God in the Hands of Angry Sinners
By J.B. Hixson, Ph.D.
08/16/2022
Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. (Revelation 19:15–16)
In the mid-eighteenth century, a spiritual resurgence swept across the New England states. Known as The Great Awakening, this widespread revival affected Christian churches of all persuasions: Congregationalists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Quakers, Anglicans, Lutherans, and the Dutch Reformed. Manipulated by Enlightenment thinking and its secular rationalism that disembarked along with the Europeans who arrived in the early 1700s, most churches had lost their spiritual moorings, abandoned the Bible, and downplayed sin. The Great Awakening met this spiritual malaise head on and sought to turn people back to their Creator.
Jonathan Edwards, who eventually became the third president of Princeton University in New Jersey, is widely considered the father of The Great Awakening. On July 8, 1741, Edwards traveled to Enfield, Connecticut and preached a relatively short, but enormously influential sermon from the pulpit of the Congregational Church in that unassuming little town. Indeed, his sermon, entitled, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” may well be the most famous sermon in Church history.
With powerful portrayals and passionate pleas, Edwards warned unbelievers to acknowledge their sin and receive salvation lest they face eternal punishment in a literal place of torment called hell. It is true. All who refuse the free gift of eternal salvation will one day face the wrath of God. When Christ returns, He will “tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God” (Revelation 19:15).
What gives God the right to pour out His wrath upon unbelievers? Is God unjust? By no means! As a loving Father, God warned us from the beginning of creation about the danger of sin. We chose of our own free will to ignore His warning. If God did not bring wrath upon sin, He would prove Himself to be a liar. Sin must be punished, or God would not be God. God is not a liar, however. He is completely trustworthy.
The wrath of God is absolutely justified. Yet, it is not His desire to pour out this wrath. God is “not willing that any should perish” and “wants all to be saved” (2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:4). God loves the world so much that He sent His eternal Son to take our punishment for sin upon Himself (John 3:16; 1 John 4:14). When Jesus died and rose again for our sins, He defeated death, hell, and the grave, and purchased eternal life with His own blood. He offers that life to anyone who will trust in Him alone for the forgiveness of sins (1 John 5:11-12).
We can never save ourselves from the wrath of God. It is “not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us” (Titus 3:5). How do we receive God’s gift of forgiveness and eternal life? How do we avoid the wrath of God? By faith alone in Christ alone. “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).
It is quite puzzling to me why some people get so angry at God when you talk about His wrath, hell, and eternal torment. Do they not acknowledge His unmerited love, grace, and mercy? It seems they are only considering one aspect of God’s nature.
It has been more than three hundred years since the “Age of Reason” washed ashore and secular humanism began permeating the minds of skeptics. Although there have been sporadic pockets of revival throughout the last three centuries (echoes of The Great Awakening), by and large the world in general, and America in particular, has drifted farther and farther from its Creator. Depravity is, after all, a degenerative disease. It does not self-correct. Only the grace of God can redeem sinful mankind.
The penalty of sin and the wrath of God are downplayed or ignored altogether by most churches today. The biblical reality of “sinners in the hands of an angry God” has been overshadowed by the prevailing sentiment of “God in the hands of angry sinners.” Disregarding the befitting wrath of God, angry mobs shake their fists heavenward and blame God for their own predicament.
Lord, please raise up men like Jonathan Edwards to sound the alarm and point these misguided scoffers to the only solution to man’s sin problem: the matchless grace of our loving Lord (Ephesians 2:8-9).
08/16/2022
Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. (Revelation 19:15–16)
In the mid-eighteenth century, a spiritual resurgence swept across the New England states. Known as The Great Awakening, this widespread revival affected Christian churches of all persuasions: Congregationalists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Quakers, Anglicans, Lutherans, and the Dutch Reformed. Manipulated by Enlightenment thinking and its secular rationalism that disembarked along with the Europeans who arrived in the early 1700s, most churches had lost their spiritual moorings, abandoned the Bible, and downplayed sin. The Great Awakening met this spiritual malaise head on and sought to turn people back to their Creator.
Jonathan Edwards, who eventually became the third president of Princeton University in New Jersey, is widely considered the father of The Great Awakening. On July 8, 1741, Edwards traveled to Enfield, Connecticut and preached a relatively short, but enormously influential sermon from the pulpit of the Congregational Church in that unassuming little town. Indeed, his sermon, entitled, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” may well be the most famous sermon in Church history.
With powerful portrayals and passionate pleas, Edwards warned unbelievers to acknowledge their sin and receive salvation lest they face eternal punishment in a literal place of torment called hell. It is true. All who refuse the free gift of eternal salvation will one day face the wrath of God. When Christ returns, He will “tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God” (Revelation 19:15).
What gives God the right to pour out His wrath upon unbelievers? Is God unjust? By no means! As a loving Father, God warned us from the beginning of creation about the danger of sin. We chose of our own free will to ignore His warning. If God did not bring wrath upon sin, He would prove Himself to be a liar. Sin must be punished, or God would not be God. God is not a liar, however. He is completely trustworthy.
The wrath of God is absolutely justified. Yet, it is not His desire to pour out this wrath. God is “not willing that any should perish” and “wants all to be saved” (2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:4). God loves the world so much that He sent His eternal Son to take our punishment for sin upon Himself (John 3:16; 1 John 4:14). When Jesus died and rose again for our sins, He defeated death, hell, and the grave, and purchased eternal life with His own blood. He offers that life to anyone who will trust in Him alone for the forgiveness of sins (1 John 5:11-12).
We can never save ourselves from the wrath of God. It is “not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us” (Titus 3:5). How do we receive God’s gift of forgiveness and eternal life? How do we avoid the wrath of God? By faith alone in Christ alone. “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).
It is quite puzzling to me why some people get so angry at God when you talk about His wrath, hell, and eternal torment. Do they not acknowledge His unmerited love, grace, and mercy? It seems they are only considering one aspect of God’s nature.
It has been more than three hundred years since the “Age of Reason” washed ashore and secular humanism began permeating the minds of skeptics. Although there have been sporadic pockets of revival throughout the last three centuries (echoes of The Great Awakening), by and large the world in general, and America in particular, has drifted farther and farther from its Creator. Depravity is, after all, a degenerative disease. It does not self-correct. Only the grace of God can redeem sinful mankind.
The penalty of sin and the wrath of God are downplayed or ignored altogether by most churches today. The biblical reality of “sinners in the hands of an angry God” has been overshadowed by the prevailing sentiment of “God in the hands of angry sinners.” Disregarding the befitting wrath of God, angry mobs shake their fists heavenward and blame God for their own predicament.
Lord, please raise up men like Jonathan Edwards to sound the alarm and point these misguided scoffers to the only solution to man’s sin problem: the matchless grace of our loving Lord (Ephesians 2:8-9).
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