Editorial
January/ February, 1985
Volume 20, Number 1
Evangelism and revival are not quite the same thing. Evangelism is the preaching of the Gospel, the Good News of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, in order to win those who are lost and outside the fold of God. By way of contrast, revival is the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the Lord’s own people whereby they turn to a closer walk with God and with each other.
There is a tendency for those of us who have started out with the Lord, to cool off, and to leave our first love. And therefore frequently we need to be revived and restored to the early devotion we had for Jesus. Revival is not merely some highly organized series of meetings – with special nights for certain groups and souvenirs for the children. A revival is the cleansing, arousing, renewing work of the Spirit of God within the heart of the individual Christian.
The Welsh Revival (in the country of Wales) began in the year 1904. It was nationwide in scope. The nation had drifted far from God. Church attendance was poor. Iniquity and sin abounded on every hand. But one day, suddenly the Spirit of God swept over the country of Wales with a mighty revival (in answer to the prayers of God’s people) – Once again the churches were crowded. Sunday meetings often lasted for many hours. Terrible sins were confessed. Old debts were paid up. People began living a new kind of life. Church historians say that even the mules in the coal mines refused to work, because mules were not accustomed to being treated with kindness and gentleness. People were converted. It gave them a different outlook on life. It affected even the way they treated their animals. And the mules (accustomed to hardness, cruelty, and blasphemy) could not understand the language of kindness – and they wouldn’t move!
During the days of the Welsh revival, two men from the city of London traveled to Wales. They said they wanted to see the revival. When they arrived at the railroad station in Wales, they asked the ticket agent where the revival was. The agent put his hand over his heart and said, “Gentlemen, it’s here, underneath the buttons.”
Revival is the work of the Holy Spirit in each individual heart, but because individuals make up the church, revival can be experienced on a Brotherhoodwide basis. The Church of the Brethren needs an oldfashioned revival of simple doctrinal teaching and eager obedience to the instructions of God’s Word. There is a tendency to get into a rut and to coast along year after year using a number of false cliches. Among them are the following:
1 ) The notion that “This is my Father’s world” (when in reality the world is in the lap of the evil one. See I John 5:19).
2) The supposition that we “can establish the kingdom of God on earth.” How can we set the world right when we can’t set the church straight?
3) The thought that “Christianity is linked up with some particular economic system” (whereas the church stands in judgment on every system; a good socialist may be better than an ungodly capitalist).
4) The phrase, “The church must become relevant” (but the church and the Gospel is always irrelevant to unredeemed persons; the Gospel is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to the unsaved).
There is in the Brotherhood-at-large the need for revival; a new visitation of the power of the Holy Spirit; a new sense of faith and repentance toward God; more expository preaching (a simple unfolding of the Word of God); a concern for adequate church discipline; increased biblical instruction for new converts coming into the church; and a desire in all of life to give preeminence to Jesus Christ and to exalt Him in our daily conduct.
Most of all, as Brother James Myer points out in the article featured in this issue of the WITNESS, each brother and sister in Christ should be a promoter of God’s holiness. God is holy – free from evil, and One who hates sin (Isaiah 57:15; Psalm 99:9; Habakkuk 1:13). Holiness means that God is absolutely clean and pure and free from all defilement. As the Lord’s disciples, we are to live in the white light of God’s holiness (1 Peter 1:15-16). When fierce temptation attacked Joseph (brought on by the advances of Potiphar’s wife) – it was the consciousness of divine holiness that prevented Joseph from yielding to the appeal – and caused him to ask in triumph, “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9). One of the secrets of victory and of on going revival in individual lives – is an abiding consciousness of the holiness of God. Those who are in leadership positions must be good examples in the realm of sensing that we live constantly in the presence of a holy God.
Lighting the Fires of Revival
By James F. Myer
One of the primary reasons for establishing the Brethren Revival Fellowship about 25 years ago was to encourage revival in the Church of the Brethren. That is why the word “revival” has a central place in the organizational name. And while some positive signs of revival are evident in the Church, the very nature of true revival is such that one can never sit back and relax and conclude that the task has been completed. For this reason, we must continually seek to be renewed.
There are plenty of critics around when an appeal is made for revival. Some say that revivals are mere emotional highs and are short lived. Thus they don’t last – so why bother being concerned about revival? An appropriate response to this charge is that taking a bath doesn’t last either. But that is not a good reason to stop taking baths. After all, who are the cleanest people, the ones who bathe or the ones who don’t? A good, hot, steam bath will do more for our dirt than a lot of reasoning about how we can get by without it. David (in Psalm 85:6) prayed, “Lord, will thou not revive us again?”
It is my strongly held conviction that one of the greatest needs in the entire Church of the Brethren is the need for spiritual renewal or revival (choose the term you prefer). The evidence for this statement is abundant. Thirty thousand members have been subtracted from congregational rolls over the past twenty years, and there is no sign yet that the trend has been reversed. During 1983, a decline of 4,164 more members is noted in the new Church of the Brethren Yearbook. And many congregations have only one-half (or even less than half) of their stated membership attending services on a regular basis on Sunday morning. In many places, the Sunday morning crowd does not support any other worship (or spiritual instruction classes) throughout the week – such as prayer meetings or Bible studies or an evangelistic thrust. As a denomination, we have greatly reduced our overseas missionary activity. Our monetary giving has not kept pace with the inflation rate so that real dollars which are available for outreach are constantly on the decline. We have promoted some highly questionable concepts about God, the plan of salvation, and the Bible – all of which has had, in my judgment, a negative impact on the development of spiritual fervency and commitment in the Church. We have been focusing on the social arena with such intensity that frequently the spiritual rninistries of the church have been neglected.
What are some of the fires of revival that we need to light in order to be transformed by the renewing of the mind that we may prove what is that good and acceptable will of God (Romans 12:2)? Let us notice a few.
FIRE #1: GOD’S PRESENCE AND OUR CALL
In Exodus 3, Moses had an experience with the supernatural presence of God, in the form of a bush that was burning but was not consumed. Moses was asked to remove his shoes perhaps because the soles of his sandals would have insulated his feet from experiencing direct contact with the presence of God. God wants us to know that He created the world and that He is totally in charge. The Almighty God who has revealed himself in the Bible is our ultimate authority. We are to get our agenda from God and His Word, not from the news headlines. God gets our attention with His presence. He seeks to get our affection with His call, and sometimes He calls in unique ways.
What was it that enabled Moses to stand before Pharaoh and defy the godless system which the pagan monarch represented? Was it not that God took some of the fire from the burning bush and placed it in Moses’ life and said, “I will be with thee” (Exodus 3:12)? The presence and call of God brought a burning revival in Moses’ life. Moses, the stammering prince, with a low self-image, became a powerful (yet humble) leader who against terrible odds led God’s people out of bondage. The “burning bush experience” stripped Moses of his earlier human effort at deliverance (when he took things into his own hands and slew an Egyptian and buried him in the sand). His call was not without cost. He chose rather to “suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season” (Hebrews 11:25).
True revival does not begin with the backsliders and intensely wicked sinners. It begins with those who are members of Christ’s body – and especially with those in leadership positions. Revival should begin with leaders who are called and anointed for service, persons who should have experienced God’s presence in their lives. Where does one go for the “Brethren Burning Bush Degree”? Does Bethany Seminary offer it? Can the General Board confer it? Can one write to the BRF address for it? No! We can find it in our secret closets when we become aware of God’s greatness and our smallness – and when we surrender what WE have and God stamps our lives with what HE has. Our human programs are not bringing strong spiritual vitality to the Church of the Brethren. Adding a few more words to the statement of Goals for the 80s is not enough. Nor will realigning and reshuffling the organization bring new spiritual vitality. We need more and more church leaders whose lives have been branded by the Burning Bush, and who have sensed the presence of God.
FIRE #2: GOD’S PURITY AND OUR CLEANSING
Isaiah 6 records the wonderful experience of Isaiah and a vision which he experienced. He first saw God -high and lifted up. The glory of God began to be felt. And the result was an intensifying awareness of the holiness of God. Three times in succession the truth about God’s holiness is driven home. “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6:3). The more Isaiah became aware of God’s holiness, the more he became aware of his own sinfulness. And soon he cried out for mercy, “Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips … for my eyes have seen the King” (Isaiah 6:5). It was there that a fiery coal was taken off the altar and pressed against his lips. While Moses needed the Burning Bush to be called of God, Isaiah needed the Burning Coal to be cleansed by God. It was only then that Isaiah was truly ready to serve God.
We need a revival in the Church of the Brethren that will bring us to grips with a greater awareness and acceptance of God’s purity. Then we need to believe that we are to live out the Scriptural admonition, “Be ye holy for I am holy” (I Peter 1:16). At another place, the Bible says, “Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord” (Isaiah 52:11). Has the Brethren conscience about holy living been dulled in recent years because our pronouncements in the areas of personal moral behavior have not been clear-cut? We are precise when appealing to the national conscience about the sinfulness of war and military escalation. Should we not be just as clear in denouncing the annual carnage of 1,500,000 unborn infants through abortion? Are we grieved because of the pre-marital sexual intercourse, adultery, incest, and general loose living and lack of self-control that frequently brings people into a situation where abortion seems to be the only solution?
We passed the Human Sexuality Paper during the 1983 Annual Conference. It contains a lot of good advice about personal moral behavior. It certainly moves us into a more biblically sound direction morally. What really troubles concerned Brethren is to listen to a very vocal small minority in the church (through Messenger and elsewhere) who continue to recklessly argue in favor of homosexual practice as though it is as acceptable and morally upright as legitimate heterosexual relationships. It is true that heterosexual practice can become sinful but it is impossible to reconcile homosexual practice with what the Bible says about it, and still call it “Christian.” The people who defend immoral practices are going to prevent God from fully blessing their lives, and their activities will hinder God’s blessing in the whole church, just as Achan’s sin hampered God’s blessing upon Israel.
When God’s love is presented as accepting, approving, and covering over our sins – without our need to repent – it is evident that we fail to understand that God’s holiness and justice provides limits to His love. We cannot have a revival of love without a revival of holiness too. A revival of love (without holiness) would be incomplete. The use of sweet and sour ingredients make the best salad dressings. In a similar way, a keener awareness of the love and the holiness of God would give us a more comprehensive understanding of the will of God for our lives.
True revivals have always been followed by an increased desire for holy living. This was our heritage from the Pietists. The Scriptural guidelines for purity of thought and holiness of deed provide for us the kind of Christianity taught in the New Testament. Has it become a hollow phrase to say, “The New Testament is our only rule of faith and practice”? The fires of revival do not have to be lit by a big emotional fireworks. Revival can start with a firm decision to move one’s own desires and manner of living in the direction of a truly biblical lifestyle.
FIRE #3: GOD’S POWER AND OUR COMMITMENT
The fuse of divine power in the early church was lit with the tongues of fire described in Acts 2:3. When Jesus was with His disciples, He had said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18). But at Christ’s Ascension a mighty promise of power was given to the early disciples. Acts 1:8 (the key verse of the book of Acts) records the promise: “But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me…” The stammering tongues and faltering lips of the hesitant disciples were changed. They became firebrands for God. Powerful preaching, mighty miracles, and astounding evangelism issued from their lives. Sinners were saved, the sick were healed, towns were upset, and witchcraft was severely hindered. All evidence indicated that a new power was on the scene, and individuals were willing to be channels of that power.
Is it possible that we are trying to run our spiritual combustible engines without spark plugs, or without fuel in the tank? Do we need an “oil change” in the church? At midnight the five foolish virgins cried out for “the oil-man” but it was too late (Matthew 25). What good is an electric blanket if it is not plugged in? Many want a church facility today that is air-conditioned. A more important matter is this: Are our churches prayer-conditioned? If we rely on organization, we will get what organization can do. If we rely on education, we will get what education can do. If we rely on the Holy Spirit, we will get what God can do. Is it possible that we are so tightly organized that we are muscle-bound? The result is that the winds of the Spirit don’t move us. Maybe we are too tightly bound in the blankets of our Brethren heritage. Just as physically we cannot live today on last week’s food, so we need to know that Christianity is a “Today” affair. We cannot exist long spiritually on yesterday’s experiences.
The doctrine of the Holy Spirit does not suggest that a lifetime supply is given at the initial infilling when one is converted. The promise is that we receive the Spirit upon meeting the conditions of salvation (Acts 2:38-39). But the command is also given to literally “keep on being filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). One major contributing factor to the dried up, fruitless, powerless lives of so many Christians is that the “leaks” in their lives tend to drain out the Spirit’s empowerment and subsequent infillings are not sought. If we are going to keep on being filled with the Spirit we must be concerned about the “leaks” and be consistent with the infillings. When Ezekiel looked at the valley of dry bones, he did not say, “Well, let’s scrape these dry bones together and have church anyway.” It was only as the breath came in the bones that they lived and stood upon their feet and became an exceedingly great army (Ezekiel 37: 10).
There are abundant warnings in Scripture about the dangers of falling into the trap of becoming a lukewarm and powerless church. Such a church will have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof (2 Timothy 3:5). The lukewarm Laodicean age has a strong pull to make weak Christians out of us (Revelation 3:14-17). The Bible says that in the last days “the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). Why does this cooling off take place? Because we stay too far away from the furnace of revival. Peter followed afar off and then he started cooling off. When the two disciples on the road to Emmaus had the close companionship of Jesus, they said afterward, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way?” We need more spiritual heartwarmings.
When complacency is replaced with commitment, the glow of revival will brighten. In order for this to happen, I believe the following things will need to take place:
1 ) Desiring God’s will more than anything else in the world.
2) Accepting God’s will (as described in the Bible) without resisting it.
3) Surrendering our lives more completely into the Holy Spirit’s control so that everything will be brought under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
May the fires of revival burn. If each of us takes one step in the direction of becoming more and more aware of God’s presence, God’s purity, and God’s power revival will begin to happen.