Evangelicals: The Great Awakening & Beyond Quiz

Answer: William Tyndale - he had offended the king of England

William Tyndale's translation of the Bible was the first English Bible to take advantage of the printing press. Later, the fifty-four scholars who developed the 1611 King James Bible drew largely from his work.

He was executed for opposing the divorce of King Henry VIII. By misusing one of Tyndale's works, "The Obedience Of A Christian Man", King Henry found an excuse for breaking the Church of England away from the Roman Catholic Church.

Tyndale had been kidnapped and imprisoned in Belgium for nearly a year prior to his execution. His dying request was that the king's eyes would be opened, and perhaps that request was granted in a way, because Henry authorized "The Great Bible" (Tyndale's own work) to be the official Bible of the Church of England.

Answer: the great Chicago fire

D.L. Moody's first church was destroyed during the great Chicago fire. Within three months, a new church was built. His first place for meetings, however, was held in a shanty that a saloon keeper had abandoned. It became such a well-known icon that the newly elected President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln once visited Moody and his church and spoke at the Sunday School on November 25, 1860.

D.L. Moody died on December 22, 1899, leaving behind a legacy that is still in operation today. The Moody Church in Chicago, along with radio station affiliates around the U.S. and internet access programs, is still reaching out to people throughout the world.

Answer: "Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God"

Although the message, "Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God", was later typified by reprinted versions of it as a fire and brimstone message, it was not delivered in an emotionally charged manner at all.

Edwards used a calm, quiet approach to reach his conclusion, that being that man without repentance before God is doomed. He followed logical, step by step reasoning to convince his audience of this, and rather than shouting, acting wildly, or otherwise losing emotional control, he delivered the sermon in a reasoned, measured way.

He was the grandfather of Aaron Burr, a man who served as the third Vice- President of the United States; furthermore some of his other descendants have had a profound impact upon American history as well. His biographer, George Marsden, states that "the Edwards family produced scores of clergymen, thirteen presidents of higher learning, sixty-five professors, and many other persons of notable achievements."

When her husband passed away on March 22, 1758, Sarah Edwards lamented, "What shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud... The Lord has done it. He has made me adore His goodness, that we had him (Jonathan) so long. But my God lives; and He has my heart."

Answer: Sonntag

Billy Sonntag was born in Ames, Iowa and was descended from German immigrants, who, when they had originally settled in Pennsylvania, had their family name anglicized to "Sunday."

Billy was born into poverty, and his father died when he was only five weeks old. After years of struggling to raise her family, his mother was forced to place him and his older brother in an orphanage when Billy was ten years old. It was there that he became disciplined and found that he was talented at baseball.

Later, after a decent career in baseball, he became involved with the Y.M.C.A and decided to forego a salary of $3000.00 per year to work for $83 a month instead. Under the tutelage of J. Wilbur Chapman, Billy trained as an evangelist and thus became known as one of the best known conservative voices of America at that time.

Answer: John Bunyan

John Bunyan (November 28, 1628 - August 31, 1688), began writing the book, "The Pilgrim's Progress" while he was serving time in prison for preaching the gospel. While he had been accused of various things and was described at different times as "a witch, a Jesuit, and a highwayman", the event that eventually landed him in prison for three months was the fact that he dared to preach at private meetings. His "crimes" were summarily listed as those of "pertinaciously abstaining" from attending mandatory Anglican church services and preaching at "unlawful meetings".

The allegorical imagery that he employed in book were merely reflections of his own world. The strait gate was his version of the wicket gate at Elstow church, the Slough of Despond was a reflection of Squitch Fen, which was a wetland near his home, and the Delectable Mountains were simply the Chiltern Hills near Bedfordshire. Even his characters were reflections of real people that he knew.
This was not his only work, but today it is probably his best known.

Answer: Savannah, Georgia

James Edward Oglethorpe, Trustee for the colony of Georgia, wanted John Wesley to be the minister of the newly formed Savannah parish. Wesley returned in disappointment to England abruptly, because he felt that he and his brother had failed in their efforts to convert the native American tribes in the area, and because of reasons of a more personal nature. He had been accused of having a relationship with a woman aboard ship as they had sailed to the New World, and her new husband was causing a great fuss about it.

Wesley was greatly influenced by the Moravians who had traveled on the ship to America with him, and he adopted some of their tenets, especially in regards to their piety.

Because of his charitable nature he died a poor man, on March 2, 1791, leaving behind 135,000 members and 541 preachers who were known as "Methodists".
Charles Finney, one of John Wesley's biographers, once said, "On March 9, 1791, when John Wesley was carried to his grave, he left behind him a good library of books, a well-worn clergyman's gown, and a much-abused reputation."
... (Not to mention leaving the legacy of his most important work: the Methodist Church.)

Answer: she was blind from the time she was an infant

Known as Fanny Crosby in the U.S. and by her married name, Frances van Alstyne, in the U.K., this remarkable woman was stricken blind as an infant at the age of six weeks old. She had developed a cold and a type of salving ointment was put onto her eyes, blinding her for life. She managed to overcome this seemingly insurmountable obstacle in a most amazing manner, and produced such lasting hymns as "Blessed Assurance", "Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour", "Jesus Is Tenderly Calling You Home", "Praise Him, Praise Him", "Rescue The Perishing", and "To God Be The Glory", just to name a few.

Some publishers preferred not to have so many hymns written by one person in their hymnals, so she used nearly 200 different pseudonyms during her song writing career. Her usual publishing fee was only $2.00, and that frequently went to her work with the poor.

She also penned over 1,000 secular poems, along with four books of published poetry, as well as writing two best-selling autobiographies.

Prior to her death in 1915, she was once asked about her blindness and is reported to have responded with a beautiful thought that went something like this: If it had not been for her affliction she might not have had so good an education or have been so great an influence, and certainly would not have possessed so fine a memory.

Answer: Particular Baptist

Charles Spurgeon, born on 19 June 1834, was a Particular Baptist.

Particular Baptists in the days of Charles Spurgeon were a bit Calvinistic in their beliefs, meaning that they subscribed to the teachings of John Calvin, a theologian who taught that certain people were "pre-destined" for salvation.

Charles often preached up to ten times a week, and as a writer, was known for his many written sermons, commentaries, books, devotionals, magazines, poetry, and hymns.

At the age of 20 years old, a mere four short years after his conversion, he was asked to serve as pastor of New Park Street Chapel in London, England.

On 31 January 1892, Charles Spurgeon died near Nice, France, but he left behind a charity and a college that both bear his name.

Answer: George Whitefield

George Whitefield (December 16, 1714 - September 30, 1770), lived a poor boy's life and did not have the means to pay for his tuition at Oxford, so he entered school as a "servitor", in the lowest rank of students. In return for his free tuition, he served higher ranked students. These duties included such chores as waking them up in the mornings, polishing their shoes, carrying their books for them and at times helping them with their written assignments. He, along with his friends, John and Charles Wesley, belonged to the "Holy Club" at the school.

He was slightly cross-eyed, and perhaps curiously this was looked upon favorably by others because they took it to mean that some sort of "divine favor" had been bestowed upon him.

The Anglican Church refused to assign him to a pulpit to preach from, so he struck out on his own and started preaching in parks and fields in England in an effort to reach people who normally did not attend church. It was said that the voice of this rather short little man could be heard for over five miles!

Benjamin Franklin, after having attended a revival meeting with George Whitefield as the speaker, formed a friendship with him. He also advised against Whitefield's idea of forming an orphanage in Georgia, as he felt it would lose money. Whitefield, however, pursued the idea and the oldest orphanage in Georgia, Bethesda Children's Orphanage, was established in Savannah in 1740.

Answer: Billy Graham

In 1949, William Franklin (Billy) Graham Jr. scheduled a series of revival meetings in Los Angeles, where he had circus tents put up in a parking lot. With the assistance of the media giant William Randolph Hearst, the meetings gained national coverage in five days. Due to the strong media support the crusade ran for eight weeks, which was five weeks longer than originally planned.

His ministry began in 1947, when Billy was 29 years old. He has since conducted more than 400 crusades in 185 countries on six continents. The first Billy Graham Crusade was held in Grand Rapids, Michigan and was attended by 6,000 people. Billy decided to call his meetings "crusades", basing the name on the original Christian forces who tried to conquer Jerusalem and attempted to spread Christianity throughout the Middle East.

Ruth Graham died in 2007, but at the time this quiz was written in September 2012, Billy Graham still resided in the mountains of his native western North Carolina.