K Neill Foster

Welcome to Classic Christianity

First published by Christian Publications, Inc., 3825 Hartzdale Drive,Camp Hill, Pennsylvania 17011 Republished by www.kneillfoster.com in 2005. K. Neill Foster, Publisher. Paul L. King, Editor. A.W. Tozer, 1897-1963, Editorial Voice.


WELCOME TO:
#9 CLASSIC-CHRISTIANITY/THE E-ZINE


CLASSIC-CHRISTIANITY/THE INDEX
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1) THE PUBLISHER ON "RECOGNIZING REVIVAL"
2) THE EDITOR ON "REVIVE US AGAIN, O LORD!"
3) A.W. TOZER ON "REVIVAL LIKE A STOCK MARKET BOOM"
4) JOHN WESLEY ON "THE WESLEYAN REVIVAL IN ENGLAND"
5) JONATHAN EDWARDS ON "THE GREAT AWAKENING OF 1735"
6) EDWARD D. GRIFFIN ON "WHERE IS THE GOD OF ELIJAH?"
7) RECOMMENDED READING: HISTORICAL DRIFT
8) SIR W. ROBERTSON NICOLL ON "THE ADVANCE OF THE CHURCH"
9) E.M. BOUNDS ON "REVIVAL REFRESHINGS"
10) PRINCIPAL LINDSAY ON "SPIRITUAL RECEPTIVITY"
11) J. WILBUR CHAPMAN ON "THE BIRTHING OF REVIVALS"
12) REUBEN A. TORREY ON "THE NORTHFIELD STUDENT REVIVAL OF 1894"
13) RECOMMENDED READING: THE TOZER CD-ROM LIBRARY
14) F.C. OTTMAN ON "THE EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY REVIVAL"
15) EVAN ROBERTS ON "THE BEGINNING OF THE WELSH REVIVAL OF 1904"
16) REUBEN A. TORREY ON "THE COMING TWENTIETH-CENTURY REVIVAL"
17) INVITATION TO SUBSCRIBE

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1) THE PUBLISHER ON "RECOGNIZING REAL REVIVAL"

Revivals are something I have seen a number of times through many years of ministry. They are sovereign, no one can doubt that (though Finney felt they could be worked up--I think he failed to understand himself as a sovereign instrument in God's hands). They have a holy contagion about them--they spread in ways which are reminiscent of the spread of fire. The confession of sin is a feature of revivals often preceded with agonizing conviction. And they mark the human soul forever.

I had reserved the word "revival" for years--refusing to attribute revival to wonderful movings of the Holy Spirit which I had often seen. The first time I ever saw revival under this narrowest of definitions was in a church of about 250 people in which the order of service had given way to a long line of believers anxiously awaiting their turn at the microphone to confess their sins publicly. I knew intuitively that I was witnessing revival. It was an inner witness of the Spirit that no one had ever told me would come. But I knew--just as I knew that I was saved and had become a believer in Jesus Christ.

To see and experience revivals is a priceless honor in Christ's kingdom. Maybe a half dozen times in a lifetime it has happened to me. Nothing I know about on the current scene comes even close, I am sorry to say. The empty imitations abound on many sides. But revival tarries still--though it will come again. That we know from history.


2) THE EDITOR ON "REVIVE US AGAIN, O LORD!"

Last issue we focused on the danger of historical drift in the church. These next two issues we will focus on the antidote to historical drift--revival. This issue features historical descriptions and testimonies of revival, the next issue hindrances and catalysts to revival.

It was the ripples of the floodtide from the Asbury College revival of 1970 that had an impact on my life as a young college student. A student ministry team from Asbury visited the church I was attending and shared the amazing things God was doing. I longed for more of what they had from God and it led me into a deeper, supernaturally powerful walk in the Holy Spirit. I often wonder whatever happened to the days in which yearning people knelt at a church altar and poured out their hearts to the Lord. I don't see much of that in our churches today, even in many of the churches that boast revival.

There are many claims about revival today, but these classic writers help us discover what true revival is really like. They reveal a divine/human synergy--it is God's awesome sovereign work, yet we play a vital role as catalysts. As we read these dynamic words of testimony, let us search our hearts and pray with Oswald J. Smith, "Revive Thy work, O Lord! And every soul inspire; Oh, kindle in each heart, we pray, The Pentecostal fire!"


3) A.W. TOZER (1897-1963) ON "REVIVAL LIKE A STOCK MARKET BOOM"

There seems to be a notion abroad that if we talk enough and pray enough, revival will set in like a stock market boom or a winning streak on a baseball club. We appear to be waiting for some sweet chariot to swing low and carry us into the Big Rock Candy Mountain of religious experience . . . a kind of benign miracle, a feverish renaissance of religious activity that will come upon us, leaving us morally as we are now, except that we will be a lot happier and there will be a great many more of us. . . .

Our mistake is that we want God to send revival on our terms. We want to get the power of God into our hands, to call it to us that it may work for us in promoting and furthering our kind of Christianity. We want still to be in charge, guiding the chariot through the religious sky in the direction we want it to go, shouting "Glory to God," but modestly accepting a share of the glory for ourselves in a nice inoffensive sort of way. We are calling on God to send fire on our altars, completely ignoring the fact that they are OUR altars and not God's. . . .

Today we have the strange phenomenon of a company of Christians claiming . . . purity of their Bible creed, and at the same time following the unregenerate world--coldness, worldliness, pride, boasting, lying, misrepresenting, love of money, exhibitionism--all a part of the whole religious show. . . . There must be a return to the Lord IN PRACTICE before our prayers will be heard.

A.W. Tozer, THE SIZE OF THE SOUL (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1992), 8-10.


4) JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791) ON "THE WESLEYAN REVIVAL IN ENGLAND"

I have never heard or read of any considerable revival of religion, which was not attended with a spirit of reproving. I believe it cannot be otherwise. . . . Thus it was in every part of England, when the present revival of religion began about fifty years ago; all the subjects of that revival, all the so-called Methodists, in every place, were reprovers of outward sin. (1)

Saturday, June 12, 1942--I preached on the righteousness of the law and the righteousness of faith. While I was speaking, several dropped down as dead and among the rest such a cry was heard of sinners groaning for the righteousness of faith that it almost drowned my voice. But many of these soon lifted up their heads with joy and broke out into thanksgiving, being assured they now had the desire of their soul--the forgiveness of their sins. (2)

(1) John Wesley, "Reproving Our Neighbor," 20 CENTURIES OF GREAT PREACHING (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1971), 3:35.
(2) John Wesley, THE JOURNAL OF JOHN WESLEY (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, n.d.), 99.


5) JONATHAN EDWARDS (1703-1758) ON "THE GREAT AWAKENING OF 1735"

The revival work soon made a glorious alteration in the town, so that in the spring and summer following the town seemed to be full of the presence of God. It never was so full of love nor so full of joy and yet so full of distress as it was then. There were remarkable tokens of God's presence in almost every house. It was a time of joy in families on account of salvation being brought to them--parents rejoicing over their children as newborn, husbands over their wives and wives over their husbands. The doings of God were then seen in His sanctuary. God's day was a delight and His tabernacles were amiable. Our public assemblies were beautiful. The congregation was alive in God's service. Everyone was earnestly intent on the public worship. Every hearer was eager to drink in the words of the minister as they came from his mouth. The people were in tears from time to time while the Word was preached, some weeping with sorrow and distress, others with joy and love, others with pity and concern for the souls of their neighbors.

Jonathan Edwards, quoted in Martyn Lloyd-Jones, REVIVAL (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1987), 104.


6) EDWARD D. GRIFFIN (1770-1837) ON "WHERE IS THE GOD OF ELIJAH?"

The middle of the eighteenth century was a distinguished period in the Christian church. America experienced a remarkable visit from the Holy Spirit. The revival produced a new era in the progress of evangelical holiness and preaching. Christians were alive and tender in their spirits. Religious conversation, uncommon unity, and brotherly love characterized the interaction of Christians one with another. Instead of a furious pursuit after wealth and distinction, the advance of the kingdom of Christ filled their desires. O give us more such days! . . .

It depends solely on the sovereign pleasure of God whether there will ever be another revival. Ministers may preach, Christians may pray, parents may weep, and a thousand pious hearts may break, but if the Lord God of Elijah does not revive us, the spiritually dead will not revive. . . . In days of revival we have ascribed too much of the praise to men and means. . . . We never shall be revived until we feel our absolute and entire dependence on God.

Edward D. Griffin, "Where Is the God of Elijah?", PRAY!, Issue 17 (March/April 2000), 38.
Editor's Note: Griffin studied theology under Jonathan Edwards, was President of Williams College 1821-1836 and was used by God in revival ministry.


7) RECOMMENDED READING: HISTORICAL DRIFT

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Dr. Ralph Winter--"No Christian leader can pass this by!"
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HISTORICAL DRIFT:
Must My Church Die?

by

Dr. Arnold L. Cook
President of The Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada

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Dr. Erwin Lutzer--"Let's heed [Dr. Cook's] warning and reverse the moral and spiritual decay of our times."

Order from Christian Publications by calling 1-800-233-4443 (in North America) or fax 1-717-761-7273 or web: www.christianpublications.com.


8) SIR W. ROBERTSON NICOLL (1851-1923) ON "THE ADVANCE OF THE CHURCH"

It is by revivals of religion that the Church of God makes its most visible advance. When all things seem becalmed, when no breath stirs the air, when the sea is like lead and the sky is low and gray, when all worship seems to have ended but the worship of matter, then it is that the Spirit of God is poured upon the Church, then it is that the Christianity of the apostles and martyrs, not that of the philosophers and liberals, keeps rising--as Vinet says, from the catacombs of oblivion, and appears young and fresh in the midst of the obsolete things of yesterday and the day before.

Sir William Robertson Nicoll, quoted in J. Edwin Orr, THE FLAMING TONGUE (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1973), 200.
Editor's Note: Nicoll was a noted Scottish theologian and editor of THE EXPOSITOR'S GREEK TESTAMENT.


9) E.M. BOUNDS (1835-1913) ON "REVIVAL REFRESHINGS"

The history of revivals is the history of religion, and no one can study their history without being impressed with their mighty influence on the destiny of the race. To look back upon the progress of the divine kingdom upon earth is to review revival periods which have come like refreshing showers upon dry and thirsty ground, making the desert to blossom as the rose, and bringing new eras of spiritual life and activity just when the Church had fallen under the influence of the apathy of the times, and needed to be aroused to a new sense of her duty and responsibility. . . . Every mighty move of the Spirit of God has had its source in the prayer chamber.

E.M. Bounds, PURPOSE IN PRAYER (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, n.d.), 115, 123.


10) PRINCIPAL LINDSAY ON "SPIRITUAL RECEPTIVITY"

The history of the Church flows on from one time of revival to another, and whether we take the awakenings of the old Catholic, the medieval, or the modern Church, these have always been the work of men especially gifted with the power of seeing and declaring the secrets of the deepest Christian life, and the effect of their work has always been proportionate to the spiritual receptivity of the generation they have spoken to.

Principal Lindsay, as quoted in E.M. Bounds, PURPOSE IN PRAYER (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, n.d.), 115.


11) J. WILBUR CHAPMAN (1859-1918) ON "THE BIRTHING OF REVIVALS"

Revivals are born in prayer. When Wesley prayed, England was revived; when Knox prayed, Scotland was refreshed; when the Sunday school teachers of Tannybrook prayed, 11,000 young people were added to the Church in a year. Whole nights of prayer have always been succeeded by whole days of soul-winning.

J. Wilbur Chapman, as quoted in E.M. Bounds, PURPOSE IN PRAYER (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, n.d.), 117-118.


12) REUBEN A. TORREY (1856-1928) ON "THE NORTHFIELD STUDENT
REVIVAL OF 1894"

"Mr. Moody has invited us all to go up on the mountain at 3 o'clock this afternoon to pray for the power of the Holy Spirit. It is now noon. You do not need to wait. Go to your rooms, go out into the woods, go to your tents, go anywhere where you can get alone with God and have this matter out with him." . . . At 3 o'clock we gathered--456 of us in all. . . . About 75 of them arose, one after another and said, "Mr. Moody, I could not wait till 3 o'clock; I have been alone with God and . . . I have been baptized with the Holy Spirit." . . . Mr. Moody said, "Let us pray for the Holy Spirit to fall upon us." . . . It began to rain, . . . but there was another cloud that had been gathering over Northfield for ten days, a cloud big with the mercy and grace and power of God, and our prayers seemed to pierce that cloud and the rain of the Holy Spirit fell upon us.

Reuben A. Torrey, quoted in THE D.L. MOODY COLLECTION, ed. James S. Bell, Jr. (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1997), 117-118.


13) RECOMMENDED READING: THE TOZER CD-ROM LIBRARY

THE TOZER CD-ROM LIBRARY

What could be more useful or spiritually invigorating than a Tozer CD which contains over fifty works (books and booklets) of A.W. Tozer plus several books by A.B. Simpson? Includes Parsons Quick Verse LibraryTM and is STEP compatible. Platform: WindowsR 95/98

Version 3.0, boxed package shrink-wrapped
0-87509-868-1 $49.99

Order from Christian Publications by calling 1-800-233-4443 (in North America) or fax 1-717-761-7273 or web: www.christianpublications.com.


14) F.C. OTTMAN ON "THE EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY REVIVAL"

As we look over these extraordinary religious awakenings which . . . so quickened the churches and so effectively pressed the claims of God upon the consciences of multitudes, we cannot escape the conviction that God in gracious providence was reaping a spiritual harvest before He permitted the outburst of revolutionary forces that have overwhelmed the world, impoverished almost every nation, produced economic and social chaos, and stained with dishonor the pride of Christian civilization. In the history of revivals it has often been noted that such restoral periods warn of, and synchronize with, impending judgment. The harvest is gathered before the field is doomed to death.

F.C. Ottman, quoted in J. Edwin Orr, THE FLAMING TONGUE (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1973), 192.
Editor's Note: Ottman was the biographer of Presbyterian revival evangelist J. Wilbur Chapman.


15) EVAN ROBERTS (1878-1951) ON "THE BEGINNING OF THE WELSH REVIVAL OF 1904"

I fell on my knees with my arms over the seat in front of me and the tears flowed freely. I cried, "BEND ME! BEND ME! BEND US!" What "bent me" was God commending His love and my not seeing anything in it to commend. . . . Perspiration poured down my face and tears streamed quickly until I thought that the blood came out. Soon, Mrs. Davies came to wipe my perspiration away. When I was in this feeling, the audience sang heartily, "I am coming, coming Lord, to Thee!" Now a great burden came upon me for the salvation of lost souls.

Evan Roberts, quoted in James A. Stewart, INVASION OF WALES BY THE SPIRIT THROUGH EVAN ROBERTS (Asheville, NC: Revival Literature, n.d.), 30-31.


16) REUBEN A. TORREY (1856-1928) ON "THE COMING TWENTIETH-CENTURY REVIVAL"

I had longed in the past that it had been my lot to live in the time of Wesley and Whitefield. But indeed I believe it is a greater thing to be living in 1905. This year and the years that follow will bring manifestations of God's saving power such as the world has never known.

Reuben A. Torrey, quoted in J. Edwin Orr, THE FLAMING TONGUE (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1973), 68.


17) INVITATION TO SUBSCRIBE

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Welcome to a spiritual adventure!

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VOL. II, ISSUE 4, August 1, 2000. Published every other month 4/1;
6/1; 8/1; 10/1; 12/1; 2/1. Archives on www.kneillfoster.com.

Copyright © 2002, Christian Publications, Inc.
Republished by www.kneillfoster.com 2005.