My wife, my daughter and I will be Chrismated on Sunday. We will take the saint names of Anna, Sophia and John respectively. My mind has been much on my life confession and for some odd reason I thought about this:
“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 obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood . . .The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours.”
Pretty strong stuff and there is a lot more of the same in the complete sermon here. The quotation is from a famous sermon entitled “Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God” delivered by Jonathan Edwards in 1741 during The Great Awakening.
Are we talking about the same God?
“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 obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood . . .The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours.”
Pretty strong stuff and there is a lot more of the same in the complete sermon here. The quotation is from a famous sermon entitled “Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God” delivered by Jonathan Edwards in 1741 during The Great Awakening.
Are we talking about the same God?
4 comments:
November - first off MANY YEARS! What a great blessing for you that your wife and child are coming Home with you.
I would say that No, Edwards got it wrong. The further away from Calvinism I get the more I see it as making God into someone we cannot trust. He may zap me or He may not, depends on His mood. Dare I say, Like an Alchoholic Father?
I much prefer the "lover of mankind" and "He who bowed the heavens and came down.."
Good luck with your life-time confession - I can relate.
I have to admit it stirs up anger in me to read those lies about the God who gives Life and is Love. So many people I know have been just mangled by this abhorrent and heretical theology. Lord have mercy.
BUT...on a decidedly more happy note...many, many years, NiMS for you and your family. I am so happy for y'all!
Thank you both for your kind words. Edwards' sermon and that whole mindset that we are less than vermin in God's eyes has always struck me as false. Or course we know better now. But you're right Dixie, this theology has twisted and misguided many people.
Thankfully, we are sinners in the hands of a loving God.
Frank+
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