Permission To Move Hell

Looking through my pictures of the inside of the old church at the museum park (see Unexpected Flashbacks), I also spotted this one (above). I have thought of posting about it before, but never got round to it.

In old churches with painted ceilings you often find Heavenly pictures, with clouds and angels. You can see an example of that in one of the photos in yesterday’s post, over the pulpit.

Sometimes, at the back of the church, like here over the organ balcony, they also included illustrations of Judgment Day and/or Hell.

In the village where I lived as a child, we had that kind of church. It was a stone church, not a wooden one. But it had a painted ceiling including both Heaven and Hell. Now my family weren’t churchgoers, so I didn’t get to (or have to) look at those pictures very often. I’m not sure I even ever took any particular notice of Hell (which just like in the photo above was situated over the organ balcony) until in junior high school I got a teacher who came from the same parish, and who loved to tell a story about it. It took place before we kids were even born. I don’t remember all the details now, but in the mid 20th century, the church was to go through a major restoration. I think the building was to be made longer, and the tower added. Anyway, it involved the old painted ceiling in a way which caused headlines in the newspapers: “Will X (=name of the parish) be allowed to move Hell?” And after long – and I presume heated! – discussions in the episcopate council or whereever such things are decided, the answer was presented in new headlines: “X allowed to move Hell”. 

No small achievement for a country village church!

But of course the Church has always believed in the right to stir up both Heaven and Hell:

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.

(Matthew 27:50-52, NIV)

 

The Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty,

creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried;

he descended into hell.

On the third day he rose again;

he ascended into heaven,

he is seated at the right hand of the Father,

and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting.

Amen.

(Common Worship translation, Church of England 2000)

The earliest appearance of the full text we know as the Apostles' Creed is from around 710. Shorter versions go back much further.

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PS. Yes, I’m moving this post up from earlier in the week. Since I also had another post that day, I think some of the regular readers perhaps missed this one. (If hell can be moved once, why not twice?)

Computer Resurrection

Four months ago, after getting my new laptop (which I’m glad to say still works just fine), I ventured an over-optimistic experiment with my old (W.Vista) one. I tried to install an extra keyboard on it, with the disastrous result that it suddenly refused commands from any keyboard. I could not even type in the password. It was a complete deadlock situation - with Windows. Fortunately, though, I also had the alternative system Ubuntu installed on it. And Ubuntu had no problems with the keyboard. So I’ve still been able to use it for some emailing and blog reading.

On and off it has kept bugging me though that I’ve not been able to access Windows on it since that is where I had most documents etc stored.

Yesterday I got it into my head again to give it another go and see if I could fix it somehow. And I did, but I don’t know how!

The manual only had a few lines of cryptic info about how to restore the system “without recovery CDs” which seemed to mean losing everything I had added and changed since I bought it. Nothing about how to restore things with  back-up discs that I actually had.

In a stroke of desperation though, I put one of my last back-up discs into the computer anyway, before pressing the start button. Then the machine told me that for unknown reason it couldn’t start but asked me if I wanted it to search for what was wrong? I said yes please (which I could do with a mouseclick, didn’t have to use the keyboard).

It rattled on for a bit, and then there was the log-in box – and suddenly it did allow me to type in the keyword! After that, all was back to normal. Obviously the problem was fixed. I don’t think it had anything to do with the files on that back-up disc. I could probably just as well have put any old CD in. (?)

I’m not risking more trouble by trying that old keyboard again, though. So I’ve decided to invest in another wireless one instead (not to have to keep moving the one I already have between the two computers).

Another piece of good news on the computer front is that I also got my documents and photos and music from the crashed XP desktop back recently. My brother managed to salvage them and put them on an external hard drive for me.

The Trees Are Happy Again

Do you remember my “ghost trees” from a month ago? If you want to refresh your memory, click on the link. The post was about Bird Cherry Ermine caterpillars eating all the leaves of the Bird Cherry trees and spinning weird-looking webs all over the place to protect themselves, leaving the trees all grey and ghostlike. I felt shudders down my back every time I passed – so I have been avoiding that path for a while.

Until today. By now I did suspect that the caterpillars would be gone – turned into new little moths. What I had not expected was that at first sight no one would believe there had been anything at all going on here only a few weeks ago!!! The trees have all grown new fresh green leaves; and the berries are turning black (see the picture in the bottom left hand corner of the collage), bearing witness that we are going towards the maturity of the autumn season soon. (Seems the caterpillars don’t eat the fruits, only the leaves?) Only on close inspection could I detect a few remnants of old deserted webs here and there (see the picture to the right.)

I gave the opinion in the previous post that “Some things In Nature are just Strange”. Have to add now that not only is Nature strange, but it also hides (and sometimes reveals) amazing abilities to repair itself!

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²⁰For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹that^[i] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

²²We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

From Paul’s Letter to the Romans, Chapter 8

       You will go out in joy
       and be led forth in peace;
       the mountains and hills
       will burst into song before you,
       and all the trees of the field
       will clap their hands.

    Isaiah 55:12

Resurrection part 2: The Beskows

In Saturday’s Resurrection post I presented some people who were “raised from the dead”  in one of our local graveyards last week to give a history lesson to the public gathered there.

This post is about three people that I excluded from the previous one because I needed to do a bit more research before presenting them to you (or else it would just have been more pictures of the same actors dressed in different clothes).

Only one of them was actually buried in this town (or lived here): Emanuel Beskow, a dean of some importance in the church back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Better known locally than nation-wide. There is no Wikipedia article about him.

But he did have a couple of relatives by the same surname – Beskow - that were more famous: Nathanael and Elsa. And they were invited to the “resurrection party” too:

  

 
Photo of the real Nathanael and Elsa, 1937

Natanael Beskow (1865 – 1953) was a Swedish theologian and school headmaster. He was also active as a preacher, writer, artist, pacifist and social activist. He published a number of collections of sermons and also made substantial contributions as a hymn writer. He was involved with the campaign for women's suffrage in Sweden (which was granted in 1919), and with the labor unions. Beskow was a radical pacifist and also became a prominent negotiator. He was even nominated for the Nobel peace prize in 1947 (but did not get it).

His wife Elsa Beskow (née Maartman) (1874 – 1953) was a Swedish author and illustrator of children's books. She studied art at a university college. She met Nathanael when she was teaching at a school where he was the headmaster. They got married in 1897. They had six sons.

In her books, Elsa frequently combined reality with elements from the fairy tale world. Children meet elves or goblins, and animals talk with people. Central themes were the relationships between children and adults and children's independent initiative.

Elsa became one of the most well known of all Swedish children's book artists. Many of her books became classics and are continually reprinted.

Searching for images on the web, I found that quite a few of her books have been translated into English. Like these, which I remember well from my own childhood (in Swedish):

Did you ever come across any of these books?

Resurrection

Now where are all these people headed on a warm summer evening?

A graveyard chapel? You must be kidding?
Doesn’t really look like a funeral…

Actually it’s rather the opposite of a funeral.
More like a Resurrection!

Guests of honour arriving from the past: A 19th century district judge with his wife, greeted by a woman journalist from their own time; she too brought back from the dead to do one more scoop.

Must be an odd feeling looking at one’s own headstone…

So, what’s going on? It is a live history lesson: a guided tour around a 19th century graveyard. Represented by actors, some old prominent citizens are brought back to life for a short visit, to be interviewed and tell us a bit about their own lives, and the history of the town.

The resurrected old car they arrived in. (No use asking me for car details; I don’t have them.)

Another guy risen from his grave – local artist and art teacher John Hedaeus (1872-1967). I managed to find only two of his paintings on the internet. He also did some paintings in churches.

Left: Watercolour by John Hedaeus
Right: Oil painting by John Hedaeus

 
Another (less well known) artist, son of the journalist who was our guide for the evening, also turned up to “surprise his mum”, and escort her back to their own grave:

 

Actually three more people were “raised from the dead” on this Tuesday evening, but I think I’ll let these photos be enough for one blog post.

However, with a theme like this I can’t resist also “doing a Ginny” at the end (referring to my friend of the blog Let Your Light Shine), and finish off with a Bible quote:

“… we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.”
2 Corinthians 4:14