Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God Rhetorical Analysis

Pastors have used the “fire and brimstone” method for centuries, scaring congregations into obedience with the threat of being sent to an indescribably painful realm after death, usually referred to as “hell”. Pastor John Edwards took this method to a new extreme; he terrified some people so much that they went as far as to commit suicide during his sermons. One particular sermon combines some of the principles of Puritan faith, as well as his personal opinions, with what is commonly considered the most vivid description of hell ever written. His sermon represents the Puritan belief system in some respects, but not all, which can be seen by identifying and comparing the main points of the sermon and other similarities in his sermon to known Puritan values. John Edwards actually gives hope to his congregation with his views, while Puritanical views are even harsher.

Jonathan Edwards, the speaker in “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, details God’s wrath and eternal damnation. Set in 1700s Enfield, Connecticut, in Puritan America during the beginnings of the Great Awakening, Edwards delivers a sermon to his audience of parishioners at his church as well as anybody in the future who would like to explore the Great Awakening. The speaker's’ tone is accusatory and condemning in nature in order to express the insignificance of mortals and the power of God. Thus, the rhetoric Jonathan Edwards utilizes conveys this attitude to his parishioners as well as instilling the fear of God and to not disobey him.

In the famous speech, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, by Jonathan Edwards, he focuses on persuading his audience to be born again. He speaks in a calm, monotone voice and never makes direct contact with the audience. Isn’t a good speaker supposed to have qualities such as direct eye contact, hand gestures, and a variety of voice tones? So how did Jonathan have such a powerful and famous speech without using any of the listed qualities? He created a persuasive speech by threatening Hell, frightening the audience with multiple archetypes, and describing how massively their religion has changed.

Most people are terrified of death; telling people that they will suffer eternity in hell after death is the final clincher for many people. In Jonathan Edwards’ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Edwards pushes the limits to convince readers and listeners to accept God as their Lord and savior. Edwards utilizes his writing style to inform and persuade people, all while evoking fear and moral questioning in his audience.

The period of the Great Awakening has truly revolutionized the morals and ethics that not many people are familiar with today. During this time, one sinful action resulted in automatic placement in Hell, and for that individual to endure in endless suffering and agony. Throughout Jonathan Edwards’ sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, he attempts to instill fear into his audience by stating the consequences of sin for the mere purpose of preventing people from entering Hell. Therefore, through the use of tone shifts within his sermon, he successfully amplified his message and sparked fear to the people.

When the Puritans were listening to Edwards’ sermon, they were either screaming or crying because of the effect the techniques that he had used. Furthermore, Edwards’ speaking tone was monotone, but he used impactful words to successfully get his point across without raising or lowering his tone of voice. This represented how effective his speaking techniques were. For instance, “there is Hell’s wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon,” (Edwards 87) which was all said with a non-changing tone. This warning of failure represents how Edwards was feared by the Puritans by just the words he spoke. The biblical reference was taken literally by the Puritans; they thought Edwards was telling the truth about what would happen to them if they didn’t stop doing what they thought was non-sinful. Therefore, the techniques that Edwards used, could allow Edwards to convince anyone and everyone he wanted to

In the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards, Edwards delivers an intense six hour speech in a very calm demeanor. The message he gives is so powerful that he is able to capture his audience's attention without showing any enthusiasm. Edwards uses powerful diction and pathos to scare his audience into becoming faithful puritans.

In the speech, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” the preacher uses a very extreme and hardcore tone in his words. To express what he means, he gave his congregation some imagery. As he tells them about us having an inevitable fate of burning in hell, he says that it is “ Nothing but the mere pleasure of God” that keeps us from falling into the gaping hole of Hell. This speech, spoken by Jonathan Edwards, strikes fear into one’s heart. With this fear, his attempt at making a point has succeeded.

In the sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Jonathan Edwards’ goal is to provoke the emotion of fear onto the Puritan congregation. When Edward describes Hell and influences his congregation into a helpless state, he invokes a serious tone because he feels like he is responsible for his congregation.     Edward characterized Hell using rhetorical strategies, imagery, and metaphors. He is able to appeal to the emotion of the audience by describing Hell and eternal damnation in detail. He uses the “wrath of God” perpetually throughout the sermon to bring the rise of fear in the congregation.

Well respected puritan minister, in his sermon, Jonathan Edwards,”Sinners in the hands of an Angry God” (1741), establishes the consequences of why God won’t accept them in the Puritan Religion. Edwards purpose is to impress upon the Puritans’ Religion is to get God to forgive everyone so they can be accepted into the religion. He adopts a desperate tone because he’s so worried about the Puritans’ because God is wrathful and will punish them for their sins. Edward supports his claim by employing, repetition,imagery, and pathos to make the readers frightened of sinning and the consequences with it.

In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Edwards uses imagery of great waters to create fear of Hell and persuade them of the wrath of God. In Edwards’ sermon he explains the wrath of God through imagery, saying, “The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present.” He then explains to his audience

During the Puritan Era, much of the literature was written as a way to share the gospel of God’s word with others by interweaving some of the Puritan beliefs and doctrines in to the works. Jonathan Edwards uses many of these beliefs in his atypical sermon titled “from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in order to scare members of the church congregation into going through conversion and being “saved”. From the very beginning of his sermon, Edwards introduces the doctrine of Total Depravity, or the belief that all men are born tainted with sin, and uses it as a building block for setting up the imagery in his speech. When Edwards says, “They (sinners) have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked…”,

In Jonathan Edwards sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Edwards uses numerous persuasive techniques and biblical allusions. Edwards’ sermon lectures Puritans, people who strictly pursue to live by the bible, on how they are straying from the path of the bible. During his sermon, Puritans were terrified of what he had said because every little sin each Puritan had committed they thought they were going to go to Hell. Edwards’ play on words, as well as his use of persuasive techniques, and biblical allusion convinced the Puritans that they were severely in trouble of going to Hell.

Jonathan Edwards piece, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, serves as a purpose to tell the sinners during the Great Awakening period that they need to turn back to God. It is not only a work in which tells those who did not worship God, that they should, it was also expressing how God was angry with the way people were acting. Edwards was a minister who delivered this sermon in order to inform the people on the sins they were committing and they should change their behavior so God wouldn’t punish them. Now, although this sermon was directed to the sinners in the world that didn’t stop others from hearing the message so that they wouldn’t sin and be punished. Throughout this piece rhetoric is heavily used in order to scare the people in multiple ways. Edwards uses his words and rhetoric in order to “scare” the people to wanting to follow the teachings of God.

“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was a sermon that was preached by John Edwards to his congregation, but was also published on July 8th of 1741. This sermon was focused on arousing fear into those who did not believe in God, or have God as a part of their lives. To prompt that fear into people, especially those in his congregation, he used many forms of imagery to warn them to repent their sinful ways and turn to God for forgiveness before it was too late and they would not be able to escape their fate of hell. The sermon was directed to those who did not believe in God, those who were considered natural men, or those who were Puritans that needed to be warned. We are able to tell who John Edwards audience was for the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” because when John Edwards is describing all of these horrific events that occur when you sin, he continuously refers to wicked men or natural men. These two types of people are those who this sermon is directed to, and this is shown through his various examples.