Unconditional surrender

 

Gustave Doré Death on the Pale Horse (1865)

 

 Surrender up to me thy captive breath;

My pow'r is nature's pow'r, my name is Death.

 

-- Walter Harte 

Bogged down in the quagmire of tarnation

The Frenchman Gustave Dore's illustrations of Dante's Inferno date to 1857, in one of which he shows damned traitors in the ninth circle of hell, frozen in the mythological river Cocytus around Hades, imagined rather as a lake shallow enough for his scene, and reminiscent of a bog, what the English in the mid-18th century called a tarn. 

Tollund Man is a famous example of a bog body, dating from ~400 BC, found well-preserved in a Danish peat bog in 1950. He died by hanging, as did a number of the many bog bodies which have been discovered in Northern Europe, found as they were with the nooses still around their necks. Some of these bodies also show other signs of violence.

You might say something rotten was found in Denmark. 

Bogs, swamps, and marshes have also been associated for centuries with ghosts, fairies, and spirits of one kind or another, perhaps on the strength of the misinterpretation of the natural phenomenon of the occasional ghost light seen at night in bogs. The elusive lights are due to ignition of gases from the decay of organic matter. The ghost light is known as the ignis fatuus or foolish flame, among many other names used for the phenomenon around the world.    

The word tarnation is first used in literature as far as we know from the pen of the Bostonian Royall Tyler in his 1787 play The Contrast. Etymologists plausibly style its origin merely as a North American euphemism for damnation and do not associate it with tarns. 

Perhaps it's more complicated, and more simple, than that. 

Replace "Catholics" with "Lutherans" and the same was true

 Until the middle of the 20th century, it was assumed by most Catholics that most (if not all) non-Catholics were destined for eternal hellfire. ... Catholics felt a duty to work for the conversion of non-Catholics ... Catholics were wary of becoming too culturally close to non-Catholics. “Mixed marriages” were verboten, and Catholics tended to live together in small neighborhoods (the Catholic “ghetto”) in order to protect the faith of their impressionable children.

More.

Remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things

 

All the tribes of the earth shall mourn

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn (καὶ τότε κόψονται πᾶσαι αἱ φυλαὶ τῆς γῆς), and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 

-- Matthew 24:30

Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him (καὶ κόψονται ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν πᾶσαι αἱ φυλαὶ τῆς γῆς). Even so, Amen. 

-- Revelation 1:7

An eternity of extremes of fire and ice in hell

Thither by harpy-footed Furies hal'd,

At certain revolutions, all the damn'd

Are brought, and feel by turns the bitter change

Of fierce extremes,—extremes by change more fierce;

From beds of raging fire to starve in ice

Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine

Immoveable, infix'd, and frozen round

Periods of time; thence hurried back to fire.

-- John Milton

Paul's chutzpah: Chief of sinners says "I am pure from the blood of all men"

Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.

-- Acts 20:26

And Saul was consenting unto his death. 

-- Acts 8:1

And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him.

-- Acts 22:20

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

-- 1 Timothy 1:15

Ideological religion: Jesus as terrible simplifier

 

Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

-- Luke 10:38ff.

The Children Of Hell

Gustave Dore "Hypocrites" in Circle 8

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves."

-- Matthew 23:15

The Imagination Of Man's Heart Is Evil From His Youth

 

 

The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.

-- Genesis 8:21

One Thing Needful, Or Two?

 

Two things I ask of thee; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, "Who is the LORD?" or lest I be poor, and steal, and profane the name of my God.

-- Proverbs 30:7ff.

And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving; and she went to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her."

-- Luke 10:39ff.

Sorrow is better than laughter, Mourning better than mirth

For the trials and travails of the week that was, for the intemperate threats of an immature Kim Jong Un, for the annual reckoning that is tax day, for the two-day collapse in gold prices, for the inconvenience of a local power outage, for old friends who no longer act like it, for the Boston Marathon Terror Massacre, for the death of a loved one in the family far away, for the passing and funeral of Margaret Thatcher, for torrential rains and winds and record-setting floods in West Michigan, the words of The Preacher:

"A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth."

-- Ecclesiastes 7:1ff

Who Rules The World, The Lord Or The Devil?

"He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S, and on them he has set the world."

-- 1 Samuel 2:8

"The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein."

-- Psalm 24:1

"Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God. ... If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof."

-- Psalm 50:7, 12

"The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them."

-- Psalm 89:11

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"Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out."

-- John 12:31

"I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me."

-- John 14:30

"[T]he ruler of this world is judged."

-- John 16:11

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

-- Ephesians 6:12