Jonathan Edwards (1703 – 1758) is best remembered for his masterful sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” In addition to his achievements as a pastor, Edwards was a father to eight daughters and three sons, missionary to the Housatonic Indians, revivalist, philosopher, and accomplished scientist. From a very early age, Jonathan was mesmerized by the beauty and order of God’s world. In fact, he was especially fond of studying spiders. So much so that his accurate observations have been preserved and are acknowledged in the scientific community today. Even more remarkable is that these observations were made when he was a boy with no tools, training or body of knowledge with which to compare and test his findings. In his childhood work, “Of Insects,” Jonathan wrote “Multitudes of time I have beheld with wonderment and pleasure the spiders marching in the air from one tree to another… their little shining webs and Glistening Strings of a Great Length and at such a height as that one would think they were tack’d to the Sky by one end were it not that they were moving and floating.” As a young man, Jonathan wrote seventy resolutions. One of these resolutions was, “To live with all my might, while I do live.” That he did. Blessed with a brilliant mind, Jonathan Edwards used his brief 55 years to advance the Kingdom of Christ. Many believe Jonathan Edwards was the greatest mind in American history.1

Jonathan Edwards: preacher who helped bring about The Great Awakening, a religious revival that lasted 15 yrs.

 

Puritans a.k.a. Pilgrims

Puritans were pretty intense people. According to their beliefs, you're born a sinner, you will always be a sinner, God hates you quite a lot, and no matter what you do, you still might burn in hell. Puritans believed in God's unending and undeniable grace, but then that Jesus only died for a precious few.

Known for his extremism in his sermonsPresident of College of New Jersey (Princeton)

Believed strongly in God, but also in science, reason, and education

*uses parallelism to build emotion and make a point

*tries to persuade the unsaved by using fear

*Sinners = spiders and serpents*God’s anger is a lethal weapon*Fate is God’s hands*uses repetition for effect

*Figurative language:Simile: a comparison of two things using like or as

Metaphor: comparison of two unlike things 

*people being held up by thin air*bow and arrow*dammed waters

For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. Deuteronomy 32:22