Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

[Vince]

Perhaps the most famous sermon ever preached in America was the one Jonathan Edwards delivered entitled "Sinners in the hands of an Angry God." Not only has the sermon been reproduced in countless catalogs of preaching but it is included in most anthologies of early American literature. So scandalous is this vivid portrayal of unconverted man's precarious state under the threat of hell that some modern analysts have called it utterly sadistic.

Edwards' sermon is filled with graphic images of the fury of divine wrath and the horror of the relentless punishment of the wicked in hell. Such sermons are out of vogue in our age and generally considered in poor taste and based on a preenlightened theology. Sermons stressing the fierce wrath of a holy God aimed at the impenitent hearts of men do not fit with the civic meeting hall atmosphere of the local church. Gone are the Gothic arches; gone are the stained-glass windows; gone are the sermons that stir the soul to moral anguish. Ours is an upbeat generation with the accent on self-improvement and a broad-minded view of sin.

Our thinking goes like this: If there is a God at all, He is certainly not holy. If He is perchance holy, He is not just. Even if He is both holy and just, we need not fear because His love and mercy override His holy justice. If we can stomach His holy and just character, we can rest in one thing: He cannot possess wrath.

If we think soberly for five seconds, we must see our error. If God is holy at all, if God has an ounce of justice in His character, indeed if God exists as God, how could He possibly be anything else but angry with us? We violate His holiness; we insult His justice; we make light of His grace. These things can hardly be pleasing to Him.

Edwards understood the nature of God's holiness. He perceived that unholy men have much to fear from such a God. Edwards had little need to justify a scare theology. His consuming need was to preach it; to preach it vividly, emphatically, convincingly, and powerfully. He did this not out of a sadistic delight in frightening people, but out of compassion. He loved his congregation enough to warn them of the dreadful consequences of facing the wrath of God. He was not concerned with laying a guilt trip on his people but with awakening them to the peril they faced if they remained unconverted. rc sproul

Here is the message by Jonathan Edwards.
http://edwards.yale.edu/images/pdf/sinners.pdf

Have you read or listened to "sinners in the hands of an angry God" ?
What are your thoughts on the message if you have?

[Gina]

I find the sermon abhorrent. It is entertainment, and speculative imagination, not exegesis.

The theater macabre, at times theater absurd, atmosphere of American revivalism isn't much better than the "civic hall" atmosphere of the contemporary church.

[Fred]

Gina, what if I tell you that a lot of "imageries" that Edwards used are lifted straight out of the Bible?

Thanks Vince for starting this post. It's interesting to note that we often miss God's many attributes when we only focus on a particular one. They are all "interconnected", since God IS each attribute. Along with this thought, Edwards is often misunderstood, since he preached also on heaven and our hope and faith that would be classified as "bringing us comfort".

"Sinners" does evokes many different emotions and thoughts in me. I believe that we often lose sight of the reality of God's righteous justice and of hell. This sermon reminds us the urgency to preach the gospel to the lost. There is no hope outside of Christ, and the lives of those who do not believe are "hanging by a thread". I do see this as a great sermon to prepare believers to go evangelise.

[Ratatösk]

How unfortunate that Edwards wasn’t with our Savior to augment his deficient and pandering images of God. God as Shepherd, God as mother hen. God as loving Father- forgiving the insulting disrespect of his runaway son, before the boy even thought of going home, indeed!

If only Edwards had been there, God wouldn’t have been subjected to the indignity of being portrayed as the weeping old man, running shamelessly towards his dirty boy, knees flashing before neighbors, beard flapping in the wind….all because he loved the unholy, unjust brat. Then there's the god allowing himself to be spit on and killed bit..... all because he loved the world. Scandalous!

How much more Godlike would he have appeared, if Edwards would have been there to paint the proper pictures of a disgusted, pissed off, and vengeful sovereign.

Just another reason to be thankful we live on this side of the Reformation. Folks who lived before had only the gospels to go on.

[Rey Reynoso]

One intellectually wonders if Edwards added to the dichotomy between Angry OT God of Wrath and Peaceful Loving Rescuer Jesus.

[Ratatösk]

Rey: Yeah, that's what I meant to say.

My wondering isn't all that it could be, intellectually.

[James Gibbons]

1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

Yet, there is an element to the gospel of being saved from wrath. Certainly some are motivated more than others by graphic images of that wrath. Which is not to deny that what we are saved to is more important than what we are saved from.

[Rey Reynoso]

Oh I wouldn't deny salvation from wrath, in fact I would argue that God's wrath is currently being displayed but Edwards makes a gross mistake of misrepresenting God as All Wrath and Christ as All Salvation, calling out to us disgusting, insect-like humans who are being held over hell fire by a gleeful child of a God.

In so doing Edwards tromps over the image of God in men, the righteousness of God on display, and creates an almost Gnostic Deity.

[Barrett Young]

How 'bout we also place this sermon into the context of Edwards' whole life work? Yes, this is probably the most terrifying sermon ever preached on hell, but no one could preach on the joys of heaven like Edwards' either. Edwards' ministry was a ministry of joy. We also have this picture of "Fire and Brimstone" preachers in our mind and impute that to Edwards. For those that didn't know, Edwards stood at his pulpit and read his sermons. Everywhere we would want to see voice inflection and fiery eyed lunacy, wasn't there. Lastly, this was Edwards' congregation. They were his flock and he was their shepherd, so they knew he cared for them all. And how can "Therefore let everyone that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come," not be seen as anything but a great mercy, extended to undeserving sinners from a patient God?

One thing was sure about this sermon. The listeners weren't quickly calmed of their fears after only a second's worth of despair and unworthiness. Today, it seems like we are so quick to apply grace, that we pull back on the "why" of grace. We would never want someone to actually be brought to tears for their wickedness. We want you to feel bad, just not too bad. We've lost the ballast in our ships that allow our sails to be unfurled in the highest breezes of the majesty of God.

"A growing downward in humiliation before God and a growing upward in adoration for Christ." [Charles Simeon, describing his life's pursuit]

[Rey Reynoso]

Barrett Young said:

How 'bout we also place this sermon into the context of Edwards' whole life work? Yes, this is probably the most terrifying sermon ever preached on hell, but no one could preach on the joys of heaven like Edwards' either. Edwards' ministry was a ministry of joy. We also have this picture of "Fire and Brimstone" preachers in our mind and impute that to Edwards.

Immensely true. I'm reminded of some of my own messages focusing on one aspect of Something because the whole topic is too broad--how would I look, my life work examined by that one message seeming off balance and what not. But when held like this, in a single pdf and waved as a banner and acclaimed "spot on, spot on" then yeah, I think we have to start saying what's wrong with the imbalance even if the rest of the life speaks otherwise.

That's why I wonder. Since it is this sermon that gets very often waved.

[James Gibbons]

That's why I wonder. Since it is this sermon that gets very often waved.

It’s waived, though, because its such a great example of what it is. It is important literature, important rhetoric, and an important historical document. None of that was Edwards’s intent (I don’t think). Nor is that his fault.

[Ratatösk]

James, no one denies that God hates that which harms us. It can be no other way. God’s Yes to us is his No to sin and death. The question is about who God is. Who’s mad? Is Dad angry with his kids or is the Roto Router guy trying to control his gag reflex, while he cleans out…that…last damn…clog?

Rey, you're right, me thinks.

Barrett I don't doubt Edwards was a great guy,, but the picture he paints- regardless of context or motive- draws from a different palette entirely from that used by Christ. Why?

[Barrett Young]

Rey,
Surely. I've just got this hobby horse whenever someone identifies Edwards based on this sermon. Its sad that the only reference in a public school history textbook to both of the Great Awakenings is a paragraph that'll say "Jonathan Edwards preached Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God, terrifying everyone with Hellfire and Damnation." Not a mention of Edwards' amazing mind [greatest mind America's produced], or the Wesley/Whitefield part in the Awakenings, or Edwards' amazing reflections on God's love.

The sum total effect is that if you say Jonathan Edwards today, 90% of Americans are going to say "Wasn't he the first fire and brimstone preacher? You like to read him?!? You must be sick in the head." Then, I can't even make inroads into another conversation.

BTW, I'm not saying JE shouldn't have preached this sermon. I think it is very true. I just don't think it should be the first exposure to him someone would read.

[Barrett goes back into hibernation]