Jonathan Edwards
A rediscovery of the contribution of the writings of Jonathan Edwards (1703–58) on the subject of angels propels him into the category of one of the most significant thinkers on angelology in the Christian tradition. While Edwards never constructed a systematic angelology, he wrote on the subject in nearly fifty entries in his varied collection of Miscellanies, and he alluded to the subject in multiple sermons and treatises.
Much of what Edwards wrote on angels, as well as on demons, repeats much of traditional orthodoxy. The angels were created by God and are bodiless spiritual beings. They are intelligent creatures who are spectators to God’s work in the universe from the moment of their creation up to the present church age. They are also moral creatures with a capacity to choose both good and evil. Edwards believed angels exist in vast numbers and have powers that greatly exceed those of human beings. Some angels fell, including Satan, through sin or disobedience. These fallen angels are called demons. Edwards saw the holy unfallen angels as servants and ministers of God’s providence, performing various functions throughout the physical universe and in the lives of human beings.
The History of Redemption
Between March and August 1739, Edwards delivered thirty sermons on the Old Testament text of Isaiah 51:8. The doctrine Edwards provides in his series is continuous from the first sermon to the last, and is basically stated, “The Work of Redemption is a work that God carries on from the fall of man to the end of the world.”1 The themes developed by Edwards in the framework of this discourse on redemption engaged him both directly and indirectly in most of the expositions he preached throughout this time period. These themes can be summarized under three traditional headings: heaven, earth, and hell.
Angels play a frequent role in the tri-world narrative that Edwards constructs. He draws these themes out of his Miscellanies and includes them in his sermons, reminding his congregants that “the creating heaven was in order to the Work of Redemption; it was to be an habitation for the redeemed and the Redeemer, Matthew 25:34. Angels [were created to be] ministering spirits [to the inhabitants of the] lower world [which is] to be the stage of the wonderful Work [of Redemption].”2
The angelology of Jonathan Edwards should be viewed as a corollary to his Christology. Throughout the sermons in his 1739 series, Edwards positions the angelic beings at the epicenter of his teachings: “Scripture is filled,” he says, “with instances when God hath . . . sent angels to bring divine instructions to men.”3 Angels, in heaven, “spend much of their time in searching into the great things of divinity, and endeavoring to acquire knowledge in them.”4 When they are not employed in ministration and singing, Edwards considers that angels may be studying. Regularly, Edwards asks his parishioners to follow the example of angels and imitate their diligence in the study of Scripture. Both angels and humanity, Edwards says, will find “the glorious work of redemption” at the heart of that study. For Edwards, the love of Christ in His redemption stands at the center of all angelic contemplation.

A Christian community will seek to share the benefits and burdens of both family and single life. This is because Christianity knows that it is not good for man to be alone and that the deepest fulfillment and joys of this life are found in human relationships.

It is bad that Americans are increasingly living alone.
This is obvious, but there are dissenters. For example, Frank Bruni of The New York Times recently complained that his paper’s reporting on older Americans living alone framed this as a problem. He is, he admits, “half-kidding. Both articles were important. They rightly expressed concern for older Americans who don’t have the resources or the kind of extended family that I do.”
But while acknowledging that there may be a general problem, he nonetheless wanted to inform his readers of the potential “bliss” of living alone, which he says is found in living as one wishes, from bedtimes to noise to tidiness, with no demands beyond those of his dog. To those who might consider this “selfish and shallow,” he replies, “Don’t people who live in larger households have their own indulgences?” He contends, “Their domestic arrangements are as driven by personal desires as mine is. It’s just that they have different wants.”
But it is not so simple. The reality is that many people living alone would prefer not to, but our culture and economic structure are making it harder to form and sustain the family lives that most people want. Consequently, a lot of people give up — for many young people, a happy marriage and family life seem like something from an alien world, while for many of their elders, it seems like something that has been irretrievably passed by or lost.
This reveals the cruel relativism in Bruni’s suggestion that “personal desires” all have equal value — that wanting an uninterrupted morning routine is equivalent to wanting to raise a happy family. This is false. Some desires are nobler and more virtuous than others, and they ought to be encouraged. It is true that those of us who are married with children still have our indulgences (often too many), but the love and sacrifice at the core of a flourishing family life are not reducible to the level of fulfilling a personal whim precisely because it is directed toward willing the good of the other.
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The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), which held its 50th General Assembly in Memphis, Tennessee, last week, approved by a vote of 1,089-793 an overture to urge the government to “renounce the sin” of promoting irreversible sex change procedures for children. A commission to be appointed by the assembly’s moderator will be tasked with drafting the petition.

An influential conservative Presbyterian denomination recently agreed to formally petition government authorities against promoting transgender procedures for minors in a rare rebuke of government officials from the church.
The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), which held its 50th General Assembly in Memphis, Tennessee, last week, approved by a vote of 1,089-793 an overture to urge the government to “renounce the sin” of promoting irreversible sex change procedures for children. A commission to be appointed by the assembly’s moderator will be tasked with drafting the petition.
The PCA is the denomination of the church affiliated with the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, where three adults and three children were gunned down in March at the hands of 28-year-old Audrey Hale, who identified as transgender. The initial overture, which was submitted by the Alabama-based Evangel Presbytery, was drafted before the massacre.
The overture cited multiple scientific studies that suggest such “medical and surgical interventions are a rejection of science” and that the epidemic 900% increase in gender dysphoria among girls during the past eight years is primarily “driven by social contagion from contemporary social, educational, and cultural influences.”
The overture also argues that God created human beings male and female, that cross-dressing is immoral and that Jesus Christ warned strongly against scandalizing children.
The Rev. Bryan Chapell, the stated clerk of the PCA, told Fox News Digital in March that the push for transgender procedures appears to be a political agenda that is backed by neither science nor the Bible.
“I think all churches are dealing with these issues, as we well know, because of the cultural push at this time to congratulate people who question their sexual identity,” Chapell said. “All young people are certainly being subjected to that cultural push, but it in our view does not cohere with either science or Scripture.”
The Rev. Fred Greco, who served as moderator of the PCA’s 50th General Assembly, said he is not aware of anyone in the denomination who supports transgenderism in any capacity, but he noted that the debate on the overture hinged on to what extent the church should involve itself in state affairs.
According to the Westminster Confession of Faith that forms the basis of Presbyterianism, churches should only petition civil authorities in “cases extraordinary,” which proponents of the overture argue applies to the government promoting irreversible sex change procedures for minors. The denomination, which came together in the early 1970s, has similarly petitioned with regard to abortion and the right to life, Greco said.
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