Spiritual Declension: Lessons From Early 18th Century Particular Baptists, Part 6: Negative Attitudes Toward The Evangelical Revival: Reason #2 (b)
Posted by jsmitheasley on January 30, 2009
In the last post I commented on the fact that proper and spiritual emotions can sometimes be raised very high and that this is especially the case during times of revival and spiritual awakening. I want to close out this series by giving some examples from church history and making some final observations.
Let’s start with the matter of godly fear. Listen to this description that Robert Murray McCheyne gives with reference to the revival that occurred in his church in 1839. This was given in a document in which he answers questions from the leadership of his denomination about what had taken place. McCheyne writes,
It pleased God at that time to bring an awfully solemn sense of divine things over the minds of men. It was indeed the day of our merciful visitation…. At that time there were many seasons of remarkable solemnity, when the house of God literally became a ‘Bochim’ and place of weepers…. I have myself frequently seen the preaching of the word attended with so much power, and eternal things brought so near, that the feelings of the people could not be restrained. I have observed at such times an awful and breathless stillness pervading the assembly; each hearer bent forward in the posture of rapt attention…. Again at such a time, I have heard a half-suppressed sigh rising from many a heart and have seen many bathed with tears. At other times I have heard loud sobbing in many parts of the church, while a deep solemnity pervaded the whole audience.[1]
This is reverence and godly fear to an unusually high degree. Times of revival are also marked by extraordinary transports of joy. Quoting Jonathan Edwards with reference to the revival that occurred in 1734-35: “The town was never so full of joy … joy in families on account of salvation being brought to them, parents rejoicing over their children as new born, and husbands over their wives, and wives over their husbands.”[2] He could say both that the town was never so full of joy or so full of distress. Edwards could be called the great theologian of revival. He experienced that wonderful revival that occurred in New England and in the colonies at the same time the revival was occurring in England. With his penetrating mind, he wrote extensively about it. He found it necessary at times to defend the revival against those who criticized it because of the expressions of emotion that took place. He carefully pointed out, on the one hand, that much emotion is no true sign of a genuine work of the Spirit of God. On the other hand, we should not be surprised if during an outpouring of the Spirit on the church spiritual affections are raised very high.
Think about this. If a pastor is preaching on the wrath of God and about hell, what emotion ought that to produce? Surely if the Spirit of God has enabled us to believe these things to some degree, we ought to feel the emotions of fear and alarm. Now would it not be true then that the more we are convinced of their truth, and the more the Spirit makes these truths real to our hearts, the more we will feel those emotions of fear and alarm? What if you were actually standing right now over the pit of hell looking down into the fiery furnace of God’s wrath? Don’t you think you might begin to tremble and perhaps even to cry out in fear? I think you would, and to do so would only be reasonable. Accordingly, when the Holy Spirit enables men to apprehend with the eyes of the soul the horrors of hell with unusual clarity, it’s only reasonable that there will be corresponding emotions produced in their hearts. Furthermore, the greater the influence of the Spirit in causing men to apprehend and feel the power of these truths, the greater will tend to be the measure of fear that men feel in their souls and the greater will tend to be the expressions of fear that may come forth from their mouths, or that may even be evident in the trembling of their bodily frame. The same is true with joy. The Spirit works as the Spirit of adoption in the heart of the Christian. It is the Spirit who gives us something of a felt sense of our adopted status before God as we are enabled to lay firm hold on the promises of the gospel and as He enables us to see the evidences of his work of grace set forth in Scripture in our own hearts and lives. The more of this felt sense of peace and assurance, it’s only natural and reasonable that the more joy. So when the Spirit comes with power bearing witness with our Spirits through the word that we are the children of God—when He takes the things of Christ and shows them to us with great clarity, force and power, we should not be surprised when the affections of joy and exuberance are raised to an unusually high degree. This is exactly what happens in a time of revival to a lot of people at the same period of time. The same can happen in the life of any individual Christian at any time.
Edwards, in his A Treatise on Religious Affections, takes as his key text 1 Peter 1:8: “Whom having not seen, you love; in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Do we know anything of what Peter was speaking of there? Not just joy, but “joy unspeakable and full of glory”? Let me quote Edwards. He has in mind here those who sought to debunk the revival because of the emotions that were sometimes evident. There were Michals (King David’s wife who spurned his emotional exuberance) around in his day. Edwards acknowledges that sometimes there were excesses and false carnal emotions. He notes that emotion itself is not a certain sign of true grace. But consider what else he says:
Some are ready to condemn all high affections: if persons seem to have their religious affections raised to an extraordinary pitch, they are prejudiced against them, and determine that they are delusions, without further inquiry. But, if, as before proved, true religion lies very much in religious affections, then it follows, that if there be a great deal of true religion, there will be great religious affections; if true religion in the hearts of men be raised to great height, divine and holy affections will be raised to a great height…. Love is an affection; but will any Christian say, men ought not to love God and Jesus Christ to a high degree? And will any say, we ought to not have a very great hatred of sin, and a very deep sorrow for it? Or that we ought not to exercise a high degree of gratitude to God, for the mercies we receive of him, and the great things he has done for the salvation of fallen men, or that we should not have very great and strong desires after God and holiness? Is there any who will profess, that his affections in religion are great enough?[3]
In another place he writes,
Though there are false affections in religion, and in some respects raised high; yet undoubtedly there are also true, holy, and solid affections; and the higher these are raised the better…. If we take Scripture for our rule, then the greater and higher our exercises of love to God, delight and complacency in him, desires and longings after him, delight in his children, love to mankind, brokenness of heart, abhorrence of sin, and self-abhorrence for it; the more we have of the peace of God which passeth all understanding, and joy in the Holy Ghost, unspeakable and full of glory, the higher our admiring thoughts of God, exulting and glorying in him; so much the higher is Christ’s religion, or that virtue which he and his apostles taught, raised in the soul.[4]
This is not some kind of crazed charismatic lunatic saying these things. This is the great sober-minded reformed preacher and theologian Jonathan Edwards. We love the Puritans and we like to extol the Puritans but do we really know the Puritans? Do we really know God like the Puritans did? Let me give an example from the life of the well-known Puritan John Flavel. He was on a journey one day and this is what happened,
Thus going on his way his thoughts began to swell and rise higher and higher like the waters of Ezekiel’s vision, till at last they became like an overwhelming flood. Such was the intention of his mind, such the ravishing tastes of heavenly joys, and such the full assurance of his interest therein, that he utterly lost all sight and sense of the world and all the concerns thereof, and for some hours he knew no more where he was than it had been in a deep sleep upon his bed. Arriving n great exhaustion at a certain spring he sat down and washed, earnestly desiring that if it was God’s pleasure that this might be his parting-place from the world. Death had the most amiable face in his eyes that ever he beheld, except the face of Jesus Christ, which made it so, and he does not remember though he believed himself dying, that he ever thought of his dear wife and children or any other earthly concernment. On reaching his Inn the influence still continued, banishing sleep, still the joy of the Lord overflowed him and he seemed to be an inhabitant of the Other world. He many years after called that day one of the days of heaven, and professed that he understood more of the life of heaven by it than by all the books he ever read.[5]
Many other examples like this could be given from the lives of our Reformed and Puritan forefathers. Take the time to read the experiences of Jonathan Edwards’ wife Sarah.[6] She was by no means an emotionally unstable, flighty woman. After recounting some of the experiences she had, Jonathan, her husband, the great scholar, the greatest intellect America has ever produced, didn’t think his wife was becoming a religious fanatic. If her brain was becoming confused, he wrote, “Let my brain be evermore possessed of that happy distemper.” He added, “I pray God that the world of mankind be all seized with” the same experience.[7]
Here again is my point: we must beware of despising the expression of emotion in the worship of God. We must be careful and discerning. But if it is emotion produced by truth properly understood and powerfully felt we must not despise it out of hand. This was Michal’s great sin for which she was cursed with barrenness. Michal was one with those who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. I’m afraid there may be many churchgoing people who are just like her. I’m afraid there may be some in our churches. They have the form; right forms in worship, right forms in doctrine; all of which are very important; but where’s the power? Where’s the joy? Where’s the love? Where’s the fear and reverence? Where’s the godly sorrow over sin? Where’s the joyful exuberance over sins forgiven? Where’s the delight in God and his service? Moreover, sadly, like Michal, such people, often despise and resist any expressions of emotion. They are sticklers for dignity, proper decorum, formality, but they seem to know nothing of the fire of the Spirit. The Welsh Reformed Baptist Geoff Thomas comments on this. He says,
They are unmoved by (the Spirit’s) life giving power, and they never seem to get excited about Jesus Christ. They could never sincerely sing, All that thrills my soul is Jesus/He is more than life to me…. This is the way they want it. They may have a very fine doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and they may be very conservative in their beliefs, but they are just so staid, cold and lifeless in their Christianity. They are afraid of those awakenings that are described for us in the Bible and in the pages of church history. Evangelical Christians in the Great Awakening of the eighteenth century were often called ‘enthusiasts’, but no one in their right mind could accuse their modern counterparts of enthusiasm.[8]
What about us? What about me? Could anyone ever accuse us of being enthusiasts? The emotions can be abused, and emotion alone is no certain evidence that something is from God. But let us also remember as Edwards so well puts it, “Holy affections do not only necessarily belong to true religion but are a very great part of it….Let it be considered that they who have but little religious affection have certainly but little religion. And they who condemn others for their religious affections, and have none themselves, have no religion.”[9]
Jeffery Smith, Pastor
Covenant Reformed Baptist Church
Easley, South Carolina
[1] Robert Murray M’Cheyne, “Evidence On Revivals” in Memoirs and Remains of R. M. M’Cheyne, ed. Andrew Bonar (1844; reprint, Carlisle PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1987), 546-548.
[2] Jonathan Edwards, A Narrative of Surprising Conversions, in Works, 1:348.
[3] Edwards, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, in Works, 1:245.
[4] Edwards, Thoughts on the Revival of Religion in New England, in Works, 1:367.
[5] Lloyd-Jones, “Knowledge-False and True” in The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors, 38-39. Quote taken by Lloyd-Jones from Flavel’s Treatise of the Soul of Man.
[6] Edwards, Works, Vol. 1, lxii-lxx.
[7] Ibid. lxix.
[8] Geoff Thomas, Philip and the Revival in Samaria (Carlisle PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 2005), 82-83.
[9] Religious Affections. 238,244.
January 30th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Jeff,
Thank you for the heart-felt post. I can feel the emotion flowing from your writing on emotions! Why should there be less emotion in the worship of God than there will be at the Superbowl this week? I never knew God could be enjoyed until He saved me and I actually enjoyed Him. His person, His gracious and wonderful redemtion in Jesus Christ are subjects that must be brought by God’s Spirit from our minds to our hearts! Such things ought to thrill those who have been given hearts of flesh. For example, they should excite us and move us to break forth with energy in the singing of His praises! “I believed, therefore I speak.” May it be we believe and therefore we sing!
May I walk out on thin ice and speak about another possible outlet for emotion in worship? If one is so filled with a sense of God’s grace that thier hands should go up in the air to praise God, should I get all critical as if I am ablt to see thier hearts? Or is there room to rejoice with those who rejoice? I have been critical of such things and preach to myself here. Yet, my hands go up and sweat pours off my face in the preaching of the word… why allow emotion in the pulpit, but restrict it in the pew. Does that mean I let a brother go crazy falling all over the place and acting like one demon possessed? No it does not. However, I do hope and pray my own heart and the heart of God’s people here will know more of the emotional and Holy movements of God’s Spirit within causing us to “feel the scriptures” as McCheyne once encouraged a young person in a letter he wrote:
“You read your Bible regularly, of course; but do try and understand it, and still more to feel it.”
Another idea… Where are the sweat-producing, emotionally filled prayer meetings and private prayers for the sake of souls on the brink of plunging into hell? Why am I not more like Jacob, willing to wrestle with God with all my heart, soul mind and strength until he blesses the unsaved with salvation? Where are the fervent prayers that are offered up to God through Christ that others might, as Brainerd said, “know and enjoy the God I know and enjoy?”
Oh, how our young people need to know our Lord is alive and well and that when we are in His presence and walking with Him like Peter said… “It is good for us to be here.” Is that communicated to them when they see us singing on Sundays?
Thanks again. Sorry for the long comment, but the Lord is moving in me and our people over these things. May He “Who has the words of eternal life” guide us and bless us as week seek to worship Him in “spirit and in truth.”
Your Brother in Christ,
Adam Davies
Trinity Baptist Church
Catskill, NY 12414
(518) 678-3133
January 30th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
I’ve always found it odd how some RBs frown upon certain expressions of joy in worship, like the lifting up of hands. It seems to me that an imbalance has become prevelant among us because of some of the extremes we commonly see in Pentacostal churches. The question is, have we thrown out expressions of joy in worship that are bibilical because some of our brethren in other circles have erred in this matter?
Balance is the key. May Stoicism never be a mark of RB worship!
January 30th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
I do not say this in any attempt to contradict the above excellent blog by our brother Jeff. However, I have seen a trap that exists in true movings of the Spirit, and I speak from experience. These times of revival — even if they are only in our own soul — are so powerful and wonderful that we want them again — and again — and again.
But God, in His providence, is often not pleased to send another time of great spiritual awakening and emotion. There can be a profound sense of disappointment in our soul, when the sermon did not move us as the previous one did, or the hymn/song did not lift us high with that same sense of excitement that it had done previously.
Because of our remaining corruption, the temptation then is to try and “do something” to manufacture what we felt before. Maybe by methodology, maybe by “trying harder” – maybe even in finding fault with the worship service itself, whatever.
I have been a Christian for over 40 years. There have been some tremendous times of spiritual enlightenment in my life — which came — and then went, but the true experiences, given by God, left profound impressions upon me for good. However, the majority of my spiritual life has been the experience of “plodding” along, and even of suffering through trials. True religious experience, if it is from God, is not duplicatible, nor can it be manufactured. All we can do is faithfully attend to the means He has given, praise Him for those times His Holy Spirit powerfully uses those means, and be satisfied “to plod” along in truth — for most likely the majority of our time, knowing that we grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ in those times too.
I do have a problem with equating measuring “attendance” with “God’s blessing”. Bunyan talks about how easy it is to be a Christian when “religion goes on in her silver slippers”. If we look at what is known as Christianity at large, we will see that often growth is no measure of God’s true blessings, otherwise, Rick Warren is the most blessed pastor in our day!
Regards,
Steve Marquedant
January 30th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Adam,
I think we are of kindred heart, brother.
G.C.
I agree brother that there is a danger of swinging the pendulum to an opposite extreme as a reaction against the excesses and errors of pentecostalism. I’m not sure I would say this is true of RB’s in general, however I fear I have at times been guilty of this. My blog is preaching to myself as much as any.
Steve,
I think your comments are a very helpful balance and I generally agree with you brother. Thank you for what I think are needed reminders. We must never fall into the “Finney” trap of revival or bust. This will lead to instability and spiritual depression. Finney believed that there were just two alternatives…we are either having revival or we are in sin. This is wrong. We must always distinguish between the extraordinary and the ordinary. We must not despise the ordinary workings of God’s Spirit in the church and in our hearts, while praying to know more and longing for times of refreshing, the extraordinary. Have you read Iain Murray’s book “Pentecost Today: The Biblical Basis for Understanding Revival”? I think he does an excellent job setting forth the balance of which you speak. Thanks again for these reminders of a very real danger that we must beware of.
Every Blessing to you all,
Jeff Smith