The Revivalist in the Bible

A revivalist, in biblical terms, is a man or woman whom God raises up to call his people back to himself, proclaiming repentance and pointing to renewed life in God. While the Bible does not use the modern word "revivalist," it is full of such figures: prophets, kings, scribes, and apostles whose preaching and leadership sparked seasons of turning to the Lord. Their power was never in technique but in faithful proclamation of God's word and a holy summons to repent. Jonah is perhaps the most surprising revivalist. Sent to the pagan city of Nineveh, he preached a stark message: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" (Jonah 3:4). The response was astonishing: "And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them" (Jonah 3:5). A whole city repented at the preaching of one reluctant prophet, showing that revival is finally God's work through his word. At Pentecost, Peter became a revivalist of the new covenant. "And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, 'Save yourselves from this crooked generation'" (Acts 2:40). The result was a harvest of grace: "So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls" (Acts 2:41). Some revivalists were leaders who renewed God's covenant publicly. King Josiah, after the rediscovery of the Law, "stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments" (2 Chronicles 34:31), leading the nation back to true worship. When Ezra read the Law to the returned exiles, the scribe and the people responded in reverent worship: "And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, 'Amen, Amen,' lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground" (Nehemiah 8:6). The revivalist's ministry continues in the early church. Philip "went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ" (Acts 8:5), and great joy came to that city as many believed. In every case the pattern is the same: God sends a messenger, the word of God is proclaimed, people repent and believe, and worship is restored. The revivalist is not the source of revival but its herald, calling God's people and the nations to return and live.