Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God Language Analysis

In the 1720’s a preacher named Jonathan Edwards gave a sermon title ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. Edwards sermon would become well known for this sermon because of his constant use of strong figurative language. In his sermon, Edwards tells his congregation that everyone in the room is a sinner, even if they believe they haven’t sinned before. Edwards continues to warn his congregation that they will be judged by God himself, and that this judgement will be more painful and terrifying than they have imagined. Through Edwards sermon, his use of rich metaphors and imagery were constant throughout the entire discourse. With the use of metaphors, Edwards help describe hell and the nature of all humans to his congregation. At one point in his sermon, Edwards states, “All your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider’s web would have to stop a falling rock” (Edwards 102). By comparing a person’s righteousness to that of a spider’s web, Edwards is able to explain to his congregation that there is nothing to help them escape hell. Humans see a spider web as weak and little, and spider sees it as the strongest this that can trap anything, in this instance a human’s righteousness is their spider web and God views it as a tiny, weak safety net we believe will save us in the end and something he can tear down whenever he pleases. In …show more content…
In this well-known sermon, Edwards tell his audience to fear judgment day, and that God’s judgment will be far more painful and frightening than they’ve ever imagined. Jonathon Edwards uses rich metaphors to describe human nature and hell, and vivid imagery to describe hell in such a way that would cause fear in his audience. With his use of metaphors and imagery helps Edwards convince his audience to try and change their way so that they could end up in the kingdom of