10.20.24 "The Great Awakening and ACIM"

I have always been intrigued by the reference to the “Great Awakening” in A Course In Miracles. It implies an organized, named movement that we need to embrace and further the ideals of. In fact it says that is why we are here and our part in it has been waiting for us. "So will the year begin in joy and freedom. There is much to do, and we have been long delayed. Accept the holy instant as this year is born and take your place, so long left unfulfilled, in the Great Awakening." (OrEd.Tx.15.112) I notice how this movement is associated with a New Year, like it is a New Year’s resolution or an important goal that we truly need to dedicate ourselves to. I consider myself so dedicated.

There is another named movement mentioned early in ACIM that also has the word “great” associated with it, the “Great Crusade.” "As you share my inability to tolerate lack of love in yourself and others, you must join the Great Crusade to correct it. The slogan for the Crusade is 'Listen, learn and do': Listen to my voice, learn to undo error, and do something to correct it." (OrEd.Tx.1.31) This movement is so well defined that it even has a slogan that gives us precise directions. I love it. It is my personal belief that the "Great Awakening" and the "Great Crusade" are the same thing.

I had studied ACIM for many years before I stumbled across the information that the Great Awakening was actually a known spiritual movement that had played an important part in the history of the United States of America. In the early to mid 18th century, around 1730 to 1750 a cross denominations, evangelical movement was sweeping through the colonies. It went from town to town, city to city, and colony to colony. While it had started first in England, different English evangelical ministers brought it across the Atlantic Ocean. It has had several major waves and has stretched over centuries now. This early phase is called the "First Great Awakening." There are all known for revival meetings led by preachers which take place in and outside of the regular churches, sometimes in outdoor or tent revival meetings. This movement had several characteristics.

1. emotional preaching, and intense emotional reactions from the people.
2. an emphasis on salvation (healing) and promoting high enthusiasm for religious practice and profound personal experience.
3. traveling preachers and evangelists spreading the word from town to town, city to city, traversing all the colonies and involving many different churches and faiths.

Remember that many of the early colonies were founded by people fleeing England looking for religious freedom. At first they formed tightly, homogeneous enclaves for their own particular faiths. One almost needed to be a member of that faith to live in that colony. However the “First Great Awakening,” with its cross denominational traveling preachers, broke that up and worked to unify the religious communities of the colonies. Their religious exclusivity faded.

There are those who postulate that if it were not for the First Great Awakening – which worked to unify the 13 original colonies around a shared, highly emotional religious experience – the colonies would have maintained their individual sovereignty and never joined in union to form the United States of America. If you know USA history you know that this joining, this union, was a difficult one to bring about and many concessions had to be made.

However from the foundation of religious freedom, to the shared experience of personal spiritual transformation, the joined emotional fervor for freedom and independence was manifested. This provided the fertile ground for the United States of America declaring its independence from England in 1776, and then taking on the greatest military might of that time, the British Empire's army and navy.

A Course in Miracles manifested in the USA exactly 2 centuries later (ACIM first published in 1976) and the same energies of the Great Awakening still are here. ACIM needed that energy with that emphasis on freedom and personal religious experience to flourish. Now it is time for us to carry the Course's important crusading message, that if you have ears to hear it, is all throughout ACIM. We must bring miracle healing and salvation to all our brothers and sisters regardless of their church or denomination. We have glad tidings indeed. "Be witnesses unto the miracle and not the laws of sin. There is no need to suffer any more. But there is need that you be healed, because the suffering of the world has made it deaf to its salvation and deliverance." (OrEd.Tx.27.60) I will not be deaf anymore to my salvation and my deliverance, and I will share this message with the world. Join me.

29 min.
SUBSCRIBE & SHARE