Editor’s Introduction -- By: Anonymous
Journal: Reformation and Revival
Volume: RAR 02:4 (Fall 1993)
Article: Editor’s Introduction
Author: Anonymous
RAR 2:4 (Fall 1993) p. 9
Editor’s Introduction
J. I. Packer has written: “The devil keeps step with God, and when revival comes it is always a mixed work, hard to identify just because so much error, fanaticism and disorder are mixed up in it.” With this in mind we need to understand that revival is never to be sought as a panacea for present problems. Revival showers bring fruitfulness and growth, but they also bring persecution and mudslides!
The lead article in this issue deals with one of the best known awakenings in our century, the 1904 Revival in Wales. Eifion Evans, one of the leading students in our time of that awakening, offers insightful reflections upon the blessings and problems seen in that visitation.
It is my concern that a movement has arisen in our time which is focused intensely upon prayer for awakening and global revival without understanding either the theological issues which are at stake, or the psychological and sociological problems associated with revival movements. We tend to assume revival will solve all our major problems and bring deep unity to the church. We seem to believe that revival will cause all who profess the name of Christ to “get together” in extensive campaigns for moral righteousness in the public square. Of all the present prayer movements for revival that I know of personally not one seems to grasp significantly the dangers inherent in this subject.
In America we have at least three generations who have been reared on the belief that revivalism is the same thing as genuine revival. Revivalism sees revival as a movement of men, designed and stimulated through human ingenuity and plan. God helps us, for sure, but we are able to bring revival through our planning and working.
As a result of this revivalism we have politically conservative movements seeking to bring back another era of church-state harmony which is neither biblically desirable nor genuinely feasible in a radically “post-Christian” culture. I have actually heard leaders say, “America came
RAR 2:4 (Fall 1993) p. 10
under God’s judgment the moment she took prayer out of the public schools.”
Such movements speak of revival as if America were the “My people” (i.e., a covenant people) of 2 Chronicles 7:14! In this same view the land to be blessed will be America. Further, pietists of all sorts think of revival as a kind of grand recovery which will bring back the yesterdays of week-long meetings and mindless preaching. In this view “soul winning” (as understood by this particular tradition) will again be successful in the church, producing huge programs and multitud...
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