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Friday, June 27, 2014

Nathan A. Finn: History Could Happen Again


Jonathan Edwards wrote a number of books that became famous, even during his own lifetime. One of his lesser-known works was a 1746 book titled An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God’s People in Extraordinary Prayer, For the Revival and Religion and the Advancement of Christ’s Kingdom on Earth. Edwards wrote the book after learning about a group of Scottish ministers who circulated a “memorial” in 1744 calling for seven years of prayer in anticipation of God’s coming kingdom on earth.

In An Humble Attempt, Edwards argued for all believers to engage in monthly “concerts of prayer” for worldwide revival and the conversion of the unreached peoples of the earth. As a postmillennialist, Edwards believed the salvation of the nations was one of the final signs that the millennium would soon begin. His prayer was that the transatlantic revivals that had occurred off and on for a generation would “go viral” and cover the entire earth.

Though its topic was inspiring, An Humble Attempt was not very influential during Edwards’s lifetime. It did not sell as many copies as The Diary of David Brainerd, did not influence theologians like Freedom of the Will, and did not define authentic spiritual experience like Religious Affections. Nevertheless, some scholars argue that Edwards could be considered the “grandfather” of the modern missions movement among English-speaking evangelicals because of how the Lord used An Humble Attempt in the generation following Edwards’s death. Keep reading

See also
Roger S. Oldham: Pray for one another
While Roger Oldham in the second articles urges Southern Baptist church wholeheartedly and intentionally to pray for other Baptist churches in their own communities, I would also urge all Christian churches to do the same for other Christian churches in their region and throughout the world as well as those in their particular locality. We often become so wrapped up in our private lives and various church activities that we really do not take the time individually, as a small group, and as a church to simply pray. Despite our busyness we really have more time to pray than we realize. Brother Lawrence, a 17th-century French Discalced Carmelite lay brother whose spiritual wisdom became the basis of the book The Practice of the Presence of God, popular among Protestants and Catholics alike,  prayed while he performed his daily chores. He carried on a conversation with God throughout his waking hours, ceasing from prayer only when he was asleep.

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