Is A New Wave of Faith Rolling In?
By Jay Rogers
Published April 1991
Tom Wolfe, Megatrends authors John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene, and Harvard Professor Peter Gomes are just a few of the experts predicting a trend toward faith and religion on the university campuses of America. This new tack, which students have been taking, shows no signs of letting up. Indeed, the degree of religious fervor shown by young people in the 1990s may make the light of the “Jesus Movement” of the early 1970s look dim, say social commentators.
At a speaking engagement at the University of Florida on March 27th, New-Journalist-turned-social-commentator, Tom Wolfe said he was “taking notes” and indicated that a university campus might be the setting of a future novel. “Somebody should write a book about the University of Florida,” said the author of Bonfire of the Vanities and The Right Stuff.
Religious movements in the United States and university life are two subjects that Wolfe would like to tackle in a future novel. “We’re certainly going to see, for the next ten years anyway, a lot of racial politics in a way and to an extent we haven’t seen before,” Wolfe added on a side note.
John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene, authors of the best selling Megatrends 2000, have included a chapter in their book entitled “Religious Revival of the Third Millennium,” which describes the “unmistakable signs of a worldwide multi-denom-inational religious revival.” Naisbitt and Aburdene claim that the revival will intensify as we approach the year 2000.
A post-modern global phenomenon is now taking place, say the acclaimed authors. “Chinese and Soviet young people are fascinated by Christianity and enjoy attending church to the dismay of their Communist-schooled elders.” The university campuses are being included in this movement. If not the focal point, United States’ campuses will be caught up in a worldwide intensification of the Christian faith.
Theologian Harvey Cox, who has taught as many as 1000 students in his course, “Jesus and the Moral Life” (one of the biggest classes at Harvard University), describes a growing trend which he says was “unforeseen by forecasters 25 years ago, who predicted that religion would whither away because of modernity.”
According to a recent issue of The Harvard Independent, “The prominence of religion in Harvard’s classrooms and lecture halls has grown over the past two decades … Just 20 years ago, however there was no religion concentration at Harvard … Now students flock to courses such as ‘Jesus’ and ‘The Bible.’”
Peter Gomes, professor of Christian morals, says, “The reason that those courses are so popular is that students are literally hungering and thirsting for righteousness. They are prepared to ask naïve questions, such as, ‘What is good?’ (and) ‘What is evil?’ The closest things you’ll get to answers are in those courses.”
On the West Coast, pastor Chuck Smith founder of Calvary Chapel, the focal point of the early 1970s “Jesus Movement,” claims that there is an even greater hunger among young people than at any point during the early 1970s. According to Smith, this spiritual awakening is “not over yet!”
Where is all of this newfound faith leading us? It is probable that we are on the upward side of a trend that will result in the “Third Great Awakening.” In the 1700s, America, Germany and England experienced an awakening of the Christian faith that transformed society. In the 1800s, the Second Great Awakening swept through America and Europe bringing an end to slavery and a renewed definition of human rights.
Now, as we approach the end of the 20th century, a new awakening is just emerging. This revival will bring the eradication of communism and dictatorship as a form of government throughout the world. Christianity will replace Islam and Eastern religions as the world’s predominant faith. We will begin to see the “Great Commission” which Jesus Christ spoke of fulfilled, in which all the nations of the world will be transformed by the gospel message .
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Massacre of Innocence (DVD)
Exposing The Occult Roots of Abortion
This presentation looks at the spiritual roots of abortion and exposes the myths surrounding child killing. Little known historical facts about abortion and how they relate to modern feminism are presented logically and accurately. Has been effective in converting many to a pro-life position.
Massacre of Innocence goes where no pro-life presentation has gone before in “tearing the lid off abortion” to reveal the spiritual realities we must battle if we will bring an end to this crime. The presentation is absorbing, fast-paced, informative and incredibly devastating to any attempt to justify abortion.
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Running time: 85 minutes
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Reversing Roe: The Norma McCorvey Story (DVD)
In 1969, a pregnant 21 year old Norma McCorvey felt abortion was her only answer. He case was used to challenge the Texas abortion law and she eventually became the Jane Roe of the 1973 US Supreme Court decision, Roe v Wade. She never had an abortion, but instead became an icon in the national abortion debate. For 22 years, Norma McCorvey’s life was a battlefield. She worked inside abortion clinics. She promoted legalized abortion. But she was tormented by what she saw and felt. In the summer of 1995, her life changed forever.
Through the friendship of a pro-life leader and a special invitation from a 7-year old child, Jane Roe finally died so Norma Leah McCorvey could live. This is her story.
Running Time: 28 minutes
Watch a clip from Reversing Roe.
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The Real Jesus: A Defense of the Historicity and Divinity of Christ (DVD)
Who is the Real Jesus?
Ever since the dawn of modern rationalism, skeptics have sought to use textual criticism, archeology and historical reconstructions to uncover the “historical Jesus” — a wise teacher who said many wonderful things, but fulfilled no prophecies, performed no miracles and certainly did not rise from the dead in triumph over sin.
Over the past 100 years, however, startling discoveries in biblical archeology and scholarship have all but vanquished the faulty assumptions of these doubting modernists. Regrettably, these discoveries have often been ignored by the skeptics as well as by the popular media. As a result, the liberal view still holds sway in universities and impacts the culture and even much of the church.
The Real Jesus explodes the myths of these critics and the movies, books and television programs that have popularized their views. Presented in ten parts — perfect for individual, family and classroom study — viewers will be challenged to go deeper in their knowledge of Christ in order to be able to defend their faith and present the truth to a skeptical modern world – that the Jesus of the Gospels is the Jesus of history — “the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). He is the real Jesus.
Speakers include: George Grant, Ted Baehr, Stephen Mansfield, Raymond Ortlund, Phil Kayser, David Lutzweiler, Jay Grimstead, J.P. Holding, and Eric Holmberg.
Ten parts, over two hours of instruction!
Running Time: 130 minutes
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Abortion Clinic 911 Calls (DVD)
Exposes the Dangers of Abortion to Women!
These shocking eyewitness accounts expose the dangers of abortion not only to unborn children, but to the health and lives women as well. An antidote to the smokescreens of the liberal media, these six short clips show what really happens in and around abortion clinics.
Although the content is emotionally gut-wrenching, these videos have been used in church seminars and small groups to educate Christians on the abortion issue and to lead people toward a pro-life position.
Watch these pro-life videos on-line.
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The Abortion Matrix: Defeating Child Sacrifice and the Culture of Death (DVD)
Download the free Study Guide!
Is there a connection between pagan religion and the abortion industry?
This powerful presentation traces the biblical roots of child sacrifice and then delves into the social, political and cultural fall-out that this sin against God and crime against humanity has produced in our beleaguered society.
Conceived as a sequel and update to the 1988 classic, The Massacre of Innocence, the new title, The Abortion Matrix, is entirely fitting. It not only references abortion’s specific target – the sacred matrix where human beings are formed in the womb in the very image of God, but it also implies the existence of a conspiracy, a matrix of seemingly disparate forces that are driving this holocaust.
The occult activity surrounding the abortion industry is exposed with numerous examples. But are these just aberrations, bizarre yet anomalous examples of abortionists who just happen to have ties to modern day witchcraft? Or is this representative of something deeper, more sinister and even endemic to the entire abortion movement?
As the allusion to the film of over a decade ago suggests, the viewer may learn that things are not always as they appear to be. The Abortion Matrix reveals the reality of child-killing and strikes the proper moral chord to move hearts to fulfill the biblical responsibility to rescue those unjustly sentenced to death and to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves (Proverbs 24:11,12; 31:8,9).
Speakers include: George Grant, Peter Hammond, RC Sproul Jr., Paul Jehle, Lou Engle, Rusty Thomas, Flip Benham, Janet Porter and many more.
Ten parts, over three hours of instruction!
Running Time: 195 minutes
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