“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 … you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes, as the most hateful and venomous serpent is in ours.”
Analysis by Wyatt Santy
During the 1700s, many radical religious groups were gaining traction in North America after they had migrated from England and other countries to find religious freedom for themselves in the new world. One of these radical groups were the Calvinists, a sect of Puritanism which believed that God was the only salvation, and that humans were destined to sin and burn in hell unless they committed their lives to God. The most prominent Calvinist in 1741 was a man named Jonathan Edwards, who was a theologian and a philosopher. He delivered a speech on July 8th of 1741 titled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, with which Edwards attempted to outline what life should look like in America by using his religious values to instill fear into other’s hearts to drive them to do the right thing.
This view of God as Jonathan Edwards and many other radically religious people would have been their driving force in keeping themselves in line and their communities in order. In one of the opening lines of his speech, he says that “There are black clouds of God’s wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst forth upon you.” This line aligns with many of the radically religious thinkers of the time. They believed that humans were naturally going to sin and that there was nothing they could do about it. God’s wrath, therefore, would be inevitable, if not for God’s mercy of not dropping them into hell. These mindsets fueled early American settlers to succeed and explained the harsh ways in which they kept themselves. There was no privacy in Puritan colonies, so that no one could sin in secret. There were harsh punishments for many small crimes such as sleeping in or eating too much. Jonathan Edwards simply embodies the mindsets of early American settlers in their religious beliefs.
However, Edwards states that there is a chance for redemption. He says that the sinners “now…have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands in calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God…many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in.” With this finishing quote from the speech, it is easy to see that the purpose of this speech is to drive in Edwards’ ideals to other people in early America, while also giving them both Fear of God and instilling hope in them for the future.
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Sermon Analysis by Xavier Byams
Jonathan Edwards is one of the best speakers of the 1700s. Jonathan Edwards was a Calvinist who was one of America’s most prominent preachers during the early to mid-eighteenth century. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is a sermon by Jonathan Edwards that was preached on July 8, 1741 in Enfield, Connecticut. This sermon is one of the most well-known because of its highly purist ideas and Edwards’s powerful words.
Edwards’s sermon reflects on two passages one is from the Book of Amos, which is about God’s ability to snuff out sinners and take them to hell no matter what. The other passage is from Deuteronomy, which says, “Their foot shall slide in due time.” In his sermon Edwards speaks about how mankind cannot interfere with God’s power and God can cast them into hell whenever he pleases. Edwards targets the people who go to church every day, but not fully giving in to God and the unconverted. He indirectly calls the crowd hypocrites and shames them with such harsh words that it would be hard to not succumb to the immense pressure Edwards puts on his listeners with his words. Edwards constantly uses dark imagery like, “There are black clouds of God’s wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst forth upon you.” Edwards pounds the idea that you, the sinner, can be and will be sent to hell at any time no matter where you are. It is just about when you will be sent to the depths of hell. Edwards has such a way with words it’s hard to deny the things he is saying.
After Edwards is done ranting about how everyone is going to hell and that God will leave no man standing, Edwards switches the tone of the mood. He goes from condemnation to providing a threshold. Edwards states, “Therefore, let everyone that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation: Let everyone fly out of Sodom: Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed.” Through out the speech Edwards preaches about how death will come to his definition of a sinner while also stating that sinners will be sent to the pits of fire to be eternally burned forever. He offers people a way out by converting to Calvinism. Edwards persuasively preaches about converting sinners and he uses crippling language to place fear upon listeners.
Edwards is a great speaker because of the way he can play from the fear of the people. The fear that everyone has of the unknown. Not knowing what happens when death comes scares people into falling into Edwards’s hands thus Edwards’s religion Calvinism.
“from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Handley Greeley
“from sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” written and preached by Jonathan Edwards in 1741, is a sermon directed to the ancestors of Puritan people to warn them about the wrath and judgment of God. Edwards was a very influential and highly respected preacher who impacted those around him with his books and sermons. In this specific sermon, Edwards speaks in a very threatening and fearful manner to get the audience to obey what he is saying and what God wants. His main message is that everyone has sinned, yet God gives chances to confess them, or you will face his anger.
Throughout this speech, Edwards uses many similes and metaphors for fear and motivation. He makes allusions and smiles like “The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more… and there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God that holds the waters back…” By using pathos, Edwards is making the audience scared of God’s wrath. Edwards is referring to Noah’s ark, when the “great waters” flooded and purged the earth of all sin. The purpose of making this allusion is to put the people listening into perspective that if you don’t purge your sin, you will have to be scared for when God does it to you. With the way that Edwards is phrasing his sermon, you would rather do it yourself than have an angry God do it.
Another tactic that Edwards uses is peer pressure and guilt tripping. At the end of his speech, he mentions how people from all over are coming to him, in the same condition as the audience, but are now better. Ending his speech with an impression he tells the audience, “To see so many others feasting, while you are pining and perishing!… How can you rest one moment in such a condition?”. He is questioning them to make the audience second guess themself. By explaining how other people are living better and improved lives and questioning the audience to make them second guess themselves, he is getting his point across in fear.
Ultimately, Edwards main messages while preaching this were that it is God’s choice to show mercy and that sinners will face a fearful punishment if not forgiven. By expressing these in terror, it is motivating the audience to do what Edwards is preaching about by making references to the bible it makes his sermon more truthful and impactful.
