The Great Awakenings of America in the 1700s.
In scrolling through Amazon Prime movies recently an incredible movie popped up. Fandango Overview described it: "A GREAT AWAKENING tells the true story of an unlikely friendship between the Reverend George Whitefield and Benjamin Franklin that resulted in one of the most defining moments in American history. With the colonies on the brink of collapse, the Reverend George Whitefield ignited the first Great Awakening, uniting an entire generation with his thundering and faithful sermons and proclamations of history. In a miraculous turn of events, one of Whitefield's closest friends and greatest promoters becomes none other than Benjamin Franklin. With the nation's freedom hanging in the balance, the founders discover true liberty cannot only be written into law-it must be awakened in the hearts of the people." The film was released April 3, 2026. Viewing of the movie reawakened my immense interest in this evangelist George Whitefield, born on 1714 in Gloucester, England. My wife and I went to this town and visited Whitefield's childhood home, Bell's Inn. The church where he preached the first time is just down the street. He was at Oxford with John and Charles Wesley.
Actually, my initial interest in Whitefield was derived in a morning walk in 2010 at Exeter, NH at my 50th reunion of class of 1960 at the Phillips Exeter Academy. On that walk I noted a simple monument that marked the spot where Whitefield preached on Saturday September 29, 1770. It was his last sermon! The monument has inscribed "George Whitefield Here preached His Last Sermon Sept 29, 1770." On that day he was passing through Exeter on his way to Newburyport, MA to preach the next morning. Details are at website:
(https://www.cocdiscipleship.org/middle-ages/facing-death-george-whitefield-preached-one-last-time."
"As he passed through Exeter, a large crowd assembled, pleading with him to give them a sermon. Whitefield had led revival in their town some years earlier." He had climbed up on a make-shift spot and preached for two hours. Then rode on to Newburyport, where he died that night.
Source: Forgotten Founding Father The Heroic Legacy of George Whitefield by Stephen Mansfield. Highland Books Cumberland House Nashville, TN 2001.
Mansfield wrote of Whitefield beginning page 213 in the chapter titled JESUS, "The wealth and the worldliness, the disinterest and the pride, gnarled his inner being....but his one true love was always the person of Jesus. The risen Christ was the fixed star of his life's voyage, the sole object of his affections. It was Jesus for whom he lived, Jesus whom he sought to please,..."
(19) "Through him, nations were transformed, revolutions were refashioned and millions of lives were reclaimed for a higher call..."
In an American Minute with Bill Federer, "He spread the Great Awakening Revival, which helped unite the colonies prior to the Revolutionary War."
Mansfield (255): George Washington said: "Upon his lips the Gospel appears even to the coarsest of men as sweet and as true as, in fact, it is." ..Mansfield; "Whitefield was the most beloved man in the colonies." ...(256) "So now the forerunner of the revival that made them become one became the forerunner of the war that set them free."
Mansfield: "It is why they pledged to God their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. It is also why George Whitefield must be remembered as a founding father of the American cause."
As we approach July 4, 2026 and the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, we will hear quotes from many of our patriots, but in my opinion the sermons of George Whitefield laid the foundation for our freedom firmly set by a belief of the eternal verities of Jesus the Christ!
