It’s fairly common on social media for christians to post things about some huge revival that will come to this country, or to the world, and often, those posts increase during widespread calamities, such as the coronavirus “pandemic.”
The entire construct of “churches” having scheduled “revivals” is wholly unscriptural, and based on false teachings.
What does it mean to revive someone spiritually? Because of Adam’s sin, all humans are born into sin (“hamartia”), which is a singular condition called “unbelief.” Being dead in sin means that one’s spirit is not alive, even though his soul and body are (it is the “first death,” which is passed down to ALL people from Adam).
Nobody is saved apart from the Holy Spirit. So, one whose spirit is dead is someone who does not have the Holy Spirit, for when one is given the Holy Spirit, his dead spirit is resurrected to new life—it is REVIVED. When that happens, the believer has eternal life, so there is nothing there ever to “revive” again. One who is alive cannot be brought back to life.
One is either righteous (spiritually alive), or unrighteous (spiritually dead). Once one is adopted as a member of Messiah’s bride, he is eternally sealed by the Holy Spirit, which means that person is eternally alive—he is forever seen as righteous before the Father. There is no way to revive someone who is eternally alive.
Moreover, the notion of a “revival” in most “churches” is a means of getting folks to come forward to make some sort of decision, which actually is not salvation, nor is it how salvation even works. Essentially, revivals in churches are mostly membership drives—getting folks to join Club Christian, which is a counterfeit of the true body of Messiah, who is Y’isra-el (the “cultivated olive tree” of Romans 11).
The reason most christians believe the idea of a massive “revival” is that a christian preacher or teacher will come up with a premise stating that large numbers of people will be “saved,” and then proclaim that his contrived movement is a “prophecy.”
And, since that sounds to most christians like such a good thing to happen, and appears to be very “spiritual,” folks will fall in line and promulgate the false notion of a coming widespread “revival.”
So much of christianity is based on nothing more than emotion, like when someone from a “church” states that there was a “move of the Holy Spirit” in their meeting, even though the Holy Spirit has no part in christianity, the counterfeit of the true faith. Most in christianity simply equate the Holy Spirit with their feelings.
Now, what does scripture tell us about these things? We are told that, before the coming of the Antichrist, which will be preceded by the full removal of Messiah’s bride from the earth (1 Corinthians 15:52, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17), there will not be a huge “revival,” but a “falling away” (2 Thessalonians 2:3).
A “falling away” is the polar opposite of a huge “revival.”
There is absolutely no prophecy given about any such revival—we are told the opposite would happen (which it has). The falling away that Paul foretold was actually the invention of christianity, which wasn’t even codified until the fourth century by the sun-worshiping, Zeus-worshiping, pagan emperor Constantine.
So, the idea that christianity will produce some world-wide movement by which multitudes of people are added to the kingdom of God (Yah) is not only illogical (good fruit is not produced by bad trees—false teachings), it is contrary to what the scriptures actually tell us.
Messiah Yahoshua Himself stated that the path to life in Him is narrow, and “few there be who find it” (Matthew 7:14). Now, understand, christianity boasts some 2.5 billion christians on the planet. Does that sound like “few”? Absolutely not!
Folks who tout a somewhat famous “prophecy” by the late christianese preacher David Wilkerson about a coming massive revival are misled by false prophecy. There is no big “revival” coming—that entire construct is not even scripturally sound, but feelings-based christianese. Nobody is saved by going forward and saying a prayer or making a decision. The decision to believe is the first step on the path to salvation; it is not salvation itself.
If you’re looking at the size of membership that a “ministry” has, then you are looking in the wrong place. If there are huge numbers of people drawn to a “ministry,” you can pretty safely conclude that it is not true teaching, but the false teachings of some flavor of christianity, the counterfeit of the true faith.
The bride is not a huge number of people. Moreover, the “church” (christianity) is not the bride. Messiah’s bride is Y’isra-el, and she is made up of true Jews (a true Jew is any person who has been given the spiritual covenant that was revealed on the Feast of Weeks in Acts 2—Romans 2:29, Galatians 3:28-29).
Even though these things are typically associated with churchian “revivals,” any teaching that salvation is accomplished by coming forward, saying a prayer, making a decision, changing one’s lifestyle, accepting Christ into one’s heart, asking forgiveness for all sins, or any of the myriad christianese euphemisms for its idea of salvation, is false teaching that will only add to membership in a human club, but not to the kingdom of Yah.
Believe in Messiah Yahoshua and confess Him before others, which is to endure in belief. That is the path to salvation. It is not salvation until the Holy Spirit declares one to be born again. Man cannot do that, only the Father gives eternal life, and He places the Holy Spirit within all those who are His. Those who have the Holy Spirit are literally told by Him that they are children of Yah (Romans 8:16).
That’s not a feeling, and it’s not an assumption—neither is it a verse of scripture. It’s an actual confirmation given to the believer directly and personally. That is the only thing that is a “revival” – the resurrection of one’s dead spirit to newness of life, given ONLY by the indwelling Holy Spirit. “Few there be who find it.”
For more information: Is Salvation Hard to Receive?