Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God Analysis

Fear over Grace

Religion has been the backbone of American culture since the beginning of the nation, and during that time the colonies revolved around many different religious groups that all had one similar concept. While the diversity of these groups was vast, most of them saw God as a rigid, wrathful, power that should only be feared. The concepts of grace, forgiveness, compassion, and love seemed to be excluded from the pulpit, whereas sin, hell, damnation, and destruction were consuming the minds of the colonists. In Jonathan Edwards “Sinners In the Hands of an Angry God,” he exemplifies American culture by only showing the fearful character of God, and using that fear to preach religion instead of spirituality.

Although many other denominations

His starting verse from Deuteronomy sets the tone of his sermon by putting the focus on God’s warning before his wrath. Since the colonies were riddled with American entitlement, they saw themselves as God’s divine people, so Edwards used this verse to parallel what happened to God’s first chosen people in Israel, showing that God would not hold back on his second chosen people either. Edward’s view of God aligns with his view of humankind. He sees humans one-way: evil. He says that the only reason, “they are not fallen already, and do not fall now, is only that God’s appointed time has not come” (319). While Edwards portrays God in one way, he does the same with humans showing that across the board they are all bad. This is partially true, because humans always fall short of glory. Due to the fall of man, people are covered in sin, but God does not see them as dirty sin covered people because we are made in his image. Edwards does not see this mercy and grace from God, he says, “God will not hold them up in these slippery places any longer but will let them go”(320). Edwards also plays into the