Thinking a lot about the controversial matter of whether Christians should keep the Sabbath in a strict literal sense (from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday), after looking at the problem from different angles I had a sort of "Eureka moment". This is the insight: if keeping the Sabbath is a moral duty, and breaking it is as immoral as raping, killing, stealing or fornication, you would expect the Holy Spirit to quickly convict someone about the immorality of such an act and lead the person to repentance and adoption of Sabbath observance. This is a no-brainer. Thus, this led me to ask myself: "Ok, so let's look at the evidence. Where am I more likely to find records of what happens when the Holy Spirit moves? Oh wait, in revivals!". Yes. So I decided to look at the outcomes of most revivals I knew about, looking for any evidence of widespread adoption of Sabbath observance (an outcome you would predict to happen if breaking the literal observance of the Sabbath is indeed immoral). However, after doing some investigation on the matter, I couldn't find a single instance of a revival in which Sabbath observance (from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday) was a widespread outcome.
I'm listing below some examples of revivals to illustrate the point:
- Uganda's Revival: no widespread Sabbath (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday) observance.
- The First Great Awakening: no widespread Sabbath (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday) observance.
- The Second Great Awakening: no widespread Sabbath (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday) observance.
- The Third Great Awakening: no widespread Sabbath (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday) observance.
- 1904–1905 Welsh revival: no widespread Sabbath (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday) observance.
- Azusa Street Revival: no widespread Sabbath (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday) observance.
- Pyongyang Revival: no widespread Sabbath (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday) observance.
- Watchman Nee's revivalist ministry: no widespread Sabbath (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday) observance.
- Brownsville Revival: no widespread Sabbath (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday) observance.
- 1949 Argentina Revival: no widespread Sabbath (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday) observance.
- 1954 Argentina Revival: no widespread Sabbath (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday) observance.
- Argentine Revival with Carlos Annacondia: no widespread Sabbath (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday) observance.
- Argentine Revival with Claudio Freidzon (check out this book also): no widespread Sabbath (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday) observance.
What explanation do seventh day Sabbatarians provide for the lack of strict seventh day Sabbath observing following so many revivals (in which the Holy Spirit is claimed to have moved) throughout history? If breaking the Sabbath is a terrible sin, shouldn't we expect that the Holy Spirit would quickly lead people to repentance and Sabbath keeping? Then how come we don't see that happening in so many revivals?