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Rhetorical Analysis Of Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God

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Jonathan Edwards bases his sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," on the words of Deuteronomy XXXII.35 when Moses is warning his people about the power of God. During the time period of Jonathan Edwards’ sermon, many people were abandoning the idea of God and church; as these people were leaving the faith, they did not understand the difficulty of life without the wisdom and strength of God. Humans lack a knowledge of God and are limited due to the fact in which they do not understand His full potential of power. Some have confidence in their own strength and wisdom and do not believe they need the guidance of Christ. The final reason humans are limited in their knowledge of God is they do not understand the reality of Hell. Edwards intended his sermon to have multiple influences on his audience; he intended to show man that he must fear God, while also recognizing that man must take advantage …show more content…

This is where Deuteronomy comes into play. When Edwards is explaining the power of God, he bases it off of Deuteronomy which is when Moses warns the people of the power of God. We will forever fail to understand salvation until we accept human limitations. In Genesis 6:5 it says, "The Lord saw that human evil was growing more and more throughout the Earth, and he was deeply grieved about that." Jonathan Edwards realizes this and artfully crafts a sermon to change this growing epidemic. By alluding to Heaven and Hell, Edwards hoped to contrast the two with the idea of fear and hope. However, Edwards goal was not to completely defeat the hope of the people, because at the end of the sermon he brings a lighter approach. He ensures them that as long as they accept the help of God they will be successful. Human limitations can only be surpassed when one comes to reality and begins to listen to God. Once one understands the power of God, they will learn that without him it is impossible to escape Hell

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Jonathan Edwards was a great American theologian who was an eighteenth century Puritan preacher who delivered a six hour sermon in 1741, Connecticut to a congregation of Puritans. The purpose was to convince the congregation into seeking salvation by accepting God and to convince the unholy if they continued their ways they would end up in hell. To convince his audience Edwards uses rhetorical devices such as metaphor repetition and bandwagon to invoke fear into his audience. During Edwards Sermon he uses metaphor when describing God. In his sermon he states that God is a higher being who's hand is holding us, the sinners, above the fiery pits of hell.

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He gave this sermon to a congregation of people during the time of the Great Awakening, a period of religious revival. Edwards point in presenting this sermon was the try and persuade the people that were sinners to repent. Jonathan Edwards used vivid and threatening imagery and metaphors in order to deliberately stimulate religious change in his sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Jonathan Edwards used this great imagery and metaphors in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God in order to try to lead the members of the congregation to become more interested in the church and fear God.

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The most important feature of a sermon is the application of a scripture text to the personal experience of the listener. Especially this last part is what reduced many of Edwards’s listeners to tears. In Edwards’s sermon the scripture text is “Their foot shall slide in due time”. This meant that eventually, all sinners would be punished by God, which could be at any time. Edwards speaks of a wrathfull God, a God who by Puritan standards is considered forgiving for not letting all of humanity fall into the deepest pits of hell.

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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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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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There were a lot of American men who had perfect influence on people’s mind of American society. Jonathan Edward and Benjamin Franklin were two of those writers, who were the most important and intellectual men, who left behind many admirable works for the future society. In spite of them being so intelligent, they have some different and similar views in terms of morality, personal responsibility, human nature, and limits of human knowledge and inform people how to live a better life. In addition, they were different in terms of religious inclinations. Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan Edward were both philosopher and had similar views in terms of informing people the right way to live in order to be successful and get salvation by reforming their mind in their life.

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Edwards saw God’s power as something the world would not be capable of handling. Edwards used God’s power as a threat of destruction. Jonathan Edwards concluded his sermon by revealing his attitude of a merciful God through an allusion. “The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation; let everyone fly out of Sodom. Haste and escape for your lives...escape to the

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Jonathan Edwards, a preacher, wrote the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". In the sermon, Edwards argues that everyone was out of God's favor and they needed to return to a righteous path. The tone of the sermon is indignant and authoritative. Jonathan Edwards uses imagery, logos, and pathos to encourage the unconverted audience to turn to God in order to escape his wrath. Elemental imagery is used in the sermon to inspire fear in the audience.

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Edwards makes many allusions in his sermon talking about the bible, so that people could relate. For example, "You are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. " People can relate to the serpent from the story

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Rhetorical Analysis of Jonathan edwards’s Sinners in the hand of an angry god: jeremiad Jonathan edwards, is known as one of the most important religious figures of the great awakening, edwards became known for his zealous sermon “sinners at the hand of an angry god”. During his sermon he implies that if his congregation does not repent to christ they are in “danger of great wrath and infinite misery”. Throughout this sermon edwards uses literary devices such as strong diction, powerful syntax and juxtaposition to save his congregation from eternal damnation. Throughout Edwards’s sermon the use of turgid diction is exceedingly prevalent.

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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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