“Arise, oh sleeper!  Awaken!!”

That was the challenge Rev. George Whitefield issued to thousands gathered in the streets of Philadelphia when he arrived from England in 1740, with a focus of spreading the Gospel to the New England colonies in America.

The story of Whitefield is the topic of a new movie just released by Sight & Sound Films, starring two impressive actors – Jonathan Blair as Whitefield, and John Paul Sneed as Whitefield’s American influential friend, Benjamin Franklin. The film is in theatres now and is one Christian families should take time to see.

As the film begins, the two iconic men’s backgrounds are shared with the audience with care and accuracy. The presentation stirs imaginations about how God could possibly affect growing young Americans to have a world-changing impact on a God-forsaking modern culture, as Whitefield and Franklin did 250 years ago.

Whitefield, who was a part of Oxford’s “Holy Club” along with Methodist founders/brothers Charles and John Wesley, began preaching about freedom, liberty and equality to his New England audiences. His voice bellowed as he stirred the hearts of a distressed and divided Nation looking for direction and hope as it approached a time of Revolution against the English monarchy.

Whitefield stirred “A Great Awakening,” in a morally declining time, and set America’s root of “evangelism” to New England streets as no one previously had.

While listening one day to George Whitefield’s brilliant presentation, printer and news publisher Ben Franklin was struck by Whitefield’s words and the manner in which the preacher vocalized Biblical truths.

Franklin recalled:

[Whitefield] had a loud and clear Voice, and articulated his Words and Sentences so perfectly that he might be heard and understood at a great Distance, especially as his Auditors [audience], however numerous, observ’d the most exact Silence. He preach’d one Evening from the Top of the Court House Steps, which are in the middle of Market Street, and on the West Side of Second Street which crosses it at right angles. Both Streets were fill’d with his Hearers to a considerable Distance. Being among the hindmost in Market Street, I had the Curiosity to learn how far he could be heard, by retiring backwards down the Street towards the River; and I found his Voice distinct till I came near Front Street, when some Noise in that Street, obscur’d it. Imagining then a Semicircle, of which my Distance should be the Radius, and that it were fill’d with Auditors, to each of whom I allow’d two square feet, I computed that he might well be heard by more than Thirty Thousand. This reconcil’d me to the Newspaper Accounts of his having preach’d to 25,000 People in the Fields, and to the ancient Histories of Generals haranguing whole Armies, of which I had sometimes doubted.

The phenomenon created more curiosity in Franklin, and after a private meeting, Rev. Whitefield agreed to work with Franklin to get the word out among colonists far and wide about Whitefield’s fiery truths and his growing preaching itinerary

The relationship between horseback-riding Whitefield and the inventor and politician Franklin grew as they learned to appreciate each other’s contributions to the cause of liberty and spreading the truth of the Gospel.

“A Great Awakening” emerged – one that brought a divided group of New World adventurers together at the same time a political Revolution set into motion – with the Gospel at its root.

Could the same thing happen today in a frustrated and angry time 250 years later in the United States?

Here’s what George Whitefield told the embittered colonists in 1773:

True conversion means turning not only from sin but also from depending on self-made righteousness. Those who trust in their own righteousness for conversion hide behind their own good works. This is the reason that self-righteous people are so angry with gospel preachers, because the gospel does not spare those who will not submit to the righteousness of Jesus Christ!

Pretty strong, convicting words. Words that expressed Whitefield’s overwhelming commitment to God’s Word as the “sole rule” for Christian lives:

If we once get above our Bibles and cease making the written Word of God our sole rule both as to faith and practice, we shall soon lie open to all manner of delusion and be in great danger of making shipwreck of faith and a good conscience.

And then, Whitefield’s bold admonition for ministers – then and now,

As God can send a nation or people no greater blessing than to give them faithful, sincere and upright ministers, so the greatest curse that God can possibly send upon a people in this world is to give them over to blind, unregenerate, carnal, lukewarm and unskilled guides.

In other words, he proclaimed to those searching for answers and direction, “Arise, oh sleeper! Awaken!”

Indeed. Words we need to hear more of today.

Words that could stir “A Great Awakening” once again.

See the Sight & Sound Films’ website for a theatre and showtime near you.