Introduction
Jonathan Edwards is one of the most recognized and revered names not only in American history, but also in church history. He was the “greatest theologian and philosopher of British American Puritanism, stimulator of the religious revival known as the “Great Awakening,” and one of the forerunners of the age of Protestant missionary expansion in the 19th century.” He is best known for his writings, as well as his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” However, most people know little else about him. It seems to be the natural assumption that successful people like Jonathan Edwards live a carefree life and ride off into the sunset. When it came to Edwards, nothing could be further from the truth.
The great works that Edwards is remembered for aren’t his most noble achievements. Many times it is the things that people endure that don’t make the headlines that reveal the most about who they really are. The trials that Edwards went through prove that not only was he a brilliant theologian, but also a man of Godly character.
Context
There has been much ink devoted to the sermons and works of Jonathan Edwards. Although this paper references those works as a point of contrast, the central focus is on the hardships of Edwards and the Godly character that they reveal. This paper will zero in on Edwards in the valley, as opposed to the mountain top.
The scope of this paper isn’t a complete biographical sketch of Edward’s life. Rather, it presents a more detailed look at a series of events that took place from October of 1747 until his death in March of 1758, at the age of 54.
Main Body
Imagine a sermon so powerful, that the man preaching it is interrupted with “great moaning and crying out throughout the whole house: what Shall I do to be Saved - oh
I am going to Hell - of what shall I do for Christ?”, a sermon so anointed by God that it sparks the Great Awakening and transforms a nation. "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" was such a sermon, and Jonathan Edwards the preacher. There was no amplification or special effects, no air conditioning or modern comforts, there was only the preacher reading his pre-written sermon word for word in a monotone voice.
Edwards first preached this sermon to his congregation in Northampton, Massachusetts in the year 1741, seemingly to no effect. However, he preached it again in Enfield Connecticut on July 8, 1741, where he could not even finish the sermon because the people's response was so intense. When the sermon was published and sent out, it also had the same reviving effect upon all that read it, and thus became a key factor in the Great Awakening. Ian Murry writes, "As spring passed into summer 1741 no one could well keep track of the number of places which were also witnessing the revival. Churches, which in some cases had been cold and dry at the beginning of the year, were transformed before the end. “It is astonishing,” wrote Edwards, “to see the alteration that there is in some towns, where before there was but little appearance of religion."
It's impossible to overstate the impact that this “sermon of unparalleled logic and vivacious imagery” had on America. In a day with no cameras, smart phones, social media, or round the clock news channels, this sermon turned America upside down. It's also amazing that almost 280 years later when we do have all of these things, that the sermon is still popular. As of the writing of this paper, there have been almost half a million people that have gone to Youtube in order to hear someone else read "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" straight off a page! This sermon has also been downloaded from SermonAudio.com over 250,000 times! As Edwards was writing this sermon, there is simply no way that he could've had any idea how God would use it. He was perhaps more surprised than anyone at the people's reaction.
So, what ever happened to this Great Awakener? Surely after preaching the most famous sermon since the time of the Apostles, Edwards would live a life of peace and prosperity, enjoying the favor of both God and man until he rode off into his happily ever after. However, such was not the case.
Edwards troubles really began in October of 1747 when his would-be Son-in-law, David Brainerd, died of Tuberculosis in Edward’s home. Brainerd had been ill for several months, but had taken a turn for the worst in September. Edward’s daughter, Jerusha, risked her own health in order to care for Brainerd. As a result of her selflessness, she too contracted Tuberculosis and died four months later in February of 1748. Edwards officiated both the funerals of Brainerd and his 17 year old daughter. Edwards loved both of them dearly. He even had them buried side by side, although they were not married. Edwards would also go on to write, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd, in order to honor Brainerd and his mission work with the Delaware Indians. Needless to say that Edwards was devastated by their death.
During this time it was also clear that Edward’s church was beginning to turn against him. Just days prior to Jerusha's death, her sister Sally wrote in reference to the relationship between Edwards and the church, "They have never maintained him in any measure." She went on to say that she hoped that Edwards would "leave his people if a convenient opportunity presents itself.". The congregation's attitude toward the Great Awakener simply boggles the mind, especially at a time when he needed them the most. Later that same year, Edwards wrote, "I am the subject of an afflictive dispensation as of late." However, he also stated that God was teaching him, "how to sympathize with the afflicted."
By 1750, the tension in the church had reached a boiling point. The last straw was when Edwards attempted to change their open communion policy to the Biblical model of a closed communion that would only allow for those with a credible profession of faith to partake. The church would not hear of it. The male members voted him out by a vote of 230-23. After 23 years of service to this Northampton congregation, the Great Awakener was voted out by a 90% margin.
He preached his farewell sermon on July 1, 1750. He was compassionate, but as one might expect, he spoke his mind. Any Pastor who has ever experienced church hurt can relate to Edwards having "doubts about whether he had the personal skills to be a pastor." It's also understandable that he was worried about how to care for his family now that he had lost his income.
Unfortunately, things only got worse. The church owned the property behind Edwards house, and they had such a disdain for him that they would not even allow him to plant crops in order to feed his family. And although Edwards had some different preaching and pastoring opportunities, many of them were overseas and he didn't feel led to move his family across the ocean. Instead, Edwards chose to move his family into the New England wilderness in order to become a missionary to the Mahican Indians in the same way that Brainerd had years before.
For several years the Yale Valedictorian taught less than a dozen Indian children at a mission school/church in the frontier town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. His large family was crammed into the small mission house and his salary was barely enough to keep them all fed. Not to mention the constant battle with the mission’s leadership and funding issues. To make matters worse, there was constant tension between the Indians and white settlers. Violence and abductions were not uncommon.
In the summer of 1754, Edwards fell terribly ill. For over a year he intermittently battled with a combination of extreme fatigue, nausea, fever and weight loss. He finally began to get his strength back in August of 1755. However, George Marsden records a terrifying event that took place on the first Sunday that Edwards was back in the pulpit. This story gives us a glimpse into the circumstances and times in which Edwards and his family lived and ministered. Marsden writes;
“On Sunday, September i, the first Sunday Edwards was back in the pulpit after the first round of his illness, the town was suddenly overtaken by terror and panic. Between the meetings, a man came rushing into town to report that he had just come upon a Canadian Indian who was abducting an English child from an outlying home. The Indian, seeing that he was pursued, tomahawked the child and escaped. The horrified Englishman returned to the house to find a servant and an infant dead, while the father and two other children were cowering before another Indian, who promptly fled. An hour later the Indians killed another man on the outskirts of the town.”
It’s no wonder that even a spiritual giant such as Edwards dealt with bouts of melancholy from time to time. Parker writes, “Edwards had suffered his own mild melancholy, or depressions, over the state of his soul and seemed characteristically to work his way out of them through a rational program of keeping to his religious and working routine.”
Imagine being the famous preacher of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", and having pastored a church of 1,300 people for 23 years. Now, think of losing all of that because the church and the town turned their back on you at your lowest point and now you are living in exile and teaching a handful of Indian children at mission school. As a Pastor, I think that I could handle going from a mission school to a congregation of 1,300. But the other way around, I'm not so sure about that. The Great Awakener in exile, what a humbling thought. Noel Piper brings out the irony of this situation. She writes;
“There succeeded to that vacant office in the wild woods, one whose name is not only highly honored throughout this land, but better known and more honored abroad, perhaps, than that of any of our countrymen except Washington. As a preacher, a philosopher, and a person of devoted piety he is unsurpassed. . . . But . . . after a most successful ministry of more than 20 years, a controversy had arisen between him and his people, and they had thrust him out from them rudely and almost in disgrace. The subsequent adoption of his views, not only at Northampton but throughout the churches of New England, has abundantly vindicated his position in that lamentable controversy.”
For eight long years the Edwards endured the hardness of mission life on the frontier. Despite poverty, isolation, sickness and the ever present threat of violence, they never wavered. It has well been said that one cannot really know a person until they have been seen in their darkest hour. When Edwards and his family were cut with the knife of despair, they bled Christ and His great salvation. Edwards himself did what he had always done, even during his years in Northampton. He kept preaching, writing and praising God. When he wasn’t at his desk studying (some estimate that he studied for 13 hours per day) he enjoyed walks into the wilderness where he would spend time with God in prayer.
If the story had ended here in the wilderness of Stockbridge, some might get the idea that Edwards and his family had been abandoned by God. However, God's sovereign hand was at work even in exile. It was during this time of reduced responsibility that Edwards wrote his greatest works. Among other things, he finished Freedom of the Will, and The Nature of True Virtue. In fact, Edwards barely finished the manuscript for The Nature of True Virtue before his death. It had to be published posthumously. These two works are credited with holding off humanism and liberalism in the church for almost 200 years. In this way, these works had an impact of equal importance to "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." God removed his choice servant into the wilderness in order to accomplish His will.
In January of 1758, Edwards was called away from exile in order to take the prestigious position of president of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton). However, he died unexpectedly just two months later when he had an adverse reaction to the smallpox vaccine. It's almost as if God wanted to put His stamp of approval on Edwards life just before He took him home. Today, Jonathan Edwards is remembered as one of the greatest theologians in history, but it came at a great price.
The lesson to be learned here is that when Edwards was on top of the religious world, he was in the will of God. And when he was seemingly forgotten in the wilderness, he was in the will of God. The trials that he went through revealed his true Christian character. Edwards wasn’t simply an ivory tower theologian. He was a great Christian man. He was a great example of a Christian husband, father and servant. The eight years that he was a missionary in the wilderness prove that he didn’t feel any kind of Christian service to be beneath him.
Conclusion
The Christian character and example of the life of Jonathan Edwards presents us with both a great challenge and great hope. The challenge is to always be who we claim to be. Time and trials will reveal the truth. The hope that we find in his testimony is, whether we pastor at a large church, or have a mission work in the jungles of nowhere, God can use us. It's not about talent, it's about placement. God is keeping a record, and our labor is not in vain in the Lord. Remember that revival and salvation are God's business. The first time Edwards preached "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", nothing happened. We must continue to carry out the great commission, preaching that we are great sinners but that Christ is a great Savior. Remind people that there is a Heaven to gain and a hell to shun. As Edwards said in his famous sermon, "Some make gods of their pleasures; some choose Mammon for their god; some make gods of their own supposed excellencies, or the outward advantages they have above their neighbors: some choose one thing for their god, and others another. But men can be happy in no other God but the God of Israel: he is the only fountain of happiness.”
In closing, I have always been convinced that two of the greatest indicators of a person’s true character are; how they respond to adversity, and how their immediate family responds to them. It is possible for someone to fool many of the people in their life. However, it’s impossible to fool one’s immediate family forever. They know the real person. Being a pastor, I meet a lot of new people. When I am trying to get to know someone I pay a lot of attention to how their spouse and children look at them, and how they respond to them. The vast majority of the time this turns out to be a great indicator of a person’s character. We have seen how Edwards responded to adversity, but what did his family think of him? They were there with him during the ups and downs. They saw him at his best and his worst. Of all the compliments that Edwards received, perhaps there was no greater thing said about him than what his wife Sarah wrote in a letter to their daughter, Lucy, upon his death.
“My Very Dear Child, What shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. Oh that we may kiss the rod, and lay our hands on our mouths. The Lord has done it. He has made me adore His goodness, that we had him so long. But my God lives; and He has my heart. O what a legacy my husband, and your father, has left us! We are all given to God; and there I am, and love to be. Your ever affectionate mother, Sarah Edwards.”
May we strive to live a life in which our conscience is void of offence toward both God and man. Let us also look to the example of faithful Christian men and women like Jonathan Edwards as an encouragement for us to do the same.
Edwards, Jonathan, letter to John Eskrine, October 14, 1748, Works, 16: 265. (As Cited by Marsden)
Edwards, Jonathan, Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God, preached in Enfield Connecticut on July 8, 1741
Edwards, Sarah, a letter to Elihu Spencer, February 10, 1748, (as cited by Marsden)
Edwards, Sarah, letter to daughter, Lucy, April 3, 1758, (as cited in The Works of Jonathan Edwards,” Banner of Truth, Vol. 1, p.clxxix.
Marsden, George, Jonathan Edwards; A Life, (Yale University Press, 2003)
Medlicott, Alexander Jr. "In the Wake of Mr. Edwards's 'Most Awakening' Sermon", Early American Literature 15.3 (1980/81)
Murray, Iain H. Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1987)
Parker, Gail Thane, "Jonathan Edwards wards and Melancholy," New England Quarterly 41 (June 1968)
Piper, Noel, A God Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards, ed. John Piper and Justin Taylor (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2004)
Shafer, T.A. "Jonathan Edwards." Encyclopedia Britannica, March 18, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jonathan-Edwards.
Turley, Stephen Richard, 2008. “Awakened to the Holy: ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ in Ritualized Context.” Christianity and Literature 57 (4)
Edwards first preached this sermon to his congregation in Northhampton, Massachusetts in the year 1741, seemingly to no effect. However, he preached it again in Enfield Connecticut on July 8, 1741, where he could not even finish the sermon because the people's response was so intense. When the sermon was published and sent out, it also had the same reviving effect upon all that read, and thus became a key factor in the Great Awakening. Ian Murry Write
I really enjoyed reading this. Is very interesting and enlightening.
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