John H. Gerstner

Justification by Faith Alone (The Nature of Justifying Faith)

Eternal life depends on Christ alone?nothing, but nothing, else. Predestination will not bring it. Providence cannot produce it. It does not rest on foreknowledge, divine decrees, or even the atonement itself. Eternal life is Christ dwelling in His righteousness in the soul of the justified person.…

Justification: from Jonathan Edwards: A Mini-Theology

Articulus stantis aut candentis ecclesiae ('the doctrine by which the church stands or falls') - so said Martin Luther about justification by faith alone. John Calvin agreed, calling justification by faith the 'hinge' of the Reformation. But was that the historic Christian view? One may say…

Jonathan Edwards' Place In The History of Christian Thought

Born in 1703 in East Windsor, Connecticut, Jonathan Edwards lived at a time when the Calvinistic Puritanism of the American colonies, particularly New England, was giving way to more man­centered thought coming out of Europe. Edwards held firmly to the theology of his Puritan heritage, yet he read…

Regeneration: from Jonathan Edwards: A Mini-Theology

Effectual calling, conversion, repentance, and regeneration were approximately synonymous terms for Edwards. An important statement in Original sin shows the identity of the last three terms. I put repentance and conversion together, as the Scripture puts them together, Acts iii. 19, and because…

The Latter­Day Glory and Second Coming: from Jonathan Edwards: A Mini-Theology

The idea of the latter days was a controlling concept in Edwards' thinking. His earliest Miscellanies (especially 26, 158, and 262) make reference to it. During the First Awakening he was discussing it in his preaching (for example, the April 1735 sermon on 'Ruth's Resolution'). Between the…