As time went on, the struggle for the survival of true Christianity throughout the world was composed of successions of religious declensions and spiritual awakenings.

People who had come to America for the purpose of worshiping God according to the dictates of their conscience eventually let slip of their religious fervor. Their spirit of adventure, together with temporal and selfish desires, took pre-eminence in their lives. Likewise the people of Great Britain and other countries who once treasured the truths of God’s Word lost the faith of their forefathers and became indifferent toward spiritual values. Eventually the church became honeycombed with the spirit of worldliness and went to sleep under the influence of sin and apathy. 

The early part of the 18th century was the darkest period since the dawning of the Reformation—a discouraging time for Christianity. The doors of theology began to swing open to Rationalism. “What reason cannot accept need not be accepted” was the cry that came from both the peasant and nobleman. Some of the universities became arsenals of warfare against sacred standards and the faith once held. Infidelity and immorality were dominant partners in their influence against righteousness.