The Three "R's" of Christianity: The Power to Transform Culture
By Jay Rogers
Published February 1994
SOME MODERN EDUCATORS HAVE DISCOVERED the truth that the teachers of one-room school houses of the 1800s new well: for a child to excel in study, he must learn to become a self-educator. The child is taught the basics (or the three R’s) which are the basis of all learning skills. If these are mastered early on, the student becomes self-governing and is prepared for all areas of study.
Christianity, also, has the three “R’s” of faith: revival, reformation and restoration. If mastered, these three powerful truths will equip the Church to be the cultural transformer she was destined to be. The Church must begin with the historical orthodox faith and then build upon this foundation with subsequent principles of cultural transformation. Let’s define three of these principles:
REVIVAL – This begins with a recovery of the Lord’s testimony in a given generation. The resulting effect of the revived Church on society with large numbers of people being converted is termed a spiritual awakening.
REFORMATION – This is defined as the corresponding effect of a spiritual awakening on a particular society. Great social reforms occur due to the sanctifying power of a revived Church acting as a redeemer to its culture.
RESTORATION – This occurs as each successive wave of revival restores great truths which were part of the normal experience for the early Church of the apostolic age, but had been lost during the time of the Middle Ages.
These three great forces, working together throughout time, have brought us to a crucial juncture in history. We desperately need to understand what God has accomplished in the past and to examine the current state of world affairs. The purpose of such understanding is to create an atmosphere within the Church of our generation which is conducive to yet another wave of revival which will reform the nations and complete the Great Commission. As we begin to understand the mechanism through which God was worked in the past, we will be able to have hope for the future.
We should realize that there is revival happening all over the world today. There is spiritual awakening which has swept hundreds of millions of people into the Kingdom of God within the last decade. There is revival in Africa, South America, the former Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China, the South Pacific Islands, and Southeast Asia. The sheer volume of people coming to know Christ in this “World Awakening” not only rivals but even surpasses what happened in America in centuries past.
One of the most obvious effects of spiritual awakening in the world today was in dealing a death blow to communism – the dreaded enemy of liberty and Christian culture. Although the secular press has not presented this fact, the Church was more instrumental in bringing the downfall of many communist governments throughout the world than any other single force.
We can understand what is next on the agenda by examining God’s promises to his Church, especially those found in Isaiah 60 and those found in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). As we turn to our own nation and Europe, we see that the supposedly “Christian” nations of the world today are sadly deficient in terms of revival experience. Nevertheless, in times of great darkness in America’s past revival has dawned bringing new light and hope. So we can hope and pray for a Great Awakening in America which will surpass all past experience.
In our own nation, we can see that the coming awakening will bring an end to abortion – America’s number one social problem. Reform efforts of a revived Church will also overthrow ungodly influences in art, music and the sciences. We can expect that lewd homosexual art, rock music, and the theory of evolution will be targets of the awakened Church. The many social problems our nation now faces – sexual immorality, AIDS, racial problems, economic woes – are reformation tasks for the Church of the new awakening.
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Dr. Francis Schaeffer - How Should We Then Live? (DVD)
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After 40 years of intense study and world-wide ministry, Dr. Francis Schaeffer completed his crowning work of scholarship – to present profound truths in simple film language. Dr. Schaeffer’s brilliant analysis of the past and predictions for current trends have proven so uncannily accurate that this amazing series still feels contemporary almost three decades after its initial release. Ultimately, Schaeffer concludes that man’s only hope is a return to God’s Biblical absolute, the truth revealed in Christ through the Scriptures.
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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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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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Dr. Francis Schaeffer - A Christian Manifesto (DVD)
That Swiss Hermit Strikes Again!
Dr. Schaeffer, who was one of the most influential Christian thinkers in the twentieth century, shows that secular humanism has displaced the Judeo-Christian consensus that once defined our nation’s moral boundaries. Law, education, and medicine have all been reshaped for the worse as a consequence. America’s dominant worldview changed, Schaeffer charges, when Christians weren’t looking.
Schaeffer lists two reasons for evangelical indifference: a false concept of spirituality and fear. He calls on believers to stand against the tyranny and moral chaos that come when humanism reigns-and warns that believers may, at some point, be forced to make the hard choice between obeying God or Caesar. A Christian Manifesto is a thought-provoking and bracing Christian analysis of American culture and the obligation Christians have to engage the culture with the claims of Christ.
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The Four Keys to the Millennium (Book)
Foundations in Biblical Eschatology
By Jay Rogers, Larry Waugh, Rodney Stortz, Joseph Meiring. High quality paperback, 167 pages.
All Christians believe that their great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will one day return. Although we cannot know the exact time of His return, what exactly did Jesus mean when he spoke of the “sign of His coming” (Mat. 24)? How are we to interpret the prophecies in Isaiah regarding the time when “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11:19)? Should we expect a time of great tribulation or reformation and revival before the Lord returns? Is the devil bound now, and are the saints reigning with Christ? Did you know that there are four hermeneutical approaches to the book of Daniel and Revelation? These, and more questions, are dealt with by four authors as they present the four views on the millennium. Each view is then critiqued by the other three authors.
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