Catholic Church Makes Revival Efforts

According to a recent story out of the Washington Post, the Roman Catholic Church - through the growing missions work of the Archdiocese of Krakow - is moving toward the “rechristianization of Europe.” This is not, as it was in medieval times, a political Christianization or en masse conversion of tribes and nations. Rather, through the ordination of ministers and their call to other nations stretching from South America to the Far East, they are making attempts to share the love of Christ to those who do not know it and encourage the faith of those who do.

Revive Us, O LORD, Part VI

When to Expect Revival

We have thus far examined the nature of revival as well as when it is desperately needed - which, in fact, should be quite obvious.  Next, Reverend Finney delves into the topic of knowing when revival is coming.  It is not simply a matter of knowing the right songs ("Revival Fire, Fall&quot or praying the right prayers ("Wilt thou not revive us, O LORD?&quot or even so much as going to the right church ("Yet you still have a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments…").  Finney offers seven major instances when we may know that revival is near:

Revive Us, O LORD, Part V

Recognizing the Need for Revival, Part C 

The fifth case is something quite different from the others.  The “spirit of controversy” has been well-addressed in the Scriptures:

If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. -1 Timothy 6:3-5, ESV

As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work—which is by faith. -1 Timothy 1:3-5, NIV

Revive Us, O LORD, Part IV

Recognizing the Need for Revival, Part B

The third case deals with a "worldly spirit" in the Church.  The terms Finney uses to describe it portray a body of believers that do not appear to be separated from the world.  They are culturally, socially, and behaviorally identical with the world and nothing distinguishes them from any other group or individual.  Thus have they ignored the command of God in various places:

Revive Us, O LORD, Part III

Recognizing the Need for Revival, Part A

In his lectures, Rev. Charles Finney describes, in fact, the idea of revival, its consequences, how to bring it about, and other things verily related to the topic.  In one of the early lectures - pivotal to the rest of the subject - is recognizing when there is a need for revival in the Church.  Finney himself provides a detailed list on those parameters.  Yet, his view is that when a revival is needed, it is also to be expected.  That is a Christian outlook and very much based upon the Scriptures in that we must lay our trust in God to raise up people to do His will in reviving the Church.

Revive Us, O LORD, Part II

Misunderstanding about Revival

Revival, as we have already found, is not a miracle. But there is one other thought that greatly hinders revival: a misconstrual and misapplication of the sovereignty of God. As Finney states in Revivals of Religion,

Revivals have been greatly hindered by mistaken notions concerning the Sovereignty of God. [...] some people are terribly alarmed at all direct efforts to promote a revival, and they cry out: "You are trying to get up a revival in your own strength. Take care, you are interfering with the Sovereignty of God. Better keep along in the usual course, and let God give a revival when He thinks it is best." [...] This is just such preaching as the devil wants And men cannot do the devil's work more effectually than by preaching up the Sovereignty of God as a reason why we should not put forth efforts to produce a revival.

It must be understood that this is not an attack on any interpretation of God's Sovereignty. All true Christians agree on the fact that He is the All-Powerful One. What Finney addresses here is the tendency of some Christians to "leave it to God." A revival only comes with the aid of God and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit but it will not come upon lax hearts. This principle is clearly demonstrated in the Parable of the Talents [Matthew 25:24-30, ESV]:

He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.' But his master answered him, 'You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sowed and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

Indeed, that believer is like he that is spoken of in James 2:14-24:

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe–and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"– and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

Revival, as we shall discover, is closely tied with faith - and faith is closely tied with works. In light of the Scriptures then, God will only bring revival through willing servants. Those who do nothing for the cause of Christ abuse the grace they have been given and are as the servant entrusted with one talent. So, then, the greatest misunderstanding about revival is that it only comes by miraculous intervention by God - when in fact it is inspired by God through the works of men.

Revive Us, O LORD, Part I

Note: This is the beginning of the promised series on revival in the Church based on Charles Finney's Revivals of Religion. This book is highly recommended for everyone and will not conflict much, if at all, with any one denomination's doctrinal stands.

What Is Revival?

A "Revival of Religion" presupposes a declension. Almost all the religion in the world has been produced by revivals. God has found it necessary to take advantage of the excitability there is in mankind, to produce them to obey. Men are so sluggish, there are so many things to lead their minds off from religion and to oppose the influence of the Gospel, that it is necessary to raise an excitement among them, till the tide rises so high as to sweep away the opposing obstacles. They must be so aroused that they will break over these counteracting influences, before they will obey God."

Such does Reverend Finney's first lecture in the series state early on. Although these words were stated well over one hundred years ago, they have a meaningful application for today - when the Church in general is lukewarm, unwilling to stand upon the living and abiding Word of God and to minister through the power of His Holy Spirit. There are many signs of this as I noted over the summer of 2005 - pointing out the abandonment of Israel, the consistent decline in leadership in rejecting homosexuality, the appointment of women to lead whole denominations, and the utter refusal to stand up for life. My brothers and sisters, the Church of today stands at a turning point, a point where it must come back to life and to minister in the
world as a witness to the nations.

Therefore, we must cry out with Habakkuk [3:2, ESV], "O LORD, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O LORD, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy." Jesus Himself is crying out to us that revival should come [Revelation 2:4-5a, ESV]: "But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first." As a matter of fact, if you were read the whole of Revelation 2 and 3, you would find, if nothing else, a Church in desperate need of revival.

But what is revival? We so desperately need it, but how can it come if we do not know what it is? For one thing, as Finney points out, revival is not a miracle. There is nothing about a revival that isn't natural. This might sound counter-intuitive, but bear with me. It is not a miracle for multiple reasons: (1) it is not accomplished through supernatural signs or anything that abrogates the laws of nature, (2) it is accomplished through the work of men, directed by God, and (3) it doesn't demonstrate God's universal power over the physical realm. If anything, it is simply God putting His house in order.

A revival indicates that the Church, overall, is backslidden. A revival, then, is the return of the Church away from those backslidden ways. In reference to Jesus' appeal to the Church, it is returning to the love it had at first. But how is it to be obtained? First, there must be an acknowledgment of sins. Jesus says, "Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen." The very fact that remembering indicates our fall demonstrates this. Second, the Church must be brought to repent. Repentance is basically to turn away from our sins and to turn back to God, as a Body. As Finney says, "a revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God."

What comes after acknowledgment and repentence? The renewal of faith. Their return to the Holy God and to His truth will give them a new brand of zeal and passion for the things of God. There will be a keen sense for the fallen nature of the lost all around. Evangelism, then, becomes a key result of revival. This coincides, again, with the words of Jesus. What was the work that the Church first did? On the day of Pentecost, they were equipped through the power of the Holy Spirit and began to PREACH, to WITNESS, and to EVANGELIZE, the Jews of all nations. Later, they went to the Gentiles and thus did Christianity come out of the backwaters of a world empire to dominate the Western World for the next 2,000 years. That was a powerful force and Christ is calling the Church back to that action.

So the Church would grow; is that all? By no means! It would set the captives free. Christians today are enslaved to materialism, to sin, to the fallen things of the world. A revival in the Church would break their addictions and renew their strength. The cultures themselves will be revived because of the renewal that takes place in the Church. Revival is powerful, it is the Gospel being renewed in the life of the Church and being put out before the world as the "power of God for salvation for everyone who believes."