Who was Jonathan Edwards?

Jonathan Edwards was born on October 5th, 1703. He grew up in East Windsor, Connecticut, in the home of a pastor, Timothy Edwards, and was the grandson of the then well-known Pastor Solomon Stoddard. Jonathan Edwards was both spiritually and intellectually precocious (at least by today’s standards), and entered Yale at the age of 13, receiving a B.A. by the time he was 17, and an M.A. by 20. 

At age 18, Edwards prayed that God would “stamp eternity on my eyeballs.” He also prayed that he would be the greatest Christian of his generation. God answered that prayer, as the following years of his life would reveal. During the period of 1722-23 Edwards was in New York City, where he briefly pastored an English Presbyterian Church. It is during this time, when he was only 19, that Edwards began penning his now famous, Resolutions. He wrote these as young man who wanted to have a set of guidelines and goals to live the Christian life in a manner that brought the most glory to God. Resolution number 1 begins with, “Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory and to my own good, profit, and pleasure, in the whole of my duration…”

In 1727, Edwards served at the Northampton Congregational Church in Massachusetts for around 2 years as an assistant pastor. Then in 1729, after the passing of His grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, who was the Senior Pastor of Northampton Congregational Church, Jonathan Edwards was installed as their Senior Pastor. He served in this position for 21 years, being used by the Lord as a conduit for revivals in the mid-1730’s and ultimately for the Great Awakening of 1740-42. It was during this pastorate that he also wrote A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections in 1746.

Edwards served in the Northampton pulpit until 1750, when he was ejected over the issue of allowing unbelievers to participate in the Lord’s Table. Edward’s grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, instituted the controversial practice of allowing unbelievers to participate in the Lord’s Table as a means of evangelism. Edwards was staunchly against this, based on 1 Corinthians 10 and 11. The congregation however, saw it differently and fired their pastor after Edwards carefully tried for over 20 years to correct the situation biblically.

From 1751-57 Edwards served the Mohican and Mohawk Native Indian tribes in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, as a missionary. Then in 1758, with pressure from the board of trustees, and advice from friends, Edwards took on the role of President of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton College. He died a few weeks after being installed as President, when a smallpox inoculation he took turned for the worse. Jonathan Edwards left behind a strong and God-honoring legacy through his children, grand-children, and of course, his writings and sermons. Two hundred and sixty years later, through his writings and sermons, this God-intoxicated man still calls sinners to repentance, and teaches Christians to behold the beauty of Jesus Christ, living with eternity stamped on our eyeballs.

Kenny Damara