On the recommendation of David de Bruyn — with whom I have a lengthy history of compatible tastes in things spiritual — I am in the process of attempting to read Jonathan Edwards. Hailed as “one of the great classics of theological literature”, the subject of A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections intrigues me and provoked me to order the book. Distinguishing between authentic and inauthentic religious emotions (and therefore true and false conversions) is a critical faculty for all mature Christians.
Though I have little hope of success in this area, it seems to me it might be especially helpful to be able to distinguish real from unreal within the confines of one’s own heart.
Pre-empted by Pepperoni
The book arrived with yesterday’s mail concurrently with the delivery of a stuffed crust pepperoni pizza and the first period of a hockey game, so I didn’t look at it until this morning. I knew Edwards was a Congregationalist, which is to say Puritan and Reformed, and a staunch Calvinist, convictions that hold little appeal for me, but which I hoped to be able to “read my way around”.
Knowing this, it was not a great surprise to find Edwards also embracing Replacement Theology long before anyone used the name. You can’t get two pages into Edwards’ preface to Religious Affections without encountering it, and it stopped me dead in my tracks. Like innumerable Reformed folks today and so many in his own day, Edwards took for granted that “the Church” and “Israel” in scripture refer to essentially the same thing. Combined with the Calvinism, it makes for a daunting read. Nevertheless, I persevere …
(Side note: For a belief system its adherents claim has characterized Christendom since the apostles, the ability to name or label it appears to have developed remarkably late in church history. A search of Google’s Ngram viewer finds none of the terms “Replacement Theology”, “Supersessionism” and “Fulfilment Theology” in use prior to about 1968.)
Much Greater Light
I digress. Anyway, here’s the statement that jumped out at me:
“ ’Tis evident that there will come a time of much greater purity in the church of God than has been in ages past; it is plain by those texts of Scripture, Isaiah 52:1; Ezekiel 44:6-7, 9; Joel 3:17; Zechariah 14:21; Psalms 69:32, 35-36; Isaiah 35:8, 10; ch. 4:3-4; Ezekiel 20:38; Psalms 37:9-11, 29. And one great reason of it will be, that at that time, God will give much greater light to his people to distinguish between true religion and its counterfeits; Malachi 3:3, ‘And he shall sit as a refiner, and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver; that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.’ With v. Malachi 3:18, which is a continuation of the prophecy of the same happy times, ‘then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not.’ ”
Now, I have a bad tendency to run on interminably about how profoundly the Supersessionist view of scripture affects one’s ability to interpret the Old Testament coherently. That’s an old saw around here, so I try to flog dead horses only on bank holidays and the birthdays of former US presidents. I view the prophets as primarily engaged in addressing national Israel, not the church of either Edwards’ day or our own. Unlike Mr. Edwards, I take the ancients literally when they use words like “Zion”, “Jerusalem” and “Judah”, referring such terms to specific well-known geographic locations in the Middle East. Nevertheless, despite my keen awareness of the drastic interpretive differences between the two systems, I have yet to encounter a situation in which an author so comprehensively undermines his own thesis less than two pages into making his case.
Hence my hitting the brakes. Mind blown. It might be one of the biggest self-owns I’ve ever read.
The New Testament and Spiritual Decline
The attentive reader cannot miss the fact that every one of Edwards’ multitudinous proof texts in the list above comes from the OT. He has not cited a single New Testament verse to prove his point, and with exceedingly good reason: the NT contradicts it at every turn. Far from “a time of much greater purity in the church of God than has been in ages past”, the prophets of the NT unanimously predict increasing spiritual decline among those calling themselves the people of God. Far from an increase in the ability to “discern between the righteous and the wicked” and to distinguish the servants of Satan from the servants of God, the Lord and his apostles lead us to expect a previously unsurpassed level of duplicity in the latter days.
Even the angels in the Lord’s parables of the kingdom are told not to try to pluck out the weeds from the wheat “lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them”. Elsewhere in the same sequence of parables, the mustard tree hosts the “birds of the air”, interpreted by the Lord as the servants of “the evil one” in an earlier parable. Likewise, the leaven hidden in the flour leavens all three measures — leaven being a consistent scriptural symbol of various kinds of evil. If these are all in their own way pictures of the kingdom, then the kingdom is truly a mixed bag.
Decline, Infiltration, Apostasy
The apostles reinforce this picture of Church Age spiritual decline, infiltration and apostasy, especially in the books of the New Testament written last. Paul tells Timothy, “The Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.” Again, in his second letter to his “son”, Paul says virulent opposition to the truth will characterize the “last days”, and speaks of those who will be “always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth”. That sounds like the exact opposite of greater divine light to me. Peter says false teachers “will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality.” Jude quotes the apostles as predicting that “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.”
Even if you don’t believe the letters to the seven churches in Revelation foretell an ever-accelerating decline in the spiritual life of God’s people over the course of the Church Age, you can’t help but notice five of seven churches are characterized by a severe shortage of discernment. Ephesus fails to notice it has abandoned its first love and needs to be told, Pergamum has some who hold the teaching of Balaam, Thyatira tolerates Jezebel, Sardis is asleep and Laodicea is blind. Greater purity and greater light are not in the forecast for this bunch. As a picture of the church at any point or points in history, the letters to the seven churches do not flatter.
From this point on in Revelation, any positive portrayals of discerning or spiritual members of the church take place in heaven. Meanwhile, the faithful on earth are martyred. It’s not worship the Lord, but worship the beast, run or die.
A Plethora of Awkward Specifics
With this kind of menu to choose from, it’s no surprise Edwards quotes not a single New Testament passage to prove a time of much greater purity in the church of God is coming, or that God will in the latter days give much greater light to the church to distinguish between true religion and its counterfeits. New Testament evidence of such expectations is exceedingly thin on the ground.
Moreover, the OT “evidence” to which Edwards points as proof of his thesis is a plethora of awkward specifics: names, places and other details that make it far more natural to apply every one of these passages to national Israel rather than the Church. The “Zion” of Isaiah 52 sojourned in Egypt and was oppressed by “the Assyrian”. Apply that to the Church meaningfully if you will. The rebellious house of Israel in Ezekiel 44 has a temple, Levites, burnt offerings and holy things. Awfully specific for an allegory. The fountain that flows from the house of the Lord in Joel’s Zion waters the “Valley of Shittim”. Interpret that for me figuratively, please! What are the holy pots in Jerusalem and Judah in Zechariah 14? I’m waiting …
In fact, taken literally and applied to a future, national remnant of Israel during the millennial reign of Christ, every scripture Edwards cites reads more plausibly than when figuratively misapplied to the Church with grim determination to scrupulously avoid any study of context.
Scant Hope
This does not mean the Bible teaches divine light and exceptional purity will disappear entirely in the latter days, just that they are exceedingly rare, which makes them all the more precious to find and benefit from. We need not be pessimists as we read the predictions of the writers of the New Testament, but rather take their advice and hold fast to what we have while pursuing fellowship with our glorified Lord.
Still, the total absence of a sound scriptural basis for any expectation of generalized growing discernment in the churches of the latter days leaves me with scant hope that Religious Affections will turn out to be a classic of the genre, but perhaps Edwards will steer clear of eschatology from hereon in, and stick to the helpful distinctions and precise formulations of truth for which he is so respected. Either way, I am not a quitter. I’ll let you know shortly.
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