Why Are Lost Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God?

Here’s why Jonathan Edwards is widely regarded as one of America’s most important and original philosophical theologians.

Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards (1703 – 1758) was an American revivalist preacher, philosopher, and Congregationalist theologian. A leading figure of the American Enlightenment, Edwards is widely regarded as one of America’s most important and original philosophical theologians. Jonathan Edwards was born a little over seventy years after the first Puritan settlement of New England and, at the time of his birth, October 5, 1703. His father, Timothy Edwards, was pastor of the local church as well as a part-time school teacher and farmer.

The Great Awakening

Around 1734–35, a great revival spread along the eastern seaboard. It was the beginning of ‘the Great Awakening’, which would touch several places in the thirteen colonies of the fledgling nation. Edward’s years between 1734 and 1744 were some of the most remarkable decades in the history of parish ministries, however by 1750 he was voted out of his church, with only 23 of the 230 male members of the church voting to keep him as a pastor. The church rejected him primarily because he called out those who were only “Sunday morning Christians” and insisted on believers make their Christian profession public.

Strong Preaching

Johnathan Edwards’ sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, made women faint and children cry. What he said in part of this great sermon was too hard for most to handle. Preaching about sin, judgment and God’s wrath is even less popular today behind the pulpits, but knowing the fear of God should compell us to persuade men to be saved (2 Cor 5:11). God’s righteous wrath makes God’s mercy suddenly important. Edwards stated that “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes as the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince: and yet ’tis nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment.”

Preaching on Hell

Edwards continued his sermon in the strongest way possible, saying, and according to Scriptures, that “there is no other reason to be given why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God’s hand has held you up: There is no other reason to be given why you haven’t gone to hell since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship: Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you don’t this very moment drop down into hell.” He is right of course, but we don’t always like to preach on hell fire and God’s judgment, even though Jesus frequently did. The whole Gosepl requires us to speak about the whole counsel of God, including the need for repentance and faith in Jesus Christ….or prepare to face God’s eternal judgment someday (Rev 20:12-15).

Fires of Hell

If people come to hear pleasant Bible verses and have their self-esteem built up in church (which is not what the Bible teaches), then they will miss the realities of hell. What is hell like? Edwards gives a terrifying description, saying, “‘Tis a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you as against many of the damned in hell: You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment.” If this seems like very strong preaching, it is, but it is entirely accurate too as the way Jesus portrayed hell. We can’t avoid the hard things in preaching the gospel because if God’s wrath is not revealed, His mercy will never be relevant.

Infinite Punishment

Many churches and false pastors try to do away with hell. Some like Rob Bell go so far as to teach there is no hell, but Jonathan Edwards gets his theology straight from Scripture and much from the mouth of Jesus. In part of his message, he cried out truthfully and accurately that hell is “everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity: there will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery: When you look forward, you shall see a long forever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all; you will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite.”

These are hard things to listen to or read but they are the truth. We must love sinners enough to speak the truth in love, even if it offends. If we have trusted in Christ, we have eternal life, but if we reject Him, we will experience His mighty judgment for time without end. This is why we must speak the truth and warn sinners. Sadly, for Jonathan Edward’s part in speaking the truth, his own church rejected him. Apparently, they couldn’t handle the truth.

Conclusion

Scripture shows that Jonathan Edwards was right in his preaching the full gospel because God warns us that “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb 10:31). Jesus says we should “not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt 10:38). And our Lord and our God says to the lost sinner, “I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him” (Luke 12:5)! This is why I hope that you have already put your trust in Jesus Christ so that you might avoid an eternal judgment, Hell has not opened up for business yet. That comes after the Great While Throne Judgment (Rev 20:12-15). Make sure you don’t go there.

Save Yourself!

God made Jesus to be sin for us so that God will see us as having Jesus’ righteousness (2 Cor 5:21). If this hasn’t happened yet, you are in real danger of hell fire. And I mean, in immediate danger. Like every human being, you are one breath, one heartbeat…one accident away from eternity when it’s too late to repent (Heb 9:27). Today is the best day to believe (2 Cor 6:2) because tomorrow is not guaranteed to anybody. If Jesus Christ came today, it will be too late for you to repent, so today…right now, put your trust in Jesus Christ. If not, prepare to face God’s judgment after death guaranteed or at Jesus Christ’s appearance (Rev 20:12-15), either of which could happen in a split second.

Here is some related reading for you: Why Are We Born Sinners? A Bible Study

Resource – Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), Crossway Bibles. (2007). ESV: Study Bible: English standard version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Tagged as: Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards, judgment, revival, Sinners, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God