A Dreadful Thing

For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.                                    Hebrews 10:30,31 NIV

Jonathan Edwards, the great preacher took this as the text of a sermon in July 1741 and many came to know Christ in a very real and miraculous way in Enfield, Massachusetts. He titled his message, “Sinners in the hands of an angry God”. This sermon, as a result, has gone down in history as a part of the great awakening in the early days before the USA was formed.

Of course, we have advanced in so many ways, and so much so that we would never hear or condone such a sermon from one of our pulpits. To suggest that God could be angry with sin in such a way that it would be a great dread, is unthinkable and out of step with society. We say, God is a God of Love, and He would never act or behave in that manner. This man Edwards was an extremist.

Don’t you think it strange that our churches in this enlightened age are declining and some are even having to merge, or even close down? We have made God so ‘luvvy-duvvy’ that He is incapable of serious judgement of our wrongs, or to put the words correctly, our sins. Yes, we should not over emphasise hell and judgement at the expense of the great Love of God, but we cannot ignore the truth of Scripture that it indeed “is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” as described by the writer to Hebrews.

Are we becoming too afraid to preach the whole counsel of God’s love AND judgement? If that is the case, then why should it be so?