The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 3

IX. Revivalist Edwards-Prophecy Unfolds History of Redemption

JONATHAN EDWARDS (1703-1758), noted Congregational revivalist, champion of Calvinism, theologian, and third president of Princeton for a brief time, ⁶⁸ was born at East Windsor, Connecticut, of Congregational ancestry. A precocious child, he became pre-eminently a thinker, and laid the foundations for a new system of religious thought. ⁶⁹ He began the study of Latin at six, and had a good knowledge of it before he entered college. He also had deep religious impressions as a child, and was soundly converted at seventeen-the whole universe appearing changed to him. When only thirteen he entered Yale, graduating with honors in 1720. Then he continued two years more, studying divinity. At nineteen he became preacher to the Presbyterian congregation in New York. His sun was rising as Cotton Mather’s sank on the western horizon. ⁷⁰ PFF3 181.4

In 1733 he received his M.A. and became tutor at Yale. By 1727 he was ordained and became pastor of the Congregational church at Northampton, being strongly Calvinistic in conviction. Conspicuously conscientious, learned, and independent, he served this church until 1750. In 1734 Edwards led out in a great revival. He had a passionate evangelistic temperament and preached the gospel with violence. In 1740 Whitefield visited Northampton, and the far-reaching revival, known as the Great Awakening, swept over the country, resulting in the con version of some 50,000. (Portrait appears on page 144.) PFF3 181.5

Edwards, last of the Puritan mystics, opposed the prevailing laxity of communion for the still unregenerate, and was “driven forth” or dismissed from his pastorate in 1751 without position or support. So he became a missionary to the Indians at Stock-bridge, Massachusetts, from 1751 onward. One of his daughters had married the elder Aaron Burr, president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton). After Burr’s death Edwards was called to its presidency in 1757, dying of smallpox soon after. PFF3 182.1

Edwards wrote much between 1746 and 1758, his most important works being those produced while he was a missionary to the Indians. Although emaciated by constant application to study, he prepared his essay on the Freedom of Will (1754) during this ministry to the Indians. It is difficult to understand his earlier contemplations of hell, as set forth in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (1741), and his belief that we are saved only by the arbitrary will of a wrathful God. He was the fountainhead of the rigid Puritanism of his time, shaking all New England over the roaring flames of hell. ⁷¹ His Calvinism was postulated on a God of wrath. ⁷² PFF3 182.2

Edwards’ History of the Work of Redemption ⁷³ exemplifies the sublime and comprehensive character of his mind. To him, all history, with its changes and revolutions, was one great divine work carried forward ceaselessly, from age to age, for the redemption and recovery of mankind. The Bible was the book of redemption, and its histories and prophecies were the histories and prophecies of that redemption. The Apocalypse had the place of pre-eminence. What Daniel, Paul, and John predicted, history sealed with seventeen centuries of unerring testimony. The prophecies afforded an unanswerable argument for the inspiration of the Scriptures, doubly needed in days of threatened unbelief. PFF3 182.3

Edwards, however, fell a prey to the new Whitbyan view, adopting a figurative resurrection and a temporal millennium, introduced by divine judgments. But rationalism was in the air. The issue was dogma versus rationalism. There was a growing dissatisfaction with Calvinism. ⁷⁴ PFF3 183.1

1. 1260 YEARS DATED FROM 456

In his Humble At tempt To promote Explicit Agreement (1747), Edwards takes strong exception to Lowman’s unusual dating of the 1260 years, as from 756 and ending about A.D. 2000-250 years from his time. This dating was obtained by starting with the temporal dominion under Pepin of France in 756. ⁷⁵ Instead, Edwards suggests 456, after Genseric had taken the city of Rome, upon completion of the division of the empire. ⁷⁶ The variously designated but identical periods-of the woman in the wilderness, the witnesses in sackcloth, the court trodden underfoot, the scattering of the power of the holy people, and the period of the wearing out of the saints-are all indicated as one and the same, ⁷⁷ and Antichrist’s destruction in two stages comes at the close. ⁷⁸ PFF3 183.2

2. MOHAMMEDAN TURKS EMERGE ABOUT 1300

In his History of the Work of Redemption, Edwards identifies the “Pope and his clergy” as the power prophesied in 2 Thessalonians 2, Daniel 7, and Revelation 13 and 17, ⁷⁹ and as the first of the two great antagonists of the kingdom of Christ. The second antagonist was Mohammedanism, operating first through the Saracens and then the Turks, in Revelation 9. ⁸⁰ Of the Turks he declares: PFF3 183.3

“They began their empire about the year of Christ 1296. and began to invade Europe about 1300, and took Constantinople, and so became Masters of all the Eastern empire in 1453.” ⁸¹ PFF3 184.1

The prophesied period of the Turk is implied, but not expressly stated. PFF3 184.2

3. TEN HORNS EMERGE UNDER FOUR TRUMPETS

The greater portion of Revelation pertains, he believed, to the over throw of Pagan Rome, on through papal Antichrist’s reign till his overthrow, and Christ’s coming to judgment. ⁸² First, the invasions of Goths, Vandals, and other heathen nations divided the empire- PFF3 184.3

“into ten kingdoms, with which began the ten horns of the beast; for we are told, that the ten horns are ten kings, who should rise in the latter part of the Roman empire: these are also represented by the ten toes of Nebuchadnezzar’s image. The invasion and conquests of these Heathen nations are supposed to be foretold in the 8th chapter of Revelation, in what came to pass under the sounding of the four first trumpets.” ⁸³ PFF3 184.4

4. 1260 YEARS BEGIN POSSIBLY IN 606

Contending the papal Antichrist to be “the masterpiece of all the contrivances of the devil,” ⁸⁴ Edwards holds that the 1260-year “continuance of Antichrist’s reign did not commence before the year of Christ 479; because if they did, they would have ended, and Antichrist would have fallen before now.” ⁸⁵ The reason for the date 479 is obvious: This was first given in sermon form in 1739; and 1739 minus 1260 equals 479. So Edwards now suggests 606 as the time when the civil power of the emperor confirmed the universal bishopric of the pope. PFF3 184.5

5. PROPHECY STRONG ARGUMENT FOR INSPIRATION

Ed wards believed that the vials of Revelation 16 were poured out on the throne of the beast during the Reformation, and thus the pope’s power and the extent of his dominion were diminished. This persecuting Little Horn of Daniel 7 is declared in summation to be the same as the Beast of Revelation 17, the Woman of Revelation 17, drunk with the blood of martyrs, reigning over multitudes and kingdoms, and changing the ordinances of God, rising through craft and policy, the Man of Sin- all of which “is exactly fulfilled in the Church of Rome.” ⁸⁶ He then concludes, “How strong an argument is this, that the Scriptures are the Word of God?” ⁸⁷ PFF3 184.6

Picture 2: LISBON 1755 EARTHQUAKE RECOGNIZED AS FULFILLMENT
First news of quake in Boston News letter, accompanied by announcements of discourses thereon (inset). Pamphlets follow by mayhevv, prentice, and channcy, stressing the prophetic significance of the earthquake
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