Jonathan Edwards Knowing Christ

The sermons are amazing. His skill in thinking theologically is unsurpassed. He really drives home God's holiness and God's wrath. How God would totally justified in wiping us all out, but by His grace even now the wicked live and breathe. He is a Calvinist, but he pleads to sinners to repent now. He doesn't explain the mysteries of the faith, but what He does explain is God's delight in Christians and God's wrath for the unbelievers. Salvation is not only salvation from Hell, but an eternity with Him who created us and with Him who delights in us. God has put a new heart in us so can have delight in Him. Edwards does not believe in tepid Christianity. He believes in believers who need to pursue God with every fiber of their being. Christians love God. If you don't love God and and pursue Him, you might want to examine your faith.

Jonathan Edwards gets it right in all of his sermons because his is a message that keeps the Cross and Christ at the center and heart of his teaching. Self-focused and self-centered teachings seemed to be drawing large crowd these days because people want to be told how great they are and how much God wants to bless them. No other writer has so exalted the Glory of God in his writings (with the exception of John Piper) better than Edwards. He is not perfect but his writing seem like it because his writings are strictly bible based and sound doctrine. He deals with the depravity of man because of the sin of Adam, then offers the solution of redemption by faith in Jesus our Savior. The message of the Cross is central to the Gospel but it has nearly been replaced with another gospel of prosperity and materialism. People don't study their Bibles but depend on someone else spoon-feeding them the word. Many are not getting meat but are malnourished for the cheese and crackers they are being fed. This is why the writings of Charles Spurgeon and Jonathan Edwards are needed now more than ever. You must overcome the urge to not read Edwards because he owned slaves or was a flawed man. Christ died for the worst of us and don't confuse the message with the messenger. The Bible is still true even if the messenger is not so perfect!

A lot of great lessons on God's relationship to Man. He has kept God central in his writtings and there is a lot of valuable theological ideas in this book that I think would benefit students of the Scriptures on such as the importance of the role of repentance in Salvation; how God manifests first of all man's sinfulness and guilt before he is shown mercy and grace. Thus making the gospel, turly good news! Highly Christ exalting material in this book. People don't write materials with this kind of caliber anymore- or so it seems.