Monday, February 01, 2016
History of American Evangelicalism file: Anne Hutchinson Leader
In 1638, Anne Hutchinson was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for her "antinomian" heresy.
Three years after arriving in Boston, she found herself the first female defendant in a Massachusetts court.
When she held prayer meetings attended by both men and women, the authorities were alarmed; but what really disturbed them was her criticism of the colony's ministers and her assertion that a person could know God's will directly.
Put on trial for heresy, she defended herself brilliantly.
But her claim to have had a revelation from God sealed her fate.
She was banished from the colony.
Along with her family and 60 followers, she moved to Rhode Island, and later to New York, where she perished in an Indian raid.
Reverend John Cotton arrived in 1634 and started a community in America where people could practice their faith openly.
Anne Hutchinson and family were a part of this community.
Anne's father was an outspoken English clergyman.
Sentenced to house arrest for being publicly critical of the established church, he turned his prodigious intellectual energies to educating his children.
Anne inherited her father's intellect and strong religious beliefs.
With the benefit of his library and his careful tutelage, she received a better education than most men of her day.
At the age of 21 she married and took on the traditional role of housewife and mother.
She bore 15 children and learned midwifery, a skill that entitled a woman to special respect and esteem. She also maintained her interest in theology.
She and her husband became devoted followers of the Puritan preacher John Cotton.
At a time when Puritans could not worship freely in England.
At first Anne received a warm welcome.
John Cotton later remembered that "At her first coming she was well respected and esteemed. . . . I hear she did much good in our Town, in womans meeting and at Childbirth-Travells."
But her prayer meetings soon began to cause concern among the Puritan magistrates.
An eloquent speaker, she began to draw large gatherings of women and men.
The magistrates believed it highly inappropriate for a woman to instruct men, especially in religious matters.
The laws of Massachusetts Bay were based on biblical teachings, and the colony's leaders took seriously Paul's commandment that women be silent in public meetings.
But Anne Hutchinson's supporters insisted that her meetings were private gatherings.
The real trouble began when word spread that she was criticizing the teachings of the Puritan ministers.
She found the ministers, except for John Cotton, lacking in the spirit of God.
Concerned about maintaining order in their new community, the ministers in Boston preached that people must live according to biblical precepts, thus demonstrating good works and upholding the moral order.
Anne Hutchinson embraced the idea that salvation came about only when God granted it; she believed that human will and action played no role in salvation.\
Her unorthodox views did not end there.
She suggested that an individual could know God's will directly, and that some people received revelation directly from God.
This threatened the ministers' role as interpreters of the Bible.
As Hutchinson's following grew, the magistrates decided that she was a dangerous woman who must be stopped.
They charged her with sedition for undermining the authority of the ministers and heresy for expressing religious beliefs at odds with those of the colony's religious leaders.
Her trial was extraordinary.
Much of the testimony concerned the "crime" she had committed by daring, as a woman, to speak and teach men in public.
Governor John Winthrop condemned her meetings as a "thing not tolerable nor comely in the sight of God, nor fitting for your sex."
He conducted much of the initial examination himself.
She boldly answered each of his questions with challenging questions of her own.
He responded angrily: "You have rather been a Husband than a Wife and a preacher than a Hearer;
Her chief crime was usurping male authority.
Winthrop challenged her authority to speak, and she defended herself in biblical terms.
He claimed that she had defamed the ministers by accusing them of preaching a covenant of works and not being able ministers of the New Testament.
She retorted, "Prove that I said so," and would acknowledge only using the words of the Apostles.
Anne mounted a skillful defense, but her intelligence and eloquence rankled the magistrates, who resented her lecturing them.
Winthrop described her as "a woman of haughty and fierce carriage, a nimble wit and active spirit, a very voluble tongue, more bold than a man."
After two days of intense questioning, the magistrates had still not found a way to silence her.
Then Anne Hutchinson essentially convicted herself.
She declared that her knowledge of the truth came as direct revelation from God, a heresy in Puritan Massachusetts.
The astonished magistrates leapt upon what they considered a false teaching and proclaimed her guilt: "Mrs. Hutchinson, the sentence of the court you hear is that you are banished from out of our jurisdiction as being a woman not fit for our society, and are to be imprisoned till the court shall send you away."
Hutchinson refused to recant and accepted her exile.
In the spring of 1638 she and her family left Massachusetts Bay for the more tolerant Providence Plantation founded by Roger Williams.
After her husband died, she moved to New Amsterdam.
There, in 1643, she and five of her children were killed in an Indian raid.
John Winthrop viewed her violent death as a sign of God's final judgment on her blasphemy.
In 1922 a statue of Hutchinson was erected on the grounds of the Massachusetts State House.
In 1945 the legislature voted to revoke her banishment.
Today Anne Hutchinson is remembered as an advocate of freedom of religion and of women's rights.
Although in reality she was neither, she was a brave and principled woman who had the courage to speak her mind in a society that allowed women no public voice.
The ministers—who were the true authority in the theocracy that the Bay Colony was—seemed unable to believe that men could be interested merely in a woman’s mind.
Hutchinson’s attraction indeed was so great that it became a genuine threat to the ability of the clergy to govern; this was especially clear when some of her male supporters refused to join the militia in pursuit of Pequot natives.
She took an early place of prominence in the development of American intellectual life and its basic tenet of free speech.
The fact that she argued merely for her own version of revealed truth does not diminish the courage that it took to do so.
Super Bowl 50
Super Bowl 50 will be big in every way.
This first Sunday of February 2016 a hundred million people will watch the game on TV.
The day on which the Super Bowl is played, now considered by some as an unofficial American national holiday, is called "Super Bowl Sunday"
Over the next ten days, 1 million people are expected to descend on the San Francisco Bay Area for the festivities.
Previous year's Superbowl security measures have included WMD sensors, database-backed facial recognition, and gamma-ray vehicle scanners.
Given the fears and cautions in the air about this year's contest, it's easy to guess that the scanning and sensing will be even more prevalent this time.
The original "bowl game" was the Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena, California, which was first played in 1902 as the "Tournament East-West football game" as part of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses and moved to the new Rose Bowl Stadium in 1923.
We Need Holy Spirit!
Surely you can recall the anointing of God on Brant Baker if you have ever attended a Shekinah Fellowship of Long Beach California meeting.
Few people preach today...most just teach.
Brant had an ear to hear what the Spirit was saying and an eye to see what the Spirit was doing.
He followed the Holy Spirit closely during the height of those ministry days when he dedicated himself to ministry.
When we omit the moving of the Holy Spirit we take the tension off of the string of our bows and our arrows fall harmlessly to the ground.
In Brant's later years he failed miserably and died of AIDs.
But Brant's bow had major tension at one time!
Yes the arrows of the Word are of importance.
But if your bow has no string or tension on it, your arrows fall to the ground.
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE TENSION on our bows. Eliminate Him and your bow is just a useless stick...
Holy Spirit and the Word of God.
They work together as a team.
The arrowhead needs the shaft and they need the feathers.
They work together in unity.
The arrowhead initiates, the shaft facilitates, the feathers give guidance and support.
The bow of the Holy Spirit gives function...
We need the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit if we are going to make a difference in people's lives.
One touch of the Holy Spirit will do more to change the course of a life then nine years of seminary school can.
Yield to the Holy Spirit.
Be empty of selfish ambitions and agendas.
Give up, die to self.
John the baptist counted himself unworthy to tie Jesus sandal.
And yet he was the most dramatic, political and religious leader of the time.
The whole area was literally in an uproar over him.
Even the religious leaders, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees came for his baptism.
Why
? Because he was so powerful, and so many people were going to him.
This is how influential this man was.
He ate what God said, he wore what God said, he lived the way the Lord said, simple and isolated.
How many in ministry today are always looking for ways to increase 'their ministry?'
John talks about the Son of the Living God.
He says, "He must increase, I must decrease, He is preferred before me."
He could honestly say that, because it was true.
And because it was true, he was willing to sacrifice literally everything.
He wasn't selfish.
You don't live like that because of the applause you get from the people, because he lived in a desert wasteland.
You don't have anything but Jesus.
You wouldn't do it for anything else.
Some people do things for money, but their not in the wilderness.
They're not out there alone with the Lord.
With people, but alone still, with the Lord. They are not really wanting Him to be preferred before themselves.
Some accepted their calling, not realizing what it would completely take, what the price really was.
John knew.
John confessed, it says..."And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.
And they asked him, What then?
Art thou Elijah?
And he saith, I am not."
Yet Jesus said that John had the spirit of Elijah.
John said, "I'm not Elijah.
I'm nobody special, I'm nobody big, I'm nobody Kewl, I'm just nobody at all."
"Are you a prophet then?"
"Then said they unto him, Who art thou?"
Why?
Because he was so anointed of the Holy Spirit!
His spirtual bow was fully pulled back!
"No, I'm not Christ.
No, I'm not Elijah.
No, I'm not the prophet.
Well then what saith thou of thyself?"
God help you if you say anything.
You're crucified with Christ.
Why are we not anointed?
It is us.
He is the same, the problem is you and I.
We are so selfish, there is so much of ourselves.
We are building our 'ministry.'
John's example tells us to count the cost.
What does God want you to do with your life?
What is your purpose here?
John knew that he wasn't even worthy to even touch His sandal, for this was God.
This was Almighty God!
And yet we are a temple of the Living God.
Jesus Christ by His Holy Spirit dwells in me, in you, and in every born again believer.
This is an incredible truth of major porportions!
John knew every moment of the day, no matter how many thousands came to him, that his way, his purpose was a voice.
He never forgot that.
A voice in the wilderness pointing the way to the Lamb of God.
Johns bow was fully pulled back for the arrow of his words. Is yours? Is mine?
"And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!
And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus."
They 'heard him speak." He was anointed. The arrows of his words flew to their mark because the tension of his bow was there.
And that can only happen for us by the power of the Holy Spirit!
Holy Spirit ignite us!
History of American Evangelicalism file: Ann Lee – founder of the Shakers
In our continuing series on the most influential religious people in America we now turn to the "Shakers."
We don't judge whether or not they were right or wrong.
the fact is they had an impact upon Americans.
A community that is on a mission to find simplicity and perfection sounds ideal to be a part of.
Looking for a more personal and emotional religion than the official Church of England, in 1758 she joined a group called the Wardley Society that had left the Quakers.Because the Wardley’s version of religious worship including shakings of the body and motions of the head and arms, they came to be called “Shaking Quakers” and this in time was shortened to Shakers.
Their untraditional mode of worship brought the group much persecution.
Finally one of Ann Lee’s visions directed her to take her followers to America.
The group’s official name, which they used after emigrating to America, was the “United Society of Believers in the Second Coming of Christ.”
In their earlier years they usually referred to themselves as “Believers.”
Many would love to be a part of this community; the only problem is that it is almost not in existence anymore.
After they were persecuted in England, the Shakers moved over to the United States where they were mainly based in New York.
, Through hard work and Ann Lee’s missionary zeal, the group prospered and gained large numbers of converts in the 1780s and 1790s.
Several other communities had been founded and in 1793 there were 12 settlements across New York and New England. By 1800 the Watervliet community numbered 87.
While they continued to be prosecuted, the movement still managed to attract many followers and by the 1800’s there were around 18 Shaker communities spread throughout the United States with over 5000 members.
Shaker life basically consisted of living in a community with no personal possessions and committing oneself to what was best for the community.
They came here from England in search of religious freedom.
The Shakers helped to add to the many developments that our world was experiencing at the time including the clothespin, a saw, and electricity.
Although at one time they were a very rich religious sect with nineteen groups across our country, they did have one major problem – they did not believe in procreation.
They had a strong belief in celibacy.
The Shakers originated in Europe during the seventeenth century. They formed off the already
The founder of the Shakers was a woman named Ann Lee who was born in Manchester, England.
After her and her husband had four children who all died at birth, she decided that this was a punishment from God, so she joined a group of Quakers to repent.
Later because of her beliefs of two things, the second coming of Jesus Christ and celibacy, a new branch of Quakers was formed.
They were so adamant and fearful of the second coming that they would tremble, or shake, when they would talk about it, because of this they were called the Shaking Quakers, which was later shortened to just ‘Shakers.’
Ann Lee became known as Mother Ann because of her preaching and she gained her own followers.
Ann Lee and seven of her followers decided to come to North America in 1780 to pursue a better life.
The Shakers listened to Ann Lee devoutly.
They even saw her as the second coming of Christ.
They believed that the first time that God appeared on Earth, He came in male form of Jesus Christ, and the second time the He came in the female form of Ann Lee.
Ann Lee established a firm set of principles for all of the Shakers to follow.
These principles included celibacy, confession, equality between sexes, common property, and the holiness of labor.
As the Shakers expanded these beliefs by establishing villages throughout the states, they saw Kentucky as a good place to start a colony because of the rich soil that would be beneficial to the farming.
Despite these aspirations and the good land, the Shakers were only in Kentucky from 1805 until 1910.
The Shakers of Pleasant Hill reached their peak 491 members in 1832, only less than thirty years after they were established.
After that, the population began to decline.
By 1910 there were only twelve members remaining.
The realtor agreed that if they gave him the land, in exchange he would take care of them for the rest of their lives with the proper basic as well as medical attention.
After that the village became a commercial town called Shakertown.
This town used the buildings that were built by the Shakers for gas stations, hotels, restaurants, and shops.
This town lasted only until 1961 when the community of Kentucky decided to restore the historical village.
They touched up some of the buildings, but for the most part they had been built so sturdy that they did not need any renovations.
Pleasant Hill was made to look like how it was when the Shakers had inhabited it, and is now open for tours.
Is that what the Shakers of Pleasant Hill would want?
For all of their hard work in creating a spiritual community as well as a physical one too, to be nothing but a tourist site now.
They were unsuccessful in maintaining it because of their idea of creating their perfect world, how they administered themselves, and their refrain from sexual activity.
The Shakers viewed the outside world as spiritually and physically dangerous.
They also believed that the entire human family had been stamped with wickedness.
When they talk about the outside world they referred to it in terms of enemies, wickedness, and evil.
So because of this dislike of the outside world and non-Shakers, they lived in their own colonies, separate from the rest of the world.
They did not believe in procreation because their leader, Ann Lee, saw sexual intercourse as the foundation of human corruption.
This idea of hers came from a revelation that she had about the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve giving into temptation.
Ann Lee was adamant that sexual intercourse made the heart not pure, and she stated that “no soul could follow Christ while still wallowing in the lustful gratifications of the flesh”.
Lee saw her belief of celibacy as a way to be free from sin and as a way to acquire perfection.
She came about believing that celibacy is what is right because of her interpretation of a passage that is in the New Testament.
This passage is from Mark 12:25 reads, “For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.”
The Shakers took this verse literally when they were trying to create a heaven on earth, and so they inferred that the Bible was saying that in heaven there will be no marriage, so participate in marriage or procreation here on earth, even though it is necessary for the human population to be able to continue.
In order to have a community there must me a way for people to continue the beliefs and interests. Naturally, as humans we will all die eventually.
If you want your principles to be carried on, since you are going to die, you need to have someone follow in your footsteps to continue on what you started.
Since the Shakers did not believe in procreation, they could not reproduce and have any children through themselves.
They only way they could continue to have a Shaker population was to either allow converts to join them, or to adopt children who had been neglected or abandoned.
When these adopted children turned twenty-one they were given the choice to stay a Shaker, or to leave the village.
This is a faulty way of carrying on a community because there is no consistent way to know what those individuals will choose.
What happens if none of the children who turn twenty-one decide to stay?
Then all the hard work that they had put into creating this lifestyle of theirs does not count for anything.
This is what happened to the Shakers here in the United States.
The Shakers were a very unsuccessful religious sect for many reasons; they had a dream that was unattainable, they did not have a fair way of governing themselves, and they had absolutely no definite way of how they were going to bring in new members without reproducing.
Ann Lee’s experiment of making a heaven on earth was ineffective because it is not possible to attain the dreams that she was trying to solidify.
With less than a dozen members left remaining, it is hard to believe that the Shakers once peopled eighteen thriving communities in several states.
In 1850, they numbered almost 4,000 members, and, over the 200 years that they have been established in the United States, more than 20,000 Americans have lived a least some of their life as a Shaker.
Before her death, Mother Ann had a vision that the community would be renewed once its membership had dropped to five members.
The last of the Shakers are awaiting the renewal and continuing to live their Utopian lives according to the visions that Ann Lee received over 225 years ago.
The Shakers came under a spiritual revival called the Era of Manifestations, which lasted from the late 1830s to about 1850.
According to Shaker tradition, heavenly spirits came to earth, bringing visions, often giving them to young Shaker women, who danced, whirled, spoke in tongues, and interpreted these visions through their drawings and dancing.
Because of their ecstatic dancing the world called them the Shakers.
Shakerism has a message for this present age--a message as valid today as when it was first expressed.
It teaches above all else that God is Love and that our most solemn duty is to show forth that God who is love in the World."
Today, just a few Shakers still live in a single village in Maine.
To all appearances these are the last Shakers.
But the living Shakers faithfully assert that their religion will never die.
One afternoon I was at a neighbor’s house when two young women attired in Shaker costumes appeared at the rear door. They said the Shakers always lived according to their profession, were honest and upright, but that they did not wish to live a celibate life any longer. A strange sensation seemed to creep over me, and something like a voice said, “Why listen to them? Go to the Shakers. See for yourself who and what they are.”
-- Eldress Antoinette Doolittle, 1824
Shakerism is a system which has a distinct genius, a strong organization, a perfect life of its own, through which it would appear to be helping to shape and guide, in no small measure, the spiritual career of the United States.
-- Hepworth Dixon, 1867
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