The cartoon, to the left, is a bit of satire from Yale University's Jonathan Edwards Blog.
To further our understandings of Jonathan Edwards, I thought I would also point you a 2003 video of Iain Murray entitled, Jonathan Edwards: The Life, the Man, and the Legacy, from the Desiring God National Conference of the same year.
This is the 4th post in my study of Jonathan Edwards famous text Religious Affections
In my last post we began to explore Jonathan Edwards' assertion that "True religion, in great part, consists of the affections". In that post we worked our way through the first five of his arguments.
In this post we will conclude with his final five arguments as well as the end of his first "part".
Please read on...
Jonathan Edwards' assertion:
"True religion, in great part, consists of the affections"
6.) In this particular argument, Edwards points us towards the saints of the Bible to find that indeed the holy affections of God were strongly present. In great detail, Edwards points to the lives of David, Paul, and John. It is plainly obvious that these men were driven by holy affections towards God, Christ, and the church.
7.) Edwards seventh defense points us to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Christ's life is repleat with holy affections. Edwards points us to passage after passage of the holy affections of Christ, but number one on his list is our Lord's High Priestly Prayer (John 17).
8.) Coming in, at number 8, is heaven. If you want to see and understand the affections, then look to where they are displayed in perfection. Edwards points out the the chief holy affections are love and joy. These two, he proclaims, are clearly evident in heaven, according to the Scriptures.
9.) Here Edwards points us to "the nature and design of the ordinances and duties". Examples he lists are prayer, singing praises, communion, preaching the word of God. Clearly all of these activities exist in the affections.
10.) The last place that Edwards points us to is the heart. The Bible throughout speaks of a hard heart in contrast to a tender heart and provides us with yet another example of good versus bad affections.
Evidently in Jonathan Edwards day people were seeing the movement of God in the "Great Awakening" and misinterpreting the affections place in humble service to God. Some seeing the misguided display of "affections" determined that the affections had no place in God's community and outright forbid affection of any kind. On the other hand, some went to the other extreme and would look for outrageous displays of "affection" to see the presence of God.
Thus began the debate. Clearly, Satan had planned to confuse the church over this most precious gift and fundamental part of our nature.
This same confusion of Satan exists today. It is possible to walk into some churches and hear the holy word of God proclaimed and witness a lifeless display void of all affection. It is also possible to walk into a different church and find people rolling on the floors, seemingly thrown into fits, with false prophets declaring the healing of the lord, when in fact the true Lord is nowheres present.
Nonetheless, Edwards proclaims, in spite of the devils attempts to dissuade, true religion, in great part, does indeed lie in the affections.
I got it. Crystal clear to me. How about you?
