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Jonathan Edwards Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God

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Anyone who does not convert to the Puritan faith will go to Hell. This is the blatant message in Jonathan Edwards’ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. The pastors preach to the congregation aimed to teach of the dangers of sin and the horrid views of fire and brimstone. The constant citations of the Bible, combined with the immense imagery, create a picture of the future of sinners. Edwards protrudes these ideas of eternal damnation using three keys strategies: invoking fear, quoting the Bible (biblical allusions), and defining God’s ultimate power. Invoking fear is Edwards most successful tactics in this piece. He depicts God as an angry being who will cast everyone into the pits of Hell whenever he pleases. One of the most powerful invocations is, “They are already under a sentence of condemnation to Hell. They do not only justly deserve to be cast down thither, but the sentences of the law of God.. is gone out against them, and stands against them; so that they are …show more content…

He states, “Therefore, let everyone that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation: Let everyone fly out of Sodom” (Edwards 220). These lines refer to a Bible story about God condemning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because they have been filled with evil. God only promises them salvation if he can find only a few well-intentioned people left in the cities. God then sends angels to live among the people and find the good in them. Edwards, in his sermon, is doing what the angels were sent to do. He is warning the Puritans of their damnation, should they not change their sinful ways. By making this allusion to a piece the congregation will have already read, the argument being made is strengthened and seems much more realistic because it can be referenced to the Bible, which was the basis of Puritan

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“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is a sermon written by Jonathan Edwards about God. For most people back in the 1700’s, their whole life revolved around God. Edwards thought that the people just needed a wake up call to remind them of the consequences of acting against God. He pretty much said in his sermon that if we don't turn back to God, we’re going to hell, which definitely got many people’s attention. In "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," Edwards uses several rhetorical devices and appeals that contribute to the effectiveness of his sermon and help achieve his purpose.

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Edwards' distinct diction is put to work to descriptively describe the power of the Lord and the unpleasant Hellfire that awaits the sinners. Such words efficiently infiltrate into the minds of his audience and scare them greatly. Edwards held his congregation locked up with his assurance of eternal damnation if the correct course of action was not taken. The church assembly felt the great impact of his rhetorical tactics and had the fear of the power of God on their minds.

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The Puritans were a religious group who believed in total depravity and an unconditional election. This meant that mankind was solely dependent on God for salvation, and believed that there was absolutely no good within the world except through Him. Those who were of “the chosen people” were predestined to go to heaven and only had a glimpse of their faith through God’s signs and wonders. Jonathan Edwards, however, struggled with this idea. Throughout his childhood, he could not perceive how a loving and just God could send only a certain select to Heaven and the rest to Hell.

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Often in Sermons ministers/pastors persuade their audience to behave in a spiritual or moral fashion. Such is the case in “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” by Johnathan Edwards where he says “sinners should repent for their sins or burn in the eternal pit of hell. If sinners repent, they will receive eternal life.” God destroys sinners, but is merciful to the repentant. Edwards wanted to impact his audience by appealing to the fears pity and vanity.

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Jonathan Edwards’s sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and Anne Bradstreet’s “Upon the Burning of Our House” seem at first glance quite similar to one another regarding context, however, after taking a closer look, it becomes apparent that there are some substantial differences. These differences cannot be understood without the knowledge of cultural context concerning the Puritan belief system and their lifestyle. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was written with the sole purpose of scaring and intimidating the people that purtinans believed to be sinners. Edwards’s work contributed to a movement called “The Great Awakening”. It’s objective was to make the so-called ‘sinners’ aware of their wrongdoings and compel them to repent.

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He testified that God’s anger is greater on those who are standing on earth, over the ones being tormented in hell, compelling his audience with fear. As he proceeded to develop his argument he compared humans with worms, snakes, and spiders, loathsome, abhorrent creatures. Verifying once more the Machiavellian maneuvers Edwards tried to impose on the evangelical church. Consequently he affirmed God’s will is the only reason sinners are not being tormented in hell, creating an

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Those descriptions of anger are grandiloquent which are more impressive and it also places stress on the audiences. Edwards thinks Puritans are sinful that they are not as pure as they were like. He wants to use repetition of anger and exaggerated descriptions of Hell to tell people that God is angry about them and they could be put in hell at any time if they do not do the conversion. Besides using dictions,

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One of his well-known sermon is “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” preached at the meeting house in the village of Enfield, Connecticut, on Sunday, July 8, 1741, at the height of the great awakening. In this sermon, Edwards focused on the consequences of leading a sinful life, the power of God and repenting of ones sins, in order to be saved from hell. The purpose behind this piece of writing was not to terrorize or dismay the hearers, but to make them repent and believe in God again. This piece was aimed at those who lacked belief in God as well as churches.

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It is explained that God is the only one who is able to save people from going to Hell. Edwards wants people to imagine how evil and distressed life would be without Gods love and mercy. He explains that to not burn in Hell people need to ask for forgiveness from God, experience Gods mercy, and continuously practice the Lords word. Edwards really lets the message of “Gods wrath” sink into our minds to show how mighty, powerful, and capable the Lord is. The Lord gives us many opportunities to rely on Him and when we need his love and mercy the most.

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Edwards starts of the middle of the sermon by saying," The God that holds you over the pit of Hell, much as one holds a spider, or some other loathsome insect over the fire; abhors you, and it dreadfully provoked. " The imagine of the members of congregation being a bug makes them feel disgusted with themselves by the way God is disgusted with them to something they can relate to. Edwards then writes," O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in; it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide, and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God."

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This interpretation of God becomes the reference point for the rest of the sermon. All of the commands and accusations in the sermon rely on Edwards' portrait of God as an angry, all-powerful being that has no obligation to have mercy upon his creations. By convincing his congregation of God's wrathful character, Edwards is then able to convince the congregation that they are in danger of damnation and severe punishment at the hand of this wrathful God. Edwards characterizes God as a being that "abhors" mortal men and "looks upon [them] as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire" (200). Edwards then uses scriptural references to support his claims about the nature of God.

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It was during the Great Awakening, when powerful preachers like Jonathan Edwards decided to intensify their ways of broadcasting their religious seriousness. The idea of secularism and religious neglect had been the cause for this religious movement. In his sermon, from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Edwards used strategies to guilt, persuade, and redirect the “sinners” into conversion, and to give a wakeup call to those who overemphasize their own worthiness as holy citizens. Throughout his sermon, Edwards used a variety of figurative language like imagery, metaphors, personification, and allusions to reveal his attitude towards “sinners” as unworthy and insignificant in the eyes of God, and his attitude towards God as being enraged

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"The God that holds you over the pit of Hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you..." God's hate is compared for how one might hate a spider, and as a spider is disposed of harshly, so is a sinners. In a spider's place in a human household, one is justified in being afraid, Fear is the most prevalent appeal throughout the sermon. "O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in!" Edwards fear to be a motivator in converting to Puritanism.

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The majority of this sermon is dedicated to the audience whom Edwards views with repulsion. He uses imagery to describe the awful Hell that he believes the people in the congregation will end up in and calls it a “great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath” (Paragraph 8). He illustrates the never ending state of Hell in order to frighten everyone in the audience. He sees each and every person as damned and honestly believes they deserve be sent to Hell to burn for all eternity. He feels no sympathy for them because they are completely free to do what they want and he knows that what they do with their free will is commit sin.

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