Comparing Jonathan Edwards And Extreme Puritans

Puritans believe God has an influence on humans in our daily life. Edwards asserts, “His mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction” (81). This quote explains to us that God’s forgiveness holds us from, at any second, dropping down into the deep depths of hell. God observes our life and helps us every step of the way by pushing us as much as he can in the right direction. Edwards believes, “And yet it is nothing but His hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment” (81). Edwards for the second time says something relatively about God’s hand and how He is the one who holds us and keeps us out of the fiery pits. This quote shows us how God’s pleasure keeps us from falling into a

Jonathan Edwards, a famous preacher in pre-colonial times, composed a sermon that was driven to alert and inject neo Puritanical fear into an eighteenth century congregation. This Bible based and serious audience sought after religious instruction and enlightenment. Through the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," Edwards offers a very harsh interpretation to humankind. Edwards utilizes various rhetorical techniques to evoke an emotional response in his audience and to persuade the members of his congregation that their wicked actions will awaken a very ruthless and merciless God.

Religion and politics often times should not mix, and for the Puritan communities suffered a great amount from this. A preacher named Jonathan Edwards would give sermons that drove fear into listeners. His sermons were noted as “employing vivid imagery as a means of releasing the power of sensory psychology and, thereby, forcing his listeners to move from known and familiar conceptions to the sensory experiencing of otherworldly events” (White). By doing this the people who listened and followed his messages would become terrified, therefore causing “believers to welcome the joyful liberation of conversionary love.” (White) However, even though Edwards had a large influence in the Puritan system, his extreme rhetoric was not uncommon for religious

The 1700s was a time period of religious revival, people were now beginning to convert from Puritan beliefs to Christianity. This was called The Great Awakening, a great influence to this religious revival was Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards was a very passionate pastor who in his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” called out unrepentant people he believed had turned their backs against the word of God and had not yet accepted his son Christ or salvation, causing them to be condemned to the pits of hell. In order to express his concern for those who had no yet accepted salvation and were on their way to hell, Jonathan Edwards utilizes rhetorical devices in order to persuade those who neglect God into accepting him and his salvation so they won’t have to live for eternity in hell.

Jonathan Edwards reveals the fact that any sinner that has ever lost or left God will be sent to hell. He indicates "nothing to lay hold of to save yourself... nothing that you have ever done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment..." With the explicit use of repetition , Jonathan Edwards provokes the audience to acknowledge that God will not be convinced of caring for a sinner no matter what they do, or have done. Repetition assists Edwards in proving a point and processing the message in the sinner's mind.

In his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (1741), Jonathan Edwards claims that anyone who is not “born again” is a sinner and is waiting to be thrust down to hell in a state of endless misery and the only way to be saved from this is to become a Puritan. Edwards supports his claim of the Puritan religion being the only saving thing from damnation by explaining how hell is being prepared for those who are not “born again,” that any unconverted are in the hands of an angry God, and then concluding by saying to the people that they have the chance to be saved and live in a happy state, of they are “born again.” His purpose is to illustrate the woe that awaits for those who are not “born again” in order to persuade them to want to be

One can hear a sermon any day of the week, because there are many preachers out there in the world. Many sermons are retold Bible stories from the Old and New Testaments that tell how our ancestors lived, and teach us life applications of how to glorify God while we are living our lives. Some examples from the Bible are: David and Goliath and the lesson of courage, Deuteronomy 32:4 “... a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he” (KJV), and the Roman’s Road of confession, acceptance of Christ, and salvation. For over a thousand years God’s word has been preached by many faithful men who follow Him. However, there were some of those faithful men who used God’s Word and their own improvisation to convict sinners and to put their trust in God. Those times resulted in an era called the Great Awakening of the 18th century and they also put an end to the segregation era of the 20th century. Two of the faithful men during those eras were Jonathan Edwards and Martin Luther King, Jr. . They both preached great sermons on confession and love. But they also had different points of view. When we read the two sermons our lives and actions may never be the same as they were before, because of feeling ashamed and convicted, then we begin to live our lives as Christians.

An effective writer is that one is prosperous in creating an bias result. The author wants the reader to feel that his way is correct. The goal of the author is to leave an effect on the audience in order to convince them to change their views. Both pieces: “Letter from Birmingham Jail” written by Martin Luther King Jr. and “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards, have a appeal to all men being created equal, and yet their pieces are different in their own contextual ways. In order to understand which piece is more effective, one must first understand the history. The Letter from Birmingham Jail was composed in April of 1963 as a response to a letter that was sent to MLK, from the local white clergymen, while he was in jail. The letter to MLK was asking for an end to all protests and civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama. He replied with what he felt was a knowledgeable letter that explain his actions, purpose, and wants. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” was given as a sermon to a local church of Puritans. Written in 1741 Jonathan Edwards was an idealized Puritan whose word was as good as gold. He was a successful man, who had traveled many miles to preach. His purpose was to convince the people that hell is not too far away; and if they didn’t devote their life to God, he would let them die in hell.

In essence, it is clear that Edwards’ tone, imagery, and figurative language had a great impact on his Puritan audience. By using these three literary devices Edwards was able to appeal to their fear and pity. Throughout the text he uses very loaded language to prove his points and persuade the reader to follow God. All in all, Edwards believes that without God you are

Edwards' creative choice of words that he uses describes the power of God and the terrible Hell awaiting sinners. These words easily infiltrate into the minds of his congregation and frighten them beyond belief. These choices of words and his use of such vivid images are mostly successful in their intent, to scare and put fear into his audience. Edwards held his audience locked up with his promises of eternal damnation if proper steps were not taken. The congregation felt the intense impact of his rhetorical strategies and lived on the fear of the power of God. In this way, he was able to keep his followers from sin and away from the fiery pits of Hell.

Jonathan Edwards was born on October 5, 1703 and died on March 22, 1758. He grew up in East Windsor, Connecticut. His father, Timothy, was pastor of the church at East Windsor, Connecticut. He attended Yale and when he graduated in 1720 he became his grandfather’s colleague at Northampton, Massachusetts. At his grandfather’s death in 1729, he became the only pastor at the church. Edwards was a very fierce minister. He tried to “scare people out of hell.” His most famous work, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” was about how the people are going to hell because they are sinning so much against God. Edward’s work sparked the “Great Awakening.”

Jonathan Edwards, a descendant of four generations of Puritan ministers and the most renowned and influential of Puritan leaders, became active when Puritanism was already on the wane. The infamy of the Salem witchcraft trials in 1692, which sent twenty persons to their death and another 150 to prison, festered in the community for a generation as a tragic episode that exposed the excesses of misguided Puritan zeal. In the early part of the century, New Englanders enjoyed a rising level of affluence that induced a sense of both material and spiritual comfort and eventually led to the introduction of the Half-Way Covenant. Whereas full church membership was the privilege only of those and the children of those who could testify to a personal

Edwards he speaks initially upon on how God children sometimes disrespect his by their sins. Edwards wanted to teach them the Waygod is sparing them with mercy and forgiveness on his audience by appealing to fear, pity and vanity. Edwards had a powerful impact on his Puritan audience because of his vexed Tone, Cautionary Image And His Complex Figurative Language.

Edwards stated that only if they repented would God's anger not throw them into hell. Edwards convinced the people to have a change of heart because the fear of God. Ultimately Edwards used these vivid metaphors to produce fear effectively in order that the listeners would repent to

Edwards was an extreme Puritan in the 1700’s; he was the most powerful and persuasive Puritan preachers of his time. He grew up as a devout Puritan and even gave sermons while playing with his friends. He showed academic brilliance at an early age and went to Yale at 13 to become valedictorian. Later in life he became leader of the Great Awakening. In