Neil Edwards Diary:

Sinners in the hands of an Angry God

By Zhoa Fei

The year is 1741 and I am the son of a common field worker by the name of Chase Madison Edwards. My name is Neil George Edwards, his eldest son and I am going to milk the cows later on with my younger brother Cameron Samuel Edwards on this hot July 7th, Saturday evening. The grass is greener than I have seen before on this side of Northampton. My father usually makes us work in the fields on sundays but recently a new pastor has surfaced in the religious world and he has became rather controversial in his methods. They call him “The Last Puritan” but he’s real name is Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan is part of my family on my father’s side and they say that he’s rather aggressive as a pastor and condemns people with little to no faith to the fiery pits of Hell. I personally find it funny that my cousin, Jonathan, would become a puritan pastor. That religion's glory days are over and it’s dying because everyone does not have time to plow the fields and worship a God. “Money is Money, and God isn’t here.” I always say. I, myself consider myself a non believer but, my father is a man of faith and a devout follower of the puritan beliefs. I personally do not see why he believes in a God when the crops took a beating last growing season and we nearly starved to death. I rarely attend church with father but since cousin Jonathan is preaching at the “Church of Christ” tomorrow morning, father wants Cameron and I to attend to support our kin. Father explained “Maybe God will reach out to you, my sons”. I told him, “ Your God, should reach out and give us a good growing season if he’s really real”. Father disapproved of my comment that day and since then I did some thinking. Now I would agree with my father a tad bit to tell the truth, but I don’t have a clue to tell if God’s real or not. It is a very sensitive topic, but I’ll have to see if his God truly indeed talks to me like he said. I did take after him just a tiny bit I suppose. Cam and I were done milking the cows and got a few pints of the milk and took it to father i  the house. Afterwards we were tasked with removing the weeds that have taken refuge inside the Cabbage patch. It was very relaxing to tell the truth. One by one we managed to pull the weeds and planting  new seeds in their places. By Golly these weeds are tough, I thought a loud as we pull those final few weeds up from the ground. I will tell you those weeds was not any pushovers in the slight bit, but me and Cameron got them out of the ground. I looked around our small part of our land and glanced at the fragile scarecrow named Bessie that typically falls due to its old age. As usual that darn thing fell down onto the dusty dirt ground. I shook my head and sighed before proceeding to pick up the scarecrow. And calling it a day.

    The following night was just an average night with father cooking the usual Corn,peas and cabbage stew with chicken breasts. It tasted as good as ever coming from the old man. With today being Sunday, the family got ready to attend cousin Jonathan’s service today. We arrived  earlier than expected and met Jonathan who was standing at the door greeting and thanking the people who entered the church. From the distance there was something a little off about Jonathan and when we went up to greet him for ourselves it was confirmed. Jonathan had a very unstable, yet intimidating presence about him and he wore a fake smile on his face. He usrely foolede my father as he shook his and Cameron hand but refused to shake mine. I deduced that maybe I’ll be waiting prized crop time here in this church. When the time came rolling in for the sermon to take place, Jonathan walked up on stage and stood behind his podium. His first words were very unusual and he slammed his hand on the podium and shouted, “HELL IS GAPING FOR YOU ALL!”.  The whole church got quiet as a mouse as he shook his fists ferociously at the sky and slammed it on the podium top once again. Even I was shaken and i tuned in again when he shouted with anger and passion, “GOD IS DREADFULLY PROVOKED!!”. I was once again rattled into not listening, but when I felt an ominous presence move across the church I took notice. Jonathan was pacing  back and forth while raising his voices in his certain parts of his sermon. “Your wickedness - makes you as  heavy as - as lead. It will lead you downward with great weight and pressure towards hell that your righteousness could not save you”, Jonathan said growling at people in the audience. I didn’t sign up for that nonsense that Jonathan was spewing, so I decided it was time for me to head home. If I wanted to hear all that, I would’ve had a conversation  with my grandmother, I said to myself as I briskly walked down the aisle of the church. As I leave I can see the childrens fear oozing from their faces and some had started to tear up and cry. Every time Jonathan mentioned or muttered the word “Hell”, I got even so more uncomfortable.

The aisle seemed to go on forever, but I finally got ot the end of it and I heard the most frightening thing yet. “Young Neil Edwards, The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present-” Jonathan said as I opened and closed the door. I went home and waited for Cameron and father to get home from the church. When the finally came home, young Cameron was shaking in sheer terror and was sobbing. He was pale as the supernatural and was shaking like he contracted an fatal illness. “Brother Cameron, cousin Jonathan's absolutely ridiculous sermon has shaken your nerve brother?” I asked walking up to him in a snarky tone. “Yes brother, Hell is coming for people like you, Neil! The nonbelievers!” Cameron responded. “Money is your corruption and God is an-” I slapped my frightened brother hoping to knock some sense into him. Cameron seemed absolutely traumatized by the sermon. Rubbing his face Cameron said softly “ I got saved brother after the sermon was over. I couldn’t handle the idea of God dropping me into the fiery pits of Hell!”. He grabbed me by my collar and started screaming. “Son, calm down” Father said reassuring Cameron, “ God has forgiven you and now you are saved. Hell isn’t in pursuit of you any longer”. Father disappeared into the kitchen afterwards. “Maybe you should think about getting yourself saved, Niel”. Cameron said before following him.

    Honestly I was spooked by Jonathan’s sermon at first, but I now that I think about it in a different light, his ermon did.t depict a God I was willing to serve. If God was angry all the time then why would I waste my field plowing time to worship that type of deity. It’s despicable to worship a God who chooses to hold you over a pit of fire and be wrathful to us all. I wanted to give this God a chance, The God that my father worshipped. It seems that Jonathan prevented that from  happening. Then  I finally walked into the kitchen to join my family.