America Is on Fire for Christ!

A Report Sent to Us From the 22nd Century

NOTE: Through a wormhole in the space-time continuum, CHRIST NOW was able to secure a copy of a report that appeared in the TIMELESS Magazine on December 2, 2130. The reporter, coincidentally, was also named David Bryant.

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Dateline 12/02/2130: Kent, Ohio, USA. It’s 11 AM on a Saturday morning in early December. I’m standing on the Commons of Kent State University in NE Ohio, which serves over 44,000 students.

The grassy incline stretching before me was made famous 160 years ago on May 4, 1970, when members of the Ohio National Guard—what the Strategic Crisis Response Unit was called then—unloaded their rifles on a mass anti-war demonstration, killing four students and wounding ten others. As we pause to remember that tragic occasion, we can be thankful for the non-lethal harmonic dissuasion systems (NLHDS) we have today that prevent such primitive and brutal crowd control.

I’m here today, however, to learn about a very different kind of demonstration that has drawn together an estimated 10,000 students and townspeople for their weekly “Christ Is ALL!” ground-muster. No group zooming for them—they want to meet face to face! I’ve been hearing about these ever-growing gatherings happening regularly all over the nation for a while now. I finally decided to come see for myself what they are all about.

I started documenting the activities, especially the Saturday gatherings, here in Kent several weeks ago. Not only is this weekly two-hour event always peaceful, but it’s also filled with Scripture readings, worship songs, and prayers that focus on exalting Jesus, the person they believe is God’s Son, the Lord of the universe, and Savior of the world. It’s new to me, but I like the soul-vibe I get from them.

As a reporter, I usually collect people’s thoughts and information as quickly as possible. However, when I interviewed people this week, I decided to talk to them face-to-face rather than just collect data from their neural queries. I’m glad I did! It was an interesting experience!

So, as I’ve had these real-speak sessions with people these past few weeks, I’ve found that they are almost always focused on talking about Jesus Christ. They consider him to be the central focus of their everyday lives. They share with one another and with me what they are discovering about their “Redeemer”—how they are living for him, how he is changing their hearts and their lives, and how he is using them to be a blessing to others. They also share stories they’ve heard about what he’s doing in other parts of the nation and the world.

Even more impressive to this reporter is how so many I’ve met seem to be “Christlike” (their term) in both their character and their caring nature. I found that they try to work hard to meet their family’s and each other’s needs rather than rely on the Department of Universal Care (DUC). Overall, they seem to me to be more joyful, more content, and more peaceful than most other people I meet.

Of course, my time here in Kent gives me merely a quickpic of the nationwide movement that many call a “Christ Awakening.” Repeatedly, I hear the people here joyfully say, “America is on FIRE for Christ!” I’m beginning to believe it! There are reports that this movement of “Christ Is All!” gatherings is growing in all 52 states, including our newest two, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

However, one hundred years ago, it was not like this.

As I researched the history of this movement, I found that at the beginning of the 21st century, many “believers”—still a common term for those who hold that Jesus is the incarnation of God—had lost focus on the dominant theme of the “New Testament,” the second part of their two-part holy book.

The most devoted Jesus followers of that era believed their scriptures teach that he is Lord and Christ over everything in creation and that he is enthroned in heaven, forever victorious over sin and death. They called him the Hope of the world, Lord of the nations, Head of the Church, and the Lamb of God whose sacrificial work brings salvation to all people. But the majority of church attenders—even though they called themselves “Christians”—had lost that exalted vision of Jesus.

One Christian historian described that period of time this way:

Most Christians still talked about Jesus, but their conversations were primarily focused on his ministry when he walked on earth. In other words, they were more likely to picture him sitting on a big rock with giggling children in his lap than reigning as King from the throne of heaven. Sermons from the pulpit, Bible lessons during Sunday school, and conversations in the church hallway became almost entirely devoid of any focus on the transcendent majesty of the risen, triumphant Son who reigns today as Mediator and Redeemer for all.

There was insufficient teaching focusing on the one whom Ephesians 1, Colossians 1, Philippians 2 and many other passages affirm to be the supreme Lord over everything, through whom the entire universe is being reconciled back to God.

Eventually, this weak vision, void of the fullness of the person of Christ, was regarded as a crisis. They referred to it as a “crisis of Christology.” Christian leaders used that phrase to define the significant shortfall in how 21st-century believers failed to envision the greatness and glory, goodness and grace, superiority and supremacy, love and lordship of God’s risen, reigning, redeeming Son.

By the mid-2020s, this shortfall in vision had left many in the Church lethargic when it came to pursuing spiritual realities or further steps in discipleship. Many even considered those who did have great passion for the majestic glory of Jesus to be too hyped up!

Countless congregations were full of leaders and members who saw Jesus primarily as someone ready to be their friend, help meet their needs, soothe their griefs, counter their fears, and show them a better way to live—but nothing more. Other churches emptied or even closed as disillusioned members finally gave up on religious activities that did not seem to deepen their walk with God.

Without a doubt, millions of Christians in America still held on to Jesus as someone special to them. But often, he had become more like their mascot, coach, or best friend. For others, he ended up as an addendum to their pursuit of the “American dream” or their strivings to “bless” their political agendas.

Yes, most true believers did freely confess that he was Lord and Savior, on whom their eternal life depended. However, heaven seemed far away and in the distant future.

To be sure, early in that decade, there appeared to be an increase in young men exploring Christianity and even beginning to attend church. Even so, the Jesus they learned about was still too “puny” to permanently capture their hearts.

Despite this, the 21st century gave
22nd-century Christians reasons to hope!

That’s because by 2026, it seemed as though the God of all creation began to actively advance his sovereign purposes in Christ Jesus in the life of the American people—again, according to some or even most Church historians.

They say that back then, at the very same time things seemed to be getting darker for the Christian testimony in the nation, clear indications emerged that the Father was not settling for the status quo. The Holy Spirit began initiating a new movement to awaken the Church to the full extent of the sovereignty, supremacy, and power of the risen and reigning King of Glory, who was already active among them.

In the 2020s and beyond, on the heels of decades of nationwide, concerted prayers for a Christward revival to rise from coast to coast, it was clear: the Father had decided to answer.

He began drawing true Jesus followers into an unprecedented breakthrough, unlike any they had known before. By God’s grace alone, over just a few years, there burst forth a groundswell of believers fully renewed and thoroughly passionate for increasing the glory of Christ throughout America.

The Church in America—all streams and all traditions—was beckoned by the Holy Spirit into a deep and widespread awakening to God’s Son, which, the ensuing years proved, he ultimately intended for the worldwide Body of Christ, as well.

My research also uncovered how, over the next few years, this movement produced a deep and wide-ranging moral and spiritual renovation of America, surpassing what most Christians had longed for, prayed for, and labored for over the previous decades.

The Church (and the nation soon after) entered what became obvious to all: a “spiritual fire” of historic proportions in answer to the cries of a national prayer force. What was ignited among Christians in America proved to be unmatched in Church history up until then.

This was the “fire”: It was a critical mass of believers—revived and reenergized by the Holy Spirit—who burned with fresh hope, passion, worship, and mission, now focused in whole new ways on the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The fire kept spreading! Soon, it burst out of churches and spread everywhere, eventually transforming the spiritual landscape of the entire country. This year marks over one hundred years of sustained “holy conflagrations” flaring up from sea to shining sea.

As incredible as it may seem,
the fire continues to burn in 2130!

Right now, as I’m seeing with my own eyes, America is experiencing this fire for Christ because of Christians who have stirred up fellow Christians with their sensitive yet persistent witness to the spectacular truths about the supremacy of Jesus in every part of the country. In the power of the Holy Spirit, what they shared sparked a similarly revived passion for the Lamb at the center of the throne (Revelation 5) in other believers.

Today, hundreds of thousands of Christians from diverse religious traditions, income levels, ethnicities, political persuasions, and age groups continue to gather within their communities and cities for their weekly “Christ Is ALL!” rallies, just as I’ve seen here in Kent over the past few weeks.

Many Christian leaders and lay people alike believe that Christ Awakening Servant Teams (CASTs), which began to proliferate in the first decades of the 21st century, were, humanly speaking, the primary key to the rapid spread of this nationwide awakening. These small groups of awakened believers, formed within thousands of congregations from coast to coast, helped foster and serve Christ Awakening movements among those with whom they worshiped. Most of the people I’ve spoken to today have mentioned that they are part of a CAST in their own church.

To this very day, all these decades later, nearly every fellowship of believers in our nation has a “CAST” at work among them. Clearly, these encouragers have made an enormous difference.

An American CHRIST Awakening:
What the fire has always been about.

Around 2027, the key phrase many in the churches used to describe what was unfolding around them and then spreading across the nation was an “American CHRIST Awakening.” In fact, usually in writing the phrase, they would make “CHRIST” all caps, like I’ve written it here, to emphasize that he was the source of, the fuel of, and the reason for a nation that had become on fire for the Lord Jesus Christ.

One of the definitions, used as early as the late 2020s, is still recited even to this day. It goes like this:

A CHRIST Awakening unfolds whenever
God’s Spirit uses God’s Word
to re-introduce and re-enchant God’s people
with God’s Son and the glory of ALL he is today.

One hundred years ago, God’s people throughout the land gained a new perspective on God’s Son and how all of God’s promises are fulfilled in him. Since then, the Holy Spirit has fueled the fire for Christ in America, giving believers a passion for exalting and exulting in the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have faithfully given their Savior his rightful place in their churches as Lord of all—as they have given themselves to him for serving the purpose of God to “sum up all things in Christ (Ephesians 1:10).

To this very day in December 2130, these dynamics continue. Because of what started to unfold over one hundred years ago, the Church in America continues to have one single declaration that binds millions of Jesus followers together. Christians from every stream continue to come together under the banner of “Christ Is ALL!”

They gather throughout the country at similar events, such as this one here today in Kent. Most are held every Saturday morning in hundreds of thousands of venues across every state in the union. Their rallying cry is based on Colossians 3:11: “Christ is all and is in all” (NIV). But to be sure, the rallies are only one fruit of the awakening. The fire’s cleansing, transforming power has touched every aspect of American life and culture!

Dear readers, that’s the story about what turned America into a nation on fire for Christ! I can see that “fire” in these thousands of believers I’ve encountered these past few weeks. If these people are an example of all believers in Jesus, then Christians in this century should be thankful every day that the fire that flared up a hundred years ago is still burning today.

These people are welcoming me and encouraging me to join them—to completely surrender my life to Jesus as my Lord and Savior, and I’m strongly considering it! I think you should consider it too! At least take the time to find a “Christ Is All!” group in your area—or start one!

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NOTE—Coming December 15: Be sure to secure a copy of the free ebook version of David Bryant’s latest book. It explains why and how the “report” above may prove to be anything but fiction! It will be available to download for FREE at ChristNow.com.

About the Author

Over the past 50 years, David Bryant has been defined by many as a “messenger of hope” and a “Christ proclaimer” to the Church throughout the world. Formerly a minister-at-large with the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, president of Concerts of Prayer International (COPI), and chairman of America’s National Prayer Committee, David now provides leadership to ChristNow.com and Proclaim Hope!, whose mission is to foster and serve Christ Awakening movements. Download his widely read ebooks at ChristNow.com. Enjoy hundreds of podcast episodes. Watch his vlogs at David Bryant REPORTS. Meet with David through Zoom or in-person events through David Bryant LIVE!