Author | Jonathan Edwards |
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Country | United States |
Subject | Theology |
Publication date | 1734 |
The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners is a sermon by American Christian theologian, reformer, author, and pastor, Jonathan Edwards, originally published in 1734, [1] that uses the text of Romans 3:19 as its basis. [2]
The main subject of the doctrinal part of Edwards' sermon is the free grace of God in man's salvation, especially in regards to justification by faith alone. [3] Edwards examines the context of Romans 3:19 in which the Apostle Paul chastises the Jewish people for their literal observance and interpretation of the Law and then proceeds to condemn them for it. Edwards affirms, and then elaborates upon, Paul's original assertion. [4]
Edwards preached the sermon during the First Great Awakening (c. 1730–1755) in a series of sermons entitled "Justification by Faith Alone" in 1734. [1] [5] The result of Edwards' preaching was the beginnings of a great revival in Northampton and along the Connecticut River Valley in the winter and spring of 1734-5. During this same period, more than three hundred of Edwards' congregation made professions of faith. [1]
"The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners" was preached against the principles of Arminianism, namely the disabling effects of original sin, free will and the tendency to make morality the essence of religion. [1]
While not as popular as some of his other works, modern day Calvinists such as John Piper refer to Edwards' teaching often and use his works extensively in their own ministries. [6] When the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University opened, Piper was quoted as saying that its opening had "fulfilled a dream I did not expect to see.” [7]
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Dwight Lyman Moody, also known as D. L. Moody, was an American evangelist and publisher connected with Keswickianism, who founded the Moody Church, Northfield School and Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts, Moody Bible Institute and Moody Publishers. One of his most famous quotes was "Faith makes all things possible... Love makes all things easy." Moody gave up his lucrative boot and shoe business to devote his life to revivalism, working first in the Civil War with Union troops through YMCA in the United States Christian Commission. In Chicago, he built one of the major evangelical centers in the nation, which is still active. Working with singer Ira Sankey, he toured the country and the British Isles, drawing large crowds with a dynamic speaking style.
"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is a sermon written by the American theologian Jonathan Edwards, preached to his own congregation in Northampton, Massachusetts, to profound effect, and again on July 8, 1741 in Enfield, Connecticut. The preaching of this sermon was the catalyst for the First Great Awakening. Like Edwards' other works, it combines vivid imagery of Hell with observations of the world and citations of Biblical scripture. It is Edwards' most famous written work, and a fitting representation of his preaching style. It is widely studied by Christians and historians, providing a glimpse into the theology of the First Great Awakening of c. 1730–1755.
Jonathan Edwards was an American revivalist preacher, philosopher, and Congregationalist theologian.
Justificatio sola fide, meaning justification by faith alone, is a soteriological doctrine in Christian theology commonly held to distinguish the Lutheran and Reformed traditions of Protestantism, among others, from the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Assyrian churches. The doctrine asserts that it is on the basis of faith that believers are made right of their transgressions of the law of God rather than on the basis of what Paul calls "works of the law", sometimes called good works. This forgiveness is known as "justification". In classical Lutheran and Reformed theologies, works are seen as crucial evidence of faith, but the works themselves do not determine salvation. In contrast, Methodist doctrine affirms a belief in justification by faith that offers God's forgiveness, but holds that holy living with the goal of Christian perfection (sanctification) is essential for salvation.
Damnation is the concept of divine punishment and torment in an afterlife for actions that were committed, or in some cases, not committed on Earth.
John Owen was an English Nonconformist church leader, theologian, and academic administrator at the University of Oxford.
The problem of Hell is an ethical problem in the Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism, in which the existence of Hell for the punishment of souls in the Afterlife is regarded as inconsistent with the notion of a just, moral, and omnipotent, omnibenevolent, omniscient supreme being. Also regarded as inconsistent with such a just being is the combination of human free will, and the divine qualities of omniscience and omnipotence, as this would mean God would determine everything that has happened and will happen in the universe—including sinful human behavior.
In Christian theology, justification is the event or process by which sinners are made or declared to be righteous in the sight of God.
John Stephen Piper is an American New Testament scholar, Baptist theologian, pastor, and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Piper taught biblical studies at Bethel University for six years (1974–1980), before serving as pastor for preaching and vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church (Converge) in Minneapolis for 33 years (1980–2013).
Fire and brimstone is an idiomatic expression referring to God's wrath found in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament. In the Bible, it often appears in reference to the fate of the unfaithful. Brimstone, an archaic term synonymous with sulfur, evokes the acrid odor of sulfur dioxide given off by lightning strikes. Lightning was understood as divine punishment by many ancient religions; the association of sulfur with divine retribution is common in the Bible.
Irresistible grace is a doctrine in Christian theology particularly associated with Calvinism, which teaches that the saving grace of God is effectually applied to those whom he has determined to save and, in God's timing, overcomes their resistance to obeying the call of the gospel, bringing them to faith in Christ. It is to be distinguished from prevenient grace, particularly associated with Arminianism, which teaches that the offer of salvation through grace does not act irresistibly in a purely cause-effect, deterministic method, but rather in an influence-and-response fashion that can be both freely accepted and freely denied.
The First Great Awakening or the Evangelical Revival was a series of Christian revivals that swept Britain and its thirteen North American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. The revival movement permanently affected Protestantism as adherents strove to renew individual piety and religious devotion. The Great Awakening marked the emergence of Anglo-American evangelicalism as a trans-denominational movement within the Protestant churches. In the United States, the term Great Awakening is most often used, while in the United Kingdom the movement is referred to as the Evangelical Revival.
The governmental theory of the atonement is a doctrine in Christian theology concerning the meaning and effect of the death of Jesus Christ. It teaches that Christ suffered for humanity so that God could forgive humans without punishing them while still maintaining divine justice. In the modern era it is more often taught in non-Calvinist protestant circles, yet also bearing in mind that Arminius, John Wesley and other Arminians never speak clearly of it. It is drawn primarily from the works of Hugo Grotius and later theologians like John Miley and H. Orton Wiley.
Jonathan Parsons was a Christian New England clergyman during the late colonial period and a supporter of the American Revolution. Born in West Springfield, Massachusetts, he was the youngest son of Ebenezer (Deacon) Parsons (1668-1752) and Margaret Marshfield of Springfield. Though intended for an artisan career, the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, then a tutor at Yale, persuaded young Parsons to prepare for college.
Imputed righteousness is a concept in Christian theology proposing that the "righteousness of Christ...is imputed to [believers]—that is, treated as if it were theirs through faith." It is on the basis of Jesus' righteousness that God accepts humans. This acceptance is also referred to as justification.
The theology of Martin Luther was instrumental in influencing the Protestant Reformation, specifically topics dealing with justification by faith, the relationship between the Law and Gospel, and various other theological ideas. Although Luther never wrote a systematic theology or a "summa" in the style of St. Thomas Aquinas, many of his ideas were systematized in the Lutheran Confessions.
A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections is a publication written in 1746 by Jonathan Edwards describing his philosophy about the process of Christian conversion in Northampton, Massachusetts, during the First Great Awakening, which emanated from Edwards' congregation starting in 1734.
A Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World is a work by Christian theologian, reformer, author, and pastor Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) that was started in the mid-1750s but not finally published until 1765, several years following Edwards' death.
The two kinds of righteousness is a Lutheran paradigm. It attempts to define man's identity in relation to God and to the rest of creation. The two kinds of righteousness is explicitly mentioned in Luther's 1518 sermon entitled "Two Kinds of Righteousness", in Luther's Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1535), in his On the Bondage of the Will, Melanchthon's Apology of the Augsburg Confession, and in the third article of the Formula of Concord. It is also the implicit presupposition governing Luther's On the Freedom of a Christian as well as other works.
Hell-fire preaching is a religious term that refers to preaching which calls attention to the final destiny of the impenitent, which usually focuses extremely on describing the painful torment in the Hereafter as a method to invite people to religion. There may be degrees of emphasis, and degrees of extent to which hell is emphasized in the khutbah.