We homeschool our children and I teach our oldest son history and science this year. We use a combination of Abeka material and Rod and Staff. I am continuing with World History with my 8th grade son, using Abeka’s History of the World in Christian Perspective, Third Edition edited by Jerry Combee. As with most school history books, this one breaks no new ground and demonstrates little original research. It’s what I called “Sloganized History” mainly just repeating on what previous history books have printed and giving “evidences” for America’s supposed “Christian history”.
When dealing with the Second Great Awakening on pages 317-319 (and at least the book does deal with it!), the frustration mounts, for Combee’s presentation of the Second Great Awakening is full of unforgivable errors. It appears the editors have done no research whatsoever on the Second Great Awakening (SGA), but have instead just lifted material from the Sword of the Lord.
ERROR 1-”In the first half of the 19th century, a series of widespread revivals swept the nation. Peaking in the 1850s…” Wrong. The revival was winding down by the 1830s.
ERROR 2- “The revivals that led to the Second Great Awakening began quietly in New England.” How does a revival begin “quietly?” But the book could have been more precise with the location as being Connecticut, as I date the start of the SGA in 1797 in Connecticut.
ERROR 3- While taking a full paragraph on the Western Revivals, no mention is made at all of the various theological and practical errors which were developed on the frontier, or how the Western revivals differed from the Eastern revivals.
ERROR 4- “Revival surged from the western frontier to the cities of the East.” Wrong. It started in the East and flowed to the West, although many errors and excesses of the Western revivals did damage the revivals in the East.
The greatest mistakes deal with the book’s treatment of Charles Finney. Again, showing no original research at all, but merely repeating material found elsewhere, Combee and his editors completely mispresent Finney and exclude other pastors and evangelists that made greater contributions to the SGA.
ERROR 5- “The man most responsible for the nationwide revival…was Charles G. Finney”. An unforgivable error. The SGA began in 1797 and peaked in the 1820s (not the 1850s as the book claimed). Finney didn’t start his ministry until the mid 1820s (about 1825), when the revival was waning. Finney almost missed it. And why no mention at all of Gardiner Spring, Edward Payson, Edward Griffin or Asahel Nettleton? These men did much more to promote the revival than Finney ever did. But the book completely ignores them and that is a crime against both scholarship and church history.
ERROR 6- “Through the grace of God, Finney was saved, called to preach, and so anointed by God’s Spirit that he became one of the most powerful revivalists America has ever known.” This promotion of Finney to the Godhead is sickening and borders on idolatry, even if it was true. Finney was “one” of the most powerful revivalists. Who were the others? Couldn’t Combee even locate another one, like Nettleton? And seeing the fact that Finney was an apostate with his Pelagianism, I would “blame” God for sending this man out to preach.
The errors of this textbook regarding the SGA then are summarized as:
1. Wrong ending date
2. Ignoring other leaders of the revival, like Nettleton and Payson
3. Claiming that Finney was practically the cause of the SGA
4. Ignoring Finney’s many theological errors, many of which were quite severe
5. Ignoring the errors and excesses of the Western revivals
I had to spend an entire class period correcting the textbook and giving out the truth regarding Finney that church historians seem to want to ignore. I have come to expect no better from Abeka, since they also promote the nonsense that America was a “Christian nation” and that we have some sort of a glorious Christian heritage. They mix Christianity and American Patriotism (or Americanism) and end up with a magpie nest of error. I suspect the materials from Bob Jones University are no better. This is why I only use the book when necessary for history, relying more on original source materials. But what is needed are a set of Christian history textbooks that are accurate, full of original research, that give the “politically incorrect” details of American and World History, that doesn’t waste paper and ink trying to make America into a Second Israel. I’m sure there are such texts and I’m going to have to really search them out, as I will not be using Abeka history after this year for any of my younger children. It is simply not reliable or accurate enough.
Posted by pilgrimway 
