What effect did the Great Awakening have on Jonathan Edwards?

Jonathan Edwards

     

    

     In July 1741, Jonathan Edwards accepted an invitation to preach at the neighboring town of Enfield, Connecticut. It was the height of the Great Awakening (1740–42), one of the most intense outpourings of God’s Spirit in American history. The fire of God was falling everywhere. Despite the fact he had delivered "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" to his own congregation with little effect, he felt led to use it again at Enfield. His techniques were unimpressive. He always read his sermons in an even voice, but with great conviction. He shunned shouting and theatrical antics. Impressing the listener with the power of truth and his desperate need for God was Edwards’ goal.

Nothing in his style or presentation could account for what happened that day at Enfield. An eyewitness, Stephen Williams, wrote in his diary, "We went over to Enfield where we met dear Mr. Edwards of Northampton who preached a most awakening sermon from these words, Deuteronomy 32:35, and before the sermon was done there was a great moaning and crying went out through ye whole House…. ‘What shall I do to be saved,’ ‘Oh, I am going to Hell,’ ‘Oh, what shall I do for Christ,’ and so forth. So yet ye minister was obliged to desist, ye shrieks and cry were piercing and amazing."

Williams continued, "After some time of waiting the Congregation were still, so yet a prayer was made by Mr. W. and after that we descended from the pulpit and discoursed with the people, some in one place and some in another, and amazing and astonishing ye power of God was seen, and several souls were hopefully wrought upon that night, and oh ye cheerfulness and pleasantness of their countenances

    Wherever there is fire there is also smoke. Many excesses accompanied the revival as people experienced highly unusual spiritual phenomenon. Sometimes, during sermons, they screamed and dropped unconscious to the floor. Edwards’ own wife sat trance-like in a corner of their living room for long periods, unable to move, utterly overwhelmed by God’s love.Reverend Wheelock’s diary for October 1741 is typical. "The zeal of some too furious: they tell of many visions, revelations, and many strong impressions upon the imagination…. Preached twice with enlargement. Many cried out; many stood trembling; the whole assembly very solemn."⁵ After another meeting he writes, "Thirty cried out. Almost all the Negroes in town wounded (convicted of sin)…. I was forced to break off my sermon before done, the outcry was so great."

As in every revival, some of these manifestations were from God, some from the flesh, and some demonic.

This mixture ensured much criticism. (Every age has its self-appointed Spirit-quenchers.) Edwards believed the essential work was from God. But he recognized that the entire work would be discredited and abandoned unless the church learned to sort the wheat from the chaff. He wrote prolifically to this end. His most important work on this subject was On Religious Affections, a Christian classic still in print today by at least three publishers.

 

Websites:  http://enrichmentjournal.ag.org/200201/200201_104_johnathan.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinners_in_the_Hands_of_an_Angry_God
 www.nhinet.org/ccs/docs/awaken.htm

Media:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt57rFcpnr4