"Sinners" Follow-up Post

When Jonathon Edwards preached his views of Hell and God's response to sinners in "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", the reaction from society was immense. Spoken in the early 1700s, the general audience of his speech was composed of very religious people who had never before imagined that their God was anything other than kind and forgiving. Once they heard his speech, however, a religious movement was sparked called The Great Awakening. In today's society, where there are different religions other than Christianity, and where a number of people aren't even religious, the speech would not spark nearly as intense of a response. The people today who are the most devoted to God and Christianity are much different from those in the 1700s. In society today, the general thought of Christianity is that God is very forgiving. Though people should do their best not to sin, and to be the best Christian possible, they also believe that they will have the chance to be forgiven. When those people read or hear this speech, their reaction will not be as strong as it was when Edwards first preached it. For a while, they might work really hard not to sin, possibly with the slight fear that maybe it is true; maybe Edwards really knows what he's talking about. But over the span of a couple years, or even a shorter amount of time, things would go back to the way they were, and people would forget. Those who listen to the speech and are not religious might have a very different response, depending on the person. There are those who do not believe in God at all, and they would most likely not be affected by the speech. However, those who aren't really sure what to think, and were just brought up with no religion, may consider converting to Christianity. If they believed that God would not understand and forgive them for growing up without going to church or praying, just because their parents don't, then maybe the fear would be strong enough for them to try for the rest of their lives to find religion. Ultimately, the response that Jonathon Edwards' sermon would spark in society today, and what was sparked in society in the early 1700s would be greatly different. People would not react as strongly in 2011, and any effect it did have would not last very long.