Dr Paul Allen

Rev. Jonathan Edwards, a leader of the Great Awakening, is still remembered for his sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) In the 1730s and 40s, New England and others of the colonies were in the midst of that great dispensation of God ’s grace that we call The Great Awakening . Through the itinerant preaching of George Whitefield and the theological ministry of Jonathan Edwards , large numbers were coming under the conviction of sin and turning to God in repentance and faith in Christ . Yet in the thick of these revivals many of those who professed Christ would be so caught up with themselves emotionally that the display of “affections” became to be the marker of spiritual maturity. If you were powerfully affected by the truth of spiritual things, you could be assured that your state before God was acceptable. In response to this, others began to become suspicious of such displays of religious affections , recognizing that they can b

Image via Wikipedia The following is an extract from  Unseen Realities: Heaven and Hell, Angels and Demons by R.C. Sproul  copyright  Christian focus  used with permission. The Place of God’s Disfavor I suppose there is no topic in Christian theology more difficult to deal with, particularly on an emotional level, than the doctrine of hell. In fact, the doctrine has become so controversial in the modern era that it is almost never addressed. Old-fashioned revival preaching was characterized by the idea of “hellfire and brimstone.” This idea is especially connected with the Great Awakening in the eighteenth century and the ministry of Jonathan Edwards . No theologian or preacher is more associated with the concept of hell than Edwards. I once read a college textbook in which Edwards was used as an illustration of someone who was sadistic because he seemed to preach so often on the subject of hell. That bothered me, because while Edwards certainly believed in the reality of hell, he