Revival and Salvation (Part 1)

Your congenial editor has just concluded reading an interesting book titled Revival by Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981). He had written some excellent material in another book, The Sermon on the Mount. He ministered in London at the Westminster Chapel for 30 years and was a Welsh Congregationalist. Occasionally he wrote comments that many would not only agree with but perhaps even cheer, such as those below:

Take the increase in the element of entertainment in connection with religious work. Have you observed it? And have you noticed the items in the programme [sic]? …I am reminded more of a variety performance than anything else (62). … This is the flesh, this is man, this is carnal (63). Let us beware of this subtle temptation to entertain the people, thinking that thereby we can attract them and save them… (63).

…there was forty minutes of singing of various types and kinds. Xylophone solos, organ solos, people singing, all forty minutes of it. There was a short prayer, no Scripture reading at all, and then a brief time for the message. It is not like that in times of revival, believe me (63-64).

When the church is not in revival there is an emphasis upon choirs, and not merely choirs, but paid choirs, and paid quartets and soloists in the choirs. And the congregation just sits, or stands and listens, and the choir even does the singing for them (77).

The Church as a mere organisation [sic] can never compete with the world. She is beaten at the very beginning. It was pathetic to see how the Church tried to do it, how she tried to bring things in from the world. She introduced dramatics, and this and that and the other, but it has not worked (287).

Martyn Lloyd-Jones was, however, an unapologetic Calvinist, and that doctrine shows up at various times in this book. His view of the sovereignty of God leads him to the conclusion that God decides whom He will save— and that it has nothing to do with how human beings respond. Below are a few comments.

It means that our salvation is entirely, and altogether, by the grace of God. It is not in any sense dependent on anything in us.

You do not understand. Of course you do not! Your mind is not only small, but it is sinful, it is twisted, it is perverted, it is selfish and self-centered.

No, we have not chosen him [sic], he [sic] has chosen us (234).

According to Calvinists, nothing we do has anything to do with our salvation. God chooses us; we don't have the ability to choose Him because of our perverted minds. Phooey! We were created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27). Committing sin put us out of fellowship with Him; it did not twist logic or the ability to think. Why would God tell Israel, "Come now and let us reason together"—if their intelligence were so perverted (Isa. 1:18)? And why has Lloyd-Jones written this book? God has already made all the decisions regarding our salvation, according to him.

Cain and Abel gave offerings to God. Abel's was accepted (because he offered it by faith). Cain's was rejected. God asked him why his countenance had fallen. He consoles him, "If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it" (Gen. 4:7). Notice that God did not tell him that his mind was small, twisted, sinful, and perverted. He reasoned with him. Furthermore, God did not tell him that he was foreordained to be lost. It is clear that Cain had a choice as to what direction he would choose to walk in. But Calvinism is not the subject of this article, although the reader should keep in mind Martyn's position on the matter.

Please permit a personal aside. I don't remember precisely how I came in possession of this book, which was written in 1987, but on the inside front page it states that it is from the library of Tom Holland, who was well-known for decades among brethren—especially in Tennessee. I took an intensive one-week course from him at Freed-Hardeman College in the early '70s. The study concerned various aspects of preaching. Some will probably say, "So, what went wrong?" Or, "Why didn't it take?" Any failures were not his.

I met him again three decades later when we both spoke on a lectureship. He commented that he enjoyed my presentation, saying, "It was rich." Coming from him, that was quite a compliment, but he may have been simply being nice (since I was never invited back to speak there again). Lloyd-Jones' book may have been given to me by a preaching brother who gave me a few hundred other volumes, also.

Revival

The author of Revival does not (by the title) refer to an increase of enthusiasm among "Christians." (God determines when revival will occur.) He means that the Holy Spirit acts upon people directly. Although he decries "the Church being divided," he does not seem to have any problem with denominationalism or the Holy Spirit falling on various religious groups. He claims that in 1859 there was a great period of revival—"first in the United States of America, and afterwards in Northern Ireland, in Wales and parts of Scotland" (7).

He often mentions John Wesley (founder of Methodism), whom (he says) had "the experience he had in Aldergate Street, when his heart was 'strangely warmed' by the Holy Spirit…" (36). A similar thing had happened to Whitefield (another founder of Methodism).

Another "evangelist" in Wales was Daniel Rowland, who, while conducting a communion service suddenly experienced the Holy Spirit coming upon him. This was so powerful that a revival broke out in Wales (36). In fact, one person called Rowland "the greatest preacher since the apostles" (36).

The problem with believing all these revival stories is that they occur with people who are not preaching the truth. How do we know that? In Rowland's case, the "Spirit" came upon him after he heard a man named Griffith Jones. The author claims that Rowland was "convinced and convicted of the truth of justification by faith only" (36, cf. 86). The obvious problem here is, of course, that statement is not true.

Are we saved and justified by faith? Absolutely. But no verse of Scripture teaches "faith only." In fact, James 2:24 teaches the exact opposite: "You see that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only." Compare the two sentences:

"the truth of justification by faith only"

"a man is justified by works, and not by faith only"

Now which of those is accurate—the statement made by Lloyd-Jones or the one made by the Lord's brother, James? Any earnest student of the Word would feel compelled to agree with the inspired writer. One wonders how anyone as intelligent as Martyn Lloyd-Jones was could not see this contradiction. Furthermore, how can the Holy Spirit be powerfully impacting a preacher like Rowland when he is not teaching the truth about salvation? To ask the question is to answer it. The "Spirit" seems to come upon all people—regardless of what they believe, as is specified in the following quotes.

You will find this in the lives of people like Jonathan Edwards and, as I constantly point out, of Christians of all shades of theological opinion. You find it in Whitefield, in Wesley; you find it in the lives of men like Finney or Moody, and in the lives of many saints (85).

It happened with that great man called John Tauler, who was actually a priest and a preacher in the Roman Catholic Church. The Spirit of God came upon him and it lead [sic] to a revival in his area. It was the same thing exactly (98).

So, the Holy Spirit apparently does not require that someone be preaching the truth. He will come upon a Congregationalist theologian (Edwards), Methodists (Whitefield and Wesley), a Presbyterian (Finney), Baptists (Moody), and Catholics (John Tauler). How broad-minded the Holy Spirit is! Does He endorse Calvinism, the sprinkling of infants, and the papacy? Hmm.

Before we get to the main point (which will probably not occur until next week's article), we point out again that the revival Lloyd-Jones is talking about is one of a miraculous nature. It allegedly comes from God, and it involves an experience. He cites an old Puritan on a journey sitting by a well, tasting some of the water in it to accompany the bread he had in his pocket for a meal.

And there, suddenly, the Lord Jesus Christ came to him, and gave him manifestations of himself. And this man said that he learnt [sic] more during that one brief experience than he had learned in fifty years of reading, and studying, and of meditation (85).

The author goes so far as to say, "…if you have never felt anything, if you have never had any experience, I say it is not faith, it is mere intellectual assent, and intellectual belief" (87). Jesus said, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31b-32). He did not say, "When you have a supernatural experience, you will know the truth." Likewise, Jesus prayed that the Father would sanctify the apostles by His truth; He then added, "Your word is truth" (John 17:17). He did not say, "An experience with God is truth."

For Lloyd-Jones, revival is "a visitation of the Holy Spirit" (100). He makes things clear to His followers. They say things like, "I was suddenly illuminated, things that I was so familiar with stood out in letters of gold, as it were" (101). He adds, "The Holy Spirit enlightens the mind and the understanding. They begin not only to see things clearly but to feel their power" (101). If that is so, why do they not give up such practices as sprinkling and infant baptism. We know that these things are wrong from reading the Scriptures—we did not need a sudden illumination to teach us the truth. And why, with all this clarity, do these folks not understand the way Peter preached salvation in Acts 2:36-38?

According to Lloyd-Jones, one man had such a powerful visitation of the Holy Spirit that people responded to his preaching before he was even done, and he could not stop them (107). Another man preached such a powerful sermon against a corrupt fair that it closed down and never reopened (108). Say, couldn't Las Vegas use him? Not to mention Hollywood?

How does the Spirit manifest Himself to folks? Some "people are so convicted and feel the power of the Spirit to such an extent that they faint and fall to the ground." Some will even experience convulsions and fall into "a state of unconsciousness" for hours (111). These "miracles" are "the direct action and intervention of God" (112).

Miracles in the New Testament were to verify that Jesus is the Son of God (John 20:30-31). Signs accompanied the apostles to verify their message (Heb. 2:3-4). Jesus and the apostles preached the necessity of immersion in water (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38). All those mentioned by Lloyd-Jones teach justification by faith only. God cannot possibly be endorsing such a message.