THE GREAT REVIVAL?
by Robert Shook
The Scripture does not teach that a revival will sweep multitudes into the Kingdom of God. It teaches the opposite; that a world-wide spiritual delusion will sweep multitudes into the arms of anti-Christ.
The Lord paints the opposite picture as the one being painted by those looking for the great revival – and those claiming that it has already started. The scenario He laid out reveals that in the latter days great darkness will engulf the nations and the nominal church.
This darkness will continue to intensify. He said the world would be full of false prophets and false “Christs”{anointings}. He said that deception and sin among God’s people will become epidemic and as a result, the love of many {believers} shall wax cold. We shall be hated by all nations. Some of us will be betrayed by fellow believers and put to death. Some of us will be the ones who do the betraying. We will betray other believers to save our own skin and cause them to be killed.
Yet in the middle of all this chaos and delusion,
some believers will remain steadfast. These are the “elect.” It is these of whom Jesus speaks when He says that the “gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Even so, the days will become so evil that God will have to shorten them. For if He does not, even the elect will be deceived and all flesh would be destroyed!
How does a world-wide, end-time, “latter rain” revival and harvest fit into this picture? Not very well! The fact that God has to “shorten” the days to keep all flesh from being destroyed puts the lie to our cherished tradition.
The nations reject the testimony and kill the “witnesses” who are bearing it. They rejoice and throw a big party to celebrate the death of the “two” witnesses and the end of their testimony. [Revelation 11:3-10]
If that testimony had produced a world-wide “revival” and brought into the Kingdom a “great harvest” of sinners, then those who rejoiced over the death of the witness would be a minority, not the majority as the Word implies.
In another place Jesus asks His disciples a very shocking question; “when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” [Luke 18:8]
In other words, faith will be so rare, Jesus asks if there will be any left at all by the time He returns. Such a condition is certainly not the hallmark of a world-wide revival and harvest of souls.
Paul says there will be a great “falling away” not a great “revival.” He says God will send a “strong delusion” to all who love not the truth. [II. Thess. 2:3&11]
The teaching of a world-wide “revival” before the return of the Lord has left many sincere believers wide open for deception. Since we were taught to look for this revival and to be ready to participate in it when it comes, many have embraced the Brownsville phenomena, the Toronto Blessing, Promise Keepers and various other aberrations of the hour as the long awaited “revival” of the last days.
At best these movements are a deadly mixture of truth and error. Those who have not become entangled in them are still in danger of being stumbled, for when they realize that the revival they have been waiting for is not coming, many will be thrown into confusion and lose heart.
Those who believe signs, wonders and sensual spiritual experiences are proof of God’s presence are believing a lie. They are looking in the wrong direction! Both Jesus and John warned that the “spirit” that would produce the greatest “signs and wonders” in the latter days would be the False Prophet…Is anybody listening?
