Where will it end? Jettison the truth of God’s election of sinners by his grace and you step onto a very slippery slope.

It’s been a while, but I started reading The Pleasures of God by John Piper again this morning.  In the chapter “The Pleasure of God in Election” he quotes Iain Murray’s biography of Jonathan Edwards and gives a historical reason for why it’s important to believe in, and continue to believe in, the “truth of God’s free, sovereign, unconditional, individual election by grace of who will be saved.”  He writes that:

this truth tends to preserve the church from slipping toward false philosophies of life.  History seems to show that this is so.

“The problem of evil, free will, and God’s sovereignty” in Edwards’ thinking, explained by Marsden, and quoted here, in this very post

I’m pretty sure this will be the last quote from Jonathan Edwards: A Life by George Marsden.  Really.  These four paragraphs were so good, I really didn’t have the freedom of the will to resist.  From Chapter 26, “Against an ‘Almost Inconceivably Pernicious’ Doctrine”, pages 442-3.

And the rest, as they say, is history

After a very lengthy break I am almost finished with George Marsden’s biography of Jonathan Edwards titled, wouldn’t you know it, Jonathan Edwards: A Life.  On the advice of some friends Amy is currently reading 1776 by David McCullough and it’s interesting to see how the two books are almost paralleling each other as far as historical timelines and details.  Strictly speaking, Jonathan Edwards takes place before 1776, since Edwards died in 1758, but it is proving helpful to see many of the events that led up to the American Revolution and how they affected Edwards and his life’s work.