george whitefield

In today's episode, the guys discuss the evangelist George Whitefield. Whitefield was born in Gloucester, England in 1714 and died in 1770. At age 21, he was converted while studying at the University of oxford. Along with John Wesley and Charles Wesley, he was part of the Holy Club. For 5 years, Whitefield sought after salvation and became nearly ascetic to obtain favor with God. It wasn’t until Charles Wesley gave him a book by Henry Scougal that Whitefield was radically transformed into a brand new creature of Christ. He began preaching in London and Bristol before coming to the U.S. at 24 years old. 

Whitefield is credited as being the impetus behind the First Great Awakening. He traveled from town to town on horseback to preach the gospel around America during a wicked time. He preached 30,000 sermons in his lifetime and was known to study the gospel while on his knees.  He was a person who was able to disengage himself from the fear of man and momentary comforts for what is more important. They key for him and for us is to realize all we have in Christ. The guys encourage all listeners to think about how differently we might move through life if we knew today was our last day on earth.  

From the preaching of Whitefield and his contemporaries, we can glean and be inspired to love the Lord in a fiery way. As Christians, we have the entire history of the family of God as our ancestors. The same Holy Spirit that was in George Whitefield is in you, too. Since the Apostles, there has not been anyone who has preached as prolifically and effectively as Whitefield. One thing we can not do with heroes of the faith is venerate them. While we can look at them as heroes, we have to remember that they were also flawed and sinful creatures just like us. To do this, we must remind ourselves that we too have blind spots. Even with his flaws, however, we can be sure that Whitefield was a man who lived for Christ. 

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Ray Comfort
Emeal (“E.Z.”) Zwayne
Mark Spence
Oscar Navarro

America and the developed world is in a sort of spiritual drought.  In this episode we take a look at the giant coming to Jesus moment that kicked off the Revolution.  I will also be talking about assets and the market this week.

In this episode, Andy Davis covers the Catholic Counter Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the First Great Awakening. Some specifics Andy touches on are the Jesuits, the Spanish Conquistadors, the Inquisition, separation of church and state, Christians in the British-American colonies, Voltaire, revival, and George Whitefield.

Andy Davis referenced the following source in the production of this podcast:

• Bruce Shelley, Church History in Plain Language: Fourth Edition.

George Whitefield (27 December 1714 – 30 September 1770), was an English Anglican cleric and evangelist who was one of the founders of Methodism and the evangelical movement.

Whitefield was ordained after receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree at Oxford and immediately began working as an itinerant preacher and evangelist. In 1740, Whitefield traveled to North America, where he preached a series of revivals that became part of the "Great Awakening". 

Whitefield received widespread recognition during his ministry; he preached at least 18,000 times to perhaps 10 million listeners in Great Britain and the American colonies. He could enthrall large audiences and was the means of bringing many people to Christ.

Recorded June 23, 2019