A Style Consistent with the Message
Redemption of the spirit and soul, Eternity, Heaven, and Hell have always been solemn, undisclosed, and indirect subjects. Such important matters of life deserve a more appropriate approach. These subjects need to be clearly understood and firmly discussed. They are extremely urgent and must be elaborately explained to all that they may concern. In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Jonathan Edwards extensively enhances the urgency of turning lives over to God through a provocative style filled with vivid illustrations and elaborate imagery.
One recognizes that the style of this work is extremely aggressive and graphic. Edward’s word choice is quite negative, yet always followed by a “positive-to-come’’ or “resolution” to his negativity. The repetition that Edward’s uses in his writing style emphasizes the seriousness and importance of the subject as shown in the phrase, “…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….” In addition, the graphic imagery creates inescapable illustrations in the mind. For example, the passage, “If God should only withdraw his hand from the floodgate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God, would rush forth with inconceivable fury…” shows the almighty, all powerful, and all controlling might of the wrath of God. The sentence structure is lengthy; however, it is quite comprehendible. The excited punctuation grabs the attention of the reader and emphasizes the severity of their positions, as in the expression, “O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in….”
Consequently, the style creates intensity with strong feeling through the imagery, which enhances the impact on the reader. The elements of this writing style suggest a severe warning, even a threat, towards the reader of the extravagant danger they face. The graphic and personal images create the atmosphere of urgency and strong feeling that help to explain the profound message and purpose of this piece. As soon as Edwards fills the reader’s head with all these overwhelming feelings and clear vivid images, he speaks optimistically of hope and redemption. This, in turn, affects the reader by showing the “way out” of their apparent deadly damnation.
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).
And while describing the fiery wrath of the “Angry God,” Edwards states, “The use of this awful subject may be for awakening unconverted persons in this congregation.” By focusing on this group of people, Edwards instills a sense of fear within the audience of “sinners.” 3) Edwards purpose in delivering this sermon was to inform “sinners” of the inevitable doom that He thus creates a sense of helplessness in his audience, and encourages them to submit to God and renew their faith in Christianity. His use of parallelism allows Edwards to exponentially build a sense of fear, and it is maintained throughout this sermon.
With a self-confident tone, he refers to the American natives as “savage, devils” and compares their home to a devil’s home and their tactics to soldiers in Europe, all just to bring attention to the readers. Mary, on the other hand, represents natives as “ravenous beast” showing the typical symptoms from a survivor; anxiety and distress. She uses a prose with the absence of rhetorical ornamentation rejecting literary artifice, sending a clear message though with her own interpretation of things. With a clear binary opposition, good and evil can be found in the same human; she forgets that the Indian may have a reason for the attacks. Edward; however, writes his sermons in a crescendo tone presenting them from a negative point of view provoking a reaction using biblical allusions. Words such as “Hell” and “Torture” are used to awaken the congregation and to provoke a reaction. His sermons are full of imagery, similes, comparisons and metaphors which can be interpreted in different
Jonathan Edwards’ sermon was themed for this congregation to repent so they could make an attempt to save their souls, and it also expresses that you are the sinner. Questioning that now, his entire sermon screams at us that it is us that the sinners, ‘you are sinners,’ but it Edwards doesn’t express that it is we that are sinners so it seems that he was excluding himself. His sermon was also spoken in a quiet, leveled and emotionless voice, monotone even, but even through his sermon lacked any sort of emotion or life, it caused the people of the congregation to feel emotional and angry. It might be the fact it was six-hours of the same sayings of being told ‘you are a sinner,’ or it could be how explicit it was because Edwards did not sugarcoat his sermon in the slightest. "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..." is a quote by Edwards that portrays the power of God versus how weak and feeble humans are. Edwards portrays God in a menacing and relentless way so his congregation will fear God and the punishments of the sins they commit, which might be his way to help his
This use of similes and metaphors describe a scene where the author is carrying out her mission with an imaginative audience. This signifies the typical free-flying imagination of a child. And also in the line “I bask in the sun in my exalted position, almost sky-high, feeling as filly and nearly as pink as the bathers I am wearing.”, the use of adjectives and similes, the feeling of immense excitement is shown clearly to the responder. The mood and tone of the passage changes dramatically as the perspective changes in paragraph 6. The author... ...
Through poetry, the reader sees why Will believes he must kill who he thinks killed his brother. Through big picture analysis and close critical analysis of one of the poems in this book, one can see that this author has written a poetic masterpiece. The poetry in this story paints a picture that is not achieved in other forms of written communication. The author uses mostly
Edwards was not known for delivering his speeches with passion, but rather let the words sink deeply within the audience for their own interpretation. He paints a picture of Hell that is so frightening to the audience that their attention is captured. Edwards depicts the wrath of God against sinners by announcing: “The pit is prepared, the fire is ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them…the glittering sword is whet, and held over them” (11). The image of being burned alive as a result of sin left an emotional impact on the audience. The pit symbolizes Hell and the devil while the glittering sword symbolizes the divine justice of God to punish or reward people for their actions on earth.
The novel is nurtured with a very soft but sophisticated diction. The essay itself portrays the author’s style of sarcasm and explains his points in a very clear manner. In addition, the author has used vocabulary that is very easy to understand and manages to relate the readers with his simplistic words. The author is able to convey a strong and provoc...
Style in literature is essential to create proper perception from the reader. This is equally as important as establishing appropriate tone. For this propose Ethel Wilson compliments such standards in her works “The Fog”, “Hurry, Hurry” and “The Window.” Wilson’s stylistic techniques are unmatched in uniqueness or assessing human nature versus physical nature. In the fore mentioned texts, Ethel Wilson composes her style from elements of symbolism, motif and character development to flourish understanding of the central idea of responsibility in the human mind when hidden behind nature.
Tulley, Stephen Richard. “Awakened to the Holy.” Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God! In
In 1741 a Puritan preacher, Jonathan Edwards, delivered a sermon to a congregation in Enfield, Connecticut. He moved many people and helped them to become saved and trust in Jesus Christ. In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, - which is the name of the sermon by Jonathan Edwards- the author uses each rhetorical appeal to connect with his congregation. The whole purpose of Edwards’ sermon was to try and get all the unsaved men in his congregation to trust in Jesus Christ as their savior and be converted. He was a very persuasive man who successfully reached out to his congregation by digging down deep and coming in contact with many people’s personal lives and making them think long and hard about why they are lucky enough to wake up every morning. In his sermon, Jonathan Edwards uses the three rhetorical appeals- ethical, emotional, and logical- to reach out to his congregation and try and help them to see why they should trust in Jesus Christ.
Freneau describes that religion is supposed to be discovered through nature, it is not hidden or coded, but merely patiently waiting to be found. On the contrary, Edwards goes on for quite some time to reinforce the urgency of salvation. The certainty that God can take you out of this world at any moment and the severity of his punishments are repeated multiple times. Edwards continues to say that the only reason any being is alive at this moment is only because God is holding on to them. God is preventing all the breathing masses from slipping down the slope of death in which all will inevitably slip down because without Him, no mere human possesses the strength to stand on that slope. All the while, “natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell” ("Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” 213). In a nutshell, Edwards is trying to show that one must be saved by God now, and no later than now, because at any moment God can tear a life away and then it will be too late, the person will have already been sentenced to eternal Hell even before death because of the simple fact that God is angry with all who have not yet been
In his novel, Hosseini writes with a deceivingly simple form of prose. Instead of assaulting the audience with his extravagant vocabulary, he entices them with the minds of his characters. Leaving the audience with feelings of empathy and repulsion, the work exhibits Hosseini’s adept abi...
...ues. The body of symbolism indicates Thomas’s changing view between the writer and his environment and outward look of the relationship with his own children. The use of surrealism provides a vivid image of his life’s despair. Though the poem can be analyze and evaluated from all of the different methods of criticism. The text within the verses indicates that the evaluation of the author is indicative to the psychological critical approach.
Hell rolls off the tongue easily for many people, people who have no clue what they are saying or whether Hell even really exist use the word daily. The phrases “Go to hell,” “Get the hell out of here,” and “Hell yeah” are used in everyday conversations. In fact, hell is becoming such a common word that it is not even considered a curse word by nearly everyone, even Christians. Hell has lost much of the threat that Christ spoke of throughout the entire New Testament. It seems that the general populace thinks of Hell as the ultimate party- cold beer, loose girls, bum fights, and drugs; a spiritual Las Vegas or Thailand. A place filled with sin without anyone in control and absolutely no consequences for anyone’s actions. This thought, this inaccurate illusion of Hell is sadly plaguing much of the world, not just America. As many pastors have precluded in the past, Hell is real, Hell is hot, and Hell is in no way fun. Through biblical research one will find that Hell is a place that exist, it is a place of absolute misery, and the presence of God is not there. The goal of the following document is to define Hell, prove the existence of Hell, show what one will experience in Hell, and explain how to choose where one spends eternity.