Why did Jonathan Edwards write "Sinners...?

Question

Why did Edwards feel the need to write such a sermon?

"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"

Answer 1

I cab think of two things:

1) To help people to appreciate the magnitude of what it means to have the burden of sin lifted.  When we're more appreciative, it is easier to stay focused on "holding fast" (Heb 3:14). In Edwards' day, like ours many people professed Christianity, but didn't live a life consistent with Christian principles.

2) To motivate non-believers to come to Christ.  God is angry about sin and is someone to be feared (Heb 10:13).  Once you understand just how angry sin makes God, you might be more motivated to see out the Grace that is available in Christ.

Answer 2

he was trying to prove a point about how God is both fair and how he is also kind

i'm not sure its been a couple of months since i heard the poem

Answer 3

because he thought people weren't taking the threat of h**l seriously enough.  he wanted to scare them into following the scripture (or his interpretation of it).

Answer 4

In order to have a thorough understanding of Jonathan Edwards' sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", one must first possess at least a cursory knowledge of the basic tenets of Calvinism. Calvinism is a Puritanical theology that embraces their doctrines with the acronym TULIP. A tulip is, of course, a flower that has five petals which are intertwined. Without all five petals, the tulip would not be complete. In Calvinism, the acronym TULIP stands for: Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints. The acronym is an analogy that Christianity is incomplete without all of those components

Total Depravity is viewed as the totality of the evil of man, beginning with the fall of Adam. Since man is made essentially of two components, the body and the soul, both are considered to be inherently evil from birth. This in no way implies that people are as bad as they could be. Rather, it refers to the fall of Adam ruining the total being of man. This is taken from various chapters of the Bible, such as Genesis 6:5, "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

Unconditional Election is the belief, dating back to 1561, that "God did, by His most wise and holy counsel, of His own, freely and unchangeably ordain some men to heaven and some men to h**l by the nature of His good pleasure." While Epicureans believed that God leaves everything to chance, Calvinists found this to be reprehensible and vehemently protested it. Having renounced Catholicism in 1533, John Calvin became the leader of the second half of the Protestant Reformation. Fundamental to Calvinism is the doctrine that man's destiny is predetermined by an all-knowing God. Calvinists believe that, even before the creation of the world, God had elected certain people to go to Heaven, and others to h**l. Biblical verses, which they perceived as referring to predestination include 1 Peter 1:20, "Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you," and Acts 4:28, "To do what thy hand and thy counsel decreed to be done."

Limited Atonement refers to the belief that Jesus Christ came and died for a limited amount of people. The doctrine teaches that Jesus neither died nor redeemed all people for all time, but for His sheep.

Irresistible Grace is when the Spirit of God comes to change a person's heart and the Spirit is such that the person cannot resist the change.

Perseverance of the Saints means that through Christ's sacrifice on the cross, man can have redemption, once God has renewed the man's heart. This change must also manifest itself in the behavior of the person by doing good works.

Edwards' sermon is a reflection of these beliefs. "There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of h**l, but the mere pleasure of God" refers to Unconditional Election.

"They deserve to be cast into h**l; so that divine justice never stands in the way, it makes no objection against God's using his power at any moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, justice calls aloud for an infinite punishment of their sins." is fundamental to Calvinist theology of the evil of man, i.e. Total Depravity.

When Edwards says, "God certainly has made no promises either of eternal life, or of any deliverance or preservation from eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, the promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are yea and amen.", he makes reference to the fact that when man is saved through Christ, he shall continue to demonstrate his salvation by his works.

While Edwards does focus on the wrath of God, it is also important to note that another theme throughout this sermon is that, through the Irresistible Grace, man can be saved and lead a life of good works and happiness. "Will you be content to be the children of the devil, when so many other children in the land are converted, and are become the holy and happy children of the King of kings?"

This sentence from his sermon, "All wicked men's pains and contrivance which they use to escape h**l, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, do not secure them from h**l one moment" is a clear statement that there is redemption of sin through Christ's crucifixion. This is consistent with their belief in the Perseverance of the Saints.

No sermon can be isolated from the basic tenets of the religion, and then truly understood. It is important to read the sermon from the historical perspective in which it was written.