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Eternal Torment for the Wicked: Unavoidable and Intolerable (Ezekiel 22:14) | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reform Thinking. I'm so glad you're joining us
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  today. Yeah, it is great to be here for
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  another conversation. So imagine a legal system where
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  the negotiation table completely vanishes.
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  Just poof. Gone.
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  Right. Like no plea deals at all.
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  Yeah, no grace periods, no lawyers finding loopholes.
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  You sit down expecting to work out a settlement, but the
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  authority across the table is well, they're just not
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  interested in bargaining. Oh wow, that is a terrifying
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  thought. You are looking at a system
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  built on absolute, uncompromising mathematical
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  certainty. Totally, and today's Deep Dive
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  examines A striking, historically significant text by
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  the 18th century American Congregational preacher Jonathan
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  Edwards. Yes, the text is a sermon titled
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  Eternal Torment for the Wicked, Unavoidable and Intolerable and
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  it is based on the book of Ezekiel, chapter 22, verse 14,
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  right? So our mission for this deep
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  dive is to analyze Edwards's rigorous, unapologetic framework
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  regarding God's justice. We want to look at his
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  sovereignty over human rebellion and, well, the absolute
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  certainty of his judgments. And as Protestant Christians who
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  adhere to the Westminster Confession and Reformed
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  theology, looking at this text provides a stark, sobering view
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  of the majesty of God. Yeah, and the gravity of human
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  sin. So I am asking you, sitting
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  there listening, to lay aside modern sensibilities for a
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  little while. Just kind of suspend them, Yeah.
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  Step into the theological worldview of the Great Awakening
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  with us. We're going back to a time when
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  the reality of heaven and hell was preached with unmatched
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  urgency. It was a time when theology was
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  not an abstract academic exercise.
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  No, it was a matter of immediate, terrifying reality
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  for those listening. Absolutely.
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  Now we also have a rule for our conversation today.
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  We will not talk over each other.
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  Right, we are going to let every single heavy thought land
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  completely before responding. Yeah, because this material
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  requires that kind of respect and pacing.
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  So let us get into it. That historical and theological
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  context really sets the stage perfectly.
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  I think Jonathan Edwards was preaching in colonial America
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  during a massive virtual revival the.
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  Period. We now call the First Great
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  Awakening, right? Yeah, that is the one.
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  He was addressing a congregation in Northampton, MA, and these
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  people were intimately familiar with biblical concepts.
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  I mean, they probably knew the Westminster Shorter Catechism
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  backwards and forwards. Oh, without a doubt.
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  But you know, familiarity breeds contempt, or at least
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  complacency. Right, because when you hear
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  something all the time, it just becomes normal.
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  Yeah, Edwards knew he was speaking to people who heard the
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  theology so often that it had become background noise.
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  So to breakthrough that noise, he builds the premise of this
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  specific sermon on a very specific legal and theological
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  term. Yes, he says God undertakes to
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  deal with impenitent sinners. Undertakes.
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  That is an interesting word choice.
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  What does that imply in the 18th century legal vernacular?
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  Well, the word undertake implies a formal sovereign obligation to
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  complete a specified task. It means taking the matter into
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  your own hands because delegating it has run its
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  course. Oh, I see.
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  So Edwards argues that God steps in directly because all earthly
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  means have completely failed to wake the Sinner up.
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  Yeah, I mean ministers preach until their voices literally
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  give out. And parents plead with their
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  children across the dinner table.
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  Right and civil magistrates established laws to curb outward
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  rebellion, yet these human efforts are entirely baffled by
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  the sheer irrational stubbornness of the human heart.
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  Because earthly ministers and parents possess finite patience
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  and finite authority. Exactly, or rather totally, the
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  unrepentant heart easily brushes them aside, treating human
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  pleading as an annoyance rather than a rescue operation.
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  I love how you highlight the finite nature of human patients
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  versus the infinite nature of God's response.
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  It makes it very clear. Yeah, it creates a massive
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  contrast. So to make that legal and
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  financial reality a bit more concrete for you listening,
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  imagine a debtor who ignores endless grace periods and past
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  due warnings from a major bank. Oh, that is a good way to
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  picture it. Right.
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  This person does not just miss a payment, they openly mock the
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  institution's authority. Like they tear up the warning
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  letters, they laugh at the tellers when they walk into the
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  lobby, that kind of thing. Yeah, and they flaunt their
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  refusal to pay on social media. Eventually the local branch
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  managers and the automated systems are cast aside.
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  Because it's just not working anymore.
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  Right. So the CEO of the institution
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  bypasses the standard protocols, walks down to the lobby and
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  steps in personally to settle the Ledger.
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  Wow, the time for letters is over.
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  Yeah, the time for direct consequences arrived.
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  That is the shift Edwards is describing.
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  But, you know, on an infinite cosmic scale.
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  So the earthly ministers are the tellers handing out warnings,
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  and the sinners are laughing them off, thinking the bank has
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  no real teeth. Right.
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  So if earthly tellers are getting laughed at and the CEO
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  finally steps in, what does that actually look like in Edwards
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  framework? There is a highly methodical
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  process to it. Does God just snap his fingers
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  and end it, or is there a specific progression to this
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  intervention? It is very methodical and
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  Edwards articulates it by zeroing in on the concept of
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  divine glory, and that is a central pillar of Reformed
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  theology. Right.
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  So Edwards notes that God must intervene for a twofold reason,
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  correct? Yeah, first, God intends to take
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  full satisfaction for his justice.
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  Because in this world God issues commands, requires subjection,
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  and offers abundant mercy. But the Sinner, however,
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  continually plunges deeper into debt by actively rejecting those
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  commands. They despise the warnings and
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  trample the mercy. And the second reason.
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  Second, God intends to vindicate the honor of His Majesty.
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  Edwards uses a very specific phrase here.
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  He says God will not leave his honor to their care.
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  Oh wow, meaning if the vindication of God's majesty
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  were left in the hands of humanity, that glory will be
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  permanently lost in the dust. Yeah, God is entirely
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  self-sufficient, and His glory is far too precious in his own
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  eyes to be neglected or permanently tarnished by human
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  rebellion. Edwards points out that sinners
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  currently despise the Son of God and trample him under their
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  feet. But God guarantees that He will
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  act so that all men, all angels, all heaven and all earth will
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  witness his sufficiency to magnify himself.
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  So he will step in to publicly prove how grievous it is to
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  despise the sun. Right.
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  This intervention is not a sudden outburst of our arbitrary
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  anger. It is the calculated,
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  unavoidable execution of justice by a creator who refuses to let
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  his creation indefinitely mock His Holiness.
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  Wait. Take satisfaction.
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  That phrasing sounds incredibly transactional.
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  It really does. Doesn't it?
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  Yeah, it sounds like a merchant balancing a Ledger at the end of
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  the month. Are we saying God operates like
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  a cosmic debt collector here? Well, it can definitely sound
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  that way to us today. Because the modern mind recoils
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  at the idea of God needing to extract a payment to feel
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  vindicated, we prefer a God who just wipes the slate clean
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  without demanding that the Ledger balance to the penny.
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  Yeah, we like the idea of unconditional consequence free
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  forgiveness, right? I want to push back on this
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  transactional language a bit because it feels very rigid.
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  Why is Edwards leaning so heavily into this financial debt
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  oriented vocabulary to describe the creator of the universe?
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  That pushback is entirely valid, and it strikes at the dividing
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  line between 18th century reformed thought and modern
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  sentimentalism. OK, so where does that
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  vocabulary come from? Edwards uses transactional
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  language because he is operating within covenant theology.
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  In the Reformed view, humanity is under a covenant of works by
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  nature. Meaning we owe our Creator
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  perfect, flawless obedience. Yes, every sin is a literal debt
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  incurred against the infinite holiness of God.
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  So God cannot simply wave a magic wand and pretend the debt
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  does not exist, no. Because doing so would violate
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  his own character, he would cease to be perfectly just.
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  I see. If a human judge started letting
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  violent criminals go free simply because he felt affectionate
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  toward them, we would call that judge corrupt.
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  Yeah, we would demand that judge be removed from the bench.
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  Edwards applies that same logic to the Cosmos.
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  God is the perfect uncorrupted judge.
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  So the satisfaction he takes is not petty vindictiveness, it is
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  the necessary balancing of the moral universe.
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  Right. When a creature sins against an
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  infinite Creator, an infinite debt is created.
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  That debt must be paid either by a substitute, which is the role
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  of Christ, or by the Sinner themselves.
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  God's majesty is His absolute intrinsic worth.
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  So when a Sinner ignores God, they're declaring that God is
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  worthless. And God's justice is the
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  mechanism by which he publicly declares that he is in fact of
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  infinite worth. Wow, so having established that
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  God will intervene to settle that Ledger and vindicate His
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  Majesty, the discussion in the text pivots doesn't.
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  It it does, it moves to how God actually targets the inner
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  rebellion of the individual. This is where Edwards
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  transitions from the macro legal framework into spiritual
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  psychology. Yeah, because it is one thing to
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  throw someone in a physical prison.
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  It is another entirely to break their rebellious spirit.
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  Right. Edwards argues that God will
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  subdue stubborn hearts and rectify false judgments.
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  And he offers this piercing psychological insight into the
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  congregation sitting right in front of him.
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  He points out that many people put on what he calls a specious
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  show or a demure countenance. Yes, meaning they sit in the
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  pews. They appear outwardly religious.
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  They maintain polite behavior, but secretly, in the quiet of
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  their own minds, they despise God.
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  Furthermore, Edwards observes that these individuals currently
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  doubt the truth of the Scriptures.
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  Right. They question whether the
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  reality of hell is factual, treating the urgent warnings of
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  their ministers like some bizarre, exaggerated dream.
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  But reading through this, a specific question comes to mind.
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  What is that? Why does Edwards place so much
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  weight on God rectifying their judgments?
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  That is a crucial point to look at.
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  Yeah, because if God's goal is to execute justice and punish
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  the Sinner for their massive debt, why isn't the execution of
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  physical or spiritual punishment enough?
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  Why does the intellect have to be brought to a place of perfect
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  clarity? That brings us to the
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  psychological genius of Edwards's sermon.
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  For justice to be completely satisfied, the punishment cannot
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  be a blind infliction of pain. Meaning they have to know why it
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  is happening. Yes, if a Sinner is punished but
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  still believes they are innocent, or still believes the
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  law is unjust, then their mind remains an active rebellion.
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  So they might be physically restrained, but intellectually
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  they are still shaking their fist at heaven, feeling like a
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  martyr. Right.
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  Edwards insists that God will completely conquer the intellect
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  so that no one in hell feels like a victim of an unfair
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  system. So the Sinner will be forced to
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  concede that every warning they heard was entirely accurate.
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  Yeah, Edwards refers to this as being convinced by dear
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  experience. The agonizing aspect of this
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  judgement is the sudden, undeniable realization that the
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  Scriptures were true all along. The fog of skepticism vanishes.
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  And the mental gymnastics people use to justify their sins are
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  entirely dismantled. The dream they laughed off
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  becomes their inescapable reality.
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  God forces the mind to recognize the vastness of the crime,
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  ensuring that the Sinner knows precisely why the judgement is
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  falling upon them. Edwards is effectively
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  predicting modern cognitive dissonance.
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  He knew people do not just sin physically, they build massive
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  mental fortresses to justify their actions.
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  So God's judgment is the forceful, unyielding dismantling
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  of that mental fortress. That is a great way to
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  summarize. It I mean, think about how easy
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  it is for us today to just scroll past spiritual warnings.
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  We live in an era of unprecedented skepticism.
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  Oh, absolutely. Brushing off biblical truth is
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  not just common, it is actively celebrated as a sign of
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  intellectual maturity today. Right.
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  We categorize biblical warnings as archaic mythology.
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  We treat the concept of eternal judgement as a psychological
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  relic of a less enlightened age. Like a tool used to scare
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  peasants into submission, Yeah. What is so fascinating is that
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  Edwards anticipates this exact modern skepticism in the 1740s.
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  He knew his audience was sitting there thinking his descriptions
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  of judgement were hyperbolic. Right.
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  He knew they were telling themselves that a loving God
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  would never execute such severe justice.
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  But because God's judgement targets both the physical
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  reality and this specific skeptical intellect, escaping
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  the judgment becomes an absolute impossibility.
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  Edwards systematically dismantles any hope of avoiding
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  this fate. He lists the vain hopes of the
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  wicked, outlining the psychological loopholes people
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  try to use to comfort themselves.
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  Yeah, he really breaks down all their coping mechanisms.
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  They hope they might simply sink into nothingness at death,
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  ceasing to exist like brute animals.
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  Or they hope they might find a literal or metaphorical cave to
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  hide in. They even entertain the absurd
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  hope that they might somehow slip unnoticed into heaven
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  through a clerical error or a false show of repentance.
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  It sounds ridiculous when you say it out loud, but people
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  really do think that way. Edwards dismantles those hopes
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  by anchoring his argument directly in the attributes of
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  God. Which is where the theology of
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  the Westminster Confession shines so brightly in his
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  reasoning. Yeah, the God of Scripture is
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  omniscient, omnipotent and immutable.
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  Meaning he knows everything, has all might and never changes.
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  Right, because God possesses perfect infinite knowledge,
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  there are no hiding places. Because he possesses infinite
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  might, there is no physical or spiritual barrier that can keep
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  him away. And because he is unchanging, he
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  will not suddenly decide to lower his standards or drop the
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  charges out of a sudden burst of sentimentality.
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  The text states plainly that an omniscient, omnipotent,
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  immutable God has undertaken this task, rendering all human
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  hopes of evasion entirely vain. Edwards brings to mind that God
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  never undertakes a task and fails.
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  So the Sinner cannot rely on God getting distressed, attracted by
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  a multiplicity of affairs. No, the creator of the universe
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  does not suffer from administrative overload.
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  He does not lose track of paperwork.
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  His attention to the individual center is as absolute and
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  focused as if that center were the only creature in the entire
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  universe. That concept of absolute
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  surveillance brings to mind a very modern parallel, actually.
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  Oh yeah, like what? Think about the near
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  impossibility of hiding from a global digital surveillance
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  state today. Oh wow, yes, if a high, really
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  resourced government wants to find someone, they can track
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  their digital footprint. They can use facial recognition
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  data on street cameras, check their financial transactions and
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  pull their communication record. Right hiding in the modern world
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  requires an exhausting, almost impossible level of off the grid
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  discipline. You have to discard your phones,
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  deal only in cash and live in the woods.
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  Yet Edwards points out that sinners actually convince
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  themselves they can hide from an omniscient creator in the crowd
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  at the Day of Judgement. The sheer absurdity he paints
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  here is hilarious in a dark way. It really is.
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  It is the idea of a guilty, unrepentant Sinner trying to
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  quietly blend in with the multitude of the Saints at the
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  right hand of the judge. Hoping God simply overlooks them
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  in the massive throng of humanity.
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  It is like trying to hide behind a single potted plant while
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  standing in the middle of an empty football stadium under
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  blinding floodlights. That is a perfect image.
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  It highlights the absolute irrationality of human pride.
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  We think we are so clever, plotting our little escape
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  routes while standing in the blazing, unshielded spotlight of
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  a God who knows the very number of hairs on our heads.
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  The irrationality of sin is the exact target Edwards is aiming
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  for. He systematically walks through
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  and closes every single psychological escape hatch the
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  human mind can invent. So once the reality sets in that
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  a person cannot hide from the judgement, what is next?
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  Well, their next logical animal instinct is to fight back or to
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  look frantically for someone to rescue them.
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  Which leads Edwards into a discussion about the total
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  impossibility of resistance and relief.
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  Right, he outlines 5 specific realities that trap the Sinner.
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  Let us unpack those. First, a person cannot overcome
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  God because finite strength cannot oppose infinite might.
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  2nd a person cannot appease God because they have nothing of
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  value to offer to buy off the wrath. 3rd A person cannot find
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  an intercessor to plead their case. 4th A person cannot break
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  out of the prison. And finally, a person cannot
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  find a single comfortable resting place within that
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  prison. I want to zero in on the absence
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  of an intercessor, which is perhaps the most chilling
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  theological statement in the entire document.
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  Why is that one so chilling to you?
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  Edwards writes They had the proclamation of a mediator often
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  made them in this world, but they will have no such calling
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  in hell. Wow.
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  The total permanent absence of Christ's mediation is the
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  defining horror of this judgement.
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  That specific point about the mediator is devastating.
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  Throughout their lives, these individuals heard the gospel.
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  Yeah, they sat in queues, they listened to sermons, they read
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  the Bible. They heard the offer of Christ
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  standing as a substitute, ready to absorb the wrath of God on
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  their behalf. But once that final line of
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  death is crossed, that offer is permanently rescinded.
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  The negotiation window closes forever to.
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  Amplify that reality. Edwards draws on the Book of
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  Revelation, specifically chapter 3, verse 7.
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  Right quoting the phrase, Christ hath the key of hell, he
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  shutteth, and no man openeth. Gravity of that image is
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  staggering. The very same Christ who stood
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  with open arms, offering grace, offering a pardon, weeping over
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  Jerusalem, and acting as the Savior.
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  Is the exact same Christ who turns the heavy iron lock on the
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  prison door of divine justice? The contrast between Christ as
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  the rejected Savior and Christ as the unyielding warden of
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  divine justice is absolute. There's no bypassing Him.
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  No, if you reject his mediation and you are left to face his
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  administration of perfect, unshielded justice.
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  How does Edwards describe the social environment of this
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  judgement? Does the Sinner at least have
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  the comfort of suffering alongside sympathetic friends?
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  Edwards shuts that door completely.
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  The isolation described in the text is absolute and unending.
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  So there's no camaraderie among the condemned.
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  None at all. Edwards reinforces that there is
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  no cool corner to retreat to and no friendly face to offer a
• 18:12
  moment of solace. Misery loves company in this
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  life, but not in the next. Exactly.
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  I mean, yeah, totally. Not even the holy angels or the
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  redeemed Saints will offer pity. That is a very difficult concept
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  for modern minds to grasp, honestly.
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  It is, but Reformed theology holds that the Saints in heaven
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  will have their wills perfectly aligned with God's righteous
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  judgment. They will see the justice of the
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  punishment so clearly, and they will see the hideous nature of
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  sin so accurately, that there will be no room for misplaced
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  human sympathy. Right.
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  The Saints will not weep for the condemned.
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  They will vindicate the judge. So when fight, flight, and
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  negotiation all fail, and when the realization sets in that no
• 18:54
  one, not even a loved 1, is coming to help humans, try one
• 18:58
  final tactic. What is that final tactic?
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  They try to brace themselves. They attempt to muster up
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  internal fortitude. Oh, right.
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  But Edwards argues that even this final stronghold of the ego
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  will completely evaporate. Because sinners sitting in the
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  pews often think to themselves, Well, if I must go to hell, I
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  will resolve to bear it as well as I can.
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  I will take it like a man. They believe they can clothe
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  themselves with firmness of mind.
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  But Edwards states that the moment they feel the reality of
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  this wrath, their courage will vanish away like a shadow.
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  It will melt instantly, like a tiny piece of wax placed before
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  a roaring blast furnace. Edwards uses this fascinating,
• 19:36
  highly detailed concept of the soul sinking.
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  Yes, he asks the congregation to think about how a physical body
• 19:43
  responds to extreme pain. We have all seen or experienced
• 19:46
  this to some degree. When the human body is subjected
• 19:49
  to severe trauma, it fights back.
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  It struggles. It pants, it groans, it throws,
• 19:53
  shows itself into convulsion. The biological nature of the
• 19:56
  body refuses to yield, fighting to stay afloat in the sea of
• 20:00
  pain until eventually nature is overwhelmed and the body dies.
• 20:03
  Right, the pain ends. The body essentially shuts off
• 20:05
  the lights to protect itself. But Edwards says that in hell,
• 20:09
  the soul faces an infinite weight that is vastly
• 20:12
  disproportioned to its finite strength.
• 20:14
  Because the soul is immortal and cannot be annihilated, it cannot
• 20:17
  shut off the lights. It experiences the sensation of
• 20:21
  utterly and totally sinking under that crushing weight,
• 20:25
  forever, without the release of death.
• 20:27
  He uses an unforgettable analogy to make this point.
• 20:30
  Oh, the worm analogy, right? Yes.
• 20:32
  He describes a tiny worm that is about to be pressed under the
• 20:35
  massive weight of a falling rock.
• 20:38
  Imagine that worm trying to collect its strength, flexing
• 20:41
  its tiny muscles, bracing its tiny body to support the
• 20:44
  crushing weight of a granite boulder to preserve itself.
• 20:47
  It perfectly captures the utter laughable futility of human grit
• 20:51
  and mental toughness when pitted against the infinite act of
• 20:54
  wrath of the Almighty. It is an arresting metaphor
• 20:57
  because it strips humans of all their perceived dignity.
• 21:00
  It strips away the dignity, and it forces the congregation to
• 21:03
  truly grasp the horror of this sinking sensation.
• 21:06
  And to drive the point home, Edwards guides his listeners
• 21:09
  through a terrifying thought experiment.
• 21:11
  He asks them to imagine the sudden sharp pain of
• 21:14
  accidentally touching a glowing hot coal.
• 21:16
  We all know that instinct to pull our hand back instantly.
• 21:20
  The pain is sharp, consuming and demands immediate attention.
• 21:24
  Then he scales that up. He asks them to imagine being
• 21:27
  cast entirely into a fiery oven or a great furnace.
• 21:31
  Where the pain is magnified exponentially across every nerve
• 21:34
  ending and their body is full of vivid waking sensation.
• 21:38
  He asked them to imagine enduring that for just one
• 21:41
  quarter of an hour. The psychological terror really
• 21:44
  begins here. Yeah, Edwards reasons With them.
• 21:46
  If you survived one single minute of that agony, how
• 21:50
  overbearing would the dread be knowing you still had 14 minutes
• 21:53
  left? The mind would break just
• 21:55
  contemplating the remaining time.
• 21:57
  Then Edwards ruthlessly expands the timeline.
• 21:59
  He moves from 15 minutes to 24 hours.
• 22:02
  From 24 hours to a whole year, from a year to 1000 years and
• 22:07
  finally to eternity. He constructs a reality where,
• 22:10
  after millions of ages have passed, the torment is no closer
• 22:13
  to an end than the moment it began.
• 22:15
  This, he explains, is the true definition of the biblical
• 22:18
  phrase the blackness of of darkness.
• 22:20
  It is the conscious, continuous realization of being entirely
• 22:24
  and hopelessly lost, with no horizon of hope to look toward.
• 22:27
  That thought experiment regarding the furnace and the
• 22:30
  scaling of time is a master class in psychological
• 22:33
  preaching. It forces the listener out of
• 22:35
  abstract theology and into visceral, bodily reality.
• 22:39
  But having zoomed in so intensely on the terrifying
• 22:42
  intimate psychological experience of the individual
• 22:45
  souls sinking under that weight, Edwards then dramatically zooms
• 22:49
  out to the macro level. He shifts the focus to the
• 22:52
  ultimate reason all of this happens.
• 22:54
  Why does this cosmic prison exist at all?
• 22:56
  Why is this punishment so severe?
• 22:58
  Edwards states. Plainly.
• 23:00
  God intends to get himself self honor.
• 23:02
  This destruction does not happen in a dark, forgotten corner of
• 23:05
  the universe. It is not swept under the rug.
• 23:07
  It occurs before a vast cosmic assembly.
• 23:10
  Edwards lists the spectators in a grand, sweeping vision.
• 23:14
  He sees a vast assembly of Saints, a vast assembly of
• 23:16
  wicked men, a vast assembly of holy angels, and the entire crew
• 23:19
  of devils. Every sinching creature in
• 23:21
  existence is gathered to witness this event.
• 23:24
  It is a staggering image of universal transparency, where
• 23:28
  every hidden sin is dragged into the glaring light of a cosmic
• 23:32
  stadium. This macro perspective is the
• 23:34
  absolute heartbeat of reformed thought, isn't it?
• 23:37
  Oh, without question, every single action in the universe,
• 23:40
  from the spinning of galaxies to the salvation of the elect and
• 23:43
  the punishment of the wicked, points back to the glory of God.
• 23:46
  The sinner's destruction is not an arbitrary act of cruelty, no.
• 23:50
  It is a highly public, meticulously measured
• 23:52
  demonstration of God's majesty, His unblemished holiness and His
• 23:57
  perfect justice. God is demonstrating to the
• 24:00
  entire cosmos the precise value of His own holiness by showing
• 24:04
  the specific consequence of violating it.
• 24:06
  When the assembly watches this unfold, they are not recoiling
• 24:10
  in horror at an injustice. Right.
• 24:12
  They are standing in awe of a God who is perfectly righteous.
• 24:15
  They adore the majesty and mighty force that is displayed
• 24:18
  in the execution of the sentence.
• 24:20
  In Reformed theology, God's attributes are entirely unified.
• 24:23
  His justice is just as glorious, just as worthy of praise as His
• 24:26
  mercy. The punishment of the wicked
• 24:28
  serves as a permanent, eternal monument to the severity of
• 24:32
  God's holiness. It ensures that the redeemed
• 24:35
  understand precisely what they were saved from, which magnifies
• 24:38
  their worship of the Mediator who saved them.
• 24:40
  That observation notes something that challenges our modern
• 24:43
  sensibilities to the core. All those spectators will look
• 24:47
  upon this destruction and actively adore God's justice.
• 24:51
  Yeah, that is a tough pill for many to swallow today.
• 24:53
  I want to pose a reflective question based on that for you
• 24:55
  listening. How does this massive public
• 24:58
  display challenge the modern, highly individualized view of
• 25:02
  faith? That is a fascinating question
• 25:05
  to consider. Today, we tend to frame
• 25:07
  salvation and judgement as a private transaction, a quiet
• 25:11
  personal matter between an individual and their higher
• 25:13
  power. We say things like my faith is a
• 25:16
  private thing. But Edwards frames it as the
• 25:18
  climax of universal history. It is a massive cosmic event
• 25:23
  where the private rebellion of the human heart is dragged out
• 25:25
  into the blazing light of a public stadium.
• 25:28
  The universe itself stops to watch the the scales of justice
• 25:30
  balance. It completely shatters the
• 25:33
  illusion that our sins only affect us, or that our rejection
• 25:37
  of God is a victimless crime that can be quietly dismissed.
• 25:41
  It shatters the individualized view completely, and it forces
• 25:45
  the reader to recognize that their life, their sins, and
• 25:48
  their eternal destination are tied into a narrative much
• 25:52
  larger than their own personal fulfilment.
• 25:54
  We are not the center of the story.
• 25:56
  God's glory is the center of the story.
• 25:58
  I want to conclude our analysis of the text by highlighting the
• 26:01
  heavy tragedy Edwards presents at the end of the sermon.
• 26:04
  What is that tragedy? The assembled universe will look
• 26:06
  at the condemned, and they will clearly see what a dreadful,
• 26:09
  irrational thing it was to reject such a Savior and to
• 26:13
  despise such abundant love and grace.
• 26:15
  The punishment is infinitely severe because it fits the
• 26:18
  infinite crime of slighting an infinite God.
• 26:21
  The tragedy is that the grace was offered, the mediator stood
• 26:24
  ready, the warnings were given year after year.
• 26:27
  And the Sinner proudly slapped the hand away, choosing instead
• 26:30
  to rely on their own righteousness.
• 26:32
  Effectively choosing to try and support the falling rock on
• 26:35
  their own rather than letting Christ take the weight.
• 26:38
  The cosmic assembly will marvel at the sheer foolishness of a
• 26:41
  finite creature rejecting the infinite shelter of the cross.
• 26:45
  Well, I want to thank you for breaking down this text so
• 26:47
  meticulously. Looking closely at Edward's
• 26:50
  words, we see how he systematically strips away every
• 26:54
  single illusion of human self-sufficiency.
• 26:57
  He tears down our belief that we can hide in the digital or
• 27:01
  physical world. He destroys our belief that we
• 27:03
  can fight back against the Almighty.
• 27:05
  He dismantles our arrogant belief that we can somehow
• 27:08
  endure the unendurable by just gritting our teeth.
• 27:11
  He leaves us completely exposed, with absolutely no options left
• 27:14
  except an urgent, desperate need for the mediator I.
• 27:17
  Want to leave you sitting and listening today with a final
• 27:20
  thought to Mullah over as we close.
• 27:22
  Edwards asked his congregation to imagine the sheer mind
• 27:25
  bending terror of spending just 15 minutes in a blazing furnace
• 27:29
  to wake them up to the reality of eternity.
• 27:31
  If visualizing just a fraction of God's unshielded justice is
• 27:35
  that terrifying, how should that shape your gratitude for the
• 27:38
  mediator? Because Jesus Christ willingly
• 27:41
  stepped into the center of that specific cosmic furnace.
• 27:44
  He absorbed that precise infinite weight of divine wrath
• 27:48
  on the Cross, taking the entirety of the crushing rock
• 27:51
  upon himself on behalf of the believer.
• 27:54
  He endured the unendurable so that you would never have to
• 27:56
  experience a single second of it.
• 27:58
  Think about the massive debt you owed, the cosmic audit you can
• 28:02
  never pass, and the absolute finality of the settlement he
• 28:05
  made on your behalf by shedding his own blood.
• 28:08
  That is the true weight of the gospel.
• 28:10
  Thank you for. Joining this deep dive on
• 28:11
  reformed thinking. Take care.