This is our fifth meeting.
Before we review the last four weeks,
I have a challenge for you.
I'm going to read an excerpt
about predestination & free will.
Your challenge is to
tell me who wrote it,
and in what book he wrote it --
not today,
but during the week,
or sometime before the course is over.
Here's the excerpt:
"I have always loved butterflies. In Uganda I saw glorious butterflies the colour of whose wings changed from the deepest russet brown to the most brilliant blue, according to the angle from which you saw them. In Brazil as everyone knows there are butterflies of this kind even larger and more vivid. The contrast is extreme. You could not conceive colour effects more violently opposed; but it is the same butterfly. The butterfly is the Fact--gleaming, fluttering, settling for an instant with wings fully spread to the sun, then vanishing in the shades of the forest. Whether you believe in Free Will or Predestination, all depends on the slanting glimpse you had of the colour of his wings--which are in fact at least two colors at the same time. "
The idea here
is very similar
to Sam Derr's
two sides of the same coin,
but Sam didn't write this.
Let's review now what we've done in the past 4 weeks.
In the first week we talked about Jonathan Edwards life.
Someone tell me something about his life (repeat for a while).
He was born on October 5, 1703 in East Windsor, Connecticut.
He attended Yale.
He pastored churches in Northhampton and Stockbridge in MA.
He wrote many books, including Religious Affections, Freedom of the Will, Original Sin.
Collections of his personal writings include The Mind, and the Miscellanies.
In the mind, he gave a wonderful definition of truth:
"Truth is the consistency and agreement of our ideas with the ideas of God."
He died March 22, 1758.
In the second week we talked about why Edwards wrote Religious Affections.
Why did Edwards write The Religious Affections?
To address the question:
"How do we discern between that which is good,
and that which is evil?"
One thing that makes this hard
is a particular strategy Satan often uses to attack the church --
What is that?
Mixing error with truth within the church.
We discussed 3 examples of error within the modern church.
What were they?
Anti-intellectualism -- denying the importance of truth.
Antinomianism -- denying the importance of God's law.
Egalitarianism -- denying differences among people.
In the third week we talked about
what the affections are,
and why they are important.
To what does the term 'the affections' refer?
The affections refers to the mind yearning,
just as the will refers to the mind choosing,
and the understanding refers to the mind learning.
Are the affections, the will, the soul, the heart, and the mind separate parts of a person?
No, they are all the same thing.
Different words may be used to emphasis different aspects.
Why are the affections important?
They are important because they are essential to true belief. The Scripture talks of true believe involving the fervent devotion of the entire soul, that is, the mind yearning.
Last week we looked at 6 of the 12 things that
Edwards says are no certain signs that religious affections
are truly gracious, or that they are not.
What were these?
intensity (It is no sign one way or the other, that religious affections are very great, or raised very high.)
body affects (It is no sign that affections have the nature of true religion, or that they have not, that they have great effects on the body.)
verbosity (It is no sign that affections are truly gracious affections, or that they are not, that they cause those who have them to be fluent, fervent, and abundant, in talking of the things of religion.)
origin outside self (It is no sign that affections are gracious, or that they are otherwise, that persons did not make them themselves, or excite them of their own contrivance and by their own strength.)
scripture quotations (It is no sign that religious affections are truly holy and spiritual, or that they are not, that they come with texts of Scripture, remarkably brought to the mind. )
appearance of love (It is no evidence that religious affections are saving, or that they are otherwise, that there is an appearance of love in them.)
Today, we'll look at the remaining 6.
Edwards gives the seventh non-sign like this:
Persons having religious affections of many kinds,
accompanying one another,
is not sufficient to determine
whether they have any gracious affections or no.
We'll call this
Many kinds.
Edwards doesn't spend any time showing
that true believers can show many kinds of affections --
That is,
That many kinds is not a sure sign of non-regeneration.
Let's go ahead and do this, 'though
Will someone cite something from Scripture
showing that truly regenerate people
may show many different religious affections together?
One example is given by Jesus in the Beatitudes:
Matthew 5:3-10
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the gentle,
for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called sons of God.
This clearly talks about multiple affections,
and those who have these multiple affections
are pronounced 'blessed' by Christ.
So many kinds of affections
cannot be a sure sign of someone being unregenerate.
Edwards shows that
it cannot be a sure sign
of someone being regenerate, either.
Someone cite something from Scripture
showing that unregenerate people
can show many kinds of religious affections.
Edwards cites the multitude that welcomed
Christ into Jerusalem at the beginning
of the week of the crucifixion.
The multitude that attended Christ into Jerusalem,
after that great miracle of raising Lazarus,
seem to have been moved
with many religious affections at once,
and all in a high degree.
They seem to have been filled with admiration,
and there was a show of a high affection of love,
and also of a great degree of reverence,
in their laying their garments
on the ground for Christ to tread upon;
and also of great gratitude to him,
for the great and good works he had wrought,
praising him with loud voices for his salvation;
and earnest desires of the coming of God's kingdom,
which they supposed Jesus
was now about to set up,
and showed great hopes
and raised expectations of it,
expecting it would immediately appear;
and hence were filled with joy,
by which they were
so animated in their acclamations,
as to make the whole city ring
with the noise of them;
and appeared great in their zeal
and forwardness to attend Jesus,
and assist him without further delay,
now in the time of the great feast of the Passover,
to set up his kingdom.
The eighth non-sign given by Edwards is this:
Nothing can certainly be determined
concerning the nature of the affections, by this,
that comforts and joys
seem to follow
awakenings
and convictions of conscience,
in a certain order.
We'll call this
Order of appearance.
It may seem a bit odd to you
that Edwards would see fit
to address this as something
that some people mistakenly
thought might be a sign one way or the other.
In Edwards day,
there were people
who attacked the genuineness
of some claimed conversions
during the Great Awakening
on the grounds that these conversions
all followed the same pattern.
This patten went like this:
First, a person would become convinced of their sinfulness.
Second, he would despair at his sin and helplessness.
Third, he would become convinced that Jesus was his savior.
Fourth, he would be filled with peace and assurance of his salvation.
Edwards writes this
about those who think
that such an order
argues against a claimed conversion being real:
But such prejudices and objections
are without reason or Scripture.
Surely it cannot be unreasonable to suppose,
that before God delivers persons
from a state of sin and exposedness to eternal destruction,
he should give them
some considerable sense of the evil he delivers from;
that they may be delivered sensibly,
and understand their own salvation,
and know something of what God does for them.
As men that are saved
are in two exceeding different states,
first a state of condemnation,
and then in a state of justification and blessedness:
and as God,
in the work of the salvation of mankind,
deals with them suitably to their intelligent rational nature;
so it seems reasonable,
and agreeable to God's wisdom,
that men who are saved
should be in these two states sensibly;
first, that they should,
sensibly to themselves,
be in a state of condemnation,
and so in a state of woeful calamity and dreadful misery,
and so afterwards in a state of deliverance and happiness;
and that they should be first sensible
of their absolute extreme necessity,
and afterwards of Christ's sufficiency and God's mercy through him.
Edwards doesn't really address the converse
-- that is, why order of appearance of affections
isn't a sure sign of true conversion, either --
probably because it wasn't an issue in his day.
That is,
no one was claiming that it was such a sign.
In our day,
however,
I suspect that erring on this side
is more prevalent that erring on the side
Edwards did address.
I'm afraid that quite a few people
seem to think that as long as certain
things happen in a certain order,
then salvation is assured.
Can anyone think of an example of this?
What I had in mind is
the notion that someone is truly converted
if he shows remorse for his sin,
prays a "Sinner's Prayer",
and can always tell you on what date he did this.
There are some who are converted in this way.
There are others,
probably the majority,
who go through these steps,
and are not converted.
Edwards describes the next non-sign this way:
It is no certain sign that the religious affections
which persons have
are such as have in them
the nature of true religion,
or that they have not,
that they dispose persons to spend much time in religion,
and to be zealously engaged in the external duties of worship.
We'll call this
Much worship.
Edwards writes:
This has,
very unreasonably of late,
been looked upon as an argument
against
the religious affections
which some have had,
that they spend so much time in reading,
praying,
singing,
hearing sermons,
and the like.
It is plain from the Scripture,
that it is the tendency
of true grace
to cause persons
to delight in such religious exercises.
He cites many Scripture passages to show this is the case.
Can anyone think of some passages
that show that God's children rejoice in worshiping Him?
Anna the prophetess: Luke 2:27, "She departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day."
the primitive Christians in Jerusalem: Acts 2:46, 47, "And they continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God."
Grace made Daniel delight in the duty of prayer, and solemnly to attend it three times a day, as it also did David: Psal. 55:17, "Evening, morning, and at noon will I pray."
Grace makes the saints delight in singing praises to God: Psal. 135:3, "Sing praises unto his name, for it is pleasant." And 147:1, "Praise ye the Lord; for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant, and praise is comely."
It also causes them to delight to hear the word of God preached: it makes the gospel a joyful sound to them, Psal. 89:15, and makes the feet of those who publish these good tidings to be beautiful: Isa. 52:7, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings!" &c.
It makes them love God's public worship: Psal. 26:8, "Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honor dwelleth." And 27:4, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple." Psal. 84:1, 2, &c. "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord.--Yea, the sparrow hath found a house and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Blessed is the man in whose heart are the ways of them, who passing through the valley of Baca--go from strength to strength, everyone of them in Zion appeareth before God." v. 10, "A day in thy courts is better than a thousand."
However, as Edwards shows,
desiring to worship is not in itself a sign of true grace,
because such a disposition is found in many that have no grace.
He gives as Scriptural examples the Israelites and the Pharisees.
He also gives examples from history
of various sects that set themselves apart
from the world so as to,
in their minds,
worship God more fully.
Finally, he gives an example from his own life:
I once lived, for many months,
next door to a Jew
(the houses adjoining one to another),
and had much opportunity daily to observe him;
who appeared to me
the devoutest person
that I ever saw in my life;
great part of his time
being spent in acts of devotion,
at his eastern window,
which opened next to mine,
seeming to be most earnestly engaged,
not only in the daytime,
but sometimes whole nights.
Another non-sign is related to this one.
Edwards introduces it this way:
Nothing can be certainly known
of the nature of religious affections by this,
that they much dispose persons
with their mouths to praise and glorify God.
I'll call it
Verbal Praise.
You remember that last week
one of the non-signs we discussed
was verbosity --
that is, talking much about the things of God.
This differs from that one
in being speech directed towards God,
not towards others.
Edwards discussion about this non-sign
relates it to the previous one:
This [ that is that it is a non-sign]
indeed is implied in what has been just now observed,
of abounding and spending much time
in the external exercises of religion,
and was also hinted before;
but because many seem to look upon it
as a bright evidence of gracious affection,
when persons appear greatly disposed to praise and magnify God,
to have their mouths full of his praises,
and affectionately to be calling on others to praise and extol him,
I thought it deserved a more particular consideration.
Edwards notes,
No Christian will make it an argument
against a person,
that he seems to have such a disposition,
so the point is to show that
this is not a sure sign of conversion either.
The things we've talked about already
have pretty much shown this,
but let's look at two
additional Scripture passages anyway:
Psalm 78:35-37 and Isa 48:1
Psa 78:35-37 And they remembered that God was their rock,
And the Most High God their Redeemer.
But they deceived Him with their mouth,
And lied to Him with their tongue.
For their heart was not steadfast toward Him,
Nor were they faithful in His covenant.
Isa 48:1 "Hear this, O house of Jacob,
who are named Israel
And who came forth from the loins of Judah,
Who swear by the name of the LORD
And invoke the God of Israel,
But not in truth nor in righteousness."
We have only two more to go.
The next non-sign is described by Edwards like this:
It is no sign that affections are right,
or that they are wrong,
that they make persons that have them
exceeding confident that what they experience is divine,
and that they are in a good estate.
We'll call this one
Confidence in salvation.
In Edwards day, and in ours,
there are those who say
that a person being assured of his own salvation
is a sure sign that he is truly saved,
and there are also those who say
that it
is a sure sign that he is not truly saved.
Showing that this latter view is false
is quite simple,
because the Scripture talks about the possibility of assurance.
Someone give me verse that does this.
1 John 5:13 is probably the clearest of all:
These things I have written to you
who believe in the name of the Son of God,
in order that you
may know
that you have eternal life.
So anyone who says that assurance of salvation
is a sure sign of non-regeneration
does not know the Scriptures.
What about the other case?
Does the Scripture show that assurance is
also not a sure sign of regeneration?
Where?
Consider Mat 7:21-23,
in which Jesus says:
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'"
So,
it is clear from Scripture
that some who are confident of their salvation
are deceived.
A truly regenerate person
may be sure of his salvation,
or he may erroneously doubt his salvation.
A truly unregerate person
may also be sure, erroneously, of his salvation,
or he may correctly recognize his unregenerate state.
The final non-sign that Edwards discusses is that
Nothing can be certainly concluded
concerning the nature of religious affections,
that the outward manifestations of them,
and the relation persons give of them,
are very affecting and pleasing to the truly godly,
and such as greatly gain their charity,
and win their hearts
I'll call this non-sign
Beliefs of others.
Certainly,
no one claims that others believing someone is regenerate
is a sure sign that the person
Is not regenerate.
However, just because others think
someone is truly regenerate
doesn't mean that he is.
Can someone give me an example
from Scripture in which it appears clear
that some truly regenerate people
were mistaken about the condition of another person?
Judas,
it seems to me.
There's no evidence
to suggest that the other apostles
suspected him to be unregenerate.
Edwards explains why we can be wrong
about the true state of others
like this:
The true saints have not
such a spirit of discerning
that they can certainly determine
who are godly,
and who are not.
For though they know experimentally
what true religion is,
in the internal exercises of it;
yet these are what they
can neither feel, nor see,
in the heart of another.
There is nothing in others,
that comes within their view,
but outward manifestations and appearances;
but the Scripture plainly intimates,
that this way of judging
what is in men by outward appearances,
is at best uncertain,
and liable to deceit:
1 Sam. 16:7, "The Lord seeth not as man seeth;
for man looketh on the outward appearance,
but the Lord looketh on the heart."
Isa. 11:3, "He shall not judge
after the sight of his eyes,
neither reprove after the hearing of his ears."
Our inability to know
for sure
whether others are truly saved
is probably the greatest contributor
to the belief of many
that it is possible
for someone to lose his salvation.
Although we are
not able to know for certain
about anyone's salvation but our own,
the Scripture tells us
that we are not
just to assume one thing or another,
but to use the means
that God has given us to
reach the best judgement we can.
Next week we'll begin looking
at what those means are,
as we study the signs
that Edwards lists as signs of true conversion.
Next week,
I'll present an overview
of all 12 signs,
and then we'll begin
looking at them in more detail
in following weeks.
I'll close this meeting with "Miscellanies" #95. Happiness of Heaven:
When the body
enjoys the perfections of health and strength,
the motion of the animal spirits
are not only brisk and free
but also harmonious.
There is a regular proportion
in the motion from all parts of the body
that begets delight in the inner soul
and makes the body feel pleasantly all over.
God has so excellently contrived
the nerves and parts
of the human body.
But few men since the fall,
especially since the flood,
have health
to so great a perfection
as to have much
of this harmonious motion.
When it is enjoyed,
one whose nature is not
very much vitiated and depraved
is very much assisted thereby
in every exercise of body or mind.
And it fits one
for the contemplation
of more exalted and spiritual
excellencies and harmonies,
as music does.
But we need not doubt
but that harmony will be in its perfection
in the bodies of the saints
after
the resurrection,
and that,
as every part
of the bodies of the wicked
shall be excruciated with intolerable pain,
so every part
of the saints' refined bodies
shall be as full of pleasure
as they can hold,
and that this will not
take the mind off from
but prompt,
and help it
in spiritual delights,
to which
even the delights of their spiritual bodies
shall be but a shadow.