|
About Jesus - Steve Sweetman
They
Fall From Greatness It was December, 1917,
when he led his troops into Edmund Allenby's mother
was raised in an environment influenced by what history calls the Great
Awakening that swept across England
during the 1700's. This
movement was in stark contrast to the stale, lifeless, tradition laced,
remnant of Reformation theology. One
of the movement's leading Bible teachers was John Wesley (1703 - 1791).
Like Allenby's mother, I was raised in an Evangelical setting
that esteemed Wesley as its hero, and I suggest, for good reason.
Wesley, and others like
him, influenced English society on several fronts, not the least of
which was the issue of slavery. In
1772, Lord Mansfield, in the Somersett Case judged slavery to be
unsupported by English law. In
1808 parliament banned the trading of slaves.
In 1833 it abolished slavery altogether.
Of course, abolition doesn't necessarily equate to freedom.
The Great Awakening
produced an enthusiasm, dedication, and conviction, in its adherents
that had long since departed from Reformed and Lutheran denominations.
The movement also brought other Biblical issues to the cultural
table, such as Israel's place in prophetic history. Some suggest that Irish
theologian John Darby (1800 - 1881) founded the dispensational approach
to Biblical interpretation that included the Futurist view of prophecy.
That's not true. A
hundred years before Darby, John Wesley interpreted the Bible in terms
of dispensations, taught the
Futurist view of prophecy, along with Israel's place in prophetic history. By 1700 much of
Christendom rejected the idea that As British troops marched
victoriously across As Hitler was
exterminating Jews, The Balfour Declaration
adopted by the League of Nations defined the boundaries of the new
Jewish state that Britain
was responsible to facilitate. The
historical fact that is purposely and systematically ignored these days
is that England
failed to give the Jews their promised land.
Instead, England
gave 75% of the Jewish designated land to the Arabs.
The Great Awakening that
permeated English culture in the 1700's found its way to America
in the 1800's. It's called
the Second Great Awakening. With
Evangelical fervor, adherents to the movement spread their convictions
across America. A Biblical based support
for Israel
became a vital component of The effects of the Second
Great Awakening in
|