Facing a Secular Storm
Secular Historians like Strauss and Howe in their seminal (and superb) work, Generations: The History of America’s Future, define an Awakening as a spiritual rise in the culture after a deep crisis. In the church, we think of an Awakening as a faith filled event like the Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s. Using a Secular Historical perspective, Strauss and Howe track spiritual Awakenings as occurring in Western Civilization in general and North America in particular from the late 1500s to present day. They occur every 100 years or so since the century before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. Some of those Awakenings were amazing faith filled events from a faith perspective while others were divided between slave or free or even life or death. Our last Awakening of the 1960s and 1970s was popularized as the ‘Consciousness Awakening’ but is what I believe it was the mainstream re-introduction of Paganistic Platonism in our seventh turning. In other words, not every Awakening was Great, but they occurred every hundred years or so. I believe we are in the seventh crises turning of Western Civilization in general and the English-speaking people, in particular.
Rather than inventing a term, and forcing it on my students and readers, I want to use their secularization of the term, ‘Awakening,’ because it is a familiar term. Yet, keep in your minds Bible prophecy and terminology as the template for our journey into the convergence of history and the Bible.
Ezra 9:8 “And now for a little while grace has been shown from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and give us a measure of revival in our bondage.
The Hebrew word for ‘Revival’ is Awakening. מִחְיָה michyâh, mikh-yaw'; from Strong’s Concordance, H2421. It defines preservation of life; hence, sustenance; also the live flesh, i.e. the quick:—preserve life, quick, recover selves, reviving, sustenance, victuals.
From this point on, across the seven turnings of Israel and Western Civilization, I will use the term Awakening but keep in mind that not all our Western Civilization seven Awakenings are Great in a faith perspective. The divided ones often led to conflict and war that slaughtered nations.
The larger concept is that of a ‘Turning.’ Awakenings occur at the beginning of a larger thing called a ‘Turning.’ Once again, turning to Bible Prophecy as template:
2 Ki 21:13 ‘And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.
The word for ‘Turning’ in the Hebrew is הָפַךְ hâphak, haw-fak'; H2015 in Strong’s Concordance, a primitive root; to turn about or over; by implication, to change, overturn, return, pervert:— become, change, come, be converted, give, make (a bed), overthrow (-turn), perverse, retire, tumble, turn (again, aside, back, to the contrary, every way).
The Hebrew word, Turning means something that turns things upside down, often beginning with an Awakening or a Crises. Again, I will stick to the secularized term, ‘Turning,’ but apply the Bible template from the Hebrew for ‘Turning Upside Down’ as we converge the Bible and History.