by Bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr.
Historically, revivals have brought both spiritual and social change. Although the Azusa Street Revival influenced the known world of its day more than 100 years ago, most modern scholars agree that it could have had a more powerful and lasting effect on America. Unfortunately, its major purposes were never fully understood in 1906.
The concept that a revival can "misfire" or achieve only a fraction of its intended purpose is seen in Matthew 23:37-38 when Jesus said: "'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate'" (NKJV). In that passage, Jesus was lamenting that though God had sent prophets with a revival message of deliverance, the word went unheeded. If they had responded, the Lord could have taken Jerusalem to higher spiritual ground and protected its inhabitants from calamity.
Throughout U.S. history, God has sent at least one major revival each century to help the nation navigate into His deeper purposes. The First Great Awakening in the 1730s and 1740s brought most Americans into a unified understanding of the Christian faith. Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians flourished alongside more established denominations as the church demonstrated spiritual unity without conformity and persecution.
This revived Christian community developed a burden for education, and founded colleges to equip believers to take the gospel to every corner of the world, including the marketplace. They also began to realize that the church had a responsibility to create an atmosphere of social justice for Native Americans and African-Americans.
In many ways, the Second Great Awakening, from 1790 to 1840, built upon the virtues of the first. This revival reminded the nation of its calling to know Christ and His power, helped advance voting rights and social equality for women, and emboldened those working to end slavery.
