In the recent issue of Credo Mag, "George Whitefield at 300," Ian Hugh Clary contributed an article entitled, "The Born Again Preacher: George Whitefield on the New Nascency."

New Fixed Credo July 2022 Cover Ian Hugh Clary is finishing doctoral studies at the University of the Gratis State (Bloemfontein) where he is writing on Arnold Dallimore and the search for a usable past. He is co-editor (with Steve Weaver) ofThe Pure Flame of Devotion: A History of Christian Spirituality. Ian and his wife Vicky accept three children, Jack, Molly, and Kate, and live in Toronto where they are members of West Toronto Baptist Church.

Here is the kickoff of the article:

George Whitefield (1714-1770) has widely been lauded every bit i of Christianity's greatest evangelists and preachers. His early on biographer, John Gillies (1712-1796), wrote, "I oftentimes considered him as an angel flying through the midst of heaven, with the everlasting Gospel, to preach unto them that dwell on earth." Though he gave the championship of all-time preacher of all time to the Welsh revivalist Daniel Rowland (1713-1790), D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) nominated Whitefield as "the greatest English preacher of all time." Arnold Dallimore (1907-1998), author of an important twentieth-century biography of Whitefield, said that he was "the greatest evangelist since the Campaigner Paul." While information technology is difficult to know how to measure out whatsoever 1 person as the greatest preacher—what standard tin can be used?—there is no doubt that the impulse behind such sentiments are true. Whitefield was a remarkable preacher.

Whitefield himself estimated that over the course of his seven trips to America, and his various preaching tours in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and even the netherlands and the Caribbean, that he preached xviii,000 times to some ten meg hearers. He likewise revolutionized many of the media forms in the early modern menses including impress and sound amplification. It was basically unheard of in eighteenth-century England for an Anglican clergyman to preach in fields, merely Whitefield did this when he was barred from pulpits in the Church building of England. In Philadelphia Whitefield's friend Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) performed an audio-visual experiment and famously paced out thirty,000 in omnipresence who could reasonably hear him at one of his sermons. Whitefield had the insight to situate himself in natural amphitheatres in social club for his phonation to carry across large spaces. Contempo research using estimator modeling has verified the likelihood of Franklin's conclusions.

With this in mind, it is worth examining aspects of Whitefield's preaching. For our purposes, nosotros will look at how Scripture shaped Whitefield'due south preaching ministry, his emphasis on the new nascency, how he applied that accent to his hearers, and conclude with some brief reflections for preachers today. . . .

Read the balance of this interview today!


To view the Magazine equally a PDF {Click Here}

We live in a day when those in the church want to have their ears tickled. We practise not want a sermon, but a "talk." "Don't get preachy, preacher!" is the mantra of many church building goers today. What is preferred is a casual, comfortable, and laid dorsum chat with a loving cup of coffee and a couple of Bible verses to throw into the mix to brand sure things get spiritual. One wonders whether Timothy would have been fired as a pastor today for heeding Paul's advice: "preach the word; be ready in flavor and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching" (2 Tim. 4:2). Paul gives such a command to Timothy because he knew what was to come. "For the fourth dimension is coming when people will non endure sound educational activity, but having itching ears they will accrue for themselves teachers to suit their ain passions, and will plow away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths" (2 Tim. 4:iii-four). Has that 24-hour interval come? Are churches filled with "itching ears," demanding "teachers to suit their ain passions"? Have we turned "away from listening to the truth"?

In a day when ears itch and truth is shown the back door, what could be more needed than men who actually preach the Word? George Whitefield (1714-1770) was one of those men. He was a preacher who preached in plain language, so that even the nigh common man could understand God's Give-and-take. Yet, his sermons were incredibly powerful, often leading men and women to tears as the Holy Spirit convicted their souls. Whitefield not only preached the truth, but he pleaded with his listeners to submit themselves body and soul to the truth. He preached God'southward Word with passion because he understood that his listener stood between Heaven and Hell. His robust Calvinism, in other words, led to a zealous evangelism.

This year, 2014, marks the 300th anniversary of Whitefield's nativity. These articles are meant to drive u.s.a. back to Whitefield's mean solar day, that we might consume up his theology, and drink securely his passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Contributors include: Thomas Kidd, Lee Gatiss, Michael A.G. Haykin, Thomas Nettles, Ian Hugh Clary, Mike McKinley, Mark Noll, Doug Sweeney, and many others.