If you listen to Breakpoint, I trust it's because it provides you with clarity about what's going on in culture today. That's the goal, to help Christians view our ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth, so they can live like Christians today. It takes ongoing work for the Breakpoint team to make this happen day in and day out, and this requires ongoing support. Our Cornerstone Monthly Partners offer the most consistent level of support by giving monthly at whatever amount they choose. Before the end of October, we're asking the Lord to provide 220 more Cornerstone Monthly Partners to support the ongoing production of Breakpoint.
In return, they receive exclusive benefits from us. To help us continue bringing clarity to Christians everywhere, become a Cornerstone Monthly Partner today at colsoncenter.org slash October. Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. The memorial service for Charlie Kirk was likely the largest evangelistic event in human history.
Over 70,000 people crowded into the stadium and an estimated 100 to 150 million more watched the service on television and online. Afterwards, on social media posts, people were describing how they were returning to church, attending for the first time, recommitting their lives to follow Christ, or declaring a long concealed faith. Many people have described the memorial and its aftermath as as an indication of revival. That makes sense, given that church attendance is on the rise, especially among younger Americans, a number that spiked again in recent weeks, rising another 15% after Charlie Kirk's memorial. There's also, of course, the quiet revival of the UK, public baptisms at colleges and universities, some of them most notably at the Ohio State University, hosted by the football team.
The awakening at Asbury University, the much-discussed vibe shift across various aspects of American culture. Is revival the correct word for what we are witnessing? And if it is, what should we be doing? How now shall we live?
Well, perhaps no figure in history is better suited to advise us on these matters than Jonathan Edwards. Perhaps America's greatest intellect and someone who played a critical role in America's first great awakening. Even more, he studied the awakening. He sought to understand it, describe it. to discern between revival and its excesses.
As a New England colonial preacher, Edward was grieved by the spiritual decline that he had sensed around him. In response, he spent much time praying and working in expectation that God would eventually bring revival. In seventeen thirty one Edwards preached a series of sermons that turned dozens, and eventually hundreds, to the Lord. He was both witness to the awakening and its most important chronicler. hoping to help the Church recognize signs of the Holy Spirit moving among a people.
In his Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God, Edwards identified five marks of true revival. Five marks that can also help us evaluate this current moment. First, Edwards wrote, A true revival is focused on the person and work of Jesus Christ. The Spirit always glorifies Christ, not human leaders, not emotional experiences. Quote, if the Spirit's work in the hearts and lives of people brings about greater reverence for Jesus Christ, Edwards wrote, then we can rightly say it is from the Spirit of God.
A second mark, Edwards noted, is that, and I quote, the man who has an awakened conscience is the least likely to be deceived of any man in the world. In other words, true revival always involves opposing evil. allowing the once blind to recognize Satan's work more clearly. People are led away from sin toward righteousness, humility, godliness. And of course, this requires a clear call to repentance.
Third, true revival is always grounded in the Bible. And in awakening, people are led to study and believe and obey Scripture over and above their subjective experiences or desires. As Edwards put it, the spirit is at work when, quote, God's word is highly regarded. A fourth marker revival involves the proclaiming and promotion of sound doctrine and theological depth. According to Edwards, and I quote, if people who cared nothing for sound doctrine now begin to prize it, We can safely suppose the Spirit of God is responsible for the change.
In other words, strong emotion is not a sufficient sign for a revival for Edwards. Interest in doctrine and a willingness to be challenged by it. Is the mark that the Spirit is actually leading people to truth. Finally, Edwards believed that true revival would produce love, humility, and unity among believers, not self-aggrandizement or division. In a remarkably timely sentence that was written centuries ago, Edwards distinguished between self-love, which he called counterfeit love, and true love, quote, that arises from the wonderful riches of the free grace and sovereignty of God's love to us in Jesus Christ, end quote.
Now, many of these marks have been clearly evident in the events of the last several weeks and even before that, but especially at the memorial service, Christ was proclaimed, repentance was encouraged, evil was directly opposed, interest in the Bible and doctrine has been renewed, and for all of these things we can thank God. Another interesting parallel with Edward's time, as he detailed in his faithful narrative about that awakening, is the burden he felt for young people to embrace and follow Christ. Edwards told of two untimely deaths that shocked and stirred the community, but especially the youth. In the aftermath, young people began to turn to God in droves, and this echoed earlier revivals under Edward's grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. Today, we can also thank God that he's not just moving, but he's specifically moving among young people.
High school, college-age students through the life and especially the death of Charlie Kirk. Chuck Colson wrote this about Jonathan Edwards: quote, the Western church, much of it drifting, enculturated, infected with cheap grace, desperately needs to hear Jonathan Edwards' challenge. And we certainly do have much to learn from Jonathan Edwards, not only how to recognize the hand of God moving in the world around us, but to expect the hand of God to move, to pray, and to work to that end. No, we cannot manufacture revival, but that should not keep us from hoping and praying and working for revival. We can also learn from Edwards to be on guard against excess and ungrounded emotionalism, but also to not succumb to cynicism, which so many have.
We should expect God to bring awakening. What a shame it would be. To miss a movement of God. Because it came in a form we didn't recognize or expect, or even worse, not the form we wanted. Jesus had a thing or two to say about those who were unable to see God at work.
And he also said that unless a grain of wheat Falls into the earth and dies. It remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. We should pray for fruit at this time. We should also work for it and we should expect it.
For the Coulson Center. I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast.
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