Today's sermon was a bit harsh. Growing up with him as my best friend I always knew he was a bit cynical. As a fellow pastor and good friend I feel that he was demeaning and rude about his wording of the sermon. He should of used "wrath of God", "pit of hell", "angry God", and "gone to hell" less frequently in his sermon. The phrases may have offened some of the congreagation and they were unusally harsh. Pastor John said that "The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one hilds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you... his wrath toward you burns like fire; he looks upn you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire" he offened some of the congregation they might not come back because they now feel that God hates them and they feel worthless in everything they do for him and in him. God is not angry with you, he forgives you for any wrong doing you have done to him or others. God praises in every breath you take you are his creation and he takes pride in that.
If Pastor John's point of the sermon is that you have to personally experience some sort of change in you before you are allowed to go to heaven he may have needed to try to get the point across differently. He could have told them about the time he had a transforming time when he perosnally experienced God's grace. Like a time when we were younger, we were sitting in church together as our families usually do and we were praying. After the prayer was over he looked at me and said that God had told him to become a pastor and to help the people in a time of need. I'm pretty sure he didn't mean by telling them that God hated them for sinning all the time. God meant for John to give loving and inspiring sermons to encourage the people to come back to church, he didn't want him to give frightening sermons that made people feel inferior about themselves especially after the trials. I hope when we meet later today we can talk about how he could help inspire the congregation more.
This is well written, Baillie. It seems like a fair assessment given by another preacher. I like how you offered the alternatives to his sermon. It makes a valid point as to the two different ways sermons were given during this time period. I particularly like how you pretended to be a childhood friend of Edwards. It added quite a bit to the believability of the writing. Well done. 10/10
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