Jonathan Edwards Preached Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God [271 Years Ago]
On this date 271 years ago (July 8, 1741), Jonathan Edwards preached what is probably the most famous sermon in American history. The sermon was preached in Efield, Connecticut and is the prime representation of the preaching of the Great Awakening in the early colonies.
Biblical Text
Their foot shall slide in due time (Deuteronomy 32:35).
Sermon Thesis
There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God.
10 Considerations for the Thesis
1. There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment.
2. They deserve to be cast into hell.
3. They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell.
4. They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments of hell.
5. The devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him.
6. There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish principles reigning, that would presently kindle and flame out into hell fire, if it were not for God's restraints.
7. It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand.
8. Natural men's prudence and care to preserve their own lives, or the care of others to preserve them, do not secure them a moment.
9. All wicked men's pains and contrivance which they use to escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, do not secure them from hell one moment.
10. God has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment.
The Call
Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come.