Quakers and French Prophets were the universalist, antinomian, false doctrine charismatics in the time of Edwards. They would have been the equivalent of the Latter Rain NAR charismatics that we have today. Edwards exhorts Bible believers to contend for the authentic charismatic experience that is grounded in Biblical and Puritanical theology. At the end of the book, and the beginning, he refers to The Fulfilling of the Scripture by Robert Fleming, in which he finds a point of reference with John Knox and the Scottish Reformers as a great example for what to aim at as Reformed charismatics. Enthusiasm was what many today call “mysticism” in the false, human, and demonic sense. But even though NAR charismatics are the enthusiasts of modern times, Edwards assures us that if we keep our eyes on a spiritual type of Biblical Puritanism, then we can arrive at genuine experiences of the presence of God today. Edwards’ openness to visions of Heaven and Hell might have got him in trouble with his Congregationalist Church board, which held to the cessationist statement on Scripture in the Savoy Declaration of Faith (1658), which was borrowed from the Westminster Confession. As can be seen, Edwards opened the way to the charismatic world through Fleming, it seems, which aligned his faith for a time, with the spirituality of the Scots Confession (1560), which was not cessationist in the way it understood Scripture.
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Dr. Thomas C. Oden, John Wesley’s Scriptural Christianity (Zondervan, 1994).
The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 2 vols. (Banner of Truth, 1981).
Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarries (Bethany House, 1979).
Charles Finney, Lectures on Revivals of Religion (Alethea In Heart, 2005).
Dr. Jack Deere, Surprised by the Voice of God (Zondervan, 1996).
Dr. Sam Storms, Understanding Spiritual Gifts (Zondervan, 2020).
Jeff Doles, Miracles and Manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the History of the Church (Walking Barefoot Ministries, 2008).
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