The SHOCKING Truth About The Asbury Revival!

The Asbury Revival and the Question of Whether It Is Real

Hey guys, Colin here and welcome back to Fight For Truth, the channel where we bring you Christian commentary about the things that matter. In today's video, we're going to be talking about the world-famous Asbury Revival.

This revival gets its name from Asbury University, the school in which it originated. Long story short, this is a private Wesleyan Christian institution in the state of Kentucky, and private schools tend to have chapel services regularly.

And at one of these chapels, a sermon was preached by Reverend Zach M. Sorry, I don't know how to pronounce his last name. And at the end of the sermon, the students were so moved that evidently, they did not leave the chapel.

Rather, they chose to stay and worship. And as word spread on social media that a revival had broken out at Asbury, large publications got a hold of the story, and things snowballed from there. All told, this revival has lasted about two weeks, at the point I was researching to make this video.

And the big question has been asked by many people, is this a real revival or a fake one? But at the risk of upsetting some of you, I fear that this video will not answer that question. Here's why. Unless you are privy to the hearts of everyone who has attended this event, there's really no way of knowing definitively what the spiritual effect is on the level of each individual.

And not enough time has elapsed to see the broad, long-term effects of this either. So really, any objective criteria by which we could judge this revival to be true or false is not available to us. And therefore, my suggestion would be this.

Rather than trying to jump and make a broad, sweeping statement about the revival, let's step back and simply hold fast to the Word of God. Right now, there is a lot that we are unsure about, and therefore, we should hold fast to what we know to be sure, the Bible.

And with this at the forefront, let's discuss the Asbury revival responsibly with the amount of information we've been given about it to date. Firstly, I want to establish that regardless of all the other factors, God can and will do great spiritual things through this event.

No matter what the flaws are, I know that God in His sovereignty will do whatever brings Him glory, and that gives me great confidence. Additionally, there are many things to be happy about with Asbury.

For one thing, there's a whole new conversation in our culture about Jesus and the Word of God. For another thing, there seems to be quite a few people who have genuinely turned away from their sin and are following Christ.

This is something that cannot be understated, and we should rejoice greatly that this has taken place. To name another positive thing, this event is infinitely better to participate in when compared to the grand majority of activities that college students have available to them.

Moreover, I am not aware of any outright false teachers who are directly or intimately involved with this event. And that is fantastic. Also, besides a few peripheral things, this event seems to have very little hypercharismatic chaos that we so often see in modern so-called revivals.

Testing Everything by the Word of God

So with all of that acknowledged, 1 Thessalonians 5 .21 is helpful as we move forward. It says, quote, "...but test everything, hold fast to what is good," end quote. So we are not commanded to dismiss everything and be jaded, but we are also not commanded to accept everything and be naive.

Rather, we are commanded to faithfully and lovingly test everything. I have given you a number of things to be happy and excited about, but when we test everything there are also bound to be some situations that are not as promising.

So let me now offer you my greatest concerns about some of what is associated with the Asbury Revival. First, there seems to be a concerning view of the work of the Holy Spirit especially being propagated by many people attending the Revival and talking about it.

This is something that Chris Roseborough describes exceedingly well in his video, link in description. But essentially, many people are viewing Asbury as this unique epicenter of spiritual activity. And many are even suggesting that this location holds a specific power of God that you can only access by actually being there in person.

It is reported that literally thousands of people have traveled from all over the world to come see this revival. And it's not wrong to travel for a spiritual event. I want to make that clear. Thousands of people also travel to R .C. Sproul's Ligonier Conference and John MacArthur's Shepherds Conference.

No issues there. The problem is that many people are suggesting that Asbury has a uniquely powerful aura, if you will, such that you need to drop everything and travel there so that you can receive this aura for yourself.

There are tons of examples of this view being promoted on social media, but here's just one video example where a gentleman is being interviewed about the Revival. Watch this.

Yeah, you know, one of my friends and mentors would often say that revival is God's arrival. And so there's these moments in history where God just manifests. It's almost like Jesus sets up a chair in a room and people just encounter his presence in a very tangible way.

But the goal of all of it, the goal of every encounter with Jesus is that it doesn't stay with us, but it goes to people that need him, that are lost and hurting. So that's, you know, that's the prayer here.

There's commissioning every night. People are going, people are coming from places and then bringing the fire back. You mentioned Lee.

So just to be clear, I'm not suggesting that this man in the video is some sort of dangerous false teacher. In fact, in context, he said a lot of great things in that interview. Rather, I want to notice some of the language that's being used here and elsewhere.

People are coming to Asbury where God has uniquely, quote, arrived, and His presence is uniquely being felt there. And then they're taking the, quote, fire back to their hometowns. Again, the way many people are talking about Asbury is almost similar to the way someone would talk about a nuclear blast zone.

You could almost compare this to the way we might talk about radiation. You have the epicenter where the nuclear toxic waste was spilled into the environment, and then it's specifically in that area. And now you have people traveling from all over the world to come into the radiation zone and get the nuclear radiation on them so that they can bring it back to their town and spread this force to everyone else.

But I don't think this is a biblical view of the activity of God. Here's a passage that Chris Roseborough quoted in his video. It is extremely relevant to this topic. In Matthew 18 -20, Jesus says, quote, For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.

End quote. So, according to this passage, do you need to go to Asbury in order to receive the complete power and presence and work of Jesus Christ in your life? No, not at all. The Lord can do a work of revival in your heart right where you are.

In fact, every single Orthodox Church around the world has Jesus fully working there. That's what He promised. Two or three are gathered. But there are many people, again, speaking of Asbury, as though you could not receive the complete and powerful work of Christ in your own local church, at least certainly not to the same extent.

Indeed, you need to constantly seek out some sort of special mountaintop experience somewhere else. But again, I don't think this idea lines up with Scripture. And with that said, let me offer you my second concern.

The Lack of a Clear Gospel Presentation

I have listened to hours and hours of people talking about the Asbury Revival and what they saw there. A couple big conservative YouTubers attended this revival for themselves. Many others have simply researched the event diligently from a distance.

This includes the following people. Elisa Childers attended in person and made a video about it. Spencer Smith did the same. John Harris interviewed on video two biblical pastors who also attended the revival in person, Jeffrey Doris and Austin Keillor.

And to top it all off, Lutheran pastor Chris Roseborough, who we mentioned earlier, said he watched somewhere in the neighborhood of 16 hours of footage directly from the revival. So in other words, we have a pretty good sample size of Christian resources who have either been to Asbury or researched it.

And the first thing I'll note is this. There was not a single theologically responsible person who I listened to who did not come away with substantive concerns about the revival. Also, I want to make this clear.

To the best of my knowledge, none of the people I listened to came away with the opinion that Asbury was entirely full of fake emotional hype, either. But in all of my research and all of the opinions I surveyed, here was the most important fact I found.

Not one of these people said that they heard a clear presentation of the Gospel at Asbury. Not a single one. And this is important because, in a revival, we should want to see the Gospel be front and center.

The Gospel is the power of salvation to those who believe it. See Romans 1 .16. And even Christians need the constant reminder of the Gospel in their lives. See 1 Corinthians 15. Also, the people I've mentioned seem to have been to the Asbury revival at different times on some different days and for extended amounts of time.

And yet none of them made the case that there was a complete presentation of the Gospel, and several of them noted that this was concerning. But more than this, there were a few examples of the Gospel being directly ignored or even misrepresented.

Consider this video where Pastor Austin Keillor, who again was there, recounts his experience at Asbury. Watch this.

I'm praying that the Gospel is made central and that people hear it and believe it. When I was in the chapel for that hour there, right before I left to come get on this, one of the staff members, a professor, dean, or whoever she is, said, let's take a moment and preach the Gospel to one another.

And then she said, so turn to your neighbor and say, God loves you and has a plan for your life. And I think that pretty much sums up the clarity and the depth of the Gospel that's being presented here.

So a professor who is leading people at the revival said that the Gospel is, quote, God loves you and has a plan for you. Guys, I'm not trying to nitpick when I say this, but that is absolutely a false Gospel.

At the very least, it's an incomplete Gospel. There is no mention of sin, no mention of repentance, no mention of faith, no mention of Christ, no mention of His life, death, and resurrection, etc. And according to this pastor and many other people I've listened to, this represents a lot of what is being called the Gospel at Asbury.

Again, hopefully we can all agree that in a revival we want the Gospel of Jesus to be clear and to be emphasized. And by the way, I'm not saying that the Gospel has never been preached at any point at Asbury.

Nor am I saying that this proves the revival is fake or anything like that. Rather, the seeming lack of attention on the true Gospel is simply a fact that should be recognized. And with that, let me share with you what I believe to be one of the most significant observations about all this, something that I don't think we're talking about enough.

Revival Requires Repentance From the Church

Revival, by definition, implies that you are being revived from a state of spiritual brokenness or sin or backsliding, etc. In other words, revival is the solution to a problem that is already present.

In a nutshell, here's what many people seem to be missing in all of this. What is it that the modern American Church needs to be revived from? Why is it that we are all so focused on the revival, but there seems to be very little conversation about why revival is necessary in the first place?

This would be like having a Protestant Reformation without pointing out the serious theological error in the Catholic Church. In other words, what are we reforming from? Again, if you're looking for revival, what exactly are we wanting revival to do specifically?

Well, we know that from the Old to the New Testament, mass revival and mass regeneration was tied to repentance. The city of Nineveh repented of their sins when Jonah preached to them. The ministry of Jesus was a time of great regeneration and revival in Israel.

And what did Jesus preach? Matthew 4, 17 says, "...from that time Jesus began to preach, saying this, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.". Also to the best of my knowledge, all of the great revivals in the history of Israel involved people repenting before God of their idolatry.

So here's the ultimate question. What exactly are we needing revival to repent about in the modern American Church? This seems to be a much greater and much more pressing question than whether or not Asbury is real or fake.

Here's just a brief list that virtually every theologically sound Christian has observed over the past few decades, to one extent or another. Here are some of the things that must be repented of in a complete revival.

There needs to be repentance, for instance, of the prosperity gospel. Repentance of widespread false prophecy, especially that which is coming out of hyper-charismatic churches. Repentance of twisting the Scriptures to make man-centered motivational speeches instead of good sermons.

Repentance of the seeker-sensitive tactics that have turned so many churches into entertainment rather than teaching. Repentance of feminism and female pastors that are in violation of the Scriptures.

Repentance of bringing woke CRT ideologies into the Church. Repentance of LGBT-affirming theology and a softening of God's standards. Repentance of supporting evil pro-choice politicians. And in addition to all of this, let's never forget repentance of the litany of personal sins that, of course, all of us, including myself, have participated in.

Make no mistake about it, any widespread revival that happens in the Church needs to involve repentance for these things and many more. You see, you cannot have a Martin Luther without having his 95 theses.

And in the same way, we cannot have a generic revival that is unwilling to grapple with the serious errors that made revival necessary. And this should be our prayer for the Asbury situation and for Christianity in general.

This is what we should be really talking about. And let's pray that the Lord would work mightily in us according to His will. I pray that this has been a blessing to you, and please know this video isn't meant as a sinful attack, but rather as a biblical critique.

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