The Great Awakening

The Great Awakening was a series of American Christian revivals.  There were three or four (depending on how you identify them) Great Awakenings in American history.

The First Great Awakening (c. 1730-1755) was spearheaded by Protestant evangelical ministers and produced a profound sense of conviction of sin and an awareness of one’s need for God.  As opposed to the Second Great Awakening of the late 18^th to early 19^th centuries, this was more focused on the revitalization of existing church members. 

This Awakening emphasized emotional involvement and personal commitment – in opposition to those more traditionally-minded who focused on tradition, ritual, and doctrine.  The Great Awakening revitalized many denominations in the American colonies.

Evangelists like George Whitefield visited many places in the Americas and influenced many people to piety.  The free press already largely existent in the Colonies published much material to this end.  Preaching even changed, from merely reading sermons to a focus on making the material engaging and communicable, without compromising theological truth.

The Great Awakening was punctuated, in some areas, by emotional excesses that worried many of the traditionalists.  Jonathan Edwards’ book Religious Affections was written as an analysis of the Great Awakening, and a guide for distinguishing a true movement of God from mere emotion.  The bottom line for Edwards was that true spiritual works point solely to the glory of God while emotional excesses do not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Awakening

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yurqqCYISTiguJNVW4LaPZ4lC2uSHbau/edit

Saint Apphianus

As a rich young man in the early fourth century, Apphianus could have had anything he wanted.  Sent by his parents from his home in Lycia (SW Turkey) to an exclusive school in Beirut, Apphianus came to faith through the influence of Christians he met.  As a new Christian, he rejected the excesses of vice his classmates chose to pursue and focused on living a godly life. 

Returning home, he found that his parents despised the Christian faith.  Still a teenager, he left his home and traveled to Palestine.  There, he was able to study under the famous church historian Eusebius – who later recorded the manner of Apphianus’ death.

Caesar Maximinus issued edicts commanding the administrators of cities to require everyone to offer a loyalty sacrifice to the emperor.  Name by name, individuals were called up to publicly offer this sacrifice.  The three ways to escape death were to publicly sacrifice to the idol, bribe an official, or run away.

Witnessing this horrified Apphianus.  On March 31^st, 306 AD, he slipped through the band of soldiers that surrounded the officiating governor and grabbed his hand mid-sacrifice.  He begged the governor not to sacrifice to an idol, but to the one true God.

The governor was furious.  He ordered Apphianus to be beaten from head to toe and he was placed into the stocks.  The next day, his broken body was dragged out of the prison and he was commanded to sacrifice.  Apphianus’ refusal resulted in further severe beatings.  His continued refusal resulted in the Romans tying his feet with oil-soaked rags and lighting them on fire.  He was then dragged back into prison.

On the third day, still firm in his testimony, he was dragged to the dock and pitched into the sea.  Eusebius wrote:

“…as soon as they had cast this truly sacred and thrice-blessed youth into the fathomless depths of the sea, an uncommon commotion and disturbance agitated the sea and all the shore about it, so that the land and the entire city were shaken by it.  And at the same time with his wonderful and sudden perturbation, the sea threw out before the gates of the city the body of the divine martyr, as if unable to endure it.”

Apphianus shows us a bold and convincing testimony for Christ.

https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/dailystory/permalink/apphianus-was-tortured-for-trying-to-end-an-emperors-idol-worship

 

 

 

Eliza Davis George

Born in Texas in 1879 to former slaves, Eliza Davis came to faith at an early age and strove to get an education to become a teacher.  She achieved her dream and became a teacher at Central Texas College, a Christian college in central Texas.  In 1911, in her early 30s, she heard a missions speaker challenge the students to mission work in Africa.

That night, she had a dream of Africans passing before the judgment seat of Christ saying, “But no one ever told us You died for us.”  She immediately made known her intentions to go to Africa as a missionary.  Missions leaders were reluctant to send a black woman as a missionary and initially refused her application.  However, after three years of determination, Eliza departed for Liberia to begin her ministry.

Refusing to settle in the capital, Monrovia, she traveled to the more rural interior where there were few churches or missionaries.  With one partner, she opened a school called the Bible Industrial Academy, where they taught children to read and gave them job and life skills.  After two years of labor, 50 children attended the school and more than 1,000 people in the area had made professions of faith.  As the school grew, she also trained young Liberians to become teachers and missionaries themselves.

Five years after she arrived, in the turmoil of the beginning of World War I, her missions board disbanded, leaving her without support.  She and her students at times had to scavenge for food from the brush.  A British missionary doctor named G. Thompson George offered to marry her.  Despite having a rocky marriage, where he often turned to alcohol and even other women, the marriage freed her from many of the burdens of support.  They adopted three Liberian children together.  Doctor George passed away in 1939.

After her husband’s death, Eliza continued her work in Liberia for another 33 years, investing herself in hundreds of young people who grew into missionaries and teachers themselves.

When she was in her late 60s, the missions board that had picked up her support forcibly retired her.  However, she was certain God wanted her to continue her work and she was able to raise independent support for her work and return to the field.

When Eliza was well into her 90s, new missionaries came to Africa to replace her.  They expected to find a brittle, old woman but instead found an energetic, humorous woman still walking from village to village sharing God’s Word, still fasting and praying for her needs and the needs of those in her charge.

Eliza Davis George passed away in March of 1979, having just reached her 100^th birthday.

Christian History E-mail, 02 Feb 2022.
https://www.samford.edu/beeson-divinity/blog/2021/Eliza-Davis-George
https://dacb.org/stories/liberia/george-eliza/

John Berridge

As vicar (i.e. ‘Pastor’) of the Anglican church in Everton, a district of Liverpool, England, in the mid-18^th Century, John Berridge was known as “the old devil” by clergymen in the area.  They despised him because he preached to the people they were unwilling to reach.

Initially, Berridge desired to enter the ministry because it presented, to his mind, an easier living than farming.  At his first pastorate (or ‘vicarage’, in the Anglican tradition), a position he held for 6 years, he could not point to a single changed life.

Moving to Everton and a new congregation, he heard around the Christmas season of 1757 a voice speak to him clearly saying “Cease from your own works, only believe.”  This had a profound impact on him.  He burned his old sermons entirely and began to preach a simple Gospel of faith in Christ.  Almost immediately, he saw people come to faith in Christ, repent of long-held sin, and grow closer to Jesus in many ways.

When neighboring clergymen banned him from speaking in their churches, he held open-air meetings.  He was known for his sharp wit and no-nonsense, simple Gospel message.

John Berridge passed away from an asthmatic illness in January of 1793, age 76.  John Wesley commented of him, “…one of the most simple as well as most sensible of all whom it pleased God to employ in reviving primitive Christianity.”  A generation later, Charles Spurgeon labeled him an ‘Eccentric Preacher’ saying, “…what a power he was to stir the souls of men and lead them to the Savior’s feet.”

John Berridge composed his own epitaph, unusual in its length, as well as the story it tells:

Here lay the earthly remains of John Berridge
Late Vicar of Everton and an itinerant servant
Of Jesus Christ who loved his Master and his Work
And after running on his Errands many years was called
Up to wait on Him above.  Reader art thou born again
No salvation without a new Birth.
  I was born in Sin  Feb 1716
  Remained ignorant of my fallen state till 1730
  Lived proudly on faith & works for salvation till 1754
  Admitted to Everton Vicarage  1755
  Fled to Jesus alone for refuge  1756
  Fell asleep in Christ  Jan 22^nd 1793

Christian History e-mail: 22 Jan 2023
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Berridge
https://daveboden.substack.com/p/the-curious-gravestone-of-john-berridge

Communion on the moon

On July 20^th, 1969, the Apollo 11 Lunar module Eagle landed on the Sea of Tranquility for mankind’s first-ever crewed landing on the moon.  Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin faced an hours-long downtime before taking those first steps on the moon while Astronaut Michael Collins orbited overhead.

Buzz Aldrin, an Elder of Webster Presbyterian Church in Houston, requested and received permission from the Presbyterian General Assembly to serve Communion to himself on the moon.  Stowed in with his personal effects was a small chalice, some wine, and bread.  His home church arranged to observe the Lord’s Supper at the same time.  Two weeks prior to launch, Buzz and his family observed a private Communion ceremony with their pastor

At the designated time, just before the planned meal period prior to exiting the Lunar module, Aldrin placed the elements in front of him and spoke into the radio, “Houston, this is Eagle.  This is the LM Pilot speaking.   I would like to request a few moments of silence.  I would like to invite each person listening in, wherever and whomever he may be, to contemplate for a moment the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his own individual way.”  It had been published before that he would use this time of silence to observe the Lord’s Supper.  After taking the elements, he recited John 15:5 (TEV), “I am the vine, you are the branches.  Whoever remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without Me.”

NASA leadership requested a “general” statement rather than something more explicit.  Months before, Apollo 8 Astronauts, when circling the moon for the first time, read from the book of Genesis which was broadcast globally.  This resulted in a lawsuit from Madalyn Murray O’Hair which, though dismissed, spooked NASA enough to request the generality.

Aldrin later commented on his memory of the service noting that the wine, in the moon’s gravity which is one sixth of the Earth’s gravity, curled gracefully and slowly up the side of the cup.  He noted in Guideposts magazine, “It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the first food eaten there, were communion elements.”

Christian History e-mail, 20 Jul 2022.

https://guideposts.org/positive-living/health-and-wellness/life-advice/finding-life-purpose/guideposts-classics-when-buzz-aldrin-took-communion-on-the-moon/

https://www.history.com/articles/buzz-aldrin-communion-apollo-11-nasa

Dr. Paul Carlson

Paul Carlson received his M.D. degree from George Washington University in 1956.  He settled down to a potentially lucrative practice in Redondo Beach, California, and was persuaded to spend six months on a mission trip to the Christian Medical and Dental Society in Congo.  The experience moved this young doctor and within two years of his return to southern California, he told a friend “I’m going back.  I can’t stand doing hernias and hemorrhoids any more.” 

Bringing his young family to Congo in 1963, Dr Carlson traded his practice for missionary pay at less than one-quarter his previous income.  They settled in a remote town named Wasolo, in the northern part of the country, with a people-group called the Ubangi.  There, Paul served an understaffed hospital and his family lived in a house with a grass roof which had bugs and snakes falling from the ceiling. 

Dr. Carlson served an 80-bed hospital with a constituency of 100,000 people.  The family had a dense rain forest in their back yard with crocodiles that occasionally wandered into their yard, and they had to walk a half mile to get fresh water.

For the next year, Dr. Carlson and his young family lived the missionary life.  He was devoted to his patients and was anxious to spread the Word of God to those under his charge.  At times, he also played the role of plumber, mechanic, or handyman for those in need.  The natives called him “Monganga Paulo” (i.e. “My Doctor Paul”).

In 1964, the political climate in Congo worsened.  Having recently been given their independence from Belgium, roving gangs, unrestrained by the new government, began to wreak havoc on the countryside.  Dr Carlson sent his family to a place of safety but returned to Wasolo to minister to his patients, gambling that the gangs would not harm a doctor.

Unfortunately, Paul calculated wrong.  In the month of September, in the middle of surgery, armed gunmen broke into the hospital and executed the two nurses assisting him.  Capturing him, he was moved 300 miles north to the city of Stanleyville where he was beaten numerous times and made into a political pawn along with other foreign prisoners to try to extract concessions from the American and Belgian governments.  During his imprisonment, survivors told of his self-sacrificial care in ministering to others.  He was constantly threatened with execution and came to anticipate his own death, writing:

“For me to live and die is gain – this becomes more real each day.  I’ve had beatings and known what it means not to know the future for tomorrow.  Where I go from here I know not, only that it will be with Him.  If by God’s grace I live, which I doubt, it will be to His glory…I can only realize when I see such difficulties as we have seen that we need to work harder for our Lord.  I’m praying that through this we might see revival in our churches in the Ubangi, in the hearts of all of us, and our Congolese brothers too.”

On November 24^th, 1964, combined American and Belgian forces launched a rescue mission.  In the confusion, the rebels herded all the prisoners into a city street and began spraying them with machine gun fire.  Some prisoners, including Dr. Carlson, ran to a wall.  Paul helped another missionary over it before attempting to scale it himself.  As he tried to climb over the wall, he was hit with gunfire and died instantly.  Within moments, Belgian troops arrived and secured the scene.  A picture of the clean-cut missionary taken minutes after his death was circulated around the world as emblematic of the massacre that took place.  In subsequent weeks, his picture graced the covers of both Time and Life magazines and became testimonies to the world of a man faithful to his calling.

Today, a medical foundation formed in Carlson’s name supports the mission hospital where he worked, along with other projects in the Wasolo region.  Congolese Christians remember him fondly, and visit his grave often.  His simple ministry of obedience and healing shine a light to many considering entering the Mission field.

In the New Testament he carried with him, Carlson has written the date and a single word the day before he died.  The word: Peace.

https://www.paulcarlson.org/about-us/paulcarlson/

https://kingdomharbor.com/2019/04/18/martyrdom-of-paul-carlson-covenant-missionary/

Ida Scudder - medical missionary

Ida Scudder

Born to a missionary couple in India, Ida Scudder couldn’t wait to leave the country.  As a child, she had supported her parents in feeding hungry children and saw many of them die – memories she couldn’t wait to flee from.  She went home to college, returning in 1892 for a brief visit with her parents.

One night during that visit, a man from a high caste came calling.  He asked her to attend to his wife, who was in labor.  Ida insisted she did not have the skills to help, but offered to take her father, a doctor, to her when he returned from his visit.  The man refused, saying he would rather have her die than have a man come into the house.  Later that night, a Muslim man approached her asking her to help his wife who was dying in labor.  Again she offered to send her father as soon as she could and again she received the response that a man could not tend to her – he would rather she die.  Even later that night, a high-caste Hindu man approached her with the same request, asking for Ida specifically since only a woman could tend his wife.

Ida had a troubled night.  In the morning, she heard a drumbeat – the cultural sound for a death in the home.  She sent her parent’s servant around to see the fate of the women whose husbands had approached her and to her horror she found that all three had died in the night.  After spending time in prayer, she informed her parents she had to return home to study medicine so she could come back and help Indian women.

Recently, women had won the right to attend medical school, and a few female medical missionaries were already on the field.  Attending school, Doctor Ida Scudder was set to return to Vellore, India, in 1900.  One week prior to her departure, she was asked by her Mission leaders to raise funds for a hospital there before she left.  In that final week, she threw herself into speaking engagements and any opportunity to raise money she could find.  A significant portion of the $50,000 that was needed was raised prior to her departure.

Arriving in Vellore, while waiting for the hospital to be built, Ida turned her little room into a medical clinic.  Her first call was to a desperate case for which nothing could be done.  When word spread that her first patient had died, suspicion increased.

Some time later, a high-caste Hindu woman arrived.  Dr Scudder successfully treated her for a severe case of conjunctivitis, a disease of the eyes.  After this, patients poured in like a flood – so much so that she had to conscript her kitchen maid to assist.  Seeing as many as 500 patients in a day, as well as overseeing the building of the hospital, Ida began teaching as well as treating.  Her first seven nurses graduated in 1905.  By 1922, her first class of doctors had graduated – most of them women.  In 1928, the hospital in Vellore officially became a medical college.

Ida Scudder tied in 1959, after spending the day holding patient’s hands and quieting babies as they were being treated.  To this day, Vellore Hospital continues to operate – a testimony to her vision and faith.

Christian History e-mail, 07 Sep 2021.