What makes Hell such a dreaded, terrifying place? In part of the text Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Jonathon Edwards makes the observation that anyone who has not been a born again Puritan Christian will burn for all eternity in the pit known as Hell. To some, it is a dreaded, feared place, but to others it is fictional and incites no fear. In 1741 in Enfield, Connecticut, John Edwards delivered a horrifyingly powerful sermon to the Puritan congregation about the dangers, and reality of Hell. This sermon grew in popularity and led the means for personal reformation in Puritans of that era. Jonathon Edwards was successful in using persuasion to induce fear, promote the threat and promise of hell, and generate the means for spiritual change in the people of that congregation in 1741.
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On page eighty-seven, in the anthology, the background paragraph explains that during the sermon, people would be so horrified of the mental pictures and thoughts they were perceiving, that there were audible shrieks of terror during the six-hour sermon. What was said that scared the people so bad? At one point, John Edwards said, “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 anything 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” (pg. 87). He would drill the thought of a never-ending pit of flames into the minds of his listeners. After giving this terrifying visual of the worst that could happen to a single person, he would promote that the threat was
On page eighty-seven, in the anthology, the background paragraph explains that during the sermon, people would be so horrified of the mental pictures and thoughts they were perceiving, that there were audible shrieks of terror during the six-hour sermon. What was said that scared the people so bad? At one point, John Edwards said, “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 anything 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” (pg. 87). He would drill the thought of a never-ending pit of flames into the minds of his listeners. After giving this terrifying visual of the worst that could happen to a single person, he would promote that the threat was