In a sermon on Isaiah 32:13-19, “The Happy Effects of the Pouring Out of the Holy Spirit”, Samuel Davies stated concerning the need for such an outpouring of the Spirit:
The pouring out of the Spirit is a Scripture phrase, which signifies a plentiful communication of his influence to effect a thorough reformation. It is not a distilling, or falling in gentle drops, like the dew; but a copious effusion, or pouring out, like a mighty shower, or torrent that carries all before it. Now, as the communication of the Spirit is necessary to produce a reformation, so a large communication, or outpouring of the Spirit, is necessary to produce a public, general reformation; such as may save a country on the brink of ruin, or recover one already laid desolate. Without this remedy, all other applications will be ineffectual; and the distempered body politic will languish more and more, till it is at length dissolved. Until this outpouring of the Spirit, says the prophet, “briers and thorns shall come upon the land; and the houses of joy, the palaces, and towers, shall be heaps of ruins, dens for wild beats, and pastures for flocks.” Until that blessed time come, no means can effectually repair a broken state, or repeople a desolate country. [Samuel Davies, Sermons of the Rev. Samuel Davies (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1995), 3:208].
In the class I recently taught via zoom to students at the Moscow Reformed Theological Seminary on the History of Christian Missions, the necessity and importance of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was clearly seen. We call that large outpouring of the Spirit by the name of the Jewish Festival with which it is associated in the Scripture—Pentecost. That first Pentecost of the New Testament Christian Church was not the only one in the history of the Church. There were smaller Pentecosts that took place at Samaria through the preaching of Philip; at Caesarea Maritime through the preaching of Peter at the house of Cornelius; and at Ephesus through the ministry of Paul. But Pentecost did not cease with the death of the last Apostle. There have been several examples of various Pentecosts in the history of Christian missions, but not nearly as many as the Church needs. God is sovereign in this matter as in all others.
The Protestant Reformation is an example of a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the 16th century. The greatness of the Reformers and their insight into the Scriptures was not achieved by their diligence in study alone. Great truths were rediscovered because the Holy Spirit gave them new eyes. The Reformers had such great assurance of their salvation because of the plentitude of the Spirit’s anointing that rested on them. They also had the boldness to withstand the powerful assaults on their character and their very lives from the Roman Catholic Church. They could not have done those things without a large outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Yet, Europe was so dominated by the Catholic Church, and had been for so long, that the Continent remained mostly under Catholic control, especially after the Counter-Reformation which regained much of what was lost to Protestantism.
Then, the Spirit of God was poured out in great measure on the countries that comprise Great Britain in the latter part of the 16th century and especially in the 17th century. There were various movements in that direction before King Henry VIII broke the Church of England away from Rome, but his eagerness to have a male heir for the throne was one of those sinful actions of men that are used in the Lord’s providence to advance the cause of truth. The great group of men known as the Puritans arose out of Henry’s battles with the Pope and those men proved to be one of the greatest blessings to the Church since the days of the Apostles. The great writings of the Puritans can be accounted for by nothing other than the abundant effusion of the Holy Spirit. All lovers of truth are blessed and have been blessed by the writings of the Puritans. A large number of American Christians have read Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and other such works. Of course, Bunyan was a Puritan who suffered greatly during the persecution of Protestants and Non-conformists by King Charles II. He wrote several of his books from the jail in the little town of Bedford, England where he was imprisoned for holding services contrary to the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England. That mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit enabled those Puritan pastors and church members to bear their persecution as the saints of old. Some of the Puritans were imprisoned in Great Britain. Some of them were shackled in manacles and paraded through the streets as criminals. Some of them were exiled first to Holland and then to America. In many ways, America was the greatest beneficiary of the persecution of the Puritans because it was a New World where they could establish a new country with Christian laws.
The next great instance of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was the Great Awakening which took place from the early 1730’s to the mid-1750’s. The Great Awakening primarily was a further revival of both Great Britain and America with ministers in both countries being mightily used in this new work of the Lord. While America has a Puritan foundation, the heartbeat of Christianity in this country has been the type of religion that was brought to the forefront in the Great Awakening through George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Gilbert Tennent, Samuel Davies and others. It was Christianity come to its own, but it only happened because of the mighty effusion of the Holy Spirit. So, for nearly two centuries the Holy Spirit was being poured out above measure in Europe, Great Britain, and America. The Great Awakening in America was and has been the grad secret to any success this nation has experienced. Christianity has been vital and vibrant in America for most of that time because we have lived off the truths inculcated by the Spirit to our spiritual fathers. Those days are quickly drawing to an end in America and we need another mighty effusion of the Spirit or else we will become just another pagan-dominated country.
The next great Pentecost took place in 1907 with what is called the Korean Pentecost. There is a book by the Banner of Truth that was written by missionaries to Korea. The result of that Pentecost is that Korea has become the most Presbyterian nation in the world with more Presbyterians than any other nation.
Now, here are a few lessons we learn from the importance of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. First, the history of Christian missions shows very clearly how difficult it is to preach the gospel to a pagan country unless the Holy Spirit is poured out. There might be smaller revivals because of the special anointing of the missionary, but great reformations do not come from small outpourings. Second, the nations that have been most influenced by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit have been Great Britain, Holland, America, and Korea. In each of those places, there were large effusions of the Spirit. Third, the most Protestant nations in the world have been the recipients of the greatest measure of the outpouring of the Spirit. Those also are the most-missionary minded countries and have been the backbone of Protestant Christian missions to the heathen nations.
There are other lessons I gleaned from teaching this class and I will share more of them in future emails.
Dewey Roberts, Pastor of Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Destin, FL