The idea of a spiritual revival and its true concept has been so long lost that it necessitates educating the average religious mind concerning it before addressing the subject. The following is an article written by A.D. Muse, a Southern Baptist pastor in Louisville, KY in the 1930’s, 40’s, and 50’s. He had returned from a meeting in Ashland, KY and had these words to say about it. “The theme throughout was ‘SOVEREIGNTY’, and there was a unanimous rising vote requesting Bro. Mahan (Henry Mahan, Pastor of the church), his church, and Bro. Barnard (Rolf Barnard, a well known Southern Baptist evangelist) to plan and set up a similar conference next year; the Lord willing. “This is one of the best omens I have seen. Revivals of the true body will not come by organization, promotional programs, and a glorified Hollywood evangelist, spending countless thousands for publicity and advertising! When revival comes you don’t have to advertise. You can’t advertise. The thing goes so fast, rises so high, and burns so furiously you have to spend all your time gathering up the results and keeping up with the thing. Think about advertising the Jonathan Edwards’ Revival! (Available publications on these revivals can be obtained through Christian bookshops). “Every revival that has ever come to the churches has come as a result of the supreme emphasis on one great basic doctrine that had been ignored, obscured, forgotten, and lost, but now brought to the fore. I have been convinced for thirty years that the next revival will come upon the crest of a revival of the great doctrine of Sovereignty, (The doctrine of God’s indisputable total control over all things, this especially in regards to salvation; that God is the Author Performer, and Finisher of a man’s salvation; that man is passive, dead (Ephesians 2:1-6). That God is active in the totality of salvation, producing faith to embrace Christ the Redeemer, and repentance to turn from sin)” If every Baptist and Presbyterian preacher in America today would make proper preparation and preach in every pulpit in these two denominations for five Sundays straight on The Five Points of Calvinism, I would almost guarantee revivals would roll over all the churches of these two denominations and set the world on fire! As Rolfe Barnard said, “This Old World in rebellion needs to learn one more time that God is Boss.” The late Scottish evangelist and well-experienced revivalist Dr. James Stewart said this, “The true spirit of revival eludes the grasp of the organizer and the advertiser. It cannot be created by machinery, nor promoted by printer’s ink.”
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