Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

Sinners in the hands of an angry God: it's just as its title suggests--a reading discussing the fear that puritans have in their hearts concerning their religious views.

Basically what the title infers is that God holds everyone in his hands, and as each of them sin, he grows angry. It was said that "God held back the waters and the sins piled up until finally they flooded out". In all honesty, I don't blame the puritans for being scared to commit a sin and what not. Some of the things that priests drilled into their minds are enough to make anyone stand on their toes. Actually, compared to our modern day society, viewing religion this way could be a possible good thing. If everyone thought that doing a few things wrong would definitely send them to Hell, we would have a bit more of a peaceful nation. Of course there would be one or two wrongdoers, but I think that living in fear is a way to keep everyone in check.

Everything has its negative traits though; if we did live in fear, but found out that the things--the punishments--we were afraid of never came, we would start to question the very religion we've been following...as well as our morals. That would give us the chance to rebel against the higher ups that had us believing such a thing for so long. So why did the puritans not realize this when one of their own committed a sin? Or did ironic things happen to keep them believing in God?