这几天，我们在思想教会有甚么原因以致它迫切地须要复兴？其中两个原因是教会注重活动多于祷告，以及不自觉地专靠自己。我们现在会探讨第三个问题，就是我们越来越失去对圣经的信心。当然，并不是所有教会都离开圣经的权威，但我们必须承认趋势是如此。

有一位作家说：「我们渐渐来到一个地步，就是对一些信仰正统、信心坚定、总是以圣经为基础、站在基督教信仰中心的基督徒，把他们视为在教义上反动、顽固、违抗知识，是应该受到可怜和责备的蒙昧主义者。福音──使人与基督建立个人关系，并且经验充满喜乐的重生，实在需要历史宗派的核心委员会为它作战，而在这种情况下，只有轻率和肤浅的人才胆敢说复兴不是我们最大的需要。」

复兴使人对圣经带着新的信心。在属灵大觉醒时被圣灵感动的人，一定会发现他们的信心和对圣经的理解有大大的长进。有一个曾经历1800年代中爱尔兰大复兴的爱尔兰人说：「我在复兴前也读圣经，但是在我接触到圣灵后，圣经变成一本完全不同的新书，仿佛是神将它带到天上，重新写过然后交还给我。我现在深深体会圣经是由神所默示的，因为它带给我许多的感动和亮光。」

当然，这不是唯一的原因让我们知道圣经是由神所默示的，不过这的确是一个很令人信服的原因。

Yet another issue in today's Church which makes the need for revival urgent is a growing loss of confidence in the Scriptures. Not all churches have moved away from the authority of the Scriptures, but we must face the fact that many have.

"We are slowly reaching the position," says one writer, "where the Christian who is orthodox in his beliefs and convictions, who stands on the Bible and in the central tradition of the Christian faith is considered to be a dogmatic reactionary, a stubborn anti-intellectualist, an obscurantist to be pitied and derided. The gospel which brings men to a personal knowledge of Christ and to the joyful experience of the new birth has to be fought for in the very inner councils of the historic denominations. In conditions such as these it would be a glib and shallow mind that dared to say a revival is not our greatest need."

Revival brings with it a new confidence in the Bible. People who are moved upon by the Holy Spirit in times of great spiritual awakening invariably find their faith and understanding of the Bible being greatly quickened. An Irishman who was involved in the revival in Ireland in the mid 1800s said: "I used to read the Bible before revival came, but after I came in touch with the Holy Spirit the Bible became a new and different book. It was as if God had taken it up to heaven, rewritten it and handed it back to me. I now know it is inspired because it inspires me."

That is not the only reason, of course, why we know it is inspired but it is a good reason nevertheless.