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Jonathan Edwards 'Great Awakening'

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Maximilian Pacheco AMH2010 Professor Snyder The Great Awakening The Great Awakening was a religious revival movement during the early 18th century that provided direction and religious guidance and new sense of authority among the American colonist. The leaders of the Great Awakening included Jonathan Edwards, William Tennent, Gilbert Tennent and George Whitefield. Edwards, a minister in Massachusetts encouraged a Puritanism revival that spread throughout the Connecticut River Valley. In one particular sermon of his True Saints, When Absent From the Body, Are Present with the Lord , Edwards preaches that heaven is a real place apparent from the text in his sermon “there is a certain place, a particular part of the external creation, to which …show more content…

Mr. David Brainerd, a Missionary to the Indians from the Honorable Society in Scotland for the propagation of Christian Knowledge, and Pastor of a Church of Christian Indians in New Jersey. Because mortality is unavoidable Edwards uses Rev. David Brainerd’s funeral as his stage shed new light on those who have not embraced the religious revival. Unlike Edwards sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (1741)" where he depicts a vivid imagery of hell, Edwards speaks of ascending into heaven and living in the kingdom of God during the funeral. Death is staring the audience directly in the face, in that moment Edwards decides to use the prospect of salvation rather than condemnation. “The souls of the saints” which is quoted numerous times during his sermon is taken from 2 Corinthians 5:8 which Edwards tries to reinforces the idea of good vs evil, and those who are good will evade damnation and will not spend all eternity in hell. “The souls of true saints, when they leave their bodies at death, go to be with Christ, as they go to dwell in the immediate, full and constant sight or view of him”1 reinforces the thought that through death, there is new …show more content…

As Edwards preached 2 Corinthians 5:8 “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord”1 he showed his audience that he has embraced The Lord and because of his salvation does not fear death (absent from the body). For Edwards, and his followers, death was just the beginning of a new life in heaven. “The pure in heart are blessed; for they shall see God”1. But being absent from the body was not a guaranteed trip to heaven, for only those who on earth have a spiritual connection with Christ will see him face to face in heaven. Edwards words are ultimately used to encourage his audience to join him in his beliefs so they too will no longer fear death and instead, when they are away from their body, they will be with the Lord – “The souls of true saints, when absent from the body go to be with Jesus

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