A Review of an Awakening Preacher’s Life and A Great Awakening Film

A crowd of several hundred, if not thousands, of colonial Americans and immigrants throng the streets of a large city with several-storied buildings. The city square, about the size of a football field, is filled with people gazing up to the looming courthouse building, with its tall white pillars, and elaborate balcony near the top. There is a steady hum of discussions, whispers, and the occasional shout to a familiar face far away. They are all standing, and eagerly looking for the man they’ve come to hear.

Surrounding this city square, the side streets are also filled with people eager to hear the voice they’ve heard so much about. The people wait in anticipation, and suddenly there’s an announcement that the speaker has come to the courthouse. The voices steadily decrease in volume, and as soon as a black figure is seen ascending the steps to the courthouse balcony, the talking hushes.

After a couple minutes, the man in the black and white gown stands tall in the middle of the balcony. He wears a white powered whig, and a white collared frock in the middle of his chest. His face is youthful, slightly pink, and gleaming from sweat in the sunlight. And then he lifts his hand carrying a small Bible, and opens his mouth to speak.

He begins with an announcement that he is speaking the word of the Lord, and he quotes a Scripture passage – “He whom the Son of Man sets free, He is free indeed.” With a clear, bounding, and articulate voice, he speaks of the spiritual bondage all people are in through sin. The voice echoes across the city streets, and can be heard several hundred yards away, near the city harbor. The people are mesmerized, and listening in complete silence. He speaks to their hearts, with a great passion for the good news he’s proclaiming to a mass of condemned humanity, and he reaches to them with his own heart filled with the truth of God.

After half an hour, many are moved to tears as he tells of the sufferings and death of the Lord Jesus for our transgressions against God. He calls them to look in their mind’s eye to the Lord of glory crucified, all the while moving his body in powerful gestures of emotion at the realities he’s describing. Finally, he reaches his conclusion, and spends several minutes pleading with the crowds to take Christ’s yoke upon them, and give Him their burdens of sin. His voice is filled with pity and urgency, as he warns of the fires of hell that will consume God’s adversaries. Many in the crowd are on their knees or faces, begging for God’s mercy, and some are praying together.

When the man finishes his discourse, many in the crowd erupt in spontaneous singing of hymns, prayers, and confessions. Men versed in Scripture are dispatched to help those bowed down with a sense of guilt, condemnation, or sorrow. But many are rejoicing, praising God, and lifting their hands to heaven. The Lord Jesus has been seen to be crucified, risen, and ascended into heaven to send the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the forgiveness of sins.

As the man in the black robe walks down the steps of the house, he’s drenched in sweat, bowed down with weariness, and out of breath. But he’s smiling, and greets his companions with joyful praise to God.

Such is a glimpse of one of the scenes from the life of George Whitefield, the most popular gospel preacher of the 1700s, and the most influential instrument in the First Great Awakening. This was arguably the single most influential event in colonial America, and wouldn’t be rivaled until the Second Great Awaking about 60 years later. It was truly an extraordinary work of the Spirit of God in the preaching of the gospel, the awakening of saints, and the salvation of thousands of sinners. It’s estimated that in the American colonies during the few most fruitful years of the first one, tens of thousands of men, women, and children, came to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and were added to the membership rolls of various churches.

Along with the revival in the colonies, Great Britain itself also experienced a great awakening that was comparable. The results of the preaching and conversions were visible. Droves of poor and middle class people joined churches, Methodist Societies were formed for mutual discipleship and service, communities were reformed in morals, evangelists were moved to preach in the open air, and the abolitionist movement was encouraged. The British society that had formerly been so openly irreligious, immoral, and hypocritically religious, was then quickened with the addition of devout church members, the installment of pious preachers in leadership, and a general enthusiasm and interest in Scriptural teaching and Christianity. The awakening transformed societies because it transformed thousands of people’s hearts with the grace of God in Messiah Jesus.

So it’s a tragedy that so few western believers know anything about God’s spectacular work in the 1730s and 40s. The examples He used to bring sinners and saints to repentance, and the means He used to do this, are great encouragements in the secular, pagan, and anti-Christian culture in which we live.

Thankfully, a new way to learn about this momentous story has recently been released in theatres across the northeastern United States by a Lancaster performing arts company called Sight & Sound Ministries Inc. It’s called A Great Awakening, and it’s hands down the most helpful historical film made in recent times. Let me tell you about what it best teaches, and how it fell short of showing more of God’s glory in the story of the 1st Great Awakening.

How the Film Excelled: A Review

Overall, this film is a tremendous contribution to the education and encouragement of Christians, especially those in the U.S. The basic story is about Benjamin Franklin’s preparation to continue his part in the Constitutional Convention, as the Continental Congress discusses how to respond to the horrible failure of the states under the Articles of Confederation in 1787. As he visits with his grandson, Ben, at his printing shop, he lets him read some recently discovered journals written by George Whitefield, the most influential preacher in the American colonies during the Awakening. This conversation takes us into the story of his childhood, education, and evangelistic ministry in the colonies. At the heart of this story is the friendship between him and Franklin, which is shown to be mutually beneficial, as Franklin used his printing and newspaper business to publish the sermons, pamphlets, and coverage of Whitefield’s ministry. However, in between long stretches of this story, the perspective fast forwards to Franklin’s discussion with his grandson, and then his final decision for how to resolve the contentious stalemate that ended the previous day’s convention meeting.
The film concludes with Franklin’s decision to deliver a speech that’s designed to move the Continental Congress to seek God’s help through clergy-led prayers.

While I’m disappointed in the extreme appeal to the importance of Franklin in the founding of the U.S. under the Constitution, the story of Whitefield’s and Franklin’s friendship is one that gives us many lessons in God’s work and will in the world. Throughout the film, we see God’s hand working in the lives of these two men who were taking two divergent paths. We also see how the story of Whitefield’s preaching might have influenced Franklin to introduce the prayer practice that may very well have led to the cooperation of the states in ratifying the U.S. Constitution. However, the greatest story is told in the Lord Jesus’s redemption of sinners through the simple communication of the gospel of His life, death, and resurrection. The movie also shows us at least a couple of the greatest needs of the body of Christ today.

The first of these needs is the bold, uncompromising, and public preaching of the gospel to sinners. This is repeatedly depicted in the film, as we see some of the most famous instances of Whitefield’s preaching. One of the first of these is his open-air preaching to some coal miners at a mining camp. He comes to a community of poor, miserable, and hardworking outcasts that want nothing to do with him. He sets up a handmade wooden platform, steps on to it, and begins to preach, inciting some men to throw stones at him. But he continues, and eventually the gospel breaks through to some of their hearts. The scene ends with him praying for them, and rejoicing that they’ve received salvation through faith, resulting in the reconciliation of a family.

Then, Whitefield is shown preaching from the courthouse balcony of Philadelphia. After this, his relentless and continual preaching is implied by showing him journeying from place to place across the colonies, as Franklin records these visits through his newspaper. It’s implied that Whitefield was constantly preaching in open, public, places, as is true. And this is something we need more of in the West, not only by evangelists.

Our attitude toward unbelieving company has become too private and silent. I would venture to suspect that you’d agree that we pass up too many opportunities to share the gospel with the unbelievers around us. This is something Whitefield would only rarely have done. Everywhere he went, everyone he met, was a divine appointment ordained by God for the presentation of some truth about the gospel. He sought never to let an opportunity slip through his fingers for proclaiming the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. Although we need more evangelists like Whitefield, we also need the average believer to be eager and able to share the gospel with the people around him on an average day.

The second lesson this story teaches us is that God can use the most unlikely people to spread His gospel. Franklin was arguably Whitefield’s greatest promoter and publisher. Through his printing work, he mostly multiplied Whitefield’s influence, as he announced his preaching destinations, recounted the results of the preaching, and published his many, many sermons. These were the best-selling writings in the colonies at the time.

The astonishing thing is that Franklin was inwardly opposed to the core message that Whitefield preached. At the heart of this message was the need to be born again through faith in the crucified and risen Savior (we’ll have to overlook Whitefield’s inconsistent Calvinism). Yet, his message was so popular, that Franklin sees it as an opportunity to make money through the sale of his publications. Motivated mainly by greed, God used Franklin to promote the spread of the kingdom in the conversion of sinners, and the upbuilding of the saints.

However, in the film, we also see that Franklin was concerned about morality. In one of the scenes, he explains his system of self-improvement with Whitefield. Whitefield’s response is to remind Franklin that no amount of morality or good deeds can earn your way into heaven, but only God’s regenerating grace can.

In this remarkable tension shown in the attitude of Franklin, we find another one of the most important lessons taught in the film — that the genuine work of the Spirit in the preaching of the gospel can attract and captivate even those who stubbornly refuse to trust in Christ for salvation.

Although the film fails to accurately portray the full extent of his condition, Franklin is a prime example of a tare among the wheat. It’s implied in the film through his enthusiasm for outward virtue that Franklin’s investment in Whitefield’s ministry is also an expression of his concern for societal reform. From the historical record, this lines up with the way he justified his partnership with a work with which he didn’t agree. In other words, Franklin believed that practicing Christianity was good mainly because it caused people to treat each other kindly, and promoted general happiness in society. But this was the furthest he went in his agreement. While seeking the success of Whitefield’s preaching, he refused to believe the gospel himself. This self-deception and double-mindedness is obviously most dangerous when it’s possessed by outward members of churches. And this is something the Lord specifically warned about in the parables of the tares, the dragnet, and the soils. The lesson to be learned is that even while the Holy Spirit is bringing many to faith in Christ, He still often allows many to enjoy the outward effects of salvation, without being saved at heart themselves. There’s always the possibility to have self-deceived or hypocritical people among believers. And if we’re seeking a revival like the Awakening, we need to be prepared for this.

So, these are the main points I think A Great Awakening makes well. And overall, the film is well-structured, convincingly acted out, and beautifully filmed. It’s a moving encouragement to preach the gospel, seek revival, and promote the spread of obedience to the will of Jesus. However, I must point out a few severe inaccuracies and flaws that the producers of the film made. They detract from the full meaning of the Great Awakening, and the power of Whitefield’s example.

How A Great Awakening Failed to Teach the Awakening

The first major fault of the film is its hyper-political and nationalistic message. Sadly, the story of the Great Awakening and Whitefield plays mostly a supporting role in the main story. While I understand that it’s meant to highlight the extraordinary establishment of the United States’ independence 250 years ago, this is no excuse to make the Awakening seem as mostly a motivation behind Franklin’s introduction of public prayer into the Constitutional Congress. From beginning to end, at least one of the film’s main points is that the Constitution and the union of the American states got their start through prayers in the Congress that were argued for by Franklin. When it ends, you get the sense that the main takeaway is meant to be, “Get prayer back in American government,” or “push our politicians to recognize the Christian influence in the framing of the Constitution.” However, this wasn’t even one of the main lessons of the Awakening, or of Whitefield for that matter.

Since the film is clearly framed as a nationalistic appeal to the Christian influences in the original American governments, it misses much of the power and significance of the massive revival of the Spirit’s work during the Awakening. It makes the revival seem as though it was a revival of prayer in government, rather than a revival of biblical preaching, repentance, living, and church life.

 One of the ways that the movie puts too much emphasis on the politics of early America is by making Franklin seem to be the more important man of the story. Franklin is the main character to start it, and Franklin is the last character shown in it. However, history shows that Whitefield was by far the more important of the two men. He should have been the main character, and not Franklin.

In centering the story around the struggle of the Congress, the movie doesn’t allow for a thorough and deserved portrayal of the Awakening. The revival of God’s Spirit takes a backseat to the conflict and resolution of America’s founding. However, by far the more needed type of event is the widespread preaching of the gospel and establishment of churches, rather than the widespread introduction of a Christian heritage and ambience in American government.

Historical Inaccuracies

In addition to these main complaints, I can’t help but note a few misrepresentations of history in A Great Awakening. As Christians, we are the most insistent on the accurate explanation of reality, and so we should make no excuse for portraying history in a way other than how we know it happened, provided we have that knowledge. Thus, before you watch the film, you need to know the truth about some things showed that don’t match up with how God ordained the story.

The first thing that is done as an anachronism is the way Whitefield is portrayed as being baptized. Besides a sermon he preached well after his conversion that expresses his belief in immersion, there’s no evidence that Whitefield was baptized by immersion immediately after he was saved. And yet, the film shows the Holy Club baptizing and celebrating with Whitefield in a river. Instead, it’s almost certain that he was baptized as an infant in the Church of England, and was content to let this suffice, as was commonly practiced. Also, the early Methodists, as well as the Church of England, almost always baptized through the sprinkling or pouring of water, as was the Reformed custom.

A second thing about Whitefield’s conversion that the movie gets wrong is its timing with that of the Wesley brothers. He was converted in 1735 at Oxford University, as it portrays. However, at least one scene suggests that John Wesley understood and believed the gospel while Whitefield was attempting to earn God’s favor through his efforts. In actuality, John and his brother Charles, weren’t converted until three years later, after going to Georgia as “missionaries”.

Further, the way that Whitefield came to repent and believe the gospel wasn’t quite how it’s shown. The main stimulus that finally convinced him he must rely solely on Jesus and what He’s done wasn’t an emotional appeal about accepting God’s fatherly love already given to a sinner, but by reading an old Puritan book called The Life of God in the Soul of Man. Can you guess what teaching this book expounded? Being born again, or regenerated! Hence, it probably wasn’t Whitefield’s sight of God loving him as a father that brought him to true faith, but his realization that his heart was wicked and evil in God’s sight, and needed the spiritual cleansing purchased by Christ’s death. It was when he realized that he had no true love for God, that he came to see the only way God could forgive Him was by His sovereign good pleasure both satisfying His eternal justice and providing him with a new heart of faith.

A fourth misrepresentation of Whitefield’s life in the film is the events of his first preaching engagement. It’s shown as a dramatic and brief tirade given by him at a country church led by two elderly priests. Almost immediately Whitefield begins preaching a series of punchy and disorganized statements about the failure of religion to save you, and the need to be born again. Then, shortly after this, a band of slaves or servants bursts into the church, seeking Whitefield’s explanation of the way of salvation. This is almost certainly not how he began his preaching, since he was allowed to preach at least a couple times in real churches, and was able to impress at least one of the established church officials. Doubtless, he actually delivered a Bible-based, organized, and more somber and controlled sermon. Likely, no spectacular theatrics were done by people outside the church, with him then turning on the ministers and hotly indicting them for hypocrisy (although he did things at least close to this). This was one of the worst scenes of the movie, and seemed to make a mockery of the actual beginning of his formal preaching as an ordained minister.

Finally, the general gospel message delivered by the Whitefield of the film doesn’t closely match the historical preacher’s explanation of the gospel. And this may be the second biggest failure of the film. The biggest mistake the producers made here was in injecting contemporary forms of evangelism into Whitefield’s sermons, primarily concerning God’s love. It’s clear from even a cursory study of his preaching that he was a believer in the Calvinistic “doctrines of grace.” At their foundation are the truths of God’s holiness and man’s extreme wickedness. Although the movie repeatedly has the preacher boldly saying “God loves you,” or “Jesus loves you,” these assertions would almost never have been uttered by him to a crowd containing unbelievers. Although he believed that God had a genuine compassion and concern for sinners, he also held to the Scriptural doctrine that God’s wrath abides on all unbelievers.

This reality goes along with the film’s glaring neglect to include Whitefield’s explanation of God’s wrath, judgment, punishment, and hatred for sin. The real preacher spoke much more of the coming judgment of sinners than the film impresses on our imaginations. And when he described the love of God, he didn’t describe it in bare assertions that God loved everyone the same, without discrimination, but by telling of the death of Jesus, and the promise of forgiveness through repentance. He believed that God’s love could only be known and experienced if one believed in Jesus, since His special, eternal, love was only for those in Christ (the elect, or chosen). And as a motivation for sinners to receive this love through faith, he urgently, repeatedly, and graphically, warned them of God’s eternal punishment in hell awaiting them if they refused to believe the gospel. In essence, he would say that there would be no need to be “born again” if God loved everyone indiscriminately. He didn’t want to give anyone any idea that God was somehow content with them if they went on rebelling against Him in unbelief.

Along these lines, there’s also a glaring absence of Whitefield’s regular description of Jesus’s substitutionary death on the cross. You hear very little explanation of why Jesus died, and what you do hear doesn’t clearly explain that He died to suffer the wrath of God deserved by our sins. The failure of A Great Awakening to portray this biblical, bold, and Christlike preaching of the gospel is a huge disservice to Whitefield’s legacy, our understanding of history, and the teaching of the Scriptures. There’s enough of the gospel to persuade someone to trust in Jesus for salvation, but just barely. The film makes the same error that countless western evangelical churches and Christians make everyday in mostly presenting a watered down, and need-oriented, good news.

Yet in spite of these problems in the film, I encourage you to watch it if you have a couple of hours and a good opportunity in the northeast U.S. (find out where here: https://www.agreatawakening.com/tickets/). It’s playing in theaters now. But there’s far more encouraging lessons to learn from the Great Awakening and George Whitefield’s life, which I hope to recount in a future article.

Until next time, wear yourself out in the service of our Lord Jesus, rather than rusting out through negligence!