Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Edwards’s 1741 revival sermon holds unconverted listeners over the pit of hell with images of God’s wrath, then urges them to come to Christ while the door of mercy is open.
📖 Read the full textThe complete sermon, paired with the StoryBites version of every sectionIn the summer of 1741 a religious revival was spreading through New England, and Jonathan Edwards stood before a congregation he feared was still asleep. He told its unconverted members that they were hanging over hell by a slender thread, held up only by the hand of an angry God. His images are hard to forget: a dam about to burst, an arrow drawn back on the string, a spider held over a fire. Yet the sermon was built to end at an open door, and every terror in it is aimed at getting listeners through that door today.
The claim
Nothing but God’s will keeps unconverted people out of hell at any moment, and no health, caution, morality or religious habit can protect them. Because that is their true condition, they must seek salvation in Christ now, while God is offering mercy during the revival.
The rhetorical situation who, to whom, when, and why
A meeting-house at Enfield
The sermon speaks of “this congregation” and of people who “sit here in some seats of this meeting-house” (paragraph 45). Enfield, where Edwards preached it, was then claimed by Massachusetts and is now in Connecticut.
Summer 1741, the Great Awakening
Edwards describes “a day wherein many are flocking” to Christ and “the pouring out of God’s Spirit” across the land (paragraphs 46 and 50). He preached the sermon in July 1741; July 8 is the date usually given.
What Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God says
Edwards takes as his text a clause from Deuteronomy 32:35, “Their foot shall slide in due time,” spoken of Israelites who had turned from God. From the picture of walking on slippery ground he draws four points: the wicked are always in danger, their fall will be sudden, their own weight will bring them down, and they are still standing only because God’s appointed time has not come. His doctrine follows: nothing keeps wicked men out of hell for one moment except “the mere pleasure of God.” Ten considerations support it. God has the power to cast them into hell, justice demands it, and the sentence has already been passed. God is angrier with many on earth, including many in this congregation, than with many already in hell, and the devil waits to seize them. Their own corrupt hearts would blaze into hell-fire if God did not hold them back. Health, caution and clever plans give no protection, and God has made no promise to keep an unconverted person safe. In the Application, Edwards turns to the “unconverted persons in this congregation” and speaks to them as “you.” Only God’s hand keeps them from falling, and their own righteousness is as useless as a spider’s web against a falling rock. God’s wrath is like dammed waters and a bent bow, and God holds them over the pit as one holds a spider over a fire. He then describes that wrath: it belongs to the infinite God, it will be fierce and without pity once mercy has passed, God will display it before the angels, and it will never end. Some listeners, he warns, may be in hell before the year is out. In the final section he announces that Christ has opened the door of mercy, points to the revival at Suffield, speaks in turn to the old, the young and children, and tells everyone outside Christ to “fly from the wrath to come.”
The line of reasoning how the argument moves
- Grounds itself in ScriptureParagraphs 1 to 7 read Deuteronomy 32:35 and draw four lessons from the picture of feet on slippery ground. Starting from a verse the congregation already accepts lets Edwards borrow the Bible’s authority for everything that follows.
- States one doctrineParagraphs 8 to 11 reduce the verse to a single claim: only “the mere pleasure of God” keeps wicked men out of hell at any moment. Defining that phrase as God’s free will, bound by no obligation, sets the terms for the proof.
- Proves it point by pointParagraphs 12 to 26 give ten considerations, each closing an escape route: God’s power, justice, the sentence already passed, God’s anger, the devil, the sinner’s own heart, health, prudence, personal schemes and the lack of any promise. Paragraph 26 gathers them into one picture. Only when every comfort is gone does Edwards turn to his listeners.
- Applies it to “you”The Application, announced in paragraph 27, addresses “unconverted persons in this congregation” directly. Paragraphs 28 to 36 turn the doctrine into images, the dammed waters, the bent bow and the spider over the fire, so that the argument becomes something the listener feels.
- Measures the wrathParagraphs 37 to 45 describe the wrath in four parts: whose it is, how fierce it is, why God will display it, and how long it lasts. The section ends by bringing eternity back into the room with the warning that some present may be in hell before the year is out.
- Opens the doorParagraphs 46 to 51 offer mercy now, while the revival lasts, and appeal to each age group before the final command to “fly from the wrath to come.” The invitation comes last because the whole sermon was built to make it urgent.
Section by section what each part does
- 1
The text and the doctrine
Edwards reads a clause from Deuteronomy 32:35, “Their foot shall slide in due time,” spoken of unbelieving Israelites. He draws four points from the image of slippery ground: the wicked are always exposed to destruction, it will come suddenly, they will fall by their own weight, and they stand only because God’s appointed time has not come. He then states his doctrine, that nothing keeps wicked men out of hell at any moment but “the mere pleasure of God,” meaning his sovereign will, bound by no obligation (paragraphs 1 to 11).
Why it mattersBeginning with Scripture gives the sermon an authority the congregation already accepts. The one-sentence doctrine is the thesis that the rest of the sermon proves and then applies.
- 2
Considerations 1 to 5: power, justice and the devil
The first consideration says God can cast the wicked into hell at any moment, as easily as we crush a worm (paragraphs 12 and 13). The second and third say that justice demands their punishment and that God’s law has already condemned them (paragraphs 14 and 15). The fourth says God is angrier with many on earth, “many that are now in this congregation” among them, than with many already in hell (paragraphs 16 and 17). The fifth says the devil stands ready to seize them and is held back only by God (paragraph 18).
Why it mattersEach consideration removes one reason a listener might feel safe. Naming “this congregation” inside the proof, long before the Application, signals that the argument is about the people in the room.
- 3
Considerations 6 to 10: no safety anywhere
The sixth consideration says the corruption in sinners’ hearts would flare into hell-fire if God did not restrain it (paragraph 19). The next three say that good health, the absence of visible danger, prudence and careful plans give no security, since unconverted men “walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering”; Edwards even imagines the damned admitting that “death outwitted me” (paragraphs 20 to 23). The tenth says God has promised nothing to anyone outside the covenant of grace, however hard he seeks (paragraphs 24 and 25). Paragraph 26 gathers all ten points into one picture of sinners held in God’s hand over the pit, and the one-word heading Application announces the turn (paragraph 27).
Why it mattersThese considerations target the private reasons listeners give themselves for comfort. The imagined voices of the dead make the abstract proof personal just before the sermon turns to direct address.
- 4
The Application: waters, bow and spider
Edwards now tells the “unconverted persons in this congregation” that nothing lies between them and hell but the air, and that their health and righteousness would hold them up no better than a spider’s web could stop a falling rock (paragraphs 28 to 30). God’s wrath is like great waters rising behind a floodgate and like a bent bow with the arrow aimed at the heart (paragraphs 31 and 32). God holds them over the pit “much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire,” and only his hand has kept them from dropping into hell since they woke that morning (paragraph 35). The section ends by urging each sinner to consider the danger of hanging “by a slender thread” (paragraphs 36 and 37).
Why it mattersThe shift from “they” to “you” turns doctrine into a personal threat. Each image sets a huge force against a single restraining hand, so listeners feel both the danger and their total dependence on God.
- 5
Whose wrath, and how fierce
Edwards begins to describe the wrath itself. First, it is the wrath of the infinite God, beside whom the most feared kings are “feeble, despicable worms of the dust” (paragraph 38). Second, it is fierce: citing Isaiah and Revelation, he says God will punish without pity once the day of mercy has passed, though for now God “stands ready to pity you” (paragraphs 39 and 40). Drawing on Isaiah 63:3, he pictures God treading sinners underfoot like the mire of the streets (paragraph 41).
Why it mattersThe comparison with earthly kings uses something the audience knows to measure something it cannot imagine. The brief reminder that this is still a day of mercy keeps the terror pointed toward a decision.
- 6
Misery without end
Third, God will inflict this misery to show the universe how terrible his wrath is, as Nebuchadnezzar heated his furnace seven times hotter for Shadrach, Meshech and Abednego (paragraph 42). The unconverted will be tormented in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb (paragraph 43). Fourth, the wrath is everlasting: after millions of millions of ages, “all is but a point to what remains” (paragraph 44). Edwards warns that many in this congregation may suffer it, some perhaps before the year is out or even before the next morning (paragraph 45).
Why it mattersEternity is the hardest idea to feel, so Edwards makes it concrete with numbers and then brings it back to the seats of the meeting-house. Ending on the listeners’ present chance of salvation prepares the turn to mercy.
- 7
The open door
Edwards declares that Christ “has flung the door of mercy wide open” and asks whether his listeners’ souls are not as precious as those of the people at Suffield, who are flocking to Christ (paragraph 46). He speaks in turn to older people not yet born again, to young men and women, and to unconverted children (paragraphs 47 to 49). Warning that a season of favor to some will be a day of vengeance to others, he ends with the command to “fly from the wrath to come” and to flee Sodom without looking back (paragraphs 50 and 51).
Why it mattersThe invitation is the goal the whole sermon has been moving toward. Speaking to each age group and pointing to a neighboring revival add social pressure and urgency to the fear already built.
Rhetorical choices what the writer does, and why it works
Scriptural quotation and allusion
Edwards builds the sermon on Deuteronomy 32:35 (paragraph 1) and supports step after step with cited verses, from Psalm 73 in paragraph 4 to Isaiah 66 in paragraph 43. For a congregation that took the Bible as God’s word, these allusions make his warnings sound like God’s own. The closing words in paragraph 51 recall the flight from Sodom, leaving listeners with a biblical picture of escape.
Numbered proofs
The ten considerations in paragraphs 12 to 25 follow the plan of a formal argument: doctrine, reasons, then a summary in paragraph 26. Each reason closes a different escape route, such as health in paragraph 20 or careful planning in paragraph 22. This appeal to logos makes the terror feel reasoned, so listeners find it harder to dismiss as mere emotion.
Simile
In paragraph 30 a sinner’s health, care and righteousness would uphold him no better “than a spider’s web would have to stop a falling rock.” In paragraph 35 God holds the listener over the pit “much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire.” The first simile shows how weak human effort is; the second shows how small the listener is and how completely his life hangs on one hand.
Extended simile and metaphor
Paragraph 31 opens with a simile, God’s wrath “is like great waters that are dammed for the present,” and extends it to a floodgate that only God’s hand keeps shut, the waters rising higher the longer they are held. Paragraph 32 makes wrath a bow already bent, with justice aiming the arrow at the listener’s heart. Both images show a force growing stronger every day and held back only by God’s pleasure, which makes delay itself dangerous.
Direct address
From paragraph 28 the sermon speaks to “you,” and paragraph 36 cries “O sinner!” Paragraphs 47 to 49 single out the old, the young and children in turn. Second-person address makes each listener the subject of the doctrine, so no one can hear it as a sermon about other people.
Anaphora
Paragraph 36 stacks clauses that begin with the same word: “nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do.” The repetition strips away each possible source of help until only God’s mercy remains. Paragraph 17 does similar work with short parallel clauses about the pit, the fire and the furnace.
People & audiences
Jonathan Edwards
Speaker
A Congregational minister from Northampton, Massachusetts, and a leading theologian of the revival. In the sermon he speaks as a pastor pleading with people he believes are in mortal danger, and he includes himself in the “we” who cannot tell which listeners are lost (paragraph 45).
The unconverted listeners
Primary audience
The “unconverted persons in this congregation” (paragraph 28): people who may have reformed their lives and keep up “a form of religion” (paragraph 33) but have not been born again. Edwards divides them by age in paragraphs 47 to 49.
God
The power the sermon describes
Presented as sovereign, just and angry with the wicked, bound by no promise to preserve them (paragraph 24), yet holding them up every moment. In paragraph 46 mercy is offered through Christ, who has opened the door.
The devil
The enemy waiting for sinners
In paragraph 18 the devil “stands ready to fall upon them,” and devils wait like “greedy hungry lions.” Only God’s restraining hand holds them back.
The people at Suffield
An example of revival
Townspeople who are “flocking from day to day to Christ” (paragraph 46). Edwards holds them up so that his listeners will feel left behind.
The damned
Imagined witnesses
In paragraph 23 Edwards imagines the dead in hell saying they never intended to come there and that “death outwitted me.” In paragraph 45 he says they would give anything for one day of the chance his listeners now have.
Big ideas in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
God’s absolute sovereignty
The doctrine rests on God’s “sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation” (paragraph 10). Sinners are alive only because God chooses, moment by moment, not to let them fall.
False security
Health, caution, clever plans, moral reform and religious habits all fail as protection (paragraphs 20 to 25 and 33). Edwards aims at the comfort of respectable people who assume they are safe.
Justice and wrath
Edwards presents punishment as deserved: “justice calls aloud for an infinite punishment” of sin (paragraph 14). The wrath he describes is fierce and everlasting, yet he says it will not go beyond what “strict justice requires” (paragraph 40).
The urgency of now
The words “one moment” recur from the doctrine in paragraph 9 to the plea in paragraph 36, and the closing paragraphs press listeners to act while the revival lasts. Delay, the sermon argues, is the greatest danger.
Mercy through Christ
The sermon’s hope lies in Christ, the “Mediator” the unconverted lack (paragraphs 26 and 36), who “has flung the door of mercy wide open” (paragraph 46). The terror is meant to drive listeners toward this refuge.
Key images
The slender thread
In paragraph 36 the listener hangs “by a slender thread” with flames ready to burn it through. The thread stands for a life that feels secure but could end at any second. Paragraph 13 prepares the image by noting how easy it is to singe a slender thread.
The pit of hell
The pit is always just below: “the pit is prepared” (paragraph 17), sinners “walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering” (paragraph 20), and God holds them over it (paragraph 35). It stands for the nearness of judgment.
The spider
In paragraph 35 God holds the sinner over the fire as one holds a spider. The spider suggests smallness, helplessness and disgust, yet it has not been dropped, which is exactly what the sermon wants listeners to notice.
Repeated words and ideas
The mere pleasure of God. The phrase states the doctrine in paragraph 9 and returns in paragraphs 28, 31 and 32, each time reminding listeners that only God’s will stands between them and hell.
Hands. God’s hand holds back the sword of justice (paragraph 14), restrains the devils (paragraph 18) and keeps sinners from falling into the fire (paragraph 35). Paragraph 33 supplies the title: “you are thus in the hands of an angry God.”
Fire and burning. Flames, furnaces and brimstone run from paragraph 17 to Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace in paragraph 42. Fire makes the abstract idea of wrath physical.
Tensions and counterarguments
Counterargument. A listener might feel safe because he is healthy and careful. Edwards answers in paragraphs 20 and 21 that no absence of visible danger and no human prudence can secure a person for a moment, since “the arrows of death fly unseen at noonday.”
Counterargument. Some had claimed that God promised to reward sinners’ “earnest seeking and knocking.” Edwards rejects this in paragraph 25: until a person believes in Christ, God is under no obligation to preserve him.
Wrath vs. mercy. The sermon holds God’s anger and God’s patience together. The hand that could drop the sinner is the hand holding him up, and paragraph 40 notes that “this is a day of mercy.” The tension resolves only in the final call to come to Christ.
Key quotes
“There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God.”
“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”
“The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked”
“You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it and burn it asunder”
“a day wherein Christ has flung the door of mercy wide open, and stands in the door calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners”
“Therefore let every one that is out of Christ now awake and fly from the wrath to come.”
The conclusion of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, explained
The sermon does not end in the pit. Paragraph 46 turns on the word “now”: Christ “has flung the door of mercy wide open.” Edwards held that the unconverted cannot save themselves, so he could not close by telling them to try harder. Instead, after forty-five paragraphs that mostly describe danger, he points them to Christ, the one refuge the considerations never ruled out. Earlier hints prepare the turn: paragraph 40 calls the present “a day of mercy,” and paragraph 45 reminds listeners that they still “have an opportunity to obtain salvation.” The close is tied to its moment. Edwards points to Suffield, where people are flocking to Christ, and asks whether his listeners’ souls are any less precious. He then addresses three groups. Older people hear that those of their years are generally being passed over (paragraph 47), while young men and women and unconverted children hear that many others their age are coming to Christ (paragraphs 48 and 49). The fear of being left out joins the fear of hell. Paragraph 50 raises the stakes of timing. The revival is “this acceptable year of the Lord,” but a day of favor to some will be a day of vengeance to others, and Edwards suggests that most adults who will ever be saved may be gathered in soon. He borrows John the Baptist’s image of the axe laid at the root of the trees. The last paragraph is a command built on action words: awake, fly, escape. Its final sentence echoes the warning given to Lot’s family as they fled Sodom: “Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest ye be consumed.” The sermon ends on flight, not despair.
Common misreadings
MythThe sermon is only about hell and offers no hope.
ActuallyMost of it describes danger, but it is built to end with an invitation. Paragraph 40 already calls the present “a day of mercy,” and paragraphs 46 to 51 urge every listener to come to Christ through the door of mercy that is now open.
MythThe spider image shows that God is about to drop the sinner.
ActuallyThe simile in paragraph 35 stresses that God abhors the sinner and yet is still holding him up. The point is that the listener is alive only because of God’s restraint, which is why he should seek mercy now.
MythEdwards tells the whole congregation that they are damned.
ActuallyHe addresses “unconverted persons” (paragraph 28), those not yet born again. He admits that “we know not who they are” (paragraph 45) and points to many others who are being converted (paragraph 46).
AP practice a rhetorical analysis prompt in the exam's style
In July 1741, during the religious revival known as the Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards preached this sermon to a congregation at Enfield. Read the sermon carefully. Write an essay that analyzes the rhetorical choices Edwards makes to persuade unconverted listeners to seek salvation without delay.
What a strong response notices
- The doctrine in paragraph 9 is proved by ten considerations (paragraphs 12 to 26), which give the fear a logical frame.
- Scriptural references, from Deuteronomy 32:35 in paragraph 1 onward, lend the argument divine authority for this audience.
- The shift to “you” in paragraph 28 and the images of the dam, the bow and the spider (paragraphs 31, 32 and 35) make the danger personal and immediate.
- Repeated stress on “one moment” and “the mere pleasure of God” (paragraphs 9, 28, 32 and 36) builds a sense of total dependence.
- The turn to the open door of mercy and the appeals to the old, the young and children (paragraphs 46 to 49) convert fear into a call to act.
Practice prompt written by StoryBites, not taken from a College Board exam. See the AP Language free-response guide for how answers are scored.
Test yourself
1. Which verse does Edwards take as his text?
The sermon opens with Deuteronomy 32:35, “Their foot shall slide in due time,” and builds its doctrine from the image of slippery ground.
2. What is the doctrine Edwards sets out to prove?
Paragraph 9 states the doctrine, and the ten considerations that follow are meant to prove it.
3. In paragraph 35, how does God hold the listener over the pit of hell?
The simile makes the listener small and helpless, and stresses that only God’s hand keeps him from falling.
4. Which town does Edwards name as a place where people are flocking to Christ?
Paragraph 46 asks whether the listeners’ souls are not as precious as those of the people at Suffield, where they are flocking to Christ.
5. How does the sermon end?
Paragraph 51 tells everyone outside Christ to awake and fly from the wrath to come, and closes with the warning to flee Sodom.
Flashcards flip, self-grade, and the deck remembers what you know
Nice work.
Jonathan Edwards was a preacher in New England in the 1700s. In 1741 he gave this sermon to a church full of people. He told them that anyone who had not truly turned to God was in great danger of hell. He said God was holding them up like someone holding a spider over a fire, and only God’s choice kept them from falling. That picture was meant to scare them awake. At the end he said the door to God’s mercy was open right now. He wanted them to walk through it before it was too late.
Compare & connect
Young Goodman Brown
A story set among New England Puritans that looks at sin, hidden guilt and the fear that respectable neighbors are not what they seem.
The Crucible
A play about the Salem witch trials that shows how fear of damnation and religious authority can grip a Puritan community.
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
Another American text that reads a crisis in light of God’s judgment, but in a restrained voice that stresses humility rather than terror.
Discussion and essay prompts:
💬 Discussion questions
- What is the main message of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
- Who was the audience for Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
- What does the spider image mean in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
- How does Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God explore the theme of god’s absolute sovereignty?
- How does Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God explore the theme of false security?
- What is the central conflict in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, and how does it shape the ending?
✎ Essay prompts
- Analyze how Jonathan Edwards develops the theme of god’s absolute sovereignty in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Support your argument with specific evidence from the text.
- Examine the significance of the slender thread in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. What does it represent, and how does it deepen the work’s meaning?
- How does Jonathan Edwards use scriptural quotation and allusion to shape the reader’s experience of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God?
- Some readers assume that the sermon is only about hell and offers no hope. Argue for or against this interpretation, using evidence from the text.
Key questions students ask
- What is the main message of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
- Who was the audience for Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
- What does the spider image mean in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
- What rhetorical devices does Jonathan Edwards use in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
- How does Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God end
- What was the Great Awakening
Analysis is original StoryBites commentary. The full text and quotations follow Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards, edited by H. Norman Gardiner (1904), via Project Gutenberg. The sermon (1741) is in the public domain.