Quotes About Whitefield

The practice of prayer and fasting was paramount to club membership. This one ingredient may have been the critical characteristic that caused the Wesleys, along with Whitefield and others, to emerge as such powerful forces for Christ.

Whitefield came to a realization that would have far-reaching effects. He saw that the Bible didn't teach that we must work harder at becoming perfect and holy, but that we must instead throw ourselves on God's mercy. Moral perfection wasn't the answer: Jesus was the answer. Jesus had been morally perfect and we weren't supposed to save ourselves—we were supposed to ask him to save us.

Whitefield was aglow with the glory of God as he proclaimed the gospel of Christ.

Mere heathen morality, and not Jesus Christ, is preached in most of our churches.

Whitefield, again, was among the first to show the right way to meet infidels and skeptics. He saw clearly that the most powerful weapon against such men is not metaphysical reasoning and critical disquisition; but preaching the whole gospel, living the whole gospel, and spreading the whole gospel.

As shown in the splendid recent biography by Harry Stout, Whitefield's style — popular preaching aimed at emotional response — has continued to shape American evangelicalism long after Whitefield's specific theology (he was a Calvinist), his denominational origins (he was an Anglican), and his rank (he was a clergyman) are long since forgotten.65