Is Your End-Times Theology a Hindrance to Revival?
I recently received an email from an individual who chided me for encouraging people to pray and believe God for another great spiritual awakening. He exhorted me that these are the last days and, therefore, no great revival will occur before the coming of the Lord. His gloomy, fatalistic eschatology (theology of the end) obviously left no room for God to work mightily in these days.
Sadly, this brother is like so many today whose doctrine of the end times precludes any hope of God visiting America, Europe and the world with another great spiritual awakening. This has happened because of an unhealthy preoccupation of the end that focuses exclusively on the evil that is predicted. Out of this has emerged a dark, fatalistic eschatology that is robbing the church of faith for revival in this generation.
Here are 5 reasons we can expect great revival in the last days, and why our eschatology must make room for such revival: (1) It was prophesied by Peter; (2) it was alluded to by Jesus; (3) my experience informs me it is so; (4) past revivalists considered great revivals to be part of the last days; (5) eschatology is very tenuous and should not be the basis for denying the possibility of revival in our day.
1. Predicted by Peter
A great worldwide outpouring of the Spirit of God in the last days is what Peter declared to the wondering crowd on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:17). As the disciples magnified God and praised him in other tongues, the onlooking multitude questioned what this could mean. Peter responded by quoting a prophecy from Joel about a universal outpouring of God’s Spirit on all flesh (Joel 2:28-29).
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams, and on my menservants and my maidservants I will pour out of My Spirit in those days and they shall prophesy” (Acts 2:17-18).
In Jewish/rabbinic tradition, Joel’s prophecy was associated with the coming of the Messiah and the messianic age, also known as “the last days.” The messianic age would be a time when the Holy Spirit would no longer be confined to certain prophets, judges and kings in Israel, but would be universally poured out on all flesh.
Peter declared that with the coming of Jesus, the messianic age had dawned and the Spirit was now being poured out on all flesh. Peter further made his point by substituting Joel’s it shall come to pass afterwards with it shall come to pass in the last days. As far as Peter was concerned, the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus had ushered in the promised era. The last days had dawned and the Spirit of God was now being universally poured out without the former restrictions (Acts 2:14-18).
Is this not a solid biblical basis for praying in faith for a great spiritual awakening in our day?
2. Jesus Predicts Great Revival in the Last Days
In Matthew 24:14 Jesus declared, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” Interestingly, the Greek word translated “nations” in this passage is ethonos, from which we get “ethnic” and “ethnicity.” According to Wikipedia, the largest ethnic groups in modern times comprise hundreds of millions of individuals, with Han Chinese being the largest, while the smallest are limited to a few dozen individuals and include numerous indigenous peoples worldwide.
In other words, Jesus is not referring to modern nation states with geographical/political borders. He is referring to races and ethnicities that make up this planet. Just because a Christian broadcast in the English language goes into, let’s say, India, does not meant that India has been reached with the gospel. India is made up of many ethnicities who speak many different languages.
When Jesus says that just before the eschaton the gospel will be preached as a witness to every ethnicity on planet earth, is this not a clear indication of a church that is alive and on the move? Is this not a church that has been awakened by the power of the Holy Spirit? Is this passage not a basis for the bold proclamation of the gospel and for praying that God will send another Great Awakening in our day?
