Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is the text of a sermon that Edwards preached to his congregation. I know of no author/preacher who is more consistently captivated by God's glory in his grace and love towards sinners, especially as manifested in the eternal joy in Him of heaven. But Edwards was also poignantly aware of the reality of hell. Hell is what we all deserve; God's eternal and infinite wrath is what we would be experiencing now and should experience for eternity if it were not in God's good pleasure to restrain Himself. God's glory in salvation and grace is made all the more glorious when his perfect and righteous wrath are manifested toward the vessels prepared for destruction. Edwards calls all hearers to recognize their powerlessness in the face of this God who is justly wrath-filled against them. Either rest secure in your position in Christ, where Christ has already absorbed this wrath and given us his righteousness securing eternity in heaven. Or be very afraid, be convicted by sin when you see just how horrible it is that a perfect God would punish it so, repent/turn, and trust in God to cleanse you from that sin, both its guilt and its power. This is an excellent sermon that I had not read in quite some time and am resolved to return to regularly. No matter who you are, you must know of the true God, both his justice and mercy.

The book is great. Came in great condition. It took about a week longer than I thought it would to arrive however.

One of the most famous sermons ever given by one of the greatest theologians of our recent time and probably the greatest American-born theologian, this sermon by Jonathan Edwards was intended to be and remains to this day profound and hard-hitting. Invited by the pastor in Enfield, Connecticut to come and speak to his congregation - a collection of apathetic, spirit-less people completely unaffected by the Great Awakening of 1734-35 in New England. Edwards, himself a pastor of the First Church of Northampton, Massachusetts, delivered this message on July 8, 1741 with the object of presenting the truth of the current condition of those outside the saving grace of God as being in peril and subject to the divine wrath of an Almighty and Holy God. It was said that as Edwards spoke, he was interrupted several times by people moaning and crying out, "What must I do to be saved?" And while this sermon has received heavy criticism since that day, it continues to proclaim the awesome wonder of our God and His incredible grace and patience for all mankind. Edwards begins his sermon with a proper perspective of the state of the nature of man - fallen from divine grace, now subject to divine wrath. He writes, "There is nothing that keeps wicked men out of hell, at any one moment, except the mere pleasure of God." Edwards wants every man to know that their sin has condemned them to an eternity without God and writes, "As the heart is now a cesspool of sin, so if sin were not restrained, it would immediately turn the soul into a fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone." Using incredibly visual imagery, Edwards warns the unrepentant that their own efforts are worthless and insignificant at best to prevent their eventual demise into the pit of hell. "Your wickedness makes you as heavy as lead; it drives you down, with great weight and pressure, toward hell. And if God were to let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf. At that moment, you will see that your health, your own care and prudence, your best contrivance, and all your righteousness, have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web has to stop a falling rock." Edwards ends by sounding his clarion call to all sinners - that their fate is an eternity without the grace of God. "When you look forward, you will see a long forever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely lose all hope or confidence of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all." This short, but powerful, sermon is an excellent reminder of God's sovereignty and His grace and mercy - as John Newton near the end of his life said, "My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior." Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God will be such a reminder to those who know the grace of God

An excellent anthology of Edwards' sermons, although by no means complete. This is a 5-star reading.