Dr Paul Allen

Most earnest Christians deeply long to see and experience a spiritual revival. Many regularly pray for it. But ask a hundred such Christians to describe their longing and praying for. You’re likely to get dozens of different answers, depending on how their cultural backgrounds, church traditions, theological paradigms, and personal experiences have formed their concept of a revival. Some think of revivals primarily as large-scale historical events that result in many people converting to the Christian faith, leaving notable effects in the broader society (like the early chapters of Acts or the “Great Awakenings”). Some think of revivals primarily as when Christians in a local church or school experience renewed spiritual vitality and earnestness together. Some think of revivals primarily as strategically designed and scheduled events that aim to evangelize unbelievers and/or exhort believers to pursue a deeper life of personal holiness and Christian service (like Billy Graham’s evangel

As a young pastor, Jonathan Edwards yearned for revival — and in time, God was pleased to bring revival, first in 1734, and then into the 1740s as the Great Awakening spread through the Western world. Edwards watched hundreds of formerly apathetic neighbors become earnest seekers of God; he saw evening revelries become gatherings for singing and prayer.  Along the way, however, he also observed many spurious signs of spiritual life. His ministry yields insight into both the spiritual means of revival and the genuine marks of revival and it also gives hope that God might be pleased to bring a similar revival today. The young Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) longed for nothing more than revival. He viewed special works of the Spirit as special tokens of God’s blessing, and he hoped beyond hope that he would receive some himself. He had moved to Northampton while in his early twenties to assist his aging grandfather, Rev. Solomon Stoddard, at the only church in town.  Stoddard had led the con

I long and pray for revival in the church today. Yet when I look around at the state of the Western church—especially at how Christians act online, which is largely as decadent and worldly as anyone else—I struggle to imagine revival taking place. There are many reasons for our compromised witness and deteriorating spiritual health. The headwinds of secularism are real. The corrupting effects of comfort and consumerism are significant. But a big reason I’m skeptical that we’ll see revival in my generation is related to our technological environment—and how we’ve passively cowered to its conditioning. In short, we’re too distracted for revival. Of course, revival is God’s initiative. The church at its best does not guarantee revival, nor does the church at its worst preclude it. God can choose to do a mighty work even in the most wayward generations. Indeed, revival often begins in the low ebbs, when internal combustion or external persecution (or both) bring the church to its knees. Bu

Awakening is at the very heart of the Christian faith , and it is the very reason we are Christians . Awakening is the powerful work of our sovereign and gracious God . When He awakens us, He doesn't simply awaken us from sleep, but from death. Awakening is the glorious work of regeneration, revival , and reformation. When God awakens us, He regenerates our hearts, gives us the gift of new birth, and makes us alive. He says to us, "Live!" ( Ezek. 16:6). The Holy Spirit invades, conquers, and persuades us. He rips out our stubborn, self-trusting hearts of stone and replaces our dead hearts with new, living hearts-hearts that are made willing and able to believe; hearts that are soft and pliable in the hands of our Father, united and lovingly enslaved to Christ , and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. When God awakens, He always brings revival, whether it is the revival of a single soul, the revival of a family, the revival of a community, or the revival of a nation. When Go

St Paul before the Proconsul (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) In spite of the fact that Britain has been outpacing other western countries in the usual signs of secularization, yet these developments in the last couple years in Britain, have had a new effect on people in the church. It seems now to many believers that true Christians hold views so different from the culture that they wonder if anyone can be converted. I think this is a common feeling. Will deeply secular people, with little or no Christian background, see the moral implications of following Christ as so unimaginable that they treat Christianity as equivalent to the Greek myths of Zeus and Hermes? Here are three biblical perspectives that make that kind of pessimism unwarranted in the church. 1. God is always at work loosening individual people from the group-think of the prevailing culture of unbelief. It is a mistake to look at the “culture” and assume that all the unbelieving people are in lockstep with the spirit o

We are in need of a gospel-saturated spiritual awakening . The last true gospel awakening, from which we are still receiving benefits, was in the Eighteenth Century. But the reality is this: there will be no gospel awakening without an authentic revival in the church. Why? because the instrument God uses to deliver a gospel awakening is His church. Therein lies the problem. The fundamental reason there is no gospel awakening is that the contemporary church languishes in ministry lethargy, spiritual impotence, biblical illiteracy, and trendy fascinations. A God-given, heaven-sent revival is desperately needed. But are we desperate for God’s sovereign, soul-searching, and life-changing grace to move? An honest assessment of the contemporary church reveals that we are neither desperate for nor desirous of a heaven-sent revival. For multiple reasons, we are satisfied with the man-sent revival substitutes that are not only inadequate but actually counterproductive and contribute to the ine