Tried With Fire

Pentecostal Outpourings: Revial and the Reformed Tradition, Robert Davis Smart, Michael A. G. Haykin, Ian Hugh Clary, editors, Reformation Heritage Books, 2016, 280 pages. Most Christians would agree that we need revival today, but what does that look like and what are its fruits? If we are honest, an accurate assessment of modern-day revival is "a humanly engineered series of meetings to convert the unsaved and with a fanatical experience that has little to do with the gospel and biblical theology." 1 Sadly, this definition bears little resemblance to New Testament. Hence our ideas need correcting, and  Pentecostal Outpourings offers a   much-needed biblical and historical corrective. This book examines historic revivals of the past in the British Isles and America. The accounts are not confined to one particular denomination but cover a range of groups all within the reformed tradition. Thus what constitutes  revival is defined by that theological con...

So I started reading Pentecostal Outpurings: Revival and the Reformed Tradition for an upcoming review.  Before anyone starts wondering (or freaking out), look at the names of the editors. Also the publisher is Reformation Heritage Books, so "Pentecostal" is in terms of Acts 2 not Pentecostalism . On skimming the book, the historical accounts in the British Isles and the United States bear absolutely no resemblance to our post Charles Finney notions of revival. I would describe what passes for a modern "revival" as an emotionally manipulative experience that promotes a genie-in-the-bottle "god" who grants our every wish and whim if we use the right incantation. There is no reverence. There is no repentance. It is marked by hoopla and a carnival-like atmosphere. There is a certain level of arrogance, too, where we almost demand the Holy Spirit act on our behalf and put His stamp of approval on human effort that misrepresents God. And don't forget ...