LETTERS: AMERICA IS IN NEED OF REVIVAL

To the editor:

Israel under King Solomon enjoyed a halcyon age of rare peace and prosperity. But that golden era soon gave way to apathy and sin. Ungodly leadership next led to civil war and the bloody fracture of God's covenant people into two kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah in the south.

For Judah, national revivals five times halted the descent into apostasy and stayed God's judgment. Not so for the northern kingdom, Israel, where revival never took place. Consequently, Israel went into captivity, its people led forth by the cruel Assyrians with fishhooks in their lips. Judah, however, because of the five revivals, had its life extended for nearly 150 years after Israel's captivity.

A careful study of those five episodes, where God's spirit stirred his people and brought transformation, reveals three elements common to each. First, there was a national crisis, usually a military threat from a hostile nation such as Syria, Egypt, Assyria or Babylon. Second, a prophet of God arose to speak with courage and boldness to the issue at hand. Third, there was a godly king who obeyed the word of God, understood God's reasons for the national crisis and took the necessary action to avert judgment.

Today, we have no outside military threat, but the danger to America from her enemies within is just as grave. That is why we desperately need national revival. Nineteenth-century evangelist Charles Finney defined revival as "nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God. Just as in the case of a converted sinner, so the first step is that of deep repentance, a breaking down of heart, a getting down into the dust before God with deep humility and a forsaking of sins."

Revival brings transformation to the people of God as they earnestly seek him and his forgiveness. That quickly translates into evangelism. The Great Awakening, for example, which began with the earnest prayers of a handful of people, brought thousands of people into the kingdom of God. The Welsh revival of 1904-5 began with prayer and resulted, when revival took hold, in the conversion to Christ of more than 100,000 people in just five months.

These revivals came about in answer to the prayers of God's people. That is the key: humble, brokenhearted prayer for our own sin. When we do that, God will be true to his promise to Solomon in II Chronicles 7:14 to hear from Heaven, forgive our sin and heal our land.

We are a nation in grave need of revival to stay God's judgment. Are you seeking God in the expectation that he will pour out his blessing and bring revival? All across this land there are those who are, and God is beginning to hear those prayers.

I urge you to join with hundreds of thousands of other believers across American in prayer for ourselves and our nation as we observe the National Day of Prayer today as we seek together to return America to God.

MARION CARLSON

Cape Girardeau