Archival Series: May the “Northland Heart” Perpetuate

Introduction (March 2020): Bob Jones University (BJU) has been set on much the same course that ultimately ruined the former Northland Baptist Bible College. BJU alumni look on with sadness as Steve Pettit and Sam Horn have converted the university into something almost unrecognizable. It is difficult to gather how the current BJU administration believes they can succeed with essentially the same changes that brought down Northland. Near the time Northland closed its doors former faculty member Dr. Dana Everson wrote what amounted to Northland’s obituary. We believe his thoughts are applicable to what is fast becoming the “tragedy” of BJU.

After a while, one runs out of adjectives to describe the tragedy of Northland. This recent news of SBTS’s decision NOT to bring the school under its wings after all is yet another embarrassing blow to the ministry.* I was not expecting the Southern Baptist support to be an improvement anyway, but their rejection of accepting the school as a gift seems to affirm the hopelessness of bringing the college into financial and ministry solvency.

One grief is added to another for those of us who felt a deep loyalty to what the school stood for in its best years. Was the school ever perfect? None of us believed that. But the overall direction, humility, and sincere attempt to be Biblical were consistent qualities over most of its existence.

The rapid ruin of the school brings to mind images of the Hindenburg. The fact that the disaster might have been prevented or at least delayed had there been honesty and a willingness at the top level 4-5 years ago (cf. Jeroboam in 1 Kings 12:8) to hear counsel from scores of pastors, alumni, and staff brings to mind images of the Titanic.

I hope no one will respond by saying “well, fundamentalist/conservative Baptist ministries are failing everywhere because they have become irrelevant, old-fashioned, or legalistic.” Northland and most of its supporting churches had much life and refreshing ministry as evidence of its heart and faithfulness to the Scriptures. I saw this first hand for over 12 years and continue to see this in Northland alumni in our own local church and school ministry.

These images may seem overinflated to those watching Northland Baptist Bible College’s demise from the outside. However, Northland had a lot of wonderful ministry for most of its years as an independent Baptist college. Thousands of people who have been trained, inspired, and encouraged by the school’s ministry are now seemingly watching the last faint pulses of the “Northland Heart.”

Hopefully, alumni and former faculty and staff who have transplanted the “Northland Heart” into themselves, and into their ministries and will perpetuate that kind of Biblical attitude till the Lord returns.

“Lord, in your mercy please bless and protect other schools and their leadership, which are doing your work with integrity and a right heart!” 

No doubt there will be last-gasp attempts to salvage the ministry, but unless the LORD by some miracle sends wholesale revival, R.I.P. Northland Baptist Bible College.

Dr. Dana F. Everson
Originally publish April, 2015.

*NIU a Gift? Thanks, but No Thanks!

Previous articles by Dr. Everson, on the tragedy that has become NIU:

Questions Answered on the Changes at NIU: An Insider's Report, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4


For Dr. Everson’s philosophy of music please see Sound Roots, his dissertation in book form.

Current Reading on the Changing of BJU

BJU Lurches Further Into Evangelicalism
“This is Not Your Father’s BJU,”and Neither is BJU

A Revival M-O by Dr. Rick Flanders

“And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.  And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.  And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.  And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people.  And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”

(The Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 2, Verses 42 through 47)

When God sends revival to a congregation of the saints, there is a natural interest in prolonging the good effects of what has happened.  One of the most important factors in extending the blessings of the revival is for the church to adopt what could be called “a revival M-O.”  Probably one of the unfortunate aspects of my childhood was that I watched too much television.  For a few years, the networks were airing a surprising number of detective shows, mysteries and crime dramas, and I watched a lot of them.  Anyone who liked the crime shows would pick up some of the supposed police lingo, and one of the terms often used by television cops was the “m-o” of a perpetrator of crime.  These letters abbreviated a Latin-based term for the criminal’s usual way of doing things, his modus operandi (means of operating).  His m-o often led to a criminal’s apprehension as investigators came to recognize his usual method of doing what he did, and were able to connect crimes with crimes.  Churches that have experienced a revival need to adopt a revival m-o, a revival-based way of doing things, in order to move forward in the way of revived Christianity.  Often the lifelessness, carnality, worldliness, and barrenness of churches in an unrevived state are caused by operating in an unrevived way.  So going forward in ministry in the new way requires a new m-o.

On the great Day of Pentecost, the church at Jerusalem experienced revival.  Not only was that day the day of transition from the Old Covenant to the New, with the coming of the Holy Spirit to live in believers, it was a revival for the one hundred twenty who waited before God the ten days before the Spirit came.  They were “filled” with the Spirit (Acts 2:1-4), and not merely “sealed” with Him (see the significance and distinction between the two by studying Ephesians 1:12-14, 4:29-30, and 5:18).  Not only did He come to dwell within them as part of the dispensational change, He took control of their lives and began to empower their witness for Christ.  They experienced a revival.  And the revival continued as the church adopted a revival m-o, described for us in Acts 2:42-47.

So what should change in a church when revival comes, so that the community will be impacted with the Gospel in the days ahead?  Right away the renewed church should adopt as the “new normal” the following things that the Jerusalem church followed:

1.       Revival theology.  The record says that they “continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine” (according to Acts 2:42).  That is what was supposed to happen.  Jesus had told the apostles that, when they baptized new disciples, they were to “teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20).  This was “the apostles’ doctrine (teaching).”  A certain kind of doctrine goes along with revival, generates it, and moves it along.  A very serious obstacle to revival in a church can be the doctrine that is taught.  But the apostles’ doctrine was favorable to the faith that is behind revival, to expecting the supernatural involvement of God in church life (see verse 43), to the ministry of the Holy Spirit (note verses 4, 17-18, 33, and 38-39), and to bold evangelism (verse 40).  A revived church will get a steady diet of revival theology from the pulpit.  For more than a century now, many Bible-believing churches have been scared away from preaching on the Holy Spirit because of the false teaching on this subject that has been spread by the Pentecostals.  But heresy about a certain doctrine is not effectively challenged by avoiding the subject.  False teaching must be met with the truth.  And spiritual Christians have always known and taught the basic Bible truths about the Spirit’s ministry, about faith, about answered prayer, and about the victory of Christ over sin and Satan, and a church today that will go forward in the revival mode must have this kind of teaching.  Fatalistic preaching that says, for all practical purposes, that “what will be will be” and that whether we pray or believe or repent or not, God will do what He was going to do all along, quenches revival fires.  We must learn again the truth about abiding in Christ (John 15) and about drawing nigh to God (James 4) and let it permeate all we do and say.

2.       Prayer meetings.  They also continued in “prayers” (verse 42).  Pentecost was preceded by ten days of prayer.  And the prayer meetings continued afterward.  Prayer and prayer meetings played a big role in the life and work of the first church.  Find Peter and John going to the temple “at the hour of prayer” (in chapter 3).  Find the church gathered for prayer in the face of difficulty and persecution (in chapter 4).  Find them coming together for prayer again to heal and energize the Body for renewed evangelism after a trial of discord (in chapter 6).  Find them gathered in prayer meetings all over town in chapter 12 to get Simon Peter out of jail, and to save his life.  Prayer meetings were the means of the church getting things done, as Jesus taught them that they would be in Matthew 18:18-20.  Every revived church will be empowered, guided, driven, and regularly impacted by prayer meetings.  The pastors must learn to lead them in a spiritual and Biblical Matthew 18 way, and members must get into the habit of participating in them.  New Testament churches engage in prayer meetings.

3.       Healthy church life.  We find that the revived church at Jerusalem engaged in warm fellowship together (verse 42), observing the Lord’s Supper regularly (verses 42 and 46), bearing one another’s burdens (verses 44-45), and coming together often for church (verses 46-47).  Church is really good for Christians, if the church is on the right track (although we must heed the warning in First Corinthians 11:17-22). The church should pray and plan to connect the members’ lives and families together for ministry (read First Corinthians 12:12-27).

4.       Revival campaigns.  For a while, they had church every day: “continuing daily with one accord” (verse 46). Eventually the main meetings of Christians were held on Sundays (Acts 20:7), but sometimes, such as the days that followed Pentecost, they met every day.  Such protracted meetings provide believers an opportunity to exhort one another regularly and raise the spirituality of the congregation (read Hebrews 3:12-13 and 10:24-25).  So revived churches should plan to have special meetings to revive the revival.

5.       Fervent praise.  All the time, the practice of praising God was common when believers gathered together.  The church meetings were characterized by “gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people” (verses 46-47).  They were happy and exuberant meetings, not dull and formal.  The Holy Spirit “livens up church.”  “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:6).  Church meetings should always be orderly (First Corinthians 14:26, 32-33, 40) but they should also be alive (verses 23-25).  Attention must be given to encouraging praise and testimony when we come together, letting the Lord fill the room with joy and gratitude (Ephesians 5:19-20).

6.       True Christianity.  It was the real thing that these Christians practiced.  See how they loved each other in verses 44 through 47.  Tradition must give way to scriptural reality.

7.       Ongoing evangelism.  “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”  It was every day that the congregation took in new members who had just come to Christ.  The harvest of souls that began at Pentecost continued as the evangelization of the city (Acts 1:8) continued.  Both public and personal proclamation of the Gospel got the message of salvation to everyone in town (look up Acts 5:27-29 and 42).  A revived church must operate as an aggressively evangelistic church, with everybody witnessing and bringing people to Christ every day.

When God sends revival to a church, the people and their leaders should take a good look at how they have been doing things.  Ministry methods based mainly on public relations, hard work, manipulation, promotion, and worldly wisdom should be re-examined, and unspiritual philosophies and practices dropped.  The mission of the church must be adjusted to match Acts 1:8 and the methods book of Acts.  The people should learn to hold prayer meetings in order to cooperate with God and to get things done.  The preachers must examine their teaching in the light of revival truth.  The church should get ready for scriptural change, and be excited about it.  Everybody should re-dedicate his life to the service of Christ, and lean on the Holy Spirit for the power to spread the Gospel in the town and to minister to the needs of the saints.  Let’s have revival the way we are told in James 4:8-10, and plan to go forward on the higher plane to which we have been lifted!


Dr. Rick Flanders
Revival Ministries

The Omnipresent Eternal God by Clay Nuttall

We should have little patience with those who deliberately abuse the scriptures, particularly in central doctrines.  At the same time, innocent statements can also be dangerous, even if they were not intended to be harmful.  The Bible is about God, and His purpose in giving us the scriptures was to reveal Himself to us.  His character is displayed in marvelous detail, and we are obligated to avoid statements that might mislead our listeners.

 

Here is an example of a careless comment, even though it might be intended to express the danger of rejecting the grace of God in eternal salvation.  How often have you heard someone say that "to be lost is to be separated from God eternally?”  It is true that the unsaved person will be separated from God’s love and mercy, but separated from God eternally?  Really?  How could that be?  David observed, “If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.”  (Psalm 139:8b)  I remember, as a child, hearing an evangelist shout “The worst thing about hell is that God is not there!”  The truth is that the worst thing about hell is that God is there.  The careless student might say that the issue is not important.  The “cute” theologian may say that the place for the lost to dwell eternally is not hell, but is the Lake of Fire.  That is true, but it is not the point of this discussion.  After all, we are told “…and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.”  (Rev. 20:14a)  To say that God is not in hell or eternity is an attack on the omnipresence of God.

 

CHRISTIANITY LITE

 

Much of the doctrinal error suggested by people who only know “about” the Bible comes from an erroneous view of the doctrine of God.  Whole denominations have invented ideas about the Holy Spirit that fail to recognize that He is God the Spirit.  That includes, without exception, all the attributes of God that belong to Him.   The Holy Spirit is eternally all-present in the first, second, and third heavens.  Eternity is hard for us to conceive, but He is, has always been, and always will be totally God.

 

An example of the general misunderstanding of the Spirit surrounds the event of Pentecost.  All that the Bible says on the subject is true.  He did come at Pentecost in special presence and ministry.  To hear some people tell the story, you would think that the Spirit had never been there before and was surprised at Jerusalem the first time He saw it.  While that is farfetched, it is no more misguided than some of allegorical ideas that historical theology offers, or that experiential religious views press on the Bible.

 

The Spirit has always been omnipresent, so that is not the issue of Pentecost.  The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost has to do with the inception of His special ministry; and that ministry is clearly related to the Church, the Body of Christ, that came into existence on that day.  Some aspects of His ministry had never been exercised before, and the Scripture makes it plain that they will be used from Pentecost until that moment when the Church of Jesus Christ is caught away.  When the Church is removed, so will be that special ministry of the Spirit.  (I Thess. 4:13-18; II Thess. 2:1-12)  The Holy Spirit will still be all-present, but those special ministries He began at Pentecost will cease to function with men on earth.    

 

COME, HOLY SPIRIT

 

What do people mean when they sing “Come, Holy Spirit?”  He is already here, omnipresent. Why would we ask for something He already has given us, His marvelous presence?

 

He came once in special ministry for the age of the church, and He is not going to come like that again.  If we mean that we want Him to move in our midst with power and purity, bringing obedience to the saints, then that makes sense.  It isn’t healthy to confuse people, so we should say and sing only what we mean because the average Christian, who only knows “about” the Bible, may well think we mean something else.

 

Every true believer has the Holy Spirit indwelling his/her body.  He is already there. God meant for us to utilize His indwelling, teaching, guiding, convicting, empowering, etc.; and the fullness of the Spirit is simply yielding to the indwelling Spirit.  Since we have the power dwelling in us, what are you praying for?  God has already given us the answer, and we are not using it.  Why are people looking for something new or additional?

 

Our world is at the edge of disaster, on the verge of a world war, and our nation is more divided than it was even at the time of the Civil War.  One international or national spark could set off a war or cause fighting to erupt in our streets.  Some folks have their heads in the sand in denial; others are frightened half of their wits.  Some Christians believe that revival is the answer.

 

If you are praying for revival, what are you praying for?  Praying for others isn’t wrong, but if you don’t have revival and repentance of sin in your own heart, then don’t waste your time.  The greatest hindrance to revival is the need in each individual heart, and that is what each person should be paying attention to.  Many believers pray in vain for revival because they embrace doctrinal error and expect God to honor their prayer while they abuse the Scriptures and are openly disobedient to Him.  To take lightly the omnipresence of God, for instance, is a serious offence to Him.

 

IT IS NO CHRISTMAS PRESENT

 

Christmas time is one of those periods when people are habitually careless with Scripture.  You have already heard my diatribe on this issue, but it illustrates the problem with misleading people about the omnipresence of Christ.  We are told that Jesus came down to earth at Bethlehem.  While that is true, much of the description is misleading.  Where did we get the stuff saying that the angels wept at His departure because they would miss Him?  On the day of His birth He was still present everywhere.  While He as a babe, clothed by God in flesh, lay in a manger, He was still the Creator and present everywhere in the universe.  We see Him as a helpless babe, a man of little wealth, or a despised servant; He was still the all-present God.

 

It is no Christmas present to mislead people about the God/man even if ours are innocent comments.  We don’t need “cute” explanations when we come to questions about Christ in the flesh.  We don’t need to feel that we have to explain things that are not explained in the Bible. Those who are plagued by the “Lucifer Syndrome” want people to think that they know the answers to everything.  Dr. Bowman repeatedly said, “We always begin with what we most assuredly know.”  Then we accept the clear, plain statements of the text.  The mysteries of the Scripture remain embraced in the omniscience of God.  Our task is to remain confident in what we know, such as the attributes of our Eternal God.

 

 

Shepherd's Staff is prepared by Clay Nuttall, D. Min.

 

A communication service of Shepherd's Basic Care, for those committed to the authority and sufficiency of the Bible.  Shepherd's Basic Care is a ministry of information and encouragement to pastors, missionaries, and churches.  Write for information using the e-mail address shepherdstaff2@juno.com or at The Shepherd's Staff

PIECES OF REVIVAL by Dr. Rick Flanders

“And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.”

(Acts 8:1)

We learn a lot from the record of early Christian activity given to us in the Bible book named the Acts of the Apostles.  The divinely-inspired account of what the followers of Jesus did after He went back to heaven is organized around His parting words on the Mount of Olives.

“Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

(Acts 1:8)

As the story is told, we find the Holy Spirit coming upon the band of believers in chapter 2, and the evangelization of Jerusalem going forward from that chapter and continuing through chapter 7.  But the next phase of the plan given by Christ (witnessing in the rest of Judaea) has not been entered as we begin to read chapter 8.  The witnessing had not spread out from the city into “all Judea.”  But clearly God was (and is) serious about the Acts 1:8 program.  We see Him bringing severe persecution to the Jerusalem church so that the members were “scattered abroad” spreading the Gospel into Judaea and Samaria.  However the twelve apostles stayed in Jerusalem.  Chapter 8 records the progress of the Gospel in Samaria and in chapter 9 we see it moving into new parts of the province of Judaea.  Of course, in these chapters of Acts we are also reading about how the groundwork for the “uttermost part of the earth” phase of the plan was being laid with the conversions of the Ethiopian treasurer and of Saul the persecutor.  Oddly, as the Lord moved to cause His people to fulfill His plan, the apostles held back, and at least for a time, stayed in Jerusalem and stalled in the first stages of the program.  Somebody years ago noticed this phenomenon and said that the book could be titled “the inaction of the apostles”!  But the program went forward, as “they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word” (Acts 8:2).

Since those early days, one obstacle to the fulfilling of God’s plan for the evangelization of the world has been the tendency of His servants to pick and choose what parts of the plan to pursue, and what parts to neglect.  The plan is not unclear.  See it again in Acts 1:8, and follow how it was understood and implemented in the next chapters of the book of Acts.  We are to get the power to fulfill the daunting task of telling every person in the world the good news of salvation, not from our own energy and enthusiasm, or from well-devised and implemented human planning, but from the Spirit of God Who came to live in believers on the day of Pentecost.  In His power, we are thoroughly to evangelize our cities and our countries, forming churches with the converts in order to carry the Gospel to regions beyond.  Eventually the churches will send divinely-called individuals from their growing congregations to go to new places and spread the Gospel.  As believers are made by the preaching of the Gospel, and made into disciples by the work of the churches, and as churches are multiplied through the Acts 1:8 program, the message of Christ’s deliverance from man’s bondage to sin will get to every last person in the world!  In partnership with God, it can indeed be done, was accomplished in the first century, and will be fulfilled again just before the return of Christ to set up His Kingdom on earth.  The main reason it is not being done today is that God’s children, including many very serious ones, are adopting the program of the Lord in pieces, and not as a whole.

Revival, a term quite familiar to evangelical Christians, is the work of God to bring His people back to spiritual health.  God is willing to bring us back, to lift us up, to where we ought to be, when we are willing to humble ourselves and seek His face for the revival we need.  The goal, in a sense, is to get us back to the program of Acts 1:8.  In these desperate days, more and more earnest servants of the Lord are seeing more clearly what that program is, and how far we have come short of it.  But some of the best lights that shine among us in these dark days are still shining only on pieces of the plan, and partly for this reason, we are seeing very little of powerful revival in our Bible-believing churches.  Some say that “this” is the answer, and others are saying that “that” is the answer.  In a sense every one of these voices are right, but most of them are giving us only part of “the answer.”  We are being taught about revival in pieces, although it really doesn’t work in pieces, but must be implemented as a whole.

Looking at the book of Acts again, we can discern at least five visible elements in the fulfilling of the Acts 1:8 program.  Each of these is being emphasized by some of our preachers today:

1.       The need for the enduement of power from on high for the effective spread of the Gospel;

2.       The duty of Christians to evangelize the city, producing the growth of the church;

3.       The work of evangelism in widening circles of the surrounding areas, eventually covering the whole country and neighboring nations, and bringing about the establishment of new churches;

4.       The prosperity of the churches facilitating the progress of the Gospel to the ends of the earth, through the development and sending of missionaries to other parts; and always

5.       Prayer meetings to gain and sustain divine blessing in the churches in the work of evangelism.

Obviously there is not enough of any of these elements in the work of Christians today.  And strong voices are calling for a return to these factors in real New Testament religion.  Some are seeing the need for intensive prayer, including the practice of fasting and even spiritual warfare.  Some see powerful revival as the great need, with the focus on power for service.  Some see the need for revival with the focus on victory over sin and holy living.  Some see evangelism as the need, producing rapid church growth.  Some preach church-planting as the great need of the hour.  Some see missions and sending missionaries as the answer to the problems of the world.  Some say that the key to remedying the malaise of Christianity is purging the churches of worldliness and worldly methods and unscriptural associations.  Some see in prayer meetings the key to guiding and empowering the churches, and bringing them back to life.  And none of these revival-oriented preachers are wrong.  But some of them are giving us only pieces of the revival puzzle.

In a way, the situation in the fundamentalist world is very encouraging, since more than in the recent past, we have all the elements of real revival coming before us.  For years we rarely heard from the pulpit sermons on the invisible world, fasting and prayer, the power of the Holy Ghost, the New Testament church, hope for new awakenings, world-wide evangelization, how to conduct effective prayer meetings, church growth without compromise, or victory over the flesh and sin.  These are good days for hearing old revival themes proclaimed.  The problem is that too many of our leaders suffer from too narrow a vision.  To some, the whole thing is church-planting, but not revival prayer meetings.  To some, the great cause is the missionary cause, and not the old separation issue.  To some the main thing is evangelism, with little attention given to church-planting, Baptist distinctives, or the Holy Spirit.  To many the need of the day is knowing more about church growth, with less interest being given to church standards.  Each advocate can convince us for a while because on some level, each position is right, but each of them is looking at only a piece of the plan of God.

That plan (outlined by Jesus in Acts 1:8) includes turning without reservation to the Lord for the power of Spirit to fulfill the Great Commission.  Such a call to repentance will make us into bold witnesses of Jesus, with transformed lives and countenances to support our testimonies.  What an effect this will have on the world around us when we go out as an army of powerful witnesses for Christ!  The plan sends us into our cities to saturate the population with our message.  It forms us into churches dedicated to fulfill the rest of the plan.  Churches operating on the Acts 1:8 plan energize it through effective prayer meetings, and by doing battle with the enemy on their knees.  Believers revived in this way live happy and holy lives by the power of the cross and of the Spirit of Christ.  The movement will go forward across the map in projects to spread the Gospel and found new churches.  The book of Acts gives us the whole picture, and we need to keep the whole picture in mind.

Let the men that are teaching us to pray, keep a Biblical emphasis on evangelism.  Let the church-builders make sure that it is Jesus Who is building His church by the power of His Spirit.  Let those who inspire us to spread the Gospel also inspire us to exercise our faith to live in victory over sin and the world.  Let those who hold up the church as the center of God’s cause in the world, present it also as the means of getting the Gospel to the city, to the nation, and to the world.  Let missionary statesmen emphasize the connection of revival to missions.  Let all of God’s people seek His face for revival, and recognize that all the pieces of revival are essential to the whole.  Our need and our obligation at this time is to turn our hearts fully back to the God of the first Christians, and to settle for nothing less than the complete revival He intends to bring us!

Dr. Rick Flanders

 Revival Ministries

“Now Ye Are Clean”

“Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” 

(John 15:3-5) 

Many of those who are seeking spiritual revival today have been touched by revival fires in the past.

Dr. Rick Flanders

Our experience, for the better or for the worse, seems to affect the Christian’s attitudes about revival. Some are motivated and others perplexed by powerful spiritual events which they have experienced in a corporate way that seem connected to real revival. We talk about prayer meetings that lasted long into the night, about public confessions of sins, about deep emotion in meetings, and about planned sets of services that were extended beyond the original plans for many days. What actually were these experiences? Do we have light from the Bible about them? Were they real revivals, and if so, why have they not been repeated in some cases? What’s the real story here?

We can be grateful that we do have extensive light on revival matters from the words of the Lord Jesus Himself. The night before He died, He met with His disciples (at least the apostles and probably some more of His followers), first in the Upper Room and then on the walk to Gethsemane, and talked with them (and us) about life under the New Covenant. These exquisite and important words from our Lord are recorded in the book of John, chapters 13 through 17. And in them we find the answers to our questions.

In chapter 15, Jesus boils down what He was saying about the abundant life (the real Christian life, which is His gift to us) by giving us the metaphor of the vine and the branches. The key to that life from our perspective is to “abide” (“continue,” “remain”—verses 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11) in Him as a productive branch must stay connected to the life-giving vine. The “abide in Me” life is described as a life of continual dependence (verse 5) and absolute commitment (verses 9-10). Such a life is called friendship with Jesus (verses 13-16), and promises the experience of peace, love, joy, victory, and productivity. It is appropriately described by the Lord back in John 10:10 as having life “more abundantly” (beyond measure).

In verses 2 through 5 we find Jesus describing the processes by which a believer is brought into and up to such a productive life. He is purged in order to bring forth more fruit. Having been purged (the word for “clean” in verse 3 comes from the root of the word translated “purgeth” in verse 2), he is ready to “abide in Me” for the abundant life. This is the process we often see working in revivals. The Father purges branches of the Vine in order to bring them to a new level of productivity. Once purged (the Greek word means “cleansed”) they are “clean through the word” and are prepared to abide in Christ and bear His fruit. Often in revival efforts, the Word of God is preached to the saints, and purging happens (remember what we read in John 13:1-11 and Ephesians 5:25-27). Then they are ready to surrender for service and reproduction (it is clear from verse 16 that the “fruit” of John 15 is not the fruit of repentance, nor the fruit of the Spirit, nor the fruit of the heart, but rather the fruit of the Christian, as in John 4:34-36, Romans 1:13-15, and Philippians 4:15-17: others becoming Christians through our Spirit-empowered witness). What is going on among Christians in revival is purging and then abiding.

REVIVAL BEGINS WITH PURGING
There aren’t a lot of significant spiritual victories happening in Bible-believing churches today, and when anything does happen, we tend to think it is full-blown revival! Revival in scripture is the work of God in which He lifts His people up to the level of faith and commitment where He can bless them as He promised He would (James 4:8-10). In some sense therefore, any part of the revival process can be called “revival.” Reviving someone is a process, and therefore the term is relative. But God is going somewhere with us, and is taking us somewhere. When powerful things happen to start the process, it doesn’t mean that we “have arrived.” And God starts with purging.

This is true about revival, both personal and corporate, everywhere in the Bible. Take a look at Second Chronicles 7:14, Psalm 51:7-15, Malachi 3:1-3, Mark 1:1-8, and James 4:8-10. God’s people are confronted by God’s Word with their many sins. When they respond by repenting, they are purged. But it’s only the beginning! When a group of believers in a church or at a conference or in a youth rally or at a camp cooperate with the Spirit of God by turning from their sins, there is a significant and powerful and often public purging. However wonderful (and unusual) such a thing is, it is a means to a more wonderful end. The goal is the miraculous harvesting found in the book of Acts, which is the need of the world, and the goal of revival.

We can’t be filled with the Spirt until we deal with our sins. Purging is indeed Step #1, but it is not the final destination for seeking believers. Those great experiences of the past may well have been the beginning of greater things, and the fuller victory may have been somehow thwarted. One way revival is derailed is by Christians being content with the progress so far.

THE MAN WHO IS PURGED IS CLEAN
It is a sad fact that many and perhaps most Christians never really feel “clean.” But that night, Jesus made it clear that he wants His followers to get fully clean, and then to consider themselves clean. The words He used earlier were “clean every whit” (read John 13:4-11). The talk began with a visual lesson taught in the washing of the disciples’ feet. As He washed their feet, He told Peter, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me.” Partnership with Jesus (later called abiding in Him) must be preceded by purging. Then He assured them that a believer (one who has legal forgiveness before the justice of God by faith in the Lord Jesus) who confesses his sins (obtaining practical forgiveness before a holy God by the thorough confession according to First John 1) will be “clean every whit,” and ready to labor with Christ.

This is why He assured them in chapter 15 that they were “clean through the word.” He wants us to know that confession can “cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (First John 1:9). Contrite King David found that when he confessed his sins, he was made “whiter than snow” and had “a clean heart” before God (read Psalm 52 again). He wants you to feel clean. And the work of confessing your sins can bring any believer the cleansing he wants and needs.

PURGING MUST BE FOLLOWED BY ABIDING
But we must learn that purging, as we said, is Step #1 in the reviving of a saint or a church. After John 15:3, where the believer is told he is clean, the imperative verb is used in verse 4 to command him to abide in Christ. The truth is that the cleansed Christian will fall back into the same problems unless he learns to abide in Christ. The reason we sin at all is that we fail to abide in Christ. Study the words of First John 2:28 through the startling statement in 3:6. The way we receive eternal life is by coming to Jesus (John 6:35-37). Then the way we live for Him after we are saved is by abiding in Him (John 15:1-8). It is only a life of partnership with Jesus Christ, committed to doing His bidding and depending on Him for the power we need, that will give the Christian victory over himself and his sin. And if you just admit your failure and get clean, but go back to living a life of self-dependence, you will also go back to failure. So every purged believer must be taught to commit his life to follow Christ and depend on Him for victory, day after day.

Do not separate purging from abiding. This is also a truth for corporate revivals. When a group has come through a season (long or short, intense or less emotional) of thorough purging, they need immediately to enter the phase of Step #2. Now it is time for surrender and filling. Now we need, as the Jerusalem believers on the day of Pentecost, to partner with God for the work of evangelism. We must pray and we must begin to speak (review Acts 2:1-4, and then compare the revival at Pentecost with the next one recorded in Acts 4:29-33). Let the Lord fulfill in us His stated program of Acts 1:8, revival and evangelism. Abide in Him, and bear His fruit. Go all the way, and don’t get stuck in the process. Let Him cleanse you thoroughly and then unite with Him to reach the world!


Dr. Rick Flanders
Revival Ministries

A Day of Prayer & Mourning

Several voices are calling for a day of mourning and prayer for our nation. It has been suggested that we choose July 4^th of this year for that purpose. It would be a good contrast to what we normally see as a fun day with the family. One would have to note that security forces are saying that there are credible threats against us on that day.

A precedent for this is found in Proverbs 29:2 - When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. In my nearly eighty years of life, this world has moved further into moral self-destruction than in all the rest of history. Those who misunderstand the holiness of God ask …where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. One question will solve this: when, in the history of this world, has there been a worldwide push to support sodomy? This may not include every nation, but who would ever have expected the news to be filled with photos of crowds in the streets of so many countries calling for the spread of this wickedness? This has never happened before.

MY, AIN'T GOD MAD

Some years ago I wrote an article with this title. Now in our nation, when you add the murder of thousands of unborn children to the exceedingly wicked spread of sexual perversion, it spells judgment. The wicked laugh at such an idea, saying “We don’t even know if there is a God.” Some in our circles tell us it isn’t so bad. Others ridicule God’s justice and push their own "sloppy agape" to silence the voices of truth.

Have it your way. The fact is that God has to judge this nation because He is holy and all other things flow from His holiness. God will judge this nation. We don’t know just when or how, but we do know why. We do know the times and the seasons (I Thessalonians 5:1), and we do know how God has done this in the past. He has used wicked rulers, enemies, and even the weather. We do know that this world is cursed by sin, and …we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” (Romans 8:22) We do …know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. (II Timothy 3:1) A list of crimes against God is outlined in that text, and they continue to increase at breakneck speed.

HOW DO PEOPLE RESPOND?

The pessimist cries, “Woe is me, there is no help or hope! It’s all over; nothing we can do. Face it - we have lost.” The optimist cries, “It’s not that bad. We will recover. Focus on the positive, and ignore the negative.” The realist cries, “This is a critical hour. We are set for the judgment of God. God is still on the throne. In the end, we will win; and we have a responsibility in this hour. There is no time for a pity party. We are overcomers, and the battle is not done."

Actually, both the pessimist and the optimist have their heads in the sand. They both fail to engage the opportunity God has given us in this hour of trouble. As true believers, we were born for this hour. It is a great time to share the love of God and the gospel of Christ. The contrast is so great that, if we respond as God has directed, God will bless in many ways. This is a great hour for truth. The pessimist ignores it, and the optimist denies it. The realist steps up to take the challenge God has put before us. A holy God has called us to speak the truth in love. (Ephesians 4:15)

It is not loving to soft-pedal sin. It is not loving to cover or ignore wickedness. It is loving to tell the truth and make it plain and simple. We are not supposed to surrender or be silent. We need to see things as they are. This is not time for the silence or cowardice.

WHY SHOULD WE MOURN?

The truth is that our nation has crossed the line. Except for the grace of God and the possibility of a national revival, there is no coming back. The destruction of this country is sure, and the judgment of God has been sealed. This may be why mention of America is nowhere to be found in the scriptures. We should mourn because that judgment is near. In recent years our country has come close to civil war several times, and in the last year any one of these “flash points” could have set off fighting in the streets. We had a warning of outside destruction on 9/11; now the destruction is from within. Racism is on the rise, the elite in our capital violate our founding documents, the economy is set for collapse, and our military power has been neutered. One might add to this the current open hatred for biblical Christianity.

Of course there are small rays of light, such as the spirit of forgiveness in Charleston and some in leadership who speak out for righteousness. The entertainment church in general, however, has become virtually useless and doesn’t have enough power to blow the nose of flea. We should mourn because no nation that chose to kill its young and its old, embrace sodomy, or to turn its hand against God’s chosen people has ever continued.

If I had a flagpole, I would lower it to half-mast on the fourth of July in remembrance of the “death of a nation;” but I refuse to surrender, to soft pedal sin, to run and hide, to be silent. My only task is to speak as God speaks, love what God loves, and hate what God hates. The reason for this is that true believers are winners, not whiners. Read the Book: He wins, we win, they lose. PERIOD.

Shepherd's Staff is prepared by Clay Nuttall, D. Min

SHEPHERD'S STAFF – June, 2015

A communication service of Shepherd's Basic Care, for those committed to the authority and sufficiency of the Bible. Shepherd's Basic Care is a ministry of information and encouragement to pastors, missionaries, and churches. Write for information using the e-mail address, shepherdstaff2@juno.com

A Night in the ER

“Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.  Cleanse your hands; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.  Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

(James 4:8-10)

Dr. Rick Flanders

“Revive” is a term used in the Old Testament to describe the work of God by which He brings His people back to the place spiritually where He can bless them.  The prayer, “Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee?” (Psalm 85:6—note also Habakkuk 3:2), assumes that the people of God have gone away from Him through disobedience and that they must be brought back.  Now the word “revive” is translated here and in thirteen other places in the Old Testament from the root word for “life,” and it means to bring back to life, or health.  The word “quicken” used eleven times in Psalm 119 is translated from the same Hebrew word and has the same meaning as “revive.” 

The word “revive” is often used in the emergency room at the hospital.  This fact is instructive because a revival among God’s people (believers in Jesus Christ now in the New Testament age, as the nation of Israel was in Old Testament times) is very much like the reviving of a patient in the “e. r.”  Somebody is brought in who needs help.  He can’t help himself.  He is not breathing right or at all, his color is bad, he is unable to walk and get around, he may be experiencing pain, and he is obviously not well.  So the attendants must revive him.  He must be brought back to normal health and vitality.  And there are two important factors in the revival process.

VITAL SIGNS

First, the medical technicians must check his “vital signs.”  These are measurements of bodily functions which can be compared with accepted standards of health.  They check heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen levels, and blood readings.  When these numbers are determined, the cause of the difficulties may be more evident as they are compared with numbers that science has determined represent the normal rate or level in a healthy body.  Before you can revive somebody, you must know what “health” looks like.  And health or illness is described in terms of the numbers generated by monitoring devices.   If the patient’s heart-rate is too high, work must be done to bring it down.  If his blood-pressure is too low, the nurses and technicians will try to raise it.  At least some treatment would be administered to the patient so that improvement would be brought about in the vital signs.  The first step in reviving a person is finding out how to determine when he is well.  Vital signs set the norm that is to be achieved.

Spiritual revival also gravitates to norms.  What was to be normal and healthy spiritually for the Israelite nation under the “old covenant” is summed up in the book of Deuteronomy.  Chapters 27 and 28 indicate that when the people are obedient to the Law of Moses and faithful to Jehovah as the only true God, certain physical and material blessings will come their way.  But when they become disobedient or unfaithful to the Lord, their blessings would be turned into curses.  If and when they turn back to God with all their heart, he will forgive them and turn the curses back to blessings (chapters 29-30).  These were the Old Testament standards of spiritual health, and the vital signs of revival.

Believers since the coming of Christ have been living under the “new covenant.”  This arrangement was predicted in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36, and is expounded as the “new covenant” in Hebrews 8 through 10.  But the blessings and conditions of “new covenant” living are explained by the Lord Jesus Himself in the Upper Room Discourse, recorded in John 13 through 17.  Here we find the vital signs of New Testament Christianity.  Look for them as you study this long section of the book of John, which is the record of a talk Jesus gave to His disciples the night before He died.  He let them know that He was going away, but that His departure would inaugurate the New Testament Age, which would be very good for His people (John 14:1-27; John 16:5-15).  This era (the one in which we now live) would be characterized by His absence (at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us), His presence (in the Person of the Holy Spirit living within us as our Comforter), and by His imminent return for us.  There would be many phenomenal blessings for committed followers of His under these arrangements.  And we will experience them all when we “abide” in Him (John 15:1-16).  When we fail to abide in Christ, we wither; when we abide in Him, we prosper.  In this important passage of scripture, we can see the blessings Jesus taught us to expect under the new covenant:

1.     Amazing and direct answers to prayer (John 14:12-14; 15:16; and 16:23-24).

2.     Divine help in keeping the Lord’s commandments (John 14:15-17).

3.     Manifestations of the divine presence (John 14:18-23).

4.     Illumination of truth (John 14:24-26; and 16:12-14).

5.     Supernatural peace (John 14:27; 15:11; and 16:33).

6.     Spiritual success and reproduction (John 15:1-16).

7.     His love and His joy (John 15:9-11; and 16:20-22).

We also find several more characteristics of the healthy Christian life:

1.     Love and ministry to one another.

2.     Cleansing from our sins by the Lord.

3.     Purpose for our trials.

4.     Persecution.

And we can see all of these in the book of Acts, which records what actually happened with the Christians when Jesus went back to heaven.  They were healthy, as the vital signs indicated.  When our Christian lives reflect these blessings, we are healthy.  When they lack these things, something is wrong.  We are ill spiritually and in need of revival.

It is apparent from the books of John and Acts that most believers in our day need reviving, as do the great majority of churches.  The issue now is how we can be brought out of our sad condition.  And the Bible tells us exactly and plainly how this is done.

RESUSCITATION

James 4:1-10 is one of the clearest revival passages in the New Testament, and it reflects the principles of every Old Testament revival passage directed to the nation of Israel.  Revivals in all ages are based upon the same principles; only the results differ, based on what covenant is in force.  The principles of James 4 give Christians the promise that when we follow them, God “shall lift you up” (see verse 10).  We are guaranteed spiritual resuscitation if we will do certain things. 

Remember that revival in the New Testament is about restoring the abundant life described in John 13 through 17.  It is only indirectly about closing saloons, changing society, reducing crime, and seeing vast numbers of conversions.  We make a mistake if we try to define revival from history.  By one historical definition of the term, a revival is the advancement of religion at a certain period in a certain place.  This is the result of a widespread revival, in the Biblical sense.  When Christians live the abundant life, they see prayers answered, live lives worthy of their Lord, and win many to Jesus.  But the revival (Biblically speaking) happens in their own hearts before anything happens in the world around them.  Remember what Jesus said in John 7:37-39 about the effect of believers being filled with the Holy Spirit!  The Spirit gushes out from their innermost selves and touches the multitude around them.  We know that the revived believers of the first century were accused of turning “the world upside down” (Acts 17:1-7).  Revival is the spiritual resuscitation of Christians.

In James 4, the great disease among the churches was worldliness, with strife and prayerlessness and unanswered prayers as symptoms (verses 1 through 4).  This “friendship of the world” makes the Spirit within them jealous (verse 5).  They were supposed to love Him rather than the world (see First John 2:15-17, and compare it to this passage), but now they love the world in an adulterous affair by adopting the wicked philosophy of life that defines “the world” as evil.  The only cure for worldliness is the grace of God, accessed by humility (verse 6).  The scriptural principle upon which we can base our confidence that humbling ourselves before Him will bring grace from the Lord is “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”  This is a principle taught and illustrated throughout the Bible, and notably over and over again in the Second Book of Chronicles, in which we find another revival promise that is based on humility (7:14).  Human pride is the great obstacle to divine favor.  He is always offended by it.  But it is also true that God always gives grace when a man humbles himself (see startling illustrations of this in First Kings 21:25-29 and Second Chronicles 33).  Therefore the first step in getting revived by God is to humble ourselves before Him.

This humbling takes the form of submitting to God, according to verse 7.  Submitting to God is letting Him have His way about the issues that have come between oneself and Him.  Notice the change in resistance from verse 6 to verse 7.

“God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.  Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

A man moves from being proud and having God resisting him to being humble, getting grace, and finding himself successfully resisting the devil.  And it happens when he lets the Lord have His way (“Submit yourselves”). 

This new humility leads to a deliberate effort to seek God.  It is as if the backslider (carnal Christian) lost God somewhere and is setting out to find him.  So often God has said, “Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13—see also passages such as Deuteronomy 4:29 and Second Chronicles 15:2, where the same promise is made).  This is a revival promise, and is the same promise that the Lord made through the Apostle James.

“Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.  Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.  Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”

(Verses 8 through 10)

God is the Great Reviver of His people and He always brings them back to life and health when they humble themselves and seek His face.  When we truly seek to find the God of the Bible, Who is holy, we will always turn from our sins, ask for cleansing, and purify our divided hearts.  When God’s people do this, they will be revived.  Of course this is the promise God made to Solomon for Israel that we find in Second Chronicles 7:14.

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Now I must testify that I have seen this happen many times.  Revival involves two participants: God and man.  God has already made clear His intentions and desires.  When His wayward people finally admit their error and humbly seek His face, He always comes and revives them.  The two unite in heart and mind, and the believer goes on to live in unity with the will of the Ruler of the universe.  In John 15, Jesus calls this revived way of living abiding in Him.  Read His description and explanation of it in verses 5 through 11 of the chapter.  Whenever the people to whom I have brought the revival message have been willing to humble themselves and seek God’s face for the revival they need, it has come.  As in James 4, the reviving often or usually has come with weeping and mourning, but the humbling brings God’s very presence into the room.  I have seen a week of meetings change markedly, and a church changed in a lasting way as a result of a prayer meeting after a revival service when the divine conditions were met.  I have seen it again and again.  It is not revival preaching alone that brings a true revival, but a response in the people of genuine humility that gets them on their knees to seek the Lord.  This does bring revival.

The world is in need of seeing again the followers of Jesus Christ living the life of victory and joy and peace and power that He died and rose again to give us.  Christians in this sense are the hope of the world and certainly the light of the world.  But we are not there yet.  We need to spend a night in the e.r.  If our churches each had a revival night, there could me many remarkable changes achieved.  Let the truth about New Testament Christianity be preached, and let the people be urged to seek the Lord for that level of living in a prayer meeting that involves honest humility and earnest supplication.  And may our God revive us so that He can impact the world through His people again.

Dr. Rick Flanders

Revival Ministries

Previous Articles by Dr. Flanders include:

Repentance Facts

Books and articles have been written on the subject, and some of them leave people confused and unsettled. The debate in some arenas has done more harm than it has done good. Certainly we will be helped if we can discern clear facts about repentance from the Bible. And there are several which are both clear and even undeniable. Consider these:

Understanding Carl McIntire: Important Insights Into Our Present World

Both liberal and conservative churchmen found McIntire’s message and methods disturbing.  The “new evangelical” element rising in the conservative churches joined the liberal leaders of the mainline churches in denouncing, castigating, and even ridiculing him.  But now, with the passage of time, we can get a better perspective on the man and on what he was telling us, and he doesn’t look as crazy as he did to some back in his heyday.

The Wrong Change

When a pastor changes the church music to the popular “contemporary” style he should consider the seriousness of the decision he is making and ponder in the light of scriptural principle if he is making a mistake.  The error in such a change may be found in at least four missteps he is taking.