Asahel Nettleton - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Asahel Nettleton was an American theologian and pastor from Connecticut who was highly influential during the Second Great Awakening

Second Great Awakening

The Second Great Awakening was a Christian revival movement during the early 19th century in the United States. The movement began around 1800, had begun to gain momentum by 1820, and was in decline by 1870. The Second Great Awakening expressed Arminian theology, by which every person could be...

. The number of people converted to Christianity as a result of his ministry is estimated at 30,000. He attended Yale College

Yale College

Yale College was the official name of Yale University from 1718 to 1887. The name now refers to the undergraduate part of the university. Each undergraduate student is assigned to one of 12 residential colleges.-Residential colleges:...

from 1805 until his graduation in 1809 and was ordained to the ministry in 1811. He is most notably known for his participation in the New Lebanon Conference

New Lebanon Conference

The New Lebanon Conference of ministers was a meeting held in July, 1827, in New Lebanon, New York, to resolve disputes in the Presbyterian churches concerning the so-called New Measures for evangelism instituted and popularized primarily by Charles Grandison Finney...

in 1827 during which he opposed the teachings of Charles Finney and Lyman Beecher

Lyman Beecher

Lyman Beecher was a Presbyterian minister, American Temperance Society co-founder and leader, and the father of 13 children, many of whom were noted leaders, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Beecher, Edward Beecher, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Catharine Beecher, and Thomas...

.

Nettleton's theology was distinctly Reformed

Reformed churches

The Reformed churches are a group of Protestant denominations characterized by Calvinist doctrines. They are descended from the Swiss Reformation inaugurated by Huldrych Zwingli but developed more coherently by Martin Bucer, Heinrich Bullinger and especially John Calvin...

. He believed that salvation was a work of God alone and therefore rejected Finney's practice of giving altar call

Altar call

An altar call is a practice in some evangelical churches in which those who wish to make a new spiritual commitment to Jesus Christ are invited to come forward publicly. It is so named because the supplicants gather at the altar located at the front of the church building. In the Old Testament, an...

s during church services and revival meetings. The introduction of the altar call, Nettleton believed, exemplified a denial of the doctrines of original sin

Original sin

Original sin is, according to a Christian theological doctrine, humanity's state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred...

and total depravity

Total depravity

Total depravity is a theological doctrine that derives from the Augustinian concept of original sin...

.

Nettleton mentored many young ministers, including James Brainerd Taylor (1801–1829), the Connecticut-born Second Great Awakening

Second Great Awakening

evangelist

Evangelism

Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....

and primary founder of Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

's Philadelphian Society of Nassau Hall

Nassau Hall

Nassau Hall is the oldest building at Princeton University in the borough of Princeton, New Jersey . At the time it was built in 1754, Nassau Hall was the largest building in colonial New Jersey. Designed originally by Robert Smith, the building was subsequently remodeled by notable American...

(1825–1930, spiritual parent of the Princeton Evangelical Fellowship).

Early years

Asahel was born 1783 into a farming family in Connecticut. During his early years, he occasionally experienced religious impressions. "One evening while standing alone in a field, he watched the sun go down. The approaching night reminded him that his own life would some day fade into the darkness of the world beyond. He suddenly realized that he, like all other people, would die." These impressions were only temporary.

In the autumn of 1800 Nettleton came under powerful conviction of sin. This conviction deepened as he began to read the writings and sermons of Jonathan Edwards, but yet he remained unconverted.

It was in 1801 that a revival came to North Killingworth, and by December of that year, 32 new converts were added to the Church; by March 1802 "the congregation had been swelled by ninety-one professions." Among them was Nettleton, who, becoming "exceedingly interested" in missions societies soon had "a strong desire to become a missionary to the heathen."

Preaching Style and Methods

Asahel operated in stark contrast to many modern evangelists. He would often move into a community for several weeks or months and study the spiritual condition of the people before attempting any revival work. His preaching was said to be largely doctrinal but always practical. Nettleton often filled the pulpits of churches where there was no pastor present. This allowed him to engage in a pastoral care for the people. This practice is typically absent in modern evangelists' ministries. He also refused to preach in any community where he had not been invited. He witnessed early in ministry the problems that can result from a pastor who feels as though he is competing with an evangelist. He also would sometimes refuse to preach in a church if he believed the request was not sincere. He rejected the idea that he was the cause of any revival and shunned those who looked to him rather than God to bring revival to their community.

Effects of Nettleton's Preaching

Bennet Tyler and Andre Bonar wrote of the effects of revivals of which Nettleton was the instrument:

(1) Re-established Calvinism. Calvinism seen as thoroughly evangelical.
(2) Impact on society: revivals had a good name.
(3) “Fruits of these revivals were permanent. They were not temporary excitements. . .”; “there were but few apostasies.”

Another historian has surmised:
"Could Thomas Paine, the free-thinking pamphleteer of the American and French Revolutions, have visited [the U.S. in the final decade of Nettleton’s life],…he would have been amazed to find that the nation conceived in rational liberty was “in the grip of” the power of evangelical faith. The emancipating glory of the great awakenings had made Christian liberty, Christian equality and Christian fraternity the passion of the land. The treasured gospel…passed into the hands of the baptized many. Common grace, not common sense, was the keynote of the age… Religious doctrines which Paine, in his book The Age of Reason, had discarded as the “tattered vestment” of the past, became the wedding garment of many."

Early years

Preaching Style and Methods

Effects of Nettleton's Preaching

See also