Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards Essay

“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is a sermon written by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), a theologian and philosopher in the British Colonies of America. He was raised as a puritan in Connecticut and grew up to be one of America’s most influential protestant revivalists of that time. He delivered many sermons, the most well-known being “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Edwards gave this sermon on July 8, 1741 in Northampton, Massachusetts. The main purpose of this sermon was to convey to the audience the reality of hell, the need to change their wicked lives, and, ultimately, that they should fear the wrath of God. Edwards does this to motivate the audience to live their lives as perfectly as they can in order to not anger God and to avoid Hell.

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, 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

Just as effective as language manipulation is Edwards's use of language transformation; indeed, his skillful employment of descriptive language adds a visual dimension to his message. Even if the foundation is misinterpreted, these transformations allow any listener to mentally "see" Edwards's overall direction. For instance, God's wrath is referred to as "great waters that are dammed", "a glittering sword", and a "drawn arrow". These terms indicate powerful and deadly forces. On the other hand, sinners are likened to "worms of the dust", "miserable creatures", and "loathsome insects"; consequently, these labels are receptors of God's wrath through the forces Edwards introduces. Although these conceptual images appear basic, Edwards's frequency and placement throughout his delivery produce a clear and precise overview to even

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

Edwards uses words like “wrath” and “omnipotent” to display the power that God posses, and chooses negative connotation words to describe the relationship between God and man (para. 15, 46). Making the comparison of the relationship between God and humans like a spider web or thread, the author wants the audience to know that it can be broken at any time, and that the “pit is prepared” down in hell for sinners (para. 17). Edward chooses diction that leaves humans hopeless, and at the mercy of God. He wants the audience to know that God is always in control, using words like “if God should permit” and “the mere pleasure of God” (para. 13, 7). Additionally, Edwards uses diction to portray God as merciless and immoral, saying that has God is “without pity” and “will have no compassion upon you” (para. 41). This leaves the audience despaired, and they feel as if they have no choice but to reestablish their relationship with God, or certainly face an “everlasting destruction” at any time God pleases to (para.

Figurative language is another important factor for the story. In the story, he talked about wickedness in a person’s body. “Your wickedness makes you as it were as heavy as lead.” This will make you think that the amount of wickedness in one’s body is equivalent to the weight of lead. This might persuade people to go be “reborn” since they would want to get rid of most of that wickedness. Another example is the comparison of a person to a spider. “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider.” Edwards use this to say that we’re no different than spiders in God’s eyes. We could be squished or dropped to our doom in a mater of seconds. Edwards also compared God’s wrath to the great waters. “The wrath of God is like great waters that are damned for the present, they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given, and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and

Throughout the sermon there are many of these biblical allusions. For instance, Edwards refers to the “wrath of God is like great waters,” (Edwards 88) which is related to the flood when the Earth was full of sin. To the Puritans, Edwards had insulted the way they have lived for many years. Another way Edwards included biblical allusions were when he pointed out to the Puritans “to fly out of Sodom,” (Edwards 91) which represents how the community was filled with sin and not looking back at the bad and moving onto the new. There are a variety of biblical allusions used in Edwards sermon from the flood to the city of Sodom. Edwards included real type situations with fear to prompt the Puritans to live a less sinful

Effectiveness: how the author impacts their audience throughout their piece. When authors write pieces, the effect on their audience is what their main focus is; furthermore, whether the piece affects the audience or not determines how well written the piece is. To understand how “Sinner’s in the Hands of an Angry God,” by Jonathan Edwards and “A Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” by Martin Luther King Jr, were effective on their audience, the pieces must be further analyzed.

Jonathan Edwards, a preacher during the American Enlightenment period, was mostly known for his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. The Enlightenment, an eighteenth-century movement distinguished by the belief in the power of human reason and by advancements in political, religious, and educational doctrine. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God was written as a response to the Puritans losing their faith because of the new scientific theories and emphasis on human reason that contradicted the word of God. Jonathan Edwards wrote the sermon to persuade the Puritans that lost faith, by threatening and warning them of the wrath of God. He used this tactic to convince the perplexed Puritans that continuing to sin would guarantee their condemnation to hell.

“Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering... ” (Edwards 122). Here he is giving very vivid imagery. He is showing that unconverted men, or people not reborn again, are walking a very thin line to an unpleasant afterlife. “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...:” (Edwards 123). In this metaphor Edward does a perfect job of comparing a spider to them. He is saying that they unworthy, like a spider, and that they are worthy of nothing else but the fire. “You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it… and you have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment…” (Edwards 124) In the section Edwards is trying to have the crowd imagine themselves hanging by a very small thread, with nothing to help them. Nothing in the moment can help them with their fate, and it has already been decided what will happen to them. To sum it up, Edward’s sermon is filled with an abundance of imagery to frighten listeners into seeking God and avoiding

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.

The powerful words that Edwards used to amplify that God is using this arrow to make the sinner suffer are wrath, strains, and mere pleasure, because he points out how extremely angry God is feeling by straining which means to damage to a certain degree for his pleasure. “But your guilt in the meantime is constantly increasing, and you are every day treasuring up more wrath.” Sinners treasure God’s wrath every day, and they don’t notice how this guilt increases more and more, until God finally decides to let go of them to the burning fire of hell. Once again, Edward uses wrath to make the sinners understand that God is not only angry at them, he is extremely angry at them for increasing their guilt day by day. “God’s creatures are good, and were made for men to serve God with, and do not willingly sub serve to any other purpose…” Every men and women God created were made to love and serve him, and not fall to the hands of the devil himself or to search for a life full of sin. Edwards points out how God’s men were born free of sin, connect this to Adam and Eve, born free of sin yet they seek for the answers that where not to be questioned, as every sinner does by making the choice of following the devil instead of listening to what God has for them.