Posts Tagged ‘under’

MINE EYES HAVE SEEN

THE GLORY–

ONE NATION UNDER GOD

by Gail Ingebritson

Imagine you are sitting on the bench waiting for the football game to start.  You are an avid sports fan, and you are eagerly  and impatiently watching for any signs of movement by the players.  As you frustratedly continue to look at your watch, you wonder if the game will ever start.  Suddenly, out from nowhere, the players emerge to the center of the field.

            At last!  Suddenly, everything is quiet.  The National Anthem begins to play, and the people take off their hats and bow their heads in silence as Old Glory is slowly emerging and ascending up the flag pole.  The stars and stripes  wave awesomely as  the night breeze softly and quietly makes itself known.

            What is so awesome about the red, white, and blue?  What prompted Frances Scott Key to be so inspired by the “ragged old flag”  waving freely in the wind, that he wrote The Star Spangled Banner, our future national anthem?  “…bombs  bursting in air, gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there?  Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave.  Ore the land of the free, and the home of the brave.”

            Who are we?  Many Christian historians feel we don’t know who we are anymore.  We have lost our national identity.  

            Because I share this view, I decided that I would write a paper on our Christian heritage–a heritage  that nobody seems to be educated on anymore.  I was one of the lucky few who have had the privilege of being educated on our Christian roots. 

            Our Christian heritage technically begins with the Puritans.  These are the people that shaped our nation because they believed they were called  by God to  come to this new land.  Some came to escape religious persecution in Europe, but that came later.  The original Puritans  were the pilgrims, and  they already had religious freedom.  They  abandoned the Church of England, because they felt it was too far gone.  The Puritans called them the Separatists, and they didn’t  need to escape religious persecution because they had already fled to Holland to escape persecution. They came because they felt God calling them to establish a new covenant. (Marshall and Manuel 110)

             However, I feel our national heritage begins with Christopher Columbus, and my paper wouldn’t be  complete without including him.  He is a controversial figure in this modern era.  Who was he?  Modern historians label him “the first of the conquerors.” (Boyer 27)  Did he come to conquer?  Was he really here to plunder and pillage gold  to become wealthy?

            According to two Christian historians, the answer is no.  Peter Marshall and David Manuel  conducted years of what appeared to be endless research into our Christian heritage.  They had a chance to read a copy of Christopher Columbus’s personal diary, Book of Prophecy.  The original is in the Cathedral Library in Spain, but a copy of it resides in the Yale Rare Book Library.  

            Columbus had a  calling from God on his life, and he was also a missionary explorer.

 “It  was the Lord who put into my mind (I could feel his hand upon me)

the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies.  All who

heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculing me.  There is no

question that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit, because

He comforted me with rays of marvelous inspiration from the Holy Scriptures.

I am a most unworthy sinner; but, I have cried out to the Lord for grace and

mercy, and they have covered me completely.  I have found the sweetest consolation since I made it my whole purpose to enjoy His marvelous presence.”(Marshall and Manuel 17)

Throughout his journals and letters, Columbus was constantly in prayer invoking the names of Christ, Mary, and the saints, solemnly giving praise to God.(Miller 10)

            According to the research of Peter Marshall and David  Manuel, Columbus was the first to disembark.  After the remaining crew disembarked, their eyes were filled with tears as they knelt and bowed their heads and prayed.

“Oh Lord, Almighty and everlasting God, by Thy holy Word Thou has

created the heaven, the earth, and the sea; blessed and glorified be

Thy Name, and praised be Thy Majesty, which hath deigned to use us,

Thy humble servants, that Thy Holy Name may be proclaimed in this

second part of the earth.”(41)

            Columbus then christened the island, which he named San Salvador which means “Holy Savior.”(Marshall and Manuel 41)

            Columbus described the Indians that greeted them as timid, handsome, tall, and well proportioned, no clothes, and innocent as babes.  Columbus records “For I knew they were a people to be delivered and converted to our holy faith rather by love than by force.”(Marshall and Manuel 42)

            Columbus continued exploring the coastlines and islands.  Columbus had his men erect a large wooden cross on every island they stopped at as “a token of Jesus Christ our Lord, and in honor of the Christian faith.”  Almost always he found the inhabitants peaceful, innocent, and trusting, and he was so overwhelmed by the kindness of the natives, and the treatment they received, that he gave thanks to the Lord for allowing him to be shipwrecked while they were exploring the coastline.(Marshall and Manuel 45)

              It was Columbus’s intent to continue on with his voyages, and he gave the 32 crewmen, who were to remain behind until he returned, strict orders that the natives were not to be molested or maltreated in any way.(Marshall and Manuel 43)  They were to trade diligently with the Indians to obtain a barrelful of gold.  He also hoped they would discover the gold mine.  Contrary to what modern historians state concerning Columbus and his quest for wealth to benefit himself, Columbus had only asked Queen Isabella for 10% of the wealth.  It was his dream to finance one more crusade against the Muslims to drive them out of Jerusalem, restore it to the Jews, and rebuild the temple.(Marshall and Manuel 45)  He had also requested 1% of all the gold taken from the Islands to be given as charity to the Islands to pay for establishing churches, and for sending monks to evangelize the natives.(Miller, 15)

            Columbus was met with a hero’s welcome home.  Because of all the praise, vanity, success, and most of all, the gold that was discovered, he  lost his meek soul he possessed at the beginning when he was totally dependent on God for survival.  He became proud, arrogant, vain, and impractical.  He was  quick to judge others, yet was incapable of accepting correction himself.  Worse yet, he  wanted to be governor of all the lands he discovered. He was a good explorer and the best navigator of his time, but a very poor governor.(Marshall and Manuel, 53)

            Columbus returned to the island of LaNavidad.  He was horrified to find out his orders were not carried out by the remaining crewmen, who had plundered and  pillaged the Indians and raped the Indian women.  The lust for gold had corrupted them.  According to the reports of the natives, all of the 32 colonists had been killed either by each other or by other Indians.(Marshall and Manuel 57)

            The new crew, however, instead of lamenting the gross injustice their fellow men inflicted on these poor, innocent, and trusting  natives who had grown to trust Columbus, grew hostile towards the natives.  It was only by threats of capital punishment that Columbus was able to prevent a blood bath.(Marshall and Manuel 57)  Columbus, however, started losing control as his men grew  increasingly rebellious.  Columbus turned away and pretended not to see the gross suffering and ugly treatment the colonists were inflicting on the natives in the Caribbean.(Marshall and Manuel 58)  He had grown selfish, conceited, and puffed up with pride, as was mentioned earlier.

            Queen Isabella received news of the barbaric slavery that was being forced on the natives in the Caribbean and she ordered them released along with an order to relieve Columbus of his duties, which he received rebelliously.  He ended up being sent back to Spain in shackles.(Marshall and Manuel 60) 

            Columbus repented on his death bed for all of his wrongdoing.(Marshall and Manuel 65)  God, of course, forgave him, but the damage had been done.  His Christian testimony was not just tarnished, but completely gone.  Nothing could undo the barbaric treatment he had inflicted upon the innocent and trusting natives who thought he was their friend. 

            Was Columbus a barbaric conqueror as the new historians are trying to depict him as?  Now that you  have more of the details,  you will have to decide for yourself how you will view Columbus.  Although I obviously  am appalled at all the barbaric things that  medieval people have done in the name of Jesus, I don’t feel they can be judged by our standards because it was a completely different culture and time.  Although Columbus was not the role model I wanted him to be, his fiery zeal to launch one more crusade to restore Jerusalem to the Jews was commendable.  Also, if Spain hadn’t come to the Americas, consider this:  Early in 1492, the Christian troops of  Ferdinand and Isabella ended an era of Islamic domain in Western Europe.  Islamdom, at  the time, was in an expansive a mood as was Christendom.  Had Islam won a few more military victories–and had it commanded more nagging entrepreneurs like Columbus, the landscapes of the Americas would be vastly different. (Marty 17) 

            Fortunately, there has always been a remnant of the early church who continually followed the teaching of the Apostles.  Although the majority of the world  worshipped Jesus in name only, the true remnant had Jesus in their heart.  Some of these saints were the monks that the barbaric conquistadors had brought to the New World with them.  Marshall and Manuel feel the reasons are open to speculation as to why they were brought to the New World–perhaps to ease their own consciences, but these monks deeply, and totally loved the Lord.

             One point I have not made clear is that not all the natives were friendly.  Some were more barbaric than the conquistadors themselves.  Cannibal tribes were numerous and to such the message of the Gospel was brought  by these dedicated monks who paid a dear price of torture for their Christian zeal to evangelize the natives.(Marshall and Manuel 71)  Orphanages came into being along with schools and churches.  Through these loving servants, thousands of natives came to realize they had a living risen Savior who could give them eternal life.(70)  Soon, more monks came to America.  By 1630, Alonso deBenavidos (responsible for the New Mexico missions) was able to record that 80,000 natives had been baptized. (72) Inch by inch, ever so slowly but surely, the Light of the Gospel progressed.

            As the rumors of wealth began sweeping Europe, England entered the picture into American history.  England had two objectives:

            1) to find the Northwest passage to Asia which would lead to gold

            2) to “singe the King of Spain’s beard” by raiding Spanish fleets and cities.(Boyer 31)

            It was definitely not a very noble cause, and there wasn’t a spirit of evangelism that spurred them on.  The English colonies of Jamestown had failed miserably.  The original Roanoke Colony had failed because the colonists refused to grow their own food and expected the natives to feed them.  Other facts contributed to their failure and they left Christ out of their plans.  The next settlers would know better than to undertake a potentially suicidal voyage without the help of the Lord.  These people were the Puritans(pilgrims) and here is where our religious heritage really begins.  These were the most faithful  people to evangelize the natives, and so began the first 40 years of peace between the natives and the Europeans.(Marshall and Manuel 132)

            Who were the Puritans?  Some feel there has been too much Puritanism.  Others feel the cause of our current failures and depravity results  from the abandonment of Puritan discipline and ideals. Modern historians picture them as legalistic, brutal, pharasitical, and preachers of fiery damnation.  Is this fair?  Again, remember, we can’t judge them by our standards of what the Christian culture is today.  No matter how individuals feel about the Puritans, one fact remains indisputable–no religious experience in the New World has had a more enduring impact upon our nation’s education, literature, sense of mission, church governance, ethical responsibility, or religious vision.(Gaustad 9)  Also, four of our mainstream church denominations have Puritan roots–Presbyterian, Baptist, Congregational, and the Quakers.(Anders 246)

            American Puritanism has its beginning roots in sixteenth century England.  King Henry VIII (reigned from 1509-1547) severed Church of England loose from its Roman Catholic moorings.  During the long reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who reigned from 1558-1603, citizens tried to determine more precisely the character of their new National Church.  There were bitter differences and some were so severe it led to bloodshed.(Gaustad  9)

            The Puritans sought to make the Protestant reformation a reality  by ridding the church of all its historic Catholic connections.  Those wanting to purify the Church of England were named Puritans.  There were some Puritans, however, who gave up on the Church of England, and they became known as the Separatists, or Pilgrims.  They had fled to Holland which is where they received their call to come to the New World to establish a Christian colony and to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.(Gaustad, 9)

            Before they left Holland, a day of fasting and prayer was called to prepare them spiritually for the hardships they knew they would encounter.(Marshall and Manuel 113)  Being knit together as “a body in a most strict and sacred bond and covenant of the Lord,” the group of 100 sailed from Plymouth, England on September 6, 1620. (Gaustad 9)  Approximately three months later, the Mayflower arrived off Cape Cod in Massachusetts where they established their own Plymouth.(9)

            Peter Marshall shakes his head in amazement as he examined the Mayflower II, an exact replica of the original.  He was shocked at the closeness of the quarters.  One hundred pilgrims were crammed into a space about equal to a volleyball court.  Compound that misery by the lack of light, fresh air (because of stormy weather), a diet of dried fish, and unsanitary conditions, what kind of saints were these that “accepted it without complaining?”  It was a part of what they were willing to endure to follow God’s will. (Marshall and Manuel 106) The pilgrims realized they needed some instrument of civil government, especially since some of their people did not share the same religious fervor.  Because a few of them made “discontented and mutinous speeches,”  the Mayflower Compact, dated November 11, 1620, became a pledge that the group made to “solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and to one another that the good of the colony and not the interests of any individual was to be the guiding principle.(Gaustad  9)

            After three months at sea, the first American Puritans, the Pilgrims, landed in  December of 1620.  Governor William Bradford wrote “They had now no friends to welcome them nor inns to entertain or refresh their weather-beaten bodies; no houses or much less towns to repair to…And for the season, it was winter. …What could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness?…What could now sustain them but the Spirit of God and his grace?” (Gaustad9)

            During the first hard winter, death reduced the contingent by nearly a half.  Some lived aboard the ships.  Only the intercession of the Wamponag Indians who taught them how to plant and fish, kept the mortality rate from growing worse. (Gaustad 9)  

            This paper would not be complete or accurate without mentioning the first Thanksgiving which modern historians are desperately trying to obliterate.  The story of the first Thanksgiving begins with Squanto in 1605, when he and four other Indians were taken captive by Captain George Weymouth, who was exploring the New England coast.(Marshall and Manuel 130)  The Indians were taken to England, where they were taught English.  Squanto spent the next nine years in England where he met Captain John Smith who promised to take him back to his people on Cape Cod.  He kept his promise, and Squanto found himself home again only to be lured back on another ship, to be taken to Spain to be sold as a slave.  Some were shipped to Africa, but a few were bought and rescued, as Squanto was; by monks who introduced them to the Christian faith.  Thus, did God begin Squanto’s preparation for the role he would play at Plymouth to save the Pilgrims.  Squanto was returned to the New World six months before the Pilgrims arrived.  While he was gone, however, not a man, woman, or child of his tribe was left alive.  Nothing but skulls and bones and ruined dwellings remained.(131) 

            Squanto wandered through the woods into Massasoit’s camp who took pity on him, and allowed him to stay with them.  What brought Squanto back  to Cape Cod where the pilgrims had landed, is the news that some colonists were struggling to survive at the very place where Squanto’s tribe had been.  Being curious, he walked back to the Cape and met the pilgrims.  Is this a coincidence, or is it a divine intervention?  Out of this meeting, came a peace treaty of mutual aid and assistance which would last for forty years, and would be a model for many that would later come.(Marshall and Manuel 132)  Marshall and Manuel feel that the record of their relations is a strong testimony to the love of Christ that was in them. Squanto helped  the pilgrims to survive.  He taught them how to stalk deer, plant pumpkins among the corn, refine maple syrup from maple trees, discern which herbs were good to eat and good for medicine, and find the best berries.  He also guided them in fishing and in trading, making sure they got their full money’s worth in top-quality pelts.  The harvest  the following fall, was plentiful.  New dwellings had been erected.  The Pilgrims were brimming over with gratitude for the Indians and their God, who so lovingly cared for them.

            Governor Bradford declared a day of public Thanksgiving, to be held in October.  Massasoit and Squanto were invited and arrived a day early–with ninety Indians.  The Pilgrims tried not to be panicky, but to feed such a crowd would cut deeply into their food supply for the winter.  The Indians, however,  did not come empty handed.  Massasoit had commanded his braves to hunt for the occasion and they arrived with five dressed deer, and a dozen fat wild turkeys!  The Indian women helped with the preparations and taught the women how to make hoecakes and a tasty pudding out of cornmeal and maple syrup.  Finally, they showed them an Indian delicacy — how to roast corn kernels in an earthen pot until they popped fluffy and white–popcorn!  The Pilgrims provided many vegetables, carrots, onions, turnips, parsnips, cucumbers, radishes, beets, and cabbages.  They also taught the Indian women how to make pies with their blueberries, apples, and cherries.  Between meals, the Pilgrims and Indians happily competed in shooting contests with guns, and bows and arrows. They also had foot races and wrestling.  There was so much joy, and happiness, that the Indians stayed, and the first Thanksgiving lasted for three more days.(Marshall and Manuel 136)  Wouldn’t it been nice if this Christian spirit would have continued?  To live so peacefully with the Indians for forty years is astounding. Very few, however,  loved Jesus enough to  obey his commandments, and the Light of the Gospel and the  memories of the first Thanksgiving grew dim.

            What were the Puritans really like?  How can we understand their strict code of ethics?  There is no question that the Puritans took sin seriously, but they knew that the very success or failure of God’s “New Israel” hung on their willingness to deal strongly with sin–in themselves first, and then in those who had been called with them to build the kingdom of God.(Marshall and Manuel 171)  Anyone who searches the church records will find that Puritan discipline, although strict by necessity, was almost always tempered with great mercy.  The reason it was strictly enforced was that they all felt that the entire fabric of their covenant life together depended on living in proper order and in joint obedience to the Laws of God.  Thus, when one sinned, it affected  all of them. (172)

             I feel that to understand the Puritans,  you need to remember  the Amish.  They  both are egalitarian societies.  Their survival depends on them all working together in a spirit of unity.  Remove the spirit of unity, and you have chaos.  Just like the Amish used shunning to preserve  their egalitarian lifestyle, and to keep their religion pure,  the Puritans felt they needed rules and civil order to keep their colony pure.  The Puritan magistrates, whose law book was the Bible, were generally far more anxious to see a sinner come to repentance than to mete out punishment.  Only after repeatedly trying to bring a sinner to repentance, so he or she could receive God’s forgiveness, would they break fellowship with the individual and turn the person over to his or her sin. (Marshall and Manuel 173) As Pastor Cotton indicated,  “the purpose of excommunication was not to condemn sinners, but to let the pressure of their sin bring them to repentance.”  (174) They were willing to face the reality of their own sinful natures, and the harm that sin caused their covenant life.(175)  Peter Marshall feels that the biggest single cause of the breakdown of the American family is that so much of what we  call love, the Puritans would have another name for — Idolatry.  Unlike most modern parents, the Puritans knew that their children did not belong to them; they belonged to God.(178) 

            Contrary to popular opinion, the Puritans did not arrange marriages between their children; they did, however, exercise their veto rights.  If either set of parents felt that the marriage was out of the will of God, they voiced their beliefs.  Again, in an egalitarian society,  we must remember that a bad marriage would affect them all because of their egalitarian lifestyle, and because they were a covenant society.  The Puritans had learned  that  being out of the will of God brought a great deal of misery and suffering.  Also, marriage was a matter of personal importance to the Puritan society.(Marshall and Manuel 179)

            No activity shaped Puritans more than their “plain” preaching.  A Puritan sermon often lasted more than 90 minutes, and the preachers even had their sermon memorized.  The focus of Puritan preaching was the regeneration and conversion of people.  As if this wasn’t enough responsibility for the preachers to preach on Sunday morning and afternoon, a weekday lecture was also expected.  In the lecture, the preacher explored intricate theological problems.  The Puritans were not lukewarm about anything, let alone what they believed about God, and what they expected from their preachers.(Guelzo 23) In Puritan worship, a prayer could last an hour or more; a sermon, two hours.  In a lifetime, a Puritan might hear 15,000 hours of preaching.  New England Puritans who failed to attend worship on Sunday morning AND afternoon were fined or put into stocks. Failing to glorify God for all his good gifts was a sacrilege.  American Puritans did not celebrate religious holidays such as Easter or Christmas.  The weekly “Lord’s Day” was celebration enough! (Niemczyk 2-3) It is quite obvious that the  Fourth Commandment regarding the Sabbath was taken quite seriously.  In Connecticut, it was against the law to travel, play sports, or laugh too loudly on the Sabbath. The Puritans believed that unfaithfulness to God would bring judgment.  In sum, for the Puritans, the Christian life was a hungry living out of God’s grace-gift of salvation.(Packer 33)

            Dr. Harry S. Stout, a Professor of American Christianity at Yale University,  is quick to point out that how we picture the Puritans as people with no humor, no compassion, and people that were self-righteous, is not accurate.  The  Puritans were enamored of bright clothing, and their houses were brightly painted.  They had a strong sense of beauty, and they produced great poets like Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor.  Puritans were not opposed to parties and they certainly did not have sexual hang-ups.  A spouse could be punished by the authorities for withholding sex from his or her partner.  They also were not teetotalers.  Scholars estimate the Puritans had a rum consumption rate that surpassed the alcohol consumption rate in the 20th century!!  Puritans were also deeply emotional people.  They were intense lovers and intense haters, along with being intensely reverent.  Nothing was done without thinking or feeling.  They believed their life mattered– that what they were doing was more important than anything else in the world.(Stout 41)

            Unfortunately, there began a decline in Puritan zeal.  Faith is one thing you can’t pass on to the next generation.  All you can do is set the example, and hope they follow.  New generations emerged who never knew persecution, to be mocked and scorned, even imprisoned merely because they loved God.  The new generations would never know  what it was like  to have no land, no work, and no say in how they were governed.(Marshall and Manuel 214) Since land was plentiful, the grandsons helped themselves and moved farther away to establish their own life on their own land in their own way.(216)  Thus, did the Puritans lay down their cross.  They stopped their ears and refused to listen to their ministers, and they ceased to correct and admonish one another, and their children, choosing instead, greed, privacy, independence, and idolatry.(220)

            Marshall and Manuel, in their book The Light and The Glory, feel it is difficult for us, with ten generations of democracy behind us, to appreciate just how radical were the words of the Declaration of Independence, that “all men are created equal.”  Never before in history had the world actually believed in the equality of man.  That is why, beginning with the Mayflower Compact, the American system of government under God had been so unique.  Under God–that was the key.(Marshall and Manuel 255)  Peter Marshall also feels this is one reason why our Constitution is a Puritan document. 

            Another reason, is that the Constitution emerged out of nearly two hundred years of Puritan political thought.  Because of much dissent, the check and balance system was necessary because of the same reasons the Puritans needed a check and balance system–the primary political motive of man was self-interest and that men, whether acting individually or collectively, were selfish and only imperfectly rational.  In other words, what the Bible refers to as “the utter depravity of man,” was a true reality.  Marshall and  Manuel go on to say that “a democracy is not a natural form of government; it is supernatural, relying on a dynamic Judeo-Christian ethos to provide the continual spiritual renewal needed to inspire naturally selfish men to be selfless.  The framers of the Constitution  understood the reality of man’s fallen nature, which was why they created our unique system of checks and balances.(Marshall and Manuel 12)

            As we move closer to the Revolution, we must remember again, that most of this generation had never been ruled by a king.  Freedom and religion was all they had known.  Even the Crown recognized that the resistance in the Colonies had begun with their religion, and that was where it had to be broken.  Accordingly, one of Andro’s first official acts was to order that Episcopal services be held in the Old South Meetinghouse.(Marshall and Manuel 259)

            The first Great Awakening had restored much of the zeal for Christ.  Perhaps God was preparing them spiritually for the difficult road ahead–the road to freedom. So fiery was this zeal that  the cry of the Committees of Correspondence to the Colonists was “No king but King Jesus!” (Marshall and Manuel 267)  During the war, even the British began to see that  Divine Providence appeared to be favoring the American cause.(270)

            Although most of the Revolution involved Divine Providence, space wouldn’t allow me to detail it as much as I would like to.  I will highlight just a few of the battles.

            The victory of Concord and Lexington sent the spirit of the Colonists soaring.  The taking of Fort Ticonderoga by General Allen bears recognition.  They arrived at the Fort and were amazed that the gates of the Fort were open.  In rushed the colonists, and a startled soldier raised his musket at point blank range at General Allen, and pulled the trigger–but the gun didn’t fire.  Allen stormed up the stairs which led to the quarters of the fort’s commander, Captain Dearplace.  He thumped on the door and slammed it open, and said.

            “Deliver this fort instantly.”

                        “By what authority?”  Delaplace asked.

                                    “In the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!”

            The captain ordered his forty man garrison to lay down their arms, and the gateway to New York was now securely in American possession.(Marshall and Manuel 276)

            The Battle of Bunker Hill bears recognition also.  Although the Colonists had lost the battle, and retreated,  the British lost half of their 2200 men.  Maybe it wasn’t such a great victory after all.  What took the British by surprise was as they were advancing up the hill, Prescott, was not ordering his men to fire.  Peter Marshall describes Prescott as a veteran of the French and Indian War, and he had instructed his men not to fire until “you see the whites of their eyes.”  Twice he used this strategy and devastated the English troops.  The only reason they had to retreat was they were low on gunpowder (as usual).  He ordered his men with bayonets to meet the English troops while those who had any powder left were to continue to shoot.  The British could have taken Cambridge that day but they turned around because “his men were too much harassed and fatigued to give much attention to the pursuit of the rebels.”  This British blindness in missing golden opportunities would be a characteristic of their military operations. (Marshall and Manuel 282)

            Ministers with Puritan roots played a key role in the war also.  They preached inspiring sermons to keep up the spirits of the Continental Army.  Their contributions were not limited to words.  During the battles of Lexington and Concord, Chelsea’s minister, Phillips Payson captured two British supply wagons single-handedly.  Rev. John Craighead raised a company of militia from his parish and himself led them off to join Washington.  It was said of him that he preached and fought alternately.  So numerous were the fighting pastors that the Tories referred to them as “the Black regiment,” and blamed them for much of the resurging zeal of the Colonial troops.  Peter Muhlenberg was a Lutheran pastor that was preaching on Ecclesiastes 3:1 one Sunday morning. On this morning he declared to his congregation,  “There is a time for everything…”  He suddenly threw off his robe which concealed his uniform, and said  “and now it is time to fight !”  The drums were rolled for a recruit and that same afternoon he marched off at the head of a column of three hundred men.  His regiment was to earn fame as the 8th Virginia, and Muhlenberg was to distinguish himself in a number of battles rising to the rank of Brigadier general, in charge of Washington’s first light infantry brigade.(Marshall and Manuel 290)

            My paper would not be complete without including George Washington.  If anybody deserves to be called “the Father of our Nation,” he does.  What the Revolutionary War needed was a “mature sober-headed steady hand”  to assume leadership of the military, and this man was George Washington.  He accepted and declared he would serve without pay.(Marshall and Manuel  283)

            George Washington was a quiet man, not given to easy “back-slapping “ friendships, so Marshall and Manuel describe him.  His popularity surprised him.  Peter Marshall came upon a book written by William Johnson entitled George Washington, the Christian at the Yale Divinity School Library. It was filled with 24 pages of the most beautiful prayers Peter Marshall had ever read.  This book left no doubt in his mind that George Washington was not a Deist. 

            Historians generally credit Washington as having achieved his greatest feat in holding the army together at Valley Forge, but Washington credited God. (Marshall and Manuel 326)  Washington ordered a Thanksgiving Service to be held the day after the surrender of the British, marking the end of the war. He was quoted as saying:

“The hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all of this,

that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than

wicked that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations.”(332)

When he returned to Congress to give his official resignation, his last words included:

 “I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last solemn act of my

official life by commending the interests of our dearest country to the

protection of Almighty God, and of those who have superintendence

of them to His Holy keeping.(335)

The founding fathers who wrote the Declaration of Independence, must have shared the same thoughts because three times God is mentioned, most  notably at the end where it reads “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”

            Thomas Jefferson  is responsible for most of the final composing.  He left God our of the Declaration of Independence entirely.  Congress, however, insisted upon including God over Jefferson’s angry objection.(Marshall and Manuel 307)  My question to modern historians who try to depict our founding fathers as Deists, is how could this have happened?  Why would there be strong resistance to leaving God out of the Declaration?  Why was God mentioned three times?  How did  “In God We Trust” get inscribed on our coins if our founding fathers were all Deists?    

            Before I continue with our adventure into our Christian heritage as we travel through time, there is a forgotten war hero that needs to be acknowledged.  A hero that historians left out of the history books.  A hero, that if he had not been in existence living in the New World, we might not have been victorious in the Revolutionary War because of austere lack of funds.  Haym Salomon was his name.  He was a Jew from Philadelphia.  It  Dr. David Lewis ten years of research to piece his story together because material was sparse.  The story of Haym Salomon is told in its entirety in  the book, Israel and the USA  by Dr. David Lewis.

            According to Dr. David Lewis, and his book Israel and the USA, Salomon was the principal financier of the American Revolution.  Without his sacrificial financial contributions, we would have lost the war with England.  Can you try to imagine the course history would  have taken had there not been a United States of America?  Would Hitler have won World War II?  Salomon gave everything to the cause of the war, including his imprisonment, and, in the end, even his family and life.  He chose to give it all up and deny himself for the American cause.  He was included in a statue of three American patriots, along with George Washington and Robert Morris, located on Wacker Drive in Chicago.  In 1975, a 10-cent U.S. postage stamp was issued in his honor and I have one of these few remaining stamps.

            As we enter the War of 1812, we must take a good hard look at the true story behind our national anthem.  It is a Christian story that modern historians seem to bypass, probably because it is extremely obvious that God supremely and divinely intervened.  It all started with a minor incident at Chesapeake Bay.  A Methodist missionary named Joshua Thomas was stationed on Tangier Island in the bay about 100 miles from Baltimore.  On the Sunday before embarking for the assault on Baltimore, the British had ordered Thomas to hold a public meeting to exhort the troops, but  they did not anticipate the contents of his message, which was the message of salvation through Jesus Christ.  Thomas felt  “it was given to him by the Almighty that they could not take Baltimore and would not succeed in their expedition.”  He told the troops that today would be for many of them their “last chance for repentance.” (Marshall and Manuel, 150)

              Fort McHenry guarded the entrance to Baltimore’s harbor and it was flying the largest American flag ever seen.  It measured  twenty-nine feet by thirty-six feet and it could be seen for miles.  The British were about to concentrate more fire power than had ever been leveled at the United States in one place.  The British  had the most infernal weapon system of the world with aerial bombs–ballistic missiles that would burst directly over the heads of the defenders, instantly filling the air with flying shrapnel and death.(Marshall and Manuel 152) Marshall and  Manuel comment on the earthshattering firepower leveled on the fort.

             “If you were a praying man, you thanked God for the rain that had turned the ground inside the fort into a quagmire that simply absorbed so many of the shells.  You also thanked Him for the banty rooster that came out of nowhere, mounting a parapet, and hurling defiance at the British, to the cheers of the exhausted defenders.  But most of all you thanked Him for such obvious interventions as the mortar that landed directly on top of the powder magazine and dented in its  roof–but didn’t explode.  You also thanked Him that after a whole day in this living inferno, you and most of your comrades were still alive.” (Marshall and Manue1 153)  The bombardment of Fort McHenry continued unrelentlessly.  Rocket ships arched their missiles into the fort, aerial bombs burst, and mortars thudded in. (155)

            Francis Scott Key happened to be on board a British ship under a flag of truce.  Contrary to what has been taught, he did not write the words of our national anthem the following morning.  He wrote them in the middle of the night, when the outcome was still very much in doubt.  Marshall and  Manuel describe the  giant flag that had been flying over the fort at “twightlight’s last gleaming” was still occasionally visible by “the rockets red glare” and the “bombs bursting in the air.”  Through the night, gave proof “that our flag was still there.” (Marshall and Manuel 155)

            The horrendous rainstorm finally gave and a worried and frustrated Francis Scott Key  wrote down the words that had been coming to him.  Would that flag still be waving come morning?  As the dawn peaked over the horizon, the flag remained  and thus our national anthem was birthed. Fort McHenry had withstood the greatest bombardment in naval history. (Marshall and Manuel 155)

            When the British invasion  army returned to Tangier Island, Parson Thomas inquired of the first officers if they had taken Baltimore.  The answer was “No, but hundreds of our brave men have been slain and our best general is killed.  It turned out just as you told us…we have had a bloody battle, and all the time we were fighting we thought of you, and what you told us…” (Marshall and Manuel 155)

            So far, it appears that  nothing was going right for the British.  They had engaged thousands of men and ships to this war at a time when they were also at war with Napoleon. They decided they would focus their attention on  Mississippi, as it would be worth far more in the long run.  However, little did they know they would be taking  on the most effective American military leader since Washington, “Old Hickory,” Andrew Jackson himself—a 47-year old from Tennessee.  Also, little did they know, that Jackson had a score to settle with the British  and now the timing was perfect to settle that score and vent his full wrath against the British  for kidnapping him and his brother  when they were young, and brutally beating and slashing them with knives, which in the end, killed his brother and almost killed him.(Marshall and Manuel 160)  The authors  state that “in less time than one can write it, the Forty-fourth Foot [British soldiers] was literally swept from the face of the earth.”  The regiment seemed to vanish from sight, except the half of it that lay stricken on the ground.  Every mounted officer was down at the first fire and a vast number of soldiers were shot through the head, something never seen before on European fields of battle.  No such execution by small arms has ever been seen or heard of since.” (166)  The British had suffered 1,971 casualities,(all by rifles, none by cannons) while Jackson’s army losses numbered seven killed and six wounded.

            Jackson was an outstanding Christian in many respects.  As  God’s children know, we all have different callings in life, and Jackson was one of God’s warriors.  He gave Christ all the credit for what he called a “miraculous deliverance.”  He was quoted as saying:

 “I was sure of success, for I knew that God would not give me previsions

of disaster, but signs of victory.  It appears that the unerring hand of

Providence shielded my men from the shower of balls, bombs, and rockets,

when every ball and bomb from our guns carried with them a mission of death.  Heaven to be sure, has interposed most wonderfully in our behalf, and I am

filled with gratitude, when I look back to what we have escaped.”(Marshall and Manuel 169).

 Not only did Jackson firmly believe in God’s providential care, but at no time would he allow anyone to speak derogatorily of Christianity.(279)

            My paper would also never be complete without including the Second Great Awakening.  Once more God was to intervene in order that the covenant the Pilgrims and Puritans had made with Him could still be kept–if the republic chose to do so, according to the authors of From Sea to Shining Sea,  Marshall and  Manuel.

            The young Methodist circuit riders on horseback sparked the beginning of the Second Great Awakening after the outbreak of the Kentucky Revivals.  They drove themselves as hard or even harder than the American pioneers. It was often said on frigid blustery winter days, “there’s nothing out today but the crows and the Methodist preachers!!” (Marshall and Manuel 72)

            Perhaps the most significant fruit of the Second Great Awakening in New England was the strengthening of the “loving one’s neighbor” aspect of American Christianity.  Christians of all denominations established orphanages, old people’s homes, sanitariums, hospitals, and all manner of benevolent societies– for everything from improving morals and combating alcoholism, to distributing tracts and Bibles, starting Sunday schools, and supporting missionaries. (Marshall and Manuel, 119)  Methodists nearly abolished slavery permanently in their denomination and the Presbyterians made a strong statement against slavery.  All evangelical denominations uniformly and vehemently spoke against it.  The Quakers deserve a lot of credit for reaching influential moderates. (Marshall and Manuel 224)

            All good things must come to an end and although much of our Christian heritage I wasn’t  able to squeeze into my paper, I highly recommend the two main books of my challenging  endeavor to recreate our spiritual roots, which are, The Light and the Glory, and From Sea to Shining Sea, published by Revell and  written by Peter Marshall and David Manuel, two very educated  and dedicated historians who spent so much time to gather  this information, lost in time, and lost in the archives of the  history shelves as Columbus’s Book of Prophecy was.

            As I review all of my work in putting this paper together I am feeling quite overwhelmed.  How do I begin to critique such a monumentous task as this paper was?  How do I answer the critics who blast the early Puritans  on the sadistic methods of torture that was supposedly inflicted on their society?  First, Peter Marshall and David Manuel didn’t elaborate so it is difficult for me to ascertain exactly what happened.  My Christian History magazine mentioned some of these apparent abuses.  Understanding the hostility of this godless society we now live in, knowing that modern historians have deliberately been rewriting history regarding Christianity, and my current history book The Enduring Vision which is  inaccurate concerning our Christian history, I can’t help but feel that the so-called abuses of the Puritans maybe didn’t exist.  Or, if they did, I can’t help but feel they were grossly exaggerated.  I have scanned other material on the Puritans in my college library and I can’t find any mention of sadistic abuses by the Puritans.  I do know punishment was harsh but we can’t judge the medieval and  the early modern period of time by our religious culture of today.  It’s not fair.

             It seems we are a people of extremes.  There are two sides to God–a God of love and a God of Judgment.  God warns us in Paul’s letter to the Galatians “Do NOT be deceived!  God is not mocked.”  We need to remember that God, who is absolute perfection, cannot tolerate evil.  It is not  possible.  Good and Evil cannot co-exist together in the spiritual realm.  Since God is perfectly holy, how can he tolerate sin?  The Puritans knew and understood this concept.  They also understood that they owed God everything.

            Christians have withstood horrendous persecution for their faith and I don’t think they would have put themselves through it if they hadn’t discovered something so pure and so good that gave them meaning in life.  I don’t believe the early Apostles would have let themselves endure the slow torturous death of a crucifixion if they hadn’t found something that was real.  Peter requested to be crucified upside down because he didn’t feel worthy to die in the same manner that Jesus did.  Andrew was crucified on an X-shaped cross.  Bartholomew was flayed alive for his Christian convictions. It isn’t hard to have faith in God when everything is going great.  Maybe the early Christians did take sin a little too seriously by inflicting such gross injustices of punishment.  But, are we, in our present state, any better because we have moved to the opposite extreme because we tolerate all manner of sin in the church and in our society?  Aren’t we making a mockery of God’s supreme sacrifice–becoming a man so he could understand us and take back the keys of death that Adam handed over to Satan in the Garden of Eden??  I feel history shows that the Puritans suffered worse pain and suffering at the hands of their persecutors in England  than they dealt out in their egalitarian society for the sake of the Gospel and their Covenant with God. 

            Also, there is a different concept, quite profound, that almost everybody including theologians overlook–what makes us think that church history and Christian history are the same?  They are not!!  They have intersected on occasion. Martin Luther, for example, sparked the reformation.

             Jesus specifically commands that the Holy Spirit is to be our teacher and guide, which was initiated on  the day of Pentecost which was the epoch that sparked the last dispensation of time, the era of the Church.  It ushered in the Holy Spirit who was to be our “God-Conscience.”  After the Apostles died, however, the church “kicked” the Holy Spirit out of the church by inserting a man-made dispensation, thus closing out the age of the miracles and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  I suppose it was their way of saying “We don’t need you anymore, we can handle things now,” and so history records a barbaric time period when the true Christians, who opted to keep the Holy Spirit as their teacher and guide, separated from  the doctrinal “Christians,” who opted to let men be their teachers.  There was always a remnant from the early church who paid a dear price for not being a part of the state church.  The monks transmitted and preserved true Christianity and the gentle light of the gospel continued on.  Other nonconformers kept the light of the gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit alive.  What was taken out of history is that the first and second Great Awakenings were Pentecostal revivals, especially the second one.  John and Charles Wesley were Pentecostal leaders, and  the Wesleyans took this part of their Christian history out of their educational books, so generations would grow up not knowing their Pentecostal roots, according to an Assembly of God graduate from the Assembly of God theological school in Springfield, Missouri.  Supposedly, their library can trace the early church roots all the way up to the present!!  That to me, is astounding!!

            I think it would take a third Great Awakening to awaken this land and it has already been foreseen and predicted by those who spend hours in prayer and are steeped in the Bible.  Time will tell. 

            The reason I feel I can ascertain who the real children of God were in our Christian heritage is because of the scripture “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” History records how God stood behind Andrew Jackson and  George Washington among others.

            Slavery is probably the most shameful part of our Christian history in my opinion, but it also added to our  rich Christian heritage.  Peter Marshall and David Manuel have gone on record, among other historians, as referring to the African Americans of that time period  “Christian Martyrs.”  They kept the faith among insurmountable odds, matching the zeal and love for Christ as was shared by the Apostles.  During the Depression, to put writers to work, the government paid them to interview the African Americans who suffered through this era, and the testimonies and stories are truly amazing–that in spite of their persecution, they “fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith,”  just  as St. Paul described himself  as doing in 2 Timothy 4:7.  They had found Jesus because they were brought to America, and through his love they kept their humble spirits, and the vast majority refused to give in to hate and bitterness.   I can’t help but compare the Black legacy with the one left by Upton Sinclair in his book The Jungle.  It was quite obvious to me that Jurgis was a  “doctrinal Christian,” and instead of repenting, Jurgis hardened his heart and entered a life of sin and debauchery.  Our Black heritage is just the opposite.  They turned to Christ and found hope  and everlasting life.

            True Christians did own slaves in the south, and history does record that the true children of God were good to their slaves, and in some cases the slaves were practically members of  the family.  Many of the slaves stayed with their masters even after they were given their freedom by President Lincoln.  As for the “doctrinal Christians” that are Christians in name only,  it would appear that they received their reward from God for badly representing His name.  We are representatives of Christ, and how we conduct ourselves is a reflection on God.  Much evil has been done “in the name of the Lord” and many have stumbled and fallen and suffered because of it.  

            Peter Marshall states in his book From Sea to Shining Sea, that when the slave owner was on his death bed there was a very common occurrence according to many diaries and testimonies of the slaves at that time.  A strange fear would come over them and they would summon their slaves around the bedside to beg their forgiveness.  Sarah  Grimke records in her diary:

 “…In his last illness[slave master] I was sent for and I watched beside

his death couch.  The girl on whom he had so often inflicted punishment

haunted his dying hours.  And when at length the king of terrors

approached, he shrieked in utter agony of spirit:  “Oh the blackness

of darkness!  The black imps, I see them all about me–take them away!”

And amid such exclamations, he expired.”(263)

 

            Similar testimony is offered by an ex-slave named John Brown, who belonged to a master named Thomas Stevens. 

 “Toward the end of his life, Stevens suffered several grave seizures

from which he did not expect to recover.  In his fright he sent for us

and asked us to forgive him…I remember his calling old Aunt Sally

and begging and praying of her to get the devil away from behind

the door.  It is a common belief among us that all the masters die in

an awful fright, for it is usual for the slaves to be called on such

occasions, in order for us to say we forgive them for what they have

done.  So we come to think that their minds must be dreadful uneasy

about holding slaves.”(262)

            With this I conclude my critiquing  of my paper.  It is my choice to leave on a somber note and to again remind the readers of this paper, what the main theme of Ecclesiastes is–go ahead–eat drink and be merry, God has given you the freedom of choice– but just remember there is a Judgment Day coming–and this is the Christian heritage that the Puritans left us with.  In addition, they left us the legacy of the dream of one nation under God.   

.    

Works Cited

Anders, Max E. and Judith A. Lundsford. 30 Days To Understand Church History Brentwood:

Wolgemuth & Hyatt, 1991.

Boyer, Paul S., etal. The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People. Lexington:D.C. Heath &

Co., 1995.

Gaustad, Edwin S. “A Quest For Pure Christianity.” Christian History. 41 1994. p 8-15.

Guelzo, Allen C. “When The Sermon Reigned.” Christian History. 41 1994. p 23-25.

Lewis, David Allen. Israel And The U.S.A: Restoring the Lost Pages of American History: The Story

 

of Haym Salomon, Forgotten Patriot. Springfield: Menorah, 1993.

Marshall, Peter, and David Manuel. The Light And The Glory. Grand Rapids: Revell, 1977.

Marshall, Peter, and David Manuel. From Sea To Shining Sea. Grand Rapids: Revell, 1986.

Marty, Martin E. “The Clamor Over Columbus.” Christian History. 35 1992. p 17-19.

Miller, Kevin A. “Why Did Columbus Sail?” Christian History. 35 1992. p 9-16.

Niemczyk, Cassandra. “Did You Know?” Christian History 41 1994. p 2-3.

Packer, J.I. “Theology On Fire.” Christian History. 41 1994. p 32-35.

Stout, Harry S. “The Puritans Behind The Myth.” Christian History.41 1994. 41-43.

 

 

MINE EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY–PART II

ONE NATION UNDER GOD

PART 2 (revised)

BY

GAIL INGEBRITSON

The United States of America–one nation under God?  We explored our Christian origins in part one.  This paper will deal with how well we have preserved what our founding fathers fought and died for. How well have we remembered the troops of Valley Forge, naked and eating bark from the trees, who fought throughout the entire Revolutionary war?  There is good news and bad news regarding the continuance and preservation of our Christian Heritage.

What earmarks the era from the civil war to the present, is revival.  Revivals are what spur up our imagination and allows us to continue boldly and steadfastly.  Our human nature thrives on them.  Without them, we would shrivel up and lose out, because we have a tendency to be lured away by various doctrines, and lifestyles (Loud 3).

Christian revival in America has been historically and repeatedly characterized by waves that peaked to being overly saturated to a spiraling downwards of enthusiasm, as the American people would no longer be able to endure the crusading energy. Thus, it would burn itself out.  When the decline was at its lowest ebb, revival would be rebirthed, and with it, another of the cycles of revivalism would arise; thus, did America thrive on her Christian foundations–and this was the American way of getting religion, losing it, and finding it yet again (Loud 3).  It would seem that George Washington’s final prayer, . . . Lord God, to you I commit this nation . . .”  That God did remember George Washington, and our true founders the Puritans, who made a covenant with God ( 3). 

All  evangelists had their own individual trademark, their own conversion, and told of their regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Evangelists would then harken to their audiences that they too must be born again ( Loud 5). Each one seemed to have heard the command to “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” It was said of the pioneer evangelists that “their thoughts were not of this world, but of the future of eternal souls (7).”

Thus, did revival spread throughout America– through great modern apostles like Jonathan Edwards, John and Charles Wesley, and George Whitefield and many more.  They set out to evangelize the entire world–it has always been so.  The thoughts of these pioneer evangelists were not of this world–but of the future of eternal souls. Sometimes, revivals came through one man, such as Charles Finney.  At other times, revivals were denominational in nature.  Still other revivals  were sparked by hard times, and not by the hands of a revivalist (Loud 5).

In 1831, a revival swept over 1500 towns with more than 100,000 individuals added to the Christian Kingdom of God.  Revival spired down in 1843.  Then, with a spurt upheaval, came the revival of 1857–which came without a revivalist.  It was an economic crisis that forced the American people to their knees.  A financial crash had shaken the money centers of the world.  Industry stood still, and bewildered and fearful men turned back to religion (Loud 7). It was the same after Wall Street floundered in 1907 also. But, this is the dramatic difference–America, founded on Christian roots, turned to God in hard times, while the people in Europe turned to revolution and violence (8).  

The remainder of this paper will explore some of these great evangelists, and how they made an impact on our country.

Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards came to wipe away all sense of security among the lay people, who had become extremely apathetic, and lukewarm in their faith.  His theme was to make every living human supremely aware of the eminent danger of a literal Hell.  He also prophesied in Northampton, MA in 1734, that there would be a “Great Awakening” that was to start with the backslidden Puritan New England (Loud 11). He preached “justification by faith alone,” and he paved the way for George Whitefield.  Edwards ancestors were Puritan, and he made all of life an unending Sabbath (12). 

For five years, Edwards pleaded in vain to a nation which had fallen into moral laxity, economic confusion, and religious indifference.  To Jonathan, spiritual indifference was the work of the devil (Loud 21).

February 2, 1738, is an important day in the Christian history of America.  The troopship Whitaker finally left England for America, and George Whitefield was on his way.  His ship disembarked at Savannah, GA, on May 7, 1738.  Despite an attack of fever, he began to preach at once, visiting towns all around Georgia (Hall 36).

George Whitefield

George Whitefield was the true spark that signaled the beginning of the first great Awakening, with Jonathan Edwards having the same role as John the Baptist–to “prepare the way for Jesus.”  When he realized his calling, he fasted for 40 days (Loud 37).

The American colonies were now experiencing a spontaneous spiritual awakening with Whitefield as the

pilot.  His energy was limitless.  The inhabitants of New York, Long Island, and Philadelphia rallied to seek salvation. Benjamin Franklin was so impressed that when Whitefield appealed for funds to supply the Bethesda Orphanage, he emptied his pockets (Hall 43).

Benjamin Franklin was so amazed at the effect of his delivery from the Courthouse Gallery in Philadelphia with 6,000 people jammed the streets to hear him, that he “stood in awful silence,” and he also noted “the multitudes of all sects and denominations that attended his sermons were enormous (Hall 40).”

Whitefield always started his ministry with prayer.  He prayed for the poor in the byways, and the prisoners in jail.  On June 30, 1736, a year after Jonathan Edwards had started “preparing the way in the wilderness,”   George Whitefield traveled farther in the name of his Lord, than any other through out all of time (Hall 38).Whitefield had begun his calling in Philadelphia, where he became a big inspiration to Benjamin Franklin.  No meeting house could contain the crowds that responded to him.  He preached and rode on horseback over 30 years– from the coasts of Maine, to the sandy shores of the Carolinas (Loud 44).  By the time Whitefield was 26 years old, he had preached to crowds estimated at 80,000.  His popularity was unrivaled (Hall 31).  Revival fires spread and thousands swarmed to hear this evangelist with a booming voice for miles.  Every service the money he collected went to his beloved Orphan home (Loud 52).

John and Charles Wesley

John Wesley was destined to be a vitalizing and stabilizing force in the 1800’s democracy of Britain and America.  God’s power through Wesley was felt in the social, industrial, and political fields of America.  For 50 years, Wesley preached Christianity–“the life of God in the souls of men, and a religion of love, joy, and peace (Loud 83).” Woodrow Wilson noted in his diaries many years later, “The Church was dead, and Wesley awakened it; the poor were neglected, and Wesley sought them out; The gospel was shrunken into formulas, and Wesley flung it fresh upon the air one more in the speech of common men (Hall 31).”

Charles Wesley was the main hymn writer, and the two brothers kindled and replenished the fever of the great spiritual revival.  They reflected the change of religious atmosphere of America.  Charles wrote over 6500 hymns (Loud 112).

James McGready              

Revivalism in America soared to its heights in the 1800’s, especially when it crossed the mountains into Kentucky, where it really took off under James McGready. McGready found in Red River a “hell on earth.”  It was nicknamed “Rogues Harbor,” because it was the refuge of murders, horse thieves, highway men, and thugs (Loud 97).

Peter Cartwright

The Kentucky revivals started with a covenant of prayer for Pentecost, repentance, and redemption. Finally, in the summer of 1799, revival came like a deluge (Loud 98). From all parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio, multitudes descended upon the camp ground.  Evangelist Peter Cartwright estimated at the Cane Ridge revival that there was 25,000 people, and he declared the noise was like the “roar of Niagara (103).”

Peter Cartwright threw the entire force of his evangelism against the social evils of his time.  To him, liquor and slavery were an abomination, and a curse upon America (Loud 135).  Twice Illinois citizens sent him to the legislature to promote their cause, and in 1846, they decided to promote him to Congress where he ran against Abraham Lincoln and lost.  This was the last time he ran for office.  He fought slavery from the pulpit instead.  In his lifetime, he preached well over 20,000 sermons and converted more than 20,000.  His life spanned an entire era in the history of America (136).

James Finney

James Finney took on the “bootleggers rum demon.”  He opened fire on them from the pulpit.  He was ordered to go home, but he responded, “I will not go home.  I have a mission from God to break up this stronghold of the devil.  By his help, I will do it, despite all of the distillers, ardors, and albetors in the church.”  He was often found preaching in barrooms.

The converts of Cartwright and Finney annexed new territories for the gospel as fast as it was being settled.  They never yielded, and never retreated.  Every camp meeting brought out fresh recruits for their expanding revival (Loud 141).

Dwight L. Moody

Dwight L. Moody emerged during the Civil War.  Moody’s services were needed not only at the campsites, but the front lines as well. In January, 1862,  he served under fire at the Battle of Murfreesboro.  Striding among the wounded, he would ask them four words–  “Are you a Christian (Hall 97)?”

Ira David Sankey joined with Moody in July, 1870.  Because Moody was not blessed with a singing voice, God provided him one through Ira Sankey. They remained partners of the Gospel (Hall 100).

Moody once proclaimed in his New York-Brooklyn visit in 1871, “God revealed himself to me, and I had such an experience with his love, that I had to ask him to stay his hand. . . I was all the time tugging and carrying water.  But now I have a river that carries me . . .”  The “river” he was referring to was Moody’s revivalism and the tide that swept Britain.  Nothing had come close to Wesley’s evangelism until God used Moody (Hall 102).

In 1873, Moody expressed a desire to return to Britain, and win 10,000 souls. A lady then asked him, “Are you going to preach to the miserable poor?”

“Yes,” Moody bellowed defiantly, and to the miserable rich too (Hall 103).”

Moody did just what he said he would do.  He went into the “poorest, meanest streets,” and told the women to “come and bring their babies with them.”  The prosperous middle class was also well represented (Hall 104).

The London revival began on April 9, and the building set chairs up for 15,000 people, but more than 16,000 came (Hall 105).  On July 13, 1875, the last revival service was held.  At least 1.5 million people had seen and heard Moody and Sankey–a record considering these were the days before the invention of microphones, radio, television, and public relations agents (108).  

Moody went on to accomplish many great things, especially his Bible Institution in 1887.  It was dedicated on January 18, 1890 (Hall 112).  Moody also founded two schools–one for boys and the other for girls (111), which kept him busy the rest of his life (113).

Before we move on to the 19th century, it is only proper to include Christian Black history, for this is where we left off in the previous paper.  What ever happened to the Black race after the Civil War?

After the Civil War, about 50% of the Black church-going population belonged to churches that had been formed by Northern missionaries.  Their goal was to reconstruct the entire religious and moral fabric of southern society.  After a decade of labor, the Northern South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church declared that the  “religious institutions of the South are corrupted, and her garments are moth eaten, presumably by the  barbarianism of slavery and the demoralization of war.  We firmly believe that God’s great means of righteous

reconstruction in this country are religious rather than political (Williamson 180).”  At the end of the reconstruction era, about 100,000 Blacks in South Carolina belonged to churches started by the out of state missionaries (193).

Church worship was different in the Black churches.  Although the organization, ritual, and theology was the same as the white churches, the Black church expressed their emotions during a service.  Dancing was always a part of their worship services.  Also, Blacks came to church often and stayed late (Williamson 202).

The Black church also contained a distinct Puritanical spirit in the Black preachers.  Drinking, chewing tobacco, womanizing, the dance, theaters, horse races, card tables, and the opera were forbidden.  The Blacks, however, did seem to possess a sense of fatalism–a resignation to the tragedies of life.  As one Black preacher stated, “We have to go as God commands us, be that what it may. If our way is hard, we must bear it, and we should be resigned [to it] (Williamson 203).”

The first prominent Northern missionary who moved to the South to help the newly freed  Blacks was a New York minister named Mansfield French (Williamson 181). Mansfield French fought harder and longer than any other man in the state of New York, for land grants for the Blacks.  In the first session of the Republican legislature, he received strong support for a seat in the U.S. Senate (205).  

Timothy Willard Lewis was another northern missionary who came from Massachusetts and resettled in the south to specifically help the Blacks get established in churches (Williamson 181). Lewis devoted his considerable talents to the single task. He initially carried his evangelism wherever the soldiers went.  In 1865, when Lewis entered Charleston with the Union soldiers, he found deserted churches everywhere.  Ten years later, it was written of Lewis, “For weeks, if not for months, neither white nor black could have had a pastor’s prayer, a minister’s blessing, a sacrament, or even a Christian burial if he had not been there to supply them all(182).” As a result of Lewis, several thousand Carolina Blacks entered the northern Methodist Church, and it was to the Methodist preachers, rather than the ones born in the South, the Black people turned to and recognized in them, that they were their natural protectors and friends (185).

Northern Methodism expanded dramatically, and the Northern Methodist Conference of North Carolina recruited and trained hundreds of Blacks for Christian ministers (Williamson 185).  In 1890, it had a membership of 43,000 Black Churches (193).

Should our government apologize to the Black race for its part in the slavery of the Black race?  Earl W. Carter Sr., a Black minister, says no–just give us respect.  Carter believes that God judged the African race and cursed them with slavery because black Egyptians put the Hebrews in bondage.  It is as God said in Genesis _____

“I will bless those that bless the Jews, and curse those who curse the Jews.”

Carter goes on to say that “We were in Egypt, in power for 3,000 years.  We are indeed the descendants of Egyptians.  We were scientists and inventors, educators and writers.  But, that also means we were the first slave masters.  We enslaved Israel for 400 years.”  He then showed them Isaiah 19:4 which reads:

“And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king

shall rule over them saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts.”

Carter went on to quote Ezekiel 30:9 and 32:9:

“In that day shall messengers go forth from Me in ships to make the careless

Ethiopians afraid, and great pain shall come upon them, as in the day of Egypt:

for, lo, it cometh.”I will also vex the hearts of many people, when I shall bring

thy destruction among the nations, into the countries which thou hast no known.”

Carter quotes historian Jeffrey Stewart as saying, “it is a myth that most Africans who became slaves in America were captured by Europeans in slave raids.  Most of the Africans who became slaves were sold into slavery by other Africans.”  This, according to Carter, fulfills another prophecy foretold in Isaiah 19:2,4:

“And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one

against his brother, and every one against his neighbor; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.  And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel Lord.”

It was the Portuguese who actually started the shipping slave trade in the 1400’s.  By 1460, 700 to 800 slaves were being transported to Portugal annually.  In 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Lincoln gave freedom to those held as slaves in America.  The slave trade lasted about 400 years–the same as Israel’s enslavement in Egypt.

So, what does Carter have to say about God’s love for the African people?  He feels that God used drastic means to bring the Africans out of a life of idol worship and darkness.  The fact is, God is harsh with people who bow to Idolatry, and slavery is a harsh chastisement; but, God loved the Black race too much to leave them in idolatry.  Carter goes on to say that when he looks at the tribal warfare that is going on in Africa, and the multiplicity of problems there–drought, dissension, and political wars, he is glad the ships came.  God used drastic means to bring the African race out of a life of idol worship, darkness, and ignorance, and bring them into the knowledge of the one true God.  The Black slaves in America eventually gained their freedom.  In America, God sent deliverers such as Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. to release the people–both white and black from the horrid reality of the curses on them.  Although the United States wasn’t the original instigator of slavery, it became a model for deliverance from it (Carter 82).   

Billy Sunday

As we start to leave the 1800’s and venture into the 1900’s, we meet one of the most prominent and controversial evangelists that sprouted just after the civil war. His name was Billy Sunday, born in a log cabin near Ames, Iowa (Hall 129).  As a boy, Billy’s interests were strictly athletic–and he was a natural athlete and acquired fame for his running ability (131). 

Colonel John Scott, a former lieutenant governor of Iowa, and his wife took Billy in at age 14.  He lived in Marshalltown, Iowa, and was a fireman, and played baseball there.  Because of his extreme speed, he was invited to joint the White Stockings, who laughed at him until he won their respect by beating their fastest athletes barefoot (Hall 132).

He was converted in 1886, in a dramatic conversion experience.  He immediately renounced swearing, drunkenness, gambling, and the theater (Hall 134). He started his preaching ministry at the YMCA, and preached on street corners (135).  His ministry grew as he was invited to preach at various churches of different denominations.  The spectacle of a famous young baseball star giving up his career for Christ intrigued the newspapers from the beginning (137). 

In 1908, the Chicago Presbytery ordained Billy as a minister.  He received an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1912 (Hall 138).

Billy’s teaching technique was unique.  When desiring to stress a point, he could use ridicule and mimicry to perfection.  He attempted to improve the moral life of every community he visited, and the saloon keepers dreaded his coming, because Billy hated liquor, and everybody connected with it (Hall 139).

As the years passed, Billy became a figure of national importance. Billy’s fundamentalist theology was well spiced with patriotic Americanism (Hall 141), but at every meeting, Billy publicly fought a personal battle with the devil, and he referred to the devil as “the most formidable enemy the human race has to contend with.”  He referred to the devil as being a “real genuine, blazing-eyed, eleven-hoofed, forked-tail old devil.” He compared Charles Darwin, Madame Di Pomadour, and Henry VIII to this “tormentor of hell [devil] (142).”

The New York Times described him during a New York revival as follows:

“He begins to dance like a shadow boxer.  He slaps his hands together with a report like a broken electric lamp.  He poses on one foot like a fast ball pitcher winding up. He jumps upon a chair.  In the stress of his routine, he may stand with one foot on the chair, and another on the lantern. . . (Hall 143).”

Two presidents entertained Billy at their homes–Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. President Wilson received Billy at the White House with the words “God bless you and your work.” Billy went on to address the ministers and celebrities at Convention Hall on the theme, “If Christ came to Washington,” but he did so without his usual acrobatics (Hall 146).

With the coming of the Prohibition, Billy’s “Booze Sermon” gave way to another entitled “Crooks, Corkscrews, Bootleggers, and Whiskey Politicians–they shall not pass [through to the promised land].” Billy believed that Prohibition was a great blessing to the American nation, and to the working man in particular

(Hall 147).

While preaching at Des Moines, Iowa in February of 1933, Billy suffered a heart attack.  He continued to preach as he was being helped up and said, “Don’t let them go.  They’re lost.  Give them the invitation.  I’d rather die on my feet seeing them come, than quit.”  A few months later, while preaching in Mishawaki, Indiana, he died suddenly following another heart attack (Hall 148). 

Daddy Grace (1883-1960)

Daddy Grace was the founder of the Church of the Rock of Apostolic Faith.  He operated around 300 institutions in America for worship (Hall 103).  His followers were usually the Blacks, but his church was known as the “House of Prayer for all people.”  He had more than three million followers in more than sixty states (104).

By the time he was sixty years old, he had taught himself to speak six languages including Hebrew.  The press described him as an “expert linguist (Hall 166).”

“I have no home. I travel each of the 48 states and Cuba.  I bring the word of God unchanged to the house of prayer for all people–regardless of creed, race, or color.” Such are the words and the philosophy of Daddy Grace. His story of success in evangelism seems to be centered around his outgoing personality, flare for the spectacular, and canny business sense than in his actual preaching ability (Hall 166).

Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944)

It was said of Aimee, as inscribed on her epitaph, in the memorial brochure “ Medal for sister,” that “she could have bought oil wells.  She might have built palatial homes; but, she built a temple of service where whosoever might come . . . the needy, the sick, the discouraged, and find help and solace in their hour of need   (Hall 171).”

Aimee’s religious training started early.  Her mother, Minnie Peau Kennedy, had dedicated Aimee to God as a baby much like Hannah did for her son, the prophet Samuel (Hall 172).  She believed that Aimee was destined for great things.  Aimee’s first marriage was to a missionary to the far east named Robert Semple.  She and Robert worked side by side until one day malaria overcame them both. Aimee recovered, but Robert did not.  He died in Hong Kong, and a month later, Roberta Star Temple was born (176).

Aimee returned to America and engaged in missionary work.  Three years later she married Harold Stewart McPherson, and Aimee became known as Sister McPherson.  She conducted Pentecostal revivals through out America (Hall 178).  It is amazing to consider that only two years earlier, she was so ill that she was at death’s door, but now her energy seemed limitless.  Between 1918-1923, she crossed the United States with her mother eight times conducting services in tents, churches, theaters, and auditoriums at Philadelphia, San Francisco, Baltimore, San Diego, Washington D.C., Dayton, Denver, Montreal, Hartford, the Bronx, Indianapolis, and St. Louis (179).

In April 1922, she broadcasted her first sermon on the air, thus becoming a pioneer radio preacher (Hall 180).  One of her most successful revivals began at the People’s Tabernacle in Denver with an overflowing crowd of over 15,000 each night.  Determined to get seats  the next day, worshipers barricaded themselves overnight in the restrooms.  The altar calls received such enthusiastic responses, that Sister had two altar calls instead of the customary one.  Often when she called for sinners and backsliders, half the congregation accepted her invitation to

come forward.  The healing sessions at the Denver Revival were truly memorable (181).

On June 23, 1921, The Denver Post headlined its lead story– Child With Neck Tumor Cured By Healing Hands Of Evangelist.  Many other stories of healings made the news.  Many months later, ten cases chosen at random, were interviewed by reporters.  Six of them declared that their cures had been permanent, and their condition had steadily improved.  One reported that there was absolutely no set backs, been cured instantly and stayed cured. Two of the people reported they had experienced “temporary relapses.”  Only one reported that his condition was worse, and that the seeming cure was due to “excitement and elation (Hall 181).”

Sister McPherson was the founder of the 4-Square Gospel Church in Los Angeles, and she personally conducted 21 services weekly.  Her temple produced religious plays, tableaux, and operas using the lighting effects of a New York theater.  In reality, she had taken religion back to the days of the medieval morality and miracle plays (Hall 185).

A prayer tower became a  feature of the temple.  The women of the church took prayer watches by day, and men by night (Hall 185).

Sister McPherson had her critics too. Her mother once declared that, “No one except the Lord was ever persecuted as relentlessly as my daughter (Hall 186).”

On May 18, 1926 while swimming in the Pacific, Aimee disappeared.  Thousands of her congregation maintained a vigil on Ocean Park Beach while divers searched for her body (Hall 187). Two divers died searching for the body, but no body was found.  Later, notes demanding $500,000 in ransom for Sister’s return started to reacher her distraught mother.  One note told her mother, that “If I  didn’t pay up, they would sell her to old Felepe of Mexico City.”  They also added, “We are sick and tired of her inferno preaching She spouts scripture in answer to everything (189).”

Sister’s mother, however, was convinced that Aimee was dead, and the notes were ignored (Hall 189).  One day on June 23, the California police awakened her mother with the startling news that her “drowned” daughter had turned up in Arizona.  She had escaped from her kidnappers who were disconcerted because of all the conversions, thus snatching away some of the girls who were their source of income (190).

Aimee continued to preach and conduct revivals until her death on September 24, 1944.  She died of a heart attack in the middle of the night (Hall 193).

Aimee had conducted missionary work in 27 countries, six continents, and in several islands of the sea.  At the time of her death, the 4-Square Gospel had 685 churches and 452 meeting places abroad (Hall 104).  Back in the roaring 20’s, Aimee had gathered crowds and made headlines matching those of  Billy Graham (Hall 105).

Kathryn Kuhlman (1907–1976)

Kuhlman is the most controversial and misunderstood evangelist of the 1900’s, in my opinion. Opinions of her are extremely polarized– Some called her an angel while others called her the “devil in disguise.”  It is difficult for me to form an accurate opinion of her because I never knew, or heard of her, or her ministry until after her death in 1976, so I am swayed to omit many negative things that I read or heard about her.

Kuhlman was born in 1907 in Concordia, Mo, one of four children. The biggest “thorn in her side,” was when she had an affair with a married man, Burroughs A Waltrip, who later divorced his wife, and left her and his children to marry Kuhlman in 1938.  This act cost them their respect within the Christian community, and it followd them wherever the went.  They were largely unwelcome, wherever they went, and finally their marriage collapsed under the weight of their sinful act, and they were divorced in 1948.

Kulhman had a flamboyant lifestyle.  She loved expensive clothes, precious jewels, luxury hotels, and first class travel according to Burgess and McGee, Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, 529-530.

Kulhman was called by God to be both an evangelist and a to bring God’s healing power into the lives of His children.  She drew large crowds, up to 10,000 at a time.  Millions came to for help and to be healed.  Speed reading four books about Kuhlman, yielded mixed results as to how genuine the healings at her crusade were.  Dr. William Nolen, in his book Healing, did long-term follow-ups on 23 of Kuhlman’s claimed healings.  His results showed no cures.  Other follow-ups, however, did yield positive results after a 10-year follow-up. Most importantly, she touched the lives of millions of people, with her God-sent healing ministry, and only a minuscule amount of people could be followed up on, so I feel that I must give her the benefit of the doubt as to her genuineness.

Kuhlman also appeared on many radio and TV programs.  Huge sums of money given as offerings were used for building 25 churches, many schools, homes, and for many different social projects (Koch 1978).       

Father Divine

One of the more prominent Black American evangelists was Reverend M. J. Divine, better known as Father Divine, who made his mark in American history from the 1920’s to the 1960’s.  He was founder of the World Wide Kingdom of Peace with thousands of followers in America, Europe, Africa, and Australia.  He is considered one of the most extraordinary of all God’s workers of this or any other generation. With Mother Divine by his side, the two worked unceasingly together in their cause for international peace (Hall 208).

He had followers from all walks of life–doctors, registered nurses, office workers, teachers, engineers. Society women had been known to forsake their former luxurious lives to follow Father Divine (Hall 209).

In 1933, in New York Harlem, he opened Harlem Heaven, and his well run organization filled many an empty stomach.  It consisted of several apartment houses, and 25 restaurants, serving good meals for fifteen cents per person.  During the depression days, properties were leased by his faithful followers in New Jersey, Baltimore, Jersey City, and Bridgeport (Hall 209).

Martin Luther King Jr. 1929 – 1968

The Black church in the American South was the source of much of what was vital and creative in the life of Martin Luther King Jr. There is much to be said of this  man of God that can’t be elaborated on within the scope of this paper (Wilson 119).

King was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, and his primary commitment was to the Black church in the South.  When he started his ministry, he was a liberal theologian schooled in the very liberal schools of Crozier Theological Seminary and Boston University in the Northeast. He accepted a pastorate at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, AL in 1954.  He rediscovered the southern Black Church’s tremendous ability to be a community-building institution and a source of spirituality (Wilson 120).

The goal for King’s new church was rooted in the idea that it was an “inclusive community in which each person is regarded as an image of God, with dignity, worth, and rights derived from God.”  For King, the church as a whole, represented something vital and human in which love and concern for all could take root and grow (Wilson 122).

His sermons, according to his wife, usually had a social and religious message because it was King’s belief that a minister should also be a leader in social progress (Wilson, 124).  He was a believer in the power of nonviolence (126).

His charisma, boldness, sincerity, and ability to inspire people began to unfold and his message and ideas started to make a mark on the fatalistic philosophy of the southern Black church.  The southern racists were soon aroused, and began to feel threatened.  One night, on January 27, 1956, King received a phone call at midnight from a racist who threatened to kill him and bomb his home.  It was at this point that King found new strength, and had an encounter with Jesus.  He described his experience when he wrote:

“. . . You’ve got to call on that Something and that Person that your daddy used to tell you about, that Power that can make a way out of no way.  And I discovered then that religion had to become real to me, and I had to know God for myself.  And I bowed down over that cup of coffee.  I will never forget it.  Oh yes, I prayed a prayer, and I prayed out loud that night.  I said Lord, I’m down here trying to do what’s right.  I think I’m right.  I think the cause that we represent is right.  But Lord, I must confess that I am weak now. I’m faltering.  I’m losing my courage (Wilson 127).”

It was at this point that God became real to King, and his God-conscience was opened.  He saw a vision that gave him new strength and determination. King continues to write “And it seemed to me, at the moment, that I could hear an inner voice saying to me, Martin Luther, stand up for Righteousness.  Stand up for Justice.  Stand up for truth.  And lo, I will be with you, even until the end of the world . . .”  I heard the voice of Jesus saying to fight on.  He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone.  No, never alone.  No never alone.  He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone (Wilson 127).” That “vision in the kitchen” gave King the courage and the calmness to face the worst when his home was bombed on January 30, 1956, three days later (128).

King, however, consoled his panicky supporters that night as they gathered around King’s front porch, by saying to them “If you have weapons, take them home; if you do not have them, please do not seek to get them.  We cannot solve this problem through retaliatory violence.  We must meet violence with nonviolence.  Remember, if I am stopped, this movement will not stop, because God is with the movement.  Go home with this glowing faith and this radiant assurance  (Wilson 128).”

More bombings did rock the southern Black churches; but, under King’s spiritual leadership, the songs of slavery came alive, prayer rose to sermon, tears gave way to rejoicing, and hope triumphed over sorrow.  Thus, the power of the Black church in the south continued to triumph over evil (Wilson 129).

In time, Black churches became key centers in unifying and rallying the Black community more forcefully (Wilson 133).  In 1964, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in symbolic recognition of the “amazing discipline and courage his people had demonstrated in the practice of the Christian principles of love and nonviolence (134).”

William (Billy) F. Graham 1918–

“My one purpose in life is to help people find a personal relationship with God, which, I believe, comes through knowing Christ.”  Such are the words of the greatest evangelist of all times, in my opinion.

Evangelist Billy Graham took Christ at His word when He said in Mark 16:15, “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.”  Billy Graham has preached the gospel to more people in live audiences than anyone else in history–over 210 million people in more than 185 countries and territories.  Hundreds of millions more have been reached through television, video, and film (BGEA Internet).

Today, at age 81, Billy Graham and his ministry are known around the globe.  He has preached in remote African villages, and in the heart of New York City. Those to whom he has ministered has ranged from heads of state to the simple-living Bushman of Australia, and the wandering tribes of Africa and the Middle East.  Since 1977, Mr. Graham has been given the opportunity to conduct preaching missions in virtually every country of the former Eastern bloc, including the former Soviet Union (BGEA Internet).

Mr. Graham founded the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in 1950, and has written 18 books, all of which have become top sellers.  His latest, “Just As I Am,” published in 1997, achieved a “triple crown,” appearing simultaneously on the three top best-seller lists in one week.  In this autobiography, Mr. Graham reflects on his life, including nearly 60 years of ministry around the world.  From humble beginnings as the son of a dairy farmer in North Carolina, he shares how his unwavering faith in Christ formed and shaped his career. (BGEA Internet).

Mr. Graham’s counsel has been sought by many presidents, and his appeal in both the secular and religious arenas is evidenced by the wide range of groups that have honored him.  He is also regularly listed by the Gallup organization as one of the “Ten Most Admired Men in the World,” and was described by them as the dominant figure in that poll over the past 45 years (BGEA Internet).

What makes Billy Graham so special?  To answer this question, we must hear from the people such as Alan Bestic who states:

“To his credit, however, he has no truck with blessing pacts or prayer cloths.  His magazine, Decision, which outstrips in circulation all its rivals, boasts of no miracles.  He has never said: “Come and join me and you will be cured of your physical and mental ills, freed from your creditors and loved by all (Morris 367).”

To answer this question, we also must hear from his critics, such as Dr. McLouglin, who did not hesitate to state that the “revivalist’s corporation was honestly operated,” and that “Graham’s personal financial honesty is beyond reproach.  He does not, as Billy Sunday did, claim that “the laborer is worthy of his hire,” and consequently enrich himself . . . Although he lives comfortably, he does not live lavishly . . . He has few expenses outside of his home, and he has received many expensive gifts from friends and admirers; but, he has not made one-tenth of the money he could have made out of his evangelism and has, in fact, refused to use for himself much of what he has made (McLoughlin 205).” One example of this can be found with his book Angels: God’s Secret Agents. I heard Billy Graham say, over TV, when questioned about his wealth he supposedly had accumulated, that the book had made over a million dollars, and he donated all of it to one of their ministries in England (the name escapes me).

Because of his impeccable reputation for honesty and morality, and because he is the leading symbol of religion in American, Graham can do things and go places no other preacher would dare consider (Morris 378).  Being invited to preach by the former Soviet Union in the 1970’s, is a good example of this.  Before the collapse of communism, who else has ever been invited to openly preach by the government of the Soviet Union?

To me, Billy Graham is a role model that no other evangelist has ever been able to match. He shows no favorites, and he can relate to all, rich or poor, and to all social economic status groups.  He had a large influence over me when I was a teenager, and I found myself modeling after him, because at that time, I had no Christian role model. What influenced me the most during this time period, was that when Billy Graham made a mistake, he simply admitted it, apologized for it, and just went on with his life, leaving the results of his mistake in God’s hands. To this day, that seems to be the way I handle mistakes in my life.  It is like D.L. Moody was quoted as saying once “If you are guilty of what you are being accused of, mend your ways–otherwise, forget about it.” 

He also keeps the gospel simple.  In today’s mixed up, upside down world, the simple gospel message has been contaminated with so many extra things, such as the “name it and claim it” doctrine, which pictures God as some kind of a Santa Claus up above, reigning down money and other gifts.  The vertical relationship with God, through these incorrect doctrines, has incorrectly snuffed out our horizontal relationship with God–our responsibilities to people that God expects from us.  Bible scriptures such as “as you do to the least of these, you do it unto me,” and St. James message to Paul saying that “I by my works will show you my faith, for faith without works is dead, ” have been snuffed out by many Pentecostal and Charismatic denominations. At the end of Billy Graham’s  message, as he gives the altar call, he always stresses that he is not going to “sugarcoat” the gospel.  Being a Christian is hard, and he is correct when he stresses this point.  

At age 81, why doesn’t Billy Graham retire, especially since he has Parkinson’s Disease, and usually needs help getting to the podium during his crusades?  His answer to that question is short and simple–“Paul never retired.” One of his letters to his supporters stated that sometimes, he doesn’t think he will have the strength to preach, but when the time comes, God provides the strength needed.

The American Pentecostal Movement

The Pentecostal movement is by far the largest and most important religious movement to originate in the United States.  Beginning in 1901, with only a handful of students in a Bible School in Topeka, Kansas, the number of Pentecostals increased steadily throughout the world during the 20^th century.  By 1993, they had become the largest family of Protestants in the world with over 200,000,000 members designated as nominational Pentecostals.  It is the second largest denominational family of Christians, surpassed only by the Roman Catholics.  If you want to include all the “charismatic Christians” that worship in varieties of denominations, including the Roman Catholic denomination, the total figure soars to 420,000,000 (Synan Internet).

The first Pentecostal churches in the world were produced by the holiness movement prior to 1901.  These included the predominantly African-American Church of God in Christ, (1897), the Pentecostal Holiness Church (1898), and the Church of God with headquarters in Cleveland, Tennessee (1906).  These churches, along with a few smaller groups, which had been formed as “second blessing” holiness denominations, simply added the baptism in the Holy Spirit with glossolalia (speaking in tongues) as “the initial evidence” of a “third blessing (Synan Internet).” 

The Pentecostal will ask the question, where in the Bible does it say that the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) was to stop after the death of the apostles?  To them, only mankind, and the early Roman Catholic Church stomped it out of existence, by adding additional teachings to the Apostles teachings.  God doesn’t force himself on us.  He participates actively in our lives only to the degree we allow him to.

The first person to be baptized in the Holy Spirit,accompanied by speaking in tongues, was Agnes Ozman, a student at  Charles Fox Parham’s Bible school on January 1, 1901.  According to J. Roswell Flower, the founding Secretary of the Assemblies of God, Ozman’s experience was the “touch felt round the world,” an event which “made the Pentecostal Movement of the 20^th century (Synan Internet).”

As a result of this Topeka Pentecost, Parham formulated the doctrine that tongues was the “Bible evidence” of the baptism in the Holy Spirit.  He also taught that tongues was a supernatural impartation of human languages (Xenoglossolalia) for the purpose of world evangelization.  Henceforth, he taught that missionaries need not study foreign languages since they would be able to preach in miraculous tongues all over the world.  Armed with this new theology, Parham founded a church movement which he called the “Apostolic Faith,” and he began a whirlwind revival tour of the American middle west to promote his exciting new experience (Synan Internet).

It was not until 1906, however, that pentecostalism achieved worldwide attention through the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles led by the African-American preacher, William Joseph Seymour.  Seymour opened the historic meeting in April, 1906, in a former African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church building at 312 Azusa Street, in downtown Los Angeles.  What happened at Azusa Street has fascinated church historians for decades, and has yet to be fully understood and explained.  For over three years, the Azusa Street “Apostolic Faith mission” conducted three services a day, seven days a week, where thousands of seekers received the tongues baptism.  Word of the revival was spread abroad through The Apostolic Faith, a paper that Seymour sent free of charge to over 50,000 subscribers, spread rapidly around the world, and Pentecostalism began to advance toward becoming a major force in Christendom (Synan Internet).

The Azusa Street movement seems to have been a merger of White American Holiness religion with worship styles derived from the African-American Christian tradition.  The expressive worship and praise at Azusa Street, which included shouting and dancing, had been common among Appalachian Whites as well as Southern Blacks.  The combination of tongues and other charisms, with Black music and worship styles created a new and indigenous form of Pentecostalism that was to prove extremely attractive to disinherited and deprived people, both in America and other nations of the world.  The interracial aspects of the movement in Los Angeles was a striking exception to the racism and segregation of the times.  The phenomenon of Blacks and Whites worshiping together under a Black pastor seemed incredible to many observers.  The ethos of the meeting was captured by Frank Bartleman, a White Azusa participant, when he said of Azusa Street, “The color line was washed away in the blood [meaning the “Blood of the Lamb,” Jesus] (Synan Internet).”

The new and unique blend of music that was used, sends a message to us from God.  The blend of the Black and the White cultural blend  tells me that segregation and prejudice was never rooted in the will of God.

The place of William Seymour, as an important religious leader, now seems to be assured.  As early as 1972, Sidney Ahlstrom, the noted church historian from Yale University, said that Seymour was “the most influential Black leader in American religious history.”  Seymour, along with Charles Parham, could well be called the “co-founders” of world pentecostalism (Synan Internet).”

Does one have to speak in tongues to receive the “third blessing” which means the Baptism of the Holy Spirit?  My problem with this theology, is that there is no where in the Bible that says you must speak in tongues to be filled with the Holy Spirit. To me, the “fruit of the Holy Spirit” in Galatians 5:22-23, is more important, because it demonstrates what we are inside, versus the gift of tongues, which demonstrates what we have.  I find the “fruit of the spirit” severely lacking in many of the Pentecostals of today, which is one reason why many noncharismatic churches still reject it.  The Pentecostals can be quite unbalanced in their words, thoughts, and actions, as I have frequently observed, not rightly “dividing the word of truth,” which can only be accomplished by  “studying to show ourselves approved,” as Paul commanded us to do (2Timothy 2:14-15).

Televangelism

The final stopping place for our journey through time, of our country’s Christian heritage is televangelism. Good and bad things equally can be said of our modern time revivalists.  But, one thing is abundantly clear–money is the focal point of almost all of them in the charismatic circle of preachers.  It is the new era of prosperity–giving money to God so he will give money back to us in time of need.  In case you haven’t noticed, the only ones getting rich from it are those promoting it, and that is not because God has blessed them with it. Rather, they have blessed themselves through huge salaries.  This used to be called stealing from the ministry, but now if you disagree with them, “you are coveting.”  The philosophy is that God doesn’t want his children poor.  He wants them to prosper. Two key scriptures are used to support this incomplete doctrine–3rd John 2, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things, and be in health just as your soul prospers,” and the words of Jesus in Luke 6:38 “Give and shall be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over.”  The prosperity televangelists set the example by taking huge sums of money from the ministry, in the form of salaries, the books that they write, and speaking engagements.  They ride in limousines, Porches, and Role Royces.  Many of them have fallen from grace.   This shouldn’t come as any surprise as their faith is based on what they can get from God instead of what they can give to Him. Since there are hundreds of televangelists, I can only comment on five that formed the mainstream of televangelism–Rex Humbard, Oral Roberts, Jim Bakker, Paul and Jan Crouch, and Pat Robertson.  It will become abundantly clear as you read this historic account, that the prosperity doctrine has been the lie of the devil, that people have swallowed, hook, line, and sinker.  The words in I Timothy 6:6-10 ring true:

“Now godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.  And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.  But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

It should be noted that not all TV evangelists preach the prosperity doctrine, and most of them are very hard working and honest.  It is an illusion that all TV ministries are “money hungry.”  It just seems that way because the hard working sincere ones, who live off a modest income from their ministries don’t make the news and the headlines.  They just go on carrying on the Lord’s work of the Great Commission–to “Go into the world and preach the Gospel.

How did televangelism get started?  In the early years of television, the networks offered free air time to mainline denominations in fulfillment of the Federal Communication Commission’s mandate to operate in the “public interest.”  Networks also provided religious programers with technical support.  In return, mainline denominations fulfilled their part of the bargain, by producing noncontroversial generalized Christian programming  (Peck 97). 

The conflict began with the more controversial evangelists?  They wanted air time also; but, the only way they could get it was if they paid the station to air their programs. As a result, paid-time religious programs came to dominate in the 1960’s and 1970’s, because of changes in the FCC regulations, and the structure of the television industries.  In 1960, the FCC released guidelines saying that there is no difference, in terms of serving the public interest, between sustaining-time, and paid-time religious programming.  This, in turn, released stations from their obligation to provide free religious air time.  The commission also removed restrictions on the amount of solicitation permitted on “noncommercial programs.”  This paved the way for ministries to become more profitable.  Finally, the FCC guidelines exempted religious programming from the restraints of the fairness doctrine.  This freed stations from any responsibility for the content of religious programs.  Thus, religious TV was placed into the domain of the economic marketplace (Peck 98).

The increased visibility of prominent TV preachers and evangelical leaders helped create the perception that evangelism was a viable and growing religious force.  Research in the last 20 years indicates that conservative churches have grown much more than have liberal denominations.  Televangelism did not produce the growth itself; but, it has helped unify conservative evangelicals.  Thus, the evangelical movement shifted away from the “fringes” of American society, into the country’s mainstream society (Peck 99).

Because viewers generously supported these new ministries, the televangelists were able to build wealthy media empires and employ the latest computer technology (Peck 100).  This, in turn, provided the immediacy and intimacy of television to be successful with the viewers, because it comes right into their own homes and addresses their immediate emotional and spiritual needs (102).

The electronic church was initially developed by Billy Graham, Rex Humbard, and Oral Roberts.  These three preachers, and the ones that followed, soon realized that their enormous broadcasting costs mandated that they run continuous fund raising campaigns (Hadden & Swann Internet).  Billy Graham, however, only briefly mentions the need for donations at the end of his crusades, and his monthly news letters.   

Rex Humbard

From its modest $65.00 beginning, the Rex Humbard Ministry grew to a net worth valued to be in the millions.  It was all paid for by private contributions.  Yet, like others caught up in the prosperity doctrine.  Later, the ministry was on the brink of bankruptcy.  On his April 13, 1980 broadcast, Humbard made an impassioned plea for immediate cash contributions to ward of the danger of collapse.  The program was $2.5 million behind in its obligations, and Humbard was running an average of four months behind in payments to stations for TV time. Humbard’s appeal netted $4 million and the debt was wiped out.  About the same time, however, a Cleveland press writer discovered that Rex and two of his sons who worked with him, on the television ministry, had purchased a home and condominium in Florida valued at $650,000 (1980 figures), with $177,500 as a down payment–in cash.  Humbard responded by telling the Cleveland reporter that “My people don’t give a hoot what I spend the money 1for.”  He later said, that what he meant, was that his people don’t care how he spends his money.  The clear implication was, that the so-called badly needed funds to salvage the ministry, had partially been used to provide second homes for him and his family in Florida (Hadden & Swann Internet).

In 1985, when the cost of air time exceeded the revenues coming in, from his shrinking audience, it became evident to the television stations personnel that Humbard couldn’t pay up, so all the stations canceled his show, and Rex Humbard all but disappeared from televangelism scene (Hadden & Swann Internet). 

What good can be salvaged from this?  Well, many souls have been saved through Humbard’s ministry over TV, and people were ministered to.  He had built the beautiful Cathedral of Tomorrow in Akron, OH, which was especially equipped for television production.  It had a 220 foot domed roof without interior support, and a huge cross suspended from the ceiling with 4,700 red, white, and blue lights (Hadden & Swann Internet).We must also remember that in Paul’s day, the same problem existed; only it was with much smaller amounts. Paul’s response to preachers’s wrong motives for  preaching is that some may preach Christ for money, but at least, the Gospel is preached.  Philippians 1:18 states that:

“What then?  Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.”

Oral Roberts

Oral Roberts converged on the scene about the same time that Rex Humbard did.  He brought TV cameras into his Pentecostal revival tent (Hadden & Swann, Internet).  He has accomplished many great things in the name of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He has made some very serious mistakes, and how he chose to handle the mistakes, was even worse; but, the true Oral Roberts loves Jesus and knows he was called to a healing ministry.  He later went on TV and built a beautiful university from scratch with a large prayer tower in the middle of the campus.

For his TV program, Oral Roberts and You, he [sometimes] hired top-flight secular entertainers to appear on his programs.  He gauged audience size, and aggressively bought the best time slots.  He knew that special projects could elicit donations far in excess of what is needed.  This was his strategy–and the surplus could pay the bills for air time and general operations.  With this knowledge, [and the Call from God], he built a university.  Then he built a medical center.  Roberts eventually overextended himself with his medical center, and deep financial troubles emerged.  In May 1980, he wrote supporters to say that he had spoken with a 900-foot vision of Jesus Christ, who assured him that the City of Faith medical complex would be completed.  Later, he reinforced the “vision” with a second message from God that his medical facilities eventually would find a cure for cancer (Haggin & Swann Internet).

As the financial crunch grew worse, Roberts finally went on TV to say that if a certain amount of money was not received within a certain time frame, God would call him home. The downfall of Robert’s ministry comes from the fact that his projects exceeded the capability of his audience to give.  The root of the problem went back to the late 1970’s , when he undertook his most ambitious building project.  Falling behind on the revenues needed to keep on schedule, Roberts increased the amount of time devoted to appealing for funds.  It finally reached a point where he did nothing but ask for money during the entire program–and the people turned away from his program to others that could give them some spiritual uplift.  Through the period of the medical complex construction, Robert’s ratings slipped–and they continued to slip.  From 1980 through 1986, Roberts lost 59% of his audience.  His audience had peaked in 1977 with an estimated 4,356,000 viewers.  His February 1980 audience was measured at 2,720,000, a net loss of 38% in just three years.  He lost almost an additional 400,000 in the May 1980 ratings  (Haggen & Swan Internet).

In 1979, Jerry Sholes, a former employee and former brother-in-law of one of the top people in the organization published an attack on the life-style and integrity of Roberts, and others, in the organization, as well as a sweeping indictment of their fund-raising techniques.  About the time the television news magazine “60 Minutes” went to Tulsa to do a story on Oral Robert’s operations, Sholes was beaten up.  He was cautious not to accuse anyone associated with Roberts, but the implication seemed apparent in the “60 Minutes” story.  Roberts tried to handle the matter by pretending it didn’t exist.  He refused to talk to reporters.  One of his top spokesmen also refused our repeated requests to visit and speak with officials about the ministry’s operations.  Still, Roberts’s refusal to address serious charges that have been leveled against him, and his refusal to permit legitimate investigators to talk to personnel, creates the appearance that he has something to hide (Haggen & Swann Internet). 

I personally stand behind Oral Roberts as a man of God.  I don’t stand by his bad judgments, but God started something wonderful in this Man of God–that God was not just a deistic God–that he cared about his children as individuals, and that He did want to manifest his healing love to his children. I have experienced a direct miracle from God pertaining to healing, and I may not have prayed for the healing if I hadn’t been introduced to Oral Robert’s ministry on healing.  In my opinion, Oral Roberts, like the majority of other charismatic TV preachers, was lead astray when he started mixing the prosperity doctrine with the pure healing ministry that God originally called him to.  It should also be noted that being called by God to a healing ministry is very much different than being called to an evangelism ministry such as what Billy Graham has.  The secular community can accept and comprehend an evangelistic message; however, they can’t comprehend a healing ministry.  Because of this, Oral Roberts has always been under intense scrutiny in a way that Billy Graham would not be.  Although lies are spread about all evangelists, it is to those called to a healing ministry, that they are the most intense.

Also, televangelists are criticized for having private airplanes; however, with the vast media availability the Great Commission is now able to be spread around the world at an uncomprehendable rate. Many of these televangelists are spreading the gospel around the world, and they need a private plane to go to these remote places of the world to preach the gospel.   

Jim and Tammy Bakker

The most outrageous and hypocritical behavior existed with Jim and Tammy Bakker, in my opinion.  He brought disgrace not only to himself, but to all the ministries, even the ones that don’t use air time.  Donations plummeted for all ministries.  Satan definitely reaped a triple harvest from the fall from grace that Jim and Tammy Bakker brought on themselves, with no one to blame but themselves; but, Jim and Tammy seemed unaware of or unconcerned about the havoc they were bringing down upon the entire religious domain. 

It all started in March of 1987, when Tammy Bakker entered the Betty Ford Center for drug rehabilitation.  Then a sex scandal involving Jim Bakker began unfolding (Haggin & Swann Internet).. 

From the beginning, it was a live soap opera unlike anything that had ever happened in the history of broadcasting.  The sex, the hypocrisy, the pillaged donors of PTL, the unholy name-calling among some of the biggest stars of televangelism; investigations of PTL by the IRS, the FBI, and the U.S. Postal Service, the South Carolina Tax Commission, and Congress [just to name a few].  After six weeks of intensive investigative reporting, the alleged details of infidelity, homosexuality, prostitution, alcoholism, and even wife-swapping occurred among top managers at PTL.  The Bakkers refused to meet their accusers.  Jerry Falwell offered them the opportunity, and so did the elders of the Assemblies of God, which conducted their own inquiry.  When Bakker refused to appear before the Assembly of God elders, Dr. Raymond Carlson, general superintendent of the Assemblies of God, took away Bakker’s credentials.  Carlson noted that the “alleged misconduct involving bisexual activity” weighed heavily in the decision to unfrock Bakker (Haggen & Swann Internet).

There were four major frauds that Bakker was prosecuted for–the Grand Hotel Partnership Fraud, the Towers Hotel Fraud, the Family Heritage Club fraud, and the 1100 Partnership Fraud.  These promotional strategies were presented in brochures mailed to hundreds of thousands of people, and were also explained in detail over TV (Tidwell 30). At the time of the sentencing, Bakker had:

1.  A $600,000 house in Palm Desert, CA.

2.  A $149,500 house in Gatlinburg, TN that was renovated with an additional $340,000.

3.  A $600,000 condominium in Florida, complete with a $5,000 Christmas tree

4.  A $449,000 home in Palm Springs, CA

5.  A collection of Rolex watches worth $11,000

6.  3 Mercedes automobiles worth $150,000

7.  From 1984 to May of 1987, received a total cash compensation of $4,760,000 in the form of salaries, bonuses,           and contributions to Jim Bakker’s Ministers Benefit Association Retirement Plan (Tidwell 1).

The excessive rewards was not why Bakker was sentenced so severely.  His infamous affair  with Jessica Hahn, and the cover up money of $265,000 was also not the reason for his conviction.  Rather, the conviction was based on wire and mail fraud, and the conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud.  It was “one of the largest, if not the largest consumer fraud prosecuted as a Federal mail fraud violation to date in this country.”  The magnitude of Bakker’s crimes is phenomenal.  He was convicted of having sold 152,000 fully paid lodging partnerships that produced income of approximately $158 million [but couldn’t deliver because of alleged mismanagement of millions of dollars of donations].  In sum, Bakker used his TV show and mailings to solicit literally millions of people to become “lifetime partners” at PTL’s Heritage USA in Charlotte, NC, where PTL members and their families could go for vacations and for religious activities (Tidwell 2).

Jim Bakker is out of jail now and divorced from his wife Tammy Faye.  He claims to have fully repented of his wrong doings, and he no longer preaches the “Prosperity Doctrine.”  He wrote a book entitled  I Was Wrong.                   Jim Bakker had never cursed anything in his life before 1979.  But that year he may have sealed his own fate when he dedicated his 2200 acre Heritage USA Retreat Center.  At the ground breaking of what he envisioned, Bakker offered this prayer during the ceremony:

“God, I dedicate this property to You today.  If it is ever used for anything other than the gospel of Jesus Christ, let it be accursed.” (Bruce 35).  The jubilant crowds are now gone along with the more than 80 weekly worship services, counseling centers, halfway houses, and more.  To many, the former Heritage USA was a brilliant concept that might have continued to thrive if Bakker had honored his promises to God–but, instead, the court ordered Heritage USA to be sold to pay debts that include $56 million in back taxes [because the IRS revoked tax-exempt status] (36).

Paul and Jan Crouch

I want to end this paper with two happy success stories.  The first  involves Paul and Jan Crouch and their Trinity Bible Network, which has been in existence for over 25 years.  I am happy to report that all is well with the finances at TBN.  It is “squeaky clean,” and it is audited yearly. Some have tried to find fraudulent activities, but have never been successful in doing so. The network now reaches a potential of 80 million households just in the United States alone, with 402 stations. The Crouches have a major goal–to wire the world for Christian TV (Grady 50).

Some of Crouches competitors have sold out to secular networks after pocketing hefty profits, but Paul and Jan Crouch defiantly insist that “TBN IS NOT FOR SALE!” This Christian empire is worth more than 1.9 billion for the stations alone, not including the other projects of TBN (Grady 43), and the yearly budget to maintain it is a whopping $125 million (50).  TBN is currently wired to go around the world, thus fulfilling the Great Commission to take the Gospel into the entire world. The only thing that saddens me is that I have not been able to give to TBN in donations what I desperately desire.  It is my prayer that God will enrich me someday so I can give generously to this wonderful ministry of God.

Pat Robertson and CBN

The Christian Broadcasting Network has one main goal–to prepare the United States of America, the nations of the Middle East, the Far East, South America, and other nations of the world for the coming of Jesus Christ and the new earth. Its growth since its first broadcast on October 1, 1961 has been phenomenal to say the least. CBN was the first Christian television network established in the United States, and it is broadcasted in 99 countries around the world. Today it is a multifaceted institution that comprises several national and international broadcasting entities, a 24-hour telephone prayer line, plus 10 affiliate ministries.  They are:

1.  The 700 Club

2.  American Center for Law and Justice

3.  Christian World News

4.  Founders Inn & Conference Center

5.  Middle East Television

6.  National Counseling Center

7.  Operation Blessing International

8.  Regent University

9.  Scott Ross

10.  CBN WorldReach (CBN Internet)

Although Pat Robertson has his critics, and I have carefully researched their criticisms, I couldn’t find one instance where there have been mismanagement of funds and exuberant salaries or an exuberant lavish  lifestyle.   

Televangelism ends my paper on the Christian heritage of our country.  It probably seems that I am “down” on the televangelists, but in reality this is not true.  I could have included other scandalous affairs such as Jimmy Swaggart’s problems with the sexual disorder of voyeurism, and his being defrocked from the Assemblies of God, but I feel like my point has been made on the “love of money being the root of all evil.” This stems from the prosperity doctrine that has been preached incessantly by the Pentecostal televangelists.

I tried to be objective because I am naturally prejudiced toward televangelism because I am quite radical by  nature, and very conservative, and I actively support the Christian Right! That is what motivated me to write the two papers on our Christian heritage, which I entitled “Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory–One Nation Under God.”

I felt that the secular sources I used were very objective.  I excluded hostile books and literature that did not have good sources to back up their prejudice and hostility.   

The non-Pentecostal televangelists have stayed clean, and they haven’t named their colleges and universities after themselves. You also don’t see negative books written about them, nor do you find much negative reporting on the Internet, except for those involved with the Christian Right, and I have found these negative reports to be unfounded.  Some non-charismatic televangelists that need to be recognized are Dr. Jerry Falwell, Dr. James Dobson, Dr. Charles Stanley, Dr. Charles Swindol, Dr. Jack VanImpe, Dr. Robert Schuller, Dr. David Jeremiah, and Dr. James Kennedy, to name just a few.

Although from a doctrinal perspective, I am Pentecostal, receiving most of my Christian training from the Pentecostal Holiness denomination, my real identity has changed, because I don’t like the direction that the major televangelists have taken Pentecostalism.  I think the original Pentecostal leaders of years ago that triggered the first and second Great Awakenings are probably “turning over in their graves” over the direction Pentecostalism has gone.  It should be noted, however, that most Pentecostal ministries do not endorse the Prosperity Doctrine–they don’t exist in the public’s perception because they don’t make the news like the charismatic televangelists have.  Teen Challenge, founded by Assembly of God minister Dave Wilkerson, is a prime example–and there are literally thousands of others that need to be included.

The scope of this paper also didn’t include the political aspect of televangelism and the Christian Right.  These leaders include Jerry Falwell, Patrick Buchanan, Pat Robertson, and Dr. James Kennedy, to name just a few.  They have been very instrumental in changing our paganistic society around, to once again embrace the Christian principles that our founding fathers and many others fought and died for–and they have all paid a high price of persecution for their stand.  They do need to be applauded–all of them–For it is written in God’s Holy Word, the Bible that:

“If my people, who are called by my name,  shall humble themselves and pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will heal their land.”  II Chronicles 7:14.

In this scripture, please note that God does not require the entire nation to repent–just his people.  And this is the faith that I want to leave you with–God’s word is as true now as it was when it was originally written.  Jesus says in Hebrews 13:18 that, “I am the same, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.”

I realize that the one world government is predestined in Bible prophecy, and nobody can keep it from happening; but, I also know that America is barely mentioned in Bible prophecy, and I don’t know if we necessarily have to be a part of the new world order.  God is leaving it up to us to shape the future of America.  He is ready and waiting to divinely intervene to keep his original covenant with the Puritans.  My question to you is, are you ready to be a part of the final phase of our Christian heritage, with the 3^rd Great Awakening that I predict will occur in the year 2000?  It’s subtle thunderous “rumblings” have been occurring for the past five years.  Are you ready?

In, sum we can see that our Christian heritage has been carefully preserved by God.  God has brought outstanding Christian disciples throughout our entire history.  So, why do we have such a violent society that embraces a paganistic society?  The answer to this question lies in the fact that evil has been increasing steadily, according to Bible prophecy.  The fact that we have a powerful media source, shows that evil can grow almost exponentially, because it enters into millions of homes at once.  Also, mainline Christianity, for the longest time, grew apathetic, and they were unaware of how powerfully the evil side of human nature had taken over, polluting the minds of our young people.  It took the Christian Right to wake us all up.  Now, Christians are united all over the country to usher in the 3^rd Great Awakening. 

We, as Americans, determine the future of our country.  The question is, do we want to continue with our narcissistic society, with no boundaries of right and wrong?  Or, do we want to go back to our Judaeo-Christian foundation, a society that has a respect for human life? The decisions of the future are up to you.    

  Works Cited

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. www.billygraham.org/BillyGraham.asp

Bruce, Billy.  “Ten Years After The Fall,” Charisma Magazine. February 1997.

Carter, Earl W. Sr. “Should America Apologize for Slavery?” Charisma Magazine, April, 1998, pg 76-82.

CBN, www.cbn.org

Grady, J. Lee. “Wired to Reach the World.” Charisma Magazine June, 1998.

Hadden, Jeffrey K & Swann, Charles E. http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~jkh8x/relbroad/primetime/home.html

Hall, Gordon Langley. The Sawdust Trail. Philadelphia: Macrae Smith Co. 1964.

Koch, Kurt. www.deceptioninthechurch.com/kuhlman.htm

Loud, Grover C. Evangelized America. NY:The Dial Press. 1928.

McLoughlin, William G., Jr.  Billy Graham: Revivalist in a Secular Age. New York: The Ronald Press

Company. 1960.

Morris, James. The Preachers. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 1973.

Peck, Janice. The Gods Of Televangelism. Cresskill, NJ:Hampton Press, 1993.

Synan, Vinson, PhD.  www.oru.edu/university/library/holyspirit/pentorg1.html.

Tidwell, Gary. Anatomy Of A Fraud: Inside the Finances of the PTL Ministries. NY: Wiley, 1993.

Williamson, Joe. After Slavery. University of North Carolina Press. 1965.

Wilson, Charles Reagan, Ed. Cultural Perspective On the American South. NY: Gordon and Breach. 1991.

The constitution is under attack when you get an oligarchy within the judicial system.  An oligarchy is a government ruled by a few. How does this happen and why?
 
First you have to understand politically what we mean when we say left-wing or right-wing.  Left wing refers to your liberal politicans who want to change things.  Right-wing refers to your conservative politicans who want to keep the constitution as it is.  It was common knowledge in the 1960’s that your left-wing extremists were the communist sympathizers.  Oswald, who killed President Kennedy was referred to a left-wing extremist.  The FBI went after them and jailed them.  Now left-wing extremists are accepted.
 
So what does this have to do with our judicial system?  If you can get enough judges in place that don’t rule according to the Constitution, but according to how they want to change the country to conform to the New World Order you hear about on the news, the Constitution is under attack.  When it is no longer the law of the land, the oligarchy of judges become the new law of the land.  This is why it is careful who you elect as your President and Governor.  They determine whether you have strict interpreters of the Constitution, or those who will mold it to fit a new mold.
 
It all comes down to being an informed voter.  Know what the voting records of your congressmen and women are.  Don’t let politicians play on your feelings with platitudes and empty words with no facts to back them up.  Those with good critical thinking skills know that decisions are to be based not on who is right and who is wrong.  Rather, decisions are to be based on what is right and what is wrong.