Have you ever looked around and thought to yourself that there’s so much evil that it seems like there’s hell on earth? It seems like violence, lust, anger, dishonesty, and discord have become the norm. Or has it? Is there still positivity among us despite the steady stream of negativity? In the last part of…
Righteous Determination Forges a Pathway to God’s Kingdom
Our environment is filled with things that test our character. Sometimes, we successfully overcome these things, and other times, we fall short and fail. Yet failure isn’t necessarily the end of the road; through determination, we can still find ourselves favorable to God. We continue our story of John Milton’s “Paradise Lost.” Raphael has finished…
The Natural, Benevolent State of Creativity
John Milton was blind by the time he wrote “Paradise Lost” in 1667. Throughout the text, he occasionally calls out to a “Heav’nly Muse” to inspire him to tell the story of human sin, as he does at the beginning of the book. He opens Book VII with a call to the Heavenly Muse who…
Abdiel and Lucifer on the Question of Freedom
What is freedom? Is freedom the ability to do whatever we want whenever we want? Or is freedom directly connected to our ability to control ourselves? Does freedom occur when we can guarantee equal outcomes for all? Or does freedom have more to do with recognizing the supremacy of God’s righteousness? As we continue our…
Formulating Questions: Archangel Raphael Converses with Adam and Eve
In a world that rewards being right, it is very difficult to not pursue and parrot answers. We even take pride in being right, in having the “right” answer. Some of us even use what we believe to be right to bully and beat those we think are wrong: After all, why would we adopt…
The Power of Our Inner Righteousness: Satan Concedes to Heaven’s Might
Evil things are frightening to many of us unless we are experiencing them from a distance. Sometimes it can be difficult to have the confidence to turn toward and confront evil. How might we truly identify evil and confront it with confidence? Deceptive Satan Inspires Discord In the last article of this series, we followed…
Searching for Evil Within Ourselves: God’s Angels Look for Satan in the Garden of Eden
We continue to follow Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and Gustav Doré’s accompanying illustrations. In the last part of our series, Milton’s Satan came upon God’s creation: two human beings, Adam and Eve, enjoying the fruits of paradise. The archangel Uriel, who unwittingly pointed out Earth to a disguised Satan, hurries to the archangel Gabriel to warn…
The Divine Nature of Human Beings: Milton’s Satan in Awe
Our series “Illustrious Ideas and Illustrations: The Imagery of Gustav Doré” has shown the evil ways of Satan as he has vowed to take revenge on God. We’ve seen in our last article, that after having a difficult internal struggle in which he determinedly decides to continue defying God, Satan comes upon the paradise of…
The Absence of Humility and Gratitude: Milton’s Satan in Torment
Throughout our series “Illustrious ideas and illustrations: The imagery of Gustav Doré,” we’ve had the opportunity to take a deep look at how Milton saw Satan. Satan, the father of Sin and Death, has been shown as synonymous with pride, vanity, deception, and revenge. There’s still more to understand about Milton’s conception of Satan. Continuing…
Lies Masquerading as Truth: Milton’s Satan Heads to Earth
In the last part of our extensive series “Illustrious Ideas and Illustrations: The Imagery of Gustav Doré,” we saw Satan confront his children, Sin and Death, at the gates of Hell as told by John Milton in his epic poem “Paradise Lost.” Sin and Death agree to let Satan pass out of the gates of…
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