Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is a sermon written by Jonathan Edwards, pastor of the Congregational church of Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1741, during the period of the First Great Awakening. Edwards delivered the sermon to remarkable effect on July 8, 1741, in Enfield, Connecticut, during a revival tour, and it was published shortly thereafter in Boston. Though its hellfire-and-brimstone style is not typical of Edwards’s work, it quickly became his best-known publication and during the succeeding centuries came to epitomize the Calvinist fixation on sin and damnation of the early New England Puritans. Sinners is the most famous text from the period of the Great Awakening, the religious revival movement that occurred in the British colonies in North America from Maine to Georgia in the 1740s and in which Edwards played an influential role as preacher and apologist. Sinners has been anthologized innumerable times and is considered by many the greatest sermon in American literature. The citations in this guide are from the Library of America edition in Jonathan Edwards: Writings from the Great Awakening, ed. Philip F. Gura.

Sinners follows the typical four-part structure of most Puritan sermons: biblical text, doctrine, proof, and application. The sermon begins with a scriptural epigraph, which Edwards explicates to arrive at the sermon’s doctrine. Edwards’s text is a verse from Deuteronomy (xxxii. 35), “Their foot shall slide in due time.” Explaining that the verse refers to the “wicked unbelieving Israelites” (625) who broke the Mosaic laws, Edwards identifies four implications of the text: The sinful Israelites were always exposed to destruction—in fact, sudden, unexpected destruction; the wicked are liable to fall of themselves; and the sole reason they haven’t been destroyed already is that God’s appointed time has not yet come. Edwards synthesizes these points in an “Observation,” which provides the sermon’s doctrine: “There is nothing that keeps wicked men, at any one moment, out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God” (626).

In the next section of the sermon, Edwards demonstrates the truth of this proposition in 10 enumerated proofs, or “Considerations”:

1. God is all-powerful; he can destroy the sinner as effortlessly as a human being can crush a worm or cut a spider’s silken thread.
2. The wicked deserve damnation; divine justice calls out for the sinner to be cast into hell.
3. The wicked, moreover, have already been condemned by God’s righteous justice; their proper place is hell.
4. They are objects of the same divine wrath that the damned already suffer in hell; in fact, God is angrier with many alive than those already enduring the flames of eternal torment.
5. Satan stands ready to seize the wicked as soon as God permits him; hell opens its maw to receive sinners, and demons gather like hungry lions to devour them.
6. Within the souls of wicked men are hellish principles that would burst into hellfire and consume them if God did not temporarily prevent it. Man’s corruption is boundless in its fury and would incinerate his soul without God’s restraint.
7. Even if no means of death are visible, this should not give comfort to the wicked. The natural means of death are innumerable and usually unseen; God does not need a miracle to destroy those whose wickedness offends Him.
8. Prudence and care cannot protect human beings from the wrath of God; their wisdom avails no security.
9. Humans, assuming their cleverness will enable them to escape damnation, delude themselves as to their eternal prospects. If we could hear a miserable sinner bewailing his fate in hell, he would lament that death came suddenly and unseen, like a thief outwitting him, and he would ruefully curse his own foolishness.
10. God has never promised to keep sinful (or “natural”) man out of hell for one moment. The only promise of salvation is that secured by Christ’s sacrifice, known as the covenant of grace, which applies only to the faithful who accept Christ as Savior and are reborn within Him. Prayers and good works can avail nothing regarding salvation; only submission to Christ can save human beings from damnation.

Edwards concludes the proof section of the sermon with a single, forceful sentence that summarizes point by point the 10 claims he has made in support of his doctrine.

Shifting to the “Application,” Edwards explains the use of the doctrine for his listeners’ spiritual benefit. His exposition of the sinner’s perilous plight is meant to awaken the unconverted in the congregation before the opportunity for redemption has passed. Addressing his audience directly, he says that the case he has made applies to each of them who are outside of Christ. Though they don’t realize it, they are suspended precipitously over the flames of God’s wrath, as if in midair, with no support but the mere pleasure of God holding them up. Edwards graphically depicts God’s anger and the hateful sinfulness of his listeners in a series of rapid images: Wickedness is like a leaden weight dragging the unregenerate toward hell but for God’s support; the earth and sun recoil from the odious presence of the wicked within His creation; the wrath of God is like black thunderclouds threatening to wreak havoc on the sinner, or like dammed floodwaters continually increasing and yearning for release. Like unseen arrows, God’s vengeance will strike down the unsuspecting sinner in broad day. Edwards implores the listener to consider his utter helplessness and offensiveness to God; like a spider or insect, he is held over the pit of hell by God, solely dependent on His forbearance to escape destruction at each instant. Nothing in the sinner’s power can provide the slightest degree of security. Good health, benevolent intentions, and affectations of holiness are worthless; only the conversion of the heart by being reborn in Christ can atone for sinfulness and lead to salvation.

Edwards develops four points about God’s anger toward the wicked for his audience to contemplate: (1) The wrath to which they are exposed is that of the infinite God, unimaginable in His majesty and power; (2) God’s wrath is inconceivably fierce and will be executed upon sinners without any pity; (3) God will make their suffering a spectacle to show the universe the full terror of His wrath; (4) God’s wrath is everlasting; the sinner’s punishment, therefore, is infinite and unimaginable in its misery. It is wondrous that many now sitting in the church stalls have not already been cast into hell, considering the wickedness of their hearts; many may be there before the end of the year, if not by tomorrow morning.

The sermon concludes with Edwards’s urgent appeal that his listeners take advantage of the extraordinary opportunity now afforded them of coming to Christ. A day of mercy is at hand, and many are flocking into the kingdom of God from the surrounding towns, even Suffield, Enfield’s neighbor. Edwards addresses the town’s elderly, young adults, and children in turn, urging each group not to neglect the precious season of redemption. This day is one of favor and forgiveness for some but will be remembered as a day of remarkable vengeance by others. God’s spirit is now pouring out over the land, as it did during the time of Christ’s apostles, and He is hastily gathering in those who will be saved. Those who reject the gift of grace will be blinded and cut down, like a tree that refuses to bring forth good fruit. The sermon closes with an admonition recalling the faithful Hebrews who fled Sodom when God turned against its wicked inhabitants: “Haste and escape for your Lives, look not behind you, escape to the Mountain, least you be consumed” (641).