Evangelical Revivals – Introduction

Evangelical Revivals

Genuine revivals have occurred in almost every age of the church era. They have been the major means God has used to rescue a weakened and backslidden church, restoring her to new levels of power and influence. God’s remedy for an ailing church has always been revival.

Seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord are God’s way of energizing the church and advancing His cause. The bi-products of revival are immense: Churches come alive, Gospel preaching carries unusual power, missionary movements are born, holiness replaces worldliness, passion for prayer increases, Bible study and worship consumes individuals and revival converts usually persevere in the faith until the day they go to glory.

The greatest days of the Church have been days of revival. Nothing can take its place. The best that man can do will never meet the needs of the church nor the world. Only as God comes upon the scene in revival power can the church see its destiny realised.

Evangelical Revivals

This section explores evangelical revivals across the ages. Understanding what the word ‘evangelical’ means is important here. For some it means being evangelistic and that authentic conversion is essential to follow Christ. For others it means to believe the Bible is the inspired, uniquely infallible, authoritative Word of God.”

In fact, these two truths are the irreducible minimum of any definition of ‘evangelical’.

But it must be noted that Pentecostals, charismatics, healing revivalists and third-wave Christians are also Evangelicals. The difference is that they have added some extra Bible beliefs and practices which have generally been excluded by evangelicals.

So this section presents Evangelical revivals, those which did not emphasise those issues that Pentecostals and charismatics have embraced and experienced. Pentecostal and charismatics are excluded from this Evangelical section but can be found in their own sections elsewhere on this site.