THE BIBLE INSTITUTE AND REVIVAL By James H. Jauncey, M.A., B.Sc., B.D., Th.D *
I AM very much a newcomer to the Bible Institute, but nevertheless during these past few months have become very much aware that the In stitute is in a position to wield a tremendous influence in the conserva tive Christian world. Its graduates for years have proven themselves in almost every country of the world, both as missionaries and ministers and in lay leadership. All around the world devout Chris tian people regard our school with the greatest respect and love. This means that the roots of this center in Los Angeles go deep down in the hearts of believers wherever there is an evangelical faith at all. Thus if re vival comes here, its effects automat ically will be transmitted all over the world. It may mean, also, that if we fail in our task, the world will be very much the poorer spiritually be cause of it and perhaps tens of thou sands of souls will be lost for the whole of eternity. We rightly regard the function of the Bible Institute to be that of training young men and women for leadership, but the prestige that we have now demands also that we should be a dynamo of spiritual power to move the world for Christ. In these days of emphasis upon machinery and efficiency, it is some times felt that if by modern methods we make salesmen out of our soul winners we will create this spiritual awakening. But it is not in the nature of revival to be engineered in this way. Kevivals come about only when a certain critical spiritual tempera ture has been reached. In some forms of internal combus tion engines, the gas is raised under pressure to a certain critical tempera ture at which an explosion automat ically occurs. It is the energy pro duced for this explosion which pro vides the power. No amount of coax ing will be of any avail until that temperature is reached. *Head of the Department of New Testa ment at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles A P R I L , 1951
The same is true for this world wide spiritual awakening for which we are praying. Evangelical missions will not bring it about. Prayers for revival will not be sufficient. Appeals over the radio will be fruitless. But if we, who are affiliated with this In stitute, can raise our spiritual tem perature, a point will be reached when the Divine spark will set off this explosion. It is obvious to all of us that such a spiritual awakening is .the only an swer to the challenge of the hour in which we live. No amount of states manship or scholarship or economics or education or sociology can more than scratch the surface of the world’s great problems. The reason for this is that the basis is spiritual. We live in a world which has forgotten God. It has said something like this to God : “ God, we don’t need You any more. You were very handy in the Middle Ages when everything was dark and ignorant and we did not have any thing better, but now we have our democracy and our American way of life, our science and our education, and we don’t need You. We won’t fight You or persecute Your Chris tians or anything like that, but we just don’t want You. Please go out of our affairs.” So, because God is a gentleman, He has done as we have told Him. But one thing we didn’t foresee and that is that there could not be a spiritual vacuum. When God goes out, sinister and evil powers always take His place. Isn’t it astonishing that in a time of the greatest expression of brain power that the world has ever known, we are unable to solve our interna tional and social problems? In fact, we seem about to open the flood gates of a third world war of de struction. What is it that has made us insane? I am reminded of the demons which entered into the herd of swine so that in frantic madness they rushed over the precipice to their doom. We are doing the same thing because the
Dr. Jauncey
o r same forces have gained the control of us. These entrenched forces of Satan can only be vanquished by the power of God being expressed in a religious awakening. It is because of this that a terrible responsibility rests upon the Christian world, and let us say partly on the Bible Insti tute of Los Angeles. We hold the solution to this terrible peril which is threatening on every hand. It looks as if it may be within our power to bring or to hinder this revival. God help us if we fail in this becaflse if we do, we are the world’s last line of defense and there will be blood on our hands at the Judgment Seat of Christ. It seems timely that God is only too anxious to bring about this spirit ual awakening. Already there have been drops of blessing which indicate that the rain clouds are not far off. The cloud may be only the size of a man’s hand across the world’s horizon, but it can grow and precipi tate its rain which will drench the world in blessing. Whether it will come or not depends upon us. We need to come under a sense of conviction because of the terrible urgency and become men of God as we have never done before. There are three primary ways in which we can hasten such a revival. The first is, we must make sure there is no sin in the camp. The great Israelitish defeat at the city of Ai was caused by the selfishness and sin of one man. Occasionally the head lines of newspapers tell the story of unfaithful Christians who have been carrying on scandalous behavior even though naming the name of Christ. There are many others like this who are using their Christianity as a (Continued on Page 28) Page Seven
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