In Edwards' sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,"
he uses the fear factor to compel people to turn to God. He condemns the people, hoping
this will straighten them out. His Puritanism was the driving force behind his
message:
Edwards
believed that the works of mankind could save. In other words, it is in mankind's
control to save himself. He believed God's grace could be limited. He insinuated that
God can be judgmental and angry. Edwards' belief in God was that He was ready to throw
people into hell.
Edwards used his sermon to prove that the
people were worthy of hell and only God's restraints kept God from tossing the people
into a lake of fire:
There are in the souls of wicked men those
hellish principles reigning, that would presently ignite and burst into flames of
hell-fire, if it were not for God's restraints. There is laid in the very nature of all
unsaved men, a foundation for the torments of
hell.
Edwards believed man
was so corrupt until hell was waiting. He believed that mankind could burst into flames
at any moment. He preached that God had restraint; otherwise, mankind would be destroyed
by hell's fire.
Edwards was judgmental and self righteous.
Had he search out the true loving nature of God, he would have found in John 3:16-17
that God sent his son into the world to save them, not condemn
them.
Edwards preached as if he were angry with the people.
He was the one who insisted that God was so angry until He was about to throw the people
in hell. For some people, the sermon may have been successful. Needless to say, for
those who had an image of God dangling people over the fires of hell, no doubt some
would run to the altar in repentance:
What distinguishes this most famous example of
Puritan revival sermons is its use of imagery so vivid that it left people in the pews
trembling and weeping.
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