We are a nation in need of true revival

There are reports from CBN News just recently about potential revivals going on at a few colleges.

CBN writes, “In the fourth major collegiate revival in less than a month, thousands of students gathered at the University of Arkansas on Thursday night to seek Jesus Christ and find salvation in His name. Unite US reports that 10,000 students from 67 different universities gathered in Bud Walton Arena.”

The event organizer, Unite US, says of the gathering in Arkansas last week: “Jesus met us there ... We were blown away by His presence in the room and how it carried over to baptisms. It was a night we'll never forget.”

Other universities mentioned in the CBN report include the University of South Carolina, Texas A & M at Corpus Christi, and Ohio State University.

Tonya Prewett shares the Gospel at various campuses, and said: “God is doing something across this nation ... I do believe this move of God on college campuses is ushering in a greater awakening.”

This is not to mention what was happening at Asbury in early 2023.

Is “Aslan on the move?” to paraphrase C.S. Lewis in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe — referring to Jesus Christ. If so, this is very welcome news. America is in desperate need of a spiritual awakening.

Poll after poll finds that millions of Americans feel that we are headed in the wrong direction as a nation. For example, statista.com notes: “According to a survey conducted in August 2023, approximately 69% of Independents believed that the United States was headed in the wrong direction, compared to 90% of Republicans and 50% of Democrats.”

We are in serious need of serious change in this country.

Although we desire for God to bless America, our first President noted this in his First Inaugural Address: “The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained.” How can God bless us, asked George Washington, when we violate the rules He Himself has given us? Rules like the Ten Commandments.

We are clearly in great need of national revival. America was born in part through the revival that swept through the colonies. We call it now the First Great Awakening.

That revival began in the 1730s with the preaching of Rev. Jonathan Edwards in Northampton, Massachusetts, and spread throughout the colonies, mostly through the work of the traveling evangelist George Whitefield.

Sarah Edwards, Jonathan’s wife, said this about the impact of Whitefield's messages: “It is truly wonderful to see what a spell he casts over an audience by proclaiming the simplest truths of the Bible ... Our mechanics shut up their shops, and the day laborers throw down their tools to go and hear him preach, and few return unaffected.”

Ben Franklin commented on the social effects of the revival. He said of Whitefield’s preaching: “It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street.”

Founding father John Adams observed this about the link between what we now call the First Great Awakening and the push for Independence: “The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the mind and hearts of the people and change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations.”

In his book, A History of the American People, the late British historian Paul Johnson adds, “The Great Awakening was thus the proto-revolutionary event, the formative movement in American history, preceding the political drive for independence, and making it possible.” Our Providence Forum documentary on “The Road to Independence” highlights these things.

The Second Great Awakening in the early part of the 19th century helped end the horrible scourge of slavery. Two-thirds of the members of the abolition society in 1835 were ministers of the Gospel. Also, the anti-slavery Underground Railroad was run by churches.

The late Dr. D. James Kennedy once said this, “Many people are under the misconception that government will solve all our problems. But I believe that true change is going to take place when people throughout the nation begin to trust in Christ and in the God that made this nation great. And that will bring about a genuine revival. A revival that eventually moves to the halls of government. Not from the government down, but from the people up.” 

This is America’s only real hope for a real and positive change. Perhaps what is happening on some college campuses is a harbinger of good things to come.