Jonathan Edwards Persuasive Techniques

Jonathan Edwards expertly uses persuasive appeal in his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Some persuasive techniques include repetition, biblical allusion, and the use of pathos and ethos. His main reason to use these techniques was to emphasize the necessity for people to cease their sinful actions.

Edwards recalls stories of fires, floods, and destruction mentioned in the bible. When he uses these examples, he is using ethos. There is use of biblical allusion when Edward’s discusses the city of Sodom, a city destroyed by fire due to people’s sinfulness. He reminds the audience to “fly out of Sodom” (Edwards 91) and includes this in his sermon to emphasize that sinful action could destroy a whole city. This not only incites

fear and urges the audience to cease their sinfulness immediately, but he also proves his point.
Edwards also relies on the use of repetition to notify his audience the urgency of redemption from sin. A word that is repeated throughout the whole sermon is “wrath.” He implies that God will not be patient with sinful humans all the time and “forbear the executions of his wrath”(89). Every day God’s anger at humanity’s sin increases and so do the chances of people going to hell.