Reverend Jonathan Edward, with great passion to delivered an emotional sermon, “Sinners in the hands of an angry God”. He preached his sermon in 1741, in a congregation, it was heart wrenching, eye capturing, and ear-piercing to the public. It influenced and impacted numerous of people. He subjected his speech with quite intense, serious metaphors. Reverend Jonathan conveyed insights regarding sinners, to realize their mistakes and that they will be judged by God and his judgement will be frightening, He wanted the people to know and comprehend the consequences that they’ll face when their end comes.
“Sinners in the hands of an angry God”, mesmerized the public, and his congregation. It was an attention seeking speech that frightened many people. It had a huge impact on people, the public had their own opinions, however, others find it abominable, hateful, while others were paralyzed with fear and started to change their ways, repenting. The sermon was to make people realize what will happen, and what is happening at the moment.The sinners, the people, are doing nothing to appease his wrath, they are just provoking him to release them in the flames that are happily awaiting to swallow them whole.
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In his sermon, he mentioned quite extreme, harsh metaphors.
Jonathan declared that the people are in the hands of God over the lake of burning brimstone. The devil is waiting, Hell is gaping and flashing excitedly waiting to devour us, the sinners, and once he, the omnipotent being releases a person it would not be possible to keep you away and out from hell anymore. He compared God’s wrath to great waters being held with a barrier, the water keeps on rising higher and higher, the longer the stream is stopped, the stronger and angrier it will be when it is
released. The main purpose of Reverend Jonathan Edwards sermon was to reawakened people’s religious consciousness and beliefs, and to convert the unconverted people. People were beginning to go to church just for the fun of it, not to worship, pray, nor for praising and thanking. They started to be non-believers, countless of people started to follow blindly, thinking that what they were doing was right. People were greatly at risk of being released from God’s tight grasp and into the flames of misery, sufferings, and destruction. God is why we are here today. His hand has awakened you and me up, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We are at his mercy. Nothing can compare to God’s wrath, his wrath is more frightening than anything. The sinners’ wickedness is making it very difficult for God to hold on to them. It is his choice, or decision to make, to let them fall down the bottomless pit or to keep you from falling and tightly holding onto them, it is his choice but you immensely influence it. The sermon was to scare the people to convert to Christianity. He described an omnipotent, all powerful God. He really wanted to force people to obey and follow God. The way he described God was to cause great fear, petrify, and to startled his audience and nation. This was why several people started to abhor Jonathan and his speech. His powerful, touching sermon was one of the speeches that transformed the people’s beliefs, his sermon is connected to the first Great Awakening. In short terms, Jonathan Edward lead and preached a sermon that emerged people’s religious knowledge. It basically was to inform the people, who are also sinners about the awful reality and the upcoming situations that they all will surely face when they are out of Christ, or whoever is avoiding and not having any interest to acknowledge the almighty God.
Jonathan Edward's sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," was an example of a persuasive speech in which Edwards used scare tactics to persuade his audience. Jonathan Edwards' purpose was simply to convey a message to the people of the church with intentions of changing their moral and religious views. Edwards often appealed to reason and logic and highly emotional "fire and brimstone" techniques to convey his point.
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 immediately begins with a harsh, almost cruel, tone with the use of abrasive diction. His first moments of preaching the sermon had the use of words such as, “over the pit of hell;..deserved the fiery pit… wrath in hell… devil is waiting for them,” (1). Edwards
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.
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.
In these text, “The Minister’s Black Veil” and “The Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” the preachers are teaching their congregations a lesson.
On July 8th 1741, Jonathan Edwards preached the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in Enfield, Connecticut. Edwards states to his listeners that God does not lack in power, and that people have yet not fallen to destruction because his mercy. God is so forgiving that he gives his people an opportunity to repent and change their ways before it was too late. Edwards urges that the possibility of damnation is immanent. Also that it urgently requires the considerations of the sinner before time runs out. He does not only preach about the ways that make God so omnipotent, but the ways that he is more superior to us. In his sermon, Edwards uses strong, powerful, and influential words to clearly point out his message that we must amend our ways or else destruction invincible. Edwards appeals to the spectators though the various usages of rhetorical devices. This includes diction, imagery, language/tone and syntax. Through the use of these rhetoric devices, Edwards‘s purpose is to remind the speculators that life is given by God and so they must live according to him. This include...
“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.
He speaks with some allusions and phrases that show the audience that he is well educated in the subject that he is speaking on. He says that, "Who knows the power of God 's anger" (Edwards 43)? This is an allusion from Psalm 90:11 in the bible and he just assumes that his readers are aware of what he is referring to when he says this. Since Edwards was a respected preacher of that time the sermon meant more to the people because of his qualifications and his experience ("Using" 14). Also throughout his sermon he refers to a happening of that time which was known as the great awakening. When speaking of this Edwards stated "Many are daily coming from the east, west, north, and south; many that were lately in the same condition that you are in, are now in a happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him who has loved them" (Edwards 44). He told them about the others who have already came and been converted to Christianity and hopes that showing them the others that have came they would also change their ways and be converted. Also, this being the time of the great awakening he wants the unconverted of his congregation to become a part of it and referencing to this event helps contribute to their
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
Jonathan Edwards's sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is moving and powerful. His effectiveness as an eighteenth century New England religious leader is rooted in his expansive knowledge of the Bible and human nature, as well as a genuine desire to "awaken" and save as many souls as possible. This sermon, delivered in 1741, exhibits Edwards's skillful use of these tools to persuade his congregation to join him in his Christian beliefs.
In Mr. King’s writing, he creates feelings of guilt in the clergymen’s hearts. In addition, knowing the church is what the clergyman value the most, he accuses the church for not attempting to take a stand on the sinful behavior of the white moderate. Mr. King recognizes this will change their outlook on segregation and inequality. Also, he knows that with suffering comes victory, just as Christ Jesus had to endure. In addition, he believes that Jesus is the most influential spiritual being known to the clergyman. Mr. King brought to their attention that he is an extremist just like Jesus. His view toward the clergyman is if he is to die for the sake of his beliefs, at least he will die with dignity.
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
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 chosen 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. Jonathan Edwards used three key emotions to appeal to his audience: fear, pity, and guilt.
Class notes. Man’s Desperate Need of Righteousness and God’s Glorious Provision of Righteousness. Faith Christian University. Orlando, Florida. August 2011.