Or do they Pooh Pooh them as unbiblical and something that ended with the Apostles?
Do Cessationists Believe that Revivals Happen?
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Talk to me about revivals. I do not understand this phenomenon.
As a "cessationalist", I for one do believe in revivals. Cessationalists do not believe in the ending of the preaching of the Word of God to excite and focus the church to come back to the Word of God, but instead, they believe that the "Sign Gifts" given to the Apostles were given to the Apostles and only to those 12 men.
When John died as the last Apostle, those Sign Gifts died with him as there are NO, NONE, ZERO Scriptures which say that there is an Apostolic succession.
Mark 16:14-18.......
"Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues ;they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
In the Greek grammar, the word "THEY/THEM" in verses highlighted are called ANTACEDANTS. That means the word THEY/THEM identify a subject in the preceding verses and in this case it is verse #14 and the "ELEVEN" disciples who became the ELEVEN Apostles.
The ELEVEN are those disciples who were standing in front of Jesus and it was only those ELEVEN who were personally commissioned by the Lord Jesus to have special powers and abilities. NO ONE else qualifies for those abilities.
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A Revival is a series of meetings that are focused on exciting believers and is focused to a spiritual reawakening from a state of dormancy or stagnation in the life of a believer and or church in particular.
ALL churches at one time or another grow stagnant or cold or complacant. A Revival should be geared to break the charm and power of the world, which blinds the eyes of men, and generate both the will and power to live in the world but not of the world.
In the past there has been several revivals in the USA. Most are for a week or a month but at times depending on the Holy Spirit, it make go on for a long time.
In the USA, the first revival, also called the First Great Awakening, produced an upsurge of devotion among Protestants in the 1730s and 1740s, carving a permanent mark on American religion.
As YOU have seen right here in front of you, Rev. 2:14-16 as was posted in the Hallowwen thread, talks about the problem of compromise with the world and incorporating worldly values into our belief systems.
A Revival helps us to rightly discern what values we should hold. Rev. 2:20-23 discusses the problem of tolerating false teaching in our churches. We as believrs should always have a need to examine the messages that we hear and compare them to the message of the Bible. Revival helps us to find the truth because it is only the Word of God that sets us free.
Does that mean that Paul was excluded?
Acts 19:11-12 ESV
And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, [12] so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.
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No sir. Paul just like the ELEVEN had a personal commission from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Acts 9:4-5
"And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting."
Verse 15........
"But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. "
Revivals are simply extended evangelistic meetings lasting a week or so.
They called the Toronto Blessing a revival and it was NOTHING of the sort. It was a witch craft festival which
a great many believers fell for and still fall for.
No matter what they called the Toronto event, it was certainly NOT a revival meeting. People barking like dogs or hopping like kangaroos is certainly not the kind of accompaniment to the gospel message the apostles would have countenanced. A genuine revival is more characterized like a Billy Graham crusade.
I don't think we have had any of those in Canada.
It is however exactly what demonic spirits would encourage.
May I add something here about a Billy Graham crusade event that most people do not realize. He did not just show up one day and give a series of sermons and people heard them and walked the isle and got saved. That is not how it worked.
Dr. Grahams operation was a well tuned, organized machine. When they identified a location to go to, they started a year in advance. Did you hear what I said......A year in advance.
Instead of buying jet airplanes, and house, and land along with Mercadez Benz cars, they invested in PEOPLE behind the scenes.
They would then pay those people and send those people into the location that was chosen and those people would spend about 6 months working with all of the local Baptist churches in meetings, seminars and coordinating visitation plans to all of the surrounding homes in that area. How do I know that?
In 1983, Dr. Graham held a crusade in Orlando Fl. in the Tangerine Bowl which is now the Citrus Bowl. We, Southern Baptist Churches in the area were contacted and asked to participate in these training seminars and visitations. My church enthusiastically accepted that invitation as did all the others. We spent months in visiting and soul winning. The results seen when you watch hundreds walk down the isle was because those local Baptist churches had ALREADY led those individuals to Christ. The Dr. Graham association told us to ask those who we led to Christ to make it known publicly during Dr. Grahams visit and those individuals were encouraged to go to the local Baptist church to be baptized and unite with them.
Now, the facts are that as a church, we did not do anything out of the ordinary. We always had a weekly visitation program where 10 to 12 men went out to speak to contacts and those who visited the church. We encouraged those who accepted Christ to go to that meeting in Orlando instead of to our church on Sunday on the time specified for them to attend.
I am not saying this to downplay the effectivness of Dr. Graham preaching, but instead to show how a man used the money given to his ministry to actually save souls instead of buying plans, and homes and cars.
As Paul Harvy said......"Now the rest of the Story"
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And now..........The rest of the story is that Yep...you did. In 1955 - 356.000 attended......1978 - 7,000 saved.......1981 x 2 had 10,000 saved.........1995 had 261,500 over 5 days attend.
Good morning, Major, In Awe of Him and BibleLover;
Keeping in mind the Sign Gifts, Miracles, etc...came in all kinds and fulfilled their purpose prior to the end of the Apostolic Age.
This does not mean the miracles we experience today as believers are excluded. My surviving two near death asthma attacks as an infant and at 4 years old were considered miracles from God as well as my parent's prayers.
In 1997 I interviewed as a volunteer at the Billy Graham Crusade. At the end of the revival people would come down in droves to the front of the stage. While sitting with my group, I was assigned to go to an individual or couple and speak with them, then ask if I can do a prayer of acceptance with them. After the revival I would follow up and call the new Believers, some came from out of state, Southern and Northern California.
It was a revival that blessed my wife and me.
As far as that Toronto Blessing we have something similar called the Witches Confluence or Reclaiming Collective in our San Francisco Bay Area. We have Believers who are led to attend these revivals and share the Gospel. What the outcome was or is, I don't know.
God bless you all.
Bob
The true revivals of the Bible were started from God downward, and the Holy Spirit used the scriptures to bring it to pass, but modern day version of it would have yelling, rolling around, wild dancing shouting, sound like animals and holy laughter
The so called college revival from last summer was mainly among charismatics and from word of faith and "Holy Ghost Baptized" believers, but doubt taht was real and true revival
Paul was the last real Apostle that was commissioned by the risen Christ
thr granddaddy of all of that was the so called Asuza "revival" 1906, where everything went bonkers
The Bible states to us must be done in order and that the person remains in control, but that so called blessing event violated those scriptures big time
His wife Ruth was engaged to ne married to another man, but she felt that the Lord was calling her to missions work, and her boyfriend balked at that, and that allowed Billy to slip right in to become the next man up.
The word "Miracle" over the years has become a name used to describe things we can not understand. IMHO, your recoveries were due to God answering the prayers of your parents.
At 3 years old, I opened the car door and fell out. The Dr. told my parents that he did not know how many stitches he used to sew up my head but for a few days, they did not know if I would live. I did though because of the prayers of my Godly parents and because God placed the right doctor and nurse in the right place.
A Miracle or God working as He always does in the lives of believers.