Three Years in the Mind of a Genius: Why I'm Writing My Doctoral Dissertation on Jonathan Edwards' Theology of Joy

"When someone preaches your funeral one day, they outta say, 'It was during the writing of his doctoral dissertation that he encountered the truth that set his whole ministry on fire again and gave him a renewed love of the pastorate!"

That was the advice that I received at the dissertation seminar recently at Reformed Theological Seminary, in Orlando Florida.

I have known for some time that I needed to determine a specific topic for my dissertation. Very specific. I didn't want to choose one too quickly and end up getting bored--or wait too long to get started and waste precious time and energy.

So I began to ponder one simple question: If I had to spend three years of my life in the mind of someone brilliant, someone who could help me the most to shape my worldview and my understanding of pastoral ministry, who would it be? To say it another way, who or what can I study that will renew my own heart, rigorously engage my intellect, and benefit my entire congregation as well?

I knew instinctively it had to be someone who was a pastor. He would have to understand the daily blessings and trials of loving people, leading a local congregation, and engaging Scripture on a profound and worshipful level. 

Almost immediately, I narrowed it down to two men: John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards. Both men held high views of Scripture. Both men are in my Christian tradition (Reformed/Presbyterian). I've spent hours in both men already, and read thousands of pages by each to my own soul's great profit.

But then it struck me like a lightening bolt: Edward's view of joy!

Throughout the entire corpus of Edwards' writing, joy (or as he often termed it, 'happiness') pervades. It is everywhere. It is rich like thick oil in his Religious Affections. It smells sweetly and gloriously in his Miscellanies. It blossoms to full flower in many (most?) of his sermons to his own congregation.

Here is an example: 

Wherefore, seeing happiness is the highest end of the creation of the universe, and intelligent beings are that consciousness of the creation that is to be the immediate subject of this happiness, how happy may we conclude will be those intelligent beings that are to be made eternally happy! (Misc. #3).

The glory of God--especially as He reveals Himself to us in the Gospel--is the supreme joy for which we were created.

In the next three years, my goal will be to read as much as I can by and about Jonathan Edwards. There are over 70 volumes in his own writings, so I doubt I will ever run out of material to study. 

I will put his theology, his ministry, his philosophy, his quirks and idiosyncracies (we all have them), as well as his failures and successes under a microscope. I will not make him an idol or put his words on par with Scripture. On the contrary, I will continue to consider him as a man, a fallible mortal, like myself.

But most of all, I will look to Jonathan Edwards' view of joy.

• What is it? 
• What is it not? 
• How do we apprehend it? 
• Where does it come from?
• How to we hold on to it in the midst of our struggles? 
• From what Scriptural basis does Edwards find the most support for his views? 
• Did Edwards encounter this joy personally, or does he write about it merely theoretically? 
• Perhaps most importantly of all, how can I share his passion for joy with my own congregation?

Three years in the mind of a genius on the topic of "joy."

Here we go: three, two, one... jump!

-Matthew Everhard is the Senior Pastor of Faith Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Brooksville, Florida.

The Local Church Pastor as Resident Theologian

It is practically impossible to be a pastor today.

At once, it is expected of a man to be a preacher, a psychologist, a marriage and family therapist, a community organizer, and a church activities coordinator. Added to those titles we might suggest also: social media expert, financial administrator, organizational manager, and head of staff.

Among all those just listed, the role of preacher is the only one I can defend aptly in Scripture (2 Timothy 4:1-2). The other duties, while seemingly necessary from time to time, (and certainly expected from our people) are tangential at best to our calling as local church pastors.

It's time we return to our biblical mandate.

Nevertheless, I want to add an important duty to those given above to the job description of the pastor. One often neglected by evangelical church leadership today: that of resident theologian. The Apostles of the New Testament--and especially Paul in the Pastoral Epistles--are jealous to see local church pastors (or elders) steeped in the richness of Biblical doctrine, functioning in their local churches as healthy and robust theologians.

Consider some words of exhortation from Paul,

If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed (1 Timothy 4:6). 

He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it (Titus 1:9).

 But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine (Titus 2:1). 

Notice Paul's emphasis on doctrine. Never more than today should the weighty role of "resident theologian" be necessarily placed back upon the shoulders of local church pastors. Never more than today is it incumbent upon us to return our people to the depths of truth contained in Christian orthodoxy!

I see at least three reasons for this:

1) We live in an age of biblical illiteracy. Like it our not, many of our people (not all) are simply not drinking deeply enough from the Scriptures anymore. If some of the folks in the pews today are even doing daily devotions at all, it likely comes from the "self-help" or self-esteem oriented formats so dreadfully common among Christian publishers today.

Most devotional material is presented as "life application" or "principles for better living." Rarely are the laity mining the Bible for the richer truths of the Christian faith. Christology, pneumatology, soteriology--these are foreign concepts to most of the popular devotional materials in today's Christian literature.

2) Many of our people today (again, not all) are largely disconnected from the theological treasures of the Christian heritage that we have inherited from our forefathers. Not only are many Christians not reading their Bibles, but they struggle mightily to comb through even a page of Augustine, Luther, Calvin, or Edwards.

Although the refreshing waters of biblical theology from previous generations are more available today through electronic, digital, and other means, they are unfortunately more neglected than ever before as well. The pastor serves--functionally speaking--as the local church's sole bridge to the abundant blessings of Christian history.

(I don't mean to be unnecessarily negative about all lay people; many are more diligent in their studies than their pastors! I am, however, concerned with the general direction of the evangelical church today). 

3) Finally, the questions that our people are asking are not going away. The people in our pews are still asking deep questions regarding the purpose of our existence, the mysteries of God's being, and the meaning in our sin and suffering. These perplexities have not dissipated.

The nature of mankind, the inner disturbances of the soul, our wranglings about guilt (especially in the area of sexual ethics) are not easily answered apart from a robust biblical doctrine. Our people will eventually go somewhere when the deeper questions of the human experience arise. Let us hope that they can come to us rather than to the secular culture to have those questions answered.

Pastors, we have an incredible job description before us. Humanly speaking, the expectations upon us are massively unrealistic. We will simply never be able to accomplish all that is expected from us. To be all that people want us to be.

But please--don't neglect your role--as resident theologian.


--Matthew Everhard is the Senior Pastor of Faith Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Brooksville, Florida. He is the author of Hold Fast the Faith: A Devotional Commentary on the Westminster Confession of 1647.

"Thelogy, Culture, and the Kingdom of God." By Dr. Wilfred A. Bellamy.

In consideration of the role of the Church of Jesus Christ as it engages the various cultures in which it is planted, the following perspective is presented.

Let us first give consideration to the church as the Kingdom of God. Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her (Eph.5:25). Therefore all matters pertaining to the church reflect not so much the things that we do, as the people that we are in Christ. We are the people of His Kingdom, known and loved from before the foundation of the world.

While we agree, and understand, that there is a “then and there” dimension of Kingdom, let us also agree that there is a “here and now” Kingdom reality in which we are called to walk (2 Cor 5:17).

Living as Kingdom people is not a matter of strategic intent, nor is it methodological, nor is it a matter of cultural relevance, but it means “walking in the light as He is in the light,” all the while demonstrating that “we have fellowship with one another” (I John 1:5-7). We are the called people of God, the company of the redeemed, a diverse body uniquely joined – a Kingdom of citizens, (Rev. 5:9-10), no less.

John Calvin described the church as a “just redeeming community.” Thus, in living for Christ in a fallen world, we are to live redemptively, modeling before others our likeness to Christ, as the Holy Spirit enables us to grow up into Him. Calvin also finds it virtually impossible to speak of salvation without first speaking of the Kingdom e.g. he recites Mark 1:15 “… the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the Gospel.” Thus Calvin’s eschatology precedes his soteriology (Institutes 3.3.19).  As Kuyper so clearly expressed, “as is your eschatology so is your theology.”

The church of the 20^th century became the church of missiology, where outreach was concerned. Much has been written about the “science of missions” from a methodological perspective, as if means and method were the lodestone of effectiveness. But lest we forget that eschatology supercedes missiology, and lose sight of the call to obedience that is the hallmark of the Kingdom of God, let us be reminded that the sceptre of God, as it is extended to the lost, is to understand and believe that God reigns, that He is Lord, that He is first and foremost authoritative, and that we are “enjoined to pray that He would subdue all minds and hearts to voluntary obedience" (Institutes 3.20.42).

The Gospel of Christ, the “power of God unto salvation” (1 Cor. 1:18), is essentially relational. It requires inter-personal connection for its proper transmission, interpretation and comprehension. The Gospel is not an impersonal statement of truth. It is always more “euangellion” than it is “kerugma.” It is first lived and is thus recognizably different from life without or before Gospel. Then it is spoken, by way of pronouncement or proclamation, in the normal course of a day’s events as well as on other occasions of proclamation. As has been stated elsewhere, “the question of evangelical cultural engagement begins not with a ‘how’ but with a ‘who’” (Andy Crouch, in a persuasive argument for evangelical Christianity as a counter-culture, not an attempt at cultural engagement, CT 2006).

The conveyance of Biblical truth as it is revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, if that truth is to escape the mask of mystery and become reality to those who meet the believer and hear what he or she has to say, must be clearly visible – not by guise or stylistic affectation, but in Christlikeness – “let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me!”

The truth is therefore essentially incarnational. Our likeness to Christ is not an acquired affectation, but a life lived within the bounds of a culture. We become recognizable in that culture either because we are of it, or because we have become a part of it by an act of the will. Our participation in Kingdom extension is therefore not a brief peremptory intrusion in the lives of other people but an identification with them in daily living. Thus the Lord Jesus Himself “took upon Him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man.” So very God became very man because He purposed so to be (Philippians 2: 5-11).

Incarnation removes the possibility of mistaking witness to Jesus Christ as some sort of trained-for event. Being a witness to Jesus Christ is being like Him, and revealing Him to those with whom we come into contact. This is the eschatological imperative.

-Rev. Dr. Wilfred A. Bellamy PH.D. is an ordained pastor in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, a former missionary to Nigeria, and the former Coordinator of the General Synod of the ARP. 

Remember Your Leaders: Aurelius Augustine

[Augustine] has been strikingly called incomparably the greatest man whom, “between Paul the Apostle and Luther the Reformer, the Christian Church has possessed.” --Adolf Von Harnack quoted by BB Warfield

Christian history is saturated with leaders whose impact has drastically changed the shape of Christian thought. Perhaps no leader, as Adolf Von Harnack has suggested, has transformed our understanding of God as much as that of Augustine. He may very well be the greatest theologian apart from Paul and Jesus that this world will ever know. He is of utmost importance for Christians today to know. We must remember this man of God and the influence he has had and continues to exert in our time. And again, our call to remember leads to imitating the faith exhibited by these Christian leaders. Augustine, a man who lived in the 4th and 5th century, has much to offer us here in the 21st century if we would but remember and seek to imitate his faith.

A Biographical Sketch
Augustine was born on November 13, 354 AD, in Thagaste, a town in northern Africa (modern day Algeria). His mother Monica was a devout Christian, she is a patron saint to many of motherly prayers since throughout her life she prayed earnestly for her son to become a Christian. His father Patrick was not a Christian in whose footsteps Augustine followed. He was a master of rhetoric and finished his doctorate at the age of 21. For the first 31 years of his life he lived far from what we should consider an example of faith. He was chief among womanizers by his own profession. The love of women was the biggest hindrance to his profession of faith. By the age of 16 he had a concubine whom he loved and eventually a son with her, Adeodatus.

As a learned man Augustine sought truth steadfastly in his life. He probed the depths of Manichaeism and platonism (and other philosophies) only to find that they were all but half-truths that he could dissect and debunk. His chief goal in life was to find lasting truth, the bedrock of all other shadows of truth. And so his search for this truth led him eventually to cross paths with many Christian leaders of his day. Chief among these was Ambrose of Milan, another leader in Christian history worthy of remembering. Ambrose directed Augustine by varying degrees towards Christian truth. One afternoon, after many days and weeks of deep struggle with his lifestyle and the incompatibility of the Christian truth he was wrestling with, he came to faith. It happened in a garden in Milan in August of 386 at 32 years of age.

In this garden Augustine wrestled with God was doing by his sovereign hand. He found himself broken, crying beneath a fig tree, when he heard some children next door singing a song with the words “pick it up and read it, pick it up and read it” (Confessions 8.12). Taking it as a sign from God he grabbed the open Bible before him and read feasted his eyes and soul upon Romans 13:13-14: Not in riotousness and drunkenness, not in lewdness and wantonness, not in strife and rivalry; but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh and its lusts. Augustine then stated, “I neither wished no needed to read more. No sooner had I finished the sentence than it was as if the light of steadfast truth poured into my heart, and all the shadows of hesitation fled away" (Confessions 8.12). By God’s sovereign hand in a Garden a would be giant in the faith came to faith.

Augustine was baptized by Ambrose, his father in the faith. At his conversion God reclaimed one of the most brilliant minds ever to think on this earth for his purposes, to lead the church as an example of faith. He returned to Africa, now Hippo, where he wrote and preached as a life transforming tool of grace for God in a world of unbelievers. It is here that Augustine made a lasting impact through the ages, books such as the City of God and Confessions that have never been out of print. In his lifetime he wrote 5 million words comprising some 113 books. He was an intellectual giant. He died in 430 in Hippo, a year before the Goths sacked the city. It is here that Augustine became a primary tool of God in reshaping Christian history. Sixteen hundred years later there is much we are called to remember and imitate from him. Here are three examples of his faith for us to consider to imitate:

A Language and Life of Delight
Throughout Augustine’s writings and sermons he constantly exhibits a person of faith who utterly delights in his God. Few have written with such genuine passion that God alone is their highest delight and sweetness. In the Confessions in particular Augustine exhibits this with language such as this: “Come, O Lord, I pray. Stir us up and call us back; kindle us and take us to yourself. Set us ablaze, and cast your sweetness over us. Let us love you and run to you” (Confessions 8.4). Few talk like this. Few live like this.

Yet it is our calling as men and women of faith to seek God with our entire heart, to love Him, to praise Him, to delight in Him, to savor Him above all else, and to find Him as the only lasting sweetness in our lives. We miss the mark when we find this kind of satisfaction in things other than God: sex, money, alcohol, personal comfort, health, fulfilling relationships, sports, etc. Augustine in the display of his faith through his writings is a leader that we are called to imitate. On this point in particular we would benefit greatly to have our hearts stirred to make God alone our all-satisfying sweetness and uproot anything that has taken His rightful place on the throne of our hearts. When was the last time you referred to God as your sweetness? Maybe if we talk in this manner, if we seek and ask God to set us ablaze, he will become the passion that we all long for deep down. May we delight in God and may He be our only satisfaction in this life and the next.

Realizing the Reality of Grace
As a champion of biblical theology, Augustine fought for the true reality of grace as we see in Scripture, a free sovereign gift from God that has nothing of our earning mixed in with it. For Augustine this understanding came through a long theological battle with Pelagius. Pelagius believed that a person was not completely sinful in every sphere of life. And since this was the case he believed that it was possible for any man or woman to live in righteousness and earn their own salvation. Against this unbiblical notion proposed and maintained by Pelagius, Augustine became an ardent apologist for the teaching of Scripture on sin, grace, and salvation.

Augustine understood according to Scripture that all humanity is totally sinful (Rom. 3:23; 6:23) and therefore completely incapable at any point of living the life required to attain salvation and relationship with God. The bedrock of orthodox Christianity was defended here by Augustine, that we are totally depraved as Calvin and the Synod of Dort would later articulate. With this theological truth in view, Augustine argued that we can earn nothing but death and separation from God. Instead the biblical model of salvation includes grace as grace, a free gift given by God that no one can earn. Augustine thus paints God as completely sovereign and gracious to the sinner in Jesus Christ. As an apologist Augustine fervently fought for this and recovered and defended a truth that we as Christians stand upon as orthodox.

With this in mind, to imitate the faith of Augustine would lead us to renounce any taint of works righteousness in our understanding of justification. Instead we should look to our own sinfulness, how far we are from God’s created design, and be overwhelmed with the utterly free grace that God gives us in His Son Jesus Christ. To imitate this faith is to rest each and every day in the promises God gives us by grace alone. This causes us to live lives of constant thanksgiving to God, glorifying Him. To imitate this faith is to daily live out of grace, not of works. Let us feel grace as Augustine did.

Witness to God's Grace and Glory
Augustine’s Confessions was one of the first true autobiographies to be written. He created a new genre with its conclusion. It is a prayer, written to God, but also written to man by which Augustine’s “reader may reflect upon the depths from which we must call upon [God]” (Confessions 2.3). It is primarily a testimony to the power and glory of God in how He had worked in Augustine’s life up until it was written. As such, the pages of the Confessions are strewn about with a constant love for God, lifting Him up as the only one worthy of being glorified. And so he wrote to do just this, to testify to the great reality of our good, sovereign, and gracious God.

Augustine should encourage us by his faith to imitate his testimony, to seek with how we live and what we say to reveal to others around us the saving power of God in Christ. Augustine states regarding his readers, “Let them love you not less, but more. Let them see that it is through you, who have saved me from the sickness of my sins, that they too do not suffer the same degree from the sickness of their own.” Our call to imitate his faith leads us to show the world around us that our salvation from our sins comes only through the grace of God. How often do we tell neighbors and friends (Christian or not) what it is that God has done for us? This goes hand in hand with seeing God as sweet to us. For if we delight in God it will exude out from our lips and actions and people will see that we are a living testimony for the grace and love of God. Let us testify that there is none greater, none more loving, none more willing to save us than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

If you are looking to read something of Augustine, which I believe Hebrews 13:7 would suggest, I would begin first with his Confessions. It is a wonderful entrance into Christian biography and his grand language of delight while upholding orthodox theology. John Piper also has a wonderful series of biographies in his The Swans are Not Silent series, of which the first book titled The Legacy of Sovereign Joy contains a great succinct chapter on the influence of Augustine. If you would like to go deep theologically with Augustine may I suggest On Christian Doctrine.

**Next Week: Remembering Your Leader The Apostle Paul

Modern Reformation

Modern Reformation magazine, published by the White Horse Inn, is one of the most influential theological journals in print today.

Edited by theologian Michael Horton of Westminster Theological Seminary, Modern Reformation has be instrumental in the revival of Reformed theology known as the "reformed resurgence."

Thoroughly Biblical and relentlessly conservative, MR is a bi-monthly compendium of theological articles on age-old doctrinal truths, as well as responses to current events and thoughts.

The current November/December issue features a full-length article by Pastor Matthew on the nature of hell.

Be sure to pick up the latest edition, or subscribe to this important journal today!

For ordering and subscription information for Modern Reformation, call 800.890.7556 or click here.

Justification: The Absolute Center of Biblical Christianity

Here is a ridiculous hypothetical. Suppose that earth was visited by aliens from a distant world. And suppose further that their job was to observe life on Earth to determine whether or not it was intelligent. The aliens would probably watch an episode of "Swamp People" or "Duck Dynasty" on the Discovery Channel and suspect that they had landed on the wrong planet!

But suppose that they began to survey our beliefs and fixed their attention on Christianity: What would they discover to be the central core belief of our faith?

Let me turn that question on you for a moment. What would you say is the central article of faith of Christianity?

Some might say “Upholding a certain set of values. Voting for this party or that.” That is important, but Christianity is not a political movement. Others might say “Being a good person; kind, loving, and warm. After all, Jesus told His followers to ‘love their enemies.’” But Christianity is not a social theory. Still others might say, “Obeying the Ten Commandments; living in accordance with God’s moral Law.” Oh how critical! But Christianity is not just an ethical system—it is so much more!

Here is what I would say: “At its absolute center, Christianity is a way (THE ONLY WAY!) for unrighteous sinners to be reconciled to a holy and just God.”

The Westminster Confession of Faith defines justification as follows:

Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein He pardons all our sins, and accepts us as righteous in His sight, on account of the righteousness of Christ imputed (placed upon) to us, and received by faith alone (WSC #33).

Some say, we don’t need theology, just our Bibles; yet this term, "justification" is thoroughly Biblical and is central to Paul's theology in Romans. It is found five times in Romans 3:21-31 for instance. Justification is a legal word drawn from the courtroom of Paul’s day. Literally, it means “to declare to be just.”  God does this, of course, only on the basis of His grace given us through the cross of His Son (vs. 23-25).

Historically, teaching on justification has lit churches up with power, grace, forgiveness, worship, mission, giving, and service! Listen to some of the all time great Reformers:

• Martin Luther (1483-1546): “This is the chief article from which all other doctrines have flowed… It alone begets, nourishes, builds preserves, and defends the church of God; and without it the Church of God cannot exist for one hour.”

• Thomas Cranmer (1489-1566):  “Whosoever denies [the doctrine of justification] is not to be counted for a true Christian man… but for an adversary of Christ.”

• John Calvin (1509-1564): “Where ever the knowledge of [justification] is taken away, the glory of Christ is extinguished… [Justification] it is the main hinge on which salvation turns.”

Brothers, let us not forget to preach justification to our people. It is central to historic Christianity, central to the message of the Gospel, and central to revival.

Matthew Everhard is the Senior Pastor of Faith Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Brooksville, Florida. Follow on Twitter @matt_everhard