Showing posts with label Paul Strand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul Strand. Show all posts

Friday, January 18, 2019

Trump and Pence Support Huge Crowd Marching for a Shutdown - of Abortion - CBN News Paul Strand

March for Life 2019 (Photo: CBN News)
Trump and Pence Support Huge Crowd
Marching for a Shutdown - of Abortion
01-18-2019
CBN News Paul Strand
THE NATIONAL MALL – Thousands marched in Washington today calling for a shutdown, but not the government's. They want to shut down the abortion industry. And President Donald Trump threw his support behind their effort at this 2019 March for Life.
At the pre-March rally, Vice President Mike Pence made a surprise appearance on stage, saying, "We gather here because we believe as our founders did that we are all of us, born and unborn, endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, and one of these rights is the right to life."
Then he introduced a special guest who addressed the crowd from the White House.
"This is a movement founded on love and grounded in the nobility and dignity of every human life," President Trump said. "When we look into the eyes of a newborn child, we see beauty and the human soul and the majesty of God's creation. We know that every life has meaning and that every life is worth protecting."
The president reiterated his support for pro-life legislation, like the Hyde Amendment – meant to keep federal dollars from supporting abortion.
And he stated, "I will always defend the first right in our Declaration of Independence – the right to life."
Meanwhile, out in the crowd of many thousands, it was easy to see how vast the pro-life movement is, with adherents representing all sorts of interests and ideas inside that movement.
Abortion Kills Many More People than Opioids Do
For instance, Brian Fisher of Human Coalition wants to see this administration do even more to tackle abortion, like how it's escalated the fight against opioids.
"HHS – Health and Human Services – has just launched a five-point plan to be able to combat the opioid addiction crisis – which unfortunately kills 115 people every day in the country," Fisher told CBN News. "We support HHS launching that plan. Our question simply is: abortion kills 3,000 preborn babies a day. Where is the five-point plan to end the leading cause of death in America?"
Baby-clothes Dress Makes People Think of the Unborn Babies
Susanna Edwards let her outfit do the talking.   She hopes people will look at her dress made of and covered in dozens of baby clothes and think of all the lives that ended before they could wear those little outfits.
"All of this has been worn by a real baby," Edwards said, pointing at the onesies, shirts, blouses and pants adorning her. "And there are many babies who won't get to this point. The natural reaction to baby clothes is people go 'Aww' and all that, and I want that kind of care and affection for the unborn child as well as the born child."

Pro-life protester Susanna Edwards (Photo Courtesy: Cedarville University) 
Her Baby was Not Just a Wheat Seed
Elaine Webster came all the way from Saskatchewan to share her desire that women avoid the pain she still feels decades later over her abortion and the counsel she got from a pro-choice doctor.
"She told me it was nothing more than a little sprouted wheat seed," Webster said.  Years later, when she saw her second child at the same stage on an ultrasound, she was shocked at just how human that fetus appeared.
Elaine's husband Barry still feels guilty about not trying to talk Elaine out of that abortion decades ago. "The fact that I didn't support my wife really led to us making that decision."
He believes with just a little backing from him, Elaine would have kept that first child.  And he called out men of today who don't fight for their unborn babies.
"Stand up," he admonished.  "It's our purpose: to support our women."
Twenty-seven students came to the March for Life all together from one small college – Colorado Christian University – showing how big an issue this is for young people today.
"Just the fact of what abortion is and what it does to people," CCU student Alex Fox told CBN News.  "So we're out here because we care for all of life, all people."
Thwarting God's Plan
Suzie Audi traveled from South Carolina, recalling that she'd taken part in the first March for Life back in 1974.
"I have a real heart for babies and people in general," Audi said. "They're all God's creation and they should not be killed!"
Suzie's sister Joanne Gunsaulus journeyed from even further away, Long Beach, California. She talked about how abortion defies God's intent to create life on earth.
"God has let us help Him procreate, generation after generation. It's His plan, and we're thwarting it through abortion," she stated.
To these marchers who come to the National Mall from all over America, so much is on the line.
Abortion is now the number one cause of death in the world: 42 million preborn babies slaughtered globally last year alone. That's a rate of 125,000 a day. That's why the pro-lifers march — to end that.
  

Friday, December 21, 2018

You May Believe in the Baby Jesus, but how about God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? - CBN News Paul Strand


You May Believe in the Baby Jesus, but how about God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
12-20-2018
CBN News Paul Strand
GREENSBORO, NC – Although believers and evidence exist, there remains the question: is there a God? Cold case detective J. Warner Wallace has pursued the question, applying the same procedures he used to solve cold cases. 
He started this investigation into God's existence many years ago as an atheist. But even then, he had to accept something beyond the natural because he already believed the universe had a beginning before space and time.
The Beginning needs a Beginner
"It began from nothing. It didn't exist prior to the Big Bang," the author of Cold Case Christianity said of the universe. "That means you're looking for a cause that is non-spatial, non-temporal and non-material because those things are not available until the Big Bang. So you're already looking for something that's extra-natural –  if by nature you mean what we always mean, which is space, time, matter, physics, chemistry."
Astronomer Hugh Ross, who heads up Reasons to Believe sees God in the universe's birth.
"It has a beginning, which implies there must be a Beginner who was responsible for bringing the universe into existence," the astrophysicist said.

And there's such precise design.

Wallace stated, "We have fine-tuning in the universe that's so finely-tuned that the smallest variation in the universal constants, you wouldn't even have a universe in which we have life at all. Now, what are the odds of that happening on its own?"

All Life Could Stop on a Dime
And just how finely-tuned is it for life?

"If you were to add the weight of one dime to the universe or subtract the weight of one dime from the observable universe, that would be enough to upset the balance to make life not possible," Ross said, adding, "How can we escape the conclusion there must be a mind with supernatural power that designed it just right so we could be here?"
Ross contends Earth needs to be just where it is on the arm of a spiral galaxy just like the Milky Way for life to exist here. Also that the unique feature of Earth's moon being as large as it is compared to its planet's size makes it able to control the tilt of the Earth's axis and the length of its daily spin in just such a way to make the planet optimal for life. 
Finally, Ross said the entire solar system is just perfectly balanced to achieve that end.
As he put it, "We're not looking at just a highly fine-tuned Planet Earth. The entire solar system has been highly fine-tuned to make possible the existence of advanced life. Every one of the eight planets in our solar system plays a critical role."
Jesus Christ Wasn't Just in the Bible
But what about Jesus Christ, His resurrection and deity?

Wallace said with a wry grin, "If there's a Being out there that can create all space, time and matter from nothing, I'm guessing He could probably rise from the dead. I'm guessing He could probably walk on water. I'm guessing those are probably small potato miracles compared to Genesis 1."
Some people say they'll never believe Jesus Christ is God because all the proof for it is in the Bible, and they just don't believe the Bible.

As an atheist, Josh McDowell set out to disprove Christianity and the Bible, but found so much evidence, it changed his life to one of faith. The result was his book Evidence That Demands a Verdict. And he found much proof for Christ outside the Bible.

He stated, "In this book Evidence, I give 20-some totally extra-biblical sources that you could recapture almost everything about Christ – that He was raised from the dead, He fulfilled the prophecies, etc. etc. etc. – from non-biblical sources."
Some Christian reviewers rate Evidence That Demands a Verdict as the most thorough and comprehensive book when it comes to evidence for Christ's existence. And there's more at McDowell's online resources page.
Alex McFarland's Truth for a New Generation puts on conferences nationwide to arm Christians with proof their God and faith is real – like the one in Greensboro, North Carolina where CBN News interviewed Wallace, McDowell and him. He pointed out what one of America's top twentieth-century historians – Will Durant, a non-believer – had to say.
"Durant, when he was not a Christian, said the four biographies, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John: their historicity was (quote) 'indisputable,'" McFarland remarked.
To find out more on McFarland's defenses of the faith, you can search his website or his blog.
The Passed-Down Facts Go All the Way Back to the First Disciples
Some claim the New Testament was written hundreds of years after Jesus' time. So they suggest all the supernatural details about Christ could have been added in long after His death. But as witnesses, the earliest disciples memorized, sang and wrote down statements of Christ's miraculous life starting right after His death and rising from the dead.

"Deity, death, resurrection, Son of God, paid for our sins, rose from the dead – these doctrinal formulae, if you will, these statements of belief, come to us within – not years, not months – but weeks after the crucifixion," McFarland stated. "These verbalized, memorized creedal statements come within perhaps four to eight weeks after the Cross."
Wallace talks of how cold case detectives look for a solid chain of custody for all the evidence in an old case. And when it comes to Christ, "Every supernatural element related to Jesus from the virgin birth to the resurrection to the ascension to 'seated at the right hand of the Father,' all of that stuff is in the very earliest accounts and in the very first links in the chain. It never changes. It's never altered."
You Want 'Early, Eyewitness, Multiple & Even Hostile'
And Jesus' earliest disciples said not only were they eyewitnesses to Christ's miracles but so were their opponents there in Jerusalem.
McDowell hearkened back to his first months beginning to investigate Christ's existence. He recalled, "I had to define 'what is truth, and what do I accept as true statements, true acts historically?' And one was this: was it presented in the presence of hostile witnesses? Where if what they [the apostles] were saying was false, it would be exposed as false. And the apostles did this."
McDowell continued, "They would constantly appeal to the knowledge of hostile witnesses of the truth that they were saying. They'd say 'you know what I'm talking about; you were there; you saw Him do this; you heard Him do this.'"

McFarland added, "Historians look for eyewitness accounts, multiple accounts, early accounts and even what they call hostile accounts.
"The teachings of Christ, even His crucifixion and resurrection – we have testimony that is early, eyewitness, multiple sources and even hostile sources."

He concluded, "The idea that there was a conflation, and they made Jesus into something that He never claimed to be, over hundreds of years, that's just not what the record of history shows."

If It was all a Conspiracy, It's the Most Flawless One in History
Wallace insists Christianity couldn't have just been a conspiracy of liars who never cracked. There were way too many witnesses to Christ's life and resurrection – hundreds of them – later facing too much persecution and torture for at least a few to not 'fess up if they were all simply lying.

"They were under incredible pressure where many of them lost their lives in defense of what they said was true," he stated. "And we don't have a single ancient record of any of the disciples ever recanting when that was often the goal of the people who were persecuting Christians."

The investigator added, "This is why I think the deaths and the martyrdoms of the disciples is a key piece."
You can find out many other ways Wallace has for investigating and finding proof for God's existence and the truth of Christianity at his website, Cold Case Christianity.

If God Exists, You Win…Unless You Gamble He Doesn't
But you may feel none of this has anything to do with you and you shouldn't have to think about it. Well, what if there is an eternity, and what you believe about Jesus Christ will determine where you spend it?

Wallace implored that if you're a total non-believer, for your own sake, consider the idea there's a miracle-working Savior – with one caveat.

"You can't begin by saying 'I don't believe in the supernatural.' That's the thing you're trying to investigate," the cold case detective said. "If you start out by denying the supernatural, you'll never get to whether or not there's anything supernatural. You've already decided there isn't."

McFarland mentioned what's known as Pascal's Wager, saying, "If we live as if there is God and it turns out there wasn't, we've lost nothing, plus lived a good life and been happy. But if you the atheist live this as if there's not a God and it turns out there is, you've lost everything. So the wise man would wager that there might be a God."
Did you know?
God is everywhere—even in the news. That’s why we view every news story through the lens of faith. We are committed to delivering quality independent Christian journalism you can trust. But it takes a lot of hard work, time, and money to do what we do. Help us continue to be a voice for truth in the media by supporting CBN News for as little as $1.

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

'This Is Outright Christian Persecution': Baker Jack Phillips Strikes Back at Colorado's Anti-Christian Attacks - CBN News Paul Strand

Jack Phillips, Colorado Christian Baker

'This Is Outright Christian Persecution': Baker Jack Phillips Strikes Back at Colorado's Anti-Christian Attacks
12-18-2018
CBN News Paul Strand
WASHINGTON — Masterpiece Cakeshop baker Jack Phillips is back in court today, going on the offense after Colorado officials came after him a second time. This time it's because he declined to celebrate an LGBT activist's transgender transition from male to female.
With the state's relentless attacks against his faith, Phillips has decided to sue the state. The Alliance Defending Freedom is representing Phillips, stating, "The very same state agencies decided to go after him a second time. If that isn't government hostility towards people of faith, what is?"
"Jack had no choice but to file a federal lawsuit to defend himself from this targeting. He should not have to fear government punishment for his faith when he opens his cake shop for business every day. But it appears that Colorado will not stop harassing him until he closes down or agrees to violate his faith," the ADF website states.
The state agency acting against Phillips lost at the US Supreme Court this past June in the Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission case, with justices specifically blasting the commissioners for hostility towards Phillips' religious beliefs. Those commissioners nearly killed Phillips' business when they ruled he'd discriminated by refusing to make a cake to celebrate a homosexual couple's same-sex marriage. The commission is going after the Christian baker a second time, now for his refusal to bake a transgender celebration cake.
Phillips' friend Jeff Hunt, a policy analyst at Colorado Christian University, told CBN News, "At this point, they're just targeting Christians. This is outright Christian persecution."
This time around, though, constitutional attorney Jenna Ellis believes the commission will be more subtle.
Ellis stated, "The Masterpiece decision was very particular to the commission, to say 'you cannot be overtly hostile.' So now what they're doing is they're just going to say, 'Well, we won't be as obvious about our hostility, but we still want to go after Jack."
Meanwhile, Phillips and his lawyers are going on offense by suing the Colorado bureaucrats.
Hunt said of them, "They're actually striking back and saying 'this is just outright persecution. You're not interested in stopping discrimination. You're interested in hunting Christians down.'"
Ellis believes the suit is a smart idea. She said, "If Christians are always only on the defensive, then we're going to continue to lose ground. We have to be also making sure that we're standing up and we're standing forward."
Ellis and Hunt warn people of faith should be deeply concerned about their religious freedom given some of today's leaders and officials.
"Even after the Colorado Civil Rights Commission heard from the US Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision, including Obama appointees, telling them to stop targeting people of faith, the government essentially ignored it," Hunt said.
Ellis explained, "This is about whether or not the government can compel you or me to say something and to embrace and celebrate messages that go against our sincerely-held religious beliefs."
Hunt said of his friend, "Jack Phillips is very much a canary in the coal mine with regard to the very important legal issues we're going to be facing."
So why care about this one baker and his little Masterpiece Cakeshop in the Denver suburb of Lakewood? His defenders say if you hold certain beliefs and you're a Christian, you could be the next target.
Watch report here on CBN News: Jack Phillips
Did you know?
God is everywhere—even in the news. That’s why we view every news story through the lens of faith. We are committed to delivering quality independent Christian journalism you can trust. But it takes a lot of hard work, time, and money to do what we do. Help us continue to be a voice for truth in the media by supporting CBN News for as little as $1.

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Brutal Old World Helped the Pilgrims Shape a Glorious New World - CBN News Paul Strand


Brutal Old World Helped the Pilgrims Shape a Glorious New World
11-21-2018
CBN News Paul Strand
WASHINGTON – When the Pilgrims came to America, their journey was just as much about escaping a brutal Old World as creating a New World. Because Protestants not willing to go along with the established religious order of their home country faced persecution right from the first Protestant on.
There really wasn't that much criticism or disunity in Christianity until Martin Luther kicked off the Protestant Reformation, by literally nailing to the wall the radical doctrine that salvation comes not from priests, but by faith alone."

How Islam Brought Feuding Christians Together
His action shook the world so much, though, it led to bloody religious wars and persecutions between the traditional Catholic faith and the burgeoning Protestant denominations.
It actually took the threat of Islam to bring the feuding Christians together with a treaty known as the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. But the document contained some costly fine print.
"It has a little Latin phrase in the treaty: 'curios regio eius religio,' which means 'whose is the reign his is the religion,'" William Federer, author of The Treacherous World of the 16th Century, told CBN News. That phrase gave monarchs the right to impose their own religion on entire kingdoms.
"You had to believe the way your king did," Federer said. "If you did not, you were persecuted or you fled."
"The kings believed that they had a divine right from God to rule over their subjects. The subjects had nothing to say about it," stated Dr. Eddie Hyatt, author of Pilgrims and Patriots.
Ruthless Royals
And monarchs took a ruthless approach in stomping out religious dissent.
"The period of time in which they lived was brutal, brutal, brutal, " said David Barton of Wallbuilders. He discussed what it would have been like to be a believer back then.
"If you are a Christian, a professing Christian, but don't have the right doctrine, they will impale you, they will slit you," he said.
Federer added, "You were burned at the stake. You had your face branded as a heretic."
Burned for the Bible
Dr. Jerry Newcombe, author of American Amnesia, explained how in that cruel era even the Bible could endanger your life.
"It was disallowed to read the Bible in those days for yourself," he stated.
Barton said the rulers in those times would warn, "If you just try to put the Bible where other people can read it, we'll burn you at the stake."
Hyatt said, "If you were involved in baptizing an adult, you could be put to death."
Barton recounted how one English monarch dealt with Christians opposing his religion and how it operated.
He explained, "The king said 'I'm tired of you guys criticizing me.' So to 10,000 of them, he chopped off their ears, slit their nose, sliced their tongue, and said 'let's hear you say something now.'"
'You're All Criminals'
All believers were expected to attend services in the state church.
Barton stated, "And every Sunday that they didn't go to church, they were fined."
If instead, believers tried having prayer or worship services or Bible studies on their own, they could lose their freedom.
"Their meetings were raided and broken up," Hyatt said.
Federer stated the authorities might tell you, "'You're all criminals.' They'll bust into the home and arrest everyone."
'Religion can be Mean'
As for England's lawmakers, Barton explained how they could be just as controlling as their monarch.
"Parliament is passing laws saying who can and cannot take Communion," he said. "Parliament is passing laws saying who can and cannot be a preacher of the Gospel."
Hyatt summed it up: "Religion can be mean without Christ."
He suggested, though, that even in the midst of so much death and persecution, religious dissidents could find godly grace, like Anabaptist leader Michael Sadler, found after he was condemned to death.
"Before taking him out to burn him at the stake, they cut off his tongue, and then they took hot pincers and pulled flesh from his body," Hyatt began.
'This Suffering is Bearable'
But he explained how Sadler had agreed to give a sign if the torture he was experiencing was something he or other Christians could bear up under.
Hyatt said as the flames rose around Sadler, "He lifted his hand and made a sign: 'yes, this suffering is bearable.' In other words, God's grace was sufficient."
And these Christian historians told CBN News how even as all these ungodly activities went on, they can trace the hand of God using whatever it took to propel the Christian nations forward and westward. 
Islam's Odd Role in Advancing Christian Nations
Such as when conquering Muslims cut off profitable trading routes overland between Europe and Asia."
"That gave the impetus for Columbus to set sail looking for a sea route," Federer said.
And that led to those Christian nations gaining the New World.
Islamic attacks also ended up sparking both the Renaissance and Reformation in Europe.
When those Muslims invaded Greece, Federer explained, "All the Greek scholars were fleeing to Florence, Italy with their Greek art and architecture. We call this the Renaissance. But they also fled with their Greek New Testaments. And so this re-interest in the original language of the New Testament laid the foundation for the Reformation."
God's Hand in Wind and Storm
Some believe God used nature to alter historical events. For example, during the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, the commanders of Europe's Holy League turned to prayer as a huge Muslim fleet appeared ready to defeat them.
"While they are praying, the wind changes 180 degrees. The Muslim sails go limp and the Holy League's sails fill up and they crash in and capture or sink 200 of the 230 Ottoman Turkish ships," Federer recounted. 
That saved Italy and possibly all of Europe from the Muslim warriors.
Then a divine storm came just as the mighty Spanish Armada was about to crush England and likely the rest of the Protestant world.
"A hurricane came and it smashed the Spanish Armada to pieces," Federer recalled.
Even the Spanish king saw it as God aiding Spain's enemies.
"Phillip the Second said 'I sent my Armada to fight England, not God's winds and rains,'" Federer stated.
Clearing the Roadblock to the New World
He explained how Spain had been bullied most of the other Christian nations away from taking any big part in the New World.
But Federer added, "Once the Spanish Armada sunk, the other countries of Europe are not as afraid of Spain as they used to be, and there's this mad dash to settle North America."
Among those settlers: the Pilgrims, who just wanted to serve Christ in their own way and had given up on England ever allowing them the freedom to do so.
"That's really what led to the Pilgrims being here, was that culture in Europe that was so oppressive, so limiting, so secular, and so anti-biblical. And they wanted to pursue God," Barton said of these committed Christians willing to go to any length in the service of that cause.
One entire Pilgrim church volunteered to launch off to North America.
Hyatt said of them, "You know people are committed to one another when an entire congregation will board a ship with their spouse and children and move to a New World, knowing they may never see their other family members in the Old World again."
God's Kind of Government
He pointed out they were determined to form a unique form of government for those times: rule by law, not by earthly kings.
"God was to be the King, and the laws that the people would make were to be what they'd be governed by," Hyatt explained.
Federer said they were following the model laid out by John Wycliffe, Christian leader and Bible translator in the 1300s, who put in the opening notes of the Bible he'd translated, "'for a government of the people, by the people and for the people.'"
No Police Needed if You'll Police Yourself
Federer explained the model for this was Israel, "This idea that goes back to ancient Israel: that the priests' job was to teach everybody in the country the law. And then everybody's accountable to God to follow the law. And then you can get by with no police."
He continued, "It's the people, each individual person having a relationship with God, getting their rights from God, being accountable to God, and then all these people who are equal choosing from among themselves who's going to fix the potholes in the road. They're going to divide responsibilities up among equals."
Barton added, "What the Pilgrims did when they got here was revolutionary compared to what was going on in Europe."
Listening to God's Guiding in Every Realm
 "To my knowledge, no other nation has been formed specifically for the Glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith," Newcombe said.
The Pilgrims determined to study God's Word and listen to His Holy Spirit and then do what He suggested in any arena of life.
"They believed the Bible and they applied it," Barton insisted. "And it wasn't just in church they applied it. They applied it in education and in land purchases and in criminal justice and in civil government, and in everything that went on."
Newcombe's respect for these believers knows no bounds. 
He told CBN News, "I think the Pilgrims are models for all of us today in every single way, in terms of the way they lived their lives for God's glory. They even said in the Mayflower Compact 'we're doing this for the Glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith.'"
'We have National Alzheimer's'
All these historians suggested Americans need to know these roots of America.
Federer quoted special advisor to President John Kennedy, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., who wrote, "History is to the nation what memory is to the individual."

Historian Will Durant wrote, "Civilization is not inherited. It has to be learned and earned by each generation anew."

"We have national Alzheimer's. Here we are, the freest country that the planet has ever seen, and we forgot how we got here. And as a result, we're just letting our freedoms be taken away," Federer warned.
Thank a Pilgrim Today
Newcombe argued Thanksgiving is an excellent time to resolve to study and remember what these Pilgrims initiated in the New World.
He also argued it's the perfect time to be grateful for what the Pilgrims gave America, just as they were grateful for what God gave them.

Newcombe concluded, "They experienced many hardships, and yet, despite all the hardships, when the harvest came, they said 'thank you' to God."
Did you know?
God is everywhere—even in the news. That’s why we view every news story through the lens of faith. We are committed to delivering quality independent Christian journalism you can trust. But it takes a lot of hard work, time, and money to do what we do. Help us continue to be a voice for truth in the media by supporting CBN News for as little as $1.

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

'A Billion-Soul Harvest': The End Times Ushering in History's Greatest Revival? - PAUL STRAND/CBN NEWS

Men and women participate in a "fire tunnel" at the 2017 Catch the Fire Toronto event.
Men and women participate in a "fire tunnel" at the 2017 Catch the Fire Toronto event. (Christ For All Nations USA/Facebook)

'A Billion-Soul Harvest': The End Times Ushering in History's Greatest Revival?

Join us on our podcast each weekday for an interesting story, well told, from Charisma News. Listen at charismapodcastnetwork.com.

Christian ministries have been called streams of God. A number of them are coming together because they believe their unity could help set off history's greatest revival.
It's a gathering of some of the most powerful streams of ministry that have been used in revival across the past three decades—much like the Toronto Blessing that started in 1994 and touched millions around the world.
Lighting a Fire and Forming a River
Now these streams have gathered where that revival began because all believe God wants to light the fire again and hit the world with possibly the greatest awakening and harvest of all time.
Daniel Kolenda is the successor of Reinhard Bonnke, whose Christ for all Nationsministry says it has seen more than 72 million salvations. Kolenda insists it's because they focus on the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
"It actually makes our jobs quite easy," Kolenda told CBN News. "We just present Jesus to people, and the Holy Spirit comes in and does the rest."
A Mass Beholding
Lou Engle, co-founder of The Call mass gatherings, has been leading intercessors crying out for this for more than 30 years.
"'Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world," Engle said, quoting John the Baptist. "I'm believing for a mass beholding of the Lamb of God. So many people getting saved. And, secondly, that He shall baptize them with the Holy Spirit and fire."
John Kilpatrick's Florida church was the headquarters for the Brownsville Revival that began in 1995. He told CBN News he was assured by God Himself this much larger revival is coming the day al Qaeda brought down the Twin Towers in New York City.
A Sign of the End Times?
"I watched the towers come down," Kilpatrick recalled. "And I said to the Lord, 'Lord, does this mean that revival is over?' And the Lord responded to me immediately. He said, 'Oh no. Revival's not over. I'm going to pour out my Spirit again. But it'll be in conjunction with end-time events."
Rick Joyner of MorningStar Ministries believes it's crucial that all of these various streams of ministry find ways to work in unison.
"Because there's a multiplication of authority and spiritual authority when you come together," he explained. "One can put a thousand to flight, but two can put 10,000 to flight."
Unity Is a Witness
Joyner believes that kind of unity among Christians is the best kind of witness to a fragmenting world.
"They're starting to love each other, come together, have unity, have peace, have joy—all of these things that the world is becoming increasingly devoid of," he said.
American pastor Randy Clark had come to visit and guest-preach at this Canadian church when the Toronto Blessing burst out in 1994. The surprised preacher had a front-row seat for one of the most powerful revivals of the 20th century. Now he's expecting something much greater in the 21st century.
A Billion-Soul Harvest
"I do believe in a billion-soul harvest that has been prophesied about," the Global Awakening founder said.
Clark points out some have prophesied this will be a faceless, nameless revival because God wants to use every willing disciple in the entire Church, not just evangelical superstars.
"It didn't mean that there weren't leaders, but that the leaders understood their role was to release the others, the laity," Clark explained.
From the stage, Engle called the crowd in Toronto to become those disciples rising up from the church pews. He asked them to take off their shoes and shout, "Lord, send me."
"How beautiful are the feet of those who bring Good News," he declared, saying of the unsaved, "How shall they hear unless there's a preacher?"
Kolenda explained what God's after when it comes to harvesters of souls.
"He's just looking for people who are hungry and open and who will say, 'God, whatever You want to do, here am I," he said.
And that's what these leaders from past revivals, plus more than 3,000 Christians who've come to the Light the Fire Again Conference, are all declaring: "God, whatever You want to do, here am I."