World events at the time of the First Great Awakening

The years between 1734 and 1750 were an exciting yet scary time to be alive.  New advances were being made in science and medicine. New concepts in philosophy based on reason were spreading through the Western world.  Secular thought was beginning to gain currency among the wealthy and well-educated. The field of economics was in its infancy.  Trade was becoming more sophisticated. The English-speaking world was on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution. Rural families were beginning to move to the cities to broaden their horizons.  Families were put under strain.  Public drunkenness proved problematic, especially in London, where gin was known as ‘mother’s ruin’. (At left is William Hogarth’s Gin Lane.  Note the woman whose infant is about to fall into the Thames, no doubt after she had visited the pawn shop, denoted by the three balls at the top of the engraving, no doubt to buy more gin.)  Private debauchery and gambling were popular pastimes among those young men who could afford it and young women who abandoned virtue.  Attire was becoming increasingly elegant and elaborately tailored.

Needless to say, some of these events had their downside and it is likely that apprehension in wider society caused the First Great Awakening in Britain and America.  America was a bit more separate from these than Britain, particularly England.  During the Georgian period, especially around London, personal morality and family breakup were great concerns.  Not only that, but would secular thought replace theological reflection? Before I profile the Revd George Whitfield who was another principal clergyman in this period, let’s look at an historical timeline.  Please note this is not comprehensive:

1703 Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley born

1707 Act of Union unites England and Scotland under name Great Britain

1707 Isaac Watts’ Hymns and Spiritual Songs alters course of English hymnody

1709 First mass emigration of Germans to America (Pennsylvania)

1709 Piano invented

1709 Tatler, a publication widely read today in Britain, began circulating in the London coffeehouses

1711 Steele and Addison publish The Spectator, gentleman’s newspaper with commentary on news, literature, and art — also read in coffeehouses of the day and still published today

1712 Last execution for witchcraft in England

1712 Newcomen steam pump, new aid to coal mining

1717 Inoculation against smallpox introduced into England by Lady Mary Wortley Montague

1719 Protestant dissenters tolerated in Ireland

1719 Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe

1721 Czar Peter the Great of Russia subordinates church to state, replaces Patriarch with Holy Synod

1721 Robert Walpole is Britain’s first Prime Minister (to 1742)

1722 Herrnhut founded as Moravian settlement in Saxony by Count von Zinzendorf

1726 Gilbert Tennent leads revival in New Jersey

1726 Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels

1727 Death of Isaac Newton, whose work Edwards admired

1727 George II King of England (to 1760)

1729 North and South Carolina created as crown colonies

1731 Expulsion of Protestants from Salzburg, Austria. Many emigrate to America

1732 Birth of George Washington

1732 Georgia established as colony under James Oglethorpe

1732 First edition of Poor Richard’s Almanack published by Benjamin Franklin

1733 John Kay invents flying shuttle used in textile mills

1735 Linnaeus’ Systema Naturae, outlining his system of taxonomy of plants

1738 John Wesley’s Aldersgate experience, leading to the Methodist Revival

1740 Frederick the Great reigns as King of Prussia (to 1786)

1740 Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, sometimes regarded as first modern English novel

1741 American Presbyterians split over issue of revivalism

1742 First performance of Handel’s Messiah

1744 First Methodist General Conference

1747 Samuel Johnson begins publication of his Dictionary of the English Language

1748 Montesquieu’s Spirit of Laws

1749 Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones

1755 David Hume’s Natural History of Religion, denying supernaturalism in religion

1755 Lisbon earthquake kills 30,000 people

1756 Birth of Mozart

1759 Quebec falls to the British

1759 Voltaire’s Candide

Some of the books popular in England and the rest of Europe ridiculed Christianity, yet had a grain of truth.  Tom Jones featured English life much as it is today, 250 years on.  I have read Richardson’s Pamela in its entirety (nearly 1 million words long) and saw the BBC screen adaptation almost 20 years ago.  It is truly a morality tale for our times — a warning to young women.  Candide‘s catchphrase is Dr Pangloss’s ’The best of all things in all possible worlds’ — something a preacher might say every time something goes wrong. Meanwhile, the Lisbon earthquake was seen as a message from God to repent.  What was a person to think?  Truly, these were, simultaneously, troubling and exhilirating times. 

Tomorrow: George Whitfield crosses the Atlantic

For more reading, see:

Jonathan Edwards’ World: Christian History Timeline – Christian History

Jonathan Edwards: Sinners in the hands of an angry God

The following sermon was part of my high school’s American Literature anthology, which I read when I was 16.  It was included to show the rhetorical skills of those writing in Colonial America.  When I first read it, I was scared.  What Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) said seemed inhumane and he seemed to me to lack understanding and forgiveness.  Looking at it a few decades later, I see that he is trying to shake the complacent out of their spiritual torpor.  I commend it to you as a) an example of a powerful call to repentence and b) to examine what type of sermon the Great Awakening congregants heard.

In those days, almost everyone went to church, even the reprobate.  Sometimes attendance was mandated and enforced by local colonial laws. I recall our English teacher telling us that when you went to church, beadles poked people who were falling asleep, slouching or fidgeting with long, pointy sticks.  Services would have been a couple of hours long and silence was expected, except during psalm singing or prayers.  If you were clean and pressed one day of the week, Sunday was the day.

Edwards delivered the sermon in Enfield, Connecticut, on July 8, 1741. (America was 35 years away from gaining its independence at that point.)  You can read ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ in full at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library site.  What follows are excerpts from this iconic sermon of the 18th century: 

Their foot shall slide in due time. Deuteronomy 32:35

In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, who were God’s visible people, and who lived under the means of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God’s wonderful works towards them, remained (as vers 28.) void of counsel, having no understanding in them. Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the text. — The expression I have chosen for my text, their foot shall slide in due time, seems to imply the following things, relating to the punishment and destruction to which these wicked Israelites were exposed.

1. That they were always exposed to destruction; as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall. This is implied in the manner of their destruction coming upon them, being represented by their foot sliding. The same is expressed, Psalm 73:18. “Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction.“

2. It implies, that they were always exposed to sudden unexpected destruction. As he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to fall, he cannot foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once without warning: Which is also expressed in Psalm 73:18,19. “Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction: How are they brought into desolation as in a moment!“

3. Another thing implied is, that they are liable to fall of themselves, without being thrown down by the hand of another; as he that stands or walks on slippery ground needs nothing but his own weight to throw him down.

4. That the reason why they are not fallen already and do not fall now is only that God’s appointed time is not come. For it is said, that when that due time, or appointed time comes, their foot shall slide. Then they shall be left to fall, as they are inclined by their own weight. God will not hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go; and then, at that very instant, they shall fall into destruction; as he that stands on such slippery declining ground, on the edge of a pit, he cannot stand alone, when he is let go he immediately falls and is lost.

The observation from the words that I would now insist upon is this. — “There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God.” — By the mere pleasure of God, I mean his sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation, hindered by no manner of difficulty, any more than if nothing else but God’s mere will had in the least degree, or in any respect whatsoever, any hand in the preservation of wicked men one moment. — The truth of this observation may appear by the following considerations.

1. There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment. Men’s hands cannot be strong when God rises up. The strongest have no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of his hands. — He is not only able to cast wicked men into hell, but he can most easily do it … We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; so it is easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that any thing hangs by: thus easy is it for God, when he pleases, to cast his enemies down to hell. What are we, that we should think to stand before him, at whose rebuke the earth trembles, and before whom the rocks are thrown down?

2. They deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never stands in the way, it makes no objection against God’s using his power at any moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, justice calls aloud for an infinite punishment of their sins. Divine justice says of the tree that brings forth such grapes of Sodom, “Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?” Luke 13:7. The sword of divine justice is every moment brandished over their heads, and it is nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy, and God’s mere will, that holds it back.

3. They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell. They do not only justly deserve to be cast down thither, but the sentence of the law of God, that eternal and immutable rule of righteousness that God has fixed between him and mankind, is gone out against them, and stands against them; so that they are bound over already to hell. John 3:18. “He that believeth not is condemned already.” So that every unconverted man properly belongs to hell; that is his place; from thence he is, John 8:23. “Ye are from beneath:” And thither he is bound; it is the place that justice, and God’s word, and the sentence of his unchangeable law assign to him.

4. They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments of hell. And the reason why they do not go down to hell at each moment, is not because God, in whose power they are, is not then very angry with them; as he is with many miserable creatures now tormented in hell, who there feel and bear the fierceness of his wrath. Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth: yea, doubtless, with many that are now in this congregation, who it may be are at ease, than he is with many of those who are now in the flames of hell …

5. The devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him. They belong to him; he has their souls in his possession, and under his dominion. The scripture represents them as his goods, Luke 11:12. The devils watch them; they are ever by them at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back. If God should withdraw his hand, by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost.

6. There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish principles reigning, that would presently kindle and flame out into hell fire, if it were not for God’s restraints. There is laid in the very nature of carnal men, a foundation for the torments of hell. There are those corrupt principles, in reigning power in them, and in full possession of them, that are seeds of hell fire … For the present, God restrains their wickedness by his mighty power, as he does the raging waves of the troubled sea, saying, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further;” but if God should withdraw that restraining power, it would soon carry all before it. Sin is the ruin and misery of the soul … The corruption of the heart of man is immoderate and boundless in its fury; and while wicked men live here, it is like fire pent up by God’s restraints, whereas if it were let loose, it would set on fire the course of nature; and as the heart is now a sink of sin, so if sin was not restrained, it would immediately turn the soul into fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone.

7. It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand. It is no security to a natural man, that he is now in health, and that he does not see which way he should now immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no visible danger in any respect in his circumstances … The unseen, unthought-of ways and means of persons going suddenly out of the world are innumerable and inconceivable. Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that they will not bear their weight, and these places are not seen. The arrows of death fly unseen at noon-day; the sharpest sight cannot discern them. God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell, that there is nothing to make it appear, that God had need to be at the expense of a miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of his providence, to destroy any wicked man, at any moment …

8. Natural men’s prudence and care to preserve their own lives, or the care of others to preserve them, do not secure them a moment. To this, divine providence and universal experience do also bear testimony. There is this clear evidence that men’s own wisdom is no security to them from death; that if it were otherwise we should see some difference between the wise and politic men of the world, and others, with regard to their liableness to early and unexpected death: but how is it in fact? Eccles. 2:16. “How dieth the wise man? even as the fool.“

9. All wicked men’s pains and contrivance which they use to escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, do not secure them from hell one moment. Almost every natural man that hears of hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it; he depends upon himself for his own security; he flatters himself in what he has done, in what he is now doing, or what he intends to do. Every one lays out matters in his own mind how he shall avoid damnation, and flatters himself that he contrives well for himself, and that his schemes will not fail …

   But the foolish children of men miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in confidence in their own strength and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a shadow. The greater part of those who heretofore have lived under the same means of grace, and are now dead, are undoubtedly gone to hell; and it was not because they were not as wise as those who are now alive … If we could speak with them, and inquire of them, one by one, whether they expected, when alive, and when they used to hear about hell, ever to be the subjects of misery: we doubtless, should hear one and another reply, “No, I never intended to come here: I had laid out matters otherwise in my mind; I thought I should contrive well for myself — I thought my scheme good. I intended to take effectual care; but it came upon me unexpected … Death outwitted me: God’s wrath was too quick for me … I was flattering myself … and when I was saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction came upon me.”

10. God has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises either of eternal life, or of any deliverance or preservation from eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, the promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are yea and amen. But surely they have no interest in the promises of the covenant of grace who are not the children of the covenant, who do not believe in any of the promises, and have no interest in the Mediator of the covenant.

So that, whatever some have imagined and pretended about promises made to natural men’s earnest seeking and knocking, it is plain and manifest, that whatever pains a natural man takes in religion, whatever prayers he makes, till he believes in Christ, God is under no manner of obligation to keep him a moment from eternal destruction.

So that, thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell … the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up … and they have no interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of; all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.

Application

The use of this awful subject may be for awakening unconverted persons in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ. — That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell’s wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.

You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of hell, but do not see the hand of God in it; but look at other things, as the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own life, and the means you use for your own preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it …

The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose … If God should only withdraw his hand from the flood-gate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God, would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and would come upon you with omnipotent power …

The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God … However unconvinced you may now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it …

O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath … You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it … — And consider here more particularly,

1. Whose wrath it is: it is the wrath of the infinite God. If it were only the wrath of man, though it were of the most potent prince, it would be comparatively little to be regarded … The wrath of the great King of kings, is as much more terrible than theirs, as his majesty is greater. Luke 12:4,5. “And I say unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that, have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear: fear him, which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell: yea, I say unto you, Fear him.“

2. It is the fierceness of his wrath that you are exposed to. We often read of the fury of God; as in Isa. 59:18. “According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries.” So Isa. 66:15. “For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.” And in many other places. So, Rev. 19:15, we read of “the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.“ … Oh! then, what will be the consequence! What will become of the poor worms that shall suffer it! Whose hands can be strong? And whose heart can endure? To what a dreadful, inexpressible, inconceivable depth of misery must the poor creature be sunk who shall be the subject of this!

   Consider this, you that are here present, that yet remain in an unregenerate state. That God will execute the fierceness of his anger, implies, that he will inflict wrath without any pity. When God beholds the ineffable extremity of your case … God will be so far from pitying you when you cry to him, that it is said he will only “laugh and mock,” Prov. 1:25,26, etc.

   How awful are those words, Isa. 63:3, which are the words of the great God. “I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.” … He will not only hate you, but he will have you in the utmost contempt: no place shall be thought fit for you, but under his feet to be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

3. The misery you are exposed to is that which God will inflict to that end, that he might show what that wrath of Jehovah is. God hath had it on his heart to show to angels and men, both how excellent his love is, and also how terrible his wrath is … Thus it will be with you that are in an unconverted state, if you continue in it … You shall be tormented in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and when you shall be in this state of suffering, the glorious inhabitants of heaven shall go forth and look on the awful spectacle, that they may see what the wrath and fierceness of the Almighty is; and when they have seen it, they will fall down and adore that great power and majesty. Isa. 66:23,24…

4. It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long for ever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all … So that your punishment will indeed be infinite …

How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in the danger of this great wrath and infinite misery! But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congregation that has not been born again, however moral and strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be. Oh that you would consider it, whether you be young or old! There is reason to think, that there are many in this congregation now hearing this discourse, that will actually be the subjects of this very misery to all eternity. We know not who they are, or in what seats they sit, or what thoughts they now have … And it would be a wonder, if some that are now present should not be in hell in a very short time, even before this year is out. And it would be no wonder if some persons, that now sit here, in some seats of this meeting-house, in health, quiet and secure, should be there before tomorrow morning. Those of you that finally continue in a natural condition, that shall keep out of hell longest will be there in a little time! your damnation does not slumber; it will come swiftly, and, in all probability, very suddenly upon many of you … but here you are in the land of the living and in the house of God, and have an opportunity to obtain salvation. What would not those poor damned hopeless souls give for one day’s opportunity such as you now enjoy! …

… You especially have now an extraordinary opportunity; but if you neglect it, it will soon be with you as with those persons who spent all the precious days of youth in sin, and are now come to such a dreadful pass in blindness and hardness. — And you, children, who are unconverted, do not you know that you are going down to hell, to bear the dreadful wrath of that God, who is now angry with you every day and every night? Will you be content to be the children of the devil, when so many other children in the land are converted, and are become the holy and happy children of the King of kings?

And let every one that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children, now hearken to the loud calls of God’s word and providence. This acceptable year of the Lord, a day of such great favour to some, will doubtless be a day of as remarkable vengeance to others … God seems now to be hastily gathering in his elect in all parts of the land; and probably the greater part of adult persons that ever shall be saved, will be brought in now in a little time, and that it will be as it was on the great out-pouring of the Spirit upon the Jews in the apostles’ days; the election will obtain, and the rest will be blinded …

Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let every one fly out of Sodom: “Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed.”

The First Great Awakening and its effect on American Protestantism

The United States has known three Great Awakenings in its history.  The first took place roughly between 1734 and 1750.  The second, from which the Abolition movement emerged, occurred between 1800 and 1840.  The third, from 1880 to 1910, brought forth the smaller Protestant denominations, many of which still exist today.

For Catholics, this preponderance of small denominations is puzzling.  ‘Why?’ they ask.  If you live in other parts of the world, particularly Europe, this is a justifiable question.  There are Catholic churches and Protestant churches of two flavours — Lutheran or Reformed (Calvinist).  There might be a few smaller American imported ones, e.g. Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses, but those are sects not churches.  In the United States, each Great Awakening swept up people who wanted to find a way to live holier lives.  Each group that splintered from another did so in order to achieve a more perfect Christianity.  Only in a few cases — which involve sects which aren’t really Christian at all – was it to escape from Biblical precepts. Most new Protestant churches added or enforced more through legalism and pietism, including dietary, recreational and clothing restrictions. So, on that note, I would kindly disabuse my Catholic readers of the notion that Protestants are after an easier life.

Many British went to the American colonies for religious freedom.  Puritans were considered persona non grata in England, where the state church was recovering under the Restoration of Charles II.  Cromwell’s Puritans left a nasty memory in the English psyche which still exists to this day.  Mention Cromwell in England and you will have no end of Anglicans responding with, ‘witch hunts’, ’persecution’, ‘total control’ and more.  I would suggest that those Americans who wish to come here and resurrect his memory in the Church of England are on the wrong track.  As far as worship and belief is concerned, I agree, but even then some Americans would wish to go too far in this area.  Their best bet is in Scotland, shoring up the church there which has fallen into a laxity unknown before now.

Back to the American colonies for a quick review of the First Great Awakening.  Imagine where just a century before, low-key Puritans settled the colonies.  Their descendants have built up their own businesses, fortunes, farms and the like.  They have survived.  They have colonised.  Their faith has also changed, from being God-focused to man-oriented.  Colonies were known by adherence to a particular denomination, e.g. Congregationalists in New England and Anglicans in the southern colonies.  As these churches became established over the years, so their forms of worship became more structured and mainstream. 

Some preachers, along with their congregations, longed for a more heart-and-soul response to God.  They started the First Great Awakening in an attempt to shore up conversions by making people personally feel a relationship with God.  Attending Sunday services was not enough.  There would have to be a stirring in the soul to bring forth what the 1662 Anglican Book of Common Prayer calls ‘a hearty repentance’.  And, so, the emotional response to God was born.  Some preachers taught that when the Holy Spirit filled your heart, you writhed around in pain for your sins.  You cried out because you were asking for God’s mercy. 

Needless to say, this approach proved controversial.  More staid clergy — known as rationalists or Old Lights – asked people to exercise discernment: were congregations responding to the rhetoric of the moment or was the Holy Spirit truly working on their souls?  They also feared for the future of their established Protestant churches.  The First Great Awakening started producing splinter congregations, where services relied more on experience and emotion. 

The two leading lights of this period were an American born in 1703, Jonathan Edwards, whose father was a Congregationalist minister. (At left is a photo of the plaque in East Windsor, Connecticut, which I have borrowed from A Divine and Supernatural Light blog, dedicated to his writings.) Edwards attended Yale and followed in his father’s footsteps.  (Also born in 1703 was an Englishman, John Wesley, who studied at Oxford and became an Anglican clergyman.  Wesley would sail to the colonies to establish his particular brand of Anglicanism, which was known as Methodism.  We’ll examine Wesley’s broad influence in a separate post.) 

Edwards, a prolific author with his own Congregational church in Massachusetts, defended the revivalism of the first Great Awakening saying that it produced deeper conversion and repentance.  Many historians today regard him as America’s most important theologian.  Edwards preached an applied Calvinism, making it come alive for his congregation.  He urged them to pray that God might work through them to make them regenerate and fully repentant.  In addition to singing Psalms, he also started using new harmonised hymns by Isaac Watts (many of which are still sung today).  Children were catechised in a more conversational way so that they understood what they were memorising.            

What Edwards was doing was bridging a gap between staid Protestant practice and a relevant personal experience of God.  His reputation as a religious teacher and philosopher as well as a theologian earned him the appointment as the President of the College of New Jersey in 1757.  This institution later became known as Princeton.  Unfortunately, soon after his inauguration the following year, he contracted smallpox and died.  He left behind a widow and 11 children.  His reputation often portrays him as being uncaring and severe.  Yet, he loved his family deeply and took great care with the souls to whom he ministered.  His balance of mind and heart in his religion was just right.  Remember that we should resist the temptation to view our forebears in light of our own modernity.  Jonathan Edwards left this earth a much-admired man.

Historians are divided as to whether the First Great Awakening brought about the American Revolution.  Those who do believe that Edwards’s preaching and that of the Methodist George Whitefield (about whom more in a separate post) urged people to believe in an American colonial covenant with God.  It was a peculiar combination of the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment combined with a sincere relationship with Him which may have given rise to the fight for independence and, subsequently, the widespread sense of American exceptionalism.

Tomorrow: Edwards’ ‘Sinners in the hands of an angry God’

For more information, see:

‘Colonial New England: An Old Order, New Awakening’ –  Christian History    

Jonathan Edwards resources – Christian History

First Great Awakening – Conservapedia

JEahW Day 5: A Tour of Edwards and Great Awakening Sites - A Divine and Supernatural Light

What it’s like being a Jehovah’s Witness

Kenneth Guindon explains how the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ (JWs) door-to-door approach works in his article for Envoy magazine, ‘How to Become a Jehovah’s Witness’.  What follows are excerpts from his article (emphases mine):

Step One: The JWs visit your home and offer you literature. And you take it.

This is the first step, the place where the separating of the “sheep from the goats” begins. Sheep are those who are willing to listen to the JW presentation at the door. Goats are the door slammers, the “I’m not interesteds,” the “get off my propertys” — those who won’t give JWs the time of day. My first point of advice: Be a goat … How do Jehovah’s Witnesses find the sheep? They divide the neighborhood — your neighborhood — surrounding their Kingdom Hall into parcels called “field territories.” Your home or office is located in one of these parcels and is targeted for an eventual visit. Jehovah’s Witnesses “check out” a territory, much like checking out a book from the library, by obtaining a little card with a map glued to it from the local Kingdom Hall. The territory typically encompasses between four to eight suburban blocks. Often the one who takes a territory is a “book study overseer.” JWs meet in groups of a dozen or so in a nearby home where a book study overseer has been appointed to conduct studies of the Watchtower Society’s publications. On weekends, he leads the group in door-to-door “field service.”

…  By accepting their literature, you give them a handy pretext for a second visit to your home. And they will return if offered the slightest encouragement. Door-to-door work is drudgery. I’ve seen Jehovah’s Witnesses walk down the street as slowly as possible. They appear to not be in a hurry to visit the homes. At first, though, it’s kind of fun, and the conversations can be exciting. When I was new to door-to-door work, I enjoyed trying to pick a fight with whoever answered the doorbell. I would tell the householder straight-out that priests and ministers were lying to people about hell. Hell was my favorite topic. Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t believe in hell. No one was prepared to argue with me on this. I had four or five Scriptures marked and chain-referenced in my Bible, so I could “prove” that souls who died were unconscious. Clearly they couldn’t suffer torment in hell. 

Step Two: The JWs return to your home and ask to talk more. You let them in.

Returning to the territory, the Witness takes out his House to House Record and begins visiting the people who previously accepted literature. His new goal is to get the householder who has taken the first step (accepting literature) to take the next step, by agreeing to let the JWs hold a weekly “Bible study” in his home.  Witnesses carry a little book called Reasoning From the Scriptures whenever they go door-to-door. It’s a little encyclopedia of information and answers to just about any objection or argument that could be thrown at them. Little does the householder realize that he is not dealing with an individual JW who is speaking on his own, but with the Watchtower Society, who has prepared in-depth answers to any conceivable objection. Reasoning From the Scriptures has quotations from many sources, biblical and historical, all intended to bolster the arguments JWs use to promote their bizarre mix of doctrines. This little book usually enables the Witness to take charge of any discussion about religion … We’re now approaching the shoals that will tear his faith apart.

Step Three: The JWs ask if they can conduct a Bible study in your home, and you let them.

This isn’t really a Bible study. It’s a study of Watchtower publications. In my case, I took this third step when I was sixteen and still, barely, a Catholic. A Jehovah’s Witness lady gave me a book called Let God Be True and told me that if I really wanted to understand the Bible, I’d need to devote one or two hours a week going through the chapters in the book with her. Every paragraph in the JW book has numbered questions at the bottom of the page to guide students through the subject matter … These are the subjects JWs want to teach you. They have one goal: to break down and obliterate your faith … Like millions of others who have taken this step down the road to becoming a JW, I naively thought I was going to learn something about the Bible. At the very beginning, I had no intention of becoming a Jehovah’s Witness. I wanted to prove them wrong. I thought I was smart enough to do it. What happened was that I became more and more impressed with what I was learning and my confidence in my Jehovah’s Witness teacher and her organization grew. Little by little, much of what she said was becoming clear; everything seemed so rational, so logical …

Douglas, a personal friend of mine who used to be a Jehovah’s Witness, describes his first encounter with them:
“At this stage of my life I was really confused. I had no God, no hope, no security . . . Then one day in the summer of 1970, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses came to our door and I was willing to listen to the views of this group. Soon we agreed to a Bible study with this impartial (in terms of my wife’s Catholicism and my agnosticism) third party who represented an organization that held some of the same political and social views we did . . . In the course of our three years with the organization, we were taught doctrines and ‘truths’ from the Watchtower publications in a clear and logical manner.” You can see that for the person who is searching, or is even mildly curious about religion, the Jehovah’s Witnesses have great appeal.

Step Four: The JWs invite you to the “neighborhood book study.”

Once the personal home Bible study has progressed this far, it is time to introduce the “Bible student” (as the JWs now refer to you among themselves) to the “organization,” meaning other JWs. It’s time for you to attend the Neighborhood Book Study on Tuesday evenings. The Witnesses introduce you to the book study overseer and to other “friends,” another name JWs use for their fellow JWs. Most students are impressed by the friendliness, the JWs’ clean-cut looks, the suits and ties and modest skirts. The method of study is just like the one he has been following at home, but the group dynamics have changed. Even more friendly attention is focused on you as a prospective convert …

Like water in a windmill, you’re being steadily pulled away from your … Faith without fully realizing it.

Step Five: You’re invited to visit the Kingdom Hall on Sunday.

It may not be apparent, but things are now progressing at breakneck speed. You realize, or maybe you don’t, that you have very little time for your former friends. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are now swarming, dominating your time and energy. You are reminded repeatedly that your non-JW friends and family are in the world — they’re deceived by the devil. But you’ve come to know the truth, and don’t you want to be in the truth?

Now you receive an invitation to visit the local Kingdom Hall on Sunday where, you’re assured, a very interesting lecture will be given … They never take up collections like the churches of Christendom. Everything here is voluntary; no preaching for money and no salaried clergymen, like in the world. Jehovah’s true followers work for free. Once you become somewhat regular at Sunday meetings (this means you’ve ceased attending your own parish), you’re ready for the sixth step.

Earlier in the article, the author describes this meeting:

I was warmly greeted, politely encouraged, endlessly patted on the back and repeatedly told how very glad everyone was to see me and to hear of my “progress in the truth” … At first, the name “Jehovah” was strange to me, but I quickly became accustomed to hearing it and even began using it myself. Within a short period of time, I wanted very much to become a true worshipper of Jehovah God.

Step Six: You accept the invitation to attend the “Ministry School” and “Service Meetings.”

You will be asked how you liked the public talks on Sundays and the study of The Watchtower that follows. If you’re coming along nicely and enjoying your new friends (by this point in my case, I was dating Jehovah’s Witness girls), you’ll be invited to attend the Ministry School and the Service Meetings on Thursday evenings. You’ll be told you can enroll in the school and receive in-depth training in the Scriptures. The Service Meeting is designed to teach you how to be a witness for Jehovah, how to talk to others about JW beliefs, and how to answer objections. Lectures, role-play skits, informal talks and question-and-answer sessions make up the program. You’ll be impressed with how well the respondents — folks just like you — seem to know the Bible. You won’t realize at this point that the questions are given out to chosen individuals ahead of time … By now, all of this seems perfectly reasonable to you. It makes sense. It’s very attractive, almost exhilarating. So you accept the invitation to go out door-to-door. At the moment you knock on that first door, you’ve crossed a crucial line. You’ve bought into the JW ideology. It’s now your ideology, and by going door-to-door to spread that ideology, you have become a Jehovah’s Witness.

Step Seven: You agree to be baptized as a Jehovah’s Witness.

This is the final step. Since you are now a Jehovah’s Witness in spirit, you must symbolize your dedication to Jehovah God and His organization by being immersed in water and, in so doing, officially become a Jehovah’s Witness. Being baptized doesn’t mean you will be born again (cf. John 3:5). That is reserved only for the 144,000 who will be in heaven for eternity (cf. Rev. 14:1-5). For you, baptism means only that you are following Jesus Christ and promising to be obedient to the organization that Jehovah directs through Christ and the 144,000. You agree to accept all the directives coming to you through Jehovah’s channel, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. Congratulations! You’ve become a statistic, part of a carefully scrutinized Watchtower report showing new converts. Now it’s your turn to go out into the field service and remit a monthly report to your local Kingdom Hall. As a full-fledged Jehovah’s Witness, you will be expected to begin immediately leading others through the seven steps that brought you to this point. You’re warned by the local elders to never entertain negative thoughts about the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, but to banish them. You may never talk to ex-Witnesses or anti-Jehovah’s Witnesses, nor are you to read any of their literature. These people have turned their backs on the truth and are considered “worse than pigs, who having once been washed, have returned to wallowing in the mud; yes, they are like dogs who have returned to their vomit” (2 Peter 2:22). Jehovah will soon destroy them forever!

If you should ever turn your back on the truth, you will be shunned. No one at the Kingdom Hall will be able to talk to you because you will have become a traitor. If you’re ever disfellowshipped (ie. excommunicated), your spouse or your children won’t be allowed to converse with you on any Christian matters, nor will they be permitted to pray with you, because you will have turned away from Jehovah’s organization. If you ever leave the Watchtower, you will become a “dog,” a “Judas.”

This article is a perfect illustration of why biblical literacy is so important!  Know what to say when these folks come to your door.  Please don’t invite them in or even, just to be polite, take their literature.

When Jehovah’s Witnesses come to call

The one thing we mustn’t do is be intimidated by the seeming knowledge that the Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) have of Scripture.   Remember, they are given a ‘script’ to follow, much like a telemarketer does when he rings you on the phone.  They have limited selling points to push: a small selection of Bible verses to discuss with you.  This is why those Christians who really know and understand the Bible are able to successfully debate and defeat the arguments which JWs put forward. Here is what to do if you wish to engage in discussion with JWs.    

They use one or more of these openers:   

“Hello. We’re visiting everyone in this neighborhood with an important message. No doubt you are a busy person, so I’ll be brief.”    

“I’m glad to find you at home. We’re making our weekly visit in the neighborhood, and we have something more to share with you about the wonderful things that God’s Kingdom will do for mankind.”  

“May I ask, do you believe what we teach from the Bible, namely, that we are living in ‘the last days,’ that soon God is going to destroy the wicked, and that this earth will become a paradise in which people can live forever in perfect health among neighbors who really love one another?”   

‘We’re encouraging folks to read their Bible. The answers that it gives to important questions often surprise people. For example: . . .’     

“We’ve been talking with your neighbors about what can be done to assure that there will be employment and housing for everyone. Do you believe that it is reasonable to expect that human governments will accomplish this?”    

They follow up with:       

“It is right here in the Bible. . . . “   

“That is an appealing thought, isn’t it?”   

Strategies you can adopt:   

- JWs rely on getting your opinion, so a simple, short statement will do.  Don’t get emotional about it.  

- Be able to tell the difference between a theological difference, which they will lead with, and revealed religious truth, which you will show them.     

Remember, JWs:       

- Believe we will have Paradise on Earth.     

- Do not believe in Hell.  Unbelievers will be annihilated and cease to exist. 

- Do not believe in salvation unless one becomes a JW. 

- Do not believe Jesus was nailed to a cross but on a torture stake.

- Deny that Christ rose from the dead.    

Refuting JW teachings with the Bible:   

If (or when) you are confident with Scripture, you can use the JW visit as a Christian witness work of your own.  Politely and stoically point out their errors using the following suggestions: 

- Ask if they are ‘prophets’, because they believe that they are in some way.  If they deny it, mention the April 1, 1972, Watch Tower article on page 297, which states clearly that they are prophets. Cite Deuteronomy 18:20-22.  As Patrick Zukeran’s article for Probe Ministries, ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses: Witnessing to the Witnesses’, explains, ‘A true prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah and predicts future things which come to pass. A false prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah and predicts future things which do not come to pass. Make sure they understand this, for this is the most critical step.’  Then, cite their lack of accuracy in predicting Armageddon: 1914, 1925, 1975, 1985 or 1989.     

- Discuss the name ‘Jehovah’.  It is a false derivation of YAHWEH:

Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary: “Jehovah” — False reading of the Hebrew YAHWEH

Encyclopedia Americana: “Jehovah” — erroneous form of the name of the God of Israel.

The Jewish Encyclopedia: “Jehovah” — a mispronunciation of the Hebrew YHWH the name of God. This pronunciation is grammatically impossible.

The New Jewish Encyclopedia: It is clear that the word Jehovah is an artificial composite.

Encyclopedia Judaica, p. 680, vol. 7: “the true pronunciation of the tetragrammaton YHWH was never lost. The name was pronounced Yahweh. It was regularly pronounced this way at least until 586 B.C., as is clear from the Lachish Letters written shortly before this date.”

- Examine the Crucifixion.  JWs are perhaps alone among Christians (I use the term advisedly) in believing that Jesus died on a torture stake.  You can cite these verses:

John 20:25 states that ‘nails’ — plural — were driven through his hands.  If He were crucified on a stake, these would have been unnecessary.

All Greek Bible scholars translate the word stauros as ‘cross’.

Ask the JWs why their founder believed Jesus died on a cross and why their doctrine was changed in 1936 to the torture stake?

- Explore the Resurrection.  JWs believe that Christ’s body disintegrated following the crucifixion and was no more.  They do not believe in His bodily Resurrection but say that He came back after the Resurrection as a spirit appearing in human form. Cite these verses:

Luke 24:36-43, which clearly states that Jesus was flesh and bone who ate food

John 20:24-27, where Thomas touches Jesus’s wounds

John 2:19-21, Acts 2:26-27

1 Peter 3:18 does not mean that Jesus was turned into a spirit but was raised up to life by the Spirit of God

Romans 8:11 says He was raised to life by the power of the Holy Spirit

If JWs cite 1 Cor. 15:50, “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” mention Luke 24:39, which says Christ had a glorified body when He ascended into Heaven 

Colossians 2:9 says “For in him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” — emphasise the present tense in ‘dwells’

- State that Jesus and the Archangel Michael are not the same:

1 Timothy 2:5 says, ‘There is one God and one mediator, the man Christ Jesus.’  Emphasise the present tense — ‘is’.

- Discuss the Holy Trinity, especially the Holy Spirit:

1 John 5:7 clearly states ‘There are three that bear record in Heaven: The Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one’

Acts 5:3 says Peter accuses Ananias of lying to the Holy Spirit.  How can the Holy Spirit, therefore, be a ‘force, like electricity’, as the JWs say?

Acts 5:4 states that Peter asks Ananias “You have not lied to men but to God.”  This verse should be the same in the JW’s Bible translation.  So, the Holy Spirit is a person, one of the Triune God.

Acts 13:2 says that the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’  How can electricity or a force speak?

Ephesians 4:30 states “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.”  How can one grieve an impersonal force?

Gary Hand of On Doctrine has a list of verses on the Holy Spirit’s attributes and characteristics from the Bible to use in discussions with JWs.

- Discuss the Deity of Christ:

John 20:28 states that Thomas said, upon touching Jesus’s wounds, ‘My Lord and My God’, not one or the other

John 1:1: ‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God’, not  ’a god’.  (You may have to have your Bible handy for this one, as their translation will differ.)  Tell them that theirs is the only translation that says ‘a god’. 

Revelation 22:12-13 quotes Jesus as saying He is coming quickly (at an unnanounced time, but suddenly).  He goes on to say, ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.’  How can he be other than God?

Revelation 22:16 says, ‘I Jesus, sent my angel to bear witness to you people of these things for the congregations. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star.’

Compare with them Isaiah 44:6 (‘This is what Jehovah has said, ‘The king of Israel and the Repurchaser of him, Jehovah of armies, I am the first and I am the last.’) and Jesus’s words in Revelation 1:17-18 (‘Do not be fearful; I am the First and the Last, and the living one; and I became dead but look! I am living forever.’)  Jesus and God are the same persons.

ChristianAnswers.net has more verses on the subject of Christ’s deity to use when discussing the Bible with JWs.

Patrick Zukeran of Probe Ministries says:     

These are my favorite verses, and I have never had Witnesses refute these arguments. Remember, the Witnesses at your door won’t convert right then and there. The key is to get them to start thinking and questioning the organization, and down the road, maybe in several years, they will seek answers and that will lead them out of the organization. Don’t give up or be discouraged when sharing with Witnesses. Though they may be rude and show no signs that they are thinking, the Word of God is powerful and is working in their hearts even if we can’t see it.

Remember Dr. Walter Martin (author of Kingdom of the Cults) went fifteen years without a convert, but he never gave up. Today we know of hundreds he pulled out of the organization. Continue to study the Word, and God bless you as you defend the faith.

Tomorrow: How witnessing works

For more information, read:   

‘Strategies of the Jehovah’s Witnesses’   

‘Jehovah’s Witnesses: Witnessing to the Witnesses’

‘Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Trinity’

‘How do Jehovah’s Witnesses’ teachings about Christ compare with Scriptures?’

‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’

 

What Jehovah’s Witnesses really believe

We have all had encounters with Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) on our doorstep.  Most of the time, we politely say, ‘Thanks, but no.’  Yet, we’ve all seen the literature with the beautiful illustrations, generally of smiling people surrounded by birds or flowers.  All very enticing.

Publications like Awake!, Watchtower and the pocketsized books appear to explain the truth of the Bible.  Indeed, this is the premise of the JW’s visit in tandem.  ‘May we ask you if you read the Bible?’  ‘We have a Bible verse we’d like to share with you today.’  Etc., etc.

Yet, none of the JW publications tell you what is truly discussed at their Kingdom Halls or what they truly believe.  Today, we look at what those nice people have signed up to.

In ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Watchtower’ David Wesley for EWTN explains, excerpts in quotation marks below following my main points:

- They do not believe in an omniscient God. ‘They say “that there are situations in which God chooses not to foreknow,” yet they do not describe the method which God uses to make this choice.’

- They do not believe in an omnipresent God.  ‘Further to the Watchtower’s argument that God has an “established place of dwelling,” they note that Christ appeared “before the person of God for us” (Heb 9:24 NWT). The New Jerusalem rendering of that passage reads, “he now appears in the presence of God on our behalf.” From their translation they infer that since God is a person, he must inhabit a particular physical space … Based on this false supposition, the Watchtower asks, “If God is a real person who lives at a certain place in heaven, how can he see everything that happens everywhere?” Here they delve into the realm of Science Fiction, with “his invisible active force” guiding the universe much like the Force from the Star Wars Trilogy. Because He can send out “his active force,” he can “do whatever he wants even though he is far away.”‘

- They believe that Jesus is really the Archangel Michael.  ‘Where in Revelation 12:7, or anywhere in the Bible for that matter, does it say that Jesus is Michael the archangel? … for my present purpose, let’s see what scripture says about notions that Jesus is an angel. This belief seems to have been a problem for early Jewish converts to Christianity, since Paul devotes the entire first chapter of his letter to the Hebrews to refuting such heresy … Yet, if Jesus is to be King over the new paradise on earth, as the Watchtower claims, how could he be an angel? They will reply that Jesus is not an ordinary angel, he is an archangel … Yet, are we to consider that the angels “worship” Jesus because it is “in harmony with the custom?” What the custom of angels is, the Watchtower fails to declare. Yet we need only return to the book of Revelation to learn the inadequacy of the Watchtower’s innuendo. John writes, “when I had heard and seen them all, I knelt at the feet of the angel who had shown them to me, to worship him; but he said, ‘Do no such thing: I am your fellow servant and the fellow servant of your brothers the prophets and those who keep the message of this book. God alone you must worship’” (Rev 22:8,9). Evidently, the “custom” of angels is to worship “God alone.”‘

- They believe that the Catholic Church invented the Holy Trinity. ‘The Watchtower would like you to believe that the Trinity was an invention of the Catholic Church in the fourth century. To substantiate this view, they misquote and mistranslate the early Church Fathers. As noted, the common practice of the Watchtower is to insert words and phrases that never existed in the original, the purpose of which is clearly deception … The Watchtower makes the error of assuming that God, according to the formula of the Trinity, must be either three gods, or one person. This is clear in their statement that “since Jesus prayed to God, asking that God’s will, not his, be done, the two could not be the same person.” Even as the Watchtower asserts that Jesus cannot be God since they are not “the same person,” the author of this same document refers to the Holy Spirit as “the so-called third Person of the Trinity.” What seems to be happening here is another intentional deception. The author clearly recognizes distinct Persons of the Trinity, but in attempting to advance his previous argument suggests to his readers that Christianity believes in one person. One may conclude that the author has distorted a truth, of which he is well aware, as an end to his goal. If this is so, one must also question the author’s motives.’

- They believe that Earth will last forever. ‘Over and over, scripture tells us to set our eyes on God who has prepared the city of heaven, the new Jerusalem, for a multitude as numerous as the stars in heaven (cf. Hb 11:12). Those who set their eyes on the riches of this world will only find death. Of course Witnesses will deny that they are coveting the things of this world. The transformed earth will be vastly different from the one of today, since there will be no hoarding or greed. In fact, what they are describing is a perfect socialist utopia.’

- Only Jehovah’s Witnesses will be spared God’s wrath. ‘What was lost by Adam’s sin was the garden of Eden. The Watchtower promises that this state will be restored under Jesus Christ and the faithful of Jehovah will be permitted to reside in this paradise on earth.’ 

- They do not believe in God’s grace and Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross. ‘The Watchtower condemns this theology since “they could not fail, regardless of what they did.” There they make the big mistake of assuming that we are saved by our works, rather than the grace of God. If it were only for our actions that we are chosen, then none of us could ever hope to share in His glory. Rather, those who accept Christ are ransomed from death by His sacrifice from the cross. Instead, the Watchtower suggests that there will be a class of people who will prove faithful and receive a just reward. This notion does nothing but belittle Christ’s sacrifice.’

- Armageddon is just around the corner.  ‘They say that earthquakes are increasing, as are wars, famine, lawlessness, etc. For biblical proof they point to the apocalypse in Matthew 24, failing however to mention verse 44 of that chapter. In that passage, Jesus promises that He will return at a time least expected. Therefore, all their calculations and statistics are pointless. To prove my point, all we need to do is refer to previous attempts by the Watchtower to predict the second coming. The years 1874, 1910, 1914, 1918, 1925, and 1975 have all been referred to for the ushering in of the new era where Christ will return and assume His kingly throne. Every time these predictions have failed, the Watchtower has moved the date forward, not by a large amount, just far enough that they can continue to instill fear. Do they not realize that Christ has always been Immanuel, God-with-us. Whenever we gather together to hear His word or pray together, He is with us (cf. Mt 18:20). For true believers, the date of His reign, the day of judgement, does not matter, since He has promised us salvation if we only believe in Him.’

- Revelation 12 happened during the First World War (1914-1918).  ‘They point to increasing lawlessness, food shortages, etc., as proof that Satan has been “hurled down to earth,” but as I explained in chapter one, such conditions are not unique to this time. In fact, the conditions they describe are only regional in their impact … According to the Watchtower, after Christ was enthroned as king in 1914, Satan was given a short time to rule the world. Following this, will come Armageddon when God “will use angelic forces under Christ to carry out the execution” of mankind, save Jehovah’s Witnesses of course.’

- They believe that Satan rules the Earth. ’The Watchtower claims that the world is governed by Satan, basing their whole argument on two verses in the Bible … The Watchtower even contradicts themselves in their discussion of this matter when they refer to Satan as “a hateful liar” who “would like to mislead us.” Now, all of a sudden, because it suits their purpose, they claim that Satan is telling the truth. So what about the kingdoms which Satan claimed to offer Jesus? Is he the “unseen ruler of all the nations of the world” as the Watchtower claims?’

- Therefore, Satan controls our governments.  ‘The result was that “governments of men,…the scriptures show, have been controlled from behind the scenes by the Devil.” What I have shown earlier in this chapter is that scripture, in fact, shows that all authority is given by God and that governments rule by Him. So what is the Watchtower saying? Are they saying that Satan is a god? Ask this question to any Jehovah’s Witness, and the answer will be an unequivocal “yes.”‘

- Furthermore, Satan controls our churches.  ‘The purpose of this negative view of the world seems to be rooted in an attempt by the Watchtower to isolate their followers. The result is their members complete reliance on the Watchtower and their publishing empire. Even “Christendom” is considered part of “Satan’s visible organization.” ‘Satan is everywhere and in everything except the Watchtower hierarchy’ seems to be what they are saying. Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Billy Graham, and Pope John Paul II are all members of “Satan’s visible organization.” That is why a faithful Jehovah’s Witness can never be allowed to read anything not written by the Watchtower.’

- That means that you, too, Christian reader, are satanic.  ’All the Watchtower’s theology on the subject of Satan, let us remember, is based on one verse in the Bible which quotes the father of all lies, Satan himself. On this they base their condemnation of all world religions from Catholicism to Buddhism, and all institutions from the Red Cross to the United Nations. It is important to be aware of this xenophobia when speaking with a Jehovah’s Witness. You will not be trusted regardless of who you are since they believe that you are controlled by Satan. Even Christmas Carols are Satanic … You may think to yourself, “they seem harmless enough,” but how harmless is a religion that hates anything different than itself, that quotes Satan as a source of truth, and that believes that Satan can be more powerful than God.’

- They believe that God will destroy all ‘modern-day’ false religion.  Never mind that the Jehovah’s Witnesses were founded in 1870.  ‘As such, they should consider themselves more of a modern day religion than those which go back many hundreds or thousands of years. Regardless of one’s interpretation, John’s apocalyptic vision was certainly referring to events happening during his lifetime. I could elaborate further on Revelation, but I feel that it is sufficiently dealt with elsewhere. Pick up almost any study Bible or commentary and you will find many more plausible interpretations of this book.’

What the Jehovah’s Witnesses say are distortions of Scripture.  You won’t readily pick these up merely by reading their literature, unless you have a keen eye and knowledge of the Bible.  They are yet another reason why it’s so important to be able to understand Christianity through the Bible to know why these people are misguided.

Tomorrow: When Jehovah’s Witnesses come to call

For more information read:

‘Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Watchtower’

‘Historical Dishonesty and the Watchtower Society’

Forbidden Bible Verses: Psalm 109

Those who know this psalm will have no doubt why it is not used in the three-year Lectionary.  Those unfamiliar with it will understand upon reading it why it is included as one of my Forbidden Bible Verses.

The great 19th century English preacher Charles Spurgeon wrote:

… it cannot be conceived that this Psalm contains what one author has ventured to call “a pitiless hate, a refined and insatiable malignity.” To such a suggestion we cannot give place, no, not for an hour. But what else can we make of such strong language? Truly this is one of the hard places of Scripture, a passage which the soul trembles to read; yet as it is a Psalm unto God, and given by inspiration, it is not ours to sit in judgment upon it, but to bow our ear to what God the Lord would speak to us therein.

This psalm refers to Judas, for so Peter quoted it [verse 8]; but to ascribe its bitter denunciations to our Lord in the hour of his sufferings is more than we dare to do. These are not consistent with the silent Lamb of God, who opened not his mouth when led to the slaughter. It may seem very pious to put such words into his mouth; we hope it is our piety which prevents our doing so.

Today’s reading comes from the New International Version – UK.

Psalm 109

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

    ¹ O God, whom I praise, do not remain silent,

    ² for wicked and deceitful men have opened their mouths against me; they have spoken against me with lying tongues.

    ³ With words of hatred they surround me; they attack me without cause.

    ⁴ In return for my friendship they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer.

    ⁵ They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my friendship.

 ⁶Appoint an evil man to oppose him; let an accuser stand at his right hand.

    ⁷ When he is tried, let him be found guilty, and may his prayers condemn him.

    ⁸ May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership.

    ⁹ May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.

    ¹⁰ May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes.

    ¹¹ May a creditor seize all he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his labour.

    ¹² May no-one extend kindness to him or take pity on his fatherless children.

    ¹³ May his descendants be cut off, their names blotted out from the next generation.

    ¹⁴ May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD; may the sin of his mother never be blotted out.

    ¹⁵ May their sins always remain before the LORD, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

 ¹⁶For he never thought of doing a kindness, but hounded to death the poor and the needy and the broken-hearted.

    ¹⁷ He loved to pronounce a curse— may it come on him; he found no pleasure in blessing— may it be far from him.

    ¹⁸ He wore cursing as his garment; it entered into his body like water, into his bones like oil.

    ¹⁹ May it be like a cloak wrapped about him, like a belt tied for ever round him.

    ²⁰ May this be the LORD’s payment to my accusers, to those who speak evil of me.

 ²¹But you, O Sovereign LORD, deal well with me for your name’s sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.

    ²² For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.

    ²³ I fade away like an evening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust.

    ²⁴ My knees give way from fasting; my body is thin and gaunt.

    ²⁵ I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.

 ²⁶Help me, O LORD my God; save me in accordance with your love.

    ²⁷ Let them know that it is your hand, that you, O LORD, have done it.

    ²⁸ They may curse, but you will bless; when they attack they will be put to shame, but your servant will rejoice.

    ²⁹ My accusers will be clothed with disgrace and wrapped in shame as in a cloak.

 ³⁰With my mouth I will greatly extol the LORD; in the great throng I will praise him.

    ³¹ For he stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save his life from those who condemn him.

—————————————————

Many people find this psalm upsetting.  If they only knew what persecution King David was enduring!  Truly evil enemies want to harm and depose him, thereby putting Israel in danger.  The psalm depicts David’s righteous anger at the constant harangues and threats he receives.  Only the Lord can save him.  So, he prays that God sends a just and valid judgment upon them. 

This psalm also prophesies Judas’s betrayal of Christ, more about which later in the post.  For this reason, it is often referred to as the Iscariot Psalm. Having said that, we should not presume that David’s words could be Christ’s words. 

‘For the director of music’ implies this psalm was to be sung at worship in the temple. 

Immediately (verse 1), David affirms his faith in God and asks for His help.  David expands on his trials in verses 2-5. He says he is a blameless man and yet his enemies attack him for no good reason.  He has befriended them and yet they spread lies behind his back.  David says they hate him for his friendship.  Has he loved them too much?  He says, ‘I am a man of prayer’.  No doubt he has prayed for his enemies and for God to intervene and make them see the error of their ways.

Verses 6 – 15 express David’s wish for God to put his torment to an end from one enemy in particular, possibly the leader of those who turned against David. Some scholars believe this to be Doeg the Edomite or Ahithophel. Others believe it was Saul or David’s son Absalom. Yet the Psalmist wishes us to focus not on the enemy’s identity, which is never revealed, but on the supplication to God for judgment. Recall that the Old Covenant involves God’s faithful asking for His judgment on their mortal enemies.  God’s sovereignty is very much a part of their history.  When the Israelites obey, God helps them.  When they disobey, He is quick to show His wrath in a physical manifestation, e.g. war or plagues.  Therefore, David’s prayers are in line with what was expected under the Old Covenant. He prays that God delivers a judgment which would adversely affect every aspect of his enemy’s life: a premature death, his family’s wellbeing, his fortune, his friends.  David asks that the Lord remember this enemy’s sins and those of his forebears in perpetuity.  He also asks that those living on earth forget this family ever existed.   

Only a truly righteous man was entitled to such entreaties under the Old Covenant.  Under the New Covenant which Jesus Christ brought forth, our command is to love, including to pray for our enemies, notably that God turns them away from their sins.  One biblical scholar from the 19th century, Joseph Francis Thrupp, notes:

The last prayer of the martyr Stephen was answered not by any general averting of doom from a guilty nation, but by the conversion of an individual persecutor to the service of God.

A few centuries before, John Bunyan wrote:

This Scripture (Ps 109:6-20.) also greatly helped it to fasten the more upon me, where Christ prays against Judas, that God would disappoint him in all his selfish thoughts, which moved him to sell his master: pray read it soberly. 

Note the enemy’s sins which David enumerates in verses 16-19: abusing the poor, needy and broken-hearted;  cursing and condemnation; a complete lack of kindness.  David asks that these sins envelop his enemy like garments — a cloak along with a belt, so that he is completely covered and captive.  David asks that his enemy’s sins condemn him fully.  He asks that God condemn not only this man but all his enemies equally (verse 20).  

Having laid out his righteous anger and request before God, David shifts his focus to God in the last 11 verses.  He asks that God be merciful to him by resolving this intolerable situation which has left him physically and emotionally weak, a shadow of his former self.  In verse 26, he asks for God to rescue him by punishing his enemies in such a concrete way that they will know it could only have been He alone who is responsible (verse 27).  God’s judgment upon them will be a curse, but a blessing upon David and his house (verse 28).  He refers to a cloak once again in verse 29: their shame will identify them, just as much as clothes do.  That shame will be like a garment they can never remove. 

In verses 30 and 31, David vows that he will sing God’s praises publicly for defending the righteous faithful in their hour of need.  As David proclaims his faith in and thanks to God, so we should do the same with our only Mediator and Advocate, our Lord Jesus Christ. 

For those who still find Psalm 109 perplexing, biblical scholar FG Hibbard gave an excellent interpretation of this psalm in 1856:

I cannot forbear the following little incident that occurred the other morning at family worship. I happened to be reading one of the imprecatory psalms, and as I paused to remark, my little boy, a lad of ten years, asked with some earnestness: “Father, do you think it right for a good man to pray for the destruction of his enemies like that?” and at the same time referred me to Christ as praying for his enemies. I paused a moment to know how to shape the reply so as to fully meet and satisfy his enquiry, and then said, “My son, if an assassin should enter the house by night, and murder your mother, and then escape, and the sheriff and citizens were all out in pursuit, trying to catch him, would you not pray to God that they might succeed and arrest him, and that he might be brought to justice?” “Oh, yes!” said he, “but I never saw it so before. I did not know that that was the meaning of these Psalms.” “Yes”, said I, “my son, the men against whom David plays were bloody men, men of falsehood and crime, enemies to the peace of society, seeking his own life, and unless they were arrested and their wicked devices defeated, many innocent persons must suffer.” The explanation perfectly satisfied his mind.

The Revd Bob Deffinbaugh on Bible.org applies Psalm 109 to our modern, confused notion of Christian forgiveness:

Let me tell you that if we had the courage and the conviction to pray as David did, we would be very ill at ease in regard to our own sins. Our greatest problem with imprecatory psalms is that the psalmist takes sin much more seriously than we do.

You may wish to challenge me by stressing that while we must hate sin, we should not hate the sinner. We want to think that God hates the sin, but He loves the sinner. I must ask you then, why does God send men to hell? Why isn’t hell a terrible place of torment for Satan and his angels and sin? Why is hell a place where people go? I don’t think it is as possible as we think to separate the sin from the sinner. This is not the solution to our problem.

I believe that in David’s case his enemies were God’s enemies whom God hated (cf. Rom. 9:13—in some sense, at least, God “hated” Esau). The solution was not to separate the sin and the sinner, but to commit both to God …

The amazing thing is that when we strive to conjure up human feelings of love and forgiveness, we really can’t love or forgive our enemies. The best we can do is to suppress our feelings of anger and hostility. When the psalmist prayed as he did in Psalm 109, he admitted his feelings and his desires (which were in accordance with God’s character and His covenant with men). He was thereby relieved of his hostility by committing the destiny of the wicked to God. Punishment and vengeance belong to God. By giving up vengeance we free ourselves to love and to forgive in a way that we cannot produce in and of ourselves.

Let us learn from the imprecatory psalms that a hard stand on sin is the best way to prevent sin. Let me tell you it must have been some experience to gather as a congregation in days of old and sing Psalm 109. Remember, the psalm was written for public worship. To sing its words was to remind the saints how the godly should respond to sin. In so doing each individual was reminded of the seriousness of sin and the dire consequences which accompany it. To be soft on sin is to give it a greenhouse in which to grow. To be hard on sin is to hinder its growth, not only in the lives of others but in our own as well.

… It is only those who resist and reject God’s solution who suffer His temporal and eternal wrath. The psalmist who prayed for God’s justice for his enemies also petitioned God for His mercy and lovingkindness. God offers mercy and forgiveness to all, but He also promises justice and judgment to all who reject His Son. I encourage you to place your trust in Jesus Christ, the sin-bearer who died in your place and suffered even more than Psalm 109 describes.

 

For further reading see:

Spurgeon’s Treasury of David — Psalm 109

Psalm 109: A Prayer for the Punishment of the Wicked

Matthew Henry’s Bible Commentary

What you should know about Jehovah’s Witnesses

Most Christians do not know the origin of the Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs).  They think the JWs are just fundamentalist Christian cranks.  Let’s look at the history of the most famous door-to-door believers around.

The Witnesses of Jehovah began in the United States.  A man by the name of Charles Taze Russell was born in Pennsylvania in 1852.  He was the son of a Presbyterian minister.  Russell left the Presbyterian Church when he was 16 and became a member of another then-Calvinist church, the Congregationalists (now less Calvinistic and known as the United Church of Christ).  However, this left him unsatisfied, especially when he tried to convert an agnostic and failed. He, too, became a sceptic and said he could not believe in a Gospel which stated that Hell was literal. He, therefore, looked for a church without the doctrine of Hell.  Eventually, he drifted towards the Seventh-Day Adventists.  It wasn’t long  before he was leading Bible classes in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, with his father, who, by then, had also left the Presbyterian Church. 

Russell followed the teachings of Second Adventist preacher Nelson K Barbour. These included a purely spiritual (not physical) Resurrection and the belief that Christ had recently returned to Earth as an invisible spirit. Russell would build his own movement on the Adventist beliefs that Christ’s Resurrection was purely spiritual and that the ‘end times’ were here. 

Russell worked by day as a draper in Pittsburgh. Yet, he had a nagging doubt that the Bible was not being preached or understood properly. So, in the 1870s, he broke away from the Adventists and founded the Witnesses of Jehovah, the first of a series of names for his movement. He soon became known as Pastor Russell, although he had no formal seminary training.   

Russell preached what he termed the ‘Millenial Dawn’.  His followers soon became known as Millenial Dawnists or as Russellites.  In 1879, he founded a publication called Zion’s Watchtower and Herald of Christ’s Presence. Its success allowed him to establish the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. He changed this briefly in 1909 to the People’s Pulpit Association before switching back to the original name.  However, in 1914, the name changed again to the International Bible Students’ Association. He also wrote a seven-volume work called Studies on Scripture, which he promoted more heavily than he did the book on which it was based, the Bible.  (Rick Warren, anyone?)

Unfortunately, Russell had problems in his private life.  In 1912, he was called out by a Baptist pastor who accused him of not knowing Greek.  Russell sued the man for libel and ended up perjuring himself in court — he really didn’t know Greek, not even the alphabet.  The following year, Mrs Russell sued her husband for divorce, claiming he was arrogant and egotistical.  She also cited his ‘improper conduct in relation to other women.’  Russell died in 1916 on a train journey from Pampa, Texas, to Kansas City.

A self-styled ‘judge’, Joseph Franklin Rutherford, succeeded him.  Rutherford was a lawyer and an ex-Baptist who had joined the movement in 1906. One account says that he had previously served a prison sentence in Atlanta for sedition. His authoritarian manner provoked a schism in 1918.  Rutherford wanted to erase the bad publicity some of Russell’s actions had brought the movement.  He also wanted to expunge the name Russellites from popular memory. So, in 1931, the movement became known as the Witnesses of Jehovah.  The name carried with it a change of focus, from its original Bible study to actual witnessing. In 1940, members began public distribution of the now-famous publication, The Watch Tower.  Rutherford was angry with Christian churches and this showed in the tone of The Watch Tower’s articles.  He died in 1942 in an expensive villa in San Diego, constructed specifically for the Final Judgement.

In 1942, the aforementioned Nathan Homer Knorr succeeded Rutherford.  Under his leadership, the new Watchtower Bible School of Gilead trained JWs for public witness. Also, as Knorr had worked in publications for the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, he was able to expand the number and type of print offerings. In 1950, they published their own translation of the Bible, The New World Translation.  It was also thanks to Knorr that the JWs expanded their missionary efforts abroad.  They operated underground behind the then Iron Curtain and today are actively proselytising around the world.  Knorr died in 1977.  Upon his death, in accordance with his plans, the movement’s Governing Body was greatly expanded.  There is no overall head of the JWs today.  The organisation still has its headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, in a building called Bethel House.  It offers specialist training in Paterson, New York.

More on Monday

For more information, read:

‘Incredible Creed of the Jehovah’s Witnesses‘

‘Jehovah’s Witnesses — Who Are They?  What Do They Believe?’

‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’ - Father Alexander

‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’ – Gary A Hand

St George’s Day is April 23

Happy St George’s Day!

The feast day of St George — patron saint of England and several other countries – is April 23, but how many English know that these days?  We used to, but not any more.  It’s considered politically incorrect to wave the English flag of St George — a red cross on a white background.

The Daily Mail reports:

Only one in ten would happily fly the cross of St George to celebrate the national saint’s day.

Double that number said they thought they would be told by authorities to remove it if they flew it from their house.

People have been told over the past decade to remove their flags from gardens or vehicles as they were public order offences!  About the only time it’s ‘okay’ to fly the flag is during football’s (soccer) World Cup.

The Mail elaborates:

Despite calls from public figures ranging from Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu to Gordon Brown for more celebrations of the English national day, there has been clear disapproval from many public authorities.

In 2008 St George’s Day parades were banned by local authorities in Bradford and Sandwell in the West Midlands on the grounds they could cause trouble or were ‘unhealthy’ and ‘tribal’.

Last year Mr Brown’s instruction that public buildings in England should fly the flag on 23 April were undermined by the production of a European map drawn up in Brussels that wiped England off altogether and replaced the country with a series of EU regions.

They should just tear a leaf out of this fearless saint’s notebook and do it anyway!  But public officials won’t because they are largely socialist and secularist. 

And on April 22, the Daily Mail reminded its readers of what Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg wrote in the Guardian in 2002:

‘All nations have a cross to bear … But the British cross is more insidious still.

‘A misplaced sense of superiority, sustained by delusions of grandeur and a tenacious obsession with the last war, is much harder to shake off. We need to be put back in our place.’

Winston Churchill’s grandson, Conservative MP Nicholas Soames, replied:

‘These views will disgust people the length and breadth of the country. They show that Nick Clegg is unfit to lead his party, let alone the country.

‘They are an insult to the memory of Britain’s war dead and to a time when the British public all pulled together for the common good. They prove that Mr Clegg shares the European view of Britain rather than the British view.’

He mocked claims last weekend that Mr Clegg is now as popular with the public as Churchill as ‘laughable’.

How does Clegg think he could have ever grown up in England in a privileged background if the Allies had not won the war?  If they had not, there would have been no freedom of movement.  How would his parents have even met? How would they have settled in England?  Sorry, there’s a disconnect here I don’t understand — a radical distaste and ingratitude for what he has received thanks to Allied – including British (including vast numbers of English) – intervention.  Let him be thankful for what he has received through their efforts, thanks to God’s grace and St George’s example! 

As far as St George’s Day activities go, there are some in London, although I’ve only seen them listed on the official tourist site. The Anglican Diocese of Norwich is asking those churches which have bells to ring them between 6:00 and 6:30 on the day.  Preston (Lancashire) also had events planned.  Good for them!

Other than that, even moreso than last year, it’s a damp squib, and more’s the pity.  We should be considering the merits of our great saint’s life as we could use his example to be more heroic people, even in the simplest of ways.  The Royal Society of St George has a beautiful write-up, which I’ve excerpted below:

There are many legends in many cultures about St. George, but they all have a common theme; he must have been an outstanding character in his lifetime, for his reputation to have survived for almost 1,700 years!

Most authorities on the subject seem to agree that he was born in Cappadocia in what is now Turkey, in about the year 280 AD. It is probable that from his physical description, he was of Darian origin, because of his tall stature and fair hair. He enlisted into the Cavalry of the Roman Army at the age of 17, during the reign of the Emperor Diocletian and very quickly established a reputation amongst his peers, for his virtuous behaviour and physical strength; his military bearing, valour and handsome good looks.

He quickly achieved the rank of Millenary or Tribunus Militum, an officer’s rank roughly equivalent to a full Colonel, in charge of a regiment of 1,000 men and became a particular favourite of his Emperor.

Diocletian’s second in Command was Galerius, the conqueror of Persia and an avid supporter of the Pagan religion. As a result of a rumour that the Christians were plotting the death of Galerius, an edict was issued that all Christian Churches were to be destroyed and all scriptures to be burnt. Anyone admitting to being a Christian, would lose his rights as a citizen, if not his life

As a consequence, Diocletian took strict action against any alternative forms of religion in general and the Christian faith in particular. He achieved the reputation of being perhaps the cruellest persecutor of Christians at that time.

Many Christians feared to be loyal to their God; but, having become a convert to Christianity, St. George acted to limit the excesses of Diocletian’s actions against the Christians. He went to the city of Nicomedia where, upon entering, he tore down the notice of the Emperor’s edict. St. George gained great respect for his compassion towards Diocletian’s victims.

As news spread of his rebellion against the persecutions St. George realised that, as both Diocletian and Galerius were in the city, it would not be long before he was arrested.He prepared for the event by disposing of his property to the poor and he freed his slaves.

When he appeared before Diocletian, it is said that St. George bravely denounced him for his unnecessary cruelty and injustice and that he made an eloquent and courageous speech. He stirred the populace with his powerful and convincing rhetoric against the Imperial Decree to persecute Christians. Diocletian refused to acknowledge or accede to St. George’s reasoned, reproachful condemnation of his actions. The Emperor consigned St George to prison with instructions that he be tortured until he denied his faith in Christ. 

St George, having defended his faith was beheaded at Nicomedia near Lyddia in Palestine on the 23rd of April in the year 303 AD.

Stories of St. George’s courage soon spread and his reputation grew very quickly. He was known in Russia and the Ukraine as the Trophy Bearer. His remains are said to have been buried in the church that bears his name in Lydda. However, his head was carried to Rome, where it was preserved in the church that is also dedicated to him.

Britannia relates St George’s place in English history, excerpted below:

A lesser holiday in honour of St George, to be kept on 23 April, was declared by the Synod of Oxford in 1222; and St George had become acknowledged as Patron Saint of England by the end of the fourteenth century. In 1415, the year of Agincourt, Archbishop Chichele raised St George’s Day to a great feast and ordered it to be observed like Christmas Day. In 1778 the holiday reverted to a simple day of devotion for English Catholics.

The banner of St George, the red cross of a martyr on a white background, was adopted for the uniform of English soldiers possibly in the reign of Richard 1, and later became the flag of England and the White Ensign of the Royal Navy. In a seal of Lyme Regis dating from 1284 a ship is depicted bearing a flag with a cross on a plain background. During Edward 111′s campaigns in France in 1345-49, pennants bearing the red cross on a white background were ordered for the king’s ship and uniforms in the same style for the men at arms. When Richard 11 invaded Scotland in 1385, every man was ordered to wear ‘a signe (sic) of the arms of St George’, both before and behind, whilst death was threatened against any of the enemy’s soldiers ‘who do bear the same crosse or token of Saint George, even if they be prisoners’ …

Saint George is a leading character in one of the greatest poems in the English language, Spencer’s Faerie Queene (1590 and 1596). St George appears in Book 1 as the Redcrosse (sic) Knight of Holiness, protector of the Virgin. In this guise he may also be seen as the Anglican church upholding the monarchy of Elizabeth1:

But on his breast a bloody Cross he bore
The dear remembrance of his dying Lord,
For whose sweet sake that glorious badge we wore
And dead (as living) ever he adored.

So, to all those in England and other countries celebrating this great day, enjoy yourselves! 

Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry, God for Harry, England, and Saint George!  – Shakespeare, Henry V

UK elections: why Tories MUST keep calm and carry on

Almost a week on and we’re still in the grip of Cleggophilia.  The Tory voters are like a chocolate fondant with the soft centre moving to the right and the left.  (Today’s graphics are borrowed from Prodicus at left and the Spectator Coffee House blog at right.)

Our media outlets are cock-a-hoop over the possibility of a hung Parliament.  Nick Clegg is their darling of the hour and the ubiquitous Lord Mandelson told the BBC that a LibLab coalition can offer voters ‘change’.  That alone should make Tories thinking of defecting to Lib Dems to reconsider their vote.

The reality-television generation doesn’t really understand how the political system in the UK works.  They think that the popular vote wins all, so that if the Lib Dems win, Clegg becomes Prime Minister.  Yet, it will be Gordon Brown.  Electoral Calculus explains how the boundaries for the Parliamentary seats have been drawn and says:

Even after the Boundary Commisson changes, there seems to be a difference in the electoral geography for the two main parties. This is typified by the fact that if Labour and the Conservatives have equal support, then Labour still has a majority in Westminster, but the Conservatives need about a 10% lead to get a majority themselves. Some people call this a “bias”, but we will use the more neutral term of “gap”.

What holds true for the Conservatives is also true for Lib Dems.  So, we will have five more years of Gordon Brown and, if not, then, at the very least, a majority left-wing Parliament — unless, we actively canvass our families, friends and neighbours about just what they think Liberal Democrat policies are.

N.B.: If you have time only for a brief glance, please read emboldened and green highlights through to the end of the post — guaranteed worth your while!

When you have a chance over the next fortnight to talk with a floating voter, ask them these questions — in addition to raising yesterday’s Lib Dem talking points:

1/ Do they enjoy taking a holiday abroad?  Even with the ridiculous security procedures at airports, most people will say, ‘Of course.’  Tell them that Vince Cable — likely to be the next Chancellor of the Exchequer — wants to more than double airline tax.  Iain Dale writes:

Taking a family of four, the current short haul (0-2000 miles) tax of £88 would rise to £199.76. The same family flying long haul would see their tax rising from £400-440 to £908-998.80. That rise of 127.5% is quite nasty, but the rate rose last November so compared to last Summer, a family flying this year would face a 187.4% increase in tax if Vince Cable became Chancellor.

2/ Are they upset about the UK’s loss of sovereignty to Europe?  Would they want to ditch the pound for the euro?  With many Englishmen, that’s a Yes/No combination.  The FT reports (emphases mine):

Viewed from Brussels, the rise of Nick Clegg and his Liberal Democrats in Britain’s election campaign is a fantasy come true … Britain’s opinion polls are topped by a party whose leader spent five years working at the European Commission and another five years as a MEP in the European Parliament …

… for most eurozone countries, Britain will always be semi-detached from Europe until it adopts the euro.

Still, as Clegg rides high in the polls, Europe has a big beaming smile on its face – but it is doing its best to hide it, for fear that British voters spot it and punish Clegg accordingly.

3/ How do they feel about fat cat bankers and MPs?  Probably not too good.  Nick Clegg described his second house in his constituency of Sheffield as modest and pebble dashed.  And yet … Channel 4 reports that this house is in a neighbourhood where the houses sell for an enviable £325,000 to £420,000. Have a look at Clegg’s Sheffield and London residences. And, perhaps you thought his father Sir Nicholas – or Pater, as they would say at Westminster School – was retired, but not at all.  C4 reporter Cathy Newman says:

Nick Clegg vowed to get tough on the banks today, and called for a return to the “traditional” banking of his father’s day. But the Lib Dem leader’s father, now in his mid-70s, is actually still in banking.

Sir Nicholas Clegg is chairman of the United Trust Bank. The bank describes itself as one of the UK’s leading suppliers of funding for property developers based in the UK …

Sir Nick’s banking history also includes being director of one-time merchant bankers Hill Samuel Co Ltd, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Lloyds TSB’s Offshore Private Banking unit – given the Lib Dems’ stance on tax havens it is perhaps a relief for Clegg junior that his dad no longer works there.

Clegg senior was also co-chairman of Daiwa Europe Ltd; and chairman of Daiwa Europe Bank plc – where he worked with former chancellor and Tory heavyweight Ken Clarke.

Aside from chairmanships, he has also served as a director of the International Primary Markets Association, and a senior adviser to the Bank of England on banking supervision, where he was hired as a so-called grey panther to shake things up via his commercial sector background.

He was also a member of the supervisory board of Bank Insinger de Beaufort NV and a Director of Insinger de Beaufort Holdings.

It’s difficult to know just how “old fashioned” Nick Clegg Snr is in his banking approach, but it’s clear even his prudent approach has not spared his bank losses, although they do seem rather modest.

Conclusion — your friends probably aren’t in the same elite league as Lib Dems. They should think seriously about voting Conservative. More than likely, they’d want to keep some of their own wealth.

Of course, there is now a bit of astroturfing going on the Conservative supporters’ blogs by Lib Dems.  If you’re a Tory reading them, don’t lose sight of the goal!  Same thing happened in 2008 — to a much nastier extent — in the US presidential election.  The astroturfers were out for blood.  Yes, it was orchestrated, and afterward they admitted it was only psy-ops.  This is how it worked (written in October 2008, a week prior to the election) as reported by someone who worked on this part of Barack Obama’s campaign:

The internal campaign idea is to twist, distort, humiliate and finally dispirit you …

We do this to stifle your motivation and to destroy your confidence … 

Sprinkle in mass vote confusion and it becomes bewildering. Most people lose patience and just give up on their support of a candidate and decide to just block out tv, news, websites, etc. This surprisingly has had a huge suppressing movement and vote turnout issues.

Next, we infiltrate all the blogs and all the youtube videos and overwhelm the voting, the comments, etc. All to continue this appearance of overwhelming world support.
People makes posts to the effect that the world has “gone mad”.  Thats the intention. To make you feel stressed and crazy and feel like the world is ending.
   

We have also had quite a hand in skewing many many polls, some we couldn’t control as much as we would have liked. But many we have spoiled over. Just enough to make RealClearPolitics look scary to a McCain supporter. It’s worked, although the goal was to appear 13-15 points ahead.

See, the results have been working. People tend to support a winner, go with the flow, become “sheeple”.
The polls are roughly 3-5 points in favor of Barack. That’s due to our inflation of the polls and pulling in the sheeple.
Our donors, are the same people who finance the MSM. Their interests are tied, Barack then tends to come across as Teflon. Nothing sticks.

And trust, there were meetings with Fox News. The goal was to blunt them as much as possible. Watch Bill O’Reilly he has become much more diplomatic and “fair and balanced” and soft. Its because he wants to retain the #1 spot on cable news and to do that he has to have access to the Obama campaign and we worked hard at stringing him a long and keeping him soft for an interview swap. It worked and now he is anticipating more access. So he is playing it still soft.

Our goal is to continue to make you lose your morale. We worked hard at persuasion and paying off and timing and playing the right political numbers to get key Republican endorsements to make it seem even more like it was over and the world was coming to an end for you all.
There is a huge staff of people working around the clock, watching every site, blogs, etc. We flood these sites. We have had a goal to overwhelm.
The truth is here. I could go on and on, but you get the picture.
  

So, there you have it — plain as day. 

Moral of the story: KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON.  KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE PRIZE!