Please, stop using the word "Revival"!

Don't hear what I am NOT saying. I love the concept of "revival", and I pray for it. The last time America experienced anything akin to revival was during the Jesus People movement of the late 1960's and early 1970's. What happened in that move of God was remarkable, and there has been lasting fruit. I personally have known many who came to Christ at that time.

And yet, many of today's "revivalists" seem to be endlessly claiming, "Revival is here!" I have seen the posts. I have heard about the gatherings and baptisms happening at colleges and universities. Any gathering where the Gospel is being preached is encouraging. Genuine baptisms (meaning real new converts) are always amazing. A few hundred people gathering in the open air when worship is being played and a message is given is great. I've been involved in a number of the types of events I've just described. 

But when we consider real revival, none of these occurrences is even close. None of what is currently happening even gets close to the Jesus People Movements. Note: Large worship events in stadiums are Christian gatherings almost exclusively. They are happening in huge venues, but let us not confuse Christian events as constituting revival wherein huge numbers of lost sinners find new life in Christ.

Why am I blogging about this today? Because I have quite recently become fascinated with what has been called "The First Great Awakening" that happened in America in the 1700s (the 18th Century) and also was happening in England.

Just this morning, I was reading about a single month of George Whitefield's open-air evangelistic preaching in London (in the late 1730s). 

What you are about to read constitutes GENUINE REVIVAL, and after reading it, I trust you will stop using the term as flippantly as so many are using it today. 

Wednesday, May 2nd - preached to more than 10,000 in Kennington Common

Saturday, May 5th - 20,000 (Kennington Common)

Sunday, May 6th - in Moorfields, 20,000 in the morning, 50,000 in the evening

Tuesday, May 8th - 20,000 (after raining)

Wednesday, May 9th - 20,000

Thursday, May 10th - "not above 10,000" (due to weather)

Friday, May 11th - more than 10,000

Saturday, May 12th - 20,000 

Sunday,  May 13th - "a prodigious number" in the morning, 60,000 in the evening

Sunday, May 27th - 20,000 in the morning, thousands in the evening

Monday, May 28th - 10,000 ("Great numbers were in tears")

Wednesday, May 30th - 15,000

Friday, June 1st - "near 80,000 people"

Saturday, June 2nd - 10,000

Sunday, June 3rd - "Preached at Moorfields to a larger congregation THAN EVER...Preached in the evening at Kensington Commons to the most numerous audience I ever saw in that place" [see May 5th & 6th above]

I've just summarized the highlights of ONE MONTH OF WHITEFIELD'S MINISTRY - there were many other meetings during that same month. Whitefield saw more people saved in that one month than many of our current evangelists will see in their lifetimes!

In all of these meetings, George Whitefield was preaching, in person with no sound amplification, the Gospel to lost sinners, calling them to repentance. Countless thousands responded under deep conviction, people weeping with tears. Also noteworthy is that all the money that he raised through offerings was given to orphans (not to enrich the evangelist himself!)

Oh, how different things are today. Compare Whitefield's journal to the exaggerated reports of "revival" by people today who have become rich on the platforms they have created for themselves. As to the current claims of revival, they constitute the bearing of false witness when compared to the God-sent revival of the 18th century. And offerings going to orphans instead of the buying of multiple homes, as in the case of one modern-day revivalist, means that much of today's revival culture is defiled as compared to the purity of the Great Awakening.

Source: George Whitefield: God's Anointed Servant in the Great Revival of the Eighteenth Century by Arnold Dallimore, Crossway, 1990