Revival and Revivalism

My first book for 2013 is Revival and Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism from 1750-1858 by Iain Murray. Murray traces the history of evangelism in the American church and the influence it has on churches today in America. A question I always ask myself is, "Am I sharing the Gospel in a Bible way?" How we share our faith does matter. See Philippians 1:15-18 for a interesting paragraph on this topic in Scripture.

In the introduction, Murray explains his thesis of the book:

"My thesis in this book is that in the period of our study, American history was shaped by the Spirit of God in revivals of the same kind as launched by the early church into a pagan world. " page, XX

Revival and revivalism are two different things in church history. Murray explains that revival can be best defined by a quote from Jonathan Edwards speaking on the subject:

"The work of God is carried on with greater speed and swiftness, and there are often instances of sudden conversions at such a time. So it as in the apostles days, when there was a time of the most extraordinary pouring out of the Spirit that ever was! How quick and sudden were conversions in those days...So it is in some degree whenever there is an extraordinary pouring out of the Spirit of God; more or less so, in proportion to the greatness of that effusion." page 20

Revival was quick and came as a "surprise" to the church, directly ordained by the sovereignty of God given by the Holy Spirit. The Gospel is faithfully  preached and if God so chooses, He saves some. The thought process of these pastors are; man is depraved and can not chose God. Through the preaching of the word, the Holy Spirit opens the spiritual eyes of the converted. Regeneration and the faith are both  gifts from God, given by the Holy Spirit.

Revivalism can be defined as:

"A mass of evidence has been produced to show that the idea behind the revivalist methods of the call to the alter, that is, the public invitation to come forward to receive Christ was to separate those actively seeking salvation from the rest of the congregation so that they could be made more easily and more intensely subject to the psychological and social pressure of the minister and the community of the converted." page XIX

Revivalism is a planned event that is announced by a local pastor or church. Because of the emotionalism and possible manipulation that is felt with revivalism, Murray argues that a major problem with revivalism is the difficultly of recognizing true authentic conversations from false conversations. Many people who "came to the alter" show no fruit of conversion months to years later. They were responding to the emotions of the event and were not converted.

More to come........