Francis Schaeffer wrote the following words in 1968:
We live in a post-Christian world. What should be our perspective as individuals, as institutions, as orthodox Christians, as those who would claim to be Bible-believing? How should we look at this post-Christian world and function as Christians in it?
The church in our generation needs reformation,revival, and constructive revolution.
At times men think of two words, reformation and revival, as standing in contrast to the other, but this is a mistake. Both words are related to the word restore.
Reformation gives to a restoration to pure doctrine; revival refers to a restoration in the Christian’s life. Reformation speaks of a return to the teachings of Scripture; revival speaks of a life brought into its proper relationship to the Holy Spirit.
The great moments of church history have come when these two restorations have simultaneously come into action so that the church has returned to pure doctrine and the lives of Christians in the church have known the power of the Holy Spirit.
Such a combination of reformation and revival would be revolutionary in our day – revolutionary in our individual lives as Christians, revolutionary not only in reference to the liberal church but constructively revolutionary in the evangelical, orthodox church as well.
May we be those who know the reality of both reformation and revival so that this poor dark world may have an exhibition of a portion of the church returned to both pure doctrine and Spirit-filled life.
(Death in the City, pp. 11-12)
2014 is no different! May God bring us reformation and revival leading to constructive revolution!
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