es to eternal agony, while he has time to Williams 3repent and be saved. The purpose of this sermon was to motivate those unconverted members of Edwards’ audience to repent from unbelief and sin, become baptized, and experience a realizationof God's grace, as imparted by His Spirit. "You have an extraordinary opportunity (to be saved) …Therefore, let everyone that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come"(Edwards 75). The horrific slipperiness and fearful suspension above the flaming fire described throughout is a message intended for those individuals who know the truth, yet have remainedwicked and unbelieving. Edwards believed that God has less patience for those who know theyshould be living right (Cady “The Artistry of Jonathan Edwards”).In conclusion, Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God represents a relentless concept offear designed to convince the then Puritan society through future generations that the tremendouseffects of an unconverted man's unstable state “lay in God’s whim of mercy, and the terror of thismessage derived from the insecurity of being temporarily protected by an all-powerful being fullof infinite anger” (Thompson 71). How does one react to Edwards' sermon? Does it provoke asense of fear? Does it form anger? Does today’s public have a feeling of nothing but scorn for anyideas about hell and everlasting punishment? Should the wrath of God be seen as a primitive orobscene concept? Is the very notion of hell an insult? If so, it is clear that the God one worships isnot a holy God: thus, He is not a God at all. If we despise the justice of God, a person is not aChristian. One stands in a position which is every bit as dangerous as the one which Edwards sographically described. “If we hate the wrath of God, it is because we hate God Himself. We mayprotest vehemently against these charges but our vehemence only confirms our hostility towardGod&...
