Have you ever heard of a man by the name of Theodore Dwight Weld? In his mid twenties he became the greatest anti slavery preacher known in America history. He was a rebellious preacher's son and a convert of the great revivalist Charles Finney.

     During the fall of 1834, there were a series of evangelistic meetings held at Lane Seminary in Cincinnati Ohio . Although they were revival meetings centered in Jesus, historians called them the Lane Debates . In these open forums they disputed whether slaves should have immediate emancipation or gradual. The war was in the world-view that immediate emaciation would mean that the slaveholder, who had all his capitol tied up in land and in slaves, would go bankrupt over night if he freed his slaves. Those holding this view were called sympathizers . They sympathized for the pocketbook of the slave owner but not for the costly price of human life. We can not server two masters. We will love one and hate the other. On the other hand, true repentance could have moved God's heart to bring about an unbelievable financial blessing beyond that which the slaves could ever bring forth through their labor. We can not out-give God! That's His way? In faith we line up with the Word and then God blows us away with His blessings. The Bible promises “If you are willing and obedient you will eat the best of the land.” Slavery was a national heart problem and all the solutions would be painful. However, I am of the persuasion that immediate emancipation would have been far less painful than 623,000 dead on the battlefield of the South (1861-1865).

     Theodore Dwight Weld was not only an incredibly influential Christian student that converted the entire student body to abolitionism during these debates, but he became a powerfully anointed anti-slavery preacher, that led the entire student body to resign at his leadership. You go Theodore! They left Lane Seminary and founded Overland College , where Weld personally trained his fellow students to literally evangelize western Pennsylvania , western New York and particularly the state of Ohio for abolitionism. This band of radicals traveled 2 by 2 pioneering Anti-Slavery Societies by the unmistakable empowerment of the Holy Spirit everywhere they went. The state of Ohio sent more volunteers into the Union armies (anti slavery) then any other states in the Union . Could it be that this was fruit sprouting in direct result to the relentless coverts made through Theodore Dwight Weld? Weld earned the tiled as the “most mobbed man in America .”¹

     Had the hearts of the southerners been fully turned toward freeing the slaves, they could have found a way to do it without war. The country could have stayed unified had they begun to reveal that they were under conviction. They could have appealed to their representatives and senators to influence the powers that be concerning slavery issues. Love always finds a way to bring the heart to repentance on both sides. Instead, they refused to bend. “Bend Me,” said Evan Roberts and God did just that, using this lad to spark the Welsh Awakening of 1904.

     In the beginning, all the anti slavery societies were in the south. In the late 1820's and early 1830's, many Evangelicals decided that they were not going to rid the south of slavery because it's roots dug in too deep. The questions that arise in my spirit when I read about the history of slavery are 1- how could born again believers hold humans in such bondage as they did the slaves, without experiencing gut-wrenching conviction? 2-What processes of self-deception and rationalization does one put themselves through? 3-How does one convince themselves of the lying conclusion, that they could not rid southern society of slavery? It was a self-deception and self-delusion. I believe it was tied up in the lust for control, power and money. The spirit of Pharaoh was in the Land. Instead of head on repentance, they decided to do what they believed was the next best thing . They called it The Mission to the Slaves . They reasoned that if they could convert enough slaveholders, and convert enough slaves, that they could make the institution of slavery better. The problem with this is, you cannot take something that God is against and calls sin, and try to Christianize it. Either it is sin or it's not! It was never God's will for slavery to exist in America . We could come up with all the scenario we want to justify it, but the truth remains – it was never God's heart for America . He despised what we did to the Africans and every other human being treated in the same manner.

     All the while that this lust for control was going unchecked, the stronghold of delusion in the hearts of many Americans was rooting deeper and deeper. God was giving us time to repent. The Holy Spirit was violently brooding over America searching for those who would bend. Holy Spirit would use those benders to help reposition, reconstruct, renovate, refine, realign, reinvigorate, refresh, restore and revolutionize the Body of Christ. There was a great need for us to see from His Heavenly perspective. During this season of divine disruption, many Americans remained stiff-necked to God's voice. The country refused to yield to this God induced transition. Twenty-seven years after the Lane Debates, America was devastated by Civil War (1861-1865). Beloved, I beseech you by the mercies of God, look hard at history during this time period. Presently we are at the threshold of reenacting similar events. LET'S NOT MISS IT!

     September of 1857 marked the first official noonday prayer meeting started by Jeremiah Lanphier. He was a middle-aged businessman and lay missionary to the poor in New York City . Six businessmen gathered the first week; two weeks later over forty were in attendance. Before long, the Holy Spirit took this simple prayer meeting, multiplied it in a miraculous way, until it swept across the city filling every church and public meeting place with noon prayer meetings. Literally tens of thousands of New Yorkers met daily at noon to pray. Out of this movement of prayer came 150,000 new believers.²

     When you correlate the dates, you will agree that God's mercy was unmistakably at work. The Lane Debates of 1834 resulted in the impelling mission of Theodore Dwight Weld to establish scores of Anti-Slavery Societies. The beginning of an unprecedented revival that hit the globe through Jeremiah Lanphier pioneering a noontime prayer meeting beginning in 1857. Starting with these events alone, we are looking at a period of twenty-seven years that Holy Spirit was wooing the hearts of Americans to repent before the Civil War broke out. They refused and took matters into their own hands. In the “90's 12 million Christians Marched for Jesus around the world.³ While listening to a lecture given by Peter Wagner, he stated, “that in 1993 twenty-one million people from 100 nations were signed up and documented to pray strategic level warfare for 62 countries, through the 10-40 window.” In the ‘80's you didn't hear of movements where whole cities joined for prayer. You didn't hear of racial reconciliation, or youth rallies like The Call , launched by Lou Engle in the 2000's. Saints are not praying small any more, They are praying city-size, prayers, believing for whole nations to come to Christ. In the late 80's you couldn't find an organized pastors network. Now there are thousands of ministers, from different denominations, across the globe, fasting and praying together.

     We must not take this lightly Beloved. The Lord is coming up over the horizon and with His eyes ablaze with desire for His bride. God is getting ready to crash forth a tidal wave of His Glory over the earth like never before experienced in the history of all mankind. Be ye careful lest we turn our backs on the Holy Spirit's direction. Let us be vigilant that we do not get caught standing on the sidelines of what God is doing because we pre-judged it, or worse yet, were COMPLACENT . Will we allow our hearts to be tenderized again and be found diving headlong into the RIVER OF GOD?

ENDNOTES

1 Scattered references from an interview given by Christian Historian Peter Marshall , on a live Christian Broadcast in Kansas City , Missouri some years ago.

2 Talbot W. Chambers, The New York City Noon Prayer Meeting ( Colorado Springs , CO ; Wagner Publications, 2002), p. 19-20

3 Scattered references from various March For Jesus U.S.A . newsletters that documented numbers of Marchers around the globe, distributed out of Austin, Texas, (‘93-'95).

“God created the world out of nothing, and as long as we are nothing, He can make something out of us.” Martin Luther

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