The Cure of All Ills

OUR GREATEST NEED

There are many problems in our nation that we need help with. Growing moral decadence, social problems and general unrest have long conspired to bring Jamaica to its greatest national crisis for decades. A rising crime rate, increasing violence, one of the highest per capita murder rates in the world, an adolescent pregnancy rate among the highest in the Caribbean, the 3rd largest population living with HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean, after Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and an enormous drug epidemic - all highlight the fact that we need some kind of inner transformation in the soul our nation.

Countless hours of discussion, debate and research are currently being spent to overcome this multiplicity of issues. Politicians don’t seem to have the answer. Sociologists don’t have the answer. And, surprisingly, the church doesn’t seem to have the answer either!

It remains something of a paradox that the nation with one of the highest murder rates globally also has the highest number of churches per square mile in the world! Evidently the church today has little influence upon the nation’s morality, society and culture.

Man has the rational power to reform, but he lacks the moral power. He knows what needs to be done but lacks the inner strength to action his resolve. This is where God can help. What is needed today is a heaven-sent, nation-transforming, church-renewing visitation of Almighty God; something commonly called ‘revival.’ This is when God invades struggling mankind and brings supernatural solutions – not just theoretical ideas or religious sentiments. We need an impartation of the power necessary to change the inner soul of our nation and the individuals that make up Jamaica, the land we love.

THE CURE OF ALL ILLS

But is this possible? Can what may appear to be a religious epidemic really improve our way of life and affect the fortunes of our entire nation? History is affimative. ‘Revivals’ have occurred throughout the world for centuries and wherever God has visited in this way, man’s lot has vastly improved and history has been redirected.

When revivals occurred in Bible days there followed periods of genuine national prosperity. Lives were transformed, morals improved, social concerns were addressed and people developed a social conscience. Similarly, students of church history cannot ignore or minimize the moral betterment that followed revivals and the work of revival-men like Luther in Central Europe, of Edwards and Whitefield in America, of Knox in Scotland, or of Wesley in England.

Indeed, it would not be difficult to substantiate historically that there is a direct relationship between spirituality and ethics, between religion and morality. Religious apostasy results in moral decline but spiritual revival halts moral declension, changes human conduct and fosters social progress. Everyone benefits, not least of all the church.

When revival comes men and women encounter God’s transforming power. This power has both religious and ethical aspects. People flock to the house of God; they long for God’s Word and use it as their manual for life. They love to worship the God who brings such freedom and joy and they take pleasure in spiritual disciplines. Churches overflow. But revivals also produce a concern for others. They help build hospitals, teach the illiterate, cloth the naked, feed the poor, move entire nations to act more justly, and even cause general reductions in crime and family breakdown. Spirituality changes society for good. Lets consider some examples of the moral effects of Christian revival.


THE FIRST GREAT AWAKENING

This event occurred in the 1740’s and affected America, Britain and Europe simultaneously. In America it transformed the social and religious life of the land. During the years from 1740 to 1742 there were between 25,000 to 50,000, out of a total population of 300,000, added to the church. Testimonies of moral changes were heard throughout the colonies and there is no doubt but that the whole moral and religious life of New England was raised to a higher plane. One author noted ‘theft, wantonness, intemperance, profaneness, sabbath-breaking, and other gross sins, appeared to be put away.

In Britain it was the same, The historian Dr. Stoughton, in his book The History of Religion in England, describes the awakening like this: ‘It laid hold upon multitudes of Englishmen with a firmer grasp and in a greater number of instances than ever before. It was exhibited under its most benevolent aspects... as the helper of the poor, the friend of the prisoner, the liberator of the slave, the visitor of the sick, the comforter of the dying.’ Almost certainly this period of revival saved Britain from the tragedy of the French revolution across the Channel.

In Scotland, George Whitefield’s irresistible preaching produced a revival which ‘embraced all classes, all ages, and all moral conditions. Cursing, swearing and drunkenness were given up by those who came under its power.’ Revival makes the world a better place to live.

THE 1859 REVIVAL

In 1857 a handful of men began praying in a New York church. Within six months over 10,000 business men were gathering in similar meetings across America; confessing sins, being converted and praying for revival. This lay-led movement harvested a million souls in two years. In 1858, from February to June, around 50,000 people a week were added to the church - in a nation whose population was only 30,000,000. Across the Atlantic another million were won to Christ by 1865. This was in Britain's population of 27,000,000.

Before 1857 America was in a desperate condition. One writer describes the time before and after the revival like this: ‘Banks and business houses failed, factories and railways closed down, vast numbers were soon unemployed, and it needed the quietness of shut-out industry and transport in order for a nation to hear the still small voice of God! In 1857 God spoke to America. And what proved the genuineness of the revival was the ethical result, for the social effects of the revival continued for almost half a century.’

Evangelistic, missionary and philanthropic enterprises blossomed on every hand. Moody and Sankey enjoyed their greatest success. The Booths, launched the Salvation Army attracting great crowds to Christ and focussing on social improvements. Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached to capacity crowds each week, filling the largest halls in London. Lord Shaftsbury championed for the cause of the young, the poor and the oppressed. Dr. Barnardo founded his famous orphanages. David Livingstone and Mary Slessor propagated missionary work in Africa, bringing light into darkness. True revival reaches every part of society: religious, ethical, political, economic and social. Nothing remains the same.

BRITAINS GREATEST CENTURIES

Various British revivals over the 19th and 20th centuries gave the nation a social conscience and produced the men and women who achieved all manner of social improvements. They campaigned for the abolition of slavery, the emancipation of women. They brought children up from the mines and the boys down from the chimneys. They developed greater concern for prisoners, the insane, the elderly and the dying. They lobbied for improved working conditions, lessening unbearably long work schedules and gaining fairer pay. They improved the living conditions of the poor. They built orphanages and hospitals. To claim that every benefit to society in these two centuries was directly the result of revival would be foolishly inaccurate, but revival was certainly one of the principal causes of these social reforms.

History says it all. Authentic revival is what we need above all else, because it is the cure of all our nation’s ills. It has worked over the centuries in every continent. It affects every strata of society. It results in a better world for us and our children. It is still achievable today and should be on the top of every believer’s prayer list.

Tony Cauchi
May 2006