1. Sinners in the Hands
from
of an Angry God
Sermon by Jonathan Edwards
DO NOW: Read the intro on Edwards.
Analyze the idea that religion is to be
rooted in emotion, not thought. Why?
Edwards’s sermons appeal to the
emotional parts of the congregation. It is
hard to explain religion without emotion.

2. What keeps you IN LINE?
A sense of morality probably keeps
you from cheating on a test.
In other words, you know
cheating is wrong.

3. What keeps you IN LINE?
But there are other reasons for behaving morally.
Some people are anxious to please.
Others fear the consequences of breaking the rules.
Jonathan Edwards uses fear to get his point across in the sermon
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

4. Persuasion
Puritan Jonathan Edwards
delivered powerfully persuasive
sermons.

5. Persuasion
One of Edwards used biblical
allusions— references to figures,
events, or places in the Bible that
he assumed his congregation
would recognize.

6. • Define sermon: a form of
religious persuasion in which
the speaker urges listeners to
behave in a more spiritual and
moral fashion. Shaped by
purpose, audience, context.

7. Analyze Emotional Appeals
Emotional appeals are messages designed to persuade an
audience by creating strong feelings.
They often include sensory language to create vivid imagery and
loaded words to create these types of feelings:
• fear, which taps into a
fear of losing one’s
safety or security
• pity, which draws on a
sympathy or
compassion for others
• guilt, which relies on
one’s sense of ethics
or morality

8. As you read, use a chart like the one below to
record examples of language that appeals to
the emotions.
Examples Emotional Appeals
“arrows of death fly unseen” appeals to fear by creating
anxiety, unease

9. Is fear the best way to convince someone
to behave the right way? How else might
you convince?
• Look at the painting on pg. 121 and analyze.
As you read the first page think about what
the congregation might be thinking at this
moment. What emotions or thoughts are
going through their heads as Edwards paints
the picture of hell and a very angry God
“We are insects or worms to God?” “I don’t want to go
to hell.” “Is God angry with me?” “Which people in the
congregation is God angry with?”

11. Details from the Sermon
• God is more angry with
those in the congregation
than those in hell, since
the living have a chance to
change and redeem
themselves

12. Imagery – God’s Punishment
• “men walk over the pit of
hell on a rotten covering”
• “bow of God’s great wrath
is bent,”
• “spider held over the fire,
tortured and dangled”

13. Edwards’s God
• angry and fickle
• only God’s pleasure
keeps some sinners from
immediate doom
• God abhors sinners
• Humans are as worthless
as worms compared to
God

14. Appeal to Fear
• “made drunk with your
blood” – painful death
• “swallowed up in everlasting
destruction” – heal as a
hungry beast,
• “bottomless pit”
• “everlasting wrath”
• “merciless vengeance”

15. What is the purpose of this sermon? What
happens to those that are born again (lines 38-
49)?
• Teaches people to repent
and turn their life back to
morality and religion
•“raised from being dead in
sin”
•“state of life and light” for
those redeemed

16. Is morality enough to save a person
from judgment, according to
Edwards? Why or why not?
• line 90 – “no matter how
moral or strict, sober and
religious” you are, if you
haven’t been born again it
doesn’t matter

17. Look at the image on pg. 123. How is
the burning of Babylon relevant to
Edwards’ warning to his listeners?
• Babylon
symbolized
immoral living
and disregard for
God, fire sent by
God and angels
surprised the
sinners

18. • Who is Edwards alluding to when he refers to
the Mediator? Why doesn’t he explain (until
the end) how the Mediator can save them?
Jesus will save those that repent;
however, he reveals it at the end
so his audience feels desperate.
Christ can cleanse the sins of the
impure and invite them to heaven.

19. Is Edwards’ sermon effective and
convincing? How do you think they
audience might have felt after
hearing this? What might they have
done?

20. • According to
Edwards, humans
are in constant
threat of being
snatched out of life
and cast down to
hell at any moment

21. Why do you think Edwards felt it
was necessary to terrify his
Puritan audience into action?
• They have become
complacent and
lazy in their
religion. Need to
be awakened to
morality.

22. • How would you describe Edwards’ view of
God, Christ, and humanity? Site examples.
• Do you think that Edwards’ sermon resulted
in improving the morality of his
congregation? Why or why not?

23. • People died at a much younger age. The
awareness of the fragility of life made a bigger
impact on these people. They were used to
uncertainty and death.