At the time of the preceding statement, Jonathan Edwards neither had a full understanding of God's redeeming love or the ability to convey the simplicity of salvation through the love of Jesus Christ. It is improper and unscriptural to imply that an individual must make the quest for eternal life a prolonged and protracted journey. This places the salvation experience, or the eternal life goal, in the same class as it would the lifetime crusade of a physician desiring to help and heal others. Jesus said in the gospel according to St. John 3:16-17 (NIV), "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." Yes, there is Divine judgement just as there has been since man's first fall in the Garden of Eden. However, one must remember that before judgement, there was love. God made man and woman perfect. Sin required judgement be placed on man.

God's love lingered with man. Nevertheless, before the first raindrop of the "great fl

Prior to Jesus' birth in that small stable in Bethlehem, the only means of atonement for sin was through the blood of a sacrifice. When Jesus took his first breath the old law of God ceased, and the new law began. Although there would be a thirty-three year wait for a resurrected savior, God's love, not hate, was alive, walking the streets, and offering something that would now be free: eternal life through the Son. The "black clouds of God's wrath," as Edwards termed it, would be absent until the last breath would be exhaled on the cross, the skies would become dark, and an earthquake happened. When God turned his back on his own Son there had taken place an exhibition of love on the grandest scale.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1130
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)