Revival.

It is one of the most electrified words in modern Christianity. And for years, the word has rolled off church language, suggesting multitudes are turning back to God, shaken and finally awake.

The question is... does the word even belong to the Scriptures at all?

If you turn the pages of the New Testament, you will not find the apostles calling the early Christians to revival.

This language is absent in Scriptures. Instead, what you will find is something far plainer, and far sharper:

• Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

• Repent and believe the Gospel.

• Repent and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out.

It was only in the 18th century that the word revival entered Christian language. Preachers like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and John Wesley used it descriptively. They saw unusual seasons when people were cut to the heart in large numbers and spoke of these times as “revivals.” Later in the 19th century, Charles Finney reframed revival, suggesting that with proper methods, revival could be produced. From that moment on, “revival” became a tool during camp meetings and conferences. Holiness revivals gave it a brand, pentecostal revivals globalized it, and by the mid-20th century, stadium crusades carried its DNA across the world.

Today, it has become a world-wide movement, paired with a very effective marketing hook.

Revival today, has grown heavier in the Christian imagination. For some, it has even become the pinnacle of faith, seen as the gold standard of God’s work. But beneath the glow of revivalism, there is one thing the church has neglected which is the very command that Christ preached, repentance.

Jesus did not preach about revival, he preached about repentance, which is a quiet, internal work of the Holy Spirit. While revival is loud and proud, repentance is humble and quiet.

The word revival is not holy. It is a construct, born of man, inflated by history, and wielded by religion. It is nothing but man's attempt to replicate Pentecost and reproduce the crowds and the numbers while ignoring the very thing that made Pentecost real: the Gospel preached with such conviction that hearts were cut open.

Are we experiencing revival today, or is it only a counterfeit? Do crowded churches, sold-out Bibles, and surging emotions truly mark the work of God? Let us not forget, the apostles and martyrs shed their blood for the Gospel, but their deaths were never exalted. It was never the spectacle of their sacrifice that turned hearts, but the message they proclaimed: the Gospel of Christ crucified, piercing the conscience and calling sinners to repentance.

Revivalism has become the addiction of the modern day church.

There is no death outside of Christ’s that holds the power to pierce one's heart unto repentance. It is only the foolish message of the cross that does this.

That is the Gospel. And that is the only thing that saves.