"The Great Awakenings"
It was about this time when I also learned about the “Great Awakenings” that the United States had experienced and their influence on American History and how our country dealt with subsequent events.
Growing up in the Assemblies of God Church, I learned about its history of being birthed out of the Azusa Street Revival to the many heroes of the faith and their Holy Spirit-filled revivals and healing ministries. The Assemblies of God became the largest Pentecostal Church organization and launched one of the largest missionary efforts ever in the history of the world.
The history lessons at school introduced me to what is known as “The Great Awakening” and the great revival movements of the early 1700’s with the likes of men such as Johnathan Edwards and his “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” sermon who sought to reconcile traditional Calvin teachings with the religion’s experiential focusing on bringing people into a personal relationship with Jesus and not as much of adherence to strict doctrines. These revivals helped change the course of American history.
Before the reformation begun by Martin Luther, Catholics were taught that salvation came through obedience to the church. Martin Luther’s claim that salvation came through faith in Jesus rocked the world. However, many of the Protestant churches soon became so doctrinally focused that they had strayed and turned their churches into social and political gatherings leaving many unknown to God.
Now, interests of many focusing on a direct relationship with God led to a restriction of the King’s authoritarian “Divine Right of Kings” and the proclamation of the inalienable rights of the person in “We the People” proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence.