Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God: Different Views On Religion

Puritans are very religious people who did not agree with religious practices from England. These religious people came to America in the late 16th and early 17th centuries to escape religious persecution. Puritan authors Mary Rowlandson, and Johnathan Edwards demonstrate two different approaches in their depiction of God and use of Biblical references.  

To begin with Rowlandson depicts God as her savior and hope. Rowlandson states “Yet the Lord by His almighty power preserved a number of us from death, for there were twenty-four of us taken alive and carried captive” (3). This elucidates how Rowlandson thought of God as a savior and a powerful Lord that helped them stay alive. Because their lives were speared the author believed God was the reason, she had not been hurt. In addition, Rowlandson says “It is not my tongue, or pen, can express the sorrows of my heart, and bitterness of my spirit that I had at this departure: but God was with me in a wonderful manner, carrying me along, and bearing my spirit, that it did not quite fail” (4).  Although this sentence is very similar to sentence number 3 but this quote shows how much hope she has for God. This sentence also shows how much she appreciates what God does for her. All things considered; Rowlandson went through hard times she never gave her hope up she always thanked God for protecting her even when she had lost her faith in him, he never left her alone. 

Even though, Rowlandson portrays God as a great person who forgets their wrongdoers Emerson delineates God as someone that does not forgive easily and how angry he can get. Emerson states “you probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of hell but do not see the hand of God in it…” (97). This illustrates, how angry God gets with sinners that don’t repent and keep on making mistakes. Since sinners don’t repent God has to find ways to punish them for everything bad, they have done which is why hell was created to punish sinners. In addition, “he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear have you in his sight …” (98). This line is very similar to the first one except this one delineates how God believes sinners are not worthy of his help. This is because he believes sinners shouldn’t have his help when they are the ones that did wrong the Lord believes they should be punished unless they repent. In synthesis, God does not forgive sinners to get his forgiveness you need to fix your evil ways and join the church and him in his religious beliefs because there is only his beliefs are correct.

Rowlandson uses biblical references in her narrative to illustrate how this kept her from giving up. Rowlandson depicts the following verse “Wait on the Lord, Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine Heart, wait I say on the Lord” (Psalm 27) (7). This demonstrates how when you’re about to give up hope God does something to keep you going no matter the situation or the problem he would always help you believe even when you’re done he will make sure you keep your strength. This conveys how God never leaves anyone alone and always finds a way to help people who need his help he also always finds a way to make people keep their faith and hope on him. Another verse she utilizes is “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord” (Psalm 37.5) (17). This demonstrates how God believes each person is different and that two people should not believe and act the same each person should be unique in a certain way. This verse also delineates how others should not influence who you are since when you follow others you lose your true self trying to be someone you are not. To summarize, Rowlandson makes use of biblical references because it illustrates the faith and hopes she has for the Lord and how much he helped her get through everything.

On the other hand “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” uses biblical references to display the punishments granted to sinners that don’t repent in time for God to forgive them. For instance, “The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation: Let every one fly out of Sodom!” (99). This demonstrates how mad God gets with sinners and how bad his punishments are and how you would have to face the Wrath of God. This also shows how his worst punishment is hell and how many sins and how bad they are that would be your punishment so repent now that you can before it is too late.