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No one has pushed back against this hideous conception of the eternal state more energetically and persuasively than Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758). It was Edwards who first opened my eyes to the fact that the joy of heaven will be ever-increasing, incessantly expansive, ceaselessly intensified — that the almost unimaginable delight that every believer will experience upon entering the presence of our great, triune God is not a one-time disclosure that brings a singular surge of spiritual satisfaction. Edwards insisted that with each passing moment will come a greater revelation of some heretofore unseen and unexplored aspect of who God is that will serve to kindle the fire of joy and fascination in our hearts. Edwards appealed to this truth about heaven in making his case that the essence of true religion consists in what he called holy affections. His point is that we learn the quintessential nature of anything by looking closely at its highest and purest expression.