Wednesday, March 8, 2023

It is the 8th of March 2023 Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org, I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Today on the Almanac, I will tell you the story of what is perhaps the most infamous and inflammatory sermon in American history and one of the catalysts for the first Great Awakening (and setting the stage for the American tradition of revivals and awakenings).  

The preacher was Gilbert Tennent of the Neshaminy Tennents. The family came to Neshaminy, Pennsylvania, near the New Jersey border from Ireland, where William Tennent was a minister in the Church of Ireland. William, a Scottish Presbyterian, took up orders in the Church of Ireland but went back to the Presbyterian church upon moving to the New World in 1718. His sons Gilbert and William Jr would become well-known Presbyterian preachers, and William sr. would be one of the founders of the “Log Cabin” college- a precursor to Princeton.

Two notes here: William and his sons would be considered “Scots Irish” this is largely an American term for those immigrants from Ireland who were formerly Protestant colonizers of Ireland from Scotland. Secondly, the “Log Cabin” college and seminary began as a pejorative that distinguished new American schools from the august European school.

So- Gilbert is the Tennent for today (although his brother is worth noting as a minister who claimed to have died and been resurrected). Gilbert was not as flamboyant as his brother but was noted as a charismatic preacher. He came to the attention of the Englishman George Whitefield, who would be one of the catalysts of the Great Awakening in America. Whitefield traveled with Tennent and referred to him as a “son of thunder” (which seems like a backhanded compliment). Gilbert was also close with Theodore Frelinghuysen- a Dutch immigrant who, similar to Gilbert, would blend Reformed theology, European pietism, and the drama of extemporaneous preaching.

Gilbert was ordained by the Presbytery of Philadelphia and became a pastor in New Jersey and preaching in open fields with the circuit riding crew. His sermons frequently urged the lukewarm to get hot and the unconverted to repent and believe. He increasingly taught that to be a Christian, one must have a distinct conversion moment that one could recall. He would be one of the “new sides” that argued for the more expressive and innovative forms of worship.  

He would be a burr in the saddle to the “old side.” Still, it was one specific sermon which, according to Dr. Archibald Alexander, was “one of the most severely abusive sermons which were ever penned’”- it was on this, the 8th of March in 1740, that Gilbert Tennent preached this sermon known as the Nottingham Sermon or “the Danger of an Unconverted Ministry.” Tennent attacked the “Old Side,” claiming that these ministers weren’t just wrong but that they weren’t truly converted. He called them a “ministry of dead men” and “pharisee teachers.” This sermon delighted his followers and understandably incensed others. News of it would lead to further hostilities between the parties in the Presbyterian church. Within a year, supporters of the Awakening were ousted from the Presbyterian synod of Philadelphia.

Tennent would become the face of the New Side and a prominent fundraiser for creating a new Side seminary that would come from the Log Cabin roots and become Princeton.

Despite his infamy, Gilbert seems to have softened over time, and he lobbied for reunifying the synods that split in the wake of his sermon. In 1758 the reconciled synod voted Gilbert to be their first moderator. He would die four years later, in 1762, at the age of 59. Today we remember his landmark sermon, the Dangers of an Unconverted Ministry on this, on the 8th of March in 1740.

The last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Colossians 1

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 8th of March 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man known for his inflammatory sermons against the altered Augsburg Confession- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man used to seeing inflammatory with regards to whether sermons or bowels…  I’m Dan van Voorhis. 

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.