This week in Christian history: Oswald Chambers born, pope visits Pentecostal church

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, July 23, 2023

Gilbert Tennent dies – July 23, 1764

Gilbert Tennent (1703-1764), an Irish-born Presbyterian preacher who was a leader of the Great Awakening in America. | Public Domain

This week marks the anniversary of when Gilbert Tennent, a Presbyterian preacher from Ireland who became a leader of the First Great Awakening in America, died at the age of 61.

The son of a preacher and himself ordained in 1726, Tennent was known for being a traveling evangelist who oversaw emotional worship services that centered on revival.

Shortly after Tennent died, Princeton College President Samuel Finley preached a sermon celebrating the efforts and faith of the Irish-American preacher.

“He had a habitual, unshaken assurance of his interest in redeeming love,” stated Finley.

“And though he lamented that he had done so little for God, and that his life had been comparatively unprofitable, yet he triumphed in the grace of Jesus Christ, who had pardoned all his sins, and said his assurance of salvation was built on the Scriptures, and was more sure than the sun and moon.”