REFORMATION, RESTORATION, REVIVAL, OR RECOVERY?

Over the past 5 centuries western Christianity has seen a variety of movements that have spread around the world.  First, we see the Reformation led by Luther, Calvin, and others.  This movement gave rise to the oldest mainstream Protestant denominations.

Then, about two hundred years ago, two movements came up together.  One was Restorationism, and the other was revivalism.  I'm not sure which came first, but I suspect restorationism.

One element they have in common is an interest in end-time prophecy.  The core of restorationism is the view that God is restoring the church before Jesus returns.  Revivalism seeks to re-energize Christianity through displays of enthusiasm, and maybe even emotionalism.

These two merge with the belief that we must achieve a worldwide revival before Jesus can return.  The mis-named New Apostolic Reformation (which is neither new, nor apostolic, nor a reformation) seeks to make this happen with prayer, fasting, confession, healings, miracles, signs, wonders, and emotional, erratic behavior.  The danger here is that this puts pressure on people to appear to be spiritual, while they struggle to live up to an external standard, instead of walking in faith from their hearts.  The expectation is on us and not on Jesus.

Why do I say this is a danger?  The pressure over time leads to burn-out, leaving people exhausted, confused and hopeles as to why their efforts didn't produce revival.  This can cause people to lose their faith, and others to become resistant to the Gospel.

Adding to the danger is the fact that all the revivals of the past have died out and become an echo of history.  Present day revivals will do the same.  Future revivals will probably stay there in the future.  Evangelists have been predicting billion soul harvests since the Latter Rain Movement in the late 1940s.

I would love to see large numbers of people come to faith in Christ before He returns.  But, we don't need another revival that will just die out.  A reform movement that brings only superficial changes won't help either.  We need something else.

I propose that what we need, is a new way to view what has been going on since before Luther.  What we need is recovery.

Several years ago, I got curious about reform movements that happened before Martin Luther.  I was aware of several, but most had been eliminated by the Roman church.  I found three groups that had a lasting effect.  They were the Waldensians, the Lollards, and the Hussites.

A merchant in Lyon, France named Peter Waldo asked a priest to give him Scripture to help him live a more Christlike life.  That priest pointed him towards Matthew, chapter 10.  Waldo later began to encourage Bible reading by lay people, and paid to have the Bible translated into French.  His followers included lay Bible teachers.  The Roman church tried to use military force to eliminate them, but did confine them to one valley, where they stayed isolated for several centuries.

Around that same time, John Wycliff began to translate the Bible into English.  His followers sought to grow spiritually through Bible study and prayer at home instead of going on pilgramages to holy sites, and other religious observances, so their critics thought they were lazy.  Thus the name, Lollards.

One of Wycliff's followers was a Bohemian servant of a British noble woman.  That woman returned to Bohemia where she passed on Wycliff's ideas to a priest named John Huss.  Huss began to preach a message very similar to Luther's.  His reward was that the Roman church burned him alive.  Before they lit the fire, he said, "They think they are burning a heretic, but all they are doing is cooking a goose."  'Huss' means 'goose.'

Was God restoring truth to the Body of Christ through all this?  Maybe.  By saying that God started these movements, are we saying that people were just sitting around doing nothing unusual, and then, unexpectedly, God started doing something to get the people's attention?

Or, were people seeking God?  Were people seeking to recover something lost or forgotten?

I believe that is what has been happening all along.  From justification by faith and the priesthood of all believers, to the gifts and fruit of the Spirit, believers have been seeking and recovering truth.

But we do see problems.  Of course, the enemy is going to interject false doctrine and temptation whenever and wherever he can.  And these are the same lies and temptations he has always presented.  He might change the words, but they always point to the same target - death.