As he said that in fact evil comes from angels and human beings who chose deliberately to deny and disobey what God had taught them, by turning away from him and what he had wished for mankind. Augustine believed that every human being was an offshoot of Adam and hence that every single person in the world is guilty of evil, this is as it was Adam who committed ultimate sin in the Garden of Eden. Augustine believed very strongly that evil should be punished. Therefore it was Augustine’s theodicy that said that natural evil in the world is a fitting punishment for moral wickedness. He strongly believed that evil is solely a result of human rebellion.
In Christianity, the breaking of our God’s law is called sin. This is a universal term for many religions that typically means wrong-doing and is considered evil. In Catholicism, sin is broken down into two categories: mortal sin, and venial sin. Mortal sin is considered grave, serious sin that is the knowing and willful violation of God’s law. It is called mortal because it is considered the spiritual death of the soul, and without repentance, it is said to fully separate you from God eternally.
God is also very “discontent” he sees that mankind is not following the puritan community and feels as though they shall be punished by not being accepted into heaven but sent to hell, lastly God was “inconceivable”. Mankind did not know what God was going to do next to the sinners. In conclusion Edwards shows that God is all powerful and has total control over mankind
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8). “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.” (Romans 5:18) The execution of Aslan plays out much like the cruxification of Jesus. Aslan, just like Jesus, is taunted and humiliated, even spit upon. His mane is shaved, symbolizing the stripping away of this power which was also symbolic of strength for Samson in the Old Testament. He is bound and killed.
and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards Hell; and if God should let you go you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf…” This immediately causes a sense of fear, making it seem as if the only thing keeping the people out of hell was God’s hand. The quote is using pathos to cause a sense of fear and repentance in the congregation. The use of imagery in this sermon is largely what causes the congregations reactions of horror to this. To get his point across even further, Jonathan Edwards uses strong tone in the sermon. The use of negative tone in this sermon is evident in the quote, “The God that holds you above the pit of Hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked.” The tone in this quote is very negative saying how God abhors you.
This further reinforces that we have no choice or influence on our lives and the events that happen, so therefore God will know the ethical decisions we will make as he has already predestined them in our lives. Hard determinism is the teaching that denies humanity has free will and believes that all actions have a prior cause. It removes moral responsibility for our actions. Hard determinists would therefore agree with the statement above, and will believe that God does infact know what ethical decisions we will make as he has already perceived it. This idea links to predestination in the fact that it believes everything in the universe- even human action- has a cause which precedes it.
God judges and decides whether a soul may stay in heaven or sends it to hell, this decision is eternal. Hell is a place for sinful souls where they suffer for what they did in life and heaven is a place for souls that stayed away from the path of evil. Moreover, eternity is a period of time which has no end and it lasts forever. “There is no break in this chain, from eternity past to eternity future, forever and ever,” (Sire, 2009). Regarding the soul, it is eternal.
In gods eyes a sin is a sin, he had a universal way of looking at things. To God it doesn’t matter who you are or what you did on earth. If you sinned, then you were to be punished. Even a priest wasn’t safe from his eternal suffering if he deserved it. God made sure he had a certain outline of rules to be followed so no one could say I didn’t know.
All of the previously stated features can be found in “Ethan Brand” and “Young Goodman Brown”. These two stories both deal with the uncomfortable idea that mankind itself is evil at the core, that no matter who you may be, or how good of a person you are you still harbor evil and sin within your heart. Whether you chose to accept the fact is up to you. The characters of “Young Goodman Brown” attempt to hide the evil within them. They lead lives based on lies and are soon exposed for the sinners that they really are.
Edwards negated the fact that salvation could be attained through good works, emphasizing that the only way to salvation was depending on God’s grace. In his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” he vividly describes the tortures of hell. While describing hell, he said, “It is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath that you are held over in the hand of that God whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you as against many of the damned in hell”(handout). Edwards had a very strict preaching style, but it was his vivid imagery of hell that inspired many people to work their hardest to reach salvation. Several years after Edwards began preaching, George Whitefield started a different style of evangelical preaching.