Jonathan Edwards gave a fiery sermon called "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" to convince colonists to repent their sins and accept salvation through Christ. He believed that all people were sinful and deserved eternal punishment in hell. Edwards warned that it was only by God's mercy and will that listeners were kept from falling into the fiery pit of damnation moment to moment. He urged them to reconsider their situation, as nothing they did could save them from divine wrath, and to seize the opportunity of Christ's open door of mercy while they still could.

1. The English Colonies Primary Source
Exerpt from
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
by Jonathan Edwards
ABOUT THE READING
Religion was important in the lives of early American
colonists. Many of them came to America for religious
freedom. Within a few generations, however, their
religious devotion and passion had faded. Beginning in
the 1730s, ministers began to hold religious meetings
known as revivals. Because of these meetings, a period
of religious renewal began in many people's lives. A
religious revival known as the Great Awakening swept the
colonies.
One of the most important Christian ministers of this time
was Jonathan Edwards. He thought of God as powerful
and holy while people were sinful and in need of some-
one or something to save them from their sinful natures.
In Edwards' eyes, sin offended God's holiness and
needed to be punished. He wanted people to feel what it
was like to be at God’s mercy. And yet he also saw God
as gracious. His sermons spoke of God's offer of forgive-
ness to those who genuinely repented of their sin.
VOCABULARY
repented- felt sorrow for sin and changed one's life
pleasure- a specific desire or purpose
brandished- waved (a weapon) threateningly
arbitrary- based on individual preference
obligation- requirement or sense of duty
covenant- a binding agreement or contract
wrath- anger
mediator- one who brings peace between people
induce- convince
unregenerate- unconverted
execute- carry out or put into effect
discourse- lecture or sermon
NOTE
When used in reference to God, the words he, him, and his are capitalized in Edwards' original sermon, but they
are not capitalized in the notes and comments. Until the late 20th century, pronouns referring to Christ or God were
generally capitalized as a sign of respect toward God.
As you read note how Edwards focuses on two things:
1) It is only the hand of God that keeps you out of hell.
2) It is importance to repent and be saved.
SS081CA Social Studies 8A for CA Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Ver. 1.0 (07/12)—Page 1 of 5
Copyright © 2012 by Flip Switch. All rights reserved

2. … There is nothing that keeps wicked men at
any one moment out of hell, but the mere
pleasure of God …
They deserve to be cast into hell… justice
calls aloud for an infinite punishment of their
sins. …. The sword of divine justice is every
moment brandished over their heads, and it
is nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy,
and God's mere will, that holds it back…
God has laid himself under no obligation, by
any promise to keep any natural man out of
hell one moment. God certainly has made no
promises either of eternal life, or of any deliv-
erance or preservation from eternal death, but
what are contained in the covenant of grace,
the promises that are given in Christ ….
The use of this awful subject may be for
awakening unconverted persons in this con-
gregation. This that you have heard is the
case of every one of you that are out of Christ
. That world of misery, that lake of burning
brimstone, is extended abroad under you.
There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames
of the wrath of God; there is hell's wide
gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to
stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of;
there is nothing between you and hell but the
air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of
God that holds you up. …
… You find you are kept out of hell, but do not
see the hand of God in it; [you] look at other
things: the good state of your bodily constitu-
tion, your care of your own life, and the
means you use for your own preservation. But
indeed these things are nothing ; if God
should withdraw His hand, they would avail
no more to keep you from falling, than the thin
air to hold up a person that is suspended in
it….
The English Colonies Primary Source
Just like a judge requires that a
crime is punished, God's
justice requires that sin is
punished.
God has made no promises of eternal
life except for those who believe in
Christ and obey God's word.
Those who are "out of Christ"
have never repented of their sin
and given their lives to Christ.
You are focused on worldly things and think that
they are what keep you alive, but it is really God
who does so, and it is only God's goodness and
God’s hand that keeps you out of hell.
SS081CA Social Studies 8A for CA Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Ver. 1.0 (07/12)—Page 2 of 5
Copyright © 2012 by Flip Switch. All rights reserved

3. The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much
as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect
over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully
provoked: His wrath towards you burns like fire;
He looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but
to be cast into the fire; He is of purer eyes than to
bear to have you in His sight; you are ten thou-
sand times more abominable in His eyes, than
the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You
have offended Him infinitely more than ever a
stubborn rebel did His prince; and yet it is nothing
but His hand that holds you from falling into the
fire every moment … And there is no other
reason to be given, why you have not dropped
into hell since you arose in the morning, but that
God's hand has held you up…
O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in:
it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottom-
less pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held
over in the hand of that God. ... You hang by a
slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath
flashing about it, and ready every moment to
singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no
interest in any Mediator , and nothing to lay hold
of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames
of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you
have ever done, nothing that you can do, to
induce God to spare you one moment…
Consider this, you that are here present that yet
remain in an unregenerate state. That God will
execute the fierceness of His anger implies that
He will inflict wrath without any pity. When God
beholds the ... extremity of your case, and sees
your torment to be so vastly disproportionate to
your strength, and sees how your poor soul is
crushed, and sinks down, as it were, into an
infinite gloom; He will have no compassion upon
you … He will have no regard to your welfare,
nor be at all careful … should [you] suffer too
much in any other sense, than only that you shall
not suffer beyond what strict justice requires.
The English Colonies Primary Source
Your sin offends God, whose holiness and purity
cannot bear to look upon sinful humanity. However,
God's mercy keeps you from falling into the fire of hell.
Your life hangs by a thread that can be burned up by God’s
anger. Nothing you have or have done can save you, and
you aren’t interested in using a mediator to save you.
In Christian teaching, Christ is the
mediator between humanity and God.
Even when God sees that you are suffering
more than you can bear, he will not rescue
you; he knows that you deserve punishment.
God's justice requires that you be
punished, but you will not suffer
more than what his justice requires.
SS081CA Social Studies 8A for CA Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Ver. 1.0 (07/12)—Page 3 of 5
Copyright © 2012 by Flip Switch. All rights reserved

4. How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and
hourly in the danger of this great wrath and infinite
misery! But this is the dismal case of every soul in
this congregation that has not been born again,
however moral and strict, sober and religious, they
may otherwise be. Oh that you would consider it,
whether you be young or old! There is reason to
think that there are many in this congregation now
hearing this discourse that will actually be the
subject of this very misery to all eternity. We know
not who they are, or in what seats they sit, or what
thoughts they now have. It may be they are now at
ease, and hear all these things without much distur-
bance, and are now flattering themselves that they
are not the persons, promising themselves that
they shall escape. If they knew that there was one
person, and but one, in the whole congregation,
that was to be the subject of this misery, what an
awful thing would it be to think of! ... How might all
the rest of the congregation lift up a lamentable and
bitter cry over him! …
And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a
day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy
wide open, and stands in calling and crying with a
loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are
flocking to Him, and pressing into the kingdom of
God. Many are daily coming from the east, west,
north and south; many that were very lately in the
same miserable condition that you are in are no in
a happy state, with their hearts filled with love to
Him who has loved them, and washed them from
their sins in His own blood, and rejoicing in hope of
the glory of God. How awful is it to be left behind at
such a day! … How can you rest one moment in
such a condition?
The English Colonies Primary Source
Anyone who has not been reborn to faith in
Christ is in danger of suffering for all eternity.
Everyone would cry for the sake
of even one person who was in
danger of being punished by God.
Many former sinners from all over are
being saved by the love of Christ.
SS081CA Social Studies 8A for CA Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Ver. 1.0 (07/12)—Page 4 of 5
Copyright © 2012 by Flip Switch. All rights reserved

5. The English Colonies Primary Source
THINK ABOUT IT
1. According to Edwards, why are his listeners deserving of hell?
2. According to Edwards, why are his listeners still alive and not dropped into hell?
3. How does Edwards speak to people who think they are safe from God’s wrath?
4. How does Edwards try to convince his listeners to become saved?
5. How does Edwards contrast God's justice and wrath with God’s mercy and love?
SS081CA Social Studies 8A for CA Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Ver. 1.0 (07/12)—Page 5 of 5
Copyright © 2012 by Flip Switch. All rights reserved