Distinguishing Marks

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God. 1 JOHN 4:1

In September 1741, at the height of the awakening, Edwards preached at the Yale commencement to an audience that included many of the movement’s fiercest critics. The address was published as The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God. The situation demanded it. The revival had produced genuine conversions and also outcry, fainting, visions, itinerant preachers denouncing settled ministers, and men claiming direct messages from God. One party declared the whole thing a work of the Spirit; the other declared it hysteria. Edwards refused both, and set about supplying tests.

Nine things that prove nothing

The first half of the argument is negative, and it is the more original half. Edwards lists things which, contrary to what both parties assumed, are no evidence either way. That a work is unusual, or conducted in ways not seen before, proves nothing. God is not obliged to repeat His methods, and novelty is neither a recommendation nor an objection. That it produces bodily effects — tears, trembling, groaning, fainting, collapse — proves nothing. Edwards granted that a real apprehension of eternal things might well overwhelm a frame of flesh and blood. He also granted that such effects can be produced by suggestion, crowd excitement and imagination. Therefore they settle nothing. That there is a great deal of noise and talk about religion proves nothing. That people are strongly impressed in their imaginations proves nothing. That the preaching dwells much on terror proves nothing. That some who are affected are self-deceived proves nothing about the rest. And — this is the point his critics could not accept — that the movement contains errors, imprudences and even scandals proves nothing about its origin. Edwards observed that no revival in Scripture or history has ever been free of human folly, because revivals happen among human beings. The corruption of converts is not evidence against their conversion; it is evidence that they have not yet been perfected.

Five things that prove a great deal

Having cleared the ground, he takes his positive tests directly from 1 John 4, and they are as useful today as they were in 1741. Does it raise the esteem of Jesus? Where a work leads people to a higher view of Christ as the Son of God and the only Saviour, that is a mark Satan will not counterfeit, because it is against his interest.

Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. 1 JOHN 4:2

Does it work against sin and worldliness? A movement that draws people away from worldly lusts and the pursuits of this life is not being driven by the god of this world, who has no interest in emptying his own kingdom. Does it increase regard for Scripture? Genuine work of the Spirit establishes people in the Word. Anything that leads people to prize their own impressions above the written Word — however spiritual it sounds — is moving the wrong way. Does it lead to truth? The Spirit of truth convinces people of things that are actually so: their own sinfulness, the reality of judgment, the sufficiency of Christ. Does it produce love to God and man? This is the mark Edwards weighted most heavily. Not excitement, not zeal, not activity — love. And he noted the counterfeit precisely: a fierce, censorious, divisive spirit that condemns other Christians while claiming superior spirituality is not the Spirit of God, whatever else it may be.

Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 1 JOHN 4:7

The lasting value of this little book is its refusal of the easy verdict. Both parties in 1741 wanted a single judgment: it is all God, or it is all delusion. Edwards insisted on the harder and more accurate position — that in any real move of God among real people, genuine grace and human excess will be mixed, and the work of discernment is to separate them rather than to endorse or condemn the whole. That remains the mature Christian posture, and it is uncomfortable in exactly the same way today.

Judging works, not hearts

Edwards attached an important limitation to everything in this chapter, and ignoring it has done a great deal of harm. The marks are given for judging a work — a movement, a ministry, a general phenomenon — and for examining oneself. They are not given for pronouncing on the spiritual state of individuals.

He was emphatic about this because the awakening had produced exactly that abuse. Confident young converts were declaring particular ministers unconverted, dividing congregations on the strength of their own discernment, and treating their impressions about other people’s souls as revelation. Edwards regarded this as one of the most damaging things that happened in those years, and he said so at real cost to his standing with the movement’s enthusiasts.

Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts. 1 CORINTHIANS 4:5

His reasoning was consistent with everything else he taught. If the heart is deceitful above all things and unknowable even to its owner, then our confidence about someone else’s inner state is absurd. We see conduct; we do not see the soul. God alone reads hearts, and He has not delegated the function.

For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. 1 SAMUEL 16:7

This does not mean we are forbidden all judgment. Edwards was clear that we may and must assess teaching, evaluate conduct, and exercise discipline in the church where sin is open. What is forbidden is the confident verdict on another’s standing before God. There is a rule of thumb implicit in his practice that is worth adopting. Apply the strictest tests to yourself and the most charitable reading to others. Most of us do the reverse instinctively, and call it discernment.

Charity suffereth long, and is kind …beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 1 CORINTHIANS 13:4, 7

Believeth all things, hopeth all things. That is not naivety. It is the posture of someone who knows he cannot see what only God can see, and who has decided which way to lean in the absence of certainty.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Apply the five positive tests to any movement or ministry you are assessing — including your own church, and including yourself. 2. Stop treating manifestations as evidence in either direction. Ask what they produce over five years, not what they look like in the moment.

3. Where you have dismissed a whole work because of its excesses, reconsider. Separate the wheat from the chaff instead of burning the field. 4. Watch for the counterfeit of the fifth mark: zeal that condemns other believers is not love, however spiritual it sounds. 5. Ask whether your own spiritual experiences have left you esteeming Christ more highly and loving people more truly. If not, hold them loosely.

A PRAYER

Lord, give me discernment without cynicism, and openness without gullibility. I am prone to one or the other and rarely to both at once.

Where You are at work, let me not oppose You because the packaging offends me. Where there is deception, let me not embrace it because the feeling was strong.

Test my own experience by Your marks: does it exalt Christ, turn me from the world, drive me to Your Word, lead me into truth, and make me love?

If it does not, I would rather know. Amen.