On July 8th, 1741, Johnathan Edwards presented his most famous sermon Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God, and the rest is history as they say. A revival that spanned the Atlantic Ocean ensued, and it held great significance to millions of many faiths or lack there of ever since. The fruits of that revival include the abolition of slavery in the Western world and the birth of the United States of America. One could even argue that the spread of modern democracy owes itself to it. It certainly spurred on the advance of individualism and Libertarian-ism into the present.
Now i'm not writing today to explain the relationship between events in Christian history and the advent of liberal democracy in the modern world. Fine discourses on that are readily available to be found.
What I'm doing today is attempting to capture lightning in a bottle, as the saying goes. This one sermon ultimately helped stir more hearts to individual transformation than most evangelists could dream of for their entire careers. And I'm ashamed to admit it took me until just recently to have finally sat down and read it, but when I did something came to me.
Through much effort I have become well practiced at seeing through the chronocentrism that so often prevents us from benefiting from the wisdom of the past, and in reading Edwards's sermon it took me little time to see what he was saying in modern terms.
We really tend to hate "Hell-fire and damnation" style preaching these days. It strikes us as unproductive communication at best, and intolerantly judgmental at worst. But in Edwards's time, seeing oneself as a wicked worm was as popular then as seeing ourselves as parasites upon the planet is today. And as I'll point out in my analysis today, berating people wasn't his primary goal.
He was more interested in our having a positive relationship with God, and as such his sermon can speak just as powerfully today as it did in his time. That is what I chose to touch on here, an effort to bring it's message into modern relevance. Now note that I am not directly paraphrasing it. Instead I'm analyzing it with intent to find and bring out it's message in terms of our own times. I'll leave it to any actual preachers (I'm not one) to see if they care to present that message as a modern sermon.
The sermon's primary scriptural text is Deuteronomy 32:35.
The context of this verse is that it rests within the Song of Moses, which begins at Deuteronomy 31:30. In the run up to 32:35 the people of Israel have, in spite of clearly being the beneficiaries of God's intervention, turned to worshiping "gods" and idols. I put "gods" in quotes here because the choice of words there* implies these "gods" were in fact entities of some potency, and thus the sin here is not a failure to adhere strictly to monotheism but to put other things at too high a level as compared to God. That's very important because it makes it very relevant to our own times.
It is way too easy for 21st century Christians to look back at the sin of idolatry and think they are insulated from what they see as primitive nonsense; superstition as it were. But just like the things that distract us today from our proper priorities, these "gods" are given by implication, real powers and benefits. Today's isms are just different actors in the same roles.
i.e. In this far too often repeated performance the role of pagan deity #3 will be played by the Green movement, and pagan deity #2 by Neo-conservatism, and another by Progressivism, and let's not forget Social Justice doing a bang up job in the role made legendary by Tiamat's earlier portrayal, the god of gods who demand human sacrifice.
It is upon this lead up that Deuteronomy 32:35 comes and says, "In due time their foot will slip", and it is on those words that Edwards chose to preach. It is interesting that even those words are not the entire verse. The entire verse reads, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot shall slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them."
I strongly suspect the reason for omission of the rest of the verse was emphasis, as Edwards makes the meaning of the rest of it as clear as he could be expected to in his sermon, even without directly noting it up front.
In the first part of his sermon he makes it abundantly clear about this section of scripture that God is angry with the people of Israel and the due consequences of their behavior is said to be imminent. But like most good preachers to this day, his goal is not to point at sinners of the past but to speak to the people in front of him on the day he is preaching.
He explains how it is that if God's own chosen people could attract so much imminent destruction, then certainly no one today has any sound reason to think themselves better off in God's sight. He leaves out the great caveat that is salvation through Christ, but not because he doesn't believe in it, but because of the ultimate point of his sermon that day. Too many people who think themselves Christians misunderstand the relationship between God, ourselves, and sin. And because they do, they're in great danger.
Edwards spoke of sin as being like fuel that draws the fires of Hell to us and causes it to consume us. An 18th century attempt to describe a tough concept. More recent attempts include phrases like , "we make our own Hell", and "people go to Hell precisely because they want to".
The Song of Moses contains another way of putting it, in a sense. In verse 32:29 we can find these words, "If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be!"
And yes, I am saying all these statements speak of the same thing. It is a hard concept that many Christians only end up understanding in our hearts, but it is not so hard that it must evade all of our minds. Allow me a very short and true story.
Once at a Florida amusement park an ice cart full of ice the volume of about three large trash cans escaped the grasps of the park employees atop a hill and began racing down it under the force of gravity and with the benefit of wheels. I mention the gravity and wheels because it's important to note the physics involved.
There were four small groups of tourists along this cart's path. The cart first came near a Japanese trio of adults who rushed out of it's way. A group of four Germans and a British couple were already to the side of its path but at the bottom of the hill stood a South American family. The park employees couldn't speak Spanish but hoped between their yelling and waving along with the sight of the onrushing cart the family would get the message and get out of the way. But instead the family looked at the cart and began screaming and yelling, as if their feet had been frozen to the ground. Their faces were filled with fear at their impending doom at the receiving end of a runaway ice cart.
The park employees helplessly ran after the cart but it was already moving too fast for them to catch up with. A horrible incident was about to happen and it seemed a miracle was needed. At least one of those park employees was praying as he's the one who told this to me. And then suddenly imminent tragedy turned into something very different. Two of the Germans were big enough men to try what they could. They grabbed the cart as it went by them and began to slow it, at least a little. The carts momentum was still too much for them to stop, but then both of the British couple stepped into the path of the cart and between those four, the cart was finally brought to a safe stop.
The South American family was saved, but if they had been crushed by that cart it would not have been anyone's fault but their own. It was not park employees plotting against them. It was only physics working against that family's irrational desire to stand in the path of an immensely heavy object rolling down hill at them.
That for me describes our relationship to sin and God. When we see ourselves as some how being able to be good enough, or we see God as the maker of unreasonable laws who smites those who break them, we are like that family at the bottom of the hill yelling and screaming at the approach of imminent doom. Their salvation is ultimately and only to found through recognizing the need for it. Until then they defy physics or as it says in the scripture, "If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be!"
That family like many of us yet alive, have survived that defiance. But Edwards in his sermon points out how we should not mistake grace for providence.
The relationship between ourselves, God, and sin is like a higher physics. Like the physical laws that would have made that family in the story's fate most dire, the higher physics involved in how a perfect God goes about saving souls in a universe corrupted by sin describes forces we cannot rationally expect to persuade or defy. As much as we may want the ground where we currently stand to always be safe, that is not how the universe works.
If we don't recognize how it is that the one in who the ultimate meaning of the universe resides cannot be expected to go on indefinitely holding back the consequences of our own actions from us, then we can never move. His perfection means not only that He is worthy of our worship and devotion, but it also means we are condemned. Not because He is unreasonably harsh but because we are unreasonably stubborn and prideful. He has provided a way for us to be reconciled with His perfection, that is Jesus Christ, and the fact that any of us are still alive to read this means we have received grace we don't deserve so as to give us our chance to accept that gift. Believe in Jesus Christ, that He died as a substitute for us, and that by accepting that, which means repentance from our sinful ways and submission to sanctification, and you will be saved.
To do otherwise is to stand and scream at our impending doom as if we can talk down the laws of physics. Some of Edwards closing words almost need no contemporary paraphrase.
"and that it will be as it was on the great out-pouring of the Spirit upon the Jews in the apostles’ days; the election will obtain, and the rest will be blinded."
Yes, the knowing ones of my readers will no doubt see the influence of Edwards belief in predestination in this, but I think we make a distraction of it. Whatever we wish to call it or don't wish to call it, God calls all of us to a choice and there is no fairness in how long each of us has to make it. The only predestination in it is that we must choose. believe in Jesus Christ for your salvation and enthrone Him in your heart, as such a belief must logically require, or choose not to. Either way the universe will do what it does and to either blame God for our damnation or deny that we need Jesus Christ is horrifying folly.
Now i'm not writing today to explain the relationship between events in Christian history and the advent of liberal democracy in the modern world. Fine discourses on that are readily available to be found.
What I'm doing today is attempting to capture lightning in a bottle, as the saying goes. This one sermon ultimately helped stir more hearts to individual transformation than most evangelists could dream of for their entire careers. And I'm ashamed to admit it took me until just recently to have finally sat down and read it, but when I did something came to me.
Through much effort I have become well practiced at seeing through the chronocentrism that so often prevents us from benefiting from the wisdom of the past, and in reading Edwards's sermon it took me little time to see what he was saying in modern terms.
We really tend to hate "Hell-fire and damnation" style preaching these days. It strikes us as unproductive communication at best, and intolerantly judgmental at worst. But in Edwards's time, seeing oneself as a wicked worm was as popular then as seeing ourselves as parasites upon the planet is today. And as I'll point out in my analysis today, berating people wasn't his primary goal.
He was more interested in our having a positive relationship with God, and as such his sermon can speak just as powerfully today as it did in his time. That is what I chose to touch on here, an effort to bring it's message into modern relevance. Now note that I am not directly paraphrasing it. Instead I'm analyzing it with intent to find and bring out it's message in terms of our own times. I'll leave it to any actual preachers (I'm not one) to see if they care to present that message as a modern sermon.
My Analysis
Copies of the sermon are readily available for reading online from various sources that will pop up in a typical search for "Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God". It's only a few pages.The sermon's primary scriptural text is Deuteronomy 32:35.
The context of this verse is that it rests within the Song of Moses, which begins at Deuteronomy 31:30. In the run up to 32:35 the people of Israel have, in spite of clearly being the beneficiaries of God's intervention, turned to worshiping "gods" and idols. I put "gods" in quotes here because the choice of words there* implies these "gods" were in fact entities of some potency, and thus the sin here is not a failure to adhere strictly to monotheism but to put other things at too high a level as compared to God. That's very important because it makes it very relevant to our own times.
It is way too easy for 21st century Christians to look back at the sin of idolatry and think they are insulated from what they see as primitive nonsense; superstition as it were. But just like the things that distract us today from our proper priorities, these "gods" are given by implication, real powers and benefits. Today's isms are just different actors in the same roles.
i.e. In this far too often repeated performance the role of pagan deity #3 will be played by the Green movement, and pagan deity #2 by Neo-conservatism, and another by Progressivism, and let's not forget Social Justice doing a bang up job in the role made legendary by Tiamat's earlier portrayal, the god of gods who demand human sacrifice.
It is upon this lead up that Deuteronomy 32:35 comes and says, "In due time their foot will slip", and it is on those words that Edwards chose to preach. It is interesting that even those words are not the entire verse. The entire verse reads, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot shall slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them."
I strongly suspect the reason for omission of the rest of the verse was emphasis, as Edwards makes the meaning of the rest of it as clear as he could be expected to in his sermon, even without directly noting it up front.
In the first part of his sermon he makes it abundantly clear about this section of scripture that God is angry with the people of Israel and the due consequences of their behavior is said to be imminent. But like most good preachers to this day, his goal is not to point at sinners of the past but to speak to the people in front of him on the day he is preaching.
He explains how it is that if God's own chosen people could attract so much imminent destruction, then certainly no one today has any sound reason to think themselves better off in God's sight. He leaves out the great caveat that is salvation through Christ, but not because he doesn't believe in it, but because of the ultimate point of his sermon that day. Too many people who think themselves Christians misunderstand the relationship between God, ourselves, and sin. And because they do, they're in great danger.
Edwards spoke of sin as being like fuel that draws the fires of Hell to us and causes it to consume us. An 18th century attempt to describe a tough concept. More recent attempts include phrases like , "we make our own Hell", and "people go to Hell precisely because they want to".
The Song of Moses contains another way of putting it, in a sense. In verse 32:29 we can find these words, "If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be!"
And yes, I am saying all these statements speak of the same thing. It is a hard concept that many Christians only end up understanding in our hearts, but it is not so hard that it must evade all of our minds. Allow me a very short and true story.
Once at a Florida amusement park an ice cart full of ice the volume of about three large trash cans escaped the grasps of the park employees atop a hill and began racing down it under the force of gravity and with the benefit of wheels. I mention the gravity and wheels because it's important to note the physics involved.
There were four small groups of tourists along this cart's path. The cart first came near a Japanese trio of adults who rushed out of it's way. A group of four Germans and a British couple were already to the side of its path but at the bottom of the hill stood a South American family. The park employees couldn't speak Spanish but hoped between their yelling and waving along with the sight of the onrushing cart the family would get the message and get out of the way. But instead the family looked at the cart and began screaming and yelling, as if their feet had been frozen to the ground. Their faces were filled with fear at their impending doom at the receiving end of a runaway ice cart.
The park employees helplessly ran after the cart but it was already moving too fast for them to catch up with. A horrible incident was about to happen and it seemed a miracle was needed. At least one of those park employees was praying as he's the one who told this to me. And then suddenly imminent tragedy turned into something very different. Two of the Germans were big enough men to try what they could. They grabbed the cart as it went by them and began to slow it, at least a little. The carts momentum was still too much for them to stop, but then both of the British couple stepped into the path of the cart and between those four, the cart was finally brought to a safe stop.
The South American family was saved, but if they had been crushed by that cart it would not have been anyone's fault but their own. It was not park employees plotting against them. It was only physics working against that family's irrational desire to stand in the path of an immensely heavy object rolling down hill at them.
That for me describes our relationship to sin and God. When we see ourselves as some how being able to be good enough, or we see God as the maker of unreasonable laws who smites those who break them, we are like that family at the bottom of the hill yelling and screaming at the approach of imminent doom. Their salvation is ultimately and only to found through recognizing the need for it. Until then they defy physics or as it says in the scripture, "If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be!"
That family like many of us yet alive, have survived that defiance. But Edwards in his sermon points out how we should not mistake grace for providence.
The relationship between ourselves, God, and sin is like a higher physics. Like the physical laws that would have made that family in the story's fate most dire, the higher physics involved in how a perfect God goes about saving souls in a universe corrupted by sin describes forces we cannot rationally expect to persuade or defy. As much as we may want the ground where we currently stand to always be safe, that is not how the universe works.
If we don't recognize how it is that the one in who the ultimate meaning of the universe resides cannot be expected to go on indefinitely holding back the consequences of our own actions from us, then we can never move. His perfection means not only that He is worthy of our worship and devotion, but it also means we are condemned. Not because He is unreasonably harsh but because we are unreasonably stubborn and prideful. He has provided a way for us to be reconciled with His perfection, that is Jesus Christ, and the fact that any of us are still alive to read this means we have received grace we don't deserve so as to give us our chance to accept that gift. Believe in Jesus Christ, that He died as a substitute for us, and that by accepting that, which means repentance from our sinful ways and submission to sanctification, and you will be saved.
To do otherwise is to stand and scream at our impending doom as if we can talk down the laws of physics. Some of Edwards closing words almost need no contemporary paraphrase.
"and that it will be as it was on the great out-pouring of the Spirit upon the Jews in the apostles’ days; the election will obtain, and the rest will be blinded."
Yes, the knowing ones of my readers will no doubt see the influence of Edwards belief in predestination in this, but I think we make a distraction of it. Whatever we wish to call it or don't wish to call it, God calls all of us to a choice and there is no fairness in how long each of us has to make it. The only predestination in it is that we must choose. believe in Jesus Christ for your salvation and enthrone Him in your heart, as such a belief must logically require, or choose not to. Either way the universe will do what it does and to either blame God for our damnation or deny that we need Jesus Christ is horrifying folly.
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