Preview

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
255 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Sinners in the hands of an Angry God

Jonathan Edwards shows great anger in this sermon through the use of metaphors, personification, and diction. He uses a variety of metaphors to show the dark tone of this sermon. "would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock.". This explains how nothing is holding you from hell; that if you make a mistake, you will fall to hell like a rock through a spider web. "keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood." Make one mistake and an arrow may absorb the blood inside you; this is what that metaphor is showing. Within the sermon Edwards shows a great use of personification to create a live feeling of terror. "and justice bends the arrow at your heart". He is showing that justice will get you, no matter what, if you do something wrong. "the world would spew you out". It gives the world a human like reflex to vomit you off earth if you comit a sin or crime.

Jonathan uses many similes to explode his anger in this sermon. "your destruction would come like a whirlwind". Edwards is showing that if you were to do something wrong you will be destroyed like a whirlwind destroys towns. "Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead". This explains how you will be as heavy as lead and fall to the pits of fiery

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In the sermon "Sinner's in the Hand of an Angry God" by Johnathan Edwards, he author describes how God can easily condem sinners into the pit the fiery pit of hell in any given moment. Edwards clearly informs his audience that God has an omnipotent force and won't delay on sending you into hell. He incorporates alliteration, imagery, and simile into his sermon to convey his message.…

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God” approaches the audience with a call to action. Jonathan does not soften his blows of aggression towards those listening to his sermon. Edwards’ use of imagery and syntax add to the emotional effect of the sermon. “The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string.” This metaphor is directed to those that sin, and is used as a more blunt approach to those who do bad, than Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”. Plato approaches the topic of ignorance with ease and softness, using an epic metaphor to compare humans finding self-knowledge to those in a cave. Edwards uses many similes as well, but with a more aggressive impact. “And the fiery…

    • 257 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Why do you think that the Puritans were so scared when the preacher was giving his sermon? The use of pathos is convincing in “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” because how the preacher has no emotion in his sermon and used literary terms to scare the Puritans. First reason that the preacher has no emotion in his sermon is that he scares them to turn to God, and he is using literary terms to scare the Puritans.…

    • 383 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sinners Edwards Thesis

    • 249 Words
    • 1 Page

    In “Sinners” Edwards is trying to convey a raw and emotional message about Gods wrath and compassion. He exclaims that there is “nothing that keeps wicked men, at any moment, out of Hell, but the mere pleasure of God.” People believe that by being moral and using their own judgment that they are essentially keeping themselves safe as they believe they have escaped Hell. People at that time were complacent as they did not fear God. Edwards uses citations of the Scripture plus vivid imagery to paint a fiery hell that is waiting for those that do not change their ways. Gods judgment is gruesomely violent therefore men should be extremely fearful of his wrath. He stirred up strong emotional dread in this sermon to have a major impact on the listeners.…

    • 249 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Minister's Black Veil

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Edwards’ style was more effective because he was very descriptive of how God would be angry about the things people do in their everyday lives. Edwards’ style of preaching this sermon was also very hyperbolic, however he got his point across to the audience. The way he presented the text makes the reader second think their decisions at the moment as God looks down on them would he perhaps like the activities he’s seen out of people. When Edwards’ exaggerated in his text it made the text more alive.”His mere pleasure from this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction.”…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is religious speech written by Jonathan Edwards, an American person who studies God, while preaching in a crowd in Enfield and Northampton. He preached on July 8, 1741 in Enfield, Connecticut, is (a request to/a court challenge to) 'sinners' to recognize that they will be judged by God and that this judgment will be more afraid/scary and painful than they can understand. Three themes stand out as especially important for understanding Edwards's approach to his message: His (putting pictures into your mind) helped to paint scary pictures in the minds of his followers of the results they would face in the future if they didn't feel deep sorrow for past sin.…

    • 119 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fire, hell, and eternity were essential topics of puritan preachers during the colonial period. Theologian, Jonathan Edwards took a new view on God, that he was heartless and condemning toward those known as sinners. Edwards outlined this belief in his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Eyes of An Angry God.” His fiery images, advanced topics, and effective use of rhetoric created a successful speech that struck terror and conversion into the hearts of his followers.…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jonathan Edwards uses metaphors to connect to the people’s everyday lives. He tells them that their sin is as “heavy as led” and will pull them straight down to hell. “Your wickedness makes you as it were as heavy as lead, and…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The author of the book has preached this during the period of Great Awakening and he used different kinds of persuasive techniques, the images and simple metaphors to prevent the sinners from committing sins. He used two images that delivered to make people turn from their sinful ways is first, comparison of God’s wrath to great waters and second, he compared it to a bow. He compared it to great waters and said that there will be a disaster made by huge flood if people became all wicked. And he also compared the wrath to a bow that is bent, with the…

    • 453 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    English Final Review

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages

    2. In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, why did Jonathan Edwards fiery sermon use imagery, such as being held in God’s hand over a lake of fire and brimstone? Jonathan Edwards wanted to create a mental picture for the audience. The imagery emphasizes the intensity of Hell's flames and the fragility of humanity's condition. The imagery also creates the mood of the sermon.…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jonathan Edwards uses fear from suffering in oblivion to persuade his readers to join the lord in order to be saved from it. The author uses metaphors to make the reader picture that terrible place to convert irreligious readers.…

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edwards uses frightening imagery to make the puritans scared of what is to come if they continue being unfaithful to God. Striking the cord of a personal sin, “justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow” giving God the power to take away ones life in a second. Edwards’s scares the puritans by using imagery that relates to them, knowing that they have watched people of their kind be shot by a Native American with an arrow when they first came to the New World. Edwards uses individual imagery to make the puritans think he is speaking…

    • 930 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Obviously, Edwards uses the water held behind a dam as a symbol. The dam represents God's "hand," and the water is His wrath. Comparing this, Edwards tries to explain that the longer the water is held back, the more force it will have when the dam will no longer support it; the longer God puts off judgment of man's sin, the more powerful His punishment. The sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is a great example of the Puritan belief of society. A man is ether part of the elect, basically chosen to go to heaven, or of the damned that are sent to hell at God's force.…

    • 1020 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Another text that this occurs in is “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, when Jonathan Edwards the author is consistently talking about the wrong that had been committed and how God will strike back against us, but yet never speaks of anything else. This is seen in these three quotes, “There is a dreadful pig of glowing flames of the wrath of God”, “Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards wig great weight and pressure towards hell”, “This is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ, that works of misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you”. But the attitude of these people could not have a better analogy than a black cloud, stated in the text, “The black clouds of gods wrath now hanging directly over your…

    • 918 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is a sermon given by Johnathan Edwards, a preacher and a theologian. Published in 1741, Edwards’ sermon is one of most defining pieces of literature during the First Great Awakening in the United States. The Day of Doom is a poem written by Michael Wigglesworth, a Puritan minister. The poem became wildly popular in Puritan New England when it was published in 1662. Both texts discuss the themes of divine judgement and punishment. Edwards’ sermon illustrates that it is God’s will that keeps evil men from being sent down to hell. Wigglesworth describes the Day of Judgement in which God will decide who will be saved who will be sent to hell. These pieces of religious literature both describe a harsh God who has ultimate judgement and no mercy when it comes to punishment.…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays