Are We Due For Another Christian Revival?

As it was mentioned in my previous article on California’s foundation on greed, there was a religious revival in the 70’s called the “Jesus Movement” that originated from said state.
 
In his book titled: “Is This The End?” Dr. David Jeremiah talks about the need for a Christian revival in the country. He lists the documented Christian revivals through this land’s history.
 
First, comes the first revival called The Great Awakening (1720s through 1740s). Just prior to this revival, the land was not too different from what it is today, with less and less people being converted and proclaiming their fellowship to Christ. This revival began with a simple gospel message of the need to be born again, which resonated with younger audiences and gave them hope. Johnathan Edwards, during this time, warned unconverted men and women of the danger that lies ahead of them should they fail to come to Christ. And John Wesley used his powerful voice, in the literal sense, to evangelize sinners for a mile without the use of amplification systems.

This revival is immensely important, as it's what led our founding fathers to fight for our freedoms.
 
The Second Great Awakening started sometime in the early 1800s. During this time, as people were preoccupied with the task of building a new nation, their spiritual well-beings began to deteriorate. During the time of the Great Awakening, 40 to 50 percent of the population attended church. By the 1790s, however, that number dropped down to 5 to 10 percent.

                              Christianity in America was under threat of extinction.

But in a college in Virginia, some students locked themselves in a room in fear of fellow classmates and began praying for revival. The college president investigated the situation and when the students were invited to his office, they prayed alongside the college president. In short time, half of the student body had come to the Lord.
 
The Third Great Awakening came during the 1850s and 1860s. After sometime, the passion and fire of the Second had died down. But thanks to one Jeremiah Lanphier, the Third Great Awakening began. He had announced a prayer meeting for September 23, 1857. In that first meeting, almost no one showed up. But as months went by, more and more people would show up. More than 50,000 people a day would show up to pray in New York, and this revival spread to other major cities around the area.
 
Then came a larger scale revival: The Global Revival (Dated sometime early 1900s) This one actually started in Wales, where a young man by the name of Evan Roberts began to preach a simple message: confess your sins to God, do your best to not continue sinning, obey the Holy Spirit promptly, and confess your faith in Christ openly. This simple message stirred incredible amounts of emotion from people in Wales, then England, then the rest of Europe, America and much of the known world.
 
Lastly was the aforementioned revival: The Jesus Movement (1970s). During this time, an entire generation of people became known as the “hippie” generation. This generation was known as the most screwed up generation in American history, with drug usage rising, and Indian transcendental meditation becoming the most popular form of spirituality there was. However in 1968, a Christian couple opened an evangelistic coffeehouse in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury (Hashbury, as nicknamed by the hippies) district. This one coffeehouse spawned a myriad of other Christian coffeehouses in the West Coast. And that led to ministries starting and people’s souls to be saved. This even caused thousands of hippies to become baptized.
 
We can see that there’s a pattern in our nation’s history, much like in our world’s history. The number of people who believe in Christ shifts over time. Sometimes that number goes up, and sometimes that number goes down. As I look at the state of the world today, I see that the trend is a massive down. What with the legalization of marijuana, gay marriage and unapologetic promotion of abortion, we see that the passion for the last revival is very clearly in the past.
 
But you have to ask yourself: are we due for another Christian revival? The answer to that can be a yes or a no. What do I mean by that? I mean that God is the one who decides who He saves. If He wants another religious revival to occur in the U.S. and the world, He will cause it to happen. He’s the Master of the Universe and gets to decide whom will enter His kingdom. That’s not to say that I don’t want another revival. I most certainly do. But if the Jesus Movement was ordained to be the last one, who are we to argue? Those of us who are saved will not suffer death… that is spiritual death. I’d be more than happy with another revival, but I have no right to complain if it doesn’t come. And those who are saved needn’t worry about the future, as it is all in the hands of the Lord.
 
This is why we are encouraged to evangelize people. We want to help bring as many people to Christ as we possibly can, regardless of the trend in faith in the country or the world.
 
John 6:37
“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”
 
Author: Freddie M.