Marsden on Jonathan Edwards

I went to hear Marsden speak last night at Eastern Nazarene College. The subject was what Edwards would have to say to the 21st century. He began by a comparison of the deism of Edwards’  day, per Benjamin Franklin, and the mechanistic worldview of science and the increase of technology, where all is natural law and impersonal at the core. In this world God gets pushed to the side and becomes essentially ancillary. After all, we don’t want the pilot to come on the intercom as he is landing the plane and tell passengers he is asking for God’s help in landing the plane. We want to tell him that we’ll pray, but he better pay attention to his instruments.  Jonathan Edwards, however, saw the world as a world of persons, beginning with the Trinity. Ultimate reality is personal, and creation as we see it is the overflow of God’s communing with himself. Edwards is a believer in the Big Bang theory–the universe is the result of the Big Bang of God’s love. But for Edwards it is not enough to say that it is an expression of God’s love. It is an expression of God’s redemptive love in Christ. Therefore, our response to this world that we live in is to be one of delight. Our affections should be moved toward the love of God. Of course, this means moving out of love of self, what Marsden labeled the black hole of self-love that keeps all for self.  I want to read the Marsden biography of Edwards. He has a shorter and longer version, one a book of 150 pages and one of 500 pages. Of course, Edwards was not only a philosopher/theologian; he was also a pastor. And he was a pastor who payed a big price for seeking true regeneration among his flock. As he became stricter in his views of what was necessary for constituting true membership in the Body of Christ and therefore who should be admitted to the Lord’s Supper, his congregation dismissed him. It is hard to conceive of such a controversy today. It is assumed that the Lord’s Supper is no one’s business except the one partaking. The RCs are revisiting their requirements for the Eucharist. A bishop recently demanded that Nancy Pelosi be refused communion until she repented of her prochoice position.

Jonathan Edwards now online

Yale has published online all of Edwards’ works, all 26 volumes, complete with a powerful search engine. Each volume would cost $100 in print. Now it is available for free. How unjustifiably can we plead ignorance of Christ and His New Covenant law on that day when we appear before Him to give account of all.How rich we really are and how poorer because of all we neglect. Therefore, let the poor say I am rich, and the weak say I am strong. And as Augustine heard in the children’s rhyme1600 years ago, “Take up and read.” Here is the link. http://edwards.yale.edu

Does anyone know what our military mission is in Afghanistan?

Here we go again. Why is there a lesson here that our Presidents can’t seem to learn? And while we are sending our men and women to die in another land, Attorney General Holder calls Americans essentially cowards!!!!

The Pecking order in your church

This graph supposedly reflects the Church of England but it applies to us.