Jonathan Edward's Sermon, Sinners In The Hand Of An Angry God

Edwards opens his sermon by expressing the idea that men are subject to the whims of God and that those who refuse to welcome God are held out of hell by nothing more than the simple pleasure and mercy of God’s hand. He appeals to the pathos of his listeners

Unfortunately, for a person to behave morally some motivation might be necessary. Emotional appeals are used by authors to create strong feelings within the audience, some of which include fear, pity, and guilt. A documentary call Scared Straight attempted to use fear of prison life as a reason for the featured teens to alter their lives. However, author Kathy Feinstein disputed that idea in her article, stating that the “Change Within” program used in the video was not ultimately successful. In Jonathan Edward’s sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” he too, uses the appeal to fear to persuade his audience of unbelievers to convert and accept Christ. With the evidence and effects of appealing to fear, along with the arguments made by Feinstein, this tactic is still the best motivational force for three reasons.

In the sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Edwards displays controversial viewpoints and ideas concerning heaven and hell. As Edwards speaks to the congregation he warns them of the misery and suffering they will face if they do not repent of certain sins. He also describes God as angry which probably struck fear into the hearts on many. To illustrate his own point that hell is unenviable without repentance Jonathan Edwards creates the idea of an angry God using intense similes, a harsh tone, and strong emotional appeal in “Sinners in the hand of an Angry God”.

Jonathan Edwards, a famous preacher in pre-colonial times, composed a sermon that was driven to alert and inject neo Puritanical fear into an eighteenth century congregation. This Bible based and serious audience sought after religious instruction and enlightenment. Through the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," Edwards offers a very harsh interpretation to humankind. Edwards utilizes various rhetorical techniques to evoke an emotional response in his audience and to persuade the members of his congregation that their wicked actions will awaken a very ruthless and merciless God.

Jonathan Edwards Sermon “ Sinners in the Hands of an angry god” contributed into the Great Awakening, showing that Hell was real, and whoever defied god was put down. Edwards used dark imagery to get his our heads, the meaning that everyone is predestined and anyone can be sent to hell. Edwards says in his sermon that “ God's enemies are easily broken into pieces, they are a heap of light chaff before the whirlwind”(2). Edwards hoped that the imagery and language of his sermon would awaken audiences to the horrific reality that he believed awaited them, should they continue life without their devotion to Christ? This made many people horrified and help start the great Awakening, making Christians more aware of the power of Christ, and increase their devotion to Christ.

In Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an An Angry God,” shows an extreme viewpoint of God. According to Edwards, humanity is naturally infected with sin despite our efforts to overcome it. Throughout his sermon, Edwards goes on about how God shows such mercy in not throwing all humanity in the deepest depths of hell. As said by Edwards in his sermon, “ You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about

Jonathan Edwards's sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is moving and powerful. His effectiveness as an eighteenth century New England religious leader is rooted in his expansive knowledge of the Bible and human nature, as well as a genuine desire to "awaken" and save as many souls as possible. This sermon, delivered in 1741, exhibits Edwards's skillful use of these tools to persuade his congregation to join him in his Christian beliefs.

Jonathan Edwards, a negative and realistic man, focused on how God is a judgemental god and sinners will be put to a painful death, they should be fearful. He says in the first few lines of his speech, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, “So that, thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit.” (Edwards, Pg. 23) Edwards implies that everyone deserves to be in hell and he goes on to say that God is an angry God and that no one had done anything to try to ease His anger. Edwards also played a large role in the Great Awakening. He wanted people to experience Christianity in an intense and emotional way. In his speech, he said, “O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: It is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell.” (Edwards, Pg. 26) Edward’s speech was opportunity knocking at everyone’s doors. He influenced people to want to be saved in a way that made many fearful of what could happen to them if they weren’t saved or a child of God. Edwards believed that God set the world in motion, but was not active in everyone’s life. Edwards believed that God created the world and

In Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Jonathan Edwards delivers a powerful sermon to his congregation about the horrors of hell. Throughout the piece, the author explains there is no escape from “eternal destruction,” and one must join God to reach salvation (para. 27). Edwards uses dark, gruesome imagery along with gloomy diction in order to instill fear into the audience, and persuade them to more devoutly worship God.

On July 8th 1741, Jonathan Edwards preached the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in Enfield, Connecticut. Edwards states to his listeners that God does not lack in power, and that people have yet not fallen to destruction because his mercy. God is so forgiving that he gives his people an opportunity to repent and change their ways before it was too late. Edwards urges that the possibility of damnation is immanent. Also that it urgently requires the considerations of the sinner before time runs out. He does not only preach about the ways that make God so omnipotent, but the ways that he is more superior to us. In his sermon, Edwards uses strong, powerful, and influential words to clearly point out his message that we must amend

Therefore, in the sermon edward continues in saying, "...there is hell's wide gaping mouth open..." meaning there are two sides in life "God's wrath" or "fiery pit of hell" and

Edwards' creative choice of words that he uses describes the power of God and the terrible Hell awaiting sinners. These words easily infiltrate into the minds of his congregation and frighten them beyond belief. These choices of words and his use of such vivid images are mostly successful in their intent, to scare and put fear into his audience. Edwards held his audience locked up with his promises of eternal damnation if proper steps were not taken. The congregation felt the intense impact of his rhetorical strategies and lived on the fear of the power of God. In this way, he was able to keep his followers from sin and away from the fiery pits of Hell.

Pathos is the emotional appeal, and Edwards used this as an appeal to fear and vanity. To appeal to fear, Edwards told his congregation that at any moment they could be taken out of this world in anyway and would be cast into Hell for eternity. To appeal to vanity, Edwards told the unconverted, or those who had yet to become born again, members of his congregation that they would envy those who were converted, those who had been born again, because they would see them rejoicing while they were being cast into Hell. Ethos was the ethical appeal, Edwards applied ethos when he stated the two allusions to Psalms 90:11, a verse from the Bible, and to the Great Awakening, a time in history when everyone was becoming converted. Lastly, Edwards used logos, the logical appeal, when he used two rhetorical statements at the end of his sermon asking how his congregation could live with themselves knowing they were unconverted, and when he employed a cause and effect statement in which he said that every man is naturally sentenced to Hell, and that they had to become converted to escape. Edward’s combining all three rhetorical appeals in his sermon would have successfully persuaded the unconverted members of his congregation to trust in Christ. His sermon would have been

Jonathan in his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (July 8, 1741), claims that the unconverted are hanging from the hands of God, and can be dropped off to the eternity of hell, his sermon is used to make the sinners be afraid and understand how the power of God is saving them, but it is only for his pleasure, unless if they return to Christianity. Edwards strengths his argument by using metaphors and imagery of a wrathful God to make the unconverted people afraid of being sinners and encourage them to have a relationship with Christ to be fully saved from falling to an eternity in the flames of hell. Edwards purpose is to start his sermon with such powerful use of visualization to provide fear to the sinners and give them a

Jonathan Edwards uses many vivid images to make and reinforce his point to the members of his congregation. Perhaps the most powerful image is the extended metaphor of God holding the sinner over the pit of hell. “…there is nothing between you and Hell but the air; it is only power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.” This image would have been even more powerful in Edwards’ time than it is today, as Puritan worshippers were regularly exposed to the idea of a fiery hell.