(upbeat music) - Well, it is no secret that Jonathan Edwards has shaped you profoundly, Pastor John. And as we heard earlier in the week, back in episode number 554, you explained a little bit about how and why that has happened. And Andy writes in to ask this. Pastor John, if you could ask Jonathan Edwards one question, what would you ask him?

- Well, I'm assuming that these answers to APJ should be longer than 30 seconds. - Right, yes. - So I'm going to fudge on the question and instead of answering what one question would you ask Edwards, I'm going to answer what one kind of question would you ask Edwards and then give a bunch of examples and fill up the time we're supposed to take.

I would not ask Edwards anything about theology. Not because it isn't important. It has been the most important source of inspiration and insight for me outside the Bible, more than anybody. Edwards is at the top of that list. The reason I wouldn't ask him about his theology is that I think he has been so full and so clear on what he thinks theologically that if he hasn't written about it, then it's probably not important to him and he doesn't want to talk about it.

And if it's not plain there, I doubt that he can improve on it. And so I'm not going to go there with him because I think he's done us the great service of putting it in books and he should expect that I would read them. So that's not the direction my questions are going to go.

I'm going to go where 18th century Puritan type preachers were not willing to go, namely about their private life. You will read two volumes or 25 Yale volumes of Edwards' works and find almost zero references to his family or his personal life or his struggles or anything. So I'm going to put him on the spot big time if I get a chance to meet him.

And he probably will not answer a bunch of these just because the way 18th century people are wired, but I'm going to ask him anyway. Mr. Edwards, you had 11 children. Was that intentional? Did you want 11 children? Could you have had more? Mr. Edwards, it's simply astonishing and wonderful that all your children walked with the Lord, as far as I know, till the day they died.

Can you give me any insight into what your relationship with them was like? Since you have the reputation of working in your study 13 hours a day, can you help me understand a little bit of how you discipled your children? Mr. Edwards, can you describe any of your own battles with temptation to sin?

I'm thinking about sexual lust and anger and pride. What were your battles like? How did you mortify these sins? Mr. Edwards, did you ever have misgivings about the pattern of your parish ministry, giving so much time to study and writing? How did you make those choices in a God-honoring way, whether to write or read and study, or whether to visit and evangelize and disciple?

Mr. Edwards, would you tell me about some of the sweetest times you enjoyed in communion with God? What were they like? Were there patterns of devotion that led into those times? I know you've written just a little bit in your personal narrative about a horse ride once, but you didn't say much more after that.

I'd love to know what your pattern of devotional life, or, Mr. Edwards, would you tell me about your devotional Bible reading, or did you even distinguish between reading your Bible for personal enjoyment of God and reading it for study of doctrine or scripture in general? How did you mingle prayer with Bible reading?

Were they separate? Did you pause? Did you have lists in your prayer? Did you have a pattern of prayer, a time for prayer? How did it look? Mr. Edwards, what books did you consult most often in your study of the Bible? How important was a concordance to you? I don't even know if you had a Greek concordance and a Hebrew concordance.

Did you? Did you use them? I'm just amazed at how much scripture you quote. (laughs) On any topic, you string 10 texts together and I just wonder how you found them, or are they all in your head? Mr. Edwards, you are known for being in touch with cultural currents of the day, like philosophy.

How did you include reading of John Locke or other philosophers in your pastoral work, in your study? Was there a plan for that? Or did, when a book was published, you just happened to kick back and read it? Or how did you mingle cultural reading with theological study? Mr.

Edwards, would you be surprised that thousands of people, scholars, pastors, lay people in the 21st century are studying your works 250 years later? Thank you, Mr. Edwards, for all that you have given us. Very insightful, yes. It would have been great to get more of the personal detail from Edwards' life and perhaps someday we will know more about him.

Thank you, Pastor John, and for the question, Andy. And thank you for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast. We now have over 60 hours of episodes available for you to listen to right now on all sorts of issues. You can search through and browse our new landing page to find those episodes.

Go to DesiringGod.org and at the top of the page, click on the tab that says More and then click on Ask Pastor John. There you can search hundreds of past episodes, you can get the free apps, and you can ask John Piper your most puzzling questions, all of that, and all made possible because of our generous financial donors behind the mission of Desiring God who make this podcast possible.

And I know you're out there listening, so thank you. Well, does God want me most to be happy or to be holy? That's a question from Josh tomorrow. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you then. (silence) (silence) (silence)