In reading “Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God”, I see that Jonathan Edwards spends a significant time describing the sheer power and might of God; roughly the first 15% of the writing. Edwards compares the ease of God casting his enemies to hell in the following: “We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; so it is easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that any thing hangs by: thus easy is it for God, when he pleases, to cast His enemies down to hell” (Edwards 391-392). He follows that up with a simple question of who are we to stand before him (Edwards 392)? It is important to note that he has yet to discuss God’s anger, and he is painting a picture for the might that God has. This way of speaking about the Lord does not take an angry or unappreciative tone; it gives off the fire and brimstone feeling
that I immediately recognized given my own experience in a deep southern Church of Christ. Even on the same page, he writes “So that it is not because God is unmindful of their wickedness, and does not resent it, that He does not let loose His hand and cut them off” (Edwards 392). I use this quote because while his tone may seem critical of people walking the earth, it is an important distinction that he makes I think many people may overlook. In this passage, amongst the fire and brimstone language, he makes the case that God does still see the wickedness of man and he is not ignoring it out of blindness. I think that leads way for the reader
to infer that while God can be angry, but God has patience. The passages following this are gloomy about how Hell is being prepared for the wicked, but they do hold true to Scripture. To contrast what Edwards says, it is a common belief today that we can be forgiven at any point. That is what kept coming to my mind when I read through that portion of the text. Jonathan Edwards. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
The Norton Anthology of American Literature
, edited by Robert S. Levine, 9th ed., A, W. W. Norton & Company., 2017, pp. 390–
402.
