Crucial Questions That We Need To Ask About The Asbury Revival

 

[When you are finished reading this post, please also take the time to read  https://godcentereddad.blogspot.com/2023/03/god-corrects-us.html as it addresses some issues that I came across after writing this post.]

I am somewhat loathe to write what I am about to write. This is not something that I want to put out there because I know that there are several, if not many, friends of mine and possibly countless strangers that will disagree with me on this, but I feel that there must be an alternate voice speaking about this. What I am talking about is, of course, the “Asbury Revival”, and I am about to throw a wet towel on the whole thing. If the mere reading of that statement offends you, then consider yourself warned about what follows, but I do ask that you will continue reading, as there are many things about this event that give me cause for concern. Things which you may not be aware of, but should be.

I will preface what I am about to say with this: I hope that I am wrong. I really, really do. I want this revival to be a real movement of the Holy Spirit and I want it to spread not only across North America, but around the entire world. This whole world needs to return to God and love Him and obey Him, and I believe that God can inspire a Holy Spirit revival anytime and anywhere He wants to, but I don’t believe this is what we are seeing here. Only time will really bear out whether or not my views are right or not. And some of my individual views may be wrong even if my overall understanding isn’t.

So maybe we need to examine what is happening at this small Kentucky University that leads to people calling this a revival. After a regular Wednesday chapel service on February 8, most of the student body had left the chapel, but a handful of students stayed behind to pray. This small group was added to sporadically and “organically” through the day by other students who wandered back into the chapel, apparently of their own accord. These students were praying and confessing their sins to each other. Now, we don’t know if there was a word-of-mouth action that there was something happening in the chapel, but in a school of 1700 students, I think it is fair to assume that at least some word was spreading, though I also do not want to discount the possibility that the Holy Spirit was prompting people to return to the chapel unbidden by human actions.

At some point, music was introduced to the gathering. This music was reportedly intentionally kept low key by restraining the instrumentation to just acoustic guitar and piano. There was no light show, no smoke show and not even a drum accompaniment. All of this is admirable, in that it appears to indicate a desire to keep this from becoming about what man can do. I also understand that over the course of the event, there were several prominent christian music artists and pastors/speakers who travelled to experience this event, but they were asked to not interfere in the proceedings or try to claim any sway over them, but to rather sit at the back and just enjoy it with the others. This is also very admirable.

So, what we have is people coming together to sing and pray and confess their sins to each other. This is a good thing, but is it revival? Perhaps I put too much weight on the word “revival”, but I hesitate to use that label for what is taking place.

I will admit that I have watched very little of the revival itself; I will get to that in a bit. What I have seen has been almost entirely people standing, singing and swaying; multiple videos of this. I have seen no videos of preaching (besides the message that was delivered prior to this “revival” beginning, the message and speaker drawing concerns of their own), no speaking other than housekeeping issues, no corporate prayer for revival and for God to work. There are reports, as mentioned, of prayer within small groups. What I have seen is an emotional high brought on by cleverly written "worship" music with very little of God's Word being spoken, if any at all, and it appears that a significant amount of the worship music has been Bethel and Hillsong music, which bear burdens of their own given the controversies surrounding those labels. Now, it may be that the people who are sharing video footage of the event are only sharing what impacted them the most, which may be the singing that they will call worship, but if that is the case, does that not already point to the very real possibility that this is more of an emotional event than a revival event?

Revival is supposed to be a returning to God. In the case of an event with a large gathering of people, it would be a mass returning to God. Revivals of the past have leaned heavily on the preaching of the Word of God, which is delivered alongside worship of God through music. But this event seems almost entirely predicated on the music and the emotions that stem from participating. I have personally been moved by the music set of a worship team, and God has spoken to me through music, so I am not saying that music lifted to God is a bad thing. In fact, King David wrote and performed many songs in praise to the God that raised him up to his high position and who saved David from his enemies many times. Moses sang a new song to God on the safe side of the Red Sea. There are numerous instances of people raising up a song to God when He has worked in their lives, so we know that song is an important part of worship. But as I mentioned earlier, I have seen virtually nobody speaking from the Word of God in this event, either in my own limited viewing or through the reports of others. This raises questions for me. How can people be called back to God if His Word is not even shared?

People will argue that there have been testimonies from people about how God has worked in their lives, which, again, is a good thing. But is it our words that contain the power, or is it God’s? Our testimonies are wonderful, but our words don’t bring people to God. There have been people who have said that there is confession of sins and there is repentance, which are surely signs of revival, but I think people are conflating confession and repentance. They are not the same thing. Confession is admitting to things done; repentance is turning away from doing things. Confession is short term guilt; repentance is long term change. Confession does not lead to revival, repentance does. So, just because people are confessing their sins to each other, this does not mean that they are turning from their sins, and a long recognized sign of true revival is the repentance of sins.

Revival is supposed to change the church, the town, the country in which it took place. It will do so to varying levels, often relative to the number of people affected by the revival. For example, the Second Great Awakening of approximately 1790-1840, is credited with being a major influence in the abolition movement, which reached its climax in the late 1800’s. If this claim is true, then it is a powerful example of a revival movement that permanently and powerfully changed the lives of the people who were touched by it. The Second Great Awakening itself had a five-decade lifespan and a nearly 100-year influence! Now, we have to take into account the nature of communication in that timeframe as well, as compared to today. What literally took decades to cross North America in the 18th and 19th centuries can now cross the world in seconds. This means that even a legitimate revival does not need to span years to achieve what God wants it to achieve, as used to be necessary. But the effect is not limited in time due to the speed of information. There is no reason why a true revival can’t and shouldn’t have a long reaching effect on the people involved. In fact, I would posit that if there is not a long term effect, then it was not a true Holy Spirit revival. In the case of the Asbury event, of course, we cannot know if there will be any long term effects of it unless we see major changes in morality or until the effects have worn off, so we cannot currently know if these effects will wear off, and the movement come to an end, in days, weeks, months or years. As for changes in morality, if this is a true Holy Spirit revival, I would expect to see and hear of people turning their backs on drugs and alcohol, people standing up in protest to abortion and woke ideology, and marriages beginning to be strengthened and churches seeing surges in their attendance and participation. I wait with bated breath.

Now, it is time for me to expound on my many factual concerns around this event, and I will start with what people who have attended are saying and what they aren’t saying. I have read and seen some interviews of people that were there and their words are wrong. They refer to “the spirit”, not God, not Jesus. I wonder what spirit they were sensing? The Bible tells us that there are many spirits, but only one Holy Spirit. The job of the Holy Spirit is to point us to Jesus (John 16:14). That’s His main objective. If a feeling of “the spirit” does not lead to the recognition of Jesus Christ, which would then lead to the repentance of sins, then it is not the spirit that you should be listening to that is leading you, and we are instructed to test the spirits that we encounter (1 John 4:1). And we are to be aware of false religious movements that seek to lead us to live in ways that are not Biblical, seeming to be righteous, but not abiding in the power of the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:1-5) Again, the responses appear to be entirely emotional and Scripture warns us that “the heart is deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9). Our emotions are easily manipulated by evil spirits if we are not firmly anchored in God. This is something that all Christians must always be aware of, that it is possible for us to let our emotions sweep us up into making decisions that are not for our good but that make us feel good.

I recall reading an article in which a couple is interviewed about their experience at this event. Their response? They are overwhelmed, not by the presence of God, but by the hospitality of the people. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/nonstop-worship-service-at-kentucky-college-set-to-end-after-attracting-thousands/ar-AA17Ehcu This woman stated that there was healing taking place, but what kind of healing? Is there miraculous physical or spiritual healing, or merely people’s feelings getting healed? There is healing to be found in confession, but that is not necessarily revival. This couple was “overwhelmed” that strangers would open their home to them. There was passion missing from their account. Plenty of emotion; no passion. If this was truly an act of God, should they not have felt God acting in their lives in such a way that His presence would be the thing that overwhelmed them? And this was typical of the responses of people who attended. There wasn’t a spiritual awakening that they were desiring to pursue God, they were pursuing the emotion.

I also saw people claiming that “there is love, there is acceptance” there. Love and acceptance are good, but is this from God or from man? Is the acceptance aimed towards those who have chosen to live in ways that are against God’s design, without calling them to repent? Are we supposed to accept this? Every time Jesus met someone who was living in sin, He called them to repentance. Jesus did not condone the sinful lifestyles, but called people out of their sins. Now I am not talking about people with sin in their lives, because that is all of us, and we should all be confessing our sins to God as we commit them, since Jesus’ sacrifice is for past sins, not future sins (Romans 3:25). This is for those who are living a lifestyle of sin, which if left unrepented, as I understand it, leads to loss of forgiveness for those continual, unrepented sins (Hebrews 10:26). I have seen unverified reports that the worship has been lead by queer students. https://fb.watch/iS1gBKoXq6/ I am not on Twitter myself, but I have confirmed this tweet, and I can also confirm that this individual identifies as LGBTQ+, attends at Asbury, and claims to have prayed with people behind the altar, as in leading people in prayer. His twitter profile is @EdwardVersaii for you to also verify. If you follow this next link, you will also see Edward Versaii/Elijah Drake leading the Scripture reading for a chapel service at the Asbury Seminary, which is separate from but directly associated with the Asbury University and they either share a campus or have campuses directly next to each other. https://www.facebook.com/ATSChapel/videos/712082449803586
(Addendum: Elijah Drake claims to be a celibate "gay Christian", ie. a Christ following man who deals with gay attraction, but does not act on his attractions. His personal Twitter profile includes a link to his undergrad thesis explaining his views. He has some valid points, however, I disagree with the main conclusions of his thesis regarding mainly his views of the use of gay language as being an acceptable adjective for someone who is choosing to not focus on his sexuality in his faith walk, and his views on the relationship between justification and sanctification, in which he equates the two as being equal.)

As it turns out, the above chapel service, from March 10, 2022, has its message delivered by Dr. Preston Sprinkle of the Center for Faith, Sexuality and Gender, and his teaching is on why the abominations of the LGBTQ+ community should be accepted by the Christian church, even though this teaching is entirely contrary to Biblical teachings. This belief system appears to be endemic within the leadership of Asbury University, though it also seems that the professors may not be behind that stance themselves due to mention of hurt from teachings contrary to this. It is also notable to state that the 2023 Collegiate Day of Prayer will have part of it’s program presented by Black Voices Movement, which is a “ministry” whose goal is to promote the idea of the suppression of black voices in the church by working with specifically black people to increase their visibility in the church setting. While the idea may seem noble, it just adds to the racial strife in our world to segregate people by colour in any way. When a “christian” movement is entirely focused on promoting woke ideas, that immediately throws up red flags for me.

(Addendum: the Center for Faith, Sexuality and Gender claims to adhere to Biblical statutes for marriage and sex; I have not confirmed what their understanding of this is; ie. I don't know if they twist Scripture to arrive at their understanding as many have done. The goal of this organization MAY actually be to reach out to gay identifying Christians, particularly those who remain celibate, and affirm their faith in Christ in light of Biblical standards for relationships. My understanding from Scripture  is that a non-practicing gay is merely dealing with temptations, and thereby can still be in good standing with God, as temptation is not sin.) (Additional addendum: after struggling in prayer over this, I need to address what has been my understanding from Scripture regarding the standing of a non-practicing gay with God; this is a result of reading Elijah Drake's thesis, and I will address this in another post soon: see https://godcentereddad.blogspot.com/2023/03/god-corrects-us.html)

The Asbury University church/school has also ordained women as ministers, which is also contrary to Scripture as women are not to be in positions of leadership over men in the church (1 Corinthians 11, 1 Corinthians 14, 1 Timothy 2). Asbury has all avenues of study open to women of faith, including to promote to raise women to preach from the pulpit. https://asburyseminary.edu/admissions/women-in-ministry/

In short, this University which claims to serve God accepts, condones and even promotes teachings which are blatantly against Biblical teachings. Therefore, one must ask themselves, would God use an institution that repeatedly and continually turns its back on Scriptural teaching, effectively ignoring God’s Will and even acting in outright denial of His sovereignty, to initiate any legitimate revival by His Holy Spirit? I think that even entertaining this possibility with any seriousness potentially exposes a lack of Biblical knowledge on the part of the person considering this as a possibility, or at least a lack knowledge of this background information, which I think is a likely scenario in this case.

But wait, there’s more!

There is a liberal evangelical group called The New Evangelicals that has stated in a tweet that they are hopeful that “this revival is planting seeds that will do more good than harm” in regards to expanding the role and acceptance of, specifically, queer individuals in Christian circles. https://twitter.com/newvangelicals/status/1625556967602245632 This organization was established to “prioritize holding space for those marginalized and disenfranchised by the American Evangelical Church” as they work to “reclaim a loving evangelical tradition that informs a better way forward”. https://www.thenewevangelicals.com/about/ This organization is pro-LGBTQ in the church and seeks to undermine the very Word of God by proclaiming that God is not against their lifestyles!

Now to a more personal aspect of my perspective on this event. I said that I have watched very little of the revival. The reason is because I can't: I physically feel ill when I try. I think I have watched about 5 minutes of video in the week plus of this thing. The videos of singing bother me - again, it looks like pure emotion and nothing else. The worship team is repeating choruses over and over ad nauseam. I have never liked that personally even on a limited basis, but single songs have apparently gone on for literally 10-15 minutes, just repeating the chorus over and over and over. The Bible speaks against repeating ourselves in seeking Him (Matthew 6:5-8), calling such repetitions “vain”. When I tried to watch the sermon that was given just prior to this event starting, I had to stop after about 1.5 minutes. The preacher hadn't said anything wrong Biblically, it just felt gross and off in my spirit. The Spirit was speaking to me through my feelings of unease and I literally couldn't stand to watch it. Believers need to learn to listen to that still, small voice when it seeks to lead us.

Now the university has announced that this "movement of God" will end on February 24th. If it is a true movement of God, then man cannot schedule it. I understand that the school has schedules to maintain, but if this were a true revival, I would hope that there would be such a fear of taking over from God that the school would figure out a way. I also found out today that Francis Chan and Rick Warren are scheduled to speak at Asbury on February 23 about, wait for it...Revival! And Chan put out a video on February 1 inviting people to be there! https://youtu.be/WUVGQQn4b00. One week before this "revival" started! Francis Chan also put out a video approximately two months ago also promoting this February 24th event. https://youtu.be/OKDuQGMURbA This gives me pause to wonder if this entire “revival” could very well be a man made, planned event. It is also notable that Asbury claims that they have experienced eight revivals in the years since their establishment, and ALL of these revivals have occurred in February or March. This, coincidentally, would place the timing of these “revivals” immediately before or after their annual time of prayer for revival, which takes place on the last Thursday of every February, referred to as the Collegiate Day of Prayer. It seems rather suspect to me that one location would have so many revivals at the same time of year. It also strikes me as odd that a place that has experienced a legitimate revival would need so many more. People will want to attribute so many revivals to God working here because of their faith or something. I attribute it to a hunger of people who are starving for God, who never have their needs met by the real Living God because they have never met Him. They know that they are starving, but they don’t know how to feed that hunger. These people may not know God if He sat down in front of them. So they have these "revivals" to try to find some kind of spiritual life. I understand that I may sound very judgmental with those last statements, but we are called to judge those who call themselves to be Christians, and we will know them by their fruit (Matthew 7:15-20).

And believe it or not, there is more that I could lay out, but this post is getting quite long already and I hope my point is made to cause you to question and look into things before quickly jumping on board to support it. We are warned by Jesus Himself in Matthew 24 not to be deceived.

 I was hoping that my skepticism was misplaced and that this was real, but this “revival” appears to be a farce to me. But I want to clarify something. I think there is a possibility of some real, personal revivals occurring even in the midst of this event. People who are sensing the pull of God, not because of, but in spite of this movement. I am just not in support of the notion that this entire thing is God driven, and if it is not God driven, it cannot be a true Holy Spirit revival.

[When you are finished reading this post, please also take the time to read  https://godcentereddad.blogspot.com/2023/03/god-corrects-us.html as it addresses some issues that I came across after writing this post.]