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Forerunner of the Great Awakening: Sermons by Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (1691-1747) (Historical Series of the Reformed Church in America)

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I study the First and Second Great Awakenings and this was a good translated primary source. The introductory biography was helpful atlthough a detailed index would be a great addition to this book.

This work is a collection of sermons given by Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen. The sermons were originally preached in Dutch then translated into English. These messages are quite instructive to the Christian reader. Today's Christian culture is corrupting to the Christian, because sin is acceptable in the local church congregation. One reason for this is lack of church discipline. The sermons in this work teach what is lacking in those who confess Jesus as Lord and Savior. One should find these messages helpful in how to walk with God, function in the body of Christ and to seek God's Will. A couple of sermons challenge the "believer' if he has truly accepted Christ as Savior. Most of the sermons are about how you as a Christian are obedient to God once one has received salvation, not how to obtain salvation. Pastor Frelinghuysen did use church discipline by using excommunication and the withholding of the Lord's Supper. This is reflected in some of the sermons. One of the sermons talks of the common grief all men receive, because of sin in the world. In a couple other sermons after an earthquake hit the area, he preached about receiving God's judgment of His Church, because of its rebellion as Judah did earlier as recorded in scripture.

In whose eyes a vile person is condemned; but he honors them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.
Psalm 15:4

Pastor Frelinghuysen accepted a position to pastor a church in the New World in 1719. He accepted the job under misimpression that the church was in a province in the Netherlands and not in colonial North America. He used to a Pastor in a church in Loegumer Voorwerk East Friesland (part of the Netherlands). A flood ruined the parishioners financially and caused the churches members to have an inability to support their Pastor and the church. He then went to work as a co-regent of the Latin School at Enkhuzen, North Holland. It is under this predicament that he accepted a calling for a pastor's position in the Rarethans when approached by the Classis Amsterdam of the Reformed Church. He wanted to stay in the Netherlands but felt compelled to go, because he felt God was using his acceptance as God's calling for him to move to the New World. His journey was not because of religious persecution or financial deprivation. Those who would be the congregants of his church did not seek the New World for religious reason, but to prosper in the new land.

When Frelinghuysen became pastor, the Nadere Reformation had taken a firm hold of the Churches in East Friesland in the Netherlands. Jacobus Koelman, Edward Meiners, and Johan Verschuir were the intellect leaders of the movement. It was taught the necessity of the new birth and holy living spiritual fruit. Experiential theology was Frelinghuysen's hallmark. This book is titled the forerunner of the great awakening, not because he preached for the conversion of those who did not belong to the church he pastored, nor those who were not active in the church, but those who were regular attendees. He did not accept at face value an individual's acknowledgement and need for forgiveness were all actually Christians. He wanted their lives to bare Spiritual fruit. The church he pastored excommunicated members who did not repent. He asked certain members to refrain from the Lord's Supper in certain circumstances. The Editor Joel Beeke expressed that Pastor Frelinghuysen may have gone to far in excluding certain congregants from the Lord's Table, because some people lived obedient lives, yet lack certain signs of Grace. The point being He was not preaching and teaching for their salvation as to have their lives reflect their salvation.

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