The Kentucky Revival is Sugar-High Emotionalism
Beware of the rocky soil
Matthew 13:3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away.
20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away
Social media and online reporting has been exploding with stories and videos about an ongoing revival worship service happening at Asbury University in Kentucky. The revival began organically on February 8th and has been continuing non-stop since then. Students have been leading the praise service on a 24-hour basis almost two weeks straight. (Here are some links to various articles about the revival: FoxNews; Daily Mail; CNN; NY Post). As someone who grew up in the Protestant world and understands this environment, let me give a few thoughts on what is happening there and what, if any, our response should be.
REVIVALS LIKE THIS ARE FUELED BY EMOTION
Common among many Protestant services (especially among Evangelical, Non-Denominational & Pentecostal sects) is a high focus on the emotions of the attendees. The belief is that if you are experiencing high emotions at such events, then that is evidence that the Holy Ghost is present with you and working through you. Protestants do not participate in the New Covenant and the sacrifice of Calvary because they do not have a valid priesthood, so they cannot confect the bread and wine into the Eucharist during their “communion” celebrations.
They outright deny that the bread and wine could turn into the Eucharist, so it leads to “communion” being merely a symbolic event in their worship services. Since they do not have the Eucharist and their “communion” is only symbolic, some Protestant sects rarely have communion at all. The focus in their services is on the sermon from their pastor and/or the feelings they experience at the service.
So for these types of events, the emotion you are feeling is the purpose of the event. The higher the emotion, the more you are worshipping God. This is foundationally and fundamentally different from the Mass. At every Mass, we are participating in the New Covenant and we are present at the Last Supper and Calvary. The priest offers the Body and Blood of the Son to the Father through the Holy Ghost. This is the worship of the New Covenant. Protestants do not participate in this worship of the New Covenant, so a better descriptor of what they do is give veneration or honor to God. This veneration can take many forms but much of it is focused on how high their emotions at these services can become.
For example, when they are singing and playing music in these revivals, the music IS the veneration that they are offering to God. The music and the emotions it generates is the PURPOSE of the revival. The entire focus is on what emotions the believer is having and how intense those feelings become.
Some will point out that music and singing is part of the Mass, so aren’t these the same thing? The difference is that the music in Mass is to SUPPLEMENT the worship that is being offered on the altar in the Eucharist. The music is in service to the worship of offering the Body and Blood of the Son to the Father through the Holy Ghost. If the music is not present at the Mass, the Mass still goes on and the offering to the Father still happens.
So what this all means is that the higher the emotions a person experiences at revivals like this, the more intensely they are experiencing the presence of the Holy Ghost. Higher emotions mean you are worshipping God more. Naturally a Protestant who thinks this way will look to experience these emotions more and more, with greater intensity. It ends up being similar to a sugar rush of emotions.
This can cause a believer’s faith to sprout very quickly like the rocky soil of the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. The immense growth in faith they experience is fueled by intense emotions, but like the rocky soil, they don’t have deep roots, which is a deep and substantive knowledge of God that is ready to be tested through tough times. So eventually when the emotions of these events fade, the believer is left with shallow roots and their faith dries up and withers. Sadly chasing after the emotionalism of these events will most likely lead to a falling away when the emotions ebb away.
THE HUMAN NEED FOR CONFESSION
On the Steve Deace Show, beginning at the 1 hour 19 minute mark in this video, Steve has an interview with a student who was participating in the event and gives first hand testimony about the revival. A couple of important things to note that are happening at this revival, namely the confessions people are making and the pilgrimages others are undertaking to participate in this revival.
First, people are coming forward to talk at the revival, and one thing many of them are doing is confessing their sins to the crowd and encouraging others who may be committing those sins to turn away from them. This is one of the few instances of Protestants actually following what Scripture says about confessing our sins.
James 5:13 Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. 14 Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.
Now this might confuse some people, since Confession in the Christian faith is private and not a public act. But this was not true in the early Church. Confession in the early Christian faith was public and it was held immediately before the Mass began. The reason for this is practical and necessary, since the Catholic Church was being viciously persecuted at this time. If a Christian had committed the sin of betraying the Church, all of the Church needed to know it so they could protect themselves.
It continued this way for quite some time, until the Church realized that this public confession of sins could cause some to not partake in the sacrament and thereby remain in mortal sin and risk their eternal damnation. So to prevent this, the Church changed the sacrament of Confession to being exclusively a private act to encourage the faithful to frequent the sacrament and receive forgiveness of their sins.
But this understanding of the truth about Confession in the Christian faith is lost on most Protestants. The vast bulk of Protestants deny the sacrament of Confession and reject Christ’s act of giving His priests the authority to forgive sins. But as we see in the verses above, Christians are literally commanded to call the priests and confess their sins to them. Most Protestants don’t even know this command is in the Bible. They have spiritual blinders on that prevent them from seeing it when they read the Bible.
The reality of the situation though is that Christ set up the sacrament of Confession for multiple reasons, and one of those reasons is that He knows us better than we know ourselves, and He knows that we NEED to confess our sins. And He knows that we need to VOCALLY confess those sins to another human. Anyone who has been away from Confession for a long time will tell you that when they finally go back to the sacrament, it is like an unfathomable weight has been lifted from their shoulders.
This revival having people publicly confessing their sins is just proof that deep down this is a spiritual need for humans and these Protestants are finally experiencing just a small bit of natural grace from confessing their sins. They don’t receive the supernatural grace of the sacrament of Confession, but they can receive some natural grace that God may grant them from it. It speaks to the truth of the Catholic faith and why it is so important for Catholics to evangelize Protestants. Protestants have the RIGHT to know the full truth about the Christian faith and have a RIGHT to decide for themselves if they will join the New Covenant that Christ has offered to all mankind.
PILGRIMAGES
As some of the articles are noting, there are thousands of people who are travelling to this small town to join in and participate in this revival. So many are showing up that the huge influx of people is causing serious problems because the town is simply not capable of handling crowds this large. They don’t have the infrastructure of hotels, restaurants, amenities and services to be able to handle this many people. Hopefully they can solve any logistical issues that have arisen. But this goes again to show a truth that Catholics have known for two millennia that some Protestants are just now discovering, namely that pilgrimages are incredibly beneficial to the spiritual growth of a believer.
Catholics have pilgrimage sites all over the world, mainly because the Catholic Church has an army of saints and holy people in her 2000 years, who have built up Christendom and devoted their lives to God. The places they lived and where they performed their miracles are now revered sites of pilgrimage. This includes the holy lands and the cathedrals where the bones of the Apostles are housed. Faithful believers have been visiting these places for centuries upon centuries, even before the conveniences of modern travel. They make these pilgrimages because they can offer incredible amounts of spiritual growth and learning.
HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND?
Acts 5:33 When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. 34 But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, respected by all the people, stood up and ordered the men to be put outside for a short time. 35 Then he said to them, “Fellow Israelites, consider carefully what you propose to do to these men. 36 For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him; but he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and disappeared. 37 After him Judas the Galilean rose up at the time of the census and got people to follow him; he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered. 38 So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone; because if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail; 39 but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them—in that case you may even be found fighting against God!”
In the Steve Deace Show, Steve cites this passage from Scripture when discussing whether people should support this revival or view it with skepticism. While this is generally sound advice given in this Scripture passage, in this instance there are a few differences that have to be laid out. First things first, the Pharisees could punish the Apostles through legal authority. No one is attempting to shut down this revival and no one is trying to punish them. Secondly, there is a moral responsibility for Christians to warn people that this revival could be the rocky soil that Christ warned about in Matthew 13.
So hopefully this post serves as a caution to everyone to be skeptical of this revival, knowing that these young people may be very earnest in their veneration of God, but they have many theological errors and do not participate in the New Covenant that Christ established. Everyone should be cautious with this revival. The Holy Ghost might use this revival for His purposes in ways we can’t even see, and end up leading these young people to the Church Jesus built. Who knows!
Fair and well written.
While I agree that we can’t solely rely on emotion, and that my emotions are not even the point of true worship, I have to humbly push back. I don’t think we can possibly know if, when, how, where, or why God moves. I’m a recovering alcoholic and drug addict/ dealer, whose most profound spiritual experience occurred 18years ago in a jail cell when I considered myself agnostic and didn’t know what a sacrament was. Now I teach Religion in a Catholic middle school. God’s *really* big. Thank you very much for the article. Please keep up the good work! We need you.