Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 28:3 (Fall 2024)
Article: The Idea And Practice Of Revival Among Southern Baptists
Author: Thomas J. Nettles

The Idea And Practice Of Revival Among Southern Baptists1

Thomas J. Nettles

Thomas J. Nettles has most recently served as the Professor of Historical Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky. He previously taught at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. He earned his PhD from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas. Along with numerous journal articles and scholarly papers, Dr. Nettles is the author and editor of fifteen books. Among his books are By His Grace and For His Glory; Baptists and the Bible (Baker, 1986); James Petigru Boyce: A Southern Baptist Statesman (P&R, 2009); The Baptists, 3 vols. (Mentor, 2007–2009); and Living by Revealed Truth: The Life and Pastoral Theology of Charles H. Spurgeon (Christian Focus, 2013). Tom and his wife Margaret are members at LaGrange Baptist Church, LaGrange, Kentucky.

Baptists survive only if they live in the mode of revival. They depend solely on conversion for the origination of church membership and upon a life of consistent holiness for its maintenance. Born out of English dissent in the seventeenth century, early Baptists, often at the peril of personal freedom, founded churches of believers. They frequently disregarded warning, or even legal prohibition, and itinerated preaching the gospel-call for repentance and faith. They were committed to active evangelism and continued church reform.2 Given this abiding reality of Baptist ecclesiology, still there are times in which an extraordinary work of the Holy Spirit becomes evident. That God clearly has intentions to manifest his glory in conversion and increase of holiness at appointed seasons can hardly be denied by the observer of church history. The Bible records these kinds of events that punctuate its narrative, and leads us to believe that indeed, if we faint not, we shall reap, at times even a hundred-fold.

SBJT 28:3 (Fall 2024) 163

At the end of the nineteenth century a Dictionary of United States History carried a short article on the Baptists, highlighting their major contribution to American culture and pointing to the remarkable growth that they had experienced. In the thirty years first noted in this article, Baptists increased eighteenfold by adding around 944 churches. In the next twenty years they increased about 140% by adding over 1,400 churches. The next twenty years saw 2,889 churches added for a growth of 118%. Another twenty years saw the addition of 4,178 churches a growth of 78%. In 1872 the previous two decades had produced another 8,897 churches, a growth of 94%. By any sober judgment...