Jesus and the Father
The internet monk wrote a post about Edwards and trying to teach his famous sermon “Sinners in the hand of an angry God.” While he respects the place that this sermon has in the history of American literature, he is not so positive about its impact on American Christianity.
Actually, I’m not an Edwards’ fan. As far as I am concerned, he made the entire Christian faith much more difficult and considerably less Jesus shaped than I believe that it is. Despite his brilliant intellect, Edwards seems to be about more about speculation and revivalism than the Gospel. His desire to awaken unconverted church members sounds very familiar to me, and his rhetorical intensity is familiar ground as well. I heard it all in the front row of fundamentalistic revivalism growing up. An inscrutable angry God demanding we wake up and realize we’re going to hell. Yes, church member who thinks he’s saved, that means you.
It’s bizarre that a man who was the most brilliant mind of his time, and the inspiration for various waves of awakening from Calvinism to Charismata, doesn’t come off to me nearly as impressed by Jesus and the Gospel as he is by the sovereignty of that “Divine Being” he keeps talking about.
I have not read enough of Edwards to make a claim quite like this, but in regard to his famous sermon (sinners in the hand of an angry God), I absolutely agree with imonk. For many people “God” is a very, very angry deity, and the only way to avoid his “wrath” (read, very heavy punishment) is to trust that it has been vented on his son. This, however, is not the picture that we get when we take the whole scripture into account, especially when we look at the portrayal of Jesus (in whom dwells the fullness of the deity in bodily form).
So many of us have spent so much time thinking about “God” in general (which normally means we are thinking about the Father as being something quite different from the Son) and we have forgotten the importance of Jesus for our revelation of God.
I actually had a person ask me a while back to spend more time talking about the Father and less about Jesus, as they could not understand this constant focus on Jesus.
I think they missed the point.
Jesus makes the Father known (Mt 11:27 [cf. Lk 10:22]; Jn 1:18; 6:46; 17:25).
……man..i couldnt disagree with you more….and i humbly believe that you and the vast majority of “christians” have lost sight of the forest for the trees..so to speak…Christ Jesus is our mediator giving us access to The Father..it is the UNDERLYING theme of the authenic Gospel….God The Father was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself….He sends his Spirit into our hearts crying Abba Father….im going to stop before i go into a rant here…either you get it or you dont…to argue the subject is pointless….keep following the American Jesus if you must…………
I agree with you Mike, perhaps that was not made clear.
What I meant to say by the last line was precisely what you indicated, in Christ we see the true nature and character of God the Father. In Jesus we see the lengths that God is willing to go to bring us back in relationship to him. In Jesus we see the love that God has for us. The Spirit unites us to Jesus to make all his benefits ours.
In Jesus we see God, and this is not an angry vengeful God, but a loving God who wants nothing more than to welcome his children back home.