Every “unconverted” sinner (those who have not come to Christ) is condemned to hell. In fact, the congregation should understand “justice” to mean God sending them to their rightful place in hell.ģ. Since sinners deserve to go to hell, “divine justice” is no reason for God to stay his hand. Even if sinners band together against God, they are like “large quantities of dry stubble before devouring flames.”Ģ. While powerful men on earth, like princes, might have trouble subduing a rebellion, God has no such difficulty casting sinners into hell. Mankind cannot interfere with God’s power to cast them into hell whenever he pleases. This metaphor shows that it’s God’s hand alone that keeps a sinner from hell, and when God lets go, the weight of their sins will drag them inevitably into hell.įrom his close reading of the Deuteronomy quote, Edwards comes to one central conclusion: “There is nothing that keeps wicked men, at any one moment, out of hell, but the meer pleasure of God.” Edwards then proceeds to meditate on this conclusion with a list of ten observations.ġ. Fourth, Edwards changes the metaphor from a person on a slippery surface to a person held by the hand of God on a slippery slope with a pit at the bottom. Third, Edwards clarifies that when a person falls on a slippery surface, the fall is due only to their own weight (or, metaphorically, their sin)-they do not need to be pushed. Second, he notes that a fall on a slippery surface is always sudden and unexpected-destruction might come to sinners at any time.
First, he notes that the quote implies that the Israelites always risked “destruction” (damnation), just as someone walking on a slippery surface is always in danger of falling. The quote from Deuteronomy is God’s threat of vengeance, and Edwards proceeds to analyze the implications of this quote in depth.
Even though God was kind to the Israelites, they betrayed him, and therefore God brought vengeance upon them. The other, from Deuteronomy, simply says, “Their foot shall slide in due time.”Įdwards begins the body of his sermon by contextualizing these quotations. One passage, from the Book of Amos, is about God’s ability to find sinners and take them to hell no matter where they are. In accordance with traditional sermon structure, Jonathan Edwards opens “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” with the two Biblical readings on which the sermon is based.
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