The title of this post is lifted from one of the most influential books I have read in recent years. The book is by Ian Murray (anything and everything he writes is worth reading), Revival and Revivalism. Murray makes a distinction between these two things. The basic distinction is this: God alone brings revival. God alone initiates it, sustains it, and brings it to its end. Humans, however, love to seize upon what God is doing to manage it, manipulate it, and even to make products and profit from it. What God does is revival; what humans do is revivalism. One exalts the sovereignty of God in Christ who moves among us in the power of His Spirit while the other exalts humans and our ability to plan, to produce, and even to prostitute prayer for the purpose of achieving desired outcomes. One is totally unpredictable, like the wind; the other is very predictable, even down to manuals that are written by humans to teach us how to host and have a “genuine” revival. History is punctuated by real revivals brought by God that are inexplicable except by His moving by His Spirit and history is also punctuated by revivals that have been produced by humans. What is common to both it seems, is that revival brought by God and revivalism brought about by humans do not last. They are not intended to last. What is intended to last are the eternal fruits of faithfulness to God and His church that emerge out of genuine revival.
This post is written, of course, in the light of what is taking place at Asbury University. It is also written in the light of what has emerged and is now being experienced on other campuses across our land. What is going on? Is this revival or revivalism? Well, the truth is that only God knows. Time will tell. We shall see. Some say that this is the real thing, an extraordinary move of God. Others say that we should simply continue to rely on the ordinary means of grace in the routine and regulated by the Word of God worship of God on the Lord’s Day. So, where is the truth about what is taking place?
I have not been to Asbury to experience what is going on. I have prayed daily with great gratitude to God for what is happening there and now, on other campuses. But based upon what I have read from people I trust, there seem to be marks here of real revival. First, it came out of a rather routine and ordinary chapel service. The music was normal as was the preaching. Something extraordinary though began to happen. Second, it is marked by repentance and confession of sin accompanied by tears of joy and laughter over the goodness and grace of God. Third, to quote a friend I trust, “there is a solemnity about the movement that is very serious and sacred.” There seems to be a sense of being on holy ground in a holy situation. Fourth, there has yet not been any exerted effort to keep it going as if we could do that anyway and not turn from the light of revival into the dark recesses of revivalism. Fifth, there is an order in the midst of the ardor. One of the most well-known of Baptist historians gave us those two words: ardor and order. He used them of the the differences in Baptist churches that were more Calvinistic and intellectual and those that were more traditional and populated by the “blue collar” folks. The former was known for “order” and the latter for “ardor.” Don’t you think a church should be marked by both? Shouldn’t we be holy before God while being fully happy in Jesus? This seems to be a mark of revival and seems to be present in what is happening in our day.
I want with everything in me to believe this is real. I was saved out of the revival that I didn’t even know was happening in the late sixties and early seventies. Our rather mid-sized church saw four men ordained to pastoral ministry during those days. I was one of them. Nothing like that has happened in that church since then. Revival had come. And revival did not remain. Pray with me that whatever this is that is from God and for God will produce fruit that remains. I have thought for some time as a pastor that many in the millennial and genz generation would be the recipients of a major move of the Holy Spirit to bring revival to our churches. I have thought for some time that they are sick of much of the sick so-called Christianity in our culturally captured churches. So, we who are of the older generations (genx and boomers) should pray hard and long, and watch with joyful enthusiasm whatever it is that God is doing in our day. And we should pray that God would do a new work in our own lives. That is my prayer indeed as I bring this post to an end.