Thoughts on Asbury and Revival
If you've been living under a rock for the last 3 weeks, you may not know this... but there's a lot of people talking about something that's been happening at a very extended chapel service at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky over the past month.
I found her view to be very fair, and I share many if not all of these thoughts. These being:
The last verse of "Come thou fount" spoke really powerfully to this note.
For those living under said rock, essentially a regular chapel service just didn't stop... for like two weeks. The service started like any other chapel service, with a message from a member of the faculty , and didn't end. Students just stayed... continued singing, reading scripture, and confession. At least this is how I understand. It has been hyped up as the "Asbury Revival" now, by the likes of folks like Louis Giglio (which is how I first heard about it). Him and many other influential megachurch pastors have been talking a lot about revival and hyping it up. Nothing wrong with that, IMO.
I won't lie. I have been leaning in a little to what's going on. I spent a little time listening to the livestream before putting my hands to the keyboard, and what's happening is very moving. Many are traveling to Asbury to experience what feels to us like revival breaking out in this little chapel, across many states and countries. The interest and the hype is real. I felt a real sense that students are hungry for God to move in their lives. This is very obvious if you've watched the livestream.
I hope that the revival is for real. I long for God to bring revival, and pray for it often. Look around our country and watch the news (not for long if you don't want to be depressed)… our culture is a mess and needs God to awaken to a renewed love for Him, to purify our doctrine, our lives, our worship, and our worldview. There is so much either apathy to God out there or massively false teaching that's permeated our Christian world... and we know that if God brings renewal, it's going to start with the eklesia (the NT Greek word used to translate in our English Bibles as "church").
There is skepticism, and skepticism from people and ministries that I have a lot of respect for (keep reading). There are a lot of things (I have watched some of these presentations) being said in this extended worship time (I'm going to refrain from using the "r" word and you'll see why if you read on) that are unbiblical and don't seem to be in alignment with solid Christian teaching (I'm also going to refrain from using the "h" word, because I don't know what I don't know). I'm not going to go into detail. I'll link some resources at the end so you can check them out and then between you and God make up your own mind.
One thing that is framing my thoughts about what's going on is a podcast I heard from Alisa Childers, who did visit Asbury as an extension of speaking at an apologetics conference when this was going on. Here is the short clip for you to view.
First, Hope for what God is doing in the lives of the students, and that there is good seed being planted in what's going on. I've also prayed that those who are genuinely being awakened will continue and that we'll see lasting fruit come out of this.
Second, the concern about the revival movement getting coopted by false teachers in the NAR (New Apostolic Reformation... think Bethel, Redding... the same folks that puts out a lot of the popular church songs nowadays) for whom this idea of "revivalism" is key to their theology and "Word of Faith" worldview. Why this movement is heretical I won't delve into here, that's another blog 😉.
She talked about the messiness that comes with movements like this (her dad was saved in the "Jesus Revolution" revival in the '70's, which had it's share of good fruit and messiness).
Third, as a Biblical point to this "move to brand Asbury" by some of these folks, Alisa talked in one of her videos about Jesus' parable of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-30). The basic meaning of this parables is that Jesus is planting good seed (His eklesia) and "an enemy" (Satan) is coming behind and planting tares (or weeds that are undiscernible from wheat until they grow up). The point is, wherever Jesus is building His church, false teachers are going to be planted alongside the true believers and will look like Christians until their fruit and doctrine are examined. This was true of the early church (Read: Galatians, Colossians, and Jude who were specifically written to combat false doctrine/teaching) and it's also true today (see: Word of Faith (aka - "name it claim it"), Bethel, Joel Osteen, CRT used as an "analytical tool" in visibly reformed churches, etc.).
We should expect false teachers and false doctrine to attempt to pollute our churches. This is the point of the parable, and Jesus is not a liar. So, just because there are false teachers showing up at Asbury (such as Todd Bentley, the most famous, or infamous, of the "NAR" affiliated visitors) doesn't mean that God isn't working in students' lives. We need to pray for the students who are being moved by God (the wheat) that they would be protected from the false gospels promoted by these folks (the tares). We also need to pray that they (and we) get rooted in our Bibles and a solid understanding of Biblical doctrine and theology. This will always follow true revival, and is one of the fruits of it.
Finally, Whether this really is a "revival" will be discerned not by what happens in an emotional (and when we encounter God, emotion WILL follow... that's part of the experience) two weeks, but in the long term fruits of God's work in the students. Pastors, missionaries, faithful worship leaders will be raised and will have fruitful ministries as a result, and changes to the culture will be manifested. Are there Biblical examples we can use to understand what the fruit of revival should look like when we see it? I believe there are. Let me reference a few examples.
2 Kings 22:1-23:27. Under King Josiah, the Book of the Law (Torah) is rediscovered in the Temple and read. the priests realize (vs. 13) that they are in rebellion against God. They went to Josiah the King, who read the Law aloud and repented. This resulted in the idols being torn down and all of their perverse practices being removed around Judah and the restoration of the true worship of God in the nation, and the restoration of the practice of Passover, which had been neglected for decades.
Nehemiah 8:1-9:38. After the walls of Jerusalem are restored, the Book of the Law is read aloud in the hearing of all of the people. The Feast of Booths, which is commanded of Israel in the Law, was reinstated after having been neglected since the days of Joshua (Neh 8:17). Finally, there is a period of national repentance for the sins that resulted in the deportation. They confessed their sins to God and re-covenanted with God.
Acts 19:11-41: Paul arrives at Ephesus and God saves a significant number of people through Paul's preaching, accompanied by miraculous signs that false teachers attempted to emulate (19:13-16)... see, tares already. The result was that the temple of Artemis started to see a massive decline in attendance and that the new Christians who had previously practiced sorcery had a book burning party to destroy their books of spells, valued at 50,000 pieces of silver (19:18-19). The resulting culture shift created opposition in the existing culture (19:23-40)
Finally,
John 21:1-17: Jesus revisits Peter after Peter denied Jesus during the passion. Peter is back to his old, familiar, worldly life of fishing and Jesus provides Peter a sign through repeating the "fish in the nets" miracle. Peter, when realizing it's Jesus on the shore, doesn't waste any time but jumps out of the boat and swims to shore. Jesus then gently restores Peter and fellowships with him and the other disciples with him.
What do we see here?
- From Peter: When we realize that the God is moving in tangible ways, we react in His direction. This is what I find very admirable about the Asbury students. They are leaning in. Imperfectly. However, they are hungering for God and are swimming to the shore.
- From Acts: We ditch the cultural practices that we've assimilated that do not honor the Lord, at some times at great cost. What does this look like? Repenting of how we've let CRT poison the gospel that we're proclaiming (this would be my hope for my reformed and Baptist friends who may be compromising here). I believe we'd also see churches like Bethel repent of their false doctrine and reform their theology (I'm being very generous here... I do believe there are true Christians who worship there), or if they don't churches cease using their music in worship services and choose songs that are Biblically sound and are focused on the worship of God vs. the worship of self in the name of God.
- From Josiah and Nehemiah: We will see a renewed focus on reading, understanding, and obeying the Word of God, which is the Bible (both OT and NT). The Marcian heresy that we can "unhitch" from the Old Testament, and specifically it's moral requirements, will be repented of (I would love to see Andy Stanley repent of teaching and doubling down on this heresy himself, as it saddens me that his influence is being used to promote this teaching). We will also, I believe from these passages (see the festivals that were reinstated), see a renewed obedience to scriptural commands that we've either neglected or written off as "cultural" that are part of the New Covenant.
Finally (from John), it will manifest itself in a renewed fellowship with Jesus that is marked by joy and obedience. This doesn't require that we travel to "a place where the Holy Spirit is" like many are talking about. The Holy Spirit is God. He's omnipresent (see Psalm 139), and indwells every believer (see John 16). Revival at this level can happen every day as we seek God in our own homes, in the shower, and most importantly in the fellowship inside our local church gatherings. God's not limited by where we happen to be when we are attentive to Him.
I had planned to write this blog earlier in the week, but time and a set of circumstances that revealed to me that I have not been putting my hope and centering my life on Jesus had a way of delaying me. Here I am on a Saturday morning, after having somewhat of a "dark night of the soul" kind of night, and having God revive me in the food pantry in our basement that serves as the place where I have my "quiet times." God recentered me on Him through worship and through reading in my devotional about Peter's own revival moment on the shores of Galilee, which I hadn't planned to include in this blog but God impressed on me so much in that story that Jesus' restoration of His children is personal, and that meant for me too.
Restoration to fellowship and a life reliant and centered on Christ is what revival (or perhaps better put, "reformation") is.
O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above
Amen! Lord, Heres' my heart. Take and seal it. I pray that not only the fruit of the revivals in campuses around this country would take root, but also the fruit of daily revival that you give us the grace to experience in our local churches and our quiet time closets would take root and bear long-lasting fruit as well.
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