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

The Divine Comedy!

Writing a blog on Divine Comedy by Dante is not a joke. It is formidable. Still, having labored to read it, I thought I might as well write about it! If not as a literary critic, I will write as a common lay person who happen to read this magnificent poem.

Dante Alighieri was born in AD 1265 in Florence, Italy. He was a poet, philosopher and a politician, who wrote this work in vernacular Italian language and not in Latin as it was vogue in those days. The poem is an allegory, describing the journey that every soul must undertake to reach God. Dante wrote it in three volumes, Hell – ‘Inferno,’ Purgatory – ‘Purgatorio,’ and Paradise – ‘Paradiso’. He started to write it almost 20 years back, completing just before his death in exile in AD 1320 in Ravenna, a Roman city.

What amazed me as I ploughed through this masterpiece was that though it is a Christian theological work, it is heavily influenced by Greek and Roman antiquity, the epic poems of Homer (Iliad and Odyssey), Virgil (Aeneid) and many others including Greek and Roman gods and goddesses and the myths surrounding them. That these pagan literature of pre-Christian era should influence the Christian writers of 14^th century AD to this extent is amazing. No wonder Apostle Paul and other Apostles struggled against it and died in the process. However by the second century AD we can see this influence catching up as the intellectuals and philosophers of the Greek culture turned to Christ. Most important example being St. Augustine, who as the first Christian philosopher tried to replace the pagan philosophy popularized by the Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The early Church Fathers continued the trend, trying to instill Christian theology in the population and intellectuals steeped in Greco-Roman literature and antiquity.

Florence itself was a prosperous self-governing state in Europe with trade, and banking systems flourishing. But there were lot of internecine quarrels during Dante’s time and wars between different groups raged and led to its decline. It was strife between the rich families of the Dukes with agricultural land income supporting the Holy German Emperor and the wealthy mercantile families supporting the Papacy, religion combined with politics unfortunately, to gain control of Europe. Dante was in a sect of the pro-Papal group and was excommunicated when the opposite party seized power. He died in exile.

“Hell” is described by Dante as a place of lost souls after death, a huge funnel shaped pit in his imagination, situated beneath the northern hemisphere, running down to the center of earth. At the bottom of this pit stands Satan. This is a place which stubborn souls chose, on their own will, as they refused to repent in life. It consisted of 24 circles, and Dante is given the privilege of visiting all of it, by the grace of Beatrice, who prays to Mary, mother of Jesus, for such an access, so that the poet could warn the living, with Virgil the poet playing the guide at Hell and Purgatory.

Dante finds many historical figures wallowing in hell, eg. Cleopatra, Helen, Paris, Dido, all punished for incontinence and for lustful life. Many of Dante’s opponents he finds in hell! Violence against self, in the form of suicides, violence against God, in the form of sodomy, usury, blasphemy, were all punished there. Odyssey’s hero Ulysses was in hell for being a fraudulent Councillor, advising the Greeks to build the wooden horse and get into the fort of Troy! Some Popes of 13^th century, Nicholas III and Clement, were there for offences of simonizes! Prophet Mohammad was in hell for sowing discard among the faithful! So also were there religious leaders of Jesus’ time, like Caiaphas, for hypocrisy! Just a few examples!  Dante encounters Nimrod, Judas, Brutus, Cassius, the traitors and rebellious against God and man. It is horrifying to read about the punishments meted out to these lost souls!

Purgatory is a concept of Catholics, which was negated in the Reformation that led to the split in the church as Catholics and Protestants. There is no biblical evidence of such a place where penance could be made and prayers said to speed them in their upward journey to the Paradise. Catholics believe that here the stain of sinfulness is cleansed, and the penitent souls undergo penance to shed their imperfections, and are purged and reach Heaven. The truth according to Bible is when one believes in Christ’s death on the cross as atonement to our sins, the sins are washed away and we are justified in the eyes of God, and we are imputed with the righteousness of Christ. This belief might have originated in 2^nd century AD with Alexandrian Fathers like Origen. According to Catholics faults like lust, gluttonous, slothfulness, envy, pride, covetousness, the dead undergo penance here. Penalties themselves are not heavy but the years one spends here wallowing in self-pity could be unbearable. The souls that Dante encounters here requests for prayers so that their stay could be cut short and they ascend to heaven early.

This belief in purgatory and effectiveness of prayers to speed up the journey of the dead to heaven, led to misuses like the issue of Indulgences, where by church issued certificates that the sins of the dead are written off, especially if the relatives paid for the church expenses, including construction of beautiful churches in the Middle Ages. These were pointed out and when the Catholic Church would not give up such corrupt practices, protest arose, resulting in the division of the church.

Paradise is the place where God, the Unmoved Mover of Aristotle, referred to as the Prime Mover by Dante abides in Empyrean, the Abode of God. According to Dante, there are 10 heavens, including Moon, Mercury, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the planets known in those days. Dante follows the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, where earth was regarded as a fixed point at the center of the universe. In this geocentric universe, sun, moon, the planets and stars revolved around the earth. He meets St. Peter, Adam who was rescued by Christ from Limbo (a place above hell, where good pagans like Virgil stayed); Seraphim, Dominations and Thrones and Archangels, the three hierarchies of the angels arranged in three rings around the Empyrean; the celestial White Rose close to the Empyrean, where were seated Virgin Mary, Eve, Rachel, Sarah, Rebecca, and also the Apostles like Peter, James, John the Baptist, and Saints like Francis of Assisi, Benedict and Augustine. Whole of paradise resounds with angelic songs and peace and joy and brightness and beauty. It is a pleasure to read these accounts.

On the way, Dante also discusses pertinent issues like free will, why cross was chosen as the method of salvation of mankind by God, resurrection of the body along with the soul, Triune nature of God, two natures of Christ, Nicene Creed, life stories of St. Bonaventure, St Dominic and such vital and interesting issues.

On the whole the reading was tough but started to become interesting as Dante inserts many contemporary beliefs and personalities, explanations of which were given in detail by the translator and commentator, Dorothy Sayers. It is good to know about the traditions and beliefs which have shaped Christianity as it stands today. Don’t we have 2000 years of history to catch up with! This is just a small portion of it. But God alone can guide us in the right path, away from the wrong influences of tradition and history. I firmly believe that if we adhere to Bible and Bible alone, we will be safe. ‘Sola Scriptura’ (Scripture alone!) was the bugle call of Martin Luther which started the Reformation and brought out Protestantism. Let us walk by the light of the Scripture, the Word of God, and not by traditions. All the same it is good to know what influences shaped our traditions, so that we are beware of some of the false influences and avoiding them walk in the right path.

The Jewish Solution

As I sat watching the second part of BBC programme, ‘Auschwitz remembered,’ on 28^th January 2020, when the 75^th year of the liberation of Jews from the concentration camp at Auschwitz by German troops at the end of World War II was being observed, I was moved to tears as some of the 200 odd survivors of Holocaust gave their testimonies at this ceremony at Auschwitz. They were old and frail, wearing a scarf of stripped design to remember the stripped pajamas they were made to wear in the concentration camp. Out of the six million Jews exterminated by the Nazis during the World War II, 1.1 million perished at Auschwitz concentration camp. The books I had read about this gruesome pogrom and the movies like Schindler’s list I had watched, where some humane Germans help the condemned Jews to survive, came flooding to my mind. ‘Diary of a young girl,’ by Anne Frank, a Jewish girl in hiding with her family, who lost her life in the last few months and the Book Thief, The Pianist, were all powerful movies.

What remains in my mind uppermost are how the hair of the women gassed were gathered to be sent to industries in Germany to be converted into wigs and bones of these victims crushed and sent to fields in Germany to serve as manure; how they conducted experiments using these victims as guinea pigs to test how much heat or cold human body can tolerate, by immersing them in very hot and very cold freezing water alternatively. Young and old, babies and teenagers were all killed, murdered and buried in mass graves. What horror! What trauma they must have undergone! The survivors would have been seared for the rest of their lives.

How did this happen? How did the German people allow Hitler and his henchmen SS officers to carry on such heinous crimes? Did they not know? As one of the survivors recalled, Auschwitz did not fall from the sky. It was in the making. First Jews were segregated; not permitted even to sit on the same bench as others; sold bread only during the dusk after everybody else had had their fill; treated as separate and second class citizens; their properties confiscated and no one objected. German people watched with amusement and satisfaction, so also others in Europe. Then one fine morning they were hurdled in trains like cattle and taken to the concentration camps to be slaughtered like infected cattle. It was only after the war the horrors of these concentration camps and the torture and killings indulged by Hitler and his SS henchmen came to light. Nuremburg trials though highlighted these, really couldn’t do much as the dead have died. They cannot be brought back. Families broken were broken; they cannot be made whole. It is surprising that not one German was harmed or killed in the post war world by the afflicted Jews. May be we can say, they had taken it in their stride.

 

Again and again the plea of the survivors at this function was ‘let it not happen again,’ not just in Europe, but anywhere in the world and not just to Jews but to anyone else. Someone had invented a Eleventh Commandment in this respect. “Thou shall not be indifferent!” When good people keep quiet in the face of wrongful happenings it is then that evil flourishes. Germans watched and kept quiet allowing such discriminatory policies of the ruling elite to go without impunity. No one objected, not even the church, excepting a theologian of repute, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who resisted Nazism, was arrested in 1943 and hanged as a traitor, just 21 days before Hitler himself took his life. May be the fear of the ruling regime was a factor in people keeping quiet!

Did these six million people lose their lives for nothing? Was it just a fodder to the power hungry and xenophobic rulers of that time? Or was something else at stake? May be out of all these sacrifices and mayhem emerged Israel as a country, a nation for the Jews! Was it a price paid for the establishment of the nation of Israel? I don’t know! May be!

I am troubled when I recall things that are happening today in India. Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) being pushed through by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Home Minister Amit Shah who are spearheading these to eliminate those who are not able to prove that they are citizens of India, cast a long shadow of doubt. In Assam, the one State where this exercise has been done, 19 lakh people have been categorized as foreigners, not citizens of India. Detention centres have been built to accommodate these people till their fate is decided. Some are already in detention in the regular prisons along with criminals and murderers. Among these people, Hindus will be accommodated and made Indian citizens to set right the so called historical injustices. But Muslim refugees will be separated and dealt with separately, perhaps similar to the harsh treatment meted out to the Hindus in Islamic countries like Pakistan. This CAA and NTC are to be brought to cover the whole of India.

Does the story remind you of similar pogram some 75 years back let loose by Hitler and co in Europe, the scars of which are yet to heal? Is this another pogram to separate the Muslims and exterminate them in the detention centres? Once the Muslims are dealt with, won’t they train their guns at the other minority, Christians? Should we let these horrible things to be repeated in India, the land of accommodation and tolerance, which our forefathers carved as a secular, democratic, Republic? Should we allow the heritage of age old India to be spoiled and ruined by the BJP (Bharatya Janata Party), and it's the political arm the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh)?

Fortunately, in India the youth are up against arms in this respect continually carrying out agitations and protest marches in the face of police atrocities and thousand lies of repeated assurances from the ruling elite. Even women have come out of their homes to protest. Yes, Union government can bulldoze and try to implement these laws, but they cannot do it against the will of the public. Regional and opposition parties in nine States namely Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Andra Pradesh have declared that they will not implement these draconian laws.

Let us hope and pray that the time tested secular spirit of India will triumph against such divisive forces and its people can live in peace proudly as Indians.

God bless India!