Friday, October 7, 2011

And We Wonder Why We Are Nuts


Here are two quotes from Jonathan Edwards, that go a long way toward explaining our craziness.  

“The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.”— Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, in The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust), vol. 2, p. 9.

“The apostle tells us that ‘God is love’; and therefore, seeing he is an infinite being, it follows that he is an infinite fountain of love. Seeing he is an all-sufficient being, it follows that he is a full and overflowing, and inexhaustible fountain of love. And in that he is an unchangeable and eternal being, he is an unchangeable and eternal fountain of love.”—Jonathan Edwards, Charity and Its Fruits (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, reprinted 1982), p. 327.

Placing these quotes together allows us to peer inside the tortured human psyche, writhing in the pain of two worlds, two Gods, two visions.  Edwards puts Picasso into words.  

'Thank you Lord Jesus Christ for coming into our traumatic darkness to show us the truth.  As believable as it is to us in our terrible confusion, you have made it plain that there is no angry archer behind your back, only your Father who loves us out of his love for you and the Holy Spirit.  He will never be satisfied until we are delivered from the trauma of the false god and free to give ourselves to the blessed Trinity and life in Papa's house.'

"If you have seen me, you have seen the Father." (John 14:9)