Jonathan Edwards Sermon Rhetorical Analysis

This interpretation of God becomes the reference point for the rest of the sermon. All of the commands and accusations in the sermon rely on Edwards' portrait of God as an angry, all-powerful being that has no obligation to have mercy upon his creations. By convincing his congregation of God's wrathful character, Edwards is then able to convince the congregation that they are in danger of damnation and severe punishment at the hand of this wrathful God. Edwards characterizes God as a being that "abhors" mortal men and "looks upon [them] as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire" (200). Edwards then uses scriptural references to support his claims about the nature of God.

For the majority of the sermon, Edwards highlights the consequences of sinners’ lives, and the rage they shall face from God. Throughout “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Jonathan Edwards utilizes the rhetorical devices of emotional appeal, imagery, and simile to convey the extreme wrath of God, the intensity of Hell, the eternal consequences of someone’s actions, and to provide a powerful warning and opportunity to sinners. To begin, Edwards employs imagery in his sermon to allow his audience to visualize the suffering they will soon be afflicted with. For example, in Edwards’ sermon, he says: “The old Serpent is gaping for them; Hell opens his mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost. There are in the Souls of wicked Men.” (Edwards 10) In this quote, the author describes the visuals of being dropped down into Hell.

He even discredits the clergymen even more by saying “it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say wait.” MLK’s ultimate claim is that the church is to blame for these happenings and “the judgement of God is upon the Church as never before”(276). King stated how even the people who were in the church trying to fight for justice had been looked down upon and some had been kicked out of their own churches. King’s claims were passionately presented. He relentlessly provided evidence to prove his position on the issue of injustice and also showed ample amounts of examples to solve these problems. Looking at this letter from King’s time period, one may seem to not understand where King was coming from because the issue was still fresh, but today his letter has lots of

A persuasive text, in my opinion, would be one that convinces the audience to do what the reading intends. 14. Some parts of the sermon that i believe would have made the audience speak out would be when Edwards mentioned that the Puritans are all evil and for the Puritans the message went over their heads and it filled them with laughter. 15. This is a powerful image because it displays good vs. evil.

He describes Gods anger towards those who do not follow and believe in Him. It is explained that God is the only one who is able to save people from going to Hell. Edwards wants people to imagine how evil and distressed life would be without Gods love and mercy. He explains that to not burn in Hell people need to ask for forgiveness from God, experience Gods mercy, and continuously practice the Lords word. Edwards really lets the message of “Gods wrath” sink into our minds to show how mighty, powerful, and capable the Lord is.

Arthur Miller's utilization of incongruity in The Crucible shows exactly how tricky the human species is. He makes a situation that spins around the congregation and how the general population must take after their decrees and keep their dedication to God, however all they truly do conflicts with their ten edicts. John submitted infidelity by yearning for Abbigail when he was at that point wedded to Elizabeth and had constructed a family with her. Abigail is desirous of Elizabeth for having John and her yearning for retaliation drives her to lie and control the town as she did. It is essentially unexpected how all through every one of the allegations and guards, everyone would lecture their confidence in God and the congregation yet whatever they did was definitely not what they were required to.

Within his speech, Edwards says, "there is a dreadful pit of glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell's wide gaping mouth open...you have nothing to stand upon, nor...take a hold of." This statement gives a clear description of God's agitation, and that his anger is much like the fiery depths of hell. With this visualization, the sinners are able to imagine God's rage, which would scare them when thinking of what their punishment may be in return of their sinning. Lastly, Edwards also delivers his message through the use of repetition. Throughout his speech, he repeats, "God's hands," "pit of hell," and "wrath of God," plenty of times.

Repetition, description, tone, and influence are the main characteristics of both works of art. The first figurative language factor is repetition. The piece “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” repeats words such as wicked, danger, and hell. This is an incredible tactic in what the speaker was trying to do, teach people. The more you repeat certain words the more people would think about those specific words.

Compare and contrast the meaning and style of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and “The Minister’s Black Veil.” How does each author convey his meaning to the reader? Which author’s style is more effective and why? Puritan religion is adequately portrayed in both Jonathan Edwards’ sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story, “The Minister’s Black Veil”. Edwards’ sermon is preaches about how God’s wrath will send sinners, who do not repent and truly believe in God, to Hell for all eternity. Hawthorne’s story is about how people try to hide their sins inside themselves as if behind a curtain or veil.

To convince sinners who haven't accepted christ to accept him, Jonathan Edwards most effectively appeals to man emotion through metaphor that are meant to reveal what could happen. “The pit is prepared, the fire is made ready.” The pit is referring to hell. Hell is hot and ready for the people who die without christ. The metaphor is made to scare people. The story also compares hell to a furnace which is pretty much the same thing as a pit.

This means that the sinners have to be born again to be in the kingdom. Moreover, Edwards had a powerful impact on his puritan audience of his puritan audience because of his use of a complex figurative language in the passage. In paragraph 2, it states that “They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, which is expressed in the torments of hell”. It also states that “Is not at present very angry with them as he is with many miserable creatures now tormented in hell”. Theses quotes reveal that God power is fear so that it can shut the sinners down and destroy sinners who made him angry.

Whatever it maybe, there’s sure going to be a consequence right along with it. Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” combines the ideal beliefs that any Christian lives by and that’s the guilt of committing a sin. We live by the absolute horrifying penalty of going to hell, for the only god to judge us. In order to prevent this we have to obey his law and practice it. History has displayed countless amounts of times were the fear of hell has made us absolutely, earn a one way ticket there.

“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”: Text Analysis In the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Jonathan Edwards proclaims that without God’s courageous heart and belief in each and every one of us, we would all be suffering in the furnace of Hell, accompanying the devil. He makes this known by using many occurrences of imagery, and metaphors; Edwards’s style of writing and frightening diction also assists in getting his point across to the audience. Edward’s sermon, reaching out to all religious followers, helps to comprehend the faith and wrath that God possesses. Edward uses the metaphor “…the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart.” to reveal that sinning creates a target on ones back,

Most importantly, the Gospel speaks to one’s heart and reveals the coming wrath of God upon the earth. Therefore, Luther warns us that, “when the word confronts you, beware and yield. Give ground, and obey in good time; for it must conquer whether you bow gracefully or ungracefully.” For Luther, this takes place most effectively in the oral proclamation, which he believed was its intended medium. As such, Luther references this as offensive weapons i.e. God’s sword, bow, arrows and spear.

Edwards was a preacher and when he gave the sermon, he gave it in complete monotone. People were even more frightened and scared because of his emotionless sermon and more people paid attention. Jonathan Edward’s sermon speaks of how sinners should be cast off and be destroyed by God because it is God who is everything and if someone were to turn against God why should he or she get another chance. Some values that Edward’s puts in his sermon are yet similar to John Winthrop’s sermon but Edward’s sermon is very negative and was made to scare people into changing their ways. God is almost everything to people of the colonial period because of their fight for survival and if someone is a sinner or goes against God then they will be punished.