The sound and fury of the Great Awakening involved a grand display of lively affections and their affects, including an extraordinary measure of talk about Christ, the Gospel, and divine things. But, as with the great bodily effects and the other phenomena of the Awakening, abundant religious talk appeared to some as more of the […]
Gleanings from The Religious Affections (Part 6): Uncertain Sign Two: Great Bodily Effects
The high and intense affections of the Great Awakening often came with an assortment of bodily effects, including fainting, shaking, sweating, crying, and exhaustion (among others). Some found the displays unsettling and refused to accept any of them as works of God. Others welcomed them all as evidence of God’s work. Here again, Edwards took […]
Gleanings from The Religious Affections (Part 5): Uncertain Sign One: High and Intense Religious Affections
The greatest revival in American history burst onto the scene with lively displays of religious affections and their extraordinary effects, leading some to conclude that people subject to them were “delusional.” Others assumed by their energy and impact that the Holy Spirit produced them all. Edwards, however, acknowledged a mixture of good and bad and […]
Gleanings from The Religious Affections (Part 4): The Importance of Religious Affections to the Christian Life
Some who rejected the entire Great Awakening as a work of God also denied religious affections as necessary to the Christian life. For them, faith involved reason and the intellect only, not the affections. For Edwards, however, this was a serious error with enormous negative consequences—new life in Christ does not exist where religious affections […]
Gleanings from The Religious Affections (Part 3): The Definition of Religious Affections
Edwards begins his argument supporting the centrality and importance of affections to the Christian life with a look at 1 Peter 1:8: “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Written to believers suffering under intense persecution, Edwards […]
Gleanings from The Religious Affections (Part 2): Why Edwards Wrote It
Every revival in the church includes an unhappy mixture of good and bad—the fruit of God bringing people to saving faith and a greater love of His excellence, and the fruit of the devil’s deceptions and the corruption in believing and unbelieving hearts. Indeed, “It is no new thing, that much false religion should prevail, […]
Gleanings from The Religious Affections (Part 1): The Glories, Evils, and Confusion of the Great Awakening
Jonathan Edwards’ classic work, The Religious Affections, is likely the greatest book ever written on the nature of the Holy Spirit’s work in the heart of a true believer or the essence of the true Christian life. Thoughtful reflection in its pages reaps the enormous dividends of greater understanding and appreciation of the infinite excellence […]
Lessons from Love and Contempt Toward Jonathan Edwards
In the early pages of his biography of Jonathan Edwards, Iain Murray catalogs an enlightening mix of opinions concerning the eighteenth-century theologian and pastor. At first blush, the extreme and opposite views of Edwards give the impression that people were not talking about the same man. Yet, they were, and therein lies a great lesson […]
The Limits of Scientists and the Scientific Method
I recently viewed a panel discussion where evolutionists argued that “science” alone should be taught in schools, assuming macro evolution to be an “established fact.” They called their claims “scientific,” while labelling “intelligent design” and “creationism” as “unscientific” and founded on “blind faith.” But, do those proposing time, chance, and macro evolution as the explanation […]
The Father’s Conditional Love of Christ
Have you ever wondered why Scripture sometimes speaks of the Father’s love of Christ as conditional, as given in response to Christ’s obedience? For instance, in John 10:17 we read, “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.” For many years as a believer […]
