Journal #8 Jonathan Edwards: Mad With Power, Or Just Bad Timing?

QUOTE:

“Therefore, let everyone that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come” (Edwards 436).


SUMMARY:

Toward the end of his sermon, Edwards changes his tone from completely negative and depressing, to having some hope. He explains that people do have the chance to be “born again” and to experience God’s mercy.


RESPONSE:

By this point in Edwards’ sermon, were people too distracted with peeing their pants to notice his glimmer of hope? I’m kidding, but it is hard to catch anything positive in his twelve-page speech (and those pages being in the tiny computer font of The Norton Anthology, so we’re talking at least thirty pages) of “fire and brimstone.” Even if he did in fact give this speech in the most calm and monotone voice, nobody wants to hear about how they are doomed for eternity.

Of course, it was really just too little too late. If Edwards made the main focus of his speech the possibility for eternal happiness, I bet he would have kept his position in the church much longer. People love hearing about how easy happiness can be attained. Why else would there be “get-rich-quick schemes” and “minute weight-loss plans” sold every second of the day? If this were the script for “The Jonathan Edwards Infomercial,” the phones would be silent.

It seems, however, that many people look past the later sermons like the way most people look at other people who “fell off” with their fame or power. I mean like many of our U.S. presidents, Michael Jackson, or even Britney Spears. Well, maybe not Britney because that’s still going on, and maybe not George W. Bush, but enough time has passed so that people can find the good in sermons given by Jonathan Edwards.