“Do you think I have come to bring peace on earth?” said Jesus. “No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on there will be five in one household divided, three against two and two against three” (Luke 12:51-2).
We live in a time when this scripture is more than ever being fulfilled. The mood in our culture is fractious, anger is rife, and even close families are being rent asunder by social and political discord.
I wonder if, like me, you have noticed that there has been no major North American revival in the twenty-first century? The last century was full of revivals, one after another, all characterized by great miracles, powerful preaching, conversions, and other manifestations of the Holy Spirit. Sadly, every one of these revivals died out.
The last great revival of which I am personally aware was the Toronto Blessing, which lasted continuously for some twenty years. Alas, it is no more, and nothing comparable has replaced it. Why not? Has God given up on us?
In a sense, yes. I believe God has given up on trying to get our attention by means of spectacular moves of the Holy Spirit. When the Pharisees said to Jesus, “We want to see a sign from You,” the Lord answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign. But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah” (Mt 12:38-9). The sign of Jonah was the crucifixion and the resurrection, which only true believers could possibly comprehend and receive.
What is the sign of Jonah in our own day? What is the litmus test of true faith, the door so narrow that only true believers can enter? The Apostle Paul wrote, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Eph 4:31-2). In a contentious time, when bitterness, rage, and divisiveness reign in so many hearts, the only remedy is love.
Before Jesus began His ministry on earth, John the Baptist came to prepare the way for Him though baptism. People who repented and were baptized were ready to receive the kingdom of God; people who did not, were not ready and missed it. Given that a sign of preparation was necessary to receive the first coming of Jesus, do you not think such a sign might be necessary for His second coming? That sign, that mark of preparedness, is love. Holy, heavenly love. Only hearts that are completely submitted to love will be ready and able to receive the next coming of Christ. Those who resist love, who fight against it and refuse to surrender their enmity, will fall by the wayside.
“In the evening of life,” wrote St. John of the Cross, “you will be examined in love.” Here in North America, in the evening of our culture, the examination of love is taking place. Every human civilization has died, has passed away, and now ours too is on the way out. Moral decline is so far advanced among us that the only sign we will be given is the sign of Jonah. The only revival that is coming is the revival of love.
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