The Distinguishing Marks of the Religious Affections of Jonathan Edwards

(The title derives from two of the most important works of Jonathan Edwards: The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God and A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections.)

Jonathan Edwards: the Man

It is difficult to overestimate the importance and impact of Jonathan Edwards on American Christianity. Even if you have never heard of this man before, if you are an American Christian you are very probably an heir of a spiritual heritage first articulated by this man.

Jonathan Edwards was born in 1703, the 5th of 11 children and the only son. His father and later his father in law were both clergymen, and heirs of the Puritan movement that settled in New England. Edwards had a profound experience of the love of God.

Edwards now saw that the universe was essentially personal, an emanation of the love and beauty of God, so that everything, even inanimate matter, was a personal communication from God.1

In Edwards own words:

After this my sense of divine things gradually increased, and became more and more lively, and had more of that inward sweetness. The appearance of every thing was altered; there seemed to be, as it were, a calm, sweet cast, or appearance of divine glory, in almost every thing.2

This sense of God’s beauty in all things, and the true Christian life as delight in the beauty, wonder and love of God would shape the rest of his ministry.

One more quote that gives insight into Edward's spiritual life before I go on to talk about why he is still so important today, and how both the Reformed and the Pentecostal/Charismatic movements can learn so much from him:

Once, as I rode out into the woods for my health, in 1737, having alighted from my horse in a retired place, as my manner commonly has been, to walk for divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view, that for me was extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God, as Mediator between God and man, and his wonderful, great, full, pure and sweet grace and love, and meek and gentle condescension. This grace that appeared so calm and sweet, appeared also great above the heavens. The person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent, with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conception—which continued, as near as I can judge, about an hour; which kept me the greater part of the time in a flood of tears, and weeping aloud. I felt an ardency of soul to be, what I know not otherwise how to express, emptied and annihilated; to lie in the dust, and to be full of Christ alone; to love him with a holy and pure love; to trust in him; to live upon him; to serve and follow him; and to be perfectly sanctified and made pure, with a divine and heavenly purity. I have several other times had views very much of the same nature, and which have had the same effects.3

Far from the stodgy, angry man who tried to scare people into heaven by preaching "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (a sermon with much more grace than the title might suggest, and yet still atypical of Edwards in it's severity), Edwards was a man driven by the goodness of God more than anything else in both his life and his ministry.

Edwards and The Great Awakening

Though there were many revivals in the churches of New England before and during the lifetime of Jonathan Edwards, in 1734, following the sudden death of a young man, there came a raised interest in eternal matters among the youth of Northampton, Massachusetts. Edwards seized the moment and preached a poignant message that challenged the townsfolk to consider the impact of their own lives on their eternal state. By the fall of 1734, the youth of the town began to meet in homes for times of singing, Bible study and prayer. They were soon joined by the adults.

What followed from this beginning would be called The Great Awakening, which swept through all of New England and most of the rest of the colonies. There was never anything like it in the Americas, nor possibly anywhere else before, and, some would argue, since. There were thousands of salvations, and amazing, unheard of outward expressions. Entire towns became so caught up in the wave of spiritual awakening that work was left undone, businesses poorly run or left unattended altogether, and nearly everyone was talking about spiritual matters, singing songs, studying their Bibles, praying together publicly and privately, and listening to sermons and other teachings on spiritual matters.

During the Great Awakening, there were many excesses. There were many different kinds of what we might now call manifestations, which were largely unknown by many during Edwards’ day. These included loud weeping, shouting, and fainting. (There were other, bizarre manifestations as well which troubled Edwards and his opponents, but I'll not mention them here.) At one point Edwards’ wife was so overcome by the power of God, after reading some of the poetry of Isaac Watts (the great hymn writer, and contemporary of Edwards), that she had to be carried to bed. Edwards referred to this phenomenon as "losing of strength;" it's known in our day as "being slain in the Spirit" or "going down under the power." 

Many of Edwards’ contemporaries dismissed these outward expressions (i.e., manifestations) as mere emotionalism brought on by a kind of mass hysteria. Others saw them as sure evidence of the power of the Holy Spirit at work in people. Edwards took a wise, moderating position and understood that one cannot conclude by the nature of the experience itself anything about whether it was from God, the devil or something else. To know that it was from God, one had to observe the life of the individual following the experience. He wrote his ideas on this and on the entire movement we call the Great Awakening in a wonderful work called Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God.

Just as important, and for many even more important, is his Treatise on the Religious Affections. By "affections" Edwards refers the believer's heart. Edwards was convinced, in contrast to his "old light" opponents that "true religion" as he called it ("authentic faith" is how we might express the same idea) is found in a heart-felt experience of God's love, goodness, power, majesty, sovereignty, etc., that sets one's life on a course of true godliness and piety, including evidence of all of the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23. 

In these two works Edwards gives the church two marvelous gifts. First, in Distinguishing Marks, he gives the church the tools it needs to discern whether or not, and to what degree, a move might be a move of God. So much of the criticism of the established church, of the Pentecostal movement, of Charismatic meetings, let alone of such phenomena as the Toronto Outpouring, would be itself both corrected and directed by this work. Edwards suggests that manifestations (as we would call them in our day), whether present or absent, say nothing positive nor negative about a movement. What counts is that belief in the person and work of the Jesus of the Bible increases, that the interests of satan's kingdom (especially in the area of sin and ungodliness) are undermined, that people's interest in and esteem for the Scriptures increases, that people become more interested in the truth, and that love to God and others increases (all of these are based on 1John 4:1-8). He would also argue that the lack of these in some individuals should not be allowed to tarnish the entirety of the movement.

Second, and just as important, in Religious Affections, Edwards clearly states that authentic Christianity ("true religion"), is primarily a matter of the heart. During Edwards' day, this was a matter of debate. Particularly in reaction to excesses in the Great Awakening. The "old lights" as they were called, argued that "true religion" was primarily a matter of intellectual enlightenment, and that any emotionalism was actually harmful to the pursuit of sound and true doctrine. Edwards and the "new lights" argued the opposite. While not at all opposed to intellectual enlightenment, Edwards makes the case in Religious Affections, that God is after our hearts, not only our minds. In fact he argues that mere intellectual enlightenment is insufficient and no evidence of conversion. He then lays out a scheme by which one can know whether what is going on in our hearts is of God. This work laid the foundation for American Evangelicalism (which would benefit greatly from a careful reading of this book!).

In both works, he echoes what Jesus said of discerning a true prophet from a false one: "By their fruit you will recognize them." (Matthew 7:15). In other words, it isn't the kind of manifestation or affection that is significant, it's the fruit in the life that follows that's the key to understanding what is from God and what isn't.

Conclusions:

As I hang out in two camps that are often a bit (sometimes quite a bit!) suspicious of each other (Reformed and Pentecostal/Charismatic), I find the insight in Edwards to be more helpful than any other in navigating the strengths and pitfalls in both camps. I also find (over and over again) that Edwards' insights keep on being rediscovered, as if for the first time, by people in both camps. 

If I may, I'd like to suggest that my companions in the Reformed camp read Distinguishing Marks--especially those with a theological openness to all the spiritual gifts, but still find themselves to be cessationist in practice. This work is a great help in navigating the pitfalls and fears (founded and unfounded) we find in the exercise of spiritual gifts.

I would also like to suggest to my companions in the Pentecostal/Charismatic camp, to read Religious Affections. This work is a tremendous help in navigating the distinctions between true from counterfeit religious experiences. I know this is an issue that many, especially leaders struggle with. You'll find Edwards to be very helpful here (IMHO, of course).

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1 George M. Marsden, A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards, ed. Mark A. Noll, Nathan O. Hatch, and Allen C. Guelzo, Library of Religious Biography (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008), p.21.

2 Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 1 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2008), p. xi.

3 Works p. lxxxix