7. Doctrinal Convictions 67
7
Doctrinal ConvictionsWhile crossing the ocean Whitefield no longer had, of course, his vast congregations to whom he could preach. Accordingly, he sought to promote the work of God by the one means available—his correspondence. He wrote a large number of letters, and we will examine a brief selection of them.
To an English clergyman he stated, "As the Lord has been pleased to reveal his dear Son in us, O let us stir up the gift of God and with all boldness preach him to others. . . . What Christ tells us by his Spirit in our closets let us proclaim upon the housetops. All the devils in hell will not be able to hurt us till we have finished our testimony."1
Before leaving England he had addressed the students at Philip Doddridge's Academy, a non-Anglican school for training ministers, and now he wrote, ".. . whether Conformists or Nonconformists, our main concern should be to be assured that we are called and taught of God. .. . I thought that most of you were bowed down too much with the servile fear of man. . . . Unless your hearts are free from worldly hopes and worldly fears you will never speak boldly as you ought to speak."2
Moreover, in these letters there appear statements in which Whitefield declares again his concept of the responsibility borne by any man in the ministry and of the work that he felt God was about to do on the earth. We notice the following two:
I love those that thunder out the Word. The Christian world is in a deep sleep! Nothing but a loud voice can awaken them out of it.3
Oh for a revival of true and undefiled religion in all sects whatsoever! God make me an instrument in promoting it! Methinks I care not what I do or suffer, so that I may see my Lord's kingdom come with power.4
Nevertheless, despite the sense of joy and relaxation that first characterized the letters Whitefield wrote on board, into his correspondence there began to come statements of a very different nature. Saying, "I had a glorious opportunity of spending many hours in close communion with God, to ask pardon for the defects of my public ministry," he went on to conduct a severe self-examination. He was led first to a new vision of the unapproachable heights of divine holiness, and then, in contrast, to a new sight of human sin: the darkness of sin as it appears in the sight of God, sin as it exists in fallen human nature, and above all sin as it dwelt within his own heart.
In this experience Whitefield was brought very low. At one point he felt he ought to relinquish the ministry: "A sense of unworthiness and unfitness so weighs me down that I have often thought it would be best for me to retire." He even went so far as to suggest he should refrain from further correspondence: "I feel myself so wretched and miserable, so blind and naked, that Satan would tempt me to write to no one." As he anticipated appearing before the public again he asked, "Must I venture myself once more among fire-brands, arrows and death?" Yet he finally answered his question with the assertion, "Yes, if I come forth in the strength of the Lord!" A critic in London had spoken of him as "Crazy, confident Whitefield!" Yet it is evident that this youth had little confidence in himself, but rather found his strength in the Lord his God.
But as God thus gave Whitefield to see something deeper of the nature of sin, even more did He give him to understand in a new and fuller measure the exceeding riches of His grace. In several letters he links the two experiences together, as in the following statements:
A sense of my actual sins and natural deformity humbled me exceedingly; and then the freeness and riches of God's everlasting love broke in with such light and power upon my soul, that I was often awed into silence and could not speak!5
This latter part of the week, blessed be the Lord, He has restored me to the light of His countenance, and enabled me to praise Him with joyful lips.
In view of this deeper understanding of divine grace, Whitefield began to tell forth in his letters the truths he had experienced. In doing so he enunciated the principles of the theological system he had been embracing—the system usually called "Calvinism," but which he preferred to term "the doctrines of grace."
Whitefield's beliefs, however, were not mere intellectual theories. Rather, they were the basic truths that molded his thought and governed his daily life, and he declared them in letter after letter during this crossing of the ocean. The following two quotations give a general statement of his views:
This, however, is my comfort.'Jesus Christ saw me from eternity; He gave me being; He called me in time; He has freely justified me through faith in His blood; He has in part sanctified me by His Spirit; He will preserve me underneath His everlasting arms till time shall be no more.' Oh the blessedness of these evangelical truths! These are indeed Gospel; they are glad tidings of great joy to all that have ears to hear.6
Satan will accuse me; my answer shall be, The Lord Jesus is my righteousness; how darest thou to lay anything to the charge of God's elect? I stand here, not in my own, but His robes; and though I deserve nothing as a debt, yet I know He will give me a reward of grace, and recompence me for what He has done in me and by me, as though I had done it in my own power. Oh, how ought this to excite our zeal and love for the holy Jesus !7
Whitefield declared he had learned these truths from the Scriptures. "I embrace the Calvinistic scheme," he wrote, "not because Calvin, but Jesus Christ has taught it to me." He counseled his friend James Hervey (a man who became very prominent as an author), "Let me advise dear Mr Hervey, laying aside all prejudice, to read and pray over St Paul's epistles to the Romans and Galatians, and then let him tell me what he thinks of this doctrine."
Whitefield declared that these truths were the source of his zeal. To one man he wrote,
The doctrines of our election and free justification in Christ Jesus . . . fill my soul with a holy fire and afford me great confidence in God my Saviour.
I hope we shall catch fire from each other [he said to another], and that there shall be a holy emulation amongst us who shall most debase man and exalt the Lord Jesus. Nothing but the doctrines of the Reformation can do this. All others leave free will in man and make him, in part at least, a Saviour to himself. My soul, come thou not near the secret of those who teach such things. .. . I know Christ is all in all. Man is nothing: he hath a free will to go to hell, but none to go to heaven, till God worketh in him to will and do of His good pleasure.8
To Whitefield the doctrines of grace were not separate tenets to be accepted or rejected one by one. Rather, they were so joined together as to compose a unified system of theology. In this regard he stated,
I bless God His Spirit has convinced me of our eternal election by the Father through the Son, of our free justification through faith in His blood, of our sanctification as a consequence of that, and of our final perseverance and glorification as the result of all. These I am persuaded, God has joined together; these, neither men nor devils shall ever be able to put asunder.9
He also said,
Was there any fitness foreseen in us, except a fitness for damnation? I believe not. No, God chose us from eternity, He called us in time, and I am persuaded will keep us from falling finally, till time shall be no more. Consider the Gospel in this view and it appears a consistent scheme.
Finally, Whitefield looked upon these doctrines as the foundation of a most fervent, soul-winning ministry. When writing to Howell Harris he stated,
Put them in mind of the freeness and eternity of God's electing love, and be instant with them to lay hold of the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ by faith. Talk to them, oh talk to them, even till midnight, of the riches of His all-sufficient grace. Tell them, oh tell them, what He has done for their souls, and how earnestly He is now interceding for them in heaven. Shew them, in the map of the Word, the kingdoms of the upper world, and the transcendent glories of them; and assure them all shall be theirs if they believe on Jesus Christ with their whole hearts.
Press them to believe on Him immediately! Intersperse prayers with your exhortations, and thereby call down fire from heaven, even the fire of the Holy Ghost. . . . Speak every time, my dear brother, as if it were your last. Weep out, if possible, every argument, and as it were, compel them to cry, 'Behold how he loveth us!'10
In the lack of accuracy that has characterized so much that has been written about Whitefield, it has been stated that he was not a Calvinist until he came under the influence of men in New England and that he had little understanding of what he believed. Thus it must be emphasized that it was before he ever met the New England ministers that he made the above declarations. Moreover, he had gradually come into these convictions over the four years since his conversion, and he possessed a very real understanding of them, not as an abstract system of thought, but as the teachings of the Scriptures and as the basic principles of his daily life.
In these experiences while crossing the ocean, God had further prepared His servant for the extraordinary labor that lay before him.
After eleven weeks of sailing, the vessel reached Lewistown in America. The date was October 30, 1739, and Whitefield was twenty-four.