Hell and Evangelism

Part 5, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”

A Sermon Preached at Enfield, July 8th, 1741.

By Jonathan Edwards.

Pastor of the Church of Christ in Northhampton.

...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; his Wrath towards you burns like Fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the Fire; he is of purer Eyes than to bear to have you in his Sight; you are ten thousand Times so abominable in his Eyes as the most hateful venomous Serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn Rebel did his Prince: and yet ‘tis nothing but his Hand that holds you from falling into the Fire every Moment: ‘Tis to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to Hell the last Night; that you was suffer’d to awake again in this World, after you closed your Eyes to sleep: and there is no other Reason to be given why you have not dropped into Hell since you arose in the Morning, but that God’s Hand has held you up: There is no other reason to be given why you han’t gone to Hell since you have sat here in the House of God, provoking his pure Eyes by your sinful wicked Manner of attending his solemn Worship: Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a Reason why you don’t this very Moment drop down into Hell.

O Sinner! Consider the fearful Danger you are in: ‘Tis a great Furnace of Wrath, a wide and bottomless Pit, full of the Fire of Wrath, that you are held over in the Hand of that God, whose Wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you as against many of the Damned in Hell: 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; and you have no Interest in any Mediator, and 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, to induce God to spare you one Moment...

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It’s sad that Jonathan Edwards is only known by the general population for this famous, and infamous, sermon, assigned as it in schools as a specimen of early American oratory. You might not know this, but many scholars consider Jonathan Edwards to be America’s greatest theologian. For those unfamiliar with Edwards, reading his Treatise on Religious Affections is a good place to start.

But, let’s get back to the sermon.

How could Edwards get away with it? Well, he was preaching to Puritans. And if you’re a Puritan that sermon slots right in. It fits the worldview. Hits all the right buttons. Pulls the motivational levers. It was also catching a cultural wave, preached during the Great Awakening.

I hope I’m getting this attribution correct, but Tim Keller described what he called “revival evangelism.” Revival evangelism assumes a cultural Christian backdrop. There is enough residual Christianity in the culture where you make a frontal eschatological attack culminating in an altar call. When I was growing up you could ask people, “If you were to die today do you know where you’ll spend eternity?” That question sounds quaint by today’s standards. But a few decades ago there was still enough Christianity in the air that the question could catch someone’s attention and give them pause. The eschatological query could prompt a sudden moment of introspection and self-assessment.

But today? As our culture slides deeper into post-Christianity, this sort of revival approach—hitting people with Judgment Day—would be confounding and off-putting. Nowadays, sinners in the hands of an angry God just isn’t an effective way to start a conversation about God.

Now, does that mean that hell doesn’t exist? Or that we no longer believe people are going to hell?

The point I’m trying to make is that, if we’ve noticed that talking about hell from the pulpit, or in evangelistic conversations, has waned, this has less to do with our eschatological beliefs than with our missiological intelligence. I have no doubt hellfire and brimstone preachers continue to prowl their stages. But notice to whom they are preaching to. Just like Jonathan Edwards preaching to the Puritans, the hell-forward preachers are preaching in front of a room full of committed and converted Christians. In the greatest of ironies, hell is being preached to the insiders! Consequently, speaking of hell to the already converted is no great demonstration of evangelistic courage or urgency. It’s performative evangelism.

And I think it’s worse that that. Why do the saved love sinners in the hands of an angry God sermons? Because the sermon isn’t really about them, it’s about the people who aren’t in the room. Hell is for the sinners not in attendance. Hell is for the culture wars, the church growth strategy of evangelicalism. Hell is how you grow big sick churches. For there is nothing more consoling or comforting than contemplating the fate of the lost when you’re convinced you’re not among them. Hell is always for other people.

And far too many churches delight in warming themselves by that crackling fire.