During the 18th century, a wave of Pietistic influence came to the United States. During this time, many Christians in North American colonies felt that a personal religious experience held a great importance to the Christian lifestyle. The Great Awakening first appeared in the United States in 1734 in Northampton, Massachusetts. The Great Awakening was a schism between the teachings of Westminster, the Old Side, and the New Side. The outcome of this schism was the Great Awakening. Jonathan Edwards was the pastor in Northampton. He was a Calvinist that had previously been trained at Yale (288). He believed that it was important to have a personal experience of conversion for ones faith. He found that for several years, his sermons were average and he was not getting the response that he had hoped for, but in the year 1734, he saw a change in the response to his sermons. They were finally touching people. People were having emotional responses to his sermons and some were even having emotional outbursts. As this spread throughout New England, people were having extraordinary responses to sermons. Some were so over whelmed that they cried in repentance for their sings, some shouted with joy, and a few were so overwhelmed that they fainted (289). These dramatic reactions to the sermons caused enemies of the Great Awakening to criticize it and claim that they were undermining the importance of worship and that the leaders should place a greater emphasis on study and devotion.

In “Sinners in the Hands of God by Jonathan Edwards, he explains his beliefs on hell and human arrogance. Edwards explains that humans think that they will automatically be saved from damnation and escape hell without God. Edwards does not describe humans in a positive manor. He talks of their wickedness and how they are damned if they do not have God and how God is the only thing that holds them up from hell. Edwards places a large emphasis on the importance in believing in God and this is the one way to escape damnation. He mostly depicts God as angry and mentions the wrath and anger of God. Edwards uses descriptive language when describing the relationship between human and God. He describes God as being the only thing holding humans up. He says “there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.” He explains God as using his pleasure as holding humans up which makes me think he is emphasizing his mercy and that he has the power over humans.

The Great Awakening was a schism between two sides, the Old Side and the New Side. The Old side insisted on following the strict teachings of Westminster, where as the New Side believed it was all about the experience of redeeming grace. Jonathan Edwards, a pastor in  Northampton, sermons preached on the need for an experience of conviction of sin and of divine forgiveness.(pg.288) Edwards invited George Whitefield to preach at his church, where Edwards was thought to have wept during Whitefield’s message. This evoked many other traditions, such as Anglicans, Presbyterians and Congregationalist, to change the way they preached. The new way caused people to feel a need to weep for repentance, shout for joy and even faint because of the overwhelming presence. Other people saw these acts as undermining the seriousness that worship is supposed to be and thought that the leaders were more focused on emotion rather than study and devotion. The Awakening eventually become more favorable to the Baptists and Methodists ways. Infant baptism was no longer seen as probable and was rejected from the church. Instead new ideas of human rights and government began to surface among the people. 

In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Jonathan Edwards explains that they are all sinners and will be judged by God in unpleasant and painful ways. Edwards believes that men think they know how to avoid perishing in hell and they will be okay by themselves, without God.He describes people as wicked and already lost to sin because it is in the world. God is under no limiting force when punishing those who have sinned.  Each metaphor used by Edwards reflects how horrible sinners are in the eyes of God. Edwards considerers that there is no room for pride in the eyes of God, that they must be transformed completely through the awakening. Edwards explains that Jesus stands in the door calling and crying with a loud voice to sinners, pleading with those who are doomed to convert, to accept the saving grace of Him.

Edwards compares the sinner to a spider about to be thrown into a fire in order to highlight the repulsiveness of sin and the danger that the sinner is in. This metaphor gives an image that a sinner, weighed down by sin, has no more chance of avoiding hell than a spider’s web has of stopping a rock. Another vivid rhetoric is “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…” This quotes intended effect was to show fear and timidness, Edwards goal was to make the congregation feel insignificant, which would ultimately lead them to change their life through the acceptance of God

As Gonzales explains the Great Awakening was a time in colonial America when people began to turn to an emotional connection with God. The preachers of this period were known to illicit extreme response from their listeners, as Gonzales states they had “emotional outbursts” (288) which involved fainting and yelling out during services. Although many never set out to cause such reactions the preachers gained them from putting their parishioners in connection with their emotions. Critics of this movement condemned this style believing it to be “undermining the solemnity of worship” (289) and “substitution emotion for study and devotion” (289). But despite what the critics believed this style was surprisingly efficient, showing many more people coming to Christ and dramatic lifestyle changes. The preachers stressed the emotional revelation and did not feel you were saved unless you had the experience of conversion. This belief that you had to have a personal relationship with the lord lead to many to reject child baptism, and started conversations about human rights and the role of government.

In Edward’s “Sinners in the Hands of an angry God” he uses this stress on emotion to make it clear to his parish the state of their salvation. In this piece of writing he states that all people are evil and that all wicked people believe they can save themselves from hell. But, Edward’s stresses that all men are destined for hell and are only held up by God. He stresses that salvation can only be achieved through belief in Christ. He envisions God as angry at the people he holds in his hand and just as bad as those who are already in hell. God is angry at his people for not turning to Christ and believing that they hold themselves away from hell.

Edwards brings the readers to see themselves in the sermon by his descriptive language that paints a vivid picture. He describes God’s support as a “hand” and hell as a “pit”. This helps his readersrd turn abstract terms into concrete items. He also uses “you” in order to make the sermon personal. Edward’s goal in describing such an angry God is to illicit emotional response. Anger from the supreme being should illicit fear from the people. He hoped it would help them to see the magnitude of their sin and turn to Christ so they may save their soul from hell.

As in Europe, Pietistic currents were brought to North America. Presbyterians became divided over those who believed in the strict adherence to the teachings of Westminster, and those whose emphasis was on the experience of redeeming grace; the old side and the new side. The controversy would lead to schism, which would become known as the Great Awakening.

Gonzalez describes the leaders of the Great Awakening to be orthodox Calvinists, devoted to devotion, doctrine, and spiritual strictness. This may have been why the need for a passionate religious experience, thought to be important for Christian life, was difficult to grasp right away. Johnathan Edwards was a pastor in the colonies, and preached on the need for an experience of conviction of sin and of divine forgiveness. Gonzalez talks about the tremendous religious and emotional zeal that was brought forth during sermons, not just from Edwards but other pastors of the new side as well. “People wept in repentance for their sins, some shouted for joy at having been pardoned, and a few were so overwhelmed that they fainted” (Gonzalez, 289). He goes on to say how Edwards’s sermons were “not emotive harangues, but careful expositions of profound theological matters.” Also, “Edwards believed emotion was important. But such emotion, including the high experience of conversion, should not eclipse the need for right doctrine and rational worship” (Gonzalez, 289). Although the movement was led by Presbyterians and Congregationalists, however, Baptists and Methodists would profit the most from it. One example of this is how many Presbyterians or Congregationalists, led by the Awakening’s emphasis on personal experience, would reject infant baptism and convert to become Baptists. Further, “it was the Baptists and Methodists who, imbued by with the spirit of the Great Awakening, took up the task of preaching to Western settlers and organizing their religious life” (Gonzalez, 290). Therefore, the main effects of the Great Awakening were that many Baptists and Methodists moved to the Western frontier, and most importantly, the hope for an “awakening” became a typical part of North American Christianity.

In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Edward describes people as wicked, sinful, awful people, who god is angry with, and who are basically dangling over the pits of hell, being held by the hand of God. He says that we have done nothing to deserve the love or forgiveness of God, and we are simply sin filled beings, without anything to take hold of. God is letting us have our free will, to do as we please, and is angry at the decisions we are making. At least, this is the case for people who have not yet had an awakening. Edwards says, concerning God and hell; “There is a dreadful pit of glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell’s wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor anything to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up” (Edwards, 201). Similar elicit passages were spoken by other pastors as well, evoking an emotional spark in people. Edward is saying that although we are filled with sin and deserve hell, if we have an “awakening”; a tremendous personal experience, we can become true Christian, spiritual people, committed to devotion, and escape the depths of hell. Edward’s goal in describing God and humans this way is to show how we are helpless, awful beings in need of a savior. By using intense rhetoric and elicit stories or phrases, Edwards and other preachers of this time were trying to evoke from people an intense spiritual connection with God. This was believed to be the one true path to salvation, and the only way someone would truly feel absolutely called to dutifully give up their life to devoted religious living. The pastors want people see themselves as sinful beings, investigate who they really are, and have strong emotions to change their way of life and become God’s servant. All of theses examples of a call for internal, spiritual momentous change, is the reason for calling this time the Great Awakening.