Implosion (43 page)

[333]
Barna,
Futurecast
, p. 172.

[334]
George Barna,
Growing True Disciples
(Colorado Springs, CO: WaterBrook Press, 2001), pp. 35, 41.

[335]
George Barna, “The Year’s Most Intriguing Findings, from Barna Research Studies,” Barna Update, December 17, 2011,
http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/5-barna-update/64-the-years-most-intriguing-findings-from-barna-research-studies
.

[336]
Jill Lepore,
The Name of War: King Philip’s War and the Origins of American Identity
(New York: Vintage Books/Random House, 1998), back cover and p. xi. See also Douglas Edward Leach,
Flintlock & Tomahawk: New England in King Philip’s War
(Woodstock, VT: Countrymen Press, 2009).

[337]
Thomas Kidd,
The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 2.

[338]
See Yale University’s biography of Jonathan Edwards,
http://edwards.yale.edu/research/about-edwards/biography
.

[339]
Kidd, p. 10.

[340]
Ibid.

[341]
Jonathan Edwards,
A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God
, published in 1738, and available online at
http://www.jonathan-edwards.org/Narrative.html
.

[342]
Ibid.

[343]
Ibid.

[344]
Ibid.

[345]
To read the text of this famous sermon, go to
http://www.jonathan-edwards.org/Sinners.html
.

[346]
See biography of Jonathan Edwards,
http://edwards.yale.edu/research/about-edwards/biography
. See also Princeton University’s biography of Edwards,
http://www.princeton.edu/pr/facts/presidents/05.htm
. Regarding the founding of Princeton University: “At Princeton, one of the founders (probably Ebenezer Pemberton) wrote in c. 1750, ‘Though our great Intention was to erect a seminary for educating Ministers of the Gospel, yet we hope it will be useful in other learned professions—Ornaments of the State as well as the Church. Therefore we propose to make the plan of Education as extensive as our Circumstances will admit.’” Quoted in Alexander Leitch,
A Princeton Companion
(Princeton University Press, 1978). See also
http://etcweb.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/founding_princeton.html
.

[347]
See Kenneth P. Minkema, “Edwards’ Family,” Jonathan Edwards Center, Yale University,
http://edwards.yale.edu/research/about-edwards/family-life
.

[348]
See Diane Severance, “Jonathan Edwards, America’s Humble Giant,” Christianity.com,
http://www.christianity.com/ChurchHistory/11630188/
.

[349]
His name is pronounced “
Whit
-field.”

[350]
Arnold A. Dallimore,
George Whitefield: God’s Anointed Servant in the Great Revival of the Eighteenth Century
(Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1990), p. 17.

[351]
Ibid., p. 18.

[352]
Ibid., p. 21.

[353]
Ibid., p. 22.

[354]
Ibid., p. 46.

[355]
Collin Hansen and John Woodbridge,
A God-Sized Vision: Revival Stories That Stretch and Stir
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), p. 47.

[356]
Mark A. Noll,
A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada
(Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1992), p. 91.

[357]
Bill Bright, “How to Introduce Others to Christ” (Orlando, FL: Cru Press, 2007). See
http://www.centerfieldproductions.com/members/content/crucomm/brighthowtointroduceotherstochrist.pdf
.

[358]
Richard L. Bushman, ed.,
The Great Awakening: Documents on the Revival of Religion, 1740
–
1745
(Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1989), p. xii.

[359]
Dallimore, p. 76.

[360]
Ibid.

[361]
Ibid., p. 82.

[362]
Ibid., p. 141.

[363]
Noll,
History of Christianity
, p. 93.

[364]
Dallimore, p. 197.

[365]
Ibid., p. 201.

[366]
Bushman, pp. xi–xii.

[367]
Mark Noll,
The Rise of Evangelicalism: The Age of Edwards, Whitefield, and the Wesleys
(Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2003), p. 83.

[368]
Georgia Historical Society, “John Wesley,” Today in Georgia History,
http://www.todayingeorgiahistory.org/content/john-wesley
. See also Noll,
The Rise of Evangelicalism
, pp. 83–84.

[369]
Noll,
The Rise of Evangelicalism
, p. 85.

[370]
Ibid., p. 95.

[371]
Ibid.

[372]
Cited in a profile of John Wesley, ChristianHistory.net, August 8, 2008,
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/denominationalfounders/wesley.html?start=1
. See also Noll,
The Rise of Evangelicalism
, p. 97.

[373]
Noll,
The Rise of Evangelicalism
, p. 84.

[374]
See Profile of Charles Wesley, ChristianHistory.net, August 8, 2008,
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/poets/charleswesley.html
.

[375]
Mark A. Noll,
Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity
(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2000), pp. 226–227.

[376]
Profile of John Wesley,
ChristianHistory.net
.

[377]
Whitefield and the Wesleys had a terrible falling-out over theological differences that divided them for many years. Whitefield was a devout Calvinist; the Wesleys were devout Arminians. Fortunately, they reconciled near the end of their lives, and John Wesley preached a warm and moving eulogy at George Whitefield’s funeral.

[378]
“The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America,”
Time
, February 7, 2005,
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1993235_1993243,00.html
.

[379]
Mark A. Noll,
A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada
(Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1992), p. 166. Noll was a highly acclaimed evangelical scholar and professor at Wheaton College for many years, then moved to the University of Notre Dame in 2006.

[380]
Steve Forbes,
A New Birth of Freedom
(Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 1999), p. 138. In the second paragraph of this excerpt, Steve quotes text from
Revival Signs
by Tom Phillips (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 1995).

[381]
John Wigger,
American Saint: Francis Asbury and the Methodists
(New York: Oxford University Press USA, 2009), p. 3.

[382]
Noll,
History of Christianity
, p. 173.

[383]
Ibid., p. 171.

[384]
Wigger, p. 3. A 2008 article at ChristianHistory.net said the number of sermons was 16,500. See “Francis Asbury: Methodist on Horseback,” ChristianHistory.net, August 8 2008,
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/denominationalfounders/asbury.html
.

[385]
Noll,
History of Christianity
, p. 173.

[386]
See General Commission on Archives & History, United Methodist Church, statistics posted online at
http://www.gcah.org/site/c.ghKJI0PHIoE/b.3828783/
.

[387]
Stephen J. Ahn, “Timothy Dwight and Yale: The Making of a University,”
Yale Standard
, 2001,
http://www.yalestandard.com/biographies/timothy-dwight/
.

[388]
John R. Fitzmier,
New England’s Moral Legislator: Timothy Dwight, 1752–1817
(Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1998), p. 15. The student cited was Lyman Beecher.

[389]
Ahn.

[390]
Brooks Mather Kelley,
Yale: A History
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1974), p. 123.

[391]
Collin Hansen and John Woodbridge,
A God-Sized Vision: Revival Stories That Stretch and Stir
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), p. 63.

[392]
Fitzmier, p. 53.

[393]
An article on Christianity.com stated that Dwight “fired all of the faculty members who favored the anti-Christian ideas of French rationalism. Subsequently, about one-third of the student body were converted to Christianity.” See Dan Graves, “Yale Leader Timothy Dwight Died in Harness,” Christianity.com, June 2007,
http://www.christianity.com/ChurchHistory/11630378/
. A biography published in the 1960s suggested that Dwight fired those with “infidel leanings” who did not fit into his vision for the college. See Kenneth Silverman,
Timothy Dwight
(New York: Twayne Publishers, 1969), p. 97.

[394]
Kelley, pp. 130–131.

[395]
Ahn.

[396]
Hansen and Woodbridge, pp. 65–66.

[397]
Ibid., p. 66.

[398]
Ibid., pp. 66–67.

[399]
Ahn.

[400]
Hansen and Woodbridge, p. 68.

[401]
Ahn.

[402]
Kelley, pp. 123–124.

[403]
See Noll,
A History of Christianity
, p. 169; see also profile of Lyman Beecher, resource for
God in America
,
American Experience
, PBS, 2010,
http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/people/lyman-beecher.html
.

[404]
Hansen and Woodbridge, p. 73.

[405]
Charles Finney,
The Autobiography of Charles Finney
, ed. Helen Wessel (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 1977), p. 6. This is an abridged version of Finney’s original 1876 book.

[406]
Ibid., p. 11.

[407]
Ibid., p. 17.

[408]
Ibid., pp. 17–18.

[409]
Ibid., p. 31.

[410]
Ibid., p. 50.

[411]
Ibid., p. 38.

[412]
Noll,
History of Christianity
, p. 175.

[413]
Cited by Finney in
Autobiography
, pp. 164–165. In his book
Modern Revivalism: Charles Grandison Finney to Billy Graham
(Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2005; a republication of the original book published in 1959), historian William McLoughlin Jr. cited Presbyterian statistics from the Rochester area to argue that the number was not one hundred thousand but “more realistically” about sixty thousand. Still, he concurred that the revival had a huge impact on Rochester and beyond. See McLoughlin, pp. 57–58.

[414]
Finney,
Autobiography
, p. 164.

[415]
“Charles Finney: Father of American Revivalism,”
ChristianHistory.net,
August 8, 2008,
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/evangelistsandapologists/finney.html
.

[416]
McLoughlin, p. 57.

[417]
Charles G. Finney,
Lectures on Revival
(Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 1989, reprint of the original 1835 book), p. 15.

[418]
Noll,
History of Christianity
, p. 176.

[419]
Finney,
Lectures on Revival
, p. 13.

[420]
Finney,
Autobiography
, back cover.

[421]
Noll,
History of Christianity
, p. 170.

[422]
Thomas S. Kidd,
The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 322.

[423]
Noll,
History of Christianity
, pp. 178–179.

[424]
Kidd, p. 322.

[425]
Ibid.

[426]
Noll,
History of Christianity
, pp. 178–179.

[427]
Ibid.

[428]
We devoted the 2011 Epicenter Conference in Jerusalem to teaching through the book of Joel, chapter by chapter and verse by verse. The messages are available online for free at
www.epicenterconference.com
. I have also posted my notes on each chapter of Joel on my blog. Please go to
www.joelrosenberg.com
, click on the blog, and search for “Book of Joel.”

[429]
Governor John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity,” address delivered in 1630 to passengers aboard the
Arbella
, redacted and introduced by John Beardsley, editor in chief, the
Winthrop Society Quarterly
, 1997,
http://religiousfreedom.lib.virginia.edu/sacred/charity.html
; for more, see Francis J. Bremer,
John Winthrop: America’s Forgotten Founding Father
(New York: Oxford University Press USA, 2005).