The United States Supreme Court has redefined the definition of marriage, something no nation has ever done. Why should today be any different? Some are saying that times have changed, that we now live in a post-Christian world that is driven by entertainment. We see it in the great Reformers-Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Knox. We see it in powerful pre-Reformation preachers like John Wycliffe and John Hus. We see it in the early church fathers-men like Ambrose, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, and Chrysostom. We see it clearly in the teaching of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, however, has always used powerfully and persuasively the Spirit anointed preaching of Christ crucified. Some are conveniently overlooking the clear teaching on the roles of husbands and wives in marriage, the prohibition against women’s ordination to church offices, and the abomination of homosexuality and same sex unions. Some are saying that without an emphasis on social justice then we have no gospel message at all. In a desire to reach the secular unbeliever who rejects Biblical authority out of hand, in order to gain a hearing from “un-churched Harry,” in order to appeal to the new atheist who embraces every manner of sexual perversion, in order to bring back into the church the de-churched millennial generation, pastors are interpreting the Bible differently. The neo-liberal hermeneutic is also at play in today’s western church. How so? Without confidence in the supernatural work of the Spirit to convict and convert sinners, it is only natural for church leaders to look elsewhere for societal impact. The theological liberalism of the early Twentieth Century, the neo-orthodoxy of the 1940’s to the 1960’s, the church growth movement of the 1970’s, the seeker friendly movement of the 1980’s and 1990’s, the emerging church movement of the first decade of the Twenty-first Century, the present emphasis on “hipster” Christianity and hyper-grace, and the Insider Movement (propagated by western missiologists) in the Muslim world all point to the dearth of Spirit anointed revival and evangelistic preaching. Revival and evangelistic preaching, however, has fallen on hard times in the western world. This Great Awakening resulted in thousands of conversions in each of these countries and was remarkably used of God t o bring these nations up out of debauchery and to spare them the ravages of the atheistic Eighteenth Century French Revolution. Without question, the preaching of Whitefield and his contemporaries-men like Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, William and Gilbert Tennent, Samuel Davies, Howell Harris, and Daniel Rowland wrought a dramatic societal impact in England, Scotland, Wales, and Colonial America. Dallimore referred to the preaching of Whitefield as that which startled a nation.
Indeed, this vision and hunger has only increased over the last four decades. Dallimore gave me a vision for evangelistic preaching and revival which has never left me. No other book, besides the Bible, has impacted me as much as Dallimore’s two volumes on Whitefield. Jim Baird at the First Presbyterian Church, Macon, Georgia, reading for the first time Arnold Dallimore’s marvelous biography on George Whitefield1, perhaps the greatest preacher since the Apostle Paul. I very well remember in 1976, while working with Dr. His zeal and love for the lost, whatever their station in life, has long challenged me to join in following his example (Philippians 3:17). Ben was a powerful evangelistic preacher who was a powerful inspiration to my life and ministry. Ben Wilkinson, the long time Director of Presbyterian Evangelistic Fellowship who went home to be with the Lord in January, 2016.
The book is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Nearby is the KwaZuluNatal Province where a mighty revival has been ongoing at KwaSizabantu since 1966. The cover is a photo of the highest point of the Drakensberg Mountains (11,424 feet), the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment which encloses the central Southern African plateau. “I will lift up my eyes to the mountains From where shall my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
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