Catholic apologist Dave Armstrong is now arguing Jonathan Edwards believed the saints in heaven see what’s happening on earth. Therefore, Dr. White should consider granting the validity of at least this basic aspect of Armstrong’s argument for intercessory prayer to the saints:
“Jonathan Edwards would wholeheartedly agree with me on this general point of awareness of saints in heaven, of the earth, and disagree with James White.”
“White can dismiss, if he likes, my exegetical and theological arguments as the raving of an unregenerate, ignorant Catholic apostate (that’s what he thinks of me), but surely he can’t dismiss Jonathan Edwards so easily.”
This is desperate logic. James White is a Reformed Baptist. Jonathan Edwards was not. A theological argument is not valid simply because one of the greatest minds in church history speculates on the state of the awareness of those in heaven. Dr. White is under no compulsion to grant the validity of every point Edwards made. One can understand why Armstrong would argue this way: he is under compulsion to believe the theological dogmas defined by his church, despite what the Bible says contrarily.
Edwards viewed many aspects of Roman Catholicism as darkness and gross delusions. Edwards says, “Many nations are under popish darkness, and are in such gross delusions that they worship the Virgin Mary, and a great multitude of dead men, whom their church has canonized for saints; some real saints, and others abominably wicked men… they worship the relics of dead saints; such as pieces of their bones, their teeth, their hair, pieces of their garments, and the like. And innumerable other such foolish delusions are they under” [The Works of Jonathan Edwards II:634].
