Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Folly of Looking Back in Fleeing Out of Sodom (Luke 17:32) | Jonathan Edwards

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The Folly of Looking Back in Fleeing Out of Sodom (Luke 17:32) | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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You know when a firearm goes off in a crowded office building,
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the sound itself is, well, it's not the actual fire.
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Right, it's just noise. Yeah, the siren is just a
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mechanical screech telling you to get out, but human nature is
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so strange with this stuff. Oh.
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Absolutely. Half the time we just ignore the
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alarm. We finish our coffee.
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We pack up our laptop bags really slowly, assuming it's
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just a routine drill. We treat the warning like it's
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an annoyance rather than, you know, a lifeline.
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Yes, but Jonathan Edwards, he saw the actual flames coming,
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and in 1735 he decided that giving a polite, gentle warning
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was I mean, it was the cruelest thing he could possibly do to
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the people sitting right in front of.
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Him, It would have been pastoral malpractice in his eyes Spot.
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On Welcome to Reform Thinking Today, we're undertaking A
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comprehensive deep dive into the historical and theological
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sources of a man who looked at a comfortable, polite congregation
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and told them they were standing at Ground Zero of divine wrath.
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That is a highly accurate way to set the stage.
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We are looking at a specific sermon delivered by Edwards in
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1735. Which one?
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It's titled The Folly of Looking Back and Fleeing Out of Sodom,
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and our mission for this deep dive is to dissect his severe
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warnings against spiritual backsliding.
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And we are doing this strictly through a reformed theological
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framework, right? Yes, very strictly aligned with
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the Westminster Confession. We are going to examine how
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Edwards utilizes physical historical judgments, like the
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literal destruction of a city, as direct, tangible types of
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spiritual realities. And we want you sitting right
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here at the table with us for this one.
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You're going to find out very quickly that Edwards does not
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pull any punches. He really doesn't.
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But before we get to the terrifying weight of the sermon
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itself, we have to establish who is actually delivering it,
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because the source material provides A detailed biography
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that, well, it shatters the modern caricatures of the man.
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People often picture him as this uneducated, screaming frontier
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preacher trying to spook people with ghost stories.
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Right, like the guy on the street corner with a cardboard
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sign. Yeah, but the reality is
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entirely different. We are talking about a
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staggering intellect here. I mean, he began studying Latin
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at age 6. Six years old, he was tutored by
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his father and his four older sisters.
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And didn't he enter Yale when he was like barely a?
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Just before turning 13, and he already knew Latin, Greek and
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Hebrew by that point. That is wild.
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He graduated with highest honors before his 17th birthday.
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His intellectual capacity was massive and it was paired with a
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significant theological pedigree.
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Yeah, his grandfather, right? Solomon Stoddard.
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Yes, Stoddard was a Titan in New England Puritanism.
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He pastored the church at Northampton, MA, for 57 years.
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Edwards eventually became his assistant and then succeeded
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him. So this was not a man operating
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on the fringes of society. He was at the absolute center of
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colonial American intellectual and religious life.
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But his life ended pretty abruptly, didn't it?
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It was a really tragic end. It was He took the presidency of
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Princeton College in 1758, but he died from a smallpox
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inoculation fever mere weeks later.
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Just. Brutal.
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And his death closely followed the deaths of his father and
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son-in-law. His wife died just six months
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after he did wait. I need to pause here and look at
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the controversy that happened in the middle of his life.
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I think it informs everything we were about to read in the
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sermon. The Northampton dismissal.
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He was dismissed from his own pulpit after 20-3 years of
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service, and he was fired because he opposed his own
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grandfather's practice regarding the Lord's Supper.
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That was a huge deal back then. Stoddard had this practice of
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allowing unconverted but highly moral individuals to partake in
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communion. Edward stood up and said
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absolutely not right. Why was he so rigid on this?
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How does this strict adherence to biblical discipline reflect
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the core tenets of Reformed theology?
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Well, it goes straight to the heart of how the Westminster
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Confession defines the visible and invisible Church and the
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sacraments themselves. OK, break that down for.
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Us In Reformed theology, the Lord's Supper is a sacrament
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meant specifically for believers to commune with Christ and be
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spiritually nourished. It's for the regenerate.
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Right. Stoddard had instituted what was
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known as the Halfway covenant. He viewed the communion table as
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a well. He called it a converting
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ordinance. Meaning what?
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Like a tool to get people saved. Yes, meaning he thought it could
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be used to bring moral, well behaved people to salvation.
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But Edwards wasn't having it. Not at all.
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Edwards, relying on strict biblical exposition, recognize
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that outward morality does not equal a regenerate heart.
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Yeah, you can be a nice guy and still be totally lost.
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Right. So to allow the unregenerate to
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partake was to invite them to eat and drink judgement upon
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themselves. He was leaning heavily on the
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Apostle Paul's warning in First Corinthians.
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And his refusal to compromise on this cost him his job.
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It cost him his livelihood, his reputation and his community,
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but it demonstrates his conviction that God's ordinances
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must be protected from human pragmatism.
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I think we need a clear picture of how Edwards operated before
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we read his words today. I like to compare him not to a
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fiery, unhinged order trying to scare people for a reaction, but
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to a clinical, highly educated surgeon or maybe a physician who
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is diagnosing A fatal disease. That's a great way to look at
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it. He uses severe language because
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he believes the disease is real. It's aggressive and it will kill
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the patient if left untreated. Exactly.
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I mean, he sees the terminal nature of it.
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Right. When a doctor looks at your
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chart and tells you that you have stage 4 cancer, you don't
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accuse the doctor of being mean. You don't.
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You don't get offended by their tone.
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You understand that the severity of the language matches the
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severity of the condition. That analogy captures his
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methodology perfectly. Following his dismissal from
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Northampton, he lived on gifts from friends and moved to a
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small church in Stockbridge, MA. He.
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Was basically in exile. Right.
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He was essentially in exile in the wilderness, preaching to
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Native Americans through an interpreter, and it was in this
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isolated period that he wrote his most famous theological
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treatise, Essay on the Freedom of the Will.
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Which is incredibly dense and logical.
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Very much so. He defended the doctrines of
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divine for or of nation, original sin, and eternal
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punishment with unmatched philosophical rigor.
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And that same methodical, almost architectural structure of his
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mind is what we're going to see in this 1735 sermon.
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He builds his case brick by brick.
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He does not rely on emotional manipulation.
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He relies on inescapable logic based on the biblical text.
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Let's get into the text then. His clinical precision is
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immediately evident in how he sets up the verse.
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He doesn't jump straight to the application.
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He builds A theological bridge using the concept of typology.
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Right, which is crucial here. The sermon is based on a very
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short, very blunt verse from Luke chapter 17, verse 32.
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It's just three words. Remember Lot's wife?
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A sobering command. Christ is comparing His coming
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both the impending destruction of Jerusalem and His coming at
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the end of the world to the days of Noah and the destruction of
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Sodom. Christ commands the utmost haste
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in this passage. He says that the person on the
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housetop should not come down to take anything out of the house.
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Just run, just run, and the person in the field should not
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turn back for their clothes. Edwards locks on to the sense of
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extreme urgency. Because Jerusalem was devoted to
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destruction by special divine wrath, just like Sodom.
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Yes. Therefore, the command to flee
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without looking back is identical to the command the
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Angel gave to. But hold on.
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When Edwards talks about Sodom here, is he just using it as a
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scary metaphor, like a preacher trying to spook his congregation
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with a historical Horror Story? Not at all.
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We need to unpack the Reformed understanding of typology as
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Edwards uses it. Escaping the unbelieving city of
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Jerusalem is a type of escaping, a state of unbelief.
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Escaping Sodom is a type of fleeing from a natural state of
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sin. Why does this specific framework
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carry so much weight? It carries immense weight
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because in a reformed theological framework,
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historical events are not random occurrences.
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God is sovereign over every detail of history.
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Right. The Westminster Confession
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teaches that God ordains whatsoever comes to pass.
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Yes, and because God orchestrates history, physical
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judgments literally foreshadow spiritual wrath.
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Typology is not just a literary device.
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It's not a metaphor created by a clever preacher.
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No, it is a divine pattern written into the fabric of time.
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The physical city of Sodom, with its real fire and real
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brimstone, was designed by God to be a tangible historical
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preview of the eternal state of unregenerate humanity.
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Wow, so fleeing the physical city is the historical shadow?
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And fleeing from the natural state of sin to Christ is the
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spiritual reality. So what does this mean for you?
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Listening right now, does focusing so heavily on the
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impending doom of a physical city risk making you miss the
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spiritual urgency of fleeing to Christ?
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How do you mean? Well, Edwards calls Christ the
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mountain of safety. Yeah, but I could see someone
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getting so caught up in the historical trivia of fire
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raining down on a Bronze Age city that they forget it's
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actually a mirror being held up to their own face.
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Oh, Edwards anticipates that very risk.
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He uses the historical Horror Story to awaken the dead end
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senses of his congregation. Because we're so attached to the
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physical world. Right.
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He knows that human beings comprehend and physical pain
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much easier than we comprehend spiritual danger.
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If I see a fire, I run. If I hear about spiritual wrath,
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I might just yawn. Exactly.
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By painting the physical destruction of Sodom with such
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terrifying clarity, he is grabbing the listener by the
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caller. He's essentially saying if you
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would run an absolute terror from physical fire raining from
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the sky, how much more urgently should you run from the
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spiritual wrath of a holy God? It's the necessary entry point.
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It forces an awakening to the spiritual reality.
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OK, so Edwards is a established that Sodom represents the
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natural sinful state of humanity.
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Now he acts like a diagnostician, breaking down the
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anatomy of an accursed city. He lays out several arguments
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detailing why one must flee without looking back.
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Yeah, let's go through them. He starts by diagnosing the
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pollution of the city itself. He calls it a rendezvous for
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unclean spirits and devils. But here is where he turns the
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knife. This part is brilliant.
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He states that some people in Sodom may seem to carry a fair
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face and make a fair outward show, but if we could look into
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their hearts, they are everyone all together, filthy and
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abominable. That phrase perfectly
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encapsulates the Westminster Confessions doctrine of total
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depravity. And we need to be very clear
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about what total depravity means in reformed theology, because
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people misunderstand it constantly.
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All the time. It does not mean utter
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depravity. It does not mean that every
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person is as thoroughly evil in their actions as they could
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possibly be. Right, you can have a secular
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person who loves their kids goods, gives to charity and
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obeys the speed limit. Yes, total depravity means that
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sin has corrupted every single part of human nature, the mind,
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the will and the affections. It's completely pervasive.
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So the outward show of morality does nothing to change the
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fundamental pollution of the heart before a holy God.
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Those good deeds are not done out of a supreme love for God's
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glory. Let me try to make that
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relatable. Think of the fair face of an
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unconverted person like a freshly painted house that has a
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completely rotted, termite infested foundation.
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Oh, that's a solid visual. You walk by this house in your
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neighborhood. It looks pristine.
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The lawn is perfectly manicured. The trim is a crisp white.
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The windows are spotless. But the structural collapse is
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already guaranteed because the joists are basically sawdust.
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The paint job does not fix the rot.
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Right. It just hides it from the
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neighbors. Edwards is looking at his
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congregation and telling them that they're polite society,
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manners, their colonial respectability and even their
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outward religious duties are just a fresh coat of paint on a
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rotting foundation. That is a highly accurate
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illustration of his point. The outward appearance is
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completely irrelevant to the impending collapse.
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It changes nothing about the final result.
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Right. And this leads directly to his
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next major point concerning the nature of the judgement against
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this accursed state. Edwards warns that the city is
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appointed to destruction by an immutable, irreversible decree
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from a holy God. Let's talk about the gravity of
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that phrase. Irreversible decree.
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He leans heavily on the absolute sovereignty of God.
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Here, the Westminster Confession states that God's decrees are
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His eternal purpose, according to the counsel of His will.
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Meaning there is no negotiating. Once the decree is issued, the
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city's fate is sealed. Precisely when God determines to
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pour out His justice on a state of sin, there is no appeal
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process. The decree is immutable.
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God's holiness requires that He be a consuming fire to such
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uncleanness. And the certainty of the decree
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is what necessitates the absolute haste and fleeing.
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If the decree could be changed, or if it if God could be
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bargained with, then lingering might be an option.
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You can just stay in the city and try to negotiate terms with
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the angels. But because of the decree is
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irreversible, the only same response is immediate forceful
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flight. Furthermore, Edwards describes
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the destruction as exceedingly dreadful fire within and
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without, with no drop of water. And he notes that it is
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universal, no by corner offers safety, and no age or condition
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is spared. The horror of the judgement is
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magnified by how unexpected it is.
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Edwards shifts from the certainty of the doom to the
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suddenness of it. Yes, the timing.
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He points out that the destruction of Sodom happened on
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a fair morning with no clouds. Lot's sons in law were making
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merry. They were laughing at Lot for
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being an alarmist. This is one of the most chilling
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psychological tactics Edwards uses.
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The psychological shock of the fair morning is one of his most
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brilliant rhetorical moves. He notes that the inhabitants of
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Sodom expected no such thing. They were just planting,
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building, buying and selling. The weather was perfect.
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Edwards uses the mundane nature of daily life to make the sudden
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arrival of divine wrath infinitely more terrifying.
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Because judgement doesn't always announce itself with dark
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clouds, Thunder and ominous signs in the sky.
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Often it arrives on a bright, sunny Tuesday when everyone is
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going about their normal business.
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The sheer normalcy of the morning makes the suddenness of
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the destruction devastating. I mean, think about the weather
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report in Sodom that morning. Blue skies, perfect conditions
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for farming, and then without warning, the sky opens up with
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fire. It's a terrifying thought.
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Edwards also notes that the destruction is everlasting.
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He points out that the Dead Sea acts as a physical type of the
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eternal lake of fire. He argues there is nothing worth
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looking back upon because the enjoyments are literally
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perishing in the flames. And he highlights that we are
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warned by messengers from God. But here is where it gets really
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interesting for me. I want to question the mindset
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of Lot's wife. Let's look at her.
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Edwards notes that she lived in a place of outward plenty.
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The biblical text mentions the soil about Sodom was exceedingly
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fruitful, like the garden of God.
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It was a very comfortable place to live.
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So was her fatal flaw an active fist raising rebellion against
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God? Was she shouting curses at the
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angels or was it just a passive, lingering attachment to comfort?
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I mean, she was leaving a very nice life.
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Edwards argues it was the latter, and that is what makes
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her example so insidious and relevant.
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Her sin was an affection for the things of the world over,
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obedience to the command of God. She just hankered after the
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pleasant things she left behind. It wasn't necessarily that she
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loved the extreme, notorious wickedness of Sodom.
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She loved the ease, the security, the fruitful soil and
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the plenty. Which brings us to the reformed
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understanding of idolatry. Right, in Reformed thought,
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idolatry is not just bowing down to a golden calf in the desert,
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it is having your affections captivated by the created world
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rather than the Creator. So her passive, lingering
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attachment was a lethal indictment of where her heart
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truly resided. Yes, that is the terrifying part
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for you listening today. Passive idolatry You You do not
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have to be an outright villain to be destroyed.
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You just have to love your comfort more than you love God.
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A. Very sobering reality.
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OK, so Edwards has painted this terrifying historical picture of
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a doomed city and a woman who looked back at her comfortable
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life. But he is speaking to polite
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18th century churchgoers in New England.
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He has to bring it home. Right.
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How does he cross that bridge? How does he look at a Baker
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Oregon, a farmer sitting in the Pew and say you are actually
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standing in Sodom? He executes what we can call the
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pastoral pivot. He takes the historical analysis
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and turns it into a mirror for his congregation.
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He divides the entire world into two distinct cities, doesn't.
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It yes, Zion the Church of God, and Sodom the accursed city.
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There is no middle ground whatsoever.
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No suburbs. No suburbs.
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He tells his listeners that if they are out of Christ, Sodom is
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their nativity. We were born there.
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And here's the crazy part. He groups highly moral, reformed
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looking citizens into the exact same society as I'm going to
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quote them directly here. Fornicators and drunkards and
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adulterers and common swearers and highwaymen.
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Pirates and sodomites. It's a shocking list.
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Wow. He puts a well dressed colonial
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citizen who pays his taxes in the same spiritual category as a
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violent pirate. I want you to pause and consider
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how offensive this doctrine would be to a modern audience
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today. Oh, people would walk out of the
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church. We'd love to rank sins.
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We'd love to put ourselves in the category of mostly good
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people. We look at criminals and say,
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well I am definitely not like them.
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It's a natural human defense mechanism.
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To be told that your best, most charitable day still places you
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in the same spiritual city as a pirate is a massive blow to
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human pride. How does Edwards justify this
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from a theological standpoint? It relies heavily on the
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Reformed doctrine of imputation. According to the Westminster
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Confession, the only righteousness that can stand
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before the blinding holiness of God is the perfect, spotless
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righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to the believer by
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faith. Which means any righteousness
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generated by human effort is useless.
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The prophet Isaiah describes it as filthy rags.
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Therefore, the moral behavior seen in an unregenerate person
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is not due to any inherent saving goodness.
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Then what does the morality come from?
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Edwards attributes their morality to God's greater
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restraints. Wait, what does he mean by
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greater restraints? It means that God in His
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Providence restrains the evil of some people for the sake of
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societal order. Oh I see, God prevents the
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polite citizen from acting out the full depravity of their
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heart so that society can actually function.
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Yes, but their underlying nature, their spiritual DNA
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remains identical to the highwayman.
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The pirate acts out his rebellion violently.
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The polite citizen acts out his rebellion quietly by trusting in
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his own good works rather than Christ.
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Both are in rebellion against the King.
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Both are citizens of Sodom. But why does Edwards believe
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this massive offense is entirely necessary?
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I mean, why intentionally insult the people you are trying to
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save? The offense is necessary because
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as long as a person believes they possess some inheritance
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goodness, they will never truly flee to Christ.
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If you think you're safe, you won't run.
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Right. If you think you are living in a
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slightly flawed but generally safe city, you will not run for
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your life. You might try to clean up the
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streets a bit or, you know, paint your house, but you will
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not flee to the mountains. You have to be completely
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stripped of yourself righteousness.
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You have to realize that you are standing in Ground Zero of
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divine wrath. Edwards shatters their moral
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pride because it is the only way to induce the absolute
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desperation required to flee to the mountain of safety without
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looking back. That makes perfect sense.
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If you don't know the building is on fire, you will not use the
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fire escape. Exactly.
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Having identified the listeners true location as Sodom, Edwards
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proceeds to escalate the stakes by contrasting the physical
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judgement of the past with the spiritual judgement of the
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future. He argues that hell is
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infinitely more dreadful than literal Sodom.
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And he uses this incredible rhetorical device.
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He says physical fire is but a shadow or painted fire compared
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to the reality of divine wrath. We really must focus heavily on
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that phrase painted fire. It is a brilliant concept.
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Unpack that for us. Edwards argues that everything
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we know of physical pain, burning and destruction is just
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a picture. It's a 2 dimensional
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representation. Like a painting on a wall.
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Think of a canvas with a painting of a raging campfire.
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If you touch the canvas, it cannot burn you.
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It's just oil and cloth. It only gives you an idea of
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what fire looks like. OK, I follow you.
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Edwards is suggesting that the literal fire and brimstone that
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rained down and destroyed Sodom was merely the physical painting
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of the spiritual reality of hell.
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Wait, so the most horrific physical pain a human can even
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imagine is just a drawing? Compared to the real thing, yes.
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The spiritual wrath of the Almighty upon the soul is so
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vastly superior in its terror that physical fire seems
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harmless by comparison. Wow.
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The physical judgement is just the shadow cast by the eternal
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judgement. And Edwards pairs this with
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another terrifying thought. He asserts that those who reject
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the gospel bear far greater guilt than the inhabitants of
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literal Sodom. Because of the amount of light
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they've been given. Right.
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The people of Sodom send against the light of nature, but the
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people in Edwards's congregation are sinning against the clear
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light of the Gospel. They have the Bible, they have
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the warnings, and yet they still linger.
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Which brings up the terrifying urgency of exhausted patients.
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Edwards warns that God's patience has an absolute limit.
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He notes that multitudes are seized by wrath while they
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delay, just as Lot's wife was immediately destroyed when she
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looked back. I want to look closely at the
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biblical text here. God physically dragged Lot and
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his wife out of the city, the text specifically says the Lord
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being merciful to her. He gave her a huge advantage.
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He gave her a head start. He pulled her by the hand.
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Yet the moment she looked back, that patience ended instantly.
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Let's discuss the Reformed view of God's common grace here and
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how it can be suddenly withdrawn.
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Common grace is the unmerited favor God gives to all people.
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It is what causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
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It keeps the world running. It prevents the world from
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becoming as evil as it could be, and it delays immediate judgment
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to allow time for repentance. Edwards points out that God
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exercised immense common grace with Lot's wife.
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Angels pressed her, dragged her, and set her safely outside the
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city limits. She experienced a high degree of
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divine favor, but there is a line when a person continually
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abuses that grace, resisting the drawing of the Spirit and
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hankering after the world, God is entirely just to withdraw
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that restraining grace. And when the patience ends, it
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doesn't taper off slowly. No.
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When the patience ends, the judgement is instantaneous.
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Multitudes, Edwards warns, have been suddenly seized by the
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storm of wrath while they were busy delaying, assuming they
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always had more time. The physical consequence for
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Lot's wife was becoming a pillar of salt, but Edwards does not
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leave it as just a weird historical artifact.
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He spiritualizes. It he translates this physical
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punishment into the psychological and spiritual
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mechanics of a backsliding heart.
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He argues that stopping to look back ensures you never get any
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further. The soul becomes dead and hard,
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like the pillar of salt. He discusses how backsliders
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quench the spirit, lose convictions, and give Satan an
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advantage. This leads to the tragedy of
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watching others flee successfully to the mountain of
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safety, which the Bible calls Zoar while remaining behind.
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Let's analyze the concept of a spiritual pillar of salt.
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When a person is awakened to their sin, they experience
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spiritual convictions. They feel fear.
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They start to actually flee. Yes, they might start attending
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church regularly, reading their Bible and avoiding obvious sins.
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But when they look back, when they pause to reconsider the
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pleasures of their sin, they quench the work of the Spirit.
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And what happens then? Edwards explains that losing
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spiritual convictions hardens the heart.
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The soul becomes stupefied. So it is actually worse for them
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than if they had never sought salvation at all.
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Absolutely. They become immune to the
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warnings. They sit in the pews hearing the
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same sermons about wrath and grace, but they feel nothing.
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Their souls are as rigid and lifeless as a pillar of salt.
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Their monuments of wrath breaking up space in the middle
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of the church. They see others running to
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Christ, finding peace and safety, but they themselves are
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frozen. They're unable to move forward
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because their affections are tied to the city behind them.
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And Edwards also warns that backsliding during a time of
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great spiritual light seals damnation, similar to the
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Israelites wanting to return to Egypt after seeing the miracles
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of the Red Sea. The more light you reject, the
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harder the heart gets. Wait, is Edward saying that a
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single moment of doubt seals a person's fate because we all
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have moments of hesitation or temptation?
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I need to clarify what kind of looking back creates this
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permanent spiritual paralysis. Is it 1 bad day?
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Or is he describing A systemic turning away from grace?
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Edwards is not talking about the genuine struggles, doubts and
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daily repentance of a true believer who is actively
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fighting their sin. OK, good.
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That's a relief. He is describing A systemic,
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willful turning away. It is a choice to harbor a
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cherished sin, a refusal to completely forsake the world.
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So it's a deliberate posture. Yes, the backslider he describes
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is someone who was drawn by convictions, perhaps purely out
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of a fear of hell. Had their underlying affections
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changed by the Holy Spirit? So when the immediate.
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Fear of the fire subsides. Their natural gravity pulls them
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back to what they truly love. It is the systemic.
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Withdrawal of the heart from God to the world, Edwards concludes
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his. Warning by exposing how subtly
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and quietly this spiritual paralysis takes hold.
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It is not always a loud fist shaking rebellion.
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No, it's often very quiet. He observes that the state of
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the world. Is right for some great
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revolution and judgement. The cry has reached heaven.
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But then he brings it down to the individual level, right to
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the human heart. He states that the human heart.
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Is naturally a backsliding heart when under conviction.
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Fleeing is a mere force because God is dragging them, but their
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natural gravity pulls them back towards Sodom and then he uses
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this. Devastating medical analogy?
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Yes, he calls. Backsliding.
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A flattering distemper that works like a consumption.
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We need to spend significant. Time on this consumption analogy
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because it is terrifying in its historical context in the 18th
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century. A consumption referred to
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tuberculosis, right? Yes, it was a wasting.
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Disease of the lungs, and it was a massive killer in colonial New
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England. What made it so terrible was its
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deceptive nature. How so?
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The victim would slowly. Waste away over months or years,
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but they often felt they were getting better.
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They would have days of high energy, a flush in their cheeks,
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and they would flatter themselves that they were
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recovering right up until the moment they died.
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I have read about that they. Called it the sensible recovery.
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The patient would suddenly feel great, they would make plans for
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the future and their family would rejoice.
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And then they would collapse and.
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Die the next day. Edwards takes this.
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Physical horror and applies it directly to the soul.
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He does. People flatter.
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Themselves. That they're still seeking God,
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That they haven't entirely lost their convictions while they are
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actually spiritually dying because backsliding.
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Steals on people insensibly, right they.
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Compromise in small areas. They skip prayer, they entertain
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a worldly affection, they make peace with a minor sin, and they
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tell themselves I am still a seeker, I am still fleeing to
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the mountain. They blind themselves to their.
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Own disease by the time they realize.
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Their convictions are gone. Their heart has become so hard
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that they no longer care. They die of the spiritual
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consumption while convincing themselves they are on the road
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to health. This is why Edwards.
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Highlights that fleeing requires constant, forceful pressing
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forward. The natural tendency of the
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fallen heart is always to slide backward.
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Gravity always pulls. You down think about the gravity
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of this. For a second, the greatest
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danger you face might not be outright vocal rejection of the
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truth. You might not be shaking your.
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Fist at the sky or writing anti religious books.
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Exactly your greatest. Danger is the quiet, gradual and
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insensible Slipping away into comfort is the slowing down.
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It is the assumption that you can linger on the planes instead
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of running to the mountain. Edwards forces us to.
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Realize that lingering is just a slower way to die in the fire,
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and that ties together his. Core thesis Seamlessly, Edwards
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constructs A terrifying logical bridge from the physical
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destruction of sodom to the spiritual peril of the
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backsliding heart every historical.
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Detail is leveraged here. The suddenness of the morning,
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the irreversible decree, the absolute devastation, the pillar
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of salt. He uses all of it to.
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Explain the hidden mechanics of the soul.
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To look back is to desire the things appointed for wrath.
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It demonstrates that the heart. Is still native to Sodom and
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remains foreign to Zion. The goal here was not.
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Simply to terrify the colonial citizens of Massachusetts.
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Edwards's goal, and our goal in looking at this material today,
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is to sever every earthly attachment that prevents a full
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flight to Christ. Christ is the true mountain.
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Of safety. He shakes the listener
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violently. Because he sees the paint and
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fire giving way to the terrible reality.
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I will leave you with the final. Thought to consider that builds
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on the theological framework we have established today.
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Let's hear Edwards calls Lot's wife a durable pillar and
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monument of wrath. Since Edwards views physical
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events as shadows of spiritual realities, we must ask ourselves
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about our present condition. What should we be asking?
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Could our modern day? Distractions, our lingering
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attachments to comforts and our quiet daily compromises be
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constructing an invisible internal pillar of salt right
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now. Could we be freezing our
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spiritual state into a monument of apathy, completely unnoticed
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by the outside world long before any final judgment arrives?
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That is the heavy question. We have to reckon with when the
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alarm sounds, do you finish your coffee or do you run?
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Thank you for joining us for this Dee dive into the
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historical and theological sources.
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We will see you next time on Reformed Thinking.