“It pleased God…to display his free and sovereign mercy in the conversion of a great multitude of souls in a short space of time, turning them from a formal, cold, and careless profession of Christianity, to the lively exercise of every Christian grace, and the powerful practice of our holy religion” (Jonathan Edwards, “A Narrative of Surprising Conversions,” Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, first published in 1736, p. 2).”

“We are about to enter a zone where no man has ever gone before. The Lord spoke to me and said, ‘I’m going to freak you right out with the things that I’m going to be doing because you’re going to have no grid for it.’ … The Lord’s about to take us on some roads that don’t exist on human maps”  (Darren Stott, 34, pastor of the Seattle Revival Center).

Contrasts.

The contrast between these two descriptions couldn’t be more striking.  Is it just a language-change from the 18th century to the 21st?  Or is it a change in revival aims?   The First Great Awakening seems aimed at conversion and holy living.  Today’s seems aimed more at ecstatic spiritual experiences.  It’s as if today we see these revival experiences as the high point of spiritual life.

Patrick Morley, Christian author and speaker, describes what a revival is:  “During a revival, God supernaturally transforms believers and non-believers in a church, locale, region, nation, or the world through sudden, intense enthusiasm for Christianity.  People sense the presence of God powerfully; conviction, despair, contrition, repentance, and prayer come easily; people thirst for God’s word; many authentic conversions occur and backsliders are renewed.”  Even that enthusiastic explanation implies that God sends a revival because people have become spiritually lethargic and weak.  A revival isn’t like a doctor advising a healthy patient how to have optimum physical health; it’s more emergency room doctor using defibrillation paddles to re-start a patient’s heart with a dose of electrical current.  The ultimate goal isn’t a heart restart; it’s optimum physical health.  So, while God certainly uses revivals his ultimate goal is Christ-likeness.

“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined
to be conformed to the image of his Son . . . ”
(Romans 8:29a)

Need.

Having said that, I’ll repeat what I wrote in an earlier blog:  I think the church in the U.S. needs a revival.  Despite mega-churches and high-production worship services and creative sermons and “portable” Christian music on smartphones, I get the impression that Christianity in America is, as they say about Tampa Bay’s waters, a mile wide and an inch deep.  The church needs renewing.  Whether what’s happening on the West Coast is part of that renewing  remains to be seen.

Skepticism.

I have to admit I get skeptical about “prophetic words” from leaders associated with “the Rumble”:   “The Lord spoke to me and said, ‘This whole thing is going harvest . . . The angel of the Lord is going to be connected with you now,.  You will not leave Seattle until the angel tells you to go'” . . .  and the already-cited, “We are about to enter a zone where no man has ever gone before. The Lord spoke to me and said, ‘I’m going to freak you right out with the things that I’m going to be doing because you’re going to have no grid for it.’ … The Lord’s about to take us on some roads that don’t exist on human maps.” Prophecy as forth-telling I can abide; prophecy as foretelling makes me uneasy.

In the 1970s or 80s (I can’t remember which) the charismatic movement got caught up in extreme discipleship.  Every Christian was to have a discipler to oversee his/her life.  I heard some horror stories.  Leaders of “The West Coast Rumble”. according to author Holly Piver,  “share a common belief that the church is to be governed by apostles and prophets,.  Churches come voluntarily under an apostle and pastors are supposed to submit to them. ‘Spiritual covering’ is what they call it, and if they are not under this covering, they are outside of God’s blessing.”  I don’t see allowance for that in the New Testament and am concerned these folks are repeating the same error as their predecessors 30 years ago.

Confusion.

Revivals tend to feature confusion.   Here’s what Edwards wisely wrote about that:  ” . . . if God is pleased to convince the consciences of persons, so that they cannot avoid great outward manifestations, even to interrupting and breaking off those public means (meetings) they were attending, I do not think this is confusion, or an unhappy interruption, any more than if a company should meet on the field to pray for rain, and should be broken off from their exercise by a plentiful shower. Would to God that all the public assemblies in the land were broken off from their public exercises with such confusion as this the next sabbath day!  We need not be sorry for breaking the order of means, by obtaining the end to which that order is directed. He who is going to fetch a treasure, need not be sorry that he is stopped, by meeting the treasure in the midst of his journey.”

Warning.

Whatever we think of revivals, I warn myself and others not to be found opposing God.  At the end of my writing about revivals, I haven’t discovered any hard, fast rules for discernment, except this:  Jesus must be exalted as Lord and Savior.  If he is not (because, say, ecstatic spiritual experiences are), then either the revival is not from the Holy Spirit or the Spirit is speaking as if through Balaam’s dumb donkey (Numbers 22:21-30).

Pray.

Lastly, I think we should be praying fora genuine revival/awakening/renewal (whatever the okay word is for us) in our churches.  How quickly our routines become ruts!  How low our expectation that God is really going to act in our services!  How little our influence in the community for Jesus’ sake!  When the world can take us or leave us, and when the government fearlessly dares to still our Bible-talk as homophobic or hate speech, the church needs renewed power to effectively proclaim God’s truth in Christ!

I’m offering Jonathan Edwards’ “signs” to evaluate revivals like the West Coast Rumble—an evaluation, I believe, it’s incumbent on us to make.  “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).

By the way, if you haven’t, you should read my last two posts before reading this one https://theoldpreacher.com/the-west-coast-rumble/ and https://theoldpreacher.com/?p=4913&preview=true.

Eighteenth century revivals raised questions and moved Edwards to write “The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God”.  In it he identified nine “negative signs” (last post) and five “positive” signs (below).  Again, my goal:  to help us (in John’s words) to “test the spirit to see whether they are from God”.

Positive Signs

To put this sign in question form:  “Does this work create in people a hunger for God’s written word or distract them from it?”

What are we to make of “The West Coast Rumble” and similar “revivals”?  (This post makes much more sense if you’ve read the last—https://theoldpreacher.com/the-west-coast-rumble/).  Are they “for real”—a genuine work of God the Holy Spirit, or of the devil, or of human origin?  I’m not sitting in judgment.  I want to know so we can praise God for what he’s doing and pray for revivals or steer clear because he’s not doing it.

Jonathan Edwards was an 18th century Christian preacher and theologian.  He “is widely acknowledged to be America’s most important and original philosophical theologian,” and one of America’s greatest intellectuals (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/edwards),  He “was a key figure in what has come to be called the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s” (http://www.theopedia.com/jonathan-edwards). 

Negative Signs

By this he means,  “what are not evidences that a work is not from the Spirit of God.”  In other words, if every person turns purple, that doesn’t prove this “revival”  is not from God’s Spirit.

I.  Very unusual and extraordinary ways of doing things.  If the method of the meetings is unusual and extraordinary that doesn’t mean the Spirit isn’t at work (as long as the method is not contrary to Scripture).  We can’t evaluate events by what we’ve been used to, because God may work in new and extraordinary ways “to surprise both men and angels.”

II. “Tears, trembling, groans, loud outcries, agonies of the body, or the failing of bodily strength” and similar “bodily effects.” Because Scripture gives no such rule, these behaviors are not evidence this is not of God.

III. “A great concern, strong affection, and a general engagement of mind”  doesn’t prove the Spirit is not at work.  It’s human nature to be “turned on” about something important and meaningful.   So, unless this causes “a notable, visible and open commotion and alteration amongst [the] people”, this does not indicate that the work is not of God’s Spirit.

IV.  Many have great impressions made on their imaginations is not a sign the work is not from the Spirit.  “Such is our nature, that we cannot think of things invisible, without a degree of imagination . . . And the more engaged the mind is, and the more intense the contemplation and affection, still the more lively and strong the imaginary idea will ordinarily be . . .  It is no argument that a work is not of the Spirit of God that some who are the subjects of it have been in a kind of ecstasy, wherein they have been carried beyond themselves, and have had their minds transported into a train of strong and pleasing imaginations, and a kind of visions, as though they were rapt up even to heaven and there saw glorious sights.”

V.  Means are used in producing it.   This does not prove that the work is not of the Spirit.   “Means” are “the medium by which something is accomplished.”  God uses the “means” of his Word to reveal himself to us.  God uses the “means” of music to raise our affections for him.  God may also use the example of someone expressing great joy or, at the other extreme, terrible torment to convey his message.

VI.  Many “are guilty of great imprudences and irregularities in their conduct”.  These behaviors do not signify the Spirit is not at work.  “Is it no wonder that, in a mixed multitude of all sort–wise and unwise, young and old, of weak and strong natural abilities, under strong impressions of mind–there are many who behave themselves imprudently?”  The church at Corinth, full of the Spirit and, at the same time, of ungodly conduct, is a prime New Testament example.  The weakness of human nature and residual sin can prompt foolish behavior, even when God’s Spirit is present.

VII.  Many errors in judgment and some deception of Satan are found in the work.  Such activity doesn’t mean that the work in general is not of the Spirit.  It appears the devil’s actions increased when Christ came to earth.  “It is not to be expected that the Spirit of God should be given now in the same manner as to the apostles, infallibly to guide them in points of christian doctrine, so that what they taught might be relied on as a rule to the christian church . . . Many godly persons have undoubtedly in this and other ages, exposed themselves to woeful delusions, by an aptness to lay too much weight on impulses and impressions, as if they were immediate revelations from God, to signify something future, or to direct them where to go, and what to do.”

VIII.  Some fall into disgusting errors or scandalous behavior.  This is no argument that the work in general is not of the Spirit.  Counterfeits don’t mean nothing is true.  “Such things are always expected in a time of reformation”.  The heretics who attacked the church throughout her history are a classic example.  The classic biblical example is Judas.

IX.  It seems to be promoted by leaders who magnify the terrors of God’s holy law.  This  doesn’t imply the work is not from the Holy Spirit. “Why is it not proper for those who have the care of souls to take great pains to make men [aware] of [hell’s torments]?  The reverse is also true.  If leaders are captivated by the glories of Christ and the world to come, we’d expect them to be passionate and animated about them.

What do these negative signs indicate about the authenticity of “The West Coast Rumble” and similar “revivals”?  Do they indicate they’re works of the Holy Spirit or not?  We may say, “I’m 3000 miles away.  What difference does it make to me here?”  We read about such revivals in books or see and hear their meetings online.  Discernment, then, is important for us all.

Of course. we can’t make a final evaluation until we read Edwards’ positive signs.  These come next time.

What are we to make of “The West Coast Rumble” and similar “revivals”?  (This post makes much more sense if you’ve read the last—https://theoldpreacher.com/the-west-coast-rumble/).  Are they “for real”—a genuine work of God the Holy Spirit, or of the devil, or of human origin?  I’m not sitting in judgment.  I want to know so we can praise God for what he’s doing and pray for revivals or steer clear because he’s not doing it.

Jonathan Edwards was an 18th century Christian preacher and theologian.  He “is widely acknowledged to be America’s most important and original philosophical theologian,” and one of America’s greatest intellectuals (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/edwards),  He “was a key figure in what has come to be called the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s” (http://www.theopedia.com/jonathan-edwards). 

Negative Signs

By this he means,  “what are not evidences that a work is not from the Spirit of God.”  In other words, if every person turns purple, that doesn’t prove this “revival”  is not from God’s Spirit.

I.  Very unusual and extraordinary ways of doing things.  If the method of the meetings is unusual and extraordinary that doesn’t mean the Spirit isn’t at work (as long as the method is not contrary to Scripture).  We can’t evaluate events by what we’ve been used to, because God may work in new and extraordinary ways “to surprise both men and angels.”

II. “Tears, trembling, groans, loud outcries, agonies of the body, or the failing of bodily strength” and similar “bodily effects.” Because Scripture gives no such rule, these behaviors are not evidence this is not of God.

III. “A great concern, strong affection, and a general engagement of mind”  doesn’t prove the Spirit is not at work.  It’s human nature to be “turned on” about something important and meaningful.   So, unless this causes “a notable, visible and open commotion and alteration amongst [the] people”, this does not indicate that the work is not of God’s Spirit.

IV.  Many have great impressions made on their imaginations is not a sign the work is not from the Spirit.  “Such is our nature, that we cannot think of things invisible, without a degree of imagination . . . And the more engaged the mind is, and the more intense the contemplation and affection, still the more lively and strong the imaginary idea will ordinarily be . . .  It is no argument that a work is not of the Spirit of God that some who are the subjects of it have been in a kind of ecstasy, wherein they have been carried beyond themselves, and have had their minds transported into a train of strong and pleasing imaginations, and a kind of visions, as though they were rapt up even to heaven and there saw glorious sights.”

V.  Means are used in producing it.   This does not prove that the work is not of the Spirit.   “Means” are “the medium by which something is accomplished.”  God uses the “means” of his Word to reveal himself to us.  God uses the “means” of music to raise our affections for him.  God may also use the example of someone expressing great joy or, at the other extreme, terrible torment to convey his message.

VI.  Many “are guilty of great imprudences and irregularities in their conduct”.  These behaviors do not signify the Spirit is not at work.  “Is it no wonder that, in a mixed multitude of all sort–wise and unwise, young and old, of weak and strong natural abilities, under strong impressions of mind–there are many who behave themselves imprudently?”  The church at Corinth, full of the Spirit and, at the same time, of ungodly conduct, is a prime New Testament example.  The weakness of human nature and residual sin can prompt foolish behavior, even when God’s Spirit is present.

VII.  Many errors in judgment and some deception of Satan are found in the work.  Such activity doesn’t mean that the work in general is not of the Spirit.  It appears the devil’s actions increased when Christ came to earth.  “It is not to be expected that the Spirit of God should be given now in the same manner as to the apostles, infallibly to guide them in points of christian doctrine, so that what they taught might be relied on as a rule to the christian church . . . Many godly persons have undoubtedly in this and other ages, exposed themselves to woeful delusions, by an aptness to lay too much weight on impulses and impressions, as if they were immediate revelations from God, to signify something future, or to direct them where to go, and what to do.”

VIII.  Some fall into disgusting errors or scandalous behavior.  This is no argument that the work in general is not of the Spirit.  Counterfeits don’t mean nothing is true.  “Such things are always expected in a time of reformation”.  The heretics who attacked the church throughout her history are a classic example.  The classic biblical example is Judas.

IX.  It seems to be promoted by leaders who magnify the terrors of God’s holy law.  This  doesn’t imply the work is not from the Holy Spirit. “Why is it not proper for those who have the care of souls to take great pains to make men [aware] of [hell’s torments]?  The reverse is also true.  If leaders are captivated by the glories of Christ and the world to come, we’d expect them to be passionate and animated about them.

What do these negative signs indicate about the authenticity of “The West Coast Rumble” and similar “revivals”?  Do they indicate they’re works of the Holy Spirit or not?  We may say, “I’m 3000 miles away.  What difference does it make to me here?”  We read about such revivals in books or see and hear their meetings online.  Discernment, then, is important for us all.

Of course. we can’t make a final evaluation until we read Edwards’ positive signs.  These come next time.

Following is a current report from Religion News Service of a West Coast revival.   Some will immediately brand this the devil’s work.  Some will claim the leaders are deceivers.  Others will say, “Bring it on here!”  While others won’t know what to think.

Need for Revival.

One comment before the report.  I think the church in the U.S. needs a revival.  (What that should look like isn’t for me to say.) Despite mega-churches and high-production worship services and sermons and music galore on smartphones, I get the impression that Christianity in America is, as they say about Tampa Bay’s waters, a mile wide and an inch deep.  The church needs renewing.  Whether what’s happening on the West Coast is part of that renewing  remains to be seen.

But the question before us now is this:  What are we to make of this West Coast revival?

Distinguishing Marks of the Spirit’s Work.

In my next post, I’ll apply Jonathan Edwards’ “The Distinguishing Marks of the Work of the Spirit of God” to “The West Coast Rumble” (let’s not pre-judge because of that name!) and similar events, so we might wisely discern the true from the counterfeit.

* * * * *

Pentecostal Revival Sweeps Parts of West Coast

(RNS) They call it the West Coast Rumble: a set of multiweek revivals in Seattle and San Diego, plus a large Christian rally in Los Angeles two weekends ago.

The main players are 30-something Pentecostals who are just as apt to broadcast their messages via Periscope, Skype and Twitter, as well as on their ministry’s Facebook pages.

Can’t make it to their meetings? They’ll pray for you over their cellphones.

They belong to a loose network of roving preachers who have adopted some techniques from past Pentecostal revivals but with a digitized spin. They hope to bring faith to a region that has some of the country’s lowest church attendance.

“I feel like in the Northwest we are giving birth to a baby and it needs to be nurtured,” said Darren Stott, 34, pastor of the Seattle Revival Center, a 170-member nondenominational church where the revival is now in its eighth week. “For me, to be a pastor in Seattle is easy. To be a revivalist and contend for miracles is difficult.”

The center has hired several part-time workers to oversee the revival, stream online video and schedule and pay for a succession of visiting worship bands and speakers. The church has posted a list of hotels on its site for visitors who have flown in from around the Pacific Northwest and Australia. While an average of 210 people attend nightly services, an additional 225 people will watch the entire four-hour service online, with up to 1,000 people logging in and out on any given night.

Meanwhile, in the San Diego suburb of Rancho Bernardo, a series of meetings that was supposed to end Jan. 25 has morphed into what is now a 12-week revival. The meetings were sponsored by an Albany, Ore., group called The Elijah List and headed up by two evangelistic couples: Jerame and Miranda Nelson and Joshua and Janet Mills.

“We began to notice an unusual manifest presence of God invading the meetings,” Jerame Nelson, 35, wrote on elijahlist.com. “Miracles were happening quite easily and people were really getting touched by God during the worship times.”

Just the week before, Nelson continued, a Franklin, Tenn., evangelist named James Goll, 63, had prophesied that a “West Coast rumble” would break open in port cities along the West Coast from Tijuana, Mexico, to Vancouver, B.C.

San Diego, Goll had told Nelson, would be the first spark in this spiritual line of fire. So when Joshua Mills asked Nelson if they should continue the meetings, “I immediately said, ‘Yes, let’s do it!’” Nelson wrote on the site.

The San Diego meetings are part of a tapestry of events connected to Azusa Now, a large evangelistic meeting held April 9 at the Los Angeles Coliseum that attracted 56,586 worshippers.

Perhaps the most unusual occurrence during the rally was when Catholic charismatic leader Matteo Calisi knelt and kissed the feet of Azusa Now organizer Lou Engle in the name of Catholic-Protestant reconciliation. (Engle then returned the favor.)

The event marked the 110th anniversary of the legendary Azusa Street Revival, which birthed the Pentecostal movement in the U.S.  Led by William Seymour, a pastor whose prayer meetings lasted for some four years, the 1906 revival sparked a massive spiritual awakening that today numbers some 279 million adherents worldwide. Known for having received the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Pentecostals often speak in tongues and dance during worship services and report healings and other miracles.

Seymour is said to have prophesied that an even greater revival would happen a century later.

Charlie Shamp, 34, a Nashville preacher who helped jump-start the Seattle meetings, said he doesn’t like calling the West Coast Rumble a revival.

“They only last a year or two,” he said. “I really believe this is the Third Great Awakening. So many people are feeling it across denominational lines.”

In late February, Shamp appeared for what was supposed to be one weekend at the Seattle Revival Center in Newcastle, a well-to-do Seattle suburb. He ended up staying for five.

The church established a Twitter handle, #westcoastrumble, and began live-streaming the nightly services. Viewers from around the world could log in, chat, leave comments and register prayer requests.

Now the 350-seat church is full most weekends. Explaining this to his congregation on March 6, Stott said: “The Lord spoke to me and said, ‘This whole thing is going harvest.’”

During a typical meeting in both venues, the preacher will get what charismatics call a “word of knowledge,” usually an interior sense that God is healing certain people of a particular ailment.

Those who are physically at the church will walk up to the front to be prayed for, although online viewers can also identify themselves as having that ailment. One of the pastors — usually Stott — monitors the viewer feed and will announce to the congregation the names of people claiming to be healed or asking for prayer.

Chelsie Carbonell, 36, an artist from Bonney Lake, Wash., attended a session a few weeks ago, just as visiting evangelist Munday Martin, 38, of Nashville, Tenn., announced that someone who’d been in multiple car accidents would be healed.

Carbonnell had been in a series of accidents in the 1990s and felt she was out of alignment.

She went forward and Martin told her to sit down, as he wanted to pray for her legs to be the same length.

“I don’t think the problem is my legs,” Carbonell told him.

“Will you let a crazy evangelist try?” Martin asked her.

“My left leg grew out right then,” Carbonell said later. “I felt it. It was a strange, quick sensation. It took me four days to walk normally but now I’ve been able to jog for the first time in years.”

The congregation has no doctor-verified healings, although on March 11, it posted on its Facebook page a PET scan of what appeared to be a person’s spine and identified as “before and after photos of Stage 4 cancer.”

“I want to assemble a team to pursue these people,” Stott said. “Once we get X-rays, that kind of stuff, I will take that and publicize that on bulletin boards in Seattle. I’ve seen so many people from our immediate congregation healed. That has boosted my faith.”

In San Diego, Nelson wrote, “glaucoma healed, metal plates and pins that had been surgically inserted into people’s bodies have dissolved, deaf ears are hearing, deformities from birth are being healed, and many are getting saved, reconciled to God, and filled with the Holy Ghost.” He did not respond to requests for an interview.

Shamp, who eventually left Seattle Revival Center to fulfill other speaking engagements, said he’s seeing similar meetings around the country.

“I just got back from Columbus, Miss., and it exploded there as well,” he said.

Shamp said he was inspired by members of a 1980s movement known as the Kansas City Prophets, a loose network of Christian leaders who considered themselves apostles and prophets to the church. He called one of those leaders, Paul Cain, a week before going to Seattle in February, to ask for prayer.

“He said, ‘The angel of the Lord is going to be connected with you now,’” Shamp recalled. “‘You will not leave Seattle until the angel tells you to go.’”

Shamp, Nelson and other revivalist leaders are part of an informal network of two dozen Pentecostal and charismatic ministers, mostly under age 40, who like to push the envelope on spiritual healing.

They’ve integrated controversial parts of past U.S. revivals: reports of feathers mysteriously floating through the air during services, gold fillings appearing in the mouths of attendees, hands covered with oil or gold dust and people being overcome with fits of so-called holy laughter.

Holly Pivec, who co-authored a 2014 book with Biola University philosophy professor Doug Geivett on the movement, said these revivalists are part of the New Apostolic Reformation within the wider charismatic movement.

“They share a common belief that the church is to be governed by apostles and prophets,” she said. Churches come voluntarily under an apostle and pastors are supposed to submit to them. “Spiritual covering” is what they call it, and if they are not under this covering, they are outside of God’s blessing.

“Whole generations of young people have grown up under these NAR teachings. It’s the only version of Christianity they’ve ever known. Some 3 million people in the United States attend churches that embrace these teachings.”

Stott, whose church broke with the Assemblies of God a year ago, has been sending members out into nearby neighborhoods to do street evangelism.

He told his congregation April 6: “We are about to enter a zone where no man has ever gone before. The Lord spoke to me and said, ‘I’m going to freak you right out with the things that I’m going to be doing because you’re going to have no grid for it. … The Lord’s about to take us on some roads that don’t exist on human maps.”