At this time in history, four burdens must be consistently evident in every true remnant preacher: (1) the existence of the apostasy, (2) the urgency of the second coming of Christ, (3) the need of daily communion with God, and (4) the call to the remnant for revival unto the glorious Christ. If amidst his declaration of the Gospel these four areas are not a regular cry from his preaching heart, then he has capitulated to the Neo-Christianity of his times. As the Lord leads in the coming months, perhaps an in-depth presentation of these four burdens would prove to be of spiritual benefit.
In this article the burden of revival comes to the forefront. Thank God, there are a few Fundamentalists who are calling us to this important need. However, we must be careful to understand what type of revival is appointed for us who live in the end time of the last church age in history. In the call for revival, what kind of revival are we looking for and expecting from God?
My dear earthly father, who passed away in July 2000, often told his students that a Christian must always know where he is in the timeline of the Scriptures. One of the great casualties of interpreting Scripture is considering a passage outside its biblical context and apart from discerning the characteristics of one's own times. This problem can readily be discovered in three prominent areas of modern interpretation concerning the Day of Pentecost, evangelism, and revival.
The Charismatics' View of the Day of Pentecost
One of the prominent areas of modern interpretation is found among the Charismatics and their view of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. They are constantly looking to Acts 2 for today's understanding of the "infilling of the Spirit." The Bible does clearly indicate the distinction between being born of the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit. But historically and practically there are two different periods of history in which this "infilling" is to be viewed.
In type and shadow, Deuteronomy 11 expresses these two different periods in the context of the rains promised by God to His people. In Palestine from May to October there basically was no rain. However, when the rains fell from October to May, they fell in three categories: former, winter, and latter rains. The former rains were the showers of October to the first of November. These rains softened the parched ground so that the winter grain could be sown. Then came the winter rains from December to February. The latter rains came in April to ripen the fruit and stay the drought of summer. The "latter" rains were the most valued of the rains; Job described in 29:23 how men used to wait for his words as they did for the latter rain.
A spiritual view of these rains is given to us in Joel 2:23 and 28 with the prophecy that God would send these rains in the latter days. We are told in Acts 2 that the latter days commenced with the coming of Jesus Christ. Historically, this fell on the Day of Pentecost, for Peter declared, "But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel" (Acts 2:16). This was the "former rain" which was given for the sowing of the seed. The sowing of the seed of the Gospel and the planting of the Church commenced with the Day of Pentecost; the Lord sent His Spirit for this planting. We read of this in Acts 2 at Jerusalem, Acts 8 in Samaria, Acts 10 with Cornelius, and Acts 19 with the Gentiles at Ephesus.
The latter rain indicates the time of harvest, the judgment of the fruit. Prophetically this is the End Time of the Latter Days. The seed-time of Acts 2 is now over. In finding our place in prophecy, we must turn to James 5, which speaks of the end-time apostasy.
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient, stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh (vv. 7, 8).
We are prophetically and historically in the latter rain; this is heaven's final preparation of the fruit for harvesting. This period seems to have started around the mid-1800s, and brought with it a deeper understanding of the Second Coming of Christ. (The Fundamentalist Movement was born during this prophetic time period.) Genuine moves of God came throughout the world with an emphasis upon the Holy Spirit and the Christian life as seen in the Northfield conferences of D. L. Moody and the Keswick movement in England.
There were other places of biblical, spiritual moves of God, but counterfeits followed on the heels of these genuine outpourings. One such counterfeit came in 1906 in Los Angeles, California, at Azusa Street. The prominent Charismatic historian Dr. Vinson Synan gives an account of this event in his book The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement:
[There were] physical demonstrations as the jerks and treeing the devil were in evidence in the mission. Before long spiritualists and mediums from the numerous occult societies of Los Angeles began to attend and to contribute their séances and trances to the services (p. 110).
It must be said that while there is a growing, wholesale falling away in the earthly church and its movements, there is a remnant of Christians who know the anointing of the Spirit of God for personal living and preaching, for maturing in sound doctrine, for fruit of the Spirit in character, for prayer, for discernment into the conditions of our times, and for patience in waiting for the catching away of Christ's Bride. We are not at the time of the planting of Acts 2, the "former rain"; but we prophetically are at the end of the "latter rain" outpouring of God's Spirit in the Church (James 5), waiting for the Husbandman to come and harvest His fruit.
The Popular View of Evangelism
Evangelism is another prominent area of modern interpretation that has been separated from its biblical context and a discernment of our present time. Many people read in the book of Acts of the dramatic number of believers and the movements of God believing that the same should take place in our day. Because of this view, a number of good men become discouraged when they do not see this happening in their ministries. Although our principles and message are to be the same, the results may not be so.
The "soul-winning experts" give us this guarantee: follow the principles of the book of Acts, and they will automatically bring the same results. This may not be true, because the times in which we live are different and their characteristics must be taken into consideration. For example (1) at the beginning of the Church there had never been N.T. Christianity before. (2) Although there was a Judaistic apostasy at the time of the birth of Christianity, there was not a Christian apostasy. (3) Christianity was "new wine" being poured into new wineskins (Luke 5:36-39). (4) The Church was pure and fresh then; only one gospel was preached in those early years. (5) God was establishing His Son's Word then, and man knew he was bankrupt naturally. (6) At that time they were not facing or confronting a false Christ or a false Gospel as we are today.
After the existence of two thousand years of Christianity, we are living in a time when the apostasy is Christian apostasy. The Institutional Church has changed its view of itself. It is no longer pure; it now claims a "Neo" Christianity, a new gospel, a new Holy Ghost, and a new Jesus. Man no longer views himself as bankrupt; secular humanism is prospering and man is no longer in need of the Gospel. We are in the times of many false prophets and many false Christs. This truly is a different time and thus the results of evangelism will not be the same. Today the world is accepting a modern Christianity, and it is very hard for the sinner to separate true and false Christianity when the Gospel is presented to him. To the world biblical Christianity is extinct; the public view of Christianity today is Neo-Christianity. Mankind is accepting this false Gospel instead. Only a few are biblically being saved today; most "conversions" that we hear of today are of the Neo-Christianity description.
The Burden for Revival
The concept of revival is a third area that has been beset by modern interpretations. What is a true revival and what kind of revival are we seeking?
To define revival from a simple perspective, it is the periodic restoration of God's people after a time of indifference and decline. Revival is needed often in the Christian's life; we naturally tend to apathy and indifference. Revival is firmly taught in Scripture, and one of the provisions in the Atonement is the ability of Christ to restore our soul (Psalm 23). It is not that the Holy Spirit cannot sustain the Christian; it is simply that human passions tend to wane. There is the proclivity of the Christian to decline from God, not so much in mind but rather in heart. Matthew 25 states that both wise and foolish virgins slept. In Matthew 24 Christ warned of the "abounding of iniquity" and how it would affect our love for God. When man does not go on with God it is the result of selfishness, self-centeredness, and pride. Yet, the Holy Spirit allows it to happen; this should cause us to pray for renewing.
Thus revival is a renewing of the heart and mind for God. It is a quickening, a making alive because some things are dying in the Christian life. In the Hebrew Old Testament, one of the key words for revival is hayah, which means "to live," or "to cause to live." In the Greek New Testament the word anazao means "to live again." The tendency of the Christian is to wane in his affections toward God, to wane in his love for God, and to let elements of the Christian life die. Consequently, there is the need for revival.
It must be declared with firm conviction that revival is a sovereign work of God. Yet there seems to be a pattern in history that God uses to motivate His people's hearts toward the desire for revival. This work of God commences by the stirring of the hearts of a remnant during a time of spiritual depression and apathy, and even when gross sin begins to take over individual lives, congregations, or student body. This burden could also arise from the Lord when the great majority of the professing Christians seem to be no different than those of the secular world. When such a spiritual concern arises from God within an individual or a small group of God's people who are conscious of their sins and backsliding condition, this move of God births within their heart the need to forsake all that is displeasing to Him. Perhaps part of the promptings of their heart will arise through memory or readings, or from recalling the past outpourings of God's grace. They begin to long for such manifestations again.
When this spiritual process begins unfolding in the providence of God, He then begins to raise up a man or men with prophetic insights into the causes of and the remedies to the problems. Their preaching brings fresh understanding to the holy and pure character of God. The standard of holiness exposes the degeneracy of the age and the falling away of professing Christians from the standard of holiness. Under this preaching a remnant of hearts begin to yield. God then begins to grant a reviving and in this reviving comes an understanding and appropriation of higher and deeper spiritual living.
Although often there are some sinners saved, revival is not the same as evangelism. Revival is the word for believers. The greater need today, because of the apostasy of the Institutional Church, is not evangelism but a deeper move of God in revival among God's people. The greatest grief we view today is not the decadence and lawlessness within society but the falling away, the carnality, and the loose and worldly living of the Church! Global apostasy will be known from within the Church, not from without.
Revivals of the Past Versus the Present Need
We must come to clarification about the times in which we live. Past revivals and awakenings in Church history were in differing time periods. When I was a younger man and would read of the awakenings and revivals of history, I longed for God to do the same thing in my day. We read that the revival in Wales at the turn of the twentieth century brought a closing down of all the drinking establishments in that country. Hardened men came to God. Those were days when God was known as God; absolutes reigned in the view of Truth. Distinctions of right and wrong were known then; people knew that God did not tolerate certain things.
Now, however, America has come to believe in a Neo-God, a Neo-Christ, and a Neo-Christianity. Existentialism is the philosophy of our times, denying absolutes and principles. Everything, including God and the hereafter, is now viewed from the pragmatic, relativistic, and dialectic perspective. It is difficult now, even in most churches, to speak of the things of God without the minds of people thinking of Christianity from the perspective of Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, and others. The contemporary definition of the Holy Spirit is defined by such false teachers as Rod Parsley and Oral (and Richard) Roberts. The popular Christianity of today is a mongrelized religion that will never be able to return to a biblical definition. The true Christian must realize that the end-time apostasy has basically destroyed a pure, linguistic and conceptual environment in which to speak of God and the things of the Bible to the average person.
Each of the eight classic revivals presented in Scripture is different. There will be no two revivals manifested alike in history. If an end-time revival is to come to God's people before the Second Coming of His Son (the awakening of the virgins in Matthew 25), it will be similar to the revival in the days of Hezekiah rather than in David's time or Solomon's. The former revival, recorded in II Chronicles 29:3-36, needs to be carefully read.
If Fundamentalism is to see a move from God through revival (and it desperately needs one), it will necessitate an acknowledgment of much spiritual and carnal debris similar to the conditions in Hezekiah's day. Many incidents of neutrality and compromise will have to be dealt with. We have gone so long without a true move of God in our churches that the polished programs and professionalism have taken the place of the Holy Spirit. We are fast leaning into the winds of the Neo-Christianity, and sadly we do not see it. Obvious changes have taken place over the years in the music, in principles, in dress standards, in preaching, in the worldview, in views of apostasy, in broader views of the text of Scripture, in a growing sympathy for Neo-Evangelicalism, and in educational views of accreditation. Some changes may come for freshness sake, but we must be careful that the changes are not compromises and capitulations to the Neo thought and look. Changes of mandate and terminology are in vogue now; the charting of a different course for the future has become what we believe to be our greatest need.
Conclusion
Oh that God would call us to revival. If He does not, Fundamentalism will perish as an honorable movement in the earth in the last days. Evidences are becoming prominent in the loss of the heart of true, inward worship. The grandness of our sanctuaries, our music abilities, the increase of communication skills, and even the increase numerically of our churches have given us a false security and assurance of the presence of God. We have been convinced by the Charismatics that "praise" brings God's presence; it does not. God will accept nothing in the place of a broken and contrite heart.
A Davidic revival is one of glory; the End-time Church is not in such a relationship with God. Christ is on the outside of the Institutional Church knocking, and only individuals are opening the door to Him (Revelation 3:20). We do need a revival in the days of apostasy, the days as those of Hezekiah; but such a revival will be costly. Second Chronicles 29 reveals the great disarray and dissolution that the House of God was in. Such is the case today: so many sins, failures, changes, and damages have taken place that much will have to be repented of. Time has a way of revealing the need of repairs, cleansings, restoring of things, opening of closed doors, etc. But the sobering question is: Will we have the humility to acknowledge it? What will God call upon us to do, to give up, to radically change, yea, to repent of?
May our Heavenly Father send a soul-shaking revival to Fundamentalism as we near His coming; it is our only hope for returning to the historical vision of its founding. It will not be a laughing revival or a shouting revival or one of glory. But it will be one of deep humbling, of repentance, of forsaking the changes that have been made to set us in the direction of Neo-Evangelicalism, of reaffirming our allegiance to personal and ecclesiastical separation, and of our deliverance from those things that have taken the place of a deep love for Christ in obedience. God truly is willing; the question is, "Are we?"