Editor Note: The editors of the Pneuma Review are aware that Dr. De Arteaga’s views on sacraments will not be universally received among our readers. This guest essay is printed to encourage thought and discussion. Please add your comments below to join the conversation.

Revivals without the Lord’s Supper

As we have seen,* by the time Charles Finney began his revival ministry in the 1820s, the model of the Word and the Lord’s Supper as a vehicle for revival began to diminish. With the revival ministry of Dwight Moody (1837–1899), Finney’s innovation of revivals without the traditional sacraments was solidified as the evangelical pattern. Since then no major evangelist has incorporated the Lord’s Supper as part of the revival cycle—although a few have urged immediate baptism after the conversion experience.

Was the elimination of the Lord’s Supper and its replacement with the altar call a Spirit-inspired development, or was it an unfortunate mistake? The noted Christian historian Iain Murray has recently said a loud Yes to the second question in a thoughtful and provocative book, Revival and Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism.¹ Murray argues that evangelicals should return to the revival methods that stressed prayer and personal repentance rather than the emotionalism of an altar call. We have pointed out how the abuse of the altar call, especially when combined with the doctrine of eternal assurance, has contributed to the blight of American antinomianism (ch. 2*).

Reinhard Bonnke

In truth, contemporary evangelists such as Billy Graham and Reinhard Bonnke have, in sheer numbers of conversions, outpaced all of the traditional sacramental revivals of history. It is hard to see how, for instance, the current Bonnke revivals in Africa could accommodate any sort of communion service. In a recent revival campaign in Benin, West Africa, the Rev. Bonnke and his ministry team attracted 640,000 persons during their six-day campaign and received 200,000 responses for salvation. The ministry team was overwhelmed by that response, as they had brought only 120,000 copies of their discipleship booklet, Now That You Are Saved. Thankfully they coordinated with the area Christian churches to assure that those who made a decision for Christ were channeled into active fellowships.²

To criticize that many of the persons who make the altar call at such events eventually backslide is to miss the point that many others do in fact become mature Christians. The current rapid expansion of Christianity in the Third World would not have been possible without the new sacramental form of the altar call. Further, most mature evangelists, such as Graham or Bonnke, go to great lengths to cooperate with local churches to assure that the convert’s discipling follows the altar call.

Reinhard Bonnke preaching at the 2005 Crusade in Jos, Nigeria.

If Christianity were ruled by statistical analysis, we might indeed conclude that such is the case and indeed declare the altar call the new sacrament of evangelization—end of argument. However, Christians must always look back to the biblical evidence as a “reality check” and affirmation of current practice. In fact, both the Old and New Testament revivals have a strong sacramental component that is too often overlooked by modern readers, who look at the biblical data through contemporary, nonsacramental categories. Looking carefully at the biblical witness will help locate the divine plan for the role of the Lord’s Supper in revivals.

William L. De Arteaga, Forgotten Power: The Significance of the Lord’s Supper in Revival (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), 287 pages.

This is an important book for Pentecostal and charismatic readers. De Arteaga, a former Roman Catholic who became a Pentecostal over thirty years ago, has drawn from the wealth of his experiences in both traditions to present a well-written and convincing presentation of the need to reintegrate sacramental worship and charismatic spirituality. His chief concern in the book is to restore the importance of the Lord’s Supper in the worship of the church, though his insights can be applied to other types of sacramental ordinances according to one’s tradition.

De Arteaga affirms that sacramental worship and charismatic spirituality are not antithetical. True and long lasting revival must be a three-dimensional and integrated experience represented by the preaching of the Word, the presence of sacraments during worship, and the presence of the gifts of the Spirit.

In the twentieth century the inclusion of the Lord’s Supper in the worship of the church has been greatly diminished. Today we see either a sacramental worship without revival (Roman Catholicism), or revival without sacramental worship (Evangelical/Charismatic). In light of these glaring deficiencies, De Arteaga presents a historical retrospective of the important place that the Lord’s Supper once held within the Reformed and Wesleyan traditions.

Father Bill De Arteaga is a regular contributor to PneumaReview.com.

This story begins with the Puritans and Scot-Irish Presbyterians who, influenced by the Eucharistic theologies of the Reformers, found a prominent place for the Lord’s Supper within their worship. In these movements the celebration of the Supper, whether viewed as a sacrament to strengthen the faith of believers or as a converting ordinance, was a catalyst to revival. Those same sacramental traditions were carried over to North America producing some of the most intense and profound revivals in American religious history.

The Lord’s Supper came to lose its centrality in the Reformed Tradition due to the opposition of those who objected to its use as a converting ordinance. It soon became relegated to a quarterly sacrament and no longer produced the powerful conversions and commitment once seen the past.

The Supper played a central role in the revival and renewal of faith in the Wesleyan movement. Influenced by their Anglican background and Moravian contacts, John and Charles Wesley understood the Supper and accompanying love feasts as measures of renewing the faith of believers and bringing in new converts into the church.

Over time, as the Methodist church became detached from its Anglican roots in the United States, its focus remained preaching the gospel to the poor and those in need, but the Supper faded into the background. Later evangelists influenced by the Wesleyan tradition such as Charles Finney and others placed more emphasis on conversions, leading to what is commonly known as the “sacrament of the altar,” which viewed public confessions of faith as central to a convert’s salvation. While recognizing the tremendous success that modern evangelists such as Rinehard Bonnke and Billy Graham have seen in producing mass conversions and the impossibility of incorporating the Lord’s Supper into these massive meetings, De Arteaga still affirms that the Lord’s Supper should play an important role in the revival of the church. In his view, it is the Wesleyan emphasis on sanctification along with its holistic model of Christian life and discipleship—including the Word, the sacraments, small group meetings, presence of the Spirit, robust hymnology, practical ministry to the poor, and goal of Christian perfection—which will produce and sustain revival.