Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Essays - Homiletics, Hell

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is a very strong sermon given by Jonathan Edwards in 1741. Edwards was a very well known and well spoken theologian of the early 1700s. His mother had little doubt at the beginning of his career that Edwards would become a great theologian because his father and grandfather were both great preachers. His grandfather was one the most influential people in New England religious life. The sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, describes how God can strike you down at anytime and from anywhere. He is repetitive in saying that it is all up to God instead of you if you die now or later and that you have no say in it. It also discusses how everyone is on a slippery surface and it is Gods? choice, and His choice alone, to keep you from falling into the pits of hell. He tells his congregation that the devil is waiting for them to mess up and fall but it is God that keeps you from falling into the arms of the devil. He also states that God is holding all the unsaved people or ?natural man? in his hand over the fiery pits of hell to which they are already sentenced. He says that God is angry at them and that he is not held to any promises to hold them up for one moment from their eternal devastation. In this sermon Edwards is trying to scare his congregation from going to hell. Most of what Edwards speaks about is how big, powerful, strong, and all around hateful that God is. He also describes how weak and useless we are compared to Him. He says that if God was to let go of the floodgates which are protecting us, that even if we were ten thousand times stronger than the strongest devil in hell, we could not withstand it. He also states that while God is holding the natural man in his hand over the fiery pit, the devil is waiting on them. Man is only holding on by thread and the flames of hell are all around that thread ready to burn it and drop man into the pits of hell. When he is finished saying that hell?s flames are licking at the thread holding man out of hell, Edwards also states that no one should think they have been passed up by the devil , because you could already be in hell and not know it. He says that you are alive now but your damnation will come swiftly and suddenly upon you. Near the end of his sermon he tells his congregation that there is still a chance to come to God and be saved. He tells them that God has thrown the door of mercy open and he is there waiting for them to come to him to be saved. Edwards says that it is not only for the adults to be saved, it is for everyone from the elderly, the teenagers and even young children. There are some preachers today that still preach this way. The way this sermon is written is what I have grown accustomed to hearing. It is not all about trying to scare people in to being saved but it is about how Jesus came and died for us so that we could be saved. There are still some preachers that do preach what I have heard it called ?Fire and Brimstone? sermons. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is what I would call a ?Fire and Brimstone? sermon because Edwards is saying that it could happen at anytime just like the end of the world could occur. I think that if there were more preachers like Edwards in modern society who preached this way that we would see a lot more people saved. The way he preaches shows that having a good education and a good knowledge of the Bible helps. He uses many verses from the Bible to support what he says. He wanted to help those who heard his sermons to not just understand the Christian doctrine but to be moved by it and saved also.