This country started out as a Judeo-Christian experiment. In
like manner as Israel , America
The United States as a nation, and each of us as
individuals, have a lot to repent for. The propensity of the current and past
administrations, lead by the progressives, to secularize our country has been
met with little or no opposition. The Supreme Court turned against the people
and the Constitution beginning in 1962. Some examples are :
1. June 25, 1962, the U.S.
Supreme Court declared school-sponsored prayers unconstitutional in the
landmark case Engel v. Vitale. (Keep in mind that the school system in the United States
2. January 22, 1973 - The
U.S. Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision, affirms the legality of a woman's right
to have an abortion under the Fourteenth amendment to the Constitution.
3. Jun 26, 2015 - The Supreme
Court in a 5-4 decision recognized gay marriages nationwide. (Two of the judges
should have recused themselves because they had both spoken in favor of and
performed gay marriages prior to the case. The case would have turned out
differently if they had obeyed the law.)
Many of us who experienced the Jesus/Holy Spirit movement
of the 60's and 70s are still alive. I question whether there will be another
great revival before the return of Christ, or will the return of Christ be that revival?
He
stands at the door of your heart, and knocks.
"During
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries American society experienced a number
of "Awakenings"
around the years 1727, 1792, 1830, 1857 and 1882. More recent revivals in the
twentieth century include those of the 1904–1905 Welsh
Revival, 1906 (Azusa Street Revival),
1930s (Balokole), 1970s (Jesus people), 1971 Bario Revival and 1909 Chile
Revival which spread in the Americas, Africa, and Asia among Protestants and
Catholics."[1]
The Barna Group, in partnership with the American Bible
Society and The Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, released a study on
"Millennials", done over a 10 year period; interviewing 27,140
Millennials, in 206 studies.[2]
Millennials are defined as those born between the early 80's and early 2000's.
Of the secular Millennials interviewed, 19%
said the Bible was irrelevant, 27% said the Bible was dangerous, and 62% said
they have never read the Bible. They used words like mythology, symbolic,
and fairy tale to describe the Bible (God's Word). I don't see that there has
been a significant change, over the past 50 years. The survey also showed that practicing Christian Millennials maintain a
high view of scripture. From this we can see that although the field is
ripe for harvest, the labor needed is going to be great.
THE PURITAN REVIVAL [4]
The name Puritan designated
those in the Anglican Church who “sought a simpler faith and form of service.” This movement grew out of the widespread
reading of the Bible.
THE QUAKER REVIVAL[5]
George Fox, born in 1624, was brought up in a Puritan home.
In the middle of the
seventeenth century there were thousands of men and women who were adrift from
the Church of England. They were seeking for the truth, and were like sheep
without a shepherd. In addition to Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists,
we read of Sabbatarians, Seekers, Traskites, Millenaries, Familists,
Etheringtonians, Fifth Monarchy men, Muggletonians and many others.
THE GREAT AWAKENING[6]
This revival in America
BRAINERD’S REVIVAL[7]
After some years of difficult
and almost fruitless work among the North American Indians, David Brainerd saw
a powerful revival commence in July, 1745. It was in answer to agonizing
prayer.
THE METHODIST PENTECOST[8]
The Methodist Revival was
born in the power of the Holy Spirit. Wesley records: “Jan. 1, 1739. Mr. Hall,
Kinchin, Ingham, Whitefield, Hutchins, and my brother Charles, were present at
our love-feast in Fetter Lane
On February 17th, 1739,
Whitfield preached his first field sermon at Rose Green. Then he preached at
Kingswood near Bristol
When Whitfield left for America Kingswood . Of this place he says, “In the middle of February,
Kingswood was a wilderness, and when the month
of June arrived, it was already blossoming like the rose.’’
AMERICAN REVIVALS AND
MISSIONS[9]
The year 1790 ushered in a
new era of revivals for the United
States
At this time there were no
American Missionary societies, no Bible societies, no Tract societies, no
Education societies. At home—religious indifference; abroad—the darkness of
death over the heathen world.
In 1790 there were extensive
revivals in Pennsylvania and Virginia New
England , during four or five years, about one hundred and fifty
churches were blessed with Revivals.
This revival period continued
for many years, and powerful revivals prevailed in New York ,
New Jersey , Pennsylvania ,
Ohio , Kentucky ,
Tennessee , the Carolinas, and Georgia
Harlan Page writes of a
revival in New York
Christians at that time
believed that, “The Church is the Bride of Christ, and the mother of his
children.” And that, “No soul is ever converted except as some believer has
painfully travailed in birth for that soul.”
During this period of
American revivals, the Christians began to feel their obligation to send the
Gospel to the heathen. All the first foreign missionaries were the fruit of the
revivals : Hall, Newell, Mills, Judson, Nott, Rice, Bingham, King, Thurston,
and others. The American Board of Foreign Missions, the American Bible Society,
the United Foreign Missionary Society, and other missionary movements, were
formed at this time as a direct result of the revivals.
During these years many
colleges were blessed with revivals. Dr. Tyler wrote of Yale College
REVIVAL IN ROCHESTER
After receiving many pressing
calls to preach, Charles Grandison Finney felt that as Rochester
Soon after he began to preach
the ministers came together, and a great improvement in the spiritual state of
the churches was manifested. Finney said, “The three churches, and indeed
Christians of every denomination, seemed to make common cause, and went to work
with a will, to pull sinners out of the fire.
“The spirit of prayer was
poured out powerfully, so much so, that some persons stayed away from the
public services to pray, being unable to restrain their feelings under
preaching. Mr. Abel Clary continued in Rochester
Soon there were some very
marked conversions, one of the first being the wife of a prominent lawyer. The
meetings became thronged with lawyers, physicians, and merchants. Many of the
lawyers, became very anxious, and freely attended the enquiry meetings. It was
in this revival that Finney began to use the “anxious seat.”
The revival took a tremendous
hold of the High School. Nearly every teacher and student was converted. As a
result, forty of those students became ministers, and a large number became
foreign missionaries. The majority of the leading men and women in the city
were converted. Some years later Dr. Beecher talking to Finney of this revival
in Rochester
THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING
"United
States 1800–1850 In the U.S. the Second Great Awakening
(1800–30s) was the second great religious revival in United States
Rev. Charles Finney (1792–1875) was a key leader of
the evangelical revival movement in America England ,
first in 1849 and later to England
and Scotland
In New England, the renewed interest in religion
inspired a wave of social activism, including abolitionism.
In western New York
In the West (now
Upper South) especially—at Cane Ridge, Kentucky
and in Tennessee—the revival strengthened the Methodists and Baptists. The Churches of Christ
and Christian
Church (Disciples of Christ) arose from the Stone-Campbell
Restoration Movement. It also introduced into America
AMERICAN REVIVAL 1857-58[12]
Dwight L. Moody began to plan his round of
evangelistic city campaigns. From October 1875 to May 1876, Moody and three
other evangelists toured through the major cities of the Midwest
and Atlantic coast, preaching the message of salvation.
Finney writing of this
revival said, “This winter of 1857-58 will be remembered as the time when a
great revival prevailed throughout all the Northern States. It swept over the
land with such power, that for a time it was estimated that not less than fifty
thousand conversions occurred in a single week. This revival was carried on to
large extent through lay influence, so much so, as almost to throw the
ministers into the shade.
There had been a daily prayer
meeting observed in Boston Fulton Street , New York
THE AZUSA STREET REVIVAL
of 1906: "Bringing in the Kingdom"
For three years,
the Azusa Street Revival lit a Holy Ghost fire in a humble Los Angeles mission
building, then it spread all over the city, and soon, across the world.[13]
THE CHARISMATIC MOVEMWNT
"is the international trend of historically mainstream congregations
adopting beliefs and practices similar to Pentecostals. Fundamental to the
movement is the use of spiritual gifts. Among Protestants, the movement began
around 1960. Among Roman Catholics, it originated around 1967."[14]
This movement is very active to this day.
THE JESUS
MOVEMENT "was a movement in Christianity beginning on the West Coast of
the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s and spreading
primarily throughout North America and Europe ,
before subsiding by the early 1980s. It was the major Christian element within the hippie counterculture,
or, conversely, the major hippie element within some strands of Protestantism. Members of the movement were
called Jesus people, or Jesus freaks."[15]
Not all hippies were drug crazed, oversexed revolutionaries.
There has been a conscious effort to eliminate the
Christian foundation of our nation. In 1779, every state but one had a
stipulation that said you had to be a Christian to hold state wide office. Starting
with the Wilson
It is true that not everyone will be saved. Jesus used the Lazarus story,[17] to
illustrate this. In the story Abraham said: "If they do not listen to
Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from
the dead." Jesus
was resurrected from the dead and even though people hear the story, they don't
believe. So we can
see that if they won't believe, they simply won't believe. These are described
in the Bible as hard hearted and stiff necked. "There are times when we
need to shake off the dust from our feet (Mark 6:11) and/or let our peace return
to us (Matthew 10:13). There are those
who are beyond redemption: not because it is impossible for God, but rather it
is impossible for them to receive what God offers."[18]
Revival is necessary because Jesus didn't die, on the cross,
to save us in our sins; He came to save us because of our sins.
As He said to the adulteress woman, "go
and sin no more"[19]. There
will come a time when the decision to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior will
be one second to late. It's time to
review what the Bible says:
1. You must be Born Again "Jesus answered and said unto him,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God."[20]
2. God loves you so much, He
sent his only Son to save you.[21]
3. "That if thou shall
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God
hath raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved. For with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation."[22]
4. Faith comes by hearing the
Word of God.[23]
So, now what is our duty to God? We are to "Go ye into
all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is
baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned."[24]
As I said above: I question whether there will be another great revival before
the return of Christ, or whether the return of Christ will be that revival. Whom do you need to tell about the Lord? Revival
begins with small steps; one soul at a time, since there is no such thing as
collective salvation. It is up to the Body of Believers to present the plan of
salvation and bring this country out of its downward spiral.
If you
are interested in the history of the religious ties, to the foundation of our
nation, I offer my paper on Godly America
http://www.thespiritsnestministries.com/2011/01/godly-america.html
[1]
Wikipedia
[2] https://www.barna.org/barna-update/millennials
[3] https://www.barna.org/barna-update/millennials
[4] http://www.revival-library.org/catalogues/genhistory/allen.html
[5] http://www.revival-library.org/catalogues/genhistory/allen.html
[6] http://www.revival-library.org/catalogues/genhistory/allen.html
[7] http://www.revival-library.org/catalogues/genhistory/allen.html
[8] http://www.revival-library.org/catalogues/genhistory/allen.html
[9] http://www.revival-library.org/catalogues/genhistory/allen.html
[10] http://www.revival-library.org/catalogues/genhistory/allen.html
[11]
Wikipedia
[12] http://www.revival-library.org/catalogues/genhistory/allen.html
[13] http://www.cbn.com/special/AzusaStreet/
[14]
Wikipedia
[15]
Wikipedia
[16]
Declaration of Independence
[17] Luke
16:19-31
[18] http://www.thespiritsnestministries.com/2015/07/lgbt.html
[19] John
8:11
[20] John
3:3
[21] John
3:16
[22] Romans
10:9-10
[23] Romans
10:17
[24] Mark
16:15-16
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