When Vital Religion Wanes — E.A. Johnston

Historical Decline and the Loss of Vital Piety

I want to read you Friends, a quote by Archibald Alexander, who was the first professor at Princeton, and he wrote this in 1851. And I want you to pay attention to his words because they are relevant to the time in which we are living in.

Revivals of religion were nowhere heard of, and an orthodox creed and a decent external conduct were the only points on which inquiry was made when persons were admitted to the communion of the Church.

The habit of the preachers was to dress their people as though they were all pious and only needed instruction and confirmation. Under such a state of things it is easy to conceive that in a short time vital piety may have almost deserted the Church, and nothing is more certain that when people have sunk into this deplorable state they will be disposed to manifest strong opposition to faithful, pointed preaching and will apt to view every appearance of revival with an unfavorable eye.

Accordingly, when God raised up preachers animated with a burning zeal who labored faithfully to convince their hearers of their ruined condition and the necessity of a thorough conversion from sin, the opposition to them was violent.

The Gospel’s Confrontation With Carnal Religion

The gospel among people in such a condition is sure to produce strife and division between those who fall under its influence and whose carnal minds urge them to oppose it. Well, that's important, friends, because in our churches today your typical pastor will address their people as though they are all saved, converted individuals who only need three things instruction, information and inspiration.

Dead Formalism and Antinomianism

In this sad spiritual declension vital religion wanes into either two things either dead formalism or anti-nomianism. In other words, you either have most church folk too tightly wrapped in the bandages of legalism or you have the other extreme of church folks who believe that because they're once saved always saved they can sin all they want to and still go to heaven.

I believe that's a pretty good summation of where we are today where the church lacks vital religion. Just like the church in the days of Archibald Alexander right before the Great Awakening when God raised up his preachers with a burning zeal in the persons of George Whitefield, Gilbert Tennant, Jonathan Edwards and others, they labored faithfully to convince their hearers of their ruined condition and the necessity of a thorough conversion from sin.

Opposition to Revival Preaching

Their opposition was violent. When Whitefield preached he had pieces of dead cats thrown at him and he was pelted with stones and rotten eggs. In Ireland he was beaten by an angry mob who stoned him almost killing him.

Many years later while in Boston he was introduced to a minister who was from Ireland to which Whitefield removed his beaver cap, leaned over and pointed to a large scar on his forehead saying this sir is the wound I received for preaching Christ in your country.

Preaching Sin, Judgment, and Regeneration

I think the reason why the church language is today friends and vital religion is at such a low ebb is that we lack God called men who fear God more than their deacons and who are willing to preach hard against sin, warn their hearers about a future judgment and a burning hell, preach up a blood stained savior on a bloody ignoble cross and warn men and women and boys and girls of their duty of repentance and the necessity of regeneration if they want to stay out of a devil's hell.

If we keep the status quo of instruction, information and inspiration in our pulpits today without the former we will continue to decline spiritually as vital religion wanes to nothing more than the wisps of smoke on a cinder.

The Fervor of Revival Preachers

We need God to raise up men in our day who have the likes of these. George Whitefield, the apostle Paul, Luther, Wesley, Knox, Edwards, Finney, Spurgeon, Moody, each shared a common denominator, a fire in their belly.

They each were so eaten up with the gospel and thirsty for Christ and filled with the Holy Ghost they could not stand idly by while others perished. They saw nothing but eternity, worshipped a holy God and served a risen Christ, living not for earth nor its gains but living only for heaven and its rewards.

Christ Crucified Over the Praise of Men

When they preached they linked the devil with sin and the cross with salvation. They preached hell and its fire and Christ and him crucified. Not one of them feared king, queen or pope and not one of them sought the compliments of men.