by Rick Frueh from the Cot ComboxWe have constructed our own evangelical tower of Babel which in the end leads nowhere. We have mixed the holy with the profane. We have become a wild ass, running and frolicking without any restraint. We have jumped the fences of the Lord and we are grazing in the pastures of the heathen.
We dine at Hollywood's trough on Saturday night and lift up dirty hands on Sunday. Our church buildings are our glory and our prayer closets are our shame. We worry about the economy but sleep well while souls perish. We make celebrities of preachers and show disdain for praying grandmothers.
We herald politicians and refuse to preach Christ on the street. We criticize lost sinners but speak well of the harlot church. We have become prisoners of America's hedonism and yet we proclaim we are free.
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: We are in desperate need of a massive and church shaking revival that breaks our earthen vessels...
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19 comments:
Revival is not what is needed, what is desperately needed is true biblical repentance. Even men like Rick Warren distort true biblical repentance. To Warren, repentance basically means to change your thinking, change the way you think, more like in the power of positive/possibility thinking and positive confession sort of stuff as taught by men such as the late Norman Vincent Peale and presently Robert Schuller. Even though the root Greek meaning of the word repentance is "change of mind" and Rick Warren mentions that, biblical repentance is way and beyond just a mere change of mind. Bob DeWaay has a couple of good essays on that here titled "Repentance and the Universal Call of the Gospel." Biblical repentance is a way of life isn't it? Some times, repentance is moment by moment isn't it, on a daily basis?
The LORD Jesus Christ's message was not one of revival but of repentance wasn't it?
As far as I can tell, "revive" or "revival" is not mentioned once in the New Testament. Yet repentance is the very first thing the LORD Jesus Christ proclaimed. True?
The 16 million Southern Baptists 40-Day Prayer Vigil for '08 Election and revival is not going to bring about revival. You cannot have revival without repentance first. And there is much repentance needed within the the professing church including the Southern Baptist denomination. And the church is riddled with the leaven of false teaching and Scripture twisting everywhere you look these days. And you cannot have true biblical repentance unless the true biblical Gospel is preached and proclaimed first, from the roof tops if necessary.
It is a lie to say there are 16 million Southern Baptists isn't it when apparently only six million or so Southern Baptists actually attend church? Or do the other 10 million Southern Baptist now attend another church or even home church and so forth? Many Southern Baptists fiddle the numbers about how many Southern Baptist there actually are don't they?
There are so many out there that hate and despise Reformed Theology, nicknamed Calvinism by many, and who misrepresent and distort Reformed Theology/Calvinism every chance they get. How can revival come about when that is constantly going on? I see professing Christians expressing their hatred for Calvinism/Reformed Theology all over the place yet will defend to their death their view of an autonomous free will. The false belief that the human will is free to choose God even while they are slaves to sin and dead in their trespasses and sins. They have a view of free will that embraces Arminian errors.
What about the holiness and the fear of God these days. Where is that to be found? What about men and women who truly tremble at God's word, where are they to be found? I think there are more that tremble at God's word in there own homes than those that attend any given denomination on any given Sunday or when ever. I think there is more holiness and awe of God in Christian homes than there is in much of the visible professing church world wide.
For example does the Anglican denomination need revival? I think it is in desperate need of true repentance.
Douglous
When I speak of revival that also includes repentance. THAT is what this plea is all about... repentance - smashing the cisterns of our own devising and a return to the Lord and biblical Christianity once again!
Thanks for your comment.
Steve
Thanks again Steve, you keep these awesome posts coming!!
I appreciate you sounding the alarm.
I pray God would remove the veils and hinderances in our lives.
On my knees I seek the welfare of Zion!!!
Imagine if the whole church, worldwide, repented in literal sack cloth and ashes, revival would surly follow after that. Every one would be freaking out and trembling in their boots. It would be like a massive Isaiah 6 experience all over again I reckon. We certainly need something like that.
Instead of professing Christians promoting and defending occultic martial arts, karate, etc., etc., and such stuff, cage fighting, UFC and so forth, they would be exposing those evil, wicked, fruitless deeds of darkness. But sad to say many are blind to the demonic behind it all. There is a real and ever present spiritual blindness all over the place.
Steve, what really is biblical repentance and how does one call for repentance? How does one teach on the subject of repentance? How does one learn more about what repentance truly is? What are the mechanics of repentance? How does one repent? Can someone repent before they are born again?
Is this what revival is:
THEOLOGY OF REVIVAL
I like this definition from in there by this bloke: "the work of the Holy Spirit in restoring the people of God to a more vital spiritual life, witness, and work by prayer and the Word after repentance in crisis for their spiritual decline." Earle Cairns
I appreciate nearly all that you do Bro. You are a blessing for the Body of Christ.
Evan Roberts was a gangly and unattrative young man who was driven to seek the Lord with all his heart. In his twenties, people could not understand where his anointing came from until it was discovered how much secret time he spent minitering to the uneseen as opposed to minitering to the seen.
The Welsh revival shook the entire country. Weeks after the revival hit, the coal miners started to notice a strange phenomenon. The coal ponies that pulled the underground carts would not obey many of the commands. After several weeks it became evident that many of the coal miners had been converted, and the cursing laced commands that they used to shout started to become less vulgar and without swearing and the ponies had to be retrained.
I would lovingly agree with Douglas except in this. Everyone knows my disgreements with reformed theology, however we have much theology in common. And when it comes to repentance followed by revival or awakening, we should be as one, since God desires to break the hearts of Reformed and Arminian together without respect of persons.
And you are correct, Douglas, the tortured revival programs set forth by denominations are usually for show and organization rather than a true and elongated seeking of God's cleansing power.
>We make celebrities of preachers and show disdain for praying grandmothers.<
Very true.
Steve, thank you for posting Rick’s comments here. And your work on this blog - it is priceless.
Rick, thank you for your comments on Revival here at this blog. You show insight, passion and boldness in wanting to see a great move of The Holy Spirit.
It is my experience (and I believe both the word of God and history testifies to this) that when a true revival breaks out there are two things that always are manifested:
1. A broken and contrite heart to God with a deep sensitivity of personal sins that leads one to repentance.
2. An overwhelming sense of joy due to the supernatural understanding of being redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.
Revival is a supernatural move of God! He causes the “wind to blow where it listeth”. In saying that I also believe that when He is going to pour out his Spirit He will always burden His people to pray for it!
Keep praying brothers and sisters.
Bro. Pat
"break up your fallow ground...".
SJC, you have no idea the special meaning this passage has for me - got me in a heap of trouble once upon a long time ago, too. :-)
May there be Godly sorrow leading to real repentance across the land. May our hearts be fully turned toward God and not just our faces - my own miserable, wretched, deceitful and sinful heart would be a real good place to start.
This is exactly where my community of believers is at. We're seeking God for revival - understanding that it starts with repentance.
There's an incredible video on YouTube. I apologize if it's been referred to before here. It completely changed my point of reference.
It's called the "Revival Hymn". You can view it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PIzzOAnfUE
It starts with audio clips from men who saw the Scottish revival many years ago. Then, it has many clips from sermons which talk about humanistic Christianity - the false assumption that He is created to give us pleasure instead of the other way around.
One of the preachers longs for "biblical repentance". Would that some would come to Him saying: "Because of who You are and all You've done, I will serve you for all my life - even if I go to hell at the end... because You are worthy!"
Very powerful video. Watch it if you get a chance.
It's important to mention - as I say that we're seeking revival, the video referenced above brought out a really good question: Why are we seeking revival? Do we want to be filled, happy, prosperous? Are our motives selfish?
I would like to offer a comment or two. I think to look back to Evan Roberts as a great example is something I am not comfortable with.
For example, the people when awakened be gathered to hear the Word preached and he would only sit still, he wouldn't rise to proclaim the Gospel. This is in contradistinction to the command to "preach the Word in season and out." Although there are many great things that happened there it was short lived simply because the great truths of the Gospel were not preached. Contrast that with the ministry of an earlier Welshman, Daniel Rowland. Did Rowland preach the Law, did he preach repentance? Yes, but even more so did he lift up Jesus Christ who draws all men to Himself! Decade after decade there was a deep and abiding work, because Rowland understood the office of the Holy Spirit is to convict of sin AND to bear witness of Christ. The deeper life influenced Roberts did not understand these things (it seems to me) and the people were eventually ground to powder, worn out. Contrast the deeper life teaching so prevalent with the way Daniel Rowland had his people reading, for example, Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine's works on the Gospel. These folks were served meat and they grew. In sum, although there is much to say I commend an old book by Michael Horton, "In The Face of God". You'll discover that much of what passes for Christianity is really a nuanced gnosticism called by Luther the theology of glory and it stands in stark contrast with the theology of the Cross. We need repentance, revival, but all that will come from a reformation of doctrine. We just plain don't know the Gospel. How blessed are those prophets who PREACH to the people of God, Cross! Cross!
Brings to mind Hosea 13:6
"When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me." Do we have to be trapped in this cycle? God help us. I get tired of churches advertising "revivals" when, as DOUGLAS stated above, "what is desperately needed is true biblical repentance." I NEED IT! My ability to stray is eclipsed only by God's ability to keep me (through mercy AND His discipline).
Repentance and the resulting times of refreshing (Acts 3:19) should produce a greater obedience and devotion, and not apathy.
Well said Rick.
Its very disheartening when "Christians" rather have unity (comformity) rather than truth; a nice church building (at the cost of millions of dollars) yet distain Biblical doctrine and evangelism. They rather have a well-known name (or academic) behind the pulpit instead of a truly God-fearing humble man who would stake his very life on the Scriptures without fear and with all boldness of the Spirit.
The circle of biblical Christianity shrinks ALL THE TIME.
But HIS light of Truth shines all the brighter as the days grow darker. May we be an encouragement to fellow soldiers of the Cross, to not grow weary in doing good and in being bold for Christ...and to shake the sleeping, the lazy, the lukewarm, with warnings from Scripture with fear for their souls and love for His name and Word.
"God desires to break the hearts of Reformed and Arminian together without respect of persons."
Amen
"After several weeks it became evident that many of the coal miners had been converted, and the cursing laced commands that they used to shout started to become less vulgar and without swearing and the ponies had to be retrained."
Had they been converted under Driscoll no retraining would have been necessary. They could've continued using the commands just in a scatological context.
I know, I know..(lol). I couldn't help it. Sorry!
A great joke, chris - but painfully true.
Chris
Had they been converted under Driscoll no retraining would have been necessary. They could've continued using the commands just in a scatological context.
Priceless...
Campi
:-)
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