God In The Hands Of Angry Sinners Jonathan Edwards delivered his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, in Enfield Connecticut on July 8, 1741, the year following George Whitefield's preaching tour which helped inspire the "Great Awakening." Weeping and emotional conviction among Edwards’ audiences came at a time of great spiritual thirst. While very foreign to mainstream American opinion today,this extraordinary message was fashioned for a people who were very conscious of how theirlifestyles affected eternal consequences. By today's popular perspective, the doctrine ofpredestination probably discourages conversion because of the new-age independent attitude.However, in Puritan culture, through Jonathan Edwards’ sermon, Sinners in the Hands of AnAngry God, fear might have powerfully affected people to look within them for the evidence ofgrace and then experience salvation.First, Edwards' sermon is filled with graphic images of the fury of divine wrath and thehorror of the unmerciful punishment of the wicked in hell. If one were to continue in their sin,according to Edwards, not only would a person be tormented in the presence of holy angels, butGod’s terribleness would be magnified upon his/her life and forced to suffer through God’s wrathfor all eternity (74). “Although it conveys the reek of brimstone, the sermon does not say thatGod will hurl man into everlasting fires--on the contrary, doom will come from God’sindifference...” (Thompson 71). Edwards had little need to justify his scare tactics and theology.His consuming obligation was to preach it; to preach it fiercely, purposely, persuasively, andfirmly. Williams 2Next, an example of God’s wrath is seen through Edward’s portrayal of “great watersdammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet isgiven...” (72). “Here was an old image redesigned to st...
