Travel Experiences Jeff Barganier: Red River Meeting House

Travel Experiences with Jeff Barganier Red River Meeting House

(If) my people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 2nd Chronicles 7:14: (NAS).

Two “great awakenings” have impacted American history. One occurred about thirty years before the American Revolution, setting the stage for the “Black Robe Regiment” of preachers who led American colonists in the fight against British tyranny.

The second broke out on the American frontier around 1800 during a period of lawlessness and debauchery. Concerned that westward expansion minus the moderating Word of God would lead to America’s demise, Christian evangelists migrated to Southern Kentucky / Northern Tennessee and boldly proclaimed the Gospel. It was during revival meetings at the Red River Meeting House near Adairville, Kentucky north of Nashville that flames of the 2nd Great Awakening were ignited.

As I believe America is in the grip of a satanic cabal and only God can save us from our sad state of lawlessness, delusion and depravity; I decided to go kneel upon the hallowed ground of the Red River Meeting House, as did those who came before us, and pray that America will once again turn back to God.

Cindy and I stopped in Nashville and spent the night at the beautiful, historic Union Station Nashville Yards Marriott Hotel. Next morning, we eased north to Springfield, Tennessee, strolled in the town square and talked with nice folks. Lunch found us at the Public Place Bar and Grill. Packed with locals. Always a good sign. Great burgers and banana pudding, too.

Adairville, Kentucky is a quick drive north of Springfield through stunning fields of grain, corn, tobacco, and what looks like sugar cane. We crossed the Red River along the way. It’s more a scenic creek here. But originates as a Cumberland River tributary upon which Union boats approached Clarksville, Tennessee during the Civil War.

The meeting house is a right turn off Highway 431, then about two miles down Route 663 through a farming community. A left on a gravel road culminates at the Red River Cemetery and Red River Meeting House. Gravestones in the cemetery tell the remarkable story of the people who populated this former frontier, arriving through Philadelphia and Charleston via Virginia and the Carolina’s. Soldiers who fought America’s earliest wars are buried here. A tombstone is inscribed with the 23rd Psalm … in Gaelic. And there’s even the grave of a veteran of Waterloo!

When revival broke out on the frontier, families travelled in covered wagons from great distances and camped for five days to hear preachers with

I’ve learned something astonishing: Frontier believers in the early 1800’s claimed that God had revealed to them the coming of a Third Great Awakening sometime after the year 2000. Clark writes, “… God assured them that another great outpouring would come, and that this time it would be world-wide ... it would be followed by a time worse than anything America had ever experienced. Some of these people had, only a few years before, experienced an Indian war. They said that what would come would make that warfare and those times seem pale by comparison. The horrible times that would follow would come as a judgement on the church of America, for though many would repent and be converted in that awakening, the church as a whole would not change, and the church of

names like that time (today) would be in great McGready, need of repentance. Their sins would McGee be complacency, conformity to the and Hodge. world system, love of money and Presbyterians, material things, and a seeking after Methodists such things, rather than seeking after and Baptists God ... In becoming like the world worked system, Christians of that day would together assure themselves that they were “against the pleasing to God, though they would frontier’s actually be far from pleasing Him.” increasing wickedness” Will people turn back to God? Or will and for men’s the great “apostasy” (falling away souls; and from the faith) precede the Lord’s to turn the soon return? The Apostle Paul wrote: young nation Let no one in any way deceive you, back to the God of the Bible. Thus, this for it (the coming of our Lord Jesus sanctified place represents significant Christ, and our gathering American history, a marker for a great together to Him) will not turn from lawlessness and shame to come unless the apostasy law and order and Biblical truth. It’s comes first, and the man of a serene spot where one senses the lawlessness is revealed, the presence of the Almighty. We certainly son of destruction … 2nd did. Thessalonians 2:2-3 (NAS). On the way home, we stopped in I don’t know the answer to Adairville and visited with Terri Clinard these questions. But either Holliday who owns the Grapevine way, I’m looking up! Antique Store wherein I purchased an interesting book by Glenda Orme In case you’re interested, the Clark titled: “A Table in the Frontier: next Annual Primitive Camp Pioneers, Protestants & the Presence Meeting and Rendezvous of God.” Chronicled in that book, are will be held at the Red River “amazing events and astonishing Meeting House October 14-16, first-hand accounts of the Second 2022. Great Awakening in Kentucky and www.unionstationhotelnashville.com Tennessee.”

Jeff S. Barganier is a novelist, travel writer and manager of Cindy Barganier Interiors LLC (www.cindybarganier. com). He travels far and wide upon the slightest excuse for something interesting to write about. Contact: Jeffbarganier@knology.net. Instagram: @jeffbarganier. You may print out Jeff’s features at www.jeffbarganier.com