The Failure of Revivalism | Theocast Clips

The Historical Roots of Revivalism and Subjectivized Religion

I'll talk a little bit historically. So you mentioned that the driver for this conversation has come from some of the things you're preaching and I'm preaching and also some of the things that we're researching and learning about ourselves and studying ourselves in order to do some teaching in our local church contexts.

And so for me, I know I've been reading for a while now, I've been trying to read and survey history just from a perspective of learning more about the Reformed confessional faith historically and then also reading more about the history of American religion, particularly Protestantism in America and revivals and all these kinds of things and revivalism.

And so this stuff that we're talking about today, this subjectivization of religion, this making true religion about the subject, like we're looking within to find true religion, that definitely hails from not only the movement of pietism as it's so-called, but also a movement known as revivalism or just the project of revivals, particularly in, as I alluded to earlier, the 18th and 19th century in America.

And we're not going to get into a big historical survey of all that stuff, but suffice it to say that during that period of time, even in the First Great Awakening, that was certainly better in ways than the Second Great Awakening so-called.

But even in the First One, we have real concerns about that. That's another show for another day because the locus of the, really the center of the Christian life, was removed from the gathered church in the local assembly and moved to this revival meeting.

And more or less what ended up happening, John, in part was religion in this period of revival became about the individual's response to a fiery preacher. My own personal fervor for the Lord became a massive emphasis.

The level of my conviction became a massive emphasis. How I felt about the things of God became a massive emphasis in this period when these revivals were occurring. And the Protestant Church of an evangelical ilk in this country ever since have had this baked into the cake where a huge emphasis on these things, my response, my feelings, my conviction, my fervor, my devotion, my intensity regarding Jesus and the things of God become the real measuring stick of my Christian life and experience.

And then you have other things through history. I mean, Jonathan Edwards, of course, lived during the period of the First Great Awakening, and his most famous work would be the one entitled Religious Affections, where he is going to define true religion in this subjective way as it pertains to how we feel about God and what our affections are for God.

The Reformed Critique of Emotional Christianity

And just to be super clear before we go any further, John and I are all about personal commitment and devotion. We are all about affections for the Lord. The Reformed have always been about these things.

We want people who are affectionate towards God. We want people who are committed and who are convicted of sin and who love the things of God. I mean, amen to all of that. The real question is, though, how do you go about cultivating that?

And our answer to that question is different. So I don't want to get us too far ahead, John, because I know what we're going to talk about, the Reformed perspective of these things. Do you have other comments that you want to add about where this hails from and maybe even how this shows up in the in the contemporary church even?

I mean, we could chop that up a little bit.

Misreading the Old Testament Promises as Personal Prosperity

I think it's misinterpreting the Old Testament promises to Israel in that we lose sight that those promises were given specifically to a nation. Like for when we talk about restoration of land, restoration of health, protection, those type of things, we assume that God's mission in our life is our physical, mental, and material protection and blessing.

So then we equate the closer I am to God, the more affection I am to Him, the natural response to that will be His affection towards me. This is even how we build relationships, not only inside of marriage, but outside of our marriages, where one side of the marriage party is not reciprocating and not building.

It can dampen. And so there is a give and take when it comes into a relationship. Most human relationships are based upon give and take. I mean, Justin, you and I, if after our first conversation that we met on the phone years ago, if neither of us really returned and reciprocated that relationship, it would have fallen away.

But we assume that's how God is. So we treat the relationship in that way in which we have to increase our affections, our satisfaction and joy in Him by what we do. And so it's always the energy going up instead of what we're going to get into is understanding that God's response and blessing to us is never based upon.

James 1 and the Nature of God’s Unchanging Gift

I mean, this is even James 2 or James 1, where he says, every perfect gift comes to you not based upon variation and change.