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Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God Analysis

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In the 1700s during the Great Awakening, Puritans worked harder than ever to increase the number of saved Christians. They constantly tried to convince sinners to convert and be “born again”. The Puritans inflicted fear upon all who were not converted in hopes of convincing them to follow the word of God. In 1741 Pastor Jonathan Edwards induced a strong sense of fear in his congregation through the use of powerful sermons filled with rhetorical devices such as ethos, pathos, and logos in hopes of increasing the number of “born again” Christians. Jonathan Edwards gave many powerful sermons in attempt to purify his congregation, one of his most famous being “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. In this particular sermon, Edwards used abundant pathos to appeal to his audience’s emotions, particularly their emotion of fear. When Edwards delivered this sermon with its fiery …show more content…

Edwards used ethos through his position as a minister, his use of expert testimony, and allusions to the Bible to make his argument of why everyone should be "born again" or converted and follow the word of God. His reasoning for doing so is his belief that all beings not saved make God an angry God, and they all will suffer in the deepest depths of Hell for all eternity without any hint of mercy. One allusion to the Bible that Jonathon Edwards used in this sermon is "who knows the power of God's anger?" which is an allusion to Psalm 90:11 (43). Edwards used this in order for the congregation to understand that no one knows the power of God's anger but we do know we should not try and anger him, for he does hold all power and control over our lives as if our lives are in the palm of his hand. Edwards included ethos within his sermon in order to gain the trust of the sinners he wishes to convince to

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