I’m sure there have been many terrible sermons preached in the United States, but I can’t imagine one being worst than Jonathan Edward’s Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.  Sadly, Jonathan Edwards (October 5, 1703 – March 22, 1799) is widely acknowledged to be one of America’s most important and original philosophical theologians.  Unfortunately, there are many preachers still preaching this sermon.

That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you.  There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell’s wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air. . .