Garland, Texas - What Revival Is by J. Edwin Orr

We spoke this morning about how words change meaning. Now, many of you were at the meeting this morning. What did I speak on? What does repentance mean? How do you remember that? Now, I told you also that not only has the word "repent" changed to mean just to feel sorry, but it really means to change, to change your attitude. But the word "homely," I gave as an illustration, in the rest of the English-speaking world means homelike, whereas in the United States, it means ugly.

So, I'm going to speak on another word that's changed meaning. I was in Griffin, Georgia, talking to a good Baptist there, and I said, "The country is in such a mess. Don't you think we ought to pray for revival?" He said, "Yes, but closer to the time." I said, "Run that past me again." Well, he said, "We always have revivals in August. What's the good of starting to pray until July?" The word "revival" obviously has changed meaning in some places. I saw a sign outside a church in the San Fernando Valley which said, "Revival every Monday." What they do during the rest of the week, one can only conjecture. But I got a clue down in Burbank, five miles away, there was a sign at another church that said, "Revival every night except Monday." It left me wondering what they did on Monday night.

I was preaching in that great center of learning, Baylor University. Oh yes, the first time I spoke there, it was 1950. A Baptist pastor there said to me, "Brother, we had a revival here last fall and nobody got revived." Well, I said, "Then you didn't have a revival." "Oh yes, we did," he said, and he gave me the name of the evangelist and the name of the song leader and how much money they put out on publicity. But he said, "We never got off the ground." This must be the only country in the world where a non-event may be considered an event just because you call it that. In other words, it's a revival whether anyone gets revived or not.

Now, the word "revival" is not found in the English Bible, but the word "revive" is. By the way, the word came into the English language in 1720. It was described as an awakening in or of evangelical religion. That's a standard definition. You'll find it in all the encyclopedias and in all the dictionaries. But since about 1930, American dictionaries give a second definition: A is what I've just said; B, also a week of meetings, especially in the South.

Now, when we use the word "revival," what does it mean? The poor guy was pulled out of the creek, but through artificial respiration, he was revived. What does that mean? To bring back to life again. If they say he was in the creek for two days, nobody tries to revive him; he's dead. But if he's got any life, you can bring him back to life. That's the meaning of the word. But we also use it in other ways. You might say Baylor University has decided to revive a program of Shakespearean plays. What does that mean? It means it's been in abeyance for a while; they decide to bring it back to life again. The plain meaning of the word "revive" means re-again, vive-life. You know the Spanish word "viva"? Well, it's the same idea: bring back to life.

But there's a more serious controversy, and that is, can you organize a revival? Jonathan Edwards said revival is a work of God, but Charles Finney said revival is nothing more than the right use of the appropriate means. In other words, if you do certain things, you'll get certain results. In other words, revival is a program. How we love programs! In fact, some people have said we worship the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Program. We have programs for everything. Is revival just a program?

Now, Finney gave us his illustration in case you think I'm not being fair to him. Just as a farmer chooses a day to plow a field and chooses a day to sow the seed and chooses a day to reap the harvest, so you can have revival in Georgia, of course, always in August, at least in certain parts of Georgia. Now, what is the truth about this? The scripture says, "Wilt thou not revive us again?" Who? Thou. And who's that? God. It doesn't say give us a blueprint or a program to revive ourselves. "Wilt thou not revive us again?" The prophet says, "Revive thy work, O Lord, in the midst of the years; in wrath, remember mercy." Who does it? The Lord. According to scripture, the work of reviving God's people is the work of God, whereas we have made it into a human effort. We plan it, we arrange for speakers, we arrange for special music. All this is proper in evangelism. I believe that what Finney says about the right use of the appropriate means applies every time to evangelism.

When I was in New Guinea with the United States Air Force, I had a chaplain's assistant, a godly young man, a Methodist. He had the strange idea that if he spoke English loudly enough, the natives would understand. Anytime he addressed them, he always raised his voice. Now, that's not the right use of the appropriate means. I'm a professor in the School of World Mission. We have nearly 300 missionaries in mid-career coming to study this year, but they learn that you use the appropriate means. You better learn their language, and second, you better learn their culture. That's equally important. Now, in evangelism, if you use the right use of the appropriate means, but you can't say we're going to have a revival and we're going to arrange it from the 15th of November onwards, and we better get out of the way by Thanksgiving because we've got a lot of important things to do in Thanksgiving. You can't talk about the work of God like that.

Now, how can we give this a scriptural background? I'm going to quote some very familiar texts to you. The Lord Jesus met with his disciples for the last time, and they said, "Are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" They had been taught that when Messiah came, he would deliver the people of God from the tyranny of their enemies. They wanted liberation. What did he say? "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons." You can't fix a date; you can't have a blueprint. "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you." He didn't give them a program; he said, "You will receive power."

Now, did that result in the disciples forming a committee and discussing the various ways of doing it? No, no. It says in the same chapter of the Acts, all these, after naming the disciples with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the half-brothers of Jesus, continued in prayer. They just prayed. And then, when the day of Pentecost had come, quite unexpectedly, the Holy Spirit was outpoured upon them. Now, the Apostle Peter stood up before that vast multitude, and he said, "These men are not drunk as you suppose; it's only 9:00 in the morning. But this is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel: 'It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.'" And that long quotation ends with, "They that call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." This is what we call the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

If you read 19th-century literature, the days of Moody and Torrey and Finney and these great preachers, you'll find they often talked about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes they used a more Latin term, the effusion of the Holy Spirit. We seldom hear the term today, even in the charismatic movement, which is so concerned about the gifts of the Spirit. It's so often an individual experience: "What will this do to me?" There's very little concern about a general outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And this is where we begin. If we get this first stage right, we'll understand what revival is and what evangelism is and what God does in this work of his.

Now, if I were to ask you the question, is the work of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit the work of God or the work of man, what would you say? The Lord Jesus answers for us: "The wind blows where it lists. You can't tell where it's coming from or where it's going to. So it is with the Spirit." Now, in western Canada, 1971, a remarkable movement of God broke out in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and spread all over western Canada. One of the leaders came down. He was a Mennonite brother, belonged to the Mennonite Brethren, came down to Fuller to study for his doctorate. So I asked him, "Is the Canadian revival movement in its second stage yet?" "I don't know what you mean," he said. I said, "The first stage of revival is spontaneous, simultaneous. It just breaks out here, there, and everywhere. Nobody knows where it'll be next. But the second stage is export. Those whose lives have been transformed decide to carry the message elsewhere."

There's a godly Baptist pastor, William Will McLeod, from Saskatoon. It was in his church that the great movement began, and I found he was down in San Antonio and down in Brownsville in Texas, preaching in different congregations. He didn't set Texas on fire, but he brought blessing by bringing the message of that revival. That's the second stage: export. The third stage is fellowship. People who have had the same experience like to get together, as in the charismatic movement. And the fourth stage is organizational. They may form what we call a parachurch movement, or else they may form a new denomination.

You see, we talk about Methodist revival. Actually, there was a general revival in the days of John Wesley, not only among his followers but Whitfield and others. It was worldwide. But John Wesley organized his converts and friends into classes within the Church of England, and that became the Methodist denomination. There was a general revival, but when it reached that organized stage, it became a denomination.

Now, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is exclusively the work of God. World Vision, the Billy Graham organization, the Southern Baptist Convention, none of them are capable of organizing an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Imagine God consulting the Home Mission Board: "When do you think we should begin?" God bless my friend in the Home Mission Board. I've just come back from Australia with Glenn Shepherd, a man of God. But Glenn would agree with me: you can't organize the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. So that's the work of God exclusively.

But what's the result of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit? The first effect is the reviving of God's people. Now, you see, by reviving, you weren't misled. I didn't say the result is a revival organized in August. No, no. It's the reviving of God's people wherever they're found. That always happens. The Holy Spirit is outpoured. The Holy Spirit brings us back to what we ought to be, quickens our prayer life, gives us conviction of sin so it will put things right. That's his work.

Now, could you say that revival of that sort is the work of God or the work of men? I've already answered the question: it's a work of God, but it requires the response of believers. Tomorrow night, you're going to have Robert Coleman speak on the Asbury College revival. During that revival, a team from Asbury College visited a Baptist seminary, and the president wouldn't let them speak because he said, "This is not part of the program of the convention." It requires the response of believers. I'll tell you this: if a pastor of a church is opposed to revival, you won't have revival in that church. God recognizes leadership. The godly people may be praying, but their prayers may be answered in the illness of the pastor or his removal or his call to somewhere else. But the leadership of a congregation can frustrate the work of God. So you could say revival is the work of God with the response of believers.

Now, I used to hold the view, "Revive the church and win the world." As a matter of fact, Evan Roberts, the man whom God so signally used in the great Welsh revival—I knew him personally—he used the slogan in Welsh, "Revive the church and win the world." But is that always true? Now, get a church on fire for God, you're bound to win some people to Christ. Very seldom does it happen otherwise. But will it change the whole community? Not necessarily so.

You see, the Apostle Peter preached Christ crucified, Christ risen from the dead on the day of Pentecost. One hundred and twelve believers overnight became 3,120. That's what my colleague Dr. Donald McGavran calls very satisfactory church growth: 12 to 3,120. What was the secret? Peter preached the word. Peter was filled with the Spirit. Does that mean that if you're filled with the Spirit and preach the word, you're going to see very satisfactory church growth? Not necessarily so. Stephen was filled with the Spirit; the scripture says so. He preached the word just as faithfully as did Peter, but they murdered him.

And it taught me something else: we need to pray for an outpouring of God's Spirit not only upon believers but upon the masses. I used to think that John Wesley was such a genius of an evangelist that when he started to preach, strong men broke down and wept. But when John Wesley began, he was a rather stuffy high churchman. You read in his own diary, in his journal, "I made a series of appeals to the intellect, will, and emotion," just talking like an Oxford professor. Well, what happened? The same Holy Spirit that had revived Wesley and Whitfield at Oxford was poured out upon the non-churchgoing masses that never darkened a church door. If you want to try and visualize it for yourself, can you imagine a huge crowd like Woodstock, one of these rock concerts, and the Holy Spirit being poured out upon them so they repented with strong crying and brokenness? That's what happened in that revival.

We need to pray for the revival of the people. I took a team with me to New Zealand and Australia, 1956-57. We wanted to reach all the denominations, so we had an Episcopal evangelist, a Presbyterian evangelist, a Methodist evangelist, a Baptist evangelist, and we also had Corrie ten Boom. No doubt you've heard her name, but when we took her, nobody knew her name. Very few knew her name. She was a member of our team for three years. We adopted as our slogan, "The evangelization of the world through the reviving of the church." And there's truth in that, but it's not the whole truth. We need God to work upon the people. There are more and more people in America who are secularized, couldn't care less about the church. They don't persecute us, but they're just indifferent. So we need to have an outpouring of God's Spirit upon the masses. Is that the work of God or the work of man? That's the work of God, but it takes the response of unbelievers.

When God begins to work among the masses, perhaps some man will say to his wife, "You know, honey, we haven't been to church since we were married. We've got children growing up. We've got to do something about this." They look around for a church in this pluralistic society, but not quite sure what church to go to. He says, "Well, I'm Presbyterian way back. What were you?" And she says, "Well, I'm Mission Covenant, but I haven't been there for so long." They may start going to a Baptist church. They might go to Christian Missionary Alliance. They might even go to a Christian Science church. They don't know any better, but they get hungry for God. That's where we come in. That's where the work of man comes in. God has chosen to work through us. He could send a legion of angels to proclaim the gospel, but he has chosen not to do that. That's why he needs to revive the church so that we do it.

Now, the church then engages in evangelism. Let's say evangelizing and teaching. There's the Great Commission for you: go into all the world, preach, teach. What do we mean by evangelism? The best definition I know was written by a good friend of mine, Canon Max Warren of Westminster Abbey, who died a few years ago. He said, "To evangelize is so to present Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit that men may come to put their trust in him as Savior and to serve him as Lord in the fellowship of his church and in the vocations of the common life." That's the best definition I know. Is that the work of God or the work of man? That is the work of man. That's the work of converted men. We have to do it.

Also, teaching. You see, we evangelize inquirers, but we teach disciples, those who wish to follow. We teach them the commandments. Also, we teach their children. And then I find in every great movement of the Holy Spirit, there is social reform. Out of every great movement of God's Spirit, there has come social change. You say, "Well, do you equate social action with evangelism?" No, I would say this just in passing: many Southern Baptists confuse revival and evangelism. Many Northern Baptists confuse evangelism and social action. I remember when Valley Forge adopted what they call lifestyle evangelism. I thought, "That's great." I said to one of the men there, "How's it getting along?" He said, "We're doing wonderful. We've got at least six firms to stop investing in South Africa." Now, is that evangelism? That's social action, all right, but is that evangelism? No, no. So I can't equate evangelism and social action.

Then, is there any kind of priority? I think there is. Now, don't misunderstand me. The scripture teaches social witness. We're told to visit prisoners, to visit the sick, to help those who are in distress. "Inasmuch as you've done it unto the least of these, you've done it unto me." There is a place for social action. Most of the social action in this country has come from the great revivals. But I made an interesting discovery. I was speaking at that great Methodist center, Asbury College, with Stanley Jones and Frank Laubach in 1969. Frank Laubach was called Mr. Literacy.