Revival and/or Apostasy
Among some subsets of evangelical Protestant communities I have sometimes heard pastors and authors insist that before the “last days” come (just prior to the Lord’s promised physical return as King of heaven and earth) there will be a massive turning of many people to faith in the Gospel. This has been proclaimed by some who claim to have received it as a “word of knowledge” or a prophetic utterance of the Holy Spirit. I have also read and heard some Christian teachers who insist that we should expect to see an apostasy from the Gospel rather than a large scale revival of true spirituality rooted in the Gospel. I have often wondered about these conflicting claims. On the one hand Paul makes it quite clear that in the “last times” at least some people will turn their backs on faith in Christ and teach others to do the same (1 Timothy 4:1-3; see also 2 Timothy 3:1-5). The Lord stated plainly that a powerful demonic deception would, at it were, spiritually flood the human world