Jonathan Edwards way of going about this sermon was very intense and frightening. His goal was to show them that the only hope for salvation is being reborn in Christ. He wanted to warn them about Hell and what it would be like if they didn't repent and ask for salvation. He achieved this goal by focusing his whole sermon on the wrath of God and what Hell is like. He used imagery as very powerful technique and its impact was clear throughout the congregation. His purpose of that was in my opinion to engrain it in their heads and forever hold a place of fear there. He got his point across in a very intense way but I do not think it was the most effective way to go about something like this. In my opinion, I think it was not the right approach to a certain extent. His approach was very intense and scary to the Puritans and …show more content…
I think scaring individuals with very vivid images in their heads, is not right. Like I mentioned before, they would be going into salvation or anything for the wrong reasons. It would be out of the utter fear of going to hell. I think he could of talked about God in a more positive way than talking about how angry and mean God is. God is loving and caring and if he would of mentioned that then maybe the sermon would of been different and there would of been a better result. I agree that it's important to talk about hell and the seriousness of it, but the how the sermon came out, it seemed that he was trying to scare them into salvation. God gives us a choice into whether we want to live in eternity with him, and that should have been mentioned. It wasn’t Edwards job to make that decision for them. He was trying to save people but really he was doing the opposite and scaring them off. God wants us to choose him because we love him and want a relationship with him, not because we don’t want to go perish for what we
First, both of the main speakers within each of the following Puritan literary works were ministers during the 1700s, which was around the time of the Puritans. These works were also written within third person point of view. Now, both of these ministers then express their concerns for their congregation
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
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...
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.
He is very disappointed with how the people of Salem acted. He was outraged by the way they accused people they didn't like of being witches, just so they would have to deal with them anymore. He hated the way the girls who cried out did it all following Abigail Williams.
Edwards died roughly 20 years before the American Revolution, which means he was a British subject at birth and death. Edwards believed that religion is tied to nations and empires, and that revivals were necessary in history. Edwards’ belief in revivals began what is known as The Great Awakening. Edwards’ purpose in ministry was the preaching that God is sovereign, but also loving towards his creation. Since God is sovereign, Edwards claimed that God worked through revolutions and wars to bring the message of the gospel (Marsden, Jonathon Edwards, 4, 9, 197). Edwards’ most known sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God was preached to revive the demoralized congregations. The congregations of New England had low memberships within different churches, and competition from denominational pluralism was stagnant (Lukasik, 231). Getting the colonists to return back to God was the mission and purpose of The Great Awakening. Through this, Edwards hoped that this movement will foster a great increase in learning about God (Marsden, Jonathon Edwards,
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.
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.
He was a man whose very words struck fear into the hearts of his listeners. Acknowledged as one of the most powerful religious speakers of the era, he spearheaded the Great Awakening. “This was a time when the intense fervor of the first Puritans had subsided somewhat” (Heyrmen 1) due to a resurgence of religious zeal (Stein 1) in colonists through faith rather than predestination. Jonathan Edwards however sought to arouse the religious intensity of the colonists (Edwards 1) through his preaching. But how and why was Edwards so successful? What influenced him? How did he use diction and symbolism to persuade his listener, and what was the reaction to his teachings? In order to understand these questions one must look at his life and works to understand how he was successful. In his most influential sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Jonathan Edwards’ persuasive language awakened the religious fervor that lay dormant in colonial Americans and made him the most famous puritan minister of the Great Awakening in North America.
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 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.
In contrast, Edwards theme has to do with God's ability to strike you down, yet had such
For example, he argues that “every unconverted man properly belongs to hell” (322). Right before he makes this claim, he quotes John 3:18, and right after, he quotes John 8:23. By bracketing his claim with direct quotes from the Bible, he provides evidence that defends his belief about where non-Christians are destined to end up. This pattern of justifying his arguments with biblical scriptures continues; for instance, when Edwards proclaims “All the kings of the earth, before God, are as grasshoppers . . . The wrath of the great King of kings, is as much more terrible than theirs, as his majesty is greater.” (328) he immediately quotes Luke 12:4-5. This provides validity to his claim that God’s wrath is infinitely more terrible than any earthly king. He goes on to expand on God’s powerful wrath and asserts that “Nothing shall be withheld, because it is so hard for you to bear.” (329); he follows this up by quoting Ezekiel 8:18. Through once again following up his claims with a reference, Edwards proves that his argument of a non-pitying, wrathful God is biblically
Jonathan Edwards was known as a “nurturing pastor, frontier missionary, and bold revivalist preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Edwards exemplifies a man who integrated reason (the mind) and personal devotion (the heart) in unwavering dedication to the sovereign God revealed in creation and Scripture.” Jonathan Edwards spent much of his young life trying time to live and serve God through his works and deeds. He finally realized that it was impossible to earn his own salvation through his works and he accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior. Jonathan Edwards helped propel the First Great Awakening around 1733-1735, by directing some of the very first revivals from his Northampton, Massachusetts church. During some of these revivals Edwards preached sermons about salvation to his Puritan congregation. When these sermons were conducted amazing outbreaks of the Holy Spirit took place and people started recognizing their need for Jesus. This awesome move of God helped communities, households, and individuals to bond together in unity. These events continued to spread throughout the communities and most of the American colonies. Jonathan Edwards successful revivals were not without opposition. Edwards was drawing opposition and criticism from more traditional and strict Puritan leaders who were more concerned with religion. Jonathan Edwards then relocated to Stockbridge,
Overall, this book helped me become more aware of my weaknesses with my preaching style and also gave me tools to strengthen them. The examples are very basic and practical and helped highlight key skills and situations that a preacher can experience when doing a sermon. This book added more knowledge to me and gave me new insights that I can use as a tool when I go back with my ministry as a youth worker.