Revivalism is marked by a commitment to technique. It is an essentially man-made phenomena, driven by the wisdom of men. We are a people bent on bending the will of others to our own liking. Advertising is the medium of our age. What determines who will be our nation’s leaders, when it is not one of those rare occasions in which the courts decide, is marketing. Money is raised by political candidates for one fundamental purpose, advertising. Even the more high-brow approach of political debate has devolved into a charade, where candidates are concerned not with a carefully reasoned defense of the policies they are committed to, but instead labor to project a particular image, where a history of smirks are overcome with charm, and a history of wonkism is undone by appearing as an “alpha-male.”
We have reduced the gospel to the level of toothpaste, just another product looking for another batch of consumers. Consider revivalism. It is technique masquerading as passion. We must not to fall for the huckster’s hustle. But in trying to keep us from the fallacy of revivalism, I mustn’t succumb to technique, lest I be hoisted on my own petard. I cannot give you “Three Easy Steps to Recognize the Folly of Three Easy Steps to Revival.” I cannot provide a technique to help you eschew technique.
The antidote to revivalism is not a counter technique, but the plain, straightforward preaching of the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. It’s not flashy. It doesn’t make for great fundraising. But it is our calling. The first preacher of revival was perhaps John the Baptist. He was certainly a sight to behold, practicing the peculiarities of the prophet. He did not come equipped with power point. He was not an attractive messenger, “Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey” (Mark 1: 6). This was not the kind of man you would invite to a businessman’s lunch where some athlete affirms the blessings of depending on “the Man Upstairs.” This was no tent crusade.
Neither did the message come with a spoonful of that wild honey. His message was one of a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. He came to a people convinced of their right standing with God. They believed they were safe, that God’s wrath was directed at others and not them. And John told them to repent, to confess and turn from their wickedness. He did not offer a series of benefits for embracing the message. He did not promise the repentant fulfilling lives. He told them to flee from the wrath that was to come. And we are told, “And all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins” (Mark 1:5).
John was an important man. He was recognized as the first prophet sent from God in four hundred years. His disciples were many. His fame grew to such a height that the very ruler of the land was in fear of him. But John, the preacher of revival, knew his role. The crowds that flocked to him, that hung on his every word, that sought out his counsel were left with this message, “There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit”(1:7-8). The great evangelist understood that the greatness was not in the evangelist, but in the evangel.
John preached to the Jews. But when Paul was commissioned to bring the evangel to the Gentiles, neither the message, nor the approach changed. Paul did not reason that while Jews were used to prophetic challenges, and direct discourse, that the Gentiles were a sensuous people, a people who would need the message recast for their temperament. To the Corinthians he expressed his purpose, “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (I Corinthians 2: 1-2). Paul preached Christ because he wanted people to be converted to Christ. They were to embrace His life and death, not the methods of the messenger, as he tells them, “I was with you in weakness, in fear and much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (2: 3-5).
To avoid the trap of revivalism we need only follow the Biblical model of the proclamation of the gospel, and to do so for the very reasons that the Bible gives. We need to believe the gospel enough to know that it is about what Christ has done and what the Spirit is doing, and is not about our own efforts. We cannot, in short, proclaim the gospel of the power of God in our own power. If we believe in the power of gospel to effect our salvation, we must believe in the power of the gospel preached to bring in His elect. If we deny our own power to earn the favor of God for ourselves, we must deny our own power to bring others into that same peace. This is no technique, but the refusal of all techniques. We must with John be direct, and call for the fruit of repentance. And we must affirm with Paul, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek” (Romans 1:16).