Who does Jonathan Edwards think he is? If he is to preach to everyone about the divine light, he must surely have seen it. Yet, his vague doctrine makes it hard to truly distinguish whether he has actually experienced God or if he is fooling himself. He does assert that the spiritual and divine light “does not consist in any impression made upon the imagination” but rather that it is a “true sense of the divine excellency of the things revealed in the word of God.” Thus one does not believe that he knows God, but, instead, actually feels the connection. This sounds quite reverent. However, it is hard to determine what this “sense” to which he regularly refers is. How can one know that the sense he feels is not of the imagination, a yearning to label himself blessed? Perhaps, and most likely, Edwards had a desire to claim that he had seen God. There is no better way to prove his declaration than by proclaiming his experience to be the experience.

I find it difficult to differentiate between what is and is not divine light. If Edwards were to flip his two definitions, his doctrine would still seem just as plausible; the divine light is:

1. realizing one’s own sins,

2. seeing the image of god,

3. discovering new truths,

4. feeling Jesus’ suffering.

The diving light is not:

1. loving God,

2. granted to any status,

3. gained without effort.

His words are just a matter of opinion; they should not be taken as truths. Again, it makes sense that Edwards would promote his definition of the divine light. By doing so, it becomes quite easy for him to state that he has gotten the “most excellent and divine wisdom that any creature is capable of.”