Sinners in the Hands of An Angry Preacher
“There are good leads who actively guide and bad leaders who actively misguide. Hence leadership is about persuasion, presentation, and people skills.”-Shiv Khera
Jonathan Edwards presents arguments in his sermon “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” that are meant to persuade his congregation into converting to Christianity. Edwards uses tone, irony, and imagery to make the people convert to Christianity.
Throughout the sermon, Edwards uses scare tactics and has a tone that can be described as terrifying or terroristic. Edwards tells us that hell is “Everlasting wrath.” This can make many people afraid. Nobody would logically want to suffer forever since that that would be a terrible way to spend
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He tells the people to obey God but he makes God seem unpleasant, which is ironic. He says that “We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; so is it easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that anything hangs by: thus easy is it for God when he pleases to cast his enemies down to hell.” Here he says that God actually enjoys casting people into hell. He also presents people as somewhat evil by assuming that everyone kills little creatures with pleasure. This is irony because he wants people to convert or repent but the picture of God in people's heads would be that of a terrible ruler. He also say that “You are then thousand times more abominable in his eyes than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. Edwards again uses the example of animals to prove his point that humans are terrible and that God is an angry god. The irony is that God is shown to be disgusted by people but somehow they should accept him. Edwards finally says that “There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God provoking his pure eyes by you sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship.” One can see that God is not is not a very loving deity. Edwards uses this iron effectively since he makes people feel guilty and terrified at the same time, which can make more of the congregation feel like they need to