A couple days ago when I was waking up I had an important though that I believe God by His Holy Spirit. This thought was concerning what the type of nations involved in national Christian revivals usually are or perhaps should be. On the Christian zeal part there are a number of factors. Sometimes there is suffering in society because of sin or mismanagement as there was I read in the Second Great Awakening in 1857 and 1858. One area of social suffering or oppression at that time were some serious bank failures in which some people lost most or all their money. This was because there weren't very substantial depositor's insurance laws or central banks then in Canada or the United States. There can also be other dominant sins in society such as oppression, violence, immorality or in other sin areas that can be a heavy burden for people including Christians in that society. This can, and sometimes does, lead Christian to pray fervently for revival. This seeking revival includes a rededication of Christians to God and His Son Jesus Christ and a great move of God's Holy Spirit in that society. God has rewarded this fervent and sometimes widespread seeking Him in prayer with revival that convicts substantial number of people. This conviction of people in society sometimes includes authorities causing oppression or some people contributing substantially to sins in society with awareness and appreciation of God's anger at their sins. This awareness or conviction leads them to seek God's forgiveness and new life in His Son Jesus Christ and Jesus' death on the cross for our sins and resurrection from the dead. This awareness by people of their sins and trust in Jesus leads some people to seek and find in or from God in His Son Jesus Christ new resurrection life and to be spiritually and eternally restored children of God. Trust in Jesus also leads to personally securing the sure hope of being with God, His Son the Lord Jesus Christ and other of God's restored people in our homes in the Heavenly Jerusalem, the New Earth and New Heavens forever after Jesus reigns on this Earth for 1,000 years in the Millennial or Messianic Kingdom in righteousness and God's love.
What I believe God led me to a new insight about was more about the national basis on national Christian revivals. I already had some understanding of the fervent Christian spiritual parts of national Christian revivals. What I basically found was that national Christian revivals are not just characterized by godly Christian dedication to God and seeking His righteousness and love in people and society. I also found national Christian revivals are characterized by substantial nationalistic zeal in a righteous way by Christians or people open to becoming Christians in a political nation such as the United States or Canada. A good example of this is America or the United States in the mid or latter half of the 1700s or 18th century. At that time there was oppression of some Christians in the British Isles and continental Europe by the state Protestant churches like the Anglican Church or Church of England in England, the Presbyterian Church in Scotland and Northern Ireland and the Lutheran Church in Germany and some other parts of northern Europe. There was also oppression or persecution by the Roman Catholic Church against Christians. This persecution by the Roman Catholic Church against Christians was sometimes especially against those who stood against infant baptism and favoured believer's baptism and other more biblical practices in southern Europe and some other parts of Europe such as Ireland. This led many people to sail to North America, especially the United States and Canada, for new life with more religious freedom and other freedom.
I read this background and some revivals that were already going on in the United States by early revivalists like Jonathon Edwards. These factors combined with the revolutionary spirit in America to be free of colonial laws from Britain to seek independence for America or what was then the 13 colonies that resulted in the War of Independence in 1776. That war did succeed in bringing about independence for the United States from Great Britain and the writing of the Constitution of the United States of America. A main aspect of the American Constitution was a declaration that there not be in the United States limits on the practice of religion from a state church as was the case then in much of Europe and from which many of the early American settlers had purposefully fled from. This is known as the statement that there should be a continuing separation between church and state or separation between the state and any given religion. This separation between church and state was not practiced then in state churches in Europe. However, this part of the US Constitution that stipulated that there continue to be a separation between the state and any particular religion does not mean that there should be a separation of the state from any especially Christian religion in the public arena. Full separation from Christians or other religions from the public arena meant such limiting Christians from such places as public schools, universities, public Christmas or other public religious displays or observances as some hardline atheists have sought and sometimes still seek. What I am saying here is that there was a strong nationalistic as well as Christian spiritual motivation or dedication in national Christian revivals in the United States in the later 1700s and in the US at other times since then and in Canada, and in some European nations at different times such as the early 1900s Welsh revival in Wales. These nationalistic and Christian spiritual motivations were also true for other national Christian revivals such as the Estonian revival in the early 1900s and revivals later in the 1900s or in the 21st century in China, Indonesia and some parts of Africa or other nations.
This brings me to the other part of the insight I gained from the general thoughts I had a couple days ago, again when I was just waking up in the morning, and that I believe was from God by His Holy Spirit. This other point relates to the fact that there was another major aspect in some of the revivals in recent centuries or other points in church history or even in the Old Testament history of Israel. This other point is in addition to the fact that there was a nationalistic as well as spiritual committment to God in national Christian or Israelite revivals. The other point is that many national Christian revivals have generally been carried out and encouraged as national Christian revivals in this present Church Age based on existing political nations such as the United States of America, Canada, the British Isles, Germany, China and some African nations or others. This is still mostly the case even though most evangelical Christians have since 1974 or shortly after that gone along with a different idea of nations for the Great Commission to reach all nations with the gospel or good news of salvation in God's Son - the Lord Jesus Christ.
What produced this major change in global Christian missions? It was a major and very effective and influential speech by missionary Ralph Winters at the leading Christian Missions conference, namely that year's Lausanne School of Evangelism meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. At that meeting Ralph Winters took advantage of the opportunity when it was his turn to give his presentation to introduce and promote the idea of "people group nations". The essence of "people group nations" is the idea that the nations for the Church to reach for Jesus in the world are not the existing 100 to 200 political nations but the generally much smaller and more numerous "people group nations". The concept of people groups or "people group nations" is based partly on the observation that the word for nation or Gentiles in the New Testament is "ethnos" which is similiar to our English term "ethnic group". The other main point that supporters of the "people group nations" concept give in its support is the claim that generally the largest measure of a group of people who respond well in a short amount of time or on the other hand who together continue to resist the gospel are a group of people with the same language, prevailing religion and related genealogy and sometimes also continuous territory or land. This results in from 10,000 to 17,000 "people group nations" as comprising all the nations and people of the world including those for Christians to reach with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to complete the Church or the Church Age part of God's Kingdom as in Matthew 24:14, 28:18-20, Luke 24:44-49, Revelation 5:9, 7:9 etc.
However, there has not been, to my knowledge, any nearly as extensive if any movement within evangelical Christianity including some of the same leaders or individuals involved in both the Great Commission and national Christian revivals to change the nations referred to for national Christian revivals to be the same "people group nations" used in the nations Christian leaders referred to in the Great Commission. This preferred more consistent change by the world evangelical community for national Christian revivals for the definition of nations would be from "people group nations" from political nations. Therefore there is a continuing major discrepancy in what defines a nation in the evangelical community including according to scripture for the Great Commission and national Christian revivals. (A scripture I know that is still very popular for national Christian revivals is 2 Chronicles 7:14 where people and land are thought of generally as that associated with the political nation a person lives in such as the United States of America for American evangelical Christians or Canadian evangelical Christians in Canada where I live referring to Canada as the nation to be revived. A couple other scriptures that are very popular for evangelical Christians to refer to for national Christian revivals and that are generally interpreted to mean the political nation where they live in are: "blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD" in Psalm 33:12 and "righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people" in Proverbs 14:34.)
I personally believe there is a better framework that the current situation in evangelical Christianity where the meaning of nation in a movement of God in one's own nation referring to one's political nation but the term for nation in efforts by Christians to reach people throughout the world with the good news of salvation in Jesus is "people group nations". This better framework would be to have nations in both consideration being consistent as both either political nations or both as "people group nations". However, I admit this change in the definition for nation to be the same definition in the two areas of Christian outreach doesn't seem to be happening very quickly. I don't even think most evangelical Christians have thought that there is likely a major inconsistency in their idea of nations in these two contexts. One reason I think that is that I hadn't really appreciated either this different definition of nations in these two major areas of Christian outreach or dedication to God and His Son Jesus Christ even though I try to be very careful how I interpret Bible terms especially the word or term nation. However, especially for Christian friends and other people who know me better, I believe there is another more biblical and more consistent alternative for the defintion for nation(s) for both the national Christian revival sense and the Great Commission global Christian mission sense.
This other idea for the meaning of nations is the idea that the definition for nation in these two or I believe any other context based on the Bible is more accurately that nations are one or more of the 70 nations descended from the biblical patriarch Noah. Noah was a man of God in the time of the worldwide flood in early human history in Genesis 10. Genesis 10 provides the famous Table of Nations that lists 70 nations comprising everyone on Earth from that time to the present. The time of the Genesis 10 Table of Nations and Genesis 11 Tower of Babel in Sumeria or Mesopotamia in what is now Iraq is 3,000 or so years before Jesus Christ came into the world at His first coming or around 3,000 BC. The main and biblical reason I believe the 70 Noah nations of Genesis 10 are the nations for the Church to reach in the Great Commission and for Christians to try to reach more of in national Christian revivals is that there are several direct quotes in the New Testament from the Old Testament in verses with the world nation or Gentiles which is the same original language word. These verses do have an evangelistic context such as Acts 17:26 that uses the word "ethnos" for nation or "ethne" for all nations as in some or all of primary Great Commission verses Matthew 24:14, 28:18-20, Luke 24:44-49, Revelation 5:9, 7:9 etc. Also Acts 17:26 directly quotes Deuteronomy 32:8 where the original Hebrew word for nation there is "goy" or "goyim" which is also the Hebrew word for nation mentioned several times throughout the Table of Nations chapter in Genesis 10. There are other quotes from the New Testament in an evangelical sense for nations using the word "ethnos" for nation or Gentiles that quote from the Old Testament in verses that use the Hebrew word "goy" or "goyim" that is also used in Genesis 10. One other major New Testament verse or passage that several times in an evangelical sense uses the New Testament word nation or Gentiles "ethnos" to quote from the Old Testament word for nation or Gentiles is Romans 15:8-13. The Old Testament verses, that all use the word Gentiles (or nation) in an evangelical sense, that the New Testament passage Romans 15:8-13 quotes from are from the Old Testament books of Isaiah, Psalms and Deuteronomy namely Psalm 18:49, Isaiah 42:6, 7, Deuteronomy 32:43 and Isaiah 11:1, 10. In all these Old Testament verses the Hebrew word of nations or Gentiles "goy" or "goyim" is also the Hebrew word used for nation or Gentiles throughout the Table of Nations 70 nations who descended from Noah in Genesis 10 and that I believe still comprises all of us who are human beings on Earth today and since the time of Noah.
In conclusion, I believe it is important for us as Christians to better understand, as I recently came to better understand, that national Christian revivals are a combination of both deep seated and/or widespread conviction of sin and desire for righteousness among evangelical Christians and some openness to become Christians in the wider population of a nation and a nationalistic spirit or longing in a righteous sense by both Christians and some non-Christians. I also have come to believe it is better to have the basis of the nationalism in national Christian revivals seen in a more consistent way as the nations are viewed for the worldwide Great Commission or global Christian missions as both political nations or both "people group nations". I have come to more firmly believe we as evangelical Christians or any other people should not see the nations for global Christian missions as about 12,000 "people group nations" and nations for national Christian revivals as the more than 100 political nations of Earth. However, I think it is best to view nations or Gentiles for both national Christian revivals and the worldwide Great Commission to evangelize and disciple one's own nation and all the nations of the world respectively for both applications to be based on the 70 nations descended from Noah according to Genesis 10. These 70 Noah nations of all people on Earth in Noah's time through our time in the Old Testament chapter of Genesis 10 shortly after the worldwide flood around 3,000 BC are both the most consistent and more careful, literal in context Biblical interpretation and basis for nation or Gentiles in relation to both the worldwide Great Commission and national Christian revival of any particular nation.
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