FREE ESSAY ON ANALYZING "SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD"

ANALYZING "SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD"

Analyzing "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," by Jonathan Edwards. 
Jonathan Edwards was born in 1703, in East Windsor, Connecticut. He grew up in a very
strict and disciplined puritan atmosphere, which would affect him throughout his whole
life. Ever since he was young, he showed great interest in the puritan religion by
preaching to his friends and his classmates. At the age of twelve, Jonathan Edwards had
learned to speak three different languages: Latin, Greek and Hebrew. When he was
thirteen, we was accepted to Yale University and graduated as the valedictorian of his
class four years later. In 1727, he became an assistant for his grandfather in
Northampton, Massachusetts, where he would eventually become the preacher after the death
of his grandfather. Unfortunately, during the 1750's, he was dismissed from the church
because of his conservative beliefs. After he was dismissed, he moved to Stockbridge,
Massachusetts, where he preached to the Natives. Jonathan Edwards was later on accepted
as the president in 1757 of what is now Princeton University. Jonathan Edwards is
considered one of the leaders of the "Great Awakening" during the 1730's and the 1740's.
"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," which was written during this time, is the most
well known out of his numerous works.
In "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," Edwards uses very powerful and convicting
imagery words and techniques to describe God's wrath very vividly. He uses similes,
metaphors to compare the relationship between us people and God. One example of this is
when he talks about how God is ten thousand times more disgusted with us than us being
disgusted by the most vicious snakes. (p. 73) It says, "...You are ten thousand times
more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours..." From
this it is visible that the way Edwards wrote was very convicting and was directed right
at "us," the audience. He also compares God's wrath to "black clouds", "fiery floods",
"great waters" and a bent bow with an arrow. From this, it could be proven that God's
image to Jonathan Edwards and the audience who were listening to this sermon was that God
was just, angry, merciful and graceful with everyone's sins. Also in his sermon, Jonathan
Edwards also used quite a bit of repetition to get some of his points across. He has used
this technique to bold and underline some of the beliefs he really wanted to tell the
audience about. For example, in page 74 - the first full paragraph, he uses the
repetition of the phrase "he will..." to point out that "...You shall not suffer beyond
what strict justice requires..." 
What I think of this sermon is that it was very effective to the kind of audience that he
delivered to at a very appropriate time. The puritans were falling away from God and his
standards, when their reason of moving to New England was to "purify" the corrupted
Church of England. Through this sermon, he has told the people what kind of situation
that they're in. They have been compared to a spider, where the web is compared to God's
grace and mercy, which holds then from falling into eternal damnation. It's pretty scary
but Jonathan Edwards wrote about what was actually going on and what needed to be changed
within everyone.