The Religious History of Marietta in the Nineteenth Century

The first effort to establish Christianity in Marietta did so under the rubric of the Congregational churches in the late 1700s, and those involved considered themselves to be the heirs of the Protestant Reformation. However, John Nevin (1803-1886) convincingly argued during the very period covered by this history that the Protestant Reformation had abandoned some of its most important doctrines and principles within a century of its founding, by the mid-1600s. Could this actually be true? Whether it was true then or not, it is most certainly true today.

If we are looking for a reason that America and/or Marietta did not fulfill their responsibility for being a proverbial city on a hill, we must seriously consider the possibility that the vision of that destiny in the minds of American Christians is not the vision of that destiny in God’s mind. It is not only possible that the American vision of Christianity has fallen short of the biblical model, but—given God’s promises and His faithfulness to His commitments—it must certainly be admitted that such is in fact the case. And even more distressing is the realization that, if the vision of the founders was flawed, then so is the vision of those who have followed them.