Reformation and Revival
At times men think of the two words, reformation and revival as standing in contrast one to the other, but this is a mistake. Both words are related to the word restore.Reformation refers to a restoration to pure doctrine; revival refers to a restoration in the Christian’s life. Reformation speaks of a return to the teachings of Scripture; revival speaks of a life brought into its proper relationship to the Holy Spirit.
The Great moments of church history have come when these two restorations have simultaneously come into action so that the church has returned to pure doctrine and the lives of the Christians in the church have known the power of the Holy Spirit. There cannot be true revival unless there has been reformation; and reformation is not complete without revival.
Such a combination of reformation and revival would be revolutionary in our day—revolutionary in our individual lives as Christians, revolutionary not only in reference to the liberal church but constructively revolutionary in the evangelical, orthodox church as well.
May we be those who know the reality of both reformation and revival, so that this poor dark world may have an exhibition of a portion of the church returned to both pure doctrine and Spirit-filled life.
-Francis Schaffer, Death in the City-
Labels: Church History, doctrine, Holiness
posted by Doug E. @ 9:54 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Thanks for posting this. How true, we need both revival and reformation. Unfortunately from what I have observed is that churches have a tendency to focus on one or the other, but rarely both. In fact one church in our area boasts of a sweeping “revival of prayer and praise” in churches across America. Oh really? What about the truth? It is interesting that this church also boasts of its value of doctrinal diversity; they embrace people from various doctrinal positions, whether charismatic or Roman Catholic. They boast of promoting unity through this philosophy, yet I believe that any church that follows this philosophy is only kidding itself.
But I have also been in churches that embraced solid doctrine, yet they were essentially dead in reference to their heartfelt devotion to God. May God revive us both in our heartfelt zeal and devotion and our doctrinal belief!
Doug,
Where will you celebrate Reformation Sunday on October 28?
RevK
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