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Sinners In The Hand Of An Angry God By Jonathan Edwards

708 Words3 Pages

Starting in the 1730s, a movement formally known as the Great Awakening was born. This marked the beginning of a religious and spiritual revival that was a direct response to Enlightenment ideals which highlighted logic instead of spirituality. A leader in this movement was Jonathan Edwards; a theologian that delivered one of the most influential sermons of its time; a sermon titled Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God. In this sermon, Edwards employed the use of cherry picking from a credible source and the use of a threatening tone to convey his message - that one would be saved from the wrathful judgment of God if they obediently followed the Bible and its teachings. Edwards employs a tactic of choosing the best evidence out of credible …show more content…

It is cited periodically throughout the text, with a few of the verses being “Psalm 73:18,19”, “Isa 66:15”, and “Revelations 19:15”. This galvanizes the reader to listen to what message the author is conveying; this message stating that the only way to be saved from God’s wrath is to present compliance, respect, duty. Moreover, the Authors' improved credibility removes the mistrust that occurs when listening to a speaker who is rather harsh with their wording. By making his words a reflection of God, it removes the hesitation in believing it. Edwards also employs a style of cherry picking during his speech which enables him to be …show more content…

Diction choices such as “hell”, “anger”, “wrath”, and “misery” are all signs of a threatening tone. These particular tone words, and others used throughout the text, force the audience to accept God’s judgment and modify their current lifestyles. The Implication of hell similarly bolsters the scare tactics in this message; thus forcing the congregation to keep their lives nevermore the same. Furthermore, Edwards employs a structural organization that makes it so the last paragraph of the essay serves the idea of a threatening tone as it states a final warning that “every one that is out of christ” is waiting for “wrath to come.” This final warning serves as an ominous statement that frightens the audience into taking Edwards’ message to heart. Thus, forcing the idea that there is a way to be saved from God's judgment; and that way is through the direct following of the principles and commandments outlined through the word of

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Held in lore of American protestantism, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” preached by Jonathan Edwards, is often considered the epitome of a fire and brimstone sermon. Using the thematic elements of eloquence and precisely created rhetorical devices, Edwards uses these resources to connect his audience to the pretentious, Puritan ordinances of “high church.” First, Edwards was cognizant of his surrounds and what his audience was familiar with in terms of setting. As a preacher on the Eastern seaboard, Edwards knew his audience understood the refuge of the mountains and the serenity in which they encapsulated. At the conclusion of his sermon, Edwards urges his audience to, “haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be

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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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Rhetorical Analysis Of Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God

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Johnathan Edwards wants sinners to truly visualize what is to come in his sermon "Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God". There is a great deal of imagery that is included, which is carried out through the use of similes comparing God's omnipotent wrath to many things, a call to action emphasizing the little time sinners have for salvation, as well as rhetorical questioning to highlight key points in his sermon. Edward points out distinct characteristics of his wrath, asserting that they are like "great waters [dammed] for the present, [increasing] more and more." He utilizes this technique in attempt to provide the audience with enough details to get a sense of God's anger towards the sinners. Stating that it is comparable to a flood gives reader a feeling of what is to come for them if they refuse to change the way they live their lives, which of course seems like an 'inconceivable' fate that no one should undergo.

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From Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God expresses the point that a parishioner should not fall away from the church unless they want to be permanently condemned to hell. Jonathan Edwards expresses his ideas through the usage of multiple persuasive techniques and different types of figurative language. This sermon puts fear into the congregation and this makes the parishioners not want to fall away from the church. Through Edwards utilization of figurative language, the picture of God's Wrath is painted clearly for the listeners of this sermon.

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Jonathan Edwards used imagery as well as pathos in his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” to achieve his purpose of persuading his congregation. In showing the way for his congregation Edwards first, has to use the pathos of fear to get his congregation to listen and care. Alongside with repetitive powerful imagery of hell and fire invoking a reaction among his congregation and turning them away from hell. However, none of that would matter if Edwards does not end with the uplifting image of love and hope showing what could be and that there is a path to “fly from the wrath to come.”

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Imagine everyone’s life was judged every second of everyday. By a greater power, God. And that greater power would hold someone over a pit of fire, because they committed a sin, would you commit a sin? Jonathan Edwards was a powerful fire-and-brimstone preacher during the Great Awakening and author of the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. Edwards uses a variety of metaphors in his writing, all metaphors have a strong effect on what Edwards experience during the Great Awakening.

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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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Sinner In The Hands Of An Angry God By Jonathan Edwards

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God isd holding himeself back on you but he is really angry. The thesis of the whole excerpt is to understand why yiu shouldnt do any bad things because god will get all furious with you, and will want you to hurt you because you shouldnt send. At the begining of his sermon edwards quote. That you were allowed to awake up again in this world after you cloed your eyes to sleep this efidence tells me that this appeal is pathose because it has sad emotion it makes you feel sad and hurt.

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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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Examples Of Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God

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In his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Jonathan Edwards attempted to convince his congregation that they must repent of their sins and return to religion. Around the time this sermon was made was the period of the “Great Awakening” where people in Western Europe, England, and America were going back to their religious ways. The people were getting too caught up in worldly matters like working on their farms and they needed a reminder to get back on the path of worshipping God. This is where itinerant preachers, like Jonathan Edwards, came in and traveled around to try and persuade people to focus more on god than on their own personal interests. A few of the persuasive techniques that Edwards used were hyperboles, repetition, similes, and emotional appeal.

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When Edwards says "O sinner!", it makes the members of the congregation feel like they are being singled out. The image of you being held over a bottomless pit by God made the congregation feel fearful, because they know the salvation is only temporary, and that they will inevitably fall into the pit "full of the fire of wrath." He then follows this up by saying," you have... nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment. " This give the congregation a feeling of hopelessness because they will have nothing to save them, and there is nothing they can do to convince God otherwise, This also uses the repetition of "nothing" and "you" to make them feel like they are worthless because those are the two words that are repeated the most, so if they can't remember anything else from this part, it will be those words.

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In crafting his highly effective sermon, Edwards utilizes his authority as a man of God and as an interpreter of the scriptures, a logical and direct organization of arguments, and violent imagery to convince his audience of the vengeance of God against man. Jonathan Edwards begins his sermon by quoting

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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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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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