The Hopes and Hazards of Revival

I can’t seem to get revival off my mind, or, for that matter, off my news feed. Fellow evangelical pastors have told me of larger numbers of people getting baptized in their churches, increased church attendance, and a renewed interest in the things of God. In the spring of 2025, the Bible Society (an organization founded in the United Kingdom in 1804 by a group that included William Wilberforce) announced “an exciting turnaround in church attendance, as the decades-long decline in churchgoing in England and Wales is over.” Australian pastor and author Mark Sayers, in a podcast episode released this July, made a case that parts of Europe and the United States may be described as “post-secular,” a cultural situation in which “rebellion” looks like going to church and being interested in Christianity.

Statistics are notoriously slippery, so I regard these reports of revival with cautious optimism. (I’m also aware of the confusion over the meaning of the word “revival” itself. When I use the word, I refer to times when the Spirit’s normal work of converting people and strengthening their faith happens with abnormal speed and scope.) At the same time, I see every reason to hope and pray that what appears to be a growing stream would widen and deepen into a mighty river. With the prophet Amos, I pray that “justice [would] roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream!”—and with Isaiah, “that [God] would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before [him]!” I am not a postmillennialist, but I see nothing in Scriptural prophecy nor in the character of God that prevents the possibility of a rising tide of faith in Christ and growth in holiness.

But if revival comes, I’m concerned that many churches and individual Christians, myself included, won’t be ready for it. As hopeful as I am for an awakening of apathetic Christians, a surge in interest in the Bible, and a reversal of moral and cultural decay, history teaches us that revivals are not times of unmixed blessing. With revivals tend to come not just an influx of converts and heightened spiritual fervor, but also fierce spiritual conflict, misdirected zeal, and spiritual pride. These, in turn, can swell the church with false professions of faith, sham marks of spirituality, and zealous but poorly-taught young believers.

It’s not that I don’t want a revival. God knows I do! Rather, I believe we need to be prepared for revival when it comes. We are like farmers in a drought who not only pray and hope for rain to come, but also must see to it that their irrigation canals are properly built and maintained.

Learning to Tell True from False

One important way we can prepare for revival is by learning from people who lived through revivals and reflected carefully on what was happening. Foremost among these is Jonathan Edwards. Having been personally involved in the 18th century revival in New England, Edwards wrote extensively on what he saw, and sought to bring Biblical clarity during a time of confusion.

Drawing from Edwards’ Thoughts on the Revival and The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God, I’m suggesting three ways we need to prepare. I’ll deal with the first in this post, and the next two in forthcoming posts.

The first way we need to prepare is this: We need to distinguish between the genuine and the counterfeit marks of God’s work. Not everything that is being labeled as a revival is really a genuine work of God. On the flip side, God has often worked in surprising and unexpected ways that many initially doubted or opposed.

Confusion in Edwards’ Day

In Edwards’ day, many people insisted that the extraordinary happenings in New England could not actually be a work of God. These naysayers had a point. Overzealous preachers were publicly condemning other ministers for their lack of zeal. Young preachers especially would presume too much authority. During some church services people would experience bodily convulsions, wail loudly, or even collapse on the ground.

Edwards agreed with the naysayers that many of these excesses were not good. But he also urged steady discernment. As immature, ungodly, or alarming as these behaviors were, they did not by themselves disprove that God was at work. Should we be surprised, Edwards would ask, that new believers have remnants of sinful pride and ignorance? Moreover, he reasoned, is it any wonder that the human body would buckle under the strain of God’s infinite wrath, love, and mercy? “Alas! What is man that he should support himself under such a view of the awful wrath or infinite glory and love of Jehovah!”

Edwards also faulted the critics for forming fixed conclusions before weighing the evidence, for failing to use the Bible in their evaluation, and for denying, based on their own lack of similar spiritual experiences, that others’ experiences were actually God-given. He called out their tendency to condemning the entire movement based on some negative features in it: “The great weakness of the greater part of mankind,” he wrote, “in any affair that is new and uncommon, appears in not distinguishing, but either approving or condemning all in the lump.”

In common parlance, the critics were throwing out the baby with the bathwater. True, Edwards admitted, this work was mixed with excessive zeal, a critical spirit, and fanaticism, but this is no reason to discredit the entire thing. 

Confusion in our Day

If people in Edwards’ day had the tendency to discount the reality of God’s work based on bizarre or ungodly actions, we probably have the opposite tendency: we are too quick to call something a revival which may actually be mere emotionalism, theatrics, spiritual manipulation, political maneuvering, or even a highly-organized and well-attended Christian event.

We should be careful not to call something a true revival simply because others are calling it a revival, or because it is well-attended, or because the people involved are getting highly emotional. At the same time, we should not be so skeptical that we deny the possibility of God working, even though some excesses are present.

Marks of a True Work of God

So upon what basis should we evaluate whether something is really a work of God’s Spirit? Here, again, Edwards is instructive. He gives several key indicators for discerning whether something is really God’s work. Reasoning from 1 John 4, Edwards argues that a genuine work of God will result in . . .

1. A higher esteem for Jesus Christ as he is revealed in the New Testament. It’s not enough just for people to have a greater respect for Jesus as he is popularly imagined. The devil would be happy for people to hold views of Jesus that serve their own self-centered purposes. But in a true work of God’s Spirit, people will esteem Jesus for who the Bible says he is: God in the flesh who suffered and died for our sins (1 John 4:2-3). If something influences people to believe that their own efforts at self-justification are worse than useless, that Jesus is their only hope, and that he should be prized and adored as the only Savior, this influence must be from God’s Spirit and therefore a true work of God. The devil, writes Edwards, “never would go about to beget in men more honorable thoughts [of Jesus], and lay greater weight on his instructions and commands.” 
2. A turning away from sin to prioritize God’s purposes. We can be certain that God’s Spirit is really at work if it produces a genuine change in people’s lives—a change marked by a decisive turning away from sin (not merely because of its social stigma, but because it offends God) and a joyful turning toward God. On this point, Edwards cites 1 John 4:4, “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” Only God’s Spirit would work to “lessen men’s esteem of the pleasures, profits, and honors of the world . . . and engage them in a deep concern about a future state and eternal happiness which the gospel reveals.”
3. More trust in and attention to the Bible. Another mark of a true work of God’s Spirit is an increased reverence for and trust in the Bible as the Word of God. Edwards infers this from 1 John 4:6 (“Whoever knows God listens to us”) by applying the apostolic testimony (“us”) to Scripture as a whole. I have observed in recent years, perhaps due in part to the influence of Jordan Peterson, a greater admiration for the Bible. While I am happy for anyone’s attention to be drawn to the greatest book in the world, this admiration, as far as I have observed it, doesn’t necessarily rise to the level of regarding it as God’s Word that must be trusted and obeyed. When God’s Spirit is at work, he awakens people to the reality that Scripture is God’s very Word.
4. A heightened personal grasp of Biblical truth. When God’s Spirit is at work, he brings truth to bear on people’s lives in a vivid, life-changing way. For example, people become more self-aware of their spiritual condition, more convinced that there is a God as revealed in the Bible, more mindful that they must one day stand before him to give an account for themselves, and more persuaded that they are helpless in and of themselves to do so. When people begin to see the truths about these things, we can safely attribute this to God’s Spirit.
5. An increased love for God and others. It’s probably sufficient just to quote the Apostle John on this point, as Edwards does: “If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because he has given us of his Spirit” (1 John 4:12-13).

A Call to Rejoice and Discern

This is not an exhaustive list, but it serves as a helpful starting point. If we hear of a movement bearing these marks, we can rejoice that God is at work, even if we must also point out flaws or excesses. We must not throw out the baby with the bathwater, but neither must we say that the bathwater is the baby!

In a follow-up post, I’ll highlight the next area of preparation: being alert to serious errors that commonly accompany times of revival.