Why It’s Good to be Skeptical of the Asbury Revival - Jordan Standridge

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The author's skepticism is based on semantics, tradition, and preconceptions. We can't call it revival, because we don't know if anyone is being revived. We can't call it revival, because revival must look the a certain way. We can't call it revival, because revivals only happen in churches. It can't be revival, because the Gospel wasn't preached.

It seems to us that revival is whatever God wants it to be. It looks however God wants it to look. God can use any sermon, any setting, and any group of people to bring revival.

Revival is chayah:

3. quicken, revive, refresh:

a. restore to life, the dead 1 Samuel 2:6; Deuteronomy 32:39; Hosea 6:2; the dying Psalm 71:20.

b. cause to grow, grain Hosea 14:8.

c. restore, a ruined city 1 Chronicles 11:8, stones destroyed by fire Nehemiah 3:34.

d. revive, the people by himself with fulness of life in his favour Psalm 80:19; Psalm 85:7; Psalm 119:25,37,40,50,88,93,107,149,154,156,159; Psalm 143:11; Ecclesiastes 7:12.

Some OT verses that speak of revival:

Ps. 119:37 Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, And revive me in Your way.

Is. 57:15 For this is what the high and lofty One says — he who lives for ever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.

What the NT has to say:

Ac. 2:21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Acts 3:19-21 ESV Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

Ro. 13:11 And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

Ephesians 5:14 ESV For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Surely the Church, this nation, and the world needs revival. Revival in a rekindling of flagging faith, revival in new salvations, and revival in the preaching of the Gospel. That is, revival in every facet of the faith, invading godless structures, cold, dead churches, and evil strongholds for the sake of the Kingdom. 

It's God's purpose and desire in these Last Days.

Does the author want this? Then he might want to abandon his skepticism. It isn't useful. In fact, the author ought to be praising God for the possibility that it might be revival. And he might want to check out what actual witnesses have written. Nearly every criticism the author makes gets negated. 

It's quite likely this is real revival.

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George Whitfield was one of the greatest preachers of all time. He famously rode his horse from city to city preaching the Gospel to whoever would listen.

Each time he preached thousands came to hear him. And many seemed to show conviction and repentance of sin. At times those present would communicate to him the numbers of those who seemed to respond, and each time it is recorded that George Whitfield would say this word.

Allegedly. (??? The author must pour cold water on this, because we think he ultimately believes there cannot be revival. He would not admit this, but we are pretty sure that's what he believes.)

Of course, George Whitfield wanted people to be saved. I mean he was killing himself riding a horse from town to town carrying a pulpit a bible and his Matthew Henry commentary. Of course, he was doing this because he wanted people to be saved, but like any faithful preacher, he wanted people to actually be saved.

Any faithful evangelist wants people to be saved, or else it would be tough to argue that they have the gift of evangelism. Any faithful Christian wants the Christians around him to grow in their love for Christ. I would say that anyone who belongs to the universal church wants anyone else who belongs to the universal church to grow in their love for Christ, even if they are outside of their theological circle. (Hmm. The author understands the "universal church," but will later claim that revival can only happen in churches. That is, the building.)

 But I think that church history has proven that it is right to be skeptical and cautious about calling something a revival before you have years of faithful fruit to look back on to call it such. (No, it is not right to be skeptical, and there is no verse in the Bible that suggests we should be skeptical about what God might be doing. 

If it's God, then it's good. If it's not, then that will work out as well. God can and will use any means and any people to accomplish His purpose. It may not look like what we think it should, but moves of God rarely do.

But more importantly, there is no virtue in skepticism. Faith operates outside of the way things seem. Faith is often contrary to what is before our eyes. That's why it's faith.

Skepticism is anti-faith. 

Further, we can't know peoples' hearts. If there appears to be a revival in Asbury, the author ought to simply rejoice and praise God. He ought to be fervently interceding in prayer that God would use these times and this place to call many to faith. He ought to be operating from a position of faith.

If God isn't actually in it at Asbury, then he should pray that He would overtake the place and make it a real revival.

That is the Christian response.)

Recently a chapel at Asbury university has resulted in what people are calling a revival. Many pastors and church leaders have been quick to call it a revival. Many pastors and church leaders have been quick to condemn what they refer to as “revival skeptics”.

The fact of the matter is that you need time to be able to find out if what has taken place has been an actual revival or not. In fact, you would need years.

Only God knows if a revival is taking place. These pastors can’t know. The skeptics can’t know. It is only God who can cause a revival and it is only God who can know if a revival is taking place.

There are many reasons to be skeptical. (Reasons, perhaps. But good reasons? Holy reasons? Reasons that spring from faith? Well, probably not.)

Perhaps the greatest reason is this very desire to label it a revival so quickly. Instead of calling it a powerful chapel that resulted in conviction of sin and a desire to worship by the attendees, it is immediately called a revival and those who are skeptical are immediately called spirit quenchers. (So it's a matter of the words used? Really? Why not call it revival from a position of faith, and not despise small beginnings?)

It is also right to be skeptical of the fact that it did not occur in a church. (This is just dumb. Really. The idea that the building is important to revival has no basis in theology, the Bible, or any doctrine of the Church.)

The Lord has promised to build his church and that the gates of hell would not prevail against it (Matt. 16:17-19). He said nothing about universities. He said nothing about chapels. (The author previously assented to the worldwide Church, but now thinks that the church Jesus is building is found only in church buildings and not universities or chapels. This is simply a weird objection with no basis in Scripture.)

Now I’m not condemning Universities. I went to a Christian University. I loved chapel. God used many chapels powerfully in my life. But even my university would agree that it was the church that God had blessed, and the chapel could never replace the church.

It is also good to be skeptical of the message that He supposedly used. I listened to it. I like the preacher. He seemed like a guy I would get along with. We clearly come from different theological backgrounds. Regardless, I hope he would agree with me that the gospel was not preached in the message. (We watched the sermon. It was not a Gospel message, it was a call to holiness and godly love. God can certainly use such a sermon to effect revival.)

Historically speaking it was not the type of sermon that has produced revivals in the past. (Sermons don't produce revivals. And what has happened in the past has no bearing on what might happen today. God does as He pleases.)

It was incredibly silly at times, and it wasn’t an exposition of the text he preached. He read a very convicting part of scripture for sure, any message on love is going to be convicting. In fact, he practically just read the passage told stories, and asked questions. But the Gospel was not preached. Christ was mentioned in the conclusion. It was pretty much a “you can’t love so stop trying and just let Christ do it” message. There was no mention of sin (Acts 2:36), no mention of the cross (Acts 2:23). No mention of repentance (Acts 2:38). (So God cannot bring revival unless the pastor preaches certain words?)

It is also good to be skeptical of the type of people it has attracted. Todd Bentley is one of the people excited about what’s going on. He hates the God of the Bible. He has shown up and is loving it. (Yeah, revival is no place for sinners and failed pastors.)

The fact that it was not held in a church means that it is downright impossible to protect the sheep from false teaching (Acts 20:28-30). (Another dumb statement. This is a college chapel. There's an entire department devoted to theology. There are leaders involved. 

But more to the point, using terminology like "the sheep" presumes that this is a church service with the purpose of teaching unto maturity of faith. But as the author has repeatedly wrote, this is not a church. The people in attendance might not even be saved. 

So it's not about the sheep at all. In fact, just the use of the term is condescending. Apparently the revival should be shut down because it might lead people astray. They need trained experts. They're helpless and naïve. They need to be in church, with a credentialed minister lecturing them.

But what would happen if a revival began in the Amazon jungle? No church building, no ecclesiastical oversight, just a missionary preaching to a lost people. Should that revival be stopped?)

There are no elders. There is no church organization. There is no philosophical or doctrinal statement to protect the people from these charlatans (Titus 1:9). And the charlatans are coming and excited about what is going on. (Only Christians should be allowed in...)

Which means that the Gospel isn’t preached. Repentance isn’t proclaimed. False teaching isn’t rebuked. There are no elders that will be held accountable for the souls of those present (Heb. 13:17). (Well, it isn't a church, right? Isn't that what the author previously claimed? Then why should he expect a non-church to do church things?)

It is easy to dismiss the skepticism as just jealousy, or as just pride on the part of the skeptics. But for the reasons stated above, I think skepticism is required and only time will tell if this has been a true, special work of the Holy Spirit. (Pretty thin stuff. Really. Especially regarding the Scriptures. The author can only cite Scriptures about what should happen in a church as if those things apply to what happens on street corners, in workplaces, and yes, on this college campus. 

Imagine. You want to minister to your neighbor, but you can't. Apparently you need to drive to a church, call up some elders to be there, and make sure all the topics are covered. And even then you are on thin ice, because skepticism.)

We must be careful about declaring definitively what God is or isn’t doing. We don’t know the hearts of man. Man’s heart is so deceitful (Jer. 17:9-10) that only history can tell us something and even then, we can’t ever know for certain till we get to Heaven. (Why should we know? Really, why should we have this information? The author never tells us.

Why can't we celebrate changed lives? Why can't we pray in real revival? The author's position reeks of faithlessness.)

What we know is that man is totally and utterly sinful (Rom. 3:23), rotten to the core (Matt. 7:17-18), and is desperate from the day of his birth to be given new life by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:1-8). We are haters of God (Rom. 1:30), Hell-bound (Eph. 2:3), and only an intervention by God can produce life in our dead souls (Eph. 2:4). Revival is something that only God can do and see. And He most definitely can do it. He’s the God who In Acts 2 saved 3000 in a day (Acts 2:41). (Well finally.)

I too pray we see thousands converted here in Rome, as there were probably more people in that chapel that day at Asbury than total believers in my whole city. It would be marvelous to see so many converted at once, I would love it and believe that God can do it, but just because He can do it doesn’t mean that we mustn’t tread very carefully before we start using terms like revival. (The author has never explained why.)

I do pray that God will use these days at Asbury for his glory. That these students would look back to this time as a powerful moment for their walk with Christ. May God protect them from the troubling theology and heresies they are in danger of being exposed to, and bring faithful believers in their lives who love God’s word, love his church, and love discipling these precious souls to be more faithful to Him. (After all the doubt and fear the author finally lands on his feet. Now if he will take Asbury to heart as a prayer burden, he and other intercessors will can make a big difference in the spiritual situation in Asbury. 

A much better thing than faithless skepticism.)