Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Gildardo C.
Jonathan Edwards, in 1741, delivered a sermon called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. He delivered this sermon in the midst of his revivals, it was known as his most dramatic and memorable one. In his Treatise on Religious Affections in which he wrote in 1746, he talked about how the gospels should moves a man’s heart as it does with his mind. He begins with his document explaining how God “holds” people in his hand from slipping. For each person, there is an appointed time for their death. No man can rise against God, He can crush armies and rebellions into little pieces. Man is already poised with judgment, they are condemned for their sins they have committed. Edwards makes a reference to Sodom in the Old Testament that the Lord will not hold back to send us all into hell. He goes on to talk about how God is already furious with our sins since the time Adam committed the first sin. Edwards says that unless a man is ready to believe in Christ, God will not hold back to punish us for our wickedness. Only a few people are saved while the rest are already sentenced to go into hell. Edwards gives descriptions about hell, how Satan is waiting for the damned souls who disobeyed God. Men are naturally held under the Hand of God, Edwards uses all of these awful illustrations about Hell so people can see the Hand of God. He also explains that under God’s eyes, we are all abominations to this earth, nothing more than to be cast into the fires of hell. Hell is given more of a stronger imagine as Edwards goes on to talk about what hell is like. Some good deeds that man have done in the earth are ignored from God, He is already has people condemned for their sins. Man will go on to make excuses as to not being ready for God’s judgment on the world. Edwards at the end goes on to say that only seeking God would we obtain salvation, we need to awaken and escape from Sodom into the refuge of God in order to prevent from being left behind. Edwards gives a description what happens in hell once lets us go from his hand describes a slow tortured death. Edwards talks more about salvation, other than why God has us dangling from a string, is that you can obtain it. He uses scriptures from the gospel on how your body cannot be killed any further. The time will come unexpected when God will strike down the earth. His coming will be like a dark thunderstorm when He unleash His wrath. Edwards uses scriptures for The Book of Revelations in order to back his ideas up. He criticizes each human for how they are referred to the fig tree, if people don’t produce good fruit they are cut down.
My analysis to what Edwards is saying takes me back to what John the Baptist said while he was baptizing people with water. John says that the poised axe of God is ready to cut down the sinners, as how Edwards says that the Hand of God is ready to throw the sinners into hell. He is giving us an image of what is going to happen to us in the pits of hell, using the illustrations of the fire and Satan waiting for us to be given to him. He is not trying to scare us but to give us more of a wakeup call as to what he says at the end of the passage. He used some scripture from The Book of Revelations. I think Edwards used those scriptures because in the Book of Revelations, people are being judge for the deed they have done in the world. This all sounds similar to the banned book from the bible of the Revelations Peter the Apostol had. All the images of hell were presented in an order as to if Edwards himself had died and gone there. He uses Sodom as an example as to where we are in God’s eyes. In the Old Testament, God destroyed Sodom for the wickedness of the people living there. In those days, they were partying and committing all sorts a sinful things under God’s eyes. Then in a moment, God destroyed Sodom by raining brimstone and fire from the sky onto the city. Edwards uses that reference as to what God will do to us for our wickedness. At the time Edwards gave this sermon, I would assume it frightened a lot of people due to the graphic nature hell was portrayed. Hell is a place that is very real, God says we are all doomed no matter what. I would assume that Satan would be rejoicing for the wicked souls coming his way if this were to be true. These religious leaders would give sermons like these to get people to convert into their religion or repent. I am not criticizing Edwards, but installing fear onto people in order to convert was very irresponsible. People are scared to be damned to hell they would have to live a really perfect life in order to obtain salvation. It makes God look like a big bully burning ants with a magnifying glass as said in the movie Bruce Almighty. Jonathan Edwards sermon although was very good on how he assumed God was holding us in his hand over the fires of hell. I doesn’t say if he got these ideas from the preaching of John the Baptist. In today’s world, sermons like Edwards would not have been taken seriously, it would be taken as a fantasy film. People believe in a zombie apocalypse happening then God holding us for judgment in today’s society. Would Edwards be giving sermons about a zombie apocalypse instead of hell today? It’s all about installing fear into the people in order to get them to follow you.
Jonathan Edwards, in 1741, delivered a sermon called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. He delivered this sermon in the midst of his revivals, it was known as his most dramatic and memorable one. In his Treatise on Religious Affections in which he wrote in 1746, he talked about how the gospels should moves a man’s heart as it does with his mind. He begins with his document explaining how God “holds” people in his hand from slipping. For each person, there is an appointed time for their death. No man can rise against God, He can crush armies and rebellions into little pieces. Man is already poised with judgment, they are condemned for their sins they have committed. Edwards makes a reference to Sodom in the Old Testament that the Lord will not hold back to send us all into hell. He goes on to talk about how God is already furious with our sins since the time Adam committed the first sin. Edwards says that unless a man is ready to believe in Christ, God will not hold back to punish us for our wickedness. Only a few people are saved while the rest are already sentenced to go into hell. Edwards gives descriptions about hell, how Satan is waiting for the damned souls who disobeyed God. Men are naturally held under the Hand of God, Edwards uses all of these awful illustrations about Hell so people can see the Hand of God. He also explains that under God’s eyes, we are all abominations to this earth, nothing more than to be cast into the fires of hell. Hell is given more of a stronger imagine as Edwards goes on to talk about what hell is like. Some good deeds that man have done in the earth are ignored from God, He is already has people condemned for their sins. Man will go on to make excuses as to not being ready for God’s judgment on the world. Edwards at the end goes on to say that only seeking God would we obtain salvation, we need to awaken and escape from Sodom into the refuge of God in order to prevent from being left behind. Edwards gives a description what happens in hell once lets us go from his hand describes a slow tortured death. Edwards talks more about salvation, other than why God has us dangling from a string, is that you can obtain it. He uses scriptures from the gospel on how your body cannot be killed any further. The time will come unexpected when God will strike down the earth. His coming will be like a dark thunderstorm when He unleash His wrath. Edwards uses scriptures for The Book of Revelations in order to back his ideas up. He criticizes each human for how they are referred to the fig tree, if people don’t produce good fruit they are cut down.
My analysis to what Edwards is saying takes me back to what John the Baptist said while he was baptizing people with water. John says that the poised axe of God is ready to cut down the sinners, as how Edwards says that the Hand of God is ready to throw the sinners into hell. He is giving us an image of what is going to happen to us in the pits of hell, using the illustrations of the fire and Satan waiting for us to be given to him. He is not trying to scare us but to give us more of a wakeup call as to what he says at the end of the passage. He used some scripture from The Book of Revelations. I think Edwards used those scriptures because in the Book of Revelations, people are being judge for the deed they have done in the world. This all sounds similar to the banned book from the bible of the Revelations Peter the Apostol had. All the images of hell were presented in an order as to if Edwards himself had died and gone there. He uses Sodom as an example as to where we are in God’s eyes. In the Old Testament, God destroyed Sodom for the wickedness of the people living there. In those days, they were partying and committing all sorts a sinful things under God’s eyes. Then in a moment, God destroyed Sodom by raining brimstone and fire from the sky onto the city. Edwards uses that reference as to what God will do to us for our wickedness. At the time Edwards gave this sermon, I would assume it frightened a lot of people due to the graphic nature hell was portrayed. Hell is a place that is very real, God says we are all doomed no matter what. I would assume that Satan would be rejoicing for the wicked souls coming his way if this were to be true. These religious leaders would give sermons like these to get people to convert into their religion or repent. I am not criticizing Edwards, but installing fear onto people in order to convert was very irresponsible. People are scared to be damned to hell they would have to live a really perfect life in order to obtain salvation. It makes God look like a big bully burning ants with a magnifying glass as said in the movie Bruce Almighty. Jonathan Edwards sermon although was very good on how he assumed God was holding us in his hand over the fires of hell. I doesn’t say if he got these ideas from the preaching of John the Baptist. In today’s world, sermons like Edwards would not have been taken seriously, it would be taken as a fantasy film. People believe in a zombie apocalypse happening then God holding us for judgment in today’s society. Would Edwards be giving sermons about a zombie apocalypse instead of hell today? It’s all about installing fear into the people in order to get them to follow you.
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Renaldo W.
Jonathan Edwards issued ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ at Enfield, Connecticut, on July 8 1741. It has been said by historians that the sermon is the most authoritative of the Great Awakening, except for it is not as John C. Adams and Stephen R. Yarbrough point out in their essay Jonathan Edwards, the Great Awakening, and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”:
“It is one of the many sermons that worked similar effects during and before the Awakening, but were composed and delivered differently. However, it is accurate to say that ‘Sinners’ is one of the finest examples of Puritan rhetoric, set in their traditional sermon structure, written and delivered in a ‘plain style,’ and substantively shaped by the predestination doctrines of original sin and the sovereignty of God championed by Edwards and his Puritan predecessors,” (Adams and Yarbrough 286).
It’s core emphasis is on conversion, for by the grace of God one’s soul may achieve salvation. Edwards by writing it down intended it to be issued more than once, his hope that the sermon would conjure similar salvific effects, knowing full well that its reception was decided by forces beyond his rhetorical command.
Edwards sermon structure was laid out in a format that was traditional in New England and was barley revised by him. Such sermons were invariably split apart (titled or not) into: the text, the doctrine, and the application. The text generally was a brief biblical passage followed by a paraphrasing and a flirtation with the thematic elements that shall become the subject of examination in the doctrine. For example:
“‘Their foot shall slide in due time.’ Deuteronomy 32:35. In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, who were God's visible people, and who lived under the means of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God's wonderful works towards them, remained (as vers 28.) void of counsel, having no understanding in them. Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the text. -- The expression I have chosen for my text, their foot shall slide in due time, seems to imply the following things, relating to the punishment and destruction to which these wicked Israelites were exposed,” (Edwards 89).
Edwards text establishes the tone of sheer impotence that makes its way through ‘Sinners.’ “It is a sermon filled with striking images of dangling, slipping, falling, sliding-of unanticipated accidents or unforeseeable catastrophes where one completely loses self-control,” (Adams and Yarbrough 287). It’s as if the human condition are plagued with pitfalls no matter how cautious one’s steps are.
The doctrine is as Adams and Yarbrough call it, “is the sermon’s ‘formal heart’,” (Adams and Yarbrough 286). Most of the doctrine consists of ten "considerations":
“1. God may cast wicked men into hell at any given moment.
2. The Wicked deserve to be cast into hell. Divine justice does not prevent God from destroying the Wicked at any moment.
3. The Wicked, at this moment, suffer under God's condemnation to Hell.
4. The Wicked, on earth - at this very moment - suffer the torments of Hell. The Wicked must not think, simply because they are not physically in Hell, that God (in Whose hand the Wicked now reside) is not - at this very moment - as angry with them as He is with those miserable creatures He is now tormenting in hell, and who - at this very moment - do feel and bear the fierceness of His wrath.
5. At any moment God shall permit him, satan stands ready to fall upon the Wicked and seize them as his own.
6. If it were not for God's restraints, there are, in the souls of wicked men, hellish principles reigning which, presently, would kindle and flame out into hellfire.
7. Simply because there are not visible means of death before them at any given moment, the Wicked should not feel secure.
8. Simply because it is natural to care for oneself or to think that others may care for them, men should not think themselves safe from God's wrath.
9. All that wicked men may do to save themselves from Hell's pains shall afford them nothing if they continue to reject Christ.
10. God has never promised to save us from Hell, except for those contained in Christ through the covenant of Grace.” (Wikipedia).
The doctrine moves along two parallel tracks: the Lord’s supremacy and aptness of the punishment for sinners failing to obey. It’s as if the only reason one has not been sent off to hell yet is because the almighty hasn’t gotten around to it yet, although it is just a matter of time, and the clock is ticking.
The application is as formally structured as the doctrine, Edwards displays his theological argument that exists in scripture and biblical history. Calling upon stories throughout the Bible. For example, “It is the fierceness of his wrath that you are exposed to. We often read of the fury of God; as in Isa. 59:18.
"According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries." So Isa. 66:15. "For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire." And in many other places. So, Rev. 19:15, we read of "the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." The words are exceeding terrible,” (Edwards 99).
The application streamlines the doctrine towards the audience at hand and moves its attention from the conceptual plane of truth to the specific people present in the congregation. The application submits a warning calling on Edwards “sinful” auditors to forthwith repent, to give up their belongings to their sinful selves.
In the end the title of the sermon is the central purpose for Edwards. Sinner's being 'in the hands of an angry God,' is a horrific thing due to the fact that the deserved wrath of the wicked. Juxtapose this with the hand of God also signifying protection in the Christian tradition; it's God’s hand that continues to hold back the power of sin so that the sinner may 'awake and fly the wrath to come.'
Jonathan Edwards issued ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ at Enfield, Connecticut, on July 8 1741. It has been said by historians that the sermon is the most authoritative of the Great Awakening, except for it is not as John C. Adams and Stephen R. Yarbrough point out in their essay Jonathan Edwards, the Great Awakening, and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”:
“It is one of the many sermons that worked similar effects during and before the Awakening, but were composed and delivered differently. However, it is accurate to say that ‘Sinners’ is one of the finest examples of Puritan rhetoric, set in their traditional sermon structure, written and delivered in a ‘plain style,’ and substantively shaped by the predestination doctrines of original sin and the sovereignty of God championed by Edwards and his Puritan predecessors,” (Adams and Yarbrough 286).
It’s core emphasis is on conversion, for by the grace of God one’s soul may achieve salvation. Edwards by writing it down intended it to be issued more than once, his hope that the sermon would conjure similar salvific effects, knowing full well that its reception was decided by forces beyond his rhetorical command.
Edwards sermon structure was laid out in a format that was traditional in New England and was barley revised by him. Such sermons were invariably split apart (titled or not) into: the text, the doctrine, and the application. The text generally was a brief biblical passage followed by a paraphrasing and a flirtation with the thematic elements that shall become the subject of examination in the doctrine. For example:
“‘Their foot shall slide in due time.’ Deuteronomy 32:35. In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, who were God's visible people, and who lived under the means of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God's wonderful works towards them, remained (as vers 28.) void of counsel, having no understanding in them. Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the text. -- The expression I have chosen for my text, their foot shall slide in due time, seems to imply the following things, relating to the punishment and destruction to which these wicked Israelites were exposed,” (Edwards 89).
Edwards text establishes the tone of sheer impotence that makes its way through ‘Sinners.’ “It is a sermon filled with striking images of dangling, slipping, falling, sliding-of unanticipated accidents or unforeseeable catastrophes where one completely loses self-control,” (Adams and Yarbrough 287). It’s as if the human condition are plagued with pitfalls no matter how cautious one’s steps are.
The doctrine is as Adams and Yarbrough call it, “is the sermon’s ‘formal heart’,” (Adams and Yarbrough 286). Most of the doctrine consists of ten "considerations":
“1. God may cast wicked men into hell at any given moment.
2. The Wicked deserve to be cast into hell. Divine justice does not prevent God from destroying the Wicked at any moment.
3. The Wicked, at this moment, suffer under God's condemnation to Hell.
4. The Wicked, on earth - at this very moment - suffer the torments of Hell. The Wicked must not think, simply because they are not physically in Hell, that God (in Whose hand the Wicked now reside) is not - at this very moment - as angry with them as He is with those miserable creatures He is now tormenting in hell, and who - at this very moment - do feel and bear the fierceness of His wrath.
5. At any moment God shall permit him, satan stands ready to fall upon the Wicked and seize them as his own.
6. If it were not for God's restraints, there are, in the souls of wicked men, hellish principles reigning which, presently, would kindle and flame out into hellfire.
7. Simply because there are not visible means of death before them at any given moment, the Wicked should not feel secure.
8. Simply because it is natural to care for oneself or to think that others may care for them, men should not think themselves safe from God's wrath.
9. All that wicked men may do to save themselves from Hell's pains shall afford them nothing if they continue to reject Christ.
10. God has never promised to save us from Hell, except for those contained in Christ through the covenant of Grace.” (Wikipedia).
The doctrine moves along two parallel tracks: the Lord’s supremacy and aptness of the punishment for sinners failing to obey. It’s as if the only reason one has not been sent off to hell yet is because the almighty hasn’t gotten around to it yet, although it is just a matter of time, and the clock is ticking.
The application is as formally structured as the doctrine, Edwards displays his theological argument that exists in scripture and biblical history. Calling upon stories throughout the Bible. For example, “It is the fierceness of his wrath that you are exposed to. We often read of the fury of God; as in Isa. 59:18.
"According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries." So Isa. 66:15. "For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire." And in many other places. So, Rev. 19:15, we read of "the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." The words are exceeding terrible,” (Edwards 99).
The application streamlines the doctrine towards the audience at hand and moves its attention from the conceptual plane of truth to the specific people present in the congregation. The application submits a warning calling on Edwards “sinful” auditors to forthwith repent, to give up their belongings to their sinful selves.
In the end the title of the sermon is the central purpose for Edwards. Sinner's being 'in the hands of an angry God,' is a horrific thing due to the fact that the deserved wrath of the wicked. Juxtapose this with the hand of God also signifying protection in the Christian tradition; it's God’s hand that continues to hold back the power of sin so that the sinner may 'awake and fly the wrath to come.'
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and the Great Awakening
By: Jenna Landry
Part 1: Summary
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God was one of Jonathan Edwards’ most famous sermons and detailed the true relationship that God had with his created people. He begins his sermon with the passage from Deuteronomy 32:35 which states, “Their food shall slide in due time”, which becomes his message throughout his entire speech. He uses this quote in the context of a punishment and destruction beginning with the Israelites, while giving in detail four reasons as to why this quote is important. He said that destruction is always coming upon them and is represented by their feet sliding out from under them. Even though the ground is still slipping God controls it and “the reason why they are not fallen already, and don’t fall now, is only that God’s appointed time is not come” (Edwards 90). This theme of God in control is the centerpiece of the entire sermon.
The next part of the sermon is given in the form of a doctrine. The beginning statement is, “There is nothing that keeps wicked men, at any one moment, out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God” (90). Edwards goes into detail the ten points that give reason to this claim. These ten points are: [1] There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at many moment, [2] they deserve to be cast into hell, [3] they are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell, [4] they are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God that is expressed in the torments of hell, [5] the devil stands ready to fall upon, [6] there are in the souls of the wicked men, [7] it is no security to wicked men for one moment that there is no visible means of death at hand, [8] a natural man’s prudence and care to preserve their own lives and do not secure them a moment, [9] all wicked men’s pains and contrivance which they use to escape hell, which they continue to reject Christ and remain wicked and [10] God has laid himself under no obligation by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment. These are the shortened larger themes that fuels Edwards’ understanding of an angry God who has complete control over humans.
The last part of the sermon is the application of the doctrine for the audience’s understanding. Edwards’ states that the “mere pleasure of God” can hold a person out of hell and by only the hand of God can keep you from misery. He continues with elaborate speech of how God is the keeper of good and His mercy allows people to live in peace. This last part is filled with vivid imagery that paints for his audience to picture and show that God is source of all that is good and to not live in sin or with Satan for that will lead you immediately to hell. The God that they all know is an angry God and Edwards’ gives five more characteristics as evidence. He mostly turns to the Book of Revelation for his own evidence for an apocalyptic message if the people do not repent and turn towards their God.
Part II: Analysis
Jonathan Edwards’ Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God played an important role during the Great Awakening. All of his sermons played a large role throughout his own city of Northampton, Massachusetts and his beginnings as a preacher. The context in which Edwards’ and his congregation lived played a huge role throughout the Great Awakening and then throughout the entire area. The article, Jonathan Edwards, the Great Awakening and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by John Adams and Stephen Yarbrough states that Edwards’s Sinners sermon was to, “justify his attempts to prepare sinners for accepting Christ by using various rhetorical techniques designed to undermined or dismantle the belief structures that supported their sense of themselves as independent, self-determined individuals” (Adams & Yarbrough 276).
To look at the greater context right before the Great Awakening, the Little Awakening occurred in Northampton from 1730-1736 where Edwards began to gather a following. He was considered to be a Calvinist and thought “things are as they should be”. He thought that the glory of God was a gift and laid out his points clearly that “people can do nothing to save themselves, good works avail them nothing but are a glory to God alone, and faith is a gift not to be achieved” (276). Edwards focused upon the dependency of people to God.
From this message of spiritual dependency began to gain followers from people who did not like their economic and social arrangements within their families. This usually consisted of second sons and daughters who turned their dependency of their family to a dependency towards God. From Adams and Yarbrough, these converts in the Little Awakening began to gain Edwards popularity. These people were helpless who turned to God, they did not like their socio-economic class and turned their father into “God the father”. Edwards began to travel around giving sermons to other communities like his own and his thoughts grew.
The Great Awakening occurred in 1737 – 1742 and made a rocky start of Edwards and his group leading to trouble within his own congregation but was eventually sorted out. Other preachers began to come on the scene, which were must like Edwards in a sense of message but had much different delivery styles. But during this Great Awakening was when Edwards’ gave his famous Sinners speech while he was travelling and giving sermons. From this speech and many others Edwards got categorized into the New Light clerical community, which separated themselves from the Old Light. The overarching theme of the New Light was, “saving faith was the faith of assurance – a person’s certain belief that Christ’s righteousness is applied to him for his pardon” (283) but the idea that was most important to Edwards was that they stayed on the orthodox path. Edwards did not necessarily group himself within this category but it is important to note that his speeches played a role in the Awakening throughout the debate between the two sides of the Great Awakening. His predestination and dependency on God theology was heard all around and was very important to the different congregations he visited as well as his own.
It is also important to analyze the sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God in the context in which it was heard. According to Adams and Yarbrough, “ ‘Sinners’ is one of the finest examples of Puritan rhetoric, set in their traditional sermon structure, written and delivered in a ‘plain style’ and substantively shaped by the predestination doctrines of original sin and the sovereignty of God” (286). This sermon became to be extremely famous for its imagery, structure and message it gave to Christians during this time period. This sermon was structured around literal readings of the bible with detailed reasons for support and ended with application or the improvement of people’s lives.
Edwards’ uses the image of the slipping because the human condition can be changed through outside sources so its important to be careful in your beliefs since God is the one who is in complete control. He also uses the contrasts between heaven and hell, which is for saints and sinners because his sermon would affect each of them differently. In all, the sermon was meant to strike fear and cause people to change their ways because they are living in a world of an angry God so it is in the best interests to be true to Him by not living in sin but by true Christian who is dependant upon God.
Part 1: Summary
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God was one of Jonathan Edwards’ most famous sermons and detailed the true relationship that God had with his created people. He begins his sermon with the passage from Deuteronomy 32:35 which states, “Their food shall slide in due time”, which becomes his message throughout his entire speech. He uses this quote in the context of a punishment and destruction beginning with the Israelites, while giving in detail four reasons as to why this quote is important. He said that destruction is always coming upon them and is represented by their feet sliding out from under them. Even though the ground is still slipping God controls it and “the reason why they are not fallen already, and don’t fall now, is only that God’s appointed time is not come” (Edwards 90). This theme of God in control is the centerpiece of the entire sermon.
The next part of the sermon is given in the form of a doctrine. The beginning statement is, “There is nothing that keeps wicked men, at any one moment, out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God” (90). Edwards goes into detail the ten points that give reason to this claim. These ten points are: [1] There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at many moment, [2] they deserve to be cast into hell, [3] they are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell, [4] they are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God that is expressed in the torments of hell, [5] the devil stands ready to fall upon, [6] there are in the souls of the wicked men, [7] it is no security to wicked men for one moment that there is no visible means of death at hand, [8] a natural man’s prudence and care to preserve their own lives and do not secure them a moment, [9] all wicked men’s pains and contrivance which they use to escape hell, which they continue to reject Christ and remain wicked and [10] God has laid himself under no obligation by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment. These are the shortened larger themes that fuels Edwards’ understanding of an angry God who has complete control over humans.
The last part of the sermon is the application of the doctrine for the audience’s understanding. Edwards’ states that the “mere pleasure of God” can hold a person out of hell and by only the hand of God can keep you from misery. He continues with elaborate speech of how God is the keeper of good and His mercy allows people to live in peace. This last part is filled with vivid imagery that paints for his audience to picture and show that God is source of all that is good and to not live in sin or with Satan for that will lead you immediately to hell. The God that they all know is an angry God and Edwards’ gives five more characteristics as evidence. He mostly turns to the Book of Revelation for his own evidence for an apocalyptic message if the people do not repent and turn towards their God.
Part II: Analysis
Jonathan Edwards’ Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God played an important role during the Great Awakening. All of his sermons played a large role throughout his own city of Northampton, Massachusetts and his beginnings as a preacher. The context in which Edwards’ and his congregation lived played a huge role throughout the Great Awakening and then throughout the entire area. The article, Jonathan Edwards, the Great Awakening and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by John Adams and Stephen Yarbrough states that Edwards’s Sinners sermon was to, “justify his attempts to prepare sinners for accepting Christ by using various rhetorical techniques designed to undermined or dismantle the belief structures that supported their sense of themselves as independent, self-determined individuals” (Adams & Yarbrough 276).
To look at the greater context right before the Great Awakening, the Little Awakening occurred in Northampton from 1730-1736 where Edwards began to gather a following. He was considered to be a Calvinist and thought “things are as they should be”. He thought that the glory of God was a gift and laid out his points clearly that “people can do nothing to save themselves, good works avail them nothing but are a glory to God alone, and faith is a gift not to be achieved” (276). Edwards focused upon the dependency of people to God.
From this message of spiritual dependency began to gain followers from people who did not like their economic and social arrangements within their families. This usually consisted of second sons and daughters who turned their dependency of their family to a dependency towards God. From Adams and Yarbrough, these converts in the Little Awakening began to gain Edwards popularity. These people were helpless who turned to God, they did not like their socio-economic class and turned their father into “God the father”. Edwards began to travel around giving sermons to other communities like his own and his thoughts grew.
The Great Awakening occurred in 1737 – 1742 and made a rocky start of Edwards and his group leading to trouble within his own congregation but was eventually sorted out. Other preachers began to come on the scene, which were must like Edwards in a sense of message but had much different delivery styles. But during this Great Awakening was when Edwards’ gave his famous Sinners speech while he was travelling and giving sermons. From this speech and many others Edwards got categorized into the New Light clerical community, which separated themselves from the Old Light. The overarching theme of the New Light was, “saving faith was the faith of assurance – a person’s certain belief that Christ’s righteousness is applied to him for his pardon” (283) but the idea that was most important to Edwards was that they stayed on the orthodox path. Edwards did not necessarily group himself within this category but it is important to note that his speeches played a role in the Awakening throughout the debate between the two sides of the Great Awakening. His predestination and dependency on God theology was heard all around and was very important to the different congregations he visited as well as his own.
It is also important to analyze the sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God in the context in which it was heard. According to Adams and Yarbrough, “ ‘Sinners’ is one of the finest examples of Puritan rhetoric, set in their traditional sermon structure, written and delivered in a ‘plain style’ and substantively shaped by the predestination doctrines of original sin and the sovereignty of God” (286). This sermon became to be extremely famous for its imagery, structure and message it gave to Christians during this time period. This sermon was structured around literal readings of the bible with detailed reasons for support and ended with application or the improvement of people’s lives.
Edwards’ uses the image of the slipping because the human condition can be changed through outside sources so its important to be careful in your beliefs since God is the one who is in complete control. He also uses the contrasts between heaven and hell, which is for saints and sinners because his sermon would affect each of them differently. In all, the sermon was meant to strike fear and cause people to change their ways because they are living in a world of an angry God so it is in the best interests to be true to Him by not living in sin but by true Christian who is dependant upon God.
Angry Sinners and an Angrier God
_ Chris DeLacy
Jonathan Edwards was undoubtedly a great orator in his ability to captivate a crowd by bringing his audience to confront difficult scriptural conviction. He resembles his contemporaries (George Whitefield, Gilbert Tennant, James Davenport) in the substance of his sermons but is distanced by his intellect, constructing his speeches to unveil logically with a more difficult line of reasoning. Like the aforementioned orators, Edwards clearly wished to evoke emotional responses from his congregations, but relied more heavily on the audience members’ agreement after further reflection rather than immediate cataleptic acceptance. Having been heavily influenced by John Locke, Edwards understood the danger of blindly accepting another man’s word (contrarily understanding the imminent necessity to blindly accept God’s word) and dared not spoon feed his audience appropriate behavior. His orations were carefully worded to leave his audience with an opportunity to change their ways, seemingly due to their own will.
Edward’s famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, fixates on the horrors of hell and how our own sovereignty is an illusion of the only free will belonging to God. It’s interesting to note how little Edwards expounds upon the greatness of heaven and his reasoning for focusing on hell reminds me of Manichean ideology that has perhaps resurfaced. He believed that the apocalyptic horror of hell “is the natural extension of the everyday,” that hell can legitimately be imagined in terms of the the pain and suffering that exists in our tangible world (Adams & Yarbrough, 290). Heaven, on the other hand, consists of pleasures that “are vastly different from the pleasures of earth, hence they may not be portrayed as effectively in sensual imagery” (A & Y, 290).
By harkening the evils of hell and the reality that members of his congregation could end up there someday, a contradiction of freewill surfaces when he posits what audience members can do about their fate. Central to Edwards’ beliefs was the idea that humans’ freewill is an illusion; all humans’ fates are carved in stone by God and any will one perceives to act on is simply the will of God extended through that person. Sin is even defined by him as “acting from self-love when one conceives oneself as an individual distinct from, and undetermined by God” (A & Y, 284). It occurred to me that it would be quite discouraging to sinners to hear about their impending doom if their road and destination had already been set by God. But therein lies the central ideology behind the “Great Awakening” itself. The purpose of this sermon is not to grant the audience a choice to live a good life and work towards salvation, he instead works to “heighten [their] awareness of how salvation completely depends on God’s arbitrary will” (A & Y, 288). The audience members are asked to come to realize their own helplessness and submission to the will of God, and only by acknowledging their place in God’s schema can their souls be saved.
Another contradiction nestled quietly in Edwards’ sermon is the concept that God operates outside of time, yet he stresses that conversion must happen immediately because God’s smiting could strike unpredictably in the near future. Edwards argues God hasn’t rendered all sinners out of existence because “there is nothing to make it appear that God had need to be at the expense of a miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of his providence” to punish sinners; God has the ability and doesn’t need to prove it (Edwards, 93). It would have been more satisfying if Edwards justified God’s timely inaction in the same way it was argued that choice and time were what initially separated God from man (A & Y, 285).
Something else that really stuck out was his rigidly binary way of presenting the road to salvation/damnation and the polarity of responses received from his audience. It’s message is very pressing when salvation is denied a spectral representation, because all those in attendance are brought to think which of the two options (heaven or hell) has God chosen for me? In Edwards’ world and time there really were only two types of people and two mutually dissociative afterlives for either sinners or saints to congregate in eternity, and to some extent this same ideology persists today in radical religious sects. It’s also interesting to note the corresponding binary responses from the parties involved, which Edwards attributes to church members’ “varying spiritual conditions” (A & Y, 292). There seemed to be either those who rejoiced at the fact that God would brutally punish sinners and those who snarled at his message in step with Arminian ideology, wanting to believe that their own volition could lead them on a path to salvation. It appears that few stood in between these polarized reactions, undoubtedly because Edwards intended his message to be black and white. It adds strength to his argument, posing conversion to his ideology that defends God’s sovereign justice and be saved, or do anything at all contrary and be condemned to hell.
Although neither Jonathan Edwards nor did this sermon spark the Great Awakening, Edwards to proved to be a big player in the movement once the table was set by minds akin to his, and this sermon proved to be an exemplary piece of the time in its content and delivery. Edwards was unique in addressing both ends of the salvation spectrum (sinners and the saved) during his orations, and a growing generation of adolescents dependent on their parents set the stage for his ‘dependency upon the will of God’ thesis to sow upon fertile ears. It is no wonder that his controversial message spread like wildfire throughout colonial America and vestiges of his ideology are still integral to modern sects of Protestantism.
Jonathan Edwards was undoubtedly a great orator in his ability to captivate a crowd by bringing his audience to confront difficult scriptural conviction. He resembles his contemporaries (George Whitefield, Gilbert Tennant, James Davenport) in the substance of his sermons but is distanced by his intellect, constructing his speeches to unveil logically with a more difficult line of reasoning. Like the aforementioned orators, Edwards clearly wished to evoke emotional responses from his congregations, but relied more heavily on the audience members’ agreement after further reflection rather than immediate cataleptic acceptance. Having been heavily influenced by John Locke, Edwards understood the danger of blindly accepting another man’s word (contrarily understanding the imminent necessity to blindly accept God’s word) and dared not spoon feed his audience appropriate behavior. His orations were carefully worded to leave his audience with an opportunity to change their ways, seemingly due to their own will.
Edward’s famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, fixates on the horrors of hell and how our own sovereignty is an illusion of the only free will belonging to God. It’s interesting to note how little Edwards expounds upon the greatness of heaven and his reasoning for focusing on hell reminds me of Manichean ideology that has perhaps resurfaced. He believed that the apocalyptic horror of hell “is the natural extension of the everyday,” that hell can legitimately be imagined in terms of the the pain and suffering that exists in our tangible world (Adams & Yarbrough, 290). Heaven, on the other hand, consists of pleasures that “are vastly different from the pleasures of earth, hence they may not be portrayed as effectively in sensual imagery” (A & Y, 290).
By harkening the evils of hell and the reality that members of his congregation could end up there someday, a contradiction of freewill surfaces when he posits what audience members can do about their fate. Central to Edwards’ beliefs was the idea that humans’ freewill is an illusion; all humans’ fates are carved in stone by God and any will one perceives to act on is simply the will of God extended through that person. Sin is even defined by him as “acting from self-love when one conceives oneself as an individual distinct from, and undetermined by God” (A & Y, 284). It occurred to me that it would be quite discouraging to sinners to hear about their impending doom if their road and destination had already been set by God. But therein lies the central ideology behind the “Great Awakening” itself. The purpose of this sermon is not to grant the audience a choice to live a good life and work towards salvation, he instead works to “heighten [their] awareness of how salvation completely depends on God’s arbitrary will” (A & Y, 288). The audience members are asked to come to realize their own helplessness and submission to the will of God, and only by acknowledging their place in God’s schema can their souls be saved.
Another contradiction nestled quietly in Edwards’ sermon is the concept that God operates outside of time, yet he stresses that conversion must happen immediately because God’s smiting could strike unpredictably in the near future. Edwards argues God hasn’t rendered all sinners out of existence because “there is nothing to make it appear that God had need to be at the expense of a miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of his providence” to punish sinners; God has the ability and doesn’t need to prove it (Edwards, 93). It would have been more satisfying if Edwards justified God’s timely inaction in the same way it was argued that choice and time were what initially separated God from man (A & Y, 285).
Something else that really stuck out was his rigidly binary way of presenting the road to salvation/damnation and the polarity of responses received from his audience. It’s message is very pressing when salvation is denied a spectral representation, because all those in attendance are brought to think which of the two options (heaven or hell) has God chosen for me? In Edwards’ world and time there really were only two types of people and two mutually dissociative afterlives for either sinners or saints to congregate in eternity, and to some extent this same ideology persists today in radical religious sects. It’s also interesting to note the corresponding binary responses from the parties involved, which Edwards attributes to church members’ “varying spiritual conditions” (A & Y, 292). There seemed to be either those who rejoiced at the fact that God would brutally punish sinners and those who snarled at his message in step with Arminian ideology, wanting to believe that their own volition could lead them on a path to salvation. It appears that few stood in between these polarized reactions, undoubtedly because Edwards intended his message to be black and white. It adds strength to his argument, posing conversion to his ideology that defends God’s sovereign justice and be saved, or do anything at all contrary and be condemned to hell.
Although neither Jonathan Edwards nor did this sermon spark the Great Awakening, Edwards to proved to be a big player in the movement once the table was set by minds akin to his, and this sermon proved to be an exemplary piece of the time in its content and delivery. Edwards was unique in addressing both ends of the salvation spectrum (sinners and the saved) during his orations, and a growing generation of adolescents dependent on their parents set the stage for his ‘dependency upon the will of God’ thesis to sow upon fertile ears. It is no wonder that his controversial message spread like wildfire throughout colonial America and vestiges of his ideology are still integral to modern sects of Protestantism.
Colonial America, Johnathan Edwards,
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (1741)
Melanie Toth
Johnathan Edwards,
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (1741)
In this key sermon of the First Great Awakening Congregationalist minister, Johnathan Edwards, intended to create a sense of immediacy to the terrors he felt were waiting for the unrepentant as well as a means for remedying those circumstances. He expected his parishioners to be of two kinds; a small group, the saved, would receive his words with hope and satisfaction in Divine Justice, the second, and assumed majority, would be gravely warned of their ever impending danger and given the impetus for salvation (Yarbrough-Adams, 287). Edwards’ sermon follows a distinct format typical of North Eastern sermons from the period. These speeches consisted of three “nesting” portions each developing upon a theme as presented in the previous section and build upon the foundation of a primary biblical passage. The first portion gave the textual foundation, the second expressed the doctrine of the text, and the final section offered an illustration of the application of both text and doctrine to the lives of the parishioners (Yarbrough-Adams, 286).
For this fiery oration Edwards chose a passage from Deuteronomy, “Their foot shall slide in due time,” (32:35) as the anchor for his extrapolation on predestination, Divine wrath, and salvation. In this textual portion of the sermon he used plain and common speech to clarify for his audience the “correct” understanding this passage in four key components; first, the sinner was in constant danger of “slipping” into eternal damnation; second, this fall would be swift and unexpected; third, the cause of the fall would be none other than the sinner him/he self; and finally, the only reason those in such a treacherous position had yet to slip was that God had yet to will it. Edwards informed his listeners that, “There is nothing that keeps wicked men, at any one moment, out of hell but the mere pleasure of God” (89). As Yarborough and Adams noted, “It makes it seem as though the only reason one has not yet gone off to hell is because God has not gotten around to sending one there yet…” (288).
In his second section Edwards unpacked the theology of this brief passage in order to express the full implications of impending doom. He does this by first impressing upon his listeners the absolute and immeasurable power of the divine. Then, in a carefully formatted and rhetorical manner, he exhibited his argument for the “truths” of this doctrine in ten parts. Namely, mankind is ultimately feeble and fragile and God’s power is absolute, by divine and perfect judgment those who fall deserve eternal punishment, by their own disobedience they are already condemned, the condemned are subjects of God’s anger equally to those presently in hell, all is prepared for their torment the moment God lifts his hand, the only thing preventing sinners from doing more harm to others and themselves in the present is God’s restraint, death is imminent and after death the chance for salvation will be lost, no man can save themselves, there is no escape for the unbeliever, and God has no obligation to save the sinner, salvation comes only through the “covenant of grace” offered in Christ (for which sinners have no interest).(90-95)
In the final section Edwards applied these abstract concepts to personal and individual experiences. After plunging his uncertain petitioners into the depths of terror Edwards offered up a remedy, a balm for their affliction. He urged those who were “out of Christ” to understand that the only thing that stays their fiery destiny was the “mere pleasure of God” (95). The sinner, he went on, did not deserve sunlight, food, or even air and at any moment their peril would be complete. He reiterated that the only relief for the wicked was a “change of heart”. The individual needed to acknowledge their own dependency, the power of God, and be “born again” (103). But, as per the tenants of predestination, man cannot do this for himself, only the will of God could turn the hearts of men.
Once again he railed upon the offenders, driving home their need to fully understand the danger they were in. Pulling out merciless and bloody imagery from Old Testament of divine rage mixed with bold metaphors of hopelessness and gore, he built up the fear and terror of his audience against the unbendable justice and omnipotent power of an angry God to a crescendo. To his congregation he impressed that this peril left no outward manifestation that any of them could be in hell, “before tomorrow morning” (103).
Finally he presented the relief, all was not yet lost, for as long as one was living, there was still an opportunity to obtain salvation. Here, after heavy warnings and illustrations full of horror, he offered his congregants, the key to their trouble with the same immediacy as he had expressed the peril for the unredeemed. He exhorted men and women, young and old, to, “fly the wrath to come” and “flock to Christ” (104-105).
Johnathan Edwards’ sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” was one of many made during the period of the First Great Awakening that inspired mass conversions throughout the colonies. The Pietism of this era was driven by emotion, powerfully wrought sermons, a focus on individual conversion experiences, apocalypticism, and the love of God and Christ (Lecture 4/22). Edwards appealed to most of these points in his sermons, although he did not dwell much love. The reason for this might have been his belief in the complete dependency of man on God for his/her salvation. According to Edwards, and individual needed to be “annihilated” before God in order to be born again (qtd. in Yarbarough-Adams,280). Edwards’ staunch Puritan Calvinist theology condemned any sin, no matter how slight, as an offense against God worthy of eternal damnation. He focused on sin and fear in order to break down the willfulness of his audience. He did this by presenting the helplessness, dependency, and fragility of man compared to the power, potency, and anger of God. There was little room for love in his sermons.
Edwards’ urgency was also characteristic of his sermons and the sermons of other Great Awakening preachers (Lecture,4/22). This immediacy was due to a sense of the coming “end of times”, or apocalyptiscim, that drove the need to convert now before, not just individual death but, the end of all earthly life (Yarbarough-Adams,279). Yarborough and Adams contend that the purpose of these, “sermons of terror” was to compel a sinner to realize the justice of their damnation. The theological logic behind this, according to the authors, was that “…one always perceives from one’s own point of view, so if one really does perceive the justice of one’s damnation, it is not one’s self one damns, but one’s old, unregenerate self, for conversion has already occurred” (286).
Edwards did not intend simply to stir up his congregation with scenes of terror. He truly believed that their mortal souls were in very immediate danger. Due to his orthodox faith and the sense that time was running out, he did not waste ink on expounding over the love of Christ in order to woo his audience. Whatever Edwards expressed about man’s inability to save himself he presented a different compulsion in the character of his sermon. His sermons were crafted to convert through fear, in the hope that love would follow. Edwards fully intended to, quite literally, scare the hell out of his congregants.
Johnathan Edwards,
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (1741)
In this key sermon of the First Great Awakening Congregationalist minister, Johnathan Edwards, intended to create a sense of immediacy to the terrors he felt were waiting for the unrepentant as well as a means for remedying those circumstances. He expected his parishioners to be of two kinds; a small group, the saved, would receive his words with hope and satisfaction in Divine Justice, the second, and assumed majority, would be gravely warned of their ever impending danger and given the impetus for salvation (Yarbrough-Adams, 287). Edwards’ sermon follows a distinct format typical of North Eastern sermons from the period. These speeches consisted of three “nesting” portions each developing upon a theme as presented in the previous section and build upon the foundation of a primary biblical passage. The first portion gave the textual foundation, the second expressed the doctrine of the text, and the final section offered an illustration of the application of both text and doctrine to the lives of the parishioners (Yarbrough-Adams, 286).
For this fiery oration Edwards chose a passage from Deuteronomy, “Their foot shall slide in due time,” (32:35) as the anchor for his extrapolation on predestination, Divine wrath, and salvation. In this textual portion of the sermon he used plain and common speech to clarify for his audience the “correct” understanding this passage in four key components; first, the sinner was in constant danger of “slipping” into eternal damnation; second, this fall would be swift and unexpected; third, the cause of the fall would be none other than the sinner him/he self; and finally, the only reason those in such a treacherous position had yet to slip was that God had yet to will it. Edwards informed his listeners that, “There is nothing that keeps wicked men, at any one moment, out of hell but the mere pleasure of God” (89). As Yarborough and Adams noted, “It makes it seem as though the only reason one has not yet gone off to hell is because God has not gotten around to sending one there yet…” (288).
In his second section Edwards unpacked the theology of this brief passage in order to express the full implications of impending doom. He does this by first impressing upon his listeners the absolute and immeasurable power of the divine. Then, in a carefully formatted and rhetorical manner, he exhibited his argument for the “truths” of this doctrine in ten parts. Namely, mankind is ultimately feeble and fragile and God’s power is absolute, by divine and perfect judgment those who fall deserve eternal punishment, by their own disobedience they are already condemned, the condemned are subjects of God’s anger equally to those presently in hell, all is prepared for their torment the moment God lifts his hand, the only thing preventing sinners from doing more harm to others and themselves in the present is God’s restraint, death is imminent and after death the chance for salvation will be lost, no man can save themselves, there is no escape for the unbeliever, and God has no obligation to save the sinner, salvation comes only through the “covenant of grace” offered in Christ (for which sinners have no interest).(90-95)
In the final section Edwards applied these abstract concepts to personal and individual experiences. After plunging his uncertain petitioners into the depths of terror Edwards offered up a remedy, a balm for their affliction. He urged those who were “out of Christ” to understand that the only thing that stays their fiery destiny was the “mere pleasure of God” (95). The sinner, he went on, did not deserve sunlight, food, or even air and at any moment their peril would be complete. He reiterated that the only relief for the wicked was a “change of heart”. The individual needed to acknowledge their own dependency, the power of God, and be “born again” (103). But, as per the tenants of predestination, man cannot do this for himself, only the will of God could turn the hearts of men.
Once again he railed upon the offenders, driving home their need to fully understand the danger they were in. Pulling out merciless and bloody imagery from Old Testament of divine rage mixed with bold metaphors of hopelessness and gore, he built up the fear and terror of his audience against the unbendable justice and omnipotent power of an angry God to a crescendo. To his congregation he impressed that this peril left no outward manifestation that any of them could be in hell, “before tomorrow morning” (103).
Finally he presented the relief, all was not yet lost, for as long as one was living, there was still an opportunity to obtain salvation. Here, after heavy warnings and illustrations full of horror, he offered his congregants, the key to their trouble with the same immediacy as he had expressed the peril for the unredeemed. He exhorted men and women, young and old, to, “fly the wrath to come” and “flock to Christ” (104-105).
Johnathan Edwards’ sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” was one of many made during the period of the First Great Awakening that inspired mass conversions throughout the colonies. The Pietism of this era was driven by emotion, powerfully wrought sermons, a focus on individual conversion experiences, apocalypticism, and the love of God and Christ (Lecture 4/22). Edwards appealed to most of these points in his sermons, although he did not dwell much love. The reason for this might have been his belief in the complete dependency of man on God for his/her salvation. According to Edwards, and individual needed to be “annihilated” before God in order to be born again (qtd. in Yarbarough-Adams,280). Edwards’ staunch Puritan Calvinist theology condemned any sin, no matter how slight, as an offense against God worthy of eternal damnation. He focused on sin and fear in order to break down the willfulness of his audience. He did this by presenting the helplessness, dependency, and fragility of man compared to the power, potency, and anger of God. There was little room for love in his sermons.
Edwards’ urgency was also characteristic of his sermons and the sermons of other Great Awakening preachers (Lecture,4/22). This immediacy was due to a sense of the coming “end of times”, or apocalyptiscim, that drove the need to convert now before, not just individual death but, the end of all earthly life (Yarbarough-Adams,279). Yarborough and Adams contend that the purpose of these, “sermons of terror” was to compel a sinner to realize the justice of their damnation. The theological logic behind this, according to the authors, was that “…one always perceives from one’s own point of view, so if one really does perceive the justice of one’s damnation, it is not one’s self one damns, but one’s old, unregenerate self, for conversion has already occurred” (286).
Edwards did not intend simply to stir up his congregation with scenes of terror. He truly believed that their mortal souls were in very immediate danger. Due to his orthodox faith and the sense that time was running out, he did not waste ink on expounding over the love of Christ in order to woo his audience. Whatever Edwards expressed about man’s inability to save himself he presented a different compulsion in the character of his sermon. His sermons were crafted to convert through fear, in the hope that love would follow. Edwards fully intended to, quite literally, scare the hell out of his congregants.