Let God Arise!

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LET GOD AR I SE!

Edwards’s tract displayed his deep conviction that when God’s people pray fervently, intensely, and powerfully for revival, he would release the power of his Spirit in society. This remarkable visitation would then result in many people repenting and believing in Christ as Lord, and would trigger a worldwide “revival of religion” and an “advancement of the Kingdom on earth.” All committed Christians, according to Edwards, have a positive duty to pray for this. Having argued his points primarily from careful reasoning and his exegesis of Zechariah 8.18-23 (among other texts), Edwards sought to support his “humble plea” for a more dedicated and organized move- ment of prayer pleading to him for his visitation. He was neither the first nor the only Christian leader of the time that was calling for “extraordinary prayer.” As a matter of fact, a “Memorial” was written by cer- tain Scottish ministers who circulated their ideas at the time of his tract-writing. This memorial had been circulated throughout many English-speaking churches, but especially in England. It called for a new emphasis of “extraordinary prayer” at certain times, a schedule which Edwards himself endorsed, specifically on “Satur- day evenings, Sunday mornings and the first Tuesday of each quarter, for an initial period of seven years.”

While history does not record another widespread period of renewal in the English-speaking world until