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What do you think can be applied from this text today in religious groups? 

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What do you think can be applied from this text today in religious groups? 

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For every person in the congregation that is “unconverted,” “there is nothing between you and hell.” Wickedness makes these people heavy as lead, and no amount of righteousness can save them from hell.

Edwards calls the congregation a burden to the earth if they are sinners. God’s creatures are meant to serve God, and the sun does not shine willingly on sinners nor does the earth “willingly yield her increase to satisfy your lusts…”

The wrath of God is like dammed water: the longer it is held back the greater the force once released. Were God to open the floodgates humans could do nothing.

This is the state of everyone  who has not “passed under a great change of heart.” and been “born again.”  This rebirth is a strict requirement: despite reforms or religious conviction, a person is “in the hands of an angry God” until they are awakened to Christ. Whether or not the audience is convinced of this, Edwards tells them that they will know the truth one day just as those who are in hell now understand.

God holds sinners over the pit of hell just as one would hold an insect over the fire– and God hates sinners like one would hate an insect. The congregation has offended God in unimaginable ways but it is only his will that keeps them from hell. Edwards reminds the congregation that God is the reason they woke up on earth instead of hell this morning and that they haven't been sent to hell while hypocritically worshiping in church today.

Edwards urges the congregation to consider what danger they are in: they “hange by a slender thread” over flames. He asks the congregation to consider the following concerning the danger of God’s wrath:

The wrath that threatens them is not the wrath of man, but the wrath of the “infinite God.” This wrath is worse than Kings (who people tend to fear.) God’s wrath is more terrible than the most powerful of men.

The wrath of God is itself frightening but it is the fierceness and fury of that wrath that must be noted. Edwards cites several biblical examples to describe such fury and then remarks “Who can utter or conceive what such expressions carry in them!” But God’s wrath is not just an expression, it is real. The fierceness of God’s wrath implies that it will be inflicted without pity. However, even punishment within these limits is unbearable, and suffering will not be withheld simply because the punishment is so terrible. Edwards notes that God is ready to pity the congregation as today “is a day of mercy.” But once this day has passed no amount of crying can change their fate. If they cry, God will not pity them but will “laugh and mock.”

Sometimes, just as Kings wish to demonstrate their force, God wants to show people how good his love is and how terrible his wrath is. Thus the congregation will be made an example of: in a state of  “suffering the infinite weight and power of his indignation,” the sinner could be observed by “the whole universe,” including the angels and the inhabitants of heaven who will see this as another reason to worship the “power and majesty” of God. If suffering in hell was not enough, the congregation can now expect to be humiliated by the entire universe if they do not come to Christ.

This wrath is everlasting. One moment would be horrible but for all eternity would be unbearable. Edwards emphasizes that his suffering is so awful it cannot be put into words.

Every person in the congregation who has not been born again is in this danger regardless of their perception of their morality and righteousness.

Edwards notes that there is a reason to believe that many of the congregation will indeed go to hell.

While those who are in hell cannot change their circumstances the congregation have an opportunity to be saved– those in hell would envy this. By coming to Christ for mercy the congregation can join the saved and their sins washed in the blood of Christ.

Edwards addresses the young people and urges them to renounce youthful vanities lest they become children of the Devil.

Emphasizing the importance of this opportunity to come to Christ, Edwards suggests that denying Christ today will result in the hardening of the heart and will make it more difficult to find Christ later. This day is one of great promise AND danger.

Edwards goes on to write that God seems to be “hastily gathering” his people on earth, and that, as such, it’s likely that most people who will be saved will be within a short time period. Edwards implores the congregation to “now awake and fly from the wrath of God… lest you be consumed.”

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Jonathan Edwards begins to explain the context of the verse from Deuteronomy in the epigraph. God is threatening vengeance on the sinful Israelites who despite God’s grace were not faithful. Edwards notes he will expand on the following four implications of this verse.

The Israelites were always vulnerable to punishment or (destruction as Edwards writes) just how any person who walks in a slippery place is vulnerable to a fall. (Edwards references Psalm 73)

The Israelites were vulnerable to unexpected and sudden punishment at God’s whim. A person walking in a slippery place cannot foresee the moment they will fall (it is sudden and without warning.)

The fall is liable not to be due to any external force. No one is pushing the person on the slippery surface– they fall due to their own weight.

The only reason that sinners have not fallen yet is because God holds them up until God’s appointed time comes. When that comes they will fall suddenly. (Edwards uses a slippery slope metaphor)

The central observation to be made from Deuteronomy verse is that: “There is nothing that keeps wicked men, at any one moment, out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God.” Edwards is referring that God has no obligation to save humans but his own love. The lives of the wicked are literally at the whim of God’s will. Edward states the truth of this observation is apparent in the following statements:

God has the power to cast a wicked person into hell at any moment and nobody can resist. While a King may have a difficult time quelling a rebellion– God has no problems breaking his enemies– i.e. there is no defense against God. Edward’s notes how easy it is to crush a worm, just as easy for God to send sinners to hell. Who are we to assert our will against God?

Sinners deserve to be sent to hell: “divine justice” is not an adequate objection to God “using his power at any moment to destroy them.” Justice would be for a sinner to be punished immediately and the sword of justice is always hanging over the heads of sinners– it is only the “arbitrary mercy” of God’s will that holds it back.

Sinners condemnation to hell is based fundamentally on their lack of proper faith– their bad deeds are in addition to this. (Edwards quotes the Gospel of John to emphasize this.)

It is a mistake to think that living sinners are not in hell because God is less angry at them than he is those already in hell. God’s fury to those on earth is equal to or even greater than his fury at those in hell. Edwards states that God is angrier with some people in his own congregation (though some have a false sense of safety.) God notices everyone’s wickedness and hell is hot and ready to receive sinners at any time.

The devil is also ready to receive sinners at whichever moment God decides– sinners belong to the devil and their souls are already in his possession. The devil is restrained only by God’s will.

The souls of wicked men lie in the elements of hell. Were it not for God’s will their souls would flame “into hell fire.” The only thing keeping unrestrained sin and torment contained is God who restrains wickedness on earth. If God did not do this, sin “would immediately turn the soul into a fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone.”

There is no safety for the wicked even if death does not seem near. Regardless of health, man is always at the brink of death. Edwards says that sinners walk on a rotted floor over the pit of hell, and the floor could give at any moment. There are so many ways for a sinner to die that God does not even need to create a miracle– he could kill them in the ordinary course of their day and it would be normal.

It is pointless to try and preserve your own life. Edwards says, wisdom won’t help you either. Wise men meet untimely deaths the same as the unwise.

Any effort to escape hell while still rejecting Christ is worthless. However, almost all people who hear of hell delude themselves into thinking they are good enough to escape it.

Everyone knows the majority of people go to hell, people think of themselves as having uniquely good plans for their own salvation. (This is overconfidence) Those in hell currently had the same delusion and regret it now.

God has no obligation to keep man out of hell. It is Christ that offered the covenant of Grace, but those without interest in Christ should not expect to benefit from Christ. It is foolish to think that a lot of religious activity without the fundamental belief in Christ could ever lead to salvation. Without Christ, nobody has a refuge from the arbitrary will of an angry God.

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Because this is a sermon, Edwards must use language effectively in order to propel his congregation towards Christ. He places an extra emphasis on the power and limitations of language and metaphor. He uses extreme metaphors to help the congregation understand religious ideas such as the wrath of God but he acknowledged that these metaphors can only say so much and often underscores the things that language cannot express.

Edwards uses God’s wrath and compares it to familiar instances on Earth so the congregation can understand a more abstract idea. These metaphors assist Edwards to make spiritual principles personal to the congregation, therefore communicating the necessity of finding Christ.

However, he doesn't want to give his congregation the wrong idea. Edwards is careful to emphasize that these metaphors give light to some abstract spiritual ideas; they cannot adequately communicate the truth of the aforementioned ideas.

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In 1726, Edwards accepted the position of assistant minister in his grandfather’s church in Northampton. This church opened membership to those who made a profession of faith without providing evidence of spiritual conversion. When his grandfather died, Edwards became the minister. Edwards remarked that in the years following his grandfather’s death, religion was at a low ebb in the town particularly among its youth.

By 1734, an awakening occurred in Northampton leading to the conversion of nearly half the adult population. The religious conversion was due to the virtual disappearance of illness and the transformation was accompanied by the virtual disappearance of illness and an outpouring of neighborly love (which was unprecedented for the normally contentious townsfolk); Edwards assumed this was evidence of God’s grace. The religious excitement ended in 1735 when Edward’s uncle committed suicide. Edward’s interpreted this as the work of Satan, enraged by the spiritual awakening in the town.

Edwards preached Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God in Enfield, Connecticut on July 8th, 1741, during a revival tour with several other ministers. Enfields inhabitants had a reputation for being vain and complacent, and the town’s congregation had not been affected by the religious enthusiasm sweeping the region. The audience in Enfield was so moved by the terrifying and graphic imagery conveyed with Edward’s intensity that an outburst of weeping interrupted the sermon. This caused Edwards to stop. After chastising the congregants Edwards descended from the pulpit and talked with the audience, several were converted on the spot. Edwards allegedly never completed the sermon but it was published shortly after.

Jonathan Edwards' relationship with his own congregation was not doing well. He changed his views on the requirements for admission to the Lord’s Supper. In the Halfway Covenant baptized but unconverted children of believers might have their own children baptized. His grandfather had instituted the practice of admitting to the Euchrist all who were thus “in the covenant,” even if they knew themselves to be unconverted. Edwards came to believe that the profession required for admission to full communion should be understood to imply genuine faith, not merely doctrinal knowledge and good moral behavior. When he announced this in 1749 precipitated a violent controversy that resulted in his dismissal.

Jonathan Edwards owned slaves, but rejected the unsupported claims from scripture rationalizng this. After his dismissal he became a missionary to the indigineous groups in Massachusetts.