It is 1741. The Enlightenment is spreading worldwide. The puritan people are leaving God. Johnathan Edwards gives a sermon on July 8th , 1741, trying to convince his fellow Puritan people to come back to God. He is going to try and accomplish this by giving his famous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God '.
At this point Edwards has grasped the attention of his listeners by using pathos to pertain to their emotions and feelings. Towards the end of the sermon his tone switches to one of reason in terms of not neglecting his words. He asks a series of rhetorical questions such as those who are unconverted and do not teach their children of Christ that they too will have to witness the wrath of God. As for literary devices such as metaphors, similes, and allegories, Edwards does not disappoint for his use of them most likely whipped a lot of Puritans back into their faith.
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.
Regina, your thread used several Scriptures to support your argument on the topic of “Advancement Thinking”, and it displayed your commitment to Christians Apologetics. In reading your thread you made the comment, “As Bush pointed out, man is made in the image of God. God is infinite in wisdom and knowledge. He has equipped us to make advancement in technology, science, medicine and many other areas. ”
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.
Smith presents an excellent reminder to preachers that their duty must be to respect God’s word and unite it with his assembly. The preacher must let the scripture characterize the doctrine and express it in a manner that influences the hearer. Doctrine eventually must inspire our living. Smith provides a lot of examples of this within and even concludes the book with two example sermons that puts what he framed in the rest of the book to practice. The preacher has to be an exegetical escort guiding his people into the proximity of God.
Jonathan Edwards work “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is highly persuasive. He manages to convey a strong emotional connection to his beliefs while keeping his composure in his preaching. He was able to strike fear into the hearts of the Puritan people with his beliefs,in fact his sermon caused many people to go into hysterics. The sermon is so persuasive because he expertly uses Pathos and biblical allusion. Edwards is able to strike fear into the congregation by saying that if they sin, they will be damned to hell and have no chance of redemption.
In “Sinners in The Hands of an Angry God”, Johnathan Edwards uses fear to create images that help his audience experience the consequences of sinful behavior. He uses imagery and figurative language to persuade his readers. He wants us to get a mental picture of Hell in your head and he wants us to fear the wrath of God. One such image was when Edward wrote, “When men are on god’s hands and they could fall to Hell, natural men are held in the hands of God, over the pit of Hell.” God could let us fall into the eternity of burning flames anytime He wants to.
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.
In the short story "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", Jonathan Edwards uses techniques such as diction, figurative language, and figures of speech to generate the two tones, condemning at first and merciful in the end. Edwards uses diction to emphasize the minister's threatening accusations as well as the hope articulated towards the end. The minister frightens his people by stating how daunting the "wrath" of God can be. Such fury can be related to how a teen would fear her parents after sneaking out with the car and later crashing it due to drunk driving.
Do you think you believe in God out of force, pity, or fear? These three factors are important when reading the two stories, which are “Upon the Burning of Our House” by Anne Bradstreet and “Sinner in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards. They are both comparing and contrasting what they believe is right and wrong, also the three factors. On July 10, 1666, Anne Bradstreet wrote a poem and filled it with fear and pity.
This pathos appeal helps Edwards persuade the unconverted because they would not want to be left behind. He also illuminates that “God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell” (Edwards 41). Edwards discusses the interminably amount of diverse means that God could damn the unconverted to try getting the argument across that they will not comprehend death approaching and it could be at any moment. Another use of pathos in “Sinners” is when Edwards describes to the unconverted that “the wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber” (Edwards 41).
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.
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.
Jonathan Edwards uses several types of writing skills to persuade his audience of God’s intentions. His use of figurative language, analogies, imagery, and repetition all emphasize Edwards’s views. He uses fear, anger, and apathy to appeal to the audience in attempt to warn his audience of God’s intentions. Jonathan Edwards uses fear in this sermon to terrorize his audience into thinking of God as someone to be feared, not someone to be loved. Throughout the sermon, Edwards uses figurative language along with imagery to frighten the audience.
