Where and when did the phrase “sin against an eternal, infinite God deserves eternal, infinite punishment” develop?
The exact wording is modern, but the underlying idea developed in medieval Western theology and was systematized by Thomas Aquinas, then sharpened and popularized by Jonathan Edwards in the 18th century.
Medieval development:
- Medieval scholastics argued that the gravity of an offense is measured by the dignity of the one offended; since God’s majesty is infinite, sin against God has, in their terms, “infinite” demerit.
- Thomas Aquinas uses this framework when explaining why the punishment of hell is eternal: sin against the infinite God warrants a punishment proportioned to that “infinite” dignity, so the result is eternal punishment rather than merely finite suffering.
Jonathan Edwards’ formulation
- Jonathan Edwards explicitly argues that all sin against God is “infinitely heinous” and therefore deserves “infinite punishment,” using almost the same structure as the later slogan.
- In works like “The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners” and his treatise on original sin, he insists that because finite creatures cannot offer “infinite sorrow” or compensation, the infinite demerit of sin must be answered by an infinite (i.e., eternal) punishment or by Christ’s atonement.
Modern slogan form
- The specific phrase “sin against an eternal/infinite God deserves eternal/infinite punishment” appears in recent theological and apologetic writing as a compressed summary of this older argument, drawing directly on Aquinas’s and especially Edwards’s logic.
- So historically, the concept arises in scholastic theology (13th century), is strongly developed and rhetorically emphasized by Edwards (18th century), and the familiar slogan form crystallizes in contemporary evangelical discourse (20th–21st century) that paraphrases their reasoning.
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