American history professors in most colleges have popular arranged American history studies, as pre-Civil War and post-Civil War. Then, often many consider post-World War II “The Modern Era.”  This is notable, in that America history has had two major turning points:  The American Civil War and World War II.  It is also quite interesting how chronologically the period between The War for Independence and The Civil War was about 80 years, as also was  the period between The Civil War and World War II. Even to be specific, at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, and at Appomattox on April 9, 1864, and on The USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, America Republic each time entered a new era, as even may presently be happening with MAGA 2.0 that began on November 7, 2028. These four specific dates are connected to: 

1. The American War for Independence with George Washington (1775-1781).
2. The Civil War with Abraham Lincoln (1861-1864).
3. World War II with Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941-1945).
4. MAGA Movement with Donald Trump (2016-2028).

Some have dubbed these four events respectively the beginning of Four Stages or Phases of the American Republic (even Four American Republics, albeit under the same Constitution but with allied Amendments during each period):

1. The First American Republic (1781-1863) [with Amendments 1-12 and 27th proposed]
2. The Second American Republic (1864-1944) [with Amendments 13-21]
3. The Third American Republic (1945-2024) [with Amendments 22-27].
4. The Fourth American Republic (2025-2107??).        

Interestingly, in tandem with these it is very interesting also to note a very telling correlation or chronological parallel with various Great Awakenings notable in American history (with these generally proposed approximate dating): 

1. The First Great Awakening (approx. 1730-1750).
2. The Second Great Awakening (approx. 1790-1855).
3. The Third Great Awakening (approx. 1870-1920).
4. The Fourth Great Awakening (approx. 1960-1980).
5. The Fifth Great Awakening (approx. 2030? on to ?).

One could propose a “chronological interlacement” by interlacing these two sets of historical events, thus:

Five Great Awakenings preparing respectively for Four Intervening American Republics:

(1) The American First Great Awakening (approx. 1730s–1740s) with The Birth of American Evangelicalism preparing for – 

The American War for Independence and The Constitution with George Washington in the  1780s (1775-1791) with the beginning of The First American Republic (1783-1863).

(2) The American Second Great Awakening (approx. 1790–1855) with The Expansion of American Evangelicalism preparing for – 

The Civil War over Abolition with Abraham Lincoln in the 1860s (1860-1865) with the beginning of The Second American Republic (1864-1944).

(3) The American Third Great Awakening (approx. 1870-1930) with The Development of American Evangelical Revivalism preparing for – 

World War II with Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1940s (1941-1945) and later and the Civil Rights movement (1960s) with the beginning of The Third American Republic (1945-2024).

(4) The American Fourth Great Awakening (approx. 1960-1980) with The Predominance of American Evangelicalism preparing for – 

Woke Civil Stife versus MAGA with Donald Trump (2016-2028) with the beginning of The Fourth American Republic (2025-2104?).

(5) The American Fifth Great Awakening (2020s-2030s onward?) with The Resurgence of American Evangelicalism preparing for… 

Christian revivals, called “Awakenings.” have served, as precursors intertwining with political and social changes. Some Four Awakenings have been discerned by many throughout American history with prospects of a Fifth one. In tandem with these are four notable phases or stages of our American republic, that some have dubbed “First American Republic, Second American Republic, and Third American Republic” with prospects of a Fourth one. The intertwining chronology of these two groups of some seven broad events has an interesting interlacement among them with an approximate 80-year cycle in general. This issue of cause-and-effects begs the question.

The First Great Awakening in the 1740s through 1760s challenged monarchial church polity and authority-structures. With an emphasis on personal sin and salvation under the preaching of figures like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, it moved Americans toward more individualism in religious competency, dubbed by some, as “soul-competency,” giving rise to a broader understanding of the freedoms of conscience, religion, assembly, and the press, from which came the birth of American Evangelicalism.  Scholars like John Adams and John Madison and Thomas Jefferson encouraged these things that eventuated into The First American Republic with The Declaration of Independence in 1776 and The US Constitution with its Bill of Rights in the 1790s.

The Second Great Awakening seemed to have shaped American moral values and ideals in the expansion of American Evangelicalism amid the developing of political conflicts spanning the 1790s through the 1840s under the influence of various preachers, such as Charles Finney who encourage practice of the faith. Most notable was the pricking of America’s conscience about slavery in its inhuman issue of violating basic human rights. It fostered a rise in consideration of women’s suffrage and various social reforms. Subsequentially, with The American Civil War (which would never have occurred without the slavery issue) The Second American Republic spanning from about 1864 on to about 1945 developed and paralleled The Third Great Awakening. 

The Third Great Awakening beginning around 1870 on into the 1920s began and continued with a focus on social values and a fair justice system with a growing concern for women’s suffrage. All economic and social strata of American society began to be examined more carefully with a beginning of a more upward social mobility and protections under the law.  Oddly, the Great Depression in the 1930s followed by World War II and its aftermath were an interesting catalyst in some of the various areas of economic and social dynamics, e.g., ethnic, racial, taxes, representation, and populism, with its “baby-boomerism.”  Its aftermath in the 1950s set the stage for The Third American Republic in the late 1940s on into 2010s that saw a rapid, substantial  rise of The American Middle Class with financial security and individual/family mobility. The initial achievements of the civil rights movement with its push toward multiracial pluralism developed into intense political battles over immigration and delineating civil rights with expansions beyond ethnic and racial, and other fundamental societal values with a resurgence of traditional patriotism.

The Fourth Great Awakening beginning in the 1960s on to about the 1980s developed further the focus on personal sin and individual responsibility with the rise of the pro-life and pro-family movements and other moral and social values of Americanism – “The American Way of Life.” This awakening saw the predominance of American Evangelicalism through the second half of the twentieth century. This became a seedbed for our present Fourth Republic that developed in the latter 2020s, where the earlier achievements of the civil rights movement saw a push toward multiracial pluralism. Then, more into the twenty-first century came the current Fourth Republic (2025?) with intense political battles over immigration, civil rights, higher education, and other fundamental societal values developed further, especially in the realm of gender, marriage, and family, even to the point of being redefined.

There is presently somewhat a sense of a converging of conservative moral values and conservative political governing values, which may hold some prospects of the beginning of a Fifth Great Awakening even in the late 2020s on into the 2030s and on.

All of this is not in an effort to be prophetic, but to notice how, if history does not always repeat itself, it does often rhyme. The American church needs to always be praying for Revival in America. We should be like “the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” in 1 Chronicles 12:32 and know what America ought to do.  Our churches, our culture, our society, our governments, our schools, our commerce, our neighbors, and our families are in this together and work together, with our churches being the salt and light for the others in this list.

God is up to something. So, should we, as Americans!!