Who was Jonathan Edwards?

Answer

Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) was a pastor and theologian, considered by many to be the greatest theological mind that the New World has ever produced. His preaching, which helped ignite the First Great Awakening, focused on man’s sin, God’s judgment, God’s sovereignty, the necessity of personal conversion, and justification by faith.

Edwards was born in East Windsor, Connecticut. From a very young age, he pondered deeply about theological doctrine. At 13, Edwards enrolled at Yale and graduated at the top of his class at 17. He was authorized to preach at 20. In 1727, he was ordained in the Congregational Church and started ministering in Northampton, Massachusetts, alongside his grandfather and renowned revival preacher, Solomon Stoddard. Approximately two years later, Stoddard passed away, and Edwards took over full leadership of the church.

Edwards was troubled by the spiritual state of the church and the community. Many outwardly professed faith and participated in church activities, but showed no signs of true conversion. The Northampton residents were generally apathetic towards spiritual matters. Church discipline had weakened, and there was minimal scrutiny for church membership.

Edwards began preaching against this spiritual apathy. His initial sermon series in Northampton focused on justification by faith alone, as he was concerned that many were relying on their own merits for salvation. By most reports, Edwards was not a captivating speaker. He typically read his sermons with little emotion, closely following his manuscript due to poor eyesight (and reportedly, poor handwriting). However, his earnestness and the message content were instrumental in sparking spiritual revival. Influenced by Edwards, the Great Awakening revival occurred. Edwards documented the local impact of the revival in his writings.In 1736, an essay titled “A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God” was published.

On July 8, 1741, Edwards delivered his most renowned sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” It is said that during the sermon, people were overwhelmed with conviction, and members of the congregation were crying out, groaning, and trembling with holy fear.

Despite achieving significant spiritual outcomes, Jonathan Edwards was dismissed from his church in 1750 when he tried to restrict communion to those who showed some signs of conversion. He then moved to a small church in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where he served as a pastor and missionary to the Housatonic Indians. In 1758, Edwards became the president of the College of New Jersey (later known as Princeton University), but he passed away due to complications from a smallpox inoculation about a month later.

Edwards’ impact endures through his sermons and various writings, encompassing theological and historical works (many of which are still easily accessible both online and in print). He had a deep interest in how the Spirit worked to bring about spiritual revival, meticulously documenting and analyzing religious activities in his region. He diligently sought to discern genuine movements of God from mere emotional fervor. Additionally, he staunchly defended Calvinism and the principles of the Reformation. Historian Philip Schaff referred to him as the “American Calvin.”