Office Hours: The Great Disappointment, Graham Crackers, And American Religion

Office HoursNineteenth-Century American religion was wild and wooly. It began with an outbreak of Pentecostalism and concluded with the death of Dwight L. Moody and the beginning of the end of Old Princeton. In between saw the rise of Mormonism, the Second Great Awakening, the Millerite Movement, and Seventh-Day Adventism. Dr Marcus McArthur is a graduate of Westminster Seminary California (MA, Historical Theology) where he began researching the Millerite Movement. He did his PhD on American religious history at St Louis University. He teaches the history of American Presbyterianism at WSC.

There is a great deal to be learned by seminary students about American history and especially its religious history that is not widely known or understood. Much of what many American evangelicals take for granted as ordinary Christian doctrine and practice is, in fact, the product not so much of Scripture and ancient Christianity as it is nineteenth-century developments.

Here is the episode.

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    Post authored by:

  • R. Scott Clark
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    R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.

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2 comments

  1. Enjoyed the episode, thanks. Now you have me wondering what the original graham crackers tasted like.

    • I had some recently that were supposed to be authentic, original Graham Crackers. They have definitely changed. I ended up mixing them with cereal. They weren’t bad that way but by themselves, they would be an acquired taste. They might, however, help achieve Graham’s goal of mortification of the flesh. A little Presbyterian monasticism.

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