Published by The long powerful sermon preached by Jonathan Edwards in the eighteenth century stands as a landmark sermon. The Reverend Edwards is considered to have possessed one of the finest minds of that century. Its great ability was directed away from a time of reason and exploration and toward God and religious thought.
Jonathan Edwards masterpiece, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” is believed to have been a major influence that ushered in the religious revival of the eighteenth century that was called the “Great Awakening.” This sermon was preached often across New England over a span of many years. Thousands of people had opportunity to hear this great sermon. Many more have read hand heard excerpts from the sermon quoted in the years since Mr. Edwards died.
The effectiveness of this sermon is based on its presentation of salvation being based on the whim of God rather than the merits of man. Many believed then as they do now that it is possible to get to Heaven based on a life of good works. This sermon removes this hope line by line as it paints the picture of mankind being destined for eternity in a lake of fire because of a sinful nature rather than sinful deeds. Salvation by a crisis decision for Christ is presented as the sinner’s only hope.
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” paints the picture of all humanity hanging over the fires of torment with the grace and mercy of God being their only hope. Christ becomes the agent of salvation to rescue the lost sinner because of his sacrificial death. This was done in order that Christ could offer forgiveness of personal sin because He had been punished in the place of the sinner who deserved it.
Coming to Christ as a penitent and asking to forgiven for sins is the only way to escape eternal punishment. The sinner’s only hope is a belief in the fact that Christ died in the sinner’s place. Without this hope, the sermon says that a person is hanging over the fires of Hell by a thin strand of a spider’s web. At any instant his or her life could be ended by God and fire would become the person’s eternal fate.
The crowds who heard the Reverend Edwards deliver this sermon responded positively in huge numbers. The result was a religious awakening for an entire generation. This sermon has become a model for those declaring evangelical or revival sermons ever since that time. Preachers like Charles G. Finney, Dwight Moody, and Billy Sunday borrowed from the method if not the sermon to produce large results in the centuries since Jonathan Edwards.
