Posted on 05/03/2002 11:20:24 AM PDT by RnMomof7
Just did! Did not read one scripture that proves that regeneration preceeds faith. Most of what Whitefield discusses is the result of the New Birth, which we can all agree to.
Actually, I was suprised at the lack of scripture cited!
His statements on the Christian life are correct. His statement that we could not desire heaven because it is spiritual is not. The fact is fear of hell is a strong motivator to get one to receive Christ, not just the pleasures of heaven.(witness the conversions of those after Jonathen Edwards sermon!) Hence, the need to preach the reality of it as the Lord Himself did!
You know something NOTHING motivated me except the overwhelming grace of God..I did not consider the fires of hell or the blessings of heaven when I fell on my knees and gave my pathetic life to Christ.
My heart desired NOTHING other than a relationship with the God that made me! And that is the truth.
And you know what? that is still true to this day...I never consider heaven or hell..I consider my God ,that loved me inspite of who I am...that graced me and called me and lives within me..The Kingdom of God is within you...YES it is......My Lord and my Savior....
Well, Amen! But the fact is that many are motivated to receive Christ through a fear of hell.
The point is that Whitefield did not make the case for your Calvinistic view that one must be regenerated (unconditonal election) before one can be saved. I see no compelling argument in his sermon.
I see the truth of the New Birth, which I do not believe many nonCalvinists would disagree with.
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I presume you mean "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"? If so, when Edwards first preached this sermon to his Northfield congregation, it drew little response. Later in another setting and another church it brought profound response. In both instances Edwards merely read his sermon as was his custom.
It is not the words or the topic, but the working of God's Spirit!
Well, it doesn't matter when it drew a response, only that it did! Maybe the first hears were resisting the Holy Spirit. :>)
They are seeking Christ, when He is shown to be the only way to avoid hell! The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom!
1 John 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
1 John 5:18 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
John 9:31 Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.
Most Christians are admitted sinners therefore one may discern they are not heard by nor born of God by their own admission.
We disagree they are not "seeking" Christ..they are seeking to save their butt..or to get a need met..the unregenerate man is only capable of willing his own well being!
God always hears the prayers of a repentant sinner....
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Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is perhaps the most popular of all of Jonathan Edwards’ sermons. This sermon was preached, not in his home Northampton pulpit, but in the town of Enfield, Connecticut on July 8, 1741. Edwards was invited to preach at the request of Enfield’s minister because of the stubbornness of the congregation toward the gospel. Enfield had been almost totally untouched by the ripple effect of the Great Awakening of 1734-35. Iain Murray points out that the people were unconcerned whether it came upon them or not. However many Christians of the town gave themselves to prayer the night before Edwards came lest, “while the divine showers were falling around them, Enfield would be passed by.”
Edwards quietly arose that morning and announced his theme as, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. He preached on the wrath of God against unrepentant sinners. The sermon is an exposition of Deuteronomy 32:35-36: “To me belongeth vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them that make haste. For the Lord shall judge His people.”
The response of the congregation to the sermon was remarkable. The language and imagery were so vivid that many in the congregation trembled uncontrollably, some cried out for mercy, others fainted. One reliable witness recorded that as Edwards preached there were “moanings and cryings, until the shrieks became so amazing that Edwards (his eyes fixed on the bell-rope) had to pause.” His message so stirred his hearers that grown, strong men held on to their seats, feeling they were sliding into hell. This sermon sparked one of the most dramatic episodes of revival in the Great Awakening. One biographer observes that, “What Jonathan Edwards was doing as he turned page after page in the little booklet was to make this July Sunday, 1741, seem their last chance. Accept the terms today or be eternally lost.” B. Trumbell observed that the people were, “bowed down with an awful conviction of their sin.”
The results of this sermon cannot be attributed to flamboyant oratory, or emotional style. In fact, he read his message in a carefully controlled tone just so that his primary appeal would be to his hearers’ minds, not their emotions. When one of his hearers was asked if Edwards was an eloquent preacher, he replied:
“If you mean by eloquence, what is usually intended by it in our cities; he had no pretensions to it. He had no studied varieties of voice, and no strong emphasis. He scarcely gestured or even moved; and he made no attempt by the eloquence of his style, or the beauty of his pictures, to gratify the taste, and fascinate the imagination. But, if you mean by eloquence the power of presenting an important truth before an audience, with over-whelming weight of argument, and with such intenseness of feeling that the whole soul of the speaker is thrown into every part of the conception and delivery, so that the solemn attention of the whole audience is riveted, from the beginning to the close, and impressions are left that cannot be effaced, Mr. Edwards was the most eloquent man I ever heard.”
Source: http://www.geocities.com/jfanella1703/SaintlyArticle.html
No, He does not.
Hebrews 12:17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
John 9:31 Now we know that God heareth not sinners:
I am a fan of Edwards BTW
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