In 1493 a history of the world was published in Germany, just a year after Columbus discovered America. The book didn’t end with that; in fact it didn’t even mention it. It did end with a drawing of the Last Day, showing Christ as Judge sitting upon a rainbow. There was a lily in his right ear to symbolize the redeemed whom the angels were ushering into paradise. There was a sword in his left ear to represent the doom of the damned whom the devils were dragging by the hair from their graves and throwing into the flames of hell.

This drawing appeared in several books of the period. Luther had seen pictures like it and said he was utterly terrified at the thought of Christ as his judge.

Today, five centuries later, I suppose we all feel such a notion of God is too primitive for the enlight…