SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF ANGRY GOD

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It would be very interesting to have your opinions and commentaries on the following:

The above title is the name of a sermon given by Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards has come down to us in history as one of the all-time great men of the Protestant mold. He was a leading player in what came to be known as the "Great Awakening," an American revival of the 18th century. One can hear a copy of his sermon on my audio tape entitled "Sinners in the hands of a loving Creator." It has been reported that after he dangled huge audiences over the lake of fire with his polished and extreme language, people would go home and commit suicide. After listening to him, they couldn't bear living any longer. Jonathan Edward's God was an angry god. He followed the footsteps of his apostle in the faith, John Calvin. John Calvin did not bring people to their own self-destruction. He burned them himself! (Read some books about how he had Michael Servetus burned to death.) John Calvin followed after his apostle in the faith-Augustine. Augustine was perhaps the most influential early church leader in bringing the doctrine of eternal punishment from paganism into Christianity. Prior to Augustine, there were few who held such teaching. Augustine was in the Persian Manichaean religion for nine years before converting to Christianity. Although he wrote against Manichaeanism as a Christian, it is quite obvious to anyone who has studied Manichaenism that Augustine incorporated some key Manichaeian beliefs into his Christian theology. Manichaeanism derived its foundational beliefs from the Persian religion called Zoroastrianism. When one studies the basic components of Zoroastrianism, one will become quite uncomfortable in discovering an amazing similarity between modern Christianity and Zoroastrianism. This article will not go into the doctrines of any of these ancient Persian-Babylonian religions. I hope this brief article will stir you to do some research on your own. Clearly modern Christendom owes a great deal to the teachings of Zoroastrianism and Manichaeanism. The main feature I want to bring out is that both taught that at the end of time, there would be two separate kingdoms; a kingdom of good and a kingdom of evil. They were both very ascetic religions and they both had an angry god. Calvinism certainly owes its concept of predestination to eternal torment to Zoroastrianism.

Enrique

-- Enrique Ortiz (eaortiz@yahoo.com), August 05, 2003

Answers

Nonsense. John Calvin got his fundamental belief in eternal punishment from his roots - Catholicism. He did violence to the doctrine by imposing his bizarre personal interpretations upon it, but the essential belief was of Catholic origin. The Catholic Church got its belief in eternal punishment from its founder, Jesus Christ - God - Who frequently made such clear, straightforward statements as "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (Matthew 25:46) Was Jesus - God - a Zoroastrian? Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would guide His Church into all truth. Either you accept that divine promise, in which case the source of Catholic beliefs is clearly identified by God Himself; or you reject the word of God and assume that Jesus was lying, in which case there is really no reason to practice Christianity at all. In any case, the mere fact that some pre-existing pagan cult had a belief in some form of eternal damnation does not constitute reasonable cause to assume that such beliefs influenced the beliefs of Jesus Christ, or of His Church. Belief in both heaven and hell was Catholic doctrine long before Augustine. The apostles believed it, as is apparent in their writings. And how could they not believe it, when they heard it directly from the lips of Almighty God?

-- Paul (PaulCyp@cox.net), August 05, 2003.

Hi Enrique,

I think tentmaker.org has some of it's facts wrong. At least it does when it states, "It has been reported that after he dangled huge audiences over the lake of fire with his polished and extreme language, people would go home and commit suicide", that's not correct. No one was known to have actually committed suicide because of Edwards sermons. Supposedly, some of those who converted to Christianity after listening to his sermon were so obsessed by his fiery descriptions of eternal damnation that they contemplated suicide. I suspect that's a bit of exaggeration intended to impress the impact that Edwards sermons had.

Take care sir.

Dave

-- non-Catholic Christian (dlbowerman@yahoo.com), August 05, 2003.


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