"I make seeking my salvation the main business of my life." (editor, Perkins. 103).
             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 flood" fell, God would again judge the world by his own law. Notwithstanding, God's love was first shown to all inhabitants of the earth. When man rejected that love, judgement followed. As it is with any father, God does discipline his children. He disciplines, but with a loving hand. Edwards continually used phrases such as "always exposed to destruction," "sudden unexpected destruction," "anger and wrath of God," and "the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God." This does not present the New Testament message of Jesus' love.
             Prior to Jesus' birth in that small stable in Bethlehem, the o
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