Season 3 Podcast 42 Book II Paradise Lost Hell's Gate Poet's Corner

Paradise Lost Hell’s Gate A poet, especially a genius such as John Milton, has a gift of language that can make the most abstract concepts concrete through figurative imagery.  In our religious jargon we speak of Satan, of sin, of death, and of hell sometime with very abstract language.  They are a kind of vague abstraction that takes on different meanings under different circumstances.For example, in the scriptures sin exists only as a violation of the laws of God. If there were no laws, there would be no sin.  As Paul said,“Because the law worketh wrath: for where no laws is, there is no transgression.” (Romans 4:15We do not fully understand sin except through experience of the consequences, either ours or the experience of someone else. Recently Linda and I did a Podcast using Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner in which the Mariner spends his life relating his sad tale so that other don’t have to go through what he went through.  His experience was truly frightening, and he didn’t want anyone else to suffer the way he suffered.Of course, as Christians, we know that is exactly what Christ did for us. Unlike the Ancient Mariner, however, Christ was innocent. Nevertheless, he suffered for our sins in Gethsemane. It was so horrible that he sweat great drops of blood. In effect he suffered so that we don’t have to if we accept his atonement.John Milton, however, is not defining sin by listing the commandments of God.  Milton is personifying sin so we can see in our mind’s eye how hideously ugly she is. He does the same with death.  Paradise Lost begins as Lucifer and his Angels are cast out of heaven for rebelling against Christ. In Hell Mammon builds a kingdom patterned after the kingdom of heaven. It is made of gold and precious stones.  Lucifer calls a council of War on how to take revenge on Christ for being cast out of heaven. It is then that they decide to continue the war against man on earth.  However, the demons are locked in hell and only Sin has the Key. Satan volunteers to open the gates of hell and lead his angels to earth in their war against man. The others remain idle in hell as Lucifer travels alone to Hell’s Gate.