Puritans

The Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is one of Jonathan Edward’s most infamous sermons. It speaks of God and how all he feels is wrath towards everyone and that everyone is going to hell no matter what. “And they have no interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of; all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.” This quote comes directly from the sermon saying that there is nothing anyone can do to save themselves from this furious God. Jonathan in a way is contradicting himself. He explains that nothing that can be done to be saved, however, later on in the sermon he explains that only certain chose ones will be saved. He never says the qualities those chosen one had to have or if they had to do anything. But, if nothing can be done to be saved, how is it that there is going to be these chosen few.
“Thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it…” This is another big part of Jonathan’s sermon. He believed that men were held up by God over a fire pit and at any moment, for mere pleasure, he could let them go. God is not like this at all. If this were the case, absolutely no one would believe in him. Many of us do and believe his sole purpose is to be able to save us. Jonathan makes it seem like God is having fun taunting with the lives of people.
I believe this sermon was just made up to scare people. I believe that only those who accept Christ as their savior will be saved. God is meant to give us peace and inner calmness, in my opinion. It is said that some people fainted when they heard this sermon. Honestly, I cannot blame them. If I were living in the time they were living in where religion was a big part of every day life, I would have also probably fainted. It is hard to even imagine what was going through Jonathan’s mind. It was definitely made to frighten people, but he could have made it to make people act better to become one of the chosen few. The question that comes to my mind is where is he now?
I do not believe Jonathan Edward’s sermon worked. People believed in God deeply. This is portrayed in William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation. “Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the fast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element.” As soon as the Puritans set foot on land, they immediately thanked God. They believed that because of God, they had safely arrived on land. The opinion of one man is not going to change these strong feelings of the Puritans about God.