The Standard April 18, 2026
Over the recent Easter weekend, A Great Awakening was released in theaters. It tells the intense story of George Whitefield, a key figure in Christian revival in the American colonies.
As a boy in Gloucester, England, Whitefield was extremely conscious of his sins, but desired to be a minister. A servitor for wealthier students at Pembroke College, Oxford, he met a group of men who steadfastly sought to become closer to God. By methodical acts of fasting, praying, reading Scripture and visiting the poor and imprisoned, they tried to make themselves acceptable to the Lord. In that group, known as the Holy Club or the Oxford Methodists, were brothers Charles and John Wesley. Whitefield was so intense in fasting that he ended up in the hospital and had to go home for nine months to recover. His acts of piety did little to make him feel as if he were winning his struggle against daily temptations or resolving the inner conflicts that oppressed him. Charles Wesley gave Whitefield the book The Life of God in the Soul of Man in which Puritan author Henry Scougal showed that good works or spiritual practices could not suffice. A person needed to be joined with Christ, trusting that Jesus paid the price for their sins on the cross. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the free gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 For Whitefield this revelation that he could have union with Christ was dramatic and led to his “new birth” and lasting great joy.
Ordained as a priest in the Church of England in 1739, Whitfield focused many of his estimated 18,000 sermons over the course of 33 years on our need of grace through faith in Christ. The Nature and Necessity of Our New Birth in Christ Jesus, his first published message, became his signature sermon. Whitefield had a gift of drawing in listeners with engaging, vigorous preaching which successfully challenged listeners to convert or recommit their lives to the Lord.
In 1735 he boarded a ship bound for America and joined John Wesley in ministry in Georgia, where Whitefield eventually established an orphanage, the first institution of its kind in America. Wherever he went he preached the gospel, prayed publicly and ministered to the sick. Often, buildings would not hold the crowds, so he engaged in open-air preaching. This actually enabled him to reach more people, reportedly as many as 30,000 at one time. From Charleston to Boston Whitefield was one of the most well-known names. He worked alongside Jonathan Edwards to organize a revival tour in 1739. Eventually, Whitefield was dubbed “the marvel of the age” by newspapers, and due to his preaching during seven journeys to America, 14 trips to Scotland, three to Ireland and stops throughout England and Wales he probably was the most famous religious figure of the eighteenth century.
Many Anglican pulpits were closed to him because he said things like, “Congregations are lifeless because dead men preach to them.” Whitefield, a Calvinistic Methodist, regularly crossed denominational lines and promoted any church proclaiming salvation through faith in Christ.
His good friend Benjamin Franklin, not a believer, discovered how lucrative it was to publish Whitefield’s sermons in multiple newspapers in America. Whitefield was glad for yet another way to spread the gospel. Whitefield, pushing himself to preach through poor health, died at age 55 in Newburyport, MA and was buried underneath the pulpit of the Old South Presbyterian Church.
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