How Liberal Christianity Came About

These are wells without water, clouds that 

are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist

 of darkness is reserved for ever. For when they 

speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure

 through the lusts of the flesh, through much 

wantonness, those that were clean escaped from 
them who live in error. While they promise 

them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, 

of the same is he brought in bondage. For if 

after they have escaped the pollutions of the 

world through the knowledge of the Lord and

 Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled 

therein, and overcome, the latter end is

 worse with them than the beginning.

2Peter 2:17-20

     Liberalism entered into the Church with much fervor after the First Great Awakening (1730 A.D.-1755 A.D.) a Protestant religious revival movement that left a permanent impact on Protestantism in the United States. The First Great Awakening emphasized a sense of deep personal understanding that there was a personal need of salvation by Jesus Christ. This Awakening encouraged introspection and a commitment to a new standard of personal morality. The First Great Awakening focuses on individual and their need to be committed to Jesus Christ and less on the forms of ritualism, ceremony, sacramentalism, and hieracharchy. This change came about by several means, but one mean was that in Europe, England that held to rituals, hierarchy and was not especially interested in the individuals as long as they held to the rituals enforced upon them. Here in the United State where people fled to get away from such religiosity were willing and ready to hear this new Christianity whereby they were involved in their lives to live according to Scripture and not to traditions. This period of time say an increase in religious activity and change in an understanding of God. These United State Christians were now free to examine faith, and how they were to see and know God and this came about by great preaching. The First Great Awakening had great success in converting all people, black, white, yellow, brown, no matter their status in life, a form of inclusion.

      A Second Great Awakening (1790 A.D.–1840 A.D.) saw a rise in membership and peaked around the late 1850's which was characterized by enthusiasm, emotional,and an appeal to the super-natural. This Awakening rejected the skeptical rationals and deism of the Enlightenment an intellectual and philosophical movement during the 19th century. The period called the Enlightenment or the Age of Reason stated that reason was the primary source of authority and legitimacy and advanced such as liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government and the separation of Church and state. 
     The Third Great Awakening (1855 A.D.–1900 A.D.) was marked by religious activism and it it affected pietistic Protestant denominations and had a strong element of social activism. There was movement from the postmillennial belief believed that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ would occur after the earth, mankind was reformed. The movement affiliated with the Social Gospel Movement and applied Christianity to social issues. New groups emerged: i.e., the Holiness Movement, and the Nazarene movements, and Christian Science. 
     The Fourth Great Awakening took place in the late 1960's or even began following World War II.  During this time the "mainline" Protestant churches weakened and there were many theological battles fought, and schisms within Churches and during this time secularism grew dramatically. A new emphasis on a personal relationship with Jesus from a new form of Church, non-denominational Churches and non-traditional Churches, mega Churches, the Charismatic movement, the gifts of the Spirit, speaking in tongues, healing, and prophecy all focused on this belief that this was from the Holy Spirit.  
     Why take the time to go over this history? Because while there were many good things that occurred due to the Great Awakenings, many unscriptural practices entered into the Church and today we are faced with the unscriptural practices that are leading people away from Authentic Christianity into a liberal Christianity that cannot be pleasing to God, or that God will give His blessing too. I will focus on what this liberality has and is doing to Authentic Christian Faith and Authentic Christian living.   

Be assured, you can have Authentic Christian Faith

Richard L. Crumb