Corruption in the Church

 

Corruption in the church? How can that be? One can understand there is corruption in the secular field, in the Government, among politicians and bureaucrats, but corruption in the church? Sounds oxymoron! To understand this phenomenon I decided to dig a bit deeper.

The first three centuries after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the nascent church struggled for existence. In the beginnings Jews persecuted the Christians, due to jealousy and aversion of including Christians in the family of God. To a Jew God is his exclusive property and they were not willing to share it with the Greeks and other non-Jews who claimed to be Abraham’s children by faith in Christ. They were not willing to extend the privileges they enjoyed under the Roman rule to the Christians.

Then the local pagan population started to oppress the Christians, for in their eagerness to show their loyalty to the Roman rulers, the conquered populations including Greeks, erected statues of the Caesars and instituted temple worship for them, even though the Emperors themselves were reluctant in the beginning to get such worship from their subjects. But the subjects were keener to address the Caesar as their Lord, and expected the Christians to play along to show their loyalty to the Emperor. Unfortunately a Christian could only call the resurrected and glorified Christ as Lord and they refused the worship of Emperors. It was taken as a mark of disloyalty to the Roman Empire and the local population persecuted them. Many lost their livelihood as the guilds had their own patron gods and celebrations were held in their honor and the Christians refused to participate in these revelries. This further angered the local population and they made life hard for the Christians.

Very soon the Romans caught up with the game. There were periodic and violent persecutions launched by the emperors themselves, starting with Nero in 65 AD. Peter and Paul lost their lives in this mayhem. It was followed by Domitian in the 90s. This could be the time when Revelation (Apocalypse) was written. These were sporadic and limited to the local areas. Empire wide persecution was launched by Decius in 250 AD and Valerian in 253 AD. Properties were confiscated, titles stripped off, and lives lost. Romans could not understand the traditions of Christians like eating the flesh of Christ and drinking his blood. Population spurred the rulers saying neglect to worship Graeco-Roman gods will bring their wrath and disasters on the Empire. Loyalty to the State religion was demanded from them. When it was not forthcoming persecution followed.

When Constantine came to power the tide turned. Edict of Milan in 313 AD put an end to persecution of Christians and permitted them to worship their God without molestation. Under Emperor Constantine the persecuted religion became the most favored religion and very soon would become the State religion. In all these three centuries the Christian population was poor, without a voice in the government, hated and were looked down upon. There was no corruption among them, for what was attractive in a religion whose adherents were persecuted and lost their livelihood, properties and even lives? Only the genuinely faithful were sticking to Christianity, but, with Constantine things began to changes. Bishops became powerful and started to imitate the power and prestige of the Roman Emperors and the governors. The exclusive purple of the royalty came to adorn the bishops as well. Corruption and misrule and entered into the church slowly but surely. Still majority were true Christians and many bishops like St. Augustine fought against heresies that tried to corrupt the teachings of Jesus and the apostles. They succeeded in halting this effort of heretics to corrupt the New Testament Scripture and in 390 AD in Synod of Milan, the Apostolic Creed was accepted by the Church, which we still proclaim in our churches.  

The Western Roman Empire fell under attacks by barbarians; Alaric, king of Visigoth in 410 AD, sacked the city of Rome. The last emperor who was a puppet was deposed by Odoacer, a leader of Germanic origins, who assumed the title of Emperor in 476 AD and the Western Roman Empire was completely wiped off. The empire itself was divided and ruled by many barbaric kings who had invaded and succeeded in establishing their rule. Roman rule continued in the East as Byzantium with Constantine as its capital for another thousand years, but it fell in 1453 AD conquered by Ottoman Turks. The period between fifth century AD when Western Roman Empire fell and fifteenth century AD when Eastern Roman Empire fell is generally known as Dark Ages. The light of the cultured and the unifying power of Roman Empire was extinguished and barbarians ruled the land.

The fate of Christianity also changed drastically with changes in the political scene. Constantine converted to Christianity in 312 AD, but the empire was still mainly pagan. In 391 AD Theodosius banned much of paganism, public sacrifice and even private worship of images (idols). Justinian (527-565 AD) banned pagan cults, enforcing baptism on pain of confiscation and execution. The tables had turned now and it is the turn of Christians to persecute the pagans who still worshipped the Graeco-Roman gods!

There were five prominent Episcopal Sees in the Roman world by fifth century. Roman See being in the seat of power of the Empire became preeminent and tried to rule over the other Sees, Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria and Constantinople. By 661 AD Muslim Arabs had overridden Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem, which lost their pre-eminence. Constantine in 330 AD shifted the capital of Roman Empire to Constantinople built on old Byzantium. The main rivalry now on would be between Roman and Constantine Sees, which led among other reasons to the East-West Schism in 1054 AD. In due course history will witness the Roman See becoming Catholic Church and the Constantine See becoming more of Greek Orthodox Church.

Well history apart, let’s see how corruption crept into the church once the Western Roman Empire fell and Roman See started to become pre-eminent. As the Roman Empire became more and more anti-pagan and pro-Christian, the church grew not only in power and prestige, but also in wealth due to pious gifts. By fifth century the church had an elaborate structure, hundreds and thousands of clerics, more than the civil administrators and grew in power. The church by 500 AD was the largest local landowner and had become partners with the emperors and administrators of the secular world. Because of its independent organization, Church survived the political fragmentation of the fifth century. The stable Roman See looked as if it represented the Roman Empire! Still in the fifth century Christian piety, its charity works, and beginnings of ascetic life all could be evidenced. But Bishops imitated victory procession of the emperors and started their own formal processions between urban churches as a show of their power and prestige.

With the fall of Western Roman Empire, the Roman aristocracy also dwindled in power, prestige and landholdings. Some went into military service under the conquerors. Aristocrats started to look to the episcopate for a career. In a political world that was falling apart, the church was standing solid. The conquering barbarians took up the estates of the Roman aristocrats. The only alternative left was church. In Gaul (modern France) for the first time aristocrats became bishops. The church was rich in landed property and so it was attractive for the aristocrats who had lost their lands to get into the church and become leaders to dominate these properties. For the first time, clerics and bishops entered the church for reasons other than piety. Conversion and spiritual experience of the soul were not given any importance. Being a bishop sometimes became a retirement option, but mostly a good career choice, when the choice was between swordsmanship and Bible. Gregory, Bishop of Tours in Gaul (538-594 AD) was an active political bishop, also a historian. By seventh century, rich aristocrats who owned land founded monasteries to keep the land under their control. Bishops by this time were overwhelmingly aristocratic, often leading a military lifestyle, keeping armies. Monasteries were closely associated with the aristocratic families who founded them and even less depended on the bishops of the jurisdiction.

By the seventh century the king was appointing the bishops and bishops had to represent their cities politically. Bishops developed local autonomies, called ‘Episcopal republics’ and had to attend the court offices along with their secular counterparts, the counts. He has to keep abreast with the latest political affairs to survive. In the city of Rome when its senate faded away in the late sixth century, popes emerged as the authority best equipped to rule Rome, as recoded in the writings of Pope Gregory the Great in the 590s. In the eighth century the entire imperial infrastructure in Rome steadily became papal. Bishoprics were wealthy and had more elaborate infrastructure and hierarchies than the Roman kingdoms. They were power brokers among the divided kings and their coteries, as did Pope Gregory II (715-731 AD). Under Charlemagne in the ninth century, the state and the semi-autonomous church were knit in a tight partnership, which became a norm the West for the next two centuries.      

Well, we have seen now how church came to be infested with money minded and career oriented political clerics. No wonder as in the secular world corruption and intrigues of power entered the church. We still need to see how corruption increased during the Middle Ages and finally led to Reformation. But this in the next blog!

Till then, good bye. Wishing you all a very happy and God's grace-filled New Year. Amen.

“A Consecrated Life is a Lonely Life”

I have always been enamored by the life of Katherine Kuhlman. She was so filled with the Holy Spirit and overwhelmingly anointed that miracles happened and people lay ‘slain in the Spirit.’ She was an evangelist, a lady at that, a first in many matters. Let us go through her life and ministry.

Katherine Kuhlman was born to German parents in 1907 in a small place called Concordia, in Missouri, USA. She was one of the four children and strangely her father was a Baptist and her mother a Methodist. Her father rose to be the Mayor of the town, but died early in an accident. Katherine was very fond of her father whom she called ‘papa,’ and when young clung to his legs and not let go when he returned from work. It is that love that she transferred to the heavenly Father later on in her life.

When she was just 14 years old as she was attending the service with her mother in the small Methodist church, she came under the experience of being born again. As the last song was being sung, her hands holding the hymnal book began to shake; that she was a sinner came clearly to her and leaving the hymnal at the pew, she went to the front row and sat there weeping and involuntarily shaking and trembling. Something had happened to her; she was born again. Though she did not recognize the Holy Spirit that time, she never forgot the moment when the Holy Spirit came upon her and she had the experience of the new birth.

Katherine’s sister and brother in law were in the itinerant healing ministry and wanted her to come along with them to help with their children as they traveled from place to place preaching. Katherine became a nanny to her sister’s children for the next five years and traveled with them all over USA. When her brother in law brought the message, people were slain in the Spirit, a new experience then. All these must have given her a background in itinerant ministry and when her sister wanted her to return home, she started her own ministry.

She preached only about salvation, her own experience of being born again. In 1933, she started her ministry in Denver and held meetings in abandoned truck garages and paper company’s warehouses and in such small places. Her ministry was doing well and she had started radio ministry and was travelling around the country. In 1937 she met another itinerant preacher Waltrip, who was married with two boys. But he divorced his wife and abandoned his children and proposed to Katherine. She took the plunge in 1938 in spite of people warning her not to. Very soon she realized that it was a mistake and did not know how to correct it. Evangelic ministry along with her husband was not fulfilling, for her husband would not let her preach. It was his show.

One day as she was weeping and walking in a dead end street in California, Los Angeles, she took the decision and gave herself fully to the Lord. She would say later that Katherine Kuhlman died that day to herself. She cried to the Lord to take her and use her, though she was without any talent and any merit on her own. She would tell her Lord, she had nothing to give Him, except her love, which she gave with all her heart and her body she offered to Him as a living sacrifice. She filed for divorce in 1947 and started her own ministry. She was divorced by 1948.

Though it was a turning point in her life and ministry, it was not all a bed of roses after that. She was not accepted in the Christian circles. In one of the meetings as she was preaching, the Pastor having learned that she was a divorcee, came to the stage, took the microphone from her hand and made her leave the stage and the very town itself. She met with such treatments in many places and was shattered, but she continued her ministry. A small church in Ohio, where she was conducting meetings desired to make her their pastor; she objected saying she is a divorcee but they told her that her past was not of interest to them and that in the present people are coming to the Lord, are being healed by her ministry and so they would like her to be their pastor. She became their pastor in 1948.

The last 10-15 years of her life were a blessing to many. It is said that nearly two million people got healed during her services. She started and ran a Television ministry called “I believe in miracles,” from 1966 to 1975, which became very popular throughout America and Canada. She was a charismatic evangelist, and embraced all denominations including the Catholic church. People thronged to her meetings and many were healed. Katherine developed a heart condition, but she would not rest or slow down her ministry. She died in 1976 following an open heart surgery, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA.

Katherine resented being called ‘faith-healer,’ for she was not doing anything by her own power. She said that she had no healing power, but it was God who acted through her. She made it clear that she was not a psychic healer, who mastered the art of mind over matter. Her case was simple for she was a yielded vessel, which God used mightily to manifest His power through the Holy Spirit to heal people. 

A consecrated life is a life set apart for God; such people are married to the Lord, and place themselves at the disposal of His Will and pleasure to be used as He would wish. She lived in the world but had consecrated her life to her Lord. She would say that such a life was not easy and that it had a price tag on its head. A consecrated life could be lonely for she had no social life, and no personal life. Her life was entirely devoted to the Lord, her Master. She would remind her audience that she was human and she was a woman, but her life was totally devoted to her God, who is a jealous Husband!

God bless such people and multiply such devoted lives for His glory.

The Desert Fathers

Have you heard of the desert fathers, who lived in the 3^rd and 4^th century AD in and around Palestine, and Egypt? Who are they? What is their significance to early Christianity? I happened to read about them recently, thanks to Covid -19 lock-down. I was quite amazed at what I learnt about them and I thought of sharing it with you, my readers!

Very early, around 3^rd century, monks, who had surrendered their lives to God and wished to stay away from the world so that they can concentrate on God totally, retired to lonely uninhabited places, later on to deserts, for meditation and prayer. This gradually led to monasticism in the 4^th century. Bible does not call people to monastic life. But we always had ascetics like John the Baptist in the NT and Elijah and Elisha in the OT. It was a longing to live for God alone, to prepare oneself through practice of asceticism, flight from the world and through fasting and prayer they aspired to get close to God.  

One of the very first desert fathers was Saint Antony, born in 271 in Egypt to very rich Christian parents. His life story is written by Athanasius of Alexandria, Egypt.[1] When his parents died when Antony was 20 years old, he gave all the family property of some 300 acres to the villagers,[2] put her younger sister in a convent and went outside the village to practice discipline in solitude. He practiced severe penance; constant in prayer, read and studied Bible, ate just once a day, that too bread, salt and water; lay on bare ground or a rush mat. He started to live in tombs, went in one of the tombs and shut himself inside, kept praying. Satan and demons tried every trick to dissuade him from prayers, but he firmly held on to his faith. Then he went to the desert nearby, found a ruined fort and made it his home for the next 20 years. He would store for six months bread given by travelers and people, but refused to meet people, but people thronged him. He would weave baskets to give people in return for the food grains, etc, which they gave him.  

Later he started a monastery for young disciples who wanted to follow his footsteps. He was full of Holy Spirit, pure in his soul, and God used him to heal sicknesses, cleanse leprosy, cast out evil spirits, and many miracles were performed. He consoled the sorrowful and exhorted everyone to love Christ more than the world. He advised them to practice prudence, justice, temperance, courage, understanding, love, kindness to the poor, faith in Christ, freedom from wrath and hospitality. His famous exhortation to young monks was, ‘to live as though dying daily.’ He lived up to 105 years and died in 285 AD. His devotion to Christ was legendary.

St. Jerome, (342-420 AD), a Latin priest, theologian and historian, who had translated the Bible into Latin, which is called the Vulgate, who himself had lived for sometime as a hermit in Syrian desert, has written about three other Desert Fathers.

Paul of Thebes, is said to have lived even earlier to St. Antony of Egypt. He was also born rich, in Egypt, but had great love for Christ. Due to persecution during the time of Decius and Velarian, Roman Emperors in 249-260 AD, he fled to rocky mountains and entering a cave fell into prayer and lived there till he was 113 years old! Raven used to feed him with bread.

St. Hilarion was another hermit born near Gaza, a city of Palestine. His parents were idolaters, who sent him to Alexandria to study but he became a Christ-lover. He visited St. Antony and stayed with him for two months. On return to his place, as his parents had died, he gave off his properties to his relatives and poor and became a monk at the age of 14. He went to a nearby place and lived in a hut of reed, lived on dried figs and lay on ground to sleep. He memorized Scripture, prayed, sang, recited these verses and grew close to God. He also performed many miracles as empowered by the Holy Spirit. Many monasteries sprung up all over Palestine. He used to go and visit these cells of the other hermits once a year, guide them, cheer them up and return to his place.

At 63 years of age, Hilarion was the head of a grand monastery with lots of resident brothers. People used to bring their sick to him to be healed and he healed them. But he wanted solitude and so left the place. Where ever he tried to go in search of solitude, his fame preceded him and people started to come to visit him. In the end he went to an interior place in Cyprus and stayed there. At the age of 80 years he died having served the Lord for nearly 70 years.

Malchus was another monk born in Nisibis, Syria. When his parents wanted him to marry and lead a normal life, he fled his place as he wanted to become a monk. He joined some monks in the desert of Chalcis and lived there, fasting and earning his livelihood by labor of his hands. After many years when he decided to return home to see his mother, he was taken captive by Saracen traders and along with another woman, sold as slaves and made to work as laborer. The woman, already married, took him as her brother, and so he was able to keep up his chastity. He prayed continually and sang psalms in spite of all these hardships. After a few years he escaped, along with that woman and they came to Mesopotamia, entered a monastery and lived a monastic life, with that woman taking care of the virgins. This life story is an example of chastity. St. Jerome writes that in the midst of swords and wild beasts of the desert, ‘virtue is never a captive, but free and alive.’

These desert fathers showed the way to monastic life, with complete devotion and surrender of their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. St. Augustine of Hippo, a contemporary of St. Jerome, entered a monastery when he was converted to Christianity in 386 AD. He was influenced by the life of St. Antony, the desert father, and later became the Bishop of Hippo, and a Christian scholar of repute, also one of the Latin Church Fathers.

These desert fathers and Church Fathers belonged to the undivided church of Christ. Unfortunately after the Reformation, these saints were neglected and relegated as saints of the Catholic Church, thus depriving us of a great theological heritage. We need to claim them as our own and learn good things relating to spirituality from them. They offered their lives as a sacrifice to the Lord and spent their time in poverty and ascetic practices and were used mightily by God to preserve purity and the essence of Christian life. They are great models, whom we may not be able to emulate fully, but at least can adopt their simplicity, spend more time with the study of Bible and prayer, and not run after the world and what the world has to offer.

As the times are nearing to the return of our Lord, these spiritual disciplines become all the more necessary. I am hoping this account will stimulate you to become a serious student of Christ and his teachings just as it did to me.     

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[1] Athanasius, the Great, (296-373 AD) was a great theologian, Church Father who defended Trinitarianism against heresy and was the Bishop f Alexandria.

[2] Matthew 19:21

Apocalypse and End Time Prophecies

This is a supplementary blog to the previous blog I wrote on ‘Corona-virus COVID 19 from the biblical perspective of end time prophecies.’ I did mention there that I have given just a glimpse of prophecies regarding end times prophecies from Revelation (Apocalypse in Greek) and that details will follow if necessary. Some readers have raised a few doubts about the prophecies in Apocalypse and I thought I better clarify these as far as possible.

Apocalypse or Revelation is a difficult book to understand as it is written mostly in symbolic language with hidden meanings, especially based on the Jewish apocalyptic writings of intertestamental period.[1] Still we can unravel certain predominant themes in it. Lot of misunderstood interpretations have prevailed throughout the ages and today also regarding the end-time predictions of this book. Let’s see some of these.

After the letters to the seven churches, the narrative passes on to the heavenly scene where Jesus Christ, the slain Lamb starts to open up the seven seals of the book lying in the hands of the Almighty God, containing the end time revelations. The seals contain the opening plagues, which are suffered both by the believers and the non-believers. Then the judgments become more serious and deadly, with the seven Trumpet and seven Bowl judgments. Before the start of these two judgments the believers are sealed by God so they are protected from these plagues. But they are not protected from the persecutions that will be launched by the unbelievers who work on behalf of Satan, which also become more and more severe.

These judgments are sent on the world, to wake up the world to take notice of the Creator of the world who had put up with millennia of hard hardheartedness of the people, who have gone after other gods, idols and other worldly matters like fame, name, money and enjoyment, without a care for God who had created them. They did not worship the True God and thus invited the wrath of God on themselves. The plagues sent are the final warning to the mankind to repent their ways, return to the True God and get protected from these end- time calamities. ‘Repent and return,’ is the call of God and to believe his Son, Jesus Christ whom he had sent to the world to die on behalf of the people to pay for their sin as a sacrifice offered. In his resurrection there is hope and future for those who believe in him that they will also be resurrected and inherit eternal life along with him.

The Great Tribulation starts with the seal judgments. Many think that this will last only for seven years, based on Daniel’s prophecy, at the end of which Christ will return. What we are sure is that Christ’s return will not happen until “rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed,” who opposes and exalts himself taking his seat in the temple of God in Jerusalem and declaring himself to be God.[2] This “lawless one,” is the Antichrist who is introduced as the Beast in the Revelation, who is given the power to rule the earth for 42 months.[3] The Beast along with his assistant the False Prophet, mislead the world into worshiping him and persecuting the followers of Christ.[4]

The first thing to clarify is there is no mention of ‘rapture,’ in Revelation and it does not say that believers will escape the judgments by being taken away before the horrible judgments fall on earth. From Paul’s writings we know that when Christ comes back with his angles in the cloud to claim his own in his Second Coming, the dead in Christ will rise first and then the living believers will be translated to join the Lord in the air.[5] This is the First Resurrection and the gathering of his saints. Christ returns to earth only once, and not twice as some claim, once to claim his saints and then to fight the enemy. When Christ returns, which is called the Second Coming of Christ, he gathers his saints and also fights the army gathered by Satan at Armageddon, defeating Satan and the earthly kings who had joined him.[6] Satan is bound for a thousand years and thrown into the bottomless pit.[7]

With this victory, the Lord Jesus Christ establishes his millennial rule on earth when he will rule over the people in justice and righteousness. The saints are with him and rule with him, the Second Death having no claim over them.[8] They are not brought before the Great White Throne judgment of God at the end of the world. The millennial rule is a theme borrowed from the Jewish apocalyptic writings of the intertestamental period and hence many modern theologians do not give much importance to it. However as it is written in John’s Revelation, we need to accept it. It could be precisely thousand years or indicate a long, long time. 

After a thousand years, Satan is released from his prison for a short time, and he goes around deceiving people of the world and gathering them again for a fight against God. This is the final battle and there was no actual fight, for supernaturally fire comes from heavens and destroys the whole army of Satan’s earthly rulers. This fight is said to be fought in the vicinity of the holy city, Jerusalem. The defeated Satan is thrown into the lake of fire, where already his assistants Antichrist and the False Prophet have been thrown in.[9]

The Last Judgment takes place now, called the Great White Throne Judgment. All the people living then and the dead during the thousand years rule and those dead who were not resurrected when Christ returned are all raised and judged here. The books are opened and according to their deeds written there they will be judged. Those, whose names are not found in the Book of Life kept by Christ, are all thrown into the lake of fire, where Satan had already been thrown in. Death and Hades will also be thrown in to the lake of fire as the last ones to be conquered. With Paul we can ask, “Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” for death has been swallowed up in victory, the last enemy of mankind defeated.[10]

This great victory is followed by the passing away of the old heaven and earth and the coming of new heaven and new earth.[11] The holy city of Jerusalem descends from heaven as a bride dressed for her groom, the city itself being the people of God and the bride, and Christ being the groom. Both God and Christ will live with the redeemed people there.[12] The Tree of Life will be there in the middle and people are free to eat of its fruits.[13] What a blessing! It is ‘Paradise Regained’[14] literally, for Adam and Eve after their disobedience had been driven out of Paradise so that they could not pluck the fruit of the Tree of Life and live forever in that fallen, sinful state.[15] Now the redeemed descendants of Adam are free to roam around in Paradise and eat the fruits of the Tree of Life! What a privilege!

Finally in Revelation Christ says, “See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me,” which is the eternal life, access to the Tree of Life and the privilege of spending eternity in the presence of God and his Son, Jesus Christ. His coming is nearing, it is almost at the door, as I had shown in the previous blog; are you ready to receive him? Can you say along with the writer of Revelation, “Amen, Come, Lord Jesus!”

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[1] The time between the Old Testament books and the start of the New Testament books, roughly 400 years – from Malachi to Matthew’s Gospel.

[2] 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4

[3] Revelation 13:1-5

[4] Revelation 13:11-15

[5] 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

[6] Revelation 16:14, 16; 19:19-21

[7] Revelation 20:1-3

[8] Revelation 20:6

[9] Revelation 20:7-10; 19:20

[10] 1 Corinthians 15:54-55

[11] Revelation 21:1

[12] Revelation 21:2, 3

[13] Revelation 22:2

[14] John Milton, Paradise Regained, Bibliotech,  reprint, 2018

[15] Genesis 3:22-22

Corona-virus, COVID 19 in the Perspective of Biblical Prophecies of End Times

The world wide pandemic caused by Corona virus, known as COVID 19 has raised in many people, Christians and others, fears about the future. Is this the end-times, and if so, what does the Bible say about it, especially as there are many prophecies about the end of the world in the Bible, especially in the Apocalypse, the Revelation, the last book of the New Testament? Jesus in his Olivet discourse to his disciples prophesies many incidents that will happen when the world is approaching the final days. How does this Corona Pandemic fit into all these? Many false alarms and doom-say prophecies are abounding these days in the wake of this pandemic. What is the truth? What is biblical? We need to know. So, let’s examine the biblical picture, especially in the New Testament, in some detail to find about the matter.

First let’s see what Jesus Christ says about the end-time events. When his disciples come and ask him while they were seated on the Mount of Olives, opposite to the Temple of Jerusalem, when these things relating to the end-times will happen and what the signs are, Jesus offers this discourse. His predictions could be grouped into three sets of prophecies:

Group I:

1.     Many will come in Jesus’ name and declare himself as the Messiah and lead people astray.  

2.     You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but do not fear, for the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

3.     There will be earthquakes in various places.

4.     There will be famines

But, Jesus warns his listeners that these are only the beginnings of birth pangs. Before the present world is destroyed by God and a new heaven and new earth are formed by Him, these sufferings will happen, but are like the birth pangs to deliver the new world.

Group II:

1. .The disciples and followers of Jesus will be handed over to councils, synagogues, brought before Governors and kings because of Jesus Christ. They will be hated by all because of his name and be persecuted. Family members will betray the believers in Christ and hand them over to the authorities. But one needs to persevere till the end.
2. Through these the Good News, the Gospel of Christ will be proclaimed to all nations.
3. Love will grow cold among people and lawlessness will increase all over the world.
4. The Desolating Sacrilege, the Antichrist will arise, and set himself as God in the Temple on the Mount of Zion at Jerusalem and this will be a great time of persecution of God’s people in Jerusalem.
5. False Messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to lead many people astray.

Jesus refers to these days as the days of suffering, when there will be untold suffering, such as has never been seen since the beginning of the world and never will be. We are to remain alert and not get carried away by false teachings and wonders wrought by the false prophets.

Group III:

1.     After that suffering, sun will be darkened; moon will not give light, stars will fall from heaven.

2.     Powers in the heavens will be shaken.

3.     Then people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory with his angels.

4.     He will send out his angels and gather his elect, the people who believed in him and had accepted him as the Messiah, the Son of God, their Lord and Savior.

Regarding the timing of these happenings Jesus told his disciples that no one knows when these things will happen. It will come on people as a thief would unannounced and when they least expected it. But when we see the fig tree putting forth tender leaves, we know that summer is near, and when the above mentioned events happen one should guess that the time has come and that it is at the very gates.[1]

In all these, Corona virus becoming a pandemic and devouring such a large number of human beings all around the globe is not mentioned, but it could be one of the sufferings the world will experience before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The events of the first group have been happening, may be since the beginning of civilization, starting with Alexander the Great and his world conquest; then the Roman Empire, the Islamic Sultanates, British Empire and finally the great wars of World War I and World War II. These are all just birth pangs.

Events of Group II have been going on since the incarnation of Jesus, his death on the cross and his resurrection, some 2000 years back. His disciples died at the hands of Roman authorities or perished in Jewish persecutions. Every century since then persecutions of Christians have been going on in the world through some sects or the other, lastly by Muslims, which is still going on. The Gospel is preached all over the world. Any number of false prophets and false Messiahs have arisen claiming to be the Saviors of the world and predicting the end of the world. Nothing really has happened to their prophecies and the world still goes on.

What is frightening is the increasing intensity of the destruction unleashed onto the world, be it a tsunami or earthquakes or forest fires or pandemics. Tsunamis have been known for ages, but the one that caused maximum damage and touched many continents was the tsunami of 2004, which started off because of an earthquake in Sumatra, Indonesia on 26^th December, 2004, and claimed the lives of more than 230,000 people across 14 countries. It is the first world-wide calamity to strike the earth, the beginning, I would say of our sufferings. Thereafter there has been an increase in such calamities around the world, tsunamis and tornado in USA, forest fires in Spain and California, the devastating bush fires in Australia from June 2019 to February 2020; SARS Corona-virus in Hongkong in 2002-2004; MERS Corona-virus in the Middle East in 2017 and now COVID 19 Corona-virus, affecting as on today some 486,863 persons and killing 22,024 people in 198 countries of the world.

What normally is a localized and restricted to a geographical area, these natural calamities have morphed into worldwide calamities. It is as if the world is hurtling towards its destruction, not at the speed of a passenger train or even an express train, but as a bullet train. It is a sure indication of the approach of last days, and that the end is almost at the gates. But the Antichrist who will elevate himself to be a god is still to arise in the world. Thereafter the world is definitely at its end and time for the Second Coming of Christ, ushering in the events of the 3^rd group.

Briefly touching the teachings in the Revelation or Apocalypse, there are three phases, the seven seals, followed by the seven trumpets and the seven bowls judgments. The seal judgments are the beginnings and affect one fourth of the world, killing people by sword, famine, and pestilence. These are suffered both by the believers and the non-believers. Before the next series of judgments, the Trumpets, God’s people, believers in Christ are sealed by God’s angels to protect them from the dangers in the ensuing calamities. The Trumpet judgments affect one third of the population of the world, through hail with fire and blood, sea turning blood and rivers and water springs turning blood killing one third of the sea and water creatures. One third of sun, moon and stars get affected. Supernatural pestilence through locusts afflicts human beings and supernatural cavalry kills one third of human beings.

The last seven plagues are the bowl judgments and these fall on the unrepentant human beings who do not accept the True One God as their God, but continue to worship the false gods in the form of idols or power or position or money or possessions. They do not repent and so perish in these calamities. Painful sores break on their bodies, sea becomes blood red and all sea creatures die, fresh water bodies turn to blood and all creatures die; sun scorches people and the kingdom of Antichrist is plunged into darkness, who assembles his troops at Armageddon to fight God. Christ comes riding a white horse with his angels and defeats the enemy and enemy’s army. Then judgment follows.[2]

Now correlating the Apocalypse with the predictions of Jesus Christ regarding end time events, maybe we are only in the stage of seal judgments; or not even that, for no calamity has brought down one third of the population of the earth as of today. Trumpet and Bowl Judgments are definitely not on the earth as of now. But can we afford to relax? No, I don’t think so. We need to scrutinize our lives, repent for the wrong things we have done in our lives, in faith seek forgiveness from Jesus Christ, the only One, who declared that he has the power to forgive sins and lead a righteous life. Anyone who is outside this circle of believers in Christ will get swept away as in a tsunami when the sufferings start to intensify in the world. There is not much time left, for the world is hurtling towards the end and calamities are increasing in their intensity and coverage and are becoming more frequent. Sings that show that the end is almost there.

We better be prepared and be ready to face the Son of God as he will come in power and glory in the clouds along with his angels to judge the world. It will be good if you are found on his side, when he comes.

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[1] These have been taken from Mark 13:3-37 and some from Matthew 24:3-44

[2] Very brief account only of the judgments of seal, trumpet and bowls are given here. Details, may be in another blog, if there is demand from the readers.

Milton’s Paradise Lost

Well, I have been reading some epic stuff to spend my time! Imagine what I read! Paradise Lost[1] and the corollary to the main book, Paradise Regained![2] John Milton a great poet of the seventeenth century wrote it when he had gone completely blind! That was in 1652 and this book was published in 1667; in 1671, he wrote Paradise Regained and his death was in 1674. Paradise Lost has 12 books (chapters) and it is written in blank verse, without rhythmic endings. Let’s see more details.

John Milton was born in 1667 and showed tremendous potential as a poet. When young he wanted to write an epic poem on King Arthur and his heroic deeds, on line with the ancient epic poems like Iliad by Homer in Greek and Aeneid by Virgil in Latin. While Iliad narrated the Trojan War, the Greek coalition of forces under the King Agamemnon, attacking Troy and winning, Aeneid is about the Trojan hero Aeneas, who escaped the burning city of Troy and later became the ancestor of Rome and Roman Empire. However, Milton as he grew older considered an unorthodox subject based on the Bible, God’s creation, the first human pair Adam and Eve, their first disobedience against God, Satan’s role in it, and how Adam and Eve got thrown out of the paradise, with sin and death entering human life. This, in my opinion, was a great subject worth an epic, in English, bringing glory to God and England, Milton’s country.

The first book narrates the fall of Satan and his angels, driven out of heaven, after he raised his banner of revolt against the Almighty God. They are now fallen into Hell, in a place of utter darkness called chaos, onto a burning lake. Though the prime cause of man’s fall, earth and heavens or humans have not yet been formed. Satan calls for a full council of all his fallen angels at a place called pandaemonium to review the situation, comfort those who fought along with him and had shared this ignoble fate, and to assess what chance was there to regain their position in Heaven and to discuss the rumor that was going on in the Heaven, which the prophets have foretold that God is planning to create a new world and a new kind of creature.

In the next book, Satan debates whether they should engage in another battle to regain the lost Heaven. Some of his dark angels argue for it and against it. One section recommends that they should explore the truth of the prophecy that God is about to create a new world and a new creature to inhabit that world. Satan undertakes to take up this search and dismisses the council. He comes to the gates of Hell which are closed shut, but he persuades the guard to open it for him to go in search of this truth. Once opened the Hell stood wide open, for the gatekeeper is not empowered to close it, for she was not even authorized to open it! 

In the third book, Milton shows God seated in His throne who sees Satan fly towards the world He had newly created. Conferring with His Son seated at His right, God foretells the success of Satan in perverting the new creation, the mankind. But why doesn’t He do something about it, to prevent it from happening? In His justice and wisdom, God who has created man free and with ability to withstand such assaults, will not interfere with the decision of Adam. But God proclaims His grace towards man, in that he did not fall out of his own malice but by Satan who seduced him. But grace cannot be extended without satisfaction of divine justice. Son voluntarily offers himself as a ransom for man, to redeem him from his sin. Father accepts this offer, orders his incarnation and exaltation of His Son above all earth and heaven and that angles should worship him. By now Satan finds the new earth and alights near angel Uriel, the regent of the orb of the world, taking the form of a lesser angel and declaring his desire to see the new world that God has created, the Paradise.

In the next book, Satan is already in the vicinity of Eden, attempting to enter in. He sits on the Tree of Life in the shape of a bird, cormorant and watches in envy the first pair, Adam and Eve, happily chatting with each other. Satan gathers from their conversation that God has forbidden them to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Meanwhile after letting him go, Uriel recognizes the deceitfulness of Satan and warns Gabriel, who is in charge of the gate of Paradise that some evil spirit has escaped Hell and passed down to the Paradise in the guise of a good angel. Gabriel assures him to find out the spirit before morning. Adam and Eve, as the evening approaches, prepare for their night’s rest, after their evening worship. Gabriel employs his night watch to go around the Paradise and catch the evil spirit. They find the spirit in the form of a toad, tempting Eve, by whispering false dreams into her ear. He was caught and brought before Gabriel, but he manages to fly out of Paradise. 

In book 5, Eve tells her husband Adam the troublesome dreams she had in the night and He comforts her and they start their morning labor of tending the garden after their morning worship. God sends the angel Raphael to Adam to warn him of the dangers involved in the freedom of choice that he has, and about the enemy, who and why he is his enemy. Raphael warns Adam starting from the rebellion of Satan and how he is around to spoil the happiness and bliss of human beings, God’s new creation. Eve also joins them.

In the next book, Raphael explains the battle in the Heaven against Satan and his angels, with Michael and Gabriel leading God’s army. However when they were slightly discomforted by Satan and his angels, God sent on the third day His Son Messiah, who defeated Satan and his cohorts, driving them towards the wall of Heaven. The relinquished army of Satan had to leap down from Heaven and they all landed in Hell, the place of punishment prepared for them in the deep. Messiah having accomplished his Father’s directions returned to Him.

In the book seven, Raphael continues to narrate matters of importance to Adam, explaining why this new world was created. After expelling Satan and his angels from Heaven, God desired to create a new world and people to inhabit it. So He sent His Son to create another world and the creatures to be in it in six days, which the Son complied with. It was a world created with sons of men in the image of God, who will dwell therein, worship Him, be holy and just, and rule over all His works, the creatures in the sea, air and on earth.  

Adam, in the next book, relates to Raphael what he remembered of his own creation, he being placed in Paradise, his talk with God about his loneliness and God creating Eve and his first meeting with Even and his marriage to her. Eve chose not to be a part of most of the conversation and it looks as if only Adam got all the instructions and warnings. When Adam wanted to know about celestial movements Raphael instructs him to desire to know only those that will bring honor and glory to God and he departs.

Satan returns to Paradise in the next book, under the guise of a mist by the night and enters into a seeping serpent. As Adam and Eve prepare to go about their morning duties, Eve proposed that they divide areas among themselves and go separately to work, so that more work could be accomplished. Adam was not happy and forewarns her not to be separated from him, her husband, lest some evil befalls her. Eve insists she goes alone, even if it is just to test her strength. Adam relents at last and they go to different parts of the garden to tend the plants. Serpent finds Eve alone and starts to seduce her, first by flattery of her looks and then by creating in her a wonder how a serpent could speak. Serpent cunningly tells her that he obtained the power of speech and reason by eating the fruit of the tree in the garden and when her curiosity is evoked, guides her to the Tree of Knowledge, which she immediately identifies as the tree, whose fruits God had forbidden them to eat.

Serpent with many arguments wins her confidence and she plucks a fruit and eats and deliberates whether she should give it to her husband or not. She reasons out that in case he does not eat, God would create another Eve for him and he can live happily ever after with her, whereas she herself will be condemned and lost. Not able to bear that thought she brings the fruit to Adam and he realizing that she is lost, wonders whether to eat it or not. Finally he decides to cast his fate with her due to his deep love for her to share whatever her fate would be and eats the fruit. Having eaten the fruit both find themselves naked and start to blame each other, having lost their innocence and ignorance. Satan, having accomplished his work, slips away in silence.

Book ten opens with man’s transgression reported by the angles to God, acknowledging that they could not prevent Satan’s entrance to Paradise. God declares that the entrance of Satan could not have been prevented by them and send His Son to judge the transgression and to give suitable sentence to the offenders, which he does. Sin and Death, who were sitting till then at the gates of Hell, now enter the new world. To make the travel of man to the Hell easier they build a bridge, a broad highway over Chaos. Satan arrives at Pandaemonium and was applauded for his success in his mission by his angels. But by the punishment awarded to them by the Son, all Satan’s angels had been transformed to hissing serpents. God foretells that final victory would be that of His Son and directs His angels to make some alterations in the Paradise. Adam and Eve lament their fate, blame each other, but finally reconcile to their fate and take solace in the promise of God that her seed will crush the serpent. They realize the only way open to them is to repent and seek forgiveness of their transgression and live in hope.

In the next book, the eleventh, Son of God intercedes for the fallen pair, bringing up their repentance and prayers to God, who accepts them, but declares that they cannot live in Paradise anymore. God sends Michael and Cherubim to dispossess Adam and Eve of Paradise and send them away after revealing to Adam the nature of the future things to happen until the Flood, which Michael does. Here again Eve is not shown the future, but only Adam!

In the last book, the twelfth, Michael shows Adam the visions of the future, regarding Abraham and how through him will come the Seed of the woman who will crush Satan and redeem mankind by paying the ransom. He explains the incarnation of the Seed of woman, the Messiah, his death and resurrection and ascension, and the state of the church till his Second Coming. Adam greatly comforted and satisfied of the future of his generations, descends the hill, wakes up Eve who was sleeping through all these, but joins him with a submissive heart. Michael holds them in each of his hands and leads them out of Paradise. Cherubim and the fiery sword take their positions to guard the Paradise that was the dwelling of man.  

Milton closely adheres to the biblical narratives in most places, but lets his own imagination fly in other places, which is how it should be, being a work of art. But his treatment of women, I am not happy at all, but may be that in 17^th century that was the accepted norm and who am I to judge him, living in 21^st century? All in all it was an interesting reading, but without the editor’s notes and biblical understanding I would have been totally lost in many places!

All praise to God for such a beautiful poem written for His glory and honor.  

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[1][1] John Milton, Paradise Lost, ed. with notes by John Leonard, Penguin Books, New Delhi, 2000

[2][2] John Milton, Paradise Regained, Bibliotech Press, New Delhi, 2018