George Whitefield was a prominent figure in the 18th century religious revival known as the Great Awakening. Born in Gloucester, England in 1714, Whitefield’s life was marked by his unwavering faith, dedication to preaching the Gospel, and his passion for social justice.
George Whitefield’s early live
George Whitefield was born at Gloucester in 1714. His mother kept the Bell Inn, and appears not to have prospered in business. According to his own account, Whitefield’s early life was anything but religious. He confesses that he was addicted to lying, filthy talking, and foolish jesting. He also admitted to being a Sabbath-breaker, a theatre-goer, a card-player, and a romance reader. All this continued until he was fifteen years old.
Poor as he was, his residence at Gloucester gave him the advantage of a good education at the Free Grammar School. Here he was a day-scholar until he was fifteen. He was remarkable for his good elocution and memory, and was selected to recite speeches before the Corporation of Gloucester at their annual visitation of the Grammar School.
At the age of fifteen Whitefield appears to have left school, and to have given up Latin and Greek for a season. It’s likely that his mother’s circumstances made it necessary for him to do something to assist her in business and to help support himself. So, he began to help her in the daily work of the Bell Inn. This, however, did not last long. His mother’s business at the Bell did not flourish, and she finally retired from it altogether.
The Turning Point at Oxford
After several providential circumstances had smoothed the way, he entered Oxford at Pembroke at the age of eighteen. He entered as a servitor, one who was an undergraduate student and received free accommodation (including some free meals), and was exempted from paying fees for lectures.
Whitefield’s residence at Oxford was the great turning-point in his life. For two or three years before he went to the University he had not been without religious convictions. But from the time he entered Pembroke College, these convictions soon brought him into the Christian faith.
He diligently attended all means of grace within his reach. Whitefield spent his leisure time visiting the city prison, reading to the prisoners, and trying to do good. He became acquainted with the famous John Wesley and his brother Charles, and a little band of like-minded young men. This group was the devoted party to whom the name ‘Methodists’ first applied, on account of their strict method of living. John and Charles Wesley would become lifelong friends and collaborators in their ministry.
Whitefield’s conversion
It was during this time that Whitefield began to question his own faith. He seems to have been in danger of becoming a semi-papist, an ascetic, or a mystic, and of placing the whole of religion in self-denial. Out of all this darkness he was gradually delivered, partly by the advice of one or two experienced Christians, and partly by reading such books as Scougal’s Life of God in the Soul of Man, Law’s Serious Call, Baxter’s Call to the Unconverted, Alleine’s Alarm to Unconverted Sinners, and Matthew Henry’s Commentary.
“Above all, my mind being now more opened and enlarged, I began to read the Holy Scriptures upon my knees, laying aside all other books, and praying over, if possible, every line and word. This proved meat indeed and drink indeed to my soul. I daily received fresh life, light, and power from above. I got more true knowledge from reading the Book of God in one month than I could ever have acquired from all the writings of men.”
George Whitefield
Once taught to understand the glorious liberty of Christ’s gospel, Whitefield never turned again to asceticism, legalism, mysticism, or strange views of Christian perfection. The experience he had received through bitter conflict was very valuable to him.
Ordination and early preaching
In 1736, at the age of twenty-two, Whitefield was ordained deacon of the Anglican Church and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree. He spent the next year preaching in England.
From the very first he obtained a degree of popularity such as no preacher, before or since, has probably ever reached. Whether on week-days or Sundays, wherever he preached, the churches were crowded, and an immense sensation was produced. The plain truth is, that a really eloquent, extempore preacher, preaching the pure gospel with most uncommon gifts of voice and manner, was at that time an entire novelty. The congregations were taken by surprise and carried by storm.
His journeys to America
Whitefield accepted an invitation by the Wesleys to visit the colony of Georgia in North America, and assist in the care of an Orphan House which had been set up near Savannah for the children of colonists. So, in May 1738, Whitefield embarked on his first of seven preaching tours to America, where he delivered impassioned sermons to crowds of thousands, drawing attention to issues such as slavery and the mistreatment of Native Americans. His advocacy for these causes was rooted in his belief that all people were created equal in the eyes of God, and that it was the duty of Christians to work for justice and equality.
Four months later Whitefield returned to England in order to raise money for the establishment of an orphanage near Savannah, and to secure priest’s orders, which he received in January 1739. Because of his irregular preaching methods, he found many churches closed to him, so he turned to open-air preaching.
Whitefield returned to America for the second of his seven visits in November 1739, arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From there he traveled throughout the colonies, preaching mainly in Presbyterian churches and outdoors. In one year, Whitefield covered 5,000 miles in America and preached more than 350 times. He became the most visible figure of the American evangelical movement known as the Great Awakening.
Arriving in Savannah in January 1740, he received a hero’s welcome. Upon his arrival in Savannah, Whitefield had provided approximately $2,539 toward the cost of constructing Bethesda Orphan House in the city.
Back to England
Back in England by March 1741, he sought more funds for the “poor orphans” of Georgia wherever he preached.
In November 1741 Whitefield married Elizabeth Burnell James. His marriage does not seem to have contributed much to his happiness. After their 1744–1748 stay in America, she never accompanied him on his travels. Whitefield reflected that “none in America could bear her”. His wife believed that she had been “but a load and burden” to him. However, he did not intentionally make his wife unhappy. In 1743 after four miscarriages, Elizabeth bore the couple’s only child, a son. The baby died at four months old. Elizabeth died of a fever in August 1768.
A rift between Whitefield and the Wesleys in 1741 led to his calling a conference of Calvinistic Methodists on January 5, 1743. An association was formed and a tabernacle built in the Moorfields area of London. Whitefield sent John Wesley a letter from Bethesda in Georgia on December 24, 1740 urging him to study the covenant of grace and stop his carnal thinking.
The Calvinist teaching of predestination grace and divine initiative broke from the Wesleys’ emphasis on free grace and free will. While both parties believed in such doctrines as original sin, justification by faith, the substitution atonement, and sanctification, they differed in their understanding of predestination, God’s sovereignty, and the human role in the process of salvation.
Whitefields extensive preaching ministry
From 1739 to the year of his death, 1770, a period of thirty-one years, Whitefield’s life was one of consistent preaching. He was always about his Lord’s business. From Sunday mornings to Saturday nights, from the 1st of January to the 31st of December, except when he was sick, he was almost continually preaching Christ and going about the world entreating men to repent and come to Christ and be saved.
There was hardly a sizeable town in England, Scotland, or Wales, that he did not visit as an evangelist. When churches were opened to him, he gladly preached in churches; when only chapels were available, he cheerfully preached in chapels. When churches and chapels alike were closed, or were too small to hold his hearers, he was ready and willing to preach in the open air.
For thirty-one years he ministered in this way, always proclaiming the same glorious gospel, and always, as far as we can know, with great effect. In a single week, after preaching in Moorfields, he received one thousand letters from people with spiritual concerns, and administered communion to three hundred and fifty persons. In the thirty-four years of his ministry it is estimated that he preached publicly eighteen thousand times.
George Whitefield died very suddenly at Newbury Port, in North America, on September 29, 1770, at the age of fifty-six.
The Legacy of George Whitefield
Despite his many accomplishments, Whitefield faced his fair share of criticism and controversy throughout his life. His association with the Wesley brothers, who were often at odds with the Church of England, led to accusations of heresy and sparked heated debates about the nature of salvation and the role of faith in a person’s life.
Despite these challenges, Whitefield remained steadfast in his beliefs and continued to preach until his death in 1770. He was a prominent figure in the Great Awakening, which notably altered the religious climate in the American colonies. Ordinary people were encouraged to make a personal connection with God, instead of relying on a minister. The Great Awakening reinvigorated religion in America at a time when it was steadily declining. And it introduced ideas that would penetrate into American culture for many years to come.
George Whitefield was a man of great faith and conviction. He dedicated his life to preaching the Gospel and advocating for social justice. His legacy as a powerful preacher and social reformer continues to inspire Christians today. And his unwavering commitment to his beliefs testifies to the power of faith to shape and transform lives.
Reflections on the life of George Whitefield
Seek the approval of God, not the applause of men
The world is at enmity with God, especially when its sinful ways are revealed. Proclaim the truth as God reveals it to us, whether that makes us famous or unpopular.
When a god is proclaimed that approves of the world-system and their actions, the world is quick to embrace him. Yet when God is shown to be holy and cannot tolerate sin, that exposes the sins of the heart. And at that moment the hatred of the world becomes utmost. Whitefield fought against the desire to be accepted by the world and its ways. He was esteemed by the masses at age twenty-one and a year later hated by most.
Find solace in the very presence of God by thirsting after Him
We can’t win God’s approval by what we do. The Father seeks true followers who worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24).
The LORD looks for those who are humble and contrite in spirit (Isaiah 66:2). Therefore, he will permit trials that will bring us contempt, lessen self-love, and teach a life of daily dying. In explaining his experience leading up to his conversion, Whitefield wrote:
From my first awakenings to the Divine life, I felt a particular hungering and thirsting after the humility of Jesus Christ. Night and day I prayed to be a partaker of that grace, imagining that the habit of humility would be instantaneously infused into my soul. But as Gideon taught the men of Succoth with thorns, so God, if I am yet in any measure blessed with true poverty of spirit, taught it me by the exercise of strong temptations.
George Whitefield1Hugh T. Kerr and John M. Mulder, Famous Conversions, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids. 1983. p. 63
Never lose faith in the simple message of trust in Jesus Christ
When the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and our need for a savior, Jesus becomes all the more sweeter.
It’s fairly common to hear the gospel preached that gives all kinds of reasons to follow Jesus Christ. But the most important reason of all is hardly mentioned. Jesus Christ became sin for the world. We don’t like to talk much about sin and its consequences because we fear of offending others. But if we don’t believe we’re hopeless sinners, then we won’t know that we need a savior. And if we don’t need a savior, then we don’t need Jesus. For He alone saves us from God’s eternal wrath.
However, when we show sin to be dreadful, hell to be horrible, heaven so wonderful, and Jesus Christ in all his glory, men who are moved by the Holy Spirit will gladly receive this wonderful free gift.
Let your heart break over men and women who do not know Christ.
Come close enough to God where he will start to break your heart over those who do not know Him.
if you are sharing God’s true heart, you will start to see normal people in society as sad, broken, lost ones who are eternally apart from God. Whitefield was a passionate preacher, and some accused him of dramatism because of his body movements and emotional language. Yet his tears showed his sincerity. He simply was close enough to God that God shared his burdens with him.
Making a full commitment to Christ
After Jesus taught a hard lesson, many of Jesus’ disciples turned back and no longer followed Him. So Jesus asked the Twelve, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:67-68). True believers in Christ are secure in God’s enduring love. They persevere in the faith, because God is able to preserve them in their faith (See Romans 14:4).
Given this unbreakable relationship between Jesus Christ and His people, it is only fitting for us to live our lives fully committed to Him. “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).
If you’re unsure about your spiritual condition and that you’ll go to heaven when you die, click here. Also, visit my blog post How to Begin Your Life Over Again.
Sources, references, and related posts
Sources
Mills, Frederick. “George Whitefield.” New Georgia Encyclopedia, last modified Jun 6, 2017. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/george-whitefield-1714-1770/
“George Whitefield.” Banner of Truth. https://banneroftruth.org/us/about/banner-authors/george-whitefield/
“George Whitefield.” Wikipedia.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Whitefield
References
- 1Hugh T. Kerr and John M. Mulder, Famous Conversions, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids. 1983. p. 63
