Revival

[Sam]

I recently came across a book titled “The Glorious Revival Under King Hezekiah” by Wilbur M. Smith. It has a copyright date of January 1937. The copy I have also says there was a revised reprint edition in October, 1954.

Here are some quotes from it.

not for years has there been such a consciousness of the need for a real revival in our country as at the present time. Our religious papers are talking about it, ministers are speaking of it from their pulpits, young people at Bible Conferences are encouraged to pray and labor for a great advance in the Church of Christ. Even our secular papers, now and then, give expression to a longing to see a great renewal of religious life in our land, e.g. the “Wall Street Journal,” which, a few weeks ago, in an editorial, said:

What America needs more than railway extension, Western irrigation, a low tariff, a bigger cotton crop, and a larger wheat crop is a revival of religion, the kind that our fathers and mothers used to have, a religion that counted it good business to take time for family worship each morning right in the middle of the wheat harvest, a religion that made men quit work a half hour earlier on Wednesday so that the whole family could get ready to go to Prayer Meeting.
this was from page 5

On pages 6 and 7 he lists 9 revivals found in the Old Testament
1 in the household of Jacob (Gen 35;1-15)
2 under Asa, king of Judah (2 Chron 15:1-15)
3 under Jehoash,king of Judah ( 2 Kings 11, 12; 2 Chron 23, 24)
4 under King Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:4-7; 2 Chron 29-31)
5 under king Josiah (2 Kings 22, 23; 2 Chron 34, 35)
6 under Zerubbabel in which the prophets Haggai and Zechariah played a part (Ezra 5, 6)
7 in the days of Nehemiah in which Ezra was the outstanding figure (Neh 8:9; 12;44-47)

He also includes two more but says there are not many details available. These would be
8 revival under King Jehoshaphat (2 Cron 17:6-9)
9 Revival at Nineveh at the time of Jonah.

On pages 7 and 8 he lists nine outstanding characteristics of each of the first 7 revivals in the above list:
1 they occurred in a time of deep moral darkness and national depression
2 they began in the heart of one consecrated servant of God who became the energizing power behind the revival, the agent used of God to quicken and lead the nation back to faith in and obedience to God
3 each revival rested upon the Word of God and of preaching and of proclaiming the law of God with power
4 all of the revivals were marked by a return to the worship of Jehovah
5 each revival witnessed a destruction of idols (except the last two, which occurred after the Exile, when no idols were to be found in Judah)
6 in each revival there was a separation from sin (there is one single exception and that is in the revival under Asa, where, though we believe there was such a separation from sin, the brief account of the revival does not record it)
7 in every revival there was a return to the offering of blood sacrifices
8 almost all of the revivals resulted in a period of exuberant joy and gladness among the people of God (the only two revivals where such joy is not recorded, though it easily may have been manifested, are those in the house of Jacob, and during the reign of Josiah)

[Sam]

In the preface, he lists seven primary revivals in the New Testament
1 At Sychar (John 4)
2 the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in Jerusalem (Acts 2)
3 the revival under Philip at Samaria (Acts 8)
4 under Peter at Caesarea (Acts 10)
5 under Paul at Antioch of Pisidia (Acts 13)
6 under Paul at Philippi (Acts 16)
7 under Paul at Ephesus (Acts 19)

[Sam]

Wilbur M. Smith was not Pentecostal. As far as I remember he was Presbyterian. In the preface he writes about revivals which have occurred since the original date of 1937 when the book was first published:
We have in the meantime entered upon a new day for revivals, among the more notable being those in Brazil, in northern Indo-China, in South India, in the New Hebrides, and elsewhere, but especially in London, where through the anointed ministry of Dr. Billy Graham, the western world has seen the greatest revival of our century with the most remarkable outpouring of the Spirit of God over a prolonged period since the days of Dwight Lyman Moody. The entire Christian Church now takes new hope in the possibility, even in this desperate, dark and probably closing age, of a world-wide revival before our Lord shall return.

As I said, Wilbur M. Smith was not Pentecostal. Probably all of us here would speak about Azusa Street as being the greatest revival of the last century. A liberal like me would also include subsequent periods such as:
- the Healing Revival under Branham, Allen, Coe, Roberts and others in the nineteen fifties
- the Latter Rain Movement in the nineteen forties and fifties
- the Jesus People
- the Charismatic Movement

[bkstokes]

Thank you Sam for bringing this to our attention! Lord bless.

[commonsense]

This is a great historical record as well as good insight on the topic of revival.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

[Sam]

These are the definitions of revival and revive from a dictionary I have at home.

Terms:
Revival (noun)
1. the act of reviving or the condition of being revived
2. a restoration to use, acceptance, activity, or vigor after a period of obscurity or quiescence
3. a new presentation of an old play, motion picture, opera, ballet, or similar theatrical vehicle
4. a reawakening of interest in religion
5. a meeting or series of meetings for the purpose of reawakening religious faith, often characterized by impassioned preaching and public professions of faith

Revive (transitive verb)
1. to bring back to life or consciousness; resuscitate
2. to impart new health, vigor, or spirit to
3. to restore to use, currency, activity or notice
4. to restore the validity or effectiveness of
5. to renew in the mind; recall
6. to present (an old play, for example) again

Revive (intransitive verb)
1. to return to life or consciousness
2. to regain health, vigor, or good spirits
3. to return to use, currency, or notice
4. to return to validity, effectiveness, or operative condition

The English word "revive" comes from a Latin word "revivere"
which comes from "re" meaning again
and "vivere" which means to live

Revive and revival mean therefore a return to life, a renewing, a restoration, a recycling, a rebirth, a repair, a refurbishing, etc. In each case it seems to be a returning to a former condition.


The word "revival" does not occur in the King James Bible. The word "revive" occurs 7 times. The word "revived" occurs 6 times. The word "reviving" occurs twice.

It is used of
-reviving a person's spirit (Isaiah 57:15; Gen 45:27; Judges 15:19),
-as a request in prayer for reviving an individual (Psalm 138:7)
-or reviving God's work (Psalm 85:6; Hab 3:2)
-a reference to returning or restoring (Ezra 9:8,9)
-Israel returning from spiritual death to spiritual life (Hosea 6:2)
-actual return to life of someone who had died physically (1 Kings 17:22; 2 Kings 13:21; Romans 14:9) when the spirit, soul, or life returned.
These references are from the King James Bible. In some other versions, other words such as "preserve," renew," "relief," or "new life" are used.

In the Book of Judges, we find time after time where God's people went their own way then called upon the Lord and they were renewed or revived. This vicious cycle has been used as an outline for the Book of Judges under the terms "Rebellion, Retribution, Repentance, Restoration and Rest," or "Sin, Sorrow, Supplication, and Salvation."

There are several instances in the Old Testament where there had been spiritual decline and then through the influence of a Godly king and/or prophet there was a return to God and to His ways. As with all revivals, these were just temporary.

There are also times in our history where there was coldness, indifference, or deadness which were changed to times of increased devotion and zeal.

[Sam]

REVIVALS OF RELIGION

This phrase is ordinarily applied to the spiritual condition of a Christian community, more or less limited in extent, in which a special interest is very generally felt in respect to religious concerns, accompanied with a marked manifestation of divine power and grace in the quickening of believers, the reclaiming of backsliders, and the awakening, conviction, and conversion of the unregenerate.

Theory of Revivals. -- The progress of Christianity in the world has rarely, for time, been uniform. Its growth in the individual and in the community is characterized by very obvious fluctuations. Like all things temporal, it is subject to constant change, exposed to influences the most varied and antagonistic. Now it makes rapid advances in its conflict with sinful propensities and developments; then it is subjected to obstructions and reverses that effectually check its onward course, and result in spiritual declensions.

The natural is ever at enmity with the spiritual. "The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other." Growth in grace is attainable only by ceaseless vigilance, untiring diligence, unremitting conflict, and a faithful improvement of the opportunities and means of spiritual advancement. Any relaxation in the strife with moral evil tends to spiritual retardation: the evil gets the advantage over the good; the religious fervor abates; the soul becomes lukewarm, cold, dead.

As with the individual believer, so is it with the community. A church, a sisterhood of churches covering a large section of country, by reason of the predominating influence of some worldly interests, -- the greed of gain in a season of great commercial prosperity, the strife of party during a highly excited political campaign, the prevalence of a martial spirit in a time of international or civil war, or the lust of pleasure in a time of general worldly gayety and festivity, or any absorbing passion for mere temporal good,-- may be so diverted from the direct pursuit of holiness, and the prosecution of the work of advancing the kingdom of Christ, as to lose, to a considerable extent, the power, if not the life, of godliness. The spiritual and eternal become subordinate to the worldly and temporal. The blight of spiritual declension settles down upon them, and attaches itself to them with increasing persistency year by year. Such has been the history of Christian churches everywhere.

The ancient people of God were rebuked with great frequency by their priests and prophets for their proneness to spiritual declension. "My people are bent to backsliding from me." "Why is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding?" This proneness was continually coming to the surface, in the days of Moses and the judges, under the kings, and both before and after the exile. Judges and rulers, priests and prophets, Deborah and Barak, Samuel and David, Elijah and Elisha, Jonah and Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah, were raised up to beat back the waves of corruption, to arrest the tide of degeneracy, and to heal the backslidings of the people. The fire was kept burning on the altar only by repeated divine interpositions, resulting successively in a revival of religion.

Similar tendencies have from the beginning been developed in the history of the Christian Church: Ephesus loses her first love, Laodicea becomes lukewarm, Sardis defiles her garments, Philippi and Corinth yield to the blandishments of worldly pleasures. Worldliness and carnality, leanness and spiritual death, succeed, too often, a state of pious fervor, godly zeal, and holy living. The annual narratives of ecclesiastical communities bear painful testimony to this degenerating tendency.

Such being the testimony of universal experience to the proneness of human nature to decline from the spirit and power of godliness, how, it is asked, is this tendency to be checked? Obviously the true and only effective and appropriate remedy for a season of spiritual declension is a season of spiritual revival. Such a season, by whatever agencies or instrumentalities brought about, by whatever adjuncts of questionable propriety it may be accompanied, and of greater or less extent, may properly be termed "a revival of religion."

These manifestations, moreover, are to be regarded as the result of a special and peculiar effusion of the Holy Spirit. All spiritual life, all progress in the divine life, whether in the individual or in the community, in the church or in the nation, is the Spirit of God. The whole period of grace, from the Day of Pentecost to the final judgment, is properly termed "the dispensation of the Holy Spirit." Every true convert is begotten of the Spirit, and so becomes a child of God. The Spirit is always in and with the church, carrying forward the work of redemption.

[Sam]

"What was the Protestant Reformation, that beginning in the fourteenth century under Wiclif, and continued under Hus in the fifteenth, at length culminated in the sixteenth under Luther and Calvin, and a host of kindred spirits?" It was a special dispensation of the Spirit, whereby the minds of men everywhere in Christian lands were turned towards the utterances of the Divine Word, the errors of the Papacy were discovered and renounced, the truth as it is in Jesus apprehended and embraced by multitudes, and the churches built up in the faith of the gospel. It was a great and general revival of religion, whereby converts in tens of thousands were born of the Spirit of God. So thorough and wide-spread were those conversions, that the fires of persecution were kindled in vain. In spite of princes and prelates, converts to the pure faith of the gospel were made all over Germany, Switzerland, France, Holland, and Great Britain, and not a few in Spain and Italy. It was the greatest revival of religion that the world had witnessed, and the church enjoyed, since the days of Constantine.

Revivals in Great Britain and Ireland. -- From that day, all along the centuries, the annals of the church abound in testimonies to the reality and efficacy of these special effusions of the Spirit. The Church of Scotland was born anew in the great revival under Knox and his brethren. "The whole nation," says Kirkton, "was converted by lump." Near the close of the sixteenth century, under the ministry of such divines as Wishart, Cooper, and Welsh, all Scotland was visited by an extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit. So mightily were men affected, that the whole General Assembly, four hundred ministers and elders, while renewing their solemn league and covenant, with sighs and groans and tears, were swayed by the Spirit, as the leaves of the forest by the "rushing mighty wind" of the driving tempest.

Similar scenes were further witnessed in Scotland, beginning in 1625, at Stewarton, extending through the land, and into the north of Ireland, and eventuating in that remarkable display of divine grace in the Kirk of Scotland, where, in June, 1630, under the preaching of Bruce and Livingston, "near five hundred" souls, in one day, were brought under deep conviction of sin, and presently into the light and liberty of the gospel. So, too, in 1638, on the occasion of signing the covenant, the whole country was stirred as by the mighty hand of God. "I have seen," says Livingston, "more than a thousand persons, all at once, lifting up their hands, and the tears falling down their eyes," as with one heart they vowed to be the Lord's. Such was the
preparation in Scotland, and in England also, for the great reformation, that issued in the Commonwealth under Cromwell, and the prevalence of Puritanism in the Church of England.

The Great Awakening in the Eighteenth Century.-- A period of great degeneracy, profligacy, and corruption, succeeded the restoration of the monarchy, extending into the next century. At length, in 1730, an era of spiritual revival was ushered in, under the preaching of the Wesleys, Whitefield, and a host of like-minded men of God, during which the churches of England, Scotland, and Ireland, were visited with a wonderful refreshing from the presence of the Lord. The wave of divine grace extended to the British Colonies in America, where, under the preaching of Edwards, and Bellamy, and the Tennents, and others of kindred spirit, the churches everywhere, in and out of New England, were so graciously and powerfully revived, that the period has ever since been known as "The Great Awakening," so many were the revivals of religion among the Christian people of the Western World.

These visitations of the Spirit were followed by the French War and the war of the American Revolution, resulting in a great decay of piety, and a wide diffusion of scoffing infidelity and profanity. During this period, here and there a church or neighborhood was favored with a gracious outpouring of the Spirit; but, for the most part, the churches in America were brought into a most lamentable state of spiritual declension. At length, in 1792, "commenced," says Dr. Griffin, "that series of revivals in America which has never been interrupted. I could stand at my door in New Hartford, Litchfield County, Conn.," he adds, "and number fifty or sixty congregations laid down in one field of divine wonders, and as many more in different parts of New England."

The Grand Era of Modern Revivals. -- All over the new settlements in the Western and Southern States of America, particularly in Kentucky and Tennessee, a work of divine grace, resulting from a special outpouring of the Spirit, beginning in 1796, and continuing for a dozen years or more, completely remoulded the character of the people, and led large numbers to forsake their sins and unbelief, and to connect themselves with the church. Again: after the war with Great Britain (1812-15), many of the churches were favored with revivals. Especially was this the case in the years 1827-32, when, under the preaching of Nettleton, Finney, and other evangelists, and by means of protracted meetings of four days' continuance, or longer, revivals were multiplied all over the land.

Very marked, also, was the wave of spiritual grace, that, beginning in the city of New York early in 1858, shortly after a season of widespread bankruptcy, spread from city to city, and town to town, all over the United States, until, within a single year, nearly half a million of converts had been received into the churches. It was confined to no denomination, no section, and no one class, in the communities where it prevailed. It was a great and wonderful revival.

During the year 1837 a work of peculiar power began at a mission station at Hilo, in Hawaii, under the preaching of Mr. Coan, and continued for a period of five years, during which 7,557 converts were received into that one church; 1,705 having been admitted the same day, July 1, 1838. Since the days of the apostles, the world had scarcely witnessed so wonderful a display of divine grace. And now, within the past five years (1878--83), a still more powerful movement of the Spirit in the Telugu Mission, India, has resulted in bringing more than twenty thousand hopeful converts into the churches; the accessions during the past year (1882) averaging not less than two hundred per month.

The evangelical churches in America very generally, and to a considerable extent in Great Britain and Ireland, as also in the British Provinces, most heartily believe in revivals of religion, look for them, pray and labor for them, and derive much of their vitality from these effusions of the Spirit. A large proportion of their ministry have been converted in revivals. A class of preachers known as "evangelists," or "revivalists," devote themselves wholly to their promotion. Here and there, serious irregularities have been introduced by enthusiasts, and much harm done to religion. These offenses, however, are exceptional, and of very limited influence. Very generally, revivals of religion are regarded by the best people as mighty helpers to the churches, and as most salutary in their influence over the church and the world.

[Sam]

ENGLISH METHODISM

English Methodism came largely as a reaction against English rationalism and the general spiritual and moral decline of the English nation. John Wesley (1703-91) was the man who called the revival into existence, but he was ably assisted by his brother, Charles Wesley (1708-88), and by George Whitfield (1714-70). John Williams Fletcher (1729-85) was also prominently connected with the founding of Methodism. John Wesley was the organizer, George Whitfield was the great preacher, Charles Wesley was the hymn-writer, and John Fletcher was the theologian of the movement.

John and Charles Wesley were reared in a religious home and greatly influenced by a godly mother. Their father was an Anglican clergyman, rector of the county parish of Epworth. While attending Oxford University, they were members of a group of young men who met for the study of the Bible and other books. This society became gradually more religious. The young men fasted twice a week, prayed much, and visited prisons and the sick. Other students began to call them the "Holy Club" or "Methodists" because of their strict methods of living. They and George Whitfield were all ordained as ministers in the Anglican Church. In 1835 John and Charles left England to be missionaries in the newly established colony of Georgia, but their work was so unsuccessful that they soon returned to England. Charles in 1736 and John in 1738. On the journey to America they met some Moravians and were impressed by their peculiar peace, calmness, and gentleness. They impressed John Wesley with the necessity of a personal experience and assurance of salvation. John did not have this. Then, on May 24, 1738 at 8:45 p.m. at a society meeting on Aldersgate Street while listening to the reading of Martin Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans, he had a definite conversion. He later wrote in his diary, "I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and
an assurance was given me, that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death." Charles Wesley and George Whitfield had already had similar experiences. In these specific conversions the evangelical Methodism was born. They began to preach a definite conversion experience followed by holy living. They were soon rejected by the established clergy and began to hold meetings outdoors. The outside meetings at Bristol gathered audiences that at times numbered twenty thousand. Although at first there was no intent to split from the Anglican Church, the number of converts grew so rapidly that they were organized into societies which were composed of bands or groups which were divided into classes of 12 for mutual edification and encouragement. By 1784 the Methodist societies formed into churches or congregations and were given the right to ordain ministers and administer the sacraments. Missionaries were sent to America.

Methodism exerted a world-wide influence. It quickened the spirit of English evangelism. It awakened a new spirit of humanitarianism, especially by its prison reforms and by its fight against slavery. It promoted the modern Sunday School, and founded tract and Bible societies. It greatly stimulated Protestant interest in foreign missions.

[Sam]

THE GREAT AWAKENING

What is called the "Great Awakening" in America was contemporaneous with the Methodist revival in England.

There were a large number of unchurched people. Religion had played a prominent part in the settlement of America but interest soon waned. Lack of organized churches and schools, shortage of worthy pastors, the rough frontier life, constant border warfare, and energy needed to settle a new continent had a demoralizing influence on colonial society.

But changes came. The Great Awakening was first noticed among German Mennonites, Dunkers, and Moravians in Pennsylvania. By 1726, through the revivalistic preaching of Theodore J. Frelinghuysen to the Dutch Reformed people of northern New Jersey there were numerous conversions. By 1728 the revival movement had spread to the English and Scotch Presbyterians through the preaching of Gilbert Tennant, a young Presbyterian minister of New Brunswick, New Jersey. In 1734 an awakening started among the people of Northampton, Massachusetts under the ministry of Jonathan Edwards. Edwards preached a series of sermons on justification by faith. The result was a great interest in personal religion. Within a year more than three hundred persons, nearly all the people in town above sixteen years of age, professed conversion. From Northampton the revival spread down the river and along the coast to the Middle and Southern Colonies. In Virginia it had greatest progress among the Baptists. From the Baptists it spread to the Methodists and the German Lutherans were strongly influenced. The Episcopal Church took an attitude of opposition.

The high tide of the Great Awakening came in 1740-1741 during George Whitfield's second visit. Thousands of people came to his meetings and there were many conversions. He visited the other revival preachers from the other areas and brought the various movements together. Jonathan Edwards and other New England ministers joined in the itinerant evangelistic work. Their great appeal was to fear. This is seen in the famous Edwards sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" which he preached at Enfield, Connecticut in July 1741. Meetings included groans, outcries, convulsions, fainting, visions, ecstasies and unbridled denunciation of all who did not agree with the revivalists. There was a reaction against what were considered excesses and the movement lost much force and popularity. However, many important results were registered. There was a general quickening of religious life, a revival of personal religion, a large increase in church membership, and a higher general standard of morality. Missionary and benevolent enterprises were promoted in the colonies and many denominational and religious schools were founded.