If we were to focus on the present headlines and constant updates of what is taking place around the world and within the borders of America, it can be easy to lose hope. It would almost cause one to wonder, where is God in all of this? In the late 1960’s continual events of hopelessness were happening, and it seemed as if hope had all but been lost in America. It was during this time that the writers of Time Magazine dedicated the front with the question, “Is God Dead?” Would it be any surprise that the entire article was full of negativity? Don’t get focused on what the media is saying and doing, look at what God is doing! When God begins to move, get ready, because the voices of media will suddenly begin focusing on and talking about the Lord. This is exactly what took place 5 years later on June 21, 1971, when Time Magazine changed their perspective on God with the cover that says, “The Jesus Revolution”. We cannot allow the increasing darkness in the world to affect our focus and our perspective. Truth of the matter is this: the darker the world gets, the brighter the children of the Light get. This is exactly what Isaiah 60:2-3 reveals, “See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.”
When God’s Holy Spirit, at the direction of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, broke out in the nation during the 1970s, it caught the entire nation by surprise. This move of God was known as the Charismatic Renewal Movement, which is still bearing Kingdom fruit to this day. One of the leaders within this powerful move of God’s Spirit, was Charles Simpson. Greg was able to sit down with Simpson and have a profound interview with him, which is an absolute treasure to help us remember the wonders of the Lord and to borrow the experiences of those who have gone before us. You’ll be encouraged and stirred as you see every moment of this interview which will help you to be overcome with expectancy that God can and will do it again in America and your nation. We can learn from their successes and failures so that we don’t repeat what didn’t work, a lesson they had to learn through personal experience. “It’s better to borrow an experience, they to have to buy it.” Greg Lancaster said. All of us pay a significant personal price when we have to go through the fire of experience without those to borrow from. We can only consider it a great privilege when those who have are willing to share their wisdom with us who have already walked through the fire of such experiences.
If we focus simply on the surface that Time Magazine wrote the first article titled “Is God Dead?,” then we will miss the profound transformation of what the Lord did. MINISTERS took part in writing that first article! Ministers openly commented on no longer acknowledging the Lord as the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But God! It was during the hippie generation that God began to move mightily. Much of the nation and youth were living in deep rebellion to God in what has been called “sex, drugs, and rock and roll.” Rebellion was the way to be and the way to live. People were watching their friends be drafted into the Vietnam war. Shirtless and shoeless was the accepted dress code. It was the time of Woodstock and communal living. These are the people that were touched mightily by the power of Holy Spirit.
Against the will of many people, and their original article of Time Magazine, Jesus Christ BURST onto the scene and across the nation of America. The writers of Time Magazine, who originally published an article and cover questioning the existence and spreading the idea that our Creator, Who knows no death, Who lives outside of time, could possibly be dead, shares writings from a Christian Magazine at the time, Jesus with the following words,
“The Alternative Jesus: Psychedelic Christ WANTED JESUS CHRIST ALIAS: THE MESSIAH, THE SON OF GOD, KING OF KINGS, LORD OF LORDS, PRINCE OF PEACE, ETC. Notorious leader of an underground liberation movement Wanted for the following charges: Practicing medicine, winemaking and food distribution without a license. Interfering with businessmen in the temple. Associating with known criminals, radicals, subversives, prostitutes, and street people. Claiming to have the authority to make people into God’s children. APPEARANCE: Typical hippie type—long hair, beard, robe, sandals. Hangs around slum areas, few rich friends, often sneaks out into the desert. BEWARE: This man is extremely dangerous. His insidiously inflammatory message is particularly dangerous to young people who haven’t been taught to ignore him yet. He changes men and claims to set them free. WARNING: HE IS STILL AT LARGE!
This is such a powerful paradigm to understand. Time Magazine is acknowledging that Jesus Christ IS ALIVE! Not only is He alive, but He is transforming lives. All this is taking place when divorce was ripping through families across the nation. Legalized murder of unborn children was passed in the Supreme Court with the passing the unconstitutional decision called Roe v Wade, allowing for approximately 62+ Million Children to be killed (aborted) in their mother’s womb, and rebellion against every form of authority was sweeping the nation. This sounds exactly like what is taking place in America today!
“HE is indeed. As the words of this Wanted poster from a Christian underground newspaper demonstrate, Jesus is alive and well and living in the radical spiritual fervor of a growing number of young Americans who have proclaimed an extraordinary religious revolution in his name. Their message: the Bible is true, miracles happen, God really did so love the world that he gave it his only begotten son.
In 1966 Beatle John Lennon casually remarked that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ; now the Beatles are shattered, and George Harrison is singing My Sweet Lord.”
Time Magazine is declaring the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the nations! Think about how powerful this moment is! Billboard leading music artists and bands are now changing their ways, and their lyrics, and dedicating their focus to worshiping and praising the One who is worthy: Jesus Christ! Music begins to change when God begins to move! These are extremely exciting times. Don’t get focused on the rebellion that is covering the decisions of many of our young people. This is the seedbed that God begins to do great and mighty things. Time Magazine recognized that the generation of the 70’s had looked for everything the world offered them and those who were once consumed with the power of drugs, were now being consumed by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is what God can do OVERNIGHT!
“It is a startling development for a generation that has been constantly accused of tripping out or copping out with sex, drugs and violence. Now, embracing the most persistent symbol of purity, selflessness and brotherly love in the history of Western man, they are afire with a Pentecostal passion for sharing their new vision with others. Fresh-faced, wide-eyed young girls and earnest young men badger businessmen and shoppers on Hollywood Boulevard, near the Lincoln Memorial, in Dallas, in Detroit and in Wichita, “witnessing” for Christ with breathless exhortations.
Christian coffeehouses have opened in many cities, signaling their faith even in their names: The Way Word in Greenwich Village, the Catacombs in Seattle, I Am in Spokane. A strip joint has been converted to a “Christian nightclub” in San Antonio. Communal “Christian houses” are multiplying like loaves and fishes for youngsters hungry for homes, many reaching out to the troubled with round-the-clock telephone hot lines. Bibles abound: whether the cherished, fur-covered King James Version or scruffy, back-pocket paperbacks, they are invariably well-thumbed and often memorized. “It’s like a glacier,” says “Jesus-Rock” Singer Larry Norman, 24. “It’s growing and there’s no stopping it.”
Rick Joyner, of MorningStar Ministries, says, “the dryer the wood gets, the easier it is to start a fire”. In the same way, the darker things get, the brighter the Light is. We are getting closer and closer to that day! This gives us all great hope. As we see more and more people experiencing financial difficulty in the coming days, minimalism and communal living will become more and more acceptable and sought after. This is what Keith Green carried out in the 1970’s, one who was powerfully transformed by Jesus Christ, was building homes for many people to have a place to live and be discipled for Jesus. Keith Green had purchased a wonderful piece of land near Tyler, Texas, and was preparing to help his generation. The power of Jesus Christ was changing lives everywhere, and the everyday common language, even introductions.
“There is an uncommon morning freshness to this movement, a buoyant atmosphere of hope and love along with the usual rebel zeal. Some converts seem to enjoy translating their new faith into everyday life, like those who answer the phone with “Jesus loves you” instead of “hello.” But their love seems more sincere than a slogan, deeper than the fast-fading sentiments of the flower children; what startles the outsider is the extraordinary sense of joy that they are able to communicate.” Says Founder Bill Bright of the Campus Crusade for Christ: “Our target date for saturating the U.S. with the gospel of Jesus Christ is 1976—and the world by 1980. Of course, if the Lord wants to work a bit slower, that’s O.K.”
Bill Bright is not only the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, but he also led in helping the church understand the importance to transforming the culture by what the Lord showed him, which he described as the 7 Mountains of Culture: Church, Government, Family, Education, Arts & Entertainment, Media, and Business. Every culture is made up of these 7 Mountains, and whoever is on top of each mountain will affect the direction of that nation. It was through a revelation from the Lord that Bright knew that each mountain must be transformed through discipleship, and it all started in this mighty move of God.
“Some of the fascination for Jesus among the young may simply be belated hero worship of a fellow rebel, the first great martyr to the cause of peace and brotherhood. Not so, however, for the vast majority in the Jesus movement. If any one mark clearly identifies them it is their total belief in an awesome, supernatural Jesus Christ, not just a marvelous man who lived 2,000 years ago but a living God who is both Saviour and Judge, the ruler of their destinies. Their lives revolve around the necessity for an intense personal relationship with that Jesus, and the belief that such a relationship should condition every human life. They act as if divine intervention guides their every movement and can be counted on to solve every problem.”
When you get saved, Jesus moves into your heart and begins a transformation of your life from the inside out. He reveals Himself through His word, Scripture and guides You by His Spirit. This is what abiding is all about. Many people want to know how to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, but don’t know how. You can. All you have to do is go to iAbide.org and get your free abiding plan today. God doesn’t want religion; He wants relationship with us. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German follower of Jesus Christ who did everything he could to spread the Good News of the Gospel during the time of Adolf Hitler, found himself continually encountering people who were satisfied with religion. After doing all that he could, he ended up spending time with young people, in the wilderness, teaching them how to hear the voice of Jesus Christ, and obeying His voice. When Jesus confronted the religious people of His day, He told them plainly of their reality, as Matthew 23:37 reveals, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside BUT ON THE INSIDE are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.”
When the Spirit of God broke out in the 1970’s those who were touched by the Spirit of God were not consumed with religion. They were against any perspective of authority in their lives. The writers of Time Magazine recognized this truth and recounted the reality of that present generation this way:
“THIS IS THE GENERATION THAT HAS BURNED OUT MANY OF ITS LIGHTS AND LIVES BEFORE IT IS OLD ENOUGH TO VOTE…Acid trips in the seventh grade, sex in the eighth, the Viet Nam War a daily serial on TV since you were nine, parents and school worse than ‘irrelevant’—meaningless. NO WONDER JESUS IS MAKING A GREAT COMEBACK. The freedom from work, from restraint, from accountability, wondrous in its inception, became banal and counterfeit. WITHOUT RULES THERE WAS NO WAY TO SAY NO, AND WORSE, NO WAY TO SAY YES…The kids are searching for authority, love and understanding—ingredients missing at home. JESUS IS WHAT THEIR FATHERS AREN’T.” Adds Baptist Pastor John Bisagno: “I’m amazed at how many people I’ve counseled who have never heard their fathers say, ‘I love you.”
Does this not paint the exact picture of what you are seeing across the landscape of present-day America? Without understanding that God can move it is so easy to give up and lose hope. Remember this, the devil moves in chaos and confusion, but the Lord moves in peace and clarity. Don’t be shocked when confusion seems to take over everything. No matter what your religious background, people were getting caught up in this mighty move of Holy Spirit’s wave.
“Its appeal is ecumenical, ATTRACTING ROMAN CATHOLICS AND JEWS, PROTESTANTS OF EVERY PERSUASION AND MANY WITH NO RELIGION AT ALL. Catholics visit Protestant churches with a new empathy, and Protestants find themselves chatting with nuns and openly enjoying Mass. “We are all brothers in the body of Christ,” says a California Catholic lay leader, and he adds: “We are on the threshold of the greatest spiritual revival the U.S. has ever experienced.”
What is additionally powerful about this moment in history is that the writers of Time Magazine not only recounted what was taking place in their midst, they also documented the rich Christian heritage and Great Awakenings that took place in previous generations. To top that, they emphasized the reality that Jesus’ Second Coming is upon us! This was being documented on the heels of asking the question 5 years earlier, Is God Dead?.
“Spiritual revivals are, of course, a longstanding American tradition. George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards led the first Great Awakening in the 1740s and there have been others since: the frontier camp meetings at the beginning of the 19th century, the great revival of the 1850s, and the Pentecostal explosion at the beginning of the 20th century.
The Jesus revolution, like the others, has a flavor peculiarly American. ITS STRONG PENTECOSTALISM EMPHASIZES SUCH ESOTERIC SPIRITUAL GIFTS AS SPEAKING IN TONGUES AND HEALING BY FAITH. FOR MANY, THERE EXISTS A FIRM CONVICTION THAT JESUS’ SECOND COMING IS LITERALLY AT HAND.”
This is excitingly similar to what the Lord did in the Book of Acts at the birthing of the Church when Holy Spirit moved mightily upon the first disciples of Jesus Christ, as described in Acts 2:1-4, “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” God was turning everything upside down. Just like how the Lord was drawing both Jew and Gentile in the book of Acts, God was moving upon all flesh in the 1970’s. Catholics were getting baptized in the Holy Spirit. Baptists were getting baptized in the Holy Spirit. Interestingly enough, some pastor and members of churches who encountered God mightily with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit would find themselves being kicked out of their church (ask or told to leave), as God was drawing people away from religion, and into Himself.
“THE CATHOLIC PENTECOSTALS, like the Jesus People, emerged unexpectedly and dramatically in 1967. Publicly austere but privately ecstatic in their devotion to the Holy Spirit, they remain loyal to the church but unsettle some in the hierarchy. In a sense they are following the lead of mainstream Protestant Neo-Pentecostals, who have been leading charismatic renewal movements in their own churches for a decade.
Together, all three movements may number in the hundreds of thousands nationally, conceivably many more, but any figure is a guess. The Catholic Pentecostals, often meeting in the privacy of members’ homes, may number 10,000, but some observers believe that they could easily be three times that. Those converted by the straight evangelicals generally wind up on established church rolls but are likely to be in the hundreds of thousands; the evangelistic staffs alone account for more than 5,000 people. The Jesus People—surely many thousands—are the most difficult to count. They often cluster in communes or, as they prefer to call them, “Christian houses”; the Rev. Edward Plowman, historian of the movement, estimates that there are 600 across the U.S. There is no doubt about their growth: Evangelist David Hoyt moved from San Francisco to Atlanta only a year ago and now has three communes and a cadre of 70 evangelizing disciples there, and centers in three other Southeastern cities. Much of the movement’s main strength, however, has been built where it started, along the West Coast.”
When you look at where some of the darkest activity is taking place in present day America, where some of the most anti-God regulations and political decisions are being birthed, what comes to mind? THE WEST COAST! God is about to rock things across our nation like we’ve never imagined before. GET, GET, GET, GET READY!
In the midst of God moving mightily, evangelists who were preaching the unequivocal Gospel of Jesus Christ were finding out the one area of their lives where some people, who came out of the darkness called “the sexual revolution” did not want to surrender. When sexual immorality, if not repenting from, prevents you from entering the Kingdom of God, was confronted, people responded with an obvious lack of applause. “The Jesus People almost lost the crowd when one evangelist told the collegians they should “ABSTAIN FROM SEXUAL IMMORALITY, AND THAT MEANS ABSTAIN EXCEPT IN MARRIAGE. WE’RE FINDING THIS IS THE LAST AREA PEOPLE WANT TO GIVE UP.” There were no cheers but, astonishingly in the Age of Aquarius, no hoots either.” It’s important to recognize that it’s only by God that we’re able to leave our lives of sin. We can’t do anything on our own, in our own abilities. For people who devoted their lives to prostitution, or selling drugs, who end up giving their life to Jesus, we have to walk alongside them and guide them to learn and know about new constructive ways to generate income that is pleasing to the Lord. Without Jesus, if we don’t turn our hearts to God, our carnal nature will take over and consume us.
Just as we previously talked about, the Lord began to take over the music in the land and the lyrics that bands were speaking out over the land. Some of the well-known artists and bands that we know today were birthed in this powerful move of God.
“Many Jesus-rock musicians commit their lives as well as their talent. Drummer Steve Hornyak, 30, of The Crimson Bridge, gave up a $35,000 house [that would be equivalent to a $242.000 house in 2021], a Toronado, and a career as a school-band director when another Jesus musician challenged him to “go tell about Jesus.” Scott Ross, 31, a former New York disk jockey, has become head of a Christian commune in Freeville. N.Y., the Love Inn. Ross still tapes a weekly show that he uses to promote Jesus music on standard stations.
A growing number of musical stars, including Johnny Cash and Eric Clapton, are among the Jesus movement converts. Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary has preached on the steps of Berkeley‘s Sproul Hall; Jeremy Spencer of Britain’s Fleetwood Mac has joined the ultrarapid Children of God. Few are more zealous than Pat Boone; he has baptized more than 200 converts in his own swimming pool during the past year.
The revolutionary word is also spread by a growing, literally free Jesus press that now numbers some 50 newspapers across the country. Donations are apparently enough to print 65,000 copies of Right On! in Berkeley and 400,000 copies of the Hollywood Free Paper, the movement’s largest.”
SAY IT AGAIN! BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA! DO IT AGAIN GOD! God has made every single human being in His image and likeness. People may have given up on you, but God loves you and has an awesome plan for your life. You may be consumed and feeling overwhelmed with the constant devastating events that are taking place around the world. Don’t lose hope. God is about to pour out His Spirit mightily. If you don’t know the Lord through His Son Jesus Christ, you can invite Him in your life today. Why wait. Now is your time to come to Jesus. You are reading these words this very moment because God had you in mind because He is drawing you to Himself. Cry out to Jesus today and begin a new life with Jesus today.
Time’s The Alternative Jesus: Psychedelic Christ, Monday, June 21, 1971
TGLS/10.12.21/04:47 – 1:05:15