Examples Of Sinners In The Hand Of An Angry God

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In order to convince the people in Colonial America to follow his teachings, George Whitefield gave many sermons across the colonies by using rhetorical strategies and persuasive techniques in his sermon, “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God.” One strategy that is used early on, shock tactics, hooks the listeners in and scares them into living out his teaching. “Neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them…” This quotation uses a dark depiction of hell that will stay in the listener's mind so they will be afraid of going to hell and listen to Whitefield so they too may learn how to change and go to Heaven. Another technique is imagery, which can be found frequently throughout the sermon. …show more content…

It also touches on the idea of changing your ways quickly, because you never know at what point you will die, and nobody wanted to go to hell without a chance for salvation. A final example of a technique used is a play on guilt which can be found near the end of the sermon, “How awful is it to be left behind at such a