A Divine and Supernatural Light » humor

Jonathan Edwards, Father of Hip-Hop?

cozart — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:41:51 +0000

Earlier today, the Wikipedia entry for Jonathan Edwards contained this little gem, which has now been removed:

His sermons such as “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” inspired his parishioners to coin what has now become an American colloquialism: “Ain’t no sermons like a J. Edwards sermon, ’cause dem J. Edwards sermon don’ stop.”

My only question is, why was this removed??

(HT: Justin Taylor)

Lay Exhorters and Silly Women

cozart — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:44:43 +0000

As with any cultural, social, religious, etc. movement, the Great Awakening was not immune to criticism. Those unhappy with the stirrings of revival cited excesses among the so-called “enthusiasts,” as they sought to discredit what was going on. One of the biggest problems these critics had was in regard to “lay exhorters.” Here is a rather amusing description of such persons:

There is a creature here whom perhaps you never heard of before. It is called an Exhorter. It is of both sexes, but generally of the male, and young. Its distinguished qualities are ignorance, impudence, zeal. Numbers of these Exhorters are amongst the people here. They go from town to town, creep into houses, lead captive silly women, and then the men. Such of them as have good voices do great execution as they move their hearers, make them cry, faint, swoon, fall into convulsions.

Edwin S. Gaustad, The Great Awakening in New England (Gloucester: Peter Smith, 1965), 70.

One……Zillion Dollars

cozart — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:42:45 +0000

You could almost buy the full set of the Yale Works of Jonathan Edwards volumes with one of these!

what devilish project are you now upon…?

cozart — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:21:00 +0000

I’m still reading through Kidd’s The Great Awakening and came across this story that needs to be shared. The story involves Philip Mulkey, a rough and tumble back country man, who would later help found a Separate Baptist church in South Carolina in 1760. Kidd describes that shortly after his conversion, Mulkey

began to preach, first to his perplexed wife, and then to a neighbor named Campbell. He showed Campbell John 3:3 and told him he needed to be born again. Campbell began to curse at Mulkey and shouted, ‘What devilish project are you now upon with the word of God in your hand?’ With this, Campbell stripped off his shirt and challenged Mulkey to a brawl, ‘spitting on his hands and clenching his fists.’ Mulkey began to cry, and Campbell put his shirt back on and began to cry, too (263).

The Gospel of Jesus Christ: reducing burly men to tears for over 2000 years!