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Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God Analysis

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In the late 1730s people began to fall away from the Puritan church. Many joined other denominations or just stop going to church all together. On July 8th, 1741 Jonathan Edwards gave a powerful sermon that attempted to use fear to bring people back. He used three main scare tactics: the idea of an angry God, the concept of Hell, and vivid imagery to accomplish his task.
As clearly stated in the title of the sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” the most aggressively used concept was that of an angry God. In contrasts to the modern views of a loving and forgiving God, the God that Edwards speaks about is angry and vengeful. He emphasizes the fact that all sinners are in God’s hands and the power to decide who goes to heaven and who goes to hell resides solely with him. He talks about the end of the world when he says “God’s appointed time has not come yet, and he is holding you up now but will let go.” By saying this he is essentially saying that when the end of the world comes, people who are on the wrong side of God will go to hell. …show more content…

Edwards does the exact opposite. He repeatedly talks about the flames of hell and how they will burn for eternity. The idea of the devil is also very much woven into the work. When talking about those who have fallen away he said “The devil stands ready to fall on them and seize them as his own at what moment God shall permit him.” As if this isn’t already terrifying enough he goes on to describe hell, “The pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to recover them; the flames do now rage and

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