Urgent Appeal

The Gathering

A Nationwide Call

Introduction

Seasons of God

Definitions of Revival

An Apologetic for Revival

Clarifications

Cautions

Hope of Revival

Questions and Answers

Gospel of Jesus Christ

Declaration of Intent

An Evangelical Awakening is a movement of the Holy Spirit bringing about a revival of New Testament Christianity in the church of Christ and in its related community. Such an awakening may change in a significant way an individual; or it may affect a larger group of believers; or it may move a congregation or the churches in the city or district, or the body of believers throughout a country or continent; or indeed the larger body of believers throughout the world. The outpouring of the Spirit affects the reviving of the church, the awakening of the masses, and the movement of uninstructed peoples toward the Christian faith; the revived Church, by many or by few, is moved to engage in evangelism, in teaching, and in social action.

Theologian J. I. Packer concurs with this perspective when he writes:

Revival, I define, as a work of God by his Spirit through his Word bringing the spiritually dead to living faith in Christ and renewing the inner life of Christians who have grown slack and sleepy. In revival God makes old things new, giving new power to law and gospel and new spiritual awareness to those whose hearts and consciousness have been blind, hard and cold. Revival thus animates or reanimates churches and Christian groups to make a spiritual and moral impact on communities. It comprises an initial reviving, followed by a maintained state of revivedness for as long as the visitation lasts.

Writing as a senior pastor, and former Old Testament professor, Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. provides a vivid description of revival:

When God rends the heavens and comes down on His people, a divine power achieves what human effort at its best fails to do. God's people thirst for the ministry of the Word and receive it with tender meltings of soul. The grip of the enslaving sin is broken. Reconciliation between believers is sought and granted. Spiritual things, rather than material things, capture people's hearts. A defensive, timid church is transformed into a confident army. Believers joyfully suffer for their Lord. They treasure usefulness to God over career advancement. Communion with God is avidly enjoyed. Churches and Christian organizations reform their policies and procedures. People who had always been indifferent to the gospel now inquire anxiously. And this type of spiritual movement draws in not just the isolated straggler here and there but large numbers of people. A wave of divine grace washes over the church and spill onto the world. That is what happens when God comes.

Revival, by whatever term, appears to be a distinctive and recurring pattern in God's work with His people. Church historian Dr. Richard Lovelace observes that God's predisposition is always toward revival: "The great theme of Scripture is God's recovery of an apostate people." Yale scholar Kenneth Scott Latourette, in his seven-volume work on Christian history, observed that there were "ebbs and flows" of the Christian movement over the past 2,000 years that invariably issued out of seasons of spiritual awakenings.

More importantly, the Bible itself contains revival narratives, revival prayers, revival predictions, and revival principles. Thousands of verses deal with the promises of God for revival, the ways of God in revival, the manifestations of God during revival, the impact of God on His people out of revival, the personal and corporate dimensions of revival, and, ultimately, the centrality of Christ throughout any revival. Although the theme is set forth under both the Old and New Covenants, in the latter there is a much greater range of God's work in revival because it is now secured, mediated, and expanded through the finished work of the ascended Christ.

From one perspective, revival is where all the purposes of God ultimately end up. The last two chapters of the book of Revelation describe what some have called the "Final Revival," of which every other season of revival is a prototype. Every historic revival is, in a sense, an "approximation of the Consummation"—that is, an intermediate expression, or a preliminary but substantial demonstration, of Christ's Kingdom in all of its glory. It is a dress rehearsal, if you will, of the climactic "renewal of all things" that transforms heaven and earth when Jesus returns.

That being said, in time and space and history, revival comes according to patterns generally revealed throughout the Scriptures and church history. As a result, a number of terms have emerged to delineate various facets of biblical revival. These include:

Whatever the term or metaphor, most would agree that revival is a season when God mercifully turns away His judgments from the Church, deserved because of her lukewarmness and disobedience. Instead, God moves to comfort and restore her, to intensify, accelerate, deepen, and extend the work of His Son in and through her.

Latourette's metaphor describes revival epochs as waves of the sea washing up the shore as the tide comes in. Implied in that picture is the fact that there are episodes of advance and recession throughout the history of God's people--cycles, some call them.

This is not to suggest some kind of arbitrary interpretation that causes previous awakenings to limit or predetermine our expectations of the steps God might take in some future outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We can never put God into some kind of a "revival box."

Yet seasons do unfold, and patterns can be seen. Why have cycles of revival been required through the ages?

Again, our consideration is with corporate revival rather than personal revival. Most agree it is possible for an individual believer to live in continuous renewal, or "revivedness" (Packer), even if the Christian community around him is in spiritual recession.

But regarding corporate revival, there are at least five reasons for the cycles or waves:

1. Spiritual gaps, as a new generation rises up that does not know Christ in the depth and intensity of former ones.
2. Previous blessings, which have, over time, fostered a sense of self-satisfaction and complacency in the body of Christ.
3. Theological neglect, that has permitted imbalances and divergences that diminish or obscure our vision of who Christ really is as well as our theological precision.
4. A new era of expansion, when the re-awakening of the church is related primarily not to God's rescuing her from judgments, but to God's intention to reactivate the church for new advances of the Gospel in our communities, throughout a nation, and among the unreached peoples of the world.
5. God's sovereignty— Sometimes there is no other apparent explanation except that God chooses to do so for the glory of His Son simply because He is God.

Preeminently, all true revival is about God bringing glory back to His Son by the power of the Holy Spirit through His church. Between the Ascension and the Consummation, this is one of the most strategic activities of the Holy Spirit. In fact, corporate revival necessitates Trinitarian activity: Father-initiated, Spirit-driven, Son-centered.

Yes, biblical revival is supremely Son-centered--it is utterly Christ-dominated. Some have even called it a "Christ-awakening." We can only think rightly about revival when we think rightly about Christ's place in revival. He is the criterion by which we define it, measure its legitimacy, and vindicate its impact.

This is the heart of the consensus we seek. Further, our collaborations must coalesce around Christ. Any spiritual experience, whether called revival or something else, that diminishes Christ, bypasses Him, or actually leads away from Him, is not of God and holds no hope for any generation.

Fundamentally, revival is an awakening to all that Christ already is for us. Saint Irenaeus said: "Christ brought us every newness by bringing us Himself." In the same way, in revival God does not make new things. Rather, He makes things new. He does this by reintroducing us to Christ who stands at the epicenter of His renewing purpose among the nations. As said earlier, in revival God accelerates, intensifies, deepens, and extends the newness that Christ secured for us. Revival increases our capacity to express this newness and to minister it to others. In revival God invites the church into more of who Christ is for us, even as we invite Christ into more of who we are for Him.

After all, Scripture's revival promises were secured for us by the cross of Christ. The cross marks the most decisive moment in God's ongoing commitment to "the recovery of a backslidden people." Everything that revival brings has been bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus. In addition, the message of the cross exposes, rebukes, and replaces every false hope on which the church might depend, giving us the greater hope of God's inexhaustible and unconditional renewing grace. The cross acts as a hinge to open the floodgates of God's reviving bounty for any generation of His people.

Four Christological tests of the legitimacy of anything calling itself "revival" might be applied:

Existential — God's people? Does it give evidences of His lordship over peoples, institutions, and the Powers of Darkness? Does the Holy Spirit have greater freedom to manifest the ministries of Christ among His people? Ethical — Does it multiply evidences of Christ-likeness throughout congregational life? For some, does it increase a spirit of daily repentance or efforts at racial or denominational reconciliation? Ecclesiastical — Does it sharpen and empower the life and work of a local congregation in such things as worship, teaching the Word, prayer, spiritual gifts, love for one another, and outreach with the Gospel? Eschatological — Does it appear to be, in principle, a reflection of the Final Revival; that is, an approximation of the Consummation? Does it reinvigorate the Church to work toward the End by spreading the Gospel in ministries of social reform, compassion to the poor, justice, reconciliation, community transformation, as well as the many facets of global missions?

In conclusion, whether revival is chronologically near or not, we can be certain the Holy Spirit always keeps it Christologically near. To use another term, revival is about arrival--when, through the Spirit, Christ shows up afresh (as it were) to invade His church, to capture and conquer us anew, to re-energize us with His eternal purposes, and to take us with Him to fulfill them more fully than ever. No wonder the 18th century New England Puritans called corporate revival, quite simply, "the manifest presence of Christ."

As noted above, a general pattern in biblical revival, observable throughout church history, highlights this dominance of Christ in all revival. The pattern might be outlined in this manner:

• Realization: Revival desired. A people alerted to seek more of Christ.
• Preparation: Revival sought. A people repentant and ready to receive more of Christ.
• Manifestation: Revival received. A people confronted and changed by more of Christ.
• Consecration: Revival applied. A people devoted to live more for Christ.
• Revitalization: Revival absorbed. A people enlivened to express more of Christ in all of life.
• Penetration: Revival unleashed. A people actively sharing more of Christ by word and by deed.
• Expansion: Revival fulfilled. A people taking more of Christ to the nations.

Revival is utterly Christological. Along with the views of Orr, Packer and Ortlund above, other working definitions that capture this might include:

Whatever definitions we create, those who have lived in a season of revival record three consistent, Christ-honoring dimensions: (1) In revival God gives His people a renewed focus on Christ's person. As a result, (2) we experience together in new ways the fulness of Christ's life within the Church. (3) All of this presses us into new involvements in the fulfillment of Christ's mission, both where we live and among the nations.

Whatever definition one may favor, it appears that in the end, revival is Christ!