Greetings and salutations. This is Life and Books and Everything. I'm Kevin DeYoung.

Here's an article that I posted on Clearly Reformed. So you can go there, clearlyreformed.org, formerly

Kevin DeYoung.org. You can also do kdyy.y.y.org. So it's an article I just posted there

entitled, What is True Revival? What are we to make of the Asbury Revival? Given the fact

that I have not attended or watched any of the services and that we have yet

to determine the long-term fruit of these events, the only responsible answer is, I don't

know.

Certainly, we ought to hope that this is a powerful moving of the Holy Spirit and be grateful

for every good report we hear.

At the same time, it is not quenching the

spirit to ask clarifying questions and in general to wait and see whether, in looking

back months and years from now, sinners have been truly converted, lives have been

lastingly transformed, and churches have been made fuller by the events of these days.

The point of this post, however, is not to talk about Asbury, but to talk about the Bible. Well, the Bible doesn't use the word

revival. It does detail instances in the lives of God's people where sudden and surprising change

takes place, whether we call it an awakening or renewal or reformation or revival,

there have been times throughout history, including biblical history, where the God who normally

works by ordinary days, Zachariah 410, has chosen to work in extraordinary ways. Perhaps the clearest and most comprehensive example of a biblical revival

came during the reign of King Josiah.

The year was 640 BC, or thereabouts, and Judah was in bad shape.

After some good years with King Hezekiah, the nation had declined with 55 years under the wicked King Manasse.

The next two years under King Ammon were hardly better.

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