How Camp Meeting
Extravagancies and Disorders
Relate to the Heresy of Decisional Regeneration

An 1800's Presbyterian Sacramental Meeting (later called a Camp Meeting)

In the early 1800's, the Presbyterian Church in America had a problem. Princeton Theological Seminary and other Presbyterian universities had promoted Scottish Common Sense Realism to the point it had replaced New England Theology as the premier theory of how people get saved.

It had become politically incorrect to believe salvation was a miracle of supernatural regeneration and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The new theory was people were saved when Scripture was quickened in their minds to the point they reached a tipping point of the understanding, at which point they were seen as converted and regenerate.

Presbyterian ministers were taught the verbal restrictive theory which held that the Holy Spirit could no longer act immediately on sinners and saints, so the strange occurances at the Presbyterian Sacramental Meetings, which for hundreds of years been understood as the result of what happens when the Holy Spirit acts immediatly on sinners and saints, had to be discredited as animal exercises and mass hysteria.

This was not the first time miracles had been discredited. John Witherspoon wrote the Blacksmith Letter, railing against the strange appearances at Presbyterian Sacramental Meetings in Scotland. If you want to read an excellent book on the subject of the long history of Presbyterian Sacramental Meetings, please read Holy Fairs: Scotland and the making of America Revivalism by Leigh Eric Schmidt.

It was Witherspoon who brought Scottish Common Sense Realism to America in 1768. It was Witherspoon who taught it so well, by 1830, Scottish Common Sense Realism had replaced New England theology as the premier salvation theology.

Here is an excerpt from The History of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky by Robert Davidson. When Davidson wrote this in 1847, he knew these "extravagances and disorders" had been happening at Presbyterian Sacrametal Meetings for hundreds of years in Scotland, including one attended by George Whitefield.

EXTRAVAGANCES AND DISORDERS

The reign of enthusiasm having fairly commenced, its progress was, very naturally, marked by a variety of evils and extravagances, which tended to the injury of the revival, and the disgrace
of religion. Among these may be enumerated: An undue excitement of Animal Feeling ; disorderly proceedings in Public Worship; too free communication of the Sexes; the promulgation of Doctrinal Errors; and the engendering of Spiritual Pride and Censoriousness.

I. The undue excitement of Animal Feeling.—The extravagances witnessed under this head were of the most extraordinary nature, and open a new chapter in the history of the human mind. As they will be found to merit the attention both of the Psychologist and the Physician, it will be proper to give a full account of the phenomena, with such facts and statements as may serve to explain the cause and mode of their occurrence.

These phenomena constituted a species of that "bodily exercise" which, in the judgment of the great apostle, was of such little profit, but, in the superior days of New Light, was exalted into an unequivocal token of the Spirit's influence, if not an indispensable evidence of grace. The Bodily Exercises were familiarly known at the time, and since, by significant names, and may be
classified as follows, viz:

1. The Falling Exercise, 2. The Jerking Exercise, 3. The Rolling Exercise, 4. The Running Exercise, 5. The Dancing Exercise, 6. The Barking Exercise, 7. Visions and Trances.

1. The Falling Exercise.—The earliest instances of the Falling Exercise occurred, as before stated, in one of Mr. McGready's congregations, in the Green river country, whence it was rapidly
propagated through Tennessee, Upper Kentucky, and even as far as the Carolinas. After exhortations of a stimulating and rousing character, especially if tender and pathetic, calculated to enlist deeply the feelings; or during spirited and lively singing, and when the body was exhausted by copious weeping; one and another in the audience, sometimes to the number of scores, would suddenly fall prostrate on the ground, and swoon away.

No sex or age was exempt; the young and the old, men as well as women, fell; even large, robust young men, of the age of twenty; and, one day at Cane Ridge Camp-Meeting, it was remarked that nearly all who fell were men.

Some fell suddenly, as if struck with lightning, while others were seized with a universal tremor the moment before, and fell shrieking. Piercing shrieks were uttered by many during the whole period of prostration, intermingled with groans, cries for mercy, and exclamations of "Glory! glory to God!" If the assembly were languid, a few shrieks, and instances of falling, quickly roused them, and others would begin to fall in every direction.

Many were admonished of the coming attack by a pricking as of needles in the extremities, such as one experiences when the circulation of the blood is impeded, or a limb is benumbed. They complained also of a deadness or numbness of body, and found themselves, to their surprise, powerless to move at the bidding of the will. There were some who talked to Mr. Lyle of a sweet feeling darting through the body, preceding the falling down; but he has given no specific information in regard to the nature of this feeling. In general, there was no complaint of pain, but only of great weakness, both during and after the paroxysm; and it was observed, that a person who had fallen once was predisposed to fall again, and that, under circumstances, and exercises of mind, by no means extraordinary.

Women had their nerves so weakened by the frequency of these attacks, as to fall while walking to or from the meeting-house, engaged in narrating past exercises, without any uncommon emotion,
and to drop from their horses on the road. In this condition the subject would lie from fifteen minutes to two or three hours; and we are even told of a woman lying without eating or speaking, for nine days and nights.Some were more or less convulsed, and wrought hard, in frightful nervous agonies, the eyes rolling wildly; but the greatest number were quite motionless, as if dead, or about to expire in a few moments. Some were capable of conversing, others not.

The hands were cold, accompanied generally with a weak, low pulse. Sometimes the pulse was higher and quicker than usual. A woman who had been exhausted by exhorting a long time, had the veins of her neck much swelled. Another who played a frequent and conspicuous part in the exercises, had her breast much swollen. The face was sometimes pale, sometimes flushed pale red, sometimes it was pale yellow, or of a corpselike hue. The breathing was hard and quick, even to gasping.

The nerves were weakened and tremulous, so much so as to render it difficult to feel the pulse; the sinews were generally corded, as in nervous complaints, and after heat and relaxation; rarely cramped. In one instance, a woman's hands were so cramped as to require the assistance of others to open and straighten them.

In the hysterical or convulsed state, there would be sometimes a kicking or drumming of the heels on the floor, with frequency and force, so as to be heard at the distance of several yards;
sometimes a convulsive bouncing of the body on the floor, so as to make a loud noise; sometimes a prancing over the benches before falling.

During the syncope (temporary loss of consciousness), and indeed even when conscious, and talking on rehgious topics, the patient was insensible of pain. Vinegar and hartshorn (ammonium carbonate) were applied with no perceptible effect. Mr. Lyle having been furnished with a vial of hartshorn by Dr. Warfield, applied it to a stout young man, who was lying flat on his back, and, inadvertently, let some run into his nostrils; but he took not the slightest notice of it, so much was his attention absorbed by devotional feelings.

Neither did such as fell, nor such as tumbled over, and struck a stump or a tree, sustain any
injury from the concussion. It was while in the state of syncope that the visions and trances, shortly to be described, occurred.

The numbers affected in this singular manner were astonishing. At Cabin Creek Camp-Meeting, May 22, 1801, so many fell on the third night, that, to prevent their being trodden upon, they were collected together, and laid out in order on two squares of the meeting-house, covering the floor like so many corpses.

At Paint Creek Sacrament, 200 were supposed to have fallen; at Pleasant Point, 300; but these accounts are beggared by the great meeting at Cane Ridge, August 6, 1801, when 3,000 were computed to have fallen.

2. The Jerking Exercise.—Swoons and convulsive falling had not been without precedent. They have been recorded as occurring in the days of Wesley, Whitefield, Edwards, the Tennants,
and Blair, as well as at Cambuslang and Kilsyth, and examples are not infrequent in the meetings of the Methodists and Cumberland Presbyterians, at the present day. But the phenomenon now to be described was something far more extraordinary, and altogether without precedent in Christian lands. It was familiarly called The Jerks, and the first recorded instance of its occurrence was at a sacrament in East Tennessee, when several hundred of both sexes were seized with this strange and
involuntary contortion. The subject was instantaneously seized with spasms or convulsions in every muscle, nerve and tendon.

His head was jerked or thrown from side to side with such rapidity that it was impossible to distinguish his visage, and the most lively fears were awakened lest he should dislocate his neck
or dash out his brains. His body partook of the same impulse and was hurried on by like jerks over every obstacle, fallen trunks of trees, or in a church, over pews and benches, apparently to the most imminent danger of being bruised and mangled.

It was useless to attempt to hold or restrain him, and the paroxysm (a sudded spasm) was permitted gradually to exhaust itself. An additional motive for leaving him to himself was the superstitious
notion that all attempt at restraint was resisting the Spirit of God.

The first form in which these spasmodic contortions made their appearance was that of a simple jerking of the arms from the elbow downwards. The jerk was very quick and sudden, and followed
at short intervals. This was the simplest and most common form, but the convulsive motion was not confined to the arms, it extended in many instances to other parts of the body. When the joint
of the neck was affected, the head was thrown backward and forward with a celerity, frightful to behold, and which was impossible to be imitated by persons who were not under the stimulus.

The bosom heaved, the countenance was disgustingly distorted and the spectators were alarmed lest the neck should be broken.f When the hair was long, it was shaken with such quickness,
backward and forward, as to crack and snap like the lash of a whip. Sometimes the muscles of the back were affected, and the patient was thrown down on the ground, when his contortions for some time resembled those of a live fish cast from its native efement on the land.

The most graphic description we have is from one who was not only an eye-witness, but an apologist. He says, " Nothing in nature could better represent this strange and unaccountable operation, than for one to goad another, alternately on every side, with a piece of red hot iron. The exercise commonly began in the head, which would fly backward and forward, and from side
to side, with a quick jolt, which the person would naturally labor to suppress, but in vain; and the more any one labored to stay himself, and be sober, the more he staggered, and the more his
twitches increased. He must, necessarily, go as he was stimulated, whether with a violent dash on the ground, and bounce from place to place like a football, or hop round, with head, limbs and trunk twitching and jolting in every direction, as if they must inevitably fly asunder. And how such could escape without injury, was no small wonder to spectators

By this strange operation the human frame was commonly so transformed and disfigured, as to lose every trace of its natural appearance. Sometimes the head would be twitched right and left, to a half round, with such velocity, that not a feature could be discovered, but the face appear as much behind as before; and in the quick progressive jerk, it would seem as if the person was transmuted into some other species of creature. Headdresses were of little account among the female jerkers. Even handkerchiefs bound tight round the head, would be flirted off almost with the first twitch, and the hair put into the utmost confusion; this was a very great inconvenience, to redress which the generality were shorn, though directly contrary to their confession of faith.

Such as were seized with the jerks, were wrested at once, not only from under their own government, but that of every one else, so that it was dangerous to attempt confining them, or touching them in any manner, to whatever danger they were exposed; yet few were hurt, except
it were such as rebelled against the operation, through willful and deliberate enmity, and refused to comply with the injunctions which it came to enforce.

From the universal testimony of those who have described these spasms, they appear to have been wholly involuntary. Thus they have been represented by McNemar in the passage just cited. This remark is applicable also to all the other bodily exercises.* What demonstrates satisfactorily their involuntary nature is, not only that, as above stated, the twitches prevailed in spite of resistance, and even the more for attempts to suppress but that wicked men would be seized with them while sedulously guarding against an attack, and cursing every jerk when seized. Travellers on their journey, and laborers at their daily work, were also liable to them.f Instances have been given of men concealing whips on their persons, with the intention of using them upon the subjects or advocates of these contortions, who have themselves, to their great surprise and horror, been suddenly seized in a similar manner, and their whips have been violently jerked out of their hands to a distance. A young man, the son of an elder, who was a tanner, feigned sickness one Sabbath morning, to avoid accompanying the family to a camp-meeting. He was left alone in bed, with none others in the house but a few black children. He lay some time, triumphing in the success of his stratagem, but afraid to rise too soon, lest some one might be accidentally lingering and detect him. As he lay quiet with his head covered, his thoughts were naturally directed to the camp-meeting, and fancy painted the assembled multitude, the public worship, and individuals falling into the usual spasmodic convulsions. All at once he found himself violently jerked ou

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