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The Ongoing Advance of Redemption After the Resurrection | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to the deep dive into our segment Reformed
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  Thinking. It's good to be here.
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  Today we are opening up a really structural view of Christian
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  history. We're going to be looking at a
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  massive theological framework from Jonathan Edwards.
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  We're using excerpts from his big work, A History of the Work
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  of Redemption, and we're really zeroing in on how he understood
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  the time that we're in right now.
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  That long stretch of time. Yeah, that huge period from
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  Christ's resurrection all the way until his final return.
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  And that's the key, isn't it? Edwards was so dedicated to
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  finding the divine logic in human history.
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  So our mission today is really to analyze his specific
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  periodization of church history. OK?
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  It's a framework that just doesn't allow for historical
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  randomness. He looks at this huge 2
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  millennius ban not as a bunch of disconnected events, but as a
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  specific intentional period in God's plan.
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  And he gives this period a very stark title, a very purposeful
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  1, the appointed day of Zion's troubles.
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  So this isn't just a time that has trouble in it.
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  It's a time that is defined by affliction, by persecution, and
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  by the true body of believers being constantly, you know,
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  oppressed and kept under by their enemies.
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  It really forces you to rethink some of our maybe more
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  comfortable assumptions about how history is supposed to
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  progress after Christ's victory. I agree.
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  I mean, Edwards put suffering right at the center of the post
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  resurrection experience. He sees it as a necessary,
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  sovereignly ordered state that has to run its course before the
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  promised era of rest and glory can even begin.
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  So if we can get a handle on this framework, we can better
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  understand the kind of theological comfort Edwards was
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  offering to a suffering, whether that's in his day or, frankly,
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  in ours. OK, so let's unpack this idea of
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  an appointed day. When Edwards uses that word
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  appointed, it suggests, you know, it has clear boundaries.
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  Where does he say this long period of affliction starts and
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  what's the finish line? He sets the boundaries with with
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  total precision, and they're sweeping.
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  The period of suffering begins. And this is the paradox with
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  Christ's resurrection. Right at the moment of victory.
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  Right the very moment that Christ triumphs over death and
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  sin and the grave, that same moment kicks off the beginning
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  of the Church's greatest physical and physical trials on
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  earth. It's almost as if the victory
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  provoked the enemy into a more intense war.
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  That's a good way to put it. A war against the victorious
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  King's subjects. And that appointed day only ends
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  with one single huge event. The fall of Antichrist.
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  The decisive destruction of Antichrist.
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  Which means that from his perspective, and certainly from
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  where we're sitting now, this period of troubles covers almost
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  the entire history of the visible church.
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  It does, and the nature of this suffering state is what makes it
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  so defining for him. It's not, you know, occasional.
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  It's continuous. Edwards does grant that there
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  might be regional breaks or maybe temperable lulls in the
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  fighting, but his reading of prophetic history demands that
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  the persecution is continuous. So how does he qualify that?
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  He clarifies it by saying either some part or other of the church
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  is suffering, or for the great part of the time the whole
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  church, or at least the generality of God's people, have
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  been systematically persecuted. That distinction is so
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  important. It means that even if, say, the
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  Reformed churches in his own New England were enjoying relative
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  peace, the true body of Christ, when you look at it globally or
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  historically, was still going through this appointed
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  affliction. The shadow of oppression is
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  always there somewhere. It's the status for Edwards.
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  The church is currently wrestling, not raining, and this
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  view prevents any one generation from getting too comfortable or
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  complacent just because they happen to be in a politically
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  safe spot. So the historical status of the
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  true faith, as he stresses, is to be kept under by enemies
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  until that one event. Until the fall of Antichrist,
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  that single event is the pivot point for all of the subsequent
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  history. So if the destruction of
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  Antichrist is the end of the troubles, that event must kick
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  off an era of, I mean, incredible glory.
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  What hope does he attach to that guaranteed endpoint?
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  He says the fall of Antichrist marks the arrival of the
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  appointed day of the Church's prosperity on earth.
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  OK, another appointed day. Yes, this is where the divine
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  appointment shifts from suffering to favor.
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  He uses that that powerful biblical phrase.
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  This is the set time in which God will favor Zion.
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  So the affliction is timed and the prosperity is also timed.
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  It's a transition from one divinely determined phase to the
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  next. What does this prosperity
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  actually look like for the Saints?
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  Well, it involves A literal, visible shift in historical
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  authority. The Saints will move from being
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  oppressed and marginalized by wicked men to a position where
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  they shall reign. That's the destination.
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  That's the ultimate guaranteed historical destination on Earth.
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  And he's not just speculating here.
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  He backs us up with what is probably the clearest prophetic
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  promise about the Church's earthly future, which is Daniel
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  7.27. Yes, precisely.
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  And the Kingdom shall be given to the people of the Saints of
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  the Most High. Edwards uses this text to
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  establish the Church's final destiny on Earth.
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  So that entire long, agonizing period of affliction, Zion's
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  troubles. It's just the necessary
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  historical meganism that leads directly to this earthly Kingdom
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  where the righteous authority of God's people is visibly
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  established. It's a really powerful way to
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  frame history because it takes all these events that seem
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  random, wars, plagues, martyrdoms, and it gives them a
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  crucial active function in God's story.
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  It does. Every moment of historical
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  suffering is given weight because it's leading directly to
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  that promised reign of the Saints.
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  And it forces you, the listener, to view all political and social
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  history through a very specific lens.
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  A very specific lens, the status and the treatment of the true
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  body of believers. If they are suffering, then
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  God's historical clock is running exactly as it should be,
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  working toward that glorious end.
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  Given that this era spans, I mean nearly 2000 years, it makes
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  sense that Edwards would break this appointed day of trouble
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  into different historical phases.
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  Yes, he does. So let's start at the beginning,
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  the early phase of suffering right after the resurrection.
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  What defined those first 300 years?
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  That period, the first 3 centuries, was defined almost
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  entirely by just immense external persecution.
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  It's the classic era of the martyrs.
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  Edwards calls this phase, for the most part, in a state of
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  great affliction. The Church was, in his words,
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  the object of reproach and persecution from two big
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  external sources. The first source of that trouble
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  came from, ironically, those who should have recognized Christ,
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  the Jews. That was the initial most
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  immediate opposition. The Jews, as the former people
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  of God, rejected their Messiah, and so they became the first
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  organized persecutors of the new church.
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  And then, and then once the church broke out of Jerusalem
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  and started to spread through the Roman Empire, the main
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  instrument of persecution shifted from the synagogue to
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  the state. The hostility moved from a
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  religious difference to imperial violence.
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  And that, of course, brings in the heavy hand of the Pagan
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  Roman state, the Rome of Nero, Diocletian, all the great waves
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  of imperial persecution, what we often call the 10 persecutions.
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  It was persecution by the sword. It was designed to physically
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  extinguish the Church, and this set the initial pattern of
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  affliction. The Church is born and
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  immediately faces these systematic attempts at
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  destruction from the dominant powers.
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  And that pattern continues right up until the big turning point,
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  Constantine's conversion. Correct.
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  Historically, Constantine's time starting around 312 AD is seen
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  as this huge watershed moment. Christianity becomes legal, then
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  the favored state religion. It's often celebrated as the end
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  of the early troubles, but Edwards sees this moment with a
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  lot of theological caution, doesn't he?
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  He does. He sees it as just a brief
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  interlude, not a permanent victory.
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  He absolutely downplays its significance for the overall
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  framework of troubles. He acknowledges that the Church
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  did enjoy rest and prosperity for a little while under
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  Constantine, but he immediately grounds this rest in prophetic
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  scripture, specifically in Revelation Chapter 7, to stop
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  anyone from thinking the appointed time of trouble was
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  over. So how does he connect
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  Constantine's political piece to the imagery and revelation?
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  Well, Edwards interprets that vision of the Angel holding the
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  four winds for a little while as the exact divine blueprint for
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  the Constantinian piece. The four winds being forces of
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  judgement. Yes, forces of judgement or
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  historical upheaval. So when the Angel holds them,
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  it's a momentary pause, a brief scheduled intermission in the
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  continuous struggle. So that this viewpoint insists
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  that the rest was temporary, it was fragile, and it was still
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  placed within the larger story of the struggle, right?
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  It prevents the Church from confusing a political ceasefire
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  with the fulfillment of God's ultimate promise of prosperity.
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  That really reframes the whole historical event.
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  It suggests that even this great historical victory was just a
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  necessary short breath before the next and maybe more
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  insidious wave of trouble. It was.
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  So what was the first trouble that came back so quickly after
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  this intermission? The rest was very fleeting.
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  Edwards observes that the church presently, after this brief
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  period of external prosperity, suffered again, but the source
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  of the affliction changed dramatically.
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  How so? It moved from an external
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  political force to an internal theological corruption, the
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  Aryan persecution. And this is a really important
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  distinction. We've moved from persecution by
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  Pagan emperors to persecution driven by heresy.
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  We should probably pause here for a moment and clarify for you
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  listening. What was Arianism and how did a
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  doctrinal disagreement become a form of persecution?
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  Well, Arianism was the major theological war of the 4th
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  century. It was led by Arias, who denied
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  the full eternal divinity of Christ.
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  OK, He argued that the Son was created by the Father, which
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  basically makes Christ a lesser deity.
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  For Edwards, and for Orthodox Christians holding to the Nicene
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  Creed, this was an attack on the very heart of the Gospel, a
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  foundational lie. But how does that become
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  persecution in Edwards's understanding of Zion's
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  troubles? It becomes persecution because
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  the Aryan faction often gained political power, especially
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  through key emperors and bishops, and once they were in
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  power, they use the instruments of both the Church and the State
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  Council's excommunication, imperial decrees, and yes, even
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  exile and physical violence to silence and punish those who
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  held to the orthodox view, like Athanasius.
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  So the sword was now being wielded not by pagans, but by
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  professing Christians defending what he saw as a damning false
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  doctrine. Exactly.
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  The target was no longer just the believer's body, but the
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  purity of the belief itself. So the oppression continues, but
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  it just changes its nature. The true faith is now kept under
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  by spiritual error that's cloaked in institutional power.
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  And this internal struggle is what set the stage for the rise
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  of the primary long term source of suffering, which is the rise
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  of Antichrist. So following the instability of
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  those Darien conflicts in the growing corruption of the church
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  hierarchy, the system of Antichrist rose to dominance.
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  And this is where Edwards moves into that long era we call the
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  Middle Ages. At this point, the true Church,
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  the faithful remnant, was effectively driven away into the
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  wilderness. That phrase, driven into the
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  wilderness, is powerful. It suggests a time of spiritual
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  invisibility, doesn't it? It does.
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  It comes right out of Revelation 12, describing the woman who is
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  the true Church fleeing into obscurity to be protected.
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  I see. So the true body of believers
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  was kept down in the obscurity, contempt and suffering for 1000
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  years or more. They were small, scattered
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  groups. You know, the Waldens is the
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  Lollards, people like that, marginalized and oppressed by
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  the very institution that was claiming to be the Catholic
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  Church. There's a key theological
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  insight here, which is that the suffering state actually
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  guaranteed the holiness of that remnant.
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  Why did Edward see that obscurity as being protective of
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  holiness? Because staying in the visible
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  dominant institution of what he called anti Christian Rome
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  required compromise, it required corruption of doctrine and
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  practice. So by being driven into the
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  wilderness, by refusing to participate in the political
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  power, the idolatry, the theological errors of the
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  dominant system, the remnant was preserved in its purity, the
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  fire of persecution. While it was painful, it burned
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  away all the dross, and it ensured that only true, sincere
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  faith survived outside that corrupt, visible structure.
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  So suffering became a guarantee of authentic faith.
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  In a way, yes. And this obscurity and
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  oppression continued right up until the Reformation.
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  In the 16th century. Luther and Calvin arrive, the
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  true gospel is preached openly again, and the light finally
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  shines brightly across Europe. Surely that ends the appointed
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  day of great affliction. That is the assumption that a
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  lot of modern historians would make, but Edwards disagrees
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  forcefully. He makes one of his most
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  striking historical observations here.
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  He argues that even after the Reformation, the suffering did
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  not stop. In fact, he says, the church's
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  persecutions since the Reformation have been beyond all
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  that ever were before. That seems very
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  counterintuitive. How could post Reformation
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  persecution be worse than the Roman Colosseum or the medieval
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  Inquisition? Well, Edward saw the immediate
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  aftermath of the Reformation, which triggered the Counter
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  Reformation. And this wasn't just doctrinal
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  debate. This was massive organized
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  institutional violence. You mean the wars of religion?
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  The. Wars of religion?
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  Exactly. Think about the scale of the 30
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  years War, The persecution of the Huguenots in France, the
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  atrocities in the Netherlands, the constant threat that the
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  Puritans and Covenanters faced. These were highly focused,
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  religiously sanctioned massacres, often targeting huge
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  established populations of Protestants with a unified zeal
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  you didn't even see under the Pagan Emperor's.
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  So the revival of truth during the Reformation didn't stop
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  Zion's trouble, it actually intensified them.
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  It did because it provoked an immense organized counter
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  reaction from the forces of anti Christian Rome.
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  The conflict became global, and the stakes in Edward's mind were
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  higher because the enemy was now fully developed as this
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  spiritual Babylon. So if we Fast forward to his own
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  time, the 18th century, he concludes that the basic
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  condition of the true Church is still unchanged.
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  Yes, he acknowledges that some parts of God's church might have
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  had rest. He's probably thinking of
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  geographically isolated or politically stable Protestant
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  areas. But the true church globally is
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  still very much kept under by its enemies, and some parts face
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  grievous persecution. So it's structural conclusion is
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  clear. This overall condition of
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  affliction has to continue until the final fall of Antichrist.
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  The time is still appointed trouble.
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  Which brings us to the deeper meaning of all the suffering.
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  If 2000 years of affliction are necessary and appointed, they
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  have to serve some kind of powerful theological function.
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  What imagery does Edwards use to explain the purpose of this
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  suffering state? He uses the very intense and, I
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  think, hopeful metaphor of the church's travail or labor.
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  Like childbirth. Exactly like childbirth.
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  And that instantly shifts the purpose of the pain.
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  It's not senseless suffering. It's pain that's directed toward
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  bringing about a glorious birth. The affliction now is just a
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  necessary means to an end. And this metaphor is very deeply
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  rooted in Scripture, especially in connecting the present pain
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  to the ultimate glory. What passages does he point to?
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  Well, he uses John 16.2021 where Christ comforts his disciples by
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  comparing their sorrow to a woman in labor.
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  Intense grief is followed by intense joy, and the pain is
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  forgotten the moment the child is born.
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  But even more central for him is the imagery in Revelation 12.1
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  to 2. The woman clothed with the son
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  who is crying out in birth pangs to bring forth.
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  Right. So Edward synthesizes these.
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  The Church, the true body of believers, is striving to bring
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  forth that glory and prosperity that will follow the destruction
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  of Antichrist. The suffering of this age is the
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  birth pangs. The great millennial prosperity
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  is the child. And that perspective makes every
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  moment of affliction meaningful. It's driving the church toward
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  its guaranteed future. It is.
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  That helps focus on the endurance that's required.
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  The travail is intense, but the metaphor also guarantees the
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  outcome. Birth always follows labor, so
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  this long time of trouble has to be temporary and.
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  That's where you get the clash between human perception and
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  divine perception. Edwards knows that this is a
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  long time of the church's trouble and affliction when we
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  look at it from our short life stands.
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  But when you measure it against the scope of the Church's
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  eternal prosperity that follows, he calls it only for a little
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  season. That shift in scale is so
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  important for those who are actually enduring persecution.
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  What feels like an endless unjust oppression to one
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  generation is just a footnote in the grand timeline of the
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  redeemed. It gives perspective and it
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  connects directly to the cries of those who have suffered
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  martyrdom all throughout history.
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  Edwards points to Revelation 6.10, where the souls of the
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  martyrs seen under the altar are crying out under the long
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  continuance of this affliction. They are demanding
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  accountability. Their question just perfectly
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  captures the tension of waiting for justice.
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  How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge
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  our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
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  That is the pivotal question of Zion's troubles.
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  They see the injustice, they experience the violence, and
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  they perceive the divine plan as being, well, agonizingly
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  delayed. They aren't questioning God's
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  ability, but is timing. And the response they get is
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  what defines Edwards whole understanding of how long this
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  period has to be. It does.
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  They receive white robes which symbolize righteousness and
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  purity, but they're also given a time frame for the rest they
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  have to observe. They're told to rest yet for a
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  little season, until their fellow servants also and their
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  brethren that should be killed as they were, should be
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  fulfilled. And that phrase is the core
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  theological justification for the long duration.
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  It's a little season in divine time, but it's necessary to
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  fulfill the full appointed number of martyrs and witnesses
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  so. The period of trouble can't end
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  until the full number of those appointed to bear witness
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  through suffering is complete. The purpose of the struggle
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  hasn't been exhausted yet, and Edwards reinforces the
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  continuity of this suffering question by drawing a parallel
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  all the way back to the Old Testament.
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  Right. He shows that the question of
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  duration is not unique to the New Testament church.
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  No, not at all. He references Daniel 12.6 where
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  the prophet asks how long shall it be to the end of these
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  wonders? This recurrence shows that the
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  oppression and the theological anxiety, or how long it will
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  last, are constant features for God's people during times of
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  tribulation. And this sense of waiting, of
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  resting for a little season, is a specific call to historical
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  patience to trust that God's clock, not ours, is the one that
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  matters. Absolutely.
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  Yeah. That means that to be a true St.
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  in this era is to accept the discomfort and the apparent
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  delay, trusting that the travail is working toward a definite,
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  glorious, and, by divine standards, imminent outcome.
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  We've established the time frame and the theological meaning of
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  the suffering, which is the travail.
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  Now we have to identify the instrument of that suffering.
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  For Edwards, there is one constant primary antagonist that
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  spans this entire period of Zion's troubles.
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  He is incredibly clear on this. Edwards asserts that the main
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  instrument of the Church's sufferings from the days of the
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  apostles right through to his own day in the 18th century has
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  been the Roman government in its various forms.
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  Calling it the Roman government is key because that allows him
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  to span the gap between the Pagan emperors who burned
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  Christians and the ecclesiastical power that issued
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  inquisitorial decrees. How does he bridge that huge
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  historical and spiritual difference?
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  He bridges it through prophetic type and anti type.
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  Edwards explains that this is precisely why Rome is called
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  Babylon in the New Testament. OK.
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  This typological identification links the suffering of the
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  Christian Church directly to the great prophetic narrative
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  concerning ancient Israel. So Rome is the spiritual
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  Babylon, which oppresses the spiritual Jerusalem, which is
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  the Christian Church. That's the analogy.
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  Edwards draws the direct parallel.
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  The troubles of ancient Jerusalem came mainly from the
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  hostile city of Babylon that led them into captivity.
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  Therefore, the troubles of the Christian Church must come
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  mainly from Rome during its long tribulation.
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  The historical antagonism and the role of the oppressor stay
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  consistent. They stay consistent.
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  Only the manifestation of the city changes from literal
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  Babylon to spiritual realm. And this typology justifies the
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  coded language that's used in Revelation, which would have
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  been crucial for early believers who are facing immediate
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  persecution from the state. It provided both warning and
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  comfort. It identified the oppressive
• 20:45
  power in a way that was immediately recognizable to
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  those who were steeped in Old Testament prophecy.
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  It grounded their contemporary suffering in the deep,
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  predictable history of God's dealings.
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  Edwards, though, is careful to differentiate between the two
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  major historical phases of Roman oppression that we've touched
• 21:03
  on. He makes a very clear historical
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  break point. The first phase before
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  Constantine and the official acceptance of Christianity came
• 21:10
  from Heath and Rome. This was the Rome of overt Pagan
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  worship, the political state using the sword against a
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  foreign religion. The oppression was external and
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  undeniable. But the second phase after the
• 21:21
  Christianization of the empire is much longer and represents
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  the true rise of the anti Christian power.
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  Yes, since Constantine the troubles have shifted and
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  they've come mainly from anti Christian Rome, which Edwards,
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  following the Protestant reformers, identifies explicitly
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  as the institutionalized Church of Rome and particularly the
• 21:39
  papacy. So the system of persecution
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  morphed from external political violence to internal
• 21:46
  institutional and spiritual corruption that was wielding
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  political power. That's right.
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  Now this is a massive claim and it's essential for us to present
• 21:54
  Edwards theological framework clearly without endorsing the
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  claim itself. For Edwards, what made this
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  power anti Christian in its nature?
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  For him and for the Reformed tradition he represented, anti
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  Christian Rome was defined by its corruption of Christ's
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  offices. It claimed a spiritual authority
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  that belonged only to Christ as the head of the Church, a
• 22:13
  priestly power that usurped Christ's mediation, and a
• 22:16
  political sovereignty over nations.
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  So the oppression was twofold, first by propagating false
• 22:21
  doctrine that damned souls, and second, by physically
• 22:24
  persecuting the remnant who held to the pure gospel.
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  So it was the continuation of Babylonian captivity, just
• 22:31
  enforced by a corrupt church hierarchy instead of a Pagan
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  king. That's how he saw it.
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  The spiritual Babylon is embodied first by the Pagan
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  empire and then by this corrupted spiritual empire.
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  Rome is the constant antagonist, the necessary tool used to keep
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  Zion under affliction until the set time is fulfilled.
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  And this framework is so essential because it guarantees
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  the final conclusion, connecting it right back to the original
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  analogy. The time of the Jewish literal
• 22:58
  captivity in the Old Testament ended with the decisive
• 23:01
  historical destruction of Babylon.
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  And the spiritual captivity and trouble of the Christian Church
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  will follow that exact historical and prophetic
• 23:08
  pattern, right? Edwards concludes this segment
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  with the ultimate promise, one he guarantees the end of Zion's
• 23:14
  troubles. He says the time of the
• 23:16
  Christian church's affliction will cease with the destruction
• 23:19
  of the Church of Rome. That's spiritual Babylon.
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  So the destruction of the main instrument of oppression, the
• 23:24
  Antichrist, is the required final act before the Saints are
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  brought forth from their long travail into their promised
• 23:30
  reign. Yes, that's the end of the story
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  of suffering. We've seen how Edwards
• 23:36
  constructs a view of history that imposes this rigorous
• 23:39
  divine order onto centuries of struggle.
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  It's a long appointed path of affliction, but it's one that is
• 23:46
  structured entirely toward the guaranteed arrival of the
• 23:49
  Saints, prosperity and reign. What stands out to me is how
• 23:52
  this framework gives meaning to every moment of martyrdom and
• 23:55
  persecution. Nothing is arbitrary.
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  Everything is serving the purpose of fulfilling the
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  necessary travail before that glorious birth.
• 24:04
  And the insight for us as learners is recognizing that
• 24:07
  Edwards's view of history provides this comprehensive
• 24:10
  theological framework that gives purpose to affliction by making
• 24:14
  it temporary, necessary, and preceding A definitive,
• 24:17
  guaranteed triumph. And if we go back to that
• 24:20
  instruction given to the persecuted Saints in Revelation
• 24:23
  6, the command for them to rest yet for a little season, it
• 24:27
  raises A crucial thought for you to carry forward.
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  Edward saw this rest not as passive waiting, but his active
• 24:33
  endurance that's rooted in a divine calendar.
• 24:36
  So if centuries of waiting are just a little season leading up
• 24:39
  to the Kingdom, what practical historical patience is Edwards
• 24:42
  asking us to adopt in our present era, especially when we
• 24:45
  face our own smaller, localized versions of Zion's troubles?
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  That is a very searching question.
• 24:51
  It changes the nature of endurance from just a passive
• 24:53
  resignation to a hopeful, active participation in the necessary
• 24:57
  prelude to the Kingdom. I think So.
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  Thank you for joining us for this deep dive into the
• 25:01
  historical theology of Jonathan Edwards.
• 25:03
  Until next time, keep thinking.