October 5. Asahel Nettleton. Nettleton was an American theologian and evangelist from Connecticut and a key figure during the Second Great Awakening. He had studied the writings of his predecessor Jonathon Edwards.
Nettleton preached three times every Sunday and two or three times during the week, plus he preached to small groups who were interested in revival. At this time, thousands of people turned to the Lord.
A prideful man can be seduced by lies, but a man of humility can see the truth.
On Thanksgiving night in the year 1800, seventeen-year-old Nettleton had gone to a ball with his friends. And the next morning, he had a good time thinking about the dance and his plans for later that day, when he would see his friends again.
Out of nowhere, the thought overtook him: “We must all die, and go to the judgment; and with what feelings shall we then reflect upon these scenes?”—all the dancing and hanging out with his friends. All his looking forward to fun vanished. And he hid these feelings from his friends, but he couldn’t escape from them.
His friends were planning to open a dancing school, and they expected his help, but he refused to have anything to do with it. “The world had lost its charms. All those amusements in which he had taken delight were overcast with gloom.” He often thought about death, judgment, and eternity. “He had a general vague idea that he was a sinner; but he [didn’t see] the fountain of iniquity within him.”
So he decided he would get himself saved. “I read, I prayed, and strove in every possible way to prepare myself to go to God, that I might be saved from His wrath.” But the more he tried, the worse he felt. “He sometimes spent a large part of the night in prayer. In this way he expected to obtain the forgiveness of his sins and the peace and consolation which God has promised to His people.” But it seemed like God just refused to hear his prayers.
Nettleton really wished that some of his friends would set out with him in pursuit of religion, but he was too proud to talk with them openly. When he did talk about wanting to avoid open sin, they treated him with contempt.
Next, seeing that God didn’t respond to all Nettleton’s effort, he complained about God. In fact, he grew to hate the idea of a God who would choose not to answer his prayers. God probably didn’t even exist. Nettleton “searched the Scriptures on purpose to find contradictions in them”—but the Scriptures continued to convict him.
He wished the Bible were false. But he thought, “What if the Bible should prove to be true? Then I am lost forever.”
Finally, Nettleton saw “the plague of his own heart.” He realized that he had never asked and sought as God requires. That God looked at a man’s heart. That He required His creatures to serve Him. Nettleton saw all his own praying and studying had been prompted by selfish motives. He had not loved God, nor had he cared for His glory. Nettleton had only promoted his own interest and happiness.
Nettleton “had not hated sin because it was committed against God, but had merely dreaded its consequences.”
About ten months after that turning-point Thanksgiving-Day ball, Nettleton noticed that his attitude had changed. The Scriptures he had feared now seemed full of life and hope. He gladly prayed often. He saw that Jesus Christ was an intelligent, courageous man bent on loving people, and Nettleton wanted to spend time with him. And Nettleton knew Jesus was eternal God. Somehow by God’s doing, Nettleton had become a Christian. He knew peace and great joy.
“It is because of [God] that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30 NIV).
Are you struggling to trust Jesus with your life? Prideful, a man believes lies, but humbled, he can see the truth.
Tyler, Bennet, and Andrew Bonar. The Life and Labours of Asahel Nettleton. Carlisle PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1975, p. 20.
Ehrhard, Jim. “Asahel Nettleton: The Forgotten Evangelist.” oChristian.com. Accessed July 18, 2020. http://articles.ochristian.com/article3096.shtml.
Story read by: Daniel Carpenter
Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter
Audio production: Joel Carpenter
Story written by: Toni M Babcock, https://www.facebook.com/toni.babcock.1
Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/
Project manager: Blake Mattocks
© 2020, 365 Christian Men, LLC. All rights reserved.