Elie Wiesel suspects that God is letting him go through such a situation. Wiesel begins losing faith in God. For example, Wiesel stated,”What are you, my God? I thought angrily. How do you compare to this stricken mass gathered to affirm to you their faith, their anger, their defiance?....Why do you go on troubling these poor people’s wounded minds, their ailing bodies?”(Wiesel 68) Wiesel clearly is losing faith in God because he has seen babies burned alive, families killed together.
He juxtaposes alternatives to the previously mentioned and dreaded scenarios and punishments. Contrarily, he states “[Christ] stands in the door calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners” (129). Bringing upon the common idea of God’s acceptance, Edwards appeals to ethos in his final paragraph inserting cheerful thoughts. He establishes juxtaposition, comparing “sins in his own blood, and … hope of the glory of God” (129). Comparing the Devil-like blood with sins sparking the capable ability to reach the hope of God brings a sense of chance and possibility to the audience.
The Lord became man, lived for and through man, and later died for it. Incarnational Union soteriology can incorporate all that the Lord did on his quest to save humanity, such as his Death and Resurrection. Jesus had to fully unify us with his Incarnation, so he had to surrender to the Lord on the cross for us and relinquish himself to death. He relinquished himself to death, so he could defeat death and sin, then later rise and prove that we all could be greater than death. Jesus Christ set the perfect example for us by battling sin and winning.
Edwards shows an unhealthy demand to get his audience to do as he aforementioned. Exceedingly astute, Edwards conveyed his sermon in the atmosphere he knew it would have a tremendous impact. Jonathan manifest his sermon appealing to create fear and guilt on those who heard it expecting would do as he disclosed, be born again. Without any validation, Jonathan claimed the hate God had for humans who had not been born again. He testified that God’s anger is greater on those who are standing on earth, over the ones being tormented in hell, compelling his audience with fear.
Often in Sermons ministers/pastors persuade their audience to behave in a spiritual or moral fashion. Such is the case in “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” by Johnathan Edwards where he says “sinners should repent for their sins or burn in the eternal pit of hell. If sinners repent, they will receive eternal life.” God destroys sinners, but is merciful to the repentant. Edwards wanted to impact his audience by appealing to the fears pity and vanity. Edwards had a powerful impact on his Puritan audience because the use of a cautionary tone, explicit imagery, and vivid figurative language.
The Christians at the time rely on scripture to make a case for slavery in America. It is a common argument for Christian slaveholders to make “…that God cursed Ham, and therefore American slavery is right…” (5). this argument exposes their hypocrisy as it conveys how they attempt to stretch small pieces of scripture to justify the violence of the American slavery. Douglass thus asks if it is humane to use a small piece of writing to damn an entire race to hardship and subhuman treatment. This case of blasphemy is amplified by the observation that Douglass makes of one of his slave masters, Mr.
No matter the degree of sin each of us commits we are estranged from God to some capacity. It is common for the human person to fall prey to the approval of the world and forget or ignore God, who loves us despite the numerous times we reject Him. He even states how he remembers in his youth that he had wept for Dido for committing suicide because of love (The Confessions by St. Augustine, book 1), but he didn't weep for his own sins and transgressions for God. He could empathize with the tragic plight of a character in a book, but he didn't or couldn't recognize his own tragedy. I think it's all too common for a person to see the faults in someone else and feel sorrow for them, but at the same time, they are unable to acknowledge their own faults and get to the root of their sin.
Jonathan Edwards, a preacher, wrote the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". In the sermon, Edwards argues that everyone was out of God's favor and they needed to return to a righteous path. The tone of the sermon is indignant and authoritative. Jonathan Edwards uses imagery, logos, and pathos to encourage the unconverted audience to turn to God in order to escape his wrath. Elemental imagery is used in the sermon to inspire fear in the audience.
God’s anger will keep building up until he could no longer tolerate it. Edwards saw God’s power as something the world would not be capable of handling. Edwards used God’s power as a threat of destruction. Jonathan Edwards concluded his sermon by revealing his attitude of a merciful God through an allusion. “The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation; let everyone fly out of Sodom.
Thesis: Jonathan Edwards in the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” compels his listeners to believe in God and reach salvation by creating the sense of fear among its listeners arguing that otherwise they would end up in Hell. Summary: In the sermon, Edwards explains in detail to his audience how Hell will feel like. He uses figurative language to simulate how they will be judged by God and sent to hell if they don’t believe. He mentions that this is the best opportunity to believe and reach salvation before the “sinners” go to Hell for eternity. Analysis: To persuade his audience, Edwards