George Whitefield was an evangelistic pioneer. Moved with such deep compassion for the lost, he was the first to preach “out in the open” to coal miners and shipyard workers as they passed on their way to and from work, for they had no other opportunities to hear the Gospel. He carried the hope of God’s redeeming grace not only to the working classes, but also to the nobility—he attended gatherings of famous lords and ladies, holding them spellbound with his dramatic messages. His charisma and compassion carried him from parlors to prisons in England and from politicians’ houses to Native Americans’ huts in the New World. He was moved most of all by the plight of widows and orphans in the new colonies, as well as by the welfare of the African slaves he also encountered there.
Whitefield was the catalyst of the Great Awakening that swept America and Britain into evangelicalism—a new move of God that emphasized the authority of the Bible and the need for every person to make Jesus Christ his personal Lord and Savior.
The Great Awakening brought to the masses not only the message of redemption, but also an underlying message of social equality. The first waves of revival prompted a shift in values that affected politics, trade, and traditional religious hierarchies, as well as daily social life. It created within the common man a new sense of self-worth. People of all classes became more involved in religious affairs and began studying the Scriptures for themselves.
These attitudes were the beginning of a sense of independence and equality that would set the stage for the American Revolution. As the spirit of freedom was proclaimed in the colonies by the Declaration of Independence, it followed the example of itinerant evangelists such as Whitefield, who had been the first to preach universal equality and liberty in Christ.
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