Third Great Awakening

Divine Reset of the United States of America and the World

Third Great Awakening. It started with the Revival in 2020.

The Great Awakening, An Overview

What is a Great Awakening?

A Great Awakening is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the people in a large geographical region or nation. Awakenings are always proceeded by a spiritual Revival, but Revivals tend to be regional in nature and for a limited period of time. A Great Awakening on the other hand is multi-generational and can last up to fifty years or more.

The United States has had two Great Awakenings, or prolonged periods of God’s outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the country. Due to the religious and supernatural aspects of these historical events, they are often ignored by many secular historians.

The First Great (Spiritual) Awakening preceded the Revolutionay War from around ~1730-1770. Backed by the decent of the Holy Spirit upon the inhabitants of the thirteen colonies. The “Spirit of 1776” was a spiritually driven moral imperative and drive for liberty. It was the Spirit of God in the hearts of the founders and patriots such as Reverend Jonas Clarke from Lexington, Massachusetts. “We recognize no Sovereign but God and no King but Jesus” and the phrase used in the war we have “No King but King Jesus.” Another word for this spirit is fearless which we have recorded from men such as Patrick Henry.

I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery … It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings. …

The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. … Give me liberty or give me death!

The Second Great (Spiritual) Awakening which occurred before the Civil War was from around ~1800-1850. Touched by God spiritually citizens understood they would be judged on stewardship of their country. It became an urgent moral imperative and drive to remove the sin of slavery from the land. Which led to the formation anti-slavery organizations, anti-slavery newspapers, fundraising, and political action groups, and finally resolved on the battlefield in war.

What happens during a Revival or Great Awakening?

During an Awakening or Revival, a person has a spiritual experience with God where they are shown their sins. Sometimes this is known as an “Illumination of Conscience” is when you see your soul as God sees it. One comes to know and feel the hurt of how deeply sins offend God and how sins affected other people.

Personal account of this experience comes from Noah Webster during Second Great Awakening in 1808. He was a very educated and devout man best known for his work on Webster’s dictionary.

Webster wrote:

About a year ago an unusual revival of religion took place in New Haven (CT). …. During this time, my mind continued to be more and more agitated, and in a manner wholly unusual and to me unaccountable. I had indeed short composure, but at all times of the day and in the midst of other occupations, I was suddenly seized with impressions, which called my mind irresistibly to religious concerns and to the awakening. …

The impressions however grew stronger till at length I could not pursue my studies without frequent interruptions. My mind was suddenly arrested, without any previous circumstance of the time to draw it to this subject and as it were fastened to the awakening and upon my own conduct.

I closed my books, yielded to the influence, which could not be resisted or mistaken and was led by a spontaneous impulse to repentance, prayer and entire submission and surrender of myself to my maker and redeemer. My submission appeared to be cheerful and was soon followed by that peace of mind which the world can neither give nor take away. I could no longer question or have a doubt respecting … Christian doctrines of regeneration, of free grace, and of the sovereignty of God. I now began to understand and relish many parts of the scriptures, which before appeared mysterious and unintelligible or repugnant to my natural pride. … In short, my view of the scriptures, of religion, of the whole Christian scheme of salvation, and of God’s moral government are very much changed, and my heart yields with delight and confidence to whatever appears to be the divine will.

Go Forth And Sin No More

One common experience many people have is the soul impressing on the mind the words “I am not worthy.” A Revival and Awakening touches and changes the human heart to where people turn away from their sinful behavior. They no longer want to see sinful behavior in society either. Many become fearless, outspoken, and empowered to actively rid society of evil which then leads to conflict and major social change. One driving factor behind the social change is the knowledge and conviction knowing that they will be called to account for how they used their God-given gifts, personal actions, and for their stewardship in society.

Why the United States of America?

The question may be asked why do these Great Awakenings seem to be focused on the United States of America? It should be acknowledged that the Evangelical Revival in Britain preceded the First Great Awakening in the colonies. Yes, there were spiritual revivals outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Europe and elsewhere. But why does God’s grace with these Awakenings seems to be focused on the United States?

The answer is threefold, one is God used the United States to birth Biblical Liberty into the world. Thus the nation was born in a day tasked with a “Great Commission.” The country’s purpose is to use the gifts God has given to spread the blessings of Christian Biblical liberty throughout the world. Second is that God remembers His Covenant. Even if the people forget, Covenants matter to God. Third, is the role the country was destined to play in world history, and in the latter days with Israel.

North America was God’s long game in history. It was a religious relocation project to a new home called by some early settlers as the New Israel. A place of safety prepared in the wilderness for many Christian groups escaping from religious persecution in Europe. Groups relocating included the Pilgrims, Quakers, Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, Dutch Reformed, Anglicans, French Huguenots, Moravians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Catholics, Lutherans, and Jews.

One might think of all these groups as being quite different. In fact, they share the same Judeo-Christian roots; thus they shared the same spiritual bonds. All had a thirst for liberty and freedom but moreover, wanted to worship God according to the dictates of their conscience.

Biblical Liberty
We may use the term Biblical Liberty, Christian Biblical Liberty, or American Liberty interchangeably because they capture the same spiritual dimension of liberty. Thus Biblical Liberty is a people and nation in a spiritual relationship with God. True freedom comes from knowing God’s Word then voluntarily choosing to follow His Laws and Commandments. The keyword is voluntary because due to man’s free will God does not force spiritual choices. Summarized by Jesus as “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” — John 14:15

These same Biblical Laws and principles of liberty are contained within our country’s founding documents, and incorporated into civil government. They are based on the timeless truth of God’s Word, not on the prevailing public opinion of the day. The founders’ truly historic achievement was to incorporate these Biblical spiritual laws and principles of liberty and freedom into civil government.

The Covenant

Throughout history God has made covenants with His people. A covenant “is a bond or agreement between unequals, where God is binding himself to a people or nation. … Thus, from their earliest beginnings, the people and polities comprising the United States have bound themselves together through covenants … deliberately following Biblical precedents.”

The most prominent covenantal document is the Declaration of Independence, but there are others.

Robert Hunt – Cape Henry, Virginia in 1607:
We do hereby dedicate this Land, and ourselves, to reach the People within these shores with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to raise up Godly generations after us, and with these generations take the Kingdom of God to all the earth. May this Covenant of Dedication remain to all generations, as long as this earth remains, and may this Land, along with England, be Evangelist to the World. May all who see this Cross, remember what we have done here, and may those who come here to inhabit join us in this Covenant and in this most noble work that the Holy Scriptures may be fulfilled.

The Mayflower Compact in 1620:
For the Glory of God – IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience.

The Declaration of Independence in 1776:
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them …

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness [or property]. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. ..

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.

The Declaration of Independence is a covenant document that joined together member states under a framework of government. At the time of the country’s founding, the states were sovereign independent governments. The declaration is a spiritual covenant between a people and their God that they voluntarily joined together under a framework of government as “One Nation Under God.”
They separated from Britain because the Laws of God, laws of nature, and of nature’s God entitled them to do so. The purpose of the government, they stated, was to secure back their God-given rights. The duly elected delegates representing their perspective states who were willing to sacrifice their lives petitioned to God for help to bring forth their request. But more importantly, their prayers and petitions were answered.

The Declaration of Independence, and victory in the war which was marked by numerous occurrences of divine intercession. The same occurred during the drafting of the Constitution known to history as the “Miracle of Philadelphia” because it was a miracle. A nation was birthed conceived in liberty that owes its existence to the blessing of God, which was well acknowledged by the country’s founders.

We remain today under the covenant made by the country’s forefathers to secure the blessings of liberty. John Quincy Adams, outspoken on the covenantal aspect of our founding documents, stated it this way. “They, [the American people] were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of the gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledged as the rules of their conduct. They were bound by the principles which they themselves had proclaimed in the declaration.”

The covenant and blessings of liberty are our birthrights as a nation. But with these great blessings so to come to our duty and obligations to God for them.

United States’ Role in History
Reverend Hollis Read wrote that “History, when rightly written, is but a record of Providence; and he who would read history rightly, must read it with his eye constantly fixed on the Hand of God. Every change, every revolution in human affairs, is, in the mind of God, a movement to the consummation of the great work of redemption.” Due to our county’s Christian Biblical roots and national covenant, and motto “One Nation Under God.” God and the Bible are part of who we are as a people, our language, morals, and shared experiences.

Thus, we should be expected with a nation tasked with a “Great Commission” that God would use the United States for His greater purpose in history. If we look back in the history of the world from a Biblical and providential perspective, we see this road map or plan unfolding over the centuries. Since the country’s birth, this plan has included the United States of America playing a prominent role in history. It has become ever clearer in the Twentieth now into Twentieth First century that the destiny of the United States and Israel are inexorably linked.
The Great Awakenings are focused on the United States of American because it is part of God’s greater purpose in history. Also, it is because of our country’s founding of Christian Biblical Liberty and the country’s “Great Commission” to proclaim God’s gift of liberty, throughout the world.

First Great Awakening ~1730-1770

The First Great Awakening started around 1730 lasting through to about 1770. It was first observed and documented by minister Jonathan Edwards in North Hampton, Massachusetts as “a strange alteration almost all over New England amongst young people.”

Edward continued:
By a powerful invisible influence on their minds, they have been brought to forsake, in a general way, as it were at once, those things of which they were extremely fond, and in which they seemed to place the happiness of their lives, and which nothing before could induce them to forsake as their frolicking, vain company-keeping, night-walking, their mirth and jollity, their impure language, and lewd songs.

In vain did ministers preach against those things before, in vain were laws made to restrain them, and in vain was all the vigilance of magistrates and civil officers; but now they have almost everywhere dropped them as it were of themselves. And there is great alteration amongst old and young as to drinking, tavern-haunting, profane speaking, and extravagance in apparel.

This outpouring of the Holy Spirit that touched the human heart would transform the Thirteen Colonies. Soon to follow were preachers such as George Whitefield, William Cooper, Charles Chauncy, Jonathan Mayhew, Joseph Bellamy, Samuel Davies, and others.

George Whitefield traveled by horseback preaching the Gospel from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, down to the Carolinas and Georgia. He preached to whites, blacks, and Indian camps as well. Over twenty years with four to five sermons a day, rain or shine; it is estimated he preached over 32,000 sermons.
Whitefield’s sermons were so powerful and convicting it is said that people a mile away from where he preached were brought to Christ. Even the frugal Benjamin Franklin was felt this spiritual conviction and could not help by tithe.
I happened soon after to attend one of his Sermons, in the course of which I perceived he intended to finish with a collection, and I silently resolved he should get nothing from me. I had in my pocket a handful of copper money, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles [Spanish coins] in Gold. As he proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the coppers. Another stroke of his oratory made me ashamed of that, and determined me to give the silver; and he finished so admirably, that I emptied my pocket wholly into the collector’s dish, gold and all.3

Benjamin Franklin published several Whitefield’s sermons. He noted that the sermons changed people’s manners and behavior of the inhabitants of Philadelphia.

Franklin wrote:
It seemed as if all the world were growing religious; so that one could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing Psalms sung in different families of every street.

Time of Social Change
The “Spirit of 1776” was a spiritually driven moral imperative and drive for liberty. It was the Spirit of God in the hearts of the founders and patriots such as Reverend Jonas Clarke from Lexington, Massachusetts. “We recognize no Sovereign but God and no King but Jesus”5 and the phrase used in the war “No King but King Jesus.” Another word for this spirit is fearless which we have recorded from men such as Patrick Henry.

We see this fearlessness in the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence who were committed to a greater cause than themselves. They knew if apprehended by British authorities would be hanged for treason. We see it the words of Samuel Adams standing on the steps of Independence Hall the following month after the signing of the Declaration of Independenc
We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom alone all men ought to be obedient; He reigns in Heaven, and with a propitious eye beholds his subjects assuming that freedom of thought, and dignity of self-direction, which He bestowed upon them. From the rising to the setting sun, may His kingdom come. …

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom — go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!

Country’s True History
These ministers and pastors of the First Great Wakening preached on divine law, government, on how the King and Parliament were violating the Biblical law and their God-given rights as Englishmen. They also preached on unity as Christians and national destiny. The First Great Awakening and citizen’s relationship with God spiritually helped to prepare them for the many trials and tribulations soon to be faced as a nation.

The Founding Fathers credited first God, then second, the ministers of the First Great Awakening, for their victory in the war. The ministers attributed independence to God and gave thanks. Jonathan Mayhew wrote. “We have the greatest cause for thankfulness to Almighty God … [He] hath inspired the people of America with a noble spirit of liberty, and remarkably united them in standing up for that invaluable blessing [of liberty].”

John Winthrop, a Puritan and one of the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony sailing to America in 1630 recorded his vision. Over a century later, though God’s timeless works of providence and the First Great Awakening, this would be fulfilled with the birth of the United States of America.
Thus stands the cause between God and us. We are entered into covenant with Him for this work. We have taken out a commission. … He ratified this covenant and sealed our commission, and will expect a strict performance of the articles contained in it; but if we shall neglect the observation of these articles which are the ends we have propounded, and, dissembling with our God, shall fall to embrace this present world and prosecute our carnal intentions, seeking great things for ourselves and our posterity, the Lord will surely break out in wrath against us, and be revenged of such a people, and make us know the price of the breach of such a covenant. …

For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world. …
“Beloved, there is now set before us life and death, good and evil,” in that we are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another, to walk in his ways and to keep His Commandments and his ordinance and his laws, and the articles of our Covenant with Him But if our hearts shall turn away, so that we will not obey, but shall be seduced, and worship other Gods, our pleasure and profits, and serve them; it is propounded unto us this day, we shall surely perish out of the good land.

The First Great Awakening was God’s first spiritual salvo for the United States. It was about the birthing of a nation and God’s gift of Biblical Liberty to the world. It was about covenants with a people and nation and future chapters in American history that were yet to be written.

Second Great Awakening ~1800 -1850

The Second Great Awakening started around 1800, lasting through to about 1850. It was first observed by Reverend James McGready at the Red River Meeting House in Kentucky where he preached.

McGreaty wrote of this spiritual occurrence:

But the year 1800 exceeds all that my eyes ever beheld upon earth. All that I have related is only, as it were, an introduction. Although many souls in these congregation during the three preceding years, have been savingly converted, and now give living evidences of their union to Christ; yet all that work is only like a few drops before a mighty rain, when compared with the wonders of Almighty Grace, that took place in the year 1800.

In June, the sacrament was administered at Red River. This was the greatest time we had ever seen before. On Monday multitudes were struck down under awful conviction; the cries of the distressed filled the whole house. There you might see profane swearers, and sabbath breakers pricked to the heart and crying out, “what shall we do to be saved?” There frolickers, and dancers crying for mercy. There you might see little children of ten, eleven, and twelve years of age, praying and crying for redemption, in the blood of Jesus, in agonies of distress.1

The Holy Spirit
Following the Red River Meeting House service word quickly spread as more people came to hear McGreaty preach. The following year at Caine Ridge, Kentucky some 20,000 people gathered to hear pastor Barton W. Stone and other pastors and ministers preach the Gospel, The spirit was so strong at this gathering that historical accounts cannot fully capture this move of God.
One first-hand account of the meeting recorded:

The noise was like the roar of Niagara. The vast sea of human beings seemed to be agitated as if by a storm. I counted seven ministers, all preaching at one time, some on stumps, others on wagons …

Some of the people were singing, others praying, some crying for mercy in the most piteous accents. While witnessing these scenes, a peculiar-strange sensation, such as I had never felt before, came over me. My heart beat tumultuously, my knees trembled, my lips quivered, and I felt as though I must fall to the ground. A strange supernatural power seemed to pervade the entire mass of my mind there collected. … At times it seemed as if all the sins I had ever committed in my life were vividly brought up in array before my terrified imagination, and under their awful pressure, I felt that I must die if I did not get relief.

From Kentucky, the Awakening spread to neighboring Tennessee, to western New York state, then to New England, and the island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. It spread into the south and by Methodist’s circuit riders and through west to Ohio, Indiana. It eventually made it to the west coast, Canada, and Great Britain.

There were women preachers such as Ellen G. White and African American ministers and pastors, men such as Andrew Bryan Baptist in South Carolina, George Liele in Georgia, and Richard Allen in Philadelphia. Even a former slave, Harry Hoosier, preached in Indiana, later nicknamed the “Hoosier State.”
It was a time of the formation and growth of new religious denominations, the establishment of new religious schools, and Bible study groups. The move of the Holy Spirit in the north opened the hearts to liberty and freedom for all, but due to the slave owners’ vested interests, it did not take hold in the South.
Signs, Warnings, and History

During the debates at Constitutional Convention in 1787, George Mason prophetically warned that “every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of Heaven on a country.”3 The northern state’s compromise over the issue of slavery with the southern states was the three-fifths clause. It was an anti-slavery clause by the northern states where slaves were counted as three-fifths of a free person, thus limiting the power of Southern States in Congress.

One of the first pieces of legislation signed into law by George Washington was the Northwest Ordinance in 1787 which stated. “There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said [the northwest] territory.” Constitution Article 1 Section 9 prohibited by Congress from stopping in the importation of slaves before the year of 1808. In 1794 a bill prohibited the export of slaves and then in 1808, a bill banned the import of slaves. The southern states were quickly losing power and control in Congress to the Northern states in their efforts to end slavery.

In a foreshadowing of the battle over slavery and the Missouri Comprise. “Between December 1811 and March 1812, some of the most powerful earthquakes in recorded history violently shook the United States.”4
On December 16, 1811, when a strong tremor rocked the New Madrid region. The city of New Madrid, located near the Mississippi River in present-day Missouri …
On January 23, 1812, an estimated 8.4-magnitude quake struck in nearly the same location, causing disastrous effects. Reportedly, the president’s wife, Dolley Madison, was awoken by the tremor in Washington, D.C. …

On February 7, 1812, the most violently of a series of earthquakes near Missouri causes a so-called fluvial tsunami in the Mississippi River, actually making the river run backward for several hours. … This one was estimated at an amazing 8.8-magnitude and was probably one of the strongest quakes in human history. Church bells rang in Boston, thousands of miles away, from the shaking. Brick walls were toppled in Cincinnati.

John Adams stated, “Negro slavery is an evil of colossal magnitude and I am utterly averse to the admission of slavery into the Missouri territories.”6 Thomas Jefferson warned, “This momentous question, like a firebell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union.” Democrats gained control of Congress in 1820 and were able to get the Missouri Compromise passed that admitted Missouri to the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state.

The on July 4th, 1826, exactly on the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence two men most responsible for the document John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died a few hours apart. For the country Biblically fifty years was Jubilee or holy years to let the fields lie fallow, and to cancel every debt including slavery.

The last and final warning to the country occurred when the Liberty Bell cracked at high noon in February 22, 1846 ringing in celebration of George Washington’s birthday a few months shy of the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The number 70 Biblically is significant, it denotes the “punishment and restoration of Israel.”

The inscription on the side of the Liberty Bell is from Leviticus 25:10. It reads, “Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” But it is remaining part of the verse that relates to slavery, the country’s obligations to God, and the number fifty. The verse from Leviticus with part on slaver is as follows.

Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession. … Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God:for I am the Lord your God. Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.
— Leviticus 25:9-13, 17-18 KJV

Soon to follow was the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which expanded slavery into a massive territory. That same year thirty Democrats broke with their party and with members from the Whig Party formed the Republican Party to return to the county’s founding principles to prevent the spread of slavery into the western territories. The party’s stated platform was the “protection of the life, liberty, and property of every citizen” and to abolish slavery in all our national territory.
Then was the Supreme Court Dred Scott opinion of 1857. The court stated that slaves were “not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word “citizens” in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States.” Also, that Congress had exceeded its authority in the Missouri Compromise legislation thus could not ban slavery in the territory.
Time of Social Change
The Second Great Awakening became an urgent moral imperative and drive to remove the sin of slavery from the land. People who were touched by God spiritually understood they would be judged on stewardship of the country. Formed were anti-slavery organizations, anti-slavery newspapers, fundraising, and political action groups. One book Uncle Tom’s Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe published in 1852 had a profound impact on both the north and south in advancing the anti-slavery movement.

Abraham Lincoln was elected on November 6, 1760. Soon to follow was the secession of South Carolina and six more southern states from the Union. The Civil War began with southern forces captured of Fort Sumter in April of 1861.
Julia Ward Howe published The Battle Hymn of the Republic in 1861. The words to the hymn came to her in a dream one morning as she awoke in her tent turning from the Union loss at the Battle of Bull Run. It captures the timeless march of God’s truth and was a song was sung by the Union troops in glory to God.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword; His truth is marching on.

Refrain:
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.

I have seen him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps, they have builded him an altar in the evening dews and damps; I can read his righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;his day is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; he is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat; O be swift, my soul, to answer him; be jubilant, my feet! Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, with a glory in is bosom that transfigures you and me; as he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, while God is marching on.

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave, he is wisdom to the mighty, he is honor to the brave; so the world shall be his footstool, and the soul of wrong his slave. Our God is marching on.

The turning point of the Civil War was the battle of Gettysburg and Vicksburg on July 4th of 1863. Many took as a sign with the July 4th date that God’s hand was involved with the dual Union victories. Abraham Lincoln in his Second Inaugural

Address on March 4, 1865, discussed God’s purpose with the war:
The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

The Civil War ended shortly after General Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox in April of 1865.

Time of Social Change Continues
The slavery issue was finally settled with the war and Constitutional amendments, but God still had unfinished business with the country. Other pressing issues were the women’s suffrage moment, prison reform, ending child labor, and the temperance movement. The moral imperative continued causing social unrest as God worked to restore morality and Biblical founding principles of the country. Those at the time did not have the benefit of the hindsight on history to know how their efforts would change the country. In the broader view of time perhaps they didn’t have a not need to know God’s plan. …

The Second Great Awakening was God’s second spiritual salvo for the United States. It was about restoring Biblical law for all and returning the country to it’s founding principles. It was about the binding covenants made between a people and nation foremost with the Declaration of Independence. It was about preparation for future challenges on the world stage that was yet to unfold.

Revival is Here! ~June 2020

In the middle of the year of the Covid pandemic breaks forth in revival, to follow a resurrection year of new life. In early June of 2020 pastors, ministers, and congregants gathered to pray on the streets of Minneapolis where George Floyd was killed during a police arrest. During the public baptism ceremony the move of the Holy Spirit was noted. Minister Joshua Giles wrote on Facebook, “Baptizing people that just got saved on the streets of Minneapolis where George Floyd was killed!! Glory to God.”

Giles moved to the area from North Carolina seven years earlier at the direction of God. He was told, “Something is going happen here in Minneapolis that is going spark revival that will go throughout the nation.” At the time this made no sense, but at the public baptism ceremony became clear. He wrote, “These testimonies of the saving power of JESUS CHRIST are going all around the world. Glory to GOD!!! The revival is spreading!!”

”Since that tragedy with George Floyd, there was a moment in prayer where the Holy Spirit said to me that now it’s time to shift into revival.”6 While some would use the death of George Floyd to divide the nation, to loot, burn, and forward a marxist agenda. God would use the tragedy for good to birth a national and worldwide Revival.

At Corona Del Mar State Beach in Newport Beach, California pastor Gina Gleason observed it was remarkable that 1,000 people showed up to be baptized. He stated that “California may be experiencing a spiritual revival.”

In series of revival events hosted by Sean Feucht across the country in Nashville, Tennessee 10,000 gathered. Sean Feucht and Dr. Charles Karuku held at outdoor revival meetings in New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts. One headline stated “Revival is sweeping across New Jersey, New York City, and Boston.” The move of God shaking the East Coast garnered limed coverage by secular media reported on those not wearing masks and adherence to socially distancing rules.

In Bakersfied, California Pastor Mario Murillo responded after his tent worship meetings stated the ground is moving in California and this isn’t an earthquake this is a righteous tremor.

“There was a moment in the service where the power of God fell on the crowd and a roar came out of them. Of course, I have heard many roars in many rallies, but this was different. This was a cry so deep and so real that the people became one voice, with one passion. I kept waiting for the roar to subside, but it did not. I kept thinking this will level off, but it did not. I believe it is a sign of big things to come. … On Friday night in the tent, I saw the power of a people who can and will, by the power of Almighty God, accomplish the impossible.”

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