A popular view often voiced today is that what the church and society need is “revival.” Amen! A little revival would be great. However, there is a twist, for it seems that the heart and focus of this idea is “revival” in the United States of America. If mentioned at all, the other nations of the earth are an afterthought.
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This rather narrow view is compounded by the practice of popular preaching to conflate and even identify American society with the church. As one U.S. minister wrote, “I was asked if I thought God was going to bring judgment or revival to America. I paused for a moment and replied, ‘Both.’ God is going to bring revival to His people, and it will either come by choice or by circumstance. We are at a crossroads as a nation and as the church. The choices we make today will determine our future.”
NOT ABOUT AMERICA
So, when did America - its government,
society, and culture - become identical with the church of Jesus Christ and the
Christian faith? And when did “revival” become centered in if not only concerned
with that nation?
Does God only intend to bring “judgment or
revival” to America’s shores? Why do we expect “revival” and “judgment” to
begin in the United States and not in, say, India or China?
For that matter, the New Testament teaches
that “judgment must begin with the house of God.” Or has popular
preaching assumed that the United States of America IS the “house of
God”?
Jesus commanded his genuine disciples to
preach the gospel of HIS kingdom to “ALL nations,” not just to
the USA or western “civilization.” When he returns in glory, only one “kingdom”
will be left standing, and that will not be the USA, the European Union, Canada,
China, France, or the United Kingdom.
The mission of proclaiming his gospel is NOT about restoring or fixing America, or for that matter, Russia, Germany, Japan, etc. No, the gospel of Jesus Christ is about the “kingdom of God” and the redemption of men and women from every nation.
However good, bad, or indifferent the
United States of America is - or any other nation or culture for that matter - one
day it will cease to exist. Jesus warns us not to work “for the meat that
perishes,” and that is precisely what we do when we spend our time and energies
on things and institutions that will not endure. As Paul put it, the things of
this present age “are passing away.”
GOD DOES NOT NEED ANY ONE NATION
In popular preaching, where is there any
discussion about what God has done ALREADY in, for example, China, where
despite opposition and occasional persecution, the church has grown enormously with
estimates of conversions ranging between 70 million and 300 million?
This rapid growth of the faith in China has
occurred in a non-western and non-democratic nation where ACTUAL
persecution is a reality, and without any “revival” imported from the churches
of North America.
God can achieve His purposes whenever and
wherever He pleases, using large or tiny groups of people. For Him, opposition
from an oppressive government is no obstacle. Who are we to say that He cannot
begin the next great “revival” in China, Iran, or Russia?
The church began when God poured out His Spirit on a small group of 120 Aramaic and Greek-speaking disciples in Jerusalem. Yet it was through that small beginning that He inaugurated a movement that “turned the world upside down.”
Perhaps next time He will begin by pouring
out His Spirit on the tiny population of Tristan de Cunha, the world’s most
remote populated island, just to confound our human wisdom and expectations.
Many preachers claim we are history’s “last
generation,” the one that will see Jesus arrive in glory. Let us hope so!
However, that will NOT happen if we do not return to the task Jesus assigned to
us, and get rather busy about it, too!
Jesus was clear - The “end” will not
come until “this gospel of the kingdom is proclaimed to ALL the nations of
the earth.” Whether revival comes, judgment certainly will, and it will
begin at the “house of God.”
And just to be clear, that means the church
of Jesus Christ is comprised of men and women redeemed from every nation and
people on the earth. This is far bigger than the United States of America. It
is about the kingdom of God, not just one or a few nations.