Criticism of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"

No sermon better typifies the fervor, and the falsehood, of the old time religion that swept the American colonies before the American Revolution than Puritan minister Jonathan Edwards' sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". The Great Awakening was a heavily emotional time, in which preachers expounded masterful rhetoric while touching very lightly on truth and Biblical doctrine, the tides of poor and rich who were swept up away with spiritualized sentiment outline the poverty of spiritual training, and the impoverishment of the blessed Gospel as revealed in Scripture.

The previous religious fervor of Puritan congregations was diminishing. The staunch and oppressive colonies which had been born as religious havens and tyrannies were reviewing and expanding leadership and political power to non-believers. The Puritan political process was breaking apart beneath the heavy-handed Calvinism, a theocratic doctrine of private tyranny and public enslavement.

Benjamin Franklin, a confirmed deist who espoused communal views when convenient or expedient, argued that Great Awakening Preachers like George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards were able to persuade open confessions and repentance because of the minsters' swelling and persuasive rhetoric. As the ministers worked an evangelic circuit, the preachers practiced the sermon repeatedly, ultimately refining their oratorical skills and imposing their emotional pleas with greater tenacity.

Benjamin Franklin saw through the hypnotic power of these speakers. Paul the Apostle warned ahead of time in his epistles of the dangers posed by style over substance:

"For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect." (1 Corinthians 1: 17)

Followed by:

"And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

"For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

"And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

"And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

"That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." (1 Corinthians 2: 1-5)

From the outset of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", Edwards has made the wisdom of words more important than Christ, the Word made flesh is made for us wisdom (1 Corinthians 1: 30)