Cultural Crises and the Countdown to the Coming Great ... · best be seen by looking back to America’s na-tional crisis two centuries ago. The circum - stances of the founding generation

Americans are reeling! Natural disasters—frommassive hurricanes to floods of biblical propor-tions—have come one after another. Evil actorshave taken center stage: a North Korean mega-lomaniac with nuclear weapons, a madman com-mitting massacre in LasVegas, Islamic terroristswreaking havoc every-where they can. We allseem to be saying, “wemust do something tostop bad people fromdoing bad things.” Buthow?

The news media analyzesthe problem endlessly. Butthe one source that provides proven answers hasbeen almost entirely ignored. The lessons of his-tory provide a clear pattern which explains ourcurrent avalanche of crises. That pattern revealsthat all societies have tended toward dissipation,evil and tyranny over time. But history also re-veals how this tendency to self-destruction hasbeen thwarted and reversed throughout the cen-turies. Evil has been turned back repeatedly by

waves of spiritual awakenings sent by our lovingCreator.

“The history of America can be written throughthe turning points of spiritual awakenings” says

college president and au-thor David McKenna. Pro-fessor J. Edwin Orr agreesthat the history of Americaand the world can best bedefined as a series of greatawakenings. He docu-ments that there have beenat least six awakenings inAmerica alone, usuallyabout fifty years apart.Each of these transforming

events has been preceded by financial catastrophe,spiritual lethargy, and a rise in evil.

But what about us in America today? Are we toofar gone? I believe that real hope for us today canbest be seen by looking back to America’s na-tional crisis two centuries ago. The circum-stances of the founding generation are eerilysimilar to those we face today.

Cultural Crises and the Countdownto the Coming Great Awakening

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JOURNALW O R L D H I S T O R Y I N S T I T U T E

november/december 2017 • a biblical worldview to win the future

ical leader of deist students led a mob in burning theBible ... Students disrupted [church] services withboth profanity and spit. They burned down buildingsand they forced the resignation of college presidents.”

In this state of unbelief, facing war with France anda collapsing paper currency at home, it seemed un-likely that the American republic would survive farinto the 19th century. But Dr. Orr explains whathappened next. He says, “The problem was too bigfor human ingenuity or human energy…Demonicforces with carnal collaboration had forced the

churches into a corner. Howdid they retaliate and turnthe defeat into victory? Theone weapon left was prayer,and pray they did. In bothBritain and the UnitedStates, an unusual spirit ofprayer was poured out uponbelievers—the Union ofPrayer in Britain and theConcert of Prayer in NorthAmerica. Intercessors simplysupplicated the God of theUniverse to intervene ontheir behalf, in a revival ofreligion and an extension ofthe Kingdom of Christ onearth.”

God answered the prayers ofHis people. The First GreatAwakening in the 1740s hadinspired the birth of our na-tion. The Second Great Awak-ening transformed Americafor more than a generation.This revival was not the work

of slick promoters or top-down leaders. It came withpower from God Himself who awakened and re-deemed individuals from all strata of society. Thisawakening explains America’s success in the 19th cen-tury. Its fruit was supernatural. Individuals, freed fromtheir addictions, became successful, resourceful andcharitable, reaching out to the less fortunate. The na-tion prospered.

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Surprisingly, the Christian faith was in virtual collapseafter the American Revolution. After seeing a mirac-ulous victory against the British in the War of Inde-pendence, most citizens became lethargic about theirfaith and stopped going to church. Many indulgedin real estate speculation and gambling, hoping forquick wealth. The upper class gave their children overto colleges that were filled with immorality and athe-ism, virtually abandoning the coming generation togodless philosophies from Europe and the FrenchRevolution.

President of Yale, TimothyDwight, explained howthese philosophies corruptedthe campuses. He said, “Thedregs of infidelity were vom-ited upon us… the wholemass of pollution was emp-tied upon this country.”

With a worthless currencyand a huge war debt, the na-tion faced bankruptcy. At thesame time, the mightyFrench, once our allies, werenow on the verge of declar-ing war on America. ChiefJustice John Marshall, a de-vout believer, summed uphow bad things were in the1790s. He said, “the Churchin America was too far goneto ever be revived.”

The college campuses ofAmerica in the 1790s became“seedbeds of infidelity” saysDr. J. Edwin Orr, a premierscholar on great awakenings.He continues, “During the last decade of the eigh-teenth century, the typical Harvard student was anatheist … When the Dean at Princeton opened thechapel Bible to read, a pack of playing cards fell out,some radical having cut a rectangle out of each pageto fit the pack. Christians were so unpopular that theymet in secret and kept their minutes in code. The rad-

Façade of the Chapel at Yale University

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This awakening took root in America’s colleges atthe height of America’s march away from God.Timothy Dwight became president of Yale in1795. With only a few believers on campus heopened a challenging intellectual debate stakingthe claims of the Bible against all philosophies andtheories in each field ofstudy. The tide began toturn at Yale, and came infull flood in 1802. Onethird of the student bodymade professions of faiththat year.

Awakenings began in col-leges all over America. Orrdocuments that “the evan-gelistic impact of prayer oncampus was noteworthy.Amherst, Dartmouth,Princeton, Williams andYale, to name a few, re-ported the conversion toGod of a third to a half oftheir total student bodies.”

The Second Great Awaken-ing swept into the churchesand on to America’s frontier.The transformative power ofthe gospel inspired Christiancompassion, charity and so-cial reform. The nursingmovement, child labor laws,and care for the poor and im-migrants came through theself-sacrifice and leadership ofChristian believers. The abo-litionist movement—the cru-sade to eliminate slavery—gained ever-greater mo-mentum. This awakening was no spiritual bubble.Christians in the Second Great Awakening reestab-lished the biblical foundation of their nation through-out their institutions. In the fields of education,government, economics, science and technology thenation prospered like no other in history.

The impact of at least four more spiritual greatawakenings have been felt in our nation since thepowerful awakening of the early 19th century. Thelast awakening produced what came to be knownas the Jesus movement in the 1970s. But some-thing happened in the 20th century that has

blunted some of the cul-tural and moral impact ofthese more recent awaken-ings.

“Evangelicals in the early1900s forfeited the field ofsocial compassion to liber-als and retreated into agospel of personal piety...”says college president,David McKenna. He con-tinues, “If the authority ofthe Word of God wouldhave been our guide [toAmerica’s problems],there would have been noretreat.” McKenna con-cludes that an awakening isnot complete until the so-ciety is transformed. Hesays, “To stop short of so-cial transformation is toabort a Great Awakening.”

As a new great awakeningappears on the horizon,may we avoid the mistakeof retreating into “a gospelof personal piety.” If theLord in His mercy awak-ens tens of millions of Hispeople—an army of com-passionate believers—theycan comfort, serve and re-

store our divided nation. An awakened church en-gaging culture is America’s great hope.

— Marshall Foster

“The Bible is not the light ofthe world, it is the light of theChurch. But the world doesnot read the Bible, the worldreads Christians! Jesus said,‘You are the light of theworld.’”

— Charles H. Spurgeon

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WORLD HISTORY INSTITUTE teaches the liberating lessons ofhistorically-proven biblical principles to benefit people of all nations.Resources, conferences and tours have been provided since 1976.WHI is a 501 (C)3 non-profit ministry. Your involvement and tax-deductible contributions are encouraged.

World History InstituteP.O. Box 4673Thousand Oaks, CA 91359(805) 523-0072www.WorldHistoryInstitute.com

Dear Friend,

I sincerely believe that the long-awaitedGreat Awakening in America is so close!

This month I was honored to deliver thekeynote address at Honoring the Vision, an important conference in Sacramento. We celebrated 50 years since Verna Hall andRosalie Slater reintroduced American Chris-tians to our incredible yet forgotten Chris-tian history. As I spoke I sensed anunprecedented urgency among the hundredsgathered. We all dedicated ourselves to in-tensify our efforts to spread the story ofGod’s hand in building the world’s first bib-lical republic in America.

There is no doubt that the recent prayermovements like the Pray 31 Initiative beforethe 2016 election have helped awaken ourpeople. As chairman of Pray 31 we saw overhalf a million people dedicate themselves topray every day for our nation. This monthtens of thousands of believers gathered topray 24/7 for four days on the Mall inWashington, DC.

As the crises intensify in our nation andaround the globe, the response of God’speople is multiplying. Kirk Cameron led alive national gathering of Christian believerson October 24 in thousands of theaters fromcoast to coast. Called ReviveUS 2, this is thefollow-up to Kirk’s first ReviveUS event heldin the fall of 2016. I am thankful that somany of you made the effort to attend thisstrategic event that aired again in theaters

nationwide on Reformation Day, October31st.

Please pray for the tour Iwill be leading in andaround our Nation’s Capi-tal from November 16-20.We will attend, along withmany VIPs, the GrandOpening of the Museumof the Bible. This long anticipated venue is theworld’s largest and mostsignificant museum dedicated to the Scrip-tures. It is only a few blocks from the U.S.Capitol! It is expected that millions of visi-tors will be touring this museum each year.They will learn how the Bible was the foun-dational document of our nation, our gov-ernment and our liberties.

In this time of serious trial for our nation weare praying for you and your family. I wouldlove to come to your city or church to speakon how to prepare for the coming GreatAwakening. Please contact us for informa-tion about these opportunities.

Thank you for your faithful, generous support of this vital ministry.

Yours for an awakened America,

Marshall Foster