Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
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| Johnathan Edwards |
"The tall, lean minister stood behind the wooden pulpit and faced his audience. He began his sermon, reading in careful, measured tones. As he read, his words astounded his listeners.
'There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of Hell,' he declared, 'but the mere pleasure of God.' He continued,
'O sinner, consider the fearful danger you are in! It is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit that you are held over in the hand if that God whose wrath is provoked and increased as much against you as against the damned in Hell. You hang by a slender thread with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it and ready every moment to single it and burn it asunder; and you have nothing to lay hold of to save yourself-nothing that you have done, nothing that you can do to induce God to spare you one moment.'
As the minister preached, some of the congregation cried out in fear, struck with overwhelming conviction. Others grew solemn as the fear of divine judgment began to grip the audience, the preacher exhorted his listeners,
'Therefore, let everyone that is out of Christ now awake and flee from the wrath to come.'"
-Johnathan Edwards
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, 1741
Yeah... At first it kinda sounded like he as condemning everybody to hell but I'm glad he cleared that up by saying that they need to "wake up and flee from the wrath to come."
ReplyDeleteIn other words, Get saved.
This reminds me of something that God has been showing me lately. He truly does not want anyone to perish, but that all should come to repentance. Once we get saved we have a tendency to almost condemn the unsaved to hell as if they have less of a chance to get saved then we did. God has shown me repeatedly through His Word how even with the most pagan evil nations throughout the Bible, He made Himself known to them and gave them a chance to accept Him even though they were not Israel or had been cursed. Think of Babylon and Nineveh and even Sodom and Gomorrah. God truly does love His creation and provides everyone an alternative to Hell if they would only believe in Him and accept Him.
ReplyDelete