MY FOURTH VISIT TO ENFIELD, CONNECTICUT
Some people love to go to the Holy Land to see where Jesus lived, walked and performed miracles. I myself do this every year. But there is something else I love to do when I can: to visit places where the Holy Spirit came down in power. I am thinking of two places in particular. First, the area called Cane Ridge in Bourbon County, Kentucky – the site of America’s second Great Awakening. Second, Enfield, Connecticut, where Jonathan Edwards preached his notable sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, the title the printer gave it.
Louise and I recently made our fourth trip to Enfield. There is a vacant field on a corner, across the street from the Montessori school. I am told that the residents of Enfield are rather embarrassed by it. On this vacant lot there is a small monument with this inscription:
This boulder marks the place where stood the Second Meeting House of the First Church of Christ in Enfield. Built A.D.1704 and used for worship until 1775. In this Meeting House on July 8, 1741 during the revival known as “THE GREAT AWAKENING” Jonathan Edwards preached his celebrated sermon “SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD.
Why would we make trips to this spot? I am not entirely sure of my motive, to be candid. But if pushed I would probably admit that I go there to pray – and to ask the Lord, “Do it again”. Why there? Could I not pray at home? Yes. I tell people this when I take them to Israel. It is far more important to discover Jesus by the Holy Spirit than to come to the Sea of Galilee if you expect Jesus will be more real there. You can even become superstitious about going to the Holy Land. This could be said about my trips to Enfield – three of these took over four hours each time.
So why ever do this? I will come clean. I am in awe of that sermon and its alleged effects. Taking his text from Deuteronomy 32:35, “Their feet shall slide in due time” (KJV), Edwards preached a sermon on Hell and eternal punishment that was so powerful that people talk about it to the present day. You can Google it and read it in its entirety. The bottom line of the sermon can be summed up: it is by the very mercy of God you are not in Hell right now.
If you read the sermon, chances are it will have little or no effect on you. You might therefore be surprised to learn of the effect it had when it was first preached. As Edwards spoke – reading from a manuscript, the people began to moan and audibly sigh. He paused and asked the people to get quiet so he could finish. But the groans became greater. When he finished people were seen holding on to church pews to keep from sliding into Hell, men were seen outside the meeting house holding on to tree trunks to keep from sliding into Hell.
It only happened once. This is important. Because Edwards preached the same sermon elsewhere two weeks later – with no effect at all. God only did it one time. Once was enough – just to show His power and what He can do at His sovereign will.
But there is more. Had Edwards not spoken the truth the Holy Spirit would not have put His seal on that word as He did. To me the sermon is one of the best indications of the reality of the New Testament teaching of eternal punishment. God would not have owned that sermon were it not grounded in the truth of His Word. I will tell you one more thing: the way that sermon was used by the Holy Spirit is one of the things that has kept me convinced of the New Testament teaching on Hell. It has also helped keep me from imbibing the teaching of annihilation. Annihilationism – a fast growing teaching among Evangelicals in recent years – can be very convincing. Some of the most respected Christian ministers have embraced it. I cannot.
Word of the sermon spread all over New England in days, into England in weeks. It was arguably the high water mark of the Great Awakening, a period that lasted from around 1735 to 1750. When I get to Heaven I want to see a DVD of the whole episode.
Isaac Watts the hymn writer, hearing of it in England weeks later, affirmed the truth of the sermon but thought there should have been the preaching of the Gospel in it. Fair point. But it is also likely that Edwards knew these people had been taught the Gospel over and over again. However, I agree with Watts. I try to bring in the Gospel in all my sermons, never taking anyone’s knowledge of it for granted.
When I was in Geneva I sat in John Calvin’s chair. I prayed that God might be pleased to use me in our day as He used Calvin in his day. So when I bowed my head on the site of Edwards’ immortal sermon a few weeks ago I will admit that I asked God to use me as He did Edwards in his day. I don’t pretend to have Edwards’ intellect. He is without doubt the greatest theologian America ever produced. I have never preached a sermon on Hell like Edwards did, although I have one or two sermons on eternal punishment. I only want to be a vessel that God could use anyway He chose to.
RT Kendall