5 New Year’s Resolutions

5 Minutes in Church History with Stephen Nichols

Ligonier Ministries

Christianity, History, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 27 December 2023

⏱️ 5 minutes

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Summary

At the start of a new year, many people like to set goals for the year ahead. Today, Stephen Nichols shares several of Jonathan Edwards' life resolutions, made when he was a young man far from home.

Read the transcript: https://www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com/5-new-years-resolutions/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to five minutes in church history as we continue in a holiday season. Coming up soon is New Year's Day and you might be setting
0:16.5	about making for yourselves New Year's resolutions. Well, let's return to someone we have talked about many times, our friend Jonathan Edwards, and
0:27.6	his resolutions and pull out five of Edwards' resolutions for us to be thinking about as we look forward to this new
0:37.4	year ahead.
0:39.4	So let's put these into context.
0:41.3	Edwards was born in 1703 and from the years 1716 to 1720 he was
0:51.1	working on his bachelor's degree at what would come to be called Yale University.
0:57.0	Yes, go ahead and do the math and you'll see he's a teenager getting his college degree but don't let that hold you back
1:05.0	because he's also a teenager pursuing his master's degree so from 1720 to 1723 his final teen years before he becomes 20 he is getting his masters
1:18.8	from Yale after he does his sort of coursework and in between writing his thesis, Edwards actually
1:27.8	leaves his beloved colony of Connecticut and heads down to New York, actually to New York City to a home right
1:37.9	along the docks and he pastors for a brief moment, a Presbyterian church as I like to remind folks Edwards who was
1:47.8	a Congregationalist nearly all of his life began his career as a Presbyterian in New York City and ended his career as a
1:55.6	Presbyterian at Princeton. Nevertheless, let's go back to 1722, 1723.
2:04.4	Edwards is in New York City, long way from home
2:07.5	and far away from the sleepy town of East Windsor, Connecticut. He is a young man with a whole life ahead of
2:15.8	him and he has no idea what God has in store for him or what he will be doing.
2:20.8	And in that moment he sits down and writes for himself not simply
2:26.2	resolutions for a new year ahead but resolutions for his life. Well I'm going to pull out five of them from the 30s of his resolutions.
2:38.8	So let's start with number 30. Resolved, Edwards rights, to strive to my utmost every week to be brought
2:46.9	higher in religion and to a higher exercise of grace than I was the week before. Edwards longs for himself to be making
2:56.2	spiritual progress and so he wants to work at it every week every week continual improvement as a resolution.
	...

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