The Nineteenth Century and the
Second Great Awakening
Towards the end of the eighteenth
century and the carrying into the nineteenth, there was a movement to
return to Bible-based primitive Christianity.14
One reason for this movement was due to the fact that after the War of
Independence, people recognized the loosening of moral standards which
had prevailed during wartime. There were those who publicized the rise
in crime, the breaking of the Sabbath, the decline in church attendance,
and the growing influence of French liberalism.15
Many other faiths began to rise up all over the newly independent
nation. The general trend was the shying away from the state churches
and their dogma, leaning more towards a "personal and emotional
religious experience."16
Those churches that incorporated the democratic way of organization,
such as the Baptists and the Methodists, tended to grow much more
rapidly, especially in the frontier lands.17
However, in the churches in the east, which were more settled and where
scholarship and theology were highly esteemed, the revival movement took
on a more sober and steady nature.18
The Second Great Awakening was an
opportunity to incorporate religion into daily living. Both secular and
religious groups sought to remove a variety of abuses in the areas of
temperance, education, and social responsibility. Many religious groups
that began during this time formed communes in the hope of escaping the
evils of the world and establishing a pure church. The motivation for
these endeavors was found in preparing for the imminent coming of
Christ.19 Some
of the reforms were quite practical, such as vegetarianism: yet, there
were other groups that got fanatical like the "complex
marriage" doctrine of John Noyes of the Oneida group.20
One would not be wrong in stating that
this reform movement gave great opportunities to those who understood
the covenant concept. With the emphasis upon primitive Bible religion,
and the growing awareness of the fulfilling prophecies in the books of
Daniel and Revelation, one would think that the work of reform would
produce results that would shake the earth. The actual results of this
period are far from spectacular. The health and temperance reforms
gradually faded from the consciousness of many main-stream churches as
did educational reform. One cannot say that these churches also gave up
the study of the Scriptures, yet the action which they were to take in
the latter half of the century reveals convictions that are far from
Biblical.
|
