Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards

First and foremost, I had a lot of problems with Jonathan's sermon. I found a lot of contradictions throughout the speech and his ignorance and standpoint made it very hard for me to read; given he does come from a far different place and time than myself I have to cut him some slack in this respect. I guess the main problem I have with this sermon is in the title itself, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Even though I am no biblical scholar I do know enough about Christianity that the bible talks about how god does not succumb to human emotions but merely punishes man in order for him to learn from his mistakes. This is what confused me, because this theme of an angry God appears consistently throughout his sermon.

Furthermore, Edwards talks initially about how the only reason why man does not "burst into flames" and enter the gates of hell as he sins is because of God's "restraining hand". Later though, he says that the only reason why we don't burst into flames is simply because of God's pity or in most cases because of his likeness.

The most extraordinary thing preached in this sermon was when Edward's is reaching his climax on how terrible God's wrath is by stating "God will be so far from pitying you when you cry to him, that it is said he will only 'laugh and mock,'...." This is the most bothersome line of the entire sermon for me merely by the fact that he twists the line that God will "Laugh and Mock" sinners out of the bible. Seriously, it is to his own fall that he pictures god as this bully who pushes man around under his foot much as a DICTATOR.

In all, this speech may have been effected towards the ignorant colonial crowd during the "Great Awakening" of the early 18th century, but to any other crowd not at all. Finally, to his credit he did use a lot of effective similes...