toldailytopic: Is general revival at all any longer possible in the western church?

[Nathon Detroit]

The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for June 11th, 2013 05:00 AM

toldailytopic: Is general revival at all any longer possible in the western church?

Take the topic above and run with it! Slice it, dice it, give us your general thoughts about it. Everyday there will be a new TOL Topic of the Day.
If you want to make suggestions for the Topic of the Day send a Tweet to @toldailytopic or @theologyonline or send it to us via Facebook.

 

[sky.]

I've never heard of it.

 

[CabinetMaker]

All things are possible with God.

 

[TomO]

toldailytopic: Is general revival at all any longer possible in the western church?

Yes, but it would be a major pain. lain:




:rotfl:





Get it?...Doncha get it?...General?...Major?....They're both...




lain: Whatever...Maybe some people think your puns stink too.

 

[lifeisgood]

Yes!

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14)

 

[Son of Jack]

Is God still God?

 

[Totton Linnet]

The Wesley/Whitefield revivals could be said to be general revivals, there can be no doubt and no historian denies that British society was transformed from top to bottom, there have been major outpourings and movings of God's Spirit since, they have been remarkably targeted or localised for example the Welsh revival or the Irish revival.

The work of the great American evangelist D.L.Moody was significant.

There has been revivals among college students, The Salvation Army was revival among the poorest and dispossessed members of society.

Then there have been signifant specialised outreaches to sections of society like seamen for instance.

But revivals like the Wesley/Whitefield Methodist one are something rare.

How many have heard the phrased question "Why does revival tarry?"

I have an insight into that.

 

[PureX]

toldailytopic: Is general revival at all any longer possible in the western church?

This must be one of those 'insider' type questions. "Revival" of what? Why does the western church need revived, is it dead?

 

[This Charming Manc]

Why on earth would it not be possible ?

 

[Totton Linnet]

Interestingly some see that the western church is in need of revival others think not, I think the western church is on her last legs. Americans will not see it quite so readily as Europeans.

In Britain for example only two in every hundred people attend church on Sunday...that is ALL churches. France is even more shocking....why do you think so many atheist posters are from Britain? Bible christianity is the only taboo subject I know of, can talk about anything else you like.

But remember this Americans, the gospel once thrived in Britain and was spread throughout the world.

Spurgeon prophesied a 150 years ago that the chapels of his day which then overflowed with people would be emptied out if crucial gospel truths were to be allowed to fall by the wayside.

The chapels are still there in every town, village and city, two or three to a street....but they are now turned into community centres, business offices, mosques and I wot not what else.

 

[Totton Linnet]

Yes, but it would be a major pain. lain:




:rotfl:





Get it?...Doncha get it?...General?...Major?....They're both...




lain: Whatever...Maybe some people think your puns stink too.

*
Don't make me come over there. lain:

:chuckle:

 

[Huckleberry]

Yes, but it would be a major pain. lain:

Major Payne

:think:

Yeah, that's about the sort of revival we need right now. :thumb:

 

[resurrected]

Yes, but it would be a major pain. lain:




:rotfl:





Get it?...Doncha get it?...General?...Major?....They're both...




lain: Whatever...Maybe some people think your puns stink too.

While there's a colonel of truth in what you say, Knight would be well within his rights to deal out corporal punishment, if only in private





besides, shouldn't you be busy making sure that 4% of your skyscrapers are built upside down?

 

[Sherman]

The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for June 11th, 2013 05:00 AM

toldailytopic: Is general revival at all any longer possible in the western church?

In theory I would say yes. Let me qualify by saying what revival is and isn't. Revival isn't God moving people against their will like chess pieces or emotional falling all over the floor. Revival is totally dependent on the choices of the individual members of the Body of Christ. Will the Body in the West choose the submit itself to praying for their country and voting for godly leaders? Will they choose to get involved in evangelistic efforts? Will they choose to educate their kids in a godly manner? True revival changes the culture around it. It all boils down the decisions made by the Christians themselves. America is turning into a cesspool because the Church has fallen down on its job and taken up a live and let live attitude. Revival cannot happen under these conditions.

 

[Nick M]

Yes!

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14)

If this is what he means, then no. He says here "my people". Do you know who he is talking to and why?

 

[Aimiel]

All it takes is one person wanting Him to revive His Body enough to move His Heart towards us. He will do the rest, through the hearts of those who are sensitive to Him. He has been looking for someone to seek Him with all their heart for revival since Azusa Street. The 'river' revival, which began in Toronto and Pensacola is still His Workshop and He still operates in the supernatural but doesn't harm anyone's faith by forcing it on them.

 

[Nick M]

God is not imputing tresspasses against people, and he no longer has his earthly nation, Israel. People are not suffering because God is imputing tresspass. Paul couldn't be clearer.

 

[Totton Linnet]

OK...I am a little surprised by some of the responses, a little discouraged I might add.

Revival can be revival within the church, General revival is when God sweeps through society and turns whole communities and nations upside down, sweeping in the multitudes.

I feel general revival is possible but not very likely, I also fear that revival can come in two forms in the church itself, it can come through revelation and blessing or it can come through severe persecution. In English church history it came through the latter going back to the bad old Tudor/Stuart days. Christianity came to America through the persecutions of the Stuart kings.

I disagree with the idea that it is a matter of freewill or that God has no right to command repentance in His church with dire consequences attending upon the failure of the church to do so. Persecutions...war follow on from the church's failure to to respond to God when He graciously visits in blessing.

God will have a people one way or another.

I believe aggressive capitalism or empire building and both the Nazi and the Communist regimes were the result of the church's failure in those respective nations to repond to earlier visitations of the Holy Spirit.

Americans be SURE if the church does not awake to the challenge and danger then the vacuum so apparent in society must be filled in some other way.

 

[Aimiel]

God sent us all a message on 9/11: hoping that we might... "turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."

 

[glorydaz]

The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for June 11th, 2013 05:00 AM

toldailytopic: Is general revival at all any longer possible in the western church?

If you're talking about the churches that scatter accross our land, I'll say NO, because the "religionists" in them now outnumber the body of Christ. I believe we're in the day when the true church (the body of Christ) must come OUTSIDE THE CAMP. The camp has become polluted (in general), and small NT style assemblies are springing up everywhere you look....in homes and rented buildings. A revival in the true church, the body of Christ, is happening right now all across this land, and it will increase as the day of the Lord draws near. We will have no choice but to wake up as persecutions sweep over us.

Hebrews 13:10-13
We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.​