If we are to pray aright in such a time as this, much of our prayer should be for a 21st century revival. If there was ever a time in which there was a need to cry unto God in the words of the Psalmist, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” (Ps. 85:6) it is this day in which we live. It is surely time for the Lord to work, for men have made void His law (Ps. 119:126). The voice of the Lord given in the written Word is set at naught both by the world and the church. Such a time is not a time for discouragement—the man who believes in God and believes in the Bible can never be discouraged, but it is a time for the Father, God Himself to step in and work. The intelligent Christian, the wide-awake watchman on the walls of Zion, may well cry with the Psalmist of old, “It is time for Jehovah to work; For they have made void thy law.” (Ps. 119:126, 1901 ASV)

The great need of the day is a 2019 revival.

Let us consider first of all what a 2019 revival should look like.

A revival is a time of quickening or impartation of life. As God alone can give life, a revival is a time when God visits His people and by the power of His Spirit imparts new life to them, and through them imparts life to sinners dead in trespasses and sins. We have religious excitements gotten up by the cunning methods and hypnotic influence of the mere professional evangelist; but these are not revivals and are not needed. They are the devil’s imitations of a revival. New life from God, that is a revival. The 2019 revival will be a time when this new life from God is not confined to scattered localities but is powerful throughout Christianity and the earth.

The reason why a 2019 revival is needed is that of spiritual scarcity and desolation and death is has taken over. It is not confined to any one country, though it may be more manifest in some countries than in others. It is found in foreign mission fields as well as in home fields. We have had local revivals. The life-giving Spirit of God has breathed upon this churchgoer Christian apologetic evangelists and that, this church and that, this community and that; but we need, we sorely need, a revival that shall be widespread and impactful throughout the inhabited earth.—Matthew 24:14;28:19-20; Acts 1:8.

Let us look for a few moments at the results of a revival. These results are apparent in churchgoer Christian apologetic evangelists, in the church and in the unsaved.

1. The results of a revival in churchgoer Christian apologetic evangelists are:

(1) The Christian apologetic evangelist has a new love for souls. Churchgoers before the internet and the progressive liberal movement of the last 30-years, as a rule, had very little love for souls as we ought to have, no such love for souls as Jesus had, no such love for souls as Paul had. But when God visits His people the hearts of churchgoers are greatly burdened for the unsaved. They go out in great longing for the salvation of their fellow men. They forget their ambition within Satan’s world that is alienated from God, and simply long to see men brought to Christ.

(2) When true revivals come, churchgoers get a new love for God’s Word and a new faith in God’s Word. They fling to the winds their doubts and criticisms of the Bible and of the creeds and go to preaching the Bible and especially Christ crucified. Revivals make churchgoers who are loose in their doctrines orthodox. A genuine wide-sweeping revival would do more to turn things upside down and thus get them right side up than all the heresy trials ever instituted.

(3) Revivals bring to churchgoers new liberty and power in proclaiming the Word of God. It is no week-long grind to prepare a message, and no nerve-consuming effort to proclaim it after it has been prepared. Sharing the Word of God with family, friends, in your community, and on the internet is a joy and a refreshment, and there is power in it in times of revival.

2. The results of a revival on all Christians generally are as marked as its results upon the churchgoers who had been carrying all of the weight over these past few decades.

(1) In times of revival Christians come out from the world and live separated lives. Christians who have been dallying with the world, who have been over indulging in the follies of Satan’s world, give them up. These things are found to be incompatible with increasing life and light.

(2) In times of revival Christians get a new spirit of prayer. Prayer-meetings are no longer a duty, but become the necessity of a hungry, importunate heart. Private prayer is followed with new zest. The voice of earnest prayer to God is heard day and night. People no longer ask, “Does God answer prayer?” They know He does, and besiege the throne of grace day and night.

(3) In times of revival Christians go to work for lost souls. They do not go to meetings simply to enjoy themselves and get blessed. They go to meetings to watch for souls and to bring them to Christ. They talk to men on the street and in the stores and in their homes, and the internet. The cross of Christ, salvation, the resurrection hope become the subjects of constant conversation. The new line of clothes, sports, and the latest moves or novels are no longer the main topic of their conversation.

(4) In times of revival Christians have a new joy in Christ. Life is joy, and new life is a new joy. Revival days are glad days, days of heaven on earth.

(5) In times of revival Christians get a new love for the Word of God. They want to study it day and night. They buy the books that are necessary for sharing God’s Word most effectively, books that teach them how to study, and books that make them great Christian apologetic evangelists. Revivals are bad for malls and movie theaters, but they are good for Christian bookstores and Christian publishers.

3. But revivals also have a decided influence on the unsaved world.

(1) First of all, they bring a deep conviction of sin. Jesus said that when the Spirit has come He would convince the world of sin (John. 16:7-8). Now we have seen that a revival is a coming of the Holy Spirit, and therefore there must be a new conviction of sin, and there always is. If you see something men call a revival, and there is no conviction of sin, you may know at once that it is bogus. It is a sure mark.

(2) Revivals bring also conversion and regeneration. When God refreshes His people, He always converts sinners also. The first result of Pentecost was new life and power to the one hundred and twenty disciples in the upper room; the second result was three thousand conversions in a single day. It is always so. I am constantly reading of revivals here and there, where Christians were greatly helped but there were no conversions. I have my doubts about that kind. If Christians are truly refreshed, they will get after the unsaved by prayer and testimony and persuasion, and there will be conversions.

• APOLOGETIC EVANGELISM – Persuasion That Appeals to the Heart
• Use the Art of Persuasion When Sharing Biblical truths
• Using Persuasion in Christian Apologetic Evangelism

Why a 2019 Revival is Needed

We see what a 2019 revival is, and what it does; let us now face the question of why it is needed at the present time.

I think that the mere description of what it is and what it does shows that it is needed, sorely needed, but let us look at some specific conditions that exist today that show the need of it. In showing these conditions one is likely to be called a pessimist. If facing the facts is to be called a pessimist, I am willing to be called a pessimist. If in order to be an optimist one must shut his eyes and call black white, and error truth, and sin righteousness, and death life, I don’t want to be called an optimist. But I am an optimist all the same. Pointing out the real condition will lead to a better condition.

1. Look first at the ministry.

(1) Many of us who are professedly conservative Christian apologetic evangelists are practically have been slow to accept the great commission that Jesus gave every Christian, to proclaim God’s Word, teach, and make disciples. (Matthew 28:19-20) That is plain speech, but it is also an indisputable fact. There is no essential difference between the teachings of the Agnostic New Testament professor Bart D. Ehrman and Elaine Pagels and the teachings of some of our so-called conservative theological professors in our so-called conservative Bible colleges and seminaries. The latter is not so blunt and honest about it; they phrase it in more elegant and studied sentences, but it means the same. Much of the so-called new learning and biblical criticism is simply John H. Hayes and Carl R. Holladay, William W. Klein, Craig L. Blomberg, Robert L. Hubbard Jr., and Richard Elliott Friedman, among many others infidelity sugar-coated. Professor F. David Farnell, Norman L. Geisler, William Lane Craig, Gary Habermas, Richard Howe, Hugh Ross, and others, who are real scholars and not a mere echo of German infidelity of the past, all fighting the Agnostic, atheist, and biblical criticism of liberal to moderate Bible scholars.

There is little new in the higher criticism. Our future pastors oftentimes are being educated under infidel professors, and being immature boys when they enter the college or seminary, they naturally come out infidels in many cases and then go forth to poison the church.

(2) Of late our pastors are conservative Christians holding to absolute inerrancy of Scripture and what is biblically true, and we thank God the numbers are growing! These are sometimes men who struggle with prayer. Pastors need to know what it is to wrestle in prayer, to spend a good share of a night in prayer. I do not know how many, but I would ask that they ponder that thought.

(3) Many pastors have no love for seeking out souls in Satan’s world. How many pastors have an evangelism program within their church? They know that men everywhere are perishing, and by preaching and training the churchgoers under their care, they could save some.

Perhaps enough has been said about us pastors and professors, but it is evident that a 2019 revival is needed for our sake, or some of us will have to stand before God overwhelmed with confusion in an awful day of reckoning that is surely coming.

2. Look now at the church:

(1) Look at the doctrinal state of the church. It is bad enough. Many do not believe in the whole Bible. The book of Genesis is a myth, Jonah is an allegory, and even the miracles of the Son of God are questioned. The doctrine of prayer is old-fashioned, and the work of the Holy Spirit is sneered at. Conversion is unnecessary, and much of the Scriptures is no longer believed in. Then look at the fads and errors that have sprung up out of this loss of faith, Science, atheism, agnosticism, humanism, progressivism, and much more doctrines of devils.

(2) Look at the spiritual state of the church. Worldliness is rampant among church members. Many church members are just as eager as any in the world. They use the methods of the world in the accumulation of wealth, and they hold just as fast to it as any when they have gotten it.

Prayerlessness abounds among church members on every hand. Someone has said that Christians on the average do not spend more than five minutes a day in prayer.

Neglect of the Word of God goes hand in hand with neglect of prayer to God. Very many Christians spend twice as much time every day wallowing through the mire of television, social media, theater, sports as they do bathing in the cleansing shower of God’s Holy Word. How many Christians average an hour a day spent in Bible study?

Along with neglect of prayer and neglect of the Word of God goes a lack of generosity. The churches are rapidly increasing in wealth, but the treasuries are not being spent on any kind of evangelism program to proclaim God’s Word in their communities. It is simply appalling.

Then there is the increasing disregard for the Lord’s Day. It is fast becoming a day of worldly pleasure, instead of a day of holy service. The Sunday sports events take the place of the Bible; and visiting gold courses, the place of the Sunday-school and church service.

Christians mingle with the world in all forms of questionable amusements. The young man and the young woman who comes to church dressed like they were at worldly parties the night before, the young man wearing an Iron Maiden T-shirt, shorts and sandals, while the young lady is dressed so as to reveal as much of her body as possible.

Then we have the doctrinal divide. There are 41,000 different Christian denominations with differing views about Bible doctrine. They all claim to be the TRUTH and the WAY. Even if we select one denomination, say the Baptist, there 60 plus different Baptist denominations, all have different beliefs as well. Within just one single Baptist church, the pastor has different views that the assistant pastor and the deacons. The church members of the one Baptist church all believe differently as well, and most are biblically illiterate, namely, they cannot explain and defend their beliefs, or God’s Word.

3. Now look at the state of the world.

(1) Note how few conversions there are. Eighty percent of the church is stagnant (not growing). Then there is nineteen percent growth because of childbirth and transfers from other churches. Actual conversions based on evangelism are a mere one percent.

(2) There is lack of conviction of sin. Seldom are men overwhelmed with a sense of their awful guilt in trampling under foot the Son of God. Sin is regarded as a “misfortune” or as “infirmity,” or even as “good in the making”; seldom as enormous wrong against a holy God.

(3) Unbelief is rampant. Many regard it as a mark of intellectual superiority to reject the Bible and even faith in God and immortality. It is about the only mark of intellectual superiority many possess, and perhaps that is the reason they cling to it so tenaciously.

(4) Hand in hand with this widespread infidelity goes gross immorality, as has always been the case. Infidelity and immorality are Siamese twins. They always exist and always grow and always fatten together. This prevailing immorality is found everywhere.

Look at the legalized adultery that we call divorce. Men marry one wife after another and are still admitted into good society, and women do likewise. There are thousands of supposedly respectable men in America living with other men’s wives, and thousands of supposedly respectable women living with other women’s husbands.

This immorality is found in the entertainment world. Most young people today are very much influenced by hip-hop, rap, and heavy metal music, as well as reality television, celebrities, movies, video games, and the internet, especially social media. Parents are now allowing their children to receive life-altering opinions, beliefs, and worldviews from the likes of Snooki, a cast member of the MTV reality show Jersey Shore. Kim Kardashian and her family rose to prominence with their reality television series, Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

The ABC Family Channel (owned by Disney) comes across as a channel that you would want your children watching. However, most of the shows are nothing more than dysfunctional families, promotions of homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle, and young actors and actresses that are playing underage teens in high school, running around killing, causing havoc, and having sexual intercourse with multiple characters on the show. In August 2006, an all-new slogan and visual style premiered on ABC Family: A New Kind of Family. The channel shows such programming as Pretty Little Liars, Twisted, The Fosters, Melissa & Joey, Switched at Birth, The Lying Game, Bunheads, and Baby Daddy.

The world has added new words to their vocabulary, like “sexting,” which is the act of sending sexually explicit messages and/or photographs, primarily between cell phones. The term was first popularized in 2007. Then, there is “F-Bomb,” which we are not going to define fully other than to say that the dictionary considers it “a lighthearted and printable euphemism” for something far more offensive. If all of the above is unfamiliar to you as a parent, and you have a teen or preteen child, you may want to Google the information. The moral condition of the world in our day is disgusting, sickening, appalling.

We need a revival, deep, widespread, 2019, in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is either a 2019 revival or the dissolution of the church, of the home, of the state. A revival, new life from God, is the cure, and the only cure. That will stem the awful tide of immorality and unbelief. Mere argument will not do it; but a wind from heaven, a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit, a true God-sent revival will. Infidelity, higher criticism (biblical criticism), Science, Atheism, Agnosticism, and humanism, all will go down before the outpouring of the Spirit of God. It was not discussion but the breath of God that relegated Tom Paine, Voltaire, Volney and other of the old infidels to the limbo of forgetfulness; and we need a new breath from God to send the John H. Hayes and Carl R. Holladay, William W. Klein, Craig L. Blomberg, Robert L. Hubbard Jr., and Richard Elliott Friedman and the parrots they have trained in Europe, Canada, Australia, South America, and the United States of America to keep them company. I believe that breath from God is coming.

The great need of today is a 2019 revival. The need is clear. It admits of no honest difference of opinion. What then shall we do? Pray. Take up the Psalmist’s prayer, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” Take up Ezekiel’s prayer, “Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.”

SCROLL THROUGH DIFFERENT CATEGORIES BELOW

BIBLE TRANSLATION AND TEXTUAL CRITICISM

BIBLICAL STUDIES / INTERPRETATION

EARLY CHRISTIANITY

CHRISTIAN APOLOGETIC EVANGELISM

TECHNOLOGY

CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

CHRISTIAN FICTION