Question

How does the speaker’s comparison of sinners to an insect below contribute to the central idea of the text?"

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.…"

A. It emphasizes the negative view God has of sinners and how inconsequential they are to him.
B. It stresses the connection that exists between all of God’s creatures, whether they be human or insect.
C. It suggests that sinners can change for the better, as insects are known to go through transformations.
D. It portrays sinners as being just as prevalent around the earth as the wide variety of insects.

Answer 1

B. It stresses the connection that exists between all of God’s creatures, whether they be human or insect.

Step-by-step explanation:

The speaker's comparison of sinners to an insect in the idea of the text explains the relationship as to how God view human and insects, and how he holds over them and the sinners. These comparisons actually stresses the connection that exists between all of God’s creatures, whether human or insects.

Answer 2

The correct answer is option letter A (It emphasizes the negative view God has of sinners and how inconsequential they are to him.). Taken from the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards (1741), the excerpt presented above narrates the comparison between sinners and insects arguing that sinners are as loathsome/worthless/abominable as some mere insects in the view of God. This comparison contributes to the central idea of the text that Hell is real and that the audience should be horrified by the hell that awaits them if they do not take advantage of the chance they are given to confess their sins. In other words, if beings do not confess their sins, they will become as irrelevant as a mere insect.