Saturday, January 25, 2014

I'm having trouble with the short story "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God?" Can anybody give me a brief summary?

The gist of the sermon can be found in the sentence


"There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God."


The sermon's goal was to a) instill a fear of God's omnipotence over the human race, b) to create an awareness of man's nature as an original sinner,  c) to reinstate the Puritan foundation of pre-determination which argues that men have no control over their fate, and that it is God who decides whether you will enjoy the company of Grace or the Firepits of Hades.


The audience for this sermon were people with similar believes, but it is argued in the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University that such sermon was probably prepared especially after a specific situation occurred in the congregation that led Edwards to believe that his sheep were walking in the wrong path. This is supposedly evidenced by the strength of the message. Why would Edwards be so emphatic in reinstating what everyone already knows if not that something occurred among his people that upset him enough to scold them with such sermon.


Regardless, he sees men as a race which hangs from the threads of God's will facing directly the fire of Hell. Only God's will will determine the end of each man's soul, and we always must humble ourself before God in remembrance of our "messed up" nature compared to his merciful and much superior greatness. That is what the sermon basically included.

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