Author: newkingjim

For me, 2020 is going down as the year when mankind finally and totally closed the door on intelligent reasoning and unbiased facts. This is the year when post-truth thinking finally conquered the world. Truth no longer has meaning. Truth is whatever people decide it needs to be. Facts are assembled to promote whatever self-created truth we have chosen. Pontius Pilate asked, “What is truth?” Before Pilate asked, Jesus had already answered that question when he said, “For this reason I was born and have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice.”

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Here’s the second Revelation class.

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The Ruthwell Cross is a stone Anglo-Saxon cross probably dating from the 8th century. It’s one of the few structures that have survived from that time period. If the top half looks pieced back together, that’s because it was. An angry horde of presbyterians, also known as the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, decided that idolatrous monuments had no place in the country. The top half, containing some Catholic imagery, was destroyed. After 200 years, the pieces were gathered and put back together. Call it an 18th century jigsaw puzzle. The top cross piece was reconstructed.

The close up picture represents Christ as judge and the runic symbols going around him read “Christ was on the cross. Yet / the brave came there from afar / to their lord.” It’s arguable that the words were not part of the original cross design but were added later. What I find interesting in the history of this cross is how it was treated in the same way people treat the Bible. One group of believers found themselves compelled to add to the content of the cross. Another group hated it’s message so much they tried to destroy it. Yet the cross lives on despite these groups. And the Bible will as well..

This is the Lion Man. It is the oldest carved figurine in the history of the world, approximately 35,000 years old. Unless you don’t accept carbon dating. Then your guess is as good as mine. In general, scholars can’t determine if the figurine is a male or a female. Still, they call it Lion “Man” and not Lion Figurine. Or Lion Statue. The scholars also believe that the statue is likely a representation of a god or goddess.

Now, there may actually be older figurines, but either they didn’t survive or they haven’t been found yet. So they don’t count right now. As for the Lion Man, I think he has a special significance for people.

I believe he illustrates that the human obsession with idols goes back as far as the existence of modern humans. The urge to make images of our gods is deeply ingrained within us and helps us understand why God addressed this problem in the 2nd Commandment. “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.” That’s not something we think about in this modern era. However, most pastors would quickly point out that modern humans have their own kinds of idols. We don’t carve them anymore. But we print them on special paper that can’t be counterfeited. We idolize singers, actors, and athletes. We become addicted to them. The list goes on. God tells us not to make graven images. He means more than carving little figurines.

I’ve posted about some locations on our planet that are labelled as the Gates of Hell. Also, I’ve suggested that the Gates of Hell are easier to find than the Gates of Heaven. Let me finish with one more representation of hell, a sculpture by Rodin.

Rodin created this representation of the gates of hell after being inspired by Dante’s poem, The Inferno. I don’t think many people today are familiar with The Inferno. They may have heard of it, but very few have actually read it. It is not full of action heroes. It does not have romance or comedy. It does not have transporter beams or light sabers. Actually, it’s a very depressing picture of people suffering in hell. I write about the sculpture and the poem because we need to think about hell.

Today’s world doesn’t pay much attention to hell. As the standard argument goes, a good and loving God would never send people to a place of eternal torture. The other side of that argument, though, would say that a good and loving God could never allow evil, sinful, hateful people into a place that is supposed to be free of evil, sin, and hate. It’s a classic problem. How does God solve it? First, he provides a way for sinful people to be cleansed and made holy. Secondly, he gives people the freedom to choose to be cleansed and made holy. Last, he provides a place for people who choose not to be cleansed and made holy. As Dante wrote about the gates:

“Through me the way into the suffering city,
Through me the way to the eternal pain,
Through me the way that runs among the lost.
Justice urged on my high artificer;
My Maker was Divine authority,
The highest Wisdom, and the primal Love.
Before me nothing but eternal things
Were made, and I endure eternally.
Abandon every hope, who enter here.“

I posted earlier about a place in Turkey where there are miraculous healing pools. Very close to these healing pools is a slightly different place, a place known as the Gates of Hell. Documentaries have explained how animals were sacrificed by walking them into the gate. The animals soon died, but the humans did not. The picture above shows how the gate looks now, but here’s an idea of what it looked like in ancient days.

The ‘steam’ coming from the mouth is sulfurous gas, which is what killed the animals. The sulfur generally stayed close to the surface of the water, which was effective in killing the smaller animals and sparing the humans. Of course, if you were short statured, you were out of luck. And this explains at least one of the reasons giraffes were not used as sacrificial animals here.

One last observation. There are a number of other places in the world where there are gates to hell. One is the Flaming Door to Hell in Turkmenistan, a crater that has been burning for 40 years. Another is at Erta Ale in Ethiopia, which is called the “Gateway to Hell.” To put it in spiritual terms, there are many ways to hell on our planet.

Pamukkale is a place in Turkey that is famous for it’s terraced pools of healing water. People from all over the world travel there to bathe in the soothing waters that apparently cure all types of illnesses. While I’m not a big believer in miraculous icons or religious sites, I have to admit that if I were in Turkey I would take a dip in those waters. On the other hand, I ask myself, if there are so many places in the world that miraculously heal people, why are there still so many sick people in the world? Part of the answer is simply the nature of human beings. We are not meant to live forever in this world or this body. There’s a better world and a better body awaiting us. Strangely enough, right next to these heavenly healing water are the gates of hell. More about those later.