Ben Zornes

Living and Dying to Show the Preciousness of Christ

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Clinging to Lady Wisdom

Clinging to Lady Wisdom

Solomon repeatedly exhorts his son to get wisdom, be guided by understanding, cling to instruction, and value the knowledge of the Lord as greater than riches. Wisdom is likened to a woman, a lover even (Pro. 4:8). A wise son is to take hold of instruction, and not let her go, for in her is life (Pro. 4:13). This lady should be sought with the fervor of a miner during the gold-rush of 1849. 

Picture a man running to his soon to be bride, after his twelve-month deployment. They will take hold of each other, and nothing is peeling them apart. That is how a King commands his son to cling to wisdom. Remember, these are instructions for a son who will soon rule a nation. Governance at every level must be guided not by mere appetite, but by God’s transcendent wisdom.

But another lady lingers in the shadows of the book of Proverbs. Her name is Folly. She doesn’t have any interest in loyalty or fidelity. Her embrace is not one of mutual love; it is the embrace of a boa constrictor. She plans to suffocate, then devour. If you become Lady Folly’s lover, your only loyalty will be to your basest cravings. Food, sex, money, sleep, will become your all-consuming desires. Your pursuit will not be for wisdom, and the blessings which come by it. Your pursuit will be for fleeting pleasures, which will return less and less pleasure, as they turn you into a ghost of a person.

Whereas Lady Wisdom is a tree of life, Lady Folly is a grave (Pro. 2:18). Dead lives, dead families, dead cities, dead nations are so because they have embraced, and been embraced by Lady Folly. 

Our governments at every level are in ruins. We are not ruled by Wisdom, we are not found in her embrace. Rather, our nation has embraced the follies of same-sex mirages, abortion, antidepressants, entertainment gluttony, and taxes on others to pay for all these pursuits. It is no wonder that what God said would happen, has happened, “None that go unto Lady Folly return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life (Pro. 2:19).” 

Our self-government, family government, and national government have all wandered down the path of Lady Folly, and we deserve the death that awaits us, unless God grants a revival of repentance. Only Lady Wisdom establishes a government for the living. So cling to her.

Sins Great and Small

Sins Great and Small

Big sins are built on the backs of a thousand little sins. Sequoia sins like murder, adultery, embezzlement, apostasy, or fraud don’t grow overnight. They arise out of a thousand lies you tell yourself. A thousand minor compromises. A thousand squints at the clear lines of God’s law. A thousand fudging of the numbers in our moral accounting books.

Imagine roaring down the highway at night, in an unfamiliar area, and suddenly right ahead of you is a paper sign across the road. The font is tiny, and to make things worse the font is Comic Sans, but it reads: “Bridge Out!” As you careen to your death in the icy river below, you won’t be thinking to yourself, “What a legalistic sign!”

Rather, if you’re careening towards such danger, you want to have warning signs up ten miles down the road. You want flashing lights. You want a sign that lights up with a big orange glow, visible from Pluto, when your headlights hit it. You want signs to warn you if you start hurtling down the path towards disaster. 

King David once prayed, “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression (Psa. 19:13).” Are there sins of resentment which you are treasuring up? Are you telling yourself lies about your motives for hanging out with certain friends? Have you justified watching some questionable movies under the pretense of “understanding the culture”? Have you cut corners at your job? Have you gone to bed angry at your spouse, or kids, or others?

If you feel the prick of conviction from those questions, remember that that conviction is a road sign, warning of a calamitous fall awaiting those who recklessly and willfully plow forward. A disastrous fall will come to the haughty man who refuses to heed the warning sign; but grace, upon grace, upon grace is given to the humble man who repents and flees from the little sins, and thus is kept from great sins.

Regret and Train-Watching

Regret and Train-Watching

Whether you had a good year, or a bad one, an eventful one, or a forgettable one, there is a high probability that there are some days, maybe even weeks, which you regret. The ending of the year (let alone a decade) can bring to some of us a whole host of regrets.

You find yourself beset by a sin which you want to be rid of. You wrecked a relationship––seemingly beyond repair. You fell far short of your goals. You’re not who you wanted to be. You broke promises. You stumbled terribly. You make mess of things at school, or work, or family.

Dwell too long on such things, and you’ll soon find yourself keeping company with the demon regret. Regret is the devil’s version of repentance. Feel bad. Have dark, gloomy, brooding emotions. Wallow in a sense of not-quite-guilt, but not-quite-sorrow. However, regret isn’t the same as repentance. It is faux-repentance.

Regret sits at the train station watching the train you should be on pull out. It waves a melancholy farewell, sighs, and then shuffles onto the wrong train. Repentance, on the other hand, isn’t an idle train-watcher. When once it realizes it’s on the wrong train, it races to catch the right train. 

Regret will maybe acknowledge failures; but confess them as sin, forsake them, overcome them? Never. But repentance sees sin for what it is, grieves it, confesses it, and by the Spirit, labors to mortify sin and vivify righteousness. Get off the wrong train, and get on the right one. So don’t spend the final days of this decade in regret. Repent of your sins, and get busy with what God has called you to: righteousness, holiness, and the fear of the Lord.

If you’ve fellowshipped too long and too often with the melancholy demon of regret, it’s time for a break up. Or if you’ve invited him to live in your basement, so that on really hard days you can have something to commiserate with, it’s time to kick him to the curb. Regret will never ask you to forsake your vices and sins. It will never rebuke you. It will never startle you out of your selfishness. 

So, ask God to forgive you for turning your ear to enjoy the sob song of regret, rather than hearing and heeding the Word of the Gospel and repenting. Rather than a world sorrow which leads to more and more regret, ask God to give you a godly sorrow which leads to true repentance and faith.

Sodom Would Be Proud

Sodom Would Be Proud

What was Sodom’s sin?

Some simpering exegetes aim to prove that Sodom’s sin wasn’t homosexuality. They do this by pointing with limp-wrists to Ezekiel 16:48-50:

As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.

Ezekiel 16:48-50

In God’s rebuke of Jerusalem, He chastises them for being worse than Sodom, but this in no way is intended to take the edge off of the vileness of Sodom’s transgressions. Being less worse is no praise.

We are then told what Sodom’s sins were. The first one stands out––sort of like a drag queen reading to children at your local library. Pride. I’ve heard Christian GQBLT “allies” interpret this to mean that what God hated in Sodom was that they were bigots, sort of like those toothless sign wavers in Taylor Swift’s gay-pride music video. In other words, it wasn’t because of the sodomy of Sodom that God rained down fire and brimstone; rather it was their bigotry and inhospitality. They shift this passage to pillory those who believe men shouldn’t sexually abuse each other’s bodies. The pride of us narrow-minded, intolerant Christians is what God hates. Perverse sexual desires and actions aren’t the problem. Intolerance is the problem. Bigotry is the problem. Pride is the problem.

Celebrating Pride

Pride. Hmm…where have I seen that celebrated recently. I could swear I’ve seen some small mention of Pride in some obscure corner of our society. Oh wait, practically every company has changed their logo this month to the “gay-bow”. Galveston painted their crosswalks with it. Our embassies were lit up with all the variegated sparkle and shine of gay propaganda. #PrideMonth is trending on social media. Retailers rolled out t-shirts, underwear, bubble-gum, and anything they could hawk they have.

Pride is being celebrated. One marvels at the effective branding of the GQBLT community. If only some Christians had the same motivation and imagination. Nevertheless, pride is the word which sodomites have chosen to head their parades of shame. Pride. The very thing which Ezekiel labels as the initial sin of Sodom.

Contrary to the gymnastical minds of effeminate exegetes of this passage, the pride of Sodom was the bud which led to the abominations. Pride thinks it is an authority unto itself, but it also comes to think that it can do whatever it wants and get away with it. This is the haughtiness of Sodom. Their pride combusted into gluttonous ingratitude, slothful indulgence of every whim, disregard for their neighbor, and all this inevitably snowballed into treating your fellow man as a thing to be consumed. After all, pride says, “I am god!”

Thus, it is no surprise that modern sodomites have taken for their motto the very sin which is at the root of all their abominations. Sodom itself would be proud.

Pride Goeth Before Destruction

But here’s the problem with pride, no matter what month it is. Pride is destined for judgement. Pride insists it can do whatever it wants. Pride insists on being its own authority.

As an example, if I go into my garage and grab a screwdriver, declare that it is a hammer, and proceed to try to frame a wall with it, any onlooker would think to himself, “Something’ ain’t right with that boy.” No matter how many nails I try to get in, no matter how vigorously I maintain that my screwdriver is a hammer, no matter how much glitter I throw as I frantically try to get that tool to work, it is a project doomed to failure.

This is precisely what every anal penetration, every scissoring, every genital mutilation surgery, and every new letter they attach to their string of sexual identities is. It is a knowing rebellion to God’s design for them and how He made the world. Their haughty rebellion insists that if they cover it in more make-up, attempt more vigorous sex positions, get companies to alter their logos for a month, pop-stars to plug GLAAD, and legislators to pass nonsensical “equality laws” that somehow nature will be what they wish it was.

But they know better. They know how God made them. They know that God calls them to worship Him. They know that to Him alone belongs glory. They know that He is the One who designed them, and the end for which He made them is His glory and their happiness.

But they insist on their pride. Every abominable act being flaunted at gay parades is itself the ripe fruit of pride. But this fruit is poison. No matter how much you insist it tastes good. No matter how loudly you scream that those who warn you are bigots. No matter what laws earthly governments pass. Your pride will not ease your conscience. It will only rub like the grit of sandpaper until your conscience is simply a callous where your conscience used to be. And then…your pride will swallow you, it will damn you, it will accuse you, and there will be no escape from the heat of God’s wrath.

A Different Parade

But this is not the way it needs to end. To take the parade metaphor…you can simply turn around, go against the flow, and there––at the other end of town––another parade is ready to begin. It is a parade that is generally poorly attended, but the food is better, as well as the company. The word at the head of that parade is humility.

The One who leads it bears the scars to prove that the path of humility and submission to the Father leads to true glory and exaltation. He invites you and me to join in His triumphant train, and go conquer the world. Your pride must stay. Your abominations can’t come along. But the pace of this parade, you will find, though rigorous will be just quick enough for you to keep up, but not so slow that you get singed by the brimstone.

One Note: Some Reflections on the NFL Anthem Protests

One Note: Some Reflections on the NFL Anthem Protests

A National “Conversation”

The NFL “anthem protests” over the weekend, indicate a few things, and gives us plenty of food for thought. Our President so deftly defused the fire by pouring gasoline on it. What was once a solitary player, Kaepernick, protesting police brutality became a league-wide protest and a national conversation.

We’ve been having a lot of “conversations” recently, and none of them seem to go beyond tribal mudsligning and many of them descend into riots. The President’s statements about firing the players who silently protest during the national anthem may seem to have been just gasoline on the fire, and if he had left well enough alone it might not have blown up to the proportions it did.

However, as I’ve reflected on what Trump did, I’m inclined to think that once again he (perhaps) had a strategic goal in mind. He certainly encouraged the nationalism that got him elected, but one other thing it produced (and again, I’m not sure if this was intentional by Trump or not) a muddying of the messaging for those protesting.

Muddying the Message

While Kaepernick originally was intending to make this about police brutality against blacks, it has snowballed into a fruit salad of widely varying “protests.” Sure, race is one of the more prominent things being protested, but now we have whole teams in the locker room to show “solidarity,” we have other teams locking arms to display “unity,” some guys sitting on the bench, others kneeling, other guys standing solo in counter-protest to show “support to the troops.” But effectively, now no one really knows what the messaging IS for these protests.

Trump made the protests about Trump.Trump’s statement didn’t draw attention to the issues we ought to be debating and addressing; instead he made the protests about Trump. That’s why I’m inclined to think he did this strategically. He hijacked the protests, and made himself be a part of the conversation. Say what you will about him, but one thing we have seen him do repeatedly is use the momentum of some current event, and leverage it for his own branding, mission, goal. Thus, the NFL, with the highest amount of viewership of any televised programming, is now forced to discuss and take a position on Trump. Regardless of what Trump’s intent is in inserting himself into this issue, he has ensured that we are talking about him, and I think I can safely say, that’s the way he likes it.

False Religions Have the Tastiest Potlucks

Conservatives, and especially Christian conservatives, must be wary of the fact that the false religion of nationalism has some really appealing bait. It offers a sense of stability, respectability, and virtuousness. However, Conservatives’ outrage over “disrespecting” the flag shows that we have come to hold it sacred. We have not honored God as holy, as our worship and lifestyles show, so we have come to pay homage and reverence to the symbols of national religion. When nothing is holy, then everything is holy. We are currently seeing a frenzy over which god we will serve. Equality is the idol of the protestors, nationalism is the idol of conservatives, and the list could go on.

We opine about how this dishonors the “men who gave their lives.” Yet we forget that the flag has also flown over our Supreme Court’s rulings to “ok” the slaughter of babies, and referring to two dudes in bed together as marriage. The flag has flown over Congress’ repeated capitulation on overspending and increasing our debt to $20 trillion. It has flown over a White House that repeatedly lies through its teeth about sexual scandals, spying scandals, spending scandals, and every other stripe of scandal. It flew over slave fields. It flew over abortion clinics. It flew over soil that was not ours, claiming to make it ours by force.

All this to remind us that our flag has flown over foul deeds and fair ones.All this to remind us that our flag has flown over foul deeds and fair ones. Virtuous ones and wicked ones. The problem is that we think that because we have historically valued the virtues of holding life and liberty as sacred, there is no problem with the fact that we lack national repentance. Conservative Americans have come to believe that our national righteousness covers all our fiendish deeds. In fact, they damn us all the more. We claim to stand for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, while we tolerate the slaughter of babies, the desecration of marriage, the ever-increasing tax behemoth, nation-building, police state, and many other unrepented sins.

One Note, Once More

If you’ve followed my blog at all, you likely know what note I’ll strike once more. Repentance. It is vastly different from protest. It is vastly different from national pride. It is vastly different from equality marches or white nationalist marches. It cuts us all down to size, and ought to bring us all to our knees.

The flag of our nation represents us as a nation. It is not holy, it is not sacred. It is an ensign that designates the nation. If we want it to stand for something glorious, and we should, we must repent of having put nation ahead of Jesus, national pride ahead of biblical humility, civic duty ahead of Christian charity, feelings ahead of faith, experience ahead of exegesis, the constitution ahead of Scripture, the head of state ahead of the Head of the Church.

We must repent. Repent of injustices overlooked. Repent of communities decimated by tax-incentives for fatherless homes. Repent of abortion mills. Repent of police-brutality. Repent of anarchy and socialism. Repent of hypocrisy. Repent of valuing entertainment more than fellowship. Repent of being more concerned with being comfortable than being charitable. Repent of putting the city hall in the center of town instead of the church. Repent of putting football as more important than Lord’s Day worship. Repent of putting on the appearance of Christianity without rending of our hearts in repentance.

 

Hypochondriacism

Hypochondriacism

The Sin of Racism

First, racism is a sin. Christianity emerged from the Messianic promise given to the Jews, fulfilled in Christ, who then sent His Apostles to the ends of the earth, to every tribe, with the message that He was the Savior of all nations. First century Jews struggled to figure out how this global mission of Christ’s Gospel would fit with their traditional ethnic “purity.” The answer was God’s people are “one in Christ (Gal. 3:28).” God’s people no longer fit in the category of only those who could trace their DNA to Abraham. God’s people were those who linked themselves to Abraham’s faith in God, and His promised Messiah: Jesus. Thus, Christianity was and is anti-racism to the core.

It is a sin to think in terms of racial superiority, as biblical doctrine teaches ALL mankind is under God’s wrath for our sin. So, ethnic arrogance is sin. This does not mean that some cultures haven’t achieved greater things than others, that is plain as the Pyramids. The pride of life (1 Jn. 2:16), which is of the world, seeps into every crevice of man’s heart and sets him at war with his brother. Hatred of another is indicative of an unregenerate heart, and hatred of another family, people group, or nation, is indicative of the same.

Now For Some Controversy

That said, in our recent culture clashes,RACISM has taken center stage. Some say it is systemic in our American system. Others deny there’s any instances of racism. Others insist on parading around in bedsheets, glorying in their shame. All that said, we must remember that the mass media is in the business of getting eyeballs, attention and clicks. After celebrity sex scandals, nothing grabs audiences like racism. This is partly due, I think, to our Nation’s Civil War, and many of the rifts that it created, as well as the segregation laws that followed. Other nations ended slavery rather peacefully, the USA set brother at variance with brother and still face the national consequences of that strife.

We all too often underestimate the effectiveness of media saturation on a given topic. When low-fat diets gained popularity, the talk shows loved to have on guests to tout their miracle diets, the nightly news spouted off the latest research, and bookstores had trouble keeping the shelves stocked with the many “best-sellers.” We demonized fat. What we had to show for it, was that low-fat diets didn’t do much to impact weight, cholesterol, etc. After decades of low-fat craze. Science shows that the right kinds of fat are actually very important for your well-being.

This anecdote shows that we ought to be careful to be mindful of the fact that what you sow is what you reap. Sow the gospel of low-fat diets, reap a harvest of low-fat dieters. Sow the gospel of systemic racism, reap a harvest of Social Crusaders demanding that white people leave their college or work place for a day. Sow the gospel of White Supremacy, reap the harvest of White Supremacists. There’s a difference between actual arrogance, manifesting itself as racism; and what we might call hypochondriacism. The power of suggestion, and in this case repeated suggestion by social media and mass media, can very well produce and perpetuate the very thing it feigns outrage over.

Anything But Repentance

The play that is being run on the church, is to convince her to surrender the Gospel which she must preach.My concern, especially for Christians rallying to go on a witch hunt for any hint of remaining racism in our country, is that we are running the risk of mistaking outrage for repentance, protests for compassion, #Activism with actual charity towards our neighbor. The play that is being run on the church, is to convince her to surrender the Gospel which she must preach. We are being convinced that social activism can result in Spirit fruit without preaching against sin, calling for repentance, and praying that God would give revival. If we insist on creating a new social order, without preaching the new birth, we will end up with a dead culture hellbent on insatiable vengeance. It will be the ugliest of unending feuds.

The messaging we hear is that we should see that racism is everywhere. Where racism exists it must be expunged. But not by unjust measures. Rather by the white hot Gospel that God sent His Son to die for His enemies, so that His enemies might become His friends. Only the Gospel of Christ’s atonement will satisfy the hurts of injustice, humble the arrogance of the human heart, and bring red, yellow, black, and white to join together in worship before the Lord Jesus Christ.

Victim Maiming

Victim Maiming

The Alphabet Soup Of Victim Groups

A hot-button topic around here has been the issue of victims, victimizers, and the churches that are left to deal with the wreckage. Culturally, there is a popular viewpoint that has gained a lot of steam over the last decade which wants us all to view people in terms of “victim-groups”. We see this vividly depicted in the fact that a decade ago we were usually only talking about Gays and/or Lesbians, whereas nowadays the discussion must include an alphabet soup of different groups who now form the LGBTQIAPK coalition.

The obvious reality is that people sin (and will continue to do so) in despicably horrendous ways against each other. Having spent time counseling folks, I have heard first-hand stories of the craters that sinful actions leave on those who have been ravaged by the selfishness of others. The question for Christians who are put in the position of helping to navigate folks biblically through such snarls, is: what is God’s purpose in this tragedy, and what is Satan’s aim in this tragedy?

God’s End In Suffering

We know, if we’re good confessional Christians, that the chief end of man, in all circumstances, is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. That’s how Westminster wonderfully frames it, drawing upon statements like this from John 17:3, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” True life (i.e. the chief end of man), is to know God & his Son; and to know God (in the sense spoken of here), results in glorifying God (Jer. 9:24).

We must not lose sight of this in the midst of dealing with those sinned against, and those who did the sinning.The goal for both the victim and the perpetrator is that they would glorify God and enjoy Him forever. The goal for both the victim and the perpetrator is that they would glorify God and enjoy Him forever. “Easier said than done,” the cynic in us might reply; but this does not change the aim of true Christian discipleship, which is largely what navigating the terrain of human suffering is.

Our goal is making disciples, which means the goalpost must not move in order to accommodate the frailty of someone who is hurting, nor to disbar from redemption the one who hurt. God saves sinners, and whether you are a victim or a perpetrator you fall into that bigger category of sinner in need of the Gospel.

Satan’s End in Suffering

Now, for the victim, we must not think that they are suddenly immune to temptation. In fact, as a result of the dark and hellish acts done to them, we should not be surprised that Satan’s end game is not only to bring harm to the victim physically and but also to damage them spiritually. His aim is to blind (2 Cor. 4:4), deceive (Rev. 20:10), accuse (Rev. 12:10), and to steal, kill, and destroy (Jn. 10:10) both the victim and the perpetrator. For the victim, the bait laid before them in their attempt to process and sort out what the heck happened to them, is to believe that now they are exempted from resisting temptation, confessing their sins, obeying the commands of Scripture to forgive, repent, and above all, continue to believe the Gospel.

It is telling that a common victim response to the violence done them is to be uncertain about what actually happened to them. Indeed, one of the dreadful consequences of  abuse against them is that they blame themselves, change their story, blame others, in an attempt to sort out and explain what happened. This doesn’t mean they weren’t sinned against, but it means that pastors and fellow Christians need to be ready to help weather the storm of confusion that accompanies abuse, not by coddling untruths, but by directing the victim to the only stable source of truth there is: the Gospel of Christ.

Bitterness, lies, insecurities, unreasonable fears, anxiety, unforgiveness, and hatred are the fruit which Satan hopes to grow in the scorched earth of the tragedy. After a forest fire, it is remarkable how quickly greenery appears; but we must remember that the thorny weeds and grassy meadows are both eager to spring up. A time of tragedy is ripe for sanctifying grace and a backsliding unbelief alike. To class victims as a particular group that is somehow less needful of Gospel faith, grace, repentance and obedience is worse that victim blaming or shaming, it is victim maiming. Victims, and those counseling victims, must not veer from “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else [Isa 45:22 KJV].”

Remember too, that perpetrators stand in need of the Gospel. Being a miscreant of a sinner does not mean they are beyond redemption; and in a similar way, the smoking crater of their sin is a perfect opportunity for Gospel-ministers to rebuke, confront, and bring the Word of God to bear upon their rebellious neck. To break in order to bind up. Satan would love nothing more than to deceive victims into a life of unforgiveness and bitterness, and for victimizers to be proud of their sinful power, fail to see their sin as sin, or to believe they are beyond grace and hopeless for salvation. Satan would love for victims to think of themselves in terms of being eternal victims, and perpetrators in terms of being eternal perpetrators. Both need to come to see themselves as sinners, who need Christ, to become a new thing entirely: eternal saints of our Lord.

A Gospel Big Enough for Both

All of this must be done with both tenderness, compassion and courage. Victims who turn to Christ are not left forever frail, but are emboldened by grace to forgive and grow in godliness. Perpetrators who turn to Christ, are enabled to make restitution for their offenses and crimes, and by grace gratefully accept the consequences of their sin. The “gospel of victimhood” is quickly deceiving countless multitudes, and Christians must make it clear that the Gospel which victims need is big enough to save us all.

This doesn’t let perpetrators off the hook, and shift the responsibility to victims. Rather, the Gospel pins us all down as perpetrators, and that the responsibility for our sins fell on Christ, and through whom we might now be reckoned as not only forgiven sinners, but far more gloriously: righteous in Christ.

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True Revival Builds Culture

True Revival Builds Culture

We need to be careful what we ask for, because we just might get it. Christians are prone to throw around prayers for revival like a germaphobe with hand sanitizer. We see the grimy corruption of our culture, and we desire things to be a bit more “tidy”. So, our sense of “Christian-ese” motivates us to throw requests for revival into our prayers, like radishes into a salad. Revival indeed is the solution to the maelstrom of sin which our society is caught in; but as we ask and implore God to grant revival, we best be prepared for what we’re asking for–if that’s at all possible. We most certainly will never be “prepared” for revival, in one sense; but we most definitely need to know what it is we are asking for when we ask God to give revival to our families, communities and  nations.

To be clear, we are not asking for more teary-eyed worship nights, with so much swaying to the music. We are not asking for mere social reform to satiate our nostalgia for Victorian sensibilities. We are not asking for spine tingling pep-talks which let us vent our pent-up emotions. We are not asking for some kind of confessional catharsis.

We are asking for a sweeping fire of repentance. Revival is, in fact, a massive gift of repentance to an individual, family, community, and/or nation. Thus, revival–when God grants it–results not in simple tearful behavior modification, but in repenting from allegiance to worldliness, moralism, and humanism, and turning in faith and allegiance to Christ, His covenant, and the laws found in His word for how we are to order society.

True revival results in a new cultureWhat this means is that true revival results in a new culture. Its fruit is a more thoroughly Christian culture. Regardless of the extent of the revival, the true fruit of a revival is that people get married, have kids and raise a Christian family; they start businesses which operate on Biblical principles; they run for office, to guide the civic sphere to work in submission to Christ’s Kingdom; they undertake science experiments to develop remedies to disease, and invent newer & better equipment to due our work/communication with; and they compose songs & symphonies, write stories, make movies, take photographs, and paint beautiful, good, and true things. In essence, things get really practical after a true revival.

Two Biblical examples of this are the Exodus and Pentecost. To paint with a broad brush, these were both revivals, which attest to God’s people returning unto God, by God’s power. In the first instance, notice that following the great deliverance of God’s people out of Egypt, God spends 3+ books (half of Exodus, and all of Leviticus, Numbers, & Deuteronomy) laying out the ordering of a God-honoring culture. Following this great revival of true religion, we witness a zeal for ordering a community according to God’s standards (and of course plenty of sinful blunders along the way).

At Pentecost, we see the greatest revival found in Scripture (and it is set in contrast to the first Pentecost, which I’ve written about here); but in the following chapters, what do we find those who experienced the revival doing? Well, for starters, organizing potlucks (Acts. 2:42); they began ordering the early church into, might we call them, parishes, districts, groupings, etc. Then we see the Apostles, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, ordaining the first diaconate. Then we see missionary undertakings, which produced the need for councils (Acts 15). We also have the rest of the New Testament, much of which is devoted to the outlining of how Christian families and Churches are to be ordered. To pull it all together, John’s Apocalypse sets forth the vision of Christ ruling over all the nations with the Sword of His Gospel. After the glorious revival of Pentecost in Acts 2, the entire New Testament is devoted to building and establishing a new culture, one that is under submission to Christ and His Word.

When revival comes, we are not aiming to have Kleenex’s stock rise due to all the tearful confessions (though repentance often is accompanied by such emotions, and there is no intrinsic problem with those feelings). But the proof is in the pudding–as the British, I think, say–and the fruit of true revival is true repentance, and that means turning away from sinful ordering of society, and submitting to a Scriptural ordering of society. That has implications for the individual, the family, the church, and communities large and small (towns, cities, and nations).

The problem with the common understanding of repentance and revival is that we are far too heavily influenced by some of the most unhealthy aspects of the revival-ism (of the likes of Charles Finney). So much so, that we have geared even our weekly worship services to cater to a sort of Protestant Confession booth, were we get a cathartic release every Sunday, only to continue on in the same sorts of worldly habits and thinking the rest of the week. What we truly need is a Christian reformation of culture. That is what we are really asking for when we plead with God to grant revival. This all is not to in any way impinge our praying for revival, but to enrich our understanding of what God does when he revives a people.

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Ben Zornes