children of the Great Revival

1950s

2015

(least offensive image I could find)

I have seriously studied Revival for the past decade or so.  Yet, until I juxtaposed the two images, above, it never occurred to me that the people celebrating 'gay pride', in the bottom photo, are the children and grandchildren of those (shown in the top photo) who experienced one the greatest periods of Revival in history.  So I asked myself, How did a nation of churchgoers--many of whom experienced the Great Revival of the early 20th century, produce a generation of devils?  How did American culture degenerate so rapidly in the span of merely a couple of generations?

What a difference even one generation can make!  Of course, such rapid social transformation could not have been possible during any former time.  But modern technologies have facilitated radical social change on a scale and with such speed as was unimaginable, until now.  Although technologies such as radio, television, and now the Internet, possess no inherent moral power of their own, nevertheless, those technologies have tremendously facilitated rapid, mass communication.  Thus it has been possible during the past half-century and more, to disseminate ideas more widely and more rapidly than ever before in history.

Whereas the rapidity of social change may be attributable, in part, to the power of modern technologies, yet the direction of that social change--from morality to immorality, as well as the reason(s) why successive generations evidently have been very receptive to such change, are the matters which principally interest me.  An analysis of that mystery must begin by recognizing that all societal change derives from ideas.

In order to change an entire nation, however, requires several things, namely:

1. New ideas--or old ideas newly presented--must be inculcated en masse (to large numbers of people);
2. Those ideas must be inculcated primarily in younger persons, who are naturally more susceptible to propaganda;
3. Institutions representing the "old order" of ideas (specifically, Christianity), must be subverted from within, maligned from without, and generally portrayed as being out-dated, in order to minimize their influence in the realm of ideas;
4. Institutions promoting the new regime of ideas, on the other hand, must be made to appear wise, progressive, and in other ways socially acceptable, in order to lend credibility to the ideas which those institutions exist to propagate;
5. To the extent that the New Regime controls both the new institutions as well as the communications technologies, it thus controls "the message"--the set of ideas--which that Regime seeks to inculcate.

As early as the 1920s, the famous author Walter Lippman argued, in his writings (Public Opinion, The Good Society, et al), in favor of governments' CONTROL of mass media for propaganda purposes.  From about that same time, America's public education system began to be subverted and altered, by antichrists such as John Dewey and many others, from what formerly was a Christ-centered curriculum, to a thoroughly secular-humanist curriculum.  Not least, America's seminaries, from that same time period until now, began to inseminate, as it were, America's churches with 'liberally' educated church leaders who no longer believed in an infallible, inerrant record of Scripture.

Here's how all that played out in my family, as I grew up (I was born in the mid-1950s).  My parents were young Christians, in the early 1950s.  They implicitly trusted both the mainstream Protestant, Pentecostal Church, wherein they came to receive Christ, as well as they trusted the public education system--which, at that time, still required daily recitals of the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag, etc.  My parents were evidently unaware, however, of the radical changes which then were taking place in the public schools.  Nor was I capable, as a young child, to discern the dangers of that system.  My parents, moreover, were evidently unaware of the radical changes then occurring within the mainstream Protestant denomination of which they were at that time a part.

Therefore, whereas my parents themselves were devout Christians, yet, due to their ignorance of spiritual realities involving the social institutions of their own time, they subjected their children to a scientifically-calculated system of indoctrination which was designed to produce an anti-Christian culture; a system which both was and yet is very effective.  Furthermore, I don't recall that my parents ever once led our family in Bible study or prayers at home; notwithstanding the fact that we attended church 'religiously'--typically, at least 3 or more times every week.  I suppose my parents must have believed that those times in church provided sufficient religious training for such purposes as they evidently thought were needful to the Christian life.  But if that were true, then, that suggests their own Christian training must have been pitifully lacking.  Indeed, it was.

But if their spiritual understanding was lacking--notwithstanding they were "born again" as a result of the Great Revival, then, is it possible that the Great Revival itself was somehow lacking, at least in terms of how the spiritual leaders, of that day, may have perceived--or, rather, failed to perceive the (rapidly changing) world of their own time?  Did they not realize what was happening in the seminaries? and in the public schools? and how that would affect the Church?  From all of my reading pertaining to that time period, I have the impression that, though some fierce intellectual battles which were fought over the issues I have herein raised, yet those battles were mostly waged in the rarified air of academia--where, sad to say, the most important of those battles were also lost.  I do not recall that many of the better known 'heroes of the faith'--throughout the early 20th century, expounded on the degenerating condition of the seminaries and of the public education system--the two institutions most responsible for passing on, from one generation to the next, those ideas held dear by the former.

Too, did the church leaders of that time period fail to discern the real and potential dangers of certain then newly emerging technologies, i.e., television?  And do we, Christian parents, adequately perceive the dangers of more modern technologies?  Tragically, the vast majority of Christian parents, today, do not even perceive the thoroughly antichrist nature of the public school system!  And why do they not?

It is because the majority of church leaders are apostates.  Most church leaders in America are seminary cemetary-trained, and spiritually dead.  They are blind to the spiritual realities of our time.

I am dogmatic about Revival.  We must have Revival, or we perish.  I further believe that, in order to receive an outpouring of God's Spirit for Revival, there must be deep and genuine repentance, on the part of professing Christians.  Repentance? from what?  Repentance--from participating in any way or measure in this wicked culture.

With all that as the background, let us hear the message of one of the most famous sermons that was ever recorded--following which 3,000 people were genuinely converted (the preacher was the apostle Peter):

Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.  For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.  And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward [wicked, perverse] generation.  Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.   (Acts 2:37-41)

"Repent...and save yourselves from this wicked generation!" was Peter's message.  Did his message offend anyone?  ABSOLUTELY, IT DID!!  For, from among the many scores of thousands of Jews which were then gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost, 'only' 3,000 of them yielded to Christ, on that day.  The preaching of the cross of Christ has always been offensive--to those who are lost and willing to remain in that condition.

But Peter's preaching was extraordinarily effectual, especially, compared with today's watered-down preaching.

"Repent, and stop pleasuring yourselves with American culture!"

"Come out from among them: come out of their sports arenas and fashion shops; come out of their movie houses and theaters; come out of their banqueting halls and their pubs; come out of their gambling places; come out of their filthy magazines, and stupid television shows, and ungodly Internet websites; -and, yes, come out of their apostate churches!"

"Repent.  And save yourselves from this untoward generation!"

And THEN--and THEN--and THEN you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.