Who Was George Whitefield?
To purchase the entire Summit Lecture Series, Vol. 2 on DVD, visit summit.org.
And then there’s George Whitefield. Does that ring a bell? It’s one of my favorites. George Whitefield. Great preacher, great preacher. He didn’t have the equipment that we have. In fact, I’m speaking through this stupid thing here. You can hear it through there. He didn’t have that. He just went out with his voice and they could hear them a mile. They could hear him from a mile.
But one of his favorite followers was Benjamin Franklin. So, he had a great influence on Franklin. Franklin considered him the best preacher he had ever heard. In fact, on his way to hear him preach one time, some guy came up to him and said, “Hey, Ben, why are you going to go and listen to him? You don’t believe a word he says.” You know what Franklin said? “Yes, but he does.” But the preacher does. He believes a word he says. I don’t have to believe it, but he says it and I like to hear it. Wouldn’t you rather go and hear someone that believes what he says instead of someone that doesn’t believe what he says? It’s better for me to call you the way I see it than the way I don’t see it, right? And then you can chew on that and say, “You know what? Maybe he’s right. Maybe we’re all going up in pot. I don’t know.”
Am I hard on the pot smokers too much? I probably should back off a little bit. Let’s go to coke next. That’s coming across the border right now, the Mexican border. And they’re bringing them over by the mules. Not mules-mules. These are human mules, bringing it over. Big time. So, you can all have your coke tonight and wonder why they’re having to bring so much across the border.
And that ticks me off because that’s Arizona and I live in Arizona. And in fact, there are so many drug cartels in Arizona… It’s funny there’s anything going on in Arizona besides the drug industry. And they’re all over the place. In fact, if you’re in Phoenix, you better be careful because they’re taking little girls off the streets in Phoenix, just feeding them to the drug cartels because they all need wives. Yeah, yeah. Might as well get them in Phoenix.
Benjamin Franklin founded a school. Anyone remember the name of the school he found it? Still in existence. University of Pennsylvania. Does that ring a bell? University of Pennsylvania? And if you go there today, my friends, and some of you might be going there today. In fact, we had a student here this last year, I mean, last session or session before that was going to the university there. If you go to the campus, you’re going to find two statues. You’re going to find a statue of Benjamin Franklin here. And George Whitefield here. How do you like that?
George Whitefield. The preacher as a statue on the campus of a university. I read what it says on the statue, and then you tell me why the ACLU hasn’t shown up yet to get rid of it. It says on this statue, “The Reverend George Whitefield, bachelor of arts, 1736, Pembroke College, Oxford.” So, he is another Oxford graduate. A humble disciple of Jesus Christ. Isn’t that interesting? “A humble disciple of Jesus Christ, eloquent preacher of the gospel.” That’s on that statue even as I speak today. Still on that campus.
No one as far as I know has decided to take it down yet. We’ll see. That’s probably coming. And then I have another one here, Francis Asbury, who was one of the founders of the Methodist Church. Spent most of his time on horseback, preaching. Great influence on George Washington. So, here we have the relationship between the Christians on horseback and our political leaders who had a great deal to do with the founding of the country, I contend this is all to the good. That’s what’s right with America.
And those of you that are interested in the US Constitution and its Christian influence, maybe Dell went into this, Professor Bradford at the University of Dallas, I think he’s now deceased, says in his study, hang on, that, “At least 51, and as many as 53 of the 55 framers of the Constitution would today be called Orthodox Christians.” 51, as many as 53 of the 55 who put their name down, okay? Read their death certificate. They put it down because they could have been shot in the morning, were Christians. Were Christians.
I think that’s what’s right with America. But I go on. Now, we get a little more serious here too. Some of you aren’t going to buy this, but that’s all right. Americans are the most generous people on earth. And because you’re never going to hear this any place else, except at the summit, I shall repeat. Americans are the most generous people on earth. Americans give more of their money away to others than any other people.
In fact, on some nations, people don’t give any money, and I’m not talking about American money. I don’t consider America’s government taking taxes and giving that money away. That’s not charity. We’re talking about charity here. Charity. America is a very charitable nation. Its peoples give their money. When you take it by taxes, that isn’t giving a free gift, I can tell you that. No, no, no, no, no. And I have all the statistics here. I won’t go into it for time sake, but I do have a quote that you need to hear.
This is from an atheist. Isn’t it amazing? I wonder where I get all these atheist quotes. It’s because I read the atheists. I’ve read them for years. In fact, I’d rather read them sometimes than some of the Christian literature. I shouldn’t say that out loud, but I did. Don’t shut it down. I’ll hear from your mother. The church-going classes. Are you hearing that what I just said here? The church-going classes, those who have come under the influence of evangelical Christianity. I thought evangelical Christians were the dummies. You’ve heard dumb as dirt. That’s Christians. That’s evangelicals, “You’re dumb as dirt. You’re anti-science. You’re anti-philosophy. You’re anti-history. You’re anti-education.”
We’re anti-education? I want you to know, my friends, out of the first 150 colleges and universities in this country, most of them were founded by… No, all of them were founded by Christians. The first non-Christian to found by university was Cornell University. Is that still in existence? Cornell still in existence? Are y’all with me on this or are y’all sleeping? How many are sleeping? How many want to sleep? Okay. You’re still on. The same group. I like that group. We should get together sometimes because I’m tired.
Well, I’m practicing retirement. I should be tired, right? Yeah. In fact that’s where I should be right now, reading my book and sleeping. Whoa, is that retirement and can I read books? I just finished 11 volume series by Durant. Thousand pages of volume. What a read. Oh my word. And I can’t even afford to give a lecture because I’m too tired to give a lecture on it.
Let’s see. Where are we? “The church-going classes, those who have come under the influence of evangelical Christianity formed the backbone of charity.” How do you like that? They formed the backbone of charity. They embody and express the spirit of kindly goodwill. Now, come on, my friends. And you are my friends. If you read the paper, “17 people have been massacred.” You immediately think of evangelical Christians or radical Islam? Would you just think of that for a second?
You don’t know who did it? You’re just, “Oh, there it is. 17 people have been slaughtered, massacred and their babies’ eyes have been poked up.” By the way, you guys won’t want to hear this, but they’re taking the eyes of the boys because they don’t want them to be future fighters. So, all the little baby boys are getting their eyes poked out. How many think of evangelical Christians right off the bat? Evangelical Christians, I know they were a bunch of butchers. No, no, no. Kindly good spirit.
We’re the most charitable people on Mother Earth, my friends. Come on. And you don’t have to get behind a poll and apologize for it. And in a few years, you’re going to be giving. Isn’t that amazing? And some of you already give. Some of you already give. And I have an idea on that, too.
Now, there’s a book on this subject that I will mention. Why? Oh, before I mention the book, this will get you right between the eyeballs, if you’re not already sleeping.
Follow Christian Podcast Central on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to see our ongoing discussion with Dr. Jeff Myers regarding worldviews.
(This podcast is by Summit Ministries. Discovered by Christian Podcast Central and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Christian Podcast Central.)
