On this day in 1980, we found out “who shot J.R.” Younger readers have no idea what I’m talking about but those who grew up in this time period know all about it, even if you never watched the show.
Dallas was a nighttime soap opera featuring Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing, a womanizing oil tycoon described as “the nastiest man on television.” Spoiler alert: he was shot by Kristin Shepard, J.R.’s wife’s sister-in-law and his former mistress. Obviously, the storyline indicates this was anything but a wholesome drama! Despite that, “between 83 million and 90 million American viewers”1 tuned in to see the resolution to this cliffhanger from the previous season.
On February 28, 1983, the largest viewership for any event sat around their televisions for the 2-1/2 hour finale of M*A*S*H. Over 121 million people watched as the Korean War doctors and nurses of the M*A*S*H 4077 finally got to go home. A thirty-second commercial slot sold for the equivalent of $1.38 million in today’s currency.
If only people responded like that for the Lord! There was a time when they did.
“Beginning in 1740, Whitefield preached nearly every day for months to large crowds as large as eighty thousand people as he travelled throughout the colonies, especially New England. His journey on horseback from New York City to Charleston, South Carolina, was at that time the longest in North America ever documented.”2
“In 1854, at 19 years of age, Charles Haddon Spurgeon was called as the Minister of the New Park Street Chapel. The 1,200 capacity was not nearly enough. People were sitting in the windowsills, and they were standing outside to hear him preach. In 1836, they expanded the church, but that wasn’t enough either. And so, in 1861, this congregation moved again. It moved to the Elephant and Castle area, again in the Borough of Southwark, in the city of London…And there on that site was built the Metropolitan Tabernacle. It could hold 6,000 people, and it was filled from the time it was built to the time of Spurgeon’s death in 1892.”3
“On November 12, 1916, 55,000 people came to hear Billy Sunday preach in Boston. An overflow crowd of 15,000 had to be turned away from the temporary tabernacle that had been erected on Huntington Avenue. During the next ten weeks, the baseball star-turned evangelist drew an estimated 1,500,000 to his Boston meetings.”4
“In 1916, Billy Sunday went to Detroit as well. The last day that he was there, 50,000 were in attendance, a 5,000 member choir sang, and the altar was full. In total, over one million came with 25,000 converts. Sunday returned in 1934. Crowds were small and not a single convert came. Sunday said, “This town is as different from the Detroit I knew 18 years ago as sickness is from health.””5
Though the fulfillment of Matthew 24:12 come after the Rapture, we sure are seeing the preview of this truth. “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” The Laodicean church of the Revelation is alive and well in the world today where lukewarmness prevails!
In years past, crowds never filled the large fields, churches, or tents for a singing grou
p or some form of entertainment. They came to hear the preaching of the Word of God. They came for the convicting sermons that railed on sin and impending judgment. They came with a desire to get their hearts right with God.
Paul warned Timothy “that in the last days perilous times shall come. (2) For men shall be lovers of their own selves… lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God…” (2 Timothy 3:1-2, 4)
One of the hardest things we have to do these days is to keep that passionate fire burning in our hearts while in a world that is constantly throwing buckets of cold water on the flame. Though we may never again see the hungry crowds gathered in masses to hear God’s Word preached, we can make sure that WE don’t drift. How do we do that? I close with these powerful words from Jude 1:20-21.
“But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, (21) Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”
1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Done_It_(Dallas)
2https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Whitefield
3https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts/5-minutes-in-church-history-with-stephen-nichols/spurgeons-church
4https://www.massmoments.org/moment-details/evangelist-billy-sunday-draws-70000-to-boston-revival.html
5https://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Great%20Men%20of%20God/billy_sunday-man_of_god.htm
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