Edward’s sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” shocked many people who read it because it was so intimidating. Throughout his sermon, he used a lot of imagery, metaphors, analogies, and similes to express his main theme/belief. His belief was that the only reason a man was not sent immediately into Hell was just simply because of God’s merciful hand.
The theme quote that Edward’s mention is, “There is nothing that keeps wicked men, at any one moment, out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God” (Bedford 347). This one small sentence that he mentions is very deep. This is very simple and straight to the point that Edward’s is trying to get across. God is the only one who can decide who goes into hell and who goes to heaven. God has
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all the power and he is the only that is in control. People can avoid going into hell, by not sinning. Edward’s did talk about how everyone is born to sin, but he also talks about how when one sins, that is suppose to be the wake up call for them to accept God into their life and believe in him. A metaphor that is used in the sermon is, “The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and Justice bends the arrow of your heart, and strains the bow…” (Bedford 353).
He is comparing a bow and arrow to how angry God is at the very moment. Being that God is very angry, God has the ability to take action to those who are sinners at anytime he wants. What comes to one’s mind when they think of a bow and arrow is someone getting shot by it and dying. That is what Edward’s wants the readers who read his sermon to feel. What he hopes for when he says those words is for people to become scared and change their ways automatically. If they are sinners, he hopes that they do not become …show more content…
sinners. A simile that is mentioned in the sermon is, “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 ” (Bedford 353). If one we’re to hear that, they would be very scared and would probably be persuaded by Edward. Just think about it, if one sets fire to a spider or spiderweb, it sort of disappears very quickly. Of course, it may turn into ashes, but the spider will disappear and be gone forever. What one is suppose to see this simile in their head as, is God holding a person over pit of fire and at any moment and time, he could just easily throw that person into the fire which is hell. All it takes is a flick of his finger to send someone down into hell. Imagery is one of the main things used throughout his whole sermon because when one reads it, all they can do is imagine and think of the image that comes to their heads.
He says, “....and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into a bottomless gulf…” (Bedford 352). When most people think of bottomless gulf, they think about a pit, which is fire. When we think of fire, we think of flames, and how hot the flames are. We become scared and do not want to head towards that pathway. Imagine that God has you on one of your fingers and in just a heartbeat, he could drop you into the hot fire. That is a very frightening thought to think about. When God drops you in that flame, one is not just going to burn in the flames slowly, but one is going to sink deep down into that hot flame so quick. One is going to sink to the very bottom of a bottomless pit and just keep sinking until’ there is no more left of that
person.
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 Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Jonathan Edwards created the emotion of fear by using imagery and figurative language to persuade his audience. He used imagery and figurative language so the wrath of God is more fearsome and gave you a mental picture of hell in your head.
He first uses this effect when he says, “ if God should let you go, you would sink… and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence and best contrivance, and all your righteousness,” (1). Edwards continuously uses the word “and” multiple times to emphasize to his audience that they will not only lose their health but everything else that they possess. This gives his listeners the sense of hopelessness by basically informing them that they will have absolutely nothing once they enter the depths of the agony inducing Hell. Not only does he say that they will have nothing in Hell but pain, he also says, “ The wrath of God is like great waters… they increase more and more and rise higher and higher… more and more mighty… the fiery floods of fierceness… would rush forth with inconceivable fury,” (2). The use of a continuously increase of water that would inevitably drown one’s self enforces the sense of powerlessness. This helplessness would then add more terror to Edwards’ message of how one must save themselves through active participation in faith in God otherwise they will fall into the a pit of Hell with no help or hope possible to
In his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, by Jonathan Edwards he displays the Puritan belief that men are saved by grace. Edward, however, use rhetorical devices to make his sermon persuasive by using vibrant images and figure of speech to make these men repent.
Edwards applied masses of descriptive imagery in his sermon to persuade the Puritans back to their congregation. For example, he gave fear to the Puritans through this quote, “We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth, so it is easy for us to cut a singe a slender thread that any thing hangs by, thus easy is it for God when he pleases to cast his enemies down to hell…” (pg. 153) In this quotation, he utilized vivid imagery because he wanted the Puritans to visibly imagine what he was saying through his sermon, on how angry God is with them, which made them convert back to Puritanism. Through the use of vivid imagery such as “crush a w...
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Rhetorical Analysis “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards uses imagery and symbolism to persuade the audience to become more devout Christians by channeling fear and emphasizing religious values. Jonathan Edwards was a Puritan minister who preached during the time of the Great Awakening in America. During this period of religious revival, Edwards wanted people to return to the devout ways of the early Puritans in America. The spirit of the revival led Edwards to believe that sinners would enter hell. Edwards’ sermon was primarily addressed to sinners for the purpose of alerting them about their sins and inspiring them to take action to become more devoted to God.
... and taught that mankind is not immortal but weak and in need of God’s sovereignty. Edwards wrote "the God that holds you over the pit of hell…” meaning God has the power to strike man down at any time. He stressed that mankind is small and God is much bigger. He thought that mankind must be submissive to God in order to please God.
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.
To begin, Edwards utilizes variation in tone to provoke fear and guilt among his congregation. For example, Edwards claims “all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you
In the first few weeks of class we have discussed the thought and religion of the early people that first began the development of our counrty. As we have looked at the literature in class the works of these writers seem to be simlar in that each one talks about a higher being that these people all worshipped. However, that is where the comparisons would end. One of the writings that I found interesting was that of Jonathan Edwards. Born in 1703 in East Windsor, Connecticut, Jonathan Edwards lived at a time when the Calvinistic Puritanism of the American colonies, particularly New England, was giving way to thoughts coming out of Europe. We had discussed in one of first classes the reason that so many of the laws and rights found here in the United States were the same as in Europe. The reason was for this is because that is where the people of early America came from. This is the reason for the large population of people believing in these thoughts and beliefs coming from Europe.
...able to cast enemies into hell: "so it is easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that any thing hangs by: thus easy is it for God, when he pleases, to cast His enemies down to hell." Edwards relates our abilities with God's in a way that all may comprehend; consequently, when he returns to this analogy in his application, the same understanding rules: "your righteousness would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock." This time, however, the spider and sinner are depicted as equals.
John Edwards purpose in writing, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was to wipe out any doubts the Puritans had about the existence of hell. To give affirmation of the truth of hell he uses anaphora, drilling the presence of this fiery world into his audience’s mind. Edwards also uses metaphors and polysyndeton to turn the imaginary world into the earthly world which then instills fear into the colonist’s minds, therefore making his argument stronger and more
In The Sinners in the hands of an angry God, Jonathan Edwards main goal was to make the audience repent. He spoke of God’s wrath and how far away from the path the audience was. Vivid imagery in this includes, “You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it(69-70 pg 124)”. Edwards also spoke of God’s forgiveness and how the audience must turn away from the dark path and walk into the light to be saved. This scared many people, like people say the truth hurts. The actions of the people hurt God and in return he was going to make
Jonathan Edwards was a man who could petrify any eighteenth century Puritan. He was born in East Windsor, Connecticut and was raised in a household with strict religious beliefs. In 1727 he began his preaching career as an assistant to his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, the pastor at the church at Northampton, Massachusetts. When his grandfather died two years later, Edwards became the pastor of the Church at Northampton and began preaching all over New England. He then emerged as one of the leaders of the Great Awakening with his determination to return to the orthodoxy of the Puritan faith. That is when he adopted his “fire and brimstone” emotional style of sermon. Although people often ran out of the church in hysterics, most stayed in the church captivated by his speeches. He had always purposely chose to address his congregation with a sermon, using all of the elements of an oratory. In Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Jonathan Edwards displays all elements of an oratory by appealing to emotions, including expressive and rhythmic language, addressing the needs and concerns of his audience, and inspiring others to take action.
Edwards says,“...the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, their flames gather and flash about them..." This establishes a place of horror and frightens the people in the audience. The words devil, hell, flames, and flash exemplify a world of misery that no one would want to live. More importantly, it makes the experience of hell so realistic and effective that people would want to change decisions on what to believe on.