Question

What does Edwards mean when he says that sinners “hang by a slender thread”?

Answer 1

There is little that protects sinners from God’s fury. 

Answer 2

The options of the questions are, A) Sinners have to climb that thread if they hope to reach heaven. B) There is Little that protects sinners from God’s fury. C) Prayer is the thread that connects the devout to God. D) God’s fury is like a sharp pointed needle.  

The correct answer is B) There is Little that protects sinners from God’s fury.

What Edwards means when says that sinners “hang by a slender thread” is that there is Little that protects sinners from God’s fury.

Jonathan Edwards wrote “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in 1741. He was a British preacher in the colonial times and he delivered that speech in Connecticut and Massachusetts. His ideas of the fury of God reflect the religious teachings during the Great Awakening. Specifically, in his speech he referred as the Hell, like a place for the sinners and the suffering and pain for the offenders of God’s precepts.