Don Blake and Dean Nelson (VA Christian Alliance)
Appreciated: Great Awakenings Past
Is it time for another Great Awakening in America? For example, the First Great Awakening stirred Americans to throw off the tyranny of Great Britain in the mid-1700’s.
It was spearheaded by evangelists like George Whitefield and by a Black-Robed Regiment of pastors like John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg in Woodstock who, on January 21, 1776, preached from Ecclesiastes 3 — and then led 300 of his friends and neighbors into the War for Independence.
The Second Great Awakening in the 1800’s was also led by pastors like Charles Finney who stirred the people to throw off the shackles of slavery. Like the first, it too was a battle for freedom.
Anticipated: A New Great Awakening?
So do we need another Great Awakening today to turn back new challenges to our freedom and to our unity as a nation? Sadly, the greatest challenges seem to be coming primarily from our own federal government, which has:
- Attacked and overturned basic Judeo-Christian values of Life, Marriage, and Religious Liberty;
- Driven us deeper into an immoral national debt that now exceeds $19 trillion (nearly $60,000/citizen);
- Violated constitutional principles and abused its executive and judicial authorities;
- Encouraged class and racial divisions that promote dependency over personal responsibility; and
- Refused to recognize and confront the growing threat of Islamic jihad here and abroad.
VFIA #230 Stirring the Church for a Third Great Awakening from Dean Welty on Vimeo.
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For God and Country,
Don Blake (top right) is the Chairman and President of the Virginia Christian Alliance. After college and a stint in the Army, he went into business and has served on numerous professional and non-profit boards, including work with Virginia pastors to promote family values. He lives in Richmond.
Dean Nelson (bottom right) helps lead the Frederick Douglass Foundation, the Wellington Boone Ministries, and Care Net — a network of more than 1,000 pregnancy centers across America. He also serves on the Board of the Virginia Christian Alliance. He lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Dean Welty (far right) of Valley Faith in Action airs five times on WAZT-TV, beginning at 8:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday, again at 7:00 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. Sunday, and finally at Wednesday midnight. That is on Comcast Cable Channel 13 in the Harrisonburg/Rockingham area but varies in other locations. However, if you miss the TV program, you can watch it and earlier programs onlineHERE anytime.
Dean
