CBN News, by Steve Warren and Benjamin Gill: After a weekend of massive crowds at the Asbury University revival, a big change is coming that will permanently take the revival off campus.
An estimated 15,000 to 20,000+ people attended revival services over the weekend at Asbury. This is all happening in the small town of Wilmore, Kentucky which normally has a population of 6,000.
On Sunday, Greg Gordon, founder of SermonIndex.net, tweeted a photo of people standing in line to worship on Saturday night at the university campus.
“UPDATE: Over 20,000 people came to Asbury last night, with 5 overflow buildings and a grass lawn filled. there is a 2.5 mile backup of cars going into Wilmore. Cry out to God for your FIRST LOVE to be renewed,” Gordon wrote.
Later Sunday afternoon, Gordon tweeted a video of the people standing outside of the chapel worshipping the Lord.
“Lord, let the fire of your Spirit fall like latter rain.” Don’t be a spectator, God change me! God is doing “A deep work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and lives to prepare us for what is ahead.” #asburyrevival #asburyawakening” he wrote.
The number of people wanting to participate in the revival even caused the university to expand its worship services to five overflow buildings.
Wilmore City officials decided to reroute traffic due to the flood of people descending on the small town to experience the revival.
Asbury President Makes a Major Announcement
But the staying power of the Asbury outpouring is about to be tested in a big way.
The university announced Friday that public worship services in the school’s Hughes Auditorium would end on Monday.
Beginning Tuesday, Feb. 21, services available to the public will be held at another location in the central Kentucky area. Asbury will still host evening services for college-age and high school students (25 and under) through Thursday, Feb. 23, the university said.
And Asbury will live stream limited portions of services through Thursday which is the National Collegiate Day of Prayer.
Our Comment:
There are no doubt sincere people that are moved rededicate their lives to Christ. But one doesn’t have to travel long distances or be with large groups to achieve this. Large groups are likely to become false revivals predicted at the end of time.
Prophetic Link:
“Popular revivals are too often carried by appeals to the imagination, by exciting the emotions, by gratifying the love for what is new and startling. Converts thus gained have little desire to listen to Bible truth, little interest in the testimony of prophets and apostles. Unless a religious service has something of a sensational character, it has no attractions for them. A message which appeals to unimpassioned reason awakens no response. The plain warnings of God’s word, relating directly to their eternal interests, are unheeded.” Great Controversy, 463.2