Revival is a Request

From the “Asbury Revival” to the “Charlie Kirk effect,” there are many assertions, expressions, and declarations of “Christian revival” in recent years. I find most helpful statements about “revival” that speak of it as a less as a condition of a group or a generation of people and more as an appeal to hearts, a request to individuals to call on God and God’s Word.

Viewed historically, one characteristic common to all Christian revival movements is a refocusing of people on the Christian Scriptures. So, directing people to return to the Bible is a most basic and authentic statement of renewing Christianity.

For centuries, “The Restoration Plea” has been an expression of this request — that both believers and unbelievers have a Biblical understanding and practice of what it is to be a disciple of Christ and a church of Christ. The phrase “the restoration plea” suggests that renewal of Christian faith occurs first not as an expression of holy emotions, or a commitment to a reform movement, or even a declaration of a new era of outpouring or awakening.

Authentic Christian revival begins, rather, with directives to get the listener to do something, whether it is asking God for insight and forgiveness or requesting that others turn to God’s Word to hear and obey God. For example, this is the purpose of Paul’s famous appeal to the Romans:

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2).

The Apostle Paul illustrates how Christian revival occurs by an appeal for God’s truth and a plea for others to do the same.

In a recent conversation with Sewell Hall, a 95-year-old preacher in Atlanta, GA, he expressed this difference between revival as an asserted group position versus a personal request. Speaking of revival in terms of going back to the Bible and speaking and acting as it teaches, he observed how past declarations of a revival or restoration movement “overshadowed” the more personal appeal to return to the Bible:

“The individual appeal to the authority and ancient order of the New Testament was overshadowed by a concern for a ‘Restoration Movement.’ The names of mere men became most important, as in the ‘Stone-Campbell Movement.’ That talk bothers me. And the growth of such movements encouraged comparison to and alignment with Christian denominations. Christians could become prideful and boastful, and in time desire to become the largest movement, comparing their institutions, like colleges and orphan homes, to the size of those in other movements.”

Hall puts his finger on two ways Christians have thought and spoken about revival and restoration. On the one hand, there are statements of the facts, feelings, and declarations of renewal movements. These are assertions that serve to elevate and distinguish a moment or movement of revival. As Hall observes, “pride will lead those wedded to a movement to be wedded to denominations rather than the New Testament.”

On the other hand is a focus on the directions for restoration – the appeal to God, to Christ’s and the Apostle’s words, and the invitation of others to do the same. It’s the kind of speech and action that focuses on and makes request of the speaker’s and hearer’s commitment.

I concluded the conversation by asking Sewell Hall what the “Restoration Plea” means to him. His answer pointed to a hymn that his grandfather, Flavil Hall -- also a gospel preacher -- wrote and published over a hundred years ago. Entitled, “O, the Grand Old Book!” the hymn expresses both the exclamation and request to return to the Jesus of the Bible that is at the heart of the restoration plea – a fitting declaration of the prayer and petition that calls us back to God’s Word.

1. O, the grand old Book has stood the trials of the ages past!

Tho’ the battles have been strong. Tho’ the battles have been strong.

And ‘twill stand the storms until eternal day shall dawn at last,

And God’s love shall be our song. And God’s love shall be our song.

2. Every creed that’s made by men will perish in eternal night,

Heaven’s Book alone shall stand, Heaven’s Book alone shall stand,

‘Tis the only light to guide us in the way of truth and right,

And to that bright happy land, And to that bright happy land.

3. Back, then, from the wars of parties, and the conflicts of the creeds,

To the Word of God alone, To the Word of God alone,

To the blood-bought Church of God, yes to the way our Captain leads,

Thus in Him we may “be one,” Thus in Him we may “be one.”

Chorus

O, the grand old Book! Send it forth to every land, For ‘twill lead the souls in darkness to the light of brightest day, And for evermore shall stand.