It’s easy for some people to become “so heavily minded they’re of no earthly good,” while others are more likely to be too earthly minded to be of no heavenly good. Scripture points us to a middle path, a way to live between the two worlds. Stehpen J. Nichols sheds light on this path through a collection of sermons by Jonathan Edwards in Heaven on Earth. |
Through seven brief chapters Dr. Nichols explores a handful
of Jonathan Edwards’s sermons in an effort to explain what it means to live on
earth with a vision of heaven. It includes themes of pilgrimage, citizenship,
just action, waiting, and true happiness found in God’s purposes for mankind.
The book also includes an introduction on how to read Edwards’ sermons, and an
appendix containing an abridged version of the sermon “Heaven Is a World of
Love.”
This is a book that gets better as it goes, which
makes its short length disappointing. I especially found the final two chapters
to be insightful and though-provoking. Readers unfamiliar with Jonathan Edwards
will learn much about his life as application of what he taught. While not an
academically sophisticated work, Heaven on Earth will challenge every
reader to make practical use of the theological truths it describes.
