Transcript
A (0:01)
Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet. Have reports of a revival of Christianity in the Western world been, to paraphrase Mark Twain, greatly exaggerated? Last week the Bible Society of the UK pulled down a much discussed report that had suggested that the nation was undergoing what they called a quiet revival. On their website, CEO Paul Williams admitted that, and I quote here, the 2024 survey sample on which our report the quiet revival was based was faulty. It can no longer be regarded as a reliable source of information about the spiritual landscape in Britain. End quote. Well, the data in question had been compiled by market research group YouGov, who recently acknowledged that it had not employed the usual quality controls and had included responses that are now known to be fraudulent. In their own statement, the YouGov CEO said this, quote, yougov takes full responsibility for the outputs of the 2024 research and we apologize for what's happened. We would like to stress that the Bible Society has at all times accurately and responsibly reported the data we supplied to them. The Bible Society report, which had coined the phrase quiet revival, was issued in April of last year. It claimed that, and I quote, church decline in England and Wales has not only stopped, but the church is growing as Gen Z leads an exciting turnaround in church attendance. A few months later, Times columnist James Marriott published a lengthy essay describing the young converts filling UK churches. What Marriott called in the essay a comeback for Christianity is, he said, due to a backlash against secularism set against the backdrop of global turmoil and a search for lost meaning and connection. Even then, Marriott had written that the Bible Society report had already been bitterly disputed. And yet, he continued, and I quote, christianity undoubtedly has a new energy and Christianity's status in public life is much improved. Among the things he had pointed to as proof of such claims were recent high profile conversions, popular endorsements of Christianity and the rising church attendance he was seeing in some places. And for his part, even as he admits that to receive the faulty data had been frustrating and disappointing, Bible Society CEO Paul Williams maintained that when it comes to Christianity in the UK and the wider Western world, there is in fact a very positive story to tell. And he's not wrong. I quote here what he wrote. Over the past year we've seen an unprecedented public conversation about Christianity with countless stories of a spiritual awakening among Gen Z along greatly increased Bible sales in the uk, growing numbers of adult baptisms and confirmations, and increased attendance at evangelism courses. This wider picture is also supported by a number of other surveys based on probability sampling, which point to an increased engagement in faith among young adults compared to older generations, end quote he then offered the following summary of what he thinks can be said about the state of religion there despite these new revelations about the study that they reported. Quote While religious identity overall is shifting from Christian to no religion, Christianity in Britain appears to be moving from a declining nominal faith to a committed and active one as cultural shifts, especially among young people, encourage a more proactive search for identity, meaning and purpose. Of course, here in the US especially in the weeks after the assassination of Charlie Kirk and his memorial service, the largest evangelistic event in human history, some claim that America was experiencing revival. But today, months later, there's far less energy behind such claims and much less evidence of a lasting return to church. At the same time, we can be thankful for the so called vibe shift that has left America in a much different place on a few very consequential moral issues. In the end, it could be that Marriott's analysis is the most accurate of America, as well as that we're witnessing younger generations reacting against confusion, against meaninglessness, and against the ideological totalitarianism of modern secularism. However, we must remember that just rebelling against what's clearly not true is not the same as embracing what is true. In his distinguishing marks of a Work of the Spirit of God, the great 18th century revivalist Jonathan Edwards identified five marks of true revival. These marks can also help us evaluate this current moment. True revival, Edwards said, is focused on Jesus Christ, opposes sin and evil, is grounded in the Bible, promotes sound doctrine, and produces love, humility, and unity among believers rather than arrogance and division. If those are indeed true marks of revival, especially by that last mark, it is premature at best to think we are experiencing a revival in America. And yet, perhaps what's most helpful to learn from Edwards is that we guard against excess and ungrounded emotionalism on one hand, and also not succumb to cynicism on the other hand. Christians should expect God to be at work, even 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, that we didn't want. Instead, we must remember that we cannot manufacture what only God can do. Our place is to pray and to work and to expect. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet with Breakpoint. If you appreciate these daily commentaries, please leave us a review wherever you download your podcast, and for a version of this commentary that you can download or share with others, go to BreakPoint.org