The Pathway to the Third Great Awakening

Five Things You’ll Learn

1. How modern society’s addiction to dopamine-driven technology is fracturing families and fueling mental health crises.
2. Why big tech’s premeditated harm, enabled by legal protections like Section 230, mirrors historical societal destruction like the Opium Wars.
3. How the Second Great Awakening transformed America through spiritual revival and small, community-driven churches.
4. Why a house church movement, rooted in the Acts 2 model, could spark a Third Great Awakening to restore lasting relationships.
5. Practical steps to overcome tech’s grip and systemic barriers through revival, education, and targeted legal reforms.

Introduction

Society faces a silent epidemic: families are fracturing, with divorce rates at 40-50% in Western nations, and teen mental health issues have surged by 50%. The root cause is a culture addicted to dopamine-driven technology—social media, gaming, and apps designed to hook users on fleeting thrills. This crisis seems hopeless, as tech giants profit while lawmakers, who thrive on the bribes of big tech masked as lobbying, shield them with laws like Section 230. Yet, history offers hope. The Second Great Awakening (1790s-1840s) transformed a morally declining America through spiritual revival, strengthening families and fostering community. A Third Great Awakening, rooted in house church movements and the biblical model of Acts 2, could counter tech’s grip, rebuild oxytocin-driven bonds, and restore cultural stability.

The Hopeless Problem: Society’s Dopamine-Driven Collapse

The Dopamine Crisis

Modern culture is hooked on dopamine, the neurotransmitter behind instant gratification. Social media likes, gaming rewards, and hookup apps deliver quick highs, but these fleeting pleasures undermine lasting relationships. A 50% spike in teen mental health issues and 40-50% divorce rates in Western countries highlight the crisis. This mirrors historical drug crises, like the Opium Wars (1839-1860), where external powers profited by addicting populations, eroding societal fabric for gainIt’s no different from the drug of alcohol and the drunkenness that was destroying America and the American family prior to the Second Great Awakening.  Today’s digital “drug” delivers similar devastation—broken families, rising anxiety, and eroded trust.

Related:

• Vine Seminar: Original Intent of the Church
• The Church is Good but Religion has to GO
• Acts 2:42 Vision: The Church of Acts and the Combine Harvest! “I saw Jesus face to face.” Chris Reed
• Five Keys to Spreading the Gospel: Insights from Steve Addison’s “Movements That Change the World

Big Tech’s Premeditated Harm

Tech companies knowingly design addictive products, akin to “corporate drug dealers,” escaping accountability. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act grants immunity from liability for user-generated content, enabling unchecked harm, with evidence linking tech to a 30% rise in suicide rates and widespread mental health deterioration. Government complicity, seen in tech collaboration during the Arab Spring—where one Egyptian named his son “Facebook” to honor social media’s role—and alleged 2020 “color revolution” tactics, amplifies the problem. Unlike small-time drug dealers, who face years in prison for marijuana, tech giants operate freely.

Cultural and Familial Decay

Society has rejected utilitarian commitment, like India’s arranged marriages with a 1% divorce rate, in favor of instant romantic connection. Historically, marriages were practical, utilitarian—arranged for economic stability or alliances, often between teens before their frontal lobes fully developed (around age 25). Shared life, child-rearing, and intimacy sparked oxytocin, the bonding hormone, fostering love over time. Today’s chase for dopamine-driven sparks ignores this biology, leading to fractured families and societal instability. While low divorce rates in India don’t always mean happier marriages, cultural commitment fosters stability absent in the West.  What history tells us is that doing what is right produces the results that we like.

Related:

• Is It Time to Rethink Church?
• Explosive Church Growth in Cuba; Following Simple Biblical Truth
• Prophesy- Revival Coming to Cuba
• Suffering in Cuba Has Produced Massive Church Growth with no signs of Slowing Down
• Family: God’s Original Intent for the Church – It’s like the Church of Acts: dreams, visions, miracles, healings

Obedience vs. Desires
For thousands of years, society operated through a utilitarian concept of “this is what we do in society.” In America, this was based on biblical principles, producing a great country that, according to some reports, has helped raise as much as 70% of the world’s population out of poverty and helped end World War II. However, in recent decades, starting in the 1960’s, the culture has shifted away from God and His principles, beginning instead to follow their own “desires,” attempting to create a society and life they prefer. Yet, this generation has become the most depressed, lonely, drug-dependent, and isolated in history. It has become clear that chasing one’s own desires—or as James describes them, “one’s own evil desires”—produces only death and yields nothing beneficial for the individual or society pursuing those desires.

Obedience primes the pump of desire. When we consistently do what is right over extended, disciplined seasons of our lives and relationships, it creates a desire to remain in those relationships. This disciplined consistency fosters a bonding that doesn’t come from chasing after the next emotional high but rather from walking through life together, producing oxytocin that bonds you to family and community. It not only bonds you to your family to the point where you’re willing to defend them and lay down your life for them, but similarly, in a society that practices this same principle, history tells us, you’ll be willing to defend that society and nation, even laying down your life for it.

Related:

• House Church or CHURCH that meets in the House: A Big Difference!
• Back to Basics for the Church
• Rethinking Church- Not Us and Them, Just US
• Church is an Organism, not an Organization
• Re -Thinking Church- Vision for the Outside
• Re –Thinking Church Revisited

Systemic Barriers to Change

Systemic issues make reform daunting. Lawmakers, swayed by tech’s $60 million lobbying efforts and others, protect Section 230, benefiting both themselves and corporations. While the Speech or Debate Clause grants Congress immunity to lie on the congressional floor, broadcasted by CSPAN, then picked by media as their legalized lies “being true” eroding public trust. Historical attempts at quick fixes, like Prohibition in the 1920s, backfired, creating organized crime without solving drinking. Legal reforms alone won’t work without a cultural shift, which requires changing “man’s heart” to counter tech’s grip.

The Historical Rescue: Lessons from the Second Great Awakening

Overview of the Second Great Awakening

The Second Great Awakening (1790s-1840s) offers a blueprint. Sparked by moral decline post-American Revolution, bold preachers like Charles Finney ignited revival through impassioned sermons against sin. Church attendance soared, temperance movements cut alcohol abuse, and families strengthened. Small Methodist churches, averaging 20-50 members (up to 200 in cities), fostered intimate, oxytocin-building communities. Outcomes included social reforms like abolition, proving spiritual revival can reshape society.

Parallels to Today

The Awakening’s emphasis on commitment over fleeting passion mirrors the need to counter dopamine addiction. Small, relational churches built lasting bonds, unlike today’s dopamine-driven individualism. Preaching against sin, as Finney did, challenged cultural norms, offering a model for addressing tech’s harm. These intimate settings align with the need to restore families through shared life, not instant gratification.

Related:

• Re-Thinking Church – Stats say it isn’t Working
• Re-thinking Church  
• Re-Thinking Church- Institutionalized, Confined, and Contented?
• Rethinking Church: We made it Up, George Barna
• Re-Thinking Church: God is a God of order but his name is not Robert

Other Historical Examples

The Charismatic Renewal (1960s-70s) echoed the Awakening, emphasizing personal faith and community, with outcomes like stronger families and spiritual renewal. China’s house church movement, with up to 300 million Christians, thrives despite persecution, offering a modern model. These small, resilient networks, averaging 20-50 members like the Awakening’s churches, foster accountability and love, countering societal decay.

The Solution: A Third Great Awakening Through House Churches

Vision for a Modern Revival

A Third Great Awakening could shift culture from dopamine-driven individualism to oxytocin-driven community. House churches, rooted in the Acts 2 model—where early Christians met in homes, shared possessions, and “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42)—could be a key. These small groups, like China’s or the Awakening’s 20-50-member churches, foster love, accountability, and lasting bonds, countering tech’s fleeting thrills.

Key Elements from History

History provides clear elements for revival:

• Mass Gatherings: Large-scale meetings, like Finney’s revivals, inspire collective repentance.
• Bold Preaching: Sermons against sin, as Finney practiced, challenge cultural norms and call for integrity.
• Social Reforms: Address systemic issues, like tech addiction and family breakdown, through advocacy.
• Cultural Discipline: Prioritize long-term commitment over instant gratification, as seen in utilitarian marriages.

Practical Steps

To spark a Third Great Awakening:

• Establish House Church Networks: Create small groups (10—25+ members) for shared worship, teaching, and community, mirroring Acts 2 and China’s model.
• Educate on Biology: Teach communities about dopamine’s fleeting highs vs. oxytocin’s lasting bonds to reframe love and commitment.
• Return to Acts 2: Embrace the early church’s practices—daily fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer—to build oxytocin-driven relationships.
• Preach Against Sin: Follow Finney’s example, boldly addressing tech addiction and cultural decay as moral failures.
• Advocate for Targeted Laws: Reform Section 230 to hold tech liable, regulate addictive design like drug dealing, and avoid Prohibition’s pitfalls.
• Mobilize Public Outrage: Counter tech’s $60 million lobbying with grassroots pressure to demand accountability.

Overcoming Obstacles

Tech’s Resistance

Big tech’s lobbying and premeditated harm are formidable. Tech designers, knowing dopamine’s effects, are more culpable than drug dealers, who face harsh penalties. Potential laws, like RICO or builder negligence penalties, could treat addictive design as a crime, but public pressure is needed to overcome tech’s $60 million influence.  This will not happen by lobbying a politician’s wallet, but by reaching a politician’s heart through a great awakening.

Related:

• “The Church is Not Structural but Organic” Charles Simpson
• Why I Choose to Believe the Bible: A Reflection on Faith and Reason, Voddie Baucham, Greg Lancaster
• CHURCH: What is it and What is it’s Purpose? God’s Original Intent?
• Family: God’s Original Intent for the Church
• Family: God’s Original Intent for the Church – It’s like the Church of Acts: dreams, visions, miracles, healings

Government Complicity

Government-tech ties, seen in color revolution tactics (e.g., Arab Spring, alleged 2020 events), complicate reform. Records show government directing social media narratives, enabled by Section 230. Transparency and repealing this shield could hold tech accountable, but lawmakers’ self-interest resists change.  This too can only be addressed, not by voting in new governmental leadership, but by repentance from sin, and turning back to God’s described way of life.

Cultural Inertia

Countering dopamine addiction requires education on biology—oxytocin builds bonds, dopamine chases thrills. Biblical principles, like Exodus 23:8 (“A bribe blinds the clear-sighted”), inspire moral accountability. Only a heart-level change, like the Second Great Awakening, can overcome cultural inertia.

Conclusion

Tech’s dopamine-driven harm, enabled by Section 230 and lawmakers’ self-interest, is tearing apart families and society, with divorce rates at 40% and teen mental health issues up 50%. Yet, history shows hope. The Second Great Awakening transformed America through spiritual revival, small churches, and bold preaching. A Third Great Awakening, driven by house churches rooted in Acts 2, can restore oxytocin bonds, family stability, and cultural discipline.

Don’t melt your mind trying to figure out how, in the natural, you can turn all this darkness and decay around. Instead, allow all this darkness and sin to melt your hard heart, repent of your sin, and live your life for God and others.

Start Acts 2:42–pattern house churches—communities that meet in homes, share possessions, and devote themselves to the apostles’ teaching (Acts 2:42)—and pair that with demanding legal accountability for tech, preaching against sin, and praying for revival. As God strengthened families after past awakenings, this pattern could be a key He uses to heal today’s broken society.