The Three Great Revivals in America

In the history of the church in the eighteenth century, it can be regarded as a turbulent wind; first, German godliness movement aroused, followed by the British Methodist movement, which in turn produced the American Great Awakening Movement. The Great Awakening is regarded as the religious revival of the United States. It had a great influence on American ideology, concepts, and all levels of social life and has also established the American religious culture. Different scholars have different orientations for the definition of this historical period, but they can be roughly divided into three major awakenings. It evoked the people’s deeper experience of the Christian faith, the rapid development of the church, the increasing number of people, and the movement of many sermons and universal missions. The Great Awakening originated in the 17th century and the Puritans continued to flood into the American continent. Many new immigrants gradually settled here and established their homes. However, the descendants of some immigrants lost their ancestors’ ideals and under the influence of rationalism, they gradually became secularized by the influence of the current trend, which made the beliefs chaotic. Under such circumstances, the prelude to the Great Awakening Movement was unveiled. Here are our attempt to briefly describe some important people and the three movements:

The core person in the first great awakening (1726-1760) is Edwards . He greatly promoted and ignited the awakening movement to various places and different denominations. He was later helped by Wheat field and others to revitalize the East Coast of the United States and the fire of revival was later spread to the southern United States. This campaign is mainly to awaken the people the pursuit of faith and emphasized godly living. Later, it was suspended due to the American War of Independence. The core person in “The Second Great Awakening” (1784-1830) is Charlie Finley. He renovated the way of evangelism and greatly promoted the training and equipping of believers. During this period, the entire East coast of the United States greatly promoted the revival of the campus, so that the number of churches continued to grow and organized many different camps, gatherings, etc., so that the fire of revival continued to burn, bringing the church to a great prosperity. Later, the tide was reduced because of the civil war between the North and the South of America The core person of “The Third Great Awakening” (1875-1900) is Moody. He presided over many large-scale evangelistic conferences throughout the United States, leading many people to return to the Lord and established a number of seminaries. In addition, there have been many evangelists during this period, including: Tolle, Chapman, Sin End, etc… The flame of this revival has made many people willing to commit themselves to the mission and started the universal missionary movement. Later on, The Great Awakening Movement not only affected the development of the church, but also brought about comprehensive innovation in the organization of the society and the people’s minds. Such as the abolition of slavery, the rise of the feminist movement, the reform of the city, the promotion of education, the construction of many social services, etc. In terms of thinking, many people should pay attention to the concept of equality and anti-authority. In faith, people were more awakened to pay attention to emotions and in the evangelistic message to emphasize the experience of the soul and to be saved. For the church, the promotion of the establishment of various denominations has added new content to the cultivation of Christianity and the Sunday school movement had also arisen at this time.

The special awakening of the United States is to transcend sectarianism and region, focusing on life change, godliness, advocating commitment, and devotion to mission. A series of exciting meetings have been unfolding throughout the Americas and many revivals and repentant evangelistic gatherings have encouraged more people to devote themselves to the mission, speeding up the universal missionary movement and spreading the gospel to Africa and Asia.

This awakening movement evokes many secularized believers’ lives, rekindles the fire of revival, and is willing to commit to evangelism and devote to missions to save the souls of thousands. Through ancient history, this history may give a great revelation to the believers in Hong Kong today. It is necessary to teach the greater promotion of the mission, the revival of the believer’s life, and dedication is the first consideration.