The PuritanBoard - View Single Post - The First Great Awakening: True or False Revival?

Rev. Todd Ruddell · #46 (**permalink**) 05-31-2008, 03:32 AM

There were abuses associated with the "First Great Awakening", such as emotionalism substituting for spirituality, loose ordination standards for itinerant preachers who worked outside the order of the Churches, some members of the clergy calling their ordained brothers "unconverted" and encouraging members to leave those churches for the open air meetings, etc. That is not to say that there was no movement of the Spirit of God--as the Edwards quotation earlier cited states, there was a work of the Spirit of God, and a work of the devil as well.

I believe the way we discern the verity of any "awakening" or "large step toward reformation" is multifarious. There are many signs we ought to see: Orthodoxy from the Pulpit, a respect for Church Order and Authority as it relates to the means of grace, lives that are brought into conformity to Christ all SEVEN days of the week, or, as was put above, pure preaching, pure administration of the sacraments, Godly Church order and discipline. If a reformation or awakening is rightly judged, it is judged by Scripture--all of it. Another thread on the house church movement has many of the same echoes--I am all for Spirituality, but the Scriptures have an authoritative monopoly on how that word is defined. Biblical Christianity includes complexities of order, authority, doctrine, practice, and love--all of which must be in place in order for any "Christianity" to be Biblical. Many 'revivals' undervalue the less attractive paradigms of authority and order, and overemphasize individual piety as the trump card of spirituality. Of course, a Biblical view of piety will loathe individualism and independence--but this point is sadly lost on many revivalists.

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Gesetveemet (05-31-2008)