Abaddon

Foreward

Listen to me in silence, O coastlands; let the peoples renew their strength; let them approach, then let them speak; let us together draw near for judgment.

Isaiah 41:1

It all started on a peaceful day at Lake Abaddon in the shadow of Mount Abaddon. There is a town in the lake and it was simply called Abaddon. It was a small village dependent upon the tourism of the lake, the hiking trails, and the farming around it.

People often came to Abaddon to be married on the shore of the lake with the mountain as a witness to the union. It was a beautiful, peaceful backdrop; a tranquil lake, ringed by evergreens, and the mountain looming in the background.

The area has always teamed with legends centered around the mountain, that it was not merely a mountain but the home of a fallen angel, the home of a demon. The legend that the fallen angel, Abaddon the Destroyer, lived in the mountain was relegated to jokes by parents to scare small children. “Be good or Abaddon will get you! He lives in the mountain! I’ll have him come out!”

The truth, at least the truth according to the history and science books, was the mountain received its name because it was a volcano in the past. It had once erupted and destroyed everything in its path for miles. Everyone intuitively knew it was a volcano. The cone-like shape gave it away. The Black Hills had volcanic origins and the entire region was filled with extinct volcanoes and their remnants. When the paleontologists came, they found the fossils. The fossils showed utter, total, and sudden destruction. The skeletons of animals that would never have coexisted in life were mingled in death. Death came quickly to them. Mount Abaddon was considered extinct because it had not erupted in recent memory of the people who crossed the ocean. No one expected it to erupt again, but the rumblings around it in the past few months made us wonder otherwise. Geologists from all over had started to come to the village. They came with their instruments and the children who lived and vacationed in Abaddon were eager to feel useful and help them out. They were more fun than the paleontologists at times. They at least allowed us to do more than just carry buckets of dirt. They liked hearing the children tell the legends of the mountain and the people who lived around it.

Abaddon and its surrounding area are the stuff of legends, but to the various scientists, Abaddon was just the name of a mountain. Nothing lived in it. Certainly no demon lived in it, no matter what the legends said. Abaddon was just the name of the mountain, the lake, and the village. The area around the mountain was teeming with life. Plenty of fish lived in the lake and plenty of people fished from it. Waterfowl found the lake a wonderful buffet of fish and insects. Plenty of people lived around it. The evergreens growing around it masked the destruction that had taken place here so long ago. New animals roamed around the lake.On the day the story begins, Abaddon was just a quiet village where people went to get away from the cities. It was so peaceful that one could easily forget the violent origins of its name, or the violent being that gave the area its name. Who could think of demons while sailing on the lake or splashing in its waters? Who could think of a sudden death by fire, ash, and sulfurous clouds? The violence was so long ago, and the area was so peaceful. Abaddon was now another name for a peaceful area that people flocked to for a reprieve from the everyday routine.

I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.

Ezekiel 34:25