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It's eight o'clock in the morning in
Seoul, Korea and I'm between crowds

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00:00:21,980 --> 00:00:26,420
at the first and second services
in the Yoido Full Gospel Church.

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00:00:29,500 --> 00:00:33,180
This is Protestantism at the
beginning of the 21st century.

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In the fifth part of my History of
Christianity, I'm tracing the growth

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00:00:53,860 --> 00:00:58,740
of an exuberant expression of faith
that has spread across the globe.

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00:00:59,860 --> 00:01:01,260
Amen.

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00:01:01,260 --> 00:01:03,620
Evangelical Protestantism.

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00:01:06,220 --> 00:01:12,380
Today, it is associated with
full-blooded emotion and, by some,
with conservative politics.

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But the whole story
is not what you might expect.

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00:01:17,940 --> 00:01:22,700
In my previous programme, I showed
how the Protestant faith broke away

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from medieval Catholicism to build
a Protestant homeland in Europe.

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Now I'll follow the events
that led it to burst its boundaries.

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America, Africa,

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even Asia.

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00:02:03,380 --> 00:02:08,780
Protestantism was born out
of a religious revolution
in the 16th century -

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the Reformation.

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For a hundred years
it made great strides across Europe

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with an explosion
of new Protestant churches -

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Lutherans, Calvinists,
Anabaptists, Anglicans.

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The response of the Catholic Church
culminated in the Thirty Years War.

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That left Protestantism
severely bruised.

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And by the end of the 17th century,
it was largely confined
to northern Europe.

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It looked as though the Reformation
had been stopped in its tracks.

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And yet from 1700
the story of Protestantism

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has been one of relentless
expansion. So what happened?

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What's the power of Protestantism
that's made it circle the world?

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This is Herrnhut on the
far eastern border of Germany.

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The Protestant explosion
might never have happened

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without a small group of Christians
who settled here in 1722.

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And these are their gravestones,
the Moravian Brethren.

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They had been persecuted by
Catholics in their homeland -
the modern day Czech Republic.

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So they fled 255 miles west to safe
Protestant Saxony.

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Once here a Lutheran nobleman, Count
Zinzendorf, headstrong, charismatic,

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rich, offered them his land
and leadership for a new community.

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Zinzendorf loved his Lutheran roots
but he was seeking something more.

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What made his new Moravian community
stand out from other Protestants

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was its intensely personal,
emotional relationship with God.

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It was a re-discovery
of the historical heart
of the Christian faith -

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eternal salvation through a
personal experience of Jesus Christ.

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There is still a strong
Moravian community here.

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I joined them on one of their big
days - the Advent service.

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In their new home, the Moravians
worshipped several times a day,
every day.

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And they sang,
sometimes for days on end.

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The Protestant Reformation
had certainly told human beings

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that they stood alone
before God's judgement.

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But the Moravians were saying
they could stand in a direct
emotional relationship with God.

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Less of the head, more of the heart.

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It was an idea that would
revolutionise Protestantism.

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And there was another innovation
of the Moravians which breathed
new life into Protestantism.

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In Germany today, they're
famous for their Christmas stars.

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But in the 18th century,
they pioneered something
far more significant.

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Christianity had
always been a missionary faith

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but that job was normally
carried out by professional clergy.

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Ordinary Moravians took the
unprecedented step of conducting
missionary work themselves.

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And they weren't just interested in
taking the message out to Europe.

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In fact the very first
Moravian missionary
headed straight for the new world.

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I looked through the Moravian
archives with its director,
Dr Rudiger Kroger.

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We have here the diary of the
first missionary, Leonard Dober,

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who went to St Thomas in 1732.

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In the West Indies? It's in the
West Indies in the Caribbean, yes.

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For example we have in this diary
an entry from early January 1733

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that reads he went to the
plantation to establish

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his profession as a potter

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but the work
was not very successful because
of the bad condition of the clay.

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But they were using the
time to speak to the slaves.

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That is what the
Moravians were looking for,

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a possibility to talk with the people
about their religious feelings.

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I think it's extraordinary that this
humble, working man crosses the seas

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to share his faith with other
humble, working people.

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What is it about the Moravians
which impels them to do this?

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The Moravians have the duty
for everyone to talk about

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the faith, to talk about the
gospel and to help people learning,

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being free to practise their faith.

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And you don't need being a pastor,
it's a new way of seeing...

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living together in Christianity.

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The Moravian archives are bursting
with stories like Leonard Dober's.

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Immortalised in paintings,
these pioneering missionaries spread
the good news of Christianity

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00:08:04,340 --> 00:08:06,460
as far as Africa and Greenland.

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It's why they are called Evangelical
from the Greek word "evangelion"

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meaning "Good News."

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Evangelical Christianity
was on the march.

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But it wasn't
quite the finished product.

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That would happen in England.

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The Moravians had the gift
of turning people's emotions
into faith.

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They helped change the life
of one young Englishman -

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an Anglican priest who then
seized the future of Protestantism.

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His name was John Wesley.

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Bristol in the West of England
is one of the founding centres

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of a denomination which helped turn
the Moravian dream into reality -
Methodism.

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00:09:08,740 --> 00:09:13,700
Its founder, John Wesley,
started out as an Anglican clergyman

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but one who appreciated
the intense richness of Catholicism.

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Wesley met the Moravians in 1735
on board ship.

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He'd set sail from England
with his brother Charles
to take up a new job in America.

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The brothers were already out of
step with the established Church
of England because they were

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High Churchmen who emphasised the
Catholic side of Anglicanism.

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At university in Oxford they had
been one of a group of students
who formed a Holy Club

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which brought a sort of
Counter-Reformation Catholic
intensity

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to low-temperature
English Protestantism -

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they fasted, they went to
communion as often as possible,
they worked to help the poor.

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It was a very methodical way
of trying to achieve holiness

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and early on someone, without
apparently any friendly intent,

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called them Methodists.

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The Methodists were not
yet a new denomination.

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But the Wesley's chance meeting with
the Moravians would take them

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a step closer, especially as the
brothers were heading for
personal crisis in America.

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They fell out with local colonists.

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John had a disastrous love affair.

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They sailed home
defeated and depressed.

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But back in England they kept
in touch with the Moravians.

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One night in 1738 in London,
John attended Anglican Evensong
and then a Moravian prayer meeting.

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It was a powerful combination
that would change both him
and Protestantism.

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Something new
happened to John Wesley that night.

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In a phrase now famous,
he felt his heart strangely warmed.

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While the solemn music of evensong
was still ringing in his memory,

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he listened to Martin Luther's
restatement of
Paul's message to the Romans.

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"We're saved by faith alone."
The Reformation came alive for him.

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A new fire, a new urgency came in
his religion and it burst through

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the hymns of the Moravians to create
a new message for his generation.

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For both Wesley brothers
what mattered in their faith now
was a direct relationship with God.

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They wanted to spread
this message of salvation
just as the Moravians had done.

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But the Wesleys also brought
a new element to Protestantism

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that helped it reach out to
millions more around the world.

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They saw that society was being
transformed around them and they
hurried to bring frightened

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and bewildered folk
the Gospel good news
in the middle of huge social change.

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In the 18th century
industrialisation displaced
millions from the countryside

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to new population centres such as
the modern day outskirts of Bristol.

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But the Church of England
had no buildings here.

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For a rather prissy parson, John
Wesley found a surprising solution.

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An old friend from Oxford,
George Whitefield, had taken to
preaching in the open air.

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John decided to give it a go
at Hanham Mount, then close
to a large mining community.

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00:13:12,100 --> 00:13:17,780
According to local
Methodist Colin Cradock it
was a risky choice of venue.

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Cock Road which is close by here

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was a notorious area
for lawlessness and so on

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and then there were the miners
themselves, who in 18th century

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society they must have been the real
lowest of the artisans, I imagine.

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So the sort of place your
mother tells you not to go?

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Well, it was, definitely, I don't
think anybody of any respectability

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would come out here and for Wesley to
do it was just absolutely astounding.

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And the effect he had on people?
He had a dramatic effect on them.

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The miners wept - these black sooty
faces had white lines down them.

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Amazing.

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For the first time,
someone cared enough to come looking
for the miners, to save their souls.

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It's often forgotten
that a concern for social justice

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00:14:28,180 --> 00:14:31,660
is part of the original DNA
of Evangelical Christianity.

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The Methodists went on to build
their own chapels that were quite
separate from the Church of England.

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This was their first - John Wesley's
own headquarters in Bristol,
his 'New Room'.

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And it wasn't just the words of
John Wesley that moved people.

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It was also the magnificent
hymns of his brother Charles.

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00:15:02,700 --> 00:15:06,340
Strange. It's so cool
and classical and ordered.

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00:15:06,340 --> 00:15:10,660
Yet in 1739 it would have been
deafening in services here

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00:15:10,660 --> 00:15:13,420
with shouts of joy and repentance,

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00:15:13,420 --> 00:15:18,420
and the roar of Charles's
new hymns about Christ's
blood and sacrificial death.

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00:15:22,580 --> 00:15:27,620
# This is my desire... #

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00:15:27,620 --> 00:15:31,300
Maybe that initial intensity has
cooled for many Methodists today.

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00:15:31,300 --> 00:15:36,420
# ..to honour you... #

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00:15:36,420 --> 00:15:40,620
But you can still get a glimpse of
the fervour of those early meetings

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all over the modern
evangelical world.

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# Lord, I give you my heart,
I give you my soul

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# I live for you alone
Every breath that I take

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# Every moment I'm awake... #

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00:16:13,860 --> 00:16:17,260
By 1800, around
half a million people in Britain

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00:16:17,260 --> 00:16:22,700
attended Methodist worship -
that's over 5% of the population,

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00:16:22,700 --> 00:16:25,540
grown from nothing, in 60 years.

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00:16:25,540 --> 00:16:28,500
SONG ENDS, CHEERING

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00:16:39,740 --> 00:16:43,980
Heartfelt Protestant religion
was hugely popular in Wales

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00:16:43,980 --> 00:16:48,260
and spread among Scottish
and Irish Presbyterians too.

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00:16:48,260 --> 00:16:51,340
It was an Evangelical Revival.

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00:16:53,420 --> 00:16:57,060
The Evangelical message reached
all levels of society.

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00:16:57,060 --> 00:17:02,180
Like the Moravians in Germany
the Evangelicals discovered an
intensely personal Reformation.

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00:17:02,180 --> 00:17:05,540
They reached into their
bibles to meet Christ, but they also

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00:17:05,540 --> 00:17:10,060
reached into the depths of their own
souls to make that meeting complete.

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00:17:10,060 --> 00:17:12,260
And they hungered to get
others to do the same.

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00:17:22,700 --> 00:17:27,500
Up till now the Catholic
Church had set the pace for
Western Christian missionary work.

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00:17:29,980 --> 00:17:35,660
But that was about to change
with a religious revival
across the Atlantic.

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00:17:35,660 --> 00:17:41,140
In the New World,
Protestantism would triumph.

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00:17:58,820 --> 00:18:06,540
In America, there's a bewildering
range of Protestant denominations -
Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist,

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00:18:06,540 --> 00:18:11,260
Unitarian, Episcopalian,
7th Day Adventist, you name it.

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00:18:13,340 --> 00:18:17,500
Does that mean Protestants
constantly flounce off
and start something new?

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00:18:17,500 --> 00:18:23,420
Well, they do,
but that's also really the key to
the exuberance of American religion.

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00:18:25,820 --> 00:18:28,260
The first shoots of
American diversity lie

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00:18:28,260 --> 00:18:33,100
in an outburst of heartfelt religion
in New England in the 1730s.

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00:18:36,340 --> 00:18:39,340
At the start of the revival
was a brilliant scholar,

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00:18:39,340 --> 00:18:43,180
a Congregational minister in
Northampton, Massachusetts.

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00:18:43,180 --> 00:18:46,620
His name was Jonathan Edwards.

185
00:18:46,620 --> 00:18:52,420
Edwards insisted that we must
worship God with the whole person,
mind and emotion.

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00:18:52,420 --> 00:18:57,700
And from the greatest philosopher
to the smallest child
we must love God in simplicity.

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00:18:57,700 --> 00:19:00,940
He once said in a sermon,
"If ever you arrive at heaven,

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00:19:00,940 --> 00:19:04,740
"faith and love must be the
wings which must carry you there".

189
00:19:04,740 --> 00:19:09,060
It was Edwards's congregation
which first experienced
revival in America.

190
00:19:11,740 --> 00:19:16,980
But there was more to
come - the rousing spirit
which Europe was now experiencing.

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00:19:18,580 --> 00:19:24,220
It was brought by an Evangelical
Englishman Edwards invited
to address his congregation.

192
00:19:24,220 --> 00:19:29,820
George Whitefield -
the same man who inspired
John Wesley to preach outdoors.

193
00:19:29,820 --> 00:19:33,660
He's buried in the Old
South Church in Newburyport.

194
00:19:33,660 --> 00:19:36,100
And that's
where I met an American Church

195
00:19:36,100 --> 00:19:39,900
historian who believes that Edwards
got more than he bargained for.

196
00:19:41,740 --> 00:19:44,620
While Edwards welcomed the message

197
00:19:44,620 --> 00:19:49,260
he didn't really like Whitefield's
manner of delivery.

198
00:19:49,260 --> 00:19:54,540
Whitefield of course brought this new
style of preaching that was dramatic,

199
00:19:54,540 --> 00:19:57,820
it was extemporaneous, that is
he didn't use any manuscripts.

200
00:19:57,820 --> 00:20:05,340
He would rely on inspiration
moving back and forth, using gesture,
enacting scenes from the bible.

201
00:20:05,340 --> 00:20:11,980
It's said that
people would faint when he
pronounced the word Mesopotamia.

202
00:20:11,980 --> 00:20:14,500
It sounds to me as though Whitefield
would be a welcome visitor

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00:20:14,500 --> 00:20:16,780
for Edwards but not
necessarily a welcome colleague.

204
00:20:16,780 --> 00:20:21,220
Tell me about it. After Whitefield
leaves his congregation is a wreck.

205
00:20:21,220 --> 00:20:26,060
So Edwards tries to separate the
physical from the spiritual.

206
00:20:26,060 --> 00:20:30,340
And he says to his congregation
what were you more impressed by,

207
00:20:30,340 --> 00:20:35,540
were you more impressed by
the eloquence of the preacher
and what was more lasting for you?

208
00:20:35,540 --> 00:20:38,460
Was it the message
of the new birth

209
00:20:38,460 --> 00:20:42,300
and did it have
any difference in your heart?

210
00:20:42,300 --> 00:20:48,620
The reality is that the revival
unfolding in New England needed a
bit of what both men had to offer.

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00:20:48,620 --> 00:20:52,420
The intellect and
considered argument of Edwards

212
00:20:52,420 --> 00:20:56,860
balanced the crowds' emotional
response to Whitefield's challenges.

213
00:21:00,220 --> 00:21:02,260
Well, this
is the grave of George Whitefield.

214
00:21:02,260 --> 00:21:07,060
It actually feels remarkably like
the shrine of a Catholic saint
until you realise that he is

215
00:21:07,060 --> 00:21:10,940
actually sharing the basement
of this church with the
church heating system.

216
00:21:10,940 --> 00:21:13,820
He was an extraordinary preacher.

217
00:21:13,820 --> 00:21:18,140
In the open air his voice could
carry so that ten thousand or
more people could hear him.

218
00:21:18,140 --> 00:21:22,140
And he came to this country to a
movement which is already

219
00:21:22,140 --> 00:21:24,580
springing up in all sorts of
churches -

220
00:21:24,580 --> 00:21:28,500
the movement we collectively call
the 'Great Awakening'.

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00:21:31,340 --> 00:21:37,420
In the 18th century,
emotional preachers like Whitefield
stirred passions as never before.

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00:21:37,420 --> 00:21:41,300
He demanded
that people made choices.

223
00:21:44,660 --> 00:21:51,220
Protestant Churches like the
Presbyterians and Baptists were
turned into missionary power houses.

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00:21:54,420 --> 00:21:56,940
MAN: Thank you Joe, all right
we're on our way.

225
00:21:56,940 --> 00:22:00,260
Now a little bit about Boston,
this was the birthplace

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00:22:00,260 --> 00:22:05,540
of the American Revolution -
our struggle
for freedom from British rule.

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00:22:05,540 --> 00:22:10,500
Evangelical Protestantism now
swept through much of America.

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00:22:10,500 --> 00:22:14,180
Here in Boston you can
always tell you're on land...

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00:22:14,180 --> 00:22:19,780
And it did so for very special,
very American reasons.

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00:22:19,780 --> 00:22:24,260
Here we go into the Charles River!

231
00:22:30,620 --> 00:22:36,100
In the 1760s a group
of Boston citizens who called
themselves the "Sons of Liberty"

232
00:22:36,100 --> 00:22:42,700
began rioting in the streets
to protest British rule and
British taxes.

233
00:22:42,700 --> 00:22:46,500
The spread of Evangelicalism was
an accidental side effect of the

234
00:22:46,500 --> 00:22:51,300
American Revolution, sparked by
a famous incident here in Boston.

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00:22:51,300 --> 00:22:56,580
In the course of the next few hours
we took 342 chests of tea...

236
00:23:00,420 --> 00:23:04,340
..threw it in the harbour.
King said we had to pay the tax

237
00:23:04,340 --> 00:23:09,220
when it hits the dock,
he didn't say anything
about when it hits the water.

238
00:23:09,220 --> 00:23:14,060
In 1773 the Boston Tea Party
launched a series of clashes

239
00:23:14,060 --> 00:23:18,340
that led to American
independence from Britain.

240
00:23:18,340 --> 00:23:22,340
To the consternation of many
Christians, the founding fathers

241
00:23:22,340 --> 00:23:29,540
decided to separate church from
state in their new Republic's
Federal constitution.

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00:23:29,540 --> 00:23:36,180
In time, the privileges of
established churches in
individual states also ended.

243
00:23:36,180 --> 00:23:43,340
After centuries as an official
religion tied to the state,
Christianity was cut free.

244
00:23:43,340 --> 00:23:48,660
All the
gains of Evangelical Protestantism
might seem to have been at risk.

245
00:23:51,220 --> 00:23:55,300
The separation of church and
state was an historic moment
for the Christian faith.

246
00:23:55,300 --> 00:24:00,540
Since the 4th century,
mainstream western Christianity
had been an arm of government.

247
00:24:00,540 --> 00:24:02,140
Now it stood alone.

248
00:24:02,140 --> 00:24:06,980
You might think that this would
be devastating for churches -
in fact it was quite the opposite.

249
00:24:16,100 --> 00:24:19,220
The historic decision to separate
church and state

250
00:24:19,220 --> 00:24:23,420
had a wholly unexpected effect
on the future of Protestantism.

251
00:24:23,420 --> 00:24:26,020
It let people choose.

252
00:24:29,380 --> 00:24:30,940
You can see the
results of that decision

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00:24:30,940 --> 00:24:36,900
in the huge number of denominations
that still sprout and flourish
right across the United States.

254
00:24:39,060 --> 00:24:41,780
In exchange for breaking all
federal ties with the church,

255
00:24:41,780 --> 00:24:45,620
the Founding Fathers gave Americans
religious liberty.

256
00:24:47,780 --> 00:24:54,220
And that meant the freedom to choose
any Christianity -
no matter how emotional.

257
00:24:54,220 --> 00:25:00,500
It unleashed another Evangelical
revival - a second Great Awakening,

258
00:25:00,500 --> 00:25:04,340
this time
on America's western frontier.

259
00:25:09,540 --> 00:25:12,940
In 1800, Kentucky
was in the Wild West.

260
00:25:17,940 --> 00:25:20,180
It's not surprising that some
of the wilder manifestations

261
00:25:20,180 --> 00:25:23,700
of modern Evangelical Christianity
found a home here.

262
00:25:25,340 --> 00:25:28,500
An annual gathering
marks the events.

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00:25:33,740 --> 00:25:36,020
Remember, this was a frontier.

264
00:25:36,020 --> 00:25:40,060
All sorts of people
were chancing their luck.

265
00:25:42,100 --> 00:25:44,820
Many of them came from Britain.

266
00:25:47,340 --> 00:25:49,740
That was really important for what
happened here, because among them

267
00:25:49,740 --> 00:25:59,060
were Scottish Protestants
whose people had already moved once,
to settle in Ulster in Ireland.

268
00:25:59,060 --> 00:26:02,540
Frontier Ulster had the same
sense of danger, excitement,

269
00:26:02,540 --> 00:26:06,500
limitless potential, as the Wild
West frontier in Hollywood movies.

270
00:26:06,500 --> 00:26:08,740
It was actually in Ulster
that Protestants first gathered

271
00:26:08,740 --> 00:26:11,380
in huge numbers for open-air
holy communion services.

272
00:26:11,380 --> 00:26:15,780
And when they came to North America
they brought that memory with them.

273
00:26:15,780 --> 00:26:21,220
It was on this new frontier
that the idea of open-air revival
gained a new lease of life.

274
00:26:34,620 --> 00:26:41,020
This particular communion there was
a service late in the weekend and
during this sermon one woman

275
00:26:41,020 --> 00:26:47,540
spoke out, cried out, seeking
assurance of her salvation, which of
course that disrupted the service.

276
00:26:47,540 --> 00:26:53,620
And at the end of the sermon the
organising ministers left the church
but the congregation stayed inside,

277
00:26:53,620 --> 00:26:58,940
they seemed to be waiting,
if you will, for what God
was going to do next.

278
00:26:58,940 --> 00:27:01,980
This must have been quite troubling
for the ministers? Oh, absolutely.

279
00:27:01,980 --> 00:27:07,060
I've read that they held a small
conference outside the building
to decide what they should do

280
00:27:07,060 --> 00:27:12,820
and their decision was, and I think
a very wise one, is they would not
interrupt what was happening inside.

281
00:27:12,820 --> 00:27:18,060
I believe they may have gone
back in and joined and that's
when they saw God's spirit fall.

282
00:27:18,060 --> 00:27:23,980
People were falling out - slain in
the spirit would be a term that
we would call it in modern times.

283
00:27:23,980 --> 00:27:26,060
It sounds as if people
are trying to find ways

284
00:27:26,060 --> 00:27:30,540
of expressing what they feel beyond
what they can normally do in church?

285
00:27:30,540 --> 00:27:33,660
Oh, absolutely. You had the running
exercise where people would be so

286
00:27:33,660 --> 00:27:36,540
enthralled with what they felt
God doing in them

287
00:27:36,540 --> 00:27:41,740
that they would literally run,
I don't know circles,
run around the camp. I'm not sure.

288
00:27:41,740 --> 00:27:48,060
But then you had
the barking exercise,
you had a laughing exercise,

289
00:27:48,060 --> 00:27:54,100
when the power of God comes upon you,
it has to come out in some way
or you feel like you may burst.

290
00:27:56,980 --> 00:28:01,300
God so loved the world, yea the
ungodly world which had no...

291
00:28:02,780 --> 00:28:06,660
Praise the lord! Praise the lord!

292
00:28:08,020 --> 00:28:09,660
Hallelujah!

293
00:28:13,420 --> 00:28:16,020
VARIOUS VOICES WHOOP AND CHANT

294
00:28:21,540 --> 00:28:24,740
The emotion raced
across the new Republic.

295
00:28:46,260 --> 00:28:52,180
The white-hot religion of
the second Great Awakening
lasted almost 50 years.

296
00:28:52,180 --> 00:28:54,620
And it helped create something new.

297
00:28:56,780 --> 00:28:59,940
Congregations that up until now
had remained offshoots

298
00:28:59,940 --> 00:29:05,740
of European churches
had fresh choices - you might
almost say, consumer choices.

299
00:29:12,340 --> 00:29:17,060
Christianity was marketed
with all the flair and swashbuckling

300
00:29:17,060 --> 00:29:20,740
enterprise that the United States
showed in its commerce and industry.

301
00:29:22,980 --> 00:29:28,260
Frontier Protestantism had become
not only 'popular'
but distinctly 'American'.

302
00:29:40,180 --> 00:29:45,900
The energy of the revivals led to
new identities for Christianity.

303
00:29:45,900 --> 00:29:49,660
From 7th Day Adventists,
and Millerites, to Mormons,

304
00:29:49,660 --> 00:29:56,620
the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints, they saw America
at the centre of God's purposes.

305
00:29:58,860 --> 00:30:02,780
It's easy to stress the emotional
side of American evangelicalism.

306
00:30:04,500 --> 00:30:08,980
But we need to remember that many
of them were also socially radical.

307
00:30:10,620 --> 00:30:15,580
Like Methodists,
American evangelicals
offered marginal groups fresh hope.

308
00:30:15,580 --> 00:30:18,940
# This little light of mine

309
00:30:18,940 --> 00:30:22,500
# I'm going to let it shine

310
00:30:22,500 --> 00:30:26,500
# Oh, this little light of mine

311
00:30:26,500 --> 00:30:30,740
# I'm going to let it shine

312
00:30:30,740 --> 00:30:33,860
# This little heart of mine... #

313
00:30:33,860 --> 00:30:39,180
The message entranced
African Americans,
most of whom were still enslaved.

314
00:30:39,180 --> 00:30:44,820
Evangelicalism
offers a choice, to turn to Jesus.

315
00:30:44,820 --> 00:30:50,620
These people had never
had a choice in their whole lives.

316
00:30:50,620 --> 00:30:53,860
They went on to found
their own churches.

317
00:30:56,300 --> 00:31:02,020
Belle Mead Plantation near
Nashville couldn't have
functioned without slaves.

318
00:31:02,020 --> 00:31:06,180
On its gracious lawns, I talked
about the importance of evangelical

319
00:31:06,180 --> 00:31:10,740
revival for African Americans
with scholar Denis Dickerson.

320
00:31:10,740 --> 00:31:12,980
In these camp meeting venues,

321
00:31:12,980 --> 00:31:15,300
persons high and low,
black and white,

322
00:31:15,300 --> 00:31:17,940
rich and poor
were invited to hear the gospel

323
00:31:17,940 --> 00:31:20,940
and many of the scriptures
that were preached

324
00:31:20,940 --> 00:31:25,940
obviously were heard by African
Americans as ensuring their equality.

325
00:31:25,940 --> 00:31:29,180
"For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God."

326
00:31:29,180 --> 00:31:32,060
"God hath made of one blood all
people to dwell upon the earth."

327
00:31:32,060 --> 00:31:35,420
But many slave owners were
evangelical Protestants

328
00:31:35,420 --> 00:31:39,140
and many evangelical Protestants
justified slavery
in reference to the Bible.

329
00:31:39,140 --> 00:31:42,340
Were they just being
stupid and selfish?

330
00:31:42,340 --> 00:31:46,580
The slaves knew that the
Bible had competing themes.

331
00:31:46,580 --> 00:31:52,420
Those who wanted to justify
slavery often had to appeal
to those many, many instances

332
00:31:52,420 --> 00:31:57,540
in the scriptures, particularly
in the Old Testament, sometimes in
the New Testament, that there was

333
00:31:57,540 --> 00:32:04,380
hierarchy, there were servants, there
were slaves, that seemingly were
sanctioned by religious authorities.

334
00:32:04,380 --> 00:32:08,700
The slaves themselves however
developed their own interpretation.

335
00:32:08,700 --> 00:32:12,620
They could easily cite that same God
who had liberated the Hebrews

336
00:32:12,620 --> 00:32:16,620
and had brought them through
an Exodus experience

337
00:32:16,620 --> 00:32:20,660
would also do the same
for them in the United States.

338
00:32:33,700 --> 00:32:37,740
There was another important
and unexpected reason

339
00:32:37,740 --> 00:32:43,340
why Bible-believing
African Americans accepted
the religion of their oppressors.

340
00:32:43,340 --> 00:32:48,660
Some white evangelicals came to see
slavery as evil and anti-Christian

341
00:32:48,660 --> 00:32:52,500
and they campaigned alongside
the enslaved for abolition.

342
00:32:55,220 --> 00:32:59,100
In our present age,
it's worth remembering that together

343
00:32:59,100 --> 00:33:03,100
evangelical Christians once led this
great rebellion against the common

344
00:33:03,100 --> 00:33:07,940
understanding of the Bible,
overturning the moral
assumptions of their time.

345
00:33:21,660 --> 00:33:25,380
By the mid-19th century, the most
dynamic and expansionist society

346
00:33:25,380 --> 00:33:29,860
in the world was a Protestant great
power, the United States.

347
00:33:31,780 --> 00:33:34,380
I think that we should
forget old cliches

348
00:33:34,380 --> 00:33:38,260
about a Protestant work ethic,
contrasting somehow
with Catholicism.

349
00:33:38,260 --> 00:33:41,860
We're looking here
at a huge historical coincidence.

350
00:33:47,780 --> 00:33:52,700
Circumstances converged
to make the world's leading
industrial nation Protestant.

351
00:33:52,700 --> 00:33:58,300
And so
its brand of Protestant culture also
became a world-conquering force.

352
00:34:00,060 --> 00:34:04,420
Even non-Christian Japanese
hurried to copy American capitalism.

353
00:34:07,980 --> 00:34:11,740
In fact you could say mission had
been thrust upon Protestants now

354
00:34:11,740 --> 00:34:16,300
by a dramatic turn of events in the
heartland of Catholicism in Europe.

355
00:34:18,300 --> 00:34:23,020
From 1789, the French Revolution
signalled the end of the old world.

356
00:34:23,020 --> 00:34:25,620
The French monarchy collapsed,
the Roman Catholic church

357
00:34:25,620 --> 00:34:29,140
was tottering - surely these were
the signs of the end of the world.

358
00:34:29,140 --> 00:34:33,100
Now was the time for
Protestants to proclaim the
truth before it was too late.

359
00:34:33,100 --> 00:34:39,180
So, just at the moment when Catholic
missions were faltering, Protestants
set out to conquer the world.

360
00:35:09,140 --> 00:35:15,180
Africa was not only a long
way from the Protestant
heartlands of America and Europe.

361
00:35:15,180 --> 00:35:18,980
It was also culturally very distant.

362
00:35:18,980 --> 00:35:25,460
Counter-Reformation Catholicism
had tried and failed to
make serious in-roads here.

363
00:35:25,460 --> 00:35:30,980
And on the West African coast
the reason is still plain to see.

364
00:35:30,980 --> 00:35:34,780
This is one of the many forts
where captured Africans

365
00:35:34,780 --> 00:35:38,300
were held before being shipped
to the New World as slaves.

366
00:35:40,340 --> 00:35:46,460
Not surprising then that few West
Africans listened to any talk
of Christianity from Europeans.

367
00:35:49,140 --> 00:35:53,940
For three-and-a-half centuries
the slave trade had poisoned
relations between Europe and Africa.

368
00:35:53,940 --> 00:35:58,900
Now the campaign for its abolition
proved vital for the success
of African Protestantism.

369
00:36:11,220 --> 00:36:14,980
This is the Anglican Cathedral,
in the Ghanaian capital, Accra.

370
00:36:17,260 --> 00:36:22,140
Christianity here descends from
Africans who, freed from slavery,
returned to Africa.

371
00:36:24,140 --> 00:36:27,940
They were mostly
fervent evangelicals,

372
00:36:27,940 --> 00:36:32,140
impatient to help their
fellow Africans choose salvation.

373
00:36:34,380 --> 00:36:36,900
And this gave a new idea
to the British Anglican

374
00:36:36,900 --> 00:36:43,420
Church Missionary Society, the CMS -
self-governing churches overseas.

375
00:36:48,300 --> 00:36:52,820
The society began looking
to these new West African
settlements for local leadership.

376
00:36:52,820 --> 00:36:55,820
And they found one
outstanding candidate.

377
00:36:55,820 --> 00:36:59,740
A young man who'd been rescued
from slavers and who'd
settled in Sierra Leone.

378
00:36:59,740 --> 00:37:02,820
His name was Ajayi
but he took two English names,

379
00:37:02,820 --> 00:37:07,140
in fact the names of a committee
member of the CMS, Samuel Crowther.

380
00:37:07,140 --> 00:37:14,900
So Samuel Ajayi Crowther, came to
England, trained for the ministry
and was ordained an Anglican priest.

381
00:37:16,380 --> 00:37:20,100
I wanted to give God a mighty
clap offering.

382
00:37:21,780 --> 00:37:25,020
Again, a mighty clap offering!

383
00:37:35,940 --> 00:37:41,180
Crowther set about sowing the seeds
of African Anglicanism, with a
distinctly evangelical flavour.

384
00:37:42,780 --> 00:37:48,300
He saw that to succeed,
Protestantism would have to
adapt to African culture.

385
00:37:48,300 --> 00:37:52,140
He translated the Bible
into his native Yoruba language.

386
00:37:53,940 --> 00:37:59,260
And was successful enough
to be given the post of
Bishop of Western Africa.

387
00:38:05,540 --> 00:38:11,940
But Crowther's initiatives
were ahead of the times,
and his impact was limited.

388
00:38:11,940 --> 00:38:16,660
He wanted authority over both
black and white missionaries
in West Africa

389
00:38:16,660 --> 00:38:19,660
but his English
white superiors had a problem.

390
00:38:19,660 --> 00:38:21,780
Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu,

391
00:38:21,780 --> 00:38:26,060
a Ghanaian church historian,
told me what it was.

392
00:38:26,060 --> 00:38:30,140
As a boy I collected stamps
and I have vivid memories
of the stamp commemorating

393
00:38:30,140 --> 00:38:34,820
Bishop Crowther and I saw it as a
great success story that there
should be a bishop from West Africa.

394
00:38:34,820 --> 00:38:38,300
But was it such a success story?

395
00:38:38,300 --> 00:38:40,700
Yes, and no.

396
00:38:40,700 --> 00:38:43,420
For an African with a slave past

397
00:38:43,420 --> 00:38:49,300
to rise to the level that Crowther
did, was by itself an achievement

398
00:38:49,300 --> 00:38:56,340
but he was betrayed because
they wanted to put an African at the
forefront of the missionary work

399
00:38:56,340 --> 00:38:59,700
but I think when it came to the point
when they then had to hand the

400
00:38:59,700 --> 00:39:03,020
destiny of the church into African
hands, then they had a problem.

401
00:39:03,020 --> 00:39:05,420
So they wanted
their cake and eat it?

402
00:39:05,420 --> 00:39:07,620
You may well put it that way.

403
00:39:20,300 --> 00:39:24,900
White European missionaries did try
to evangelise this vast continent.

404
00:39:24,900 --> 00:39:32,100
The most famous attempt
was that of David Livingstone
in Southern and Central Africa.

405
00:39:32,100 --> 00:39:35,500
But his was actually
an heroic failure.

406
00:39:35,500 --> 00:39:41,180
He made only one recorded convert,
who later fell out with him
and formed his own Church.

407
00:39:46,860 --> 00:39:50,500
This was the same lesson that
Crowther had taught the Church.

408
00:39:50,500 --> 00:39:57,940
Christianity could take
root in Africa but only if
it was led by African missionaries.

409
00:39:57,940 --> 00:39:59,940
And eventually, it was.

410
00:40:01,500 --> 00:40:04,940
What was happening quietly through
the 19th century was that Africans

411
00:40:04,940 --> 00:40:10,060
themselves were doing mission in
ways that Europeans hardly noticed.

412
00:40:10,060 --> 00:40:12,500
So young men would
travel, they'd go to services

413
00:40:12,500 --> 00:40:15,060
in new places, they'd learn new
hymns and they'd bring them home.

414
00:40:15,060 --> 00:40:19,780
Market women would sell Christianity
using their sales skills.

415
00:40:19,780 --> 00:40:21,980
Teachers would be taught
by the missionaries

416
00:40:21,980 --> 00:40:24,700
and when the missionaries moved on
they'd go on teaching.

417
00:40:24,700 --> 00:40:28,940
They'd be able to tell Africa
about Christianity in African terms.

418
00:40:32,620 --> 00:40:38,660
At the start of the 20th
century, perhaps 10% of
Africans were Christian.

419
00:40:38,660 --> 00:40:42,180
Today, it may be half the continent.

420
00:40:43,940 --> 00:40:46,180
Astonishing.

421
00:40:46,180 --> 00:40:48,420
How has it happened?

422
00:40:51,460 --> 00:40:56,580
One curious catalyst was the
outbreak of World War I in 1914.

423
00:40:58,420 --> 00:41:01,140
Many European missionaries left.

424
00:41:01,140 --> 00:41:06,100
And the ghastliness of the war
didn't say much for the
Christianity of Europe.

425
00:41:06,100 --> 00:41:10,180
Two good reasons for
Africans to take control.

426
00:41:19,060 --> 00:41:24,580
One of the greatest pioneering
African missionaries
was William Wade Harris.

427
00:41:24,580 --> 00:41:28,580
He was a political activist in
prison here in West Africa,

428
00:41:28,580 --> 00:41:34,740
when in 1913
he had a revelation that
he had been chosen as a prophet.

429
00:41:34,740 --> 00:41:39,940
Once released, he set out
to convert Africans to Christianity.

430
00:41:39,940 --> 00:41:45,140
You have to picture Harris striding
through the villages of the
Ivory Coast and here in Ghana.

431
00:41:45,140 --> 00:41:51,140
He's dressed in a simple white robe,
he's carrying a six-foot cross
and holding a gourd of water.

432
00:41:51,140 --> 00:41:54,380
With him are his team of two
or three women, who are singing,

433
00:41:54,380 --> 00:41:59,300
playing the calabash to
bring out the spirits of the
guardian angels and the holy spirit.

434
00:41:59,300 --> 00:42:02,740
While Harris is exhorting people
to give up traditional religion.

435
00:42:11,540 --> 00:42:16,820
But his converts didn't want to
join the established European
churches because their services

436
00:42:16,820 --> 00:42:20,020
just didn't celebrate God
in the way Africans wanted.

437
00:42:22,420 --> 00:42:28,140
Worse still,
European-run Churches condemned
African practices like polygamy.

438
00:42:29,660 --> 00:42:34,500
So Harris' followers chose to
form their own network of churches.

439
00:42:42,020 --> 00:42:45,980
The Church of the Twelve Apostles
is one descendant.

440
00:42:45,980 --> 00:42:48,620
This is a
Friday service for healing.

441
00:42:50,700 --> 00:42:54,580
The congregation is mainly
made up of women market traders.

442
00:42:54,580 --> 00:42:59,420
They've taken the day off,
leaving the men to work on
while they worship.

443
00:43:01,180 --> 00:43:03,740
WOMEN CHANT

444
00:43:09,140 --> 00:43:14,140
This seems a million miles from
the churches I know back in Oxford.

445
00:43:14,140 --> 00:43:19,820
But that's the great strength
of Christianity, its ability to
adapt and assimilate.

446
00:43:23,620 --> 00:43:29,380
Behind this very African
experience I can see features
which all communities value.

447
00:43:32,540 --> 00:43:36,500
In Western Europe
all these things that we've got
here are elsewhere, they're

448
00:43:36,500 --> 00:43:41,780
on the dance floor in a nightclub,
they're in a football stadium,
they're in the therapy room.

449
00:43:41,780 --> 00:43:44,940
Here it's all brought
together into one.

450
00:43:44,940 --> 00:43:49,300
You're worshipping God
within a very tight system. It looks
spontaneous but of course it isn't.

451
00:43:49,300 --> 00:43:53,340
It's got it's own rules, it builds
up, it dies back, there are people

452
00:43:53,340 --> 00:43:57,700
to help you find your way through
it, they push you even into it.

453
00:43:57,700 --> 00:43:59,300
And it's about healing.

454
00:43:59,300 --> 00:44:03,540
All around you, the power of God is
pushing out of a community which is

455
00:44:03,540 --> 00:44:08,140
dressed up to be like you, to be
with you in your time of trouble.

456
00:44:08,140 --> 00:44:14,220
In your everyday boredoms, your
frustrations, you bring them here,
you dump them and you dance on them.

457
00:44:38,980 --> 00:44:43,100
You know, in Africa or in Ghana
we believe that every sickness

458
00:44:43,100 --> 00:44:48,140
it's caused by, it's a curse,
or it's caused by the devil.

459
00:44:48,140 --> 00:44:54,140
So we believe that once the
problem is spiritual
it should be solved spiritually.

460
00:44:54,140 --> 00:44:57,460
And when the music happens
that's part of the healing?

461
00:44:57,460 --> 00:45:01,420
The music invokes the spirit, the
holy spirit to come upon the leaders,

462
00:45:01,420 --> 00:45:07,020
the healers, and when the music
is going on some are even healed.

463
00:45:07,020 --> 00:45:10,420
When the music is going on and we
hear people shouting they
are getting healed,

464
00:45:10,420 --> 00:45:13,660
though they are not touched, but
they are getting healed by the music.

465
00:45:13,660 --> 00:45:17,980
And that is why people come to us, we
are always the last to be approached,

466
00:45:17,980 --> 00:45:22,660
the last to be approached
and the first to solve the problems.

467
00:45:34,780 --> 00:45:37,460
Local leaders across the continent

468
00:45:37,460 --> 00:45:42,700
led a quite breathtaking growth
in this new African Christianity.

469
00:45:42,700 --> 00:45:52,500
From the nine million
Christians in Africa in 1900,
there are now more than 380 million.

470
00:45:52,500 --> 00:45:55,500
And half of those are Protestant.

471
00:45:59,820 --> 00:46:06,100
It marks the
biggest ever shift in the centre of
gravity of Christianity.

472
00:46:07,660 --> 00:46:14,460
2,000 years ago, it was in
Jerusalem, later Constantinople,
by 1600 it had shifted to Spain.

473
00:46:14,460 --> 00:46:18,100
Today, the midpoint of Christianity
is Saharan Africa.

474
00:46:18,100 --> 00:46:23,300
There are as many Christians to
the south and east of Timbuktu
as there are to the north and west.

475
00:46:26,580 --> 00:46:31,260
The key to Protestant expansion
has been the willingness to change.

476
00:46:33,060 --> 00:46:39,340
This direct, heartfelt encounter
with God started with the Moravians.

477
00:46:40,900 --> 00:46:45,300
It was boosted by Methodism
and evangelical revival.

478
00:46:45,300 --> 00:46:50,740
The message swept across
America in the Great Awakenings.

479
00:46:50,740 --> 00:46:53,340
And it spread across Africa.

480
00:46:53,340 --> 00:46:57,980
And with each new setting
came new Protestant churches.

481
00:46:57,980 --> 00:47:01,340
By the 20th century,
they even challenged the historic

482
00:47:01,340 --> 00:47:04,660
ascendancy of Roman Catholicism
in Latin America.

483
00:47:07,700 --> 00:47:13,540
It's taken the number of
Christian denominations worldwide
to more than 30,000.

484
00:47:13,540 --> 00:47:17,580
But now it's expanding even further

485
00:47:17,580 --> 00:47:23,700
and it may be
that Protestantism is moving too far
away from the teachings of Jesus.

486
00:47:45,660 --> 00:47:51,300
Today, South Korea is a prosperous
nation with a thriving economy.

487
00:47:51,300 --> 00:47:55,860
It's hard to imagine that only 60
years ago this was a traumatised

488
00:47:55,860 --> 00:48:00,940
and impoverished country
reeling from the effects
of Japanese occupation.

489
00:48:02,300 --> 00:48:06,500
Throughout the Japanese occupation
the churches were prominent
in the struggle for freedom.

490
00:48:06,500 --> 00:48:10,980
It meant that Christianity
was identified with national
suffering and national pride.

491
00:48:10,980 --> 00:48:16,700
After liberation it became
involved in another struggle,
rebuilding a shattered Korea.

492
00:48:18,780 --> 00:48:25,020
Here, it produced one of the
most dramatic success stories
in modern Christian history,

493
00:48:25,020 --> 00:48:26,660
Korean Pentecostalism.

494
00:48:31,940 --> 00:48:37,820
The Yoido Full Gospel Church started
with five Koreans meeting in a tent.

495
00:48:39,900 --> 00:48:44,340
Now it has over three quarters
of a million members worldwide.

496
00:48:50,580 --> 00:48:56,540
The hymns might be in Korean
but the tunes are straight out
of the Evangelical Revivals.

497
00:48:56,540 --> 00:49:01,580
In fact, Pentecostalism has built on
a 19th century American tradition.

498
00:49:01,580 --> 00:49:03,740
It was called the Holiness Movement.

499
00:49:03,740 --> 00:49:07,260
It harked back to the revivals of
Wesley's Methodism.

500
00:49:15,220 --> 00:49:19,660
At its heart is the emotional side
of faith,

501
00:49:19,660 --> 00:49:23,500
the direct,
personal choice for God.

502
00:49:37,580 --> 00:49:43,220
What's new is that Pentecostals
have found God in a way with little
precedent in Christian history.

503
00:49:43,220 --> 00:49:47,460
They've met the Holy Spirit,
who's often seemed the
Cinderella of the Trinity.

504
00:49:55,660 --> 00:49:58,340
The Bible says that 50 days
after the death of Jesus

505
00:49:58,340 --> 00:50:04,340
the Holy Spirit descended
upon the Apostles
at the Jewish feast of Pentecost.

506
00:50:04,340 --> 00:50:08,580
It was a life-changing experience.

507
00:50:08,580 --> 00:50:12,700
The disciples
are said to have spoken in tongues,

508
00:50:12,700 --> 00:50:15,900
an unknown but sacred language
which all present could understand.

509
00:50:24,100 --> 00:50:30,860
They were filled with such energy,
they chose to spread the
message of Jesus to the world.

510
00:50:30,860 --> 00:50:36,700
Pentecostals believe present-day
Christians can also receive those
"gifts of the Spirit".

511
00:50:36,700 --> 00:50:39,700
And that's
what you're seeing here today.

512
00:50:42,860 --> 00:50:49,060
But there's another aspect to the
success of Korean Pentecostalism
which is far more controversial.

513
00:50:49,060 --> 00:50:54,300
It's the promise of good fortune
and prosperity for believers.

514
00:50:54,300 --> 00:50:59,020
That's been christened,
by those who mistrust it,
the "prosperity gospel".

515
00:51:00,620 --> 00:51:03,700
It came out of the
inter-war years in America.

516
00:51:03,700 --> 00:51:06,500
Capitalism in the service of Jesus.

517
00:51:06,500 --> 00:51:10,780
American consumer choice for God.

518
00:51:10,780 --> 00:51:16,500
In the past, Protestantism offered
hope of eternal salvation regardless
of problems in the here and now.

519
00:51:18,300 --> 00:51:22,860
In Korea, that assurance
has become more immediate.

520
00:51:22,860 --> 00:51:27,860
You no longer need to wait
for the hereafter to reap
the benefits of the Christian faith.

521
00:51:29,740 --> 00:51:33,460
Is this one adaptation too far?

522
00:51:33,460 --> 00:51:40,380
That's certainly what I heard from a
Korean Presbyterian theologian,
Professor Sang Keun Kim.

523
00:51:40,380 --> 00:51:42,420
It is simple.

524
00:51:42,420 --> 00:51:47,700
If you go to church and give
offering, you will be blessed.

525
00:51:47,700 --> 00:51:50,980
Your economic success is guaranteed.

526
00:51:50,980 --> 00:51:52,860
So this really is prosperity?

527
00:51:52,860 --> 00:51:56,460
That's right. Can you see problems
in the Bible with this message?

528
00:51:56,460 --> 00:51:58,340
Yes.

529
00:51:58,340 --> 00:52:00,900
It is very hard

530
00:52:00,900 --> 00:52:05,900
to a rich man...to get into heaven.

531
00:52:05,900 --> 00:52:09,420
You know, from that passage, I think,

532
00:52:09,420 --> 00:52:12,140
sooner or later

533
00:52:12,140 --> 00:52:15,540
you are not able to see
any Koreans in heaven!

534
00:52:17,100 --> 00:52:21,060
Because prosperity gospel

535
00:52:21,060 --> 00:52:28,660
had a positive contribution
during the 1970s and '80s.

536
00:52:28,660 --> 00:52:32,020
It provided a new sort of hope.

537
00:52:32,020 --> 00:52:37,260
But nowadays
ordinary Koreans or society

538
00:52:37,260 --> 00:52:43,220
think that Korean Protestants
are a little bit selfish to ask more

539
00:52:43,220 --> 00:52:48,260
offerings, bigger churches,
bigger buildings.

540
00:52:50,300 --> 00:52:53,060
People think that that is not

541
00:52:53,060 --> 00:52:56,580
the basic tenet of the religion.

542
00:53:09,940 --> 00:53:16,180
The Yoido style of Pentecostalism
has all the glitz of a Hollywood
musical from the 1950s.

543
00:53:16,180 --> 00:53:21,060
I was intrigued to meet the man
behind the phenomenon.

544
00:53:26,260 --> 00:53:30,340
Pastor David Yonggi Cho is
now retired but I asked him

545
00:53:30,340 --> 00:53:36,060
about his memories of those early
years when he first began spreading
the gospel message in Korea.

546
00:53:36,060 --> 00:53:41,140
When I went to preach gospel
to the poor people

547
00:53:41,140 --> 00:53:46,620
their suffering was enormous
and many of them
said we don't need any religion.

548
00:53:46,620 --> 00:53:49,540
If you have such a wonderful
heaven, why don't you give up

549
00:53:49,540 --> 00:53:54,500
part of a heaven right now here,
we need a real God who helps us.

550
00:53:54,500 --> 00:53:58,980
So I really prayed to God
and I found out

551
00:53:58,980 --> 00:54:05,460
that in the redemption
of Jesus Christ I could
find a redemption of spirit, life

552
00:54:05,460 --> 00:54:07,780
and physical body.

553
00:54:07,780 --> 00:54:13,900
Jesus Christ was crucified on the
cross redeeming us from sin,
sickness and curse.

554
00:54:13,900 --> 00:54:16,580
So I called that triple

555
00:54:16,580 --> 00:54:21,060
gospel of Jesus Christ
and I began to really build up hope

556
00:54:21,060 --> 00:54:25,820
in the heart of people, that it is
not just religion beyond the death,

557
00:54:25,820 --> 00:54:33,860
but a religion now, here, and that
really moved the heart of the people
to come to the Pentecostal Church.

558
00:54:33,860 --> 00:54:40,420
Does this mean that
salvation will always
lead to worldly success and wealth?

559
00:54:40,420 --> 00:54:46,540
When they are saying that they stop
smoking, they stopped drinking, they
began to save money, they stopped

560
00:54:46,540 --> 00:54:53,780
gambling, they don't waste their
money, naturally by doing that kind
of life they are becoming wealthy.

561
00:55:03,860 --> 00:55:07,460
The Yoido congregation
is one of the most spectacular

562
00:55:07,460 --> 00:55:11,860
faces of evangelical
Protestantism in the 21st century.

563
00:55:11,860 --> 00:55:16,140
So it was interesting
that I heard quite a sober tone

564
00:55:16,140 --> 00:55:20,820
in Pastor Cho's reflections
on his lifetime of success.

565
00:55:20,820 --> 00:55:26,620
But not actually a rejection
of the link between worldly
success and salvation.

566
00:55:34,620 --> 00:55:39,540
Korean Pentecostals are doing what
Christians have always done,

567
00:55:39,540 --> 00:55:46,100
reflect on a host of voices
within the Bible
and make their own choices.

568
00:55:46,100 --> 00:55:51,100
Is it fair to accuse them
of throwing away core values?

569
00:55:51,100 --> 00:55:57,180
On the question of wealth
they'd be entitled to point out
that the New Testament is ambiguous.

570
00:55:59,220 --> 00:56:04,380
Do you reject riches
or work hard and use them well?

571
00:56:04,380 --> 00:56:09,420
Jesus and the Apostle Paul
give you different answers

572
00:56:09,420 --> 00:56:13,380
and Pentecostals may well be a
pointer to the Christian future.

573
00:56:17,500 --> 00:56:24,860
At the moment, they look and sound
like evangelical Protestants, but I
wonder if that's where they'll stay.

574
00:56:24,860 --> 00:56:28,140
This is a religion
blown by the Holy Spirit,

575
00:56:28,140 --> 00:56:31,300
and you never know
where that will end up.

576
00:56:31,300 --> 00:56:36,380
The Spirit
doesn't hide in the pages of a book,
even when the book is the Bible.

577
00:56:38,860 --> 00:56:42,740
Protestantism has come
a long way since the
first Moravian missionaries

578
00:56:42,740 --> 00:56:46,500
were inspired
to go out into the world
and tell others about their faith.

579
00:57:02,820 --> 00:57:07,940
Protestantism succeeded
because it gave a new identity
to people facing new situations.

580
00:57:07,940 --> 00:57:11,060
In the process
it changed as much as its converts.

581
00:57:11,060 --> 00:57:13,100
But a strange thing's happened.

582
00:57:13,100 --> 00:57:16,820
The Protestant faith now faces
its greatest challenge ever, not

583
00:57:16,820 --> 00:57:21,060
from some distant culture but from
the Protestant homeland, Europe.

584
00:57:28,660 --> 00:57:32,540
Today, the mood in Europe seems
full of religious indifference.

585
00:57:32,540 --> 00:57:35,740
Not even hostility,
just indifference.

586
00:57:37,340 --> 00:57:43,140
In my final episode
I want to examine what this will
mean for the Christian faith.

587
00:57:46,020 --> 00:57:48,820
Why does Christianity,
of all major world religions,

588
00:57:48,820 --> 00:57:54,180
question itself in the peculiar
fashion of Western Europe?

589
00:57:54,180 --> 00:57:56,780
Should God be worried?

590
00:58:01,020 --> 00:58:05,140
Why not take part in the Open
University's online survey,

591
00:58:05,140 --> 00:58:08,380
"What does it mean to
be a Christian today?"

592
00:58:08,380 --> 00:58:09,820
At...

593
00:58:13,340 --> 00:58:15,740
And follow the links.

594
00:58:27,060 --> 00:58:30,020
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

595
00:58:30,020 --> 00:58:33,020
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk