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Summary Of A Great Awakening By Jonathan Edwards

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In the mid 18th Century, in small Northampton, Massachusetts, a young preacher by the name of Jonathan Edwards was changing New England (Lawson, 2015, p.41). A Great Awakening was taking place, in part, due to Jonathan Edwards ideas. Many sermons and work were being both preached and published, most of which are still talked about to do this day. In the Bible, 1 Peter 5:1-4 lays out the basic responsibilities of a pastor. The Bible states,
5 So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: 2 shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful …show more content…

His messages from the pews were Biblically based, Christ-exalting, and God glorifying (Edwards, 2009). Edwards consistently brought the people to the God that was, that is, and that forever will be. Reading through Edward’s sermons it is abundantly evident that Edwards taught the entire bible--both Testaments (Edwards, 2009. He taught the tough subjects--”Sinners in the Hand of Angry God;” as well as the pleasurable matters--”Safety, Fullness, and Sweet Refreshment in Christ” (Edwards, 2009). Edwards powerfully proclaimed “The Eternity of Hell Torments” just as he preached “Heaven, a World of Love” (Edwards, 2009). Such messages, delivered from a pastor’s heart, surely would have challenged and convicted his congregation to come to God accept God’s mercy and grace for the abundant life only God can …show more content…

During the 18th Century there was a big emphasis put on logical thought and reasoning from philosophers such as John Locke (Lovelace, 1985, n.p). It was considered by many ministers that the the ideas of the first wave of Puritans was dying. Edwards brilliantly combined the new ideas of John Locke and the ideas of John Calvin. Using both a “sense of heart”, and emphasis on the awesomeness of Christ, he was able to awakening the people of New England. His work Freedom of Will discussed how we can do whatever we want, but our will should be set on glorifying God. Thus he believed that our will directed out heart's’ desires. If we were not transformed by the Holy Spirit then our will would remain bent against God. This new anti-Enlightenment theology from Jonathan Edwards was used to lead and care for his

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Jonathan Edwards was a great American theologian who was an eighteenth century Puritan preacher who delivered a six hour sermon in 1741, Connecticut to a congregation of Puritans. The purpose was to convince the congregation into seeking salvation by accepting God and to convince the unholy if they continued their ways they would end up in hell. To convince his audience Edwards uses rhetorical devices such as metaphor repetition and bandwagon to invoke fear into his audience. During Edwards Sermon he uses metaphor when describing God. In his sermon he states that God is a higher being who's hand is holding us, the sinners, above the fiery pits of hell.

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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 '.

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Edwards' distinct diction is put to work to descriptively describe the power of the Lord and the unpleasant Hellfire that awaits the sinners. Such words efficiently infiltrate into the minds of his audience and scare them greatly. Edwards held his congregation locked up with his assurance of eternal damnation if the correct course of action was not taken. The church assembly felt the great impact of his rhetorical tactics and had the fear of the power of God on their minds.

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He appeals to the congregation when he says “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you…” by displaying how strong and powerful God really is. He wanted the people to picture this gruesome image that describes how weak people are in comparison to God’s power. Edwards make God seem merciless when He deals with sinners of the congregation, and wants them to fear God’s punishment against those who wrong Him. He begins to end his sermon by saying “…a day wherein Christ has flung the door calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners…”. He said this to appeal to unconverted men ethically and emotionally by describing how Christ is calling for the people of the congregation to return to him and recant all their sins.

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Jonathan Edwards depicts God as a wrathful, harsh and aggressive deity. His sermon emphasizes on the importance of salvation and remorse. Reflecting Puritan ideals, he expresses Gods vision of humans. How people are instinctive sinners and God is the only one able to determine those worthy of salvation. His stated principles construe the main pillar of their religion, predestination.

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The most important feature of a sermon is the application of a scripture text to the personal experience of the listener. Especially this last part is what reduced many of Edwards’s listeners to tears. In Edwards’s sermon the scripture text is “Their foot shall slide in due time”. This meant that eventually, all sinners would be punished by God, which could be at any time. Edwards speaks of a wrathfull God, a God who by Puritan standards is considered forgiving for not letting all of humanity fall into the deepest pits of hell.

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The Great Awakening was the most important event of American religion in the eighteenth century, it was a series of emotionally based religious revivals that swept across the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s with the first awakening and again from the 1790s to the 1830s in the second. This awakening allowed for a new breed of preachers to step forth, one that was dynamic in speech with the ability to excite the masses in the colonies, spreading the Word of God through the colonies preaching fire and brimstone. The preaching style of fire and brimstone was a revivalist form that used fiery and highly descriptive language, thundering that people that did not establish a personal relationship with God would be damned to hell. The book

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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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The American Enlightenment and the Great Awakening were two very important motivators that changed the colonial society in America through religious beliefs, educational values, and the right to live one’s life according to each individual’s preference. The Great Awakening and the American Enlightenment movements were two events in history that signaled a grand distinction to the teachings among religious believers. New beliefs of how a person should worship in order to be considered in “God’s good graces” soon became an enormous discussion among colonists across the land. “Men of the cloth,” such as George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards were well respected and closely followed when preaching about the love of God and damnation.

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The First and Second Great Awakening brought forth religious and social movements that impacted the American culture, appealing to the individual. Occurring in the early 18th century, the First Great Awakening was born within the 13 British Colonies with the Revolutionary War on the horizon. Decades later, the Second Great Awakening flourished under revivals and reforms, impacting the 19th century and years to follow. Despite being born out of different climates, The First and Second Great Awakening was characterized by the rejection of rational thinking for emotional preaching that reached the heart and soul, inspiring change in the negative perception of reason and positive perception of emotion and individualism in religion as well as the

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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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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.

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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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Through the analyzation of this figurative language it is apparent to see what his attitudes towards both sinners and God were. He saw sinners as despicable beings who were less than human in both his and God’s eyes and God as almighty and justifiably angry. This sermon swept across the colonies and completely changed people 's’ perspectives on religion and he arguably started the revival of religion known as the Great

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