Justin Taylor's Blog, page 346

Jonathan Edwards on Heaven and Hell

Where there is talk about preaching and hell, Jonathan Edwards's name is never far behind. "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is the most famous sermon in American history. And undoubtedly Edwards is the most caricatured preacher because of it.

You can read the whole sermon online, or listen to someone like Mark Dever or Max McLean read it. For a book-length treatment of Edwards on hell, with particular attention on the inadequacy of arguments for annihilationism, see Christopher Morgan's Jonathan Edwards and Hell.

But few people know that Edwards often preached on heaven, too. And his sermons on heaven are as beautiful as his sermons on hell are sobering.

For a wonderful introduction to Edwards on heaven, I'd encourage you to listen to Sam Storms's talk on "Joy's Eternal Increase: Edwards on the Beauty of Heaven." But first you might want to read the text of Edwards's sermon, "Heaven, A World of Love."

We've all heard the line about the danger of "being so heavenly-minded that we're no earthly good." But surely C. S. Lewis was right: "If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. . . . It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this" (Mere Christianity, chapter 10). For an excellent book on precisely this theme in the sermons of Edwards, I recommend Stephen Nichols's book, Heaven on Earth: Capturing Jonathan Edwards's Vision of Living in Between.

Finally, for a short book that seeks to bring it all together with copious quotes from Edwards, see Jonathan Edwards on Heaven and Hell, by Owen Strachan and Doug Sweeney.

If All This Hell Talk Makes You Uncomfortable

Jonathan Edwards:

The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligations at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.

Tony Payne comments:

Heard anything like that from the pulpit recently? It's a sentence from one of the most famous sermons in history: 'Sinners in the hands of an angry God' by the 18th-century American preacher-scholar, Jonathan Edwards. It's by no means the most frightening sentence in the sermon; Edwards holds absolutely nothing back in painting a vivid picture of the dreadful predicament of sinners, who are suspended by a thread above the fiery pit of hell—a thread being held by a fiercely angry God who is incensed at their wickedness and rebellion against him.

I read Edwards's sermon again recently, and it unnerved me. It wasn't just the florid language and the out-sized metaphors (which sound over-the-top to our ears). And it wasn't the relentlessness of the logic, which marches on and on, leaving you gasping for a drop of cool gospel water.

What bothered me was the realization that this was a sermon I would never be game to preach—even allowing for some cultural transposition and differences in communication style. And it occurred to me that the reason for this was not high-minded and theological, but very carnal. I am more frightened of being thought of as a redneck 'fire and brimstone' preacher than I am of God's awful wrath. I care more about the high opinion of others than their eternal damnation in the fires of hell.

If all this 'hell' talk also makes you feel uncomfortable, Jonny Gibson's feature article might be just what you need. It certainly challenged me.

You can also download an expanded version of Gibson's article, available as a PDF booklet:

"'Where the Fires Are Not Quenched': Biblical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspectives."

Must You Hear the Gospel to Be Saved?

Christian Audio is making available for free (until March 31) the audio download for John Piper's little book, Jesus: The Only Way to God: Must You Hear the Gospel to be Saved?

You can read some of the book online for free as well.

Why Are We Letting Our Daughters Dress Like Prostitutes?

Here is a perceptive op-ed in The Wall Street Journal by Jennifer Moses, a Jewish "New Millennium mom," wrestling with this question: "Why do so many of us not only permit our teenage daughters to dress like this—like prostitutes, if we're being honest with ourselves—but pay for them to do it with our AmEx cards?"

Here's the heart of her analysis:

We are the first moms in history to have grown up with widely available birth control, the first who didn't have to worry about getting knocked up. We were also the first not only to be free of old-fashioned fears about our reputations but actually pressured by our peers and the wider culture to find our true womanhood in the bedroom. Not all of us are former good-time girls now drowning in regret—I know women of my generation who waited until marriage—but that's certainly the norm among my peers.

So here we are, the feminist and postfeminist and postpill generation. We somehow survived our own teen and college years (except for those who didn't), and now, with the exception of some Mormons, evangelicals and Orthodox Jews, scads of us don't know how to teach our own sons and daughters not to give away their bodies so readily. We're embarrassed, and we don't want to be, God forbid, hypocrites.

Still, in my own circle of girlfriends, the desire to push back is strong. I don't know one of them who doesn't have feelings of lingering discomfort regarding her own sexual past. And not one woman I've ever asked about the subject has said that she wishes she'd "experimented" more.

As for the girls themselves, if you ask them why they dress the way they do, they'll say (roughly) the same things I said to my mother: "What's the big deal?" "But it's the style." "Could you be any more out of it?" What teenage girl doesn't want to be attractive, sought-after and popular?

And what mom doesn't want to help that cause? In my own case, when I see my daughter in drop-dead gorgeous mode, I experience something akin to a thrill—especially since I myself am somewhat past the age to turn heads.

You can read the whole thing here.

Entirely missing from her article is the same thing missing when it comes to this issue in the first place: dads.

Sex: According to the Bible

An attempt to think through some things taught in the Word about sex, both by direct statement and by extension and implication:

Sex is created by God ("by him all things were created"—Col. 1:16).
Sex continues to exist by the will of Christ ("in him all things hold together"—Col. 1:17).
Sex is caused by God (he "works all things according to the counsel of his will"—Eph. 1:11).
Sex is subject to Christ ("he put all things under his feet"—Eph. 1:22).
Sex is being made new by Christ ("Behold, I am making all things new"—Rev. 21:5).
Sex is good ("everything created by God is good"—1 Tim. 4:4).
Sex is lawful in the context of marriage ("all things are lawful"—1 Cor. 10:23).
Sex is to be done for the glory of God ("whatever you do, do all to the glory of God"—1 Cor. 10:31).
Sex works together for the good of God's children ("for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose"—Rom. 8:28).
Sex is a cause for thanksgiving ("nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving"—1 Tim. 4:4).
Sex is to be sanctified by the Word of God and prayer ("everything . . . is made holy by the word of God and prayer"—1 Tim. 4:4-5).
Sex can be enslaving and its entrapment must be resisted ("I will not be enslaved by anything"—1 Cor. 6:12).
Sex should not be an occasion for grumbling ("do all things without grumbling"—Phil. 2:14)
Sex should be an occasion for rejoicing in the Lord ("rejoice in the Lord always"—Phil. 4:4).
Sex should be an occasion of contentment in the Lord ("having all contentment in all things at all times"—2 Cor. 9:8 mg.).
Sex should be engaged in with holiness and honor ("each one of you [is to] know how to control his own body [KJV: "possess his vessel"; RSV: "take a wife for himself"] in holiness and honor"—1 Thess. 4:4).
Sex should usually not be withheld from one's spouse (do not "deprive one another [sexually], except perhaps by agreement for a limited time," that they might devote themselves to prayer—1 Cor. 7:5. But then they are commanded to "come together again [sexually], so that Satan may not tempt [them] because of [their] lack of self-control"—1 Cor. 7:5).
Sex can be both pure and impure in this fallen world ("To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled"—Titus 1:15).

—Adapted from my introduction to Sex and the Supremacy of Christ, pp. 12-13.

Wrestling with Demons: Live!

Sorry if the post title seems sensationalistic, but it's not that far off the mark.

Tonight at 7 PM (Central) Russell Moore will be on DG Live talking about his new book, Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ.

You can read part of the first chapter, "Wrestling with Demons: Why Temptation Matters," online for free.

Watch here:

http://www.desiringgod.org/Live

Family Mealtime Prayers

Morning

Our Father, every day you give

The food by which our bodies live.

For this we thank you from our heart

And pray that as we this day start,

You might allow our eyes to see

Your endless generosity.

And grant that when we thus are filled,

We may do only what you've willed.

Midday

We're grateful, Father, for this hour

To rest and draw upon your power,

Which you have shown in sun and rain

And measured out to every grain.

Let all this food which you have made

And graciously before us laid

Restore our strength for these next hours

That you may have our fullest powers.

Evening

How faithful, Father, is your care;

Again as always food is there.

Again you have set us before

A meal we pray will mean much more

Than single persons filled with food;

Let there be, Lord, a loving mood.

And as you make our bodies new,

Come now and feed our oneness too.

—by John Piper, in Noël Piper's Treasuring God in Our Traditions, p. 47.

Have You Considered God's Patience?

A few observations on a neglected divine attribute:

1. God is slow to anger.

Exodus 34:6, "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. . . ."

Numbers 14:18, "The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. . . ."

Nehemiah 9:17, "They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them."

Psalm 86:15, "But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness."

Psalm 103:8, "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love."

2. God's patient kindness is meant to lead to repentance.

Romans 2:4, "Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?"

2 Peter 3:9, 15, "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. . . ."

3. Even those bound for eternal punishment are the recipients of much patience from God.

Romans 9:22, "What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. . . ."

4. Paul was saved in order to demonstrate Jesus' perfect patience as an example.

1 Timothy 1:16, "I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life."

5. The delay of the second coming and final consummation is because of God's patience, and is designed for salvation.

2 Peter 3:15, "[C]ount the patience of our Lord as salvation. . . ."

Read Through Desiring God with Piper, Get a Free Copy

The DG blog explains a creative new initiative, where you get to watch John Piper in live-streamed sessions interacting with the book. They are also giving away 2000 free copies (!) of the 25th anniversary edition. See here for details.

Why Be Openminded?

"The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid."

—The Autobiography, vol. 16 of The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1988), 212.