“Stamp my eyeballs with eternity”
Jonathan Edwards (October 5, 1703 – March 22, 1758) was a preacher, theologian, and missionary to Native Americans and today “is widely acknowledged to be America’s most important and original philosophical theologian,” and one of America’s greatest intellectuals. In 1741, during a period of time now commonly refered to as the Great Awakening, he famously preached a sermon entitled “Sinners in the hands of an angry God“.
Most of this sermon’s text consists of ten “considerations”, which Edwards acquires from the Word of God. They are as follows:
- God may cast wicked men into hell at any given moment.
- The Wicked deserve to be cast into hell. Divine justice does not prevent God destroying the Wicked at any moment.
- The Wicked, at this moment, suffer under God’s condemnation to Hell.
- The Wicked, on earth – at this very moment – suffer the torments of Hell. The Wicked must not think, simply because they are not physically in Hell, God (in whose Hand the Wicked now reside) is – at this very moment – as angry with them as He is with those miserable creatures He is now tormenting in hell, and who – at this very moment – do feel and bear the fierceness of His wrath.
- At any moment God shall permit him, Satan stands ready to fall upon the Wicked and seize them as his own
- If it were not for God’s restraints, there are, in the souls of wicked men, hellish principles reigning which, presently, would kindle and flame out into hellfire,
- Simply because there are not visible means of death before them, at any given moment, the Wicked should not, therefore, feel secure.
- Simply because it is natural to care for oneself or to think that others may care for them, men should not think themselves safe from God’s wrath.
- All that wicked men may do to save themselves from Hell’s pains afford them nothing if they continue to reject Christ.
- God has never promised to save us from Hell, except for those contained in Christ through the covenant of Grace
Pretty intense stuff hey? In this “seeker sensitive” culture that we are now living in, I would highly doubt that Jonathan Edwards (if he was alive today) would be a greatly sought after guest speaker! But what has gripped my heart (and what should take hold of all our hearts) is the reality of the eternal realm. Jonathan Edwards once prayed, “Lord stamp my eyeballs with eternity”, and that has now become an oft repeated prayer on my lips!
Charles Spurgeon, another famous theologian from centuries gone by once said,
“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for”
Oh God, make this ring true in our hearts and lives!
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Comments
Gabriel Philips!!.. I only found the blog now! so I will comment on the most recent, although I was tempted to do it on all of them.
You should get hold of John Pipers book, The Supremacy of God in Preaching. A large part of it is based on Edwards life and view of God in preaching. Amazing.
Malcolm has a copy.
I have been thinking a lot about the whole blog thing. I have never really been into it. But last week the guy who started 2 Oceans Vibe (the biggest, and quite dodgy) SA blog came to speak to us at Uni. I’m keen to look into it. We must talk about it. Lank
Much love
Andrew Robert Darge
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