Jonathan

Edwards

Sinners in the
Hands of an
Angry God

 For Edwards, science, reason, and observation

of the universe confirmed for him the existence
of God.
A brilliant thinker and speaker, Edwards entered
Yale at 13 and became a minister 12 years later.
His passionate, yet frightening, sermons helped
to bring about The Great Awakening,
a time when many who attended church were
not saved or could testify to an emotional
encounter with God and His grace.
Unregenerate Christians
were those who attended church and accepted
church teachings but had not been born again
by Gods grace.

 He was dismissed as
pastor in 1750 because
his sermons were too
extreme; he called out
those in the congregation
who were leading lives
relapsing into sin.
Ironically, Edwards died
of a smallpox vaccination,
a modern medical procedure
many Puritans considered
sinful.

On the one hand, Edwards believed in reason and

learning, the value of independent intellect, and
the power of the human will.
VS.
On the other hand, he believed in the lowliness of
human beings in relation to Gods majesty and
the ultimate futility of merely human efforts to
achieve salvation.
Edwards, as the last Puritan, stood between
Puritan America and modern America.
Tragically, he fit into neither world.

Figurative Language in
Sinners in the Hands of an
Angry God
By Jonathan Edwards

The devil is waiting for them,

hell is gaping for them, the
flames gather and flash about
them (79).
Imagery

The devil is waiting for them, hell

is gaping for them, the flames
gather and flash about them, and
would fain lay hold on them and
swallow them up (79).

Personification

the fire pent up in their own

hearts is struggling to break
out (79).

Personification

The bow of Gods wrath is bent,

and the arrow made ready on the
string, and justice bends the arrow
of your heart, and strains the
bow (109).
Metaphor

The God that holds you over the

pit of Hell, much as one holds a
spider, or some loathsome insect
over the fire, (81).
Simile

you are ten thousand times more

abominable in his eyes, than the
most hateful venomous serpent is
in ours (81).

Simile

it is a great furnace of wrath,

a wide and bottomless pit, full of
the fire of wrath (81).
metaphor

if God should let you go, you

would immediately sink and swiftly
descend and plunge into a
bottomless gulf (80).

Imagery

The wrath of God is like great

waters that are damned for the
present (80).
Simile

if your strength were ten thousand

times greater than it is, yea, ten
thousand times greater that the
strength of the stoutest, sturdiest
devil in hell, it would be nothing to
withstand or endure it (80).
Simile

That world of misery, that lake of

burning brimstone, is extended
abroad under you (80).
Imagery/ metaphor

Your wickedness makes you as it

were heavy as lead (80).
Simile

your own care and prudence,

would have no more influence to
uphold you and keep you out of
Hell, than a spiders web would
have to stop a fallen rock (80).
Simile

You have offended Him infinitely

more than ever a stubborn rebel did
his prince (81).
Simile

his wrath towards you burns

like fire; (81).
Simile

they would avail no more to

keep you from falling than the thin
air to hold a person that is
suspended in it (80).
Simile

It is a great furnace of wrath, a

wide and bottomless pit, full of the
fire of wrath, that you are held over
in the hand of that God (81).
metaphor