The Asbury University Revival

Is the Asbury University revival legitimate? At time of writing, it has generated much attention, and both positive and negative feedback.

Every Christian ought to be thinking about Revival. We hope for revival in the church and within us. This hope is one primary focus of a prayer meeting I participate in once a week. Now, I’m not going to say too much about the Asbury phenomenon: I wasn’t there, and I’m not well read regarding the great revivals of the past. My goal is to point to people who have offered what I consider to be sober thoughts on Asbury.

Denny Burk’s thoughts

The strength of Burk’s article is that he draws on Jonathan Edwards.

Signs by which NOT to Judge a Work of the Spirit

The work is unusual and extraordinary.
It produces bodily or emotional effects.
It occasions a great deal of noise about religion.
Great impressions are made on the imagination.
One means used is setting an example, or following another’s.
It is accompanied by great imprudences and irregularities in conduct.
It is intermixed with errors in judgment or delusions of Satan.
Some who are worked upon at first, later fall away.
It is promoted by ministers who insist on the terrors of God’s holy law.

Scripture Evidences of a Work of the Spirit

It raises the esteem of Jesus Christ in their eyes.
It operates against Satan’s interests by discouraging sin.
It causes men to have a greater regard for the Holy Scriptures.
It is a spirit of truth, which convicts them of the gospel truth.
It is a spirit of love toward God and men.

The Warnings

It’s good to be discerning without being overly skeptical. Jordan Standridge notes that Asbury has attracted the likes of Todd Bentley (never a good thing). Yet I appreciate his sentiment here,

I do pray that God will use these days at Asbury for his glory. That these students would look back to this time as a powerful moment for their walk with Christ.

In A Quest for Godliness, J. I. Packer also draws on Edwards. See Chapter 19, Jonathan Edwards and Revival. He points out that “Christians who desire revival have a strong incentive to pray for it.” More than that, they “have a positive duty to pray for it.” Elsewhere he notes,

Satan…keeps step with God, actively perverting and caricaturing all that the Creator is doing…A revival, accordingly, is always a disfigured work of God, and the more powerful the revival, the more scandalising disfigurements we may expect to see. (Page 318)