Jonathan Edwards. He’s the preacher who preached his sermon series on Justification which brought about the Great Awakening in 1734 and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in 1741, which sent people into visions of Hell during the sermon. He had outpourings of the presence of God in his church! A Puritan preacher with people experiencing the Holy Spirit in his church! A Congregationalist preacher. Every Wesleyan, Pentecostal, and charismatic person in America has him to thank for getting Spirit-filled evangelicalism off to a great start, even if he was a Calvinist.
Have you ever wondered what the GOVERNMENT was like back then? Well, that Bible-based spiritual awakening was pre-American, keep that in mind. It happened about 40 years before the American Revolution in 1776 with George Washington. The seat of colonial government in Edwards’ day would have been the Old State House in Boston, Massachusetts, which was about 105 miles away from Northampton. Each of the counties had their local magistrates who were held accountable to Boston. The government was thoroughly Puritan. The full development of the “Bible Commonwealth” which was first established in the 1640s. But by the 1690s, Boston started to become a hotbed of pirates, outlaws, worldly businessmen, taverns, whoremongers, Antinomians, deists, atheists, and liberals of all kinds. The main spiritual problem was the Age of Enlightenment, in which the exaltation of the sciences at the expense of supernatural religion, took over the minds of the population. While preachers like Edwards and John Wesley sought to balance out reason and supernatural Christianity, the majority of the Bostonians leaned the direction of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (1776), which was publicly read in taverns to incite angry drunkards into political frenzies. This was precipitated by more riotous political mob behavior, which resulted in the Boston Massacre (1770) and the Boston Tea Party (1773). Bible believers had officially lost their influence over society and were popularly replaced by politically and economically excited Antinomians (easy-believism people), deists, and atheists, all of whom were mainly business-minded and tax-minded. So the whole move towards the American Revolution was motivated by secularism and business. The language of “tyranny” was pejoratively used against British rulers, to further move away from the Puritan model of government in Boston, and towards a more deistic Freemason government ideology which eventually made its way to Washington, D.C. –J.B.
So let this begin It’s been so long Take my hand I’m finally moving on I see a controversy And the world looking at me Eighteen years I’m done with chairs It’s been so long I’m finally moving on I see a controversy And the world looking at me I see a stage of fire I see the people touched A cross it stands before I see your love Beggar I see the world is watching Send the nations I’m beggar Take my hand take my life –Luti-Kriss, “For Shadows”–
TAKE ME DOWN FROM THIS BED AND PUT ME ON THE FLOOR. I MUST MEET MY LORD AS THE WORTHLESS BEGGAR I AM. –Francis of Assisi’s dying words–
Killing the me in me Killing the me in me Give a word of fragile optimism that this will be okay Bore down on gluttonous hands, regurgitated thoughts from my heart This can only be the going under This can only be killing the me in me Push and pull like machines The human anthems are dying in me I don’t think a soul knows compromise like a soul mate It sleeps with me In my flesh I ask for a personal bleeding The Holy Ghost obliges and has words with me It comes in love, it comes with gentle hands, it disinfects the sting for me It comes in love It disinfects the sting for me This can only be the going under This can only be killing the me in me The hole is filled without the ring Instead a kiss, a kiss from the sun, to try again –Embodyment, “Killing The Me In Me”–
Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. –Romans 8:15 (KJV)
If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God. –Deuteronomy 8:19-20
Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into Hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. –Jesus in Luke 12:5
Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. –Philippians 2:12
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. –Proverbs 9:10
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. –1 Timothy 4:1-2
We wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship. –Romans 8:23 (ADOPTION PROCESS).
Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. –Exodus 20:12
Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” –Jesus in Matthew 10:34-37
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord…Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage. –Jude 1:3-4, 11-16
Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father.” And Jacob noticed that Laban’s attitude toward him was not what it had been.Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.” –Genesis 31:1-3
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. –Colossians 3:1-10
Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers. –Psalm 1:1
PREACHERS ARE CALLED “SERVANTS” OF THE LORD MANY TIMES
Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. –Acts 4:29
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God. –Romans 1:1
Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord. –Ephesians 6:21
Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ. –Colossians 1:7
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. –James 1:1
Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. –2 Peter 1:1
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ. –Jude 1:1
The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John. –Revelation 1:1
The word “servant” is used for preachers many times in the New Testament: see here.
Sonship presents a truncated (cut down) view of the Holy Spirit’s work in sanctification.
The Sonship course helpfully emphasizes that the believer is totally forgiven and righteous in God’s sight. A growth in the knowledge of God is accompanied by a growth in the knowledge of sin. Being holier equals feeling less holy. Good. So the gospel of Jesus Christ – his blood and righteousness as our only hope – becomes increasingly precious to us. That is certainly one dynamic in the Christian life. However, this is where Sonship seems to stop. Where is the daily battle with remaining sin? What about mortification by the power of the Spirit? What of self-examination? Van Dixhoorn says, “It is as if Sonship had never heard of section three in the same chapter of the Confession. The Westminster Divines go on to say that in this ‘war, although the remaining corruption, for a time, may much prevail; yet through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, the regenerate part doth overcome; and so, the saints grow in grace, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.’ That is far from clear in Sonship’s teaching.” —The Movement Called “Sonship” (Banner of Truth, 2000)
I suspect that this “sonship” teaching might be linked up with the old Manifest Sons of God teaching (the little gods heresy) (Hank Hanegraaff’s Christianity in Crisis, ch. 9).
Jack Miller (d. 1996), a Presbyterian pastor, was the first person to teach this antinomian sonship teaching in the recent past. It actually originated in Presbyterianism, not the charismatic churches. But critics of Miller have said his hippie ethos is really to blame for the non-judgmental theology of sonship that he taught.
Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism by William Hogarth. 1762. One of his last great works of art, this explores the ever dangerous world of fundamentalist religion. Presiding from a great height a preacher-performer terrorizes his congregation with a pair of puppets representing the devil and a witch. The text beside him has opened to a page reading, “I speak as a fool.” Below, another minister thrusts an icon down the dress of an attractive girl seemingly in the throes of religious ecstasy. Hogarth continues the poignant comparison between religious and sexual excitement to the right of this couple by inventing a religious thermometer containing various emotional states such as, agony, lust, madness and suicide. At the thermometer’s base rests a diseased brain. –Art of the Print
Amidst the grave of existential plight My faith in rags, uncertain sight The queries loom, unanswered still As I navigate this labyrinth of ill Though misgivings abide My denial reside My heart in pain, a flicker of hope remains Throughout the night, throughout the fire I will not change, I’ll be your silent guide Patience, come to my side Come be patient, come to my side Patience, my guiding light As I wander the uncertain night Throughout the night I will not change I’ll be your guide Fervor lost, my heart bereft In the blustering of doubt and despair I’ve lost my grasp on what was just Yet a glimmer of deliverance is here Though misgivings abide My denial reside Though my path may waver, and I may stray Love and community, will lead the way In the embrace of compassion, I shall find peace Hope and unity, shall never cease –Extol, “Labyrinth of Ill”–
—
Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:he hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him. –Proverbs 7:18-21 (KJV)
“Come, let’s drink deeply of love till morning; let’s enjoy ourselves with love!My husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey.He took his purse filled with money and will not be home till full moon.”With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk. –Proverbs 7:18-21 (NIV)
Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? –1 Corinthians 9:5 (KJV)
WesleyGospel Ministries 