George Whitefield
(Part 3)

To understand aright the person of George Whitefield, and, indeed the source of much of the criticism level led against him, it is necessary to take into account what the great evangelist of the 18th century really believed with regards to the gospel of God's saving grace to sinners. It was, indeed, in Whitefield's estimation, “the gospel of grace,” and to him, that meant that no thought of a contribution of man's “work” could in anyway enter in. Like many of the Lord's people, George Whitefield was an Arminian to begin with (believing in the free will of man in the things of salvation). But, it is after a second visit to America that he begins to lay aside these views to lay firm hold on all the implications of the truth that “salvation is of the Lord.”

As the “Doctrines of Grace,” then began to appear more and more in his preaching and ministry, so the oppositions, too, increased. The great themes of his preaching were to become, Sin, Regeneration by the Holy Spirit of God, Justification by faith alone, Election and the Perseverance of the saints to glory. To these doctrines of God's electing love to sinners Whitefield unashamedly traced all the zeal of his soul expended in the work of the gospel; “Would to God the doctrine of Election were considered more,” he said, “and people were more studious of the covenant of redemption between the Father and the Son. For my own part, I cannot see how true humbleness of mind can be attained without a knowledge of it; and though I will not say that everyone who denies election is a bad man, yet I will say that it is a very bad sign. Redemption is so ordered that no flesh should glory in the divine presence; and hence it is that the pride of man opposes this doctrine, because according to this doctrine, and no other, ‘he that glories must glory only in the Lord.’ It is the doctrine of election that most surely presses me to abound in good works. I am made willing to suffer all things for the elect's sake. This makes me preach with comfort, because I know that salvation doth not depend on man's free will, but the Lord makes them willing in the day of His power, and can use even me to bring some of His elect home, when and where He pleases.”

This assurance and knowledge, however, in no way led to any form of “fatalism” on the part of Whitefield – a charge very often thrown at those who hold such truths – and in his study and preaching he is “a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.” It was said of him that he “ransacked creation for figures, time for facts, heaven for motives, hell for warnings, and eternity for arguments.” The manner of his preaching of the things discovered in the study before the Lord was also with the same earnest spirit and desire for the souls of men and the glory of God. Bishop Ryle tells us of one night of preaching which had begun with the clouds of heaviness hovering over both preacher and hearer – one old man in front of the platform had even fallen asleep. “Then,” we are told, “he suddenly broke forth in an altered tone: ‘If I had come to speak to you in my own name, you might well rest your elbows on your knees,’” he cried, “‘But I have not come to you in my own name. No! I have come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts – (here he brought down his hand and foot with a force that made the building ring) – and I must and will be heard.’” Even the old man woke with a start; “Ay, ay!” cried Whitfield, fixing his eyes on him, “I have waked you up have I? I meant to do it. I am not come here to preach to stocks and stones …”

The scope too of that preaching of the truth of the doctrines of grace must never be forgotten either: “George Whitefield,” we are told in one brief sketch of his life, “made the doctrine of the new birth his universal message because he found that it met a universal need … Here he is seated with an Indian in a canoe on one of the great American rivers! He is visiting the various encampments of the Delawares. He loves to go from tribe to tribe, and from wigwam to wigwam, telling the red men, by the aid of an interpreter, that a man of any kind and any colour must be born again … Here he is preaching to the black men of Bermudas! ‘Except,’ he cries, ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ … Here he is in Scotland! He is visiting Cambuslang; and there is no building large enough to accommodate any considerable fraction of the crowds that throng to hear him. He therefore preaches in the glen … ‘He dwelt mostly on regeneration,’ the record tells us. And the result vindicated his choice of theme. On the last Sunday of his stay he preached to between thirty and forty thousand people … Here he is in the Countess of Huntingdon’s drawing room! The sumptuous apartment is thronged by princes and peers, philosophers and poets, wits and statesmen. To this select and aristocratic assembly he twice or thrice every week delivers his message, ‘Ye must be born again!’”

Not only in his preaching, but even in the letters which he undertook to write, we find this great and essential doctrine of being born again by the Spirit of God, entering in somewhere or other before the close of the letters. We find him writing to the great American philosopher, Benjamin Franklin – “I find you grow more and more famous in the learned world. As you have made a pretty considerable progress in the mysteries of electricity, I would now humbly recommend to your diligent, unprejudiced pursuit and study, the mystery of the new birth … One, at whose bar we are shortly to appear, hath solemnly declared that without it we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. You will excuse this freedom. I must have something of Christ in all my letters.”

As we have stated, the doctrine of the necessity of being born again, and of the “sovereign” nature of this work, were must strongly formulated in Whitefield's mind following his second visit to America. But this wasn't his first introduction to the truth and implications of the doctrine. Whitefield had begun a series of correspondence with the two Scottish seceders, Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine, and it was, in fact, on their invitation that he first visited Scotland. Unhappily, the association between Whitefield and the Erskines grew cold and diminished; this was largely due to the fact that the Erskines believed that Whitefield, on coming to Scotland, should refuse to preach in the National church, because, as they put it, Christ had departed from it. Whitefield's reply is fairly typical of him; “Then,” he said, “we must go and preach Christ back again.” Even if “the pope himself would lend him his pulpit,” he declared, “he would gladly proclaim it in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Perhaps the Erskines erred in their behaviour on this occasion, but their actions are possibly best understood if we remember the great cost of their separation from the established church while others continued to live in comparative ease. Be that as it may, it was their influence under the Lord that helped to burn the glories of sovereign grace into the heart of the young George Whitefield, and two more noble saints seldom graced the scene of the Church of Christ in Scotland.

Next time, we will turn to look at some of the labours of Whitefield in our own land, and see the great and comforting truth that “to everything there is a season.” Whitefield, indeed, thrust in the sickle and reaped a harvest in Scotland, but there was a “Winter afore harvest,” and there was reaped that which had been first of all sown by faithful saints. An example of Ralph Erskine's preaching, where he speaks of the gracious work of the Holy Spirit in conveying grace to men and women, bears this out: He pictures grace as “honey”, which, he says, we have “in the flower” in the Father – we cannot reach it; in Christ, we have the honey “in the comb,” but still unattainable for us; but, by the Holy Spirit we have “Honey in the mouth,” for He takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto us.