Background of Wheaton College’s Revivals
Beginning from Wheaton College’s founding in 1860, they have experienced numerous periods of revival. Between 1878 and 1895 there were at least ten different reports of revival involving weekly student prayer meetings, special days of prayer and fasting, and the need for specific times for confession.
By the 1930s, the college’s tradition was to hold “special” or “evangelistic” services prior to the beginning of each semester. These meetings were to secure the salvation of any unconverted student who had recently enrolled in the college.
Read of other revivals at Wheaton:
► 1936 & 1943 Wheaton College Revivals
► 1995 Wheaton College Revival
1950 Wheaton College Revival
Tragedy Awakens Concerns about Eternal Matters
The student body at Wheaton took on a heightened awareness of spiritual and eternal realities following a Fall 1949 senior retreat. During this retreat, a very popular member of the senior class, Phyllis Brattland, requested prayer for her parents who were not Christians. Not long after this retreat, the campus of Wheaton was overcome with shock and grief as they learned Phyllis had died in an automobile accident.
Extraordinary Prayer
The mothers at Wheaton Academy, a private high school associated with Wheaton College, united together on Monday, January 30, 1950, to pray for their children in the school. During that prayer gathering, these mothers went to their children and confessed their sins. This created a very powerful movement, and by Wednesday of that week every student at Wheaton Academy had made the commitment to become a follower of Jesus.
Following this outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Wheaton Academy began praying for the students at the college.
Weeklong Evangelistic Service
Following tradition, Wheaton commenced their weeklong evangelistic services on Sunday, February 5, 1950, and after two days, nothing out of the ordinary occurred.
During the Tuesday afternoon service, one of the speakers, Dr. Clarence Hale, professor of Greek, came to the microphone and confessed to having spoken “unkindly” about another faculty member to students. After that public confession and asking to be forgiven, several students became emboldened to do the same. Even so, this did not lead to an outpouring of the Holy Spirit’s conviction power on the entire student body.
On Wednesday night, the president of the college, Dr. Victor Raymond Edman, set aside 10 minutes for testimonials, but they continued through the evening.
The line of students waiting to share was so long that they were invited to sit in the choir loft behind the podium as they waited their turns.
In addition to public confession, there were also faculty and staff on hand to give private counsel to students in smaller side rooms.
Wheaton students during the revival
Examples of Testimonies Given
I want to say this publicly so that those who hear me will know I mean business. I know it’s mostly the fellows who say they have impure thoughts, but girls have them too. And I want to apologize if I’ve ever tempted any of the fellows I’ve had contact with. I know I’ve tried, and I’m sorry.
I have to confess that in the pass I felt undue pride in my membership in the Men’s Glee Club, and tended to look down on members of the Gospel Choir.
I want to apologize for making the faculty the butt of my corny jokes…I want to get something else off my chest: giving thanks for food and then complaining about it.
Twenty-four hours ago, this is the last thing I thought I’d be doing…Last night I looked in my yearbook, and after my name it said baseball is my main interest. I want to say: Christ is my main interest.
A faculty member confessed:
I’ve led a double life. I’ve lived a life of defeat…As you know, I was once a missionary in China. After the war started, I came back. I told people it was because of the war. But it wasn’t…It was because I didn’t want to go on being a missionary…I want you to pray for me so my life will really tell for God.
Spontaneous Prayer and Praise
During the evenings the dormitories and homes the students were staying in experienced spontaneous prayer and praise, as students rejoiced in the freedom they experienced through the forgiveness they received.
One student, Roy Wilbee, wrote a letter to his future wife, telling her of what he experienced with his roommates on Friday morning:
Last night I came home about 1:30 and was going to bed, But I just sat fascinated listening to another student who was saved Thursday morning. He just sat there and it just kept bubbling out. He was one of the group of fellows on the campus who have just been living terrible lives….
► Putting slugs in the college phones.
► Stole athletic equipment.
► Stole meal tickets from the cafeteria.
Revival among Wheaton Students 1,000 Miles Away
Wheaton College’s debate team was in a Florida motel room on Wednesday, February 8, totally unaware of what was transpiring at Wheaton.
Bill Thompson, a senior on the debate team, had this experience during his devotional time while in Florida:
He became overwhelmed with heart searching—knew himself to be critical, hateful, saying things he shouldn’t, conceited. He had to go at once and admit his faults to the other team members. This brought the whole debate team to their knees before God and making things right with each other.
The Chapel Choir, that was on tour through southern states that week, had a similar experience as the debate team.
A female student sharing during the revival
With standing room only, some of the students were in line up to 9 hours waiting to confess and share what God was doing in their lives. Some of the students even came back a second and a third time, not only to confess sins, but to also tell of the changes that were taking place in their lives.
One Hundred Students still in Line
On Thursday morning, February 9, there were about 100 students still in line waiting to share their testimony or confess a particular sin.
There was an air of seriousness to the revival. A Chicago Tribune reporter who was on hand for a story Thursday night wrote:
A reporter who visited the campus arrived with the cynicism of his trade. He remained to marvel at the intensity of emotion and the obvious sincerity of the young students.
A student sharing during the Wheaton College Revival
A Sophomore’s Testimony
Thelma Pugh Krohn’s testimony resembled many of the other student’s testimonies:
► Was stubborn and proud, not feeling the need to confess any sin. She thought she “was pretty good.”
► Conviction of underlining sins began to build as the revival continued.
► The compulsiveness to confess her “pride and willfulness” became so intense that she finally yielded and got in the line with the other students to confess and unload her burden of sin.
Closure of the Revival
As others from the community began to assemble and participate in what God was doing, President Edman decided to bring the students’ time of confession and sharing to a close. This closure occurred at 9:00 Friday morning, February 10, bringing an end to the “38-Hour Marathon.”
The 50 students still in line to share were encouraged to continue, but in a smaller room nearby. That time of testimony continued another 5 hours.
President of Wheaton College
Dr. Victor Edman
Edman’s reasoning for stopping the testimonials was that he felt that the testimonies were matters that should be confessed to God privately and were not for public consumption. He also felt that the testimonies were becoming sensationalized, and that:
outsiders might think the revival had become too showy.
The regular campus schedule, with the startup of classes, commenced at noon on that day.
Weekend Celebrations
On Friday evening, February 10, Pierce Memorial Chapel was filled to capacity. Those assembled enjoyed a tremendous celebration, with the worship and singing continuing till the early hours of Saturday morning.
The voluntary chapel service on Saturday morning at Pierce Memorial Chapel had standing room only.
On Monday, February 13, a final evening of worship was planned, and it was held in the Alumni Gym.
More than 2,300 people packed into the building… An overflow crowd of 300 listened in Pierce Memorial Chapel.
National and International Headlines
National and international newspapers took the story and printed headlines like:
Students and Teachers Quit Classes in Non-Stop Prayer Meeting
Revival Meeting Reaches High Pitch
1, 500 STUDENTS PRAY ALL NIGHT, KEEP ON: Fervor Grips Wheaton Hall
Wheaton College Prayer Meeting Halted After 38 Hour Marathon
Prayer Marathon Ends After 38 Hrs: Wheaton President Halts Demonstration To Prevent Misconception on Outside
College Ends Revival to Avoid Sensationalism
Wheaton College Students End Their 38-Hour Revival Session
President Victor Raymond Edman’s Account
Dr. Edman, president of Wheaton College, made these comments about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that was experienced during that week:
Some have wondered how we could be so long, thirty-nine successive hours in chapel…
If you had been with us, you would have felt the presence and power of God.
When one had met the Lord Jesus in reality, it did not seem long to wait six or eight hours to give one’s testimony.
Results of the Revival
► Upon hearing confessions and testimonies, numerous students were converted, including one of President Edman’s sons.
► Scoffers, including a Chicago businessman and an atheist from the University of Chicago, came to mock, but remained to pray.
► Garrick Utley, a famous television journalist, said that after seeing the Wheaton revival, he’ll never be the same.
► All the jealousies and contentions among the faculty at Wheaton dissolved.
► Thirty-nine percent of the class of 1950 devoted at least part of their lives to full-time Christian ministry.
► One long-term fruit of this revival was the establishment of ELWA Radio Station in Liberia, Africa.
► A psychologist on campus reported that dozens of emotional problems melted away during the revival. One by one his clients came and declared that they were healed.
This psychologist said:
I began to wonder whether the Lord wasn’t rejecting, for me, the idea of psychiatry of any kind. Then I began to get an avalanche of new patients. Most of them under conviction—and in conviction it is possible to get every kind of mental abnormality, as long as they resist.
One student who had scoffed at the revival became beset with a serious phobia—a fear that he might be catching epilepsy. This phobia was the punishment for his scoffing. Secular methods were of no avail. Finally I led him to confess to the Lord…. As soon as he confessed, his phobia left him.
Location of the Services: Pierce Memorial Chapel
Pierce Memorial Chapel now
View inside Pierce Memorial Chapel
Sources
► 42 Hours of Repentance by Time Magazine
► Accounts of Campus Revival by Timothy Beougher and Lyle Dorsett
► Prayer Marathon Ends After 38 Hrs by The Daily Tar Heel
► Wheaton College Prayer Meeting Halted After 38-Hour Marathon by Decatur Herald
► Wheaton College Students End Their 38-Hour Revival Session by The Free Lance-Star
Return to List of Revival Stories
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