What message is Edwards conveying in the sermon?

The message from Edwards's "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is that mankind is inherently sinful and it is only through God's grace that Man is able to avoid eternal damnation and torment. Edwards's goal was to encourage people to turn towards God and away from sin before it was too late.
Edwards was a minister during the Great Awakening. This period is marked by emotional responses to religion, a contrast from the more rational approach of the Enlightenment. In trying to make people see the urgency in making a decision for God, Edwards focused on what would happen if people stayed away from God's mercies; they could expect to spend eternity in Hell. Edwards also pointed out the frailty of life and that the only way to assure oneself a place in Heaven was to accept salvation right away. Edwards's sermon was printed as well as given from the pulpit, thus giving him a larger audience. While Edwards's speaking style had a powerful effect on his congregants, his words were still powerful enough to influence many people who read the sermon.


The central message Edwards wishes for his listeners to come away with is that they cannot be assured of their own salvation. "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is grounded in a very Calvinist picture of humanity as essentially sinful, wretched at its core. However, if you start with that assumption, there emerges a tension, because a great many believers will tend towards spiritual complacency in the course of their lives. Perhaps they've become self assured of their own moral goodness or perhaps they've been distracted by worldly affairs: regardless, there will be a great many people who won't seriously treat these questions of salvation and damnation with the severity that (assuming one believes in this theological vision) they demand.
This then is the critical theme that emerges from this sermon: death can come at any time, and no one is guaranteed to be part of the Elect. His message is a call on his listeners to recognize their own sinful natures and to be fully aware of the extraordinary spiritual danger this places them in.


The first educator response correctly describes Edwards’s vision of God.
The sermon was written during the Great Awakening period in the British colonies in what is now the US. The Northeast was experiencing a revival of religious faith and an increased evangelical fervor. A Puritan, Edwards thoroughly believed God would punish his creation because of its sinful and unrepentant nature.
The sermon serves as an example of the fire-and-brimstone rhetoric that characterized evangelical churches in modern America. Edwards sought to motivate non-believers and backsliders by inspiring fear of eternal damnation. His message is best exemplified in the following excerpt:

The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.

The violent imagery with which Edwards describes God’s ability to take away human life reinforces his rhetorical purpose. Edwards truly believes that God only spares His wrath because of His mercy for His unworthy creation.


The main message of Reverend Jonathan Edwards's sermon is to convey to his congregation, and the nation at large, his belief that God's judgment of all sinners will be harsher and more painful than they realize.  He encourages them to repent while they still can and beg God for forgiveness. He uses fear of Hell as a motivator to get his audience to listen and change (through lots of vivid imagery of the tortures of Hell).  The God Edwards speaks of is angry, angry at the sinfulness of humanity, and his grace may be limited.  Individuals can, through good works, win God over and achieve Heaven when they die, so they need to make a significant change in their lives now.  According to Edwards, however, all of humanity deserves to be thrown into Hell to suffer forever. It is only through God's mercy and restraint that he does not do this.

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