thomas Graves. The four day battle of the Virginia Capes ended when a violent storm scattered the two fleets. But deGrasse had control of the Bay entrance and Cornwallis was bottled up in Yorktown.

While the Marquis Lafayette with a smaller force opposed Cornwallis at Yorktown, Washington and Rochambeau occupied Clinton in New York City. In August Washington began a ruse with Rochambeau heading to Yorktown, while his army kept enough campfires to give an appearance of two armies. When Washington's main body was ferried to Yorktown the maneuver succeeded in encircling Yorktown.

On the night before the surrender Cornwallis attempted an over night evacuation. It would take three trips across the York River to Gloucester Point a la Washington's Brooklyn Heights maneuver. But when the first ferries landed a gale force storm struck and his forces were severed. The next day Lord Cornwallis surrendered nearly 8,000 troops and the band struck up "The World Turned Upside Down."

Fighting continued among the Europeans for the next two years before The Peace of Paris treaty and the British troops were removed from New York. Great Britain had lost the war to the Americans. The world was stunned.

The successful war for independence gave US orators the opportunity to rejoice in victory, praise God for the triumph, and proclaim the US's destiny. In the most lengthy discourse Ezra Stiles, President of Yale, gave a 100-page sermon to the Connecticut legislature. It was titled "The US Elevated to Glory and Honor." He reviewed the history of Israel's theocracy and drew parallels to the US position. He venerated the saintly George Washington as the American Joshua, who was divinely chosen and providentially inspired to another impossible victory. Stiles, also, surveyed the events of the war while generalizing an Almighty hand on the victory. Finally, President Stiles purposed that God's reason for elevating the United States was to propagate religious liberty to all Christendom. And to present the gospel of Christ to the heathen world which Stiles estimated at three quarters of mankind, and had not in his opinion changed for nine centuries. This glorious vision for the US was given in 1783.

Historians offer three general reasons for the US victory in the War for Independence or as they generally call it "The American Revolution." Mainly three foreign powers distracted Britain's effort against the colonies as France, Spain, and Holland retaliated worldwide for past defeats. Some historians believe that French money, supplies, and leaders like Lafayette, Rochambeau, and de Grasse plainly swung the balance to the Americans. Notwithstanding the other fine foreign officers like Von Steuben, Pulaski, and Kosciuszko so admirably performed for the American cause.

Secondly, American leadership and determination just persevered. The greatest American force was George Washington, who retreated, delayed, and prevented an American defeat. He cemented inexperience commanders and marginal troops with a fierce admiration and loyalty to follow him anyplace. They also had confidence in his tactics of hanging around and avoiding an allout conflict which was unfamiliar and frustrating to the Europeans.

Finally, Britain just outright lost the war. Their King's obstinate behavior forced the two groups of Englishmen into irreconcilable positions, and separated by a chasm that widened as the war lengthened. The British made mistakes in time, distance, and communication. The biggest blunder of the war was Howe not going to Saratoga to link up with Burgoyne. The British were wearied by the war and public opinion. It became an unpopular cause with respected leaders like William Pitt, Edmund Burke, Charles James Fox, John Wilkes, and heroes of the Seven Years War: Conway and Amherst, who all opposed the war against the colonies.

If every event of history was designed by God to show His continuous care for His people, then the American Revolution must certainly reveal His divine footprints. Secular historians will not honor God's rule of history or His control of nature. Nevertheless, when military insights are lacking by the most powerful nation on earth, and victories are won without firing a shot, and unusual weather finalizes the conclusion, and un-opened messages determine the outcome; this becomes no scenario of luck.

This statement is almost too big to make, but the Americans won the biggest catch of artillery (Fort Ticonderoga), the largest New England city (Boston), the most crucial victory of the war (Trenton), and the largest territorial claim (the West) all without a single loss of an American life in battle and in three of the four instances without firing a shot. What greater evidence can expose an unseen hand directing the conclusion of the War for Independence?

Articles of Confederation:

The war had been won by the military, but the peace and unity now had to be maintained by the federal government. The organization that was selected by the Second Continental Congress to achieve this purpose was the Articles of Confederation. This much maligned government made major achievements during what has been called the "Critical Period." They established federal control over the 13 states. They negotiated a peace treaty to officially end the war. They set up the fabulous ordinances of 1784 and 1787 on what to do with the western lands, which had been received from the British, and from the former claims of the eastern states.

In a world being run by monarchs and despots the United States was developing a republic by the "will of the people." They were also granting territories the unheard of opportunity for equal status as full states for the first time in the history of the world. And they were protecting individual rights in a pattern that only the English had attempted.

The postwar decade has been criticized for the weak government that could not control Shay's Rebellion. It was reproved for the inability to carry on foreign trade or respected relations with the older European nations. The general populous was condemned for the rising practices of drunkenness, lawlessness, and skepticism. Religion in America was considered to be at a standstill or decline.

In the 18th Century the Enlightenment Age grew out of the Renaissance, and was expressed in letters and thoughts that stressed the ability of the human mind to solve the problems of mankind. The French philosophers Rosseau and Voltaire emphasized reason, nature, and the freedom and happiness of the individual. They tried moving away from the Bible and Christianity as a basis for law and government, and toward an Age of Reason with Deism as their religion. Voltaire said that Christianity would be forgotten within 30 years. He was dead by 1778.

In America Thomas Paine, Franklin, and Jefferson were accused of being deists, and other founding fathers were alleged of having Enlightenment leanings. In 1783 the societies of the Illuminati were organizing the infidel and revolutionary ideas in the US. College faculties and student bodies throughout the nation were being enticed by the French skepticism.

The Northwest Ordinance and The Federal Convention:

In the midst of these circumstances in 1787 the Confederation in New York City and a federal convention in Philadelphia simultaneously wrote two of the three greatest documents in American history: the Northwest Ordinance and the Constitution. Only the Declaration of Independence rivals their importance.

Historians have admired the foresight in the Northwest Ordinance to establish a framework for statehood. But in reality the document was the first federal Bill of Rights. The six articles of this law would astonish the separation of church and state advocates today. Article One said, "No person, demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly manner, shall be molested on account of his mode of worship." Clause Three said, "Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged."

Two human rights issues were included in the legislation. Article Three guaranteed, "the utmost good faith shall always be observed toward the Indians ... their lands, property...rights and liberty... preserving peace and friendship." the slaves were included in Article Six which said, "There shall be neither slavery or involuntary servitude in the said territory." How many court cases would have been avoided, if the government had followed the founding fathers' laws? Religion in schools and freedom for Indians and slaves, why we would have missed the Civil War and the 30-year Indian Wars in the West.

The Northwest Ordinance was passed July 13, 1787 in New York. It was also approved by the Republic under the Constitution. Rufus King, the author of the anti- slavery clause, was the only representative to sign it and the Constitution. Thirty-one of the next 33 states except Texas and California were admitted to the Union on this basis.

Meanwhile in Philadelphia at the Old State House the same location, where the Declaration of Independence was signed eleven years earlier, fifty-five delegates from 12 states met with a vow of secrecy to revise the Articles of Confederation. They quickly decided to form a new and stronger federal government which protected the economic interests of particularly the land owners and limited the powers of the state governments.

The Convention with its prestigious delegates attracted much interest. With George Washington presiding most were willing to follow his leadership. Over half had served in the Revolutionary War so they respected "The General." James Madison became the "father of the Constitution" for his advanced preparation and detailed record of the proceedings. The 81-year old Ben Franklin added respect and credibility to the delegation. Most were well-educated and all had served at some level of government.

Two of the first three Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were in Europe as ambassadors. Jefferson did send books with French theories on the subject. Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry stayed home as did the State of Rhode Island. Several other prominent leaders like John Hancock and John Jay were serving in the government.

Ben Franklin suggested that they open in prayer "imploring the assistance of heaven," but they lacked the funds to pay a chaplain. The proceedings featured much discussion, debate, compromise, resolution, and passion. When an impasse seemed inevitable Franklin appealed, "I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men, And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?"

Much has been written about the debates over powers, representatives, terms, and the relationship of the federal and state governments. The ideas expressed by Gouveneur Morris, James Wilson, Roger Sherman, Alexander Hamilton, Edmund Randolph, and each delegate were sealed in Madison's journal until 1840.

Less has been written about the original sources of their ideas. Montesquieu always get credit for the separation of three branches in The Spirit of Laws. The background on his reasoning is seldom mentioned. It is Christian: that all men are sinners and they need checks and balances. Montesquieu believed that Christianity fostered good laws and good government. He was the most quoted person at the convention.

The second most quoted writer was Sir William Blackstone. His idea was that natural law was made up of two parts: physical or the laws of nature, and the revealed or divine laws of the Holy Scriptures. John Locke's ideas on: inalienable rights, consent of the governed, separation of powers, and the right of revolution are familiar to most Americans, but the Scriptures he quoted to back up his opinions are hardly ever mentioned.

Finally, the most quoted source used by the founding fathers at the Constitutional Convention and made up 34 percent of all quotes was: The Bible. However, the labors of Donald S. Lutz, Charles S. Hyneman, and David Barton of Wallbuilders have recorded the acts of this convention and what the founding fathers did, better than what is written here.

After 124 days the 4,000 word instrument of US government was finished. It was signed by 39 members. Three refused to sign it. On September 17th, what was formerly called "I am An American Day" and is now called "Citizenship Day," the Constitution was presented to the States for ratification. In 1788 eleven of the 13 states ratified the document.

A wide variety of criticism followed their achievement. Their opening line "We the People" has been reproved when only five percent of the white men voted in the subsequent elections. The writers also omitted a Bill of Rights, and the rights of victims, women, slaves, and Indians. The "people" did not even get to elect their Senators or the President.

However, the most awesome chronicle of their ideas was presented in the newspapers and called The Federalist Papers. A series of 80-some essays by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the signature of "Publius" answered the critics and argued for ratification.

When these words are read today, students and teachers think that they have a reading comprehension level beyond advanced college work. One must ask what kind of education system and literacy rate enabled the common person to be expected to participate in this great public debate?

One of the impressive arguments for unity was II by Publius, James Madison, when he wrote, "With equal pleasure I have so often taken notice that Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people - a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles, very similar in their manners and customs and who, by their joint counsels, arms, and efforts, fighting side by side throughout a long and bloody war, have nobly established general liberty and independence."

With ratification of the Constitution and the election of George Washington the first modern revolution was complete and the oldest successful Constitution was put into action. The United States would be the model for others that followed. The same ancestors that Madison had referred to were western European and mainly from the British Isles. The same language was English. And the same religion was almost entirely Christian and Protestant denominations.

Comparison to the French Revolution:

The first nation to follow in the path of the American Revolution was France. Some historians have revised the truth and mistakenly credited the French Revolution with the birth of modern democracy. The two Revolutions had many differences and the results were diametrically opposite. Their Revolution was within the same country. They had no legislative experience; the Estates-General had not met in 175 years. France had a absolute monarchy. Most of all France tried to base their revolution on man-made laws and Enlightenment theories where the American Revolution was Christian based and biblically supported for a change in government.

The French abolished Christianity and set up Year One of The French Republic with a non-Christian calendar and a Feast of Reason. The goddess of reason was raised up in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, and the churches were desecrated. France was one nation under the law, while America tried to be one nation under God as a final authority.

The French Revolution resulted in the Reign of Terror with 40,000 guillotined including the King and Queen. Lafayette and Thomas Paine barely escaped with their lives. When Thomas Jefferson observed the "bread riots" and he called it "Great Fear." In the end the French Revolution produced the military dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte, who conquered most of Europe. The legacies that follows the French bloodbath is the Russian Revolution and their attempt at a godless society, and the repressive totalitarian societies of the 20th Century.

John Wesley Bready summarized their events best, "in the Reign of Terror when Paris gutters ran red with human blood; when a prostitute was crowned Goddess of Reason; when each new champion of freedom, crying "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity," rushed his fellow champions to the guillotine, lest they rush him there first. So ended the first French Republic, denying all spiritual values and mocking God."

But nevertheless, the American Revolution can not stand alone and self- righteously claim their greatness without thanking their English examples. The Magna Carta and Petition of Rights established a pattern of democracy in the colonies. The bloodless change of power to William and Mary in 1688 was certainly an inspiration for the right of revolution. And likewise the bloodlines of our independence gave birth to Haiti and the South American's overthrow of the Spanish Empire. They must thank the US for lighting a way in the Western Hemisphere.

One other issue of French influence that must be dealt with is Deism. It was French rationalism that God had created the universe, and he only observes what takes place like a clockmaker. God is silent, he does not reveal any truth, he is impersonal, and does not intervene in the affairs of men.

Some founding fathers are charged with being Deists, and writing Enlightenment philosophies in our documents. Jefferson, Paine, and Franklin were almost expost facto deists when historians look back on their ideas. Other insinuate that Washington, Witherspoon, and John Adams belong to the French persuasion.

Both sides used similar terms, and the Christian and Enlightenment writers interchanged the catch-words of the day. The bottom line is the final authority of a personal God. Deists would never accept that God would intervene in history to die for the sins of mankind as Jesus Christ claims. God would not give His word like the Bible claims. And most assuredly a deist should not waste his time calling for an answer to prayer by a god of indifference.

This evidence condemns some deist claims on Jefferson and especially Ben Franklin. As for Thomas Paine I find him a religious seeker, who never settled on a final opinion and probably would have espoused Unitarianism, if he had lived long enough. I appreciate the evaluation of Catherine Millard, who said that Jefferson didn't show evidence of a born-again Christian, but he did use a Christian value system.

William Johnstone's George Washington: The Christian dispels any deist rumors about the "father of our country." A deist would never get baptized or kneel in prayer at Valley Forge or say as he said to the Delaware Indians, "You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ."

It is almost a historical insult to put the two revolutions in the same ball park. The epitome of their differences is two deaths. While some Frenchmen were jumping out of windows, Maximilien Robespierre, the leader of the Reign of Terror, had his friend Danton executed. Danton predicted that Robespierre would follow him to the guillotine. When Robespierre was arrested, he cried out, "I demand speech!" and began to cough and sputter. Someone said, "The blood of Danton chokes him." Robespierre died on the guillotine with 19 of his friends. The next day 80 more Jacobians were executed and the Reign of Terror ended on July 29, 1794.

On the other hand the most famous death in the American Revolution was a spy on Long Island and a little known schoolteacher named Nathan Hale. His last dying words were, "I have now disposed of all my property to my family. There is one thing more I wish I could give them, and that is faith in Jesus Christ. If they had that and I had not given them one shilling, they would be rich; and if I had not given them that, and had given them all the world, they would be poor indeed. I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country." There was a huge difference between the two revolutions.

W.A. Candler in his classic Great Revivals and the Great Republic offers the very strong opinion "The history of modern France emphasizes the lesson taught by the records of the world's earlier governments. French governments have lacked steadiness and stability because they are not rooted in the depths of religion." Lamartine lamented.. the French people have been the least religious of all the nations of Europe...The republic of these men without a God was quickly stranded. The liberty..did not find in France a conscience to shelter it, a God to avenge it, a people to defend it, against that atheism which was called glory."

The Postwar Church:

While these military and political events were happening to the nation, the churches were having similar experiences during the postwar period. Most of the American churches were separating from their Old World organizations. The only indigenous churches the Congregational and the Baptists already had independence from Europe.

The churches were also uniting into national organizations with Constitutions. The Methodists were the first denomination to nationalize, after they accepted Thomas Coke as Superintendent in 1784. The Presbyterians in 1788 and the Episcopalians in 1789 established national lines, too. The pre-Revolution consideration for an American "Episcopacy" was revived and a joint Congregational-Presbyterian venture was discussed.

The decline of the tax-supported, established churches began, when the only religious words in the Constitution forbid "religious tests" in article VI, and the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights included "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The tax advantage of the Congregational and the Anglican churches ended state-by-state until Massachusetts was the last in 1833. This still did not prevent the first two Presidents from proclaiming national days of fasting and prayer or "thanksgiving" days.

During the Federalist Era of the 1790's the Washington administration successfully addressed every problem the new government faced. The nation was financially sound thanks to Hamilton's plan and the bureaucracy was operating in New York City. The western Indians problem was addressed. Pinckney had obtained Florida from the Spanish, and the US remained somewhat neutral in another British-French war. A strong central government was at peace and getting on its feet.

But spiritually it was the lowest since the first settler had arrived. Rationalism from Europe permeated the nation in all endeavors including the churches, colleges, and the culture. Among college students it was a fashion to call each other Tom Paine, Rousseau, or Voltaire. Friends of the French ideas greeted each as "citizen" and "citizeness."

Profanity in the classrooms of hallowed Princeton was considered not uncommon. A poll claimed only two believers in the student body. Lyman Beecher, who was a college student at Yale in 1795, said, "The College is a most ungodly state. The college church was almost extinct. Most of the students were skeptical, and rowdies were plenty. Wine and liquors were kept in many rooms: intemperance, profanity, gambling, and licentiousness were common."

Estimates of church membership were as low as one in twenty persons. Most denominations were losing more members than they were gaining. The Methodists in the mid-90's were declining at a rate of 4,000 a year. Devereaux Jarrat wrote to the Episcopalians that, "The state of religion is gloomy and distressing; the church of Christ seems to be sunk very low." The predominant sentiment of the people seemed to be: "We will not have God reign over us."

Emigrants were flowing to the West, and the reputation for lawlessness was widespread. For all the problems in the eastern churches, they at least seemed better than the West. They regarded the West as a mission field. When conditions seemed to be at their worst, Baptist preacher Isaac Backus addressed an urgent plea for prayer for revival to pastors of every Christian denomination in the United States. Many of them followed the example of the British churches and set aside the first Monday of each month to pray. They were called Concerts of Prayer, and revival would begin at the end of the century.

Chapter 4, The Camp Meeting Revival Period

In every age there is a theological discussion on how, why, and when will a revival happen. The crux of the issue is whether the awakening is heaven-sent and God-given or does mankind have any power to start or control a revival. Certainly the desire is that any renewal is caused by a spontaneous moving of the Holy Spirit. Regardless of the era, believers want and hope to see the supernatural at work in their everyday lives. If the personal God, who made those promises in The Bible, is true, then it is realistic to expect something beyond the power of man to happen in his ordinary life.

Clearly, God's Word, the Holy Scriptures, whether written or spoken, is the primary instrument of faith. It is beyond mans' understanding why calls for repentance only harden some hearts, and yet entire cities respond as in the case of Jonah's five words of warning to Ninevah. "Thus saith The Lord" or "The Bible says" has certainly started many life changing experiences. Every awakening has fervent preachers, who appear to be called as God's spokesmen, and they have a Bible centered message that produces the conversion of unbelievers and spiritual growth in believers.

A variety of opinions exist as to the patterns concerning revival. A leading indicator assuredly is prayer. Old Testament kings like Hezekiah, Asa, and Josiah had their prayers answered for renewal. Upon returning from the Captivity Jewish leaders prayed, and preached, and hoped for the restoration of Jerusalem. The first church in Acts prayed not knowing what Pentecost would bring or that they were even a church.

It is suggested that cycles of renewal and decline are also clues about revival. When sin, apathy, and spiritual indifference are prevalent usually a call for repentance and godly sorrow is not far around a corner. Although wars, depressions, and widespread disease should produce awakenings, such has not always been the case. Many times renewal has been a prologue to wars and even a preparation for disaster.

It is evident from the seven churches in the Revelation that every type exists in every age. Thus when there appears to be no revival, revival is continuous and usually localized and sporadic, but it has not ceased. When the church seems to be dead and lukewarm, there are churches that are equipping their saints and sending a missionaries to the lost. When the current crop of Christians is presumed to be backslidden, there are believers on fire for The Lord. God's kingdom work is ongoing and always operating at every level.

However, true revival is an extraordinary movement of the Holy Spirit across the nation and even the globe. When revival comes, there is repentance from sin and trust in Christ's redemption on the Cross alone for salvation. Above all the revival gives the glory to God.

When the Second Great Awakening occurred in 19th Century America some usual God-sent manifestations took place, and some new prayed-up leaders introduced revival methods different from those used in previous generations. But it was clearly a work of God.

The East:

As America neared the end of the century, the East coast states were influenced by the formal churches which preached the Edwards' theology of "plain gospel truths" in an orderly manner. The Congregational and Presbyterian churches were well established in New England and the mid-Atlantic states. The Dutch Reformed in New York and the Lutherans, Quakers and other smaller Protestant denominations provided sanctuaries for those with spiritual desires. The South was strongly Episcopalian. And two small, growing groups, the Baptists and the Methodists, were seeking out the lost. But as usual church membership was the gauge for spirituality and only 1 in 13 Americans belonged.

Again the evidences of spiritual decline and the voices of doom called for a renewal. One answer was said to be education. Dr. Benjamin Rush, an early leader in the US Sunday School movement, said that "the Bible as a school book was superior to all other books in the world." The Adams' cousins John and Samuel wrote each other that "education should teach the Christian system to the children." Dr. Jedidiah Morse, the father of America geography, wrote Geography Made Easy so the "pillars of Christianity" would not be overthrown in schools.

Where and who started the Awakening of 1800 is not clear. Every denomination and state had small, localized revivals. A long list of spiritual rumblings can be compiled during the last two decades of the century. The eastern college phase was characterized by orderliness and restraint. Hampden-Sydney College, Virginia was awakened in 1787 and the Presbyterian Church in the South was ablaze with revival. Campus prayer days and college sermons began to appear.

Dr. Timothy Dwight, a grandson of Jonathan Edwards, boldly debated the students at Yale College, while he was President. His chapel series on deism, the Word of God and apologetics; and his 1796 baccalaureate sermon "Embrace Christ" converted many students. Some of his proteges went on to become famous preachers.

Edward Dorr Griffin, a Yale graduate, kept a record of his results starting in 1792. He started a church with a hundred convert in New Salem, Mass. where no church had existed over the previous 40 years. He was blessed with heavenly sprinklings to the end of the century. Overall the eastern stage provided many dedicated scholars for home and foreign missions.

A significant change took place in 1787 in Boston, when they formed the American Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians and others in North America (SPGNA). Like past organization distributing books and raising funds became priorities. However, the new emphasis of the SPGNA was the "others." To them others meant the frontier, the West, or what was referred to as areas "destitute of the gospel."

The West: Logan County Kentucky:

As the new century turned, the East held its Concerts of Prayer and reported its renewals in colleges. The Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist churches continued their days of fasting and prayer, but, the West was independent from their influences. Emigrants had only settled there in the last quarter of the century, and statehood had only come to Kentucky (1792) and Tennessee (1796) in the last decade.

What had arrived in the West was the biggest collection of lawbreakers, whiskey drinkers, and the most uncontrolled lot in the world. Morals were non existent. Few women were Christians and even fewer men admitted their faith. Chief Justice Marshall, a devout church-goer, felt that the "church was too far gone to be revived." The West was considered the most profaned place in all Christendom, and the only standards of judgment were the gun and "Lynch's" law, the rope. But, death and danger were daily threats from an arrow, or milk sickness, or even some wounded animal.

As renewal gently rippled from the seaboard to the Appalachians, a rousing, roaring revival shook the West. It started in the most unlikely place: Logan County in the southwestern corner of Kentucky and more notoriously known as "Rogues' Harbor." The most unsavory characters had covenanted with one another to keep out law and order, and any "regulators" who would steal their lawbreaking freedoms. They were refugees from every know crime.

In 1797 James McGready, a Presbyterian preacher from North Carolina, came to the three little "river" congregations in Logan County. McGready was a Log College graduate and was under the tutelage of John McMillan, the first Presbyterian pastor west of the Allegheny Mountains. McGready had been aroused at the Hampden-Sydney revival.

When McGready arrived at the Muddy, Red, and Gasper River churches, he set aside the third Saturday of each month for prayer and fasting. He, also, lined up believers to pray at sunset on Saturday and at sunrise on Sunday. Secular businessmen had been spending days alone in the woods praying for the unsaved in Logan County. A rise in the spiritual level occurred during each year of McGready's ministry.

In June, 1800 at the annual Red River communion meeting an astonishing five hundred showed up from the three congregations and from a range of sixty miles away. McGready had to enlist the preaching of five colleagues including Presbyterian William McGee and his Methodist brother John from Tennessee. The event was so large that they were forced to a continuous outdoor service that lasted into the next week. The pulpits followed McGready themes of heaven, hell, and salvation.

For three days the Red River was a solemn, orderly Presbyterian gathering with communion as the central event. But on the final day Monday during the preaching and shouting of Methodist John McGee, people began to weep, and shout, and fall in ecstasy. Many responded to the call to "let the Lord God Omnipotent reign in their hearts." Many conversions were reported. Some pastors were convinced that the emotionalism was the work of God; others resented the unusual excitement. Marshall and Manuel in their great second book From Sea to Shining Sea said, that "nothing like this had happened since the Book of Acts."

This event was probably the first "camp meeting" although the term was not coined for another two years. McGready and his associates were moved to announce another four-day sacramental service in late July at Gasper River. The news spread. Communicants were told to come prepared to encamp with wagons and provisions.

Gasper River was the turning point of the Kentucky revivals. The crowd swelled to estimates of 10,000 from a hundred miles away. Men chopped down trees and arranged split-log benches to create a "church-in-the-wilderness." An ecumenical gathering of Protestant preachers took turns preaching and encouraging emotionalism. Everyone was concerned with one issue: the eternal salvation of their souls. The melodrama continued into the night and torches were lit to end the darkness. The backwoods was like a battlefield of crying out and falling down slain in the Spirit. Religion was alive in the West. They called it the Kentucky, the Logan County, and the Cumberland Revival.

Barton Warren Stone, the pastor at Cane Ridge, came to observe the excitement. He had been converted at the Guilford, North Carolina revival, when McGready was his preacher. Stone's evaluation of the Gasper event was " The devil has always tried to ape the works of God, to bring them into disrepute; but that can not be a Satanic work which brings men to humble confession, to forsaking sin, to prayer, fervent praise and thanksgiving, and to a sincere and affectionate exhortation to sinners to repent and come to Jesus the Savior."

In the succeeding months sacramental meetings with anticipated emotionalism rolled throughout the neighboring states: Tennessee, the Carolinas, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the Ohio region. The Presbyterian and Methodist preachers held joint communions, while the Baptist practiced "closed communions." At every gathering large numbers made stirring conversions to Christ. The eastern preaching methods of restraint and logical exegesis gave way to frontier shouting of "hell-fire and damnation." The backwoods was ablaze with perhaps a day like Joel had prophesied.

While the Presbyterians ignited the revival, it was the Methodists, who gained from the fruits of the "camp" meetings. A new organization, the Western Conference, put all Methodist churches west of the Allegheny Mountains under their presiding elder Bishop William McKendree. In the West six thousand new members were added to the Methodist denomination during the first two years of the century.

By the spring of 1801 the West throbbed with hopes of continuing the revival and the renewing of acquaintances that the winter had separated. The flames of the Holy Spirit again leaped from meeting to meeting. Flemingsburgh in April, Cabin Creek (Mason County) in May, and then the overwhelming Concord meeting (Bourbon County) where seven Presbyterian ministers preached to 4,000 souls. Next came Point Pleasant and Indian Creek (Harrison County) as crowds gathered from all directions. Whole settlements appeared to be vacant. The host was from every background: young and old, male and female, slave and free, and saved and unsaved. At each gathering they spread the tidings of where the next meeting would be held.

More West: The Cane Ridge Meeting:

The monumental meeting of the Kentucky Revival was at Cane Ridge in Bourbon County on Friday August 6, 1801. Pastor Warren Barton Stone of the Concord and Cane Ridge congregations was the leader, and he invited 17 other Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist preachers to the sacramental occasion. A log meetinghouse was the site, and it still stands today as a shrine to the event. It had a standing room only capacity of 500. It was built by Robert Finley, the founding pastor and a friend of Daniel Boone. It was covered with a bamboo roof, and thus the name "cane ridge." A large tent was set up in anticipation of an overflow crowd, and seven speaking platforms were built on the perimeter of the camp.

As the throng began to arrive, the roads were clogged with people on foot, on horseback, and in wagons and carriages. Some came from Tennessee and even from Ohio. The wagons circled the perimeter and overflowed the camp. They counted 147 wagons for the weekend. Local hospitality was swamped, and people would sleep on floors and in barns. The crowd was overwhelming and estimates ran as high as 25,000. Even Governor James Garrard came the 20 miles from Lexington, the capital and largest town in the state at less than 1,800 population. The multitude was a diverse assemblage of converts from earlier meetings, curiosity seekers, merchants, and even a minority of rowdies and drinkers, who were a source of much prayer. The schedule of events called for a Friday evening preaching service, Saturday was to be a day of fasting and prayer in preparation for the communion on Sunday, and Monday everyone would break camp and be sent homeward bound.

Nothing spectacular happened on Friday night. Pastor Stone opened in prayer and Matthew Houston began to preach. A gentle rain forced the crowd into the meetinghouse, but many small groups visited and prayed together into the night.

Saturday was a day of power and excitement. The event turned into a series of gatherings. The main centers of preaching were: the meetinghouse, the tent, and a separate meeting where the Negroes gathered. Numerous other attractions caused people to spontaneously rush back and forth when a stir took place during some nearby preaching or the many physical exercises that occurred throughout the week.

During the preaching the sounds of moaning, groaning, screaming and crying had become commonplace in the western revival. The most universal exhortation, "Lost! Lost!" struck terror throughout the camp. The unsaved would cry and weep, while compassionate friends entreated them to turn to the Lord Jesus.

The most prevalent physical "exercise" was falling down. It was usually accompanied with fainting, some bodily agitation's, and even a trance or coma. It caused the crowds to begin exhortations and praises, while trying to co-labor with the preacher. Confusion reigned. James Finley said that, "the noise was like the roar of Niagara."

The religious ecstasy was thought to be a new experience of the Holy Spirit. Barton Stone devoted an entire chapter in his biography to describe the physical wonders. The most dramatic was the "jerks." A person would fall down and his head and neck and limbs would snap back and forth. The crowd would gather around and exhort the person with pleas, "Repent! trust Jesus! be born anew!" When someone would fall down in the trance, sinners usually agonized over their own spiritual condition. Other bodily signs included: dancing, running, and leap frogging. A confusion of vocal utterances included: barking, shouts, groans, and babbling that was called holy laughter or singing.

Treeing the devil was a bizarre attraction. The individual and even groups, usually got down on all fours and barked up the side of a tree. The person was always followed by the crowd, and they shouted and encouraged the actions with "Sic Satan, sic 'em, sic 'em." It was recommended that dancing and "holy" leap frogging would relieve the condition. Another exotic behavior was when women fell to the ground in gross, indecent sexual positions. Some skeptics wrote off the activities because these were only "ignorant, frontier, hill billies," but the spiritual results could not be denied.

One Kentucky girl Rachel Martin lay in a trance for nine days before reviving. A seven year-old girl on a man's shoulders gave an amazing testimony. Some scoffers and mockers in the midst of their swearing and drinking were suddenly struck down flat on their backs. There were an abundant number of instances to motivate repentance.

Most of these Kentuckians were of Scotch-Irish background, and many of these strange manifestations were repeated later in the Ulster Revival of 1859.

One general feature of the Cane Ridge was the enthusiasm and the freedom of expression by the laity. Every sermon was received with "Amens" and "Hallelujahs." Anyone could exhort sinners and give biblical wisdom. The worship through hymns and hand clapping aroused the emotions of most. Even the small number of skeptics and hecklers shouted and made comments. Hundreds of believers, referred to as professors, gave short testimonies or professions of faith. One estimate was given that 300 laymen, both black and white, testified. No sooner did the hysteria subside in one part of the camp, when hundreds would rush to the next loud exercise.

The holy frenzy continued into the night. Lamps, candles, torches, and campfires created an eerie background. The singing and noise would not cease. Ministers such as Matthew Houston, John Lyle, and Richard McNemar started unscheduled preaching in the tent to calm the crowd. A thunderstorm with lightning added an immense drama to the nighttime preaching as the commotion continued to the next day.

On Sunday the main event of the gathering was Holy Communion, which took place at the meetinghouse. The table was set up in the shape of a cross and could accommodate about a hundred. It was estimated that between 300 and a thousand took the Eucharist. Another appraisal claimed upwards of 3,000 at the Lord's Supper, but the Presbyterians had passed out only 750 lead tokens on Saturday.

The major requirement for participation was some kind of guarantee of eternal life. The man or woman had to have experienced a broken or contrite heart because of their sin, guilt, or wickness. After being "convicted" or "anxious" the transformation to a believer with hope in Christ must have occurred. The "baptism of the Spirit" should have produced some internal, emotional change or regeneration. These sinners would then be "saved or converted," "born again," or "made a Christian." They'd had a new or second birth. Only the Presbyterian ministers presided over the communion, but the Methodists where allowed to partake of the bread and wine, too. Many table settings, perhaps 8-10, were required and the commemoration of the Lord's Supper continued into the afternoon. It was an intensely emotional and meaningful worship service, especially for the Presbyterian tradition, as tears of joy and sadness were commonplace. It was to be a day of renewal. The other physical exercises which occurred outside did not happen at the communion, but it was as expected the pinnacle of the weekend for the laity. Outside the dynamic preacher William Burke made his pulpit 15 feet above the crowd on a fallen tree. Lightning had felled the tree. The Methodist preacher was said to have gathered an audience of 10,000, and again the noise level rose. The day was a repeat of the intensity from Saturday, and it continued into the night. It was almost a circus atmosphere, and newcomers had come for the day because of the reports going out from Cane Ridge.

By Monday the food levels were dwindling. However, new arrivals had heard about what was happening so they continued to flock to the action. Some had gone to their home church on Sunday, and they too returned to add a new energy. The crowd swelled to it largest attendance, an estimated 10,000 people on the grounds

For four more days the massive rally continued leaving people breathless. The sleepless ministers were exhausted. Finally out of food and out of energy, but everyone dramatically effected, the crowd went home.

What had happened in the six days at Cane Ridge? The conversions were in the thousands, and the number "slain in the spirit" was also in the thousands. The estimated attendance was between 10,000 and 25,000. The major assessment was that "this was the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit since Pentecost."

Rev. George Baxter, a Presbyterian minister and President of Washington College, came to observe the after effect and said, "I found Kentucky to appearances the most moral place I had ever seen. A profane expression was hardly ever heard. A religious awe seemed to pervade the country. Upon the whole, I think that the revival in Kentucky the most extraordinary that has ever visited the Church of Christ."

Cane Ridge drew national attention and was one of most reported religious events in American history. Most of the ministers gave detailed accounts in their memoirs and autobiographies. The diary of John Lyle has valuable details. Colonel Robert Patterson, who was involved in the founding of Lexington and its Presbyterian Church, reported on eight sacramental meetings during 1801. Cane Ridge was one of them. Many letters from people, who witnessed the events, were published in journals around the country during the next years. It has also been the subject of many notable books by Paul Conkin, Bernard Weisberger, and portions from W.W. Sweet and William McLoughlin.

The Methodist church membership grew around 10,000 a year, which was 168 percent during the next ten years. The Baptists added 10,000 new Kentucky members in the three years after Cane Ridge. Sensational growth continued in both denominations for the next decades until they were first and second in the nation by 1840.

The Presbyterians had first experienced the western revival and they added 10,000 new members from 1800-1810, but their major fruit of it was division. The leaders, who had experienced the Logan and Cane Ridge revivals, formed the Synod of Kentucky. By 1809 they organized The Cumberland Synod and a split from the General Assembly. The schism group was referred as the New Lights.

Several issues caused disagreement. One was the Calvinist doctrine of election or pre-destination by God's foreknowledge of salvation. The Arminian view or the new Methodist position dealt with free-will and the perseverance or growth that showed signs of repentance. Some critics called it "conditional" salvation. A second question dealt with the mode of baptism. The New Lights agreed that the scriptural form of baptism was immersion like Jesus in the Jordan River and only after they were believers. All sides did agree on one issue that the Holy Scriptures should be the source of their theological opinions. However, as is still the case, they held differing interpretations.

As for Barton Stone and his colleagues a new Protestant church was born. They first organized the Springfield Presbytery in 1803. Another group led by Thomas Campbell had separated in Pennsylvania. By the late '20's the two groups unified into the "Disciples of Christ" or the "Christian" church. The long-time Presbyterian pastor David Rice, who had served in Kentucky since 1783, was tagged as an anti-revival man. Some Germans formed a new denomination and called it the "United Brethren" which was led by Philip Otterbein and Martin Bohme. Also, several prominent ministers at Cane Ridge joined the new Shaker sect from Europe. However, unity and interdenominational cooperation and not dissent was the main activity during the awakening.

The Camp Meetings:

The camp meeting was the rage of the West. Everyone hoped to duplicate the intensity of Cane Ridge. The communion service remained the main attraction, but the gathering was a welcomed affair for those isolated farmers scattered in lonely cabins. The conversion and salvation of souls continued as another primary design of the scheduled event, however renewal and religious impetus was an intended hope for the churches and individuals. The spontaneity, and even excess as some judged it, gave way to formal well-organized meetings bordering on military regimentation. It became not only a religious event, but, also, a social, and even a political and economic venture.

In its heyday the camp meeting was a meticulously planned event. Sites were selected that could handle the travelers. Camping areas were assigned based on church, city, and even race, if Negroes attended. Law enforcement committees made sure the camp rules were followed and that thief and "courting" improprieties did not occur.

The scheduled sermons were announced by blowing a trumpet and everyone was expected to attend, unless they were ill. At 10:00 AM, in the afternoon, and at 6 PM public preaching took place. Everyone was required to be seated during the sermons. No walking around or talking was permitted, and even a smoking ban was in effect during the preaching. Afterwards, usually until 10 PM, a love feast or some kind of meal was available. Then at 10:00 PM, rest was required and all activities ceased.

While most denominations cooperated in the camp meetings, it was the Methodists, who made it a central part of annual church life. Bishop Francis Asbury wrote in his Journal that 400 meetings were held in 1811. By the mid-1820's only the Methodists held camp meetings, and by the 1840's cabins replaced the tents. Eventually the summer vacation camps and Chautauqua meetings replaced these frontier gatherings. However they still remained Bible conferences and a time for renewal outside of the regular church routine.

The Methodists and the Circuit Riders:

While it was the camp meetings that provided a venue to present the gospel and gather a harvest time of souls from the scattered westerners, it was the circuit riding Methodist preachers, who called on their isolated homes and taught them how to be disciples of Christ. These itinerant laymen were the backbone of the successful growth of the Methodist Church in the first half of the 19th Century.

The Methodist organization was a well conceived network that was designed to reach every person on the frontier. The circuit rider traveled a range of 200 to 500 miles. He stopped at "classes" or "stations" for preaching appointments in homes, under trees, and in taverns. Each location had a class leader and 10-20 people in the "congregation." He usually made his rounds about every 4-5 weeks. These mobile ministers prepared their sermons on horseback and preached almost everyday and sometimes twice: morning and evening. No area was too remote to be outside the reach of the Methodist system.

The circuit preacher was usually single, and had little more than a common school education. In 1800 there were no Methodist seminaries. He did not give his sermons from erudite notes, but used homespun stories to apply the biblical offer of free-grace to all. For his grueling schedule he received $80 a year in1800. Their reputation for faithfulness was so renown that during bad weather people said, "that nobody was out but crows and Methodist preachers." The Methodist organization was peerless in the Protestant church. The circuit rider was appointed by the presiding elder, who was the district superintendent. The traveling itinerant was shifted to another circuit every year or two by order of the Methodist manual called the Discipline. Each district was assigned to a regional unit called the Conference, and every four years a "Quadrennial Conference" was held. At the top of the structure was the bishop, and Francis Asbury was the most famous and the most powerful, too.

A supply of circuit preachers came from the class leaders, who had some proven speaking ability. Another source was the itinerants, who were converted during the revivals. Some of the most famous preachers, who rose through the system were saved at these awakenings, such as James B. Finley, Peter Cartwright, and Jacob Young. By the 1840's the circuit rider like the camp meeting was passing with time. The Methodists were now the largest denomination in the nation. They were starting schools of higher learning like Ohio Wesleyan and DePauw. They had 34 colleges by the Civil War. Like other religious bodies they split in 1844 over the slavery issue. Besides, the frontier was now beyond the Mississippi, and it was Oregon fever and California gold. However, the two great legacies, the camp meeting revivals and the circuit riding evangelist, had recorded a blessed impact on the history of American Christianity.

The Methodist growth paralleled the rise of three prominent names: Francis Asbury, Peter Cartwright, and Richard Allen.

Francis Asbury was the only Methodist preacher to stay in America during the Revolution. In 1784 he and Thomas Coke founded the first American national church body, the Methodist Episcopal Church. When Asbury came to the colonies there were 600 Methodists, and when he died in 1816 the denomination had grown to 200,000. His travels on horseback were unparalleled. He rode over a quarter-of-a-million miles, crossed the Appalachians sixty times, wore out six horses, preached 16,000 sermons, ordained 4,000 ministers, and presided over 224 conferences. He traveled from Maine to Georgia and inland to Indiana. He was never married and owned little more than a horse and what was in his saddlebags. His life made one of the biggest impacts of anyone on the American church. He was known as the "Johnny Appleseed of the Gospel."

A second Methodist Peter Cartwright was a frontier preacher for 60 years. He was a circuit rider, traveling evangelist, and church planter. He "saw the divine light" at a Kentucky camp meeting in 1801. In his career he baptized almost 10,000 converts, and preached almost 15,000 sermons. He was known for his ability to stand up to the frontier ruffians. He debated any issue against the Shakers, Mormons, and particularly slavery. His most famous opponent was Abraham Lincoln in the 1846 Illinois Congressional election, which he lost. His Autobiography written in 1857 is a great source on the westward spread of Christianity.

Finally, Richard Allen, an ex-slave from Philadelphia, began preaching on the Methodist circuit in 1781. Because of the segregated seating he started the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1794. Bishop Asbury even dedicated the building. However in 1816 after winning a Supreme Court case, his group left the Methodist denomination and became the AME church or African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was their bishop from 1816-1831. His Philadelphia AME Church grew to 7,500 members in the 1820's.

The East Again and C.G. Finney:

While the Second Great Awakening in the West was characterized by wild physical exercises and emotionalism with itinerant, traveling preachers, the East was just the opposite. Mainly educated clergymen spoke in the Calvinist terms of the sovereignty of God and the depravity of man, but calmness and intellectualism reigned.

Nevertheless the revival swept everywhere. Dr. Gardiner Spring, New York's Brick Church pastor from 1810-1873, said that between 1792 and 1842, "Scarcely any portion of it (the American church), but what was visited by copious effusions of the Holy Spirit. From north to south, and from east to west, our male and more especially our female academies, our colleges, and our churches drank largely of this fountain of living waters." The awakening was not limited to place, or people, or occasion.

Many colleges and towns were visited by revival not once, but many times over like waves in intervals several years apart. Yale had over a half dozen renewals and the same movements took place at Dartmouth, Williams, Amherst, and other schools. Iain Murray concluded that, "A list of college presidents in this period is almost a list of revival preachers." In 1819 Joshua Bradley chronicled several hundred revivals between 1815-18 throughout the nation, and he said that he could have published volumes on the thousands of reports that he had received. The western New York State had so many revivals that it was given the title the "burnt" and "burned-over" district. While the spiritual enemy in the West was easily and simply sin, the Eastern opposition was again another mental veneration. At first it seemed to be that old adversary deism, especially when that red-head deist Thomas Jefferson won the Presidency. However by the second decade of the century, the new intellectual foes of the faith were the Unitarians.

The basic Unitarian doctrine was the rejection of the Christian Trinity and particularly the divinity of Jesus. Under William Ellery Channing they first took Boston, then the Harvard College faculty. By 1830 half the tax-supported Congregational churches in New England had fallen into their rational and scientific one-god system.

Nevertheless, the second Great Awakening in New England centered around the Yale men and their President Timothy Dwight. Benjamin Silliman wrote that "Yale College is a little temple; prayer and praise seem to be the delight of the greater part of the students, while those who are still unfeeling are awed with respectful silence." Some historians credit Dwight with starting a second eastern wave of revival in 1802.

The revival leaders from New England were usually clergy in a local church, who had some college faculty experience, and they preached in a restrained, calm manner. Even their audiences responded in a serious, sober fashion, but repentance and praise to God was obvious in many places. It was quite the opposite of the western revival.

Timothy Dwight was President of Yale from 1795 until his death in 1817. He contended for the faith by arguing against deism, and emphasized the duties to be performed by a Christian. His chief disciples included Nanthaniel Taylor, Asahel Nettleton, and Lyman Beecher.

Nanthaniel Taylor was the first professor of theology at Yale and a prominent pastor in New Haven. His attempts to reconcile the Calvin and Edwards' doctrines with the 19th Century evangelical convictions became known as the New Haven theology. The New England struggle continued with the old Puritan criticism that it was just another legalistic system on how to be a practicing Christian. Taylor's bottom line was: sin is voluntary; it's a choice.

Asahel Nettleton followed in the intellectual preaching manner of Jonathan Edwards and became a successful traveling evangelist. His method of involving the local pastor found a calling throughout New England and New York. He participated in nearly 60 local awakenings, and at Saratoga Springs in 1819 two thousand converts made professions of faith in Christ. In 1831 he made a successful evangelistic tour of the British Isles. He was a bachelor and one of the few Congregational itinerants in New England of that time.

Lyman Beecher, a convert of Dwight's at Yale, had a long career as a Presbyterian revivalist. He was a noted reformer against dueling, the disestablishment of Connecticut's Congregational churches, temperance, the Unitarians, abolition, and other issues. He was President of Cincinnati's Lane Seminary from 1832-50. His vision and passion for evangelism on the frontier was an encouragement for decades. As the patriach of 13 children, he was the father of the famous Henry Ward Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Another Connecticut-born evangelical was Charles Grandison Finney, the father of modern revivalism. He had a remarkable career as an international revivalist, college professor and president, and innovator of the modern revival meeting. His preaching was responsible for an estimated 500,000 converts. He spent 8-years as traveling evangelist and the1830-31 Buffalo meeting was his greatest success. In 1836 he pastored the 4,000 seat Broadway Tabernacle in New York City. In 1837 he became a professor and for a while President (1851-66) of Oberlin (Ohio) College until his death in 1875. He held successful urban revival meetings in New York, Boston, and twice to the British Isles.

He wrote his widely read Lectures on Revivals of Religion in 1835. It was a handbook on techniques and laws of revival for converting sinners. He wrote 25 books on his lectures. His new measures were criticized by some like Beecher and Nettleton. He was the first to permit informal prayers and to let women pray publicly. He used the Methodist "anxious bench" and publicly prayed for unrepentant sinners by name. He introduced the alter call and the invitation for a public decision to accept Christ. He, also, used the protrated or nightly meetings during the weeknights. His meetings were always undergirded with prayer warriors like Daniel Nash. It was said that "Nash prayed and Finney trusted God to do the work." However, the common men and women were attracted to his small town roots, and he was a religious folk-hero to them.

He was a large man at 6"2 with a penetrating stare. He was accused of "bullying," but he was convinced of man's ability and his will to repent. The Calvinists and Presbyterians, who ordained him, objected to his revision of God's grace, but he urged people to pray in faith for the conversion of their lost friends.

His teachings also included the doctrine of perfectionism or sanctification, also referred to as holiness and obedience by faith. His theological position has been called a "second blessing." He proposed that a believer could "walk in righteousness before God" and lead a "victorious life." His last nine books and forty years of teaching emphasized this tenet.

A corollary to this righteous walk was the ensuing impact on the rise of benevolent societies and the reforms of the Jacksonian era. Finney worked for the abolition movement. Oberlin became a center for the anti-slavery crusade, and a station on the underground railroad. Women's' rights, temperance, the poor, and other social reforms benefited from his preaching. He opposed Sabbath-breaking, the Mormons, Freemasonry, and churches with seating limitations like the pew rents.

The obvious legacy is the design that Finney set for future revivalists like Moody, Sunday, and Graham. The post-Civil War holiness movement and the social gospel principles owe some roots to Finney, also. Like Andrew Jackson during the reform era, neither was an instigator, but both were great champions for masses. Jackson was known for their democratic opportunities, and Finney was known for their eternal choices.

The Growth of Christianity:

The 19th Century saw a huge growth in the voluntary participation of the laity. The distinguished church historian Kenneth Scott Latourette called it "The Great Century" for the expansion of Christianity. The evangelical zeal of the Second Great Awakening corresponded with the increase in education and publishing, the interest in moral and humanitarian reforms, the growth of benevolent societies, and the foundation of foreign missions. A historian would be remised, if he did not note the similarity, and perhaps, the vanguard to these events in Great Britain

The only interruption to the 1800 Awakening was the War of 1812 or for Europe the Napoleonic Wars. Although the event caused Anglo-American tension, the British churches invited their ancestors to renew the Concerts of Prayer for the defeat of Napoleon. The British revival expert J Edwin Orr suggested that these prayers coincide with a long period of peace after the Battle of Waterloo. When Christianity spreads it is always accompanied with an emphasis on literacy and education because believers will search the Scriptures. While the 1800 awakening rushed through the college campuses, another more long lasting educational influence came to pass. One Yale graduate and teacher was using his God-given talents to "propagate science, arts, civilization, and Christianity." He was Noah Webster, a daily Bible reading Christian. He published a Speller in 1790 and his famous Dictionary in 1828. He succeeded in insuring a standard English language for the United States, and in there original form he had many scriptural notations throughout his books. In the history of US publishing, the Bible is number one and Webster's Dictionary is number two.

Religious historian W.W. Sweet refers to this period as the era of organization. There was a great need for Bibles and religious material. Many denominations began publishing weekly religious papers. The famous Connecticut Evangelical Magazine was printed from 1801 to 1828, and it became the best source on the 1800 revival. In 1816 the American Bible Society began an awesome history of publishing Bibles and tracts that passed the six and a half billion figure by the end of the 20th Century. In 1825 the American Tract Society was founded. Both furnished a supply of Christian literature at home.

When Henry Ware, a Unitarian, was appointed professor of theology at Harvard, Andover Theological Seminary was established because of the threat to Christianity. Other denominations began founding seminaries to train pastors or they added schools of theology within their established colleges. By 1860 half the colleges in the nation had been founded by the four largest denominations: Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and the Congregationalists.

Most of the churches followed the British pattern and established the Sunday School and the mid-week prayer meeting as a part of regular church life. The Sunday School classes provided a great opportunity for the laity to volunteer and to serve. The American Sunday School Union was founded in 1824, and supplied teaching materials for the classes. A rather famous hymn-writing layman was the Vice-president of the Union for 18 years. He was Francis Scott Key, who wrote the Star Spangled Banner.

American Foreign Missions:

The development of the American foreign missions movement can be tied to two Massachusetts schools: Williams College and Andover Seminary.

During the Summer of 1806 five Williams College students led by Samuel John Mills Jr. met for regular prayer. Inspired by the new emphasis on world geography and world travel books the group joined in intercessory prayer to take Christ to the world. A thunderstorm drove the prayer warriors under the protection of a haystack. Samuel Mills made the famous "haystack prayer meeting" declaration. "We can do it, if we will!" he vowed.

Samuel Mills was the son of a Connecticut minister, and he had been dedicated to world missions by his mother. He was older than most students at 23 when he entered Williams College in NW Massachusetts. He was known for his excellent organizational skills. By 1810 Mills and his missionary-minded haystackers completed their studies at the new Andover College, and they met a kindred friend Adoniram Judson.

By now the group called themselves the "Society of the Brethren" and kept their missionary dreams secret for fear being labeled fanatics or zealots. But that year in conjunction with the Congregationalists, they organized the foreign missions society called the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The association ordained five: Adoniram Judson, Luther Rice, Samuel Nott Jr., Samuel Newell, and Gordon Hall as missionaries on Feb. 8, 1812. Three professors and two area pastors laid hands on the first American missionaries. It was Andover Professor Edward Dorr Griffin, who placed his hand on Judson.

Dr. Griffin invited Judson to share his pulpit, the biggest and richest in Boston; however Adoniram and his new bride Ann Hasseltine set off for India as the first American missionary couple. They ended up in Burma and carried on a great work. Adoniram translated the Bible into Burmese, and compiled a Burmese-English Lexicon-Dictionary. Their courageous career faced disease, filth, imprisonment, and death. She died in 1826, and he died on shipboard in 1850 just after finishing his dictionary and completing his work in Burma.

Samuel Mills was called to stay in America to oversee the home missions in the West, and the distribution of Bibles and tracts until 1816. Then his foreign missions passion was directed toward Africa. He was sent to select the location for the American free Negroes to colonize Africa. He chose what is Liberia today. He, too, died on shipboard returning home after his mission was completed. He was age 35 a faithful servant, who desired to take Christ to the world and to make intercession for these foreign souls. How appropriate that two of the pioneers of the American overseas missions movement on their homeward journey arrived at a celestial home in heaven and not on a terrestrial shore on earth.

The American missionary movement expanded through the denominations. In 1814 the Baptists founded their society and the Judson's adopted them. Luther Rice, who had gone to Asia with the Judsons returned to the US to recruit Baptist's for foreign service. The Methodists formed their society in 1819 and began with an income of eight hundred dollars. In 1837 the Presbyterians and the Lutherans organized their foreign missions boards. By in large, Christianity was on the verge of the Great Commission: "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to all nations."

One of the eyewitnesses of the times Heman Humphrey said of the effects from the Second Awakening, "When that era dawned, there were no Missionary societies, foreign or domestic, no Bible societies, no Tract societies, no Education societies, no onward movements in the churches of any sort, for the conversion of the world. At home it was deep spiritual apathy; abroad, over all the heathen lands, the calm of the Dead Sea - death, death, nothing but death."

The Benevolent Empire:

Perhaps the biggest change in American Protestantism that took place from the Second Great Awakening was the willingness of lay people to volunteer their time, talent, and money. In part the end of the favored tax support to the established churches caused a plea from voluntary sources. Many of the organizations were funded and controlled by individuals, who cooperated across denominational lines. However, for sure the strongest motivation, was the desire by the laity, as well as the clergy, to see the salvation of lost souls. Evangelicalism was commonplace. A major result of mass conversions was not just a new concern for the unsaved, but an effort to clean up the society around those, who had new life in Christ. Many joined parachurch groups to accomplish this end. They were given the title "The Benevolent Empire" from the preaching of Charles G. Finney. Finney's words were "every member must work or quit. No honorary members." Consequently the converts from the revivals were anxious to attack social ills.

The major benevolent societies included: the ABCFM, the American Bible Society, the American Sunday School Union, the American Tract Society, and the American Home Missions Society. They were part of the "Great Eight" which raised an immense total of nine million dollars in 1834. The most famous benefactors were Arthur and Lewis Tappan, the wealthy New York merchants, who led the anti-slavery movement in their times. The abolition movement received the greatest attention from the ministers and the lay people, who crusaded for moral reforms. Christians were involved in some other humanitarian labors for the improvement of society that were not just parachurch Christian organizations only. Finney gave his blessing to the temperance movement at the Rochester revival, and most of the bars were closed. For others their good works included prison reforms, the peace movement, women's' rights, education, Sabbath observance, and attacking any vice like profanity that was detriment to society. In a large sense the 19th Century reform movement in America owes its roots to the Christian values that were a part of the mainstream of US culture.

The West Again and the Wars:

The western influence on the Second Great Awakening and the expansion of American Christianity would eventually add credibility to the frontier theories of Frederick Jackson Turner at the end of the century. He felt that the West influenced the East. For a certainty the West did offered an attraction and a hope of opportunity for a new life and a new start.

In the early days of Jefferson's administration The West made national attention. Thanks to Toussaint L'Overture and Haiti's rebellion, Napoleon offered President Jefferson an opportunity to purchase the Louisiana Territory. Immediately afterwards Lewis and Clark and Zeb Pike wanted to explore it. The conspiracy trial of Aaron Burr, a wayward grandson of Jonathan Edwards, furthered the speculation that the West was a new kingdom.

The War of 1812 was referred to as the Second War for Independence and Mr. Madison's War, but the western warhawks wanted to add Canada to the USA. However all those efforts failed. While the postwar period was called the Era of Good Feeling, sectional interests dominated the three regions. New England wanted a protective tariff for their industry. Slavery was the political cornerstone for the South. Territorial expansion and transportation to get there were the main western aims. The sale of western lands eliminated the national debt and statehood raced beyond the Mississippi River. The pathfinder, who opened the trails to California and Oregon, was Jedediah Smith, a Bible-packing explorer with Puritan values. The Erie Canal opened the New England gates to the West. The great statesman John Quincy Adams stabilized our boundaries to the north and south and our relationship with Europe with the Monroe Doctrine. Finally, in the election of 1828 the first western President Andrew Jackson was elected. West was the only direction to go.

The state of affairs in the United States in 1831 was viewed by a Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville. He spent 10-months touring the US and wrote Democracy in America. His strongest opinion was "There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America." He reasoned that, "The greatest part of British America was peopled by men who after having shaken off the authority of the Pope, acknowledged no other religious supremacy: they brought with them into the New World a form of Christianity which I cannot better describe than by styling it a democratic and republican religion."

America was now distinctly different from Europe, although its population was mostly from western Europe or of African descent. It was now a variety of Protestant denominations, since the Roman Catholic immigration had not yet begun. The Calvinist doctrine of divine election had given way to the evangelical position of conversion based on the individual's decision. The depravity of man's sin had also been replaced by the call of God's love. The famous American question was the one posed to John Wesley, "Do you know He (Jesus Christ) saved you?" The preaching was heart-stirring and the singing was an emotional worship by the congregation. Baptism was by immersion after conversion, and not to infants in hopes of confirmation. The believers were expected to do something: good works, service, give, grow holier, and even reform the society around them. The colonial seed had now flowered into a uniquely American tree and bringing forth fruit in a new season.

Chapter 5, The Search for Reform 1835-58

During the last quarter century of antebellum America the optimism and the desire for reform and improvement reached every corner of the United States. The spirit of individualism and freedom was fostered in every movement whether it was religion, politics, manifest destiny, popular culture, immigration, literature, and especially reform. Alexis de Tocqueville analyzed it best by writing, "The ideas of progress and of the indefinite perfectibility of the human race belong to democratic ages. Democratic nations care but little for what has been, but they are haunted by visions of what will be."

By 1835 the American church was firmly entrenched along the traditional lines of the Protestant denominations and doctrines. Where the spirit of nationalism and federalism had prevailed during America's first half century, now sectionalism dominated. The same was true in the church. With the disestablishment of all churches they now enjoyed an independence from state control. As one author put it, "what God had put asunder, let no man join together." Moreover, while divisions continued within the Protestant churches, every denomination began calling for a greater loyalty among their members.

Revivalism was now a widely accepted practice. The anxious bench, protracted meetings, and the prayer of faith for salvation were standard procedures. The great evangelists Finney and Beecher withdrew to Ohio colleges in Oberlin and Cincinnati. Old-time religion from the days of camp meetings and the earlier awakenings no longer supplied a major social attraction as they did earlier in the century. Now, excitement and enthusiasm could be found in the hustle and bustle of any growing urban center or from the next torchlight political campaign. Religion was not the center stage attraction like it was in the heyday of the Second Great Awakening.

Nevertheless, a new revolutionary racket over religion was reaching for the nation's attention. It was the supernatural. The Second Great Awakening had extented Christianity to an accent on personal experience and divine intervention. Some of the new and disruptive movements went beyond the Bible and the Christian church in the name of religious sects and even to the periphery as cults. The most widespread attention was given to Spiritualism. It claimed two million believers by 1855.

The young nation was experiencing tremendous growth and expansion. The East was leading the USA into the industrial age. Factories, canals, railroads, cotton and textile production, the corporation ...science and industry were all fueling American confidence and prosperity. The West with its Paul Bunyan mentality and Manifest Destiny purpose further motivated the expansion from sea to shining sea. However, an economic enemy was appearing almost every decade, it was called a "panic." It happened in 1819 and again in 1837, and in neither case was there any interest in religion.

As Europeans viewed America from the other side of the Atlantic, the opportunities looked even more enticing than in previous generations. Immigrants from the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848 particularly the Germans, and from the Irish potato famine were attracted to the freedoms and opportunities in the US. Their chances in a laissez-faire economy and a squatters rights land policy offered a hope to everyone except slaves and Indians. The US population was almost doubling every 20 years.

Another cultural movement influencing America was the optimism of Romanticism. Like revivalism in religion its placed a high value on emotion, imagination, and the supernatural. The two both dreamed of improving people and making a better society. Consequently, as was true in the nation and the church, the leading reform issue was slavery. While the nation was racing to stretch from East to West, it was being pulled apart from North to South by the abolition question.

The State of the Church, 1835:

During the first four decades of the century the Methodist church had increased seven-fold, the Presbyterians four-fold, and the Baptist church had tripled in church membership. The Methodists were now the largest body with over a million members. The time had been a golden age of heaven-sent expansion for the Protestant church in America. Their passion for evangelism was everywhere. Salvation was clearly understood that an experience of conversion or rebirth was needed to enter heaven. The prayer by the seekers or comers was for a "new heart" which came with the conversion.

In previous generations concerns were always voiced that some church members were unconverted. They had grown up in the church, and their parents were active members. However, spiritual growth and discipleship was vague in their lives and in the life of the church body. Such was not the case after Wesley and Finney. They had emphasized sanctification, holiness, and perfection after a salvation experience. Converts were expected to show signs of growth in Christ and repentance away from sin. But with the rapid increase in church membership, a new plumb line was appearing and it was church attendance.

Many converts were being won in the revival meetings outside the church or at protracted meetings outside of the Sunday morning service. Some Baptists revivalists like Jabez Swan made baptism a requirement for fulfilling the conversion experience. Now with a clear assurance of eternal life, the newly converted did not see regular, Sunday morning, church attendance as obligatory or even a necessity. The forsaking of the assembling of one another together was becoming a concern within the church.

Edward McKendree Bounds, who was born in this generation and became a Methodist pastor and a Civil War chaplain, wrote that revivals "are to be expected, proceeding, as they do, from the right use of the appropriate means...that a revival was not a miracle was powerfully taught by Charles G. Finney." Bounds emphasized that, "All revivals are dependent on God, but in revivals, as in other things, he invites and requires the assistance of man, and the full result is obtained when there is cooperation between the divine and the human. In other words, to employ a familiar phrase, God alone can save the world, but God chooses not to save the world alone.....this cooperation (requires) first of all, and most important of all ...we must give ourselves to prayer."

By 1835 revivalism had earned mainstream credibility as part of the American religious scene. W.T. Stead in his Americanization of the World about the 19th Century religious movements said, " The first and most persistent has been Revivalism. This was distinctly American in its origin." With the right man and the right means a revival could be produced in a local church or at a large urban crusade. However, critics maintained that true revival was unexpectedly and totally the sovereign work of God alone. Every denomination had their recognized and effective revival men. The Presbyterians had Albert Barnes, Jedediah Burchard, and of course the non-ordained Finney. A Southern Presbyterian Daniel Baker labored in Texas until he became president of Austin College. Edward Norris Kirk was the noted Congregationalists from 1826 to 1874. The Baptist had Jacob Knapp and Jabez Swan. Another Baptist Emerson Andrews held over 300 protracted meetings and won 40,000 converts in his 35 year career. Methodist revivalists were John Newland Maffitt, James Caughey, and John Inskip. The famous 1841-42 Boston revival was led by Knapp, Finney, Kirk, and others, and added over 4,000 members to the evangelical churches.

The revivals were appearing to be man-made and well managed. Critics said that they lacked the spontaneity of the Kentucky days. The procedures and messages were becoming a standard operation. The urban crusades had an ecumenical staff. The event was well reported in the newspapers. The protracted meetings had the anxious bench, an alter call, and a prayer for a new birth or a new heart. The speaker wore a suit to avoid clerical formalism. Some laymen did the praying. Choirs were local members not professionals. The music gave listeners a chance to respond, and in the Watt's practice the final hymn applied to the sermon. An appeal was made for benevolent use of their money and property. Seekers were conditioned to make a public confession of faith.

Even the professional revivalists could expect to be blessed with a prosperous income as a full-time evangelist in the urban crusades. Jacob Knapp conducted over 150 New York and New England meetings in his career and claimed 100,000 converts during his career until 1874. He was the first to gain fame for his annual income which was over $2000 a year from his meetings in the early 1840's. Evangelists could always defended their incomes by saying that, "they were only asking for free-will offerings." The average church pastor didn't earn a fourth of Knapp's figure. However, distressing public rumors and accusations were appearing about the sexual scandals of too many men in the religious field. Three of the western revivalists were involved in "free love" experiments and a fourth one was unfrocked for adultery. Theodore Weld reported in 1844 that "Within the last four years not less than thirty ministers of evangelical denominations have been guilty of the most flagrant licentiousness and been removed from the ministry." Their conduct undoubtedly contributed to the timing of Hawthorne's story of Hester Prynne and her scarlet A in 1850.

Another liability over the "new measures" during the restless 40's and 50's was the qualifications of revival men. Where the local pastors mostly seemed divinely appointed there were no such credentials for some of the revivalists. Too many were fast talking showmen, who had little education and even less Christian experience. They emphasized a little Bible and too often they criticized the ministers and their churches as lukewarm and spiritually dead rather than relying on the churches to disciple those professing faith.

The revivals of the First and Second Great Awakenings created a good deal of speculation over Millennial doctrines. The heavenly work in the two previous revivals caused Christians to think that its had been a preparation for the return of Christ and his thousand-year reign. A second principle of millenialism was the apocalypse or destruction of the world. Some had surmised that Napoleon might be the Antichrist.

Nevertheless, the single most embarrassing event for the American Christian church was when William Miller, a Vermont Baptist minister predicted the Second Coming of Christ and the Day of Judgment in 1843. He had to re-calculate the end of the age to October 22, 1844. Estimates ran as high as 50,000 Americans dressed in white, "righteous" robes, who stood on the highest ground in their locale waiting for the Lord's return and the beginning of the millennium. People left their jobs and their responsibilities. When nothing happened disappointment and disillusionment followed, but the event just added to the religious commotion and chaos of the age. Eventually the followers of Miller became the Seventh-Day Adventist associations.

Every denomination suffered dissension and division. The Presbyterians and Congregationalists had long cooperated with the Plan of Union and the Home Missionary Society. In 1837 a clear theological difference over Calvin's position on original sin split them into the Old School and the New School. The Episcopalians, also, traveled two roads: the high churchmen moved back toward the Catholics, and the low churchmen or evangelicals favored sending missionaries to the frontier. Lutheran groups, also, splintered in 1845: the Buffalo Synod, in 1846: the Missouri Synod, and in 1854: the Iowa Synod.

Perhaps the biggest dissension came with the growth of Roman Catholicism, the traditional rival of the Protestant church. It was the oldest Christian church in America, and in the past its Western Hemisphere roots were Spanish and French. Now, a new wave of European immigrants came from Ireland and Germany and tensions grew.

. In 1829 the First Provincial Council met in Baltimore. They called for a parochial school in every parish. They also adjured them not to teach from the King James Bible. The auspicious gathering established direction for six major Eastern cities and several Western diocese. It was a notable foundation for the nearly 600,000 American Catholics However, xenophobia raised its head on a rumor that guns were stored in the Catholic buildings and they intended to capture America for the Pope. In 1834 at the Ursuline convent in Charlestown, Massachusetts, crowds attacked the successful girl's school. They shouted, "No papacy!" The mob broke into the building, and they demolished it and set it on fire. Rioting continued against the Catholics in Boston for several days. By 1837 the Native American political candidates began appearing in the elections. They called for limitations on immigration and for stronger naturalization requirements. Eventually, they became known as the Know Nothings or American Party. Their members were kept secret members in the 1850's, and they had a strong anti-Catholic platform. For the "new" Americans loyalty to the Red, White, and Blue would not come easy. The Irish were starved from the Potato Famine and settled mainly in the big cities, but hope and opportunity were met with the signs "No Irish need apply." They were a hundred percent Catholic.

The Germans, who came from political oppression, moved to the Great Lakes states in the Midwest. Their road to assimilation was easier because of the large number of second and third generation ancestors from the fatherland. Also, two kinds of Germans immigrated: the Roman Catholics and the Lutheran Protestants. Some lived side by side and some got along because they were both strangers in a new land. But that old unchristian nemesis bigotry was always lurking in the shadows. When the Mexican War broke out in 1846 more strife was incited by a Roman Catholic enemy under Santa Anna. Although patriotism called for a memory of the Alamo, it was forgotten that the symbol was a Catholic mission. However, like everything else, the issue became pale compared to the larger struggle over slavery.

While antebellum America looked righteous in reform and social change, the nation of immigrants became dishonorable in their race relations. The reality of freedom and equality for each new group in the American "melting pot" was easier to write in words than perform in deeds.

A final antebellum church was the African American or the "colored" people's church. Because it was illegal to teach the Blacks to read and write their pre-Civil War records are very limited. Nevertheless, a clear change took place from 1830 to 1835 because of Nat Turner's rebellion. With the death of 55 whites in Southampton County, Virginia most states made it illegal for Blacks to assemble for church or otherwise, unless whites were preaching or in charge of the meeting. During that period slaves were expected to worship in their master's church. Some believing slaves met in the seclusion of the woods or in hidden enclaves on the plantation, and it became known as the "invisible institution."

Christianity for the Negro, slave and free, was influenced by both their African roots and the European traditions. The preacher or exhorter was usually from the itinerant mold and he, or even she, had the verbal skills to entertain and move the hearts of the listeners. The message was filled with the emotions of the revival-style about the God of deliverance and of freedom. Their music changed from European hymns like "Praise God from Whom All Blessing Flow" to the spirituals. The spirituals used Biblical words, but the themes were freedom, Moses, the Jordan, Jesus, the Lamb's blood, and a hope of a better future. Their worship became the highly-rhythmic singing, clapping, and dancing in part from the emotion of the Second Great Awakening and some from the pulsating pattern in their African heritage.

In the large urban areas the Black Baptist or Methodist church was the largest one in town. Some of the best Black preachers attracted white visitors, although their services were usually longer and more emotional. The morality and behavioral expectations as Christians didn't differ much between the Negroes and the white. However, the whites liked to hear the Apostle Paul's verse "Slaves obey your masters" (Col 3:22) quoted. One vestige of African religions that followed the Blacks was voodoo. It had been imported through Haiti and was centered in New Orleans by the 19th Century. It also followed the Catholic calendar. The practitioners hoped for healing, or warding off evil, and perhaps good or bad fortune to someone.

The Religious Racket

Jon Butler in his Awash in a Sea of Faith wrote a great chapter on the spiritual activities during the antebellum period. He called the era a "spiritual hothouse." His very descriptive terms included religious enthusiasm and eclecticism, rambunctious religious enthusiasm, fascination with divine intervention, and popularity with the supernatural.

The American belief in witches, dreams, astrology, fortune telling, phrenology, and even the use of divining rods increased during the 19th Century. The belief in ghosts and the attempts at contacting the dead through seances was not a rare phenomenon. Even Mary Todd Lincoln tried to contact her dead sons through spiritualists. Although there are claims that the President looked on, his private secretary's biography denies it. Many treasure seekers hoped that divining rods, peep stones, and even dreams would expose hidden wealth to them. Biographers say that Joseph Smith was beguiled by such attractions.

The trust in supernatural healing practices through faith, alchemy, folk medicines, and especially the mysterious elixirs of a traveling medicine man enticed many Americans. At the same time medical schools were adding those successful practices and knowledge to the field of healing and health. The appearance of so many unconventional groups has drawn a great deal of the attention from secular and religious historians. Critics have accused them of excessive focus on fringe groups, who had marginally committed followers for short terms and small numbers of partisans. Perhaps their promiscuous sexual standards offered a fascination for many Americans, who avoided their deviant morals. Nevertheless, the curiosity, the romanticism, and the interest in the beyond was an increasing widespread reality.

Sydney Ahlstrom called Mesmerism or animal magnetism the first harmonial religion. Adherents believed that correspondence or rapport with the cosmos or some universal force would give them health, wealth, and even wisdom.

Swedenborgianism emphasized correspondence with God, the dead, and the world of animals, vegetables, and minerals. The founder wrote over thirty volumes on his interpretations from the Bible on doctrines and revelations. Although he was radical in his time, every major American city had congregations in the 19th Century. Even Johnny Appleseed had a passing interest in it.

The secret and magical beliefs of the Freemasons did not attract much attention until 1826. The Masons were accused in the Morgan Trials of murdering a former member, who gave away their secrets. The Anti-Masons became the first political party to hold a national Presidential nominating convention. For awhile all the mainline denominations barred their members and especially their pastors from being Masons.

The largest movement was Spiritualism. It originated in Hydesville, New York in 1848. The Fox sisters Margaret and Katherine experienced strange rappings, table turnings, and clairvoyant feats, when they moved into an old house in Hydesville. A rapid growth took place in America and Europe. Mediums and interpreters claimed all kinds of extra-terrestrial contacts. When P.T. Barnum signed up the Fox sisters, they became celebrities. The movement attracted mainly white, middle to upper-class, Anglo-Saxon Protestants. It was soundly denounced by the preachers. In the first half of the 19th Century there was an explosion of these non-Christian organizations that gleaned purpose and status from the earlier successes of evangelical Christianity. They appeared to be just more sects and subgroups just breaking away from mainline Christianity. However, there were doctrinal departures and non-religious dogmas that claimed many spiritual victims even into the 20th Century.

In the 1830's in New England, America's spiritual breeding ground, another earnest interest attempted to produce moral and spiritual reforms. It was transcendentalism. Ralph Waldo Emerson was their spokesman. Out of a Unitarian background and a dissatisfaction with religion Emerson created his theories of "Self Reliance" and his mystical "Over-Soul" theology. The lyceum movement increased the contact between small town people and "celebrity" speakers, and Emerson was in the greatest demand. His concepts on the individual, nature, and moral law were affirmed by some prominent names of the day like: Henry David Thoreau, George Ripley, Bronson Alcott, Oretes Brownson, Theodore Parker, and Margaret Fuller. In retrospect historian Sydney Ahlstrom called Ralph Waldo Emerson America's first "death-of-God" theologian. Another non-Christian sect that developed along the Unitarian lines was the Universalists. In 1803 the Winchester Platform emphasized the perfectibility of man, the ultimate salvation of all souls, the varied character of divine revelation, and the humanness of Christ. Basically, they believed that God was too good to damn people forever. By 1855 they grew to a quarter of a million adherents.

Meanwhile in New York's burnt-over district, Joseph Smith claimed to have received some golden plates from an angel Maroni in 1827. The inscriptions were written in a "reformed Egyptian" hieroglyphics which he translated by using two "seer" stones. The document became known as The Book of Mormons. Rev. Solomon Spaulding claimed that Smith had plagiarized his unpublished 1814 novel. His document is still at Oberlin College today. Smith's revelation involved the Nephites, an American Indian tribe that descended from the lost tribes of Israel, and had been destroyed in a war. Smith claimed that Jesus had appeared to them and that they were the "true church." He alleged that an apostasy had occurred after the Apostolic Age, and for seventeen centuries the true church was lost. He said that the Bible had become corrupted and the churches were in darkness and sin. He claimed that the resurrected Jesus had appeared to him to restore the priesthood, the gospel, and the true church. His organization was called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or the Mormons. Immediately several LDS doctrines were questioned. The obvious one was the preeminence of the Book of Mormons over The Bible. Many were infuriated when Smith proclaimed "I will be a Second Mohammed." The practice of polygamy was in direct disobedience to the laws of the government. Another issue was baptizing pictures or stand-in people for the dead and for their salvation. The convert's property and assets were to be held in common by the church. When Smith's bank failed in Ohio, he was accused of violating the state banking laws and he fled.

Smith and the Mormon's began a trek for the earthly "City of Holiness." In 1831 they moved from Fayette, New York to Kirtland, Ohio. Smith and Sidney Rigdon set up a church and several businesses. In 1837 the Mormons went to Jackson County, Missouri. They bought up the entire county and the 15,000 Mormons lived in peace for several years. Again economic woes occurred and tithing (which Smith and Rigdon were exempt) was introduced. But mob violence drove them out of the state to Nauvoo, Illinois which would became the largest city in the state.

The "New Jerusalem" in Nauvoo became a prosperous community and converts came from as far as England. Smith organized a militia, a university, and another temple. When he revealed his revelation on polygamy and his over 20 "spiritual" wives, newspaper editors of the Expositor opposed the new doctrine. The editors were arrested and their printing press was destroyed. In June 1844 the Illinois militia arrested Smith and his brother for treason, and jailed them in Carthage, Illinois. Some say that the two were killed trying to shoot their way out in a jailbreak, but the devotees claim a mob broke into the Carthage jail and murdered them.

With Smith's death his widow and son moved some of the Mormons to Independence, Missouri and started the "reorganized" church. They denied Smith's polygamy. Under the leadership of Brigham Young the other Mormons reached their final destination outside the United States in the Mexican territory of "Deseret" at Salt Lake City in 1848. The industrious "saints" and their irrigation projects made the community an economic success. In 1890 when the practice of polygamy was retracted, Utah was granted statehood. Their worldwide missionary endeavors continued to win millions of proselytes. The Christian community still labels the Mormons a cult because of Smith's claims of private revelations and his new sacred books superior to the Holy Scriptures. His accusation that the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, and Protestant churches were all apostate for 1700 years does not fair well with the Mormon's claim of being another Christian church. Their salvation is based on "good works" according to Smith's gospel rather than the unique and complete atonement by Jesus Christ alone.

Ahlstrom's summary on the Mormons was, "One can not even be sure if the object of our consideration is a sect, a mystery cult, a new religion, a church, a people, a nation, or an American subculture; indeed, at different times and places it is all of these." Leonard Woolsey Bacon called Mormonism, "a system of gross, palpable imposture contrived by a disreputable adventurer, Joseph Smith, with the aid of three confederates, who afterward confessed the fraud and perjury which they had been guilty."

The Utopian Societies:

The lofty revival goals of individual perfection and social reform led to many experiments in utopian communities. Most felt they could best achieve their purpose by leaving the present corrupt society. The idea of communal living in an agricultural environment was attractive in the growing industrial societies of Britain and America. By returning to the simpler, good old days they hoped to develop an ideal social structure. The utopian societies were all voluntary and most felt that money and selfishness were the causes of evil, so the members were expected to turnover all their worldly possessions to the communal order. Generally they had economic goals like socialism and communism, and many had religious convictions of establishing a heaven on earth or a perfect society.

The Shakers were the earliest sect in America and laid the groundwork for the other utopian societies. Their leader Anna Lee claimed to be the female version of Jesus Christ. Their missionaries came to America during the Kentucky Revivals and they gained many members. The notable beliefs included celibacy and a program of twelve virtues. Their dancing and leaping in worship received much attention. They were nearly 6,000 members in 20 communities during their zenith years from 1830 to 1850. Because they did not produce any children they died out, however their simple and practical furniture designs still remain today.

The Rappites were a group of German Pietists led by George Rapp, who refused to stay in the state church. They had similar beliefs on celibacy and community property. Like the Shakers open confession of all sin was the norm. Their thriving agricultural community in New Harmony, Indiana was described as a garden in the wilderness, and they became noted for their Ohio River flatboats. They lasted from 1814 to 1824, when Robert Owens, an English social reformer, bought out the commune. He set up a two- year "free love" experiment. It was branded "one great brothel" and quickly failed. Frances Wright had a similar free sex community for Blacks at Nashoba in Tennessee.

Another German Pietist community that came to the US for religious freedom was the Amana Society or the Community of True Inspiration. In 1843 they migrated from New York to central Iowa and set up several prosperous agricultural villages. Their remnant remains a successful appliance and furniture cooperative today.

John Humphrey Noyes, a Finney convert and a divinity student, founded the infamous Oneida, New York commune in 1847. It was famous for the "love-in" philosophy that all men and women were married to each other. They also produced the quality knives and silverware that still bears the name today. Outside pressure caused their "complex marriage" system to collapse. In 1879 the community incorporated into the successful Oneida Community Plate business.

The least successful and probably most famous community was the Transcendentalist's Brook Farm in eastern Massachusetts. George Ripley founded the religious experiment so each individual would have the freedom to realize his or her powers and gifts. Their education system emphasized discussion, learn by doing, and personal tutoring. It was well financed and some famous New England families joined the cause from 1841-1847. When they adopted ideas of French socialism, the community failed at farming and financially. Then the farm was sold.

The American democracy with its guarantees of religious freedom and its designs on separation of church and state was producing an atmosphere of opportunity for diversity, individualism, even nonconformity, and especially change. The vast stretches of land enabled any strange and peculiar group to develop with nominal interference. But, to most groups even the constitutional freedoms or their fervor and optimism did not impose a change on the moral direction of other individuals or the nation. They do however remain famous today because some writers of history like to over glorify the different and fringe movements regardless of how small or short-lived their existence.

Expansion from Sea to Shining Sea:

In 1838 John L. O'Sullivan wrote of America's optimism and expansion, "The far-reaching, the boundless future will be the era of American greatness. In its magnificent domain of space and time, the nation of many nations is destined to manifest to mankind the obedience of divine principles; to establish on earth the noblest temple ever dedicated to the worship of the Most High - the Sacred and True." He coined the term "Manifest Destiny." In 1845 he wrote, "the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and possess the whole continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment in liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us." Timothy Smith in his Preface on Revivalism and Social Reform said of the age, "The Calvinist idea of foreordination, rejected as far as it concerned individuals, was now transferred to a grander object - the manifest destiny of a Christianized America." It was now believed that the United States had a God-given responsibility or a God-ordained purpose to extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and even carry Christianity around the globe.

Justified by such a high spiritual calling "expansion" became the American term for what others called imperialism, or colonization, or even an empire. "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" were fragile words when combined with the desire to conquer someone else's land. "Sea to shining sea" sounds nice in song, but others were in the way. The land was occupied by Indians and Mexicans, and claimed the by the Spanish, British, and Russians.

John Quincy Adams' boundary arrangements were disrupted, when the American migrants took over Texas, and then they asked for statehood in 1836. Annexation would be a troubling discussion, since the House of Representatives had just imposed the "gag rule" on any slavery proposals. The Jackson administration recognized the Lone Star state's independence, but refused to expand the issue and annex Texas into the USA. Seldom mentioned is that "the father of Texas," the great Sam Houston gave his life to Christ through a frontier evangelist, who was the great-grandfather of Lyndon B. Johnson. In Texas fashion both Houston and LBJ bragged of that occasion. In the meantime Oregon fever was growing, too. In 1823 a schoolteacher Hall Jackson Kelley had challenged New England farmers "to promote the propagation Christianity... on the shores of the Pacific." In 1832 Nat Wyeth made it to Oregon in eight months. Others followed a Methodist Jason Lee, who set up a school in the Willamette Valley in 1834. Presbyterians Dr. Marcus and Narcissa Whitman with Henry Spalding and his wife were the first missionary couples to cross the Rockies. The Whitman's transcontinental return and their furlough report on their friendship with the legendary Jim Bridger, their ministry among the Indians at Walla Walla, Washington, and their 1847 death during a Cayuse Indian raid became the classic missionary story of The West.

Another outstanding story of the Northwest was Father Pierre-Jean DeSmet, a Jesuit priest, known as the "Apostle to the Flatheads." His 1842 mission in the Bitter Root Valley of western Montana claimed 6,000 converts. His praise and trust of the Indians was characterized by his stand against the offensive term for them as "savages."

The reality of the nation's vision for The West came to pass when the darkhorse Presidential candidate James K. Polk won the1844 campaign with the slogan "54-40 or fight." Because of his election Congress annexed Texas. During his Presidency he added Oregon and provoked war with Mexico by sending Fremont to California and Taylor to the Rio Grande River. After winning every battle but one, and settling the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, James K. Polk's administration had been responsible for adding more territory to the US than the entire Louisiana Purchase. It included parts of a dozen states, and "sea to shining sea" was accomplished by 1848.

The American military victory over Mexico, also, preserved the finest spiritual heritage west of the Mississippi. In the 18th Century the great Franciscan friar Junipero Serra founded a chain of twenty-one missions from San Diego to San Francisco. When Mexico won their independence from Spain in 1821, the government began the secularization of the missions and the removal of the Spanish missionaries. The funds and lands of the missions were confiscated by the Mexican government and the missionaries returned to Spain.

When the US took over California in 1847 under military governor Stephen Kearney, he made this promise, "The undersigned is instructed by the President of the United States to respect and protect the religious institutions of California, to take care that the religious rights of the its inhabitants are secured in the most ample manner, since the Constitution of the United States allows to every individual the privilege of worshipping his Creator in whatever manner his conscience may dictate." Unfortunately Father Serra's mission system had been shattered, but Eastern missionaries would follow the gold rush to California

During the days of Samuel Mills and John Schermerhorn the West was seen as "home missions" by the eastern churches and mission's boards. The Bible societies and the denominations produced many books, Bibles, tracts, and magazines for the West. The frontier missionaries served as schoolteachers first, and then they started Sunday Schools rather than being church planters. As the immigrants and emigrants were further inspired by every rumor of wealth from furs to California gold, the Eastern benevolent organizations invested their money in the spiritual welfare of the West by sending pastors and sometimes entire congregations.

The Reforms:

The Second Great Awakening and Jacksonian Democracy proved that society could be changed by the common man. By the 1830's a major age of moral reform was underway. Most of the humanitarian movements had been inspired by evangelical Christianity and clearly on Christian principles. Nevertheless, the reformers were from every kind of background and for every kind of humane cause. They attempted it with a religious zeal. The reforms were joined by men and women. The importance of the individual and the opportunity of voluntary service provided the energy for many campaigns to purify and perfect society.

The first successful cause was temperance. Many believed that alcohol was the cause of poverty, crime, and other social ills. Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was one of the first to speak out against its use. In 1826 because of the preaching of Lyman Beecher, sixteen Boston clergymen and laymen formed the American Temperance Society. By 1836 a national organization was meeting. However, their cause was hindered by adding other issues like slavery. But in the 1840's Father Theobald Mathew won national acclaim with his pledges for abstinence, and his famous followers were called the "Cold Water Army." Finally, 1846 Portland merchant Neal Dow led the State of Maine in passing the first prohibition law.

Another early notable reform was for the physically impaired. Rev. Thomas Gallaudet, who graduated from Yale College and Andover Seminary, united some Connecticut minister for prayer about an institution for the deaf and dumb. The Connecticut legislature appropriated $5,000 for an asylum at Hartford, the first of its kind in the United States. Samuel Gridley Howe soon became the noted leader of the campaign for educating the blind and the Perkins School was founded in Boston.

A similar cause was a call for kindness to those in confinement in prisons and hospitals. Rev. Louis Dwight, an agent of the American Bible Society, was shocked by conditions that he saw while visiting prisoners. He innovated the Auburn System of rehabilitation through cell blocks and labor groups for work, Bible study, and meditation that replaced the isolated, solitary confinement. Dorothea Dix, a Sunday School teacher, was appalled by the treatment of the mentally ill. Her vivid reports to the Massachusetts legislature resulted in some compassionate changes. She earned an international platform to reform the hospitals for the insane, and had institutions established in over 30 states. In the New York City Sarah Doremus, a godly Presbyterian woman of numerous urban ministries, started a rehabilitation home for discharged female prisoners from the city prison. For more than 30 years she served to restore these woman to society.

The movement for world peace began in 1815 with the New York Peace Society. The leaders were David Low Dodge, a merchant and progenitor of a long line of Christian philanthropists, and his father-in-law, who was a clergyman and convert of George Whitefield's ministry. The two clergymen started the Massachusetts Peace Society. The Quaker's peace position became the basis for the American Peace Society in 1836. By 1840 their President William Ladd, an earnest Congregationalist, was calling for a Congress of Nations.

Although America had the highest literary rate in the world, reformers still cried for more and better education. Some wanted it more secular, and Christians wanted it more Christian. It was estimated that 90 percent of the pre-Civil War college Presidents were clergymen. The great textbook with Protestant virtues was William H. McGuffey's Eclectic Readers. Over 120 million copies influenced the 19th Century education system. However, the leadership of Horace Mann and the secular crusaders made the biggest changes in teacher training, normal schools, and free public schools.

A spin-off reform of education was the increase of women's rights. In 1821 Emma Hart Willard founded the first seminary for women in Troy, New York. Mary Lyon, the best known female educator, established Mount Holyoke College for women with a goal that "every student would be brought to a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ." Oberlin College admitted the first female in 1837 and graduated the first woman in 1850 with a theological degree. Soon women were teachers, schoolmistresses, and missionaries.

The first great women's convention in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848 was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton with a Quaker Lucretia Mott. The two-day gathering had 68 women and 32 men sign a Declaration of Sentiment and a list of 18 grievances. The Women's movement gained support by including other causes in their platform like temperance, suffrage, property rights, and especially abolition. They soon made progress in the professions like law and medicine, and legislatures passed laws to improve their opportunities.

The industrial revolution was considered a major cause of the social ills in the 19th Century. The employment of children, women, and immigrants for low wages and long hours were targets of the reformers and the labor unions. The 10-hours work day and the right to form a union and strike were all goals of the labor reformers.

It was not just the Christians, who endeavored to improve society. Many Transcendentalists and Unitarians, who graduated from Harvard, were influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson and William Ellery Channing. They added their zeal to the cause of many reforms, too.

In the pursuit of honorable reforms and the ideal of Jacksonian democracy one cause failed. The Indians not only lost ground, but they were removed. Under President Jackson, who became famous as an Indian fighter, Congress adopted the Indian removal policy. Although Chief Justice Marshall tried to protect Indian lands, the Cherokees were evicted and marched away in the infamous Trail of Tears. One-fourth died on the trek to Oklahoma, and their funds were stolen by government officials. Their lands were occupied by whites. Every Indian tribe was forced beyond Mississippi, except the Seminoles, who survived by hiding in the Okefenokee swamp.

The Abolition Movement:

Of all the reform movements the "fire bell in the night" became the greatest moral crusade of the era. The other campaigns dissipated while free soil and free men intensified. It was the great irony of history that a nation founded on liberty and freedom with Christian principles would continue the Constitutional guarantee of slavery with its cruelties, mutilations, immoralities, and degradation's to the Africans. So many honorable and principled people owned slaves like the founding fathers: Washington, Jefferson, Randolph, and Pinckney. The issue split families, the churches, and the states.

The first call for manumission was by a Quaker preacher John Woolman in an 1754 document. The Quakers began expelling members, who owned slaves, and they organized perhaps the world's first anti-slavery society in 1775. Although slavery was permitted in the Constitution, few were told about the devastating conditions on the middle passage. Some were appalled and embarrassed by the public slave trade in cities like Baltimore. In 1808 Congress closed slave trade, but the traffic still continued. A Quaker editor Benjamin Lundy organized an anti-slavery society in 1815, and he worked for emancipation and African colonization. By 1822 Liberia was established as a colony for ex-slaves, but the attempt was ineffective. During the decade abolition societies began dwindling. Lundy recruited a 22-year old reformer to his newspaper work. His name was William Lloyd Garrison. By 1831 Garrison was publishing The Liberator and strongly attacking slavery as sinful and criticizing the slaveowners as criminals. Southerners were infuriated and offered a bounty for Garrison. Another influential publication in Boston was the pamphlet Appeal in Four Letters by an ex-slave and a Baptist David Walker. He warned that if slavery continued the nation was doomed "For God will tear up the very face of the Earth!"

The abolitionists received an immense impetus in 1833 when the British Empire emancipated their slaves and compensated the slave owners with not more than 20 million pounds. British actress Fanny Kemble on her American tours included a condemnation of slavery. Before the year ended the American Anti-Slavery Society was formed in Philadelphia with Arthur Tappan as President. Manumission agencies began to spring up again.

However, two acts of violence transformed the decade and polarized the two sides even more. The first was the 1831 slave insurrection led by the Rev. Nat Turner, a Baptist preacher in Virginia. After a Bible study and prayer he proclaimed a divine calling to kill his master Joseph Travis and the family. Nearly sixty whites died and more than a hundred Negroes were killed in this Southampton uprising. The South immediately tighten their Black Codes, and the previous conspiracies of Denmark Vessey in 1800 and Gabriel Prosser in 1822 were rehearsed.

Secondly, the first white martyr of the abolition movement Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy was killed in Alton, Illinois in 1837. The newspaper editor and ordained Presbyterian minister had his press mobbed for the fourth time. His murder was called "a shock as of any earthquake." The heat on slavery increased, but still most of the Northerners were indifferent. The abolitionists were divided over the timetable for emancipation whether it should be immediate or gradual.

While Garrison remained the staunch abolitionist in the North, he was joined by others during the decade of the 30's. Some joined like Lovejoy because of his spiritual conversion during the Second Great Awakening. He saw slavery as incompatible with Christianity. Others were enlisted by the Unitarians of Harvard from the influence of William Ellery Channing and the idealistic writers from Transcendentalism and Romanticism. Garrison's most famous disciple was Harvard grad Wendell Phillips, who was called "abolition's golden trumpet." He denounced the Constitution for slavery and called for a dissolution of the Union.

Arthur and Lewis Tappan, the wealthy New York silk merchants, supplied money for Finney's crusades and the abolition societies. Both served as officers in the American and the American & Foreign Anti-Slavery societies. They also backed Garrison's effort in the early 1830's, and they added enormous influence to the campaign.

Theodore Dwight Weld, a convert of Finney's preaching, used the revival preaching style to attract supporters to the crusade. He spoke in 40 Ohio cities during a three-year campaign. Weld was one of the most courageous abolition advocates. He suffered from verbal abuse, beatings, rocks, and he was nearly the first martyr for the cause. His wife Angelina and her sister Sarah were the famous Quaker Grimke sister's of the women's rights and abolition causes. Both had renounced their slave property. Another Quaker woman Lucretia Mott was spoke boldly for both causes.

An ex-slave owner from Kentucky James G. Birney's argument against slavery was that all men were created in the image of God and that Jesus taught the universal brotherhood of man. In 1834 Birney wrote a Letter to the Ministers and Elders calling for an end of slavery because of the doctrines in Christianity. He moved to Cincinnati and joined the Weld, Garrison, Tappan, Lovejoy, and Mott activists.

Meanwhile, other radical abolitionists had organized the Underground Railroad. The institution was unofficially incorporated in 1804, but the term was not coined until 1831. The escape route for runaway slaves linked "stations" or nightly rendezvous, which followed the North Star or in their secret lingo "the Drinking Gourd." Levi Coffin, an Indiana Quaker, was the so-called President; and Harriet Tubman, the Black Moses, was the most famous conductor. She personally led 300 slaves to freedom. Coffin became famous for a funeral procession which he used to march 28 slaves to freedom. By 1850 it was estimated that 100,000 slaves valued at thirty million dollars made it to the North or Canada. By the end of the decade the abolitionists had surrounded two camps. The Garrison faction criticized the churches for not taking a firm stand, and the New York coalition under Lewis Tappan tried to work with the churches for abolition. However, others determined that political action was needed against the Constitutional and the legislative protections on slavery, and they formed the Liberty Party.

In the elections of 1840 and 1844 they ran James Birney as their Presidential candidate. Although they polled only 60,000 votes in 1844, the 15,812 votes in New York were enough to swing the crucial state to the Democrat candidate James Knox Polk, who was a descendent of the famous Scottish reformer John Knox. By the end of Polk's administration Texas was a state, Oregon was re-organized, and a vast territory had been won from Mexico. The anti-slavery people now hoped to contain slavery in the 15 slave states. They supported Martin Van Buren and the Free Soil party in the election of 1848. Van Buren drew 290,000 votes, and he beat the Democrat Lewis Cass in three states including New York.

During the 1840's two prominent ex-slaves became powerful speakers for the anti-slavery cause. Frederick Douglass, a runaway slave and licensed preacher in the AME Zion Church, began speaking for a moderate abolition position in 1841. He was in great demand in America and Europe and was quickly the most, outstanding abolitionist orator. In 1845 he wrote his autobiography. From 1847 to1860 his newspaper the North Star was a moderate voice on abolition which opposed Garrison's more radical opinion. Eventually he was called to serve in the Lincoln government.

The second spokesperson was Isabella, who was known as Sojourner Truth. She was emancipated in 1828 when New York state ended slavery. As a member of the AME Zion church, she became a street preacher and an evangelist in New York City. Her deep voice and mystical messages were effective in the women's rights movement, too. Her famous lines at the 1851 Women's Rights Convention were, "And ain't I a woman?.. I have borne thirteen children, and seen them most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?" For the most part whites in the North appeared disinterested toward emancipation. Abolitionist speakers found it difficult to rent meeting places, and often mobs broke up their programs. The anti-slavery groups complained that the government was not protecting their right of free speech or defending them against the violence. By the middle of the decade the gag rule on slavery in the House of Representatives was ended through the efforts of John Quincy Adams and Joshua Giddings of Ohio.

Nevertheless a larger impact was made by the general conferences of the churches in 1845. It is now regarded that the first ecclesiastical North-South separation began with the Presbyterians in 1837. They generally avoided an open discussion on the issue. However, their official position was that the government should deal with slavery through legislation. Such was not the case with the Methodist General Conference and the Baptist General Convention in 1845. Both split over the slavery issue into a Northern and a Southern organization. The other denominations did not suffer schisms because they tended to be governed on a regional basis.

By 1850 almost 2,000 anti-slavery groups had a membership of nearly 200,000 and the list of prestigious names included Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Longfellow, Melville, and the "bard of abolition" John Greenleaf Whittier. The Underground Railroad could list over 3,000 active workers with many other anonymous operators. However, the fugitive slave laws were being enforced by the federal government. Also, the Wilmot Proviso was rejected in its attempt to stop slavery in the Mexican Cession territories. Since the anti-slavery people could not establish a free soil policy in the territories, the boundary between slavery and abolition remained the old Missouri Compromise 36-30 line and the Ohio River.

In 1850 the Congress made a dramatic departure in their slavery policy with the Omnibus bill, when California made a sudden application for statehood because of the 49er's gold rush. The compromises included Stephen Douglas' popular sovereignty in the Mexican Cession territories and the dreaded fugitive slave laws were strengthened

When Douglas' untested theory of choice was included in the Kansas-Nebraska Act, it appeared that the door was now open for slavery in the North and above the 36-30 line of separation. The practical application of popular sovereignty became "Bleeding Kansas" with both sides emigrating and sending weapons. It was becoming obvious that increased violence and not a peaceful, legislative settlement would be the result. In 1852 the nation was confronted with the stark reality of slavery, when Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was printed. She was the wife of a Congregational professor of Old Testament and the daughter of the famous Presbyterian clergyman Lyman Beecher. Her novel immediately sold 300,000 copies and was a theater hit on Northern stages. It was called "the most influential novel ever published...a verbal earthquake...an ink-and-print tidal wave." Simon Legree, Elisa, Little Eva, and Tom all became familiar characters. The North was angered over the enforcement of the fugitive slave laws, and the South was angered for over dramatizing of slavery. Meanwhile the South defended the peculiar institution and their way of life. Biblical support was argued from the Old and New Testament on the position of slavery. The Baptists adopted Rev. Richard Furman's apologetics "the right of holding slaves is clearly established in the Holy Scriptures, both in precept and example."

The 1844 Methodist General Conference agonized over their first slaveholding bishop, when Georgia Bishop James O. Andrew acquired slaves from his second wife. Southerners argued that bishops were beyond the conference's control. After an 11-day debate a Northern-led majority vote asked him to desist from episcopal labors until he got rid of his slaves.

Politicians, educators, and churchmen asserted their defense of slavery. The leading pro-slavery argument was the inferiority of the African and the need to Christianize the slaves. George Fitzhugh argued that economically slaves were better off than Northern workers because they were given food, clothing, and shelter without competing for jobs. The Supreme Court even supported the position that a slave was property in the Dred Scott decision. Another Southerner Hinton Rowan Helper, who converted to the abolitionist cause, wrote The Impending Crisis of The South, which sensationalized the gap between of the rich planters and the poverty of the poor whites.

The intersectional strife widened when a new major party The Republicans made free soil a key platform plank. Abraham Lincoln became their most famous candidate, when he shot holes in Stephen Douglas' popular sovereignty of letting the territories choose between free men or slavery. The differences were irreconcilable. The North could not afford to buy freedom for the slaves or give compensation to the owners, and the South could not afford to free the slaves and then pay them for their labor. There was no middleground between the two positions. Any limitations on slavery in the territories threatened the South, and the property rights for Dred Scott threatened the North. Their positions were on a collision course.

After John Brown, who claimed to be divinely called, raided the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, and the election of Lincoln, who held an anti-slavery position, seven Southern States led by South Carolina seceded from the Union. During the Civil War President Lincoln's 1863 proclamation emancipated only the slaves in the secession states. The four border states in the Union still had slavery. Finally, all slavery was ended with the 13th Amendment in 1865.

E. D. Branch referred to the period 1836-1860 as the "Sentimental Years" because they were times when good works flourished as never before. There were societies to promote education, to reform prisons, to stop prostitution, to promote world peace, and even in case of war, to protect the prisoners and care for the wounded. In many cases Great Britain was the avant-garde for these social reforms, but to the credit of their colonial offspring America followed in their train. However, more than anything else, as the great writers Orr and Latourette have verified, in many cases the evangelical Christians spearheaded the reforms.

One final reform that needs mentioned is the Evangelical Alliance. It was founded in London in 1846 as an ecumenical attempt to form a united voice on moral and religious concerns. This federation joined nearly fifty evangelical groups from both England and America with an ultimate goal to "promote the cause of Christ everywhere." As the ideas and principles of the organization expanded in America and into the 20th Century, it did

express the major doctrinal points of unity in the Protestants churches of that time.

Chapter 6, The Noonday Prayer Revival

The third great revival in American history began in years 1857-58. Timothy Smith called 1858 Annus Mirabilis or Year Miraculous. The striking characteristic of the event was the emphasis on prayer and especially the prayers of the lay people. Revival historian J. Edwin Orr called it, "the most thorough and most wholesome movement ever known in the Christian Church." The crowds became so overwhelming that the secular press printed daily reports on the "revival news" of the day.

The revival was attached to the Old Dutch Church on Fulton Street in New York City. However, the meetings were held in churches, theaters, shops, and any public building that would handle the crowds. Before the New Year it had spread across the nation. It continued through the Civil War years and afterward. The revival even touched five of the six populated continents five years after it started.

While scholars debated whether revivals were the sovereign work of God alone or as Finney taught that there were new "means and measures" available for revival, the religious veterans recalled the previous events of the century. Then, they agreed that this awakening was a distinctive outpouring of the Holy Spirit like the Second Great Awakening.

Moreover, it was not the work of any one great man or great preacher. Many of the early meetings were initiated by laymen and businessmen. Only Jeremiah Lanphier, a neighborhood missionary at the Fulton Street Church, was ascribed much recognition from the movement. Thus it was determined to be clearly a work of grace, and as Beardsley wrote, "This divine visitation, providential in its character, was emphatically a lay-revival."

Furthermore, the event had none of the emotionalism of earlier awakenings. The physical actions and sounds of the camp meeting days seldom occurred in the United States during this time. The original intent of the prayer meetings was to have a brief time with God, a quiet spiritual respite from the day's work, and a silence to "wait on The Lord." Consequently, order reigned and emotional excesses were strikingly absent.

Finally, the most unique feature of the noonday prayer revival was the "unsectarian character of the work." Denominational differences were put aside. The demands for pew space and meeting sites were so great that "union" prayer meetings became the norm. The only standard to avoid controversy was the Word of God. It was almost a businesslike procedure. Call the meeting to order, read Scripture, maybe sing, but pray and keep it limited to five minutes, and make it intercessory prayer. Any preaching was secondary. There was a preference to just hear testimonies. In the end the churches gained an estimated at one million converts in a two year period.

Prologue To Renewal

During the dozen years before the Revival of 1857 the economic conditions did not seem to foreshadow the event. The pride of manifest destiny only wetted the American appetite for territories. The government was willing to spend $10 million dollars for the barren Gadsden Purchase just so a railroad could reach Southern California. The height of vanity was the disgraceful proposal called the Ostend Manifesto which demanded that Spain sell us Cuba lest we take it by force. Even rumors of Americans taking over Nicaragua implied that the obvious goal was a southward extension to gain slave states.

The 49-ers gold rush added an abundance of money to the prosperous economy. With the rapid material expansion of the 1850's the decade was titled "The Businessman's Peace." Manufacturing almost doubled, farm production did double, and railroad mileage more than tripled. Although the gandydancers were trying to tie the nation together east and west, the slavery issue was threatening to split it apart North and South.

On the surface the unprecedented financial and commercial prosperity made New York City look like a golden gateway of opportunity. Manhattan grew from 515,000 to 800,000 during the mid-century decade of the 50's. Immigrants were pouring through its portals at a rate of 200,000 annually. It was a world port leaving Boston and Philadelphia in its wake. The assets of their banks were estimated at $200,000,000 in their vaults. Even the commuter flight to uptown was taking form, and the rich began displaying their impressive wealth around the marble-faced Washington Square.

But, a cancer of filth, crime, disease, and vagrancy was eating at the older downtown neighborhoods and the water front sections. The poor became poorer in the tenement districts. The Lower East side averaged seventeen families per three-story dwelling. By 1850 public officials estimated that three thousand vagrant children lived on the streets, and most were girls who survived through prostitution. The alarming mortality rate of one death for every twenty-nine New Yorkers was double that of London. Infant deaths tolls were sadly high taking seven of every ten immigrant children under age two. Cholera epidemics germinated from the city's pollution in 1849 and again in 1854. Public health services existed nominally through charities.

The paradigm of New York's urban crime and poverty was in the area known as Five Points within view of the shops of Broadway and a short walk from Wall Street. As early as the 1830's no respectable person could walk through Five Points. It was a paradox that the onetime neighborhood hub was still called Paradise Square. As early as the 1820's over a dozen City Missions operated to minister to the dispossessed of society. By 1850 the best known and most influential was the Five Points House of Industry. It was founded by Louis Pease, their first missionary, and the volunteer work of the praying Methodist women. The mission enrolled 15,593 children in the period 1855-65.

Similar circumstances prevailed throughout the declining downtown Manhattan area. Business shops and warehouses invaded the once comfortable residential streets. The population shifted from middle-class families to immigrants and submerged classes. The church attendance was only a trace of the former days. It became apparent that the downtown churches faced the dilemma of leaving for better pastures uptown, or shepherding their weaker brothers in the deteriorating neighborhoods. For decades the Christian community had been troubled by the conflict between spending their money to propagate the gospel in foreign places or sending home missionaries to the unchurched in the destitute areas of their own society.

Panic of 1857:

In the Fall of 1857 the boom period ended with the third panic in American history. After the railroad construction, the land speculation, the manufacturing growth, and the Western wheat growth, a banking panic shocked the public and converged on the New York City financial institutions.

On August 30th the bubble burst with the failure of the Ohio Life Insurance Co. and their branch bank in New York City. Other banks called in loans and suspended credit. When the New Haven Railroad failed, fear spread throughout the City. By mid-September twenty-nine banks had failed in New York City alone. Interest rates rose to five-percent per month. With money tight factories closed and 10,000 NYC workers lost manufacturing jobs.

The scenario was repeated in other eastern cities like Philadelphia and Boston. Without credit the crop harvests of the West could not be shipped. Financial ruin spread throughout the nation's business sector. Only the South's cotton industry survived and even prospered since cotton was over one-half of the nation's exports. Their success further antagonized the Northern animosity toward slavery.

By mid-October unemployment was 40,000 in New York. The number were high in Philadelphia and Boston, too. On Oct 14th the nation's banking system collapsed. The Bank of New York, the city's oldest and strongest bank, failed with 17 other leading banks. The other banks in New York City closed for two months from mid-October to mid-December.

The mayor of New York began relief measures by purchasing flour and selling it at cost. He hoped that public works projects like grading the streets, the Central Park, and the Reservoir would stimulate the economy. With winter approaching despair set in. Businessmen committed suicide. The middle-class began moving into tenement sections, and the hungry mobs marched on Wall Street to demand that they circulate the millions of dollars they were hoarding their vaults.

In December the economic experts were saying that the panic was totally unjustified. The banks had enough money on hand to meet any withdrawal run on their deposits. The Secretary of the US Treasury stated that New York banks had never been sounder. Then, what caused the mass hysteria? Why the money crisis? Had rumors lead to ruin?

Historians and economic analysts always like the boom-to-bust cycle for an explanation. Naturally, over-speculation is another popular accusation to blame. Another cause is the unsound banking practices which had little federal monitoring. Tariffs and limits on money and credit are always criteria for depressions, too. Even the lack of opportunity for the poor is used as a justifiable reason.

However, our forefathers in earlier generations and not just church leaders had an opinion that the panic had a Divine Hand of retribution because of the idolatry of money. Samuel I. Prime, editor of the New York Observer, wrote that the panic was "a judgment." He, along with other contemporaries, found the cause in a lust for mammon accompanying the Gold Rush and the rapid industrialization. Twenty year later C. L. Thompson wrote "We were becoming a people without God in the world. In His providence the greed of gain was preparing its own remedy. A financial crash that shook all the monetary centers fell upon us." In J. Edwin Orr's posthumous book The Event of the Century, he boldly argued that the panic was not a cause of the prayer revival. The strongest argument to refute the "bank-panic revival" title was the timetable of events. On the day of the crash Oct 14th only about 100 participated in the prayer meeting. There was no dramatic increase in attendance during the crisis which ended on December 15th. But it must be noted that there was a vast multiplication of the Fulton Street meetings during the two month crisis. In January, 1858 excitement had spread across the nation and the press began reporting a "Businessman's Revival."

And This is The Record:

By the time of the Noonday Prayer Revival America was old enough to have a sense of history. James Smithson had bequeath an endowment to start collecting the antiques of US history in the Capital. Church leaders were aware that this event was an awakening, and they were diligent enough to chronicle the event. Even the secular newspapers provided many reports that still exist today on microfilm.

One eyewitness report was made by Rev. Dr. Talbot W. Chambers, one of the pastors at the Reformed North Dutch Church on Fulton Street in New York City. He was commissioned by the church board to write any authentic information about the origin and history of "The Noon Prayer Meeting." It was completed November 4, 1858.

Samuel Irenaeus Prime was the chief editor of the daily New York Observer. He was one of the first to report the revival. He published twenty-five revival sermons by the city's most prominent preachers with the title: The New York Pulpit in the Revival of 1858. In 1859 he summarized the events in The Power of Prayer, Illustrated in the Wonderful Displays of Divine Grace at the Fulton Street and Other Meetings.

Another contemporary writer was William C. Conant, who detailed the events at the height of the revival. His Narratives of Remarkable Conversions and Revival Incidents was published at the end of April in 1858.

James Gordon Bennett, a pioneer of yellow press journalism and the head of the New York Herald, began exploiting the revival news in February of 1858. His rival Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, began competing for the awakening news, too. In April Greeley devoted one entire special issue to the movement He even had reporters race on horseback from meeting to meeting for attendance totals. Because of development of the telegraph, the rotary press, and the new unified reporting of the Associated Press in the 1840's newspapers had the ability to report the news nationwide. Most newspapers printed notices of the meetings and the results. Even the telegraph companies allowed "saints" to send free telegrams to their "sinner" friends urging them to be converted. Although the secular press preferred to report the YMCA activities rather than the church news, the nation knew about this "Great Revival."

Every church denominations had publications that listed the revival news town-by-town and meeting-by-meeting. Even lists of the names of the converts were written in the secular and religious circulation's. Many individuals kept a record of the happening, and even Jeremiah Lanphier had a personal journal of his experiences.

Jeremiah Calvin Lanphier:

The noonday prayer revival was clearly more than anything else a revival of the laymen in the church. The most famous name that was connected with the revival was a laymen at the Fulton Street Church Jeremiah Lanphier. He was employed as a lay-missionary by the North Dutch Church. His ministry was to the unchurched of the city and to enlist their attendance.

He was born at Coxsackie, New York in 1809. He was engaged in the mercantile business in New York City for 20 years. In 1842 he made a public confession of faith in Christ at the Broadway Tabernacle which was built for Finney. He became a member of the Nineteenth Street Presbyterian Church and was taught by Pastor James Waddel Alexander from 1850 until Mr. Lanphier's call to the Fulton Street church.

Dr. Chambers found an eastern journal that described Lanphier as "tall, with a pleasant face, an affectionate manner, and indomitable energy and perseverance; a good singer, gifted in prayer and exhortation, a welcome guest to any house, shrewd and endowed with much tact and common sense."

He began his duties on July 1, 1857. His first effort was to canvas the wards in Lower Manhattan, and to use a house-to-house visitation system. He prepared a handout with a brief history of the church, a description of the services, and a salvation tract. He organized boys' clubs and Sunday School classes for the youth, but the poor stayed away from the church with its better dressed congregation. His efforts faced difficulty and discouragement; however, he found great comfort in a daily communion with God in prayer. His prayer was, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"

As he observed the business people during their lunch hour, Lanphier became burdened by the uneasy looks of indifference and emptiness. He conceived the idea of a mid-day spiritual refreshment from their daily routine. A church committee approved his prayer meeting during the lunch hour that one could visit for any amount of time for five minutes or up to an hour. Then he solicited the hotels, shops, factories, mercantile establishment, and as well as the residential homes. He prepared this handbill:

How Often Shall I Pray? As often as the language of prayer is in my heart; as often as I see my need of help; as often as I feel the power of temptation; as often as I am made sensible of any spiritual declension, or feel the aggression of a worldly, earthly spirit...In prayer, we leave the business of time for that of eternity, and intercourse with men for intercourse with God.

On the other side of the handout, Jeremiah Lanphier announced his plan:

A day of Prayer-Meeting is held every Wednesday from 12 to 1 o'clock in the Consistory building in the rear of the North Dutch Church, corner of Fulton and William Streets. This meeting is intended to give merchants, mechanics, clerks, strangers and businessmen generally an opportunity to stop and call on God amid the perplexities incident to their respective avocations. It will continue for one hour; but it is also designed for those who find it inconvenient to remain more than 5 or 10 minutes, as well as for those who can spare a whole hour. Necessary interruption will be slight, because anticipated. Those in haste often expediate their business engagements by halting to lift their voices to the throne of grace in humble, grateful prayer. Mr. Lanphier set the very first meeting for noon September 23rd in the lecture room on the third floor of the Consistory Building of the North Reformed Protestant Dutch Church.

The Fulton Street Meetings:

On the first Wednesday at noon Jeremiah Lanphier prayed alone for the first half hour. At 12:30 he was joined by the first attendant and by the end of the first hour six men had attended the prayer meeting. The following week twenty prayed together, and by the third week almost 40 attended. They decided to pray daily at the Fulton Street Church.

The following rules were posted by Mr. Lanphier: BE PROMPT. Commencing precisely at Twelve O'clock. The Leader is not expected to exceed ten minutes in opening the meeting 1st. Open the meeting by reading and singing 3-5 verses of a hymn. 2nd. Prayer. 3rd. Read a portion of the Scripture. 4th. Say the meeting is now open for prayers and exhortations, observing particularly the rules overhear inviting brethren from abroad to take part in the services 5th. Read but one of two requests at a time-REQUIRING a prayer to follow- such prayer to have special reference to the same. 6th. In case of any suggestions or propositions by any person, say this is simply a Prayer Meeting, and that they are out of order, and call on some brother to pray. 7th. Give out the closing hymn five minutes before one o'clock. Request the Benediction from a Clergyman, if one be present.

The mode of worship was the same in all meetings. Lanphier's rules prevailed. The leader sounded a bell, and the meeting began in a serious, solemn businesslike manner. If anyone prayed or testified more than five minutes another bell rang. It was mostly impromptu, spontaneous, or what is called in church circles a moving of the Holy Spirit. The participants ranged from businessmen to clerks and from the young to gray-haired. Distinctions between sects and between clergymen and laymen were ignored. No controversial subjects like water baptism or slavery were to be discussed. As the size of the daily meetings grew week by week, all classes of people began to participate. At first only men attended but after several weeks women began showing up for prayer, too.

By the second month a second lecture room in the Consistory Building had to be opened. By the mid-January the Fulton Street meetings had to use all three of the lecture rooms in the building. By February the jam packed meetings at Fulton Street had a daily attendance of around seven hundred. It should be noted that on the day of the Bank Crash October 14th only about 100 attended the prayer meeting. Their zenith in the spring supports Orr's Panic-Revival conclusions.

A notable and unanticipated result of the Prayer Meetings was the conversions to faith in Christ. As a fervent increase in intercessory prayer took place, the requests, and needs, and burdens led to the salvation issue. Suddenly laymen began sharing their faith on the streets and in the door-to-door visitations. Then the written and oral requests at the prayer meetings included the names of unsaved friends and relatives. Joyfully the testimonies of conversions followed.

The New York Meetings Expand:

While the Fulton Street Church was the original prayer meeting, many others duplicated the pattern. At about the same time the Plymouth Church in Brooklyn started a daily prayer meeting. By the next spring New York had twenty such meetings and Brooklyn had about a dozen. The other Dutch Reform churches, the Presbyterian, the Congregational, and the Methodist Episcopal churches opened their doors to the crowds in the hundreds.

When overflow crowds created such a demand for space, prayer meetings were held in stores, fire and police departments, the YMCA, the Free Academy, Music Hall, and even theaters. Burton's Theater on Chambers Street in the heart of the commercial district had the largest crowds. On March 17, 1858 Rev. Henry Ward Beecher preached to a crowd of 3,000 at Burton's. A corp of fifty prominent clergymen including Beecher, Theodore Cuyler, and Robert M. Hatfield were available for stirring sermons at any time and place. Every church and public hall was filled by the Springtime.

Finally, everything shutdown from 11 to 2 over the noon hour because of the lack of business with so many attending the prayer meetings. Also, the times had to be expanded with church bells ringing at 8 AM, 12, and again at 6 PM. Prayer was in vogue. Religion was the topic of conversation everywhere. During the spring months estimates placed the daily attendance at 10,000. As usually happens in revivals, famous people profess conversion to faith in Christ. In March during the Lenten season a famous prize-fighter Orville Gardner announced his conversion. His notoriety in the ring had earned him the title "Awful Gardner." After his conversion at a Methodist prayer meeting, he left the city to convert his brother. When he returned, he gave his testimony at several meeting and the city was buzzing about this famous transformation. He was training three fighters at the time, and he vowed to meet all them again for a spiritual reason. At the height of the revival it was estimated the conversions were running 50,000 a week throughout the city.

Although the awakening was emphatically a lay-movement, about a hundred evangelical clergymen met to discuss Sabbath-breaking. The chairman was Dr. Gardner Spring, who was the pastor at the Brick Presbyterian Church for 63 years. They met at Spingler Institute and called for enforcement of the statutes on Sunday observances. The targets were such Sunday businesses as saloons, German amusements of music and beer drinking, and risqué sporting events. There were reports that three to four thousand would show up to view and to bet on the Sunday afternoon trotting races on Harlem Lane.

By the Easter season the meetings were six months old and the event was now being called "The Great Revival." Even the secular press recognized the extra-ordinary moving of the Holy Spirit. The New York Times called this "the most remarkable movement since the Reformation" especially since no revival machinery or revival-preacher was connected to the religious excitement. But, the best was yet to come for the awakening was not limited to New York.

The Awakening Amplified:

The only American city comparable to New York with a port for immigrants, and over a half million population, and with almost 300 churches was Philadelphia. The revival quickly spread to America's second city, and it followed the same pattern.

John Bliss, a young member of the YMCA, attended the Fulton Street meetings. When he returned, he purposed that they do the same in Philadelphia. On November 23, 1857, a noonday prayer rally was inaugurated at the Union Methodist Episcopal Church. During the winter, the eminent Methodist revivalist Rev. James Caughey conducted as series of meetings and more than 500 persons were converted. By the March Jayne's Hall, a theater on Chestnut and in the heart of the business district, was drawing crowds of over 3,000. When a meeting overflowed to nearby buildings, Philadelphia claimed the "world's largest prayer meeting."

One of the most powerful and prominent speakers at Jayne's Hall was Rev. Dudley A. Tyng, a young Episcopalian minister. His untimely death in April resulted in many conversions. On his deathbed he inspired a friend Rev. George Duffield to write a song about the standing room only crowds, when he said, "Tell the men to stand up for Jesus."

Early in May a big tent was purchased for two thousand dollars. The next four months of tent services drew a total audience of 150,000 people; and the city of Philadelphia reaped a harvest of ten thousand conversions.

Everywhere reports were the same. A moving in the fall, excitement during the winter, and by March an explosion of religious activity. At first it was only for prayers, then the conversions followed. The stirring in the hearts of people was clearly and without a doubt providential in origin. The Baptists were on fire so much during the winter that they cut holes in the frozen Mohawk River and they baptized the converts in the cold water.

The divine influence touched cities and villages. It was hard to find a place that was not moved by God's grace. William C. Conant's computations revealed revival in 88 towns in Maine, 40 in New Hampshire, 39 in Vermont, and 147 in Massachusetts. It was said that there were entire New England towns in which scarcely an unconverted person could be found. Even Boston was awakened with large crowds, intense prayer, and fruitful conversions.

The best view of the widespread movement of the Spirit on the nation was at a Charles Finney meeting in Boston. A gentleman testified, "I am from Omaha, in Nebraska. On my journey East I have found a continuous Prayer meeting all the way. We call it two thousand miles from Omaha to Boston; and here was a prayer meeting about two thousand miles in extent."

In Pittsburgh the Presbyterians set aside the first Sabbath of the new year for revival preaching, and the first Thursday as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer. Cincinnati did the same. In Chicago the Metropolitan Theater was crowded daily with two thousand people for prayer. By May of 1858 most of the businesses simply closed for "the Hour of Prayer" because of the lack of customers. Methodist Bishop McIlvaine at the Ohio Convention said, "I have no doubt 'whence it cometh'....it is 'the Lord's doing." Timothy Smith recorded that "There were numerous revivals in schools, the most spectacular being in Cleveland, where all but two boys (in the Cleveland public schools) experienced conversion." The awakening in the Northern states was the same with a long list of cities and towns with conversions and a growth in church memberships.

The only place not powerfully touched by the revival in the early years was the South. Although a two year drought and epidemics hit Southern California, when the evangelists came the seats were empty, and the church bells did not toll. The revival did not touch the South until the Civil War with the exception of the slave population. Reports came along the Underground Railroad of the revival among the "colored" in Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas. The estimates were that the black Methodists tripled during the revival years.

One glorious movement was in Charlestown, South Carolina under the preaching of Presbyterian Pastor Dr. John L. Girardeau. His congregation was mainly what he called "brothers in black." After special prayer meetings he preached to overflow crowds of 1,500 to 2,000 blacks and whites in the nightly audiences even past midnight. The eight-week period was in his words, "the greatest event of his ministry."

Another phenomenal outpouring was among the youth in the YMCA movement and the college campuses. The Young Men's Christian Association first appeared in the US in Boston in 1851 and spread to other large cities. It had an evangelical goal to win young men to Christ. During the Awakening of 1858 the YMCA did a great work in visiting 20,000 persons. Also, the organization spread nationwide to over 50 college campuses.

Historians have failed to mention the awakening on the college campuses. J. Edwin Orr said that nearly every Protestant college in every part of the nation was moved by the revival. It was a result of the special "days of prayer" at the colleges. No visiting evangelist or visiting clergyman initiated the campus movement. From the prayer meetings there was a manifestation of repentance, confession, and restitution. College historian Frederick Rudolph noticed the college awakenings in the north, south, and west in 1858.

The Remarkable Results on American Christianity:

The most remarkable result of the Awakening of 1858 was the tremendous influence and practice of prayer. E.M. Bounds, who wrote eight books on prayer, said, "The great movements of God have their origin and energy in and were shaped by prayers of men. Prayer has directly to deal with God." The revival was started by prayers, grew because of prayers, and more than anything else it was glorified by common Christians praising and interceding with God. No wonder this is called the purest and simplest revival in history.

The second major impact was the spiritual refreshment of the laity and not just their prayers, but their aggressive witnessing. W.A. Candler said it best, "The revival of 1858 inaugurated in some sense the era of lay work in American Christianity...the layman's day fully dawned on all the churches. No new doctrine was brought forward, but a new agency was brought to bear in spreading the old truth through the efforts of men who, if they could not interpret the Scriptures with precision or train souls to perfection, could at least help inquiring sinners to find the Lord by relating how they themselves had found Him."

Candler, also, continued, "Since Christianity is a religion of experience, this lay element was a power in the 1st Century church...but it dropped out of the church when Christianity, ceasing to be an experience, was practiced only as a pompous system of priest-craft or taught as an abtuse philosophy of religion. It now returned in the regeneration of a nation."

The laymen found themselves useful not only in evangelism, but in service, too. The two movements that provided opportunities for the laity were the YMCA and the Sunday School. The YMCA became a wing of the church that provided recreational and religious functions for the members. The Sunday School movement many lay people a chance to practice discipleship. The two young Sunday School teachers, who became famous were Dwight L. Moody in Chicago and John Wanamaker in Philadelphia. In the 1860's the laity, also, had an opportunity to serve in the US Christian Commission and the US Sanitary Commission during the Civil War. There were many other opportunities like: missions and philanthropic agencies to the poor, needy, and helpless. The greatest lesson of the revival was that the work of the church was not committed to the clergy alone.

The immediate impact on the church was the growth in new members. The standard estimate by church historians was one million over the two years of the revival. The mainstream denominations such as the Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, and German congregations all reported increases around 20 percent between 1855-65.

The church was, also, impacted by the spirit of fellowship in the "union" prayer meetings. Unlike other revivals there were no splits or denominational schisms in this awakening. At the Anniversary Service of the Fulton Street meeting in 1858 there was a unanimous agreement that "unity in evangelism had routed sectarian controversy." From this time forward the unique spirit of cooperation grew in the revivalism campaigns and in the social action activities.

The meetings were not just inspired by the fervent prayers, but singing was an important part of their worship, too. Many new songs were added to the hymnals. Anna Warner wrote "Jesus Loves Me, this I know" in 1858. The Charlotte Elliott hymn of contrition "Just As I Am" was written in 1836, but it became popular during this era. The great song writer Fanny Crosby began writing hymns during this awakening. A Negro Spiritual "Let us break bread together on our knees," became part of communion during this time. Other new hymns included: "What a friend we have in Jesus," and "He leadth me! O blessed thought," and Duffield's "Stand Up, stand up for Jesus.

While calm and control reigned in the awakening, the emotion and sincerity was deep. It lasted for more than a generation. Forty years later L. W. Bacon wrote, "Looking backward, it is for us to raise the question how the church could have passed through the decade of the sixties without the spiritual reinforcement that came to it amid the pentecostal scenes of the 1857 and 1858."

The Awakening to the Uttermost parts of the World:

This awakening had the most immediate worldwide impact of any religious event to that date in history. Every continent was in some way touched by the movement. The pattern of earnest prayer reached heretofore little known areas, and their reports returned with praise and rejoicing of how the Holy Spirit was moving around the globe. When the news of the Great Revival in America was heard, many secluded places met for special prayer to intercede with The Almighty for a similar blessing in their region. With the expansion of the press and the short-lived Atlantic cable of 1858, the formative capacity for a world watch carried information back to the church and their missionary headquarters. Consequently, the body of Christ was encouraged with every bit of information. Nevertheless, historians did not fully realize the revival's widespread influence until the 20th Century.

Almost simultaneous to the Fulton Street meetings, Canada experienced a revival in 1857. Methodist evangelists Walter and Phoebe Palmer reported a number of extraordinary conversions in Hamilton which is now Ontario. Originally the movement occurred in the Methodist Episcopal Church and at their camp meetings, but by 1858 "union" prayer meetings with large crowds attracted intercessors across denominational lines.

When the cable news of the North American revivals reached the United Kingdom, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland sent a delegation to observe the Fulton Street meetings. When a revival broke out in Ulster in 1859, it duplicated some of the physical manifestations of the Kentucky events earlier in the century. Prostration's, the jerks, and mass conversions took place during prayer and preaching meetings. By the time the revival spread throughout the country 100,000 converts were added to St. Patrick's lands.

The religious news from America started a similar awakening in Wales. By 1860 the revival spread to Scotland and England. Every place experienced crowded prayer meetings, the conviction of sin and repentance, and a noticeable decrease in crime and vice. Evangelists like the Palmers were invited in the British Isles. William and Catherine Booth of Salvation Army fame began their ministry. Britain's most popular evangelist Henry Grattan Guinness preached to 20,000 from the top of a cab in Ulster. The United Kingdom had an estimated one million converts during the Awakening of 1859-60.

On the continent of Europe the Ulster and American revivals attracted interest particularly in the evangelical Protestant churches. Strong vibrations took place in Scandanavian countries and occasional outbreaks were experienced in Germany and Russia. However, the oldest Christian churches, such as the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Russian Orthodox bodies, maintained their traditional ways and experienced little influence from the revivals.

The Revival's most immediate impact around the world was the rejuvenation the missionary stations and mission boards. As prayer increased, missionaries hoped for a movement of the Holy Spirit. In South Africa it happened with the Zula and Banta tribesmen. The Dutch Reformed Church, which was already an evangelical body, prayed that they would experience what had happened at Fulton Street. The chapels at mission stations were crowded. Outbreaks even occurred among the Xhosa speaking people and the Methodist groups.

The smallest continent Australia had a mid-century gold rush at Victoria, and the population increased to a million people by 1860. Victoria and New South Wales experienced the same revival as New York and America. When reports came from Ulster and the United Kingdom, the awakening spread to Melbourne and other locations around the country. Similar outbreaks spread to Tasmania and New Zealand. Prayers, conversions, and church growth took place throughout the region.

The revival flowed around the Pacific. In the1860's Hawaii, Tonga, and Fiji all beheld revivals in religion and prayer. The most stirring reports came from Ponape where the remarkable presence of the Holy Spirit moved in all night prayer meetings. Miraculously, a pioneer Christian work took place in the Muslim strongholds of the East Indies' islands.

In Asia the Prayer Awakening sent a new impetus to mission fields that continued through the next two decades. India was blessed with some of the greatest missionaries of the century like George Bowen, William Taylor, J.M. Thoburn, John Clough, and others. Although small in proportion to the population, where the converts were in tens they became hundreds and where they were in hundreds they became thousands. In China the great work of J. Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission was founded during this time. For the small pockets of Christians throughout the continent this was a refreshing period of grace. Only Japan and Korea were not reached during the awakening.

The continent least impacted by the awakening was South America. An inaugural Protestant missions work was introduced in Mexico, Brazil, Panama, Columbia, Chile, and Panama. A most phenomenal revival did break out in Jamaica. Some of the manifestations included prostration's and tremblings. The prayer, conviction of sin, and repentance resulted in a decrease in drunkenness and couples living in sin. The only other revival in the region was among the recently freed slaves of the British West Indies.

The 1857-58 movement continued its influence for 40 years to the end of the century. It opened a door for the large scale evangelists, the most notable being Dwight L. Moody. It resulted in missionaries on every continent. All the churches were strengthened. While there was no cleavage among the Christian denominations, it was said that a spirit of reunion appeared for the first time since the Reformation. Laymen and volunteers were given a chance to serve in organizations like the YMCA, the Civil War commissions, and the postwar social reform societies.

J. Edwin Orr called his book of the revival The Event of the Century. Most of the writers have used every word in the thesaurus to describe this amazing, wonderful, glorious work of God. In the final analyst there was an agreement that the revival was a sovereign and mysterious increase from God.

The Civil War:

The American Civil War is the most detailed in US history, and was the first photographed war in the history of the world. Abraham Lincoln has kindled more biographies than any other US President, and some say the most since Shakespeare and Jesus. The era has been interpreted and revised, and re-interpreted by each succeeding generation.

The first popular viewpoint was that the South's secession was a states right issue over the question of nullifying the Constitution. The Lincoln response was clearly to save the Union. Initially, the opponents considered the struggle as a battle between the armies of rebellion and the armies of invasion. But when it was over, both sides ended up seeing Lincoln as the martyr and savior of the Union.

A second opinion for the War between the States was the slavery question. Although abolition did not seem to be an original purpose, free soil and the containment of slavery was clearly a Republican goal. After emancipation occurred, President Lincoln and the abolitionists, particularly the Boston voices of Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and the Unitarians, all received the major accolades for the manumission.

By the 1880's the memoirs of the soldiers and politicians began appearing. The mutual respect on each side resulted in biographies and battle plans that glorified their generals, and particularly the Lee-Jackson team and the President. This second generation of historians developed what was called the "nationalist" tradition. Their conciliatory approach said that both sides were right. And that neither side could give in and they remained true to their causes.

In the early 20th Century historians like Charles Beard viewed the war as a collision of two different ways of life. The economic factors of the industrial North against the agricultural South were used to explain the difference. The war was regarded as an enviable, sectional conflict between two different ways of life. This approach was called the "Second American Revolution."

By the time a second World War broke out and a lasting peace had failed, historians came up with the revision that blamed blundering leaders for needless wars. Consequently, the abolitionists were perceived as religious fanatics, and the slaveholders were jealous aristocrats, who refused to adjust their way of life.

Another revision that took place in the 1930's recognized the less regarded abolitionists. The evangelical wing of the Tappans and the Finney followers like Weld and the Grimke sisters were given their just praise for their emancipation efforts.

The civil rights movement of the 1960's changed some other opinions about the period. The contribution of nearly 200,000 former slaves to the Northern cause was finally well documented, and they given some of their well deserved glory. However, on the other side of the revision, Lincoln was not viewed as a hero. Since his Emancipation Proclamation did not free a single, Union or border state slave, he was discredited for using the document as a means to keep the cotton-buying British out of the war, and to recruit slaves from the Confederacy.

Lately, another criticism of the textbooks and one Civil War presentation, is the de-emphasis on Christianity during the war. Kevin A. Miller, the editor of Christian History, said of the Ken Burns series The Civil War which was viewed by over 12 million on PBS, "As great as that series was, however, it often overlooked one of the most significant aspects of the war. Religion."

A. Whose side is God On?

When the war broke out both sides sought to justify how their position was in "the will of God." Pulpits on each side announced, "God is with us." Each found biblical support for their holy and righteous cause. They petitioned the same God for His divine blessing on their efforts. Clearly godly men with sincere convictions fought on each side of the war. While Lincoln called slavery "a national sin," General Robert E. Lee, who had freed his slaves, fought for the South. At the same time General Stonewall Jackson, who kept his slaves, financed and taught the Negro Sunday School class in Lexington, Virginia.

Both governments appointed chaplains. Even though the Confederate constitution had more religious references that the US Constitution, both Presidents set aside days for fasting and humiliation and prayer. Many lay at peace on their deathbed trusting in their Savior for their eternal reward. The "Fighting Presbyterian" General Jackson calmly told his wife, "I always wanted to die on a Sunday." The flamboyant cavalry officer JEB Stuart with Jefferson Davis by his deathbed wanted someone to sing "Rock of Ages, cleft for me."

In the final analysis the best words may have been spoken in Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address when he said, "Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other...The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes......so still it must be said, 'the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous." It is still a paradox of efforts today, and perhaps William J. Wolf's title "The Almost Chosen People" is after all the best description of our nation.

B. Ministry to the Soldiers.

During the four bloody years of the war two philanthropic organizations made efforts for the temporal and spiritual care of the soldiers. The US Sanitary Commission began in the Summer of 1861 under the inspiration of a Unitarian minister Henry W. Bellows. The US Christian Commission began at a YMCA meeting in November of 1861 with Philadelphia banker George H. Stuart as the chairman. It was said that he financed the "ambassadors for Jesus."

The Sanitary Commission with its hundreds of advisory agents dealt with the problems of sanitation, drainage, preventative medicine, diet, rest, and hospital management. They were primarily concerned with the health, comfort, and morale of the troops. The commission spent nearly five million dollars for the humane care of the soldiers. Henry Commager called the organization - a combination of the YMCA, Red Cross, and the USO. Nevertheless, the death rate from wounds and sickness was four to one compared to deaths on the battlefields. After the war they united their efforts with Clara Barton's campaign to form the American Red Cross.

When the war broke out, Henry Ward Beecher warned that the military camps were full of carelessness and rudeness, of idleness and intemperance. The Christian Commission was formed as an evangelistic-social service agency to serve the Union soldiers in the camps, on the battlefields, and in the hospitals. Their efforts were aimed at winning souls through practical social compassion.

The USCC had 4,859 volunteers or "delegates." They helped the military chaplains especially with the distribution of spiritual reading materials. The agents passed out 1,466,748 Scriptures, 1,370,953 hymnbooks, over 8 million books, 18 million newspapers, and 30 million religious tracts. They held 136,650 religious services. They wrote over 90,000 letters to relatives of the soldiers. Countless men and women referred to their work as "the experience of a lifetime." The Commission's entire work was organized by executive secretary William E. Boardman, a Presbyterian minister and a famous devotional writer.

The War Departments of the Union and Confederate governments authorized one ordained and denominationally certified chaplain per regiment with the rank of a private. More than thirteen hundred ministers and clergymen served in the camps. The Methodist churches provide the most chaplains with nearly 500 in the North and over a hundred in the South. The major activity was the evening prayer service which was usually held in a tent. The Christian Commission tried to hold a meeting at every post every night of the week during the winter and summer. After a delegate gave a short testimony an informal hour of exhortation, testimonies, and prayer concluded the service. Usually overflow crowds attended in all kinds of weather. The 1858 Revival practice of cold water baptisms continued during the war.

The concern for the soldiers increased the charitable efforts of the older organizations. The American Bible and Tract society published fifty million pages during the war, and so did the Evangelical Tract Society of Petersburg, Virginia. The YMCA raised funds for their ministry to the troops. Many Northern cities founded the Freedman relief societies to aid the former slaves. Every denomination and church experienced a dramatic rise in charitable giving. The war produced a philantrophic revolution through the nation. In early 1864 Linus P. Brockett published an estimate that all the wartime giving to date totaled $212 million in the North alone. A new era of social concern and public participation was born in these times.

C. Revival in the Camps:

Any early optimism of a quick settlement by the Fall or Christmas was dispelled with the Confederate victory at First Manassas or the First Battle of Bull Run. The usual military camp life of boredom, homesickness, and irreligious practices prevailed. Profanity, gambling, drunkenness, sexual licentiousness, and petty thievery tempted every soldier. Sunday worship was only nominally practiced. However, that was the reality of most armies in history with some exceptions like Cromwell's New Model army and the camp of George Washington.

Each year the war dragged on and the death rates mounted from the modern firepower of the new weapons. Also, the discouragement grew. In 1862 casualties rates were almost 25,000 at Shiloh, and over 25,000 at Antietam. It became a war of attrition. The North could not win it, and the South refused to lose it. The decisive battles at Vicksburg, Gettysburg, and Chattanooga in 1863 only heightened the resolve on each side. However, hope and help was found in both camps because of the most prominent religious revival in the world's military history.

Over the winter of 1863-64 The Union Army of the Potomac experienced great religious excitement. One reporter thought that their piety might "win the whole nation to Christ." Meanwhile the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia was moved by the "Great Revival." It was estimated the 7,000 soldiers or about 10 percent of Lee's army was converted to Christ. Throughout the South army chapels were built by every brigade. Morning and evening prayer meetings were held. If evangelical speakers were not present, soldiers got up and testified about "Peace with God." The plea was not Blue against Gray, but "Who is on The Lord's side?"

Although Grant's offensive in 1864 interrupted the revival, conversions reached a peak by the next summer, and they continued until Appomattox. The chaplain of the Army of Northern Virginia J. William Jones, a Baptist minister, estimated that 150,000 were converted in Lee's Army alone. His renowned eyewitness account Christ in the Camp, or Religion in Lee's Army was published in 1888. It began with the revivals during the war and then, chronicled the postwar growth in the churches.

William W. Bennett, author of A Narrative of the Great Revival Which Prevailed in the Southern Armies, estimated that one-third of all soldiers in the field were men of prayer and members of some Christian Church. F.G. Beardsley quoted a chaplain who said, "modern history presents no example of an army so nearly converted."

The impression was that the revival was more fervent in the Confederate armies. Even President Lincoln was quoted as saying, "The rebel soldiers are praying with a great deal more earnestness, I fear, than our own troops, are expecting God to favor their side." However, steadfast US Christian Commission reports of conversions in the hundreds flowed from many Federal camps as many evangelists like D.L. Moody preached to the Union troops. The best estimates of conversions in the Union forces place the figure between 100,000 and 200,000 men - about 5-10 percent of all individuals engaged in the conflict. In the final analysis the most common figure is 300,000 conversions in both armies during the Civil War.

D. Who's Who on The Lord's Side:

No war in American history has so many famous people, who were also notable Christians. Politicians, generals, and of course chaplains earned a reputation for their religion. Several great works by chaplains still remain famous today. E.M. Bounds was a Methodist Episcopal pastor, who served as a Confederate chaplain under J.B.Hood. His eight books on prayer were not published until the 20th Century, but still he leads the bestseller's list of Christian books today.

The classic reports on the Civil War revivals in the military were by J. William Jones on Lee's army and William W. Bennett, who headed the Methodist Soldier's Tract Association. Bennett surmised that the willingness for revival in the Confederate armies was due to their cultural homogeneity. Many who served together were boyhood friends, and their regiments had a hometown and neighborhood atmosphere. Prayer meetings were just like being home, only the war created greater spiritual needs.

Dr. John L. Girardeau of Charlestown's Black revival fame was evenmore endeared after serving as a South Carolina chaplain. At the end of the war he was released from a prisoner of-war camp. When he returned home, his Black parishioners hoisted him on their shoulders and paraded him through the streets.

Sidney Ahlstrom wrote in a wonderful description that "Chaplains performed heroic duties in many circumstances, in battle and behind the lines, and won countless tributes for their services to the sick, the wounded, and the dying. As in no other American war, they also carried on their preaching ministries with astounding success, as their great revivals won many converts even among the highest ranking officers. In these revivals as well as their pastoral work and many other tasks, the chaplains were often joined by clergy of the locality."

Of the Civil War generals none was a more respected Christian than Robert E. Lee. He was an Episcopalian all his life. He was called "the ultimate gentleman." He graduated second in his class at West Point, and he was Lincoln's first choice to lead the Union Army of the Potomac. He was a daily Bible reader and a man of prayer, who disliked tobacco and hated whiskey. He was praised by many even beyond his lifetime, but his description of self was "nothing but a sinner, trusting in Christ alone for salvation." After the war he was President of Washington (and Lee) College in Lexington, Virginia until his death in 1870.

Lee's great right arm was Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson known as the "Fighting Presbyterian." He was converted to Christianity during the Mexican War and baptized at age 25 as an Episcopalian. The VMI professor was also a teacher of the Negro Sunday School in Lexington, Virginia. His military prowess was even studied by 20th Century general, but he ordered his chaplains to hold thanksgiving services after every victory. He was accidentally shot by his own men at the battle of Chancellorsville, and he died Sunday May 10, 1963.

Lee's chief artillery officer was William Pendleton. At the first battle of Bull Run he named his four guns: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. His orders were "While we will kill their bodies, may the Lord have mercy on their sinful souls- FIRE!" He served throughout the entire war. After the war he served as pastor of Lee's church Grace Church in Lexington, Virginia.

A Confederate major-general Leondias Polk was a West Point classmate of Jefferson Davis, and the first Episcopal bishop of Louisiana. During the campaign around Chattanooga he was called to General Hood's headquarters. He baptized the one-legged general with water from horse bucket in a midnight ceremony. He, also, baptized General's Hardee and Joseph E. Johnston. The "bishop-general" was killed by a cannonball in 1864.

William Rosecrans was a devout Catholic. Although he was known for drinking and much swearing, he attended Mass everyday. He refused to have his army fight on Sunday, and it cost him a decisive victory at Murfreesboro

Manytimes the officers like Lee and Jackson were leaders at the prayer meetings. The Confederate camps were called "a school for Christ." Braxton Bragg, R. H. Anderson, Ewell, Baylor, Paxton, Pender, Rodes, E. Kirby Smith, and many others were known for their faith, too. Stonewall Jackson's chief of staff R.L. Dabney was an ordained Presbyterian minister.

However, the Union side was not without its Christian officers. The first Commander-in-chief of the Union troops was George McClellan was a new convert to Christianity just before the war. He ordered that the Sabbath be observed throughout the Union Army. However, he was removed after four month because of his overcautious command decisions.

The Union commander at Fort Sumter Robert Anderson wrote a clergyman, "Were it not for my firm reliance and trust in our Heavenly Father, I could not but be disheartened, but I feel that I am here in the performance of a solemn duty, and am assured that He, who has shielded me when Death claimed his victims all around me, will not desert me now. Pray for me and my little band-I feel assured that the prayer will be heard."

When Anderson surrender the Federal Arsenal at Charlestown, he wrote his wife, "Praise be to God for His merciful kindness to us. I think that the whole country North and South should thank Him for this step." Little did he foresee the coming bloodshed.

The most widely known Christian soldier on the Union side was Oliver Otis Howard. The general was called "Old Prayer Book" by his troops. He never smoked, drank, or swore, and he spoke at many chapel services. When he spoke of his love for The Savior at Cleveland, Tennessee before the Battle of Kenesaw Mountain, eighty-three inquirers came forward. Christian commission members and soldiers spoke of General Howard's impressive faith.

After the war he was the head of the Freedman's Bureau, and the Black university in Washington DC bears his name. He was chairman of the American Tract society and Superintendent of West Point. In 1869 he started the practice of giving every incoming cadet a Bible. The tradition still continues today.

Another Union general Lew Wallace is better known as a postwar author. While he was writing an argument against the religion, he converted to Christianity. The work resulted in his famous book Ben Hur.

One of the memorable phrases of the war came from the Secretary of the US Treasury Salmon Portland Chase. He selected the motto "In God We Trust" which was first minted on the 2-cent coin in 1864.

He was raised by his uncle, who was the Episcopal bishop of Ohio. In his diary almost every entry refers to a Bible verse and his prayers. When he joined the church in 1830 he wrote, "By conviction I am a Christian.....I think cordially and gratefully assents to the plan of salvation through free grace in Christ Jesus." His strong faith enabled him to persevere through the deaths of three wives and four children.

E. The Presidents: Davis and Lincoln

The Civil War produced many parallels and comparisons between the men and the battles, but one match that is always scrutinized is the two Presidents: Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln.

Jefferson Davis' life like Lincoln was influenced by a Kentucky childhood. Davis was born a year early in Fairview, Kentucky and less than a hundred miles from Lincoln's birthplace. The Davis residence was a double log cabin only slightly better than Lincoln's home. Although he was raised on a Mississippi cotton plantation, his Baptist father decided to send the eight-year old Jefferson to a Dominican Catholic school near Bardstown, Kentucky. During this time he nearly professed a Catholic faith, and he maintained a lifetime respect for the Roman Catholic Church. His college days were spent at Transylvania (Kentucky), the most prestigious college west of the Appalachians. By his own admission Jefferson like his namesake, the third President, developed a critical attitude on religion, and he displayed a quiet thoughtful approach to faith.

In 1824 Jefferson entered the Military Academy at West Point, and Leonidas Polk was one of his best friends. Both were influenced by the Episcopal Chaplain Charles McIlvaine. While Polk came to faith in Christ, Davis recorded numerous demerits for his absence from the chapel services and remained unconverted. Nevertheless, the Episcopal Church remained an influence. His two wives were both Episcopal members. His first wife was Zachary Taylor's daughter, who died of malaria three months after their marriage. Davis' mother, also, joined the Episcopal church after age eighty.

Jefferson Davis did not become a church member, although he attended regularly with his second wife Varina. One letter revealed that she admonished him for his profanity, but he developed into an aloft, honorable, aristocratic gentlemen. He, also, became a successful planter with slaves on an a 800-acre plantation called Brierfield. Unlike many planters, he did not promote religion among his slaves.

After a military career that included the Black Hawk and Mexican Wars, he engaged in politics as a congressman and an influential cabinet official under Franklin Pierce. Although he spoke against disunion as a US Senator, he was chosen as the first and only President of the Confederate States of America. .

During the Civil War times in Richmond he sat under the preaching of Dr. Charles Minnegerode, the rector at St. Paul's Episcopal Church. Varina Davis confided to the pastor that her husband was thinking about church membership. After some discussion Jefferson Davis was baptized in a home ceremony on a Sunday in May of 1862. He was confirmed and joined the church. His wife observed that "a peace which passed understanding" had seemed to settle in her husband's heart. On one occasion she discovered him in his study on his knees in prayer.

In an effort to prevent Catholic immigrants from joining the Union forces Davis dispatched a diplomat to Pope Pius IX. He hope that The Pontiff could intervene for peace. The Pope sent a personal letter in his own handwriting addressed to "The Illustrious and Honorable Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America." The letter resulted in a claim that The Pope was the only foreign sovereign to recognize The Confederacy and its President. As for the immigrant enlistment's, they did slightly decline.

As President of the Confederacy Davis declared days of fasting and prayer. In his speeches he made some reference to Providence and God's guidance. He was criticized for putting the first Jew, the brains of The Confederacy, Judah P. Benjamin in a major government post. By comparison he did not deal with people as well as Lincoln. In the end he was blamed for losing the "cause" by fighting mainly a defensive war.

After the war he was imprisoned for two years in Fort Monroe for treason. During that period it was said that his main consolations were reading the Bible and smoking his pipe. After he was released on bail he traveled abroad, served as President of a life insurance company, and wrote his version of the Confederate government. He died of bronchitis in 1889, and J. William Jones wrote that "He never ceased trying to come up to his baptismal vows and to lead a Christian life." Unfortunately for Jefferson Davis, his evaluation is pale when he is measured against Abraham Lincoln, but most of the US Presidents are, too. However, for Lincoln, he has the widest range of admirers and critics. The single most confusing issue about the beloved and berated President is his religion. He is called everything from a "biblical Christian" by William J. Wolf to an "unbeliever" and an "infidel" by his junior law partner William Herndon.

After his birth in 1809 he lived in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, and he was influenced by the Baptists and Methodists during the Second Great Awakening. His parents were married by a circuit-riding Methodist preacher, and they joined a Baptist church where his dad was a moderator and trustee in the church. Abraham grew up in the frontier fundamentalist faith. His education came from reading the Bible, John Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress, and Aesop's Fables. He read them over and over, especially the Bible.

Although he attended many churches, he never joined one. The critics are quick to point out that Lincoln is the only US President, who did not have a church membership. He was never baptized either, but many religious groups from the Catholics and Friends to the Universalists and Spiritualists claimed him as one of their own. President Lincoln's Pastor Dr. Phineas Gurley said that Lincoln was going to make a public confession of faith in Christ and be baptized at the Presbyterian Church on Easter Sunday 1865. However, the martyred President died on that Saturday.

One widely reported event on Lincoln's religion was during the 1846 Congressional campaign against his opponent the Methodist evangelist Peter Cartwright. The preacher ask "all who do not wish to go to hell will stand." Everyone stood except Abraham Lincoln. Then Cartwright said, "May I inquire of you, Mr. Lincoln, where you are going?"

Lincoln replied, "I came here as a respectful listener. I did not know that I was to be singled out by Brother Cartwright. I believe in treating religious matters with due solemnity. I admit that the questions propounded by Brother Cartwright are of great difference. I did not feel called upon to answer as the rest did. Brother Cartwright asks me directly where I am going. I desire to reply with equal directness: I am going to Congress." His prophesy was correct, but his single term as a Whig Congressman was ended by the "spot fever" over the initial invasion of the Mexican War.

Lincoln's religious reputation was fostered by his Bible expertise as evidenced in his speeches, letters, and quotations. Most speeches contain some reference to God or His will. William J. Wolf counted thirty-three different ways that Lincoln referred to God, however he rarely used the name Jesus. He, also, alluded to many places in the Bible which proved his wide knowledge of the Old and New Testaments. In his Second Inaugural Address he included verses from Genesis, Psalms, and the Gospel of Matthew. He continually used a favorite phrase from Psalm 19:9 "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous."

Secondly, his daily practice of kneeling for morning prayers in the White House was verified by clergymen and associates. His conviction and praise for an answered prayer resulted in the Emancipation Proclamation. Treasury Secretary Chase repeated Lincoln's pledge concerning the Battle of Antietam, "I made a solemn vow before God, that if General Lee was driven back from Pennsylvania, I would crown the result by the declaration of freedom to the slaves."

Not only did he pray but, he, also, called the nation to prayer with proclamations in every year of his Presidency. His first of four national Fast day was August 12, 1861. He, also, called for a day of Thanksgiving on April 10, 1862. Our modern Thanksgiving come from President Lincoln's proclamation to set aside the last Thursday of November as a day for prayer to "fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union." On the day of Lee's surrender, President Lincoln even invited his cabinet to kneel in an hour of a silent prayer of thanksgiving.

No American President faced the trials and deaths as did President Lincoln. During the Civil War his country suffered through 600,000 deaths. In his personal life his mother Nancy Hanks died when he was nine. His 19 year-old girl friend Anne Rutledge died during their courtship. His sister Sarah died shortly after his marriage to Mary Todd. Then two of their sons died: Edward in 1850 and Willie in 1862. Fuller and Green, the authors of God in The White House, said of President Lincoln, "he ripened through the whole course of his life into the profoundest religious spirit that ever occupied the White House."

Dr. James Smith, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Springfield, handled little Eddie's funeral service. Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln continued to regularly attend Rev. Smith's church for the next eight years. When he became President, Lincoln respected Dr. Smith enough to appoint him as consul to Scotland. Rev. Smith called Lincoln a "converted Christian."

William J. Wolf, who wrote one of the best books on Lincoln's religion, gave this summary, "Lincoln won his way to ever deeper levels of faith in response to family suffering and national tragedy. His religion was not static, but dynamic in its development."

Shortly before his death an Illinois clergyman asked Lincoln, "Do you love Jesus?" President Lincoln replied: "When I left Springfield I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ. Yes, I do love. Jesus."

The bibliography on Lincoln literature runs into the thousands. Was he a Christian? His Pastors like: Smith, Gurley, and Father Chiniquy say, "Yes!" Biographers like: Wolf, Johnston, and many others say, "Yes!" Many friends and associates join the chorus to say, "Yes!"

However, if the words of his mouth come from the meditations of his heart, we can only agree that there is no greater proof of his faith when he calls for a post-war nation "with malice toward none; with charity for all; firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right.....let us bind up the nation's wounds." No better words for Christian conduct were ever spoken by a US President.

While numerous Christians have held influential positions and been involved in important decisions and directions for this country, Rev. William E. Barton has made one of the most phenomenal claims. There is no doubt about the family relationships of George Washington and Robert E. Lee. They were even born in the same county. Dr. Barton claimed that Lincoln's mother Nancy Hanks was the grand-daughter of Lucy (Nancy) Lee of Virginia, thus making Lincoln and Lee distant cousins. It may well be that the same family (the Lee's) produced all three of these great Christian Americans.

Chapter 7, The Search for Holiness

The Revival of 1857 and the Civil War marked a watershed of dramatic change in the American scene and the US church. It was Frank Beardsley's opinion that the Great Revival prepared the North for the Civil War, and that the revival in the Southern armies during the war providentially prepared the South for the defeat and the desolation.

Paul Kennedy stated in his Rise and Fall of Great Powers that the Civil War was the catalyst to transform America's latent national power into the greatest military nation on earth by 1865. Also, the conflict produced the first real industrialized total war effort along the prototype of the 20th Century wars. In his final analyst the North won with superior finances, industrial and agricultural production, and supply lines.

Moreover, the war gave impetus to the tremendous industrial growth, the large flow of immigrants, and the rapid urbanization during the last four decades of the 19th Century. The old ways were dying and the changes brought unrest and bitterness to the masses. The new economic and social order unveiled many ills, and they demanded a solution from the government and the society, as well as the church and it's lay people.

Several decisions by the Lincoln administration contributed to this expansion. First, President Lincoln and Treasury Secretary Chase decided to finance the war through taxes and printing "greenbacks" rather than the money borrowing from European bankers. Also, the postwar westward expansion was encouraged by two Lincoln campaign promises: a trans-continental railroad and the Homestead Act. In 1860 there were three millionaires in the US, and by the end of the century there were over four thousand of them. The prosperity was both a blessing and a curse.

The industrialization brought colossal changes in transportation, communication, agricultural and domestic life. For some the labor, income, and machines meant tremendous opportunities, but for others the work, sweat, and grind of daily life only produced despair. The title of the Gilded Age has endured, but the wrongdoing, immorality, luxury, extravagance, speculation, and intemperance was called by the daily newspapers the almost forgotten name "Carnival of Crime." An industrial war resulted between labor and capital. The working force used strikes, boycotts, and violence against the management's low pay, long hours, lockouts, and blacklists. Regardless, the owners could always contract immigrants for the lowest pay on any job.

Furthermore, the immigration made a striking change in the US church. The "old" immigrants came from Western Europe, and they were mainly Protestant. The "new" immigrants came from Southern and Central Europe, and they were Catholic, Jewish, Eastern Orthodox, and unchurched in background. They came by the millions and they made the US more diversified and pluralistic than ever before. The traditional Protestant philosophy no longer dominated the nation.

The factories and the immigrants swelled the urban population centers. Urbanization meant that the rich and the middle-class would move uptown, while the old downtown suffered from atrocious tenements with disease and drunkenness and despair. Again the age old issue faced the church on how to minister to the poor and the suffering.

The Noonday Prayer Revival had resulted in a huge increase in the influence of the laity. Their volunteerism and philanthropy continued throughout the war and afterwards. With an increase in money and a force of willing workers the church searched for a new direction to handle the new problems. Old evangelicalism seemed like a weakened tune, and a new song rang out for personal holiness, sanctification, and perfectionism. As the revival of the laymen continued, even the voice of the women could be heard, too. However, the greatest lay person of the age was Dwight L. Moody, and he was, also, the strongest voice of the age.

The church, also, faced new challenges to their theology from science and scholarship. In 1859 Charles Darwin published his theories on natural selection or evolution. In 1878 Julius Wellhausen introduced his theories on biblical criticism. He rejected the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. Although he was not the first, he disputed the historical reliability of the Isaiah, Daniel, and the Old Testament. The new thoughts on science, technology, Marxism, sociology, psychology, and comparative religion all questioned the established Western Christian world.

In past ages the opposition always seemed to be a single or at least a limited target. The church could always hope and pray for a revival. But, by this era America's religion had become so diverse and the social problems were compounded so much that Ahlstrom called the post Civil War transition a period of "strange formlessness." Moreover, when the church was forced to spend its energies in so many directions, they at least had the wealth and the lay people to meet the challenges.

While the revivals continued and personal spiritual growth was still emphasized, Clifton Omstead said, that never before had church membership been stronger, but their spiritual soundness was weaker. The wealth enabled the churches to avoid the "crudities" of the frontier age. Wooden churches with mourners benches and spirited singing by the congregation with lay preachers gave way to magnificent brick buildings with cushioned pews and robed choirs as an intro to an eloquent seminary-trained minister. Furthermore, most churches had a social stratification based on economic similarities, education, and ethnic background.

During the final decades of the 19th Century the Christian community responded to the social problems in many ways. The call for concern for the plight of the less fortunate was aligned under an all-encompassing term known as the "Social Gospel." Many social and service organizations sprang up to meet the needs of people. The institutional church had a gymnasium, handicraft center, library, perhaps a parochial school, maybe medical and even economic services. The church became concerned for not only the spiritual well-being, but for every aspect of the individual's life.

The Reconstruction and Negro Education:

As the armies returned home, the country set about the task of reconstruction to restore the Union, and to bind up the nation's wounds, and to give this nation under God a new birth of freedom. However, the rift between the North and the South grew even larger. Lincoln's plea for reconciliation died with him in too many cases. In the South Southern Presbyterian theologian Robert Lewis Dabney declared, "What! forgive those people, who have invaded our country, burned our cities, destroyed our homes, slain our young men, and spread desolation and ruin over our land! No, I do not forgive them." In the North at New Haven Theodore Thornton Munger exclaimed that the South was only being punished "for its sins." Regretfully, retaliation ruled and rather than restoration. As the federal government attempted to arrange reconciliation, the rift between Congress and President Johnson grew greater, too. While Southern governments passed Black Codes, the President vetoed the Congressional policies on re-admission to the Union, political and civil rights for the Negro, and a freedmen's assistance bill. When the Radical Republicans impeached the President, the Methodist Episcopal general conference devoted an hour of prayer for his deliverance, and the African Methodist Episcopal Church prayed for his conviction at their general session. Meanwhile the federal troops entrenched the carpetbag governments in the South.

For the freedmen they had little concept of freedom or the reality of it. Their greatest interest was in religion and education. Booker T. Washington said, "The great ambition of the older people was to try to read the Bible before they died." Without jobs they had time for religion and it was reported "that baptizings among Negroes were as popular as were operas among whites." The opportunities for jobs, land, or private business were restricted by the other Southerners, who were suffering some of the same postwar struggles. When the US Congress passed the Freedmen's Bureau and other Reconstruction legislation, they hoped that Negro rights and economic openings would occur.

The Freedmen's Bureau was the first federal relief agency aimed at aiding the distressed. It gave rations and medical services to blacks and whites. Under the leadership of General O.O. Howard they tried to establish labor contracts and resettle lands especially for Negroes. Although it faced opposition from Southerners and experienced the corruption and fraud like everything else during this era, the Bureau was extremely successful in the field of education. When the agency ceased in 1870, there were 4,329 schools with 247,333 students, and the Bureau had spent $5 million dollars in educating the Negroes. In 1869 there were 9,503 teachers in the freedmen's schools in the South. The Bureau claimed that schools had been set up even "in the remotest counties of each of the Confederate States." Booker T. Washington called it "the most striking example of Christian brotherhood and benevolence in the annals of mankind." White teachers and philanthropic aid came from the North. Many of the teachers were women paid by the American Missionary Association. George Peabody of Massachusetts set up a $3.5 million fund for Southern education and particularly for Negroes. It was the first great philanthropic fund and it lasted 46 years. The John Fox Slater fund for "colored education" would be established to "confer upon them the blessings of a Christian education." Eventually the two funds united.

General Samuel Chapman Armstrong, the son of Christian missionaries to Hawaii, founded Hampton Institute for manual training of freed people. Booker T. Washington, the most famous Hampton graduate, established Tuskegee Institute as a vocational school with a purpose for the Negro to move "up from slavery." Other institutions like Howard, Fisk, Atlanta and some twenty other colleges blossomed. Schools were established at every level. Booker T. Washington observed, " It was a whole race trying to go to school." He, also, wrote that "the best forces of the republic - the state, the Christian philanthropists and the grateful beneficiary - are all working harmoniously together to prepare the children of former slaves for the proper and high duties of citizenship."

According to John Hope Franklin the second great relief agency was the Negro church. While none of the pre-Civil War churches re-united immediately after the war, the African Americans experienced phenomenal growth in their own independent churches after the emancipation. Kenneth Scott Latourette called the church growth of the American Negro membership between 1815-1914 "one of the greatest of all achievements of the Christian faith." The African Methodist Episcopal and the Negro Baptist churches reached 700,000 members by the end of the Reconstruction. In 1860 only 11.7 percent of the Negroes were church members, but by 1916 forty-four percent were church members which was exactly the same as the whites.

The church was the first social institution in America fully controlled by Blacks. It was during this period that religion and politics blended into the Negro culture and the Black pulpit. W.E.B. DuBois pointed out the minister's importance when he said, "The Preacher is the most unique personality developed by the Negro on American soil. A leader, a politician, a 'boss,' an intriguer, an idealist." Even with a modest elementary education, it was the only profession open to a Negro man. According to James Weldon Johnson, a 20th Century secretary in the NAACP, the preacher had "the greatest single influence among the colored people of the United States,"

A unique fund raising idea was originated by the treasurer of Fisk University George L. White. He borrowed money to send the Jubilee Singers to Oberlin, Ohio in 1875. They sang Negro spirituals and work songs at the National Council of Congregational Church's meeting. Quickly, the all-Negro group became an attraction and went on tour throughout the North and Europe. Within seven years they raised $150,000 to finance the building of Jubilee Hall on the campus of Fisk University.

Despite such advancements northern enthusiasm declined and southern opposition became more zealous. The older Radical leaders left office. Some Republicans became disenchanted with the corruption during Grant's administration. Unfortunately, one carpetbag politician even preached that Jesus Christ was a Republican. Some of the church agencies lost interest and abandoned the cause. When the Freedman's Bureau ended most of the white teachers returned to the North.

In the South white supremacists increased the call for home rule. Also, the rise in violence by the secret societies like the Ku Klux Klan even wearied the best intentions and mildly won over Southerners, who did not approve of the methods. When Congress granted amnesty to ex-Confederates and passed laws against the Klan, Northerners felt justified that they had put forth enough effort toward the Reconstruction.

In the election of 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes was given the Presidency in a Congressional compromise that returned the South to their own rule. All the troops were removed, and the carpetbag governments collapsed. The white majority voters returned to power, and the Solid South Democrats called themselves "Redeemers." Unfortunately, the Negroes were restricted from voting and ended up mostly as sharecroppers.

The symbolic end to the era occurred when President Hayes placed flowers on the Confederate graves in Chattanooga, Tennessee on May 30, 1877. The practice had originated in Charleston in 1865 when James Redpath and a some Negro children put flowers on the graves of Union soldiers. The event became a national holiday called "Decoration Day." It mark an end to the era of "bloody shirt politics" and was called a day of reconciliation.

Ironically with the close of American slavery, an American newspaper story exposed the world's darkest story of slavery in Africa. The 19th Century's most famous newspaper story in the New York Herald the serial of Henry Morton Stanley's search for the famous Scottish missionary-explorer David Livingstone circulated an appeal to end Africa's slavery. It, also, served to recruit missionaries. The enlistment was so successful that for the first time in history a continent became a Christian majority in a single century.

Education and The Church:

When the Civil War ended the nation renewed its drive for universal education. However, only one state, Massachusetts, had a compulsory attendance law and that was weak. The education system had 7 million pupils, but only 3 percent got beyond the eighth grade. Ninety percent of the Negroes were illiterate. The old aristocratic attitude continued to oppose the school tax. The upper class preferred private and church influenced schools that were financed by private donations.

Education was under state control because of the 10th Amendment in the Bill of Rights. The first attempt at federal aid to education was the Morrill Act of 1862. It was aimed at vocational education. This land grant act founded the A & M colleges. It was, also, the beginning of federal aid to education.

The standard teaching methods were reflected in an 1847 book by David P. Page. For a half century his opinion was typical, when he wrote, "there would be no objection to teaching generally accepted Christian doctrine in the public schools or even directly teaching religion."

Methodist professor William Warren Sweet wrote that "the most important single influence in organized religion by the end of the 19th Century was the tremendous increase in wealth in the nation." The wealth changed the buildings, the educational institutions, and the congregations of the churches. They were transformed into middle-class assemblies with prominent, respected business families heading every church. Their charity and philanthropy was an example for all to follow.

Education was the major beneficiary of their gifts and endowments. The Methodist church was the most prodigious. The US Commissioner of Education reported in 1903 that of the 464 universities in the nation 76 were Methodist institutions, and of the 923 secondary schools under denominational control 109 were Methodist schools.

The Sunday School was a major emphasis of the Protestant church. In 1872 B.F. Jacobs instituted a plan for uniform Sunday School lessons. An interdenominational committee wrote a curriculum with a progressive system of scriptures for different ages and levels of understanding. Jacobs and Dr. John Vincent persuaded the Fifth National Sunday-School Convention to adopt the idea.

In 1874 John Heyl Vincent, a Methodist minister, began a training program for Sunday School teachers at Lake Chautauqua in New York. It expanded into a popular education assembly that featured a variety of lectures, discussions, and even college credits. The Daily Vacation Bible School originated as another summertime Bible program in New York City in 1899.

The unchurched, the unaffiliated, and especially the young were the main Sunday School targets of Protestant Christianity. In many places in America the "Bible classes" overshadowed the regular worship service. It was Sydney Ahlstrom's opinion that the US Sunday Schools produced "the most pious and knowledgeable laity in all of Christendom." While all agreed that the religious education was the first the responsibility of the home, most expected the church and the school to supplement the family's efforts. The Roman Catholics and Missouri Synod Lutheran developed a new innovation with the parochial school system. The Catholics argued that the government should contribute financial aid to their schools. However, the Lutherans not only objected to government funds, but they refused to take any of them. Another issue Bible reading in the public schools was opposed by the Catholics.

As the nation was changing and becoming more diverse and pluralistic, education was in transition, too. In ages past schools were upper-class, private, classical and Christian based. But now, with the new wave of immigrants and the emphasis was on the common person. The American education system was an eclectic training ground for citizenship, democracy, literacy in English, some vocational skills, and the "three R's." As the "modern" and "secular" ideas became more influential, Christianity and the Bible were having less of an influence on the curriculum.

The Holiness Movement:

Before the Civil War American Christianity was dominated by the evangelical emphasis on salvation. After the war the emphasis on the Christian life was the post conversion experience of a changed life known as sanctification or separation from sin. Part of this doctrine came from the Methodist teachings of John Wesley on perfection and some came from Finney on "entire sanctification." A potpourri of regeneration terms were used to describe this "second blessing" or "second work of grace." Officially, the general term became "holiness." The movement started before the Civil War and continued afterwards. The teachings of Phoebe Palmer spearheaded the perfectionist revival as early as the 1830's. She was the founder of the ladies Tuesday prayer meetings for holiness in the Methodist church. The first National Camp Meeting for the Holiness movement was held in the summer of 1867 in Vineland, New Jersey. For ten days over 10,000 followers listened to speeches on Christian holiness. Before the camp closed they organized an Association to Promote Holiness with Rev. John Swannell Inskip, a young New York City Methodist pastor, as their President. Also, Bishop Matthew Simpson, who was a circuit rider and a college president of DePauw, surfaced as one of the better Methodist "holiness" preachers.

While the movement emerged from the Methodist bodies, it attracted followers from other Protestant groups. The next year in Mannheim outside of Lancaster in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country the Second National Holiness camp meeting drew 25,000 attenders and over 300 preachers. The crowd was an interdenominational group from almost every state. It was one of the largest of the century. It marked the renewal of the camp meeting days. It, also, was characterized by the Methodist emotion and enthusiasm of earlier times. The closing night communion was usually the fervent high point for the campers. In 1869 they met at Round Lake, New York. In 1870 three national meetings were held, and by 1872 it moved to the South.

When the "Shepherdess" Phoebe Palmer died in 1874, the movement was in full bloom outside the Methodist Church and even reaching Europe. The holiness emphasis on living a life void of conscious or deliberate sin was attracting many disciples. It did not result in any single new denomination, but splintered into many loosely aligned and independently connected fellowships. The conservative wing resulted in the Church of the Nazarene, the Pilgrim Holiness Church, and the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana).

Another branch of the movement led to a number of Holiness and Wesleyan groups, and the Christian Missionary Alliance Church which was founded by A.B. Simpson, a leader on holiness ideas. When the holiness writers expanded on the term "entire sanctification," they referred to it as a "baptism of the Holy Spirit." This eventually spawned the Pentecostal churches and the Assemblies of God denomination.

Those, who joined the movement, sought a higher Christian life of holy living according to the Bible. They had a strong emphasis on the Holy Spirit and a New Testament church like after Pentecost in the Book of Acts. Although there was allot of talk about unity, many went their separate ways. In the opinion of Melvin Dieter the movement resulted in "the largest group of new church organizations which America ever produced in so short a time." Also, since the book of Acts was widely read, they studied the prophesies of Joel and the latter days. They accepted the popular premillennial views of the 19th Century. Consequently, they were more interested in social improvements and ushering in Christ's return than they were with evangelism. Oswald Chambers born in Britain in 1874 observed, "The holiness movements of today have none of the rugged reality of the New Testament about them. There is nothing about them that needs the death of Jesus Christ. All that is required is a pious atmosphere, prayer, and devotion." And "If you accept this concept of the holiness movement, your life's determined purpose will not be for God, but for what you call the evidence of God in your life." Nevertheless, in an age of greed and dishonesty where the mainline denominations were run like businesses with wealthy businessmen leading the church boards, the holiness movement tried to be a genuine Christian church like Jerusalem in the days of Acts. Their hope of restoring the post-Pentecost fellowship was along the lines of the best days of the Puritans and the Pietists. They expected purity, and love, and good koinonia, and a work of the Holy Spirit - now! (in the present age). Unfortunately, their vitality is not strongly remembered in the 20th Century. Perhaps part of the reason is that the movement separated from the old main-line denominations.

Dwight L. Moody:

A continuing impact of the 1858-59 revival was the growth in ministries by laymen. Over the same period to the end of the century the nation experienced a postwar boom in business and industry. American Christianity reaped the benefits from both in the work of D.L. Moody. He was a "babe in Christ" during the awakening, a very advanced "babe," and a salesman in the shoe business. He applied his business knowledge to the successful big city campaigns in Britain and America. William McLoughlin rated the 19th Century evangelists by saying, "Charles Finney made revivalism a profession, but Dwight L. Moody made it big business."

He was born in Northfield, Mass. in 1837. Shortly after his father's death when Dwight was four, his widowed mother had the entire family baptized at the Unitarian Church. It was Moody's only baptism. His schooling ended in the seventh grade, so he was never ordained to preach. At age seventeen he went to Boston to work in his uncle's shoe store. He quickly became the leading salesman in the store.

He attended the Mt. Vernon Congregational Church in Boston. He was assigned to the Sunday School class of Edward Kimball, who was instrumental in his conversion. It was undramatic. While visiting the store and talking about Christ, Mr. Kimball just placed his hand on D.L.'s shoulder, and Moody made a simple, quiet, unemotional decision to trust in Christ. He recalled the event by saying, "here is a man who never saw me till lately, and he is weeping over my sins, and I never shed a tear for them." When he applied for church membership his testimony seemed vague about how he "accepted Christ," so three persons were assigned to disciple him in the way of salvation. Ten months later he was given membership, but by then he was ready to leave Boston.

In 1856 he went to Chicago to earn his fortune in the shoe business. His goal was $100,000. However, he joined the Plymouth Congregational Church and served in many ways. He invited the youngsters from the streets to his Sunday School class, and founded his own North Market Sabbath classes which grew to fifteen hundred members. President-elect Abraham Lincoln even visited a Sunday School class. Moody soon gave up his job and became a city missionary. He did home visitations and welfare activities for the YMCA. He, also, became engaged to British-born Emma Revells, whose brother was the famous publisher Fleming H. Revells. They were married in 1862.

When the Civil War broke out, Moody served in the Christian Commission and the YMCA by visiting the soldiers on both sides and passing out Christian literature. He ministered from Fort Douglass in Illinois to the battlefields of Tennessee and eventually entered Richmond with General Grant. He witnessed to the captor, the prisoner, and the wounded. Nine times we went to the battlefield. General O.O. Howard said of Moody, "His preaching was direct and effective, and multitudes responded with a confession and promise to follow Christ."

After the war he became President of the YMCA (1865-69) and proved to be a remarkable fund raiser among the wealthy businessmen. The trustees of his stock company included B.F. Jacobs, George Armour, Cyrus McCormick, and John V. Farwell. In 1867 Farwell Hall, the first YMCA building in the world, was built at a cost of $159,000. The building was consumed in the fire of 1868 and was rebuilt only to be destroyed in the great Chicago fire of 1871.

In 1870 Moody made a decision that forever changed the methods of American revivalism. At the YMCA convention in Indianapolis he invited Ira D. Sankey to be his song leader. For almost 30 years they co-labored to present the gospel. Their innovation set the standard for future mass evangelists. They were models for Sunday and Rodeheaver, Graham and Shea, and many lesser known pairs.

In 1872 while on YMCA business in Britain, an evangelical leader named Henry Varley made this challenge, "Moody, the world has yet to see what God will do with a man fully consecrated to Him." When Moody and Sankey were invited to substitute in a London pulpit, four hundred people responded after the sermon. Moody decided that mass evangelism or revivalism was his calling and he would return to Great Britain.

In 1873 Moody and Sankey began two years of evangelism in the British Isles. They, also, adopted several successful changes in revivalism. First, Moody used the British practice of inquiry meetings or "after meetings" rather than the Finney anxious bench. Eventually he used decision cards so pastors could follow up those, who made decisions. Also, they had the Sankey hymnbook published. It was 16 pages and it was sold for 12 cents each. It immediately became a best seller and made a million dollars, but neither Moody or Sankey took a penny of it. Moody re-introduced the noon prayer meeting, but it was in preparation for the evening meetings. As many as 6,000 attended the noonday meetings. Again the secular press picked up on the religious frenzy like in 1859. The Earl of Shaftesbury said that Moody was " the right man at the right hour."

Moody's message was a simple, clear presentation of eternal life in the style of a layman, whose only text was the Bible. The educated clergy criticized him for his lack of theological principles. The erudite said that his speech had slurs and slang, and some "ain'ts," and he didn't always use the King's English. However, Moody's target was the unchurched and the poor, and consequently the common audience identified with his message. A surprising response came from young people, who had been raised in the church by faithful parents, but they left the church as adults. Also, a large number of church goers came to be revived by Moody's preaching and Sankey's singing. Very few of the poor attended the meetings. At times Moody criticized the Christians for sitting up front and taking seats away from the poor, unsaved, and unchurched. Nevertheless, capacity crowds followed the American pair throughout the British Isles.

For two years Moody and Sankey traveled around England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Moody preached Bible stories and Sankey led easily memorized hymns which he played on a small, portable organ. It was said that Sankey sang the gospel while Moody preached it, and as many made decisions during the singing as during the preaching. By the end of the campaign 3 to 4 million people had been reached. The London meetings lasted the final twenty weeks and attracted 2,500,000 with some crowds reaching 20,000 in the Agricultural Hall. The pair had become world famous and America anticipated their return to their homeland.

They returned to the United States in the summer of 1875. Moody was now a national religious folk hero. When he held small revival meetings in his mother's hometown of Northfield, the activities made the front page of the New York newspapers. After the new reports of their British success invitations poured in from the excited American church people. Delegations from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago with offers for his meetings. Moody's first requirement was interdenominational unity. Philadelphia said that they had two hundred ministers in agreement with the movement, and they had started on a tabernacle for the location. However, he accepted the invitation by his good friend Rev. Theodore Cuyler in Brooklyn first.

In Nov. 1876 the Philadelphia campaign was arranged through the efforts of John Wanamaker, the Christian businessman of five and dime fame. Wanamaker renovated the old Pennsylvania Railroad Freight Depot at a cost of $20,000 out of his own pocket, and purchased 10,960 chairs for the Moody evangelistic meetings. The banner over the podium read "I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people." For two great months overflow crowds of over one million attended with an estimated 4,000 converts. President Grant, the governor of Pennsylvania, and senators and representatives were in the audiences.

In New York City P.T. Barnum's Hippodrome on Madison Avenue, which is the present site of Madison Square Garden, was the principal venue for the Moody meetings. By now the Moody methods were familiar. Sankey soothed their hearts with congregational singing. The message urged sinners to "come forward." With the Bible in his hand he waved for them to come to the "inquiry rooms." His homey homily simple said, "Until the heart is made right all else will be wrong." Even the New York Times agreed, "the work accomplished by Mr. Moody in this city for private and public morals will live." The attendance was one and a half million.

Finally in October of 1776 Moody and Sankey returned to Chicago to a hometown hero's welcome. The city was practically rebuilt from the great fire. An 8,000 seat tabernacle had been built at a cost of $21,000. Overflow crowds warmed the winter campaign which saw 5,000 people respond at the evangelistic services. The city and its people were overjoyed with what they called a "Pentecostal visitation."

Cities and committees lined up for the evangelist. Local pastors and laymen followed a standard procedure outlined by the Moody organization. Tabernacles were built for around $20,000 to $30,000. Funds were raised to finance the campaigns. The average weekly cost was $5,000. Famous businessmen and laymen gave money in advance to a "Guaranty Fund" to cover the expenses. Handbills were distributed and the meetings were always advertised "No Collection" would be taken. After 1878 Moody decided not to use the tabernacle system because of the expense. The meetings were held at churches, and he tried to stay longer for up to six months.

Moody was a tireless worker always trying to reach the masses. Each year he campaigned in big cities for several months and made brief stops in smaller one. In 1877 he went to Boston and received opposition from the Unitarians and the Roman Catholics. The press even ridiculed his five foot six and 280 pound frame. They criticized his diction because he said, "done" for "did" and he mixed up some verbs. Nevertheless, Moody methodically worked his plan. Nothing was spontaneous. Three services a day: a morning inspirational meeting, a noonday prayer time, and the evening evangelistic service. No hand clapping, shouting, or gyrations occurred. Moody gave the message and motioned with his Bible to come forward, while Sankey and a choir of maybe a thousand sang invitation hymns. The seekers were led to inquiry rooms. The coercion was gentle like the hand on his shoulder when Dwight trusted Christ with Mr. Kimball. From Boston in 1878 the pair continued throughout New England and Baltimore. The next year to St. Louis and Cleveland, and then the Pacific coast. In 1881 they returned for another two year campaign in Great Britain. Back home in 1884 they made a tour of small American cities. In 1887 Moody went to Palestine and preached on Calvary on Easter Sunday. He made another tour of the British Isles in 1891-92 and a return to Palestine. In 1893 at the Chicago World's Fair, celebrating the anniversary of Columbus' voyage, two million people heard D.L. Moody preach. J. Edwin Orr called it "his greatest campaign." The next year Moody went to Mexico City. His final campaign was held at the 15,000 seat Convention Hall, the largest site of his career, in Kansas City in 1899. He became ill after several days and went home to Northfield. He died Dec. 22, 1899.

Although his preaching was always for the saving of souls, his secondary passion was the educating, the discipling, the perfecting of the saints. He came to the conclusion that the inquiry room was not enough training. He developed 15 suggestions for growth through daily Bible studies. He always encouraged every inquirer to join a church quickly. He criticized the habits of "smoking, chewing, drinking, horse-racing, dancing, card-playing Christian," but he still majored on the issue of their redemption, first.

His second great work, and perhaps his greatest legacy, was training a corp of Christian workers. In 1879 he established Northfield Seminary for Girls. In 1881 Mt. Herman School was founded for boys. The Bible Institute of Chicago was born in 1886 and became the now famous Moody Bible Institute. In the early days it was called the "West Point of Christian Service." Throughout his life conferences were always an opportunity for spiritual growth whether they were for Sunday School, the YMCA, students, the Christian Workers, or the ones at Northfield. The Student Volunteers Movement for world missions grew out of one of the 1886 Northfield conference. It resulted in over 20,000 missionaries around the globe.

While the church leaders and theologians struggled to answer the controversies of the day, Moody gave uncomplicated answers from the Bible. On evolution Moody said, "It is easier to believe that man was created in the image of God than to believe his grandparents were monkeys." On "higher" criticism he answered directly, "The Bible! I just believe it." On the death of the famous atheist Robert Ingersoll in 1899 compassionately Moody advised, "We need to pray for the Colonel's wife and daughters."

Although Dwight L. Moody was an itinerant evangelist in the truest sense, it was estimated that he traveled over a million miles in his lifetime, and he addressed over a 100 million people. One eulogist pondered, "How many millions have been saved through his life, no one can tell." This rural-born, common layman received the financial blessing of the rich and famous of his day, and he preached to every level of the social spectrum from Presidents and world leaders to street urchins and the unemployed poor. He laid the ground work for every mass evangelist in the 20th Century, and his influence on Christianity will continue into the 21st century. He remains an inspiration to every layman of what can happen to a man with a Bible, a concordance, and a topical study guide.

The Philanthropists

The national wealth of the United States grew from 16 billion dollars in 1860 to 87 billion dollars by 1890. The development of great business organizations and particularly those extending from the railroad industry resulted in immense personal fortunes for the leaders of these corporations. Many of these men, who were called "Captains of Industry," were active church leaders and generous contributors to charitable causes like churches, schools, hospitals, and orphanages.

The philosophy of philanthropy was promoted by men like Russell Conwell and Andrew Carnegie. The steel magnate called his benevolent wisdom The Gospel of Wealth. He applied Social Darwinism to business success and the "fittest" individuals. He gave away over $350 million dollars to colleges, research projects, the peace movement, and almost 3,000 libraries. Carnegie was known as an agnostic. He had a standing offer of $10,000, if anyone could prove to him the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday. Nevertheless, he still gave millions of dollars for church organs.

Dr. Conwell was a Baptist preacher. His Christian ideals were expressed in his sermon "Acres of Diamonds." His first lecture was in 1868 and after 6,000 lectures he had enough money to start Temple University. He said, "Money is power, and you ought to be reasonably ambitious to have it. You ought because you can do more good with it than you could without it. Money printed your Bible, money builds your churches, money sends your missionaries, and money pays your preachers...I say, then, you ought to have money. If you can honestly attain unto to riches in Philadelphia, it is your Christian and godly duty to do so."

John Wanamaker's Philadelphia department store was one of the most successful businesses in the world. He was head of the YMCA in Philadelphia, and superintendent of the largest Sunday School in the world at Bethany Presbyterian Church. He, also, served as Postmaster General of the US. When asked how he could hold so many positions at once, he replied, "Early in my life I read, 'Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you,' The Sunday School is my business, all the rest are things." At his store he had a specially constructed sound proof room where he spent 30 minutes a day praying and mediating on God's Word. He, also, conducted Bible studies for his employees, while he paid them on company time. He was worth $25 million dollars.

John D. Rockefeller, the founder of the Standard Oil Trust, tithed every dollar he ever made and taught Sunday School in the Baptist church for many years. He became a billionaire and looked upon himself as a steward of The Lord and his wealth as "God's Gold." After age 58 he devoted his retirement years to philanthropy and playing golf. He gave away 550 million dollars. As an avid golfer, he partnered with President Harding, Judge Landis, Harvey Firestone, even evangelist Billy Sunday, and many other famous people.

John Pierpont Morgan's banking business controlled the most wealth of the era an estimated 22 billion dollars. He had power in banks, railroads, steel, the nation's gold supply, and over 100 corporations. His art treasures started the New York Metropolitan Museum. Yet for all his wealth and power, his 10,000 word will summed up his final dependence; he wrote, "I commit my soul into the hands of my Savior, in full confidence that, having redeemed and washed it in his most precious blood, he will present it faultless before my heavenly Father; and I entreat my children to maintain and defend, at all hazard and at any cost of personal sacrifice, the blessed doctrine of complete atonement for sin through the blood of Jesus Christ, once offered, and through that alone."

Many of the great business leaders were active church and parachurch leaders. The meat packers the Swifts (Methodists), and the Armours along with Farwell & Marshall Field were YMCA and Moody supporters. Cyrus McCormick of farm machinery was a devout Presbyterian. Jay Cooke of the 1873 panic was a tither and an Episcopalian. His investment associate Daniel Drew gave money for a Methodist seminary. Railroad leaders Hill and Vanderbilt funded educational institutions. A Baptist Seminary was donated for John P. Crozer. John D. Rockefeller gave $78 million to University of Chicago and its Baptist School of Divinity.

A lesser known Chicago businessman Horatio G. Spafford lost everything in the Chicago fire. Nevertheless, his Christian faith became even more famous, when his wife and all his children died in a shipwreck. While shedding tears over the telegram, he wrote the famous hymn "It is Well with My Soul."

Contrariwise to the good intentions and efforts of the givers, the money was called "tainted." The ruthless business practices negated the philanthropic images of some churchgoers like Rockefeller, who was ridiculed with the nickname "Wreckafeller." Even Dr. Conwell lamented their triumph by referring to it as "that bitch goddess: success." A generation later their Horatio Alger countenance was given the revised title of "robber barons."

The Preachers and their Dilemma:

At the time of Moody's death revival preaching teams and philanthropic pursuits numbered in the hundreds. It was anticipated that J. Wilbur Chapman, a Presbyterian pastor in Philadelphia and New York, and Reuben Torrey, first President of Moody Bible, would abide on the same path. Charlie Alexander, a Moody Bible product from Tennessee, warmed up their audiences with his joyful music and his humorous rapport with the crowds. Although they never achieved the widespread appeal of Dwight L. Moody, Chapman published valuable papers on how carry on the work of evangelism. Torrey was, also, a significant author, and he established the Bible Institute of Los Angeles or BIOLA.

Samuel Porter Jones, an itinerant, Methodist preacher from Georgia, became known as the "Moody of the South." His gospel singer was E. O. Excell. Jones was known for his sarcasm and wit as he ridiculed everything from the evils of the city to the theology of the educated preachers. His colorful, rural humor was as effective as the professionals like Mark Twain. "Sam" never failed to offer an opinion on the issues of his time. During his evangelistic career in the South and the Midwest for over thirty years, he claimed 500,000 converts from audiences with 25 million listeners.

Benjamin Fay Mills developed his city-wide revivals into a business organization, which was called the "District Combination Plan." He had an Executive Committee to oversee the committees on finance, canvassing, music, advertising, and even the ushers which were assigned specific duties. His prayer meetings were called the "midweek Sabbath." His messages were thought to have a weak and liberal theology, so he lost credibility with the evangelicals. Although he drifted into a Unitarian ministry for a time, his administrative innovations were still respected.

While revivals attracted the crowds, and the evangelists and their gospel singers got the publicity, many congregations were served by faithful pastors. William W. Sweet said, "Perhaps at no period in the history of the American pulpit had there been so many outstanding preachers as in the last two decades of the 19th Century." At the top of the list were Phillips Brooks of Trinity Episcopal Church in Boston and Henry Ward Beecher of the Brooklyn Plymouth Congregational Church. George A. Gordon of Boston's Old South Church, T. DeWitt Talmadge at Central Presbyterian in New York, and New Haven's Congregational ministers Theodore Munger and Newman Smyth were classed as "princes of the pulpit" by Sydney Ahlstrom. Other historians include many over preachers and evangelists.

In spite of their reputations, it appeared that the preachers and that evangelical "old-time religion" could not answer the new encounters with the "modern" scientific theories in the 19th Century. The "old" White Anglo-Saxon Protestant principles no longer dominated the nation. Darwin's evolutionary theory and "higher" biblical criticism put the church on the defensive over the authority of the Holy Scriptures and the traditional explanation of Creation.

Charles Hodge of Princeton Seminary in his 1874 repudiation What is Darwinism? said that natural selection was a flat out contradiction to the doctrine of an omnipotent, omniscient Creator. His conclusion, which was accepted by Moody and his backers, was that Darwinism was atheism. In 1882 H.W. Beecher announced, "He was a Christian evolutionist." Lyman Abbott espoused a theory that God was the "one Great Cause" behind a "continuous development." Other compromise renditions moved toward what became known as "liberal Protestantism" or "modernism." Their accommodations were labeled as heresy by the evangelicals, who were now being called "Fundamentalists." The Christian response during the "first generation" of these theories on evolution, only resulted in a general acceptance of Darwinism. By the turn of the century it was estimated that three-fourths of the whites in America believed the theory. Some maintained that evolution's "survival of the fittest" was a justification for the idea of racial superiority. However, the supporters of Biblical Christianity remained committed to the Divine creation and the redemptive purpose of Christ for mankind's existence.

Meanwhile, the evolutionists continued to search for the missing link. All evidence showed that the major animal groups remained in their own phylum. Crossbreeding was impossible. Also, Darwin failed to explain the uniqueness of man's larger brain and memory, his power of speech, and his use of the opposable thumb. Even Darwin admitted his inability to explain man's conscience, and his concepts of God and the soul.

In 1854 the term thermodynamics appeared with an explanation of the transformation of heat into energy. The fact was clear that nothing in the universe was being created or destroyed; it was only being transformed and shifted around. During the 20th Century science caused more problems for evolution from the studies of DNA, statistical probability, and the Big Bang theory. Nevertheless, for some evolution became a scientific fact rather than a theory.

The second major assault on Christianity was the authority of the Holy Scriptures. In 1853 Hermann Hupfeld, a German theology professor, claimed that Moses was not the only author of Genesis and The Pentateuch. Others including Wellhausen and Graf joined the parade of "higher" critics on Bible inerrancy. Finally, in 1888 Nietzsche concluded that "God is dead." The 1895 Niagara Bible Conference responded with a list of fundamentals of the faith, and their cornerstone was "the Bible is the inspired Word of God without error."

In another new field of science archeology the ancient cities of Ninevah and Babylon were unearthed. Ironically, also in 1853, Austen Layard and H. Rassam discovered the "Flood Tablets" dating back to 2000 BC. The accounts were similar to the Bible. In each succeeding generation the archeological evidence would confirm the Bible's credibility and force the critics to admit their error.

A major 19th Century response to "higher criticism" was the Revised Version of the Bible in 1885. In 1844 a German scholar Tischendorf found the Codex Sinaiticus, a 129-page manuscript from Byzantine Emperor Constantine's fifty Bibles during the 4th Century. The exciting find was in a waste paper basket at a Norman monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai. Then, the British Parliament ordered a "language" adaptation of the King James Bible, and sixty-five English scholars spent four years to complete a "revised" version.

In the USA an American edition was produced in 1885 under the direction of William H. Green of Princeton Seminary. By 1901 it was called the American Standard Version. At that time the Presbyterian Church struggled over the inerrancy issue of the new texts. The discussions resulted in several heresy trials and the expulsion of several distinguished scholars from their denomination.

The Social Gospel:

Sydney Ahlstrom, who devotes an entire chapter to the topic, called the Social Gospel, "a movement which has been widely hailed at home and abroad as the most distinctive contribution of the American churches to world Christianity." The Social Gospel was the Protestant Church's response to the social problems which were created by the industrial and urban environments of the 19th Century. Their primary focus came from the post salvation responsibility for a moral and ethical attempt to change and improve the society by the regenerate Christians. The great church historian Ken Latourette explained that the Social Gospel, "sought to inspire Christians to strive to bring all society as well as the individual into conformity with the teachings of Jesus."

The movement was nothing new among Christians. The call for reform had happened in every revival period, and each generation has been challenged to have an impact on its surrounding culture. However in this age, the needs seemed greater, and the pleas came from leaders in many fields. The workers hoped the labor unions could win some protections, while bringing public attention to the long hours, low wages, and poor working conditionings. The greatest injustice was the child laborers. By 1900 one million children under 16 years of age were working in factories and that didn't include those in coal mines. The obvious solution was in education with a mandatory attendance to a certain age.

In politics the third parties petitioned the government to end the laissez-faire capitalism. They suggested that issues like the tariff, free silver, a single tax, and even that government control of private property might solve that social ills. While communism and socialism were being considered in Europe, the Populists and the Progressives in the US campaigned for at least some government regulations.

By the 19th Century an optimistic view of man prevailed that if you improved his environment man was perfectible. The new beliefs on evolution supported the approach that biologically mankind was making progress. The new social sciences of sociology and psychology avowed that you needed to change the society to get better individuals. They contended that the social problems could be eliminated by changing the institutions. Meanwhile the evangelical Christians insisted that the redemption of society began with the salvation of individuals, and that the needed change was a change of heart as spoken of by Moody. However, in the churches the leaders and many of the members were from the middle-class, who were employers, salaried people, farmers, and workers in service vocations. They believed that the "blessed" were the honest, thrifty, hard working, faithful church attenders. They were not sympathetic to the workers demands, when they heard of the violence of the Molly Maguires and the riots at the Haymarket Square and the Homestead plant. Many maintained that only a conversion experience by all would solve the evils in society and the sins of materialism.

Nevertheless, the leading spokesmen for the Social Gospel came from the liberal wing of Protestant Christianity not from the evangelical segment. Washington Gladden was a Columbus, Ohio, Congregational from 1882 to 1914. As an author and lecturer he became one of the major awakeners of the church's social conscience. He was well informed on the economic situation, the unions, and the place of the government in the economy. He advocated what he called "applied Christianity" or a spirit of brotherhood and cooperation rather than conflict and competition.

Josiah Strong, the Congregational minister at Central Church in Cincinnati, wrote Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis. The book was very popular among the expansionists. He argued that "the Anglo-Saxon, as the great representative of these two ideas..civil liberty..and pure spiritual Christianity..is divinely commissioned to be, in a peculiar sense, his brother's keeper." He organized a series of successful Congresses between 1885 and the Chicago World's Fair in which the nations leading social spokesmen spoke on their views. His platform called the church's attention to America's destiny and a need for urban evangelism. He revived the old Evangelical Alliance, but was forced out. He then organized the League of Social Service and championed the cause for social issues.

Walter Rauschenbusch, a second generation American, was the seventh successive generation in his family to be a clergyman. As the pastor at the Second German Baptist Church in New York City on the lower East Side, he saw first hand the worst slum in the world at the end of the 19th Century. His church was located near the notorious Hell's Kitchen. During his eleven year ministry he worked with Henry George and Jacob Riis to ease the suffering and despair in the poverty stricken area. He experienced an empathy for those he saw "out of work, out of clothes, out of shoes, and out of hope."

During his tenure at the Rochester Seminary (1897-1917) he penned the most influential books which defined the Social Gospel. With his first book in 1907 he eloquently showed Christians "what to do" about their faith in Christ and the "Kingdom of God on earth." His works earned him the title "Father of the Social Gospel in America." However, the Great War brought prejudice for his German ancestry and it, also, diminished the hopes of others for perfecting society and the social order.

By the 20th Century the movement had its critics. As Bernard Weisberger judged, "It might be a new form of heresy that Christianity should be more concerned with reforming society at large than with converting individuals." William McLoughlin wrote, "Social gospelers did not deny the importance of saving men's souls, but they believed that first they must change men's environment." Billy Sunday said, "Some people are trying to make a religion out of social service with Jesus Christ left out" and, "He sees the danger of magnifying it and ignoring Christ and His salvation." In 1914 Sunday said, "We've had enough of this godless social service nonsense."

With the election of Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and the legislation of the 63rd Congress many of the issues of the Social Gospel and the Progressive Movement were satisfied by the federal and state programs of the era. Even the leading social evil alcohol was limited by the prohibition amendment. However, as always happens future generations face new problems and the perpetual demands for reform remain continuously.

One epilogue that may outlast all the other persuasions came from Charles Sheldon. His sermon at the Topeka Central Congregational Church became the timeless and popular book In His Steps. The famous question on the dying lips of the fictitious unemployed printer was "What would Jesus do?" The book published in 1896 has sold millions, has never been out of print, and has been made into two movies. It has remained a social challenge to the lay people in the church to apply their faith on a daily basis in their communities for more than a century. Lately, the WWJD bracelet was brought to national attention when golfer Payne Stewart, who was wearing the bracelet when he won the 1999 US Open, died in a plane crash.

Organizations:

From the Civil War to the turn of the century the biggest change in the face of America was urbanization. Between 1870 and 1900 thirteen million immigrants entered the nation. Also, a steady stream of rural folks left their farms for the opportunities in the big cities. By 1900 forty percent of the population lived in metropolitan areas. The change brought huge problems, and according to E.S. Gaustad, "neither revivals nor reforms faced the problems of city and industry as squarely as new agencies and institutions created for this purpose."

Before the Civil War the Sunday School, the Young Men's, and the Young Women's Christian Associations had the best track record for ministering to the poor, the jobless, and the homeless. As early as the 1850's city rescue missions were founded to meet the needs of the down-and-outers in the cities. The Water Street Mission in the Bowery of New York City opened in 1872, and became the most famous of the slum ministries. The founder was Jerry MacAuley, who was saved from a wasted life at another New York mission.

The institutional church was another agency to meet the challenge of urban problems. It provided gymnasiums, libraries, dispensaries, lecturer rooms, sewing rooms, auditoriums, and other necessities to meet the physical, mental, social, and spiritual needs of the community. Thomas K. Beecher's Park Church in Elmira, New York was one of the earliest pioneers of the idea. St. George's Episcopal Church in New York City started this practice in 1882, and reached 4,000 communicants before the end of the century. Russell Conwell's church in Philadelphia adopted the same principles in 1891.

Historically, the Salvation Army has developed the best known urban ministry agency. It originated in Great Britain in 1865 by William and Catherine Booth, and it came to America in 1880. Commissioner George Railton and seven women officers started the American branch. Within ten years it was nationwide. They were quickly recognized in their blue uniforms playing gospel hymns with horns, cymbals, and brass drums on street corners. The "hallelujah lasses" did street preaching and even entered saloons. Starting in 1891 the Christmastime shoppers were enticed by the bell ringers to throw their change into the red kettles on a tripod.

The Salvation Army won respect for trying to rescue the lower levels of society which others were either unable or unwilling to reach. They provided food, clothing, and shelter, and in the early days had a successful outreach to prostitutes. They furnished services that no one else provided in those days like legal advice, first aid, life insurance, even a missing persons department.

Social settlements attempted to operate like the institutional churches, but they did not necessarily have a religious emphasis. The most famous was Hull House in Chicago. In 1889 it was found by Jane Addams, a devout Christian, who was raised in a Quaker family. Hull House was the prototype with services for the immigrants and minorities in the neighborhood. Miss Addams was the first to setup a health clinic and playgrounds for the slum dwellers. In 1931 she won a Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts for world peace.

In Denver in 1887 four clergymen and a woman conceived the idea of a citywide fund raising campaign to distribute money to their local charities. Their vision spread to hundreds of other cities and became the Community Chest which is now called the United Way.

There was, also, a marvelous growth of lay organizations for the young within the churches. Each denomination had its youth group. The Methodists had the Epworth League, the Presbyterians had the Westminster League, the Lutherans had the Luther League, the Episcopalians had St. Andrew's Brotherhood, and the Baptists had the Young People's Union. The total membership of these young disciples reached 2,820,540 by 1897.

The Roman Catholics, the fastest growing religious group and largest immigrant group, grew from less than 3 million before the Civil War to over 12 million by the turn of the century. Many moved to urban ghettos. Most experienced prejudice and rejection like the infamous sign "No Irish need apply." While Catholicism and democracy seemed at odds, the American church under the leadership of such conservatives as Father James Gibbons, the second American Cardinal, became assimilated and "Americanized." Even Pope Leo XIII supported the social legislation and the unions in his 1891 letter to the church leaders.

The Catholics in America were more activists than their European brethren, and they formed many social action groups. The Jesuits (men) and The Ursulines (women) conducted mostly educational work. The Sisters of Charity and the Sisters of Mercy worked in education, hospitals, and social services. In 1875 the Catholic Young Men's National Union offered recreation, evening, and vocational education. The Knights of Columbus were founded in 1882 mainly as a group insurance endeavor, but developed social and charitable concerns. By 1910 the Catholic Charities tried to coordinate efforts on a national scale.

If American Protestants had to pick a single issue that upset them about the Catholic, as well as the German customs, it was the "continental Sunday" which featured sports, games, merrymaking, and drinking. As the Puritan Sabbath was eroded, some issues were gradually accepted, but the alcohol and the temperance crusade expanded in animosity.

The Temperance Movement:

Before the Civil War the prohibition movement had won victories in Maine and 13 other states. During the war interest declined, and only Maine and Massachusetts remained dry after the fighting. A Prohibition Party was launched in 1869 and several other temperance organizations were born, but the WCTU or Women's Christian Temperance Union made the biggest impact.

The movement was born in Hillsboro, Ohio 1873 after a lecture stop by Dr. Dioclesian Lewis. On the day before Christmas a group of seventy-five women had gather for prayer and singing at the Presbyterian Church. Eliza Trimble Thompson, daughter of a former Ohio governor, led a march on a local, alcohol-selling drugstore for a pray-in. They did no violence. They prayed and sang and plead with the proprietor to end the alcohol sales. Daily hundreds of townspeople joined the march and widespread press coverage made the activities front-page news. Within days twelve other businesses succumbed to the pressure, and the Women's Revolution was on.

During the next year similar pray-ins occurred in other Ohio cities. Other states copied the methods and the crusade moved nationwide. In November 1874 delegates from seventeen states met in Cleveland to form the WCTU, which would become the most powerful women's organization of the 19th Century, and their banner was the white ribbon.

Frances Willard was elected the corresponding secretary. For the next two decades she more than anyone else made the WCTU a great organization. Sydney Ahlstrom called her "the single most impressive reformer to have worked within the context of the evangelical churches." She was a red-headed teacher, Dean of Women at Northwestern University, and a speaking member on Dwight L. Moody's platform team. She served as an officer for the Methodist Church and made many speaking tours for the cause of WCTU and other social causes. Although some tried to persuade her to limit her efforts, like Moody told her to avoid the Unitarians and stick to saving souls, her vigorous and talented leadership called for a "Do Everything" agenda. At her funeral someone observed, "the death of no other woman except Queen Victoria could have so stirred the world." In Ahlstrom's admiration he wrote, "Frances Willard had given American womanhood a new place in society and in the churches." The Congress of the United States after her death extolled her "the first woman of the 19th Century, the most beloved character of her times."

In 1893 the Anti-Saloon League was organized in Oberlin, Ohio. It was called the "Church at work against the saloon." Unlike previous organizations they maintained a single goal of bringing political pressure to get dry laws passed. They quickly became a national organization with a staff and offices in every state. They were well financed and the League successfully lobbied the politicians to pass dry laws and local options.

At the turn of the century Carrie Nation, a minister's wife, began her hatch-swinging campaign in Kansas. She was enthusiastically supported by the WCTU and most Protestant clergymen. She led a life troubled with alcoholics around her. She was called insane because of the madness which ran in her family effecting her grandmother, mother, daughter, and several other relatives. She was termed a religious fanatic and jailed over 30 times for her protests. She died of "nervous trouble" in 1911.

The ASL did not support Carrie Nation's efforts, but they did lead the Prohibition movement into the 20th century. After World War One the Prohibition (18th) Amendment was adopted throughout the nation. Although the cause failed, no one can deny the longtime under current and massive hope for some reform of the liquor problem.

The End of the Century:

Warren A. Candler, a Methodist bishop, who wrote Great Revivals and the Great Republic at the end of the 19th century, said of the future of mankind that "Evangelical Christianity is not only the security of the republic, it is also the hope of the world," and that "the Anglo Saxon nations..occupy the position of supremacy in the family of nations....now numbering 130 million....controlling one-fourth of the earth's land surface, having authority over one-third the world's population, owning one-half the world's wealth, and occupying every strategic point on the planet." Also, he concluded, "In view of the commanding position of the United States in this family of Anglo-Saxon peoples, some have ventured to affirm that as goes the United States so will go the world."

The World looked at America as the gateway to opportunity where one could become a Carnegie, Rockefeller, a Horatio Alger, or even President. Their reputation told of a growing middle-class with such advantages as hot and cold running water, leasuretime and the products for recreational shopping, and a commonness of bicycles, bathtubs, and even pianos or a phonograph. The glories in their cities like New York included a variety of cultural pursuits, diversions like Central Park, and amusement places like Coney Island. It was Kenneth Latourette's opinion in the 19th Century that, "much of Christendom was more prosperous than any large group of mankind had ever been."

However, the reality for the immigrants was more properly called by Lincoln Steffans "the shame of the cities." From 1892 to 1954 Ellis Island was seen as the "Golden Door," but, the unsuitable urban portal only offered slum housing with health hazards, either no jobs or at best sweatshops, and crime that was overlooked by politicians and police, who were influenced by too much corruption. After a 4-year panic during Cleveland's second administration and decades of deflated money, it was hoped that the federal government might finally involve itself in solving the problems rather than leaving them alone.

As they moved toward the new century, the United States view of the World changed. For three centuries America had been mainly concerned with their own continent. Their foreign policy had been mostly isolationist since the Monroe Doctrine. The purchase of Alaska was belittled as "Seward's Folly." Inclinations of colonies, or to take up the "white man's burden," or even the annexation of Hawaii were met with anti-imperialism emotions. The debate and the prospect of world influence converged on the Spanish-American War decision involving the Philippine Islands.

The exact reason how America got into the "splendid little war" with inept Spain usually centers around the Maine explosion or the yellow press journalism of Hearst. G.J.A. O'Toole gave this closing summation in his last line, "there seems to be but three answers to choose among: God, chance, or the impatient hand of destiny." Needless to say Admiral Dewey's quick victory in Manila Bay and the complete annihilation of the Spanish fleet off Cuba forced the US to accept a mini-colonial empire from the Caribbean to the Pacific or to give it back to Spain.

The final decision to annex the Philippines was in the hands of President McKinley. In his fourth and final argument he concluded, "there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God's grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow-men for whom Christ also died. And then I went to bed, and went to sleep and slept soundly." His choice forever changed America's course and the World's in the 20th Century.

From the outset the "war sermons" had the normal range from it was a crime to it was God's righteous cause. When the decision was made to take Puerto Rico and the Philippines and to manage Cuba, the Protestant churches joined forces in their religious "open door." It was William W. Sweet's opinion that, "No single factor has been more influential in developing interdenominational understanding and cooperation than the cause of missions."

The America churches were changed by this decision, too. In those days the Sunday School movement had developed an evangelistic work known as annual "Decision Days." However, if the American churches had a hope of revival or a zeal for evangelism at the turn of the century, it was directed toward world missions and the new brand of American colonialism. As someone said, "The cross will follow the flag."

No organization was better prepared than the Student Volunteer Movement, which began at Moody's Mt. Hermon school in Northfield at a conference for missions-minded students in 1886. This interdenominational movement followed the leadership of John R. Mott. He gave the clarion call in his 1900 book Evangelization of the World in This Generation. Under his ecumenical ambassadorship the organization sent out over 20,000 missionaries in the 20th century. Eventually his vision became The World Council of Churches, and he received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1946.

Throughout the 19th Century conferences and conventions for world-wide missions continued to grow and expand. Each organization and meeting seemed to attract delegates from more and more denominations and countries. In 1895 the Foreign Missions Conference of North America, including the United States and Canada, met for the first time. By 1900 a New York gathering included 162 missions board from the United States, the British Isles, and the continent of Europe.

To close the 19th Century and to not mention the government leaders would be careless and only trust the revisionist's versions. Too many times the government corruption is over scandalized and the meekness of the politicians is over played. Not enough is said about the honor and Christian character of our leaders. They were selected because of their standards and reputations.

Our Presidents were marvelous Christian men. President Hayes and his wife, "Lemonade Lucy," were active Methodists, who tried to keep alcohol out of the White House. President Garfield was preacher in the Disciples of Christ denomination. Presidents Arthur and Cleveland were both sons of clergymen, the first a Baptist and the later a Presbyterian. Benjamin Harrison was married to a Presbyterian minister's daughter, and he said that, "leading a man to Christ once was more satisfying than all the events of his Presidency."

President McKinley was a Sunday School Superintendent in the Methodist Episcopalian church, and he was outspoken about his faith in Christ. He, also, was a wonderfully devoted husband to his epileptic wife sometimes refusing to travel by train because of her health. Ohioans still praise his faithfulness because from the Capitol steps he would tip his hat or wave his handkerchief at his wife, who sat in her wheelchair at a Neil House window just for a glimpse of her husband, the governor of Ohio. The carnation became the State flower after his assassination.

Of the election of 1896 Sydney Ahlstrom said, "As in no other election, both candidates personified American Protestantism. Both William Jennings Bryan and William McKinley were reared in pious homes, educated in denominational colleges, and guided throughout their lives by the traditions and practices of evangelicalism." President McKinley died in Buffalo of an assassin's bullet, and Bryan, a Presbyterian layman, died after the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925.

Still not mentioned are the Christians, who made an impact in local government like "Golden Rule" Jones in Toledo and Tom Johnson in Cleveland or the crusade by Charles H. Parkhurst, a Presbyterian minister, whose preaching broke up Tammany Hall in New York.

Also, it must be mentioned that the most famous newspaper story of the 19th Century was the New York Herald's account of Henry M. Stanley's find of the famous Scottish missionary David Livingstone in Central Africa. Another great career of home missionary Sheldon Jackson was not detailed or his 40 year activities in the Rocky Mountains and Alaska.

All this and more led the great church historian Kenneth Scott Latourette of Yale University Divinity School to call the 19th century "The Christian Century," however no one could anticipate the phenomenal events of the 20th century. Finally, unforeseen to the World at the start of the 20th Century was the coming of the most significant Bible prophecy since Pentecost. No one could have imagined the regathering of the Jews to their own land and the founding of the State of Israel. In 1900 there was not a single Jewish village in Palestine and only about 60,000 Jews were scattered throughout their ancient lands. However, the idea was planted by an Austrian journalist Theodor Herzl in his book The Jewish State and his Zionist Congress in 1897 in Basil, Switzerland.

This monumental international drama involved the two most evangelical Christian countries Great Britain and the United States. The fulfillment of the prophecy and the dream would come from support by Winston Churchill and Harry Truman. Even more far reaching throughout the 20th Century would be for the Jew the hope of "next year in Jerusalem" and for the Christian the excitement over the "second coming of Jesus Christ."

Chapter 8, The Welsh-Pentecostal Revival 1900- 1920

The Western Civilization people looked forward to the Twentieth Century with optimism. Secular historians predicted a century of peace, prosperity, and progress even talking of a utopia. Religious authors gloried in the past of how divine providence had brought three revivals to America, and they trusted that the Holy Spirit would move again in the new century. However, a variety of opinions and prophecies were offered in their literature.

Reuben A. Torrey, the President of Moody Bible, wrote How to Promote and Conduct a Successful Revival with Suggestive Outline in 1901. He said, "Revival is in the air. Thoughtful ministers and Christians everywhere are talking about a revival, expecting a revival, and best of all, praying for a revival. There seems to be little doubt that a revival of some kind is coming, but the important question is what kind of revival will it be? Will it be a true revival, sent of God because His people have met the conditions that make it possible for God to work with power, or will it be a spurious revival gotten up by the arts and devices of man?"

Frank Beardsley closed his 1904 A History of American Revivals with these words, "there was a diminishing number of accessions to the churches, and indications were not wanting that the religious life of the nation was suffering a decline, but with the efforts now under way in various denominations, it is hoped that the opening years of this new century may be characterized by a sweeping revival which shall greatly increase the usefulness and spiritual power of the churches."

Leonard Woolsey Bacon's A History of American Christianity was published in 1901. He was so impressed by the Chicago celebration of the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus' discovery that he called it "those seventeen wonderful September days of 1892." He predicted that from their "World Parliament of Religions" that "a Christian union" would be a "divine event" of the new century, and the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches would combine their "ingenuity and resources" as fellow-Christians.

Josiah Strong, a leader in the Evangelical Alliance and the League for Social Services, wrote The Next Great Awakening in 1902. He called for a program of "Jesus' social legislation." He said that "the church should save men not souls" by transforming the selfish and competitive principals of modern capitalism. The next awakening would be a reformation of American social, political, and economic life through "divine grace," and not some more spectacular mass meetings by another sensational revivalist. This would be accomplished by "loving persuasion and voluntary cooperation" or when needed, by local, state, and national legislation. Supporters of the Social Gospel loved Strong's opinions, but the friends of old-time religion denounced him.

J. Wilbur Chapman wrote in 1903 in his Present-Day Evangelism, "America is fast following the steps of the old Roman Empire. The home is despised, children are an encumbrance, a poodle dog is of more value than a baby. Wealth and pride consume the lifeblood of the nation and aristocratic weaknesses sap our democratic vigor. And yet in the presence of all these discouragements, we confidently believe that the skies are brightening and that there is the assurance of the dawning of a new day. There is an increasing number in the Church too longing for better things. There is a great volume of prayer ascending to God in behalf of the unsaved."

The religious journals were filled with suggestions about 20th Century evangelism. George F. Pentecost, who had abandoned the field of itinerant evangelism, and George E. Horr, editor of the Baptist weekly, The Watchman, both felt personal evangelism by the laity and pastoral evangelism should be the methods of the future.

Amzi Clarence Dixon, a Baptist pastor in Boston and Brooklyn, became head of the Moody Church in Chicago. He published Evangelism Old and New in 1906. He called for "True Evangelism" that preached "new birth," "repentance and faith," and "winning souls to Christ." He denounced the new socialistic approach as "bloodless evangelism" and "academic evangelism" as "False Evangelism." Dixon said that colleges and academic institutions were turning into "hot-beds of infidelity or refrigerators of indifference." He pointed out that the only true revivals in the past were led by "believers in the inspiration and infallible authority of The Word of God."

Warren A. Candler, bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, wrote his Great Revivals book in 1904. His 10th and final chapter "The Next Great Awakening" provides one of the most detailed expectations for a 20th Century revival. He predicted a "revival of religion" where dead things would come to life. The revival would "conquer death" and give a "hope of new life." It would "regenerate a nation" and "inspire philanthropy." It would produce religious emotions that would "stir the heart," but not "the fanatical excitement, begotten of earthly passions."

Candler said that the next awakening would be doctrinal with "inspired truth" like Whitefield, Edwards, Stoddard, Wesley, Finney, and Moody preached. Would there be more great leaders? "Yes, mightier than in past awakenings." He, also, predicted new songs, and he said, "there are no great revivals without hymns." William McLoughlin called Candler's book "the most forceful and eloquent proponent of the nationalistic school of evangelicalism."

Premillennialism was not fashionable in middle-class churches at the turn of the century. Candler warned evangelical revivalists to steer clear of the pessimistic doctrine of the imminent second coming doctrine. He thought it was fatalistic and the world was not a wrecked vessel where only a few could be saved. After 1920 premillennialism reappeared in revival preaching.

While there was plenty of talk about revival, the climate in America was changing dramatically. Immigrants were pouring at a rate of almost a million a year. Most were coming from Southern and Eastern Europe of Catholic, Jewish, and Orthodox background. They were referred to as the "new" immigrants, who did not assimilate with the mainline traditions of white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, and Western European. They only complicated the problems of urbanization, labor unrest, and furthermore they looked different, they had different customs, and they spoke different languages from the "old" immigrants. Plus, they had no experience with Evangelical Awakenings or Protestant evangelism. Too many were unchurched, unsaved, and unfortunately even unwanted.

American Christians were still aware of the Laymen's Awakening of 1858. However, the average American church thought revival to impossible without an evangelist or the regular revival meetings on the church calendar. Nevertheless, the mainline denominations made preparations for an awakening, and some parachurch organizations began to pray for the new century and a possible revival, too.

The Methodists across the nation joined the "Twentieth Century Forward Movement." Their goal was to win two millions souls to Christ, and they appealed for twenty million dollars for the project. The Baptists, also, began to pray for an awakening in their annual revival meetings.

The Presbyterians Church (USA) even joined efforts for revival. Under the leadership of Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman, twelve hundred pastors united in a circle of prayer for revival. Special evangelistic services were held in all 1285 Presbyterian churches in 1903. They, also, called for interdenominational cooperation. The Methodists and Baptists praised their initiative.

From the hopes for revival and the vision for world evangelism came the first American attempt at a world-wide evangelistic tour. It was planned by R.A. Torrey, superintendent of Moody Bible, and Charles M. Alexander, who was a student at Moody Bible during the World's Fair in 1893. The tour started in 1901 in the South Pacific and went to Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. The evangelistic pair continued to Asia in China and India. After the British Isles they finished in Canada in 1906. Much credit for their success was given to the "prayer circles" of the wives back in Chicago.

However, when the revival occurred, it did not start in the United States. In fact according to James Edwin Orr, the greatest revival expert in history, it did not even begin with the phenomenal Welsh Revival of 1904-05. Orr claimed that it was worldwide, and it touched the most obscure places. It seemed to arise simultaneously all over the world. Like the 1858 Revival the early days of the Twentieth Century found their beginnings in prayer meetings.

The Welsh Revival:

The Awakening in Wales and the fame of Evan John Roberts was heard around the world in 1904-05. Evan Roberts was born in the village of Loughor near Swansea in 1878. His devout family was strongly involved at Moriah Church of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist denomination. He was a communicant by his teenage years. He attended meetings six days a week at his church, and he was deeply committed to praying for revival for over ten years.

He worked in the coal mines for twelve years, and then became a blacksmith. In 1903 Roberts entered Newcastle Emlyn Academy to prepare for the ministry. In his search for a deeper spiritual life, he crossed paths with Rev. Seth Joshua, an evangelist, who called for a deeper obedience to the Holy Spirit. During one of his meetings Evan Roberts came to the front, kneeled, and cried in agony, "Lord, bend me." While some observed it as an ecstatic emotional experience, Evan later gave testimony that a wave of peace flooded his soul, and that he felt ablaze to tell all of Wales about The Savior.

In October, 1904 under divine impulsion Evan suspended his studies and went home to preach the gospel. He was given permission to hold meetings at his home church in Loughor and its chapel Pisgah. He centered on four essential conditions for an out pouring of the Holy Spirit: first, confess of all past sins, do away with any trace of doubt, obey the Spirit promptly and unquestioningly, and finally, make a public confession of Christ as your Savior.

The second night the service lasted 3 hours, and within a week the crowds were staying until three o'clock in the morning. The second week the Moorish Church was overflowing with 800 people. Although the young layman was not an outstanding speaker, his passion and sometimes sobbing moved the crowds. He prophesied that he'd had a vision that 100,000 would be won to the churches in Wales.

Immediately large crowds began attending prayer meetings, and they lasted past midnight. There was no advertisement or publicity. Shop keepers closed early to get a seat in the crowded churches, and they simple put a sign in the window "Closed gone to prayer meeting." The spirit filled meetings stressed spontaneity by concentrating on the work of the Holy Spirit as people confessed their sins and Jesus Christ as Savior. At times the service only consisted of Evan Roberts opening with "Let's pray." South Wales was ablaze and within two months conversions numbered 34,000.

Everywhere changed lives were proclaiming in the Welsh tongue "Diolch Iddo" (Praises to God) or (Thanks be to Him). A pronounced decline in drunkenness and profanity was noticed in the coal mining regions. Some pit-men remained at prayer meeting throughout the night only to go directly to their jobs. The pit ponies provided the best witnesses to these new creatures in Christ; they could not understand their hailer's commands as old things like kicks and obscenities passed away. Also, a tavern keeper mourned that it took six months to sell the beer he had previously sold in six days. The Swansea County Police Court announced that they did not have a single charge for drunkenness during the 1905 New Years holiday.

At Cardiff during an International Rugby football match a Baptist Minister said that he had heard only one swear word in the crowd. When he reproved the offender, the man thanked him, and thousands of spectators began singing the hymn "Throw out the Life Line." The hymn "Bread of Heaven" became a popular song at the rugby games.

Within six months 100,000 converts were added to the Welsh churches. Spirit-filled gatherings were held in homes, barns, coal mines, quarries, and even a pig-sty. It was estimated that eighty percent of the people were still in the churches five years later.

Evan Roberts received invitations to speak around the world. However, he spoke almost entirely in Wales and in the Welsh language. He spoke once in Liverpool, but it was to Welshmen; and he only used a few English words. He only toured with a group of singing young women, and refused all requests for tours and even pictures.

Observers including R.A. Torrey came from other countries to see him preach. At one meeting where he intended not to speak, one foreigner complained, "I came to see Evan Roberts." Roberts replied, "You don't need to meet me, you need to know Jesus Christ." Mostly, Evan Roberts tried to avoid the limelight.

In 1906 he experienced two setbacks. Peter Price, a Congregational minister, and several others criticized Evan Roberts and the emotionalism of the revival. Also, Roberts health broke from exhaustion. He retired from public ministry and lived with friends until his death at Cardiff in 1951. Eventually his critics were discredited. Regardless without him the awakening continued and it spread. One of the first areas touched by the Welsh Revival was at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania where thousands of Welsh folks had settled in the United States.

The American Phase:

The tidings of the Welsh Revival kindled reports in every religious journal that a revival was coming. Every Protestant denomination published news of the spontaneous events in Wales. When the awakening among the Pennsylvania Welshmen occurred in December of 1904, it started a cleansing wave that touched every part of the United States in 1905.

During the first two months of the new year churches from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh were jammed with repenters coming out and confessing Jesus. Philadelphia claimed the greatest number of converts since the days of Moody and Sankey. The Methodists in Philadelphia avowed that they had 10,000 converts by springtime. The Baptists declared that every part of the state was experiencing revival.

The Northeast was ablaze. New Jersey reported that spacious churches were overflowing, and the "Young Peoples" societies were gaining new members at a rate of 10 to 300 percent. Newark said that "Pentecost was literally repeated." Atlantic City claimed that only 50 people remained unconverted in their town of 60,000. Town after town said that church life was being revived. In Schenectady, New York the local minister's association reported that all the evangelical denominations had joined for prayer, and that revival meetings were crowded at noon, afternoon, and evening regardless of the church. The secular press had daily columns with headlines on the "Power of Prayer," "Great Moral Liftup," "The Fires of Pentecost," and "Yesterday's Conversions."

New York City was having its best spiritual days since 1858. By April the awakening was throughout New England. Even without any organized evangelistic effort churches were experiencing responses everywhere. They came for membership, baptism, prayer, and especially for confession. In Danbury, Connecticut Daniel Shepardson, the wheel-chair evangelist, saw results and repenters. On one Sunday in Boston 150 professed conversion at Dr. A.C. Dixon's church. In Rutland, Vermont the union prayer meetings at the YMCA received such a response that they asked Dr. Dixon to help with the harvest. Within a week 450 inquired for instruction.

Even the most unlikely responses took place. At Northfield, the birthplace of D.L. Moody, the stories of the Welsh revival caused a wave of confessions and repentance at the Christian meetings. In Forest City, Maine where drunkenness was common and the churches closed for eight months of the winter, a revival broke out during the summer of 1905 affecting the entire state. Gloversville in New York's Mohawk River Valley reported a cross-section of converts: infidels, drinkers, moralists, black, white, Italian, Swede, American, fathers, mothers, and youths. In Boston the daily prayer meeting at the Old North Church became so crowded that businessmen expanded to other churches in the city. Throughout the Northeast church leaders agreed that this was not a man-made revival for they had planned nothing, but the Spirit of The Lord was upon the land.

The first phase of the awakening in the South took place in Atlanta. Nearly one thousand businessmen had agreed to pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They succeeded in establishing a midday prayer on November 2, 1904. In an overwhelming show of unity stores, factories, offices, saloons, amusement places, and even the Georgia Supreme Court closed their doors for the noon hour of prayer.

Louisville, Kentucky claimed the most remarkable revival in the city's history with conversions numbering 4,000 and 58 businesses closing for noon-day prayer meetings by March of 1905. The Presbyterians felt that the awakening was statewide. At the First Baptist Church of Paducah the devoted ministry of Dr. J.J. Checks ended with a blessing of over a thousand new members in 1905 just before he went home to The Lord.

Throughout the other Southern states the Awakening of 1905 followed a similar pattern. Reports in the churches and their religious papers covered the Welsh revival and Evan Robert's sermons. A hope of revival spawned evangelistic and prayer services. The leading denominations the Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Episcopal cooperated in unified meetings. Every place confirmed that there was a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit and a great ingathering of souls.

Norfolk, Virginia had a tremendous unified effort by their churches. In the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Georgia many local congregations reported the same results. In Florida the most prominent evangelist was Mordecai F. Ham, who became more famous after a teenager committed his life to Christ at the 1934 Charlotte, North Carolina crusade. The youth was Billy Graham.

The revival rolled across the Deep South and reached Texas by the spring. In Houston the churches were crowded and the gambling dens were closed. Dallas and Waco, including Baylor University, were moved by the Revival of 1905.

When news of the Welsh Revival reached the Midwest, intercessory prayer meetings sprang up in every state. In Michigan many places declared "the greatest religious revival in history." Adrian, Bay City, Grand Rapids, Saginaw, Marquette, Trimountain, and others proclaimed their finest spiritual awakening. Big cities and small towns, Baptists and Methodists all experienced revival.

In Ohio fifty Dayton churches enjoyed an extraordinary spiritual season. In Indiana ministers from throughout the state gathered in Indianapolis to share the results of the revival. From Illinois to Iowa a rising evangelist and former baseball player named Billy Sunday had a sensational season. The headlines in Burlington Iowa read "Billy Sunday has made a graveyard out of once fast town."

The spontaneity of the meetings was a similar characteristic of the Revival of 1905 whether in big cities or small towns. Sometimes the simple call like Evan Roberts "let's pray" was enough. Chicago had some great, unstructured noonday prayer meetings. St. Louis and Kansas City admitted amazing results at unprogrammed prayer meetings, especially the confessions of sin and the conversions to Jesus.

In Denver at the beginning of 1905 a team of ten evangelists, the most famous being J. Wilbur Chapman and W.E. Biederwolf, shared in a successful campaign that resulted in January 20th being an extraordinary day of prayer. Stores and every school closed. The Colorado Legislature adjourned. Churches and theaters were filled for midday prayer and evangelistic services with 12,000 in attendance.

On the West Coast Methodists reported a remarkable spiritual awakening throughout Southern California. In Los Angeles over a hundred churches cooperated with a team of visiting evangelists in meetings that had an attendance of over 180,000. In Oregon it was called the "Portland Pentecost" when 200 stores agreed to close from 11 to 2 for noonday prayer meetings. Seattle had a similar blessing when J. Wilbur Chapman preached. He had been called the "greatest evangelist in the country" by Dwight L. Moody a decade earlier.

At the end of 1905 every denomination reported membership increases of ten percent or more. The Methodist, the largest Protestant group, had 102,000 new members which was double their usual annual increase. The Baptists reported that baptisms were up over ten percent everywhere. The five largest Protestant denominations Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Episcopalian increased 264,253 members in 1905. The Protestants grew 150 percent more than the Roman Catholics, despite their overwhelming advantage from immigration.

The Awakening of 1905 had a similar spontaneous impact on the secular and Christian colleges across the nation. The World Student Christian Federation designated February 12, 1905 as a "Day of Prayer for Students." John Mott declared, "the rise of an unparalleled interest of men in spiritual things." On numerous campuses there was an increase in voluntary Bible studies and Bible classes, membership in Christian associations (particularly the YMCA), prayer groups, and evangelistic meetings.

Career preparations uncharacteristically reflected new spiritual goals with a marked increase in missionary studies and social action occupations. In 1896 two thousand students were in missionary studies, and in 1906 eleven thousand students were pursuing missions. The response was so great that the Laymen's Missionary Movement was founded at NYC's Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. Their meeting commemorated the 100th anniversary of the William's "Haystack Meeting." Under the inspiration of J. Campbell White they agreed to support and raise funds for the Student Volunteer Movement goal to evangelize the world in this generation.

Many college campuses were touched by the awakening. Among those that proclaimed memorable renewals were Yale, Cornell, Princeton, Rutgers, Trinity, Stetson, Baylor, Stanford, California-Berkeley, Seattle Pacific, Drake, Missouri, Northwestern, and Michigan. Taylor in Upland, Indiana spent the week of January 6, 1905 in prayer. They called it the greatest revival in the school's history.

In February 1905, an extraordinary revival occurred at Asbury College in tiny Wilmore, Kentucky. The school was practically closed because the classes turned into prayer meetings of confession, reconciliation, restitution, dedication and even of conversion. The event originated in a dormitory prayer meeting, when a Maryland student was called to be a missionary. The following day the Holy Spirit changed the regular chapel service as a student the famous young E. Stanley Jones showed a remarkable transformation. After graduation Jones became the best known Twentieth Century missionary to India.

The Pentecostal Phase:

A distinctly unique and a minority phase of the 1905 Awakening was the Pentecostal Movement which found its birthplace in the United States. Tracing its ancestry to the Holiness Movement and the Keswich Conference of the Methodist Church, Pentecostalism centered on the Holy Spirit baptism, a post conversion experience, and particularly the gifts of glossolalia (speaking in tongues) and divine healing. Their message was taken from the second chapters of Joel and Acts, and was directed at the nominal Christians, who were often lethargic in their beliefs rather than unconverted. Like the orthodox Christians they believed in the infallibility of the Scriptures, and they interpreted these events as signs of the "last days."

Critics contented that the spectacular gifts "ceased" after the apostles, and that everyone received the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation. They criticized the Pentecostals for satanic influence and as heretics. Some judged the glossolalia as "gibberish" and "the babbling of fanaticism." Their meetings were described as "nerve racking" and called a "free vaudeville show." The opposition resorted to mobs, violence, and even arson. Nevertheless, the Pentecostals encouraged the emotional excesses by quoting the Apostle Paul's admonitions "do not forbid speaking with tongues" and "quench not The Spirit." Although sporadic occurrences of tongues had taken place after the Reformation particularly with the Irvingites in Britain, the American roots took place in 1901 at Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas. Charles Fox Parham, a Holiness evangelist, was teaching on Acts 2 on New Years Eve, when a student Miss Agnes Ozman requested that he lay hands on her so she could receive this Holy Spirit baptism. She experienced glossolalia. Classes were suspended and the entire student body began praying sometimes for hours. Others began speaking in languages, also.

Parham and his students began a series of one-night stands throughout Kansas and Texas over the next several years. They mostly faced ridicule until the meetings in Galena, Kansas when divine healings and conversions were proclaimed. By 1905 their efforts were called "Pentecostal" and "Full Gospel" meetings. A total of 25,000 believers and 60 preachers were the result of Parham's campaigns.

The movement finally gained worldwide fame in Los Angeles. It began when Pastor Joseph Smale of the First Baptist Church traveled to the Holy Lands to rest and recuperate after an illness. On his return trip he stopped in Wales to witness the awakening by Evan Roberts. In his home church Dr. Smale began to admonish his congregations to experience a similar reviving by the Holy Spirit. Hundreds fell to their knees and began sobbing, repenting, being converted, and speaking in inarticulate prayers. The meetings continued for fifteen weeks and the Glendale church had similar happenings. Nonetheless, the Baptist deacons rejected the activities.

In February of 1906 Dr. Smale moved downtown to Burbank Hall and started the "First New Testament Church." One charter member Frank Bartleman, a volunteer skid row mission worker, began exhorting and praying that a Pentecost-type revival would occur. When it happened his diary and his reports to Christian magazines chronicled the events.

The most famous figure of the revival was William J. Seymour, a Black Holiness evangelist from Texas. He was blind in one eye and was trained by C.F. Parham in Houston. He gathered believers at the home of Richard and Ruth Asberry on Bonnie Brae Street to receive this Holy Spirit baptism. When it happened the crowds became so great that the building collapsed; and they were forced to move to an old Methodist church at 312 Azusa Street.

The two story frame building in the heart of the Los Angeles industrial section was named the Apostolic Faith Gospel Mission. The main room was 40 by 60-foot and had unmatching backless chairs made of planks and old nail kegs. It was as plain as their preacher Brother Seymour, who spoke in the common language of the uneducated and in an unemotional manner. He was very humble and displayed no pride. He did not thunder his voice or flail his arms. He urged worshipper to speak to outsiders about their need for Jesus as Savior and not about speaking in tongues. No subjects or sermon was announced. There was no platform so everyone was on the same face-to-face level. Everything including the speaker was spontaneous at Azusa Street.

Beginning in April of 1906 for three years sessions were held day and night, and all-night prayer meetings became common. The crowds were inter-racial, and as Bartleman explained, "the color line was washed away by the Blood." Speaking in tongues was the main feature of the meeting, but healings were not uncommon, too. They had no hymnbooks or instruments so they sang everything from memory. It was called "the church without a collection plate." Early on the San Francisco earthquake (April 18th) provided a shock that increased the size of the crowds. The press and the regular church people came as inquisitive spectators and at times to scoff at the occurrences. However, seekers made pilgrimages from around the world, and every night several dozen ministers and foreign visitors were in attendance. Most were "tarrying" to receive the manifestations of the Holy Spirit that Paul wrote about in First Corinthians chapters12-14. Azusa Street became the shrine of Pentecostalism for the world to view.

From Azusa Street in Los Angeles the Pentecostal flame burst forth to other places. William H. Durham, at first a skeptic, received the Spirit baptism and returned to Chicago with a supernatural ministry. Eudorus N. Bell, who eventually became the first chairman of the Assemblies of God, carried the Pentecostal message back to Fort Worth, Texas. Charles H. Mason, a Negro from Memphis, received the baptism of the Spirit at Azusa Street, and founded the Church of God in Christ, one of the largest Black Pentecostal bodies in the world.

After Azusa G. B. Cashwell was a spirit-filled revivalist, who carried on successful meetings in Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. He brought the Pentecostal experience to one A. J. Tomlinson, who was the influential leader of the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee). In Dunn, North Carolina Cashwell's message brought the tongues experience to J. H. King. Later King became the Bishop of the Pentecostal Holiness Church.

Although the Apostolic Faith Gospel Mission on Azusa Street spawned only 42 churches and less than 5,000 members, its influence stretched around the globe. Some, who were baptized in the Spirit there, carried the message directly to Toronto, Italy, and China. Their spiritual experience resulted in a clear zeal for evangelism. They were strongly moved by Acts 1:8, "when the Holy Spirit is come upon you, you will be my witnesses (to the uttermost places - that is worldwide)."

The news of Azusa Street caused Pentecostalism to branch out to other areas, too. In Nyack, New York the Christian Missionary Alliance school had one of several Pentecostal outbursts within their fellowship. At a CMA mission in New York City Tom Ball Barratt, a Cornishman, spoke in tongues and sang in the Spirit. The experience started Barratt on a missionary tour that spread Pentecostalism to Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Britain. He, also, toured Switzerland and Germany on the continent with the message.

By 1910 Pentecostalism had spread not only throughout the United States and Canada, but it had become international. It had reached Europe, India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Latin America. Every continent with population had Pentecostals. Though less than 100,000 they would grow to millions. Eventually, it would be called the "third force" in American Protestantism.

Unfortunately the movement was tarnished by the treatment of two leaders: Parham and Seymour. Parham was charged with sodomy; however, rumors and innuendoes left followers believing that he might have been framed. Seymour' leadership was crippled when his mailing list of 50,000 readers of the periodical titled the Apostolic Faith was stolen by two white women in the movement. Also, other Pentecostal leaders differed with his views on the positive witness of an interracial Christian church in a segregated nation of those times. By 1914 Azusa Street was just a local Black church. Regrettably, the historians of the Pentecostal movement omitted the founding work of William J. Seymour. Only in recent years his reputation and respect has been re-established. Christian History chose him as one of "the ten most influential Christians of the Twentieth Century."

Worldwide Results

The worldwide impact of the 1905 Awakening was almost totally unnoticed by Christian historians. Only J. Edwin Orr, the great English revival writer, was able to discern the global effects in his 1973 work The Flaming Tongue. Most students of the era favored the glorification of the numerous evangelists and their big business, revivalism methods rather than the wide-spread God-inspired renewal. However, Dr. Orr was able to document how all six of the populated continents experienced a noticeable, and a spontaneous spiritual awakening around 1905.

Around the world the stories of the Welsh Revival had an encouraging touch on Christians and missionaries everywhere and immediately. The news quickened the British Isles and particularly the coal-mining regions. When the Torrey-Alexander tour arrived, offerings for missions increased dramatically. The continent of Europe experienced only a slight lag in revival events. The biggest thrust took place in France among the less than one million evangelical Protestants. They experienced an awakening, a unity, and a growth that had not been seen before. The German Tent Missions enjoyed inspiring attendance's where thousands received the gospel under the big-tops. A spiritual renewal penetrated Central Europe and even Russia. Scandinavia was especially moved after the 1904 earthquake took place in Norway.

In Latin America the distribution of Bibles gave a spontaneous impetus to the revival. In a seven-year period evangelical Protestants increased 180 percent. Pentecostalism was strong in Chile and Brazil. Valparaiso had been called one of the most wicked cities in the world. After the 1906 earthquake it was christened "the Azusa of South America," and spiritual tremors traveled throughout the continent.

In the Pacific realm the familiar Christian missionary strongholds were encouraged by the reports from Wales. The 1902 Torrey-Alexander campaign proved to be a blessed preparation for a later harvest by the evangelicals of Australia. As the Welsh reports reached mission stations throughout Oceania, prayer meetings increased from Hawaii to Madagascar. The conviction of sin was everywhere, and "seekers" became "finders" of the Lord Jesus Christ. The doors for missionaries opened in the Philippines and even the Dutch East Indies.

On the continent of Asia prayer meetings and Bible studies turned many hearts to confessions, tears, and commitments to Christ. There was a marked increase in requests for communion and baptism in lands where Buddha and Mohammed reigned. During the first decade of the century in India Christianity increased sixteen times faster than the Hindu religion, and ninety-percent of the nurses became Christians. At Mukti in India the dramatic story was reported about a girl with a visible fire around her during a prayer meeting. One single church in Burma baptized over 3,000 in 1905. In China after a hundred missionaries were martyred during the Boxer Rebellion, people were awakened to prayer and finally a revival broke out in 1908-09.

The most dramatic revival occurred in Korea after Japan gained control during the Russo-Japanese War. Some even paralleled their revival with Wales. Once a persecuted church Christianity quadrupled and became the strongest single organization in Korea. The revival was called the spiritual birth of Korean Christianity.

In Japan a well-planned evangelism campaign called "Taikyo Dendo" began in 1901. It meant "aggressive evangelism" or "Forward Movement," and it reaped over 5,000 confessions of faith in Christ in five weeks. Originally the house-to-house visitations took place in Tokyo, however, the program spread to other big cities. When the war and a famine took place, the news of revival in Wales and Korea renewed the movement. The preaching of two Moody Bible graduates Kimuri and Nakada with several Japanese pastors and evangelists led to the Japanese Evangelical Alliance. In Tokyo in 1907 John R. Mott succeeded in holding the first international World's Christian Student Federation conference in Asia.

The continent that experienced the greatest progress in Christianity was Africa. Annually for the first two decades of the 20th Century there was a uniform increase in Christians over twice that of the population growth. Although the Boer War was called "the last war of gentlemen," evangelist Gipsy Smith had a successful harvest of converts with his "Mission of Peace." Also, John Mott, the apostle of unity, visited South Africa in 1906 and healed the wounds of war with a conference of great cooperation between the Protestant ministers. Missionary activities heightened and awakenings were numerous in all areas of Africa, even into the once "impossible" Islamic regions of North Africa.

The results of the 1905 Awakening were emphatically worldwide. Overseas Christianity, which had been mainly a Western religion, gleaned the greatest international harvest in history. In many places gains of hundreds of thousands souls were common. The seven leading US denominations grew by two million in a five year period. While it appeared to some that each awakening was weaker, J. Edwin Orr argued that in reality the scope of Christianity had a wider influence with each outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In the case of this awakening the ingatherings in Wales, Chile, Burma, and Korea were the greatest in their histories.

Billy Sunday

During the first decade of the 20th Century professional evangelists enlisted the practices of big business organizations and the showmanship of vaudeville. They well may have ridden on the coattails of the 1905 Awakening. These evangelists used some version of Chapman new "simultaneous citywide evangelism meetings," and they gave entertaining tirades against the general sins of society. Their crusades attacked drinking, card playing, dancing, and theater going. They belittled any public figures and local ministers, who did not support their cause.

However, the climax of their message was the free-will offering and the salvation call. By this time the "converts" could be harvested by either raising their hand or standing when everyone was in prayer (heads bowed and eyes closed). Even decent people could walk the aisle and sign a "decision card." Rodney "Gypsy" Smith made the entire process more passable by announcing that it cost $4.92 to produce each convert. After all as J. Wilbur Chapman advertised, this was "The King's Business."

In 1904 because of concerns over the system the Interdenominational Association of Evangelists (IAE) was formed at a Bible conference in Winona Lake, Indiana. It was an attempt to enjoin most of the evangelists of the day into some unified practices. They held annual meetings until the mid-1930's.

By the second decade of the century 650 revivalists and 1,200 part-time campaigners conducted an estimated 35,000 revivals between 1912 and 1918. Their theme included a mix of social gospel, patriotism, prohibition, and old time religion. While Chapman and Torrey seemed to be the heirs to Moody's mantle in the first decade, in the second decade the most popular and spectacular evangelist was clearly William Ashley Sunday, who was better known as "Billy" Sunday.

Billy Sunday was born on November 19, 1862 on a farm near Ames, Iowa. A month later his father died of a disease while serving in the Union Army. He never saw his son. After many family struggles with poverty, Billy was sent to a soldier's orphan home in 1874. Although he never graduated from high school, he did lead the baseball team to the 1883 Iowa State Championship. It opened the door for an eight-year major league baseball career as an outfielder for the Chicago (White Stockings), Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia teams. His speed and base stealing gained him fame, and he was the first major leaguer to circle the bases in fourteen seconds.

One evening in the fall of 1887 Billy and five teammates got "tanked up" at a Chicago saloon. They were sitting on a curbstone when a band from the Pacific Garden Rescue Mission invited them to the service. He went to the mission. At the persuasion of Mrs. George Clark, wife of the founder of the mission, Billy Sunday went forward and publicly accepted Christ as his Savior.

He continued playing baseball, but refused to play on Sundays. On road trips he spoke at local chapters of the YMCA. He joined the Jefferson Park Presbyterian Church where he met his future wife Nell Thompson. In the off season he took public speaking classes at Northwestern University. When he gave up baseball in 1891, he took a full-time position with the Chicago YMCA at one-sixth of his baseball salary.

His position gave him experience with grassroots evangelism and an adequate income for his wife and two children until the Depression of 1893 occurred. Then, providentially, he was offered a job as the advanced man for the great evangelist J. Wilbur Chapman. He, also, served a time with Milan B. Williams. He learned all the details of a professional evangelists.

In 1895, when Chapman was called to a pastorate in Philadelphia, Billy Sunday was asked to be a replacement in Garner, Iowa for a one-week revival. It was the first of 300 revivals and the beginning of a 40-year career. During the first decade he preached mainly in small towns. By the second decade it was cities like Spokane, Toledo, Columbus, Boulder, etc. At the end of 20 years he was at the top and every metropolitan city wanted him.

His 20 most successful most successful revivals were held from 1912-21, when a total of 593,004 people hit the sawdust trail. The free-will offerings were over three-quarters of a million dollars. The New York City campaign was his most spectacular. It was a ten-week meeting from April-June of 1917. It was during the US's entrance into The Great War (W.W.I). At the sixteen-thousand seat tabernacle on Broadway and 168th Street the famous of society as well as the common unchurched masses were in the attendance of one and three quarters of a million. Sunday was at his best on sin and patriotism. His most remember statement was if "hell could be turned upside down, you would find stamped on the bottom 'Made in Germany.' He announced that the entire free-will offering of the final week would be donated to war charities. Overall 98,264 "trail-hitters" responded to his "Come, you (fill in the blank with: nationality, or position, or occupation)." It was the pinnacle of his fame.

Although many saw him as the culmination of Edwards, Finney, Moody, and others, Billy Sunday's success was attributed to his personality and his business organization. His revival corporation was the equal of Standard Oil and US Steel. It was referred to as "The Sunday Party." Several dozen directors coordinated everything from building the wooden tabernacles to the thousands of volunteers, who carried out the chores of the campaign. It took 50,000 the put on the New York meetings including the 5-10,000, who met for prayer at the "cottage meetings."

The key figures in the Sunday Party included his wife Nell or "Ma" Sunday, who acted as a business manager. The crucial advance man scheduled everything with the local ministers and laymen. Two men, who did nothing but supervised the tabernacles which were required at every revival. At the meetings the only person, who shared the limelight on the platform, was his choir leader. After 1909 Homer Rodeheaver was Sunday's suave, charming teammate. "Rody" warmed up the audiences with his congenial personality and musical skill which included the trombone, an instrument more for the circus than for worship. Rodeheaver was a success with on his own businesses in music publishing and phonograph manufacturing. For twenty years the two were a great compliment to each other's talents.

The half-hour "singfest" was like a pep rally or a political convention. The music was jazzy and patriotic, usually culminated with some old-time hymns. When Sunday finished his message, "Rody" broke in with a marching tune like "Onward Christian Soldiers," or "Softly and tenderly Jesus is Calling." The choirs, as large as 2,000 with two pianos, wooed the audience to the sawdust trial as Bill Sunday stood at ground level to greet them with a handshake.

The overwhelming attraction of Billy Sunday was his flamboyant preaching style as he spoke and moved in dramatic fashion on the platform. He was an overpowering speaker using 300-words a minute that kept every eye riveted on him. For every description he had a stream of rapid-fire, hyphenated slang terms. When he said, "the church needed fighting men of God," he said that it did not need, "hog-jowled, weasel-eyed, sponge-columned, mushy-fisted, jelly-spined, pussy-footing, four-flushing, charlotte-russe Christians."

He was a defender of muscular Christianity, American patriotism, womanhood, hard work, and especially "The Lord's work." He was most effective when using caustic barbs about the sins of the world such as booze, tobacco, gambling, dancing, theater-going, evolution, the liberal preachers, and the politicians, who would not vote for prohibition or Sunday blue-laws. He was a spectacular story teller especially when making a Bible story into a plain, practical pantomime of daily life.

The five-foot eight athletic Billy Sunday not only preached a muscular Christianity like using the phrase "Jesus was the greatest scrapper that ever lived," but Sunday displayed it on the stage. He ran, walked, skipped, bounced, and gyrated around the platform. Every story included some physical action that transfixed the observers. He would use a chair to fend the Devil, and then smash it over something on the stage. He portrayed a believer's entrance into heaven with a baseball slide, and ended with "Safe in the arm's of Jesus." He did handstands. He pounded the podium and jumped off the pulpit. Throughout the sermon he'd shed his coat, pull off his tie, roll up his sleeves, and leave the audience emotionally drained. The New York Tribune drama critic said of the Broadway superstar, "George M. Cohan has neither the punch nor the pace of Billy Sunday."

After 1920 the crowds did not follow Billy Sunday. He was almost sixty years old. His message was out of date for those who could not remember the values of the 19th Century. America was tired of crusades and causes. The Jazz Age of pleasure and Hollywood was more attractive. As Bernard Weisberger wrote, "Once more, a sinful world turned its back on the old-time religion." Only small towns and neighborhood churches call him to preach, and the big city super campaigns disappeared for the next three decades. Besides that the Sunday family had problems with their three sons, and George committed suicide in 1933. Finally, Billy concluded that only the Second Coming of Christ would end the problems of the Thirties. He predicted that 1935 might well be the year of fulfillment. The sensational revivalist died of a heart attack on November 6, 1935 at age 73 in Chicago.

While critics faulted his wealth, his irreverent language, and the sincerity of his converts, the life and times of Billy Sunday saw a significant swing in the respect for Christianity in America. Although he was ordained by the Presbyterian church without a seminary degree, nevertheless, he was the voice of old-time religion, the throwback to patriotic American virtues, and no popular figure his time could hold an audience like he did. During his forty year career Billy Sunday preached to 100 million people and he claimed a million conversions. In most of the cases he personally shook their hands at the end of the sawdust trails.

While some hoped that the evangelist would reach the unchurched, urban blue collar masses, Billy Sunday proclaimed he was "a halfway house between the brownstone church (of the rich) and the Salvation Army (of the poor)." He spoke the language of the middle-class, church-oriented, city dwellers from farm or small-town roots, and native-born Americans. If revival is an awakening of the church, Sunday built his reputation on calling the religious to "return to God," depart from their sins, and walk in decency; and he did it in a spectacular manner.

A Modern Church for a New Century:

Christianity entered the 20th Century facing even greater challenges from science, history, and the social and economic problems of the Industrial Age. Between 1860 and 1920 America had completely changed from a nation with a rural, small town character to a society with an urban, big city, industrial makeup. New ideas and changes produced a skepticism and doubt as to whether Christianity could meet the needs of modern times. Church leaders and theologians responded with everything from retreat and accommodation to a firm, steadfast orthodoxy.

While the nation centered on the material needs of the people, the Progressives passed legislation to solve the social problems, and the Social Gospel blossomed as a Christian's answer to the difficulty. Unfortunately, too many Protestants centered on Rauschenbusch's conclusions which said, "Social religion, too, demands repentance and faith: repentance for our social sins: faith in the possibility of a new social order." Meanwhile, a growing liberal wing moved away from traditional Christianity, and for the first time in American history a broad and influential theology was not evangelical.

The Modernists embodied the Enlightenment and German philosophies toward Scripture and God's revelation to man. The historic approach toward the supernatural and especially the redemptive purpose of Jesus Christ was abandoned by the movement. Scientifically, it was impossible to explain the miracles of the Bible. Even Jesus was only viewed as a historical figure and not as God or The Savior of mankind.

Some theologians took a liberal view that God was to be experienced primarily in nature and human reason. They viewed the Scriptures as poetic, mystical, and even mythical. It was nothing more than a flawed human record of history and certainly not a divine revelation. Therefore, reason was left as the final arbitrator of truth.

Another rising segment of liberal Protestants promoted Jesus as the King of love and the beautiful unseen friend. They wanted to eliminate doctrines and creeds, and particular the view of sinful, fallen man, who needed redemption. To them mankind was basically good without any serious sins and any preaching about the Cross was to be avoided. Horace Bushnell and Henry Ward Beecher paved the way for this approach.

Despite this, on the other side, defenders of the faith came forward to support the essential elements of the Christian faith against the eroding attacks of evolution, biblical criticism, and comparative religions. They became known as the Fundamentalists. From 1910 to 1915 R. A. Torrey and A. C. Dixon wrote a series of twelve small books designed to defend the truths of Christianity. Eventually 64 authors contributed to the undertaking. Lyman and Milton Stewart, wealthy oilmen from Los Angeles, financed the project and distributed 3 million free copies to seminary students and Christian workers throughout the nation.

The booklets were titled The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth. The central doctrines were namely: the Virgin birth of Christ, His deity, His substitutionary atonement for sinful mankind, His resurrection and Second Coming, and the authority and inerrancy of Scripture. Curtis Lee Laws, a Baptist editor, coined the term "fundamentalists." They were the conservative and honorable defense against modernism. By 1920 a large random Protestant following identified with their principles. As W. G. McLoughlin wrote "the vast majority of fundamentalists were respectable, pious folks who expressed their fervor by intensively devout praying, hymn singing, Bible reading, and soul-winning, At the same time the Protestant liberals found a strong voice in the The Christian Century magazine. Their editors saw fundamentalism as out of date and the Bible as a book of human origin. Also, historians labeled the fundamentalists as rigid, bigoted, narrow-minded, and "losers" for two battles that they neither sought nor desired to fight. The first was the Scopes "Monkey" trial in 1925, and the second was the Klan vs Catholic Presidential candidate Al Smith in 1928. Both will be found in the next chapter.

Another dogmatic expression "dispensationalism" grew in respect as the 20th Century looked more and more like the "last days" or the "end times." The modern roots came from J.N. Darby of the Plymouth Brethren in the 19th Century. However, the Scofield Bible published in 1909 helped popularize the ideas. Dispensationalists held that God dealt differently with men in different eras of Biblical history. Scofield held that man was in the sixth age of grace, and that the Millennium or thousand year Kingdom of Christ on earth was near. The Dispensationalists agreed that the premillennial return of Christ was imminent. Consequently, they placed a great deal of stress on prophecy and the literal interpretation of the Bible.

When World War One occurred, the tremendous devastation and the staggering number of deaths stimulated a greater interest in eschatology and apocalyptic literature. Also, the deviant sects of Christianity Seventh Day Adventists, Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), and the Jehovah's Witnesses claimed credibility by their interest in the Second Coming of Christ, and they increased their proselytizing .

Sydney Ahlstrom said that, "No aspect of American church history is..so difficult to summarize as the movements of dissent and reaction that occurred between the Civil War and World War I." The evangelical consensus had disappeared. Biblical inerrancy became the theological battleline. Some tried to accommodate evolution and higher criticism, while others firmly held that the Scriptures were "not the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit."

Regardless of the divisions, there were many attempts at ecumenical unity and interdenominational cooperation. In 1906 the Layman's Missionary Movement was born out a Nashville SVM meeting. They made plans to support the Student Volunteer Movement's goal to "evangelize the world in this generation." In 1908 thirty-three denominations formally joined the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America. Their preamble proposed a "oneness of the Christian Churches of America in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior." Also in 1908, Father Paul Wattson, the founder of the Atonement Frairs, started the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Protestant churches have joined with the Roman Catholic Church, and the January event is now celebrated throughout the world by most Christian churches. The Gideons began distributing free Bibles to schools, hotels, hospitals, and prisons in 1908. In 1911 the Men and Religion Forward Movement was launched with a goal to win three million to the churches. It was an interdenominational movement with an emphasis on men joining the churches. It was called the greatest pre-war crusade, and their social service division was the most active component of their crusade.

Historians look at the impact of causes by the results of an era, and certainly many social changes took place during the early decades of the Twentieth Century. Usually religious revivals result in some reforms in the surrounding society. Since the 1905 Awakening was either forgotten or unnoticed until Orr's 1973 book, it is debatable how much influence the event had on the Progressive Movement. The muckrakers exposed the evils in society with their sensational journalism. The election of 1912 proved the popularity of reform. Woodrow Wilson, son of a Presbyterian minister and an outstanding Christian, tremendously changed the Presidency when he took the leadership of legislation from the Congress. Social legislation was passed in banking, the tariff, trust busting, temperance, consumer products, and democratic opportunities.

By this time social reform clearly won a platform in most denominations and Christian organizations. One outstanding initiative was the Goodwill Industries. Edgar J. Helms, a Methodist minister in Boston's poor South End, conceived the idea of collecting unwanted household goods and employing the poor to refurbish them. Income from the resold goods paid the workers' wages. By 1907 the title "Goodwill Industries" was adopted from a Brooklyn shop. Another Christian endeavor The Volunteers of America was an offshoot of the Salvation Army. It was founded by Commander and Mrs. Ballington Booth. The Volunteers were at first noted for their work in penal institutions and particularly the Hope Halls work with released prisoners. Nevertheless, the optimism about mankind's basic good and his hope for progress was shattered, when the four year Great War lingered on the Western Front in France.

The Great War: The First World War:

John R. Price in his book America at the Crossroads: Repentance or Repression pointed out the similarities of the four awakenings in America or what he called periods of national repentance. Each was followed by a war: The First Great Awakening then the War for Independence, The Second Great Awakening then the War of 1812, The Noonday Prayer Revival then the Civil War, and the Awakening of 1905 followed by World War One. He contended that "Our Lord, therefore, again used a national repentance of His believers to prepare them for them tragedy of war."

Before 1914 America was a latecomer to international affairs, and to Europe's imperialistic competition. The Monroe Doctrine had been not only a shield from European expansion, but also a deterrent for American involvement. The US had only dabbled in foreign affairs like the Spanish America War in Cuba and the Philippines, the Open Door in China, and the European Conferences such as the Hague and Algeciras.

In 1913, America looked back to the faded memories of the Civil War, and they scheduled a re-enactment for the 50th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg. The surviving veterans from each side lined up to stage Pickett's third-day charge. When the march toward Cemetery Ridge was repeated, the old soldiers on both sides dropped their weapons and embraced on the former battlefield in tears and weeping. Little did they realize that the pains of the past war would be experienced by a new generation in a foreign fray.

In 1914 Europe was an armed camp. Germany, after its 1870 unification, was anxious to have a colonial realm like Britain and France. France hoped for revenge from the quick and embarrassing defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. Austria's Francis Joseph, who had ruled since 1848, was related to the Czar, the Kaiser, and the King of England. Great Britain controlled one-fourth of the World, and the popular saying was that "the sun never sets on the British Empire." Germany pleaded that they only wanted "a place in the sun." Finally, when Germany invaded Belgium with the Schlieffen Plan, Sir Edward Grey, British Foreign Minister, said, "The lights are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."

After the first offensive was stopped at the Marne, the Allies and the Central Powers suffered through a four-year stalemate. Everyone was shocked at the devastation and the carnage of the modern weapons. The trench warfare produced despair and discouragement. The battles over the same ground at Verdun, Ypres, and the Somme were referred to as "the bells of Hell." The poison gas, the Big Berthas, the machine guns, the dreadnoughts, airplanes, tanks, submarines - the slaughter would kill ten million and wound another twenty million. It was nothing like the World had ever experienced before. Some thought it was the Apocalypse, and others began talking about Armageddon. In the end only a fresh supply of American doughboys would go "over there" to break the deadlock.

Meanwhile in America, President Wilson established a policy of neutrality and ran for re-election on the slogan "He kept us out of war." The Friends, Mennonites, and Brethren (Dunkards) maintained their traditional position of pacifism. President Wilson set aside Sunday Oct 4, 1914 as a day for prayer. The New York Times front page read Whole Nation Prays for Peace. Most of the clergy upheld the appeal.

At the outset America had a large minority with German roots and did not appear to prefer a side. However, stories of atrocities in Belgium and the sinking of the Lusitania swayed the Yanks to the Allies. While the government soon used propaganda to promote war hatred, the ministers were quick to abandon neutrality and to preach a "holy cause" against the German tactics. Ironically, when Congress voted for a declaration of war on April 6th 1917, it was "Good Friday."

Newell Dwight Hillis, minister of the Plymouth Congregational Church of Brooklyn, became far and away the most popular and outstanding lecturer on German atrocities in the war. Dr. Hillis made trips to Europe and gave first-hand reports. On a tour to sell the second Liberty bonds he spoke 400 times in 162 cities. Listeners were aghast by his narrative about German soldiers with syphilis, who raped French and Belgium women, and then mutilated their breasts as a contamination warning to the next German soldier. He included his vivid details and even pictures in his book German Atrocities. Former President Teddy Roosevelt, who volunteered to lead a regiment to France said, "I would rather have Dr. Hillis as chaplain than any other man I know."

Ray Hamilton Abrams, University of Pennsylvania Sociology professor, wrote Preachers Present Arms, and he enumerated the vigorous role that the churches and the Christian leaders played in the war efforts. His chapters "The Holy War" and "The Church as a Servant of the State" testify that the church and the State were partners in the promotion of the war hysteria. While some have said that Abrams exaggerated the wartime role of the churches, Sydney Ahlstrom defended him by saying, "No successful refutation has been forecoming - nor is one likely to appear."

Nevertheless, activities for the war in the church buildings were numerous. Ladies met to roll bandages, knit socks and sew sweaters. Liberty loans and war saving stamps were practically sold from the pulpit. Raising quotas for every kind of war activity was preached from the pulpits. The local Red Cross units held their meetings at the church. Many ministers followed the government's propaganda outlines. William W. Sweet offered this opinion, "At least for the period of World War I the separation of church and state was suspended."

As the nation mobilized for war, the government began to manage the economy. The man selected to lead the Food Administration was Herbert Hoover, a Quaker and an outstanding humanitarian. He had organized the feeding of Belgium after the German invasion. The commitment of "wheatless and meatless" days and the voluntary vow to planting "victory gardens" by the civilians enormously stimulated food production.

When the draft or Selective Service was established, Congress, also, approved the status of chaplains and decreed a ratio of one for each twelve hundred soldiers. The War Department used the YMCA as their semiofficial agent for chaplains and volunteers to operate the canteens to comfort the men in the training camps and eventually overseas. However, there were numerous religious agencies to minister to the armed forces, and an overwhelming spirit of cooperation between the religious groups.

The Federal Council of Churches organized a General Wartime Commission to coordinate the efforts 35 different groups of Protestant churches, the YMCA, YWCA, the American Bible Society, and similar institutions. The chairman was Robert E. Speer, a prominent Presbyterian layman, who had a brilliant career on Foreign Missions Boards and the Presbyterian Church.

The National Catholic War Council made a huge impact on the Catholic Church in America. They recruited about a thousand military chaplains. The most famous chaplain of the war was Father Francis Patrick Duffy of New York's "Fighting 69th" of the famous 42nd Rainbow Division. Also, the Knights of Columbus raised over $14 million for the Church's war work.

When the men went overseas, they were accompanied by over eleven thousand civilian service people. They came from every religious organization and national groups like the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Jewish Welfare Board, and the Library Association. The response was so great that the United Fund Drive of 1918 set an American fund-raising record of $200 million. Local church congregations were the focal points for the volunteers and quotas of the war effort.

During the final campaign of the war in the Argonne Forest America was given its most celebrated soldier of W.W.I Alvin Cullum York. He almost single-handedly captured 132 German soldiers and silenced 35 machine guns. When he marched them back to the Allied line as POW's, an officer asked, "How many do you have," and Sergeant York replied, "I got a-plenty." The redhead rifleman from Pall Mall, Tennessee was honored by numerous groups and received the highest medals from France & the US Congress.

His life became a Hollywood movie which won Gary Cooper an Academy Award as Sergeant York in 1941. Most history book neglect to include York's Christian testimony. His future wife Gracie Williams let him know that she had no intentions of marrying a hard-cursing, hard-drinking, gambling ruffian like he was. At a revival meeting in a small country church, Alvin York gave his heart to Jesus. Of his conversion he said that he was "struck down by the power of love and the Great God Almighty, all together." In the movie version they had him struck by lightning. However, the movie does include his spiritual struggle with the 6th Commandment "Thou shalt not kill," and his pacifist reluctance to go to war initially.

Finally, when the Armistice silenced the guns, it was suppose to be Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points that would end "the war to end all wars." But at Versailles, the "Tiger" Clemenceau wanted 1871 undone and restitution from Germany. He said that, "President Wilson's Fourteen Points was "worse" than Almighty God. He had only ten." Clemenceau, also, quipped that Wilson was, "talking like Jesus Christ." However, in the end, the US Senate rejected the League of Nations and the peace settlement did not survive twenty year.

The War stimulated all kinds of interest in Bible prophecy. Jerusalem was captured by British General Allenby. He was a devout Christian. He said that he received his battle plan to just fly planes over the city, while reading the book of Isaiah (31:5). The most holy city of Christianity was liberated from Moslem rule for the first time since the seventh Century without firing a shot.

Even more astounding was the springtime of modern Zionism. In 1917 Great Britain made a pledge to Chaim Weizmann that their nation would secure "a national home for the Jewish people." It was called the Balfour Declaration. Who can know God's timetable, but perhaps this was the bud for graffing the slumbering natural branch back into the eternal vine. (Romans 11).

While the First World War was limited mostly to Europe, a worldwide influenza epidemic known as the "Spanish Lady" reached every country on the globe by 1919. The virus killed 20 million people and affected half the world's population. It, also, produced a hysteria of blame on the Kaiser, the Jews, the Bolsheviks, and any foreigner immigrating to another country. Bible students pointed out that this was the "beginning of sorrows" from Jesus' Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24). "Nation shall rise up against nation...and famines and pestilence and earthquakes." Some asked, "Was this that pestilence before His return?"

W.W. Sweet gave this final generalization, "No war has ever helped the cause of vital religion. Religion always slumps as a result. At no time in the history of organized religion in America has it been at such a low ebb as after our great wars. How could Christianity be expected to thrive in an atmosphere of hate? Hate is horrible anywhere- but hate in actual war is hate at its worst."

Chapter 9, The Search for Renewal

The Roaring Twenties:

After The Great War America made a dramatic departure from her historical code of conduct. World War One left the nation disillusioned about world responsibility and making it safe for democracy. The war destroyed the optimistic adage that mankind was getting better and that good was triumphing over evil. Many Americans preferred to look inward and away from Europe, and they liked the sound of returning to normalcy. The biggest change was the new morality as seen in the "Jazz Age" or "Roaring Twenties." Frederick Lewis Allen in Only Yesterday called it "The Revolution in Manners and Morals."

The doughboys experienced the European morality, and they liked Freud's theories on inhibitions and sexual repressions. The new freedoms or rather temptations on sex enticed many American males. Cigarette smoking was considered "sheik." When the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act were passed, prohibition was looked at with disdain and was deliberately disobeyed. Men flaunted the new freedoms by carrying gin-filled flasks on their hip.

Even more drastic was the behavior of women. The flapper became the model for womanhood. She bobbed her hair, raised her skirtline above the knee, painted her lips, rouged her cheeks, smoked, and drank. She even visited the speakeasies without a male escort. One-piece bathing suits, low cut dresses, and semi-nudity appeared. As modesty and "ladylike behavior" decreased, "petting parties" became the rage among high school and college age students. When it spread to the adults, marriage and fidelity came under attack. The divorce rate increased five-fold over the 60 years since the Civil War. The rate doubled during the 1920's to the second highest in the world and the majority of divorces were initiated by women.

Both sexes were wooed by the pleasure seeking lifestyle of the era. The music and dancing changed, too. The syncopated rhythms of jazz and the lively dances like the Charleston fastened on the zesty theme "forget about tomorrow and live for the moment." Edna St. Vincent Millay conveyed the attitude best, "My candle burns at both ends; it will not last the night; but ah, my foes, and oh, my friends- It gives a lovely light."

Corresponding to that sensual lifestyle was the soaring scope of materialism. Consumerism, advertising, and affluence all appealed to the emotion that things might produce happiness. Speculation on the Stock Market and Florida real estate were the most prominent of the many get-rich-quick schemes of the times, and doing it without working. Easy credit fed the greed that everyone should enjoy the fruits of prosperity - a car, a radio, a refrigerator, and anything electrical. The old values of saving and frugality were abandoned, too.

The revolution in morals, also, saw an increase in corruption. In government the Harding administration was exposed for several scandals. The most notable was the Teapot Dome, and for the first time a cabinet official Albert B. Fall was jailed. In baseball the infamous Black Sox scandal almost ruined the national pastime. The illegal liquor business and the gangland murders like the St. Valentine's Day Massacre were brazen examples of the growth in crime during the misnomer the Dry Decade. Gangsters like Al Capone even bragged that they bribed judges, the police, and public officials. By 1930 there were over 200,000 illegal speakeasies in the nation.

Traditional ways were disappearing. The auto provided a new freedom of travel. The population was moving to the cities, and the prosperity was causing a distinct upward mobility to the middle and upper classes. "Keeping up with the Jones" was the popular social goal in many neighborhoods. Also, the idealized people of the past: thinkers, inventors, politicians, ministers, and the like were being replaced by new heroes from the movies and sports. Tom Mix was better known than the President, and Babe Ruth had a higher salary than the Chief Executive. Charles Lindbergh became the most famous hero of the decade. The public was so fascinated by the famous that tabloid magazines became a booming source of gossip about these stars. Hollywood, sex, and sports became obsessions in this decade.

Even far more reaching was the position that modern man regarded himself in the light of science. Paul Johnson explained that after Einstein's theories on relativity were publicized, "At the beginning of the 1920's the belief began to circulate, for the first time at a popular level, that there were no longer any absolutes; of time and space, of good and evil, of knowledge, above all of value." In Johnson's Modern Times he judged that "the public response to relativity was one of the principal formative influences on the course of twentieth-century history. It formed a knife, inadvertently wielded by its author, to help cut society adrift from its traditional moorings in the faith and morals of Judeo-Christian culture." The new world of Darwin, Marx, Freud, and Einstein produced a "moral anarchy" where "all measurements of value were relative."

Francis Schaeffer in his brilliant analysis of Western thought How Then Shall We Live explained the 20th Century dilemma of modern man without a personal God. He theorized that with Darwinism "all things, including man, are merely the product of chance." Consequently a breakdown occurs when the concept is accepted, and man becomes the starting point. Then, "Truth is in one's own head." The "fragmentation" results in "no more definitive answers" and "no way to distinguish between right and wrong." He concluded that Biblical Christianity was losing its consensus in Western Europe particularly Germany after World War One, and the trend was moving toward America throughout the 20th Century.

The Postwar Church and The Twenties:

When the Armistice stopped the fighting, the American churches pursued the peace as fervently as they had supported the war. American clergymen endorsed the League of Nations by an estimated twenty to one ratio. In 1921 more than 20,000 clergymen petitioned President Harding to call for an international conference on disarmament. Before the nine nations met in Washington American churches set November 6th as a day of prayer for the delegates. When naval limitations were actually negotiated, many were convinced that the churches had prayed, preached, and lobbied until the Senate ratification was completed. Most denominations rejoiced over the Kellogg-Briand pact, which renounced war as "an instrument of national policy." The pacifist sentiments grew within the Protestant churches and not just from the Quakers and the peace churches.

The first great peacetime endeavor was the Interchurch World Movement. John R. Mott called for "the Largest Voluntary Offering in History." The grand plan would unite all the benevolent and missionary agencies of American Protestantism into a single campaign for money, men, and spiritual revival. The goal was first 300 million dollars, then 500 million, and finally a billion dollars. William Adams Brown, a professor at Union Theological Seminary, called it "the religious counterpart to the League of Nations."

However, the IWM fell apart when denominational cooperation collapsed. The Northern Baptists and Northern Presbyterians withdrew their support. Others feared a predominance of the Social Gospel priorities. As idealism waned, the de-emphasis on social issues and the institutional church undercut the movement. The IWM failed to meet even 15 percent of their expenses. Ahlstrom suggested that the hard sell and wartime crusade took a toll on their dream and the peacetime churches.

The church was considered old fashion and restrictive. The Puritan Sabbath was coming to an end. It appeared that a spiritual vitality was missing, and the church was just maintaining its position in America. Even more unsettling was the loss in prestige of revival religion which in the past had been the celebrity of American Christianity.

By the Twenties professional evangelism was under attack from within and outside the church. Bishop Joseph F. Berry of the Methodist-Episcopal Church (North) gave this critique in 1916. In his article "Criticisms of Present Day Evangelism" he listed six common objections: (1) the "two weeks of vitriolic attack upon ministers and church members" by the evangelist at the start of almost all such campaigns; (2) the exaltation of the role of the revivalist and the recognition given to supporting pastors; (3) "the present 'shake-my-hand' method" of dealing with inquirers which was "superficial and perilous"; (4) the overemphasis upon statistics and their misleading character; (5) the "vulgar display" of gifts presented to the revivalists by visiting delegations at each service; (6) the high pressure methods used to obtain a large free-will offering for the revivalist at the conclusion of the meetings.

Most of the evangelists seemed guilty on certain points of the analysis. Billy Sunday was the most obvious culprit, since it was widely known that his free-will offerings in 1918 had totaled over a million dollars. Although the Midwest and the South continued the traditions of revivalism, the visitations were obviously losing ground. McLoughlin even said that revivalism became a "laughing stock." The loss of respect was particularly true among the intellectuals outside the church.

Perhaps this shift transcended everything else for the church in the decade. For the first time in the history of American Christianity the intellectual and literary community held the church in contempt. Writers ridiculed and belittled religious people as hypocrites, yokels, Babbitts, and boobs. H.L. Mencken of the Baltimore Sun and the American Mercury was the most influential journalist of the decade. He criticized the Methodists and Baptists, the Rotarians and reformers, and marriage and patriotism. He claimed, "Protestantism is down with a wasting disease." His dislike for religion was so great that one biographer reported Mencken removed 58 Gideon Bibles from hotel rooms in 1922.

Other sages on modern life rejected the Victorian and Christian ways of the past. Disillusioned by war the "Lost Generation" depicted the futility of life like the Hemingway "noda" approach. Sinclair Lewis's interpretation attacked the hypocrisies of the felonious clergyman Elmer Gantry and the inadequacies of the common life in Main Street. In 1922 the U.S. Post Office destroyed 500 copies of James Joyce's Ulysses because of obscenities. Their version of mankind promoted a Bohemian lifestyle like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Margaret Sanger, and it accepted a mind set of skepticism, cynicism, and pessimism.

Frederick Lewis Allen is his informal history of the 1920's said, "The prestige of science was colossal." and "Of all the sciences it was the youngest and least scientific which most captivated the general public and had the most disintegrating effect upon religious faith. Psychology was king...one had only to read the newspapers to be told with complete assurance that psychology held the key to the problems of waywardness, divorce, and crime."

He, also, pointed out that we are taught, "our behavior depends largely upon chromosomes and ductless glands...that sex is the most important thing in life, that inhibitions are not to be tolerated, that sin is an out-of-date term, that most untoward behavior is the result of some complexes acquired at an early age, and that men and women are mere bundles of behavior-patterns, anyhow."

Once again prophets foresaw the decline Christianity. This time it was pitted against science, intellectualism, and the flow of culture. Nevertheless, church statistics showed that church membership and church wealth were just keeping pace with the population growth. Although there were no reliable figures on church attendance, it was widely accepted that the nominal members found other things to do on Sunday with the automobile and amusements. Regular attenders were on the decline, and churches, especially Protestant, were closing.

The First World War and its consequences hindered world missions for years afterward. The worldwide epidemic of Spanish Flu resulted in a mistrust of immigrants throughout the globe. Nations began restricting immigration like the Quota System in the US. While Wilson's Fourteen Points called for self determination of nations, colonialism still continued. An even greater fear came from the Bolshevik goal of world communism. The Red Scare in the US heightened the xenophobia of the Twenties. To further complicate matters the violence of the mail bombings, the Palmer raids, the radicals in the IWW, and the Sacco-Vanzetti case added to the hysteria over foreigners and aliens.

Although the United States had over a hundred ethnic groups and had historically boasted of being the great melting pot, race prejudice increased with the revival of the Ku Klux Klan. In 1915 Colonel William J. Simmons, a camp meeting convert and sometimes preacher, restored the white supremacy, anti-Negro aim and added to their intolerance cause the Catholics, Jews, radicals, and foreigners. Unfortunately many of the almost five million members came from the Protestant churches and some of the pastors joined the cause. The Klan's political power was evidenced by their intimidation at the 1924 Democratic Convention and their 1925 march in Washington DC in full regalia down Pennsylvania Avenue. The most disheartening impact of the Klan's resurgence was the hundreds of lynching and racial incidents, however the KKK declined when the Grand Dragon was convicted of murder in 1925.

During this time there was a disturbing loss of interest in foreign missions among students. Those, who expressed an intention toward foreign missions service, declined from 2,700 in 1920 to a mere 252 in 1928. Kenneth Latourette pointed out, "A generation ago ..foreign missions was considered the best way of expressing the fullest commitment to the Christian life." However, the prewar idealism of foreign missions was disappearing and, "Now goes into the cause of world peace or social and economic reorganization."

Mission's boards, also, reported a downward trend in offerings for missions. Latourette reasoned that one factor for the lost in contributions was rise in new taxes. He said that the expansion of federal tax revenues was "making it increasingly difficult for the budgets of philanthropic and religious organizations." Another factor was new buildings.

The easy money of the twenties made possible the tremendous building programs which William Sweet called "the most beautiful and costly churches at any time in our history." The value of these buildings doubled between 1916 and 1926 to a worth of $1,676,600,582. Gothic was the most popular style of architecture, and it was used in the great chapels at Princeton, the University of Chicago, and Duke University. As a result, church budgets faced higher mortgage and interest payments, and additional staff and maintenance costs, and new promotional "drives" to fund missions and local programs.

The stately new edifices made a direct impact on the conduct of the worship. A more formal service occurred complete with pastors in pulpit gowns and choirs in befitting robes, while the processional and recessional returned to the modern Protestant ceremony. Some of the past music like the hymns, responses, and canticles were restored to make the services more worshipful. The atmosphere in the sanctuary kindled the urge for the congregation to dress up for the service. The Protestant church was inspired to recover the traditional art and the ancient symbols of past generations. Another change was the increase use of religious drama which had a growing appeal with young people and the American public. American Christianity was enhanced by these developments.

Education and The Scopes Monkey Trial:

The American education system in the early part of the 20th Century faced a prodigious increase in students. New pupils came from the families of immigrants and from the labor force. When child labor laws, in effect, mandated universal compulsory schooling through the elementary grades, kids were in classrooms rather than laboring in the mines and the sweatshops of earlier times. Plus the parental hope was for a brighter future for their children than they had. Thus the schools and the classrooms swelled.

The scope of education dramatically expanded with the advent of psychology. New theories on the mind and how learning takes place introduced new teaching methods and testing procedures. John Dewey's progressive education was the most drastic change in pedagogy. His theory centered on the child's needs and potentials rather than the authoritarian classroom with a curriculum that met the needs of society and the precepts of the church.

Dewey's philosophy dominated education by the 1920s. Dewey called for a practical system that would stimulate the thinking process and prepare the student for life in a democratic society. His critics perceived different results. His experimental philosophy was ever changing and never arriving at any truths. Any recent fad or new found theory was given a trial. Consequently, education was bombarded with every new idea. It was what Dave Breese called a struggle for "whatever the world thinks" recently or the "battle for the mind."

The single idea that posed the first great battleground was the teaching of evolution. The issue was a double-edged controversy between science and religion and between the Modernists and the Fundamentalists. This generation was the first one to embrace science, evolution, and Darwin as superior to the Bible and the Genesis account of creation. To stem the tide 20 state legislatures introduced anti-evolutionary measures, but in only Southern five states did approval win. The most famous the Butler Act was passed in Tennessee in January of 1925. It made it illegal "to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man descended from a lower order of animals."

At Robinson's drugstore in Dayton, Tennessee over lemon phosphates John T. Scopes, a 24-year biology teacher in his first year at Central High School, was persuaded by George Rappelyea, a mining engineer, to take part in a test case for the Butler Law. Little did they realize the publicity that would be drawn to the sleepy mountain town of 2,000. The 700-seat courtroom at the Rhea County courthouse became the site of a media circus

It was dubbed the "Monkey Trial." It was the first American trial to be nationally broadcast on radio. Over 100 reporters sent two million words through the Western Union office that had to hire twenty-two operators for the event. H.L. Mencken, the sardonic journalist for the Baltimore Sun, was the most famous. To describe the region he coined the term the "Bible Belt." From the outset the press slanted its reports against religion and particularly the "narrow-minded" Fundamentalist position.

The famous lawyers in the Scopes Trial attracted world-wide attention. For the defense the ACLU retained Clarence Darrow, an outspoken agnostic, who had just defended Leopold and Loeb. The Prosecutor was William Jennings Bryan, who was a candidate for the US Presidency three times. He was a well known Presbyterian and the author of a syndicated weekly column on the Bible. Both men were in their sixties and in the twilight of their careers.

The immediate issue of the trial was whether Mr. Scopes violated the Butler Act by teaching evolution. He never denied it and 14-year old Howard Morgan testified that Scopes did teach Darwin's theory. For the Prosecutor Bryan he came to defend the Bible which was the theological fortress of the faith. He said, "My only purpose in coming to Dayton is to protect the word of God against the greatest atheist and agnostic in the United States."

However, Darrow and the defense team argued for intellectual freedom. They saw no conflict "between evolution and Christianity." They approached evolution as scientifically valid, and appealed for tolerance, open-mindedness, and a frank, erudite discussion. The press hailed them as the heroes, and portrayed the Christians particularly the Fundamentalists as ignorant, narrow-minded, and intolerant. This biased view was especially fostered by the movie version of the trial Inherit The Wind which starred Spencer Tracy as Darrow.

The most significant confrontation during the trial was when William Jennings Bryan took the stand for two-hours on the fifth day. Darrow questioned him on the literal interpretations of Jonah, Joshua, Eve, and Cain's wife. He, also, asked Bryan about the dates of the Flood, creation, and other religions. The cross-examination ended with the time issue of the 24-hour days of creation when sun wasn't created until the 4th day. Bryan was humiliated with his clumsy answers, and both men mocked each other's academic position. In the eyes of the American public the fundamentalist cause lost, and their image seemed that of intolerant bigots. They were disparagingly defined as "little fun, much damn, and absolutely no mentalism."

In the end the jury deliberated for eight minutes and found Scopes guilty of a misdemeanor. He was fined $100. The Tennessee State Supreme Court eventually reversed the decision on a technicality, but the Butler Act remained on the books until 1967. Five years later while working as a geologist in Venezuela, John T. Scopes submitted to a Roman Catholic baptism and married a Catholic girl.

In a post-trial discussion in the presence of the press Bryan asked Darrow, "If he believed in the immortality of the soul?" Darrow replied, " I have been searching for proof of this all my life...and I have never found any evidence of it." Five days after the trial was over William Jennings Bryan died in his sleep in Dayton, Tennessee.

Modernist-Fundamentalist Debate:

The Scopes Trial was also seen as the showdown between the Fundamentalists and the Modernists. The debate over "inerrancy" had unsettled many of the Protestant General Conferences after 1910 when the Fundamentalist's papers were printed. It was estimated that five of every eight Protestant church members belonged to one of the two camps. For both sides they saw the other as "the enemy" within the camp or that is the church. When the Monkey trial was over, the Modernists relished the Fundamentalists demise at Dayton, but the whole affair did little good for either side.

Edwin Gaustad made a friendly characterization of each side by writing that fundamentalism was an honorable defense of Christian revelation, the supernatural realm, and the faith "once delivered unto the saints," while modernism was an honorable offense relating Christianity to the newest discoveries of science and the newest needs of society

The Modernists, also, suffered through the unwanted publicity of the trial of Harry Emerson Fosdick. When he was called to the First Presbyterian Church of New York City, he remained a Baptist, and, he, also, stayed at Union Theological Seminary. After his 1922 sermon "Shall The Fundamentalists Win?" the Philadelphia Presbytery attempted to bring him up for heresy. Rather than remaining a Presbyterian Dr. Fosdick accepted the call of the Riverside Baptist Church of New York. When Fosdick's most famous laymen John D. Rockefeller built a new church at Morningside Heights, the Cross was noticeably absent in the structure. Dr. Fosdick remained the most influential Protestant preacher and spokesman for the Modernists in his generation.

The infallibility controversy was the central agenda at the Baptist and Presbyterian conventions between 1916 to the mid-20s. The Baptists lacked the policies for heresy trials so the extreme Fundamentalist position was usually defeated. One Baptist Shailer Mathews wrote The Faith of Modernism in 1924, which was the most widely distributed book promoting modernism. But, another Baptist John Roach Straton defended fundamentalism in a series of debates in 1923-24. Straton was the pastor at NYC's Calvary Baptist Church until his death in 1929. He was known for his fight for the social reforms of the urban problems like prohibition, prostitution, and poverty. Straton voiced his protests over the radio, in the newspaper, and even on the streets from an automobile.

Meanwhile, the articulate Presbyterian leader John Gresham Machen of Princeton Theological Seminary was the most notable defender of the church's historical conservative theology. He argued that liberalism was a different religion and that modernists should be forced out of the churches. He left Princeton with fifty students in 1929 and founded Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. After he objected to the foreign missions policies that emphasized medical and social work rather than saving souls, he was suspended from the Presbyterian ministry in 1935. He then founded the Presbyterian Church of America a year before he died in 1937. As the modernist-fundamentalist battle swirled around the issues of scholarship, science, and social needs, the struggle collided at other centers of learning, too. Unfortunately, many seminaries from the old line denominations: Congregational, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Disciples, Episcopal - succumbed to the religious liberalism of the day. The Fundamentalists responded by founding alternative Bible institutes and schools.

President James M. Gray of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago regularly invited fundamentalists to speak at his school. He trained his students with a steady diet of arguments against the liberal theology. He was one of the first conservatives to respond to Dr. Fosdick's 1922 sermon. Gray's dispensational approach emphasized the times before the Second Coming of Christ. Gray died in 1935 after serving the Chicago school for 31 years.

Meanwhile, the Methodists and Southern Baptists were not caught up in the debate. They each had men who defended their traditional faith. John Alfred Faulker was schooled in Germany by the modern theologians, but he returned the influence of his Wesleyan roots because of his personal experiences and personal Bible studies. Edgar Youngs Mullins, President of the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, wrote Christianity at the Crossroads in 1924. He, too, argued that personal experience was a valid witness to faith and to God's grace in an individual's Christian life.

As the defenders of traditional Christianity answered the challenges to scripture and faith, they abandoned the term fundamentalists and referred to themselves as "Evangelicals." They still held to scriptural infallibility, but improved in their apologetics. They placed an increased emphasis on the need for a conversion experience, but they maintained the importance of the blood payment on the Cross for redemption. Also, their compassion increased for those with social needs.

Eventually the term modernism gave way to "Liberalism." They continued to stress the importance of modern science and human reason. They, also, labored to improve society and to make contemporary life compatible with Christianity. Their message increasingly emphasized the love of God and the goodness of man. But, H. Richard Niebuhr defined their version of Christianity by saying, "A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministration of Christ without a cross."

The polarization between the two thoughts modernism and fundamentalism, also, widen over the issue of social concerns. The liberal lineage placed an increasing emphasis on the Social Gospel and saving society with good moral ethics. Their opinion on poverty was that it was a failure of society and not a personal downfall from the individual. On the other hand the fundamentalists or conservative line began to withdraw from activism in social concerns. Their pietistic and holiness persuasion called for a separation from evil. So consequently they avoided social concerns unless it meant the saving of souls which would result in changing society. Evangelical historian Timothy Smith called the switch "The Great Reversal." Sydney Ahlstrom called the tension, "the most fundamental controversy to wrack the churches since the time of the Reformation."

A Wealth of Ideas:

The Twenties had a plethora of ideas especially when the preface used terms like modern, scientific, psychological, inhibition, freedom, culture, the arts, and business. Their hyperbole was described by such designations as a fad, the craze, ballyhoo, and the like. Frederick Allen assessed the overstatements by writing, there was a "contagious excitement...and ..emotional interest upon tremendous trifles."

In 1923 Frenchman Emile Cour drew nationwide attention on his tour for positive thinking. His audiences were assured of better mental health by repeating daily the phrase "Day by day in every way I am getting better and better."

Frederick Allen pointed out that "the association of business with religion was one of the most significant phenomena of the day." National conventions of businessmen scheduled times for prayer at prominent churches. Spiritual principles and Bible stories were woven in their methods and their advertisements. The Metropolitan Insurance Company circulated a pamphlet on Moses, Persuader of Men. It declared that "Moses was one of the greatest salesmen and real-estate promoters that ever lived."

While it is the opinion of some historians that the material success creates an indifference to spiritual life, business and the Bible were so compatible that the most popular book of the decade was The Man Nobody Knows. Bruce Barton, an advertising executive, portrayed Jesus as the a superior businessman and salesman. He wrote that Jesus "picked up twelve men from the bottom ranks of business and forged them into an organization that conquered the world." He called Jesus "the founder of modern business." In 1925-26 Barton's book was the best selling non-fiction book in the country.

In 1925 Dr. Russell H. Conwell died after giving his sermon "Acres of Diamonds" over six thousand times. Millions had heard his philosophy that "being rich and being good" were synonymous. His theme was clear that people had a moral responsibility to become rich, and that people were poor because of their own shortcomings and sins.

In previous generations philanthropy was the exclusive status of the rich. However, the prosperity of the 20s enabled the middle-class to use their time and money for the good of mankind. Every city and town witnessed a tremendous increase in booster clubs and service organizations. The Rotary was the most famous, and it served in 44 countries by 1930. The Kiwanis club grew from 205 in 1920 to 1,800 clubs by 1929. The Lions club reached 1200 by the end of the decade. At their weekly meetings business and professional people spoke on building, dreaming, and doing great things to serve humanity.

Henry Ford, whose company produced half of the cars in the world, pursued a different approach. He promoted his ideas in the Dearborn Independent, a paper which was distributed to every Ford dealer in the nation. His anti-Semitic attacks accused the Jews of plotting to control the world, and he blamed them for almost every American affliction, including low farm prices, high rents, jazz, gambling, drunkenness, loose morals, and even short skirts. Prejudice against the Jews spread across the country in a series of anti-Semitic incidents. In Germany Hitler was photographed displaying reprints of the Independent.

In a decade of ballyhoo the biggest hullabaloo was the lone New York-to-Paris flyer Charles A. Lindbergh. The entire nation knew he was over the Atlantic and they were united in their hope for his success. Perhaps nothing demonstrated the emotions in America more than Yankee Stadium on the night of May 20th. Forty thousand hardy spectators at a boxing match were asked to stand, bow their heads, and pray for Lindbergh over the Atlantic. It was said that the silence was "impressive." Even Lindbergh petitioned the divine the next night with his landing prayer at Le Bourget field, when he cried out, "Oh God, help me!"

The Mass Media and The Radio Preachers:

The mass media increased in immense influence and authority during the 20s. The newspapers centralized more power and standardized more news. The chains had a central office in New York that supplied syndicated columns and featured articles on every topic for a national audience. The Hearst and Scripps-Howard system alone controlled 230 daily papers with a circulation of thirteen million. In other areas of publishing Readers Digest appeared in 1922, Time magazine began in 1923, and Book-of-the-Month Club was founded in 1926.

The motion picture industry passed through the golden age of silent pictures. The release of the Biblical classics The Ten Commandments (1923) and The King of Kings (1927) won approval from church groups. However, the sensational use of sex led to widespread criticism of the moral themes from the films and Hollywood. The film producers hired Will H. Hays to satisfy the demand for censorship. When the Catholic League of Decency began to condemn films in 1934, public pressure increased to restrict the sex and violence in films as "objectionable" categories.

The technology that made the biggest change in American's daily habits was radio broadcasting. The first broadcast was the Presidential election returns in November, 1920 from KDKA in Pittsburgh. The radio became a national craze by 1922. Within five years there were 600 stations in the nation and by the end of the decade every third home in America had a radio. Programs included the news, music, sports, church services, dramatic serials, and the most popular was the soap-opera for housewives.

Immediately the churches saw the power of the new medium for influencing and shaping public opinion. Within a month Calvary Episcopal Church broadcast their worship service over KDKA. The Federal Council of Churches of Christ which represented 25 denominations urged the local churches to cooperate in interdenominational broadcasts. By 1923 Frank C. Goodman developed three weekly religious programs for the New York City area. The next year the FCCC began "The National Radio Pulpit" with Dr. S. Parkes Cadman preaching over station WEAF from New York City. In 1926 the station became NBC and the program became the first network Protestant program. Harry E. Fosdick, Ralph Sockman, and David H.C. Read, also, preached from "The Pulpit." The sermon was the overwhelming format for most religious programs until 1950.

The first successful radio preacher from a denomination was Dr. Walter A. Maier for the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. He began preaching from his attic in St. Louis in 1924. In 1930 his program went on CBS and became known as "The Lutheran Hour." He was coached by Brace Beemer, the radio voice of the Lone Ranger. He proclaimed the strictness of God's law and the tenderness of His grace. Eventually Dr. Maier preached over 1,200 stations to 20 million people in 36 languages. When he died in 1950, it was said, "more people had heard him preach than any other person in history."

Perhaps, the most memorable of all the media preachers was Bishop Fulton John Sheen. From 1930 to 1952 Bishop Sheen was on radio with the "Catholic Hour." During the same period he preached at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. His television program "Life is Worth Living" was seen by an estimated 30 million people weekly from 1951 to 1957. He wrote over 70 books and numerous newspaper columns. His style was lecturing without notes, but with tremendous self-confidence. He was a worldwide hero. His popularity was considered the equal of Edward R. Murrow on radio and Ed Sullivan on television.

The radio evangelist, who had the most fame and awe of the 1920s, was Aimee Semple McPherson. Her Pentecostal ministry proclaimed many spectacular "acts of God" including conversions, healings, and other miracles. Her preaching was referred to as "living sermons" because she expected souls to be saved and bodies to be healed.

She born in Canada and converted under ministry of Robert Semple, whom she married in 1908. They went to Hong Kong as missionaries where he died of malaria in 1910. She returned to the US and married Harold McPherson in 1912. She left him and devoted her life to preaching and faith healing at camp meetings up and down the eastern seaboard. In every community she rented the largest hall and filled it every night. After the Denver campaign with nightly crowds of 12,000, she moved to California.

In Los Angeles her fame and her wealth increased, and she built the $1.5M Angelus Temple in 1923. It was the largest unsupported dome in the US and seated 5,300. Aimee preached every night and three times on Sunday. The attendance reached 50,000 per week and offerings averaged $10,000 per service. Within a year she was broadcasting nationwide from the twin 250-foot towers that symbolized hands outstretched toward God. In 1925 she entered a float of the Angelus Temple in the Rose Bowl Parade. The crowds were thrilled as the gospel message was broadcast from the float. The float even won the Sweepstakes Trophy.

For over twenty years her radio messages soothed the listeners with the splashing waters of the newly baptized, and the joyful cries of the miraculously healed. Aimee coaxed the radio listeners to kneel at home before the Cross and trust Jesus for their sins. She preached that the gospel was Christ's four-fold ministry as Savior, Baptizer, Healer, and Coming King, consequently, it was called "foursquare." In 1927 she founded the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

She was not without controversy. In 1921 she divorced McPherson, and married her third husband David Hutton in 1931. In 1926 she was presumed dead by drowning at a bathing beach, but five weeks later she reappeared with a story of kidnapping and ransom. A charge of perjury resulted in a trial, however, she was acquitted. Nevertheless, her reputation survived the storms, and the crowds never ceased. It was said that only World War Two took her off the front page. Aimee Semple Pherson died in 1944 and her writings were published posthumously in 1951.

A Washington syndicated newspaper columnist said, "In a day of war..crime..greed ..violence, it is restful to hear an old-fashioned preacher preach old-time religion in the good old-fashioned way." He was talking about Charles E. Fuller of the "The Old Fashioned Revival Hour" which aired every Sunday night on the Mutual Broadcasting System until 1937 when it switched to CBS.

Charles Fuller was a graduate of BIOLA and a Baptist preacher when he began a modest radio career. In 1928 he started the first of two broadcasts "The Pilgrim Hour" and "Heart to Heart Talks." In 1933 the "Old Fashioned Revival Hour" was born. His first broadcast came from Hollywood, California. Fuller's down-home, folksy style was very pleasing to conservative church people and the common man. He was the antithesis of Hollywood, and his theme song was "Jesus Saves." His wife Grace introduced the innovation of reading excerpts from listeners' letters on the air. By the 1940's the "Revival Hour" had a worldwide audience.

Overall, the purpose of the radio preachers was to reach the shut-ins, the isolated, and the unchurched, but their main audience came from the church people. A partial indicator of their success was the number of letters received from a broadcast. Their main request was always for prayer support, but financial contributions became a necessity. In 1926 NBC connected their stations coast-to-coast, and religious programs were given free public service time. However, as other broadcasting companies came into existence and as some denominations requested equal time, broadcasters were forced to purchase air time. The "Revival Hour" handled their budget requirements by broadcasting Pastor Fuller's Sunday evening sermon live before several thousand worshippers with their church choir at the Municipal Auditorium in Long Beach.

American Catholic Church:

From their earliest days the Catholics from Europe like the Protestants saw America as a land of opportunity and liberty. In Maryland they found a haven from religious persecution. In other colonies they found the chance for work and for land. In the new land the Catholics like the Protestants experienced a search and a struggle to find their identity as Americans, too.

However, the Catholics regardless of their European roots, faced an immediate prejudice from the days of the Reformations, the monarchies, and the revolutions. The mainstream of America was Anglo-Saxon and Protestant. While anti-Catholicism was America's oldest prejudice, the memories of the Puritans, the Huguenots, the Quakers, and the Anabaptists could easily be jogged by Foxe's Book of Martyr's. But, the biggest threat in the Protestant mind was the Pope, who ruled Catholics everywhere. Was this "foreign prince" going to tell Protestant, democratic Americans what to do, too?

In the first census of 1790 only one-percent of the four million Americans were Catholics. Only one Catholic had signed the Declaration of Independence Charles Carroll, the richest man in the colonies. The church had only one Catholic bishop John Carroll, and Georgetown, the first Catholic university, would be founded the next year in 1791.

By 1815 there were 100 parishes with priests in America, but they existed primarily with European assistance. While many of the churches lacked a resident priest, their services and properties were controlled by lay trustees. The circumstance created the conclusion that the lay trustees had the power to appoint and even remove priests. A nationalistic controversy ensued particularly when French priests were appointed in German or Irish parishes. Stormy ecclesiastic-trustee struggles occurred in Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, Norfolk, and Charlestown. When the First Provincial Council met in Baltimore, in 1829, the hierarchy began to develop uniform procedures and policies of cooperation to solve their common problems. The bishops met seven times in Baltimore, America's oldest See, between 1829 to 1849, and they made some wise plans. Great leaders, also, helped the Catholic church adapt to the American society. One of the most outstanding was Bishop John England of Charleston, who articulated a balance of the Catholic way of government and the American democracy. He started the first Catholic newspaper in 1822, and was the editor until he died twenty years later. Elizabeth Seton, the first America-born canonized saint, founded a school for girls at Emmitsburg, Maryland. Roger B. Taney, a Supreme Court Chief Justice and a Catholic layman, attended the 1829 Baltimore meeting. He, also, served the church as a attorney. When the 1848 European revolutions for democracy and the potato famine in Ireland occurred, millions of Catholic immigrants flocked to America and swelled their population to over 3 million by 1860. Anti-Catholicism increased, too. The native-born Americans resisted with the "Know Nothings" and the signs "No Irish Need Apply." However, the new Americans, especially the Irish, took the lowest and the most dangerous jobs building canals, railroads, clearing swamps, and digging the mines.

These sojourners in a strange land moved near their own nationality or even those from the same village. Many of the first generation had just a subsistent existence. For all Catholics the parish church was the center of the community. The Mass and Vespers were neighborhood gatherings. The Priest was an encourager and, in some cases, the enforcer of proper behavior. The immigrant was told to be a respectable citizen which meant work hard, care for their family, and give to the church. The local pub or grog shop was another popular meeting place.

In 1852 over eighty Catholic prelates met in Baltimore for the First Plenary Council. Although the Catholic population was mostly Irish and German, the session was attended by only eight Irish-born and two German delegates. Over 50 delegates were of French-Belgium ancestry. They were striving for uniformity and unity. The bishops gave these directions to the American Catholics, "Obey the public authorities...Show your attachment to the institutions of our beloved country."

One of the chief spokesman for American Catholicism was the Irish-born Archbishop John Hughes. He served New York City as the first Archbishop (1850-64) and started the construction of St. Patrick's Cathedral (1858-79). He was so widely respected that President Polk asked him to go on a diplomatic mission to Mexico during the war in 1847. He declined. When President Lincoln asked him to go to France as a diplomat during the Civil War, he accepted and urged France, Ireland, and Italy to remain neutral. He, also, helped quell the New York City draft riots in 1863. The Lincoln government in an unprecedented petition implored Pope Pius IX to make the Archbishop the first American Cardinal. Rome did not consider it the proper time to for such an appointment. Archbishop Hughes lived a life of love for his country and love of his faith until he died in 1864.

Meanwhile a misunderstanding developed between the Roman Catholic Church and the American Catholic Church. Pope Pius IX, the longest reigning Pontiff (1846-78), twice experienced revolutions, which disrupted his papal power. From first hand encounters he developed his 1864 "Syllabus of Errors." It condemned modern life and political liberalism. He concluded that "democracy and Catholicism could not be reconciled."

In the US several responses occurred. The term "Americanism" blossomed to define the pride that Catholics felt for their new homeland and their culture rather than the traditions of the old country in Europe. However, the American Protestants did not welcome their "brothers in Christ." The rift between the two churches was not only stretched, but it was ruptured further because the doctrine of a sinless Mary was issued (1854), and the infallibility of the Pope was decreed (1870). The Calvinists wagged their heads.

Two converts to Catholicism Orestes Brownson and Isaac Hecker expressed how they rectified the Church and the American culture. Brownson professed Transcendentalism, Unitarianism, and a god of nature before his spiritual journey came to faith in Christ and the Catholic Church. He was an out-spoken defender of religion and politics. He wrote over twenty volumes on Catholic apologetics even defending Papal Infallibility.

Isaac Hecker was their leading spokesman for Americanism. The Pope and some French priests wanted US parochial schools to preserve the native language and the culture of the immigrants. "Heckerism" proclaimed that Catholicism and the democratic ideals of personal liberty were compatible. He defended the Bill of Rights and the issue of separation of church and state, as an ideal environment for the growth of American Catholicism. He, also, founded the Paulist Fathers and established social services for the German speaking immigrants.

The Vatican did reward the American Catholic Church in 1875 by appointing the well-liked, Archbishop of New York John McCloskey as the first American Cardinal. But for the immigrant and the second generation Irishman or German, Rome's chief expectation for an ordinary Catholic was an unquestioning faith and obedience to the church. The training of the young was left up to the parish priest because the parents were very busy earning a living in the new country.

In 1884 the Vatican called the American hierarchy to the Third Plenary Council in Baltimore. Father McAvoy called it the "watershed or dividing line in the history of the Church in the United States." Archbishop James Gibbons, one of the most dramatic personalities in US Catholic history, presided over 12 committees and around 220 delegates. They represented the nearly eight million US Catholics, and they worked to write a uniform decree for all US Catholic Churches. The final document had 310 paragraphs.

A great impetus was given to American religious education. The 6th Committee (Education) required every church to establish an elementary school within two years and all parents would be required to send their kids to the parochial school. If any church failed to comply, the pastor would be removed and the Bishop would reprimand the parish.

Since so many priests were foreign-born and foreign-educated, a high priority was placed on a Catholic University for a graduate education. Bishops John L. Spalding of Baltimore and Bernard McQuaid of Rochester pleaded with the Council to start an American "University Education." In 1888 the cornerstone was laid for the Catholic University in Washington, DC.

The Council, also, heard a memorable and patriotic sermon by Bishop John Ireland from St. Paul on liberty and a "just government." He was a naturalized US citizen, and he said, "I speak ..no less as an American citizen than as a Catholic Bishop." He continued, "America is my country..I could not utter one syllable that would belie, however remotely, either Church or republic." He, also, said, "Republic of America, receive from me the tribute of my love and my loyalty...Thou bearest in thy hands the hopes of the human race, thy mission from God is to show to nations that men are capable of highest civil and political liberty." Eventually, he repeated the contents of the sermon in France and Rome.

The optimism at the Council in Baltimore in 1884 continued as the Catholic Church and the immigrants assimilated into the US society and government. In 1886 James Gibbons, American-born and American-educated, became the second America Cardinal. When Leo XIII received a delegation of Gibbons, Spalding, Ireland, and Bishop John Keane from Richmond, he was persuaded to approved a Catholic University for the US. Bishop Keane was made the first rector. And finally, when the 1890 US census was taken, the Catholic Church had 6,231,417 members, which now was the largest in America and surpassed the Methodists for the first time.

Although Rome had differences with America, the America Catholic Church continued to work out their own unique problems. In their parochial schools the Germans fought to keep their native language, while the Irish used English. The two, also, differed on the temperance controversy. The Germans opposed temperance, while the Irish saw drinking as a problem and they favored prohibition. Secret societies had historically been another problem. While the Masons had been anti-Catholic, the Church, also, had problems with their laity in the Molly Maguires, the violent, secret Irish labor group. In 1875 the Church threatened excommunication if any Catholic joined the notorious group. They wrote that the Mollies were "a disgrace to our religion, our country, and to Christ." In the growth of American labor unions the Irish Catholics played a major role and made up the largest portion of their membership. Terrance Powderly, a Catholic layman, was head of the Knights of Labor (1879-93). When President Teddy Roosevelt used arbitration to settle the 1902 Anthracite Coal Strike, he selected Bishop Spalding as a member of the negotiating commission. Nonetheless, the reputation for violence during the strikes plagued the unions and the Church laity during the 19th Century.

The Catholic hierarchy in America welcomed the opportunity to participate in US events. Bishop Keane spoke to the National Education Association in 1889, and he was invited to lecture at Harvard the next year. Both were milestone for respect and ecumenism. The 400th anniversary of Columbus' voyage presented a notable opportunity.

At the Chicago World's Fair a Parliament of Religions was held in 1893, and Bishop Keane and Cardinal Gibbons were leaders. The Cardinal opened the session with a recitation of The Lord's Prayer in the Protestant version. Bishop Keane organized the Catholic Bishops, priests, professors, and laymen to speak during the Colombian Exposition (Sept. 11-18). Some leaders in the Church criticized them because Asian religions had been invited to participate at the Parliament, but the Catholic delegation was well received.

A series of final events between 1893 and 1908 closed the tension between Rome and the United States over the issue of "Americanism." After Isaac Hecker's death in 1888, Father Walter Elliott wrote a much praised biography of the spiritual leader for the Americanists. Father Hecker was unique in that he was a convert to Catholicism, he had a vision to make America Catholic. He was, also, a social activist group, and his Paulists tried to carry it out. While most American Catholics came to the Church as immigrants, or by birth, and a few by marriage, Father Hecker hoped to persuade people about the attractions of Catholicism through the ideals of the American democracy. When his biography was translated into French, Father Hecker became internationally known, and a group of bishops including John Ireland made an appeal for "sainthood," but it failed.

When Pope Leo XIII sent an Apostolic Delegate (Satolli) to the World's Fair, he was seen in the company with the Americanist's leaders Cardinal Gibbons, Bishops Ireland and Keane. When he spoke in the main hall, the delegate held the Book of Christian Truth in one hand and the US Constitution in the other, and he said, "Go forward." It appeared that the Vatican favored the American Catholic Church.

In 1895 Pope Leo published the first and long awaited letter to the American Church. The encyclical, "Longinqua Oceani" praised the American bishops and the American Church. However, he warned that "it would be very erroneous to draw the conclusion that in America is to be sought the type of the most desirable status of the Church, or that it would be universally lawful or expedient for the State and the Church to be, as in America." However, later that year Monsignor Denis O'Connell, the Americanist's voice in Rome, was removed from his post at the American College in Rome. Then in 1896 Bishop Keane was replaced as rector of Catholic University.

The issue was muted when the Maine was blown up in Havana harbor in 1898. Archbishop Ireland conferred with President McKinley, and urged the Pope to persuade Spain to accept an armistice. But the Spanish delayed and the US Congress declared war. Ireland's intervention was unsuccessful, and in the "Splendid Little War" the US quickly defeated Catholic Spain. Then in 1899, The Pope wrote another encyclical condemning the Americanists and labeling them as "modernists," who would have the Church join the ideals and morality of the contemporary society.

The Americanist leaders continued to influence the conservative wing of the American Catholic Church for another two decades until their deaths between 1916-1927. Later in the 20th Century, Bishop John L. Spalding (1846-1916), Bishop of St. Paul John Ireland (1838-1918), Bishop of Richmond and rector of Catholic University John Keane (1839-1918), Cardinal James Gibbons (1834-1921), Bishop of Pittsburgh Michael O'Connell (1849-1927), and of course Isaac Hecker would be praised for their foresight and contributions to the Americanist movement.

Probably, the biggest bearing on the American Catholic Church over these two decades was the demographic change made by the immigrants from Eastern Europe. In the 1890's the Irish had the most power, and the large German contingency wanted to be heard. But, the large influx of Italians, Hungarians, and Poles changed the makeup and the diversity of the Church. The only lasting schism in the American Catholic Church happened in 1907, when the Polish National Catholic Church was organized. It is estimated that of the 12,041,000 American Catholics at the turn of the Century a large percentage of them were first generation Americans.

Finally, in 1908 Pope Pius X ended the mission status of the American Church. The American Catholic Church, which had shown little interest in preaching the Gospel in foreign lands, held their First Missionary Congress that year. Three years later they set up their headquarters in Maryknoll, NY. After W.W.I the National Catholic War Conference became the National Catholic Welfare Council. The NCWC led the social policies and the progressive ideas for the Catholic Bishops. The director was Father John A. Ryan, a professor at Catholic University. It was organized into five departments: Education, Lay activities, the Press, Social Action, and Missions. Eventually, some of Father Ryan's ideas were adopted in FDR's New Deal.

The story of the Catholic assimilation into the American society must, also, include the rise of the layman in politics. Their experiences in the labor unions and the tenement districts created a natural affinity for social justice within the democratic system. By the second generation the Irish and the German descendants held positions in the unions and the local governments.

However, they, also, ran into opposition. In the election of 1884 the Irish Democrat voters in New York were berated in the "rum, Romanism, and rebellion" speech. In 1887 the American Protective Association grew out the rivalry between rural Protestants and urban Catholics. The antagonism increased with Democratic victories of Grover Cleveland in the elections of 1884 and 1892. The A.P.A. grew into a grassroots anti-Catholic movement. They even hatched a "bogus Popish plot" with a fraudulent letter, when the Apostolic Delegate went to the Chicago World's Fair.

Some Catholic politicians lost respect in the eastern big cities because of the corruption of the political machines like Tammany Hall in New York City. Others had become mayors in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago by the 1920's. However, the pinnacle was achieved by the much respected Alfred Emmanuel Smith, who was selected as the Democratic candidate for President in the 1928 election.

Although he was opposed by the KKK and some anti-Catholic sentiment, the issue many Protestants wanted Al Smith to address was the Catholic subservience to that "foreign potentate." He summarized his creed in the Atlantic Monthly, "I believe and worship God according to the faith and practice of the Roman Catholic Church. I recognize no power in the institution of my Church to interfere with the operations of the Constitution of the United States or the enforcement of the law of the land. I believe in the absolute freedom of conscience for all men and in equality of all churches...I believe in the absolute separation of Church and State."

The Happy Warrior lost the election, and he didn't even carry his own state, New York. Some say he lost because of his stand against prohibition and his ties with the eastern, urban political machine, Tammany Hall. Other say he lost to bigotry because he was a Catholic. More than anything else he clearly lost to the era of prosperity while the Republicans had the Presidency.

When the stock market crashed and the Great Depression occurred, the prejudice against Catholics declined. The Catholics were glad that the depression hadn't happen under a Catholic President, but unemployment, economic problems, and misery seemed equal for all groups. The interest of the Church and the laity in solving their social problems was only intensified by the great economic crisis. It was now apparent that the American Catholic Church was a part of the mainstream of American society.

The Great Depression

The Wall Street Stock Market crash of October 1929 initiated the worst economic decline in American history. An avalanche of selling ended the speculation with margin buying and call loans, but, it also began a shift from the gaudy attitude of the twenties to the despair of the thirties. The "emergency" also substantiated the growing opinion that laissez-faire capitalism should be replaced by government action to accomplish a recovery.

Meanwhile, the Hoover administration argued that "people will work harder and live a more moral life." The Republicans contended that relief should happen at the local level and that prosperity was "just around the corner." But, the "Crisis" worsened. The breadlines grew. The shantytowns or "Hoovervilles" expanded. As unemployment increased, the homeless, the drifters, the jobless sat on the street corners and park benches or they hitch-hiked or rode the rails; and they were unduly dubbed "bums" and "hoboes" Even the veteran's Bonus Army was herded out of Anacosta Flats for walking on the grass by MacArthur's US Army cavalry. By 1932 unemployment reached 25 percent and five thousand banks had failed. It was the "rock bottom" of the Depression.

While some sang "Brother Can You Spare a Dime," others sang "Happy Days Are Here Again," when a Democrat FDR was elected the 32nd President. He pledged a "New Deal." He pushed through an unprecedented number of government programs. His informal, weekly radio reports called "fireside chats" instilled a new hope and optimism. Nevertheless, critics said that he was ending self-reliance and creating a dependence on the government. In the end they would denounce the deficit spending and discredit the progress, since full employment would not be achieved until World War Two.

Mark Beliles and Stephen McDowell in their America's Providencial History saw another change in the flow of history that was made by FDR's election in 1932. They felt in the midst of the Great Depression...with the propagation of socialism "people were ready for the "New Deal" of Franklin Roosevelt. Programs such as Social Security, and other welfare agencies, set up the State as the provider rather than God."

Perhaps the most discernible result of the 1932 election for the church was the repeal of prohibition. While the church had successfully led the crusade, the practical application of the 18th Amendment had resulted in scorn, rebellion, racketeering, and non-enforcement. Sydney Ahlstrom called The Repeal, "the greatest blow to their pride and self-confidence that the Protestants as a collective body had ever experienced."

Be that as it may, fault and blame for the Depression were lodged from every corner. Immediately the finger was pointed at President Hoover. The banks, the corporations, and the rich were named as culprits, too. The economists blamed low wages, over production, interest rates, installment buying, and other economic factors. Of course every historian castigated the Smoot-Hawley tariff for slowing the world market, but the church thought a higher power was behind the events.

Churchmen and scholars hinted that the greed and avarice, morality and mores, and the controversies and contempt of the twenties may have resulted in the misfortunes of the thirties. More than one clergyman felt that the cause of America's economic disaster was "Sin" by the members within the church and the "evil and unrepentant" mainstream of the society. They, also, expected some kind of revival like the panics in the 1720's and 1857.

Billy Sunday flat out believed that the economic depression was ordained by God to shake America out of its doldrums. In the March 2, 1931 Boston Herald he said, "Sometimes I'm glad God knocked over the heavens to put America on her knees before she became too chesty ...Our great depression is not economic, it is spiritual and there won't be a particle of change in the economic depression until there is a wholesale revival of the old-time religion."

As the Depression deepened church attendance declined, offerings fell, mission budgets were cut, and churches closed their doors. Frederick Allen in Since Yesterday said, "One might have expected..in such a crisis..people would have turned to the consolations and inspirations of religion. Yet this did not happen."

Even the Lynd's on their return to "Middletown" in 1935 observed, "scattered through the pews..the same serious and numerically sparse Gideon's band - two-thirds or more women and few under thirty - with the same stark ring of empty pews "down front." They did conceded that it was June, a bad time for church attendance. The congregation seemed older. A college boy gave this opinion on Christianity, "I believe these things but they don't take a large place in my life." It seemed to be representative of young people's opinions.

The Lynd's, also, wrote, "the secularization of the Sabbath continues." They noted that the new municipal swimming pool was open on Sunday, and horseback riding and golf were more popular than in 1925. They said, "The automobile continues to lead among the secularization factors...with 10,000 leaving every Sunday for resorts and other towns." They saw a decline in religious programs on the local radio station, and the largest church in town had abandoned their Sunday-evening service. They concluded that "the Depression has brought a resurgence of religious fundamentalism among the weak working-class sects...but the uptown churches have seen little similar revival of interest."

In 1936 the Federal Council of Churches sponsored the National Preaching Mission. It failed miserably. Samuel C. Kinchloe of Chicago Theological Seminary reported the results in his Research on Religion in the Depression. He said, "secularization was so far advanced in America that no pervasive revival of religious interest was possible. Instead of turning to God for help, even churchgoing people turned to the New Deal "brain trust" in Washington."

Willard L. Sperry, dean of Harvard's Divinity School, wrote to a British audience, "We are tired of religious revivals as we have known them in the last half century." He called Billy Sunday, the last of that tradition, which he (Billy Sunday) discredited.

William G. McLoughlin wrote, "What Kinchloe missed, as Sperry did, was the fact that there was a revival of religion." McLoughlin pointed out that in the mid-1930's America had two religions: Liberal Protestantism and a second wing which was a blend of fundamentalism, pietist, conservative, evangelical, holiness, and Pentecostal. These emotional and "ecstatic" types were referred to as "Holy Rollers" by the older denominations.

Dr. A. T. Boisen studied the Pentecostal and Holiness sects, and he showed their surge in his Religion and Hard Times. The Assemblies of God, formed in 1914, had 48,000 members in 1926, and they reported 3,470 churches with 175,000 members in 1937. The Church of God grew from 23,000 members to 80,000 during the same time. The Church of the Nazarene grew 100 percent since 1926 to 127,647 members. A large increase, also, occurred among the Negro churches of Pentecostal, premillennial, and holiness emphasis. The Christian and Missionary Alliance, whose founder A.B. Simpson rejected the tongues-only as evidence of spirit baptism, attracted many followers of the fundamentalist persuasion.

On the opposite side of the economic coin a movement that touched college students, intellectuals, and the prosperous was founded by Frank Buchman, a Lutheran minister from Philadelphia. He reached people through lavish "houseparties" on the premise that "good food and good Christianity go together." His meetings took place in hotels, college campuses, private homes, and on ships, but never during the church hours. He was popular in eastern universities, Great Britain, and China. He was criticized for the sentimentality and an overemphasis on sex. However, his program of the "Five C's" (confidence, conviction, confession, conversion, continuance) produced "changed lives" among the successful "up and outers." By 1938 his program became known as "Moral Rearmament." Buchanism declined when W.W.II began and their headquarters moved to Switzerland.

Nevertheless, the Great Depression was unrelenting on the "forgotten man" and on those just above him. Some families survived by "doubling up." Neighbors shared the produce of their gardens and fruit from their backyard trees. Farmers, who lost their homes, became tenants. In other generations the frontier provided an escape, but the depression was everywhere. While the railroads put on extra "vagabond" cars, the ones without jobs were still called a tramp, a hobo, a bum.

The National Debt was moving into the mindboggling category of 30 Billion Dollars, but there were still over ten million unemployed workers. The government destroyed livestock and plowed under corn, while people were still hungry. Even the New Deal jobs were called "boondoggles." Agencies were given disparaging cliques such as the WPA: "We Poke Around," and the NRA: the "National Run Around." If the social and economic calamity wasn't enough, weather disasters compounded the problems.

On Armistice Day, 1933 the "Black Blizzards" darkened the skies over Chicago. For the next two years top soil from a severe drought on the Great Plains blew eastward. The disaster that became known as the "Dust Bowl." The conservationists blamed the homesteaders for years of plowing and exposing the land to wind erosion. In John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath the elderly farm woman said, "the Lord taken a hand."

Frederick Allen made this assumption in Since Yesterday, "To many others it must have seemed as if the Lord had taken a hand in bringing the dust storms; as if, not content with visiting upon the country a man-made crisis - a Depression caused by men's inability to manage their economic affairs farsightedly - an omnipotent power had followed it with a visitation of nature: the very land itself had risen in revolt. To some other people, the omnipotent may have seemed to be enjoying a sardonic joke at the expense of the New Deal's Agricultural Adjustment program: "So it's crop-reduction you want, is it? Well, I'll show you."

Hardly had the Black Blizzards ended when the eastern rivers went on a rampage because of an unseasonably warm and rainy January of 1937. The Merrimac, Connecticut, Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna, Potomac, Allegheny, and Ohio all went wild. Floods left hundreds of thousands without homes. Hundreds of people were drown. Cities were left without food, power, and electricity. Mud ruined business districts. Along the Ohio River Valley it was called the worst flood in American history.

In the fall of 1938 another quirk of nature occurred in New England. Far from the usual path of hurricanes one sweep through this "diverse" area swamping towns, ripping up trees, and taking almost seven hundred lives. Frederick Allen felt, "the Lord drove the lesson home" because of the "human misuse of land."

Weather was not the only opposition to FDR's recovery. A number of people and ideas professed to have the "social salvation" for the Depression. Huey Long's "Share Our Wealth" gained the most fame. Francis Townsend (Our Age Pension), Upton Sinclair (EPIC), Howard Scott (Technocracy), and Charles Coughlin were all social activists, whose efforts bordered on demagoguery. Father Coughlin "the Radio Priest" of Royal Oak, Michigan had 10 million listeners every Sunday afternoon, and he had contributions of $500,000 annually. His attacks were aimed at the bankers, the Jews, the unions, and the Communists. His popularity declined after he opposed Roosevelt's re-election in 1936. He was criticized by leaders inside the Catholic Church for his anti-Semitism and his theories on money.

Even though the public-opinion polls of the Literary Digest predicted a Landon, Republican victory in the election of 1936, President Roosevelt still won every state except Maine and Vermont. With a new confidence FDR attempted to pack the Supreme Court, since they had struck down his New Deal measures of NRA and AAA. However, when the Roosevelt "depression" followed, the one-third "ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished" still remained. Domestic affairs took a back seat to foreign policy, when the totalitarian governments in Japan and Europe threatened world peace.

New Old-Time Religion:

After the apparent Fundamentalist's defeat by science in the twenties and the obvious failure of the Protestant work ethic and capitalism to produce a materialistic haven from want during the Depression of the thirties, American Christianity looked elsewhere for renewal. As in other times, the influence of Europe beguiled the American churches. Many of the theologians, professors, and ministers with advanced degrees had received their training in Germany because of the high prestige given to their scholarship. Consequently some trusted the Continental philosophers and secular prophet's view of man, God, and the Scriptures.

As the European intellectuals sought to grasp the meaning of life, they adopted the humanistic position which began with man. They, also, followed the existentialist rationale that man was totally free and totally responsible for his acts. However, they found no final way to say what was right and what was wrong, and they were at a loss to explain why evil exists. Furthermore as they tried to make humanistic man self-sufficient, they reached the philosophic position that he was only a machine.

When theologians adopted the concept of man beginning with himself, they implemented the 19th Century liberal view of Biblical criticism, too. They had been particularly embarrassed by science to explain the supernatural events in the Bible. So they denied the miracles and the claims of inspiration and revelation in the Scriptures. They said that the stories were myths and legends to teach ethical lessons and values. They looked for what Albert Schweitzer called the historical Jesus.

The liberal version of the history in the Bible separated the Old Testament into a record of the Jews and the New Testament as the life and religion of Jesus. They surmised that the human authors developed the creeds and dogmas through an evolutionary process. Of course the writer's highest ideals and hopes led them to the divinity of their Messiah Jesus. However, the liberal's explanations had great difficulty with the post-resurrection church in Acts and the detailed instructions in the Apostle Paul letters.

While no single group agreed with all these points of view about the Scriptures, many thinkers used parts of these principles for their convictions. The groups, that included these notions, were called New Theology, Progressive Orthodoxy, Modernism, Liberalism, and Neo-Orthodoxy.

Neo-Orthodoxy was the intellectual phenomenon of the 1930s. It rose out of European Liberalism and Existentialism. Neo-Orthodoxy is usually associated with the teachings of Karl Barth, a little known, country parson in Switzerland. While only a few American ministers understood the logic, Emil Brunner of Zurich became the mediator of Barth's view. A third name linked with Neo-Orthodoxy to America was Paul Tillich of Harvard Divinity School.

Barth and Brunner agreed with the liberal theologians that the Bible had errors. The neo-orthodox theologians did not see the Bible as giving truth or having have moral absolutes either. Thus they did not accept God's revelation in the book. To them the Bible could only be a human witness to God's revelation when the Holy Spirit reveals God to the human heart in a moment of crisis. So it follows that Neo-Orthodoxy was known as the theology of crisis.

In 1919 Karl Barth unloaded a blockbuster on liberalism and the 19th Century idealism of man's religious independent apart from God, when he wrote his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. Barth analyzed man's sin as man's continual attempt to twist truth in religion to suit his own private ends. Albert Schweitzer in his The Quest for the Historical Jesus had come to the conclusion that his generation looked for a man of the 19th Century, and instead of finding Jesus it found its own image. Barth challenged Protestant theology that it confused man with God. He demanded that, "God be allowed to be God, and man learn again to be man."

Barth became one of the giant theologians of the 20th Century with his perspective that returned God to His divine pedestal. To him God was holy, sovereign, eternal, and absolute, and that sinful man was unable to help himself in the matter of salvation. Therefore salvation could only come through the miraculous piercing of history by God Himself in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Word of God. It is in the crucified and resurrected Christ alone that man can find salvation. Grace mediated by the Holy Spirit through the Word can relate man to God. Only when the soul is confronted by God in Christ can there be salvation from the world. Barth's theology became known as a theology of the Word.

Barth's contrasts between a Holy God and sinful man, the Creator and the creature, grace and judgment attempted to prod the humanism out of Christianity. He insisted that it was not important what man thought of God, but what God thinks about man. His theology grew in stature and understanding in America, and became more prominent in the 1950s and 60s as evangelical Christianity bloomed.

Karl Barth, also, gained admiration in 1934 while teaching in Germany. When he took a public stand against Hitler and Nazism, he was forced to leave for refusing to take an oath demanded by Hitler. He taught in Basel, Switzerland the rest of his life. Another theologian blacklisted by Hitler was Paul Tillich, who took refuge in the United States in 1934. His American friend Reinhold Niebuhr persuaded him to become an American citizen, and he accepted a professorship at Union Theological Seminary in New York.

Paul Tillich, who already had an illustrious career at respected German universities, was lauded for his ability to mingle modern philosophy and theology. He coined new religious terms to answer the existentialist's meaninglessness of modern life. Tillich called God the "Ground of Being" and Jesus Christ the "New Being." In the sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross he became transparent to the "Ground of Being." Tillich called man's faith or understanding of God the "ultimate concern." Tillich became a leading advocate of symbols and myths as man's way of grasping the reality of God. However, his critics said that he psychologized the meaning of God, and his idealism was only a form of pantheism. Nevertheless, he was a prominent writer for the neo-orthodox theologians, and a notable communicator with the secular philosophers.

According to Sydney Ahlstrom American Neo-Orthodoxy was best revealed in the lives and works of Reinhold Niebuhr and H. Richard Niebuhr, a pair of Missouri-born brothers. Both were Evangelical pastors, who were learned historians. They were concerned with Western thought about the direction of man's morality and the social accommodations of the church. Both were seminary professors for over thirty year Reinhold at Union Theological Seminary and Richard at Yale University Divinity School. A whole generation was influenced by their Christian views on the dilemmas of their times.

Reinhold examined the social ethics of mankind and the nation. He probed the question "how shall man think of himself?" Above all, he sought to make men fully aware of the depths of human sinfulness. He attacked the idea of man's progress, but he saw man as "at once saint and sinner." He, also, tenderly saw man as "not damned nor perfectible." He wrote seventeen major books and hundreds of articles for magazines and journals. His most famous book was Moral Man and Immoral Society which was published in 1932.

Reinhold was not just a scholar or a theorists, but he got involved in practical solutions to the problems of the church and the nation. He was credited with transforming and renewing the old Social Gospel dream. He even ran for Congress as a Socialist during the New Deal era. He was involved in the pacifist movement until Pearl Harbor. Then he founded "Christianity and Crisis" to bring realism to American Christianity's view of world ills. He was an active leader in the formation of the National Council of Churches, New York's Liberal Party, and Americans for Democratic Action, an anti-Communist organization. He called for a theology that accepted God sovereignty, but encouraged men to reform their institutions. He was a major figure in evangelical, Protestant Christianity like his more scholarly younger brother Helmut Richard.

H. Richard Niebuhr, who was called a theologian's theologian, examined the traditional theological matters in the light of sociology, history, and psychology. His first major work Social Sources of Denominationalism (1929) used the insights of Marx, Weber, and Troeltsch to show how class, race, nationality, and economic factors had divided the churches. He, also, pointed out how deeply middle-class presuppositions were a part of mainstream American Christianity.

In 1935 he co-authored with Wilhelm Pauck and Francis P. Miller The Church Against the World. It was considered the Neo-orthodox manifesto to the churches. He called the churches not to march out to battle, but to withdraw from the world's embrace, to rediscover the Gospel, and to fulfill its mission as a confessing community.

In 1937 his classic The Kingdom of God in America was a call for the restoration of Reformation roots in American Christianity. He traced the men and the movements from Puritanism and Jonathan Edwards to the Liberalism and Evangelicalism of his day. He refuted the Liberalism that had ensnared him in his younger days. He showed how movements were institutionalized and secularized, then they declined and gave birth to new movements.

Neo-orthodoxy was mainly an intellectual movement involving the academic community. It did refresh the ideals of the supernatural and the sovereignty of God's intervention in human affairs. Social issues gained a new urgency, but their hope did not rest ultimately on human arrangements. They succeeded in attracting disenchanted liberals and modernists. However, the conservative followers were never satisfied with the issue of Biblical inerrancy or the exact nature of salvation, but they did favor the attacks on liberalism. The new theology did restore credibility to Protestant scholarship, insight, and modern thought.

World War Two:

After the First World War many religious leaders vowed never would they have any part in any war again. Harry Fosdick in his great sermon "My Account with the Unknown Soldier" expressed the pacifist conviction of countless Protestant preachers like Ernest Tittle and Ralph Sockman. The religious pacifists allied themselves with political isolationists, who hoped for a return to the days of the Monroe Doctrine in dealing with Europe

Gradually, the revisionists saw the Versailles reparations as unfair, the munitions makers as merchants of death, and especially the British colonial empire as the condemnation for the world's problems. The American pacifists whitewashed Germany and made Britain the scapegoat. A major sounding board for the pacifists was the Christian Century, a socially oriented journal founded in 1908 by Charles Clayton Morrison, and a chief organ of interdenominational liberalism. Contemporaries wondered if the secular Chicago Tribune and the Christian Century had the same editors because of their similar positions on the threat of war. Eventually the premise, that wars were preventable if leaders made the proper decisions, became widespread in the American churches and universities. However, the retreat from intervention and even opposition for Congress' Neutrality Acts continued in the 1930's.

Throughout the decade as the totalitarian dictators marched into Manchuria, China, Ethiopia, the Rhineland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia, there was a rise in demagogues. Gerald Winrod, William Dudley Pelley, Guy and Edna Ballard, and Father Charles Coughlin were among those referred to as the "apostles of discord." They were strongly anti-Semitic and fervently opposed to FDR and the New Deal, but they did favor involvement against the aggressor nations.

When Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939, a wide divergence of opinions splintered the religious community. The debate ranged from pacifism, neutrality, and nonbelligerency to earmarked aid and even open combat. However, it was becoming increasingly clear that a world run by the Axis powers would make it impossible to achieve any Christian advancements. When President Roosevelt spoke to Congress (Jan, 1941), he called for "a world founded on four essential freedoms." They were: freedom of speech, worship of God, from want, and from fear. It was, also, becoming clear that Allied goals and American hopes for the future were similar. When Winston Churchill and FDR signed The Atlantic Charter in August, 1941, the US moved a step closer to war.

Probably no single day in United States history dramatically crystallized the American people as Sunday December 7th, 1941. The "sneak" attack on Pearl Harbor ended the dissension about war. As Ray Abrams expressed it, "this "treachery" united the people of this country as probably nothing else could have done." After the "day of infamy" President Roosevelt promised that "the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory so help us God."

The historians continue to review the "how's" and "ifs" of the surprise attack that took 33 ships 13 days to travel 3150 nautical miles unnoticed through the "vacant" sea. Gordon Prange called his great book At Dawn We Slept. The revisionists have claimed that FDR lured the Japanese into attacking the US Pacific Navy. The John Birch Society alleged that Communist agents maneuvered Japan into a war with the US. Goldstein and Dillon flat out credit the Japanese with a brilliant, daring, successful plan. Everyone finds diplomatic blunders, mistakes with messages, bizarre weather patterns, and pure luck.

Nevertheless the most famous Japanese code words of the attack were exclaimed by Mitsuo Fuchida, "Tora! Tora! Tora!" He would eventually survive the war, and as Prange said, "he (Fuchida) had enough adventures for ten men." He missed Midway because of acute appendicitis and providentially left Hiroshima the day before the Atomic Bomb, but he returned the day after with a 13 member inspection team. Shortly the other 12 died of strange symptoms and only Mutsuo survived. After the war he made the front page of the Tokyo Times when he converted to Christianity. For the next 30 years Mitsuo Fuchida was a Christian evangelist, who befriended Billy Graham and even spoke in churches along the US Pacific coast. His posters proclaimed "I led the attack on Pearl Harbor," then he proclaimed the Gospel.

When the two-hour attack on Pearl Harbor ended, over two thousand servicemen were dead, a total of 3581 Americans were casualties, Battleship Row was an inferno of fire and smoke, and crewmen were trapped inside the Arizona, Utah, and Oklahoma. In all nineteen vessels were either damaged, capsized, or sunk. One hundred and eighty-eight airplanes were destroyed. However, the aircraft carriers Saratoga, Enterprize, and Lexington were safely at sea, and the Japanese did not return to attack the fuel storage. Tales of heroism abounded on every ship and around the naval base. Within the month Admiral Kimmel and Lt. General Short would be investigated by the Roberts Commission.

While the naval attack on December 7th brought the US and others into a global war, a second worldwide impact came from a group known as The Navigators. In 1933 Dawson Trotman started one of the most successful discipleship programs in the history of the Christian Church. He used Bible studies and Scripture memory as a follow up for new converts. He began with five sailors on the USS West Virginia. Daws began his famous one-on-one discipleship challenge, "Where is your man?" Afterwards four of the original five ended up as foreign missionaries. Dawson said, "We started on the battleships of the United States Navy, getting men to spend time in the Bible. By the time the war was over, we had fellows on a thousand ships and on scores of bases throughout the world, faithfully serving and witnessing for the Lord."

The wartime clearly stimulated a renewal of interest in religion. Again, as in the First World War, the government showed no proclivity toward the separation of church and state. Congress had announcement in 1940 as a part of the Selective Service Act that a requirement of one chaplain for every twelve hundred men would be carried out. The office of Chief of Chaplains was established, and the Most Reverend William R. Arnold, a widely respected Roman Catholic, was selected to handle all chaplain's affairs through his office. While each denomination set their requirements for chaplains, all had to conform to the Chief of Chaplain's office. Eventually eight thousand chaplains served throughout the war.

The government, also, barred all groups and agencies from using their funds to erect special buildings for their spiritual work. Instead Congress appropriated $12,816,880 in the spring of 1941 to build 604 chapels on Army posts, camps, and bases for American troops. Each chapel was to cost $21,220 and to seat 400 worshippers for all faiths. No one objected to spending government funds on these buildings.

In other wars the government assigned different volunteer groups to oversee the welfare and activities of the servicemen. However in World War Two, the United Service Organization better know as the USO was suggested by President Roosevelt. A Board of Directors was made up of six representatives from the Salvation Army, the YMCA, the YWCA, the Jewish Welfare Board, the National Catholic Community Service, and the National Travelers Aid Societies. The government provided a budget of $12,000,000 in 1942. By 1944 3,000 centers were the GI's "home away from home." Over 1.5 million volunteers staffed the centers. Everything went on there like the American way of life from dances, movies, a place to talk, coffee and donuts, and even church services by the chaplains. The clubs were open to all regardless of their race, color, or creed.

The Army and Navy provided the servicemen with Bibles, hymnbooks, and aids to worship. The Chaplains' Association published A Song and Service Book, Army and Navy for Field and Ship. The book contained hymns, selections of Scripture, and prayers, in three sections, for Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. The American Bible Society was the most active agency for providing Bibles and Testaments. A pocket testament had the following Foreword by President Roosevelt: "As Commander-in-Chief, I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States. Throughout the centuries men of many faiths and diverse origins have found in the Sacred Book words of wisdom, counsel, and inspiration."

Rabbis, ministers, and priests served as chaplains during the war. They lived in foxholes, pup tents, open fields, and Quonset huts. They prayed, heard confessions, gave sermons, and served communion and last rites. Sometimes they just listened. On too many occasions they read scriptures over unmarked and even watery graves that, as it written at the Tomb of the Unknown soldier, were "Known only to God." Their trust, comfort, encouragement, and service was beyond measure, but it was not forgotten by God or man.

The first famous chaplain of the war was Howell Forgy in the US Navy at Pearl Harbor. He wrote the words and Frank Loesser of Broadway fame wrote the music to the song Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition. Within a month it was a popular song around the nation.

The most famous incident of the war involved the four chaplains on the USS Dorchester. Shortly after midnight of February 3,1943 while 902 GI's were being transported to Greenland, a torpedo from a German U-boat blew up the Dorchester's engine room. The explosion killed some outright, others were trapped below deck, and bedlam reigned on the ship's deck. Some over-crowded lifeboats capsized, while others floated away nearly empty. The ship was prohibited from firing distress flares because of security, so the Dorchester unbeknown to their escorts began sinking alone in the dark, foggy, snowy night.

On the deck the four chaplains of the ship aided the frantic escape to safety. They were: George L. Fox and Clark V. Poling, both Protestants; Alexander D. Goode, Jewish; and John P. Washington, Roman Catholic. When they were out of lifeboats, lifejackets, and flotation devices, the four chaplains removed their own life jackets and forced them on four terrified servicemen. The four chaplain linked their arms together and bowed their heads in prayer as the ship sank into the Atlantic.

Only 230 men survived, while 672 died in the third greatest ship disaster of the war. Some of the survivors viewed the unselfish act of the four chaplains. One eyewitness John Ladd said, "It was the finest thing I have ever seen or hope to see this side of heaven." The altruistic episode was painted by Dudley Summers with the four chaplains and the Dorchester being drawn into the raging ocean. Portraits of the four chaplains frame the four corners.

The event is remembered annually by the "Four Chaplain's Sunday" in February. In 1951 the "Chapel of the Four Chaplains" was dedicated, and President Harry Truman spoke these words, "That day they preached the most powerful sermon of their lives." In 1960 Congress commemorated their heroism with a "Medal of Valor." National Chaplain of the American Legion Rev. Henry E. Eisenhart said, "The saga of the Four Chaplains testifies to the bright side of the human spirit."

Nazi Germany set the tone for World War II with the saying "Today Germany, Tomorrow the World." The war was global in commitment and fighting. A total of six-one nations were drawn into the conflict, and it involved three-fourths of the world's population. An estimated 110 million people were mobilized and about 15 percent actually faced the enemy in combat. For America over 15 million men volunteered or were drafted and over 200,000 women entered the Army and Navy services. It was the most devastating war in human history, and it would cost over a trillion dollars and a guesstimated fifty-five million lives.

Historians have referred to it as the "People's War." It was waged by citizens against the citizens. For possibly the first time in history more civilians died than soldiers. Thirty million civilians died while twenty-five million military personal died. But for those who survived and those who lived through it, the war changed their lives completely.

For those who served in the armed services their lives were disrupted forever. Most had never been very far from home. The three months basic training meant regimentation and physical exhaustion. They became known as GI's slang for "government issue." At the front the fighting cause not only fear and dread, but they were exposed to sights that they did not want to talk about for the rest of their lives. So many left home joyful, carefree kids only to return as hushed, reticent veterans.

Their tour distanced them from home and family. They did not receive a furlough for the birth of their children or a funeral of a parent. They anguished over the dreaded "Dear John" letters. They hoped the songs were true like "Don't Sit under the Apple Tree with anyone else, but me" and "You'll Never Know (how much I love you)." Even the great postwar movie The Best Years of Our Lives could only simulate the turmoil etched on their hearts

However, the war did have a spiritual impact at home and at the front. Sydney Ahlstrom wrote this excellent appraisal, "the anxieties of scattered families and the social disruption of the "war effort" did stimulate an unmistakable rise of interest in religion. "There are no atheists in the foxholes," was the word from the theater of military action. In millions of blue-star and gold-star households and in thousands of home churches the same could be said. In this sense, the "postwar revival" began long before the fighting ceased."

One of the truly great stories of intercessory prayer took place in Seadrift, Texas. The members of the First Assembly of God Church made a collage of their fifty-two servicemen, who were serving in World War Two. The church faithfully prayed for these men throughout the war. When the war ended, all 52 returned alive from the war.

On the other hand, the greatest single blow to one family that shocked the nation was to the Sullivans of Waterloo, Iowa. On Friday the 13th of November, 1942 during the battle for Guadalcanal a Japanese torpedo sunk the USS Juneau, a light cruiser with 500 men on broad. Only ten men survived, but the nation was grieved for the five Sullivan brothers, who were lost.

The family of Thomas and Aleta Sullivan on Adams Street was known for their patriotic and religious fervor. These first generation Irish-Americans had five boys George, Francis, Eugene, Madison, and Alberta, who enlisted because a friend was killed at Pearl Harbor. The five ranged in ages from 20 to 29 and only the youngest Albert was married. They pressed the armed services for the chance to serve in the same branch with the same assignment. They have been remembered by the motto "We Stick Together."

They were glorified in the 1944 movie "The Fighting Sullivans" and memorialized by two US Navy ships (1943 & 1995) bearing their name. Waterloo, Iowa has celebrates their memory with Sullivan Park, a convention center, and the annual ceremony at the St. Patrick's Day Mass in Sullivan Park.

Regardless, World War Two was different from other wars in it's brutality and respect for human life. Early reports on the Axis treatment of their enemies and their own people alarmed the Allies. In the pre-war days German immigrant carried stories about the Nazi violence toward the Jews. In 1942 the New York Times wrote that one million Polish Jews had been exterminated mainly by electrocution. From the first days of the fighting the fanatical effort by the Japanese soldiers made it clear that they would died for their Emperor and their country.

As the hatred grew during the war, both sides were accused of shooting at soldiers with white flags and committing heartless acts against POW's. Short of death, being a prisoner was considered the worst fate of the war. The rumor around the homefront was that the treatment worse by the Japanese than the Germans.

America's first experience with what was considered war crimes was the Bataan Death March. Thousands died in the six-day march and accounts were told that the Japanese denied water, food, and medicine to the POW's. Hundreds died daily in their camps because of starvation, disease, and brutality. The full story was not revealed until after the war was over.

The most enduring POW story was that of Louis Zamperini. He became famous in the 1936 Berlin Olympics for pulling down a flag bearing the Nazi swastika at the Reichstag, while he was a member of the US track team. During the Second World War he was shot down in the Pacific and floated on a life-raft for forty-seven days. Although he was strafed by Japanese pilots, he survived only to spend the next two years in a Japanese POW camp.

Although Louie Zamperini was an Olympic star and a war hero, his return to civilian life was difficult and he turned to drinking. In 1949 at the Billy Graham's Los Angeles tent meetings, Louie responded to the alter call and gave his life to Christ. On the final day of the crusade at the breakfast for pastors and workers, Louie Zamperini was one of the four transformed lives to give their testimony. He went into full-time Christian work as director of a Christian camp for boys.

He spent the next four decades serving The Lord and leading a quiet life. On the final night of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, Jim Nantz of CBS Sports devoted the first hour rehearsing Louie Zamperini's life story. The consuming issue was: would Louie meet with his brutal prison guards, particularly the notorious Matsushiro Watanabe - code name "The Bird", and would he try to win them to Christianity?

The shocking aspect of WW Two for 20th Century people was the level of evil that existed in "modern" human beings. Allied leaders were appalled at the Axis mindset of world conquest without regard for the cost in lives. Their early successes and their apparent godless attitude led Winston Churchill to say, "Upon this battle (for Britain) depends the survival of Christian civilization..(or)..the whole world, including the United States...will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Ages."

While it is easier for historians to leave "the acts of God" unsaid or treat the coincidences as "luck," some surmised that God was not in control or that He even had anything to do with the events of World War Two. However, one postwar writer postulated that there were a number of events with a "definite divine partiality" toward the Allies. Others have simply ascribed the term "miracle" to Allied successes. Mostly it is easier to give the esteem to the people involved in the action.

The first major "miracle" of the war was the evacuation at Dunkirk. The rescue across the English Channel clearly deserves a tremendous praise for the "Mosquito Armada" that used every kind of naval vessel to ferry the troops to Britain. However, almost forgotten is the extremely calm waters that enabled "Operation Dynamo" to take place. Also, while the RAF deserves credit for the victory against Goering's airmen, little is mentioned about the protective cloud cover that aided the deliverance.

In the Pacific Japanese leaders proclaimed that their successful surprise at Pearl Harbor was a divine blessing from the gods. Vice Admiral Kusaka, a devout Zen Buddhist, said about the fine weather and sea conditions, "Truly, it is with God's help." His Commander-in-Chief Nagumo agreed. Rear Admiral Tomioka recalled, "I prayed fervently to our ancestral gods that all would go well."

Only four months after Pearl Harbor the United States retaliated by bombing Tokyo, and the Americans experienced some similar strokes of fate. Colonel Jimmy Doolittle's raid was planned for after dark on April 19, 1942. However, they crossed the International Date Line and they had made a 24-hour error. (Japan, also, expected the attack the next day). When it seemed that the Task Force's position had been discovered by a Japanese patrol, Admiral Bull Halsey ordered Doolittle to launch his sixteen B-25's early from the ACC Hornet.

In March the Japanese government had announced plans for the first ever air-raid drill in Tokyo, while they assured their people that they had a safe homeland. The three-hour alert was complete with military planes forming a protective umbrella over the city. It was scheduled to last from 9 AM until noon on April 18th.

While Tokyo was practicing their air-raid, a strong tail wind was speeding Doolittle's raiders toward the city. Doolittle's plane dropped the first bombs at 12:15 PM as the mock exercise was ending. The Japanese military assumed that the raiders were a part of the friendly air show. In an amazing coincidence the alert and the attack had over lapped each other.

A second happenstance on Doolittle's bombing run involved Hirohito's Imperial Palace. As Doolittle was closing in on the Emperor's home, a Japanese antiaircraft battery fired on his B-25, and he was distracted from the target. The Palace remained unharmed and no one else fired on Doolittle's plane.

Altogether the sixteen planes survived the bombing run and 75 of the eighty air men made it through. Sergeant David J. Thatcher, a gunner on Plane No. 7, was asked in Chungking to account for the success, and he said, "It was only by the hand of God that any of us came out alive.

The raid shocked the Japanese people, and it caused the government to draw back Zeros and AA batteries from the war offensive to protect the homeland. The raid, also, had a huge psychological effect on American morale. It was the one bright light while the Japanese seized an empire in the Western Pacific during the first six months of the war.

The battle of Midway is called the greatest American naval victory in history and the turning point of the Pacific war. Gordon Prange said of his title, "Miracle at Midway is not so much alliterative as exactly fact." A number of "providential pairs" convinces one of America's destiny throughout the two days (June 4-5, 1942) of intense fighting.

While the US command debated whether Japan would attack Pearl or Midway, Yamamoto devised a dual ruse to attack Midway and the Aleutian Islands in hopes of dividing the US forces. However, the US cryptographers led by Joseph Rochefort and Thomas Dyer had broken the Japanese naval code. Hypo (Rochefort) knew that the main Japanese attack on "AF" was Midway. Nevertheless, the Americans were overwhelming underdogs. Nagumo's armada of 88 surface warships would be opposed by 28 US vessels. Another handicap occurred when America's best-known carrier admiral William "Bull" Halsey was hospitalized with a skin disorder. Even Admiral Chester Nimitz confessed their hope was either "by luck or God's mercy."

Admiral Nimitz deployed his fleet into two groups: Force 16 under Ray Spruance (the carriers: Hornet and Enterprize, 6 cruisers, and 9 destroyers) and Force 17 under Jack Fletcher (the carrier Yorktown, 2 cruisers, and 5 destroyers). The Yorktown was the miracle salvage ship from the battle of Coral Sea, and the surprise American carrier to the Japanese at the battle of Midway. They erroneously anticipated two carriers in the South Pacific, and they believed that the Yorktown was too damaged to fight at Midway. Appropriately, Admiral Nimitz named the rendezvous of Forces 16 and 17 "Point Luck."

In the meantime another double destiny favored the US. Two key Japanese pilots, heroes of Pearl Harbor, Fuchida and Genda could not participate at Midway. Mitsuo Fuchida was recovering from appendicitis, and Minoru Genda was suffering from pneumonia. Both were in hospital beds abroad the Akagi.

A second break came during the reconnaissance flights on the morning of June 4th. While the Japanese main goal was to bomb and invade Midway Island, the American objective was to attack the four Japanese aircraft carriers. By 0530 American scout pilot Howard Ady had sighted the first wave of bombers heading for Midway and part of Nagumo's Force. However, if one Jap scout pilot had flown on his search route a little longer, he would have discovered the US fleet. Another Japanese scout from the Soryu, who found the Yorktown, was unable to send a message because his radio transmitter was broken. His radio was only able to receive messages. Consequently, during the entire morning of the battle neither the Japanese command center or their scout pilots ever clearly understood the American deployment. However, the US had not located the four Jap carriers either.

By 0700 the Japanese had completed their first assault on Midway. They made plans to recover, refuel, and rearm all aircraft by 1030 for a second attack on Midway or on any US carrier that had been located. In the meantime, American fighters, torpedo planes, and dive bombers attacked the Kaga and the Akagi. (They had not located the Sorya or the Hiryu). During the three-hour assault over 100 US planes failed to make a single hit on the enemy carriers. Of the forty-one torpedo planes in the offensive 35 were shot down by the faster Zeros and anti-aircraft fire. All or most of some squadrons were wiped out. However, the Japanese still did not know the location or the number of US carriers.

At 1022 the miracle happened at Midway. A pair of venturesome pilots guessed at the location of the Jap carriers. Clarence Wade McClusky with 33 Dauntless dive bombers from the Enterprise, and Max Leslie with 17 Dauntlesses from the Yorktown discovered three enemy flattops at just right moment in time. The Kaga, Akagi, and Soryu had planes fueled, armed, and ready for takeoff on the decks. Also, the nominal Japanese air cover was concerned with the low flying torpedo planes not the dive bombers. In an uncoordinated attack McClusky's squadron divided to dive on the Akaga and the Soryu, and Leslie's planes attacked the Kaga. In three minutes the three carriers were ablaze with fires and suffering explosions from their bombs and their gasoline. The deck of the Kaga blew up and fire and smoke shot 1000 feet into the air. In less than 24 hours all three carriers were at the bottom of the Pacific.

In the afternoon of June 4th Admiral Fletcher ordered 24 Dauntlesses from the Enterprise and the Hornet to bomb the fourth carrier, the Hiryu. As luck would have it, the Hiryu took a course directly at the attack force. Also, a junior officer named Shumway made a quick thinking decision follow up the first bombing run on the Hiryu and four bombs were dropped on the deck. The Japanese had now lost four carriers and three-fourths of their best pilots.

Misfortune continued when Yamamoto canceled the invasion of Midway. Two cruisers ran into each other at three o'clock in the morning, when Capt. Akira Soji of the Mogami failed to make an emergency turn. The tide in the Pacific had clearly swung to the Americans.

It was the first Japanese naval defeat in 350 years. Japanese naval officers Kusaka and Miwa said that it was, "God's punishment for this sin of hubris (pride, arrogance)." Fuchida said the root cause was "victory disease."

For Americans the victory at Midway was a combination of factors. Every observer agrees that it was in part luck, fortunate fate, or some divine providence. The miracle was, also, clearly due to some bold command decisions by Nimitz, Spruance, and Fletcher. Their gambles paid off at the right time. Credit, also, goes to pilots like McClusky and Leslie, who were accused of sometimes flying by the seat of their pants. Their hunches put them at the right place. In the final analysis it was that dual factor ...in part God and ...in part man.

D-Day June 6th, 1944 was the greatest amphibious invasion in history. It required the most detailed and complicated plan ever made for a single event in a war. Operation Overlord would be launched at five beaches over 60 miles of the Normandy shoreline. The preparation involved over a million troops, 10,000 planes, 5,000 naval vessels, and dozens of airfields and ports. The elaborate strategy included a dummy army assembled for an assault on the narrowest crossing of the Channel at Calais, the massive buildup for the beachhead on Normandy, a breakout to Cherbourg, and finally, the logistics for thirty-seven divisions that would storm Fortress Europe.

The invasion was set for Monday June 5th because of the low tides and the moonlit conditions. However, after all the diligent plans and for every contingency the one uncontrollable factor that was the crux of their success was the weather. Over the weekend postponement seemed inevitable because of a series of low-pressure areas in the North Atlantic that would bring highs winds, rough seas, and low clouds to the English Channel. With the gloomy forecast Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower deferred to Tuesday. It proved to be a wise decision. The weather over the Channel was called the worst in twenty years. An invasion on Monday would have been a disaster.

Nevertheless, on Monday the weathermen were surprised when the stationary high-pressure area near Spain began moving northeastward. It could possibly result in clearing skies and moderating winds over the Channel for Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, the German meteorologists predicted continued foul weather which convinced Field Marshall Erwin Rommel to leave on June 4th spend a few days' leave at home for his wife's birthday. Besides the German staff expected the later date for an invasion which would coincide with a Russian spring offensive from the East, and the next favorable tidal conditions on June 19th.

The final decision needed to be made an once and by General Eisenhower alone. The over 200,000 troops had been bottled up onboard for almost two weeks, and the ships would need to be refueled. Although the window of weather was small, Eisenhower said, "I am quite positive we must give the order...I don't like it...I don't see how we can do anything else." The Supreme Commander concluded, "We'll go!"

On The Longest Day as Cornelius Ryan called it, the Allies caught several breaks. First, there had been a disagreement on how to defense an invasion. Von Rundstedt's strategy was to counterattack with reserves after the Allies landed on the beaches. However, Rommel felt that the key was to stopped them on the beaches. He said, "The first twenty-hours of the invasion will be decisive." Hitler allowed him to employ that defense on Omaha beach. Fortunately, The Fuehrer preferred Von Rundstedt's tactics.

The second stroke of luck occurred on the westernmost beach, Utah. The landing force accidentally landed a mile south of the site aimed for - a site that was later learned had strong German defenses. Consequently, the US soldiers and paratroopers ended up on the easiest and least costly of the five beaches.

Perhaps the best break was the decision on when to call up of the reserves. Von Rundstedt had to wait for Hitler's orders. The German staff left Hitler and Von Rundstedt sleep until late morning which was a common practice for both men. When Hitler was told, he did not believe it was the invasion. Precious hours were wasted waiting for Hitler's permission to use the reserves. By the afternoon the Allies were moving inland on all five beaches. Also, Rommel was unable to make it back to his headquarters in Rheims until six that evening.

By nightfall Allied troops had penetrated four to six miles on four of the five beaches. Only on "Bloody Omaha" was the beachhead a precarious mile to a mile and a half deep. The Allies had placed 156,000 men on eighty square miles of Normandy, and the losses were estimated at 10,000 casualties. What had started with the 82d paratroopers at St.-Mere-Eglise at 12:15 AM was now beginning of the end.

Over the next eleven months to VE Day the war was a continuous story of liberation. By the end of August Paris was liberated and Charles de Gaulle led a parade to the Cathedral of Notre Dame. In September Antwerp, Belgium, Luxembourg, Rheims, and most of France had been freed by Allied armies. In November Patch's American Army was at the Rhine. Then came Hitler's last desperate offensive in the West - The Battle of the Bulge and the Malmedy massacre of 80 American captives.

While the Ardennes counterattack disrupted any Holiday liberation on the Western Front, the Allied defense of key roads through St. Vith and Bastogne stalled the surprise German offensive. On Christmas Eve a German U-boat sank the transport Leopoldville killing 802 GI's, who were re-enforcement's for the Battle of the Bulge. At the Flossenburg POW camp SS guards held a sadistic Christmas party by hanging 15 recaptured US paratroopers, while their fellow inmates were forced to stand in ranks and watch. And on Christmas Day the Germans launched an all-out attack on Bastogne, however the gallant 101st and the now famous Anthony McAuliffe clung to the transportation hub. By then Patton's relief force was a day away and the skies were clear for the Allied air attacks. Hitler's surprise maneuver had failed. Consequently, Stephen Ambrose called the Christmas of 1944 "a Christmas best forgotten."

By March the Allied armies were on the borders of Germany the Russians from the East and the Americans and British from the West. German soldiers were rushing with white flags to the Western Front. An estimated six million Germans, including the famous rocket expert Wehner Von Braun, fled westward to avoid the "rape and pillage" of the Red Army. However, the worst disclosure was yet to come as the Allies marched through Germany in April, and they came to Belsen, Buchenwald, Dachau, Ravensbruck, Auschwitz, Treblinka, and the other camps.

The reports and rumors of atrocities had not prepared the world for what the eyewitnesses and the lens of the cameras and the newsreels viewed in the concentration camps. The world was aghast at what Hitler called his "Final Solution." The human misery from brutality, cruelty, and neglect could not be told by the hollow eyes, bony faces, and shriveled skeletons of the prisoners. Even the ovens, the piles of bones in mass graves, and the stench of death could not tell the story as the witnesses both military and civilian were shocked. The liberators responded with tears, and screams, and even vomiting.

History refers to it as "The Holocaust." Six million Jews "vanished," and totally around ten million were exterminated by Hitler's racial cleansing plan. A stunned world wondered where is God and what is He doing. In retrospect the Catholic Church was asked, "Why didn't you excommunicate Hitler, a baptized member, and why was Pope Pius XII silent?"

Some are remembered for their stand. A Catholic Colonel Klaus von Stauffenberg planted the bomb to assassinate Hitler in 1944. The leader of the "Confessing Church" Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran clergyman, was hanged by the Nazis on April 9, 1945. Raoul Wallenberg, Oskar Shindler, and numerous "righteous ones" in Holland, Denmark, and Norway helped Jews to escape.

Nevertheless, the era will always be remembered as The Nightmare (William Shirer) or The Night (Elie Wiesel). The death camps exposed the total depravity of what human beings are capable of. Still, the prevailing philosophy about human beings was ironically expressed by Anne Frank in her Dairy, "In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart." The reality and the truth about mankind changed as Nazi Germany came to an end with V-E Day on May 8, 1945.

In the Pacific the United States ran an island hopping campaign toward the Japanese mainland. General Douglas MacArthur returned to the Philippines along the southern route, and Admiral Chester Nimitz moved through the Central Pacific toward Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The Japanese proved to be a tenacious enemy fighting stubbornly, refusing to surrender, and even committing suicide rather than being taken captive. The nadir of their horrible madness was the suicide squadrons of kamikazes referred to as "divine wind."

Okinawa, the last invasion of the Pacific war, was the bloodiest battle because of the kamikazes. Hundred of pilots, who dressed in hara-kiri robes and were sworn to death, killed 12,000 seaman and Marines in the final battle of the war. Estimates for the defense of the mainland ran as high as 5,000 kamikazes were willing to die to defend against an invasion.

However, President Harry Truman was given an alternative choice. In December of 1944 Leslie R. Groves, the overseer of the Manhattan Project, announced that they could have an Atomic Bomb ready by August 1st. The United States had spent two billion dollars on the secret enterprise. J. Robert Oppenheimer was the scientific director, and 539,000 people worked on this new "ultimate" weapon. The first atomic bomb was exploded near Los Alamos, New Mexico on July 16, 1945.

There were several factors surrounding the decision to use the bomb. First, it would avoid an invasion which would cost an estimated million American lives. Secondly, the war would end sooner. It was General MacArthur's opinion that the ground war would last until the end of 1947. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it would result in an unconditional surrender and prevent Stalin from sharing in the postwar occupation of Japan.

Another consideration was the general attitude that the Japs were savages, ruthless, merciless, and fanatics, who never surrendered. They had used treachery in bombing Pearl Harbor. They had bombed Manila when it was surrendered as an open city. They had committed atrocities at Palawan, Bataan, and other POW camps. Perhaps no clearer picture was in the minds of Americans than the one carried in most May newspapers. It was a photograph of an American flyer, who was on his knees with his hands tied behind his back, blindfolded, and about to be beheaded by a Jap officer with a sword.

President Truman, who had been in combat in W.W.I, said, "think of the kids who won't be killed. That's the important thing." He further concluded, "If we can save even a handful of American lives, then let us use this weapon - now!" The President's only reservations where to not bomb the old Capitol at Kyoto or the new Capital at Tokyo with the Imperial Palace of the Emperor Hirohito.

President Truman was at the Potsdam Conference when the test bomb Trinity was exploded. He shared the results with Churchill and later Stalin. He issued the Potsdam Ultimatum to Japan for an unconditional surrender or "the alternative is prompt and utter destruction." Also, he gave approval to drop the bomb, if Japan did not respond to the ultimatum. The list of possible military sites to bomb included Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata, and Nagasaki.

In the meantime on July 29th the USS Indianapolis, the cruiser that had delivered the core for the Atomic bomb at Tinian, was torpedoed a thousand miles from its base at Leyte. The star-crossed mission was unable to send an SOS because their electrical system was damaged in the explosion. About 700 men in life jackets floated in the midst of sharks for 82 hours because the mission was secret and no one checked on them. Only 316 of the 1196 men survived the disaster.

On August 6th 1945 when the 9,000 pound uranium bomb "Little Boy" was detonated on Hiroshima, a new age was inaugurated. The mushroom shaped cloud called to mind the horrors of destruction in The Bible. Armageddon and the description in the book of Revelation (6:14) "the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together" was now a reality. Also, when the victims were seen at Hiroshima, it looked like the plague of Zechariah: "their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume in their mouth." (Zech. 14:12)

On August 9th the plutonium bomb known as "Fat Man" was dropped on the second choice city Nagasaki. Kokura was the target city, however it was socked in with bad weather. Paul Harvey gave his famous commentary on the "God sent Cloud." Several thousand Allied POW's, who had been delivered that morning, survived because clouds covered Kokura during the three bombing runs. Other things went wrong on the ill-fated mission under Charles Sweeney. The bomb exploded three miles off the target, and finally when the plane landed it ran out of gas at the end of the runway.

The death tolls were around 70,000 plus at Hiroshima and over 40,000 at Nagasaki. The devastation was shocking - one plane, one bomb, one city. Emperor Hirohito said, "I cannot bear to see my innocent people suffer any longer." Japan agreed to the Potsdam terms and requested that the Emperor be retained.

For years critics have voiced their opinions over the use of the Atomic Bomb on Japan. Some have felt that it should have been dropped in an open field away from populated areas as a demonstration its power. Others have said that one bomb was enough, and that the second bomb was "barbaric." A larger body of speculators say that it was totally unnecessary to drop the bombs at all.

The revisionists argue that Japan was already defeated, and they were on the verge of collapse. They say that the naval blockade had a stranglehold because ninety percent of Japan's shipping was destroyed. Japan could have been starved into surrender. They, also, maintain that the Allies had complete air superiority. The B-29 Superfortresses were untouchable, and the Air Force could have bombed Japan into submission. Besides Japan was alone and a declaration of war by the Soviet Union would have made them surrender before any possible November Kyushu invasion. Finally, it is pointed out that the Japanese were sending out secret peace feelers via Switzerland and Sweden.

Gar Alperovitz alleges a "near cover-up" of information to President Truman by James Byrnes, Secretary of State; Henry Stimson, Secretary of War; and Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Project. In his 1995 book he says that secrecy, silence, and censorship created a myth about the need to drop the bomb. He declares that the military leaders Admiral William D. Leahy, Bull Halsey, Hap Arnold, and General Eisenhower were opposed to dropping the bomb.

Notwithstanding, the other side has defended its use, and contended that the action has been a deterrent to the future use of the Bomb. They feel that the arms race, the brinkmanship, and the limited regional wars over the past fifty years have all been tempered because of the fears from destruction at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Regardless of their speculations World War Two ended on the battleship USS Missouri September 2, 1945. The surrender document was signed six years and one day after the invasion of Poland. General MacArthur, who ran the ceremonies, closed with these words, "Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world, and that God will preserve it always. These proceedings are closed."

The veterans returned to a nation with full employment, money in the bank, and savings bonds in their lock boxes. They were welcomed home with parades, cheers, and a promise called the "G.I. Bill of Rights." A college education and a loan for a home or a business seemed to offer a bright future and a fair deal.

Be that as it may, civilian life did not bring the best years of their lives. Industry could not produce enough homes, or cars, or appliances. The demands on the economy only resulted in inflation. The government controls still remained after the war. In the meantime the brides from the war produced a baby boom of 30 million kids. But, the pursuit of prosperity and the flight to the suburbs could not satisfy the demands of the American dream.

No one anticipated a future with the unprecedented affluence that blessed the American Republic. Few wanted the continual threat to peace that the Cold War brought to everyone's attention. While some hoped for a spiritual renewal, many were pleased with the latest awakening, even though it happened outside the church. For the rest of the century American Christianity would strive to bring unity to the body of Christ both outside and inside the Church.

Chapter 10, The Non Establishment Awakening

The biggest change in American Christianity since the Second World War has been the religious activities outside the Church, and in particular, outside the major denominations. Keith Hardman's description explains these efforts as, "Independently supported ecumenical agencies came to occupy every conceivable ministry niche." The new organizations were created to confront practically every liberal issue and special need that Christians saw in society. The entire auxiliary crusade is best known under the umbrella title - the "parachurch" movement.

After W.W.II America experienced its fifth national revival. Unlike the previous instances this awakening was predominantly outside the Church, hence this chapter is referred by the "sixties" jargon as the "Non Establishment Awakening." The venues took place in nonchurch locations such as sports stadiums, beaches, parks, theaters, drive-ins, coffee houses, college campuses, high schools, homes, workplaces, storefronts, and even the streets. The notion that sacred worship was limited to the church building was dashed by this awakening.

In every decade the fifth awakening reached people groups not always connected to the church. The postwar phase touched Hollywood, colleges, and even Congress. While "post-Christian" became a label in America of the 60's, the hippies and the Jesus people found spiritual answers to their questions and problems. The terms born again, evangelical, and charismatic were popularized in the 70's. In the 80's the Moral Majority led people to believe that our problems would be solved, if every elected official was a Christian. In the 1990's a stunning change in American manhood was made from Macho Man and "in your face" to a Godly Man and a Promise Keeper. The Promise Keepers packed 98 stadiums and arenas with 3.5 million men during the decade. The era was, also, bathed in "Concerts of Prayer" for revival in America. Needless to say, while many of these activities happened outside of the church doors, American Christianity harvested new ministries in the forms of the megachurches and the seven-day-a-week church.

A. W. Tozier, a Chicago pastor, has been considered a "20th Century prophet." In his 1948 book The Pursuit of God Tozier called Christians to not divide their lives into two areas - the sacred and the secular. He said that "every act of our lives contributes to the glory of God; and that every day is holy, all places are sacred, and every act is acceptable to God." By the end of the 20th century this perspective came to be known as the "Christian Worldview," believing that "God is involved in everything, in every place, at everytime."

Another prominent viewpoint of the past 50 years has been the attention to the Middle East. In 1948 the most significant sign in Bible prophecy, since the life of Christ occurred; it was the reborn state of Israel. For the first time in 2600 years the Jews ruled their homeland in the land of Palestine. No other generation in history had seen this. Naturally, Christians began speculating about the end times, the rapture, Armageddon, and the personal return of Jesus Christ.

Furthermore, the Truman administration largely through the efforts of Clark Clifford became the first nation to recognize the new state of Israel. Twelve minutes after the British mandate expired President Harry Truman announced the U.S. recognition. American Christians often assert that the United States has been blessed because of our continued support of the Jews (based on Genesis 12:3 "I will bless them that bless thee"). A few have suggested that the 1948 election upset providentially blessed the Baptist President Harry Truman over Dewey because of Truman's actions on Israel's behalf. They quote Nebuchadnezzar's words in Daniel 4:17 & 25, "the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will".

With the Atomic era came various scenarios on the end of the age. After the Iron Curtain and the Cold War began, the "Doomsday Clock" first appeared in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in 1947. Both hands on midnight symbolized the nuclear annihilation of mankind. When the US and the Soviet Union exploded hydrogen bombs in 1953, the hands were set at two minutes before midnight. With every threat of war or hope for peace the minute hand shifted closer or farther away from the top of the hour.

Finally, the last half of the 20th Century has seen a conspicuous resurgence of spiritual interests and the supernatural world. The range spans from the pantheism of Bahaism to the cosmic consciousness of the New Age. The terms include mysticism, Eastern religions, yoga, Zen, reincarnation, born again, angels, ghosts, aliens, astrology, crystals, drugs, psychics, the occult, the paranormal, and this only touches the surface. The virtual reality of it all is that there has come to be an acceptance where there is no limitation to time or space, or even life or death. Clearly, the secular world has promoted a vague "god" tolerant of all religions which generally believes about the same things. Certainly their "Man or Woman upstairs" is not the God of the Bible and the Jesus Christ, who is the only Savior and Lord of the world.

The Evangelical Awakening

Throughout the Non-Establishment Awakening the Evangelical experience grew in prominence. While they espoused some doctrinal differences, Evangelicals agreed on two basic beliefs: a conversion to Christ is the only way to salvation and the Bible as God's Truth of life for mankind. Theologically, repentance leads to justification by faith, and the Bible is the infallible word of God. Consequently, these cornerstones have resulted in a changed life through a personal relationship with Christ and an obedient life as the Bible directs. This change is referred to as a new life, a new creature, and born again or born from above.

After W.W.II an Evangelical Awakening unfolded until the end of the 1950's. Because these developments lacked the devotion of other revivals and the events ripened outside the church, few church historians noticed the scope of the awakening. However, a young Irish evangelist-scholar, who earned his Ph.D. from Oxford in 1948, James Edwin Orr wrote a book Good News in Bad Times: Signs of Revival; and he was able to discern the movement. His 1953 book documented the events and people of the awakening.

The earliest signs of this revival came from the Youth for Christ rallies. Jack Wyrtzen, the founder Word of Life, had surprising success with Saturday night rallies in Times Square. The notion of presenting the Gospel on the night, when young people were dedicated to pleasure-seeking and hanging around, became so well received that within six months turn away crowds were packing Madison Square Garden. The meetings were geared toward the young with stirring congregational singing, testimonies by youthful converts, Scripture reading, and a basic salvation message which had a follow-up in the inquiry room. In 1944 and 1945 the YFC rallies spread rapidly to every big city in the nation. Thirty thousand packed the Chicago Stadium in the fall of 1944, and the next spring in 1945 sixty thousand attended an outdoor rally at Chicago's Soldiers Field.

Chicago became the early YFC headquarters, and "Geared to the Times, Anchored to the Rock" was selected as their slogan. Torrey Johnson served as President, and Robert A. Cook was the Chicago director. Mel Larson kept a history of the movement. In 1945 Billy Graham, a little known speaker, was hired as their first full-time evangelist, and Rev. Graham invited Cliff Barrows to serve as his MC and song leader.

While the objective of YFC was to use spiritual entertainment to reach unchurched young people, critics said that it was too superficial. Philip Kerr said, "it was a matter of fish-catching instead of sheep-feeding." Others said that the rallies were boosting the speaker's or the performer's reputation instead of glorifying Christ. Another criticism was it was not sufficiently church-centered. Although YFC said they cooperated with the churches, they mainly cooperated with churches with an evangelical doctrine. Nevertheless, the movement enthusiastically spread internationally by 1948.

At mid-century if America had one place where sinners abounded and sin was publicized, it was Hollywood. However, the glamour of the Gospel radiated from the First Presbyterian Church. Their pastor was Dr. Louis H. Evans, and Dr. Henrietta C. Mears was the director of Christian Education.

Dr. Mears, one of the great Christian women of the 20th Century, founded Forest Home, a retreat in the San Bernadino Mountains, and Gospel Light Publication, the outstanding Sunday School curriculum. She wrote the great Bible handbook What the Bible is all About, and she was, also, involved in the Hollywood Christian Group, a gathering of believing actors.

One of the wondrous works of God during the 1940's was the movement of "ministers in prayer for revival." Armin Gesswein, a Missouri Synod Lutheran pastor who had studied under the great radio minister Dr. Walter A. Maier, was moved to pray for a spiritual awakening of all Christians and a reviving of the ministers. As the movement grew pastors reported fellowships where every pastor in town attended regardless of denominational lines with their only purpose to simply unite in prayer. A genuine stirring of prayer, confession, even tears and sobbing occurred in these meetings that included pastors and their wives. The most successful pastor's conferences were held in Minneapolis in 1948 and Los Angeles in 1949.

A significant spiritual conjunction happened in Southern California in 1949. Preparatory meetings at Forest Home and in Los Angeles for a Billy Graham Crusade gathered Christian leaders, who would be influential for the rest of the 20th Century. Billy Graham, Chuck Templeton, J. Edwin Orr, Dawson Trotman, Bill Bright, Armin Gesswein, Henrietta Mears, and others met for plans and prayers for the September crusade. Little did they realize that their hopes to make an impact for Christ would result in a national media attention to some changed lives.

Colleen Townsend was a promising 21 year-old starlet for Twentieth Century Fox. While attending the Hollywood First Presbyterian Church and Henrietta Mear's college age class, "Coke" gave her life to Jesus Christ. When she gave up her career "to answer the call of God," her Christian testimony made the Associated Press, Life magazine, and Louella Parson's column. Life magazine devoted three pages to Colleen Meant What She Said. She quietly married the pastor's son Louis H. Evans Jr. and later starred in some evangelistic Christian films.

"Any hope for Hollywood" was a far-fetched concept in the 1940's. But as Dr. Orr has uncovered, the single most important factor in every revival and in most conversions is prayer. Three wives of prominent Western entertainment personalities had their prayers answered when Tim Spencer, Stuart Hamblin, and Roy Rogers trusted Christ as their Savior. Tim Spencer was the manager of The Sons of the Pioneers and like many in Hollywood deeply afflicted by alcoholism. When he was converted, he was freed from alcohol and joined the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. While he wrote over 200 songs in his career, none was more meaning than Roomful of Roses, a love ballad, which was an answer to prayer on the day he gave up alcohol. He and his wife Velma led the Hollywood Christian Group until 1952 when he became a full-time evangelist. Stu Hamblin, who wrote It is No Secret What God Can Do, was the first publicized conversion at the Billy Graham Crusade. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans maintained an outstanding Christian testimony throughout their over 50 years of marriage.

In 1950 the Hollywood Christian Group held their first annual banquet. Colleen Townsend's public confession encouraged other to take a stand for Christ. Other cowboy converts included the successful tailor Nudie, Cindy Walker, and Redd Harper. Lois Chartrand, a Paramount actress and friend of Colleen Townsend, also gave up her Hollywood career for full-time Christian service. Even TV-Radio Life included an article on the conversions with the headline "Religion: A Hit Parade Trend."

In 1951 the BGEA produced the first Christian Western film Mr. Texas starring Cindy Walker and Redd Harper. The premiere in the Hollywood Bowl drew 25,000 people, and 25 searchlights crisscrossed the sky. It was a record crowd for that period of Hollywood's history, and the Hollywood Christian Group was thrilled at the outreach. Also, the Graham Association began a long history of using motion pictures as an evangelistic tool.

In 1952 another almost forgotten film was Red Planet Mars. It was an anti-Communist film about a voice from Radio Free Mars. The voice was really God speaking. The film closed with world peace when the Soviet Union was converted to Christ.

However, clearly the biggest publicity came from the September 1949 "Christ for Greater Los Angeles" Billy Graham Crusade. The meetings were planned for three weeks with six-thousand-seats in a Ringling Brothers circus tent. Cliff Barrows recruited the choir, Dawson Trotman trained the follow-up counselors, and over 200 churches spent twenty-five thousand dollars on posters, billboards, and radio publicity to promote the event.

Mr. Graham's themes surrounded the increased moral decay of the nation, the sin and wickedness around Los Angeles, and the threat of judgment unless revival occurred. Two days before the Crusade began President Truman announced that the Soviet Union had tested an atomic bomb. During the first three weeks of meetings the average attendance was 3,000 people, but the crowds seemed to be growing. The committee decided to extend the campaign, when radio personality Stuart Hamblin gave his life to Christ.

A second sign of encouragement came when the news media flocked to the tent nightly. Later it was learned that William Randolph Hearst, owner of two Los Angeles newspaper and a nationwide chain, had sent orders to his editors to "Puff Graham." When other famous conversions happened to Jim Vaus, wiretapper for mobster Mickey Cohen, and Louis Zamperini, the war hero and 1936 Olympian, the overflow crowds forced the committee to add three thousand more seats.

The impact was overwhelming. Billy Graham became a national figure, and the old-time revival meetings had returned to respectability. During the eight weeks of the crusade 350,000 attended the Canvas Cathedral. An estimated 3,000 made a profession of faith in Christ (82 percent had never attended church), and nearly 700 churches ended up supporting the campaign. Clearly, God had answered the prayers of Armin Gesswein and the others.

Another significant sign of revival outside the church that resulted in sensational news in the secular press was the college awakenings. While groups like Inter-Varsity, Christian Endeavor, and the Newman Club existed on college campuses, for the most part Christian students were inactive and silent. However, colleges, being interested in a well-rounded individual, provided a spiritual activity on their calendars known as the "Religious Emphasis Week." While these meetings were common at Christian colleges, they continued at secular universities and liberal arts colleges even until the 1960's.

In April of 1949 in the office of Billy Graham, President of Northwestern schools in Minneapolis, five men met to pray for a spiritual outbreak among Christian college students. The prayers of J. Edwin Orr, Armin Gesswein, Jack Franck, William Dunlap, and Graham were answered the next week at Bethel College in St. Paul. The president of the college, Dr. Henry C. Wingblade reported that 95 percent of the students were on their faces praying, confessing, and searching to know God's will for their lives. The chapel services and the days of prayer were even broadcast over the radio station KTIS. Over the final months of the school semester similar spiritual outbreaks were reported on other Minnesota campuses.

During the summer of 1949 the movement shifted to Southern California where five hundred students were meeting at Forest Home. Henrietta Mears saw her prayers answered, when an outpouring of the Holy Spirit occurred. It was similar to the reports in Minnesota. Dr. Mears called Billy Graham to come and help with the harvest. This movement included scores of conversions. When the fall semester started, the awakening spread to other colleges up and down the Pacific coast states especially during their Religious Emphasis Weeks. It was certainly akin to the Bethel events and the September Graham crusade in Los Angeles.

By far the most notable month of the collegiate awakenings was February of 1950 at the most prominent evangelical college in the nation Wheaton near Chicago. It was their practice to begin each semester with an evangelistic campaign. Unusual manifestations had occurred in 1936 and again in 1943 during Billy Graham's impressionable senior year. Now, another seven years later, evangelist Edwin S. Johnson from Seattle had been invited for a week of services. However, on Wednesday before he could start to preach, a stream of students began repenting, confessing, praying, and praising. It lasted all night long and continued through the next 42 straight hours.

On Thursday the Chicago Daily News made it the front-page story. They asked their famous cartoonist, Vaughn Shoemaker, a Christian who was familiar with Wheaton, to give an account of the events. His presentation was favorable as was the flood of nationwide publicity that followed. One writer coined the term "Prayer Marathon" as a spin off of the dancing marathon craze of earlier times. Newspapers and editorial columns throughout the country reported the Wheaton Awakening. Life magazine devoted two-pages with the headline "College Revival Becomes Confession Marathon." Time magazine titled their two-page report "42 Hours of Repentance." Newsweek and Quick, also, gave favorable reports of the remarkable religious fervor of the students.

In the wake of the Wheaton revival spiritual stirrings broke out on other campuses in the Midwest. Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky had a reputation as a fine, evangelical seminary. On February 23, 1950 Rev. Dee Cobb read one verse of scripture and the Holy Spirit sweep across the chapel. Tears and weeping moved most of the young people. When the prayer meeting continued for five days and five nights, it was a continuous momentum of worship and praise that lasted one hundred and eighteen hours. Like Wheaton confessions and repentance for wrongs and backsliding were spontaneous and public.

Reporters from radio, television, and the Louisville and Lexington papers as well as the Associated Press and the United Press hovered over the occurrences. The revival turned classrooms, dormitories, the dining hall, the gymnasium, and even homes in Wilmore into prayer meetings. Many testified that they had never experienced the presence nor the power of the Holy Spirit on any occasion like that one.

After the divine visitations at Wheaton and Asbury a variety of responses came to pass at other colleges. At UCLA Bill Bright led a student revival crusade which resulted in 150 "decisions for Christ." As a follow-up he decided to go to other colleges, his organization became known as Campus Crusade for Christ. At Baylor 3,000 students packed Waco Hall auditorium to hear Billy Graham preach an old-fashion evangelistic sermon, and two-hundred and twenty-six student decided to meet in the adjoining auditorium for further talks. Dr. Orr observed that Religious Emphasis Weeks on State universities and private college had an increased attention on spiritual matters. Still, he estimated that less than one-percent of the student body was affected. While revival results should have been expected fundamentalist schools, Dr. Orr said that, "Many of the fundamentalist schools missed the movement completely except where an Inter-Varsity chapters existed." The revival was, also, witnessed at Northern Baptist and North Park in Chicago; Simpson, Pacific Northwest, Northwest Bible, and Seattle Pacific in Washington; Nyack and Houghton in New York; Lee College in Tennessee; and McGill, Manitoba, and some other Canadian colleges.

The college revivals continued for three years, but they were no longer considered news-worthy. While publicity was never sought, the national attention gave religion in general a greater degree of public esteem than at anytime before in the 20th century. Furthermore a new generation of leaders had emerged, and thousands of students, the most notable being All-American football player Don Moomaw, had announced their commitment to full time Christian service.

By the 1950's the resurgence of religious interest, also, touched government officials in Washington, DC. Abraham Vereide was a man with a burden to pray, "Lord, whatever happens, send us more converted men to Congress." He came to The Capitol in 1942 with a vision to reach the leaders for Christ. Vereide was a childhood immigrant from Norway, who served as a Methodist minister in a small church for two years; but, he enjoyed the work outside the church for Goodwill Industries, CBMC, and breakfast groups. He said, "I loved the sheepfold but was often found outside looking for the lost sheep among the rocks." In Washington he met with various Breakfast groups and Bible studies from the House and the Senate. Among evangelicals Vereide was given the title "Mr. Christian of Washington."

In the 1950 mid-term elections it was estimated that 20 percent of Congressmen were real believers compared with 10 percent at most in the general population. Vereide found a dozen legislators conducting Sunday School classes in Washington churches. Russell Hitt in Christian Life estimated the number of evangelical legislators was in excess of a hundred. During the decade the President and Congress made several religious proclamations. The first notable agreement was the National Day of Prayer which was established by a joint Congressional resolution in 1952.

When Dwight Eisenhower was elected President, he joined the National Presbyterian Church after taking their religious instruction and being baptized. During his baptism the congregation sang, "What a Friend We have in Jesus." Ike told Bev Shea that it was his favorite hymn. President Eisenhower confirmed his faith in Christ several times with Billy Graham especially after his 1955 heart attack.

During his Presidency the first Presidential Prayer Breakfast was held in 1953. It was the vision of Abraham Vereide, who remained the driving force behind it for many years until his death in 1969. President Eisenhower was in attendance, and Billy Graham was the featured speaker. Kansas Senator Frank Carlson persuaded the hotel magnate Conrad Hilton to be the financial sponsor for the first several years. It is now called The National Prayer Breakfast and is held annually in February.

In 1954 at the urging of President Eisenhower Congress passed an act establishing permanently "One Nation Under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance to our Flag. On Flag Day 1954 President Eisenhower stood on the steps of The Capitol Building, and he was the first to recite the Pledge with the words "under God." In 1956 Congress, also, made an official government announcement that our coins are to be stamped with the phrase "In God We Trust."

The "piety on the Potomac" was, also, reflected among the general public in the 1950's. After the Great Depression and World War Two Americans hoped for a period of prosperity and peace or at least personal peace. Despite all this, the postwar affluence produced a disillusionment that was expressed in fiction like The Organization Man and Death of a Salesman. The flight to suburbia and the demand for conformity became known as the "lonely crowd." Some social scientists suggested this was a reason for the tremendous growth in church membership during the decade.

The search for peace of mind during this "age of anxiety" gave rise to a number of books on the subject by religious leaders. Norman Vincent Peale had millions of followers with his Guide to Confident Living (1948) and The Power of Positive Thinking (1952). Bishop Fulton Sheen wrote Peace of Soul (1949), and he received enormous popularity from his CBS television program The Catholic Hour. Billy Graham's Peace with God (1953) was written for "the man in the street," and it was eventually published in over 50 countries. Another best-seller was Peace of Mind (1946) by Rabbi Joshua Loth Liebman. It satisfied the growing interest in Freudian psychology from a religious point of view.

An additional factor for the disenchantment over peace was the Cold War. The United States' adversary was the Soviet Union, the first openly "atheist" government in history. Consequently, being a Christian or at least a church member was the antithesis of the Communist enemy. In 1956 ninety-six percent of American proclaimed a church affiliation, and by 1960 sixty-nine percent were church members. The popularity of religion was, also, exhibited in the increased spending on church-building construction which surpassed a billion dollars annually in 1960.

Clearly the growing powerful force in American Christianity was evangelicalism. It was conservative, patriotic, racial, and attractive to many former fundamentalists. Between 1945 and 1965 membership in churches with this emphasis increased 400 to 700 percent. In the meantime mainline denominations only grew 75 to 90 percent according to William McLoughlin. Also, two key organizations provided leadership for the evangelicals. They were the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and the Billy Graham Evangelical Association.

The National Association of Evangelicals was born out the network guidelines for religious radio broadcasts in 1942. The Federal Council of Churches offered to coordinate the network's required and donated public service time for religious programs. Their policy called for a "broad" message rather than any narrow sectarian view. The practice would have ended the selling of time to independent radio preachers and, also, stopped such gospel programs as the Old-Time Gospel Hour and the Lutheran Hour. NBC and CBS adopted this policy. When Mutual, the third major network, decided to consider whether or not to drop all paid religious programs, the NAE appeared on the scene.

In April 1942 more than 150 evangelical leaders met in St. Louis to form a national organization (NAE). John Ockenga of Boston's historic Park Street Church was elected President. J. Elwin Wright urged the NAE to become the "fourth force." The first was the so-called liberal or modernist group which was represented by the Federal Council, and the other two were the Catholic and Jewish faiths. The NAE did succeed in keeping The Lutheran Hour on the Mutual network. However, at the 1944 NAE convention a new organization named the National Religious Broadcasters was born. With the blessing of the NAE the NRB continued the pressure to purchase time for religious broadcasts. When W.W.II ended and the ABC network began operations, the restrictions on religious radio time ended. In the meantime the NAE blossomed into a powerful voice for conservative Christianity by the 1950's. They claimed a million and a half members, and to be the preference of ten million American Christians.

In 1956 Christianity Today was born as the magazine for evangelicals. It was Billy Graham's idea to counterbalance the Protestant liberal magazine The Christian Century. Its editor was Dr. Carl F.H. Henry, a Wheaton College friend of Billy Graham. The hallmark of their editorial principles was the trustworthiness of Scripture as The Word of God. After a shaky start, Christianity Today assumed a status as the nation's most widely read serious religious publication.

When Walter Maier died of a heart attack in 1950, The Lutheran Hour was the largest program of its time. Dr. Maier had an annual audience of 700 million listeners on 1200 stations in thirty-six languages. Billy Graham was approached to take his place. At the Portland Crusade he jokingly told the audience about a $25,000 "fleece." That night before midnight Grady Wilson had the exact amount in a shoe box in their Portland hotel. Thus, The Hour of Decision was born. Within five weeks the program had the highest audience for a religious broadcast that the Nielsen rating service had ever recorded.

Meanwhile the issue over money had been the evangelist's stigma since the days of Elmer Gantry bilking his fictional crowds. The "love offering" was a traditional gift at the final service for most evangelists. After the 1950 Atlanta Crusade the Atlanta Constitution printed two picture side by side. The first had Billy Graham waving good-bye to Atlanta. The second one was two ushers with their arms wrapped around four bulging bags of money and being escorted by an uniformed policeman. His love offering was over nine thousand dollars and more than most pastors made in a year at that time. Billy Graham was embarrassed and vowed it would not happen again.

Consequently, the Billy Graham Evangelical Association was born in Minneapolis in 1950. The BGEA was an incorporated, non-profit organization that would handle all donations from the crusades and the radio ministry. They hired George Wilson as business manager, and Billy Graham as a salaried employee. They, also, promised a policy of open disclosure of contributions and expenses from all the BGEA's ministry's - advertising, crusades, films, radio, books, and television. Whether it was Billy Graham or Cliff Barrows, they maintained a low-key financial emphasis by simply saying, "Send your prayer requests and contributions to Billy Graham Minneapolis, Minnesota." Above all they keep an extensive mailing list and tried to answer every letter.

The most noteworthy single event of the Postwar Evangelical Awakening was the 1957 Billy Graham New York Crusade. Twice Graham had turned down offers for a New York crusade, and New York had the reputation as the town "Billy Sunday could not shutdown." However, after the tremendously successful 1954 London Crusade at Harringay and Wembley Stadium, and a worldwide reputation and prayer support, he accepted a scheduled six-week summer campaign at Madison Square Garden. The Graham Association estimated a base of ten thousand prayer groups in seventy-five countries.

The BGEA team spent two years on crusade committees. They received the most influential help from corporate executives of MONY, Chase Manhattan, and United States Steel; from the famous like Eddie Rickenbacker and Norman Vincent Peale; and from rich families, who had backed Moody and Sunday, such as Dodge, Phelps, Vanderbilt, Gould, and Whitney. Using pro football terms the official team had 22 members, and a taxi squad of 14 workers.

The media gave wide exposure to the Crusade. Many were anxious to interview Mr. Graham. All five daily newspapers covered the story. The New York Times had three pages on the first night of the Crusade. Look, Life, and Ebony magazines had pictures from the first day. The television coverage included interviews by Walter Cronkite on CBS, John Cameron Swayze on ABC, and Dave Garroway on NBC, as well as the Steve Allen Show, Meet the Press, and from numerous local stations.

The Crusade was not without controversy. Graham hired Howard Jones, a black pastor from Cleveland, to join the team, and to lead the services in Harlem. He, also, praised the controversial civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. for his "example of Christian love." He even put Dr. King on the platform as a prayer leader. The great Ethel Waters sang in the choir and as a soloist on the platform. She endeared herself to audiences numerous times for "His Eye Is On The Sparrow," and for her closing testimony "I know He watches WE." During the closing weeks the crusade the attendance was made up to 20 percent Negroes. Billy Graham's stand against racism and bigotry and for brotherhood and integration was growing, since he had personally removed the segregation ropes at the 1953 Chattanooga Crusade.

Graham drew fired from Bob Jones Sr. for his position on integration. He was, also, criticized for the makeup of committee members and churches. The leading fundamentalists Jones, Carl McIntire, and John R. Rice of The Sword of The Lord objected to his association with liberals and modernists because it showed a growing ecumenicalism. Reinhold Niebuhr attacked him numerous times in the Christian Century for simplistic revivalism in an enlighten age, and for shallow meaningless conversions, and for the lack of social action. A Catholic leader Rev. John E. Kelly forbade Catholics from attending the crusades, listening to Graham on radio or television, and reading his books or sermons.

Nevertheless, Graham did not fight back against his critics, but decided the best course was to ignore them. He called his policy "cooperation without compromise." No group was to be excluded whether from the mainline churches, the cults, and eventually even the Communists. However, he stood his ground on the central issue of the opportunity to preach Christ and to call people to commit their lives to Him. Graham refused to criticize pastors or their churches, but rather he emphasized the importance of the church for spiritual growth and Christian service.

The Manhattan Crusade was a marvelous milestone with a record attendance at every endeavor. The crusade began May 15th in Madison Square Garden for six weeks. It was extended to sixteen weeks because of the overflow crowds, which averaged 19,000 per night. Originally the planned closing ceremony was scheduled for July 20th in Yankee Stadium. The event went on in 105 degree heat and drew 100,000 people including Vice President Nixon. Another 25,000 were turned away from the record crowd. The crusade closed Labor Day weekend with a Sunday service in Times Square where an estimated 160,000 to 200,000 people were jammed shoulder-to-shoulder around Broadway.

The counseling and follow-up committees had a momentous task. Charlie Riggs, who was active in the Navigators, was picked as the new leader, since Dawson Trotman had died in a boating accident at Schroon Lake the previous summer. More than 60,000 came forward at the alter calls, and Times Square was so packed that people could only raise their hands to make a "decision for Christ."

Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, called Eleanor, was one of the converts, and she led many of her socialite friends to Christ. Tom Phillips, President of Raytheon Corporation, was another famous convert, and he instrumental in leading Watergate figure Chuck Colsen to The Lord. Clearly the most memorable story was a simply dressed women from a tenement. She cried, "God, protect me." When the counselor asked for an explanation, the woman said, "My son hates the church, he drinks allot, and he'll beat if he finds out I'm a Christian." Almost immediately a voice nearby called out, "It's okay, Mom. I'm here, too."

This was the first crusade on national television. ABC televised 14 Saturday nights. Network officials were surprised that the first telecast drew an estimated 6.5 million viewer, even though it was opposite the very popular Perry Como Show and Jackie Gleason Show. The responses to the BGEA were ten thousand a day, and overall a total of 1.5 million letters were sent to Minneapolis from the New York TV programs. At least 30,000 proclaimed a "decision" in the privacy of their homes.

At the conclusion, Billy Graham had preached to 2,357,400 people. He had lost 30 pounds and was exhausted. Bev Shea had sung "I'd Rather Have Jesus Than Silver or Gold" over one hundred times. The Protestant churches gained an estimated 6,000-10,000 new members. A planned follow-up to visit 200,000 homes seemingly failed and reaped no notable harvest. There was no change in Times Square. The nightclubs and the crime remained. The one important criteria the change in people's hearts was immeasurable. Only the Lord, who runs to and fro to search for hearts toward Him, knows the results of the New York Crusade.

One final significant factor during this era was the accidental discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947. A Bedouin boy, who was looking for his lost sheep and throwing stones, hit several jars in a cave near Qumran. The collection of leather and copper scrolls were part of a library of Essenes, a monastic community of the first century BC. The documents gave invaluable information on Jewish life during the times of Jesus. The manuscripts, also, gave a greater authenticity to the Old Testament, since they were a thousand years older than existing documents. The discovery further encouraged biblical scholarship, and the Bible as a source-document for historical evidence.

According to Sydney Ahlstrom by 1958-59 observers began talking " about the postwar revival in the past tense." The churches had "failed to sustain human religious needs" of the mobile population. The social and moral challenges of the turbulent sixties would shake the will of the American Republic, and the confidence in America as the "Chosen Nation" and the "beacon to the world."

The Turbulent, Tempestuous, Disorderly, and Riotous Sixties:

Sydney Ahlstrom of Yale said of the sixties, "The decade did experience a fundamental shift in American moral and religious attitudes. The decade..was a time, in short, when the old foundations of national confidence, patriotic idealism, moral traditionalism, and even of historic Judeo-Christian theism, were awash." The trauma that took place was described by such titles as: "post-Puritan," "post-Protestant," "post-Christian," and even the "death of God."

The US government had made a dramatic shift in their attitude toward religion. In 1947 the Supreme Court in the case of Everson v. Board of Education declared there to be "a separation of church and state" in the First Amendment. It was the first time in our history that the Supreme Court interpreted "a wall between church and state." It totally reversed the government's long-standing traditions on religion. The words of the decision did not receive national attention until the election of 1960. Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy, a Roman Catholic, announced his religious position in a TV speech by saying, "I believe in a America where the separation of church and state is absolute - where no Catholic prelate would tell the President, should he be a Catholic, how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote."

In 1962 the Supreme Court began what David Barton called "an all-out and widespread war against religious principles." In the Engel v.Vitale case eight of nine Justices ruled that a verbal prayer in public schools was unconstitutional. The ruling was made on the regent's prayer in New York state. The 22-word prayer during morning announcements read: "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our Country." The Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren not only reversed the entire history of public education, but it declared that verbal prayer to be unconstitutional, "even if it is both voluntary and denominationally neutral." The Supreme Court had overturned the decisions of the New York State Legislature and the New York Courts.

The next year the Court continued its "new" doctrine in Abington v. Schempp 1963. The Abington School District had a policy of voluntary Bible reading to open the school day. The plaintiff Schempp was a Unitarian, who objected to the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus. Rabbi Dr. Solomon Grayzel testified as an "expert" witness that portions of the New Testament "could be psychological harmful to the child." The Warren Court accepted Grayzel statement as "fact," and declared Bible reading, also, unconstitutional. The Washington Evening newspaper declared, "God and religion have all but been driven from the public schools. What remains? Will the baccalaureate service and Christmas carols be the next to go? Don't bet against it." For years afterward Congress attempt to override the Court through bills and amendments, until finally the Equal Access Bill was enacted in 1984.

David Barton in The Myth of Separation pointed out that the make up of the nine justices on the Supreme Court was political in background and not judicial in experience. Earl Warren was the former governor of California and seven other Justices were all political appointments. Only Justice Potter Stewart had been a federal judge with training in Constitutional law. It is, also, important to note that he was the only dissenter on both 8-1 decisions. The churches wanted to give him sainthood for his minority position.

It should, also, be noted that on June 25, 1962, the same day the Supreme Court banned prayer from the public schools, they opened the US mail to a magazine published by homosexuals. The decision was one in a series under which long banned books such as Lady Chatterly's Lover and Tropic of Cancer were classed as "literature" and therefore exempted from obscenity laws. As a result, pornography became free to flow through the US Postal system.

Future generations would look back on what they would call "the moral decline of America," and they would always say, "the fork in the road was when the Supreme Court kicked school prayer and Bible reading out of the schools." They could quickly cite the rapid increase in the major measures of morality in society such as violent crimes, teenage pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, divorces, and unmarried couples living together.

Nevertheless, there were many other factors that gave the sixties the epitaph "Post

Puritan." Clearly, a sexual revolution took place among women. The Kinsey Reports (males 1948 and females 1953), while not truly representative of the US population, seemed to imply that premarital abstinence and the Judeo-Christian standards were unnatural. Kinsey's findings claimed that 50 percent of the women had sex before they were married. While he openly challenged the hypocrisy of America's double standard for males and females, moralists, especially the clergy, felt Kinsey undermined the virginal status of American womanhood.

Another barrage on women's mores came from Playboy and some women's magazines. While feminists labeled the Hugh Hefner approach as degrading to women, centerfolds sent a message that some women wanted to be free, groovy chicks. Other women boldly wore the new swimsuit rage - the bikini in public. A new women's revolution was being exposed.

On the other hand a new feminist wave came from Betty Friedan, who in The Feminine Mystique reported deep pockets of discontent among American housewives. The new "Women's Lib" movement received impetus in 1965 when thousands of women publicly burned their bras in New York City. When the National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded in 1966, they proclaimed that the traditional institutions such as marriage, family, and motherhood needed to be redefined to prevent the oppression of women. They began a political campaign for the equal rights of women, gays, lesbians, and the handicapped.

In 1960, ironically one hundred years after the first condom, Enovid, the first commercially produced birth control pill, was made available to women. While the fifty-five cent pill liberated women from the chance of pregnancy, some felt it increased promiscuity. However, in 1968 when Pope Paul VI issued a encyclical condemning artificial methods of birth control, he met unprecedented resistance from even devout Catholics. Sydney Ahlstrom said, "one may safely say that America's moral and religious tradition was tested and found wanting in the sixties."

For women the dual messages of sexual freedom and the old-time Puritan restraint found a wide gulf with a variety of moral choices, and meanwhile the Judeo-Christian standards were being pushed farther to the fringe. John Stormer in his book The Death of a Nation explained how the new morality of the sixties was being defended by the catch phrases of conformity "everybody's doing it" and "it's between consenting adults." His chapter "The War in the Churches" criticized the amended view of rules where "anything and everything is right or wrong according to the situation." Nevertheless, the sexual revolution was not as scary as the violence from the other revolutions of the sixties.

JFK's call for activism - "ask what you can do for your country" - became a reality with the protest movements during the decade. The disenchanted and the idealists protested against the government and the "establishment" in four ways: the Black civil rights movement, the anti-Vietnam war protest, the youth counterculture, and against the environmental exploitation and ruin. Only the final area ecology did not result in turmoil and violence.

The first protest movement of the decade was civil rights. The original impetus came from the 1954 Brown vs the Topeka Board of Education, when the Supreme Court declared racial segregation in public schools illegal. In 1955 Dr. Martin Luther King, a Baptist minister, gained national fame from the Montgomery bus boycott. Rev. King earned the support of northern and white churches when he emphasized the peaceful methods of nonviolence and passive resistance from the philosophies of Thoreau and Gandhi. The demonstrators used sit-ins, pray-ins, marches, boycotts, and voter registration drives. Their theme of "freedom now" stirred the nation's conscience and admiration as the passive protesters sang "We Shall Overcome." The highlight was two hundred thousand marchers at the Lincoln Memorial, when Dr. King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. In 1964 he was given the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Congress did respond by passing legislation for equality in jobs, housing, public transportation, voting, and some other discriminatory practices. However, in 1965 the movement turned violent and militant. In the Watts riot in Los Angeles thirty-four people were killed. The Black Muslim's leader Malcolm X called for a separate state. The Black Panthers urged Blacks to arm themselves, shoot white cops, and force the whites to give them equal rights. Summer riots in Black ghettos became a common occurrence. The Kerner Commission blamed the cause on "white racism." Rumors spread around the white suburbs that Black militants were going to invade and burn their neighborhoods. Finally, one-hundred and twenty-six cities erupted when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. Frustration and bitterness grew as polarization, not integration, divided the two American cultures.

The second protest of the decade was the war in Vietnam. At first, even after the flimsy Gulf of Tonkin incident, the churches like most people followed the patriotic position of supporting the government. Then the military involvement escalated the "search and destroy" missions "to stop from losing the war." The critics said that it was a civil war in Vietnam and not a "domino threat" from Russian or Chinese Communism. But, suspicion and mistrust grew because for the first time television brought the war into every living room with a graphic daily "body count." When Robin Moore's book Green Berets was released, everyone wanted to know how much of it was true? The servicemen said, "It's all true!" Even the popular John Wayne, who starred in the film version, could not dissuade public opinion about the war.

The college campuses became the hotbed of discontent as "teach-ins" grew in popularity. Inspite of their draft deferment status students began protesting the military effort. They burned their draft cards, mocked the flag, and refused to stand for the national anthem. They demonstrated against military recruiters, government speakers, and employers with military contracts. Finally, riots broke out at the ROTC buildings. When antiwar parades were organized in big cities, others joined the protest. In October of 1967 two-hundred thousand protesters marched on the Pentagon. Meanwhile the Marines were barely hanging on to the landing sites like Danang and Chu Lai, but the Johnson administration claimed that we were starting to win the war.

The Tet Offensive in January of 1968 was the turning point of the war. The media mis-informed the nation that we had lost the battle. The question that hurt the most was by the respected Walter Cronkite who said, "I thought we were winning this war." In truth the Viet Cong attack on thirty targets was an American victory. However, after reading Ho Chi Minh's book, the media postulated the Tet attack to be the final phase of a Viet Cong victory. Back home further contempt raged at one single picture during Tet. It was the Saigon police chief pointing his pistol inches away from a Viet Cong prisoner's head, and then executing him for the camera and the eyes of the nation.

During the next months LBJ announced, "I shall not seek, and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term." However, he continued to bomb North Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh Trail to the dismay of the protesters. More anguish spread throughout the nation when Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated. The nation only hoped for peace talks, and some kind of quick end to the war. Even Nixon's withdrawal policy of "Vietnamization" would become an acceptable closure. Finally after the deaths at Kent State and Jackson State the demonstrations declined.

Unfortunately, the real American victims of the war were the servicemen. The US government seemed confused in their purpose. Khe Sanh was sieged for most of a year, and then it was abandoned in a matter of weeks. The soldiers could not tell the "gooks" from the "friendlies," and mistakes like My Lai happened more than once. They would defoliate the jungle around their bases, and then marched into the clearing only to wiped out in an ambush. It became a war of attrition, and the soldiers only hoped to survive, and go home, and block it out of their minds. But when the veterans returned home, they received no heroes welcome, no parades, not even a thanks. The protesters spit on them and called them "baby killers." Their lives were even threatened for being veterans and wearing military fatigues.

As the protests against the war and the draft grew, the churches joined the academic community as the most verbal dissenters. Christians were respected for their approach to the rallies. They obtained permits and observed the rules for the marches. They made sure the march and the program was patriotic. They waved the American flag and marched with their tots in strollers. They cooperated with other factions for a peaceful coalition.

Eventually, the bishops and the church bodies passed resolutions labeling the war as "wrong," "immoral," "unjust," and "pointless." Clergymen not only organized demonstrations, but they picket the home of Dean Rusk, Secretary of State. The Yale chaplain Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr. was convicted with Benjamin Spock of conspiracy to defeat the operation of the draft. Catholic priests Fathers Daniel and Philip Berrigan were celebrated heroes of the anti-war protest. In 1972 a dozen nuns were even arrested for disrupting a Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in protest of the Catholic apathy toward the war. Nevertheless, as the church became a leader in the anti-war movement, denominations were part of the establishment, and thus they lost relevance and influence, especially among the young.

By the late 60's church attendance was down, large financial contributors had cut back, and religious book sales slumped. Those over 30 opposed the changes in the liturgy, the doctrine, and the social emphasis. The older Roman Catholics frowned upon Vatican's II's change in the Mass from Latin to English. Some theologians even endorsed the "God is dead" movement, and it eroded some religious opinions. It seemed clear that any hope for revival would not take place in the established churches.

The only religious groups elevated in prestige during the war were the Mennonites, Amish, Friends, and Church of the Brethren, who had a history as conscientious objectors. In other wars they were scorned, but in Vietnam the "C.O.'s" were gladly given alternative service. Ray Abrams said, "Never before in modern times has so much support been given to the right of conscientious objection to war."

The most perplexing protest was the youth culture. Their generation was the most affluent in history. Their parents, who had experienced the Depression and several wars, wanted the kids to have everything they had not had. Kids had their own bedroom, television, the family car, Little League, a family vacation, fast food, and seemingly almost free from want. Their parents used Dr. Benjamin Spock's "permissive" child-rearing techniques, and some said, "they sparred the rod, but spoiled the child." Thus, a so-called "generation gap" developed.

The social revolution among the youth was eventually referred to as a counterculture. Their lifestyle included long hair, sloppy dress, and a generally unkempt, dirty look. Their behavior was to "do your own thing," which meant promiscuous sex, drugs, and loud rock music. They claimed to be revolting against materialism, technology, and the over thirties value system of conformity and success. Numerous communes sprang up based on agriculture, religion especially Eastern mysticism, crafts like macramé, sexual orientation, or just to dropout of society or college.

They were ascribed the prominent title of hippies. Their emphasis on universal love, peace, and freedom, also, gained them other names like flower children, gentle people, and love children. They gathered in the section of San Francisco called Haight-Ashbury and in the East Village section of New York City. At its peak the movement claimed 300,000 followers, and in 1967 the publicized attraction was called "Summer of Love." However, they were notorious as panhandlers and thieves. The movement declined because of drug overdoses, hepatitis, and disease from malnutrition and exposure. Also, the violent wing or yippies gave them a negative image especially after the Sharon Tate murders by the Charles Manson family.

The most violent year of the decade was 1968, and possibly the worst year in US history. Television specials called it The Crack in Time. Time magazine said, "the year severed past from future." It was the year of Tet, the U.S.S. Pueblo, and riots in Paris and Prague; the despair of the King and Kennedy assassinations; and the rage at Columbia and the Chicago Democratic Convention. The marches and mobs were angry, and they thrust the "bird" finger at everyone. They shouted obscenities and profanities. They rioted, and looted, and burned ghettos, and businesses, and ROTC buildings. Chaos was the goal of the Black Panthers, SNCC, SDS, and the Weathermen. When Nixon was elected, he promised withdrawal from Vietnam. It was referred to as "peace with honor." Nonetheless on Christmas Eve the moon provided a ray of brilliance, when Apollo Eight circled the JFK goal for the decade - someday a lunar landing.

Meanwhile observers of Bible prophecy explained 1968 in different terms. On June 7, 1967 during the Six-Day War, the Israeli army under General Moshe Dayan captured Jerusalem and the Wailing Wall. As the Jews gained their holy city, the words of Jesus Christ in Luke 21:24 "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled," caused Jews and Christians to herald a new era. Jews began looking for the Messiah, and Christians started talking about the Temple, the Tribulation, the Anti-Christ, and the Rapture. For those who believed that God established the Americans as His "new Chosen people," and their nations as the "New Testament Israel," after 1967 they had to admitted God's dispensational plan always centered on the Jews in Israel. Nothing called attention to that fact more than Hal Lindsey's Bible prophecy sensation The Late Great Planet Earth. It appeared in print in 1970, and it out sold every book (20 million copies) during the decade except The Bible. It foretold the Second Coming of Christ in "this generation" based on the Olivet discourse in Matthew 24 and the return of the Jews to their homeland in 1948.

As the decade came to a close, Todd Gitlin's title Years of Hope, Days of Rage proved to be a proper postscript. The violence ceased as the Paris Peace talks brought withdrawal and a Vietnam cease-fire by 1973. The civil rights movement produced a Black female Presidential candidate in the 1972 election Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring resulted in the first Earth Day in 1970. Finally, the youth movement pointed a finger in two different paths.

One road led to Bethel, New York in August of 1969; it was Woodstock, the pinnacle of the counterculture. Between a quarter and a half million young people gathered for three days of rock music and drugs. It was billed as an "Aquarian Exposition of music and peace." In reality there was almost unanimous use of marijuana and hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and Mescaline. One ironic side trail was that the two leading entertainers Jimmy Hendrix and Janis Joplin both died from drug use the next year. Hendrix O.D.'d on a barbiturate and drowned in his own vomit, and Joplin died from a heroin overdose.

The Woodstock rock festival will be remembered however for the weather. During the three-day weekend off and on cloudbursts and thunderstorms made Max Yasgur's 600-acre farm a sea of mud. By the second day the festival goers were belligerently flipping the "bird" finger skyward to the God of heaven in open defiance to His rain.

The second road was a spiritual revival among the young people, who became known as the Jesus People. Outside the institutional church at rock concerts, on beaches, and in the streets they could be seen jabbing their "index" finger heavenward and chanting "one way, one way, one way" in reference to salvation only through Jesus Christ.

The Jesus Movement:

The Jesus Movement, sometime called the Jesus Revolution, was unlike the old-time revivals in that it was mostly outside the organized church, and it was more like the counterculture of the day. The young people had found the hippie culture of drugs, "free love" sex, and rebellion unsatisfying. When they were converted, their long hair, bell-bottoms, and barefoot appearance was overlooked because of their smiling faces, emotional joy, and bold, unabashed words of praise for Jesus. They were referred to as Jesus People, Jesus Freaks, Jesus Kids, and Street Christians.

While the movement originated in Southern California, spontaneous ministries sprang up in many places and in many forms. The Jesus People were known for spreading the gospel in the streets, coffee houses, rescue missions, communes, rock festivals, and hip churches. These new Christians made a fanatical effort to know the Scriptures and to quote the chapter and verse. Bible studies were the central emphasize in every segment of the new Jesus culture. Furthermore, their testimonies were laden with hip culture terms. "Jesus is real, man." "I'm on a Jesus trip." "I'm high on Jesus." That Bible verse is "heavy" or that is, it has a deeper meaning.

In 1966 John Lennon of the Beatles said, "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. We're more popular than Jesus now." But he was wrong, the next year the Jesus movement was in full bloom among the flower children. They said that Jesus was "the first hippie" because of his long hair, and they were proclaiming "Hal-lay-loo-ya, Jesus loves you." It is hard however to pinpoint the beginning of the movement to any one person or single group.

One of the famous early ministries was Calvary Chapel at Costa Mesa in Orange County, California which was led by Pastor Chuck Smith. They had three youth services a week, and about 2,000 kids in jeans, tie-dyed tops, and hip clothes came in carrying Bibles and bear hugging one another. For three to four hours they sang, prayed, and studied the Bible. An older member estimated 150 converts a week and upwards of 500 baptisms a month. The most publicized baptisms of the Jesus movement took place at the nearby Corona del Mar beach in the Pacific waters.

The emotionalism of the Jesus movement was most apparent in the music. Rock groups with electric guitars, drums, and kinky piano music were another major attraction of the monthly rock festivals at the Chapel. The best known Jesus rock groups were the Love Song, Blessed Hope, Country Faith, Children of the Day, and the All Saved Freak Band. A staple song was "Pass it On" with the congregation interlocking arms and swaying to the music. Also, "Kum Ba Ta" (African for Come by here) was another popular song for swaying to and fro.

Many of the new converts were homeless, runaway street people, who needed nurturing and discipleship in the Word. Calvary Chapel established a chain of Christian communal homes called the "House of Miracles." The usual stay was two to six months, and each house was led by an elder, who was assisted by several deacons. John Higgins, an early leader at the House of Miracles, had a vision to "descend to a northern location." He and his wife Jackie founded the successful Shiloh houses around Eugene, Oregon. It became the fastest growth communal system and spread to thirty states until the ministry split in 1978. Mansion Messiah and Philadelphia House were some other famous homes.

Another star attraction at Calvary Chapel was the Youth minister Lonnie Frisbee, who was known as one of the leading Jesus Freaks. He was convinced that the Jewish victory in the Six-Day War of 1967 set the stage for the last days and the Second Coming of Christ. Frisbee emphasized the outpouring of the Holy Spirit prophecy in the Book of Joel and the charismatic gift of speaking in tongues. Most of the Calvary Chapel people stressed the tongues experience less than Frisbee, so he left in 1971 for Bob Mumford's Florida ministry, and he died of AIDS in 1983. However, before the end of the century Calvary Chapel grew to over 750 Chapels in the United States and another 500 overseas.

One "hip church" that did stress the Pentecostal experience was Bethel Tabernacle in Redondo Beach. Lyle Steenis and a 19-year old convert Breck Stevens made it famous as a haven for ex-drug addicts. The place was renown for the "thirty-second cure from heroin" which consisted of merely offering prayers "in the name of Jesus." They claimed that 100,000 inquirers came through their church. In 1972 Pastor Steenis died in a plane crash, and Stevens committed suicide in 1986.

The original and most flamboyant leader of the Jesus Movement was Arthur Blessitt, who was called the "Mod Minister of Sunset Strip." He was noted for his bold, sidewalk evangelism, such as leading the Jesus kids in a Jesus cheer ("Gimme a J; Gimme an E"; and so on) in front of Hollywood's topless bars and pornographic bookstores. He established His Place on Sunset Boulevard as a type of nightclub/rescue mission. Thousands of kids flocked into His Place for free sandwiches, Kool-Aid, and the midnight message on Jesus Christ. The most noteworthy event was the "Toilet Party." When the drug users converted to Christ, they went to the restroom to flush their pills and powders down the toilet, and thus symbolically "flushing away the old life."

Blessitt faced continuous opposition from the Strip businessmen and the police. The Sheriff's Department enforced an anti-loitering campaign against the street witnesses. Some Jesus freaks were busted dozens of times and told to stay off the Strip, but they kept on returning. Finally, the landlords gave in to pressure and they stopped renting to the ordained Baptist minister. Blessitt spent twenty-nine days on the sidewalk chained to a cross to protest his unfair eviction. Then for seven months of 1970 he dragged a cross 3,500 miles from California to Washington, DC preaching along the way. His accounts of the dens of iniquity from Hollywood and New York were sensationalized in Turned On To Jesus. In the early 1970's he continued to carry his cross to Europe, Asia, and over 70 countries of the world before the end of the century.

Elsewhere in Los Angeles Duane Pederson directed the most successful and widely known "underground" Christian newspaper of the Jesus movement: the Hollywood Free Paper. Pederson, a stuttering farm boy from Hastings, Minnesota, overcame his childhood stammering and became a nightclub magician. In 1969 he published the first edition of the HFP with the financial support of Hollywood's First Presbyterian Church. By the end of 1971 the HFP had a circulation of five hundred thousand.

Pederson used eye-catching headlines on social issues of the day and Judgment Day cartoons, while sowing soul-winning seeds throughout the paper. The classified section had a listing of Jesus People programs and their activities in all fifty states. The paper had remarkable results including one salvation testimony of a street kid, who picked up a Free Paper in the gutter and found Christ.

The HFP had a mail-order enterprise for posters and bumper stickers known as The Emporium. The paper, also, sponsored monthly Jesus concerts at the Hollywood Palladium. They established a Jesus People Training Center and advertised a nonexistent university. While Pederson was a respected as a leader in the Jesus movement and was quickly recognized in his fringed buckskin vest, he maintained "the only leader is Jesus Christ."

Another vehicle of the Jesus Movement the coffee house was popular with the "beatnik" generation in the 1950's and with the hippies in the sixties. It quickly became a hangout for Jesus People to "rap" about Jesus and the Bible. An early famous location was "The Living Room" in the heart of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury drug culture. The founders were Ted Wise, who is referred to as the first hippie convert of the Jesus People, and his wife Elizabeth; Dan and Sandy Sands; Jim and Judy Doop; and Steve and Sandy Heefner. Their storefront ministry began in late 1967 and lasted for two years during which time an estimated thirty to fifty thousand young people wandered in and out of the coffee house. Meanwhile, the coffeehouse with its casual atmosphere served as a key link between the young people, the adult workers, the street people, and the evangelical churches in both big cities and small towns throughout the country.

In many cases the coffee house led to another important ministry of the Jesus movement: the commune. The first such halfway house was "The House of Acts" in Novato, California. It was founded in 1970 by Ted Wise and "The Living Room" founders as a rehabilitation center from drugs. It provided a fellowship for the new life in Christ and a separation from the former friends and temptations of the old life. It set the pattern for the Jesus Houses with daily Bible study, worship, and prayer.

The communes, also, became well known for their community outreach of street witnessing and passing out tracts. But, in some cases rural communes wanted to maintained a separation and independence from the secular world. Two of the most publicized communes of each type were: The Children of God and the Christian Foundation.

The Children of God was clearly the most controversial group in the Jesus movement. They had a closed system with tight security against outsiders. They expected 100 percent commitment even turning over all earthly possessions to the community. Members gave up their birth names for an Old Testament name from the tribes of Israel. If they were married they were expected to, also, give up their spouse.

They preached a forceful "repent or go to hell" message. "Speaking in tongues" was a sign of their "saved" life. They, also, believed only in the King James Version of the Bible and in their leader's interpretation. They were opposed to the established churches and received much publicity for their militant disruptions of church services with chants and yells, sometimes even swearing at the church attenders.

The Children of God movement was very much noted for their strong-personality, extremist leaders. The original founders were Fred Jordan, a Pentecostal evangelist, and David Berg, an ordained Protestant minister. They ran the "Texas Soul Clinic" on Jordan's 400-acre ranch near the ghost town of Thurber, Texas. David Hoyt observed the Thurber operation and founded his communes in the Southeast from his Atlanta, Georgia headquarters. Linda Meissner, another high profile COG leader, was called "the Joan of Arc of the Jesus Movement" in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. Her followers were called the "Jesus People Army." Russ Griggs and Carl Parks attracted larger followings in the Northwest. The leaders of the Children of God movement were more badly divided than the children of Israel in earlier times.

Finally, the Children of God groups were dubbed as a cult. They were accused of brainwashing, kidnapping, and even stockpiling weapons. A parent's group received national publicity for trying to get their kids back. Eventually, Fred Jordan ordered them off of his properties. David Berg, who renamed himself "Moses," became regarded as a false teacher for his heretical interpretations of the Bible. In one of his "Mo Letters" he called for the female members to use sacred prostitution to recruit prospective members. They became known as "the flirty little fishy" and "hookers for Jesus." By the mid-1970's the COG had experienced a large number of dropouts, and Berg with some of his followers fled the country to avoid prosecution. Erling Jorstad called it "a commune that failed."

The Christian Foundation under the leadership of Tony and Susan Alamo was located in Saugus fifty miles north of downtown Hollywood. This commune was in a remote hillside area which had been damaged by a recent earthquake. An abandon restaurant was used as their worship center. Nevertheless, they had a reputation for the most ecstatic and charismatic worship services of the Jesus movement. Their music was spirited, old-time revival songs like "I'll Fly Away" and "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder." Their worship was described as several hundred "wildly gyrating bodies" that were "on the edge of hysteria the entire time." A steady stream of personal testimonies flowed throughout the enthusiastic services. A regular schedule of shuttle vehicles from the corner of Hollywood and Highland transported inquirers and recruits for an hour and a half ride to the eight weekly meetings at Saugus.

The Alamo's, who were like a Mom and Dad to the Jesus kids, were both reared in Jewish homes. Sue converted to Christianity, when she was miraculously healed of a hopeless childhood disease. She became a Pentecostal evangelist. Tony was a recording industry executive, who said that the Lord appeared to him during a business conference and ordered him to proclaim His imminent return. Consequently, their street message was always apocalyptic: "Repent or go to hell, the world is coming to an end, and Jesus is returning soon."

Another heavily premillennial, but not charismatic group, was the JC Light and Power House near the campus of UCLA. The leaders Hal Lindsey and Bill Counts were both former staff members of Campus Crusade. Their commune was more like a dormitory for forty Bible students, who were being trained for full-time Christian service. While they rejected the emotionalism and the experience-centered emphasis of the mainline Jesus movement, they agreed with their anti-institutional philosophy. As a result of criticizing both sides, they appeared uncomfortable with the church and with the Jesus People. Critics like Lowell Streiker found them lacking in enthusiasm and failing in compassion toward each other.

The San Francisco Bay area was the center of the hippie culture since the days of Haight-Ashbury and the radical New Left of the student rights movement at the University of California at Berkeley. That climate produced perhaps the best Christian response to the counterculture in the Christian World Liberation Front which was based in Berkeley. The founder was Jack Sparks, a former Ph.D. college statistics professor and a Campus Crusade associate. CWLF was an organization of well educated, evangelical Christians, who ministered to the students and the street people around the Berkeley campus.

In July of 1969 CWLF began publishing Right On, the first and what many called the best underground newspaper of the Jesus movement. It was written in the hip language of the street people. The organization, also, addressed the political platform of the radical Berkeley Liberation Movement with a matching thirteen-point program in Christian rhetoric. Their literature ministry included pamphlets, tracts, leaflets, comic books, and manuals on diet, nutrition, and a shoestring budget for street survival. Everything they printed carried a simple gospel message about Jesus in the vernacular of the hippie and the revolutionary.

When the leftists held marches or rallies, the street Christians echoed their cheers with Jesus chants. The cheer "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, the NLF is Gonna Win," was answered by the Street Christians cheering "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, Jesus Christ is Gonna Win!" The CWLF gave out free Kool-Aid to marchers, but their sign read: "Whoever drinks this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I'll give him will never thirst - Jesus Christ." CWLF's placards read: "I'd Walk a Mile for Jesus" and "Curse The War - Jesus The Cure."

On the other hand the CWLF marched for other causes. They picketed San Francisco's notorious North Beach Beach topless & bottomless clubs. They demonstrated at the Russian Center to protest the Soviet Union's policies toward Czechoslovakia. They joined other Jesus People in picketing the downtown San Francisco Glide Memorial Methodist Church which was known for homosexual weddings and unorthodox worship services.

Jack Sparks and his staff put together the best organization of the Jesus movement. They tried to be academic and Biblical in their approach. They were the only group from the Jesus movement that attempted to worship and work with the straight, evangelical churches. They even actively backed a Billy Graham Crusade. Unlike many of the Jesus People organizations they were not charismatic in their orientation. While they did not forbid tongues, the CWLF staff pointed out in Scripture that the gift was not required for everyone. Consequently, they discouraged anyone from guilt-tripping others about the Pentecostal experience.

While their best recognized endeavor was Right On, CWLF had a many-sided ministries including several Jesus "houses" for Bible rap sessions, the distribution of food, clothing, and medicine to the street people, and an overnight hostel on Telegraph Hill as a crash pad for Christian workers. They established a youth ranch in the mountains north of San Francisco in the heart of the largest concentration of hippie communes in the West. Sparks visited Francis Schaeffer's L'Abri with a vision of developing a Christian "Counter University" in Berkeley. But always, Sparks and CWLF maintained that only the transforming power of Jesus could truly meet the needs of people.

Elsewhere, the Jesus movement flourished in other parts of the nation. In New York City David Wilkerson, whose celebrated story was The Cross and The Switchblade, ran the well respected the drug rehabilitation program called Teen Challenge. While it was not part of the counterculture, the Teen Challenge ministry gathered some of the Jesus people converts.

In 1968 outside of Mansfield, Ohio Gordon Walker started an early Jesus commune at "Grace Haven" farm. The former OSU Campus Crusade leader emphasized "grace" outside the institutional church rather than the theological hair splitting done within the fundamentalist congregations. They, also, operated a bookstore-restaurant The Yellow Deli on the downtown square. Thirty years later Grace Haven still continues today as fellowship church with an emphasis on family centered ministries.

In Houston, Texas Pastor John Bisagno of the First Baptist Church promoted a unique revival program called SPIRENO - Spiritual Revolution Now! It was developed by evangelist Richard Hogue, and it combined rock music, mass baptisms, and personal witnessing. The program was given to the public and school kids over three months, and it registered 11,000 decisions for Jesus. Even the Southern Baptist Convention attempted to mainstream the program. From 1970-74 they had the highest baptism rate (2 million) in their history.

Throughout the country Jesus houses could be quickly recognized by the spiritual connotation of their titles. In Nashville it was called the "23rd Psalm." In Lansing Michigan the "Master's House" was sponsored by businessmen called "The Carpenter's Men." Titles like "Koinonia," "Soul Inn," "House of Acts," "Living Waters," "Agape House," "Sheepfold House," "His House," and the "Lord's Fish House" were all part of the Jesus movement. One famous chain the Shiloh Youth Revival Centers was started by John Higgins in Eugene, Oregon. Sociologist Marion Goldman claimed that 100,000 young Americans passed through the Shiloh Houses.

A most significant feature of the Jesus Movement was the music of the Jesus People. Their accent on feelings and emotions made it the best medium to reach the young people. It also proved to be a common link to connect the coffeehouses, communes, and churches. The new "God-rock" tunes even made the popular music charts. In 1969 the first gospel song to make the Top-40 radio stations was "O Happy Day." It was sung by the Edwin Hawkins Singers, who came out of the Black gospel tradition. It was followed shortly by Andrew Lloyd Webber's rock opera Jesus Christ, Superstar, which was a financial success on Broadway. Another pair of God-rock tunes to make the charts were "Jesus is a Soul, Man" and "Put Your Hand in the Hand of the Man from Galilee." Judy Collins had a successful number-one hit with the eighteenth century hymn "Amazing Grace."

Billboard magazine pointed out that the religious theme was catching on in popular music. "Spirit in the Sky," "Let It Be," "Bridge Over Troubled Waters," and "My Sweet Lord," all had religious values, but they were not Christian songs. When the opera Godspell hit Broadway, Christians criticized the depiction of Jesus in a Superman sweatshirt and the cast in clown costumes. They pointed out that the divinity of Jesus and His resurrection had been omitted from the musical. Larry Norman, the leading artist of the Jesus music, said, "There is no real Jesus music out yet. No music that sees Jesus as the Son of God who died for our personal salvation." Other critics made claims that the music capitalists were only exploiting the spiritual revolution of the time.

By far the dominant feature of the Jesus music was the use of the guitar in the worship. The song lyrics used the "message" style like the contemporary folk music along the lines of Bob Dylan and Arlo Guthrie. The words usually included verses from Scripture and finding Jesus as the source of peace. The conversions of famous entertainers like Noel Paul Stookey of "Peter, Paul, and Mary," Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and the Statler Brothers increased the influence of the new kind of gospel music. Nevertheless, the church people, who favored the old-time traditional hymns, leaned more toward notable Christian singers like Pat Boone, who was now receiving fame for his Pentecostal baptism and the baptisms in his swimming pool at his Beverly Hills home.

When the "Dove Awards" for Christian music began in 1969, the winners were Bill Gaither, James Blackwood, the Speer Family, and the well known inspirational singers, while the Jesus musicians remained unacknowledged. Anyway, the soul of the Jesus music came from the many little known individuals and groups in every coffee house and church where the young people would gather. The better performers were invited to Jesus rock festivals like Duane Peterson's Palladium events and the concerts at Calvary Chapel. The most notable groups included Love Song, Resurrection Band, Daniel Amos, Lost and Found, Everlasting Water, Harvest Flight, Dove Sounds, Phoenix Sunshine, the 2nd Chapter of Acts, Paul Clark, Andrae Crouch, and a young Phil Keaggy. But by far the most remembered pairing was Larry Norman and the Salt Company, who were backed by the Hollywood Presbyterian Church. Norman's classic song about the Rapture "I Wish We'd All Been Ready" was the theme song for the popular film A Thief in the Night. Yet, the church and the Jesus People parted company over the anti-church themes and the continual repetitive phrases of their music.

While the music usually included a vary of multimedia effects like strobe lights, blacklights, and psychedelic sights, the most memorable visual message of the Jesus movement was the bumper sticker. The first popular bumper sticker was "Honk if you love Jesus." The most popular subject was the rapture. Those stickers read "In case of the Rapture - This car will be unmanned" and "The Rapture - The Only Way to Fly." Most bumper sticker user were not trying to evangelize people, but only to identify themselves as believers in Jesus Christ. Church leaders responded with everything from admiration for their boldness to calling the bumper stickers "undignified to God." One irritated sticker read "Anyone can honk, Tithe if you love Jesus."

A spin-off of the Jesus movement was the revival on American campuses in the 1970's. While colleges experienced protests, marches, and riots in the 1960's, the new decade saw an evangelical harvest by the leading campus Christian organizations such as Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, Campus Crusade for Christ, and the newly formed American Association of Evangelical Students.

In 1970 IVCF held a missionary conference at Urbana on the campus of the University of Illinois, and it drew 12,000 which was probably the largest religious gathering of students to that date in American history. They invited a non-traditional speaker Tom Skinner, a black, former gang member, who knew firsthand the crime and drug culture of the ghetto. While his audience was primarily from the white middle-class, his message attacked the institutional racism of the church, the middle-class, and the national institutions such as Wall Street, big business, and government. He did not see revolution, or social action, or political change as the answer to the evil and the poverty in the world, but he proclaimed "the liberator has come," and it is Jesus Christ, who is the only force powerful enough to change and save humanity from destroying itself. His message was overwhelmingly accepted by the students, and the Skinner phenomenon attracted larger crowds at the future Urbana conferences.

Campus Crusade annually held regional rallies throughout the country, however in June of 1972 they met in Dallas at the Cotton Bowl stadium. It was called "Explo 72." Almost 75,000 young people showed up, and it was the largest event of the Jesus movement. The week-long event featured evangelism training classes on the "Four Spiritual Laws" and Jesus rock festivals. In the stadium atmosphere yells like, "Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar. All for Jesus stand up and holler," and fingers pointing the One Way sign were exuberantly common. The honorary chairman Billy Graham called it a "religious Woodstock," but the lasting religious title was "Godstock." When the three thousand full-time staff workers returned to the field, they reported an increase in "decision prayers," and the greatest increase in new staff personnel in CCC history. Nevertheless, CCC remained mistrusted by the churches because of their simple evangelism and a divisive relationship with most major denominations. However their emphasis on a prayer time, personal Bible study, and witnessing resulted in a growing, vibrant relationship with Christ for many new Christians.

The third campus organization the AAES moved in a different direction away from evangelism toward social action. Their delegates had a spirit discussion on such issues as racial prejudice, population control, and the Cambodian invasion. At their 1971 convention at Oral Roberts University they surprisingly invited Kevin Ranaghan, a well known Roman Catholic Pentecostal leader, to address the convention. After a female was elected President of the organization the delegates debated abortion, capital punishment, a ban on DDT, selective service, and even lesser marijuana penalties. In the end a resolution calling abortion "murder" was badly defeated, and a resolution asking for the abolition of capital punishment passed.

Meanwhile the most spectacular outpouring occurred at Ashbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky in February of 1970. The chapel service turned into a 185-hour marathon of prayer, confession, forgiveness, and rebirth. The revival broke out among the students and faculty members, and spread to another dozen evangelical colleges. The event was told by Robert E. Coleman in his book One Divine Moment.

Another amazing part of the movement touched the secular colleges. In 1971 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute four thousand students, nuns, ministers, and Jesus people gathered for a two-day festival for "turning on to Jesus." At Harvard one staff member reported that many students were "changed to a full commitment to Christ." At Stanford University the neighboring churches scheduled seven Sunday School classes to handle the college students. Two Illinois campuses Eastern Illinois University in Charleston and North Park College in Chicago were moved by the revival. Everywhere the young adults of college age, who have always been known for their idealistic dreams and hopes, were quickly interested in reaching out to the victims of social oppression after they had experienced the grace of Christ's salvation.

Alongside the campus revival was the Pentecostal impact on the Roman Catholic Church. The "charismatic renewal," which stressed the "baptism of the Holy Spirit" and speaking in tongues, touched Catholic believers especially in college communities. It first appeared in 1967 at a Duquense University prayer meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and reached Notre Dame in South Bend and the universities at Ann Arbor and East Lansing in Michigan.

Although their renewal was related to the Jesus movement, the Pentecostal Catholics, unlike the Jesus people, stayed within the church and hoped for a revival among all Catholics. While they appeared almost like Protestants in their worship, the remarkable transformation was that these Catholics and their Protestant friends stopped trying to convert one another to each other's religion. They talked about "faith in Christ" alone and not their church. They reached an upward estimate of 50,000 adherents by 1971. Their most important influence on the church was the emphasis on searching the Scriptures to be accurate in their doctrine.

Another large group affected by the Jesus movement was high school students. Two youth organizations that began in the 1940's were Youth for Christ and Young Life. They were noted for their non-denominational approach that crossed racial, cultural, and economic boundaries. Both majored on bringing young people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Another parachurch organization that ministered to high school and junior high athletes, coaches, and trainers was the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. The FCA used sports lingo in "huddle groups" with "scouting reports" on the Bible to present "God's game plan" for salvation. FCA had founded in the mid-1950's with the blessing of Branch Rickey, a reputable Christian who the owned the Brooklyn Dodgers and integrated baseball with Jackie Robinson.

A final group touched by the movement were the Jewish people. In 1968 it was estimated that 30 percent of the hippies on the streets of San Francisco were Jewish. Surprisingly, hundreds began finding Jesus as their Savior. From their slogan "Jews for Jesus" Moishe Rosen, a missionary to the Jewish people, founded the Jews for Jesus organization in September of 1973 with their home office on Haight Street in San Francisco. The Messianic Jews began proclaiming that Jesus or Y'shua was the Messiah, and thousands of Jewish street Christians became aggressive witnesses to their people.

By 1971 the "Jesus Revolution" was receiving full blown media attention with articles and pictures on the Jesus people in Look, Life, Time, and US News and World Report. Time picked them the third top "story of the year." Almost every religious periodical like Christianity Today, Christian Century, Guidepost, and Moody Monthly, and most of the denominational journals carried opinions on the movement. Unfortunately, the extremist sects received an excessive amount of attention.

By 1973-74 the war in Vietnam was over and the counterculture seemed to have ended. The media gave the publicity to Watergate and to the "deprogramming" of the "brainwashed" young people, who had fallen victims to cults like the Charles Manson Family. The Children of God and the Way International, an anti-Trinitarian sect under Victor Paul Wierwille, were easy examples to expose the dangers of the exclusive, cult activities.

In spite of that people began wondering "where have all the Jesus people gone?" It was surmised that they joined the established churches; some went to seminary or a Bible college; others became missionaries, pastors, Sunday School teachers, or they joined the choir. Several leaders, Duane Pederson, Jack Sparks, and Peter Gillquist, joined the Eastern Orthodox Church. Ted Wise joined the Peninsula Bible Church and still serves today in their ministry to drug addicts. Nevertheless, the evangelical Christians hoped that they had not dropped out again. When all was said and done, historians and sociologists began speculating as to whether this was just an extension of the counterculture or was it another work of God again.

For years very little was written as if the Jesus people were a forgotten people. Finally, in 1999 three things happened to revive the memories of the Jesus Movement. David Di Sabatino, a professor at Virginia Tech, released the first major book in the post-Jesus Movement era. It was a bibliography of resources on the movement. Secondly, a very valuable website was established by Dave Hollandsworth at http://www.one-way.org. And thirdly, on Saturday April 24th the "first-ever Jesus People reunion" was held at the Arrowhead Pond sports arena in Anaheim, California. A remnant of 10,000 former Jesus people attended to hear Chuck Smith Sr. of Calvary Chapel and a string of speakers and singers from the glory days of the Jesus Movement. The stadium Jumbo-Tron flashed a montage of images from thirty years ago. The index fingers were pointed to the sky, the singing and swaying began again, and most of all tears of heartfelt joy swelled up for the faithful work that God had done in transforming the individual lives of these Jesus freaks over the past thirty years.

In retrospect several questions arise: "how did this happen?", "how could the hippie culture of "do your own thing" lead to the Christian environment of a personal God with absolute values?", and "where did the Jesus people go?"

Francis Schaeffer reasoned that the drug culture of the hippies became only an escape. It left no hope and only a vacuum due to the impoverished values of personal peace and affluence. In the late sixties when hundreds of thousands of young people, who were running away to the counterculture, found only broken dreams, and then they were drawn into the Jesus movement. The amazement of the crossover between the two extremes eventually attracted widespread media attention.

Looking backwards Don Richardson in his books Peace Child and Eternity in Their Hearts explained "redemptive analogies" to show how God used opposite ends of the cultural spectrum to gather a harvest of souls. Richardson pointed out how a similar goal or a language key or a custom or a tradition had a parallel in Christianity, and it prepared people for cross-cultural evangelism. Clearly the search within the counterculture by the hippies and many young people was satisfied in their personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

In the postscript the major phenomena of the Jesus People movement was the number of youth, who entered the mainstream of American Christianity. A second wonder was the spiritual renewal in the parachurch organizations and the conservative churches which included the Pentecostals, the evangelical and fundamental denominations, and the Eastern Orthodox denomination. A final legacy was the momentum that ignited the "born again" era of the mid-seventies.

The Born Again Era:

When the US reached the mid-seventies, Nixon had fallen from Watergate and Saigon had fallen to the Communists. While confidence in the government had toppled for the young people in the Sixties, now citizens of every age had contempt and mistrust for politics and their government. To further add to their skepticism the only non-elected President Gerald Ford failed to whip the inflationary trend of the decade.

But as the United States made plans for the Bicentennial Year, everyone anticipated a nostalgia of patriotism and glory. When the nation turned its eyes backwards on two hundred years of independence, many citizens perceived that our successes were based on either political, economic, military, geographic, or immigration factors. Yet, many Christians were surprised to learn that the US had a rich spiritual heritage which had been either omitted or ignored in their American history textbooks. Publishing companies reprinted a host of old classics and a number of new revival-slanted books which bore witness to the powerful Christian influence throughout our nation's history.

By enlarge Americans practiced a civil religion where Christmas was being remember more for the gifts than the birth. Easter was promoting bunnies and eggs rather than the resurrection. Thanksgiving was becoming a day of gluttony and football, and the original purpose of thankfulness was being overlooked. While Francis Schaeffer and other thinkers were declaring that Europe was in a "post-Christian" era, many surmised that the United States might possibly be in their last generation as a so-called "Christian nation."

To the outsiders church people were viewed as religious marionettes, who dressed up to perform a rote memorized service, which appeared to be an apathetic and lethargic obligation. Usually when they were questioned about their faith, their response was "that it is a personal and private matter." If they talked about God, he was "The Man Upstairs." Their sincere religious conviction was that "my faith can be seen in my behavior. I don't have to say it, I do it."

Be that as it may, the American Christian church was suddenly astonished by the "born again" movement. Taken from the words of Jesus to Nicodemus in John 3:3 "you must be born again (or born-from-above)" the command clearly called for a conversion experience. In 1976 the Gallup reported that one in three Americans (around 50 million) claimed to be born again.

While Time and Newsweek magazines labeled 1976 as the "Year of the Evangelical," every spiritual indicator pointed to an awakening. For the first time in seventeen years church attendance was up (85 million a week). The Christian Herald reported that giving to church and religious organizations rose 9.9% to 12.8 billion dollars. One out of every five adults attended a Bible study or prayer meeting during the week. There was a noticeable increase in Christian discussions about prayer and fasting. Above all, the laity became active in witnessing about their faith.

Campus Crusade for Christ initiated the most ambitious witnessing program in history called "Here's Life America." In 165 cities through TV commercials, billboards, and telephone calls Americans were exposed to the proclamation "I Found It." Almost a third of a million lay people were trained as Here's Life workers. CCC founder Bill Bright and Field Director Paul Eshleman estimated that 129 million people were acquainted with the message of Christ, and supervisors estimated around two million decisions were made for Christ. Unfortunately however, a follow-up study reported that "97 percent never bothered to join a church."

Evangelism Explosion was another training program to equip lay people as soul winners. It was founded by Dr. D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The program was unique in that everything was done within the local church body. EE was quickly recognize by the "two question marks" on a lapel button which hopefully initiated the two diagnostic questions about "going to heaven." After EE was incorporated in 1977, the training program was taken worldwide to every populated continent.

The most profound feature of the born-again era was the activist position by the laity in witnessing. Here's Life and EE weren't the only groups providing evangelism training. Others like "Equipping the Saints" by the Navigators, the "Christian Life and Witness" training for the Billy Graham Crusades, the Christian Business Men's Committee breakfasts, the Flame Fellowship, Women's Aglow, and numerous other parachurch organizations placed a high priority on evangelism. While in other generations outreach to the lost seemed to be for those missionaries in Africa, now the Great Commission (Matthew 28) was pointed toward a believer's hometown, neighborhood, workplace, friends and family.

Another distinctive earmark of the born-again period was the number of famous personalities, who publicly announced their "new life in Christ." In March 1976 Democratic Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter told a press conference that he had "formed a very close, intimate, personal relationship with God through Christ." Chuck Colson, former Nixon hatchet man and once Watergate federal prisoner, released his book Born Again about his recent Christian conversion. Within the year he was at a prayer breakfast with Harold Hughes, a former liberal Democrat Senator. In another opposite extreme Colson was photographed in church singing hymns with ex-Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver. Hughes and Cleaver, also, professed born again experiences.

From every quarter around the nation many reported a spiritual rebirth. Astronaut James Irwin; UN Ambassador Andrew Young; Golden Circle President Martin Clark; Howard Butt Jr.; the "praying millionaire" Wallace Johnson of Holiday Inns; song writers Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan; crime figure Jack "Murf the Surf" Murphy; Mansion member: Charles ("Tex") Watson; and Anita Bryant, Good Housekeeping's "most admired woman" all asserted a born again experience along with millions more.

In 1960 a Christian athlete seldom found a Christian fellowship on his team or in his sport. For the most part they had an individual witness such as Stan Smith in tennis, Gary Player in golf, Rafer Johnson in track, and Bob Pettit and Bill Bradley in basketball. Some like Fran Tarkenton wrote tracts which spoke about their faith. Others like Kermit Zarley and Babe Hiskey formed their own Tour Bible study of two golfers. Early on the one watershed organization for all of them was the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. By the 1970's other similar organizations appeared and Sport Illustrated referred to sports getting religion as "Sportianity." By the end of the Century when the roots of the first one hundred sports ministries were traced, over half were born out of the FCA.

The sports arena soon became the most visible pulpit for the born-againers. Their off-the-field activities and media interviews provided an opportunity for them to take a stand for Christ, and they did it as never before. While the Dallas Cowboys were known as "America's Team," most Christians had seen head coach Tom Landry and QB Roger Staubach on the speaker's platform at a Billy Graham Crusade. Offensive tackle Norm Evans at TCU, the Miami Dolphins, and the Seattle Seahawks was always known for his testimony. Bill Glass, a former Cleveland Brown's defensive end, was a successful evangelist. Archie Griffin, the only college football player to win the Heisman trophy twice, began giving his testimony in local churches around Ohio. Rev. Billy Zeoli, President Ford's personal pastor, was the most popular sports chapel speaker.

The first sports ministry to its athletes was Baseball Chapel. It was founded in 1972 from the vision of a retired sportswriter Watson Spoelstra, who had a passion to help Christian baseball players with their spiritual walk. By 1976 the organization established the Danny Thompson Award for "exemplary Christian spirit in baseball." It was given in honor and memory of Danny Thompson, who played for the Twins and the Rangers before leukemia took his life in 1976. Over the course of time Baseball Chapel has reached just about every major and minor league professional team.

Campus Crusade initiated a basketball schedule with Christian athletes, who gave an evangelistic half-time presentation to the fans. They were known as Athletes in Action. The team barnstormed the country with former college players. Over 100,000 watched their games live and another 20 million saw their televised games. By 1976 A-I-A had a staff over 250 men.

The movement spawned other groups like Pro Athletes Outreach which was headed by Arlis Priest. Wes Neal, a former A-I-A, founded the Institute for Athletic Perfection, which applied biblical principles in athletic manuals for coaches and players. Jerry Lucas, the All-American boy every place at Middletown, Ohio, Ohio State, and the New York Knicks, wrote The Memory Book and Theomatics, which showed clear evidence that a Christian athlete wasn't just a dumb jock with blind faith.

By the mid-70's most of the professional and college teams had some sort of chapel or team prayer before their games. Probably none was as famous as Notre Dame. When a priest led the team prayer, there was always hope for a miracle finish on a "Hail Mary" pass. And of course the mosaic in the end zone of Jesus with his hands raised became known as "Touchdown Jesus." How could the Fighting Irish lose?

The Christian witness wasn't only on the playing field. By the end of the decade the most common visual witness was the John 3:16 signs in the stands. The most discernible sign-bearer in his rainbow wig was Rockin' Rollen Stewart. He aligned his John 3:16 sign and T-shirt with the television cameras behind home plate, in the end zone, or over the green. He made himself a spectacle at the Super Bowl, World Series, Miss America pageant, NBA championship, and over 30 PGA events. He even was paid to do an Anheuser-Busch beer commercial. Rockin' Rollen helped make the John 3:16 sign as common a sports legacy as the placards rooting for the home team.

By the 1980's hardly a college or pro game was played without a Bible verse message on a sign or a bed sheet in the stands. This author watched the 1984 USA Olympic hockey team play the Russian team at Richfield Coliseum near Cleveland. A bed sheet was hanging near the scoreboard on the top level with a sign in Cyrillic letters. He climbed up to ask two spectators near the sign what it said, and they replied, "It's John 3:16 in Russian."

On the coaching staff at Ashland High School in Ohio the head tennis coach, the head baseball coach, and consecutive head football coaches began attending home Bible studies and the same Grace Brethren Church. All four coaches were born again by the mid-70's. One of the football coaches was convicted by the verse John 16:8, and he realized prostrate at the foot of the Cross that he was a sinner unworthy to even raise up and kiss the feet of the Savior. That coach was this author, who began working on this book.

The born again epoch had some other special manifestations that marked another shift in the Republic's religious landscape. First, the "new evangelicalism," was what some said just a reborn version of the old fundamentalism with the same principles, but it now appealed to Northerners, the well-educated, and the middle-class. The writers and apologists presented a scholarly, historical, and intellectual defense of Christianity. Josh McDowell in Evidence That Demands A Verdict detailed a long list of OT Messianic prophecies that Jesus Christ fulfilled, and he challenged readers with the impossible improbability that the Scriptures were not correct. Others writers such as C.S. Lewis, who wrote Mere Christianity, Francis Schaeffer, and Paul Little of Inter-Varsity became popular defenders of the faith for the born again evangelicals.

Secondly the new Pentecostalism became known as the "Charismatic Movement," when it expanded into the mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic churches. At first almost every denomination adopted a "cautious openness" toward the movement except for the resistance from the Southern Baptist Convention and the Lutheran Missouri Synod. But by the mid-70's the Episcopalian, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Mennonite denominations were all referring to the charismatic experience as a church "renewal." They were even providing special worship services to practice the gifts of tongues (glossolalia), interpretations, miracles, and healing. The followers, who were involved in the charismatic experience, were called "spirit-baptized" and "spirit-filled" Christians.

As the Charismatic Movement blossomed, believers found plenty of encouragement from support groups. Oral Roberts University became known as "the world's first Charismatic university." Ralph Wilkerson's Melodyland Christian Center with its graduate school was the most famous Charismatic church in the nation. The publishing company of Logos International in Plainfield, New Jersey was the best source for charismatic literature. Regardless of ones location, a lay person could find a Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship for charismatic worship and to hear speakers of the same persuasion. Demos Shakerian, an immigrant from persecution in Turkey and a wealthy California dairyman, was the founder of FGBMFI. His organization not only reached the grassroots believer, but it also provided a bridge between the older Pentecostal churches and the new Charismatic movement. Even the Charismatic Catholics were warmly praised for their activities by Pope Paul VI during his 1975 Pentecost Sunday message.

Nevertheless, the movement was not without criticism. Some said that the tongues sounded like "gibberish," and there was an excess of emotion. Hard-liners proclaimed that "tongues ceased" in I Corinthians 13: 9-10. The toughest critic was Jerry Falwell. In September of 1977 he announced, "the modern charismatic movement to be of satanic origin. We reject tongues as ..unscriptural...and do not permit our staff to participate in charismatic churches or programs. We feel that association with a charismatic ministry creates a false impression that we believe in what they are doing." But, everyone was reminded that the Apostle Paul said, "do not forbid speaking in tongues." I Corinthians 14:39

Far and away however, the most widespread influence of the movement was the "electronic church." Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network spent $20 million to broadcast The 700 Club over 130 stations in 1977. The next year CBN spent $50 million for a new communications school, a university, and a global satellite connection. Nevertheless, another Pentecostal Oral Roberts built a bigger university, a 10,575-seat sports arena, $100 million medical center, and a 200-foot Prayer Tower. Prayer Partners continued to supply "seed faith" money for the multi-million dollar City of Faith in Tulsa, Oklahoma. From Charlotte, N.C. Jim and Tammy Bakker's PTL (People That Love or Praise The Lord) made a meteoric rise with an estimated 20 million viewers on 181 stations and 4000 cable systems in 1977. The dominant topics for most Pentecostal broadcasts were the work of the Holy Spirit and the coming day of judgment.

By the late 70's the TV church had an estimated billion-dollar revenue, and it was judged that 90 percent had either an evangelical or Pentecostal countenance. Their audience, the supposedly 60 million unchurched in America, was given what was referred to as "armchair religion." Rev. William Fore of the National Council of Churches expressed the major concern for the situation when he said, "What worries me is whether the "electronic church" is in fact pulling people away from the local church, whether it is substituting an anonymous and therefore undemanding commitment for the kind of person-to-person involvement and group commitment that is the essence of the local church."

Possibly the biggest shift in directions for American Christians during the born again era resulted in the birth of the Moral Majority. A negative worldview was growing because of the threats from world hunger, pollution, diminishing energy sources, nuclear proliferation, and international terrorism. While Americans were facing inflation, high interest rates, and a gas shortage, several responses took place in the face of the so-called American "despair."

The most remembered response was President Jimmy Carter's "malaise" speech on July 15, 1979. In a nationally televised chat with 65 million viewers he said that Americans were facing a "crisis in confidence." He attempted to inject morality and faith into public life. He said that the direction could be fixed by "faith in each other, faith in our ability to govern ourselves, and faith in the future of this nation." Americans were stunned. His approval rating began to plummet, however his inability to get the hostages out of Iran caused much of the doubt in his ability to lead the nation.

A second response came from Christians, who decided to pray for Washington, DC. While some had gathered in 1979, a major prayer rally called "Washington for Jesus" was planned for April 29, 1980. It was the heart felt response of Pastor John Gimenez of Rock Church in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The date was the anniversary of Chaplain Hunt's prayer at Cape Henry in 1607. Many evangelical leaders from Bill Bright to Pat Robertson backed the march to the Mall. The focal verse was "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray....I will heal their land." (II Chronicles 7:14). For twelve straight hours an estimated 500 thousand people showed up to pray. It was an extraordinary day of cooperation and participation by Christians.

In an unprecedented shift Christians were challenged to get involved in government and politics. The key issues that had caused their disenchantment with the government were over school prayer and Bible reading, abortion, pornography, and equal rights. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell led the call for political action. In 1979 Falwell took over the Moral Majority. He called for Christians to register and vote, and for conservative Christian candidates to run for public offices. By the fall of 1980 they had nearly a half-million members and a war chest of a million dollars. The evangelicals, who were sympathetic to the born again Jimmy Carter, drifted toward the Republican Party and their candidate Ronald Reagan.

One other major response to the secularization and morality of the nation was the Christian school movement. In 1972 the Supreme Court decided in favor of the Wisconsin Amish in the Yoder case. William B. Ball, a lawyer from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, argued that "the Amish right to practice their faith was more crucial than the state's claim to set educational requirements." The landmark decision encouraged the growth of Christian schools. The National Observer (Jan. 15, 1977) reported that it was "the most significant trend in American education." These schools grew from 652 in 1971 to over 10,000 by 1979. Bible-believing evangelicals were the main force behind the objections to the man-centered values that were being taught in the public schools.

They argued that the first premise in public education was to leave God out of the classroom, and that secular humanism had taken over education. After the US Supreme Court ruled "secular humanism as a religion," the US House of Representatives even passed an anti-secular-humanism amendment in 1976. However it died, when the Senate failed to act on it.

Another objection along the same lines was the teaching of evolution as a "scientific fact," and the omission of any discussion of Biblical creation. Christians did not advocate abolishing evolution from the curriculum; they asked for equal time while teaching both ideas. The State Legislatures in Arkansas and Louisiana passed acts requiring equal time to creation science and evolution. However the courts struck down both acts, and they based their decision on the "establishment clause" from the First Amendment.

A subtler issue was what information was in the textbooks. Mel and Norma Gabler, an evangelical Christian couple from Longview, Texas, began exposing the content and topical selections in the textbooks. They pointed out the liberal bias including the "value-free" education ideas of situation ethics and relativism in morals. Their most famous exposure was the 5th grade history book that had seven pages on Marilyn Monroe and nothing on Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, or Nixon. The Gabler's crusade was written in their book What Are They Teaching Our Children?.

The Texas textbook watchdogs drew the attention of writers, publishing companies, and national radio and television shows like "60 Minutes," "Today Show," and "Phil Donahue." School officials and State curriculum leaders began taking a closer look at the textbooks. Terrell Bell, who had been the US Secretary of Education, even said that the textbooks had been "dumbed down." The Gabler's became a favorite target of Norman Lear's People for the American Way (PAW). Meanwhile the classroom teachers began better scrutinizing their textbooks for errors and suggestive literary positions.

However, many saw good signs for the future of young people with the enthusiastic, large crowds at the Jesus festivals. Easter weekend in Orlando, Florida attracted over twenty thousand to "Jesus 77." During that summer there were Jesus music festivals in a half-a-dozen states, and "Ichthus 77" near Ephrata, Pennsylvania attracted almost 100,000 campers. Another good sign was the increased Bible sales with the very popular New International Version, the eighth translation of the Bible since W.W.II. The Iron Curtain was opened a bit when Billy Graham made the first evangelical trips to Hungary in 1977 and Poland in 1978. While Evangelicals believed only Christ's return would solve the world's problems, they concluded that mankind still had a moral duty to slow the earth's decay. They became active in single-issue causes like abortion, pornography, school prayer, education, and the bumper sticker campaigns.

On the down side of the revival, while many talked about a "born again" experience, few joined a church. George Barna concluded that eighty percent of the church growth was just "church migration" to another fellowship. Every mainline denomination lost between 30-50 percent of their members during the 60's and 70's except the Southern Baptists. The Seventies were titled the "Me Decade," and Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners a more radical Evangelical magazine, said, "the Evangelical movement is presented in terms of what Jesus can do for me. It calls many to believe and few to obedience." Others worried that the Christian lifestyle wasn't much different from everyone else, who just wanted to be rich, comfortable, and happy. George Gallup evaluated it this way, "Religion is increasing its influence on society but morality is losing its influence. The secular world would seem to offer abundant evidence that religion is not greatly affecting our lives."

Nevertheless, the born again era like the other post-W.W.II revivals was short and intense. It, too, drew noticeable national attention from the media. Like the other occurrences it was as if a wave of the Holy Spirit had rippled over a designated segment of the population. To those, who had experienced it, the life changes clearly were "born-from-above" as Jesus had said in John 3:3.

The Moral Right:

The decade of the 1980s opened with tremendous anxiety over the possibility of a nuclear war. With the United States and the Soviet Union boasting arsenals of tens of thousands of warheads dialogue surfaced about the chances for a pre-emptive, Pearl Harbor type, nuclear strike. When the TV movie The Day After was viewed on national television, the demonstrations increased for a "nuclear freeze." The Reagan administration began talking about an expensive "Stars War" defense system that would shoot down incoming missiles. President Reagan called the Soviet Union the "evil empire," and he, even, threatened to ignore the SALT agreements. Any chances for a "strategic arms reduction treaty" seemed unlikely.

In Christian circles speculation increased about the Apocalypse and Armageddon. Billy Graham released a book on the Approaching Hoofbeats. After the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut prophecy buffs were quick to point out the nearness of the Kishon valley of Armageddon to southern Lebanon. They, also, pointed out that Gog of Magog (Ezekiel 38) was from Russia, and that Moscow was directly north on Jerusalem's line of longitude. When Israel discovered a planned, surprise Soviet attack from Lebanon in August of 1982, fears increased about the possible Communist advances into the oil-rich Middle East.

Since their beginning Israel always had a friend in the United States. The US was first to recognize the State of Israel and quick to send the best military equipment. President Nixon turned the tide of the 1973 Yom Kippur War be sending military aid. President Carter negotiated the 1978 Camp David Accords, the first Arab-Israeli agreement, for which only Sadat and Begin received the Nobel Peace Prize. Israel was receiving more in US foreign aid than any other country. It was a surety that if anyone invaded Israel the United States would join what they considered a righteous cause.

For all the doomsday talk around the world scene the domestic-political picture was just the opposite. With the election of Republican President Ronald Reagan the conservative Christians were optimistic that the government would return to the traditional values of earlier days. They hoped that the Reagan administration would reverse abortion, endorse school prayer, support financial aid to parochial and Christian schools, even send a representative to the Vatican, and help to cleanup the sex obsessed society created by television and Hollywood. The great irony was that they pinned their hopes on the only divorced President in US history, who made his name in Hollywood.

The conservative agenda for traditional values was the most ambitious religious-political movement of the 20th Century. The only family structure that they preferred was a lifetime monogamous marriage of a husband, who was the bread winner, and a wife, who was the homemaker. They disapproved of the homosexual lifestyle and the "feminist" ERA Amendment saying that both eroded the traditional family. They objected to the sex education programs in public schools because it failed to promote abstinence before marriage or to decry any sex outside of marriage.

The conservative's platform included several other issues that undermined their family values. They were fervently anti-abortionists, who preferred adoption as a better choice for unwanted children. They protested the use of their federal tax dollars to fund abortion clinics and to use Medicaid payments for abortions. They wanted commercial television with its violence and suggestive sexual advertising cleansed. They opposed pornography and called for stiffer laws to punish the creators and distributors of such literature, films, and videotapes. They, also, cried out for some sort of major federal program to stop the flow and use of illegal drugs. On their behalf national surveys showed that a high percentage of Americans, also, favored their positions on values.

The right wing conservative Christians began working through political action committees (PAC) to inform, persuade, and lobby for their concerns. Three organizations of the "New Christian Right" were formed in 1979. Obviously, the most powerful and notable was the Moral Majority, founded by Jerry Falwell. After Falwell lost credibility for calling Desmond Tutu a "phony," it was renamed the Liberty Foundation and headed by Atlanta businessman Jerry Nims. The Christian Voice compiled the voting record or "Congressional Score Card" of the candidates and provided a list of approved and disapproved candidates, who supported conservative issues. The Roundtable, once called the Religious Roundtable, was a quarterly two-day meeting of 150 major conservative and fundamentalist Christian leaders, who were briefed on key issues which they could pass on the information to their flocks.

Some other political actions organizations were led by women. Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum worked to defeat the ERA Amendment, and Connaught Marshner headed the Library Court, which spearheaded the failed Family Protection Act. Both organizations campaigned to get an anti-abortion amendment passed. A third women's group founded in 1979 was Beverly LaHaye's Concerned Women for America (CWA). This organization has focused their efforts on marriage and family workshops.

The most radical idea to change US society came from the reconstructionist movement. The term was coined by Gary North, who founded their Journal. Their think tank was the Chalcedon Foundation at Vallecito, California. The Christian Reconstructionists believed that the whole American society should be "reconstructed" to conform to God's law. With an aggressive fervency they have called for a theocracy to Christianize all aspects of American life.

Any discussion of the "moral right" and those who call for a righteous lifestyle must include the Roman Catholic Church and particularly their worldwide leader Pope John Paul II. While many of the American Catholics disagree with him, this Pope has certainly made his position known on ethics and the lifestyles of this age. However any considerations on the contemporary Catholic Church must involve Vatican II.

Pope John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), and they made several changes in their church life. First, the Mass was permitted in English, and the priest faced the congregation more times during the service. Lay people were permitted to serve in the worship service. The obligation of fish for the Friday meal was rescinded. Nevertheless, priests were still consider the go-between to reconcile, to forgive, to hear confession of the sins, and to make sacrifices for the laity "in the name of Christ."

Some other doctrinal positions were reaffirmed, especially the "infallibility" of the Pontiff. The dogma of purgatory and prayers for the dead continued. The veneration of Mary was upheld, and her station as sinless, a perpetual virgin, and a co-laborer in the atonement was corroborated. The doctrines of her immaculate conception and her resurrection "incorruptible" to heaven where she reigns as queen were also upheld.

The most revolutionary development was the ecumenical feature toward Protestants, who in times past were declared heretics, but the council referred to them as "separated brethren." While the door of reunion was opened, the council made it clear that the "other Christians" had to return to the Catholic Church, the one true church. Vatican II maintained that baptism was the basis for Christian unity, however the council still perpetuated the necessity of baptism for salvation.

In 1978 Karol Wojtyla, who spoke eight times at Vatican II, was selected Pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian Pope in 456 years. He had studied for the priesthood at an illegal underground seminary during the Nazi occupation of Poland. He, also, had risked his life to help Jews escape from the Germans. After the war he spent much time ministering to Polish refugees in Western Europe. By 1967 he was given a Cardinal's red hat.

In the years after his election Pope John Paul II gained tremendous influence and popularity. While his flock numbers one billion baptized members, his opinions have had a global impact. Not only has his charismatic personality won followers, but he has traveled over a half a million miles to win admirers worldwide. He has become a strong moral force and has used his papacy to stand for conservative policies.

In 1994 he released Crossing the Threshold of Hope, which covered topics from the existence of God to the mistreatment of women. At the Cairo International Population Conference he used his influence to defeat a US-backed proposition to encourage abortions worldwide. Also that year, his most powerful publication "Evangelium Vitae" or "Gospel of Life" was published. The 200-page encyclical addressed the "culture of life" which affirmed human life from conception to death. He, also, condemned the "culture of death" which supported abortion rights, euthanasia, capital punishment, and the use of human embryos for medical research.

Nevertheless the people in the American Catholic Church have some different views on sexual morality from that of the Roman Church and their Pope. The Church disapproves of abortion, birth control, premarital sex, extramarital affairs, homosexuality, divorce, and remarriage. According to the Gallup polls American Catholics for the most part have the same opinions of these issues as the American Protestants and the non-Catholics. They accept abortions in cases or rape, incest, and fetal defects especially when the mother's health is endangered. Birth control is a very testy issue. By 1990 ninety percent of the American Catholics under age 50 favored artificial birth control for family planning, and the practice is widespread. Their standard rebuttal is always, "The Pope doesn't play the game, so he shouldn't make the rules."

A second issue of contention between the Church and the American Catholics is the divorce policy. The Church does not recognize divorce, however it permits the long and expensive policy called annulments. The procedure alleges that the marriage really never took place. The practice get touchy when children have been born during the marriage. The Church does not recognize remarriage, and it teaches that remarried couples are living in sin. Divorced Catholics are not suppose to receive the Eucharist, but many local priest overlook the status of their divorced and remarried parishioner when they administer the Sacraments. Meanwhile many American Catholics have changed their minds about divorce and remarriage, and they tend to believe along the same line as other Americans in their acceptance of the matter.

In the same vein the Church's position on priests and nuns has come under sharp criticism. The Church's strong official policy is no married priests and no female priests. While there has been a steady decline in men and women entering the Catholic ministry especially since the 1960's, there has been a increasingly strong support among American Catholics for both the ordination of women and the permission for priests to marry.

While the Church teaches that sex outside of marriage is wrong, most Catholic would prefer abstinence, but premarital experimentation has become more accepted. However, when it comes to homosexuality and extra-marital affairs, the Church and its members still strongly disapprove of both.

The Catholics with one-fourth of the US population are the largest single group of religious people in the country. Their parochial school system with 2.6 million (1997) students is the largest and strongest training ground outside the public schools in the nation. Historically from the earliest days in this country they have been a politically active people. They have held many elected public offices and exerted a strong influence at every level of government. The most recent achievement being VP candidate Geraldine Ferraro, the first female candidate for a major party office (1984). Regardless of whether the lay people agree with their Church or their Pope everyone is aware of the powerful moral influence and the ethical stance expected by the Catholics. They are a stronghold for the conservatives and the religious right in this Republic.

By far the most influential American Catholic position has become the Archbishop of New York at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Cardinal Francis Spellman, who held the position from 1939 to 1967, elevated the position to one of international power and respect. He was a friend of Popes, Presidents, and politicians. Author John Cooney called him "The American Pope." In 1939 Spellman was appointed military vicar of the US armed forces. He served through World War II and the Korean War. In 1951 he began the practice of spending Christmas with the troops overseas. Cardinal Spellman started the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner as a fund raiser for Catholic buildings. It has become one of the most significant annual political banquets in the nation. He was, also, a close friend of Pope Pius XII. In his endearing brilliant career Cardinal Spellman met world leaders from Europe to Asia. He was one of the great Americans of his era.

During the 1980's a movement for lay people Christ Renews His Parish swept across the country. It was a weekend retreat at the parish in which everyone discussed their spiritual journey. Everyone kept a personal journal and emphasis was placed on sharing, discernment, confession, reconciliation, and a closer relationship with Jesus Christ. Several gave their personal testimony. Each group gave a skit and made a poster. The closing ceremony was a Sunday morning service including the Eucharist. The retreats were for men and women separately. After one's first retreat you were expected to form the leadership team for the next retreat in six months. One uniqueness of the experience was that Protestants were invited to participate. This author was involved in two such retreats at St. Edward's Catholic Church in Ashland, Ohio in 1981.

Since this author attends a Catholic funeral or service just about every year, this is a personal observation. The liturgy certainly has all the right words that salvation is based on Jesus Christ's death on the cross for our sins. However when it comes to the Eucharist at the closing, invariably everyone takes the wafer or the bread, but almost everyone skips the Cup. Now in their doctrine the Cup is the actual blood of Jesus Christ (transubstantiation - John 6). Then, why do so many Catholic skip it? Is it corrupted or diseased? The command for the Lord's Supper in I Corinthians 11 is "do this in remembrance...and to proclaim the Lord's death." To my Catholic friends this author must say, "If the crucified Christ's blood pays for our sins to get us into heaven, then why omit the most important part of the worship service?"

This is one final observation for my evangelical friends about the Catholics. The evangelicals complain that the sermons are too short, and that the Scripture is not chapter and verse. The congregation usually only hears, "reading from the book of Romans." On the other hand this author appreciates the style of worship in the Catholic liturgy. The congregation always has a chance for confession. They, also, always have an opportunity to humbly kneel in prayer. For the differences in both camps Chuck Colson said it best in his book The Body, "Historically, Protestants have done a better job of making visible the spiritual reality of the Word in preaching, while Catholics have better made visible the spiritual reality of worship." Amen!

By 1987 the fulfillment of the Righteous Right's goals seemed right around the corner, if another Republican President could be elected. The "electronic church" was reaching 100 to 130 million people with their message, and one of their own Pat Robertson, a "religious broadcaster" not a TV evangelist, had entered the Presidential race. The Supreme Court might be within their grasp if George Bush could win twice, then the abortion decision might be reversed.

At that time the momentum of the "Moral Right" was broken by the prime time scandals that exposed two of their most successful TV evangelists: Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart. At first a "holy war" ensued over Bakker and John Wesley Fletcher's "tryst" with Jessica Hahn. The sleazy details were uncovered in every major publication from Time and Newsweek to Christianity Today. Evangelist John Ankerberg went on national TV to expand the accusations against Bakker and his staff. Jerry Falwell and Jimmy Swaggart each offered to "takeover" and to direct the PTL ministry.

Next, in February 1988, Jimmy Swaggart in a tearful confession to millions of TV viewers spoke to his family, his followers and God about his own sexual sins with prostitutes and pornography. He centered his appeal on the need for universal forgiveness for everyone. While no one could see a broken and contrite heart, they certainly heard a crying confession. Unfortunately three year later, 1991, Swaggart was caught in traffic violation accompanied by a known prostitute. His ministry of over 200 stations, in 145 countries, and an annual revenue of $140 million apparently came to an end.

During that time Jim and Tammy Bakker were banished from the Assemblies of God ministry. The PTL including Heritage USA filed for federal bankruptcy protection. Later, Heritage USA was purchased by an Orthodox Jewish developer from Canada. Bakker was prosecuted for fraud, sentenced to prison for 45 years, and served almost five years. Tammy Fay divorced him and married Roe Messner, the builder of Heritage USA. Jessica Hahn posed nude twice for Playboy.

After Jim Bakker was released from prison, his book I Was Wrong was published. He admitted to wrongfully preaching a "prosperity gospel," while the PTL collected $500 million dollars. He is now working on a new 24-hour TV healing ministry with former Green Bay Packer great Reggie White.

While Jim Bakker was trying to raise a million dollars every other day, Oral Roberts, the most successful fund raiser among TV evangelists, made the boldest announcement of all. Roberts declared that the City of Faith medical school needed $8 millions or "God will kill me." The outside world mocked and jeered him. He entered the ORU Prayer Tower to fast and pray, and miraculously the donors gave the money in one week. Nevertheless, it was just another contributing factor in what Michael D'Antonio called the "Fall From Grace: the Failed Crusade of the Christian Right."

The fallout from the scandals resulted in several consequences to the cause of conservative Christianity. First was the impact on Christian television. According to Jeffrey K. Hadden, a long-time Christian TV analyst, the market was being saturated because of dissatisfaction with commercial television, and PBS was the only other alternative choice for like-minded viewers. However, the audience was not pleased with the continual fund-raising appeals or the increasing political involvement of the televangelists.

While the broadcasters claimed that their primary goal was evangelism - soul winning, the message did not match the viewing audience. Studies agreed that the majority of the viewers were Southern and Midwestern Christian women, who were over 50 years of age. Most of the viewers were regular church attenders, who financial supported their local church. The only viewers, who substituted TV for their local church, were the elderly, handicapped, or young mothers with children. Clearly, one statistic that broadcaster did not want to hear was that the viewer estimates were inflated, and their ratings deserved to be lowered.

Marshall Fishwick referred to the whole escapade as "the Rape of the Vunerable," but it became obvious that the scandal only wounded the industry. With the core of Christianity being confession and forgiveness Christian TV survives and even thrives. The National Religious Broadcasters and the Financial Evangelical Council for Accountability (ECFA) tightened their standards to help regulate the industry.

One new Christian TV idea is the Faith and Values Channel which merged with the Southern Baptists' American Christian Television System in 1992. They have three appealing features. They have no on-air solicitation for funds, no attempt to make converts, and no attacking other faiths. It is a coalition of fifty religious groups (Protestant, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and American-born).

During this time the 1988 Presidential campaign had several revelations of misconduct. Democrat Gary Hart was forced to withdraw because of his affair with Donna Rice. Innuendoes became prevalent that the hero of Camelot President JFK was a womanizer. Finally, a bombshell fell on the Christian Right and Pat Robertson. The press learned that Pat and Dede were expecting their first child on their wedding day. He admitted the pregnancy, but he tried to soothe over their premarital behavior by saying that they had not yet been born again. When he withdrew from the political race, it was another setback to the activism of the Christian Right. The next year the Moral Majority went out of business, and some said that it was the death knell to the movement.

In 1989 Pat Robertson founded the Christian Coalition for grassroots activism and hired Ralph Reed as the Executive Director. Reed said, "The Christian community got it backwards in the 1980's, we tried to change Washington when we should have been focusing on the states. The real battles of concern to Christians are in neighborhoods, school boards, city councils, and state legislatures." Their goal was to organize the 175,000 precincts and carry the fight to the local level. They were more flexible than the Moral Majority, less dogmatic, and more willing to compromise.

Another post-Reagan Christian-right organization was the Family Research Council directed by Gary Bauer, a former top aide to Reagan's Education Secretary William Bennett. The FRC was formed in 1988 by Dr. James Dobson, who has the nation's second largest radio voice of over 1450 stations, with his Focus on the Family. Dr. Dobson gained national attention with his conversion stories of basketball phenom Pete Maravich and serial killer Ted Bundy. His group has focused on family issues such as no-fault divorce, tax breaks for families with pre-school children, and welfare policies for unmarried mothers. FRC has tried to avoid foreign affairs, and centered on the American family and the Judeo-Christian heritage of this nation. Their goal according to Bauer is to become "the premier experts on the family and family issues," so they can provide research data to policymakers in Washington, DC.

While some have claimed that the Christian Right's campaign failed, it has accomplished what third parties can only hope to achieve in politics that of getting their issues before the two major parties' platforms. They have clearly realigned the Republican Party. In 1982 about one-third of the evangelical voters called themselves Republicans. In the 1994 mid-term elections 74% voted Republican and made them the majority party in the 104th Congress for the first time since 1955.

The Republican's Contract with America, the legislative social agenda under Newt Gingrich, was mildly accepted by the conservative religious groups. While their intentions of "turning the nation around to public acts of piety," the primary issues of the Christian Right were on the back burner of Congress' priority list.

Clearly the traditional cornerstone for the Christian Right was overturning the Roe-Wade abortion decision. The battleground was now being defined as Pro-Choice vs Pro-Life or Right-to-Life. An amendment requiring two-thirds of Congress was hopeless. A Supreme Court reversal seemed even more remote. The struggle was limited to funding for "Planned Parenthood" clinics and to third trimester abortions. Christians offered "Crisis Pregnancy" centers and Operation Rescue as alternatives. But as the abortion total neared 40 million by the turn of the century, Christians painfully ponder whether anything short of a miracle would change this policy.

The second major issue school prayer has been a hop-scotch battle between legislative attempts and court decisions over the separation of church and state. In 1962 the Supreme Court struck down teacher-led classroom prayers. In 1992 the Supreme Court ruled that clergy-led graduation prayers were unconstitutional, too. The next year The Court let student-led prayers at graduations stand, and in 1997 they permitted student-led prayers at religious club meetings on school property. However, in June 2000 The Court ruled against the student-led prayer before the football game at the Santa Fe (Texas) school district.

In 1999 Marian Ward, daughter of a Baptist preacher, won a court-order to pray before the football games at Santa Fe, Texas. However in June of 2000, the Supreme Court ruled against the student-led prayers before the football games. Nevertheless, throughout the South the fall football season opened with a rebellion against the Court's decision. Some schools had a non-school sponsored prayer at the flag pole. At other games the fans "spontaneously" stood up on cue and began reciting the Lord's prayer. At Batesburg-Leesville (S.C.) the student body president disobeyed the Supreme Court and led the football fans in a prayer over the public address system after which the cheered.

In the meantime student-led prayers came to national attention in Burleson, Texas in 1990. The movement became known as See You at the Pole. SYATP has grown internationally as students gathered in front of their schools at the flag pole at 7AM in September to pray for their school. Advocates for student's right to pray have argued that their free speech is being denied if the courts decide against student-initiated prayer in schools.

The recent school violence has revealed the prayerful faith of some students. The Paducah, Kentucky students were shot during a circular prayer. At Columbine Cassie Bernall became the most famous student martyr for her "Yes" answer to the "do you believe in God?" question. Even editorialists and cartoonists are posing the question, "Why is it OK to have prayer after the school shootings when it is forbidden before the violence?" This issue and the other points of debate by the Christian Right continue to remain unsettled.

From the words of Matthew Moen the political activism of the Christian Right has "transformed" over the years. At first they were politically naive with a "kaleidoscopic structure" usually on single-issue campaigns. As they developed political savvy, their enemies and the media portrayed them as narrow-minded bigots far from the mainstream of American life and politics. Meanwhile, their viewpoint has been assimilated into the political scene and especially the Republican establishment, and they have influenced every election since their birth in 1979. Recently in the 2000 Republican Presidential campaign John McCain's campaign stalled when he criticized the "religious Right."

However, their success is cause for concern because as every Christian historian realizes, "the more involved they are for social causes, the less motivated they are for purely spiritual concerns." Chuck Colson has made an astute parallel to their predicament. He said, "Our well-intentioned attempts to influence government can become so entangled with a particular political agenda that it becomes our focus: our goal becomes maintaining political access. What happens the gospel is held hostage to the political agenda, and we become part of the very system we are seeking to change."

The Parachurch Movement:

Parachurch means "alongside the church." Their work is to augment the churches and the denominations. They are a group of not-for-profit, non-denominational ministries to aid the spiritual, mental, and physical needs of people. Although they operate outside the church, these agencies either seek a partnership with or at least a sympathetic support from the local churches. Still since their beginning, the mainline denominations have generally viewed the parachurch organizations as antagonistic outsiders or competitors.

During the 1920's the traditional denominations (Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Disciples of Christ, and others) sent the missionaries, printed the Sunday School materials, supplied the hymnals, and regulated the colleges and seminaries. When the Scopes Trial over evolution and the modernist-fundamentalist controversy occurred, the conservative believers, who were still referred to as "fundamentalists," began withdrawing from the mainline churches. They shifted into doctrinal coalitions that are now being called "evangelicals."

By the 1930's they created strongholds where the Gospel could be spread without liberal leanings and secular enticements. They founded 30 Bible schools between 1930-40 and 60 more in the next decade. They used radio programs, youth organizations, and the printed word to add a new vitality to American Christianity. As the evangelicals left the mainline denominations, they took their money and their energies into the new ministries. Furthermore, their zeal was "to honor God" and to insure that their work was His work, so they bathed their efforts in prayer. Thus were the modern parachurch ministries born.

In those days not all the biblical conservatives made the flight to the right. The ones who stayed had sincere hopes that their denomination might retreat to a position on the Scriptures of earlier days. Consequently they found themselves not only on the fringe of their church family, but embroiled in splits and schisms and successions. While every major denomination faced some sort of division or debate, the evangelicals were left with the alternative to either leave for another denomination or redirect their zeal into some new organization. They became the backbone for the parachurch organizations.

In the early days of the modern movement the agencies had a heart for the young people away from home. Evangelism was their priority; and servicemen, college students, and the high school youths were their objectives. The first successful parachurch organization was Dawson Trotman's The Navigators. His goal was to evangelize sailors and then make them disciples, who would in turn evangelize another serviceman. "Daws" was noted for his follow up techniques of "scripture memory" and the Billy Graham "counseling" classes. His aim was "to know Christ and make Him known," so he earned the title "the apostle of follow-up."

As in so many fields of human endeavors where lives cross each others paths, they inspire and feed off of each other. W. Cameron Townsend, a good friend of Dawson Trotman, started the Wycliffe Bible Translators. It has become the largest missionary organization in the world. Their students learned linguistic skills for deciphering unwritten languages; and missiology, cross-cultural communication, became their evangelistic tool. They have translated the Scriptures into languages of over seventy countries of the world.

Quickly, new ministries sprang up with a passion for the young. The earliest was Evelyn McClusky's Miracle Book Club for Portland high school students in 1933. Also, new Sunday School materials came from Gospel Light Press, written by Henrietta Mears, and from Scripture Press, published by Victor and Bernice Cory. Young Life was founded by Jim Rayburn to take the gospel message to youth groups at the high schools. The final three agencies all continue to operate at the turn of the century.

Historically, the preeminent parachurch organization that has maintained a creditable reputation for integrity is the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Since their beginning, Billy Graham and his exemplary team have made decisions that have set the standards for other groups to emulate. First, they changed the practice of the evangelist collecting a love offering to just receiving a regular salary. Another shift was eliminating the longtime method of criticizing the local church and their pastor for failing in evangelism. They, also, worked with the local churches, and they counseled the "inquirers" to attend a church regularly for discipleship. Perhaps their utmost example was to form a non-profit corporation, the BGEA, to handle all their monies and to make an open disclosure of their financial records.

Over the years, as the BGEA has grown and expanded, they have taken advantage of every opportunity to preach the gospel. They have used nationwide radio, films, television, magazines, newspaper columns, books, and in recent years international evangelism conferences, satellites, and now the Internet to preach Christ. Doors have opened to Dr. Graham and his Crusades where others could not go. Starting in Los Angeles, to London, to New York, to every continent, behind the Iron Curtain, even to North Korea, and to the globe where Billy Graham has been able to proclaim the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for sinful man to hundreds of millions of people.

As other individuals and groups have recognized the need for a specific ministry, the parachurch movement began to focus on its role in the body of Christ. They could do things that the local church and even the denominations could not do. Foremost on the list was evangelism. With the cooperation of a variety of sources they could raise the finances and the people to fulfill the Great Commission. They could devote their energies full-time to a single project whether it was broadcasting worldwide like the Trans World Radio or translating the Bible like Wycliffe Bible Translators or feeding the needy like World Vision.

Over the years the two have realized their need for each other. The church can not hire a big enough staff or develop enough programs to reach the world, and the parachurch can only reach the world with the help of the volunteers and the donors from the church. However, neither can replace each other.

Joe Maggelet, a Navigator at Ashland University, gave this warning, "Sometimes they (parachurch groups) become so narrow and exclusive that they think a chapel service or a Bible study replaces church." He continued, "We can't do what the church does in worship and fellowship and administering the ordinances (sacraments)."

The church needs to guard against the same danger. Sometimes they (the church) becomes so complacent in ministering to the same comfortable congregation that they fail to have any outreach. It appears that the healthiest congregations have a variety of ministries: local, cross-cultural, national, and international.

Clearly, the single common goal for both the church and the parachurch is the Great Commission to evangelize the world. In the author's opinion the best single vehicle has been the Jesus film. This docudrama was taken from the Gospel of Luke. It was released in 1979 to US theaters. Since that time, Campus Crusade has made it the most translated (over 500 languages) and most viewed film (over 3 billion people) in the history of the world. It is seen daily by over a quarter of a million people, and over 100 million people have responded to the invitation.

Throughout the 20th Century the number of parachurch organizations has proliferated so much that well over 10,000 groups exist today. Most of them are so tiny that they have more people on their governing board than on their mission field. How effective or how useful they are is not widely known. The main criteria must be that they have earned the faithfulness of their donors, so it must be assumed that they have a viable ministry.

The PTL scandal exposed the need for some sort of financial watchdog or at least a financial disclosure system. It was Senator Mark Hatfield (Oregon), who called for "a Christian Better Business Bureau" or face the potential of government intervention. In 1979 the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) was born with their offices in Washington, DC. They have almost a thousand members, who submit to the EFCA standards and to the 50-60 random inspections annually. They feature a Donor's Bill of Rights and a Stewardship Responsibility to insure truthfulness in conduct and fund raising so as not to jeopardize their credibility or the IRS tax deductible status of their members.

At the beginning of the 20th Century only a handful of parachurch organization existed. The Society for Christian Endeavor was the first national youth organization. It was founded by Dr. Francis E. Clark in 1881. At the turn of the century because of fears that the Judeo-Christian values were being removed from the public schools youth agencies appeared such as: Boys Scouts of America (1906), 4-H Clubs (1907), Camp Fire Girls (1910), Girls Scouts of America (1912), and hundreds of lesser known religious based groups. As the American Republic enters the 21st Century the parachurch movement has enlarged, and specialized, and outstretched to the utmost parts of the world. This is a short list of notable Parachurch Ministries since the 1930's:

Parachurch Organizations Date: Founder:

Indp Fundm Churches of America 1930

Gospel Light Press 1933 Henrietta Mears

Navigators 1934 Dawson Trotman

Scripture Press 1934 Victor E. Cory

Alcoholics Anonymous 1935 Dr. Bob (Smith) & Bill W. (Wilson)

Wycliffe Bible Translators 1935 Cameron Townsend

Child Evangelism Fellowship 1937 Jesse Irvin Overholtzer

Young Life 1940 Jim Rayburn

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship 1941

(NAE) Nat. Assoc of Evangelicals 1942

National Religious Broadcaster Asc 1944

JAARS 1944

Youth for Christ 1945

Campus Crusade for Christ 1947 Bill Bright

World Vision 1950 Bob Pierce

BGEA Billy Graham Evang Assoc 1950 Billy Graham

Christian Business Men Committee 1951 Demos Shakarian

Trans World Radio 1952 Paul Freed

FCA Fellowship of Christian Athletes 1954 Don McClanen

National Prayer Breakfast 1955 Abram Vereide

700 Club (CBN) 1961 Pat Robertson

Templeton Foundation Prizes in Religion 1972 John M. Templeton

Baseball Chapel 1972 Watson Spoelstra

Jews for Jesus 1973 Moishe Rosen

Evangelism Explosion 1973 James Kennedy

Intercessors for America 1973 John Beckett,Derek PrinceErnBaxter

PTL Club 1974 Jim Bakker

Stephen Ministry 1975 Dr. Kenneth C. Haugk

Prison Fellowship 1976 Chuck Colson

Basic Institute for Youth Conflicts Bill Gothard

Habitat for Humanity 1976 Millard & Linda Fuller

Focus on the Family 1977 James Dobson

American Family Association 1977 Donald Wildmon

Evang Council for Financial Acctblty 1979

Moral Majority 1979 Jerry Falwell

Samaritan's Purse 1980 Franklin Graham

Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation 1983 Arthur DeMoss

Christian Coalition 1989 Ralph Reed

Promise Keepers 1990 Bill McCartney

Internationals USA, Inc 199? Ivanildo Trindade

The meteoric parachurch organization of the 1990's has been Promise Keepers. It was founded by Bill McCartney, the born again, former football coach at the University of Colorado. It was Coach Mac's vision to fill stadiums with men cheering and praising Jesus Christ. The all-male rallies have been scenes of hugs, tears, and emotional praises, while men behave like boys batting beach balls around the stands, doing the wave, and jumping to Jesus cheers. This evangelical men's movement has attempted to be a non-denominational, multiracial organization that calls men to be responsible to Jesus, to their wives and families, to their church, and to each other. Each man is challenged to find an "accountability partner," who will check on him so he becomes a better husband and a better father.

Critics have pointed out that the cost made attendance mainly for white males (85%). The women's group NOW has lead small demonstrations against the "males leadership in marriage" position. Gay men have objected to the opinion that homosexuality is a sin. Others have mentioned McCartney's admission of adultery and his daughter's two sons born out-of-wedlock from two different men. Nevertheless, it has become the fastest growing men's organization of the decade with over one million men attending the conferences annually. Also, a spin-off organization of Christian women called Praise Keepers has emulated the ideals of Promise Keepers. They began in Missouri in 1996.

In 1997 Promise Keepers made several major successes. Their Pastor's Conference in Atlanta was attended by almost 40,000 church leaders which was possibly the largest single gathering of pastors in the history of the Christian Church. PK went international with conferences in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. In October the rally in Washington, DC at the National Mall drew an estimated 710,000 men. It was called "Stand in the Gap: A Sacred Assembly of Men," and it was broadcast live on C-Span. Since then, Promise Keepers has waved the stadium fees to attract a more diverse group of men. However, they continue to stress reconciliation and spiritual renewal as their central message.

No group is too large or too small that it goes unnoticed by the Creator of the universe. The author is President of a released-time Bible-in-the-school program which dates back to 1946. It has a corporation's board of 12 trustees. The heart of the program is two male teachers, who teach the Bible to elementary kids grades one through four in one school system north of Ashland, Ohio. Once a week during their lunch hour one hundred and some kids walk to a nearby church and get a Bible lesson in some classes under ten students. Insignificant as the program may seem, it makes one speculate on how many thousands or millions of little works God is doing all over the world.

The New Testament verse that inspires these church and parachurch works is Matthew 25:36, "I was naked..sick..in prison, and you came to me." Every church and hospital has a chaplain or a visitation program for their patients. Most communities are reached by the Salvation Army or an interchurch group that provides food and clothing for the needy. While jail ministries usually happen at the local level, Chuck Colson started Prison Fellowship, one of the great parachurch group in recent years. Most local works have aligned themselves with the national organization and particularly the Angel Tree project for the children of the incarcerated.

This author's mother spent almost thirty years at an "Interchurch Thrift Shop" distributing food, clothing, and money to the needy. Her kids and grandkids at different times helped sort clothing or went on food runs with her. When she died in December of 1999, the work continued and others stepped into the gap.

Lyle Schaller wrote a great statement about these ministries in his book Innovations in Ministry. In Chapter 2 "Filling in the Vacuum" he said, "When we look more closely at the passing ecclesiastical parade, we see individuals, pastors, missionaries, teachers, leaders, congregations, parachurch organizations, theological seminaries, publishing houses, denominational agencies, authors, Christian colleges, and other institutions dropping out. Everyone, however, is replaced in one form or another, and the parade continues to grow larger. Nursing homes and cemeteries are filled with people once identified as irreplaceable. God continues to raise up both people and institutions for God's world."

Everyday Everywhere:

The collapse of communism in 1989 astounded the world. During the last months of the decade revolutions occurred in five Eastern Bloc dictatorships: Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. Two years later the Soviet Union shattered into 15 pieces. The Cold War was over, and the Berlin Wall came down. Now only one superpower remained and peace was at hand.

How was the course of history so dramatically reversed? Everyone praised Mikhail Gorbachev for his policy of glasnost (openness). Most credited Ronald Reagan for a military buildup with such a staggering cost that the Soviet Union was bankrupted. Some believed that Pope John Paul's support of Lech Walesa and the Solidarity trade union encouraged a chain reaction that toppled the Eastern Bloc. But a few said that, "It was a miracle of God through His church."

The clear fact is that church people and ordinary citizens discovered the most effective non-violent tool of the 20th Century - the candle. One satellite country after another pierced the darkness of communism with peaceful candlelight marches. The flames were ignited by pastors, who called for prayers, masses, sermons, or just singing hymns and Christmas carols. The crowds swelled the streets, the town squares, and the churches as they defied the troops, the tanks, and the Communists regimes. Thus, as Bud Bultman called it, the Revolution By Candlelight brought down the Iron Curtain. Barbara Von Der Heydt concurred in her book Candles Behind The Wall.

But, another curtain was drawn back, and it revealed a never before realized worldwide persecution of Christians. For years Richard Wurmbrand, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Georgi Vins had cried out about the Marxist war on Christianity. As the Siberian atrocities were being exposed, a flood of blood was unveiled about the tortured, imprisoned, and martyred Christians around the world.

Two important authors have called attention to these widespread human right violations against Christians. Nina Shea, director of the Puebla Program of Religious Freedom, wrote In the Lion's Den, and Paul Marshall released Their Blood Cries Out. Their voices caused Ralph Kinney Bennett in a Reader's Digest article to proclaimed that there is a "Global War on Christians." And that "Never before have so many Christians been persecuted for their beliefs. An estimated 200 million to 250 million are at risk in countries where persecution is most severe."

James and Marti Hefley in their book By Their Blood stated that "More Christians have been martyred in our century than during all the other eras of church history combined." Thanks to the growing awareness of the situation in 1997 Christian leaders set November 16th as the first "International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church." There is a great irony about the countries where the worst persecution occurs (Africa through Asia). Missions boards are calling this evangelistic target the "10/40 window." It is the area of Africa and Asia between 10th and the 40th degree of latitude. Nevertheless the mission's door appears open more now than at any time of the 20th Century.

Every generation of Christians has been motivated by Matthew 24:14 where Jesus said that "the sign" of His return and the end of the world would occur when the gospel of the kingdom was preached in every nation. At the end of the Millennium it appears that the fulfillment has never been this close before. In 1988 David Barrett and James Reapsome listed some 700 plans throughout history to evangelize the world. They said that 387 were still being pursued.

One of the great ideas for reaching the world is Patrick Johnstone's book titled Operation World. It is a day-by-day prayer guide on every nation, people group, agency, and mission's organization. His calendar is packed with facts and needs to pray for around the globe. Every believer would agree that the first step in reaching the world is prayer, and Operation World may be the best prayer list anywhere. In 1995 Dr. David Barrett speculated that in excess of 10 million weekly prayer meetings were being held with 160 million participants.

In the past centuries global evangelism has no overall coordination or cooperation. But, Ralph Winter founded "the U.S. Center for World Missions" to help remove any obstacles to the "hidden or unreached people" groups. Since 1975 in Pasadena, California, mission-related organizations have met regularly for prayer, discussion, and problem solving. Dr. Winter, who was inspired by Dawson Trotman and Donald McGavran, has been considered a man ahead of his time because of this vision.

Dr. Winter has tried to convince Christians that "the key to a genuine renewal will happen when world missions is the church's ultimate concern." In 1974 he pointed out that most of the missionaries and Christian workers (91%) worked mainly to win nominal Christians to real faith in the Lord where churches are already established rather than to evangelize unreached people groups. He estimated that only 9% of the workers are deployed among the 16,750 unreached people groups. He has identified the task for missions to recruit missionaries from the world and not just the West, but from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, too.

Meanwhile, in the past two decades several circumstances have opened areas that were resistant to Christianity. The Muslim world with the flood of oil wealth has become more secularized and worldly. The fall of Communism has torn down once impossible barriers. The emphasis on a global economy has given the gospel a chance to ride in on the shirttails of international business. When disasters have occurred, the dollars within American Christianity have provided not only relief, but Bible tracts have been passed out to the suffering people. Perhaps the greatest passageway is the satellite communication system for radio, television, and the Internet which is reaching every corner of the globe.

It could be God's most glorious work of late has been in China under the Communist Party. When they took over in 1949 there were an estimated 3.3 million Catholics and 1.8 million Protestants with 6000 missionaries. During the Communist reign Bibles have been destroyed, believer's home were looted, and Christians have been imprisoned, tortured, and killed. The government's record on human rights violations has been notorious with Tiananmen Square in 1989 being the most infamous incident.

Nevertheless, researchers estimated in 1990 after 40 years of atheist indoctrination, there were now 30-75 million Christians in the country. The growth occurred through itinerant preachers, house churches, and revivals caused by wars, disasters, and disillusionment with communism and the old religions. The harvest has been amazing without Bibles, or missionaries, and with little evidence of response to Christian broadcasting.

Another breakthrough in the Communist world was in Cuba, the only Communist country in the Western Hemisphere and the lowest percentage (44%) of Christians in the Caribbean. In January of 1998 Pope John Paul II made a five-day tour of the nation where only five percent of the people attend church. The crowds were a mix of political and religious fervor with "freedom" as their favorite word. Tens of thousands attended the final Mass in Havana's Plaza of the Revolution with Fidel Castro seated in the front row. Believers and non-believers proclaimed that they were encouraged by the Pope's monumental visit, and missionaries were even permitted to go door-to-door with catechisms and gospel tracts of the book of Mark.

For now, the state of world evangelism is cause for rejoicing. Several web sites on the Internet have made it possible to keep tract of the progress of the Gospel. Dr. Winter (www.The State of World Evangelization), Patrick Johnstone, David Barrett, Todd Johnson of YWAM, and others are keeping Christians informed about every corner of the globe. The exciting news is that while the world population is growing at a 1.6 rate Christianity is expanding at a 2.6 rate. The fastest growing groups are: Pentecostals and Charismatics 7.3, Evangelicals 5.7, Protestants 2.9, and Roman Catholics 1.2 rate.

Some other exciting facts are that in 1974 Dr. Winter estimated that one-half of the world had not been reached by the gospel. In the year 2000 David Barrett now estimates that the figure for the unreached peoples is down to one-fourth. Dr. Winter reports that the Bible-believing Evangelicals are 11% of the world's population, and that the figure is increasing one percent every 3-4 years.

One of the big questions is: who will paid for these world missions? Presbyterian Pastor Stephen Crotts' scenario of the global population in terms of 100 people clearly directs the responsibility at the USA. He divides the ratio like this: "21 Europeans, 24 persons would be from North and South America, 57 Asians, and eight Africans; 48 would be males and 52 would be females; 70 would be non-Christians and 30 would be Christians. Six people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth. All six would be from the United States, 50 would experience malnutrition; 70 could not read; one person would be near death, one person would be about to give birth; 80 would live in poor housing; one would have a college education; and one would have a computer. Who can afford to pay for evangelization of the world? It is us!

A disturbing concern about world missions is the imbalance of the effort toward the unreached or unevangelized peoples. While the annual income of the global church members is estimated at 12.3 trillion dollars just $11.4 billion goes for missions. However, only 114 million dollars or one percent is spent on the 10,000 unreached people groups. Eighty-seven percent of the mission's dollars goes for work where the Christian church already exists. Furthermore, of the 420,000 missionaries only 2-3 percent work in the unreached mission's field.

In spite of that George Barna reports, "America represents one of the great untapped mission fields in the world today. North America represents the one continent on which Christianity is not growing." Each new generation requires a new evangelistic effort. Thus even longtime Christian areas need to be re-evangelized in each generation.

The 21st Century US faces a home missions challenge in the urban areas where the inter-city, the gated apartment complexes, and the security-minded condos all offer stiff isolation to outside evangelistic efforts. Also, the non-traditional family structures such as the singles, the co-habitating couples, the divorced-single parents, and the gays and lesbians all need a compassionate effort to win them to Christ. It is still however historically true that the church tends to flee to the comfortable, safer, wealthier suburbs.

Meanwhile as the Christian church looks for the "blessed hope" of the appearing their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, continually the world standard, that the faithful keep their eye on, is the status of world evangelization from Matthew 24:14. Nevertheless, believers still maintain a confidence that God is at work everyday everywhere in every life throughout all of history.

On the other hand the American church of the 1990's faced some new changes, too. Lyle Schaller, the foremost observer of Protestant Christianity over the past 30 years, feels that there have been more changes in the Protestant church between 1960 and 2000 than there were between the years 1820 to 1960. Among his over forty books the best description of this transformation is The Seven-Day-a-Week Church.

During the 1950's three of four adult members belonged to the same denomination as their parents and grandparents. Their congregation had one or two Sunday morning worship services with a Sunday School and the Adult Bible classes during the opposite hour. Their hymnals and Sunday School materials were published by the denomination's printing company. Their Minister either remained at the same church for years or the denomination shuffled him and others around the district and the state. During the week the church held a youth meeting, some women's meetings probably associated with missions, and an occasional church board meeting. Since the congregation size remained rather constant, the same building had been used generation after generation. While the oak pews lasted for years, the only capital improvements projects were for renovation and for restoration. The church service, the church calendar, and the church life was simple, consistent, and comfortable.

In 1955 Donald A. McGavran founded the Church Growth Movement with his book The Bridges to God. His basic theory was that people come to Christ in homogeneous groups, and that "people like to become Christians without crossing racial, linguistic, or class barriers." At first his principles were used on the mission field in Third World countries. Then in the 1970's he taught his ideas to American pastors. Lyle Schaller said, "The Church Growth Movement was the most influential development of the decade." McGavran disciples like Peter Wagner, Win and Charles Arn, and other non-Fuller Seminary experts like Elmer Towns and Medford Jones began explaining webs and networks in growing the churches.

By the 1970's these large churches of over 1,000 Sunday morning worshippers were called the "Megachurches." During this time the Jesus People and the "baby boomers" were coming into the church. They were attracted to non-denominational, evangelical, and charismatic congregations. They desired a Christ-centered church with Bible-preaching, since many of them had experienced a life transformed by Jesus Christ.

While bigness was a major concern, the megachurches compensated by providing a number of congregations within the congregation, smaller classes, cells, groups, and fellowships. Their spiritual supermarket could offer a wide range of specialized ministries. The point of entry was just not the Sunday morning worship service, but the Saturday night dress-down, music-centered service, a weeknight Inquirers' class, the youth program, seniors' support, singles' volleyball, men's basketball, jail ministry, divorce-recovery, alcohol-rehab, mother's club, MOPs, a Christian school, and family offerings were all attractions. Consequently, they needed a larger pastoral staff, and many had to relocate because of the needed building program for larger facilities and increased parking requirements.

Although a large sanctuary with multiple services was a necessity, the centrality of the seven-day-a-week church was children's ministries according to Lyle Schaller. A two or three day-a-week pre-school was the easiest entry for any size church into weekday ministries. A Christian elementary school and a home schooling program could usually be accomplished by doubling up with the Sunday School classrooms. The non-church addition that required the congregation to reach out for ministry was a gymnasium. However, it needed a crossover name such as the activity center, or the family life center, or the multi-purpose room, or just a fellowship hall for church gatherings after church, a wedding, or funerals. Outside of the sanctuary this building became the key bridge to the community. Thus, the seven-day-week church was born.

Peter Wagner pointed out that "the Pastor is unquestionably the key to the growth in churches." His tenure was at least twenty years at most of the megachurches. He was usually a dynamic preacher, who centered on the Scriptures; and he was a CEO-type with a vision for growth. Likewise, he had a congregation with a passion for evangelism and for inviting new people to their church. They, too, had a vision for people needs, and the term "lay-driven ministries" began appearing in church growth circles.

Nevertheless, in many cases the megachurch is known for the messenger and not the ministry such as Jerry Falwell rather than Thomas Road Baptist Church of Lynchburg, Virginia. Jack Hyles at Hammond First Baptist, Chuck Smith at Calvary Chapel, Tommy Barnett at Phoenix First Assembly of God, Dr. Richard Jackson at North Phoenix Baptist Church, John MacArthur at Grace Community Church, Rick Warren at Saddleback Valley in Orange County, Calif., Robert Schuller at the Crystal Cathedral, Leith Anderson at Wooddale Church, Ross Rhoads at Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Knute Larson at The Chapel in Akron, Ohio were just a few of the top names at megachurches.

One of the biggest attractions among the megachurches is the Willow Creek Church in South Barrington, Illinois. It was founded by Bill Hybels in 1975 in a motion picture theater. At the turn of the century Willow Creek is now the largest Protestant church in the nation averaging over 17,000 people a week. Lyle Schaller called it, "the most widely studied, the most controversial, the most publicized, and the most copied church in North America."

Their top priority has been reaching the unchurched adults, who displayed no interest in the traditional church or church service. Willow Creek's approach is to the boomer generation, who sees the uncertainty of modern life and experiences the dysfunctional episodes of family life. Their staff assumes that many have broken relationships and are in need of healing. Consequently, most of the four weekend services are for "seekers" and "searchers."

When one drives up to this church, it is as if the traffic cops and parking lot attendants are directing you into a sports stadium or a rock concert. As one nears the building, it doesn't seem like church, but a 120-acre suburban business headquarters. Inside there are no greeters only information centers where "community updates" are passed out. The auditorium and the seating are more like a movie theater with a large video screen up front. There are no hymnals or religious decorations. To that point everything is very user friendly to the non-church person.

The service begins with non-participation, upbeat music and usually includes a dramatic skit. There is no liturgical type of involvement, and the attender is only gradually and moderately drawn into the singing portion. The 35-minute message (sermon) deals mainly with the issues of life and a limited amount of references to Bible passages. The entire program is like the 4,000 to 5,000 people are watching everything on a television screen up front. One goal is to attract the listener into one of the 250-small group Bible studies or some further involvement at this church. As one leaves it is as if they have been to the mall or at least a religious supermarket that they might return again to do some spiritual shopping. The "believers" can attend a midweek service for worship and Bible teaching.

Critics, such as Gregory Pritchard, have questioned the consumer-oriented approach by Willow Creek as just "theological engineering" that appeals with a multi-media method of delivery. Marshall Fishwick, also, points out that the new mass culture has electronically consumerized and "McDonaldized" the church. That "Big Mac" and "Big Jesus" are being marketed with fast, high-tech versions that are feeding the church growth movement. Their observations are a kin to Marshall McLuhan's theory that "the medium is the message."

Others contend that since the traditional worship is left out of the Willow Creek seekers service subsequently a "nonworship epidemic" is being fostered at all the copycat churches. Since the attenders are not being called on to participate or directly respond in worship, they do not have a chance to engage in a relationship with God through Christ.

To his detractors Pastor Hybels points out, "At Willow Creek I preach about sin. I use the 'S-word." He identifies the Willow Creek theology with Wheaton College and the Billy Graham Evangelical Association. One Grace Brethren pastor, who has heard Hybels preach, said, "He is clear on sin, salvation, repentance, and redemption." It is also noteworthy that Pastor Hybels has been one of President Clinton's spiritual accountability partners since the Lewinsky escapade.

During the rapid growth years Willow Creek and most of the megachurches emphasized evangelism and soul-winning. At some plateau along the way their approach switched to discipleship, equipping their saints, and care for their members. They then became known more as a "teaching church." Thus, the seven-day-a-week ministry became a passion. By the 1990's even the smaller churches of 500 to a thousand found it easy to implement the pattern and to have a program for every day of the week.

In the meantime many pastoral staffs faced several burdens. First, newcomers were entering the church everyday of the week at some morning, afternoon, or evening program. According to George Barna's growth estimates "80% was just church migration." The staff was having a hard time tracking where these people were spiritually especially if they only attended and never considered membership or ministry. Secondly, the church growth resulted in a large increase in the demand for counseling and care ministries. As pastors got more involved in their lives, they found too many of these "church hoppers" were not clear about their faith in Christ.

One care and assimilation pastor explained it like this, "There has been no contrite heart, or repentance, or spiritual transformation. They come in for a quick fix change to save their marriage or solve a problem with their kids or another relationship. But they are like II Timothy 3 they have not experienced the power of God in their life or understand how He can change their life. They might as well go to a secular counselor and get one of those self-help programs."

At Saddleback Valley their ministry goes around a four-part life development process that uses a baseball diamond for an analogy. Getting to first base means coming to a personal faith in Christ. After that each base leads to the development of growing, serving, and sharing Christ. Pastor Rick Warren has written a church classic for the 1990's titled The Purpose Driven Church.

The single greatest purpose of the church and perhaps the most important paragraph of this book is the issue of where each person will spend eternity and how they will get there. This author's pastor said, "Paul, this is my greatest burden for each person in our congregation." Throughout the history of the church and in every generation it has been the concern of the ages. Even the Apostle Paul said, "I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel." (Romans 9:2)

At no time in history has the message that "Jesus Saves" been better communicated than in the 20th Century. While it's no longer on the Burma Shave signs, the idea of conversion and born again is continually in the media. Even Larry King and Barbara Walters know how to ask the questions about Jesus Christ as the Savior. In the summer of 2000 ABC's Peter Jennings promised a personal search for Jesus. However, he only consulted the scholarly scoffers of the repugnant Jesus Seminar. After all, the idea that Jesus is the only way to heaven has come under increasing skepticism.

During the last half of the 20th Century, the world has become a village; and we have become next door neighbors. While some have different gods, our expectations and doctrines have a degree of similarity. If we are a good person and treat our fellow man with kindness, and we are sincere in our religion, then surely we will end up in the same place with some kind of eclectic god. Beside he or she might really be the same god with different meanings.

Another confusing religious discrepancy is the difference between the Christians and the non-Christians. Among those, who profess a faith, their lifestyle, their morals, and their divorce rate isn't any better than the non-believers. In fact everyone has friends, who do not attend church and are extremely well behaved. They are faithful to their family and friends. They are honest in their work and to their employer. In what they say and do one could not find a more genuine friend or a better person. In the eyes of the world they may even be preferred to those so-called "hypocrites" that are seen in churches. How we wish that some kind of Shechinah glow would surround the believers rather than the clouds of doubt. The clarity of the issue is jumbled even more within the Christian church itself.

At this point in his closing the author would like to veer from the third person to his personal experiences. My family background is Lutheran and Catholic. Anytime that I attend a funeral, I continually hear, "Well, he (or she) was baptized and confirmed so we think he's in heaven." The minister or priest usually adds some religious standards such as attendance, service, confession, and some sacraments. In the end the deceased either deserves or should get into heaven.

As I grew older I attended and belonged to other Protestant churches. They usually had a strong message about God's love and forgiveness. I was discipled not to be too judgmental because God's mercy extends to all people. I was told, "Don't be too critical of sin since God loves sinners." A faith was encouraged that a loving God would not be too harsh because hell is a place reserved for people like Hitler and Stalin.

Also, along my spiritual journey I found that the evangelical or fundamentalist churches were the best at emphasizing salvation. Their message is simple that heaven is a free gift. One only needs a sinner's prayer just inviting Jesus into their heart. By repeating the preacher's or Sunday School teacher's words they can be guaranteed eternal life. The fundamentalists usually include a public declaration of faith such as raising a hand or going forward at an alter call. Believer's baptism is, also, accepted as a public witness of faith. But, the method is in question whether by sprinkling or immersion. Then, is the immersion once or three times forward or backwards?

When I first realized that Jesus Christ was the way to salvation, I wanted to tell everybody about it. Some were persuaded to say a prayer. Others had a polite interest and a passive agreement with my witness. No one cussed me out or yelled at me for talking about it. Over the years some are still involved in a church today, while others lead well-mannered lives, however they are too busy for spiritual matters. Recently, an African-American pastor pointed out to me that Jesus only harvested one-in-four in the sower and the seed story.

As I grew spiritually I, also, realized that witnessing needed the work of the Holy Spirit. I clearly backed off on my efforts, while telling myself that I was trying to see the Spirit do a work. Meanwhile, I was trying to sort out what part comes from man and how much of the saving of mankind belongs to God.

I have arrived at the conclusion that the 20th Century church and the parachurch organizations have given the wrong "assurance" to people. They have placed too much emphasis on the "I have decided to follow Jesus" and "my" personal testimony. They have centered on "the choice" and "the decision" to become Christian. Consequently, so many testimonies start with "I" did something to get closer to God.

While 95 percent of Americans say they believe in God, there is a wide discrepancy between their actions, and their attendance at worship, and their obedience to the Scriptures. There is also a large falling away by those, who at some time showed a spiritual interest or make a profession of faith. I'm afraid that the dropout rate may be larger than the faithful followers of Christ. Some might classified them as "nominal," or "carnal," or "lukewarm" Christians.

I fear that too many people have an assurance that they are going to heaven because they said a prayer at a church, or at a rally, or in front of a television, or with a Christian. Others proclaim their church membership, or that they follow the Ten Commandments. Some even mention a Sunday School attendance pin, or throwing a stick in the fire at a church camp out, or throwing their rock music in a trash can, or a God and Country award from the Boy Scouts, or that they raised their hand at a meeting. They major on what they did will get into heaven.

I like the words of Bernard A. Weisberger on the matter, who said, "Once, the salvation of a soul had been a miracle, recorded in God's book of life. Now, it was a nightly crowd performance registered on cards."

Heaven, eternal life, salvation, redemption, the life hereafter is based totally on what Jesus Christ did on the Cross. His death, His blood payment, His sacrifice is the only acceptable payment for our sins. The Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians Chapter 2 (verses 10 & 11) that at the judgment, "Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." To me it is pride and vain glory for anyone to make any claim that they did something to get saved. Even our faith should come after Jesus is praised for what He did on Good Friday. This being the case then all the glory goes to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The only thing we get credit for is being a sinner saved by grace.

The Epilogue:

While this is not intended to be a disclaimer to the final paragraphs, all those religious activities are fine and may well confirm one's faith and give them assurance. And while salvation comes only through the blood payment by Jesus Christ on the Cross, God is a personal God, who has created each person with unique and individual characteristics. He, also, directs His works and thoughts toward each human being so that they may come to know Him personally. As the Psalmist said, "Thou art acquainted with all my ways....and hast laid thy hand upon me." (139:3) Nevertheless, I sense that the smartest, and the wisest, and the most brilliant people haven't been able to write, or say, or sing, or scratch the surface of His indescribable greatness in dealing with the billions of people, who are alive and who were ever born. I trust His promise that He has worked in the life of every person in history so that all have had an opportunity to know Him.

Believers are aware of the mercy and grace and compassion that gave us this undeserved salvation, and we enjoy the overwhelming blessing that accompanies this relationship in Christ. We realize Christ's sacrifice covered our selfishness, and our self-centered overestimation of our value. While we evangelicals, who were born again, don't understand why the Holy Spirit moved upon us, our gratitude goes beyond words. With glad hearts we humbly hope that all the glory goes to God for driving us to the foot of the Cross and for the resulting work that changed our lives.

As I have researched this history and particularly the last three decades my heart is lifted up in thanksgiving for the privilege of being in Christ during these events. I have sat under the preaching of Knute Larson, John Teevan, Dan Allan, and others. I have been inspired to tears by the singing of the Gaithers, Sandi Patti, Larnell Harris, and others. I have been enriched by the teachings of Chuck Colson, Josh McDowell, Hal Lindsey, and others. I have been edified by the witnessing courses of I Found It, Equipping The Saints, Evangelism Explosion, the Christian Life and Witness, and others. I have been blessed by Christ Renews His Parish, FCA conferences, Promise Keepers, and others. It has been an honor to work on the Jesus project, the Billy Graham films, his Crusades, and others. Most of all I have loved being in the local church, the "bride" of Christ.

The local church and particularly my church Grace Brethren on West Main in Ashland, Ohio has been where God has intended my spiritual growth to take place. I have had pastors, who have loved me and who have watched over my soul to equip me for service. I have had the pleasure of serving as an elder, a member of the building committee, a school board member, and a Sunday School teacher. I have had the joy of giving my tithes and offerings to the budget and the ministry goals of this church. Many of my dearest friends have a common bond in Christ at our church. Most of all I have been blessed by the music and the preaching to worship my Lord and my Savior weekly at this church.

Acknowledgements:

Throughout my teaching career I was forced to evaluate numerous textbooks. I came to the conclusion that single author texts usually missed some topics and information. Now that I have written and researched this book, I did what I never thought was a good practice - a single author text. However, this book is intended to a "supplement" not your basic survey textbook. Consequently, I admit that areas may be lacking or some topics are excessive. I see that three chapters on the 20th Century take up almost half the wordage. Nevertheless, I will accept any criticism or suggestions for inclusions.

Secondly, this nation has had so many Christian, who made an impact, yet they were not recognized for their faith. This past February on the same Saturday Tom Landry and Charles Schulz died. In the newspapers almost nothing was said about their tremendous Christian testimonies, but plenty was written about the coaching and the comics. This happens so often. I know I have failed to include some wonderful Christians. Again, please give me suggestions.

Finally, I must thank my former students, who wrote hundreds and in the thousands of those "dreaded" research papers. We both disliked the work, but I know it was good for the learning. I learned a great deal about research and how to write the stuff. I, also, appreciate those who have read parts of this manuscript and given me suggestions. This list includes: Dan Allan, Doug Denbow, Ken Cutrer, Sherm Brand, Joe Maggelet, Wes Collins, and all those friends, who kept asking "how's the book coming." Thanks, also, goes to Jon Hall, Kevin McQuate, and Tim Sinchok, who helped make this into an eBook and a CD-ROM. And last, my wife, who sat across from me at her sewing machine creating wall hangings and quilt blocks, and lovingly encouraging me when I got stuck with those writer's blocks.

Psalms 145:4

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Index of People

INDEX - Chap 1

Blair, James

Bradford, William

Bray, Thomas

Calvert, Cecil

Campanius, John

Cheever, Ezekiel

Clark, Kenneth

Calvin, John

Columbus, Christopher

Cotton, John

de Leon, Ponce

Drake, Francis

Dunster, Henry

Eliot, John

Elizabeth I

Ellis, L. Ethan

Erikson, Leif

INDEX - Chap 2

Arminius, Jacob

Brainerd, David

Burr, Aaron

Chauncy, Charles

Davenport, James

Davies, Samuel

Edwards, Jonathan

INDEX - Chap 3

Adams, Abigail

Adams, Samuel

Arnold, Benedict

Backus, Isaac

Beecher, Lyman

Blackstone, William

Bready, John Wesley

Burgoyne, Johnny

Burke, Edmund

Candler, W.A.

Clark, George Rogers

Coke, Thomas

Dickinson, John

Index - Chap 4

Adams, John Qunicy

Allen, Richard

Ashbury, Francis

Baxter, George

Beecher, Lyman

Burke, William

Campbell, Thomas

Cartwright, Peter

Channing, William Ellery

de Tocqueville, Alexis

Dwight, Timothy

Index - Chap 5

Adams, John Quincy

Andrews, Emerson

Andrews, James O.

Birney, James G.

Bounds, E.M.

Brown, John

Coffin, Levi

DeSmet, Pierre-Jean

Dix, Dorothea

Doremus, Sarah

Douglass, Frederick

Dodge, David Low

Dwight, Louis

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Fitzhugh, George

Fox sisters

Furman, Richard

Gallaudet, Thomas

Garrison, William Lloyd

INDEX - Chap 6

Anderson, Robert

Barton, William E.

Beecher, Henry Ward

Bennett, James Gordon

Boardman, William E.

Bounds, E.M.

Burns, Ken

Chambers, Talbot W.

Chase, Salmon Portland

Conant, William C.

Crosby, Fanny

Davis, Jefferson

Elliott, Charlotte

Gardner, Orville "Awful"

INDEX - Chap 7

Addams, Jane

Alexander, Charlie

Armstrong, Samuel C.

Bryan, William Jennings

Carnegie, Andrew

Chambers, Oswald

Chapman, J. Wilbur

Conwell, Russell

Crozer, John P.

Cuyler, Theodore

Dabney, Robert Lewis

Darwin, Charles

DuBois, WEB

Franklin, John Hope

Gibbons, James

Gladden, Washington

Green, William H.

Hayes, Rutherford B.

Herzl, Theodor

INDEX - Chap 8

Abrams, Ray Hamilton

Alexander, Charles M.

Allenby, Edmund Henry

Bacon, Leonard Woolsey

Balfour, Lord

Bartleman, Frank

Beardsley, Frank

Bell, Eudorus N.

Cashwell, G.B.

Chapman, J. Wilbur

Checks, J.J.

Cohan, George M.

Dixon, Amzi Clarence

INDEX - Chap 9

Abrams, Ray

Allen, Frederick Lewis

Alperovitz, Gar

Ambrose, Stephen

Arnold, William R.

Barth, Karl

Barton, Bruce

Berry, Joseph F.

Boisen, A.T.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich

Breese, Dave

Brown, William Adams

Brownson, Orestes

Brunner, Emil

Buchman, Frank

Capone, Al

Carroll, Charles

Coughlin, Charles

Cour, Emile

Darrow, Clarence

Dewey, John

Doolittle, Jimmy

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

England, John

Faulker, John Alfred

Fitzgerald, F. Scott

Ford, Henry

Forgy, Howell

Fosdick, Harry Emerson

Frank, Anne

Fuchida, Mitsuo

Fuller, Charles E.

INDEX - Chap 10

Ahlstrom, Sydney

Alamo, Tony & Susan

Ankenberg, John

Bakker, Jim

Ball, William B.

Barna, George

Barrett, David

Barrows, Cliff

Barton, David

Bauer, Gary

Bell, Terrell

Berg, David

Bernall, Cassie

Berrigan, Daniel & Philip

Bisagno, John

Blessitt, Arthur

Boone, Pat

Bright, Bill

Carson, Rachel

Carter, Jimmy

Cleaver, Eldridge

Clifford, Clark

Coffin, William Sloane Jr

Colson, Chuck

Cronkite, Walter

Crott, Stephen

Dayan, Moshe

DiSabatino, David

Dobson, James

Dylan, Bob

Eshleman, Paul

Evans, Dale

Evans, Louis, H.

Falwell, Jerry

Ferraro, Geraldine

Fishwick, Marshall

Friedan, Betty

Frisbee, Lonnie

Gabler, Mel & Norma

Gaither, Bill

Gallup, George

Gesswin, Armin

Gimenez, John

Gitlin, Todd

Graham, Billy

Grayzel, Solomon

Griffin, Archie

Hadden, Jeffrey K.

Hamblin, Stuart

Father Allouez

Father Marquette

Flood, Robert

Ford, Paul Leicester

Hakluyt, Richard

Harvard, John

Hooker, Thomas

Hunt, Robert

Hutchinson, Anne

Iewes

James I

LaSalle

Laud, William

Leverett, John

Makemie, Francis

Mather, Richard

Matter, Cotton

Franklin, Benjamin

Frelinghuysen, Theodore

Jarratt, Devereus

Newton, John

Prince, Thomas Jr.

Tennent, William

Tennent, Gilbert

Duche, Jacob

George III

Greene, Nanthaniel

Hale, Nathan

Hamilton, Alexander

Henry, Patrick

Jefferson, Thomas

King, Rufus

Knox, Henry

Lafayette, Marquis

Langdon, Samuel

Lee, Richard Henry

Locke, John

Finley, Robert

Finney, Charles G.

Griffin, Edward Dorr

Judson, Adoniram

Latourette, Kenneth Scott

McGee, John

McGready, James

McKendree, William

Mills, Samuel John

Morse, Jedidiah

Nash, Daniel

Helper, Hinton R.

Houston, Sam

Kearney, Stephen

Kemble, Fanny

Knapp, Jacob

Ladd, William

Lee, Anna

Lincoln, Mary Todd

Lovejoy, Elijah P.

Lundy, Benjamin

Lyon, Mary

Mathew, Theobald

McGuffey, William H.

Miller, William

Mott, Lucretia

Noyes, John H.

O'Sullivan, John L.

Owens, Robert

Polk, James K.

Girardeau, John L.

Greeley, Horace

Gurley, Phineas

Howard, Oliver Otis

Jackson, Thomas

Jones, J. William

Lanphier, Jeremiah C

Lee, Robert E.

Lincoln, Abraham

McClellan, George

Miller, Kevin A.

Moody, Dwight L.

Orr, J. Edwin

Pease, Louis

Hodge, Charles

Ingersoll, Robert

Jackson, Sheldon

Jacobs, B.F.

Jones, Samuel Porter

Kennedy, Paul

Kimball, Edward

MacAuley, Jerry

McKinley. William

Mills, Benjamin Fay

Moody, Dwight L

Morgan, John Pierpont

Mott, John R.

Munger. Thornton

Nation, Carrie

Omstead, Clifton

Palmer, Phoebe

Peabody, George

Railton, George

Duffy, Francis Patrick

Ham, Mordecai F.

Helms, Edgar J.

Hillis, Newell Dwight

Hoover, Herbert

Jones, E. Stanley

King, J.H.

Mason, Charles H.

Mott, John R.

Parham, Charles Fox

Price, John R.

Roberts, Evan John

Rodeheaver, Homer

Seymour, William J.

Gaustad, Edwin

Gibbons, James

Goodman, Frank C.

Gray, James M.

Groves, Leslie R.

Harvey, Paul

Hays, Will H.

Hecker, Issac

Hirohito

Hitler

Hughes, John

Ireland, John

Johnson, Paul

Keane, John

Kinchloe, Samuel C.

Pope Leo XIII

Lewis, Sinclair

Lindbergh, Charles A.

MacArthur, Douglas

Machen, John Gresham

Maier, Walter A.

Mathews, Shailer

McAuliffe, Anthony

McCloskey, John

McLoughlin, William G.

McPherson, Aimee Semple

Mencken, H.L.

Millay, Edna St. Vincent

Morrison, Charles Clayton

Mullins, Edgar Youngs

Niebuhr, H. Richard

Niebuhr, Reinhold

Hatfield, Mark

Hearst, William Randolph

Hefner, Hugh

Henry, Carl F.H.

Hilton, Conrad

Hughes, Harold

Hybels, Bill

Pope John Paul II

Pope John XXIII

Johnson, Edwin S.

Johnson, Torrey

Johnstone, Patrick

Jones, Bob Sr.

Jones, Howard

Jordan, Fred

Kennedy, D. James

Kennedy, John F.

King, Larry

King, Martin Luther

LaHaye, Beverly

Landry, Tom

Lennon, John

Liebman, Joshua Loth

Lindsey, Hal

Maggelet, Joe

McCain, John

McCatney, Bill

McClusky, Evelyn

McDowell, Josh

McGavran, Donald A.

McLuhan, Marshall

Mears, Henrietta C.

Moen, Matthew

Moomaw, Donn

Moore, Robin

Neal, Wes

Nixon, Richard

Norman, Larry

North, Gary

Ockenga, John

Peale, Norman Vincent

Pederson, Duane

Phillips, Tom

Priest, Arlis

Ranghan, Kevim

Rayburn, Jim

Reagan, Ronald

Reed, Ralph

Richardson, Don

Mayhews

Oglethorpe, James

Penn, William

Pocahontas

Purchas, Samuel

Rolfe, John

Samoset

Schaeffer, Francis

Serra, Junipero

Shepard, Thomas

Smith, John

Solomon Stoddard

Squanto

Wesley, John & Charles

Williams, Roger

Winthrop, John

Zinzendorf, Nicolaus

Tracy, Joseph

Watts, Isaac

Wheelock, Eleazar

Whitefield, George

Woolman, John

Zeiberger, David

Madison, James

Montesquieu

Moultrie, William

Murray, Mrs. Robert

Paine, Thomas

Pitt, William

Publius

Ralls, Johann

Robespierre, Maximilien

Rutherford, Samuel

Stiles, Ezra

Washington, George

Witherspoon, John

Nettleton, Asahel

Patterson, Robert

Rice, David

Rice, Luther

Rush, Benjamin

Smith, Jedidiah

Spring, Gardiner

Stone, Barton Warren

Taylor, Nanthaniel

Turner, Frederick Jackson

Ware, Henry

Webster, Noah

Rapp, George

Ripley, George

Scott, Dred

Serra, Junipero

Smith, Joseph

Spaulding, Solomon

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady

Stephen Douglas

Stowe, Harriet Beecher

Tappan, Arthur & Lewis

Truth, Sojourner

Tubman, Harriet

Turner, Nat

Weld, Theodore D.

Whitman, Marcus

Whittier, John Greenleaf

Willard, Emma Hart

Young, Brigham

Pendleton, William

Polk, Leondias

Prime, Samuel I.

Rosecrans, William

Smith, Timothy L.

Spring, Gardner

Stuart, JEB

Taylor, J. Hudson

Tyng, Dudley A.

Wallace, Lew

Wanamaker, John

Warner, Anna

Rauschbusch, Walter

Redpath, James

Rockefeller, John D.

Sankey, Ira D.

Sheldon, Charles

Simpson, A.B.

Slater, John Fox

Spafford, Horatio G.

Stanley, Henry Morton

Steffans, Lincoln

Stewart, Payne

Strong, Josiah

Thompson, Eliza Trimble

Torrey, Reuben

Vincent, John H.

Washington, Booker T.

White, George L.

Willard, Frances

Shepardson, Daniel

Smale, Joseph

Smith, Rodney "Gypsy"

Speer, Robert E.

Stewart, Lyman & Milton

Strong, Josiah

Sunday, Billy

Sunday, Nell "Ma"

Torrey, Reuben A.

Wattson, Paul

Weizmann, Chaim

White, J. Campbell

Wilson, Woodrow

York Alvin C.

Nimitz, Chester

O'Connell, Denis

Oppenheimer, Robert

Pope Pius IX

Powderly, Terrance

Prange, Gordon

Rochefort, Joseph

Roosevelt, F.D.

Ryan, Cornelius

Ryan, John A.

Sanger, Margaret

Schweitzer, Albert

Scopes, John T.

Seton, Elizabeth

Sheen, Fulton John

Simmons, William J.

Simpson, A.B.

Smith, Alfred E.

Spalding, John L.

Sperry, Willard L.

Spruance, Ray

Straton, John Roach

Sunday, Billy

The Fighting Sullivans

The Four Chaplains

Tillich, Paul

Truman, Harry S.

Wallenberg, Raoul

Wiesel, Elie

Zamperini, Louis

Rickenbacker, Eddie

Rickey, Branch

Riggs, Charlie

Roberts, Oral

Robertson, Pat

Rogers, Roy

Rosen, Moishe

Schaller, Lyle

Schlafly, Phyllis

Shakerian, Demos

Shea, George Beverly

Shoemaker, Vaughn

Skinner, Tom

Smith, Chuck

Solzhhenitsyn, Alexander

Sparks, Jack

Spellman, Francis

Spock, Benjamin

Spoelstra, Watson

Staubach, Roger

Steenis, Lyle

Stewart, Potter

Stewart, Rollen

Stookey, Noel Paul

Stormer, John

Streiker, Lowell

Swaggart, Jimmy

Townsend, Colleen

Townsend, W. Cameron

Tozier, AW

Trotman, Dawson

Vanderbilt, Eleanor

Vaus, Jim

Vereide, Abraham

Vins, Georgi

Wagner, Peter

Walker, Gordon

Wallis, Jim

Walters, Barbara

Warren, Rick

Waters, Ethel

Wilkerson. David

Wilson, Grady

Wingblade, Henry C

Winter, Ralph

Wise, Ted

Wurmbrand, Richard

Wyrtzen, Jack

Zeoli, Billy

Table of Contents

Chapter 1, The Search For Spiritual Purpose

Chapter 2, The First Great Awakening

Chapter 3, The Search for Reason

Chapter 4, The Camp Meeting Revival Period

Chapter 5, The Search for Reform 1835-58

Chapter 6, The Noonday Prayer Revival

Prologue To Renewal

Chapter 7, The Search for Holiness

Chapter 8, The Welsh-Pentecostal Revival 1900- 1920

Chapter 9, The Search for Renewal

Chapter 10, The Non Establishment Awakening

Table of Contents

Chapter 1, The Search For Spiritual Purpose

Chapter 2, The First Great Awakening

Chapter 3, The Search for Reason

Chapter 4, The Camp Meeting Revival Period

Chapter 5, The Search for Reform 1835-58

Chapter 6, The Noonday Prayer Revival

Prologue To Renewal

Chapter 7, The Search for Holiness

Chapter 8, The Welsh-Pentecostal Revival 1900- 1920

Chapter 9, The Search for Renewal

Chapter 10, The Non Establishment Awakening