Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Part I

For our men's study this week at BPC we are reading Jonathan Edwards' Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Years ago (1991) I wrote a foreword to the sermon that was published by Presbyterian and Reformed Pub. For the next few blogs I would like to re-print that foreword.

"The year 1991 marks the 250th anniversary of the most famous sermon ever delivered in the history of America. It is "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," and it was preached by Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) at the church in Enfield, Connecticut, on July 8, 1741. Edwards, who was the pastor of the Congregational church of Northampton, Massachusetts, was invited to preach at the request of Enfield's minister because the people at Enfield were particularly stubborn to the message of the gospel. The congregation's attitude was further revealed by Pastor Wheelock, minister of the Second Church of Lebanon at that time, who characterized them as 'thoughtless and vain.' Tradition relates that Edwards was not the designated guest-speaker on that Sunday, but a last-minute substitute. I have found no evidence to substantiate that claim.

The district of Enfield had been mostly untouched by the Great Awakening in New England of 1734-35. And, in fact, as Iain Murray reports, the people were unconcerned whether it came upon them or not. Neighboring Christians, however, had great interest in Enfield, and on the night before Edwards' sermon they spent considerable time in prayer lest 'while the divine showers were falling around them' Enfield would be passed by.

The response of the Enfield congregation to the sermon was absolutely 'amazing.' Before the sermon was finished, people were moaning, groaning, and crying out such things as 'What shall I do to be saved?' An eyewitness account by another minister reported that 'there was such a breathing of distress, and weeping, that the preacher (i.e., Edwards) was obliged to speak to the people and desire silence that he might be heard.'"