Revival and Socialism

Here now over 100 years since the last revival to impact Americans (the western overflow of the 1904 Welsh revival) we are seeing the inevitable outcome of genuine revival’s absence: the need for reform, without the theological underpinnings or the spiritual heart to see it come about. As King Hezekiah said when the Assyrian siege reached critical mass, “This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth” (2Ki 19.3). Likewise, this is a time when God’s people should have serious labor pains for revival, yet our spiritual condition is so weak that a rebirth of American Christianity looks improbable.

True revivals—not revivalism—are “times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord” to God’s household, which extend outward from there. When God visited America in the Great Awakenings and the great revival of 1858, not only did the church enjoy a gracious cleansing from her sins and her apathy, but literally millions of sinners came to faith in Christ. Genuine revivals always produce individual life change, and in turn, societal change. Revival has historically been a correction for the apathetic church, to be filled with the love of Christ, and to fulfill a legitimate social mission: from a gospel center to minister to the needs of others, beginning with those of the household of faith.

But when revival tarries, the grinding effects of sin in society such as greed, lust, hatred, violence, factionalism, wastefulness, alcohol and drug abuse, and arrogance demand mitigation whether religion will rise to address them or not. And the Obama administration, along with liberal progressives holding power, is determined to apply their ideological template to the problems at hand. Has the banking industry been greedy? Then they will be forced to comply to new government standards. Wasteful of energy? enter more environmentalist standards. Nicotine addiction? Tax it punitively. People falling through the cracks in society? Nationalized health care will complete the safety net. Thus socialism comes upon us when revival does not.

Which leads us the question, is socialism simply the religion of the secularists? And will the American church accept this answer for its lack of influence? Without revival, it appears we will have to.