Excerpt
“Jonathan Edwards is in a class by himself in American history, perhaps in the history of Christendom” (p. xi).
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About the Book
In his essay The End for Which God Created the World, the great theologian Jonathan Edwards proclaimed that God's ultimate end is the manifestation of his glory in the highest happiness of his creatures.
Pastor John Piper has devoted his years of ministry to exploring the implications of this stunning truth for life and ministry. Understanding that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him has made all the difference for John Piper-and can transform your life as well.
Here Piper passionately demonstrates the relevance of Edwards's ideals for the personal and public lives of Christians today through his own book-length introduction to Edwards's The End for Which God Created the World. This book also contains the complete essay supplemented by almost a hundred of Piper's insightful explanatory notes. The result is a powerful and persuasive presentation of the things that matter most in the Christian life.
Hardcover 1998; Paperback 2006
Crossway Books (Wheaton, Illinois)
Table of Contents
Part One – A Personal Encounter with Jonathan Edwards by John Piper
Chapter 1. The End for Which God Created the World Why Publish an Old Book?
A Personal and Public Concern
Chapter 2. Jonathan Edwards, The Man and His Life
Learning from an Unmodern Evangelical
Chapter 3. Jonathan Edwards, A Mind in Love with God
The Private Life of a Modern Evangelical
Chapter 4. Jonathan Edwards, Enjoying God and the Transformation of Culture
The Public Life of a Modern Evangelical
Part Two – The End for Which God Created the World by Jonathan Edwards
A Note on How to Read – The End for Which God Created the World
Concerning the Text Used in This Edition of – The End for Which God Created the World
Introduction: Containing Explanations of Terms and General Positions
Chapter 1. Wherein Is Considered What Reason Teaches Concerning This Affair
- Section 1. Some things observed in general which reason dictates
- Section 2. Some further observations concerning those things which reason leads us to suppose God aimed at in the creation of the world
- Section 3. Wherein it is considered how, on the supposition of God’s making the aforementioned things his last end, he manifests a supreme and ultimate regard to himself in all his works
- Section 4. Some objections considered, which may be made against the reasonableness of what has been said of God making himself his last end
Chapter 2. Wherein It Is Inquired What Is to Be Learned from Holy Scriptures Concerning God’s Last End in the Creation of the World
- Section 1. The Scriptures represent God as making himself his own last end in the creation of the world
- Section 2. Wherein some positions are advanced concerning a just method of arguing in this affair from what we find in the Holy Scriptures
- Section 3. Particular texts of Scripture which show that God’s glory is an ultimate end of the creation
- Section 4. Places of Scripture that lead us to suppose that God created the world for his name, to make his perfections known; and that he made it for his praise
- Section 5. Places of Scripture from whence it may be argued that communication of good to the creature was one thing which God had in view as an ultimate end of the creation of the world
- Section 6. Wherein is considered what is meant by the glory of God and the name of God in Scripture, when spoken of as God’s end in his works
- Section 7. Showing that the ultimate end of the creation of the world is but one, and what that one end is
Translations
Indonesian
Publisher: Penerbit Momentum (Momentum Christian Literature)
ISBN: 979-3292-36-4
Korean
Publisher: Revival and Reformation Press
ISBN: 89-88614-16-X
Portuguese
Publisher: Editora Cultura Crista
ISBN: 8576221349
Spanish
Publisher: Editorial Unilit
Purchase: Christianbook.com
ISBN: 978-85-8038-004-0
Related Resources
- God Is the Gospel (book)
- God’s Passion for His Glory (conference message)
- Is Jesus an Egomaniac? (conference message)
- The Pastor as Theologian (conference message)
- To Him be Glory Forevermore (sermon)
- God Created Us for His Glory (sermon)
About John Piper
John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is the author of more than 50 books including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist. John and his wife, Noël, have five children and twelve grandchildren.
Endorsements
"One studies the time and backgrounds of some men in order to understand them. Others have such rare greatness that one studies them in order to understand their times. . . . Jonathan Edwards was such an original." —Paul Ramsey, Editor of Edwards's ethical writings in the Yale critical edition
"No man is more relevant to the present condition of Christianity than Jonathan Edwards." —Martyn Lloyd-Jones
"The western church . . . much of it drifting, enculturated, and infected with cheap grace . . . desperately needs to hear Edwards's challenge." —Charles Colson, Founder, Prison Fellowship and the Colson Center for Christian Worldview
"[Edwards] speaks with an insight into science and psychology so much ahead of his time that our own can hardly be said to have caught up with him." — Perry Miller, Former Harvard Historian
"One of the most holy, humble and heavenly minded men that the world has seen since the apostolic age." —Ashbel Green, 1829, Former President of the College of New Jersey
". . . the profoundest reasoner, and the greatest divine . . . that America ever produced." —Samuel Davies, 1759
"[Edwards] was a man who put faithfulness to the Word of God before every other consideration." —Iain Murray, Edwards's Biographer
"The disappearance of Edwards's [God-entranced] perspective in American Christian history has been a tragedy." —Mark A. Noll, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History, University of Notre Dame
"Edwards's book, The End for Which God Created the World [is] . . . unsurpassed in terms of its theological grandeur." —David Brand, author, Edwards Scholar
