Fear is the Greatest Lesson Jonathan Edwards uses the rhetorical strategy of tone in his piece, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, to fulfill his purpose of making the audience fear God. Edwards states, “God would rush forward with inconceivable fury” (p.59). Here Edwards declares that God wouldn’t hesitate to unleash his wrath upon oneself, even if they mess up just once. Edwards uses diction to emphasize his overall tone, telling the people that God is the ultimate power. Within his use of diction, Edwards indicates a religious pastor-like tone with the use of biblical elements to convey his purpose. He constantly references God being disappointed in all humans and how they will be damned. This stirs up emotion in the audience members. …show more content…
According to Edwards, “If God should only withdraw his hand from the floodgate, it would immediately fly open” (p.59). In making this comment, Edwards urges the audience to always follow God and to do everything he tells you to. You need to have the upmost respect and faith in him. If you don't he will punish you and you won't be able to endure it. Edwards use of imagery at this point emphasizes his tone and the idea that God controls everything and everyone. Using imagery to create fear, emphasizes that God controls you and that you should be scared. He uses a biblical allusion to help his credibility so the audience believes him, and so they know he controls their death. God isn’t afraid to make you suffer and watch the whole time. By telling the audience that God controls their death and that He won't hesitate to punish them, it creates a sense of fear in the audience of His greater being. They are going to develop a mindset that God is scary and that they need to fear Him and follow everything they are told. Edwards creates an even more fearful tone by stating, "[His strength] ten thousand times greater than the strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil in Hell" (p. 59). Edwards point is that God is the strongest being and he has the
Foreboding and dreadful describe the tone of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. Edwards makes the tone very clear by saying “The God that holds you over the pit of Hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire” (154). He tries to convey the wrath of god that will come upon them if they do not devoted themselves to Christ by saying “Thus all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon souls, all you that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life, are in the hands of an angry God.” (154).
In Mark Twain’s essay, “The Damned Human Race,” he uses a sarcastic tone in order to show that humans are the lowest kinds of animals and ar not as socially evolved as they think they are, making his readers want to change. In order to inspire his audience, Twain motivates them by providing specific comparisons between animals and humans. These satiric examples emphasize the deficiencies of the human race and entice them to change for the better.
In everyday life, we apply rhetorical devices for many situations. We apply them most when trying to persuade others, such as advertisements on television. Rhetorical devices have been used for a really long time. Rhetorical devices go as far back as the Great Awakening. Unconverted men were persuaded through rhetorical devices. Unconverted men are people who have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. In 1741, the unconverted were persuaded to accept God and to live a holy life. They were always told about the effects of sinning and were told what would happen after their life ended. Around that time, a pastor—Jonathan Edwards—gave a sermon about what would happen if they did not convert into a child of God. In “Sinners in the Hands
First, Edwards' sermon is filled with graphic images of the fury of divine wrath and the horror of the unmerciful punishment of the wicked in hell. If one were to continue in their sin, according to Edwards, not only would a person be tormented in the presence of holy angels, but God’s terribleness would be magnified upon his/her life and forced to suffer through God’s wrath for all eternity (74). “Although it conveys the reek of brimstone, the sermon does not say that God will hurl man into everlasting fires--on the contrary, doom will come from God’s indifference...” (Thompson 71). Edwards had little need to justify his scare tactics and theology. His consuming obligation was to preach it; to preach it fiercely, purposely, persuasively, and firmly.
Taking into account the essence of the sermon,"Sinners in the Hands of God" by Jonathan Edwards, it is evident that his outstanding use of Rhetorical Devices such as Imagery, Analogy, and Simile contributed and greatly influenced the reader to be persuaded and follow through based on the author's purpose. Edwards basically intends to transmit the concept that God is our hero and will lead us to salvation if we on our behalf, believe and honor God. Based on the sermon, the intended audience seems to be people who do not believe in God and are basically when reading this sermon, exaggeratedly given the idea that if they continue to not believe in God, then they will be foreseeing an endless experience in Hell.
...tion realize how small they are. After they are scared to death, Edwards offers hope for them if they are willing to have an emotional relationship with God. So, the tone goes from fear to the hope of salvation.
In 1741, Jonathan Edwards, a Puritan preacher of that time, had one thing on his mind: to convert sinners, on the road to hell, to salvation. It just so happened to be, that his way of doing that was to preach the reality to them and scare them to the point of conversion. Sermons of this time were preached to persuade people to be converted and to me it seemed that Edwards just had a special way of doing it. Just as people are being influenced by rhetoric appeals today Edwards used the same method on his congregation. In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Jonathan Edwards positively affected his readers using pathos, logos, and ethos, while trying to convince the unconverted members of his sermon to be born again.
A simile is a rhetorical device that can be used to compare two unlike things and cleverly bring them together to give the audience something to relate to. In other words, a comparison of two seemingly different things. One particularly powerful simile is, “the wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and mores and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given (Edwards 97),” In this quote, Edwards compared God’s wrath to a raging body of water. He goes on to say that the longer the stream is stopped, the harsher it will be. The word choice, or syntax, Edwards had was simply spectacular. The comparison of His wrath to great waters gives the people an idea as to how ferocious the wrath of God is to Edwards. This word choice struck fear into the hearts of the audience and also shows that Edwards directed his anger at the audience. One can almost feel the passion and hatred within his
Often in the sermons the ministers persuade their audience to behave in a spiritual or more fashion. Such is the case "Sinners in the hands of an angry god" by Jonathan Edwards. Where he persuades they sinners are going to hell if they do not give themselves to god. Edwards wanted to give a cautionary emotion to his audience by appealing to their fears, pity and vanity. Edwards had an encouraging impact on his audience because of his use admonishing tone, expectant imagery and vexed figurative language, had a authorities impact on his puritan audience.
Edwards includes allusion as a stylistic device to convey his purpose within this sermon. According to the text, “...any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them.” Edwards’ allusion of the mediator relates to the Holy Bible, to reference God and the belief of the Purtians. Also, it states “ abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours”( Edwards,7). The serpent is the Purtians sins against God and relates to their belief which makes them understand.
"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards implies how the wrath of God is mighty and powerful than anyone as he speaks from the sermon. He stresses this by using devices such as simile, personification, and imagery to persuade his audience by striking fear on them.
On January 16, 1920 religious groups and other temperance movement leaders rejoiced as the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect, banning the sale of alcoholic beverages. One of those leaders was Billy Sunday, an Evangelical preacher well-known for speaking at revival meetings and being one of the first preachers to spread their messages through the radio. With this new technology, he spread his beliefs about alcohol to anyone fortunate enough to own a radio. In his infamous sermon, “God’s Worst Enemy,” he uses personification, charged words, and ethical appeal to argue that the sale of alcohol should be prohibited.
On September 11, 1998, former president Bill Clinton delivered the infamously self-proclaimed speech entitled “I Have Sinned.” In an attempt to convert the public suspicion and hatred back to trust and loyalty, Clinton finally confessed to the inappropriate relations with Monica Lewinsky. By deeply expressing his sorrow through his foreboding and apologetic tone, Clinton constructs various examples of ethos, uses stiff body language and blank facial expressions, direct eye contact, and crafts the majority of his speech on short and choppy sentences. The overall purpose of this speech was for Clinton to ultimately express his remorse for the regretful acts he committed, and also to ensure the American people that he will remain trustworthy throughout
Edwards starts his sermon stating his claim and intentionally scaring people by saying, “There is nothing that keeps wicked Men at any one Moment, out of Hell, but the meer Pleasure of GOD”(5) Edwards says that there is nothing that is keeping a person that does not believe in God out of Hell, but the feeling of God at that moment. He is trying to scare the audience and say that at any moment God could change His mind and throw you into Hell and would not have a second thought about it. The tone of the piece can be easily seen through this quote as very dedicated and devoted to God, while the mood for the audience
Today, I would like to begin my homily by acknowledging all of the hard work and preparation that the students of our first communion class have done in order to get to this joyful day. Zachary, Alyssa, Joey, Ashley, and Blake have been faithfully attending weekly classes here at Church of Our Lady so that they could be ready to receive Jesus in the Eucharist, which, as they know, is the greatest gift that God can give us.