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False Revivals

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Apr 1, 1909

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 13.

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False Revivals

By A. SMITH

A. SMITH
It has been the policy of Satan to counterfeit the work of God. When Jehovah worked signs and wonders by the hand of Moses before Pharaoh for the deliverance of his people, it is said of the magicians, who were agents of Satan, They “did so with their enchantments.”
Just before and during the loud cry of the third angel’s message, Satan, true to his principles, will cause counterfeit movements to sweep over the world to divert the attention of the people from God’s special, closing work of the gospel. “God will work in power for his people; and Satan will be permitted to work also. I saw that the mysterious signs, and wonders, and false reformations would increase and spread.”—Early Writings, page 37.
“Satan employs various means by which to accomplish his purposes; and if, under the guise of popular religion, he can lead off the vacillating and unwary ones from the path of truth, he has accomplished much in dividing the strength of the people of God. This fluctuating revival enthusiasm, that comes and goes like the tide, carries a delusive exterior that deceives many honest persons into believing it to be the true Spirit of the Lord. It multiplies converts. Those of excitable temperaments, the weak and yielding, flock to its standard; but when the wave recedes, they are found stranded on the beach. Be not deceived by false teachers, nor led by vain words. . . . There will ever be flashing meteors to arise; but the trail of light they leave immediately goes out in darkness that seems denser than it was before. These sensational religious excitements that are created by the relation of anecdotes and the exhibition of eccentricities and oddities, are all surface work; and those of our faith who are charmed and infatuated by these flashes of light will never build up the cause of God.”—Testimonies for the Church, Vol. IV, page 74.
God can never work at cross-purposes with himself. There can not be a genuine revival of religion where any one of the precepts of God’s law is knowingly set aside. We have a great work to do, and we have no time to devote to side issues that Satan may rattle in our ears, except to rescue the unwary. The shady methods employed by many itinerant “evangelists,” if generally known, would destroy the confidence of the people in their Christian integrity. William R. Moody, son of the great evangelist, in an article in the Home Herald of February 24, says:—
“In older days evangelists depended upon the Spirit of God to draw men to hear the gospel. To prostitute the sacred work of evangelism to the methods of circus and vaudeville was an unheard-of thing. But now the press agent is engaged to supply the secular, as well as the religious press with highly colored reports of the work. The evangelist is the object of adulation, and only too often the message is less reported than the messenger. In a recent mission one of the leading ministers who was in heartiest sympathy with the work, expressed to us his regret that such highly colored reports had appeared in the press. The work was hindered rather than helped by the statements that ‘the city was stirred as never before,’ and ‘thousands were being converted.’ And yet these reports were prepared by a member of the evangelist’s staff who was engaged for that purpose. Within a short time we received letters from two evangelists, asking what rates would be charged for inserting their portraits in its columns, as they wished to be better known in evangelistic work.
“But probably the greatest evil in modern evangelism is the spirit of commercialism. As a certain minister recently expressed it, ‘Evangelism is suffering from the financial microbe.’ Evangelists of the older type refused to bargain for their services. Their first question was, ‘What are the prospects for a united effort?’ Compensation was not even mentioned, the evangelist accepting what was offered for his services. To-day the advance or business agent presents terms which in more than one city we have heard of have been too exorbitant to permit of a mission. Several experiences of this kind have been repeated to us from different parts of the country, as well as from Great Britain. Many earnest men, themselves imbued with an evangelistic spirit, find that it is necessary, in order to conduct union evangelistic services on a larger scale, to invite and entertain at great expense, not only the evangelist and his singer, but his press agent, stenographers, soloists, and others. From a reliable source we have been informed that during the past year a certain evangelist in this country made the statement that results of his last year’s ministry had netted him fifty thousand dollars, while still another evangelist is reported to have accepted a large sum of money from a lecture bureau to give the story of his conversion as a popular platform lecture.
“There are those who will seek to condone these methods by pointing to certain results which have followed their use, and the conversions which have been reported. Even those who do not approve of introducing into the work of Christ the methods of the circus and the theater will nevertheless quote St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, where for the sake of the weak he is willing to become weak that he may gain them, and asserts, ‘I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.’ This, however, is to lose sight of the large number to whom the methods of sensationalism and the spirit of commercialism are a stumbling-block. The older methods of evangelism refused to make the preaching of the gospel a matter of barter, and looked to the preaching of the gospel itself as its own best means of drawing multitudes. In its place there has come the adulation of the individual, effected by press notices prepared by salaried clerks, and in some cases even the space in the newspaper itself has been purchased by evangelists. The time has come, we believe, when the church itself should demand a reform in evangelistic work, and insist that it be conducted under the direction of the church.”
In the same number of the Herald Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, D. D., says:—
“Modern evangelism is increasingly costly. Sometimes it has a fixed price and does not hesitate to announce it, and it runs into high figures. To invite a campaign, with all its aids and accessories, may involve an expenditure of a thousand dollars a week, in some cases ten thousand a month. Single churches can not assume such a burden, and a whole city must marshal its forces to lift the load. The worth of one soul outweighs millions of money; but when avarice baits the hook, the fisher may get caught rather than the fish, and whenever money gets hold of an evangelist, his spiritual power is gone.
“Modern evangelism makes much of numbers, parading statistics, and often with a reckless mode of reckoning. It is easy to secure a show of numbers, but such numerical estimates are very deceptive and misleading. If superficial means be adopted, if people are encouraged to think that some simple outward act or step carries merit or brings salvation, or if in any way there is a carnal appeal to the hope of some self-advantage, there will be a ready response.”
Sometimes the evangelists arrange with merchants to close their places of business on certain days, that their employees may attend the meetings, making it appear to be a spontaneous movement in response to a deep religious feeling. Rising votes are called for by these evangelists, and the question is put in such a form that one has to respond in the affirmative, or tacitly declare himself to be an infidel or an agnostic. Jesus says, concerning false teachers, “Go not after them.” Luke 17:23.
Grandville, Mich.