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Imagery in sinners at the hands of an angry god
Imagery in sinners in the hand of an angry god
Sinners In The Hand Of An Angry God
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Through the text, God, his abilities, and his manner of operating are the most constant subjects, which conveys that people were driven by their beliefs in God. The text manifests that “There is no fortress that is any defense from the power of God.” and that “The sword of divine justice is every moment brandished over their heads, and ‘tis nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy, and God’s mere will, that holds it back.” (Belasco and Johnson 348). This shows that many Early American people believed that anyone against God or what they desired shall be “cast into hell” (Belasco and Johnson 348).
He made certain of this through his sermons with “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” considered by far one of his most influential. In "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," Edwards utilizes various rhetorical devices that deeply contribute to the thoroughness of his preachment. Also, he preaches the immense fear of all sinners, packed with metaphors, precise diction, and vivid imagery to frighten all wrongdoers into being reborn.
Edwards wrote his sermon in hopes of persuading his audience to view God in his way through both emotion and logic. By illustrating Hell as a “dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God” (para. 1), he is playing with the emotions of his audience in an attempt to put them in a state of fear. He continually uses long-winded descriptions about God’s disregard for humans and the eternal torment that awaits them. This shows that he is not only trying to make his audience feel the emotion of fear, but he also attempts to convince his audience through logic. By settting this emotion of fear upon his audience, he offers a sort of solace at the end of his sermon, quoting from the bible in his final line.
In order to emphasize God’s contempt for the audience, Jonathan Edwards utilizes inflammatory diction and comparisons of God’s anger to a bow and arrow and “black clouds” to instill fear in the audience so that they will accept God as their savior, provoking a religious revival. Throughout the sermon, Edwards utilizes “fiery” phrases such as “furnace of wrath”, “wrath…burns like fire”, and “glowing flames of the wrath of God” in order to establish a connection between God’s fury and a burning fire, reaffirming the reality of going to hell, as hell is commonly associated with fire. Because fires are also very devastating and unpredictable, Edwards emphasizes the power and degree of God’s disdain and his ability to cause drastic change at unexpected times, making God’s patience seem fragile.
Edwards also implements the rhetorical question, “who knows the power of Gods anger?” this presents the question of who will suffer the eternal dreadful misery. The answer of who is able to escape his anger is the ones who repent and are born again. The whole sermon is an entire repetitive restatement exemplifying Gods mighty wrath and our only chance of salvation is to be reborn, to develop a more personal intimate relationship with God. An only this way he pardons our sins and allows us to exult in
Jonathan Edward’s purpose in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is to persuade others that they must eliminate their sinful ways and turn to God for forgiveness before it is too late. Edwards combines imagery and pathos to appeal to his audience in the sermon to achieve his persuasive purpose. One important example of imagery in his speech is at the very beginning of the story. Edwards describes sinners as “heaps of light Chaff before the Whirlwind; or large Quantities of dry Stubble before devouring Flames” (line ), choosing this imagery because he knows that a majority of his audience are farmers and understand this analogy about corn and grain husks. Edwards choice of using the word “devouring” to illustrate the flames of hell creates
In Jonathan Edward's sermon, "Sinners in the ahands of an Angry God," he strategically utilizes similies, imagery, and analogy to convice his followers into obedience. Jonathan Edward's use of imagery to demonstrate the fury that. god has upon the peoplebecause of their sinful actions. Edward states, "the God that holds you over the pit hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over a fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked," indicating how God views humans as an abominable creation who deserve to rot in hell. This use of imagery allows the reader to vividly imaging how disappointing God was due to the immoral actions of humans.
Edwards was describing God’s Wrath and how he has no mercy on the non-believers. Edwards utilizes figurative language to develop disturbing
In “sinners in the hands of an angry God”, Jonathan Edwards uses different types of literary techniques, such as, imagery, metaphor, similes, repetition, and rhetorical questions to emphasize his point. His point is to scare the people and make them want to repent, which is the theme of the sermon. In the sermon “Sinners in the hands of an angry god,” Edwards uses different types of
Jonathan Edwards was a well known preacher during the Great Awakening. In one of his sermons titled "Sinner in the Hands of an Angry God", he uses a great amount of figurative language,such as metaphors, imagery, and similes;uses repetition and parallelism to get his point across trying to persuade the people to have a change of attitude and to stop being sinners. All the metaphors he uses in his sermon are related to the wrath of God is and then it compared to the water, storms, bow and arrow, and a bottomless pit. All his choice of words are elevated,because when he wrote this sermon he was writing to the studious Puritans that understood that kind of language. Some readers might get confused because they don’t understand
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.
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
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
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.
Figurative language can be a compelling factor in literary works ranging from romantic poetry to political speeches. It forces the reader, or listener, to visualize and understand what the author is trying to say. Jonathan Edwards utilized this writing technique in his powerful sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Edwards used imagery, metaphors, and personification to express his differentiating attitudes towards both sinners and God which consisted of complete disgust in regards to the former and unwavering respect for the latter. Jonathan Edwards relied more on the composition of his writing rather than the execution of it which is why figurative language is found so often in this sermon.
