Implosion (22 page)

She was right.

In the Bible, the Lord gave the prophet Jonah a mission: to take a warning of judgment and the urgency of repentance to the people of Nineveh (in what was then Assyria and is now northern Iraq), lest they face God’s wrath and implode. Jonah, however, refused to obey. Instead, he tried to run away from the Lord by boarding a ship that was heading for Tarshish, in modern-day southern Spain.

What happened? God began to shake Jonah’s world. Let’s pick up the story in Jonah 1:4-6.

The L
ORD
hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up. Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep. So the captain approached him and said, “How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”

You probably know the rest of the story. Jonah was tossed overboard by the ship’s crew, was saved from drowning by being swallowed by a huge fish, and three days later was belched up onshore, shaken to his core but essentially unharmed. From there he hightailed it to Nineveh and carried out God’s instructions. He could have avoided a lot of pain and hardship if he had just obeyed God to begin with, but eventually he repented and did as God had told him. And because of his words, the people of Nineveh—one of the most notoriously evil cities of the day—repented as well.

The story turns out well, but not without a whole lot of shaking going on. Jonah—a man of God, a prophet of God, a teacher of God’s Word—was on the run from God. He was asleep to God’s voice and resistant to God’s will. How convicting is this: that a pagan ship captain had to shake a teacher of God’s Word and wake him up and beg him to pray for his salvation?

What about you? What mission has God given you? Are you obeying, or are you on the run from the Lord and asleep to his voice?

Because Jesus Christ Is Coming Back Soon, and Time Is Running Out

The Old Testament prophet Joel pleaded with the people of God to wake up. “Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,” he said. Why? “For the day of the L
ORD
is coming; surely it is near” (Joel 2:1).

How do we know Christ is coming back? Because the Bible says so repeatedly, and Jesus said so himself numerous times. Here’s one example: in Revelation 22:12, Jesus said, “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.” We are seeing the signs that the Bible says will precede Christ’s return. We are experiencing the birth pangs that Scripture foretold for the days before Jesus’ second coming. We are being shaken, as prophecy warned, because Jesus wants to wake us up. He wants us to be ready.

As we have already seen, we don’t know the day or the hour of the Rapture, but Jesus said we would know the season. Thus, we should be living as though his hand is on the doorknob, so to speak, ready to reenter human history at any moment. In Matthew 24:42, Jesus said, “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.” In the next verses, Jesus said, “For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will” (v. 44).

The world is not ready for Christ to return. People are lost. They don’t believe in the Resurrection, much less the Rapture. But the church is supposed to be the last best hope of any nation. The church is supposed to be ready and eager for the Lord to come, helping others wake up and get ready too. Yet how can the church be ready and be faithful in reaching the world with the gospel if she is asleep?

God’s Call to a Sleeping Church

In the book of Revelation, we read these words the Lord Jesus sent to the church in Sardis, a now-deserted city in modern-day Turkey:

I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.

REVELATION 3:1-3

Is it possible that Christ’s words describe you? Or your family? Or the church congregation that you attend or serve at or pastor? Perhaps you have “a name”—a reputation—that you are spiritually alive. Yet maybe that’s not how Jesus sees you. Maybe he sees you as dead inside. Maybe you’re not obeying him. Maybe you’re not worshiping him—not really—with your whole heart. Maybe you’re not sharing the gospel with your family or friends. Maybe you’re not making any disciples, here at home or in any other country. Maybe you’ve never made a single disciple. Maybe you don’t even know what it means to make a disciple, even though Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.”

Now, then, is the time to wake up, for we are steadily running out of time.

Bottom Line

The 9/11 attacks, like other historic shocks in recent years, stunned us. They shook us emotionally and financially and militarily. They drove Americans back to church by the millions. But did it last?

George Barna’s research shows that “after the 9/11 attacks, religious activity surged, but within two months, virtually every spiritual indicator available suggested that things were back to pre-attack levels.”
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In other words, the wake-up call came, and startled people jumped out of bed—but before long, they went back to sleep, back to business as usual.

Where are you at this moment? Are you awake or asleep? Are you running
with
Jesus, or are you running
from
him and from the mission he has for your life, like Jonah did?

God is shaking us because he loves us and he wants us to repent, because he wants us to know that Jesus Christ is the only one who can give us peace and security, because he has a mission for us, and because Jesus Christ is coming back sooner than most people think. Americans desperately need to wake up from the moral and spiritual slumber we are in. Most importantly, the church in America needs to wake up, purify herself, abide in Christ more faithfully and passionately than ever before, and once again offer families, communities, our nation, and the world the wonder-working power of Christ Jesus and his Holy Spirit.

For the church truly is America’s last best hope. If we don’t show the way back to the Lord, who will?

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A CAUSE FOR OPTIMISM: INSIDE AMERICA'S FIRST GREAT AWAKENING

The outlook may be bleak, but I don't believe it is hopeless. The U.S. is in dire straits, but we have not yet imploded.

Yes, the American business community is plagued by failure and bankruptcy, but there are glimmers of hope; we do see some true innovators and creative geniuses out there creating new industries and trying to revive old ones, and more are struggling to rise. Yes, the American political community is awash with corruption and ineptitude, but we also see notable exceptions; there actually are some political leaders out there—and more are emerging—who are holding fast to the Constitution and are willing to stand on the principles upon which this great country was founded, rather than selling out and giving up. Yes, the American church has been far too weak and ineffectual for far too long and thus seemingly irrelevant to helping Americans cope with—much less fix—the multiple crises we face. But not all is lost; some Americans are beginning to wake up to their need for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and some pastors and congregations are actually becoming more faithful to the Word of God and shining even more brightly, as lighthouses in a dark and troubled land. May their tribes increase.

It is critical that we as a nation seriously consider, understand, accept, and then discuss with our fellow Americans just how precarious our situation really is. We must not put our heads in the sand. Rather, we need to honestly confront the grave challenges before us. We must not allow ourselves to become paralyzed by fear or consumed by the thought that our fate is sealed and there are no steps we can take to turn this ship of state around and get it back on the right course.

The central question we now face is this: Will God in his mercy unleash a dramatic period of sweeping spiritual revival and moral renewal and reform that will fundamentally transform our nation and help us get back on the right track before it's too late?

While it is by no means guaranteed, I believe such a dramatic revival is possible. The prophet Habakkuk once prayed, “O L
ORD
, revive Your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy” (Habakkuk 3:2). If the Hebrew prophet chose to pray for revival, we should too.

The good news is that twice before in American history we have experienced periods of broad, deep national revival. In fact, these movements were so game-changing that both secular and Christian historians were compelled to call them the “Great Awakening” and the “Second Great Awakening.” Unfortunately, few Americans know the history of the two spiritual revivals that swept this land in the early- to mid-1700s (pre–Revolutionary War) and in the early- to mid-1800s (pre–Civil War). I certainly don't recall learning much of this history growing up. My parents didn't talk about it, as they hadn't been taught about it, and I don't recall learning any of this at church or in the public schools I attended.

I first began developing an interest in America's Great Awakenings while I was working as an advisor to Steve Forbes. As I set out to write this book, however, I decided to undertake a closer look at how God moved so powerfully to save our country in the past. I was absolutely fascinated and deeply encouraged by what I read. And as a result, I contend that it would be very valuable for all of us to review a bit of that history and then ask whether another such awakening could happen again.

The First Great Awakening (1700–1760s)

Let's begin with some context. Many of the pilgrims who came to this continent in the 1600s and 1700s were strong followers of Jesus Christ, eager to experience religious freedom from the state-run churches of Great Britain and the European continent and to build vibrant faith communities in the New World. But by no means were all those who came faithful believers. Some were businessmen, soldiers, government officials, bureaucrats, and tradesmen who came with little or no religious heritage or faith. These came to work, not to advance the Kingdom of God. Some who arrived here were convicts sent essentially to provide slave labor until others from Africa and the Caribbean were cruelly captured and enslaved and brought to the New World. In time, therefore, the British colonies became a hodgepodge of different religious beliefs.

Unfortunately, while there were some boldly evangelistic ministers and laypeople in the colonies, most believers who were here did little to preach the gospel or make disciples capable of spiritual reproduction—that is, making other disciples who could and would make still more disciples. In other words, the Christians who came to the colonies tended to remain in their churches and in their pews and made little spiritual impact on those around them.

To be sure, they faced enormous challenges. They were battling the exhaustion of building a new society from scratch. They faced disease and the death of many of their family members, friends, and loved ones. They often struggled against harsh weather conditions. They also faced political oppression from the British and skirmishes with the Native Americans (whom they called Indians). However, rather than see these as opportunities to boldly share the life-changing message of the gospel with the rest of the colonists, most believers instead retreated into the safety of their families and tight-knit communities.

Yet this inward and almost-isolationist approach by the believers had unintended consequences. By the late 1600s, various ministers throughout the colonies had begun to despair of the moral and spiritual condition of the people and the rising apathy toward the things of God. So they began preaching of the need for a purification of the church and a revival of interest in hearing and obeying the Word of God. They also began praying more diligently for God to do something that the pastors couldn't do on their own: turn increasingly sluggish and secular hearts and minds toward Christ.

To these ministers' horror, however, events in the colonies took a terrible turn for the worse, not the better. There came a sudden, furious, and devastating war with the Indians, which became known as King Philip's War—referring to Metacomet, the leader of the Native American forces, who was known to the British colonists as King Philip. Not many Americans today know much about it. Indeed, few have ever even heard of it. Yet it was this brutal conflict that helped shake the foundations of colonial American life to its core and set into motion a chain of events that would lead to an astounding outpouring of God's amazing grace.

Historian Jill Lepore, in her award-winning book
The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origin of American Identity
, described the conflict:

In 1675, Algonquian Indians all over southern New England rose up against the Puritan colonists with whom they had lived peacefully for several decades. The result was the bloodiest war in American history, a terrifying conflict in which the Puritans found themselves fighting with a cruelty they had thought only the natives were capable of. . . . In proportion to population, their short, vicious war inflicted greater casualties than any other war in American history. . . . By August 1676, when the severed head of the Wampanoag leader, King Philip, was displayed in Plymouth, thousands of Indian and English men, women, and children were dead. More than half of the new towns in New England had been wiped out, and the settlers' sense of themselves as civilized people of God had been deeply shaken.
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“The mood in New England following King Philip's War (1675-76) was bleak and raw,” noted historian Thomas S. Kidd in his intriguing book
The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America.
Kidd wrote of two pastors from the Northeast who thought it increasingly obvious that “we are a people in extream [sic] danger of perishing, in our own sins and under Gods Judgements [sic].” Moreover, the pastors feared that “‘all ordinary means' of promoting moral reformation had failed,” causing them to ask themselves whether “our degeneracy and apostasy may not prove . . . perpetual.”
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Desperate for the Lord's grace and mercy, a growing number of Protestant ministers began devoting themselves to prayer and fasting for a revival in the colonies. A growing number of laypeople began to pray for widespread revival as well. They asked God to have mercy on them and their neighbors and countrymen, and they patiently waited for the Lord to show his powerful hand. Yet what then began to unfold starting around 1700, building through the 1740s and lasting well into the 1760s, was more than even the most faithful prayer warriors had hoped for, dreamed of, or imagined. For suddenly there emerged two new dynamics.

• First, there entered into the drama preachers who proclaimed the gospel and taught the Scriptures with great care, passion, and conviction—and with a supernatural power few had seen or heard from their ministers before.

• The leaders of the Great Awakening—preachers like the American-born Jonathan Edwards and British-born missionaries such as George Whitefield, John Wesley, and Charles Wesley—tended to be well-educated men who had attended universities such as Yale and Oxford and were trained theologians. Yet they didn't allow their higher learning to create an intellectualism or an elitism about the Bible that would make it difficult for laypeople to understand them. They carefully studied the Scriptures. They were empowered by the Holy Spirit. They had demonstrable spiritual gifts of teaching, preaching, and evangelism. And they believed that the Word of God—not they personally—had the power to save souls, change lives, and alter nations.

• Second, there emerged in this drama millions of people who
wanted
to hear the gospel preached with great passion and conviction. These people realized that their hearts were full of sin and that they needed to repent and get right with God. A revival cannot take place if there is no one to preach the Word with God's power. But nor can it take place if no one will listen to God's Word and be transformed by it.

By the grace of God, there emerged in America at that time a historic convergence of preachers and hearers, and no one in the New World had ever seen such dramatic results.

The Rise of Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758)

Few men were more instrumental in the First Great Awakening than Jonathan Edwards. Edwards was born in East Windsor, Connecticut, in 1703, into a family of well-educated and well-respected pastors and theologians. Edwards's father was a pastor, and his mother's father was the Reverend Solomon Stoddard, a famous pastor who shepherded the nation's largest and most influential church, in Northampton, Massachusetts, about eighty miles from Boston, and who saw God bring a series of small revivals to his congregation that foreshadowed the revivals to come.
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Eventually, Edwards married Sarah Pierpont, the daughter of James Pierpont, a pastor and theologian who was the founder of Yale University.

Edwards himself was a brilliant young man. He graduated from high school at the age of thirteen and was immediately accepted to Yale. Four years later, in 1720, he graduated as the valedictorian of his class. After continuing his theological studies at Yale, he became an assistant pastor and understudy to his grandfather Stoddard. But it is unlikely that Edwards understood exactly what the Lord was going to teach him next.

“On Sunday evening, October 29 [1727], a terrible earthquake shook the homes of New Englanders, awakening many both physically and spiritually,” one historian noted. “This was followed by a long series of aftershocks, which kept the threat fresh in the minds of penitents. Immediately churches filled with seekers anxious to secure their salvation, lest they be caught unprepared for their own death.”
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Remarked one layperson who survived the earthquake, “God has by the late amazing Earth-quake layd open my neglect before me that I see no way to escape. But by fleeing to Christ for refuge. God in that hour Set all my Sins before me. When I was Shaking over the pit looking every moment when the earth would open her mouth and Swallow me up and then must I have been miserable for ever & for ever.”
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In towns throughout Massachusetts, churches continued to fill as people repented and gave their hearts to Christ.

The Lord used Reverend Stoddard to minister to people powerfully during this time, and his grandson was at his side to assist him. And three years before Stoddard went home to be with the Lord in 1729, the twenty-six-year-old Jonathan Edwards became senior pastor of Stoddard's church.

Though relatively young and inexperienced, Edwards could see God was shaking his town and his community, both literally and spiritually. He could see the hunger people had to find forgiveness and redemption and to grow closer to Christ. Most importantly, he firmly believed the Scriptures spoke clearly of God's ability and desire to save many souls and reverse a nation's drifting from the Lord. He believed God's words from 2 Chronicles 7:14, when the Lord declared, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land” (NIV). Edwards understood the similarities between what was going on around him and the spiritual revivals that occurred in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, when the entire nation of Israel listened to the Word of God and repented of their sins. So Edwards began to pray that God would use him to effect great change, and he began to preach with the faith that the Lord would hear and answer his prayer.