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a response to Andrew's post on "divine light"

October 24th, 2006 | 1 min read

By Keith E. Buhler

"Jonathan Edwards argues in his sermon A Divine and Supernatural Light that God will, from time to time, provide a child of His with a flash of insight and understanding of divine things. He uses as his text Matthew 16:17 where Peter confesses Christ and Jesus answers that he is blessed because the Father in heaven has revealed it to him. Peter, here, Edwards argues, has a “sense” of the divine excellency that overpowers him, couples with his reason and zeal and causes him to burst forth in his accurate confession. Edwards carefully delineates that it is not the faculty of reason but the sense of the heart that receives this divine light. However, he also demonstrates that this light does not overrule reason - in fact, it is a rational thing to experience."

Mr. Selby, a question:

A common objection to the possibility of such "senses of the heart", or if not their possibility than their feasability for being a useful part of the Christian life, is that a) they seem subjective, and b) there is nothing to prevent the dreadful, and common, experience of a person claiming to have received a divine sense and going on therefore to do some dastardly evil or to preach some old heresy.

Does Edwards respond to this objection or concern?