Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry Gods

Antonia Sanders
September 2, 2009
AP English III
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
This story sums of the facts on why this author believes people should be sent to hell. He uses different types of writing styles and supports all his reasons to why he believes in what he thinks. His strong opinions and the way he says certain things gives you clear imagery of what he thinks.
Jonathan Edwards uses figurative language while writing his story. He uses similes to describe two objects that are totally different but compares them. “The devils watch them; they are ever by them at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey”. In this quote he describes the devil to a lion. What he basically is saying is just like a lion gets real hungry or desperate when they see something they want, the devils gets real desperate for people to come down to hell with it. He also uses another simile which was “Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell”. Edwards states how people can be so evil, that their wickedness can be so heavy that they weigh themselves down all the way to hell.
Edward also uses imagery which gives readers a vivid picture on what he is talking about. “The devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire bent up in their own hearts struggling to get out”. In this quote I get almost a good picture in my head to what hell is like and how it is thirsty to burn bodies. In this quote there is also personification that Edwards uses. He gives the fire a human quality of swallowing and holding people which we know it can’t do.
He has a central message which is God has more power over anyone and he determines what’s going to happen. “The wrath of God is like great waters that are damned for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given….If God should withdraw his hand from the flood-gate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God, would rush forth with inconceivable fury”. This quote is most significant because Edwards shows the great power in which God has. This wrath can build up so high and strong when one does wrong. If one continues to do wrong it continues to go higher and is stronger until God feels like he wants to let out his wrath of water. When he does this wrath will knock you out so hard from the power God has that you wouldn’t have no strength.
Jonathon Edwards has very strong opinions on life and he gives reasons for why he thinks people should go to hell. He thinks it’s only right for people to be under God. If one tries to be above they should go to hell. He is a crazy man in my opinion and thinks a lot of people are wicked for dumb reasons.