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 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.
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
In the 1700’s the Puritans left England for the fear of being persecuted. They moved to America for religious freedom. The Puritans lived from God’s laws. They did not depend as much on material things, and they had a simpler and conservative life. More than a hundred years later, the Puritan’s belief toward their church started to fade away. Some Puritans were not able to recognize their religion any longer, they felt that their congregations had grown too self-satisfied. They left their congregations, and their devotion to God gradually faded away. To rekindle the fervor that the early Puritans had, Jonathan Edwards and other Puritan ministers led a religious revival through New England. Edwards preached intense sermons that awakened his congregation to an awareness of their sins. With Edwards’ sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” he persuades the Puritans to convert back to Puritanism, by utilizing rhetorical strategies such as, imagery, loaded diction, and a threatening and fearful tone.
Many people know the Christian God as happy, forgiving, and accepting of others. In the Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Jonathan Edwards’ sermon completely shocks and scares people by claiming that the Christian God is the only God, and if you weren’t to believe in him, you would burn in Hell and be destroyed. The tone of this piece in the eyes of Edwards is dedicated, passionate, and pro-Christian God. Edward achieves his purpose by using metaphors, repetition, personification, and visual imagery numerously throughout the sermon.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.