The Puritans

Many Puritans immigrated to the New World as to secure their religious freedom. Even so, their beliefs seem to weigh down upon them and put them into a state of fear. Their beliefs include the concept of original sin, in which every man is born sinful, only some will be saved and those that are to be saved are “chosen” by God, limited atonement which means that Jesus only died for the chosen and that God’s grace cannot be earned nor denied.

One last belief is that of saints and those who are deemed as saints have the will to interpret the word of God and to live straightforwardly. One of these famous saint/preacher citizens was Jonathan Edwards. He was known to scare people in his sermons, the most famous being “Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God”. This sermon greatly reflects the beliefs of Puritans such as when Edwards says “There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God” which goes to say that God isn’t merciful and that he is mad at mankind. Only His “chosen” group of people will not lose God’s mercy.

I can see that by listening to these sermons that Puritans sort of lived in fear. This would be because they never knew when the last day would come for them or when God would come to save the Chosen and cast all others into hell. Even though I think most Puritan beliefs are stupid, only the perseverance of the saints seems like a reasonable belief to be had.

One thing that caught my attention was that Jonathan Edwards’ favorite line from the bible was “Their foot shall slide in due time” –Deuteronomy 32: 35. He seemed to emphasize that God was holding people up as if on strings like a puppet so that they didn’t slide down into hell. This fear could keep people living a virtuous life easily yet scare them to what seems like the point of paranoia.

“The devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him” is also a quote from Edwards. It seems he really believes that mankind is generally evil, and so much that he would say this as to make people believe that the devil is just waiting beneath them like a shark after its prey, mouth wide open to receive them.

It is reasonable to have religious freedom as the Puritans believed, but to be scared into good morals and virtue seems a little overboard. If I had a preacher say to me that “The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost”, which can show that only some are chosen to be saved, then I would have second thoughts about living their. Also, if I had to hear “They [people] are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell” and I knew that I was born into sin I would freak out and go crazy about it. I wouldn’t even be able to think straight if I had to be paranoid about pissing off God or not, just so I might have a chance to be a chosen one.