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Iceland Converts to Christianity.
We Christians are quite used to God Who uses earthquakes, fire, flood, famine and frogs* to punish the evil doers, but some may find it surprising that He also uses these things to bring people to him.
It has now been confirmed that this happened in Iceland – a horrible country before God and now an even worse one that is populated by abominations and ruled by moral delinquents.
Nevertheless, God mercifully gave Iceland every chance to be Saved and when He felt that resistance had to be overcome, He sent the most awesome volcanic flood of burning lava to demonstrate what Hell is really like.
This did the job, and Iceland became Christian via this huge and very public Miracle.
God so loved the Icelanders that he was willing to lose millions of His dearest creations all over the world, that the Icelanders might see His Truth.
It is a great pity that Iceland has now rejected God Who took so much trouble to set them on the Path to Heaven, and has reverted to the former ways of old gods, false prophets by being the Sodom and Gomorrah of the Northern Hemisphere.
I hope that their intransigence and hatred of God can be changed, as I have no doubt that God is again becoming impatient with these neo-pagans and millions will die.
Anyway: on to the report:
*Note to self = “Is the “F” a coincidence or a sign? If it is, what is it a sign of?”
It has now been confirmed that this happened in Iceland – a horrible country before God and now an even worse one that is populated by abominations and ruled by moral delinquents.
Nevertheless, God mercifully gave Iceland every chance to be Saved and when He felt that resistance had to be overcome, He sent the most awesome volcanic flood of burning lava to demonstrate what Hell is really like.
This did the job, and Iceland became Christian via this huge and very public Miracle.
God so loved the Icelanders that he was willing to lose millions of His dearest creations all over the world, that the Icelanders might see His Truth.
It is a great pity that Iceland has now rejected God Who took so much trouble to set them on the Path to Heaven, and has reverted to the former ways of old gods, false prophets by being the Sodom and Gomorrah of the Northern Hemisphere.
I hope that their intransigence and hatred of God can be changed, as I have no doubt that God is again becoming impatient with these neo-pagans and millions will die.
Anyway: on to the report:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...0319090740.htm
Memories of the largest lava flood in the history of Iceland, recorded in an apocalyptic medieval poem, were used to drive the island's conversion to Christianity, new research suggests.
[The] researchers found that Iceland's most celebrated medieval poem, which describes the end of the pagan gods and the coming of a new, singular god, describes the eruption and uses memories of it to stimulate the Christianisation of Iceland.
The eruption of the Eldgjá in the tenth century is known as a lava flood: … accompanied by a haze of sulphurous gases
It was a colossal event with around 20 cubic kilometres of lava erupted -- enough to cover all of England up to the ankles.
The Cambridge-led team pinpointed the date of the eruption … around the spring of 939 and continued at least through the autumn of 940.
Once they had a date for the Eldgjá eruption, the team then investigated its consequences. First, a haze of sulphurous dust spread across Europe, recorded as sightings of an exceptionally blood-red and weakened Sun in Irish, German and Italian chronicles from the same period.
Then the climate cooled as the dust layer reduced the amount of sunlight reaching the surface, which is evident from tree rings from across the Northern Hemisphere
"It was a massive eruption, but we were still amazed just how abundant the historical evidence is for the eruption's consequences," said co-author Dr Tim Newfield, from Georgetown University's Departments of History and Biology. "Human suffering in the wake of Eldgjá was widespread. From northern Europe to northern China, people experienced long, hard winters and severe spring-summer drought. Locust infestations and livestock mortalities occurred. Famine did not set in everywhere, but in the early 940s we read of starvation and vast mortality in parts of Germany, Iraq and China."
But Iceland's most celebrated medieval poem, Voluspá ('The prophecy of the seeress') does appear to give an impression of what the eruption was like. The poem, which can be dated as far back as 961, foretells the end of Iceland's pagan gods and the coming of a new, singular god: in other words, the conversion of Iceland to Christianity, which was formalized around the turn of the eleventh century.
Part of the poem describes a terrible eruption with fiery explosions lighting up the sky, and the Sun obscured by thick clouds of ash and steam:
"The sun starts to turn black, land sinks into sea; the bright stars scatter from the sky. Steam spurts up with what nourishes life, flame flies high against heaven itself."
The poem also depicts cold summers that would be expected after a massive eruption, …
The poem's apocalyptic imagery marks the fiery end to the world of the old gods. The researchers suggest that these lines in the poem may have been intended to rekindle harrowing memories of the eruption to stimulate the massive religious and cultural shift taking place in Iceland in the last decades of the tenth century.
"With a firm date for the eruption, many entries in medieval chronicles snap into place as likely consequences -- sightings in Europe of an extraordinary atmospheric haze; severe winters; and cold summers, poor harvests; and food shortages," said Oppenheimer. "But most striking is the almost eyewitness style in which the eruption is depicted in Voluspá.
The poem's interpretation as a prophecy of the end of the pagan gods and their replacement by the one, singular god, suggests that memories of this terrible volcanic eruption were purposefully provoked [Edit - by God] to stimulate the Christianization of Iceland."
Volcanic eruption influenced Iceland's conversion to Christianity
Memories of the largest lava flood in the history of Iceland, recorded in an apocalyptic medieval poem, were used to drive the island's conversion to Christianity, new research suggests.
[The] researchers found that Iceland's most celebrated medieval poem, which describes the end of the pagan gods and the coming of a new, singular god, describes the eruption and uses memories of it to stimulate the Christianisation of Iceland.
The eruption of the Eldgjá in the tenth century is known as a lava flood: … accompanied by a haze of sulphurous gases
It was a colossal event with around 20 cubic kilometres of lava erupted -- enough to cover all of England up to the ankles.
The Cambridge-led team pinpointed the date of the eruption … around the spring of 939 and continued at least through the autumn of 940.
Once they had a date for the Eldgjá eruption, the team then investigated its consequences. First, a haze of sulphurous dust spread across Europe, recorded as sightings of an exceptionally blood-red and weakened Sun in Irish, German and Italian chronicles from the same period.
Then the climate cooled as the dust layer reduced the amount of sunlight reaching the surface, which is evident from tree rings from across the Northern Hemisphere
"It was a massive eruption, but we were still amazed just how abundant the historical evidence is for the eruption's consequences," said co-author Dr Tim Newfield, from Georgetown University's Departments of History and Biology. "Human suffering in the wake of Eldgjá was widespread. From northern Europe to northern China, people experienced long, hard winters and severe spring-summer drought. Locust infestations and livestock mortalities occurred. Famine did not set in everywhere, but in the early 940s we read of starvation and vast mortality in parts of Germany, Iraq and China."
But Iceland's most celebrated medieval poem, Voluspá ('The prophecy of the seeress') does appear to give an impression of what the eruption was like. The poem, which can be dated as far back as 961, foretells the end of Iceland's pagan gods and the coming of a new, singular god: in other words, the conversion of Iceland to Christianity, which was formalized around the turn of the eleventh century.
Part of the poem describes a terrible eruption with fiery explosions lighting up the sky, and the Sun obscured by thick clouds of ash and steam:
"The sun starts to turn black, land sinks into sea; the bright stars scatter from the sky. Steam spurts up with what nourishes life, flame flies high against heaven itself."
The poem also depicts cold summers that would be expected after a massive eruption, …
The poem's apocalyptic imagery marks the fiery end to the world of the old gods. The researchers suggest that these lines in the poem may have been intended to rekindle harrowing memories of the eruption to stimulate the massive religious and cultural shift taking place in Iceland in the last decades of the tenth century.
"With a firm date for the eruption, many entries in medieval chronicles snap into place as likely consequences -- sightings in Europe of an extraordinary atmospheric haze; severe winters; and cold summers, poor harvests; and food shortages," said Oppenheimer. "But most striking is the almost eyewitness style in which the eruption is depicted in Voluspá.
The poem's interpretation as a prophecy of the end of the pagan gods and their replacement by the one, singular god, suggests that memories of this terrible volcanic eruption were purposefully provoked [Edit - by God] to stimulate the Christianization of Iceland."
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