The Third Generation

The generation that lived through the Great Depression and fought in World War II was also deeply affected by the Pentecostal revivals that swept through the United States from the 1920’s. It was this generation, whom I will call the first generation, which sent its young men to defeat Nazi Germany and the Imperial Empire of Japan.

A mighty move of the Holy Spirit was active when some 12 million American soldiers returned from the war and millions of them came to Christ through the Billy Graham crusades, the tent revivals of Oral Roberts and A.A. Allen, the healing meetings of Kathryn Kuhlman, the conventions by Demos Shakarian’s Full Gospel Businessmen International Fellowship, thousands of Baptist and Pentecostal evangelists, and on the college campuses by Youth For Christ and Bill Bright’s Campus Crusades.

THE BABY BOOMERS
When the American soldiers returned from war, millions of them married, some of them had to postpone being married. Something unusual takes place after a major war; more babies are born than normal. If we look through history it is a phenomenon that has been repeated for thousands of years and it is an act of God, when He replaces soldiers and civilians who have died in war. Thus the children born after 1945 and up to 1960 became known as the “baby boomers.”

The baby boomers were the second generation and led a completely different life than their parents. The economy was in high gear after the war and millions of couples purchased homes in the sprawling suburbs that sprouted up all over the United States. The first generation could afford to purchase automobiles, and in the early 1950’s, television became a staple in every home in America. As the second generation became teenagers, Hollywood and the music industry took advantage of the fact that they had money to spend. Drive-in movie theaters became popular and rock-n-roll swept the nation.

This second generation was raised on television and became bored with church; the result was a rash of teenage pregnancies, increased use of alcohol and nicotine, and the beginning of the drug epidemic.

Then came the Vietnam War (1962-1975) which affected 2.7 million men and their families when they came home traumatized from the horrors of war, drug addicts and strung out on sexual perversions since the government entertained them during the breaks in fighting at the whorehouses of Vietnam, Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand. Nearly 10% of the baby boomers spent at least a year in the meat grinder war in Vietnam. More than 50,000 were killed and the suicide rate among the survivors from the war was higher than those who had been killed on the battlefield.

In the late 1950’s the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) introduced LSD to young people around the United States. LSD was the drug of choice when the hippie movement began in the late 1960’s. It seemed like most of the young people were going to be destroyed, but God intervened with a mighty awakening that became known as the Jesus Movement. Hundreds of thousands of hippies were saved, baptized in water and filled with the Holy Spirit. Los Angeles was the point of origin and Chuck Smith was the pastor who had the vision and wisdom to reach out to these young Christians. The Calvary Chapel denomination came out of this great move of God.
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From the Desk of John Torell
April 19 2015

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