Let me begin by pointing out that the connective word “and” can be used to lump similar things together, or to contrast different things. ‘Peace and harmony’ illustrates the former, while ‘black and white’ illustrates the latter. I am using this word in my title more as a type of contrast. So I am not saying the recent Trump inauguration was a Christian revival, but some similarities can nonetheless be mentioned.
Let me explain. I watched much of the inauguration (either live or the day after) and at the same time all this was going on, I stumbled upon a television program discussing the Asbury revival. In one sense the contrast could not be greater. For example, everyone knows about Washington, DC, the political capital of the free world. Hardly anyone knows about Wilmore, Kentucky, a tiny town where the revival broke out at Asbury University.
It was quite interesting to be watching both things, either by way of comparison or contrast. Before discussing this, let me briefly speak about the revival, for those not in the know. It was a powerful but short-term revival that broke out at a Christian university early in 2023.
A small group of students stayed after a routine 50-minute chapel meeting on February 8, 2023. A time of powerful prayer and repentance broke out, with a strong movement of the Spirit of God going on for over two weeks. People came from around the world to take part in this.
People were converted and many Christians had their lives powerfully renewed and reenergised. Even secular media outlets reported on this event. See more about it all here.
So let me mention just three ways that we can compare and contrast the two happenings:
Lasting change
The Trump 2.0 presidency can of course only last for four years. But Vance might get in after him, and so on. So it might drag on for 8, 12 or more years. Plus some of the things he does will have a longer-lasting impact, such as appointing any new Supreme Court justices.
So by the very nature of politics, elections and the like, things will not go on forever. Many had assumed that Trump would win back in 2020. The electorate can change, circumstances can change, leaders and politicians will come and go. But God has appointed the state to maintain order and justice in a fallen world.
And we know that righteousness exalts a nation. Some political leaders are far better than others. Trump will be a marked contrast to Joe, Kamala and the Dems. Whether he is a real-deal Christian is not clear. But God can use people who are not believers to achieve his ends.
In the same way, all revivals are temporary, although they can certainly have lasting impacts. Being the result of the sovereign move of God, they can begin surprisingly and often cease just as surprisingly. They can last for a short period (as the 16-day Asbury Revival) or last for many months. But none last forever.
Normal Christianity is just that: normal. God can and does bless his people with powerful revivals, but they tend to be the exception, not the norm. Christians must daily live a life of obedience and faithfulness, whether or not exciting outbreaks of God’s Spirit occur.
A mixture of good and bad
Consider the many good things Trump has already done in terms of what he promised in his inauguration speech and/or what he did with the many executive orders signed on day one:
- Pulling out of the Paris Agreement.
- Making America energy independent.
- Deleting woke and DEI agendas.
- The federal government declaring that there are only two genders, male and female.
- Saying no to the trans activists.
- Taking down the pro-abortion HHS website.
- Pulling the US out of WHO.
- Dealing with the wide-open borders, making them secure to protect American citizens.
- Deportations are happening right now under border czar Tom Homan and Co.
- Ending the weaponisation of the justice system.
- A return to a better and stronger foreign policy.
- Reinstating all military personnel with full back pay who were discharged for not taking the jab.
- Restoring the American economy.
- Lifting federal restrictions on free speech and affirming the First Amendment.
- 78 executive actions of Biden gone with the stroke of a pen.
So many things can be mentioned. But not everything will be welcomed by everyone. He has always been rather weak on the issue of homosexuality for example. And given that he is NOT the messiah, and he is not going to bring heaven to earth, he quite likely will do various things over the next four years that will not be so welcome by Christians and conservatives. All the more reason to keep praying for him.
And anyone aware of the history of revivals knows that they have always been a mixture. So much Spirit-led good can be mingled with fleshly excess and carnality. Mere emotionalism can detract from the real move of God, and false doctrines and teachings can easily creep in.
The Asbury revival was no different. So many lives were deeply impacted for good and the Spirit of God was powerfully at work. But not everything that transpired would necessarily have been of God. Discernment is always needed in such events. We are to “test all things,” and recognise that all believers are a mixture of Spirit and flesh.
Spiritual impact
The real contrast would be in terms of the Christian influence. A revival by definition is a spiritual event. An inauguration can be a completely secular occurrence. As to this week’s inauguration, there would be a number of Christians to be found in the new Trump cabinet and team.
And big prayer meetings were held for this event, be they live or on Zoom. Many prayer and intercession groups have been praying and will regularly pray for the 47th president. So in that sense, all this really is a spiritual event. There are so many Trump haters with a bad case of TDS who want him to fail. Some hate him so much that they have sought to assassinate him.
So this in so many ways is a spiritual war in which God’s people need to keep Trump and his new administration in sustained and fervent prayer. They will certainly need it. And we believers are commanded to do this anyway (1 Timothy 2:1-2).
As mentioned, a real revival of God can have a tremendous and long-lasting spiritual impact. Just think of things like the Great Awakenings, the first of which broke out in the 1730s. And the great Welsh revivals of 1859 and 1904-1905 can also be mentioned.
Genuine moves of God can have such powerful impacts for decades and longer, and they can have global effects. While revivals are at heart the sovereign move of God, we can all pray and seek for God to graciously pour out his Spirit on a comatose and carnal church. When he does, it will not just be the church that is powerfully impacted, but the surrounding culture as well.
Which should we prefer?
Some Christians might think that we have to make a choice here: do we want to see a return to good government, or do we want to experience Christian revival? I have to go along with Spurgeon when he was asked what was more important: prayer or reading the Bible. He replied, “What is more important: breathing in or breathing out?”
The same here. Both are vital. As mentioned, God is the one who established the state. In a fallen world, he has appointed government and rulers to keep evil in check, to offer some order to the chaos, and to seek to maintain a modicum of justice.
And all the biblical texts about how important it is to have righteousness in the land, and righteous rulers leading a people need to be kept in mind. These are tremendously important social goods, and we can all be thankful when ungodly and unrighteous leaders are moved along, one way or another.
So I for one am very thankful that the four years of terror and error of Biden is now history, and we have another chance to make America great again. But I also know that politics alone can not do this. Politics alone cannot save us or fully answer the Lord’s prayer of the Kingdom coming to earth and his will being done.
What we need above all else is a powerful move of God to wake up the church and shake up the world. And we are in need of regular and repeated spiritual revival and reformation. Without God, all human activities will be so much blowing in the wind.
But without all of us seeking to work for good in this world on all levels, be it political or social or cultural and so on, we will not see the full and lasting fruits of any such revivals. So let us pray and work for both good government and godly revival.
We desperately need both.
