Write about an idea you have about the sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Your idea doesn't have to cover the whole sermon -- it could focus on one specific passage or passages. Look for ideas from the class activities and discussions that surrounded our exploration of this text. Your idea needs to go beyond just a personal reaction to the sermon. It needs to involve interpretation and analysis of specific textual details.
Develop that idea with specific details from the text. Talk in detail about the examples you use and how they relate to your bigger idea.
Give your entry a title that fits your idea. Also don't forget to include your name
I find intrigue in the fact that most of the passages in this story are about hell. I believe my favorite lines are "justice bends the arrow at your heart, and the strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood." I can just imagine someone being shot through the heart with an arrow. It's that reoccuring idea that God's approval is needed for most everything. That getting him angry, not only is there nothing you can do to save yourself, but it is almost impossible to gain his approval. It's obvious the focus of the passage, but God being angry is showing here to be essentially the worst thing in the world. It really isn't, and even though the Bible says you can pray for forgiveness, it almost shows that you can't ask for forgiveness from him, and once he is angry his approval becomes almost worthless, and you become worthless to him. That doesn't seem to add up..but I think the whole idea of this was to scare people to live under God's rule, as if it is only his rule that is allowed. Which is false, but fear is key for this. It's all about fear. Scaring people to keep believing and to keep the faith. It's interesting, how much fear people have of hell, which has extreme amounts of repetition in the passage. The word and idea of Hell comes up quite often, adding to the fear factor.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Jenny. This is a very strong passage, and you used good detail and examples.
DeleteRachel Walsh
ReplyDeleteThe Giant God
A passage that really stood out to be was, "The God that hold you over the pit of hell much as one hold a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: His wrath towards you burns like fire;He looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire. " It really made me picture God as a human and the "you" or humans he was referring to as being ants. Humans are way bigger than ants and act as if they are nothing and do nothing. Humans step on them and kill them with no true thought of what they are doing. This is the same thing God is doing in this situation, he throws the people in the fire as if they were of no weight and no good; they are garbage. In this passage God uses many words to express his anger and disgust towards "you", he uses the words wrath, loathsome,and provoked which really give the ery and gross affect on the reader. It allowed me to think of gross things like liver, spiders, and rats, which I hate, all of which appeal to my sense of sight and touch. Also, in this passage the word fire is repeated a lot. He compares his anger to fire as well as "you" burning in fire. Fire has several different meanings in this passage, however they all come together to express the feeling of anger and torcher he has for " you". The word fire makes me think of Hell and danger, all of which God is bringing to "you" and wants to happen to "you". Finally this passage uses extensive vocabulary such as abhors, loathsome and provoked. These works enhance the passage and make is more dreadful and appealing to me.
Sahar Shakeel
DeleteI also think that the quote shows how the author describes how God think of humans as mere insects not important to live. Good job on using something outside of the sermon like humans and ants, and connecting it to the sermon by describing how God and human relationship are.
Sahar Shakeel
ReplyDeleteGod’s Wrath
Most of the passages in this sermon is very interesting and how the author uses the wording to create images are very impressive. The quote that stood out to me was “You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you have done, nothing you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment”. In the beginning of the quote, the author uses great imagery by choosing certain words that gives the feeling to the readers. “...hang by a slender thread…”, the words “slender” and “thread” the author uses here gives the feeling to the reader on how thin and fragile the thread is. The imagery gives the reader this fragile and hopeless effect. It makes me imagine a man hanging by a thread looking down a pit of volcano with flames surrounding him. Towards the end of the quote, “nothing” is repeated several times. This gives the reader a hopeless, useless, and lost feeling because its repeated and that gives the reader a dramatic effect. The author did a great job with the wording because the certain words he chose gives a hopeless effect to the readers, like how God is overall all powerful, and you can do nothing to but feel his wrath. It’s difficult to describe that with other words. The quote is saying how useless you would be if you were to face God’s punishment and there is not one thing that you could do to make God change his mind. The whole idea sounds almost impossible and I think that is what the author is trying to say here. You must face the wrath is you did something unforgivable and there is no way to avoid this.
Zeynep Balto
ReplyDeleteGod give you a choice that you can be the good one or the bad one. If you chose the bad side like sinners your life is will be God's hands. Its like the God's power strength, connection between the humans. God holds you from falling into the fire the author is trying to say here is you make something bad and are not drawing your life anymore you made something bad unforgivable and now God is drawing your life you can drop at any moment into the fire. In the story "nothing" part is like that you did something very bad and now you "nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing of your own , nothing that you have done , nothing to keep off the flames of wrath." It says that there is nothing you have that you can save yourself anymore. You can just drop to the fire. You can't go out anymore.
Brenna Remillard
ReplyDeleteIn the Hands of God
There is a message the narrator of this passage is trying to get across. Your life is in Gods hands and it is up to him weather you live or die and if you ascend to heaven or are damned to an eternity in hell. A line that stuck out to me was "You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder". When I read this I imagined someone hanging by thread with the fires of hell below him and the thread being held by God. This shows how easy it is for you to anger God and fall into the fires of hell with no redemption. A message the preacher told to all who attended his sermons.
Agreed. I invision the same thing. Good analysis.
DeleteRebecca Boodhoo
ReplyDeleteJohn Edwards does a remarkable job at making everyone in his congregation feel hopeless and fearful. He makes everyone feel like they are unwanted and useless. in one passage he says "You are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes than the most hateful serpent in ours." In Adam and Eve the serpent was the devil himself. I think John Edwards is trying to say that we are worst then the devil imself because we are following him and his orders. He also goes on to say we serve sin and satan. I think he wants to make everyone fearful so that we will not only serve his god and his religion but also his beliefs on what he thinks god wants. He wants to do this so that he can keep his place and his power. He doesn't want to lose any of the power that he has. He wants to scare the people into staying in his church so that he can keep control over them. He has no worry about the welfare of the people in his congregation. He doesn't care about them or whether they go to hell he only wants to keep his power. He is selfish. He only cares about himself and what will happen to him if he loses the congregation. In my opinion John Edwards is a sinner. If you look at the way he strikes people with fear and portrays god to be scary and unforgiving just to scare the people in his church into following him is wicked and unforgivable.
It bothers me how the Bible is taught in a literal sense in this community yet the sermon contradicts what the Bible teaches. The Bible says to forgive others and that it is up to God to judge. In this sermon people are being unfairly judged by being told they are going to hell as it is definite and cannot be escaped from. It pretty much just talks about all of the bad things the people have done ( of which it gives no evidence to prove that they have done these things ) then states that you are going to hell. Also it does not say anything about if or how you can redeem/save yourself. Also it doesn't mention anything about the forgiveness one person is supposed to show another. To me the whole thing is just fustrating to think that someone could come up with this.
ReplyDeleteA piece from the text that struck me is when Jonathan Edwards said "God's creatures are good, and were made for men to serve God with, and do not willingly sub-serve to any other purpose," I interpreted this sentence as "God made man for one purpose only and that is to serve God." Which I do no believe to be true. If God truly wanted one purpose for man kind, he would not have made every being to be different. There would be no variation within our species, because well, why would there need to be? Instead, we all think differently and express emotions, which is probably why the author thinks of man kind as overall not good. Jonathan Edwards had beliefs much like the philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who believed man kind needed to be ruled, because evil was apart of our nature. And due to this text, it is clear Edwards thought of humans to be corrupt.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you interpreted this sentence. I read it a totally different way and hearing your interpretation makes so much more sense to me. I agree with you about god making everyone different for a reason. Everyone has a different purpose on earth and it is not to serve god. It is to live your life and be as happy as you can be!
DeleteAndrew Canavam
ReplyDeleteI thought that the part where it says "the earth does not willingly yield her increase, nor is it willingly a stage a stage for you wickedness to be acted upon, the air does not willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of life in your vitals" showed how the preacher wanted the audience to know how they werent welcome on the earth. This shows that the preacher wanted the congregation to know that their life depends on their devotion to god. When he says that the earth doesnt serve you to satisfy your lusts he is trying to show that the people should live simply.
Taylor Nielsen
ReplyDeleteThe Fear of Hell
This text interests me in many ways. The main reason that this intrigues me is the way hell is described through out the sermon. The imagery that is used helps paint a vivid picture of what hell may be like. "And if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf..." I interpreted this sentence as hell being a big black hole that everyone fears. The dark words that are used helps set the mood and tone of the text. Hell is a horrible place as described in the sermon, and everyone should stay away or else you could become a part of the bottomless pit.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHelen Leet
ReplyDeleteSinful or sinless?
"O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God.",
This part sparked an idea of interest that I wanted to talk about. My interpretation of this, is saying that if you have ever sinned, you will go to this dark place called Hell. If you haven't done anything wrong in this world, you then rest with God in heaven. The overall part that I didn't get was how can you tell someone has sinned, and what is considered something that is very"sinful?" If you believe in God, you follow by the 10 commandments, and if you break one of them then that is considered a sin. In some Christians eyes, you go to to hell if you have committed a horrible deed. It seems to me that Edwards has a very different intake on what a sin is because of how brutal the consequences he mentions are. I want to know what hell is like and if he is exaggerating to persuade us to never commit a sin and that way God will love you. Either way, I think God does love you and all you have to do is repent for your sins and ask for forgiveness. I believe Edwards is the type of person to never do anything wrong and that's why he might say these consequences of such brutality, or to even scare us to make sure the right thing is done. I just want to know if Edwards is persuading us into something or if he believes this to be true.
Stephen Pearse
ReplyDeleteThe entire text is very intriguing. The author has a very angry and persuasive style of writing which fits the text well. His repetition of certain words does a great job of getting his point across. He stresses his most important concepts and ideas until they fill the majority of the piece. The words he chooses to repeat work together in a very in a very interesting way. There is a contrast of potential problems involving hell and fire and potential bliss involving god. He then chooses to repeat "you" and "your" to prove that the difference between these two is in your hands.
Evan Goodspeed
ReplyDeleteThroughout the entire text the author Jonathan Edwards implies that there is sets of law that if ignore that you are sent to hell no matter what. That God only checks all the bad stuff you have done. That he does not look at the over all and the good stuff you have done to. He also implies that God holds your life in his hands and no matter how much good deeds you have done you still will go to hell. I dont belive that that part is true and that you have the chance with every one else to go to heaven.
I found the writing very eye-opening. The part were john Edwards talked about how "God hold syou over the pit of hell much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over a fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked:" made me relizre that he conytrols what could happen in my life, every near death experience that I've had, every close call. He has decided for me to survive and i find that very intriguing
ReplyDeleteCarley Pratico
ReplyDeleteYou are what I say you are.
The man delivering the sermon, believes that all of the people in his church has sinned. No matter how small the sin may be, everyone has sinned and because of that are going to Hell. As a result of this sermon, those listening will also believe that they are as bad and as evil as he says that they are. That even if they believe and even if they haven't sinned, that they will end up going to Hell because they have done at least one thing wrong in there life. Forcing the sheep to be more loyal and dependent on the Shepard. Since he says that they have all sinned and are sinners, the people begin to believe it themselves, thus becoming more dependent on the preacher.
Radine Anne Nieva
ReplyDeleteHeavy metal ball
The passage, "Your wickedness makes you as if you were heavy as lead and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards Hell". It makes me imagine myself as if there's a heavy metal ball strap on my ankle that's weighing me down and keeps me from moving forward. As I sin everyday, that ball of sin puts pressure on my feet and pulls me towards the burning hell.
Jacob Cornish
ReplyDeleteThe part of the passage that stuck out to me the most was when john edwards said "YOur sins weigh you down as if you were heavy as lead" This line really emphasizes that you have no chance of being forgiven for the sins you have done. Each sin you do brings you closer and closer to hell. No matter how many good things you do you will never be able to erase your sins. Unless all you do is good you will go to hell. That part in the passage was very strong and eye-opening for me
In the passage Sinners Of An Angry God the writer Jonathan Edwards shows how our lifes are in the hands of god, He can make us send us to heaven or he can make us bad a sinner and send us to hell forever with just a blink of an eye, and theres no way to stop it. "Nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own,nothing that have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment." this is saying that at any time, anywhere god can send you to the pits of hell and there is nothing anyone can do about it, there is no way to erase your sins, except for God himself.
ReplyDeleteThe passage Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards I feel the writer shows a lot of aggression towards who he is writing about, almost in an angry way. To my understanding if you believe in god you also believe in second chances, that anyone can be saved by god. In this passage its almost like their is no forgiveness for what we have done and that we are all doomed for an eternity in hell.
ReplyDeleteCindy Dam
ReplyDelete"The Fearful Hell"
In the passage Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards, I felt as if the author used a lot of repetition using the word "Hell". I felt the constant anger when was basically saying we, as in the people were compared to spiders and insects burning over a pit of fire. I personally feel as if the anger only rises within the passage, chances of forgiveness is like a lost shadow..... never found. I remember a specific quote stating , "You are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes than the most hateful serpent in ours." basically meaning you are even more hated then possible. The strong words of hatred really reflects in this quote. the hate and grudge basically is towards the horrid sinners he cant bare to give open hands too.
Ayia Abdelmagid
ReplyDelete"Sins"
The passage that suck out to me the most from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards was " Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell. . . .." This passage really stuck out me for many reasons, first off Edwards compares he's sins with heavy weight, so what he's trying to say is he has done so many sins that it's pulling him down to hell. This passage makes me imagine someone with heavy lead attacked to them trying to move forward but can't because the heavy lead is keeping them down.Also the part were Edwards says, "would have no influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, then a spider's web would have to stop a fallen rock. " This sermon made me feel like he's helpless because Edwards states that nothing that he can do would have any influence on whether or not he drops down into Hell. So even if god let him go, Edwards compares it with a spider's web trying to stop a fallen rock, gods not going to save him.