Let God Arise!

INTRODUCTION

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the 1770’s (followed by another in the 1790’s), Edwards’s little tract has been consulted and studied by many a disciple and congregation longing to see a fresh and powerful visitation from God on the Church and in the world. As I write this morning, I realize that we are presently a long way and time from the 18th century English and Scottish societies wherein Edwards wrote his essay on “revival of religion.” As I pen my musings on this subject from my home here in urban America, I am aware that with the turn of a new millennium and the beginning of a new year, we have inherited a world decidedly more dangerous, complex, and frightening than that of Edwards and his contemporaries in Scotland and England. More than six billion people inhabit a planet reeling from pollution and overpopulation. We stand on the brink of war, with reports of terrorist threats and ethnic conflicts shrieking through our airwaves. Millions live with malnourishment and squalor, and vast numbers live in despair and hopelessness in a world that is funda- mentally unjust and ungodly. If there ever were a time to renew a humble and sober call for “extraordinary prayer” on behalf of a people, a time, and an hour, it is now.