America is in a weird space these days, in terms of religion. By now, the cultural and membership decline of Christianity in America has lasted so long that younger Christians can’t remember a time when their religion wasn’t in decline. Dreams of revival have become ever more important to their leaders, too, as the decline marches inexorably onward. A large number of enterprising evangelical leaders, in particular, have hung their hopes and dreams on claims of some massive revival happening in this country that is going to totally reverse the decline—and, of course, restore religious leaders’ former cultural dominance.
But their revival claims are just smoke and mirrors, as we will see today. More than that, they’re culturally consistent smoke and mirrors. These evangelicals are doing the same thing Pentecostals did 35-40 years ago: Hoping that if they just talk about something imaginary as if it were already true, then Jesus might bless them and make it really true. Today, I’ll show you how that process works. Then, we’ll see how evangelicals are applying the concept to the national stage.
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SITUATION REPORT: The Prophet of Decline tries once again to harsh evangelicals’ buzz about revival
Personally, I’m enjoying watching Ryan Burge’s second career as the Evangelical Prophet of Decline. His July 31st editorial in The Washington Post presents an excellent bit of pushback to evangelicals’ current claims of revival:
The idea that the United States is becoming more religious has come to be widely accepted, particularly in conservative media. But the statistical measures of American religiosity don’t actually point toward a significant uptick in religious belief and practice. Instead, a number of data points seem to support the notion that what the U.S. is experiencing is a vibes revival. The public’s sense that religion is roaring back is completely disconnected from what’s actually happening in America’s pews.
He describes the “vibes revival” as evangelicals feeling that religion is becoming more important to more people even as affiliation and attendance continue to tank across the country. No matter how important Americans feel religion is, those feelings are not translating into them actually doing anything religious. And if they aren’t translating into action, then those feelings are all but worthless.
Unfortunately, no tribe loves its prophets. The numbers and data don’t matter right now to evangelicals. Only the narrative does. And they love this narrative far more than they love the truth.
As I read about evangelicals’ claims of revival, I kept getting reminded of something Pentecostals did decades ago. We thought that if we talked about something imaginary as if it were already real, then Jesus might bless us and make it real.
Revival: In their dreams, they are free indeed
In Christianese, a revival is a massive conversion event sparked by divine power. Jesus sends revivals to faithful followers, who work hard while his blessings last to convert others. When revivals get big enough, Christians start calling them Great Awakenings.
(If the action seems limited to people who are already Christians, Christians call it instead a Blessing or a Refreshing. But these aren’t necessarily smaller. They can blossom into huge, multinational movements—see the Toronto Blessing as an example. Non-Christians have probably never heard of it, but it was absolutely huge in Christianity at the time.)
In April 2025, an evangelical group in the United Kingdom (UK) ran a survey that made them think that there was some kind of revival going on with Gen Z men, who currently range from 14-29 years old. The UK group said they’d uncovered what they called a “Quiet Revival.” By that term, they meant that the revival was happening quietly, behind the scenes, without fanfare—just tons of young men gravitating into evangelical churches for no obvious reason.
After a solid decade of nothing but bad news about decline, this news hit evangelicals in America and the UK like a truckload of bricks shot at a wedding cake. Immediately, they began talking up this “Quiet Revival.” Not even the group’s subsequent retraction of the study mattered. They needed this revival to be real.
And they still do. Continuing news of decline doesn’t matter. What matters is talking up revival like it’s already happening, like it’s a done deal, like it’s going to totally change everything.
They’re still very stuck on this whole revival idea
This past May, CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network, an evangelical-leaning site) ran a story titled “Hundreds Born Again and Baptized in City After City, Jesus Tent Revival Sweeps the Nation.” It spoke of “unprecedented hunger” for evangelicalism. Its main source, an evangelical who quit his medical practice to become a full-time evangelist, made a remarkable claim:
There’s something about the simplicity and the power of that atmosphere that’s just resonating with America,” Andersen said. “America is hungry. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen it this hungry.”
In Christianese, “hungry” indicates great eagerness on the part of heathens to convert. So he is saying here that heathen audiences are more receptive to his sales pitches than he’s ever seen. The Pentecostal pastor who hired him has the same opinion, ending the CBN story with: “Everyone needs Jesus.” (Citation needed.)
Their YouTube channel ran a triumphant video in April on the same topic, “Why Young Americans Are Returning to Church.”
In July, CBS ran a story asking if Gen Z is “fueling a religious revival in America.” It focuses on another evangelism group that claims that there is a massive revival coming any day now for the country—all courtesy of Gen Z, of course.
And just a couple weeks ago, evangelical blogger Layne McDonald wrote that “Spiritual hunger is reaching a boiling point in the United States, evidenced by a dramatic and sustained surge in public baptisms and new conversions throughout 2026.” He’s trying very hard to characterize this imaginary surge as a “modern Great Awakening.”
Against that kind of wild hope, Ryan Burge offers nothing but pushback. Gen Z is not only far less likely to ever attend religious services than previous generations, but are far more likely to report atheism as their worldview. As he writes:
Though there’s been no clear growth in the share of Americans who identify with a religious tradition or the number of people who go to church on Sunday, the prevailing perception is that religion is having a moment.
But he’s unlikely to sway evangelicals. They need this revival thing to be real.
Revival as a sign of divine favor and victory over enemies
Plenty of evangelicals dislike the idea of prosperity gospel—the belief that Jesus materially rewards obedient followers, particularly those who donate lots of money to religious leaders. But they still buy into a version of it. They think that if they’re obedient followers, then Jesus will reward them with victory and growth.
In that view, churches that fail and close were obviously doing something terribly wrong. Churches that grow are doing something very correctly. Correct beliefs lead to correct behavior, which in turn leads to correct outcomes: Growth, success, divine miracles, and more. The more right-wing and hardline the religious person, the more they tend to believe this way.
So Christianity’s endless decline since 2015 has been a nonstop humiliation for that entire end of the religion. Going by their own rules, declining membership and cultural cachet must mean Jesus doesn’t favor them after all.
Claiming a massive revival coming Any Day Now™ inspires hope in the breast of all of those Christians. They will soon be growing again. They will soon be winning again.
Speaking an imaginary revival into a real one
To get that revival, however, they must somehow step past all those messy facts in the way.
And that turns out to be shockingly easy.
Back when I was Pentecostal, it wasn’t uncommon at all for a fundamentalist to talk as if an imaginary outcome had already happened. Doing that indicated great faith that Jesus would definitely eventually make it happen. We had to talk as if we’d already gotten what we prayed for. If we didn’t, it might indicate we didn’t have enough faith to get what we’d requested. And lack of faith could easily torpedo a request.
It wasn’t exactly lying, but it was definitely lying-adjacent—particularly when we did that around heathens. When I was Pentecostal, I heard it happening constantly—even in evangelism. Evangelists regularly claimed that Jesus had cured their depression or addictions (when I knew he hadn’t), or that he’d cured their gayness (nope) or fractured marriage (LOL no), or healed their physical illness (alas). Nobody wanted to hear that conversion had done nothing material at all in a convert’s life, least of all other Christians.
That’s what this talk of revival reminds me of. I’m not surprised, either, knowing that evangelicals are now fused almost completely with fundamentalism. They’ve acquired all the old fundamentalist bad habits.
So now, they remind me of my old tribe pretending something had already happened in hopes of goading Jesus into actually doing it. They certainly have more justification for doing it than we did about our own personal victory hopes. They’ve got an entire religion languishing across an entire country, and in their ideology Jesus would certainly want to do something about that!
These false claims of revival won’t come back to bite anyone, though
The idea of revival matters far more to evangelicals than reality itself. What’s one more false belief added to the pile?
But the nice thing about the situation, for evangelical leaders at least, is the tribe’s extremely poor memory. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard about widespread belief in a revival coming Any Day Now™. It won’t be the last. Evangelicals love to predict huge revivals. It gets them a lot of attention, and keeps the flocks focused on the soon-to-come victory.
When that victory never materializes, the people talking it up just ignore it. They move ahead to the next big claim. And the flocks forget all about the earlier prediction.
It’s like a religious version of the capitalist meme saying, attributed to Jay Bauman of Red Letter Media: “Don’t ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next product.” So don’t ask questions, evangelicals. Just consume this revival prediction and then get excited for next revival prediction.
Because there’ll always be one—as long as the tribe values feels over reals and doesn’t mind ignoring messy reality along the way.
NEXT UP: The god who doesn’t lie. Unless he does. But even then, he doesn’t. See you soon!
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