PURITAN HERO?

Today let's look at a couple of vivid quotes from Puritan Jonathan Edwards' famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

How does this one align with your personal theology and anthropology:

“The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.”

Or this classic:

“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; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes as the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours.”

I have heard many Calvinist preachers and teachers sing the praises of Jonathan Edwards as a great man of faith. 

But what a message: "God abhors you!" 

Did anyone even question his biblical basis for making such outlandish claims about the Lord?

This particular sermon featured prominently in the Great Awakening. Many people "came to faith" under Edwards' preaching, but you have to wonder how many actually found eternal life. 

By the way, this is about the only sermon you can find included in anthologies of American literature used in secular schools to this day. 

Makes me wonder if it is one of Satan's favorites.