The Jesus Revolution
“You say you want a revolution, well ya know, we all wanna change the world.” The opening line to the Beatles, “Revolution.” Many people do want to change the world. Some for the better, some for the worst. Whether people want to admit it or not, there was One who changed the world 2000 years ago. Many recently celebrated His birth. The One who changed the world, was Jesus Christ. He was and is the only One who did and still does change the world. Jesus Christ changed to course of human history.
Some might ask me, “How can you say that? Look at what's going on in the world today?” It's true, things are pretty bad. However, this isn't the first time the world was on the brink of disaster before God intervened and things changed.
In A History of Christianity Volume 1 Beginnings to 1500 by Kenneth Scott Latourette, stated within the first 1,000 years there were several times Christianity nearly became extinct. However, revival would happen and Christianity would take more territory. It continually took more territory after revivals would happen.
People tend to forget how during and after the Roman Empire, Europe would fall prey to the Huns, the Vikings, and the Mongols. There was the 100 years war. It was a continuous war between England and France during the 14th and 15th centuries. Then there was the 30 years war between various nations in Europe for various reasons that was considered as the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history. That war lasted from 1618-1648.
There was the Bubonic Plague (also known as the Black Death) that raged from 1347 through 1351. It started in China, then spread to Crimea, Sicily, North Africa, Italy, Spain, France, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, England, Scotland, Scandinavia, and the Baltic countries. An estimated 25 million people died from it.
There have been so many disasters throughout history between diseases and natural catastrophies, they couldn't possibly be all listed here. In our own nation, the French and Indian War that lasted 7 years, The American War of Independence from 1775-1783, the Civil War from 1861-1865. In later years World War 1, the Roaring Twenties when gangsters terrorized much of the country in the 1920's through the 1930's. The Great Depression and then World War 2. The Korean War in the early 1950's, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Communist expansion in Russia and Eastern Europe, Chinese Communism. This is just a small sample of how any of these situations could have brought humanity to the brink.
In all of these events, at some point or another, because of the prayers of believers of the Lord Jesus Christ, God intervened and adverted absolute disaster. Interspersed throughout history were revivals that made the difference. In fact, in World War 2, General George Patton credited a prayer that he asked Catholic chaplain James Hugh O'Neill to compose for a change to favorable weather during the Battle of the Bulge. This was the prayer:
“Almighty and most mericful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for the Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory and crust the oppression and wickedness of our enemies, and establish Thy justice among men and nations. Amen.”
General Patton asked O'Neill to have 25,000 copies printed and see to it that every man in the Third Army received one. He also instructed O'Neill to instruct the other chaplins and men in the ranks the importance of prayer. After all the soliders of the Third Army prayed, the rains stopped, the fog ended and General George Patton advanced to win the Battle of the Bulge. Jesus changed the world by moving on these men's prayers. Even a man like George Patton knew who to give credit to. He congratulated O'Neill saying, “Well Padre, our prayers worked. I knew they would.” Patton knew it was God who answered the prayers.
There was a movie out last spring, “The Jesus Revolution.” It was about the true story of a revival that took place in the late 1960's. That revival, although not document in the film, that extended into the 1970's. My wife Deborah and I came to Jesus Christ during years of the mid 1970's.
The movie primarily focused on Greg Laurie, who is a well known evangelical pastor in California. The Jesus Revolution as it was dubbed by a Times Magazine reporter, started in southern California in which hippies were turning their lived to Jesus Christ by the droves. The movement brought together two unlikely allies, Pastor Chuck Smith who was rather traditional, and a hippie street preacher, Lonnie Frisbee. In the middle was a young man, Greg Laurie who eventaully gave his life to Jesus Christ and became the minister that he is today.
I bought the DVD of the movie. I watched it. I liked it the first time. When I recently watched it again, I liked it even more the second time. It reminded me of the early days when I had given myself to the Lord. It reminded me of when me, Deborah and numerous other friends would get together in the basements of people's homes for Bible study, worshipping and praising the Lord and just fellowshipping. There was an innocence about that time that I cherish to this day. We couldn't get enough of Jesus. It wasn't only young people by the mid 1970's. Many of the meetings were held in people's homes who were in their 40's, 50's and even 60's. There was no generation gap. Jesus was so real to us. He wasn't some nebulous, far away, historical, mystical spirit. He was real. He is real. That is what I enjoy the most about the movie, “The Jesus Revolution.” Jesus was portrayed as being real to the people who were giving their lives to Him.
Like so many of the critical times that I listed above, about God's intervention, He did it again in the late 1960's. There was so much chaos with the Counter Culture Sex and Drug revolution, the Civil Rights movement, the death of President John Kennedy in 1963, the death of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy (John Kennedy's brother) in 1968. The Vietnam War. The riots to end the Vietnam War. God, through His Son, Jesus intervened. As always, there were people praying for God to move, and He did. So much so that even a secular reporter with Time Magazine called it the “Jesus Reveolution.” It was not an article that dismissed the revival. It was objectively written.
Just like in critical times in the past, people prayed and God moved, there are people praying now. Every revival is rooted in prayer. For the past few years many have believed that another Great Awakening is going to sweep across this nation and around the world. Just because it hasn't happened yet does not mean it will not. This next Jesus Revolution is going to make all the revivals of the past combined look insignificant. Even the day of Pentacost will not match what is going to take place. There will be another Jesus Revolution, led by the greatest revolutionary of all time, Jesus Christ. His kingdom will come, and His will, will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. You can take that to the bank.
Love and God bless, Pastor Paul.