Puritans and Revival I: Defining Puritans | Behold Your God Podcast

Welcome to the Beholder God podcast. I'm Teddy James, content producer for Media Grazie and joined with John Snyder, host of the Beholder God study and pastor of Christ Church New Albany. John, we spent the last couple of weeks talking about hermeneutics and this week we're beginning a new series where we're focused on, okay, the title is a little long so I want to make sure that I get it right, the Puritan influence on the early leaders of the 18th century evangelical revival in England and Wales.

Yeah, so we're gonna shorten that.

For our purposes. Puritans, the Puritans and revival. So throughout this series.

What we're gonna have to do, we've got some work to do before we really get into it, one of the things that we have to do is define what a Puritan is. We've talked about it before but we're gonna go a little deeper into it.

So John, first before we even get into that though, why are we talking about Puritans and why.

Are we talking about the revival? Well, both of those movements have significantly impacted our country as well as England, Scotland, Wales and others but and they've impacted us in in really beneficial ways which I think if we can get to the heart of the movement so we're not just interested in what happened that you know in the year 1662 or you know what did George Whitfield do when he preached, what were his methods but if we get kind of beneath that initial layer to talk about the heart of Puritanism and the heart of the evangelical revival or the Great Awakening which is what we call it in our country, I think then that there are so many significant lessons for us and one of the lessons that we're going to be looking at is the fact that Puritanism is not just a group that you know it's not a movement that was merely interested in being really really really precise and then you get this kind of impression that that's a bit of a dry academic armchair kind of you know theologian kind of thing but actually the Puritans were very activistic they wanted to bring the doctrines that they were learning from the Reformation and apply it in their day in a way that would revolutionize or revitalize or reform the the British Church and so that that has a lot to say to us today.

It's we're going to be seeing as we look at this throughout the weeks and months that the at the heart of the Puritan doctrines these doctrines became the fuel for the preaching of the Great Awakening and the evangelical revival which is a little surprising to us because we tend to think that if I were invited to a conference on revival even by reformed guys you know pretty careful guys you would expect to hear a lot of sermons on the nature of revival but if you look back at the early leaders of the evangelical revival of the Great Awakening the very few sermons were preached on the nature of revival the sermons were primarily on the great doctrines of redemption and it was the it was a focusing on the person and work of Christ that God used in that century to really bring about an extraordinary season of grace.

So preaching on revival isn't necessarily what the revivalists have always done so we're going to look at those doctrines in from the 1700s and again into the 1800s. But another reason we're doing it is because this is a topic that's pretty close to my heart and it's the topic that I did my research on for the PhD and I'm also teaching a class on it through Grace Bible Theological Seminary so I don't know if the guys are you know enjoying it as much as I am but I'm enjoying it you know I even bring props you show and tell you know so I think that I they must think I feel like I'm teaching fifth graders but you know I like props.

Going. Okay we did a bonus episode a couple weeks ago where you had some.

Woodworking tools laid out and we yeah yeah I'm trying to grow up but not yet.

Banner of Truth and the Ministers Conference

So John as we're talking about the Puritans the 18th century revivals all of these different things a lot of where we get a lot of our information about these things is from an organization a publisher called the banner of truth trust and we've mentioned them several times on the podcast before we've linked to them.

But we also we really like the banner of truth. We trust what they're doing and we appreciate the ministry that they have. So I wanted to just at the very beginning of this take a few minutes and just say they have a conference coming up right now is early registration so you can get a little bit of a discount if you register now.

It's a minister's conference so it is for pastors and youth pastors associate pastors. But if you're thinking of giving your pastor a gift let me encourage you personally to do to send them to the banner of truth ministers conference.

Last year I had the opportunity to go to many many conferences across the country. Hands down this was my favorite. As far as you know the others were great don't get me wrong I really enjoyed them. But there's something about the banner truth conference the fellowship.

All of the men are together you eat together you spend all day together and it is it's really really just a great conference. So that being said when we talk so much about Puritans when we talk so much about the era of the evangelical revival.

Great Awakening John there's some dangers we need to be aware of. What are some of.

Avoiding Hagiography in Church History

Those dangers. One of the dangers is what we call hagiography holy writing. So it's so think of the the field of biography so we're going to be talking about some key figures and especially when you get into the Great Awakening and the evangelical revival it's easy to think of like Jonathan Edwards over here or or in England you think of George Whitefield and it's easy to kind of put these guys in a unique category of super saints and you forget that they were men like us and God used men like us in that day for his honor.

If you put them in a unique category then then you know the next thing that you're left with is the lie that well you're not like them. You know God can't use people like us. He only uses these super people.

And that comes from biography where you know people that admire them only emphasize the positive aspects of their of their walk with the Lord and perhaps de-emphasize the struggles they had. So it's easy in the 18th century itself these men when they talk about what God was doing they always connected what God was doing in their century with what God had done in a previous century.

So Whitefield and those men love to point to the fact that the doctrines they were preaching were the same doctrines the Puritans were preaching and those were the same doctrines that the Reformers were preaching you know and we got that from the scripture.

But a century later those people that look back to the previous century and with great admiration spoke of the revival as if it just sprung out of nowhere. You know it was just God. You know like creation you know from nothing God created a revival.

And the truth is that while things were pretty dark at times leading up to the Great Awakening in the evangelical revivals there was a greater movement that they're part of there was a stream an underground current of spirituality there were you know God was at work and seeing where God was at work leading up to this is really a very encouraging thing for us because we might feel like we live in a dark day.

Well perhaps but God is at work and things that God does today may be leading to you know a more extraordinary day. So when we study these things it's always good to connect them and even the even the labels we've used for the work here and the work in Britain in the 18th century the revival that took here is called the Great Awakening first Great Awakening and in Britain it's called the evangelical revival.

But really they are different elements of one overall movement that historically we call evangelicalism you know. So we talk about people people being evangelicals. And we might think of that denominationally right now that's not the way we mean it historically we mean that there there were a group of people that shared similar experiences and held to similar core doctrines very much like the Puritans who as this movement spread throughout the 18th century they may have been in different countries and part of different localized movements.

But really as as we look back over 200 years we can see that really there was a greater work that the Lord was doing that connected all of them. Yeah we don't.

Historical Boundaries of Puritanism

Have particular dates of particular years that we can say yes this is definitely when Puritan Puritanism began. This is definitely when Puritanism ended. But we do have some general dates now. For a beginning we kind of look to 1558 and for an ending we might look at 1662.

We might look at 1689. What are those.

Dates and how are they helpful to us. 1558 is when Queen Elizabeth the first comes to power and that means Mary Bloody Mary who really cracked down on Protestantism and attempted to turn the nation back to Catholicism after Henry the eighth you know in order to have the wife that he wanted to have the the heir that he wanted you know throws off the Roman Church and decides that he's the head of a new English church.

So Mary brings a lot of persecution on the Protestants. English Scottish Welsh reformers often flee go to the continent are greatly influenced by men like Buser or Calvin. Then they hear that Mary is now no longer Queen.

Elizabeth is Queen and she promises a nation that is to Protestantism. So they come back full of hopes a little bit disappointed once once they arrive because they realize there's a thing in place now called the Elizabethan compromise where Elizabeth doesn't want any more strife in the nation.

She's very pragmatic. We don't want any more bloody civil wars. We're going to have a church that's going to have a little bit of what everybody wants. So in some ways she thinks everybody will be pleased in other ways nobody's pleased.

So you have a church that remains on the outside it keeps some of kind of the Roman Catholic exterior at the heart it's its main documents its articles of faith. At the heart it's Protestant. So the Puritan arrives.

And really you think you should think of a Puritan as an as a reformer second-generation reformer who is now in a situation that's unique. I'm not being persecuted by the state but nor am I being allowed to complete the Reformation.

So as a pastor of a church I can preach I can write books to hope in hopes of influencing the church to move toward a more biblical and a completely reformed stance. But the the powers that be are inhibiting that.

So that that's why we call them Puritans. They're inside a church that they want to purify. They're not really given freedom to reform and they're not really put in prison and their heads aren't being cut off.

So it's 1558 Elizabeth 1662. Well years later we find that the Puritans fall out of favor government changes a lot. It's going on at the end of the Civil War and things and so the Puritans are now out kicked out by a thing called the act of uniformity.

Now when you say Civil War.

It's not the American Civil War. No we're talking about the British yeah Cromwell.

And the Brits right. So the English Civil War. Now we have the restoration of the monarchy. Charles the second comes back. It comes his dad is dead he had his head chopped off. Charles the second is now put in power and he promises to be friendly to everybody to be you know tolerant.

But he certainly is not that was a lie when he when he comes to power quickly there are laws set in place that will eject Puritans from their pulpits. The act of uniformity. The act of uniformity required those people who were in positions of spiritual leadership to agree to kind of a uniform view of the English Church.

So you basically you agree to tow the company line all. Right. Well they yeah. And and they it was drafted in a way that they knew that any conscientious Puritan would say I can't say yes to that. So it was a way of booting out about 2 ,000 Puritan pastors.

So that's called the Great Ejection. What's what's up with 1689. 1689 is the year of the act of toleration. Now there's there were some other acts close to this but this is the year that we kind of focus on.

So 1689 there's the bloodless revolution. William of Orange is now king and he is much more lenient with religious toleration. So he says to those Puritans who have been kicked out of their churches and have suffered some persecution from 1662 to 1689.

He says to them you may now have legal churches again not within the Church of England but a dissenting or a non conforming. Where we get the title a dissenter or nonconformist. These are really just the grandchildren or the children of the Puritans.

So Baptist Congregationalist Presbyterians you can now form your own individual churches and you have legal protection. But there were kind of B-class citizens. There were still many things that if you weren't Church of England you weren't allowed to do certain things within the nation.

But they were given religious freedom. So no longer are these people Puritans. They're not trying to purify the Church of England. Now they are dissenters. They have dissented from or nonconformist. They refuse to conform to the Church of England.

So now they're separatists. They have their own churches and they still carry on those same doctrines at the heart of their religion. But they're.

Outside the church all right. So John we've we've talked about dissenters separatists nonconformist 1558 1662. We've. Okay. John give me a simple definition that I can grab hold of whenever you say Puritan.

What what can I have in my head to say okay this is a Puritan. It's kind of hard. Yeah. Well I.

Defining a Puritan

Mean you can define a Puritanism by what they stood against. And that's kind of what people think like. Well Puritans were just against everything. You know the Puritan was afraid that somebody was having fun somewhere.

Yeah. Or you can define them by kind of the external ecclesiological. You know unique things that they argued for. So the Puritans would not generally kneel at the taking of the Lord's Supper because they said we're not venerating the body and blood of Jesus.

You know that that's not the actual body and blood of Jesus. And when we kneel it looks too much like the Catholic and the Catholic doctrine. So you can think of those kinds of things. Or you can define Puritanism by what it is at its heart.

Now one funny. One of my favorite bad definitions of a Puritan comes from King James the first. All right. The King James Bible. King James says this. He was the king in Scotland. You remember. James the sixth.

He becomes king of all Britain. James the first. And this is what he says. Escaping Scottish Puritans moving down to London. He's disappointed to find that he still has to deal with Puritans in England.

And he says a Puritan is a Protestant strayed out of his wits. All right. So like he's a Protestant who's gone nuts. Well that's not such a good one. Here's what William Perkins. Really the father of Puritanism in England.

Here's what William Perkins said. A Puritan is one that endeavors to get and keep the purity of heart in a good conscience. And these people are branded with vile terms like Puritans or precisions. So they the.

Name that they were given the Puritan name is actually a an insult in the same way that Methodists you know that you're so method all myth you're so methodical right. So Puritans you're you think you're so pure you're trying.

Yeah these.

Were slurs that were made by their opponents but they just stuck. So the early days of Puritanism no Puritan would have said we're the pure people. But you know after 20 or 30 years of being mocked as Puritan they just the label stuck and so you know they quit fighting it.

If you want to define Puritanism in a more helpful way though you need to look at the at. You know what we have is it is a series of key focal points that all these people from different so-called you know we would think of them as different denominations even though they didn't exist so much.

So people with Presbyterian leanings people with Baptistic leanings you know Congregationalist or Church of England Anglican leanings. They looked around at their at the state church and they realized you know I don't have a lot in common with the rest of the ministers in this state church but I do have a lot in common with this small group.

We have these fundamental things these great key truths. We hold these in common and we also have some similar experiences the new birth for example and we have these in common and holding these truths and having these experiences in common we are much more like each other.

Even though I may be a Baptist and this guy's a Presbyterian and this guy's a Congregationalist. We have a lot more in common with each other than we do with the rest of the Church of England. So these isolated them distinguish them and that that's what we want to talk about.

Today yeah because these are the core values where they could just you know really kind of fellowship around and unite around. So what was the first of.

Those the first we could say is that the that like the Reformers the Puritans strictly adhere to the authority and the sufficiency of Scripture. Now let's let's not like set up a straw man and attack an enemy.

We are not saying that other Anglican men didn't believe the Bible right. But there was a there was really in a sense there was a there was a unique sense in which the Puritans pursued this. They were particularly strict about this and their opponents felt that they were being literalistic kind of childish a literalistic biblicism.

You know. Okay if the Bible doesn't say it I'm not going to do it in you know in a in a way that was you know they felt. Was you know that lacked academic or. Okay we can cut that off. Let me see. So the enemies of the Puritans felt that they were being literalistic too strict.

Really the difference is not that you know the non Puritan wasn't going to say well the Bible is not the Word of God. He would have said the Bible is the Word of God. But here's the difference following Calvin's emphasis on the impact of the fall of man what we call depravity that every part of us is in some measure influenced by sins ruin that that affected the intellect as well as the emotions the desires the heart.

The non Puritan Anglican tended to think that the intellect was unaffected that God we had an intellect and we could approach the scriptures and we could approach the big picture of the Christian life.

And through common sense we could make good decisions. You know we don't have to go to the Bible for every question in Christianity and so God has given us a mind and where to use it. And the Puritan would say yes.

But we don't trust the intellect because it too is influenced by our sin. So we hold ourselves strictly accountable to the principles of Scripture. So that kind of drew that that that ended up becoming a dividing line between Puritan and non Puritan.

To what degree did they feel.

They were bound to the scripture. So John I think one of the things that we need to say is that we're gonna do in kind of defining Puritans is say here's the non Puritan view and here's a Puritan view.

So when we're talking about the the sufficiency of Scripture the depravity of man the Puritans had a different view on that than other people. Well the same way the centrality of conversion is different than how other people viewed conversion because it was taught particularly by the Anglicans.

Once you're baptized as a baby you're done you're good. But the Puritan said no there is a earth-shattering conversion the work of God in the soul of man that moved forward that that did.

The work. Yeah I think we could say that the Anglican you know I don't think any good Anglican would say once you're baptized you're that's that you're good as in that's it. But you're deaf you're in.

And now there needs to be maturation there needs to be growth. You know under the under the care of the church and later you know confirmation and taking. So you have the twin sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist or the Lord's Supper.

But but the Puritan. While while I mean many of the Puritans they were Anglican so. But the view of the efficacy of these things. Okay. So they would baptize their children but did they believe that that necessarily made them regenerate.

And well no. And later in the 18th century find George Whitfield and John Wesley both Anglicans who baptized children. They they agreed with baptizing children but they did not agree with the implication that some of the lane language of the Anglican liturgy would have them say like thanking God for the regenerating work in this child.

Well Whitfield didn't feel that he could say that that the water didn't regenerate.

The child even had a sermon. Who was the almost Christian. Yeah. And who was he talking about. He was talking about people who were. Yeah. Yeah they did.

Evangelism. Their primary field for evangelism was the church member which totally infuriated the Anglican Church. You know why don't you go talk to these these like heathen in other countries that why are you trying to convert good Englishmen who've already been brought into the kingdom.

But for the Puritan the difference we could think of it as an epicenter so for the Puritans it was conversion was like an earthquake. You know it's it shattered everything it remade everything it reshaped everything.

And conversion. Not baptism conversion. Not not. The Eucharist and confirmation becomes the great starting place of the Christian life. And it's also what historians call our theologians called voluntarism.

So that is that you voluntarily you volitionally embrace Christ and that's how you become a part of Christ. So more to that point the the.

Conversion, Piety, and Precise Morality

Puritan Thomas Goodwin and Philip Nye wrote this it hath been one of the glories of the Protestant religion that it revived the doctrine of saving conversion and of the new creature brought forth thereby but in a more eminent manner God hath cast the honor hereof upon the ministers and preachers of this nation who are renowned abroad for their more accurate search into and discoveries hereof.

What does that mean. What are the what is what is Goodwin and.

Nye saying there I think that what we find is that the Puritans emphasizing the experiential application of the Reformed doctrine so the Reformers deal a lot with these mountain-sized external objective facts.

You know who is Christ. What is the work of the Atonement you know. And and what is justification. And but when when it comes to the Puritans these things have already been laid out for them by the Reformers so it's like taking those truths and then trying to apply it in the local church setting where a lot of people have been told they're Christians which the Puritan minister would have doubted that they were Christians so they're trying to apply that in a very experiential way you know in other words do you really have Christ.

I mean have you really exercised faith and so a lot of emphasis on the responsiveness of man. And so in a sense we could say that the Puritans are the first great experts on the experience of conversion.

Another thing we can say about Puritanism is that it is a movement that focused on true piety. So in a sense it which means holiness in a sense the Puritan movement is a pietistic movement. But there are other movements that are pietistic and there's even we even use the term pietism with a capital P not to refer just to the quality of a focus on holiness but historical movements that have focused on holiness in a particular way.

Now what distinguishes the Puritan from what we would consider historically the pietist or pietism is that the Puritans experiences were very strictly bound to the scripture whereas if you read some of the pietistic writers from the 17th and 18th century you find them describing a lot of wonderful experiences that when you read it you're not so sure that really came from scripture or that that that came from God.

I mean maybe that it got worked up within the individual you know and kind of imagination a bit run wild and so you know kind of what in in our day maybe kind of what smacks of kind of a charismatic approach and you think whoa whoa whoa whoa you say you're having these great experiences but I don't see this in scripture.

So is it valid in the and the Puritans were very careful to make sure that what they're talking about when they talk about pietism the focus on the interior aspects of the Christian life the focus on holiness and the experiences that are a part of these the Puritans were careful to make sure that scripture was the was the origin of that experience.

So I'm studying these passages and yes there are wonderful experiences in the Christian life but they're coming from what I'm studying in the scripture and not only do they flow out of my study in application of the scripture but then they are tested by the scripture to make sure that in in that experiential aspect that I am holding them accountable to the Bible and I'm not kind of getting off on some side path where I think it's Christian but it really doesn't have anything to do with the Lord it's just me so another.

Core value that the Puritans kind of circled around was precise morality. Now.

How is that different than piety. Yeah well a piety kind of is an approach to holiness and the interiority of the Christian life that I would say experience is at the heart and and self-centeredness innocent.

You become very focused on you introspection. But the Puritan morality you know is external that the this is the will of God and I need to bring myself in line with that. But there there are these objective things that I'm held accountable to rather than you know focusing on like you know in our modern language we'd say like how I'm doing today becomes the measure of my Christianity you know.

Which is very easy you know because especially when you are concerned about holiness it's very easy to become introspective and to forget that the fuel for that has to be the objective fact and the and the path is already laid in the objective Word of God.

And I'm not free to kind of detach myself from that and become introspective and kind of set my own course. So a precise morality is that they they wanted to make sure that all of Scripture found room for application in all of life and so nothing is kind of nothing is sectioned off nothing's you know outside of the Scripture.

And so their opponents looked at that and thought you know you're overly strict.

All right so it goes right back to you know the opponents would say that they were reading Scripture too literalistic or that you know. So it really does come.

Down to a view of Scripture. Is that. Yeah. Yeah. A view of Scripture and a view of how God works in us so that we can be responsive to Scripture. Sure. Well the last core value really in Puritanism is that when all these things come together what you end up having is an experiential Calvinism.

All right. I know that some people don't like the word Calvinism. I mean it's really not a great word. You know you could call it experiential reform theology you could just call it experiential biblical theology.

But what you have in Puritanism is is they held intention. They held things that try to kind of pull apart really careful doctrine. Really strong experiences. You know head heart. They held those together they kept those bound together in their Christian life.

And in in that really is at the heart of what makes the Puritan movement so valuable to us. Good truths but applied aggressively you know. So you're not erring on the side of kind of the armchair theologian who just loves to think great thoughts.

And you're not getting over here. On to the activist side. Who a person that says doctrine isn't important all that matters is how you live. Well both of those would be erroneous. The Scripture holds them in balance.

And the Puritans did a good job of doing that as well. There are many.

Behold Your God and Why Scripture Is the Real Focus

Ideas about God in our culture today many are not grounded in Scripture and some are actually the opposite of what Scripture teaches. The best way to identify these ideas is to go back to the Bible and allow God to speak for himself.

Learn how God describes his character his work in salvation his definition of repentance and much more through the 12-week multimedia Bible study behold your God rethinking God biblically. The heart of this study is its daily devotional workbook.

Participants study at home in preparation for the small group session. Each session is led by a video containing three segments. First a biographical sketch of an individual from Christian history who was gripped by the reality of God you were studying that week.

Second is a sermon from dr. John Snyder pastor of Christ Church New Albany. Lastly our interviews from contemporary Christian pastors and authors who help apply the lessons from the week to learn more.

To see what others are saying about behold your God rethinking God biblically visit media gracia org or click the link in the description of this episode. John this is the beginning of what's probably going to be a fairly long series for us so as we wrap up this first episode of it why is it that we are.

Why are we spending so much time thinking about the Puritans and their impact on the 18th century.

Revivals. Well I think the simplest answer would have to be this. And if it can't be this then we're wasting our time. And that is it's really not the Puritans or the revivalists it's really the scripture that the things the Puritan emphasized we're we're gotten from scripture.

And the things that the 18th century men were held in the grip of were gotten from scripture. And and we are benefiting from these brothers centuries prior to us and how God worked in them. But the reason it's of any value to us is because it's the timeless Word of God being brought down into average people's lives.

And and as we watch that unfold you know there's a lot of guidance for us. Absolutely. And what.

We hope and what we pray is over the next couple of weeks as we have these discussions as we talk about the impact of the scriptures that we're on the Puritans and we're on those who came after and even on us today that God uses their view and their writing and their preaching of the scriptures in our lives.

We pray that it's a blessing and an encouragement to you so stick with us for the next couple of weeks as we continue this series and we'll see you.

Then.