Sunday, February 12, 2012
Why was "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" more famous than Jonathan Edwards other sermons?
Many people commonly refer to Jonathan Edwards as one of Americas's greatest theoligians. They say this because he was a powerful, influential figure during the time of the Great Awakening. The Great Awakening is referred to as a period of religious revival in American religious history. But was this the only sermon that Edwards was famous for? He was also famous for many different sermons such as, The Manner in Which the Salvation of the Soul is to be Sought, The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners, and Pressing into the Kingdom of God". http://www.jonathan-edwards.org/
So why; out of all his sermons was this one so important? One difference between this sermon and his others is that in this one particular sermon had a great influence on American Christianity http://www.colonialwarsct.org/1740_s.htm. He tries to scare people into believing that if u sin then God will cast you into hell. You can find these quotes in our book The Norton Anthology (pg. 426) Some people may ask well why did he have to scare people into not sinning? He did so because if people fear hell then they are more likely to buy into the whole salvation/heaven scenario.
But the main reason Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God was so famous was because not only did it have a great impact during the Great Awakening, but because Edwards would literally stand outside in front of crowds of people and preach to them his sermon. While reading the sermon you could tell that on several occassions Edwards would raise his voice as if to to show how serious and how much heart he had put into preaching what he was saying to the people of his congregation. An example would be in our book The Northon Anthology on (pg. 432). That is why I think Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is the most famous of all the Jonathan Edwards sermons.
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