Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Unreasonableness of Indetermination in Religion (1 Kings 18:21) by Jonathan Edwards

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The Unreasonableness of Indetermination in Religion (1 Kings 18:21) by Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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So welcome to Reform Thinking On today's Deep Dive, we are, you
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know, zeroing in on a highly specific and really a highly
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volatile moment in American theological history.
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Yeah, it's it is June 1734. We are in Northampton, MA.
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Right. And the Great Awakening hasn't
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broken out yet, but I mean the societal dry rot is just visible
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everywhere. Oh, absolutely.
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And Jonathan Edwards steps into his pulpit and, well, he
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delivers this blistering sermon titled The Unreasonableness of
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Termination in Religion. Yeah.
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And our mission for this deep dive is to dissect his core
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argument, which is that sitting on the fence regarding your
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spiritual state is not a safe neutral zone.
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No, it's a highly illogical, intensely dangerous, and frankly
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openly rebellious position to maintain.
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Precisely, and we are going to look at this through the lens of
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Edwards primary text for that day.
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First Kings chapter 18 verse tone 1 where the prophet Elijah
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confronts the nation of Israel at Mount Carmel.
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Right. So we want to understand the
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history, the psychology of indecision, the rigorous logical
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arguments Edwards mounts against it, and, you know, those
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sobering tests for genuine faith that he lays out for the
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listener. Yeah, because it is a striking
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contradiction to modern sensibilities and, well, I think
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that is what makes this specific text so fascinating to analyze.
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Oh for sure, We live in an era that just celebrates keeping
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options open, you know? Oh completely.
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From like career paths to streaming services.
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Yeah, modern culture defines freedom as the maximization of
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choices and the delay of permanent decisions.
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But Jonathan Edwards looks at that exact psychological
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tendency within the spiritual realm and diagnosis it as sheer
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madness. He really does.
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He uses the historical showdown at Mount Carmel not just as a
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backdrop, but like as a scalpel to dissect the psychology of the
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wavering mind. Right, because he recognizes
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that human beings are incredibly skilled at rationalizing their
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apathy. So he builds this inescapable
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logical trap, demonstrating that neutrality just does not exist.
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And as we progress through this analysis, we are going to apply
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the theological framework of the Westminster Confession to
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understand the tension between human culpability and divine
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sovereignty. Yeah, and how God views this
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kind of calculated stalling, which is pretty terrifying.
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It is so to grasp the sheer weight of Edward's argument, we
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have to start right in the dust of Mount Carmel, because the
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historical setup is totally gripping.
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Oh, it's like a movie scene. Israel has been suffering under
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this brutal, unrelenting famine for three years and six months.
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Right. It hasn't rained a single drop.
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You have to imagine the economic devastation.
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Yeah, the ground is cracked, the crops are dead, the livestock
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are perishing, the entire agricultural economy is just
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completely ruined and. You know, this is not just a
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random meteorological anomaly. This drought is a specific
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targeted judgment from God due to the nation's rampant state
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sponsored idolatry. Exactly.
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I mean spot on. God tends to show mercy to
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Israel and Sun Rain, but as Edwards points out, God's
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pattern and redemptive history is to 1st prepare the people for
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that mercy. Right, by causing them to
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forsake the sins that brought the judgment in the first place.
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So Elijah is sent to orchestrate this massive public
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confrontation. Yeah, God is essentially forcing
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a crisis to cure the apathy, and the factions gathered at Mount
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Carmel represent the whole spectrum of human spiritual
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allegiance. Yeah, let's breakdown those
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socio political dynamics because they are crucial to understand.
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Well, on one side you have King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, who have
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completely given themselves over to the worship of Baal.
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Right. And along with them are the 450
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prophets of Baal, and the four 100 prophets of the Groves or
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Asherah, who you know, eat directly at Jezebel's table.
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Yeah, they are the established state sponsored religious
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authority. They hold the political capital,
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the social influence and really the threat of state violence.
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But then, on the absolute opposite end of the spectrum,
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though they are not visibly present at the mountain, God
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tells Elijah that there are 7000 Israelites who have never bowed
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the knee to bail. Right.
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Their mouths have not kissed his idol.
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They are the hidden faithful remnant who have held fast to
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the covenant of Abraham. But the crux of the problem,
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and, well, the central issue that Edward zeroes in on, is the
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massive group of people caught in the middle.
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Yes, the vast majority of the nation of Israel was standing
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there completely divided in their loyalties.
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And that massive group in the middle is the entire focus of
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our discussion. I mean, they are paralyzed by
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competing pressures. Oh.
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Absolutely. On one hand, they saw the King
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and Queen worshipping Bell. Bell's party was the culturally
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dominant faction. Right.
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If you wanted social standing, or, you know, if you wanted to
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operate a business without being boycotted, you paid your
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respects to bow. Yeah, but at the same time,
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these people had a theological history.
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They remembered that their forefathers worship Jehovah.
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They possessed the historical records right the Exodus, the
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parting of the Red Sea, the giving of the law at Sinai.
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Right. So they are looking at the
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intense cultural pressure on one hand and their historical roots
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on the other, and they simply do not know which to choose.
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And that paralysis leads to the famous fire test.
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Elijah proposes that each side take a Bullock, cut it into
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pieces laid on the wood, and put no fire under it.
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Yeah, the God who answers by fire will be concluded to be the
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true God. But right before that empirical
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test begins, Elijah looks at this massive crowd and issues a
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direct challenge. He says how long halt he between
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two opinions. If the Lord be God, follow him,
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but if Baal, then follow him. And the text says the people
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answered him. Not a word.
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I mean they are completely silent.
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That silence is deafening. It is one of the most chilling
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responses in all of Scripture, and Edwards treats it as the
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ultimate symptom of a convicted conscience.
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They have absolutely nothing to say.
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Right. The Hebrew word used for halt in
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that verse is Pasak, which translates to limping or dancing
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in a hesitating, erratic way. Wow, limping.
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Their minds were limping between two realities.
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Yeah, Edwards points out that they knew Elijah was right.
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They knew it was absurd to try and play both sides.
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But they were too terrified of the political consequences from
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King Ahab to speak up for Jehovah.
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Exactly. And perhaps too afraid of
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Jehovah's historical wrath to fully commit verbally to Baal,
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they were trapped in their own calculated hesitation.
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And from a reformed theological perspective, this paralysis is
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just a textbook illustration of fallen human nature. 100% We
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know the Westminster Confession teaches that man, by his fall
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into a state of sin, has wholly lost all ability of will to any
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spiritual good accompanying salvation.
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Right. So left to themselves, this
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crowd will simply stand there in silence, unable to make a
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righteous God honoring choice until God dramatically
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intervenes with supernatural fire from heaven.
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Yes, the intervention is entirely necessary.
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But I want to push back on that silence for a second, because
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from a purely sociological or survival standpoint, remaining
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silent and hedging your bets is usually the smartest play.
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It definitely is in a secular context.
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Right. Like if you are standing in a
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crowd and a lone radical prophet is challenging the violent
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established monarchy, you wait to see who wins before you
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declare your allegiance. Yeah, it's just basic self
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preservation. Exactly.
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You do not volunteer to be a martyr before the fire even
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falls. So I mean, think of it like a
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jury that refuses to read a verdict because they know their
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own apathy convicts them. Why is Edwards stripping us of
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that very natural safety net? Well, why is this specific
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awkward silence considered an aggressive act of rebellion
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rather than just practical self preservation?
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Right, that's my question. Edwards strips away that safety
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net because he understands that the spiritual realm operates
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under a completely different jurisdiction than human
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politics. Well, that makes sense.
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Yeah, in human politics, neutrality is often a shrewd
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diplomatic strategy. But when the Creator of the
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universe, the Sovereign Lord who holds your breath in his hands,
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demands your allegiance, answering him with silence is an
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insult of the highest order. Yeah, Edwards recognizes that
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human beings love to pretend that as long as they have not
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actively declared war on God, they are somehow innocent.
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Right. They think hesitation is a
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neutral zone. But by focusing on the silence,
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Edwards dismantles the illusion of the innocent bystander.
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Because in a binary spiritual universe there are no
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Switzerland style neutral territories.
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Precisely, you are either a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven
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or a subject of the Kingdom of darkness.
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So the silence at Carmel proves that the people knew this deep
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down, but they love their compromise too much to confess
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it. They wanted to see if they could
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survive without submitting. Yes, and Edwards realized it is
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the exact same psychology operating in the pews of his own
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church in Northampton and frankly, right in our modern
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lives today. So true.
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He takes this historical event and applies it directly to his
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contemporary audience, breaking this indecision down into two
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distinct spheres. Right.
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Being undetermined in truth and being undetermined in practice.
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Let us unpack that first category, the intellectual
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stalling. Edwards argues that many people
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grow up surrounded by religion. They hear the sermons, they read
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the Bible, but they never actually come to a firm, settled
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conclusion in their own minds about whether any of it is
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factually real. Yeah, they harbor secret,
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lingering doubts about whether conversion is a genuine
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spiritual reality or just a psychological trick.
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You know, a designed hypocrisy. They question whether the
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Scriptures are the breathed out Word of God or just the clever
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inventions of ancient men. And this epistemological
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stalling is a classic defense dense mechanism.
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Edwards notes that these individuals react very much like
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the crowd in John chapter 10, verse 24.
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Oh, right, where they surrounded Jesus and complained.
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How long does thou make us to doubt?
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If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.
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Yeah, the sheer audacity of that complaint is staggering.
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They are blaming God for their own willful skepticism.
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Jesus had been telling them plainly, both in unparalleled
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teaching and in undeniable miraculous deeds.
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Healing the blind, raising the dead, feeding the thousands.
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The evidence was overwhelming. But they refused to accept the
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truth, because accepting the truth would require absolute
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submission to His authority. Right.
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Their doubt was not an intellectual deficit.
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It was a moral rebellion disguised as intellectual
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caution. They preferred to keep the
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investigation open indefinitely so they would never have to
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render a verdict that demanded a change in their behavior.
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Yeah, and that leads directly to the second sphere Edwards
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identifies, which is being undetermined in practice.
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Because even if you can get someone to intellectually assent
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to the truth, even if they admit yes, God is real, the Bible is
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true, and I need a savior, they immediately shift their stalling
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tactics from the intellect to the will.
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Oh, for sure. Edwards argues vigorously that
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religion is highly practical. It is not an abstract
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philosophy. It dictates how you live.
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Right. People in this practical
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stalling category mentally agree with the gospel, but they
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continually put off closing the deal.
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They plan to repent and get right with God sometime before
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they die, but they refuse to put a specific date on the calendar.
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Yeah, they want to extract every possible ounce of pleasure from
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the world, fully indulging their flesh, and then execute a
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perfectly timed repentance on their deathbed to avoid hell.
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And this exposes the fundamental impossibility of what the
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indecisive person actually desires.
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Edwards analyzes this with piercing accuracy.
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He really does. He points out that human beings
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look at heaven and they desire it purely out of self
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preservation. Nobody wants to experience the
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eternal wrath of God. But they want heaven attached to
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the world and attached to their favorite sins.
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Right. They want the crown without the
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cross. They want the eternal reward
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without the temporal mortification of the flesh.
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On the other side of the equation, God offers heaven, but
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He offers it exclusively on the condition of self denial,
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repentance, and absolute holiness.
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Yeah, and God offers the world and the temporary pleasures of
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sin, but only with eternal misery attached to them.
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Because God absolutely refuses to negotiate the terms or divide
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the offer, the human being stalls.
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They cannot bring themselves to accept the pain of self denial,
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but they are terrified of the pain of hell, so they freeze.
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They stare at the contract hoping that somehow, if they
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just wait long enough, God will lower His standards, amend His
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holy nature, and offer 1/3 option where they can have their
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sin and their salvation simultaneously.
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Yes, that is a devastating critique of human nature.
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We want to rewrite the contract. We really do.
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We want to cross out the clauses regarding taking up our cross
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and hating our own lives, initialing the changes and
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handing it back to the Almighty. And God just hands the original
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contract back and says take it or leave it.
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But I want to inject another layer of friction here regarding
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our theological framework. If someone is just staring at
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that contract, refusing to sign either the God option or the
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Mammon option, Edwards argues that they are practically in
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effect, choosing Satan. Yeah, that is a heavy claim.
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It is. We are all familiar with the
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confession stance on the bondage of the will.
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So how do we reconcile this? If our wills are bound by our
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corrupt nature, how is the passive act of delaying actually
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an aggressive definitive choice for the devil?
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It comes down to the doctrine of federal headship and our default
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state in Adam. Under Reformed theology, we are
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not born onto a neutral playing field.
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Right. We are born in a state of active
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rebellion. Yeah, we are by nature children
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of wrath, alienated from God. Therefore, you do not have to
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make a conscious, aggressive choice to join Satan's Kingdom.
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You are born into it. Satan does not need you to sign
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a new contract to be his servant.
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He just needs you to delay signing God's contract.
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Precisely when the gospel is preached, it comes with an
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immediate command to repent and believe.
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Stalling is a direct rejection of that immediate command.
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So a delayed obedience is simply disobedience dressed up in
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polite hesitation. Think of it like a person
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sitting in a burning building. The firefighters throw a ladder
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to the window and scream at the person to climb down
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immediately. The person says I hear you and I
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believe the latter works, but I want to stay in the fire a
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little longer to think about it. They are actively choosing to
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burn. Right.
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The refusal to accept the rescue is a definitive choice for
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destruction, regardless of how they rationalize their delay.
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Because human beings are so incredibly skilled at
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rationalizing that delay, Edwards brings out the heavy
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artillery to destroy those rationalizations.
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He really does mount 8 rigorous logical arguments to completely
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dismantle any possible excuse for indecision.
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Yeah, he builds an intellectual cage around the listener so they
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cannot escape the reality of their situation.
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Instead of just listing these out mechanically, let us weave
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through the logic she uses, starting with the sheer scale of
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the stakes involved. Proof One the highest interest.
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Edwards argues that it makes an infinite difference whether a
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future state of eternal rewards or eternal punishment exists.
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Right. The stakes could not possibly be
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higher, yet people treat it with casual indifference.
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Edwards is exposing the absolute insanity of our misplaced
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priorities. He argues that if there is even
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a fractional chance that an eternal hell and an eternal
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heaven exist, it is sheer madness to prioritize anything
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else. Oh, definitely.
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We are not discussing which career path to take or how to
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invest a retirement portfolio for the next 30 years.
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No, we are talking about the unending, eternal state of your
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conscious soul. To busy in your mind with
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trivial earthly economics or social reputation while the
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question of your eternal destiny remains unresolved violates
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every basic principle of self preservation.
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It is a terrifying paradox which leads to prove to our rational
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capacity. We utilize our God-given
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rational capacity, our high intellect to navigate complex
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financial markets, to engineer bridges to cure diseases.
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And to maximize our temporal comfort.
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Yeah, yeah. When it comes to the most
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glaring massive reality of the universe, where our soul will
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spend eternity, we suddenly act helpless and confused.
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Exactly. I mean spot on.
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Edwards references Psalm 32 verse 9, comparing the
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indecisive person to a horse or a mule that has no understanding
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and has to be LED around with a bitten bridle.
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It is a severe insult to human intelligence to pretend we
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cannot figure out that eternal joy is preferable to eternal
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torment. The friction between our high
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rational capacity and temporal things and our willful ignorance
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and spiritual things is just baffling.
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And Edwards presses this further with proof 3, highlighting the
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simplicity of the choice, calling it a happy opportunity,
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right? He points out what an incredible
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privilege it is that God even gives us this opportunity.
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He references Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 19.
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Where God says I have set before you life and death, blessing and
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cursing, therefore choose life. God is under no obligation to
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offer salvation to rebels. The angels who rebelled were not
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given a covenant of grace. They were immediately cast Into
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Darkness. Yeah, yet God puts this glorious
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opportunity right in front of us, offering unchangeable
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happiness. And the choice itself is
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entirely binary, which is proof for only two choices.
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They're only two options. Life or death?
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The straight path or the broad path?
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God or Mammon? It is that simple.
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Yeah, I like to think about a restaurant menu analogy.
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If a menu has 50 pages, taking an hour to order makes sense.
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But if the choice is between a nutritious meal and a glass of
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poison, taking years to decide is irrational.
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Or think about an airplane that suddenly loses cabin pressure at
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30,000 feet. The oxygen masks drop down.
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You have a binary choice. You either put the mask on your
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face or you pass out and die. You do not sit there analyzing
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the chemical composition of the plastic mask.
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You do not weigh the aesthetic pros and cons of the yellow
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tubing. No, you act instantly because
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the choice is binary and the consequences immediate.
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Yet given the stark, binary choice of the Gospel, humanity
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sits in the depressurized cabin and suffocates.
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Why, If the choice is so glaringly obvious, why do we
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stare at the oxygen mask and refuse to put it on?
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Because, returning to the core friction of our theology, our
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appetites are radically corrupt. The natural man does not view
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the falling oxygen mask as salvation.
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He views the suffocating air as a delicacy.
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Oh, that is so grim but so accurate.
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Sin is intensely appealing to the fallen flesh.
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Yeah, the broad path is paved with immediate gratification,
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fleshly indulgence and the intoxicating applause of the
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culture. Well, the straight path requires
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carrying an instrument of execution across, mortifying
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your deepest desires and facing the mockery of the world.
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Right, without the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit actively
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opening our eyes to the true horror of sin and the true
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beauty of Christ, we will always prefer the suffocation.
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And Edwards uses this logical progression not to suggest that
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man can simply pull himself up by his own spiritual bootstraps
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and choose God, but to expose the sheer irrationality and
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total culpability of our sin. Yes, we choose the rebellion
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willingly. We love the darkness.
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Therefore, we are fully, 100% responsible for the consequences
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of our stalling. We cannot claim the choice was
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too complex and moving into the second-half of his proofs, we
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cannot claim we lack the necessary information either.
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No. Which brings us to proof 5.
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The needed helps. Edwards drives this point home
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by discussing the clear light of the Gospel.
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We are not left in the dark. He draws a sharp contrast
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between those living in societies with the open Bible
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and the historical heathens who had very little special
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revelation. We have the clear sunshine of
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the gospel. Furthermore, Christ dealt with
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absolute, unvarnished honesty. He did not hide the cost.
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Right. In Luke chapter 14, Jesus
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explicitly tells the crowds to count the cost.
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He says that following Him means taking up your cross and
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metaphorically hating your father, mother and your own
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life. He gave us the full rigorous
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terms and conditions upfront. Jesus is the ultimate honest
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broker. He does not use bait and switch
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tactics to inflate his follower count.
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No, he does not promise health, wealth and continuous prosperity
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to get you in the door, only to surprise you with severe
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persecution later. He lays the suffering and the
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glory side by side on the table. You possess every single piece
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of data you need to make the decision.
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And this absolute transparency makes the delay even more
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inexcusable. It destroys the fallacy of
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waiting for a better time, which is proof 6.
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No better advantages later. People routinely convince
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themselves I will wait until I'm older, when I have built my
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career and had my fun, and then in my quiet retirement I will be
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more inclined to pursue religion.
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Yeah, Edward shatters the psychological illusion.
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Delaying does not make the choice easier, it makes it
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infinitely harder. Every single day you delay, you
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are subjecting your soul to the neuroplasticity of sin.
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You give Satan more time to darken your mind, to strengthen
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your wicked habits, and to sear your conscience.
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You are not buying time, you are actively surrendering territory
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to the enemy. Exactly.
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The longer you wait, the thicker the calluses on your heart
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become. And if you keep surrendering
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that territory and accumulating those calluses, you run face
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first into the terrifying reality of proof 7 God will
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determine for you. Yes, this is where Edwards
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brings the full weight of Reformed theology to bear,
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leaning heavily into the concepts found in the 3rd
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chapter of the Westminster Confession regarding God's
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eternal decrees. God is the Supreme Judge and the
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active governor of the universe. He will not sit in the heavens
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indefinitely waiting for a finite human rebel to make up
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their mind. No, if you go on limping between
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two opinions, God will eventually put an issue to the
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matter by his unalterable sentence.
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He will assign your portion with the hypocrites and the wicked.
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You do not possess the authority to keep the game paused forever.
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Right, the referee will eventually blow the whistle and
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declare the final score based on your current state of active
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rebellion. That is a staggering, terrifying
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reality that modern theology often attempts to soften.
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It really is. God is not a passive, anxious
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observer, wringing his hands, hoping we give Him permission to
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act. He is sovereign.
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His patience is vast, giving a space to repent, but it is not
22:11
infinite. When his patience reaches its
22:14
decreed limit, the judgement is swift and irrevocable.
22:17
And this is perfectly tied to proof 8, the short opportunity,
22:21
the sudden, unpredictable deadline of death.
22:24
The opportunity to choose lasts only as long as you have blood
22:27
pumping through your veins. After death, the choice becomes
22:30
incredibly easy to figure out because the reality of eternity
22:33
is instantly visible. But it is too late.
22:35
The trial is over. The sentence has passed, Edwards
22:38
notes. A haunting reality.
22:40
Those currently suffering in hell would gladly give the
22:43
entire wealth of the world for just one more brief opportunity
22:46
to hear a gospel sermon and choose Christ.
22:48
But it will never be granted to them.
22:49
Their indecision is permanently cured, but their doom is
22:52
permanently sealed. When you stack all of this logic
22:55
together, the infinite stakes are high rational capacity, the
22:59
binary nature of the choice, the glaring clarity of the gospel,
23:03
the hardening of the heart through delay, the sovereign
23:05
judgement of God, and the sudden deadline of death.
23:07
Edwards systematically removes every single psychological
23:11
hiding place. He really does.
23:13
Humans love to find loopholes. We say I did not know enough.
23:16
And Edwards replies. You have the Bible and the
23:19
transparent words of Jesus. We say the choice was too
23:22
confusing and he replies there are only two paths.
23:25
We say I will handle it tomorrow.
23:27
And he replies, Tomorrow your heart will be harder, and you
23:29
might be dead. By layering these truths, he
23:32
forces the listener into a corner where the only remaining
23:35
explanation for their indecision is their own willful, stubborn
23:39
love for their sin. Yes, he strips away the veneer
23:42
of intellectual caution and exposes the raw rebellion
23:45
underneath the. Listener is left completely
23:47
exposed before the judgement seat of God with 0 room to claim
23:50
ignorance or unfairness. And having laid out that
23:53
inescapable logical trap, Edwards pivots to the sharpest,
23:58
most uncomfortable application of the sermon.
24:00
This is where he forces the listener to examine their own
24:03
internal state. We enter the litmus test of
24:07
genuine conviction. Right.
24:08
And the very first thing he attacks is the false security of
24:11
inherited religion, the battle between tradition and truth.
24:15
Edwards warned strongly against assuming you are safely in the
24:19
Kingdom of God just because your parents were pious or just
24:22
because you live in a Christian society and intellectually
24:25
ascent to the the basic historical facts of the
24:27
religion. Yeah, you might check the box
24:29
for Christian on a census form, but if the main foundation of
24:32
your faith is just the tradition handed down by your Father's,
24:35
you are still wavering. You've not made a choice, you
24:38
have just inherited a demographic.
24:40
So true. Let's analyze why that inherited
24:42
faith is so fragile. Inherited religion is
24:45
essentially a Fiat currency backed entirely by the social
24:48
reputation of your parents or your immediate community.
24:51
Right, as long as you stay in that specific micro economy,
24:54
your Christian family, your local church group, that
24:57
currency spends perfectly well, people accept your profession of
25:01
faith. But what happens when you take
25:03
that currency across the border into a hostile secular culture?
25:06
Or what happens when the exchange rate shifts due to
25:09
severe cultural mockery or outright persecution?
25:13
The currency instantly hyperinflates to 0.
25:16
As Edwards points out, tradition will never stand the shock of
25:19
temptation. No, it won't.
25:21
When real trials arrive, when your biblical ethics cost you a
25:24
major promotion at work, or when you face a devastating illness,
25:28
or when the dominant culture turns violently against
25:31
Christian morals, a faith-based simply on what your grandmother
25:34
taught you will instantly collapse.
25:36
The intellect of man in the heat of fiery trials will not rest on
25:40
the flimsy evidence of this is just how I was raised.
25:43
Genuine faith requires the gold standard.
25:45
It requires a personal supernatural conviction wrought
25:48
by the Holy Spirit. If your faith has never been
25:51
tested and proven as your own personal possession, you were
25:54
still halting between two opinions, regardless of how
25:57
often you sit in a Pew. So what is the metric for that
26:01
gold standard? How do you know if you possess
26:03
genuine conviction rather than inherited tradition?
26:07
Well, Edwards lays out a devastatingly simple standard.
26:10
He states that if you are truly convinced of the realities of
26:13
heaven, hell, and eternal judgment, it will drastically
26:17
and visibly alter all of your temporal priorities.
26:20
Yeah, the unseen eternal realities will dictate how you
26:23
handle the visible everyday realities.
26:26
You will seek first the Kingdom of God over worldly gain, over
26:29
accumulating wealth, over keeping up appearances, and over
26:33
making your neighbors like you. If your main consuming daily
26:36
concern is how to increase your financial estate or what you are
26:39
going to eat and drink, or how to secure a better title at your
26:42
corporate job, Edwards suggests that you have never actually
26:45
seen the reality of eternal things.
26:47
Your actions prove your true theology.
26:49
Absolutely. I want to talk directly to you,
26:51
the listener, right now. Look at your life.
26:54
Look at your calendar and your bank statements.
26:57
Why is Edwards Diagnostic Standard so brutally accurate?
27:00
It is accurate because human beings always act in accordance
27:04
with their strongest desires and their truest, most core beliefs.
27:07
You can claim to believe a building is on fire, but if you
27:10
sit calmly in your chair and continue reading a magazine,
27:14
your physical actions prove you do not actually believe the
27:16
warning. In the exact same way, if a
27:19
person truly believes that an eternal hell is a terrifying
27:22
reality and that the wrath of a holy God is looming, and that
27:25
the blood of Christ is the only possible escape, their physical
27:29
daily life will reflect that immense urgency.
27:32
Their bank account, their schedule, their conversations
27:35
will all be reorganized around that massive reality.
27:38
Right. If your life is functionally
27:39
indistinguishable from an atheist who is simply trying to
27:42
maximize his retirement account and enjoy comfortable weekends,
27:45
then your profession of faith is a psychological illusion.
27:48
Your practical daily life is the ultimate undeniable lie detector
27:52
test for your theology. That is a heavy exposing
27:55
reality, and to make the application even more granular,
27:58
Edwards identifies 4 specific symptoms that reveal a person is
28:02
secretly halting between two opinions and their daily
28:05
practice, even if they loudly claim to be a Christian.
28:08
The first symptom is putting off duty.
28:10
This is the chronic tendency to wait for a convenient season.
28:14
Edwards cites the Roman governor Felix from the book of Acts.
28:17
The Apostle Paul preaches to Felix about righteousness,
28:20
self-control, and the coming judgement.
28:23
The text says Felix trembled. He was terrified.
28:26
He felt the weight of the truth. But instead of repenting on the
28:29
spot, he dismisses Paul, saying, Go thy way for this time when I
28:33
have a convenient season, I will call for thee.
28:36
Felix is the patron St. of procrastination.
28:39
The cost of obeying the truth right in that moment was too
28:42
high. He wanted to hold on to his
28:43
corrupt political authority and his illicit relationship with
28:46
Drusilla a little longer, so he convinced himself that a better,
28:49
more convenient time would magically appear in the future.
28:52
But in the Christian life, obedience is rarely, if ever,
28:55
convenient. It always requires a crucifixion
28:58
of the flesh. Oh, completely.
29:00
If you continually look at the commands of God, whether it is
29:04
the command to repent of a secret sin, to forgive a bitter
29:07
enemy, to give generously to the poor, or to share the gospel
29:11
with a neighbor, and you tell yourself, I will handle that
29:14
later when my schedule calms down and my finances are more
29:17
secure, you are demonstrating that you have not fully yielded
29:21
to Christ's absolute lordship. You're still negotiating.
29:25
The second symptom Edwards identifies is partial obedience.
29:29
This is the hypocrisy of selective religion carving out
29:32
autonomous zones in your life. Yeah, Edwards describes a person
29:36
who is incredibly strict and conscientious about showing up
29:39
for public worship. They sing the hymns loudly.
29:41
They take copious notes during the sermon.
29:43
But then they go to work on Monday and they are completely
29:45
unjust and their business dealings, they dodge their
29:48
debts, they are dishonest with their customers.
29:50
Or perhaps they are very honest with their money, but they have
29:52
a vicious, uncontrolled tongue. They constantly gossip and back
29:55
bite their neighbors. They allow themselves to indulge
29:58
in hidden sensual sins while maintaining A pristine public
30:01
facade of temperance. This partial obedience reveals a
30:05
heart that views God not as a sovereign lore, but as a vendor
30:09
you can negotiate with. It is like a corrupt feudal Lord
30:13
who swears fealty to the king but only pays taxes from the
30:17
rocky, barren acres of his land, while secretly hoarding all the
30:21
gold from the fertile valleys to fund a private hidden militia.
30:25
He claims to be a loyal subject because he sent a tax card, but
30:29
his selective submission is actually a funded insurgency.
30:32
The person thinks they can buy off God's wrath in one area of
30:35
their life by being very religious in another area.
30:38
They think I give a substantial amount of money to the church,
30:40
so God will will ignore my shady business practices or my
30:43
Internet history. But God demands universal
30:46
obedience. The Westminster Confession
30:48
teaches that the moral law forever binds all justified
30:51
persons, as well as others to the obedience thereof.
30:55
Right. You cannot carve out little
30:56
autonomous zones in your life where you act as your own king.
30:58
If you willingly harbor and protect certain sins while
31:01
making a big public show of avoiding others, you are double
31:05
minded. You are attempting to serve 2
31:07
masters and Jesus explicitly stated that is impossible.
31:10
The third symptom of a wavering will is fits and starts.
31:13
We see this constantly. Edwards uses the analogy from
31:17
the book of James chapter 1 where the double minded man is
31:20
like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.
31:23
One week they go to a conference or hear a stirring, emotional
31:27
sermon and they are completely on fire.
31:29
They read their Bible for two hours a day.
31:31
They weep during worship. They make massive dramatic
31:34
resolutions about how they are going to change the world.
31:37
And then two weeks later, the external emotion fades, the heat
31:42
dissipates, and they are completely sucked back into
31:46
worldly pursuits. They omit their religious duties
31:49
entirely. They're completely unstable, up
31:51
and down, hot and cold, entirely driven by circumstantial winds.
31:55
Think of a bimetallic strip and an old mechanical thermostat.
31:59
It is made of two different metals fused together.
32:01
When the ambient temperature rises, say they hear a
32:04
terrifying sermon about hell. The strip bends due to the heat
32:08
making contact and kicking on the machinery of religious duty.
32:11
But the second the room cools down and the emotional high
32:13
fades, the physical properties of the metal force it to snap
32:17
right back to its default straight position.
32:19
The change was not structural, it was just a temporary
32:22
mechanical reaction to external heat.
32:25
That instability is a clear indicator that the root of their
32:28
religion is emotionalism, not supernatural regeneration.
32:32
Yeah, a true saving faith anchored by the Holy Spirit
32:36
produces a steady, persevering walk.
32:39
It might not always be emotionally ecstatic, but it is
32:42
consistent and forward moving. The person who lives by fits and
32:45
starts is halting between two opinions because they are
32:48
relying on their own fluctuating finite willtower to sustain
32:52
their devotion. When the Willpower reservoir
32:54
runs dry, they default back to the world.
32:57
They have never truly made the settled core choice to follow
33:00
Christ, regardless of how they feel on a random Tuesday
33:02
morning. And that leads to the final
33:04
symptom, balking at difficulty. This involves dropping your
33:08
religious duties the exact moment they cross your personal
33:10
interest, your physical ease, or your social reputation.
33:13
Edwards compares this to King Agrippa, who heard the Apostle
33:16
Paul preach and said he was almost persuaded to be a
33:19
Christian but would not take the final step because of the
33:22
immense political cost it would require.
33:25
The Stony ground here is in Jesus's parable of the sower,
33:28
who received the Word with joy. But when tribulation or
33:31
persecution arises because of the word, immediately they
33:34
stumble and fall away. They have no root in themselves.
33:38
It is incredibly easy to be a Christian when the sun is
33:40
shining, the culture agrees with you, and everyone approves of
33:44
your morality. But the true test of your
33:46
devotion comes when following Christ demands a painful,
33:49
tangible sacrifice. If you abandon your biblical
33:52
convictions the exact moment your boss threatens to fire you
33:55
for your ethics, or the moment your secular friends start
33:58
mocking your beliefs, you prove that your own social comfort is
34:01
your true God. You were just using religion as
34:03
an accessory to make your life better.
34:05
When the accessory became a social liability, you threw it
34:08
in the trash. Looking through our specific
34:10
theological lens, how does adhering to Reformed theology,
34:13
and specifically the Westminster Confession, provide a steadying
34:17
anchor against this kind of double mindedness, partial
34:20
obedience and instability? The Reformed Framework is the
34:23
ultimate antidote to double mindedness because it removes
34:26
the focus from your own fragile, fluctuating performance and
34:31
anchors your assurance entirely in the eternal decrees and
34:34
invincible force of God. Yes, the Westminster Confession
34:37
highlights the doctrine of the perseverance of the Saints.
34:40
This doctrine teaches that those whom God hath accepted in his
34:44
Beloved, effectually called and sanctified by his Spirit, can
34:48
neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace,
34:51
but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be
34:54
eternally saved. When you understand that your
34:56
salvation is secured by the sovereign grace of God and the
34:59
continuous intercession of Christ, it gives you a rock
35:03
solid base. You do not rely on your own
35:05
emotional temperature. Furthermore, Reformed theology
35:08
places a massive focus on the ordinary means of grace, the
35:11
faithful preaching of the Word, the administration of the
35:13
sacraments, and prayer. These are the steady, reliable,
35:17
divinely appointed methods God uses to nourish our faith week
35:21
in and week out. Right, preventing us from living
35:23
on emotional roller coasters and giving us the strength to face
35:27
genuine difficulty without blocking.
35:29
That is an incredibly solid anchor.
35:31
As we move toward the conclusion of this deep dive, we have to
35:34
address the terrifying warning Edwards delivers at the very end
35:37
of his sermon. We really do.
35:39
He summarizes everything by stating a reality that should
35:42
shake anyone sitting comfortably in a Pew.
35:45
He says that those who sit under the clear preaching of the
35:48
Gospel, who hear all of this truth and yet remain
35:51
undetermined, are actually more abominable to God than the
35:55
outright heathen who have never heard the never Jesus.
35:58
That is a shocking offensive statement to modern ears.
36:01
How can someone sitting politely in a church Pew, giving to
36:04
charity and nodding along to a sermon be more offensive to God
36:08
than someone worshipping A literal idol in a jungle?
36:10
It comes down to the concept of light and accountability.
36:13
The more light you receive, the greater your accountability
36:16
before the judgement seat. Edwards references Revelation
36:19
chapter 3 where Jesus addresses the church in Laodicea.
36:22
Jesus says, I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor
36:26
hot. I would that work cold or hot.
36:28
So then, because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor
36:31
hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.
36:33
God finds the hypocritical middle ground absolutely
36:36
nauseating. The heathen sins in ignorance,
36:39
but the person sitting out of the gospel sins against massive
36:42
glaring light. They have heard the Bleeding
36:45
Love of Christ preached to them, they have seen the elements of
36:48
communion, and they have responded with a calculated
36:51
yawn. They insult the cross by
36:53
treating it as an optional accessory to be evaluated at
36:56
their own leisure. Edwards also brings in Ezekiel
36:59
chapter 20 verse 39 where God is so incredibly fed up with
37:02
Israel's wavering that he says go ye, serve ye everyone, his
37:06
idols. It is a terrifying moment of
37:09
judicial abandonment. God is saying if you will not
37:12
fully commit to me then just go all in on your rebellion.
37:15
Stop insulting me with your half hearted stalling.
37:18
Stop pretending you are considering the offer when you
37:20
are really just protecting your sin.
37:22
Stop polluting my holy name with your lukewarm gifts.
37:27
That is a chilling place to arrive.
37:29
It really is. And it brings us to a final
37:31
thought I want you, the listener, to Mull over as we
37:33
close out this session. We started by picturing that
37:36
silent crowd on Mount Carmel standing there paralyzed in the
37:40
dust while the prophet of God demanded an answer.
37:42
Yeah, they thought their silence was a clever way to buy time.
37:45
They thought hesitation was a shield.
37:47
But what if the very act of deciding to wait is in reality,
37:51
the final, unalterable decision that seals your fate?
37:55
What if neutrality is not a safe harbor, but the most aggressive,
37:59
insulting form of rebellion against a holy God?
38:02
Edwards leaves us with the stark reality that God will not wait
38:05
forever. The unalterable sentence is
38:07
coming, the referee is about to blow the whistle and the oxygen
38:11
masks are dropping. We want to thank you for joining
38:13
us on this incredibly weighty deep dive today.
38:16
Yes, thank you. We encourage you to rigorously
38:18
examine your own standing, to look past tradition and comfort,
38:22
and to ensure you are firmly anchored in Christ before the
38:25
opportunity to choose is gone forever.