Sinners In The Hands An Angry God By Jonathan Edwards

Jonathon Edwards maintains his audience’s attention by creating intense and meaningful similes. Edwards uses these similes as a way for his audience to understand the points he is making and adds dramatic imagery and piercing words to get the audience to consider what he is saying. The first simile he uses says this, “…they were always exposed to destruction; as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall” (Edwards 1). Edwards includes this quote in his sermon to provoke the readers thought. The point he is trying to make is that God’s people are exposed to destruction which is a hard to imagine so he breaks it down for his audience by saying that just as they are exposed to destruction if you walk in a slippery place you will also fall. The next memorable simile Edwards uses says this, “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, and is dreadfully provoked. His wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire…” (6). Here Edwards compares his congregation to a “loathsome insect”. Edwards does this to try and describe how God views them. He continues his claim by comparing God’s wrath on them burning like fire, which would probably spark fear in the hearts of the people that they may repent. This simile helped further Edward’s main point, that hell is inevitable. One last simile Edwards uses is this, “Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards

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.

“No one’s ever gonna love you more than God, your mama and me.” These country lyrics by Florida Georgia Line portray their views of God as extremely loving and caring, however Jonathan Edwards has a much different understanding of God. In the short story, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards, he views God as strict, oppressive and willing to take action through the imagery he uses regarding wind, fire and insects in nature.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Edwards grew up in an atmosphere of strict puritan discipline. He became a very religious and devout believer at an early age, and excelled in academics, entering Yale University at the age of thirteen. Many years later he became the pastor of a church that grew with his teachings. His lifestyle reflected his teachings and was a well respected man. His sermons spoke directly at many people and he impacted many lives despite the monotone he used when delivering his sermon.

In "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by theologian Jonathan Edwards you see multiple forms of literary devices used to convey his point. The famous sermon was said to be heard by 10,000 people in Enfield, Connecticut on July 8, 1741. In Edwards sermon, he tells the people that they are doomed to hell if they don't change their wicked ways. The tone set in this sermon is fearsome and puts a sense of fright in the readers as well as the congregation that Edwards preached to. Throughout the sermon you see imagery, metaphors, and personification used to effectively send the message to the readers.

In the sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", Jonathan Edwards includes rhetorical devices such as repetition, rhetorical questions, and allusions to persuade his audience to not sin and repent.

"Free at last, Free at last, Great God a-mighty, we are free at last" (King 6). Martin Luther King Jr. and Jonathan Edwards both use strong words and tone. Jonathan Edwards is an American preacher, philosopher, and congregationalist protestant theologian. Jonathan is born in 1703 and gives the "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" speech in 1741. Edwards has strong feelings for what he believes in about congregation. Early settlers are persuaded by Edwards sermon because of the tone and word choice Edwards uses throughout his sermon.

While reading Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God, by Jonathan Edwards I came across some points that caught my attention. This story is based on how a pastor tries to persuade his congregation from the sins and make them to be fearful of the divine wrath, of God. I personally can relate to this story because of my religion. I am Pentecostal and I can see why Edwards would use such words towards his congregation so that they won’t perish and go to hell. My Pastor uses similar approaches like this when she preaches. In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Edwards uses frightening words and religious metaphors to divert people from the congregation from the sins and condemning them to hell if they provoke the wrath of God and to establish that everyone should be fearful of him.

Edwards also applied personification in the speech. He declared to the people, “it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.” (Edwards, paragraph 1, 1lines 2-3). Arrows don’t really have the potential to become drunk, but Edwards applies the phrase to explain the fact that everyone in the audience would be killed, if they didn’t change the way they were living immediately. The people listening to the speech became very afraid at the thought of one small, slender arrow “being made drunk with” gallons of blood, coming from all of the people in the room who were being evil.

The sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is a very powerful piece. When the sermon was first released it spoke out to many individuals. Jonathan Edwards’ goal was to get the word of God out to others and make them realize what kind of evil world they live in. In the sermon, he explains things using imagery. A prominent theme communicated by the images and analogies that Edwards employs includes: trust and believe in God for he is the one keeping you from Hell.

In the sermon “Sinners in the hands of an angry God”, Jonathan Edwards creates the emotion

This sermon was a radical departure in comparison to the other traditional Puritan texts. When Edwards was writing his sermon he was beginning to witness deterioration in the original puritan communities. He felt that the religious ideals first established by his predecessor Winthrop were slipping among the puritans. Edwards wanted to have an impact on his readers. To him it was more effective using scare tactics over positive encouragement to discuss proper conduct and God’s wrath. Edwards wanted to make sure the members of puritan society understood just how important their behavior and conduct while on earth was. He wrote about the certain punishments that awaited in hell for those who did not properly adhere to the puritan religious values. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is full of strong and vivid images of hell, comparing hell to a pit of fire and depicts how “Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering” (Edwards). He crafted this imagery as a deterrent example specifically to awaken the readers, and to remind them of the power of God and his harshness when it comes to doing away with sinners. This gave the puritans encouragement to try and build a perfect

Through the use of a negative connotation, an angry tone, and fearful figurative language Jonathan Edwards attempts to persuade the audience that without being born again you will be condemned to hell. This excerpt from "Sinners in the Hands of an angry God" written by Jonathan Edwards is very argumentative and attempts a high level of persuasion. The authors style of writing is very appropriate for the specific topic and also causes a great deal of reactions from the audience. Some of the overall reaction was caused by the use of words that are usually not spoken in everyday society, such as "hell". His style also helps him achieve his purpose because it causes the audience to pay attention and be focused on

The last author I chose is Jonathan Edwards, and he fits into course unit three: Colonial literature. He fits into early colonial literature because Jonathan wrote about religion mainly and morals which is one of the main themes of early colonial literature. For example, from our text, “Sermons like his ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ terrorized his listeners with visions of unregenerate men helplessly dangled over the pit of hell by a wrathful God…” (McMichael 302). Jonathan’s sermon on religion represents the ideas and themes of early colonial literature. This sermon describes shameful, powerless men being held over the pit of hell by an angry God. Jonathan was a preacher, and he wanted to convey religious morals and themes through

Jonathan Edwards was a remarkable priest who was well loved by many of his converts until he lost them for one mistake he made in the 1700’s. He was born on October 5, 1703 in East Windsor, Connecticut to a reverend and his wife. Edwards was the only son of eleven children and was gifted at an early age with observation and exposition. He was accepted into Yale University at age thirteen and stayed there for two years to study theology and he was constantly attempting to perfect himself. He married his wife, Sarah Pierpont, in 1727 and two years following the he succeeded his grandfather, Reverend Solomon Stoddard, at his church. He gave his speech, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God on a Wednesday afternoon on the eighth of July 1741 (Turley, Stephan). This famous sermon that he gave to his pupils was full of ethos, pathos and logos that he used to convince his audience (Levine, Robert).