The True Path to Revival — A.W. Pink
“It is true that there are not a few who are praying for a world-wide Revival, but it appears to the writer that it would be more timely, and more scriptural, for prayer to be made to the Lord of the harvest, that He would raise up and thrust forth laborers who would fearlessly and faithfully preach those truths which are calculated to bring about a revival.
While it is true that all genuine revivals come from God, yet He is not capricious in the sending of them. We are sure that God never relinquishes His sovereign rights to own and to bless where and as He pleases. But we also believe that here, as everywhere, there is a direct connection between cause and effect. And a revival is the effect of a previous cause. A revival, like a genuine conversion, is wrought of God by means of the Word—the Word applied by the Holy Spirit, of course. Therefore, there is something more needed (on our part) than prayer:
The Word of God must have a place, a prominent place, the prominent place. Without that there will be no Revival, whatever excitement and activities of the emotions there may be.
It is the deepening conviction of the writer that what is most needed today is a wide proclamation of those truths which are the least acceptable to the flesh. What is needed today is a scriptural setting forth of the character of God—His absolute sovereignty, His ineffable holiness, His inflexible justice, His unchanging veracity. What is needed today is a scriptural setting forth of the condition of the natural man—his total depravity, his spiritual insensibility, his inveterate hostility to God, the fact that he is ‘condemned already’ and that the wrath of a sin-hating God is even now abiding upon him.
What is needed today is a scriptural setting forth of the alarming danger in which sinners are—the indescribably awful doom which awaits them, the fact that if they follow only a little further their present course they shall most certainly suffer the due reward of their iniquities. What is needed today is a scriptural setting forth of the nature of that punishment which awaits the lost—the awfulness of it, the hopelessness of it, the unendurableness of it, the endlessness of it. It is because of these convictions that by pen as well as by voice we are seeking to raise the alarm.”
- A.W. Pink (1886-1952)
taken from: Eternal Punishment by A.W. Pink
I agree with Pink. Thought you might be interested in this. It had a big impact on me. With respect to reformation, and it is probably not too distant from the subject of revival, Gregg Singer reminded students:
“I would have you remember, ladies and gentlemen, that the Reformation was born on the wings of sound scholarship. I can not emphasis this enough, that learning and great theology, great evangelical convictions, the great evangelical fervor, and even bravery and martyrdom are not foreign to the Reformation, but they are all part of the story. We see Calvin fleeing from France. We see Archbishop Thomas Cramner putting out the hand to be burned first because that was the hand which betrayed his Lord. We hear Bishop Latimer and Bishop Ridley crying out to one another as they are being burned at the stake by Henry VIII. These men, without exception, were great scholars. The evangelical world then was floated by divine mercy and divine sovereignty on the wings of great scholarship, and desperately the church needed it then. Desperately the church needs it today. . . . Don’t every come to the place where you believe that you can not be a great evangelical minister and not be a profound scholar. I would site to you Thornwell, Dabney, Palmer, and the other great leaders of our church, the Southern Church . . . I remind you of the Hodges and the Alexanders, and so on, in American church history to support this thesis. Time does not permit me to recite the list of those who lead the Reformation, who were equally great scholars.” — C. Gregg Singer, http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=8110391415
Excellent quote, Steve. Thanks!
Eric, wow home run. I re-posted the last paragraph on my FB page under the title what is need today. Thanks for posting and letting me re-post part of it.
You’re very welcome, Jacqueline! Arthur Pink had so many profound things to say.