This reflection on one of the most famous sermons in all of American History strives to summarize the details of the speech, while explaining the context and the applications Edwards proposes clearly.
During the midst of what’s remembered by historians as the First Great Awakening, the
Massachusetts minister and guest speaker Jonathan Edwards delivered what is among the most
influential of early American sermons: the stern, doctrinaire, and terrifying “Sinners in the Hands
of an Angry God.” Standing at the pulpit, Edwards stared out at the congregation gathered
around him in Enfield, and declared that the “wrath of God burns against them…the fire is made
ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them.” The sermon is an appeal, through fear,
shame, and terrifying imagery, for sinners to understand that they will be judged by God and
subject to his wrath and damnation to hell if they do not repent and turn to Jesus. On a more
hopeful note, it emphasizes the great mercy of the Lord, explaining that only because of this
mercy are people saved.
Edwards opens “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” with the two Biblical readings
on which the sermon is based. One passage, from the Book of Amos, is about God’s ability to
find sinners and take them to hell no matter where they are. The other, from Deuteronomy,
simply says, “Their foot shall slide in due time.”
Jonathan Edwards then provides context for these verses, and so begins the body of his
sermon. Even though God was kind to the Israelites, they betrayed him, and therefore God
brought vengeance upon them. The quote from Deuteronomy is God’s threat of vengeance, and
Edwards proceeds to analyze the implications of this quote in depth. He notes how the Israelites
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