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Rhetorical Analysis Of Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God

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“Persuasion is often more effectual than force” – Aesop. The word persuasion is defined as the act of convincing the listener to think or act in a particular way, or attempting to inspire or challenge opinions or views. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards is a sermon that was formed using persuasion as its biggest tool. This sermon, or religious speech, describes the tragedies that will happen to sinners, from depicting an angry God to the horrors of an afterlife spent in Hell. After listening to the six hour oratory, many people were said to have been horrified and even released screams at the text being recited to them. Jonathan Edward’s use of vivid imagery, personification, and logical thinking based on his audience …show more content…

Take, for example, Edward’s relation between the wrath and a bow and arrow; again mentioning that it is only held back by God’s pleasure and can be released at any time, conveying to the listener that they can be struck at any time if they continue on the sinful path they are on. Another example is his comparison between great rivers behind a flood gate and God’s wrath; this paints an image in the listener’s mind of the amount of power that can build against someone due to the continuation of sin. “If God should only withdraw his hand from the flood gate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God would rush forth….” These pictures that are painted throughout the sermon allow the powerful forces at hand to have a visual image to better relay how terrifying God’s wrath can be towards sinners. Words don’t always make a difference, but a picture can make the words have a reality to …show more content…

First, he builds the point that all sin builds up against you and the wrath related with that can be released at any time which is a completely logical point based on an audience who both believe in God and Hell. Next, he points out that you will suffer in front of the inhabitants of Heaven, and this particular audience would never want to be humiliated in front of such an esteemed group. Last, he compares sinners to those who have achieved salvation by mentioning how the saved will be feasting while the sinners will be suffering. “To see so many others feasting, while you are pining and perishing!” These people, like any others, would prefer to be among the better people. These logical points continue based upon the audience to further gain their belief in a better

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Oh, my cursed foolishness!”, and “The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present…” In fact, the word “wrath” is repeated an astonishing 51 times in the sermon. Another word repeated throughout the sermon is “restraint”. For example, “By the mere pleasure of God, I mean his sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation, hindered by no manner of difficulty…” and “God restrains their wickedness by his mighty power, as he does the raging waves of the troubled sea…” By repeating the word, Edwards convinces the audience how perilous their situation is that they convert while God is still showing “restraint” so they do not experience the wrath of

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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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