Ramon Arias | January 13, 2014
One day America will wake up to the awful reality that it changed her unique and exceptional foundation of 1620 for one no different than the society of Dante’s inferno. What remains to be answered is, does America have the will to reconnect with the greatest treasure brought by the Pilgrim and Puritan visionaries of having a great society that would change the world for future generations?
Since then, unfortunately, men and women with another worldview whose ideas are to keep societies in Dante’s nine circles of hell have rewritten America’s original history; ignorance of the past is their byword. They are aware that the less people know of the Biblical history of this nation the easier it will be to dumb down their minds and mold them into a vision of a dreadful society much like Dante’s Inferno.
Dante’s understanding of his generation is revealed by circles of: Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Wrath, Heresy, Violence, Fraud and Treachery. If Dante could only have envisioned what modern and postmodern societies would do to the unborn children he would have included the circle of the murder of children in the mother’s womb.
Perhaps in the seventh circle: Violence, he could have included infanticide. Or as the politician’s and much of the people of the European Union now preferred to call abortion “a human right.” Violence in Dante’s seventh circle includes: violence against others, violence against oneself and violence against God or nature.
In the eighth circle he describes: seduction, simony (commercializing sacred Christian objects), sorcery and soothsaying, barratry (one definition is bringing unreasonable lawsuits), hypocrisy, theft, evil counsel, sundering (breaking something apart or divisions), deceit and forgery.
Dante wrote his poem or Divine Comedy in the 14th Christian century to reveal society’s decadence in his time. In spite of his narrow biblical worldview and mixing ideas with mythology we cannot ignore his grasp of people’s corrupt lives with earthly and eternal consequences. He wanted to communicate the destructive organized power of sin in the lives of people regardless of their social status, that if not changed or rejected there are severe consequences to pay for that rebellion against God’s order of things. No one escapes from His inferno; no matter if you are the pope, a church leader (priests at all levels of hierarchy), kings, elite class, rich or poor, no one escapes the consequences of their deeds!
Dante’s vision of hell (Inferno is the Italian word for Hell) is an urgent call for society in general to return to God. A journey that is desperately needed in any society if that society is going to reclaim its mental sanity for a better and brighter future and pull out of the darkness created by man’s sinful actions.
Some may say, “Come on this is the 21st century. You do not expect anyone to pay attention to a 14th Century writer.” My answer to you is simple. For thousands of years humans have been applying ideas to improve their lives, the problem is most of those ideas are written by philosophers, poets, and intellectuals whose ideas are polluted with corruption and sin.
I know, now you will say, “but sin and hell are not even dealt with in our times.” Correct, however, Dante’s subject is not invalidated just because our postmodern times say so. In Dante’s Inferno he wrote that at the entrance of hell was an inscription “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” Just because most of Christianity has abandoned the teachings of sin and hell it does not mean their effects are not felt. All you have to do is stop, look, and listen.
Ignoring sin does not remove its effects. King David, though he was a man after God’s own heart, let down his guard and committed adultery and murder by killing Bathsheba’s husband along with others in order to conceal his affair and her pregnancy. Of course David was concerned of the consequences for adultery and murder. He knew they were sins that carried the death penalty. When he assumed his diabolically inspired plan had succeeded God sent a prophet to expose David’s sins and pronounce the negative judicial sanctions for his sins (read 2 Samuel Chapters 11 and 12).
Even though God favored David, David did not escape God’s negative judicial sanctions. The same principle applies to any society and nation. David did what everyone, including Christian America, should do and that is to repent and return to a right standing with God:
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart”
(Read the rest of this Psalm from a repentant David, Psalm 51).
America is rapidly reflecting Dante’s Inferno by leaps and bounds. Only Christians can stop the judgment that is coming to America because of her sins and the social hell it has produced. Christians need to be reminded and cautioned of the kind of nation they are leaving to their children and their children’s children. Personal responsibility before God and man is required along with removing sin from the personal life.
The Treasure brought to these shores by the Pilgrims and Puritans in 1620 was the Word of God, which was to be applied in all areas of life. No true Christian should wait for others to start the journey back to the God of the Bible for it is an individual decision and determination to fix things when your journey begins. There is no need to ask others where you need to start, ask the One who saved you. He will guide you step by step. You must make the difference in this world with what God has gifted you. God is faithful and will not waste His investment in you. No price required will be too large to pay when restoring America to her rightful destiny. It is not about us, it’s about the future God intended for the nation and the world.
Am I advocating that you read Dante’s Inferno? Not really. All you need to do is open your eyes and ears to understand that the America of the forefathers and founding fathers is almost gone! Determine to be a serious student of the full counsel of God revealed in His Word.
The hellish society we now see in America is the doing of past generations and the present one as well. Christians must stop looking for a messiah, savior, and imperial king among men. They do not save, they enslave. They cannot give the kind of freedom only God can give. They cannot make you rich only poor if you do not belong to their elite circle. There is only One true Messiah, Savior, Lord and King—Jesus Christ, and no one else. His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, deal with it!