DOES LEAVEN ALWAYS REPRESENT SIN?

DOES LEAVEN REPRESENT SIN?

Does Leaven, according to Scripture, represent sin? The answer is yes and no. More definitively, the appropriate Scripturally-based answer for the use of leaven as a metaphor is yes, often, but sometimes no. The metaphor of leaven must be qualified as to source and age, as there are Scriptural references both to leaven as sinful and as welcome to believers.

Metaphorically, leaven in the context of Scripture represents the multiplication through propagation of something such as a spoken word that spreads through a crowd from mouth to mouth. The bread in Jesus’ feeding of the multitudes was itself a metaphor for the spread of His Word; in that event, the metaphorical leaven was the hand-to-hand distribution of the bread as well as the mouth-to-mouth distribution of His Word. (Refer to Part Five of Family of God, Appendix 2 of Marching to a Worthy Drummer, or Chapter Eighteen of the novel Cathy for details of Jesus’ feeding process.)

Jesus’ comments to His disciples in Mark 8:13-21 regarding the feeding of the multitudes includes mention of leaven, illustrating the importance of the qualifier He used with respect to that word:

“And [Jesus] left them and, entering into the boat again, departed to the other side. Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the boat with them more than one loaf. And he charged them, saying, Take heed. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread. And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? Perceive ye not yet, nor understand? Have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes, see ye not? And having ears, hear ye not? And do ye not remember? When I broke the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve. And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven. And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?”

Jesus had just fed the multitudes. In doing so, He metaphorically demonstrated the leaven-like multiplication of His Word along with the physical multiplication of bread. The leaven in that sense was of God, and so was anything but evil. In talking with His disciples, His also used the word “leaven” in a negative sense, connoting evil. But in doing so, He specifically qualified that word with “of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod”. Like old leaven, the teachings of the Pharisees and of Herod were contaminated versions of the Word of God.

In Leviticus 23:6 is found another indication of bad leaven:

“And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.”

Indeed, Jewish tradition called for a thorough housecleaning prior to this feast, where every nook and cranny would be swept clean of all traces of the old leaven. But throughout the year before this event the leaven in the house had aged and probably was contaminated with many airborne substances.

This tradition probably contributed much to the notion that a lack of leaven represented purity. Many Christian “authorities” are prone to proclaiming that leaven across the board is symbolic of sin. They go too far, overgeneralizing a frequent but not exclusive representation, neglecting for example the very important passage in Leviticus 23:15-17:

“And ye shall count unto you from the next day after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete: even unto the next day after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days and ye shall offer a new meal offering unto the Lord.

“Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth parts; they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven; they are the first fruits unto the Lord.”

This is the feast of Pentecost, which looked forward to the filling of the new Church with the indwelling Holy Spirit fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection. The account of this blessed event is given in Acts 2:1-8:

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly here came a sound from heaven like a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because every man heard them speak in his own languate. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?”

It is possible that here the leaven represents the propagation of the Gospel through Spirit-filled Christians, a context in which leaven is far removed from sin.

CORRECTED VERSION – IS THIS ALL THE CHOICE WE GET?

 

 

 

[Note to the reader: earlier today I made a posting with the title below, but the text was an incomplete version; the completed version was on my thumb drive but didn’t get transferred in a timely manner.  My apologies.  The version below is what should have been posted to begin with.]

IS THIS ALL THE CHOICE WE GET?

From the way this election cycle is shaping up, we might be left with the choice of either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump for our next president of the United States. What kind of choice is that?

Clinton has an extremely shady past. Her Machiavellian acquisition of wealth and power at the expense and lives of others includes the Benghazi debacle that smacks of an unthinkable abandonment and the email scandal that reeks of a felonious placing of self before the interests of our country. But even before those more recent suggestions of malfeasance on a grand scale, she had left in the wake of her self-centered acquisition of power and wealth the Whitewater scandal and the death of associate Vince Foster that evoked a number of unanswered questions that suggest murder rather than the alleged suicide.

Machiavellian is a strong word. It implies a dark and deadly hunger for power that descends below normal humanity. It will be useful to explore the word in some detail. To that end, I have extracted from Part 3, Chapter 1 of my book Family of God information relevant to the association of darkness with Machiavelli:

“Truth perverted has the power to enslave us. In the two thousand years since the death of the innocent [Jesus] who was thrust before Pilate and evoked from the Roman the famous question “What is truth?”, battles have been fought and countless people have suffered in the struggle to define truth for gain. No one knew this with more clarity than Niccolo Machiavelli, the fifteenth century Florentine who set out in The Prince to describe the means by which an ambitious man might acquire and maintain power over others. It has been recognized for centuries as a handbook on deception and betrayal in which the manipulation of truth is wielded with the objective of obtaining unfair advantage over innocent people. This kind of self-service is the very antithesis of the Judeo-Christian God; it represents a horrifying death of the soul. Below, in his own words (translated by N. H. Thomson), Machiavelli relates a classic instance of the application of duplicity:

“In our own times, during the papacy of Alexander VI, Oliverotto of Fermo, who some years before had been left an orphan, and had been brought up by his maternal uncle Giovanni Fogliani, was sent while still a lad to serve under Paolo Vitelli, in the expectation that a thorough training under that commander might qualify him for high rank as a soldier. After the death of Paolo, he served under his brother Vitellozzo, and in a very short time, being of a quick wit, hardy and resolute, he became one of the first soldiers of his company. But thinking it beneath him to serve under others, with the countenance of the Vitelleschi and the connivance of certain citizens of Fermo who preferred the slavery to the freedom of their country, he formed the design to seize on that town.

“He accordingly wrote to Giovanni Fogliani that after many years of absence from home, he desired to see him and his native city once more, and to look a little into the condition of his patrimony; and as his one endeavor had been to make himself a name, in order that his fellow-citizens might see that his time had not been mis-spent, he proposed to return honourably attended by a hundred horsemen from among his own friends and followers; and he begged Giovanni graciously to arrange for his reception by the citizens of Fermo with corresponding marks of distinction, as this would be creditable not only to himself, but also to the uncle who had brought him up.

“Giovanni accordingly, did not fail in any proper attention to his nephew, but caused him to be splendidly received by his fellow-citizens, and lodged him in his house; where Oliverotto having passed some days, and made the necessary arrangements for carrying out his wickedness, gave a formal banquet, to which he invited his uncle and all the first men of Fermo. When the repast and the other entertainments proper to such an occasion had come to an end, Oliverotto artfully turned the conversation to matters of grave interest, by speaking of the greatness of Pope Alexander and Cesare his son, and of their enterprises; and when Giovanni and the others were replying to what he said, he suddenly rose up, observing that these were matters to be discussed in a more private place, and so withdrew to another chamber; whither his uncle and all the other citizens followed him, and where they had no sooner seated themselves, than soldiers rushing out from places of concealment put Giovanni and all the rest to death.

“After this butchery, Oliverotto mounted his horse, rode through the streets, and besieged the chief magistrate in the palace, so that all were constrained by fear to yield obedience and accept a government of which he made himself the head.”

One does not need to look closely to see obvious parallels between Hillary Clinton’s past actions and this brutal example of reckless self-devotion.

Opposing Clinton is Donald Trump, whose immense ego and empty-minded bombast suggest a deranged personality far darker than the self-absorbed immaturity of a schoolyard bully. Elevation to the presidency would have a good chance of placing the consequences of his inevitably misguided acts on a destructive level with that of Benito Mussolini, Italy’s fascist dictator who brought his country to its knees in World War II.

The young Mussolini was described as a disobedient and unruly schoolyard bully, who couldn’t be handled by schools noted for their expertise in discipline. Nevertheless, his intelligence allowed him to educate himself broadly if not deeply in philosophy and political theory. His self-assurance, speaking presence and apparent knowledge of the political issues of the day granted him the respect of his political peers despite the shallowness of his actual knowledge, which few bothered to explore in detail. Embracing violence as a means of acquiring political objectives, he was arrested a number of times. He was also becoming a person of note in the socialist community, enhancing his standing in that community with frequent articles.

He was known for frequent and radical changes in position, morphing from a socialist to a fervent nationalist, and from there, as it suited his rise to power, to a Fascist dictator.

During World War II he cast his (and Italy’s) lot with Hitler’s Germany, anticipating an equal standing with the Nazi dictator. To his jealous dismay, that never happened, and Hitler’s stronger control over the war in Italy virtually destroyed that nation as the conflict brought in the Allies. As the end of the war approached, he attempted to flee the country disguised as a German soldier, but was recognized and shot along with his mistress. Their bodies were put on display in Milan, hung downward.

Disturbing parallels between Mussolini and Trump include a shallowness of political understanding, a proclivity toward changing position on issues, and, of course, their common self-aggrandizing bombast. True wisdom was lacking in Mussolini, and it’s probable that Trump shares this characteristic. In the end, Mussolini almost destroyed Italy. Given their commonalities, it is possible that America’s future would also be in peril with Trump at the helm.

Mussolini got the Italian trains to run on time, true to his promise. But then he destroyed them.

The poverty of choice that limits us to either Hillary or Trump was handed to us by an electorate who is unable to distinguish between the ability to act boldly and the ability to act wisely. As Proverbs says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Having removed God from the public domain, we appear to have lost our wisdom.

SCRIPTURAL SUGGESTIONS OF THE FEMININITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (CONTINUATION #3)

SCRIPTURAL SUGGESTIONS OF THE FEMININITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (CONTINUATION #3)

The Holy Spirit Identified as Feminine in Revelation 12 (an update of the previous item: The Holy Spirit Identified as Feminine in Original Scripture)

Revelation 12 reads as follows:

“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven – a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. And she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

“And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and, behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth; and the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to be delivered, to devour her child as soon as it was born.

“And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. And there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, who deceiveth the whole world; he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

“And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

“And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman who brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

Who is this marvelous woman? Catholics claim that she is Mary, while Protestants lean toward Israel. But this passage becomes far more awesome and beautiful with an identification of this Woman as the Holy Spirit. Moving beyond aesthetic considerations to the logical, both Mary and Israel lack credibility, as neither would be appropriate candidates for the heavenly clothing with which She is adorned, which imply Her role as Co-Creator with the Father. Her spiritual station among the Highest, including the account herein of Her birth of Jesus Christ, is also implied.

According to her thoroughly researched book God is Not Alone – Our Mother the Holy Spirit, Marianne Widmalm references passages in Isaiah 66 to support the identification of this Woman as the Holy Spirit.

The timing of the events in Revelation 12 have led me to speculate, without definitive justification at this point in time, whether the birth of Jesus referred to in this passage might relate to the possibility that Jesus did indeed die on the cross thoroughly and completely, demanding that His resurrection involved the Holy Spirit’s laboring over a complete reconstruction of Him, including the imprint in His mind of every memory and every event that took place during His sojourn on Earth. At this point, this is just an idea, but a very moving one.

The Holy Spirit Identified as Feminine in Early Post-Resurrection Christian Writings (an update of the previous item: The Holy Spirit Identified as Feminine in Original Scripture)

In her book God is Not Alone, noted above, Marianne Widmalm goes to great lengths to show that The Gospel of the Hebrews, written in the Hebrew language, preceded and influenced the writing of Matthew’s Gospel. The importance of this precursor Gospel is that it described the Holy Spirit as feminine. Widmalm cites early Church Father Origin (185-254 A.D.) as declaring from the Gospel of the Hebrews that Jesus Himself called the Holy Spirit His Mother (see pp. 172,173 of The Gospel of the Hebrews). Widmalm cites several other notable Christian writers of the first through fourth centuries, including Jerome, who also alluded to a feminine Holy Spirit. She speculates that in the movement of the Church toward a Trinitarian formula defining a genderless or masculine Holy Spirit, The Gospel of the Hebrews was destroyed by well-meaning but terribly misguided individuals as being inconsistent with the emerging theological direction of the Church. This situation may be similar to the wholesale destruction of ancient Mayan documents as presided over by the Spaniard Diego de Landa. Because of his acts, almost all our knowledge of early Americans was lost forever.

The Feminine Nature of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Wisdom

The Book of Wisdom, which is canonical in the Catholic Bible, presents the Holy Spirit as feminine and directly links Her to Wisdom as presented in the Book of Proverbs.

On the other hand, the Catholic Church, by elevating Mary as she did, did not completely deny the family of God the balancing femininity it so badly needs, so maybe Irenaeus should be respected a bit more in the Protestant community. Another thing the Catholic Church did for the feminine which the Protestant Church did not was to include the Book of Wisdom within the body of canonical, and therefore considered to be inspired, Old Testament books. This beautifully-written book furnishes several interesting passages suggestive of the identity of Wisdom as the feminine Holy Spirit. Selected passages are presented below:

“And in your wisdom have established humankind . . .Give me Wisdom, the consort at your throne . . . Now with you is Wisdom, who knows your works and was present when you made the world; Who understands what is pleasing in your eyes and what is conformable with your commands. Send her forth from your holy heavens and from your glorious throne dispatch her that she may be with me and work with me, that I may know what is pleasing to you. For she knows and understands all things, and will guide me prudently in my affairs and safeguard me to her glory . . . Or who can know your counsel, unless you give Wisdom and send your holy spirit from on high?

– Wisdom 9:2, 4, 9-11, 17

The Identification of the Holy Spirit with Birth in John 3

Chapter 3 of the Gospel of John describes the Holy Spirit as possessing the function of spiritual birth. Birth, of course, is an eminently feminine attribute.

“There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; the same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered, and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

“Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound of it, but canst not tell from where it cometh, and where it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”

SCRIPTURAL SUGGESTIONS OF THE FEMININITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (CONTINUATION #2)

SCRIPTURAL SUGGESTIONS OF THE FEMININITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (CONTINUATION #2)

Inclusion of Gender in the Creation of Man in God’s Image

Genesis 1:26 and 27 links the creation of man in God’s image as possessing gender:

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

An alternative interpretation of this passage would not only attempt to split an intimately interconnected verse with no substantive justification, but it would also demonstrate an indifference to God’s aversion to the practice of homosexuality (as well as other sexual sins), as may be found in Genesis 19, Leviticus 18 and Romans 1. This strong antipathy of God toward sexual sin would more properly be indicative of misrepresenting man’s creation in God’s gendered image.

In Genesis 2 verses 18, 21 and 22 the detail of Eve’s formation out of Adam is highly suggestive of the counterpart formation of the Holy Spirit out of the Father.

“And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. . . And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.”

A shallow interpretation of this passage would suggest that since it follows the story of the creation of Adam and Eve sequentially, the creation of Eve was removed from that of Adam by a significant amount of time. A more logical interpretation would view the insertion of this passage as a matter of emphasis, suggesting perhaps that this extraction of Eve out of Adam was illustrative of the extraction of the Holy Spirit out of the Father.

The Embedding of Feminine within the Masculine

In Genesis 5:1 and 2, Adam and Eve are both named Adam, suggesting that Eve, while being functionally feminine, is also named after her masculine counterpart.

“This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.”

This naming convention furnishes some justification for describing the Holy Spirit with masculine pronouns, although it should be kept in mind that the original Hebrew described the Holy Spirit in feminine terms.

The Femininity of the Executive Function

It is generally recognized and specifically noted by Bible scholars that Scripture depicts the Holy Spirit as operating in an executive function, responsive to the Father’s Will. A responsive nature is distinctly feminine. Genesis 1:1,2 furnishes a specific example of the Holy Spirit operating responsively to the Father.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.”

Although I prefer to remain entirely within Scripture in my responses, I also could cite Benjamin Warfield’s commentary in page 122 his book The Holy Spirit that “In both Testaments the Spirit of God appears distinctly as the executive of the Godhead [italics in the original].” This reference is particularly appropriate, in that Benjamin Warfield is held in high esteem within the Christian community. I also point to Warfield’s more lengthy discussion on pages 124 and 125 that elaborated on the role of the Holy Spirit in the act of creation in responsive fashion to the Will of the Father, therefore representing a feminine role.

The linkage given in Proverbs with Wisdom in an executive role, as well as its personification of Wisdom as a complement to God the Father amply justifies the inclusion of the Holy Spirit in that linkage.

Furthermore, in Ephesians 5, Paul repeats Adam’s words to the effect that a man shall leave his father and mother and join his wife, and they two shall become one flesh. In applying this entire passage to Jesus, does not Paul imply that Jesus had a Mother to leave? As there is a general consensus that Jesus existed long before He came in the flesh, we also must agree that here Paul is not speaking of Mary as Jesus’ Mother.

It may be the case that most theologians don’t perceive any compelling reason to equate Christ and the Church to Adam’s words regarding leaving father and mother and joining unto his wife to become one flesh. But Jesus Himself as quoted in Matthew 19:4-8 appears to attach a significance to Adam’s words that transcends a mere man-woman relationship. In addition, there are other passages in Scripture, including Genesis 24 and Isaiah 54, that tend to confirm the notion that in the spiritual realm the Church shall indeed serve in a female role as the Bride of Christ.

The Holy Spirit Identified as Feminine in Original Scripture

It is an undeniable fact that with regard to Scripture, “Church authorities” did indeed engage in a sexual cleansing operation, for not only were the Godhead and Mary stripped of their sexuality, but there is indisputable evidence that Scripture itself was altered to sexually mutilate the Godhead by substituting a weak all-male congress for what always was perceived by the Jews and also by the earliest Christians as a Divine Family consisting of Father, Mother and Son.

It wasn’t always that way. In the Hebrew Old Testament, the Holy Spirit, as the Ruah or Shekinah, was viewed as feminine. The switch to masculinity occurred in the New Testament.

In Isaiah 51:9 and 10, for example, the King James Version reads:

“Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it who hast cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it who hast dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; who hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?”

The original, however, read as follows, and some Bible scholars assert that the neutering was deliberate, for there is no way that the original can be construed as depicting other than femininity, in opposition to the oft-mentioned comment that some grammatically feminine words in Hebrew don’:

“Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not She who hast cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not She who hast dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; who hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?”

According to an Internet search of “feminine Holy Spirit in the Hebrew Scriptures”, multiple modern, deeply serious theologians and ancient language scholars share the view that the earliest Hebrew Christians had access to Scripture that presented the Holy Spirit as a feminine Persona; this feminine persisted within the Syriac and other Eastern branches of Christianity and within the Gnostic sect as well. A prime example of this is the Scriptural passage known as the Siniatic Palimpsest (a palimpsest is a recycled writing medium, wherein a second layer of writing was applied over the original, the original usually consisting of more important information) uncovered toward the end of the nineteenth century by Agnes Lewis. The original writing included portions of the Gospel of John of which a quote from Jesus Himself in John 14:26 asserts the following (translation attributed to Danny Mahar):

“But She – the Spirit – the Paraclete whom He will send to you – my Father – in my name – She will teach you everything; She will remind you of what I have told you.”

There is a suggestion, from a comparative review of this text with Paul’s letters that Paul, among the numerous early Hebrew Christians, used the version of John’s Gospel from which this passage came. References to the Siniatic Palimpsest may be found on the Internet. Unfortunately, many of the translations into English found under the search phrase “Siniatic Palimpsest” apply without justification the more conventional “he” rather than the “she” of the original language. Some Internet references, however, do acknowledge the proper “she”.

The identification of the Holy Spirit as feminine in the Siniatic Palimpsest is no small matter, for this document is the oldest of all copies of the Gospels, being dated to the second century A.D. It is a recognized principle of textual interpretation, even by the most conservative of Biblical scholars, that the older the text, the closer it is thought to be to the original Scripture. This is particularly important in light of the fact that there are no other Scriptural texts between it and the oldest Greek text dated to the fourth century A.D. One can only surmise that between the second and fourth centuries Scripture had been altered to substitute “he” for “she” in references to the Holy Spirit. Even then, at least one reference to the Holy Spirit as “she”, apparently having been overlooked in the switch, was allowed to remain. As Romans 9:25 reads in our King James Bible,

“As he saith also in Osee [Hosea], I will call them my people, who were not my people; and her beloved, who was not beloved.”

Despite the overt mistranslation of the pronoun “She” to “It” or “He” in modern English translations of Scripture, these modified versions still provide sufficient evidence of the feminine nature of the Holy Spirit to convince all but the most reactionary of individuals. Among the most assertive in that regard is the Glory of God, the Hebrew feminine Shekinah, who indwelt the temples at their dedication. The obvious connection between the feminine Shekinah described in Exodus 40 and 1 Kings 8 and the indwelling Holy Spirit described in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles and referred to by Paul is, of itself, overwhelming evidence of the feminine gender of the Holy Spirit. The link between the Holy Spirit and the Shekinah Glory is also supported as well by the many references to “Eloah”, a feminine term for God in the Hebrew Scriptures, and the recognition of feminine expressions of God in the books of Job and Judges, as acknowledged by at least one expert in the specialized field of ancient Hebrew.

Why would Church authorities be so boldly heretic as to deliberately alter Scripture as to mislead the Church regarding the gender of the Holy Spirit and to remove all traces of sexuality from God? A number of possibilities have been raised by multiple scholars, among which two stand out as particularly plausible candidates. First, the Gnostic Christian community, which adhered to a feminine Holy Spirit, went overboard on some of its misunderstandings of Christianity, and was considered to be a dangerously heretic sect; in its attempt to stamp out this notion of God, the community that eventually came to represent mainstream Christianity engaged in a wholesale rejection of its precepts, in effect throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Second, the presence of femininity within the Godhead came perilously close to pagan theology, which involved the worship of divine families consisting of father, mother and son, and was often given to lewd ritualistic behavior, as lamented by Augustine among others. Here again, in her attempt to separate herself from these other religions, mainstream Christianity rejected the notion of a divine family out of hand, once more tossing the baby out with the bathwater.

A number of modern Bible scholars agree as to Old Testament references to the Holy Spirit in unambiguously feminine terms. This goes beyond grammatical considerations. R. P. Nettelhorst, for example, Professor of Bible and Bible Languages at Quartz Hill School of Theology in Antelope Valley, California, who is an expert in the Hebrew language, changed his thinking on the gender of the Holy Spirit upon coming across undeniably feminine references to the Holy Spirit in the Book of Judges. After further research, he found the femininity to be scattered about in various locations in the Old Testament, beginning at Genesis 1. Other scholars have found the same feminine descriptors elsewhere, including the Book of Job.

[to be continued]

SCRIPTURAL SUGGESTIONS OF THE FEMININITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (CONTINUATION #1)

SCRIPTURAL SUGGESTIONS OF THE FEMININITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (CONTINUATION #1)

Link Between Proverbs and the Holy Spirit

In passages that describe Her presence alongside the Divine Father during the creation epic, the female Persona in the Book of Proverbs is identified as the Holy Spirit. Throughout Proverbs, Wisdom acquires a distinct Personhood and is cast in the role of complementary companion to the Father in the act of creation, which is a distinctly female role.

The prevailing understanding of the Book of Proverbs is that its personification of Wisdom is simply a literary device and was never intended to represent an actual Person. But in opposition to this view, Wisdom in the original Greek has a name of a person, and that name is Sophia. Sophia has a history of being linked, in the Jewish and early Christian religions, with the Personhood of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Himself, in Luke 7:35, associates Wisdom with motherhood, an eminently personal attribute.

“But wisdom is justified of all her children.”

While that verse possibly could be interpreted as being merely a figure of speech, Jesus in Luke 11:49 and 50 more emphatically personifies Wisdom:

“Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute, that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation.”

I also disagree with the associated prevailing Protestant presupposition that Proverbs 8 refers to Jesus Christ, as well as the prevailing Catholic presupposition that Proverbs 8 refers to Mary, because in both cases the presuppositions simply don’t fit the context of that chapter. I also could cite Proverbs 9 and 31 in that regard, and Psalm 104:30 which links creation with the Holy Spirit. (Job 26:13 is similar in that regard.)

The Persona of the Holy Spirit is female throughout; an attempt to assign some of these passages to Jesus Christ, as many do, would constitute an unnatural force-fit, most obviously in the issue of gender, but also with respect to function and role. The frequent Catholic attribution of Wisdom to Mary faces the equally grave difficulty of linking Mary with capabilities such as creation that are reserved for God alone. The attempt to link Wisdom with the Virgin Mary is unsustainable in the light of Mary’s full humanity and consequent absence in the creation epic, wherein according to Chapter 8 Wisdom was at the side of the Father during the process of creation.

On the other hand, the Book of Proverbs beautifully and harmoniously supports a female functional designation for the Holy Spirit. Of particular interest in this regard are Proverbs 3 and 8, from which the following excerpts are taken:

“Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. . .She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. . .The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. . .Doth not wisdom cry? And understanding put forth her voice? . . .The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: When he gave the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men. Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.”

These passages suggest a connection between Wisdom and the Holy Spirit as furnishing the most likely Person to which a female function may be assigned; they also suggest that the Holy Spirit was active in creation itself, as summarized in Genesis 1:1-3:

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”

In the context of Scripture’s general treatment of the Holy Spirit, the passage in Genesis quoted above more than suggests that the Father was assisted by or in union with the Holy Spirit in the act of creation, the result being, as Jesus Himself suggested in Revelation 3:14 in declaring Himself the beginning of the creation of God, a manifestation of the Son.

In further support of my equation of Wisdom with the Holy Spirit, I cite Isaiah 11:1 and 2:

“And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots; And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord,. . .”

Any attempt at a rebuttal to the association of Proverbs with the Holy Spirit must address Proverbs 3:19 in the context of Genesis 1:1-5, Proverbs 8:22-36, Job 26:13 and Psalm 104:30. The attempt to attribute Proverbs 8 to Jesus rather than the Holy Spirit must explain the out-of-context insertion into material descriptive of Wisdom, as well as the feminine description of Wisdom throughout the Book of Proverbs as opposed to the depiction of Jesus throughout Scripture as strongly masculine and the image of the Father.

Wisdom, as depicted in Proverbs, is strongly female and only female. The attempt at rebuttal to the contrary must also avoid taking the Jungian notion of the human psyche, both male and female, as containing both masculine and feminine elements, and extrapolating it to his notion of the Trinity. There are logical difficulties in doing so, as described below.

Scripture rather exclusively associates the Father with the Divine Will, which, as an initiating role, also is exclusively masculine. Similarly, Jesus the Son is presented in Scripture as the Divine Representation which, as the perfect image in reality of the Father would also be predominantly masculine. The masculine predominance of Jesus is given further weight by Paul’s characterization in Ephesians 5 of Jesus as the Bridegroom of the (functionally feminine) Church. In Family of God I simply noted what to me was an obvious connecting function of the Holy Spirit between Father and Son: the Divine Means which, in union with the Divine Will, gave birth to the Divine Implementation in reality (Divine Representation). Obviously, this Divine Means, being so closely linked with the other two Members, is also Deity. Because the Divine Means performed a function that was responsive to the Will, an obviously female role, I attached a female gender to this Person. Scripture and Christian tradition both understand this third Member of the Trinity to be the Holy Spirit.

Another item that presents itself in a reading of Proverbs with an eye to the Personhood of Wisdom is the implied intimacy between mankind and Wisdom in the warning given in Proverbs 8:36: he that sins against Wisdom wrongs his own soul. Could this imply that our own purpose and function in the spiritual realm might actually parallel that of the Holy Spirit? There may well be a correlation between this caution and the one expressed by Jesus in Matthew 12:31 and 32:

“Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.”

These are strong words, and they make a strong connection between Wisdom and the Holy Spirit. Perhaps theologians instinctively sense this correlation. Perhaps also not wishing to shoot themselves in the foot and instead of attempting to truly understand what is being said here, they duck away from presenting anything controversial regarding the Holy Spirit. Historically, that has certainly been the situation with numerous theological expositions regarding the Holy Spirit, all of which end up complicating an extremely simple understanding of the nature of the Trinity by claiming that ultimately man is unable to grasp it.

As a final comment regarding my association of Proverb’s Wisdom with the Holy Spirit, I note that Church Father Irenaeus of the second century A.D., commonly accepted as a respected Church Father, also directly equated Wisdom with the Holy Spirit. That he seems not to have made the obvious connection of Wisdom with femininity may be attributed to his strong aversion to Gnosticism, whose adherents generally believed in a feminine Holy Spirit. His attack of Gnosticism in his tome Against Heresies is quite humorous at times, as I described in my novel Buddy. A sample is offered below:

“’Now what follows from all this [description of some of Marcion’s more outlandish claims]? No light tragedy comes out of it, as the fancy of every man among them pompously explains, one in one way, and another in another, from what kind of passion and from what element being derived its origin. They have good reason, it seems to me, why they should not feel inclined to teach these things to all in public, but only to such as are able to pay a high price for an acquaintance with such profound mysteries. For these doctrines are not at all similar to those of which our Lord said, ‘Freely ye have received, freely give.’ They are, on the contrary, abstruse, and portentous, and profound mysteries, to be got at only with great labour by such as are in love with falsehood. For who would not expend [all] that he possessed, if only he might learn in return, that from the tears of the enthymesis of the AEon involved in passion, seas, and fountains, and rivers, and every liquid substance derived its origin; that light burst forth from her smile; and that from her perplexity and consternation the corporeal elements of the world had their formation?

‘I feel somewhat inclined myself to contribute a few hints towards the development of their system. For when I perceive that waters are in part fresh, such as fountains, rivers, showers, and so on, and in part salt; such as those in the sea, I reflect with myself that all such waters cannot be derived from her tears, inasmuch as these are of a saline quality only. It is clear, therefore, that the waters which are salt are alone those which are derived from her tears. But it is probable that she, in her intense agony and perplexity, was covered with perspiration. And hence, following our notion, we may conceive that fountains and rivers, and all the fresh water in the world, are due to this source. For it is difficult, since we know that all tears are of the same quality, to believe that waters both salt and fresh proceeded from them. The more plausible supposition is, that some are from her tears, and some from her perspiration. And since there are also in the world certain waters which are hot and acrid in their nature, thou must be left to guess their origin, how and whence. Such are some of the results of their hypothesis.’”

Jesus’ Marital Relationship with His Church

This relationship, which was explored in the posting “Why the Spiritual Marriage Between Jesus and His Church is Substantive and Fully Functional”, demonstrates the existence of gender and its associate romance in the spiritual domain. A summary of the topics covered in that posting are noted below. The reader can refer to the posting itself for more details.

Paul’s stunning statement in Ephesians 5:31,32 regarding Jesus’ marriage to His Church contains multiple elements that identify this marriage as much more than merely a figure of speech.

Romans 7:4 corroborates Jesus’ marriage to His Church; beyond that, it identifies the union as creatively productive.

Jesus first miracle described in John 2, the wedding in Cana, identifies Jesus as anticipating with joy His own future spiritual marriage.

In the parables of the marriage feast (Matthew 22) and the ten virgins (Matthew 25), Jesus describes His own future marriage without ambiguity as an important and joyful occasion.

Isaiah 54, as a follow-on to the great messianic Chapter 53, is a passionate statement of Jesus’ future marriage and is summarized as such by Paul in Galatians 4:27.

The Song of Solomon is a romantic, explicit depiction of the bonding between male and female; it would not belong in the Bible if gender had no place in the spiritual realm.

[to be continued]

SCRIPTURAL SUGGESTIONS OF THE FEMININITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

SCRIPTURAL SUGGESTIONS OF THE FEMININITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The Shekinah Glory

The Shekinah Glory who indwelt the Tabernacle in the Wilderness (Exodus 40) and Solomon’s Temple (1 Kings 8) is recognized as feminine. This same Shekinah Glory is intimately linked to the Holy Spirit through the corresponding indwelling of Christians who are described in 1 Corinthians 3 and Ephesians 2 as living temples of God.

That the Old Testament Shekinah is the New Testament’s Holy Spirit is manifestly evident in the precursor role to the indwelling Holy Spirit of the Shekinah Glory who indwelt both the Tabernacle in the wilderness and Solomon’s Temple at their dedications. Since it has been claimed that the word Shekinah does not exist in the Hebrew Scriptures in its noun form (the situation there being similar to the absence in the Bible of a noun form of the word baptize), the following commentary will be made regarding its origin before proceeding with examples of the Shekinah presence.

In the Hebrew Targum, the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, the word Shekinah is used as a noun. It means “intimate dwelling” or “the presence of the Glory of the Lord”. Justification for the use of this word is the use in the Hebrew Scriptures of its root word “shachan”, referring particularly to the pillars of cloud and fire that accompanied the Israelites in their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land through the wilderness. The prophet Isaiah referred to it quite graphically in Isaiah 4:5 and 6, linking this pillar of cloud and fire to a covering presence. It is generally understood that this same pillar is referenced in Isaiah 51:9 and 10, where the prophet goes out of his way to describe by feminine pronouns the same pillar of cloud and fire that accompanied the Israelites on their journey from Egypt. The Targum interpretation leaves no doubt that the Shekinah Glory is a feminine presence, and represents an equivalence with a feminine Holy Spirit. Isaiah 4:5 and 6, and 51:9 and 10 read as follows:

“And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion , and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for upon all the glory shall be a defense. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.”

“Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not she who hast cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not she who has dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; who hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?”

Exodus 40 and 1 Kings 8 provide prominent examples of the Shekinah as a precursor to the indwelling Holy Spirit of the New Testament. Exodus 40:33-38 describes the indwelling of the Tabernacle in the wilderness:

“And [Moses] reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work.

“Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys; but if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.”

The description “cloud of the Lord” , “fire by night” and “taken up” leaves no doubt that this “cloud” is equivalent to the Shekinah of the Red Sea adventure and of Isaiah 4:5. The corresponding incident with respect to Solomon’s Temple, taken from 1 Kings 8:6-13, is given below:

And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord unto its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, into the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread forth their two wings of the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its staves above. And they drew out the staves, that the ends of the staves were seen out in the holy place before the inner sanctuary, but they were not seen outside; and there they are unto this day. There was nothing in the ark except the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt. And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord. Then spoke Solomon, The Lord said he would dwell in the thick darkness. I have surely built thee an house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in forever.”

In this passage the meaning of “cloud” is closely linked with “dwelling place” and “glory of the Lord”, which again point to the phrase Shekinah Glory.

The connection between these precursor events and the Holy Spirit who indwells Christian believers is given in 1 Corinthians 3:16 and Ephesians 2:19-22, wherein Paul asserts that the Church herself, through her constituents, is a temple indwelt by the Holy Spirit:

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

The facts embedded in these passages are no surprise to Christians, who generally accept without question that believers are indwelt with the Holy Spirit and comprise, as the Church, a holy temple. What some of us may not be aware of is that this temple and its indwelling by the Holy Spirit was represented numerous times as the Glory of God in the Old Testament. Turning to the Internet, the Wikipedia entry for “Shekinah” begins as follows:

“Hebrew [Shekinah] is the English spelling of a grammatically feminine Hebrew ancient blessing. The original word means the dwelling or settling, and denotes the dwelling or settling of the divine presence of God, especially in the temple in Jerusalem.” An accompanying figure shows the Shekinah, or the Glory of God, indwelling the temple as described in 1 Kings 8.”

Noting the female gender of this indwelling Shekinah, we find here by comparing the indwelling presence of the Glory in Solomon’s temple with the description in Ephesians 2 of the Holy Spirit indwelling the human temple that Scripture itself, by furnishing this direct comparison, supports an interpretation of the Holy Spirit as a female Entity in the face of conventional Christian thought, as driven by the use in Scripture of the male pronoun in reference to the Holy Spirit.

This feminine gender attribute in Exodus 40 and 1 Kings 8 may have been simply lost in the translation from Hebrew (Aramaic) to English, which could have been a result of the lack of gender precision in the English language. (Actually, the first transference from feminine to masculine occurred in the Latin, for which the Holy Spirit was definitely presented as male.) But there is an associated gender misrepresentation in Isaiah 51:9, 10 that appears to be more deliberate. What the translators did in that passage was to substitute the grammatically incorrect ‘it’ for the gender-correct ‘she’ in reference to Shekinah. In their desire to maintain a fully masculine Godhead, they neutered the female.

Reconciliation of Monotheism with the Holy Trinity

The only logical way that the Judeo-Christian monotheism may be reconciled to the general Judeo-Christian understanding of the Godhead as being a Trinity is to perceive the Godhead as representing a tightly-knit Family. The issue arises through the identification of the Trinitarian Godhead as one in Deuteronomy 6:4 and 5:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”

It is quite difficult, if not impossible, given the prevailing understanding of the Godhead, to reconcile a Trinitarian Godhead with the oneness of God as given in Deuteronomy 6. The prevailing view of a genderless fellowship simply doesn’t evoke the notion of unity demanded in the above passage, or of Jesus’ description of it as the greatest commandment of God toward mankind.

How could three be considered as one? Even Islam struggles with that, to the extent that this religion is so strictly monotheistic as to deny the Christian Trinity as being fully God. Within Christianity, the ‘Jesus Only’ Church does the same, as did some early heresies within the Christian Church, including Arianism.

Actually the only way that the Trinity can be reconciled intuitively with monotheism is in the context of a Divine Family. I noted in my book Family of God the dramatic change in comprehension of the Godhead that resulted from this insight:

“Surely by raising this issue [of monotheism in a Trinitarian setting] we have placed ourselves in the midst of a basic conflict, one that was not resolved when Jesus came to the earth in the flesh, nor has it been settled in the two millennia since that event. Perhaps, given the assault on family values experienced by our generation, the timing is appropriate for God to favor this same generation with an understanding, rich in information as to His own nature, which will lead to a resolution of this conflict. It is with this hope that we continue our review, searching Scripture for something we may have missed before.”

“As would be expected, God furnished man with His own straightforward answer to the paradox of His triune nature. It is profound in its simplicity and astonishingly beautiful in form. In the second chapter of Genesis, Adam speaks thus:

“’And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.’

“The essence of this passage was repeated by Jesus and later by Paul. In the contexts in which it was presented, it is obviously of importance to God. Could there be a significant relation between the unity of flesh in marriage and the unity of spirit, as was often claimed by Jesus, between the Father and Him, and in fact, among the three Members of the Holy Trinity?”

[to be continued]

REBUTTALS TO CLAIMS THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT IS NOT FEMININE

REBUTTALS TO CLAIMS THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT IS NOT FEMININE

The Implied Gender-Neutrality of Galatians 3:28 and Matthew 22:29 and 30

These passages are presented below:

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”

“Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of God in heaven.”

The claim has been made that since Galatians 3:26 and Matthew 22:29,30 describe humans in the spiritual realm as being gender-neutral, the spiritual realm doesn’t involve gender. Neither of these passages remotely suggest that heaven is a gender-neutral domain. The myopic and unjustified extension of statements beyond their meanings fails to take into account that whereas spiritual individuals will not be gendered, an appropriate interpretation in harmony with Scripture elsewhere and with the understanding that the Church is a collective aggregate strongly suggests that the Church, as an aggregate of individual components, will indeed be gendered.

Jeremiah 10:12 has been interpreted to suggest that power and wisdom, rather than representing a separate Entity, are attributes of the Father

Jeremiah 10:12 is presented below:

“He hath made the earth by his power; he hath estab lished the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.”

This passage which God describes power and wisdom as belonging to Him, is cited as indicative that these are God’s own attributes. This claim fails to comprehend that the union between God and the Holy Spirit, being a romantic one, is also possessive. God here is speaking of the mutually possessive nature of marriage. The implication in this passage of mutual ownership intrinsic to a romantic relationship is simply overlooked by those who fail to understand that romance is a vital part of the spiritual realm.

The “He” issue

The “He” issue, for which the Holy Spirit is referred to in Scripture by masculine pronouns, may be resolved in two distinct ways, both of which permit the Holy Spirit to be viewed as functionally feminine while being composed of a masculine or neuter substance. Scripture’s treatment of spiritual humanity furnishes ample justification for viewing the Holy Spirit to be functionally feminine and compositionally masculine, as suggested by Paul’s description of spiritual mankind as genderless in the face of his description of mankind’s aggregate as the Church as the wife of Christ. In the alternate but equally valid view there is also ample justification for appreciating that in the original autographs in the Hebrew and Aramaic languages, the Holy Spirit was perceived as feminine. Examples include John 14:26 in the version recorded in the Siniatic Palimpsest, Isiah 51:9,10 and Romans 9:25.

Basically, I said in Family of God that the Holy Spirit, while performing an essentially female function in the context that I have defined in the introduction above, could also legitimately be considered to be male with respect to substance, composition or union. I went on to speculate that the Scriptural emphasis on the male substance as opposed to the female function may actually be a promise to mankind regarding his future spiritual participation in the Godhead as the Bride of Christ. This viewpoint, however, applies to the entirety of redeemed mankind who constitute the Church, and not to redeemed individuals, who simply comprise components of that Body.

A paradox stands in the way of internalizing this new and welcome information. This inconsistency first must be resolved in order that we may fully accept it. The issue is this: we, redeemed mankind, are collectively treated as masculine whereas in Scripture we are given to understand our spiritual role in relationship to Jesus as feminine. This conflict requires us to differentiate between our gender as an aggregate of individual elements and our gender in a functional application. Thus, regarding our future spiritual identity, as an aggregate we shall be male whereas functionally we shall be female.

I expanded on this thought in my blog friendofthefamily.wordpress.com by noting that as Bride of Christ, redeemed (spiritual) mankind itself, while being designated as male in composition (mankind is a male descriptor), will obviously be performing a female functional role that is harmoniously complementary to Jesus Christ.

Actually, the issue may be taken to a more basic level than that. According to Genesis 2:18-22, God fashioned Eve out of Adam. Therefore Eve, while being female in function, may be thought of as possessing the substance of her male predecessor.

A conflict of much the same nature exists in our understanding of the Holy Trinity: Among the Members of the Trinity, the First and Second Persons, as Father and Son, are naturally considered to be male in gender. Regarding the Third Person, the Holy Spirit, however, there is no small amount of gender ambiguity. Obviously, if future mankind can legitimately be male in composition and female in function, the same attributes may apply in an equally non-contradictory manner to the Holy Spirit, in Her feminine functional role as distinct from Her substance as originating from the masculine Father. Indeed, why would it “not be good”, per Genesis 2:18, for Adam to be without a complementary other, yet be good for that situation to exist within the Godhead?

Scripture as most of us know it attempts to remove the ambiguity surrounding the Holy Spirit by routinely applying the pronoun ‘He’ to this Person. In doing so without explanatory or qualifying remarks, the Scripture handed down to us in the West automatically assigns only the male gender to this Divine Person. It has often been commented, however, by respected theologians, that Scripture elsewhere seems to develop an image of the Holy Spirit that is female in nature. We saw this in the review in Chapter 4 of some Christian authors who attempted to describe the nature of the Holy Spirit. To the Holy Spirit are regularly assigned the attributes of comfort, nurturing and compassion, supported by statements made by Jesus Himself. These female descriptors are functional attributes, whereas the pronoun ‘He’, when applied to the Holy Spirit in Scripture, refers to the Divine Person in the sense of object. There is a striking parallelism here with the object/function gender differentiation of the Church and in mankind itself. It is tempting to point to that parallelism to claim the same object/function gender differentiation of the Holy Spirit: male in substance, but female in function.

Could it be, then, that the use in Scripture of the pronoun ‘He’ in reference to the Holy Spirit, instead of constituting a gratuitous introduction of confusion, is related to this parallelism? Despite that possibility, the mainstream Christian Church is committed to its view of the Holy Spirit as being gender-neutral, masculine or sometimes even hermaphroditic in basic nature.

Up to this point, an argument has been made regarding the legitimacy of viewing the gender of the Holy Spirit differently between function and substance. As I noted at the outset of this argument and applied to the Church, this difference from function may involve other descriptors besides substance, such as composition and union, related to substance but with slightly different connotations. Returning to the human spiritual model of the Church, it is a fact that whereas functionally the Church is overtly feminine as set forth in Scripture, it consists of numerous individual elements which in the aggregate, the collective definition as mankind carries with it a male designation.

While substance or composition or both may be factors that legitimize the application of masculine descriptors to a feminine function, the most basic factor may simply be the notion of union, the loving merging of two complementary others into one. In marriage the male and female members are components of a greater unity than either of them alone and as one, they would rightly be addressed by the gender of the dominant Member, the male.

Exploring this notion further, we readily imagine that the relationship between Father and Holy Spirit is so perfectly close that the Holy Spirit is considered to be One with the Father, as suggested by the wife’s use of her husband’s surname in our own society. There is justification for that in Genesis 5:1 and 2, wherein the perfection of unity in love carries with it an implication with respect to the name of the female partner.

“This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.”

This is a love kind of thing. God never intended either a man or a woman to remain as an individual. Instead, He created them to be in union together, one man and one wife. This unity is emphasized by His calling them both by the name of the male, a custom that is practiced to this very day. In that context, the “He” associated with the Holy Spirit may be intended to convey the unity between Father and Holy Spirit, wherein the Holy Spirit is always considered not as separate, but united in everlasting love with the Father.

The significance of this passage to the view of the Holy Spirit as a Complementary Other to the Father is that it justifies the use of a male pronoun in referring to a basically female Holy Spirit. It implies that the bond between Father and Holy Spirit, representing the image upon which the bond between Adam and Eve was based, is so perfectly close that they can truly considered to be one. In that context, the male pronoun applied to the Holy Spirit would represent the perfection of that bond.

Of course, one can’t ignore the possibility of a very simple yet profound explanation: that the Holy Spirit was sent to us in Jesus Christ’s name, which, of course, is male.

After having said all that regarding the gender distinction between substance and function, I now will address a little-known but very significant complicating factor in this ‘He’ business, hinted at earlier, that may well settle the issue in favor of a fully feminine Holy Spirit without the necessity of making an object/function differentiation. It turns out that while we may still be able to claim that Scripture is inerrant in the original, the Scripture to which we have ready access isn’t the original. It’s been tampered with, probably at some time after Constantine made Christianity a state religion in the early fourth century A.D.

It is an undeniable fact that with regard to Scripture, “Church authorities” did indeed engage in a sexual cleansing operation, for not only were the Godhead and Mary stripped of their sexuality, but there is indisputable evidence that Scripture itself was altered to sexually mutilate the Godhead by substituting a weak all-male congress for what always was perceived by the Jews and also by the earliest Christians as a Divine Family consisting of Father, Mother and Son.

According to an Internet search of “feminine Holy Spirit in the Hebrew Scriptures”, multiple modern, deeply serious theologians and ancient language scholars share the view that the earliest Hebrew Christians had access to Scripture that presented the Holy Spirit as a feminine Persona; this feminine persisted within the Syriac and other Eastern branches of Christianity and within the Gnostic sect as well.

According to the words of Jesus in John 14:26 of the Siniatic Palimpsest, (translation attributed to Danny Mahar) Jesus Himself characterizes the Holy Spirit as feminine:

“But She – the Spirit – the Paraclete whom He will send to you – my Father – in my name – She will teach you everything; She will remind you of what I have told you.”

A palimpsest is a recycled writing medium, wherein a second layer of writing was applied over the original, the original usually consisting of more important information. This document was uncovered toward the end of the nineteenth century by Agnes Lewis. The original writing included portions of the Gospel of John that quoted Jesus.

There is a suggestion, from a comparative review of this text with Paul’s letters that Paul, among the numerous early Hebrew Christians, used the version of John’s Gospel from which this passage came. References to the Siniatic Palimpsest may be found on the Internet. Unfortunately, many of the translations into English found under the search phrase “Siniatic Palimpsest” apply without justification the more conventional “he” rather than the “she” of the original language. Some Internet references, however, do acknowledge the proper “she”.

The identification of the Holy Spirit as feminine in the Siniatic Palimpsest is no small matter, for this document is the oldest of all copies of the Gospels, being dated to the second century A.D. It is a recognized principle of textual interpretation, even by the most conservative of Biblical scholars, that the older the text, the closer it is thought to be to the original Scripture. This is particularly important in light of the fact that there are no other Scriptural texts between it and the oldest Greek text dated to the fourth century A.D. One can only surmise that between the second and fourth centuries Scripture had been altered to substitute “he” for “she” in references to the Holy Spirit. Even then, at least one reference to the Holy Spirit as “she”, apparently having been overlooked in the switch, was allowed to remain. As Romans 9:25 reads in our King James Bible,

“As he saith also in Osee [Hosea], I will call them my people, who were not my people; and her beloved, who was not beloved.”

Despite the overt mistranslation of the pronoun “She” to “It” or “He” in modern English translations of Scripture, these modified versions still provide sufficient evidence of the feminine nature of the Holy Spirit to convince all but the most reactionary of individuals. Among the most assertive in that regard is the Glory of God, the Hebrew feminine Shekinah, who indwelt the temples at their dedication. The obvious connection between the feminine Shekinah described in Exodus 40 and 1 Kings 8 and the indwelling Holy Spirit described in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles and referred to by Paul is, of itself, overwhelming evidence of the feminine gender of the Holy Spirit. The link between the Holy Spirit and the Shekinah Glory, as well as the many references to “Eloah”, a feminine term for God in the Hebrew Scriptures, will be discussed in a later posting.

[to be continued]

WHAT’S REALLY WRONG WITH AMERICA

 

 

WHAT’S REALLY WRONG WITH AMERICA

 

 

Sincere as our presidential hopefuls may be about “fixing” America’s woes, their focus on the fundamental cause of our problems isn’t quite laser-sharp.   Perhaps the reason for this is that their first objective is to get elected, and they’re attempting to appeal to what the majority of Americans perceive to be the basic problem.  The drawback of this is that mainstream America seems to be as clueless of the real issue as Germany was back in Hitler’s heyday.

 

Whatever the reason for their avoidance of the most pressing problem with America, the fundamental issue with America is crystal-clear to a segment of our population that now finds itself to be in the minority: committed Christians.  As they well know, things started to fall apart when God was dismissed from the public conscience, and the only way that America can retrieve its former glory is to invite God back into the public square.  Knowing their Bibles, they can point to the precedent of Israel’s decline from her former greatness following her public rejection of God.

 

I had addressed this issue in my novel Jacob, the third in the four-book Buddy series.  I’ll let Earl, one of my main characters, do the talking here as he did in Chapter Nineteen of that novel.

 

“Hi, everybody,” he began.  “I already had a talk on my mind for this morning, but I suddenly realized that there’s a more important topic that needs to be addressed.  So if you’ll bear with me, I’m going to speak out of my heart, calling upon support from the Holy Spirit rather than my usual notes.  If I were going to give the subject a title, I guess that ‘What’s Really Wrong with America’ would be as good a one as any.  I don’t need to tell anyone here that there’s something wrong.”  His statement of the obvious brought a few half-hearted laughs, but the mouths of most turned grim.

 

“What really happened to America started before most of us were born,” Earl continued.  “Like a serious disease such as cancer, it started slowly, with hardly any symptoms at all.  Only when it got to the terminal stage did we all become aware of what had happened, but by then it was too late.

 

“What was this dreadful disease?  I’ll tell you what it wasn’t.  It wasn’t a failure of leadership.  Nor was it a takeover by unprincipled, self-absorbed rulers who cared nothing for our God-given American constitution.  The sickness is a disease of the heart, of our indifference toward the Judeo-Christian God who played such a vital part in the founding of the American dream.  This disease didn’t turn our leaders into evil, vicious persons.  It infected us instead, creating the environment in which evil people could thrive and prosper.

 

“The sickness began within four of the institutional systems upon which we base our understanding of the world around us.  The first of these is the secular media, which provide us with news and entertainment; the second is the scientific community; the third is our schools, wherein our children are supplied with a formalized version of knowledge; and the fourth is our seminaries, which supposedly offer us a specialized knowledge of God.  These institutions were the first to get sick, and then the disease metastasized from there, branching out to infect the general public.

 

“The secular media was infiltrated long ago by selfish, godless people, to whom the physical world in which we reside is the only world there is because that’s the way they want it to be.  They were repulsed by the thought of some higher being looking over their shoulders, or knowing their thoughts, which probably did run into some colorful fantasies and mean-spirited notions.  But in their torrid love affair with their own minds, they embraced the ever-expanding world of science as much as they were put off by religion.  In their wholesale rush to glorify mankind’s scientific achievements, they bought into some very bad and very false ideas, being so incredibly shallow of mind as to unthinkingly accept these ideas simply because they were generated by so-called experts in the field.

 

“The sources of these very bad and very false ideas were people of the same kind of godless self-absorption as the media representatives.  Encouraged by the adoring media, they assumed the intellectual authority of the God they had in mind to replace.  The only difference between these self-styled scientists and their media counterparts is that the scientists possessed some knowledge of the subject upon which they made such weighty pronouncements.  But their education in some cases actually was as sparse or nearly so, as that of the public at large, because the scientific disciplines were in their infancy, with very little knowledge to be obtained through formal training.  Such was the case in the fields of natural history, geology, and biology.   I could go into a very detailed expose of the reasons why, for example, the theory of evolution is a misleading, dead-end path, but time doesn’t permit that.  The reasons involve some very important and revealing scientific discoveries in the field of biology by Darwin’s far more knowledgeable modern counterparts.  If any of you are truly interested, see me after this meeting and we’ll set up a workshop on the subject.

 

“But just as the media controllers bought into false scientific notions that confirmed and increased their distance from God, so did the educators, who also infiltrated the school system all the way from kindergarten to the great universities.  John Dewey was among the worst of that lot.  After assuming dictatorial power over the machinery of public education, this godless Marxist developed curricula that opposed Christianity at every turn.  His ideas also began to sway students away from nationalism into a world citizenry, and fostered quasi-scientific notions that supported our alienation from God.  His most devastating weapon was his appreciation that he wouldn’t accomplish his objectives in a day, or even in a decade or a generation.  His gradual insertion of bad ideas into the classroom began in the classrooms of the teaching colleges, infecting the teachers first with false notions, and letting them be his unwitting tools in disseminating his notions to the public at large.

 

“The same thing happened in our seminaries, the schools that supposedly train men and women for Christian service as pastors, chaplains and religious instructors.  Just as John Dewey infiltrated the secular teaching system, so did self-centered and basically godless men invade the seminaries, attempting to turn theology into a strictly intellectual endeavor.  They elbowed God aside with their false theories that the Bible was nothing more than a work of man, and attempted to strengthen that assertion on the basis of literary reviews that claimed various books to be written by several authors and at widely different dates, all of which were established on the false presupposition that prophesies could not have involved a God-given knowledge of the future.  Not all, but way too many of the pastors that came out of these wicked seminaries were just as self-centered as the secular educators.  After having avidly internalized the false teachings to which they were exposed, they lost their focus on God, which was tenuous to begin with, and concentrated instead on the task of creating successful income-producing congregations based on the false pictures of God which they had uncritically embraced.

 

“So what?  What is the bottom line in all this?  It is that the public at large perceives that the Bible was a work of man and riddled with errors and fuzzy, unsophisticated and basically meaningless passages.  In line with that understanding, the God of that Bible is seen as either imaginary or a very distant and essentially alien being.  Considering the Bible to be less than profound, the general public long ago released itself from the odious task of attempting to read it.  Refusing to understand the Bible as the only reliable Word of God, these same people lost most of their knowledge and understanding of God.  In the end, God became to them at best a stern taskmaster and at worst a distant, alien being who was entirely indifferent to the daily affairs of mankind.   Perceiving God in that way, they themselves distanced and alienated themselves from Him.

 

“But as history has demonstrated time and again, mankind needs God.  We certainly need God for the salvation that offers us a ticket into the next world, for which there’s reason to believe that it’s much more colorful and real than this one.  But we also need God’s Word and the Holy Spirit to impart to us the selfless nobility that is so necessary for us to get along with each other in this lesser world.  Without the lofty standards established by God for human interaction, the world quickly descends into mean-spirited, selfish, hate-driven acts of people showing unkindness toward each other for their own profit.  It becomes an insane hell of our own making.  Does anyone doubt that this is exactly what has happened outside these doors?

 

“I’ll wind up today’s talk on that sour note.  But think about the implications.  The solution of our present distress isn’t about patriotism or patriotic acts.  We lost our patriotism to America when we lost our patriotism toward God.  Our forefathers knew their God in an intimate way that is almost completely lost to us.  They had their eyes on a greater world than our material realm.  They knew, for example, what Paul had to say about that other, better world.”  Earl picked up his Bible from the upended box beside him and turned to First Corinthians Chapter 2.

 

“’But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.  But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.  For what man knoweth the things of a man, except the spirit of man which is in him?  Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.’

 

“That, my friends,” Earl said as he looked out to the audience, “is what we have lost in maintaining our focus on the material world to the exclusion of the spiritual realm.  But it is in the spiritual world that the biggest battle is being waged.  Paul was very clear about that.”  He turned to Ephesians Chapter 6 and continued reading from it.

 

“’For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.  Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.  Stand, therefore, having your loins girded about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, with which ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spriti, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds; that in this I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.’

 

“Now, after hearing that, let me ask you: is it better to contribute our own violence to the mess we are surrounded with, or rather should we turn back to God and, as Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount, show our love of God to the world by loving our enemies, no matter what that might cost us?  While you’re thinking about that, you might offer a prayer for me and all your fellow Christians that, like Paul, we may receive from the Holy Spirit the courage to continue speaking out about our convictions.”

 

 

UFOs CONTINUATION #4

CONTACT, COMMUNION AND CHRISTIANITY CHAPTER 7 (CONTINUATION #4)

 

 

Chapter 7: Biblical Accounts of UFOs (Continued)

 

 

Example 18 – Luke 24:1-7:

 

“Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.  And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcherRemember how he spoke unto you when He was yet in Galilee, Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.” 

 

 

Example 19 – Luke 24:13-32:

 

“And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.  And they talked together of all these things which had happened.  And it came to pass that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus Himself drew near, and went with them.  But their eyes were holden that they should not recognize him.  And He said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one with another, as ye walk, and are sad?  And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering, said unto Him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast no known the things which are come to pass there in these days?  And He said unto them, What things?  And they said unto Him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people; and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and have crucified Him.  But we hoped that it had been He who should have redeemed Israel; and, besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done.  Yea, and certain women also of our company amazed us, who were early at the sepulcher; and wen they found not His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that He was alive.

 

“And certain of those who were with us went to the sepulcher, and found it even as the women had said; but Him they saw not.  Then he said unto them, O foolishe ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?  And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them, in all the Scriptures, the things concerning Himself.

 

“And they drew near unto the village, to which they went; and He made as though He would have gone farther.  But they constrained Him, saying Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.  And He went in to tarry with them.  And it came to pass, as He sat eating with them, He took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to them.  And their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him; and He vanished out of their sight.  And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us along the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures?”

 

Example 20 – Acts 8:1-4, 9:1-1-9

 

“And Saul was consenting unto [Stephen’s] death.  And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judah and Samaria, except the apostles.  And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.  As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.  Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.”

 

“And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.

 

“And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

 

“And he said, Who art thou, Lord?  And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

 

“And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?  And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

 

“And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.  And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.  And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.”

 

The following excerpts from the Bible, which are merely ‘tips of the iceberg’, demonstrate how thoroughly this encounter turned Paul’s life around.

 

Example 21 – Acts 9:10-20, Romans 1:1-8:

 

“And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias.  And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.

 

          “And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.

 

          “Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.

 

          “But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel; For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.”

 

          “Paul [Saul], a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy Scriptures,) Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ: To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

          “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.”

         

Here again we see evidence that the encounter imparted wisdom; it totally and permanently changed Saul’s mentality and his life.

 

Example 22 – Hebrews 13:2:

 

“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

 

Example 23 – Revelation 1:9-20:

 

“I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

 

          “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

 

          “And I turned to see the voice that spake with me.  And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the food, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.  His head and his hairs were white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.  And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

 

          “And when I saw him, I fell at his feed as dead.  And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and death.

 

          “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks.  The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.”

 

This close encounter follows a pattern that is seen throughout the Bible, that of an apparition who imparts wisdom and understanding that reaches out beyond our human abilities and our conception of time.  In every case, the knowledge and information dovetails perfectly with other parts of the Bible, contributing to a consistent whole.

 

The involvement of past UFOs in Scripture should not be surprising.  Given our faith in the God of Judeo-Christian tradition, we must necessarily assume that if UFOs exist, God is involved.  As Creator of the universe He created all that exists within it, including the things we call UFOs regardless of whether they exist within or outside our imaginations.  It matters very little whether these objects are primarily physical or spiritual, for even the casual reader of the Bible knows that God’s domain includes both.  In that sense, our own technological wonders, our Mars rovers and space shuttles, including their operators, belong to God.  This is anything but a trivial issue.  The notion of UFOs as technology-adept aliens comes straight out of the more far-reaching notion that God as an Entity who is personally involved in and relevant to our lives does not exist.  The fact that most of us fail to appreciate is that our understanding of the ultimate ownership of our universe is perhaps the most influential element of how we have perceived UFO events in the past, and of whether we consider them to be basically good or evil.

 

Regardless of their origin, however, their current reputation is not so good, and at least part of the blame can be placed on their behavior toward us.   Based on their perceived secrecy, apparent indifference toward humans, and the terror which they evoke in those whom they abduct, it would seem reasonable to suggest that they come from the wrong side of the good-bad line.   Perhaps some of them do.  But as one reviews the many abduction accounts and their supposed horrors, one gets the unmistakable impression that the most terrifying aspect of these encounters is the lack of control experienced by the abductees: being under the absolute dominance of their captor conflicts sharply with their materialistic, probably godless view of life and their place in it.  Accustomed to perceiving themselves as self-driven, they are forced to confront an absolute powerlessness to escape the situation or to influence the unfolding of the event.  In Witnessed, Budd Hopkins captures the essence of this aspect:

 

“When UFO abductees come upon evidence that, for them, confirms the physical reality of their encounters, their reactions are invariably shock and depression.  No one I have ever worked with has indicated pleasure or relief at any kind of confirming news.  Treating their UFO memories as earthly, explainable dreams or fantasies is for abductees a necessary hope, a bulwark of denial against the unthinkable.  But when that protective dam bursts and the abductees’ tightly held systems of defense are swept away, they are left with a frightening and intolerable truth.”

 

For many ‘victims’, the experience flies in the face of the way they were taught to believe regarding the ultimate independence of the individual, their understanding of themselves as being masters of their own destinies.  Most of us, whether our backgrounds were religious or not, tend to compartmentalize our religious meditations, separating them from the everyday reality of our lives.  When we think of God, we perceive our thoughts to be of our own volition, another exercise of free will.  We rarely perceive our relation with God in terms of His absolute dominance over our lives.  For the most part, God appears to be content with this arrangement.

 

But there are significant exceptions.  A review of the encounters experienced by Daniel, Paul, and John, for example, demonstrates quite clearly that they were life-altering events.  The experiences had many of the same characteristics of modern UFO abductions.  They involved discomfort and terror as well, even for these individuals who had an unusually intimate relationship with God.

 

I would suggest that if the modern abduction experience is perceived as a negative one, it is because the absolute dominance of the ‘occupants’ over their subjects conflicts so greatly with the secular world view held by most of us.  Should we blame the UFOs for this, or should we instead understand how far from God we have put ourselves?  Having made that general commentary, we shall turn next to specific details of UFO involvement in our secularly-described history, and of how these details relate to our religious past.

 

 

 

 

UFOs CHAPTER 7 (CONTINUATION #3)

 

CONTACT, COMMUNION AND CHRISTIANITY CHAPTER 7 (CONTINUATION #3)

 

 

Chapter 7: Biblical Accounts of UFOs (Continued)

 

 

Example 13 – Ezekiel 2:1-3:

 

“And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.  And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me.  And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day.”

 

A great many present-day Jews and Christians consider Ezekiel’s ‘dry bones’ prophecy in the 36^th chapter to have had a remarkably accurate fulfillment in the restoration of the State of Israel following World War II.

 

Example 14 – Daniel 10:5-21, 12:1-13:

 

“Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.

 

“And I Daniel alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves.  Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned into corruption, and I retained no strength.  Yet heard I the voice of his words: and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground. 

 

“And, behold, a hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands.  And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent.  And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling.

 

“Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel; for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.  But the prince of Persia withstood me for one and twenty days; but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.

 

“Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the visions is for many days.

 

“And when he had spoken such words unto me, I set my face toward the ground, and I became dumb.  And, behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips: then I opened my mouth, and spake, and said unto him that stood before me, O my lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength.  For how can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? For as for me, straightway there remained no strength in me, neither is there breath left in me.

 

“Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me, And said, O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee; be strong, yea, be strong.  And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me.

 

“Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come.  But I will show thee that which is noted in the Scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince.”

 

 

“And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.  And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall, awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.  And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever.

 

“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

 

“Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river.  And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?  And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever, that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.

 

“And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?

 

“And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.  Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.  And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.  Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.

 

“But go thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.”

 

The ‘angel’ who appeared to Daniel would be treated as a ‘Close Encounter of the Third Kind’ today. These passages in Daniel were so prophetically accurate that they have come under severe attack by secular skeptics over the past century with respect to their actual dating.  There is much reason, as developed in detail by Grant Jeffrey and other theologians, to consider these attacks to be void of any merit whatsoever.

 

Example 15 – John 24-29:

 

“But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, as not with them when Jesus came.  The other disciples, therefore, said unto him, We have seen the Lord.  But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.  And, after eight days, again hi disciples were inside, and Thomas with them; then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.

 

“Then said He to Thomas, Reach here thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach here thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing.  And Thomas answered, and said unto Him, My Lord and my God.

 

“Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

 

Example 16 – John 21:4-14:

 

“But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore; but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.  Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any food? They answered Him, No.  And He said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the boat and ye shall find.  They cast, therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fish.  Therefore, the disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord.  Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the lord, he girt his fisher’ coat unto him (for he was naked), and did cast himself into the sea.  And the other disciples came in a little boat (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits), dragging the net with fish.  As soon, then, as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it, and bread.  Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught.  Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fish, an hundred and fifty and three; and although there were so many, yet was not the net broken.

 

“Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine.  And none of the disciples dared ask Him, who art thou? Knowing that it was the Lord.  Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.  This is now the third time that Jesus showed Himself to his disciples, after he was risen from the dead.”

 

Example 17 – Luke 1:26-38:

 

“And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.  And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

 

“And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.

 

“And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God.  And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.  He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

 

“Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

 

“And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.  And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.  For with God nothing shall be impossible.

 

“And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.  And the angel departed from her.”

 

It would be interesting to know what these angels actually looked like to Daniel and Mary.  What is certain is that they both perceived these apparitions to be other than merely human.

 

[to be continued]

 

 

UFOs CHAPTER 7 (CONTINUATION #2)

CONTACT, COMMUNION AND CHRISTIANITY CHAPTER 7 (CONTINUATION #2)

 

CHAPTER 7: Biblical Accounts of UFOs (Continued)

 

 

 

Example 13 – Ezekiel 2:1-3:

 

“And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me.  And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day.”

 

A great many present-day Jews and Christians consider Ezekiel’s ‘dry bones’ prophecy in the 36^th chapter to have had a remarkably accurate fulfillment in the restoration of the State of Israel following World War II.

 

Example 14 – Daniel 10:5-21, 12:1-13:

 

“Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.

 

“And I Daniel alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves. Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned into corruption, and I retained no strength.  Yet heard I the voice of his words: and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground. 

 

“And, behold, a hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands. And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent.  And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling.

 

“Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel; for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of Persia withstood me for one and twenty days; but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.

 

“Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the visions is for many days.

 

“And when he had spoken such words unto me, I set my face toward the ground, and I became dumb. And, behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips: then I opened my mouth, and spake, and said unto him that stood before me, O my lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength.  For how can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? For as for me, straightway there remained no strength in me, neither is there breath left in me.

 

“Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me, And said, O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee; be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me.

 

“Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come.  But I will show thee that which is noted in the Scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince.”

 

 

“And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall, awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.  And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever.

 

“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

 

“Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river. And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?  And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever, that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.

 

“And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?

 

“And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.  And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.  Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.

 

“But go thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.”

 

The ‘angel’ who appeared to Daniel would be treated as a ‘Close Encounter of the Third Kind’ today. These passages in Daniel were so prophetically accurate that they have come under severe attack by secular skeptics over the past century with respect to their actual dating. There is much reason, as developed in detail by Grant Jeffrey and other theologians, to consider these attacks to be void of any merit whatsoever.

 

Example 15 – John 24-29:

 

“But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, as not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples, therefore, said unto him, We have seen the Lord.  But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.  And, after eight days, again hi disciples were inside, and Thomas with them; then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.

 

“Then said He to Thomas, Reach here thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach here thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered, and said unto Him, My Lord and my God.

 

“Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

 

Example 16 – John 21:4-14:

 

“But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore; but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any food? They answered Him, No.  And He said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the boat and ye shall find.  They cast, therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fish.  Therefore, the disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord.  Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the lord, he girt his fisher’ coat unto him (for he was naked), and did cast himself into the sea.  And the other disciples came in a little boat (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits), dragging the net with fish.  As soon, then, as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it, and bread.  Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught.  Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fish, an hundred and fifty and three; and although there were so many, yet was not the net broken.

 

“Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples dared ask Him, who art thou? Knowing that it was the Lord.  Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.  This is now the third time that Jesus showed Himself to his disciples, after he was risen from the dead.”

 

Example 17 – Luke 1:26-38:

 

“And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

 

“And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.

 

“And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.  He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

 

“Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

 

“And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.  For with God nothing shall be impossible.

 

“And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.”

 

It would be interesting to know what these angels actually looked like to Daniel and Mary. What is certain is that they both perceived these apparitions to be other than merely human.

 

Example 18 – Luke 24:1-7:

 

“Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcherRemember how he spoke unto you when He was yet in Galilee, Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.” 

 

 

Example 19 – Luke 24:13-32:

 

“And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.  And they talked together of all these things which had happened.  And it came to pass that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus Himself drew near, and went with them.  But their eyes were holden that they should not recognize him.  And He said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one with another, as ye walk, and are sad?  And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering, said unto Him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast no known the things which are come to pass there in these days?  And He said unto them, What things?  And they said unto Him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people; and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and have crucified Him.  But we hoped that it had been He who should have redeemed Israel; and, besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done.  Yea, and certain women also of our company amazed us, who were early at the sepulcher; and wen they found not His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that He was alive.

 

“And certain of those who were with us went to the sepulcher, and found it even as the women had said; but Him they saw not. Then he said unto them, O foolishe ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?  And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them, in all the Scriptures, the things concerning Himself.

 

“And they drew near unto the village, to which they went; and He made as though He would have gone farther. But they constrained Him, saying Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.  And He went in to tarry with them.  And it came to pass, as He sat eating with them, He took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to them.  And their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him; and He vanished out of their sight.  And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us along the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures?”

 

Example 20 – Acts 8:1-4, 9:1-1-9

 

“And Saul was consenting unto [Stephen’s] death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judah and Samaria, except the apostles.  And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.  As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.  Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.”

 

“And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.

 

“And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

 

“And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

 

“And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

 

“And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.  And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.”

 

The following excerpts from the Bible, which are merely ‘tips of the iceberg’, demonstrate how thoroughly this encounter turned Paul’s life around.

 

Example 21 – Acts 9:10-20, Romans 1:1-8:

 

“And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias.  And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.

 

          “And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.

 

          “Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.

 

          “But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel; For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.”

 

          “Paul [Saul], a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy Scriptures,) Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ: To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

          “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.”

         

Here again we see evidence that the encounter imparted wisdom; it totally and permanently changed Saul’s mentality and his life.

 

Example 22 – Hebrews 13:2:

 

“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

 

Example 23 – Revelation 1:9-20:

 

“I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

 

          “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

 

          “And I turned to see the voice that spake with me.  And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the food, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.  His head and his hairs were white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.  And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

 

          “And when I saw him, I fell at his feed as dead.  And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and death.

 

          “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks.  The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.”

 

This close encounter follows a pattern that is seen throughout the Bible, that of an apparition who imparts wisdom and understanding that reaches out beyond our human abilities and our conception of time.  In every case, the knowledge and information dovetails perfectly with other parts of the Bible, contributing to a consistent whole.

 

The involvement of past UFOs in Scripture should not be surprising.  Given our faith in the God of Judeo-Christian tradition, we must necessarily assume that if UFOs exist, God is involved.  As Creator of the universe He created all that exists within it, including the things we call UFOs regardless of whether they exist within or outside our imaginations.  It matters very little whether these objects are primarily physical or spiritual, for even the casual reader of the Bible knows that God’s domain includes both.  In that sense, our own technological wonders, our Mars rovers and space shuttles, including their operators, belong to God.  This is anything but a trivial issue.  The notion of UFOs as technology-adept aliens comes straight out of the more far-reaching notion that God as an Entity who is personally involved in and relevant to our lives does not exist.  The fact that most of us fail to appreciate is that our understanding of the ultimate ownership of our universe is perhaps the most influential element of how we have perceived UFO events in the past, and of whether we consider them to be basically good or evil.

 

Regardless of their origin, however, their current reputation is not so good, and at least part of the blame can be placed on their behavior toward us.   Based on their perceived secrecy, apparent indifference toward humans, and the terror which they evoke in those whom they abduct, it would seem reasonable to suggest that they come from the wrong side of the good-bad line.   Perhaps some of them do.  But as one reviews the many abduction accounts and their supposed horrors, one gets the unmistakable impression that the most terrifying aspect of these encounters is the lack of control experienced by the abductees: being under the absolute dominance of their captor conflicts sharply with their materialistic, probably godless view of life and their place in it.  Accustomed to perceiving themselves as self-driven, they are forced to confront an absolute powerlessness to escape the situation or to influence the unfolding of the event.  In Witnessed, Budd Hopkins captures the essence of this aspect:

 

“When UFO abductees come upon evidence that, for them, confirms the physical reality of their encounters, their reactions are invariably shock and depression. No one I have ever worked with has indicated pleasure or relief at any kind of confirming news.  Treating their UFO memories as earthly, explainable dreams or fantasies is for abductees a necessary hope, a bulwark of denial against the unthinkable.  But when that protective dam bursts and the abductees’ tightly held systems of defense are swept away, they are left with a frightening and intolerable truth.”

 

For many ‘victims’, the experience flies in the face of the way they were taught to believe regarding the ultimate independence of the individual, their understanding of themselves as being masters of their own destinies.  Most of us, whether our backgrounds were religious or not, tend to compartmentalize our religious meditations, separating them from the everyday reality of our lives.  When we think of God, we perceive our thoughts to be of our own volition, another exercise of free will.  We rarely perceive our relation with God in terms of His absolute dominance over our lives.  For the most part, God appears to be content with this arrangement.

 

But there are significant exceptions.  A review of the encounters experienced by Daniel, Paul, and John, for example, demonstrates quite clearly that they were life-altering events.  The experiences had many of the same characteristics of modern UFO abductions.  They involved discomfort and terror as well, even for these individuals who had an unusually intimate relationship with God.

 

I would suggest that if the modern abduction experience is perceived as a negative one, it is because the absolute dominance of the ‘occupants’ over their subjects conflicts so greatly with the secular world view held by most of us.  Should we blame the UFOs for this, or should we instead understand how far from God we have put ourselves?  Having made that general commentary, we shall turn next to specific details of UFO involvement in our secularly-described history, and of how these details relate to our religious past.

 

 

 

 

UFOs Chapter 7 (Continuation #1)

 

CONTACT, COMMUNION AND UFOS CHAPTER 7 (CONTINUATION #1)

 

 

CHAPTER 7: Biblical Accounts of UFOs (Continued)

 

Example 7 – Exodus 40:34-38:

 

“Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

 

“And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys; but if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.”

 

This event occurred again when Solomon dedicated the first temple, as recorded in 1 Kings 8:10-13:

 

“And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.

 

“Then spoke Solomon, The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. I have surely built thee an house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in forever.”

 

 

Example 8 – Joshua 1:1-11:

 

          “Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, it came to pass, that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.

 

          “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.  From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.

 

          “There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

 

          “Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for and inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them.  Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn no from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.

 

          “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

 

          “Have I not commanded thee?  Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

 

          “Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, Pass through the host, and command the people, saying, Prepare you victuals; for within three days ye shall pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which the Lord your God giveth you to possess it.”

 

Example 9 – Joshua 5:13-15:

 

“And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?

          “And he sad, Nay; but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.  And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?

          “And the captain of the Lord’s host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy.  And Joshua did so.

 

Example 10 – Joshua 6:2-5, 15,16,20:

 

“And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thy hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valor.  And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once.  Thus shalt thou do six days.  And seven priest shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.  And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.”

 

“And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the Lord hath given you the city.”

 

“So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.”

 

As in the case with Moses before him, Joshua’s adventures were accompanied with signs and miracles. Also as with Moses, his adventures were preceded by the sighting of an apparition, who commanded him to display courage.

 

Example 11 – 2 Kings 2:1-13:

 

“And it came to pass, when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me to Bethel.  And Elisha said unto him, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.  So they went down to Bethel.  And the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today?  And he said, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace.

 

          “And Elijah said unto him, Tarry, I pray thee, here; for the Lord hath sent me to Jordan.  And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.  And they two went on.  And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view afar off: and they two stood by Jordan.

 

          “And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground.

 

          “And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I shall be taken away from thee.  And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.  And he said, thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.

 

          “And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

 

          “And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!  And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.  He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan.”

 

Here is what we would call a classic UFO abduction case, complete with the UFO itself. Did this encounter affect Elisha thereafter?  We see in 2 Kings 2:14, 15 the answer:

 

“And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? And when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.

 

“And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha.  And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him.

 

Example 12 – Ezekiel 1:1-28:

 

“Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the

fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity, The word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was there upon him.

 

          “And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire.  Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures.  And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.  And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings.  And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot: and they sparkled like the color of burnished brass.  And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings.  Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward.  As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.  Thus were their faces; and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies.  And they went every one straight forward: wither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went.  As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.  And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.

 

“Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the color of beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.  When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went.  As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.  And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.  Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.

 

“And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the color of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above. And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the other: every one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two, which covered on that side, their bodies.

 

“And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of a host: when they stood, they let down their wings. And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their wings.

 

“And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it. And I saw as the color of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.  As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about.  This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.  And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.”

 

This event has been thoroughly revisited by modern writers, who note the obvious correspondence with recent UFO sightings. Here again, as in modern sightings with a religious flavor, the sighting had a long-term impact on the witness.  There is abundant evidence in the chapters in Ezekiel that follow that great prophetic wisdom was imparted to Ezekiel.  His life was changed forever as he followed the prophetic command noted below.

 

[to be continued]

 

 

UFOs CHAPTER 6

CONTACT, COMMUNION AND CHRISTIANITY CHAPTER 6

 

 

Chapter 6: Extra-Biblical Christian-Related Accounts of UFOs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some extra-Biblical UFO experiences have been overtly religious but which can be interpreted as either positive or negative according to the investigator’s point of view.  Many of these experiences also are informationally rich.

 

One such famous incident occurred in 1917 in Fatima, Portugal. In that event, the apparition of a lady appeared to three children in Fatima, Portugal.  Two of the children subsequently died in the great influenza epidemic following World War 1, supposedly with the full knowledge of and joyful anticipation of their coming death.  The third, Lucia, lived to the age of 97, passing away in 2005.  The children were given three secrets by the apparition, interpreted as Mary by the Catholic Church.  The first involved a vision of hell.  The second involved a request to save souls and a command to consecrate Russia to Mary, with the warning that if Russia didn’t return to God, another, worse war would occur during the tenure of Pope Pius XI.  This prophecy was fulfilled in 1939, the year that Pope Pius XI died.  There is a bit of the cloak-and-dagger regarding the third secret of Fatima.  Lucia had cautioned that it was not to be revealed until 1960, but the Catholic Church continued to hold it secret until 2000, when the secret was declared to have been a vision of a Pope climbing up a hill toward a cross, accompanied by many Church leaders and other Christians.  Upon reaching the cross at the summit, they were gunned down by soldiers.  Angels were said to have collected their shed blood.  But there is still controversy regarding this third secret, with many claiming that the third mystery revealed more than the Church has been willing to disclose.  At any rate, Popes Pius XII, Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI have all strongly acknowledged their acceptance of the Fatima apparition and the secrets as supernatural fact.  In 2010 Pope Benedict XVI repeated this conviction. Other apparitions of Mary have been witnessed, including eighteen appearances to Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes, France, and a number of events at Medjugorje, Bosnia beginning in June, 1981.  A recommended Web site for the interested reader is “Apparitions of Mary”.   Additional details of the Medjugorje apparition are discussed later.

 

The well-known Fatima miracle, as Jacques Vallee relates, was connected with UFOs:

 

“The famous apparitions at Fatima offer a historical example of the religious dimension of UFO encounters.  The case is a celebrated one, yet I am prepared to wager that few Americans know the full story of what happened in 1917 near the small Portuguese town.  I suspect that even fewer realize that the entire sequence of observations of an entity thought to be the Virgin Mary had begun two years previously with a fairly classical sequence of UFO sightings.

 

“If we accept the interpretation given of Fatima by the Catholic Church, we are dealing with a phenomenon that cannot be explained either as a physical effect or as an illusion.  In its decision of 1930, arrived at after thirteen years of painstaking investigation by many scholars, the church stated that:

 

“’The solar phenomenon of the 13^th of October 1917, described in the press of the time, was most marvelous and caused the greatest impression on those who had the happiness of witnessing it. . .

 

“’This phenomenon, which no astronomical observatory registered and which therefore was not natural, was witnessed by persons of all categories and of all social classes, believers and unbelievers, journalists of the principal Portuguese newspapers and even by persons some miles away.  Facts which annul any explanation of collective illusion.’

 

“This ‘miracle,’ the reader will note, had been predicted several months before by three illiterate children after their vision of a woman ‘in a bright glow.’  She had not said that she was the Virgin Mary.  She had simply stated that she was ‘from Heaven’ and instructed them to return every month until October, when a public miracle would take place ‘so that everyone may believe.’

 

“The events at Fatima involve luminous spheres, lights with strange colors, a feeling of ‘heat waves’ – all physical characteristics commonly associated with UFOs.  They even include the typical falling-leaf motion of the saucer zig-zagging through the air.  They also encompass prophecy and a loss of ordinary consciousness on the part of witnesses – what we have called the psychic component of UFO sightings.”

 

Vallee goes on to describe various messages given to selected individuals, the prophetic statements, and the several follow-on apparitions that comprise the Fatima miracle.  He notes features of the events, like buzzing sounds experienced by some witnesses, which are characteristic of modern UFO sightings.  Some prophesies are quite specific, as noted by Vallee:

 

“’The war is going to end, but if people do not stop offending God another and worse one will begin during the reign of Pius XI [note: he died in 1939, years after the prophecy and indeed at the beginning of World War II].  When you see a night illuminated by an unknown light know that this is the great sign that God is giving you that he is going to punish the world for its crimes by means of war, famine, and persecution of the Church and of the Holy Father.

 

“’To prevent this I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia. . .If they heed my requests, Russia will be converted and there will be peace.  If not, she will spread her errors throughout the world.’”

 

Vallee then makes a curious statement regarding this prophecy:

 

“The mixture of seriousness and absurdity that we have already noted in several contactee stories is an unmistakable characteristic of this statement.  We will find the same thing to be true in Lourdes, where the alleged Virgin Mary instructs the little Bernadette to perform meaningless actions.”

 

Did the statement have absurd elements?  World War II began the same year Pius XI died.  Major events which precipitated it occurred during his reign.  According to Christian (and Western) thought, Russia has indeed spread her errors throughout the world.

 

Perhaps the absurdities, if any, are perceived out of an incomplete grasp of the event, or of the intimate relationship between a given event and others that might not seem connected at the time.  Vallee himself commented in the narration of an earlier tale, that:

 

“Indeed, we cannot help but recall here the word of Hartland in his Science of Fairy Tales: ‘This gift of an object apparently worthless, which turns out, on the conditions being observed, of the utmost value, is a commonplace of fairy transactions.  It is one of the most obvious manifestations of superhuman power.’”

 

Elements of the tale which evoked that response involves another beautiful representation of Mary in Catholic lore.  In this historic incident that took place just outside Mexico City in the year 1531 a Mexican peasant named Juan Diego visited his dying uncle in an effort to comfort him.  In that tale, as also related by Father John Macquarrie in his book Mary for all Christians, an apparition of Mary appeared to the peasant    .  At the time,   Juan’s uncle was very ill, to the point of near-death.  He spent a day trying to relieve his uncle’s sufferings and left him only on Tuesday, to get a priest.  An apparition of Mary barred his way.  She told him,

 

‘My little son, do not be distressed and afraid. Am I not here who am your Mother?  Are you not under my shadow and protection?  Your uncle will not die at this time.  This very moment his health is restored.  There is no reason now for the errand you set out on, and you can peacefully attend to mine.  Go up to the top of the hill: cut the flowers that are growing there and bring them to me.’

 

As Juan’s uncle was awaiting the priest, his room was filled with light. A luminous figure of a young woman appeared.  He was indeed cured, but that’s not the essence of this story.  The main event occurs with Juan, who obeys the order to go to the flowers on the hill.

 

Juan Diego didn’t expect to see flowers on the hill because it was the middle of winter. But he did indeed find flowers there.  They were Castilian roses.  He cut them as Mary had instructed and carried them back to her in his crudely-woven cape.  She spent some time arranging the flowers, and then tied the corners of the cape behind his neck to prevent the roses from falling out.  She told him to let only the bishop see the sign that she had given him.

 

When he reached the bishop’s palace several servants made sport of him, pushing him around and trying to snatch the flowers from his cape. But the flowers dissolved when they reached for them.  Amazed, they let him go.  When he reached the bishop, Juan Diego untied the corners of the cape and as the ends dropped the flowers fell out in a jumbled heap.  The disappointed peasant became confused as to the purpose of his visit.  But then he was astonished to see that the bishop had come over to him and was kneeling at his feet.  Soon everyone else in the room had come near and they all were kneeling with the bishop.

 

Juan Diego’s cape now hangs over the altar in the basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.  Over eight million persons were baptized there in the six years that followed this event.  Many millions more of people since that time have knelt before the two-piece cape, coarsely-woven of maguey fibers, for imprinted on it is an intricately detailed, beautiful figure of Mary.  In her graceful posture she appears kind and lovable.  She is surrounded by golden rays.  Fifteen hundred persons a day still visit the shrine.  The image is available on the Internet by Googling on “Juan Diego”.

 

Some items of interesting information have come to my attention regarding Our Lady of Guadalupe, as the Catholic Church has named this apparition. Although I have yet to verify this information, I’ll pass it along.  First, She apparently never identified Herself to Juan Diego as Mary, but rather as Juan Diego’s Mother.  Second, Her image, as can be seen by Googling Juan Diego, matches that of the Aztec goddess.  Third, according to a Mexican theologian as referenced in http://www.laermita.org/spanish/articulos/senoraguad.htm, the indigenous converts to Christianity, in opposition to the Catholic insistence on perceiving the apparition as Mary, refused to worship Her as such and insisted themselves upon worshiping Her as God.

 

The same type of apparition has occurred more recently with messages from a spiritual being whom the Catholic Church associates with Mary. In fact, messages from this lady continue to the time of this writing, in 2015.  The apparition first appeared at Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina on June 24, 1981, with the urgent mission of asserting to the world that God truly exists, and that path to joy and peace requires man to return to Him.  Her message has in the past and continues to be given to six people residing in Herzegovina: Ivan, Jakov, Marija, Mirjana, Vicka, and Ivanka.  In her daily appearance to them, this lady gives the six visionaries public messages and private ‘secrets’.  Of these ‘secrets’, there will be ten in all, after which the lady will stop appearing to the visionaries on a daily basis, but will reappear one day each year for the rest of their lives..  To date,  Mirjana, Jakov and Ivanka have each received their ten ‘secrets’, and Marija, Vicka and Ivan have each received nine.

 

The Medjugorje.org Website includes a cryptic and rather unsettling paragraph that reads:

 

“Once Our Lady has stopped appearing there will be three warnings given to the world. These warnings will be in the form of events on earth.  They will occur within Mirjana’s lifetime, and Mirjana will be a witness to them.  Ten days before each of the warnings, she will advise the priest she chose for this task (Father Petar Ljubicic), who will then pray and fast with Mirjana for seven days.  Then, three days before each warning is to take place, Fr. Petar will announce to the world what, where, and when the warning will take place.  Fr. Petar has no choice, and must reveal each warning.  After the first warning, the other two will follow in a rather short period of time.  That interval will be a period of great grace and conversion.  After the permanent, visible, supernatural, and indestructible sign appears on the mountain where Our Lady first appeared in Medjugorje, there will be little time for conversion.  For that reason, the Blessed Virgin invites us to urgent conversion and reconciliation.  The permanent sign will lead to many healings and conversions before the secrets become reality.  According to Mirjana, the events predicted by the Blessed Virgin are near.  By virtue of this experience, Mirjana proclaims to the world: ‘Hurry, be converted; open your hearts to God.’”

 

The “permanent sign” spoken in the paragraph above was identified in a previous paragraph:

 

“In the third secret Our Lady has promised to leave a supernatural, indestructible, and visible sign on the mountain where she first appeared. Our Lady said: ‘This sign will be given for the atheists. You faithful already have signs and you have become the sign for the atheists.  You faithful must not wait for the sign before you convert; convert soon.  This time is a time of grace for you.  You can never thank God enough for His grace.  The time is for deepening your faith, and for your conversion.  When the sign comes, it will be too late for many.’”

 

 

 

 

UFOs CHAPTER 4

CONTACT, COMMUNION AND CHRISTIANITY CHAPTER 4

Chapter 4: The Christian Assessment of UFOs Part One – The Negative Take

Several well-known Christian spokespersons have in the past addressed and continue to address large audiences on the UFO topic. When they do, they almost invariably describe the phenomenon as demonic, and issue warnings to their fellows against any association with them. More than one popular speaker has gone so far as to advise his audience that any person who has been in contact with a UFO occupant to pray for the deliverance of his soul. As highly-respected theologian Chuck Missler noted on page 324 of his 1997 book Alien Encounters, co-authored by Mark Eastman,

“Demonic access of any kind requires the lowering of the gate of one’s will. This can be initiated by a subtle “entry” – involvement in a seemingly “harmless” pursuit or game such as a “ouija” board, a séance, a party game, or something more serious. This can make you prey for the forces of darkness and eligible for the types of events or pseudo-events described in this book.”

Again, on page 326, he makes this dire warning:

“If you see a UFO, immediately call on God and plead his blood as your basis for immunity. And don’t let yourself become hypnotized. It’s serious business. Your eternal destiny is at stake.”

I count myself among those who respect Dr. Missler. Many of his insights into Scripture are unique to him and quite interesting. I don’t play with ouija boards, as I happen to agree with him on that matter. However, I take issue with his negativity regarding UFOs, precisely because my own UFO experience, as will be related in the next chapter, occurred when I was not a Christian, and turned me toward Christianity rather than away from it. Furthermore, any contact that I might have had with a UFO occupant was completely involuntary. I think my God is big enough to keep me out of trouble all on His own, although I agree wholeheartedly with Dr. Missler that dabbling in the occult, a voluntary act, is a real no-no. I also agree with him that the world will encounter, and perhaps already has entered, a time of spiritual depravity, false doctrine, and a massive effort to mislead. This view is given credence by the numerous warnings of Jesus and Paul, particularly in Matthew 24, Romans, Timothy, Thessalonians and Revelation, regarding the spiritual darkness that will be visited upon the human race as the Church Age draws to a close.

Nevertheless, those members of the Christian community who shun UFO contact obviously are negatively biased against UFOs, perceiving the phenomenon not as materialistic but spiritual. Chuck Missler, for example, favors angelic beings as the source of UFO contacts. However, he seems to focus exclusively on the side of the fallen angel, rather than acknowledging both kinds of angels. Many contemporary theologians who address the UFO issue concur with Dr. Missler on this point. Yet, can you imagine what Gideon would have done about the angel sitting under the tree if he had held this point of view? Would he have run away and prayed to God to keep his soul intact? Would he have complained to his father? Or how about Mary? Would she have told Gabriel that she didn’t want anybody fooling around with her body, particularly her reproductive system, and to get the heck away from her? A later chapter will describe a host of encounters with beings that the Judeo-Christian community accepts as having been angelic, but would describe as alien in a more modern setting.

The bad feelings of many popular Christian spokespersons toward UFO encounters might include the secular notions that UFO occupants are alien to us and are frighteningly superior, but their greatest concern relates to the Bible, specifically to Genesis 6:2-4

“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all whom they chose. And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

“There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them, the same became mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”

Evangelical Theologians directly associate the Great Flood of Noah with God’s desire to cleanse the earth of these hybrid beings and disobedient fathers and terminate the violence that they wrought on our planet. They are considered evil for a number of reasons: their disobedience toward God in leaving their assigned heavenly station and mingling with the inhabitants of Earth; their forbidden sexual lust which led to their intrusion upon the exclusive earthly relationship between human males and human females as established by God; and the untimely knowledge that they imparted to humans, which interfered with the sequence of events which God had planned for us.

The term “sons of God”, by which the Bible describes these beings who produced hybrids, readily identifies them as angels. Their evil nature is described elsewhere in Scripture, particularly in Revelation 12:7-13:

“And there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil and satan, who deceiveth the whole world; he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

“And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

“And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman who brought forth the male child.”

Here again bad angels are depicted. But note that there are two camps in this drama, and one of these camps consists of good angels. When the topic of UFOs is addressed by Evangelical theologians, they almost uniformly link the UFO experience with angels, but they tend to forget about the good ones. This oversight is difficult to understand, given the numerous instances in Scripture, like Gabriel’s discussion with Daniel in Daniel Chapter 9, and his later Annunciation to Mary in Luke 1, where Gabriel obviously is serving God in obedience and interacting quite benignly with humans.

Nevertheless, the Bible makes it plain that there are fallen angels who behave with evil intent toward humans. Both Chuck Missler and Scott Alan Roberts address the offspring of these fallen angels as Nephilim. According to Roberts in his 2012 book The Rise and Fall of the Nephilim,

“Some Christian ufologists, such as Chuck Missler, believe that the “Sons of God” in Genesis 6:2 are actually extra-terrestrials or grey aliens, and that these beings are actually fallen angels or demons that have appeared during the antediluvian times in order to genetically alter the human race, and to pollute the bloodline of Jesus. Thus, the Nephilim would be the hybrid race of these beings in this view.”

Roberts also claims that the fallen angels, fathers of the nephilim, belonged to the caste of the “watchers” that were so briefly and enigmatically mentioned in Jeremiah 4:16 and Daniel 4:13, 17, and 23:

“Make mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come over from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.”

“I [Nebudchadnezzar] saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and, behold, a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven; . . .This matter is by decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones, to the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will, and setteth up over it the basest of men. . . And whereas the king saw a watcher and an holy one coming down from heaven, and saying, Hew the tree down, and destroy it; yet leave the stump of its roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let him be wet with the dew of heaven,, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven times pass over him;”

In his Chapter 5, entitled “The Watchers”, Roberts turns to the extra-canonical Book of Enoch to glean further information about the watchers and the Nephilim. The Book of Enoch, fragments of which were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, described these beings in greater detail. As noted above with regard to the angels of Revelation 12, if the watchers indeed are angels, there were both good and bad ones, the bad watchers being the fallen angels who abandoned their assigned heavenly station to cohabit with human women. The disobedient watchers, Roberts notes, had angered God on a number of levels, including their disobedience to God, their impartation of knowledge prematurely to humans, and their having had sexual liaisons with women, thus polluting the human DNA, which threatened the bloodline to Jesus as well as violating God’s intent to limit marriage to a human male and a human female. Roberts quotes several passages from Enoch that are descriptive of the watchers’ malfeasance. These passages include the following, where the watcher Azazyel figures prominently as a target for epithets:

1 Enoch 7:10, 11-14, 9:5-14, 10:12 and 13, and 18-20:

“Then they took wives, each choosing for himself’ whom they began to approach, and with whom they cohabitated; teaching them sorcery, incantations. . .”

“And the women conceiving brought forth giants, whose stature was each three hundred cubits. These devoured all which the labor of men produced; until it became impossible to feed them; when they turned themselves against men, in order to devour them; and began to injure birds, beasts, reptiles, and fishes, to eat their flesh one after another, and to drink their blood.”

“Thou hast seen what Azazyel has done, how he has taught every species of iniquity upon earth, and has disclosed to the world all the secret things which are done in the heavens. Shamyaza also has taught sorcery, to whom thou hast given authority over those who are associated with him. They have gone together to the daughters of men; have lain with them; have become polluted; and have discovered crimes to them. The women likewise have brought forth giants. Thus has the whole earth been filled with blood and with iniquity. And now behold the souls of those who are dead, cry out. And complain even to the gate of heaven. Their groaning ascends; nor can they escape from the unrighteousness which is committed on earth. Thou knowest all things, before they exist. Thou knowest these things, and what has been done by them; yet thou dost not speak to us. What on account of these things ought we to do to them?”

“All the earth has been corrupted by the effects of the teaching of Azazyel. To him therefore ascribe the whole crime. To Gabriel also the Lord said, Go to the biters, to the reprobates, to the children of fornication; and destroy the children of fornication, the offspring of the Watchers, from among men; bring them forth, and excite them one against another. Let them perish by mutual slaughter; for length of days shall not be theirs”

“Destroy all the souls addicted to dalliance, and the offspring of the Watchers, for they have tyrannized over mankind. Let every oppressor perish from the face of the earth; let every evil work be destroyed.”

Roberts makes an interesting connection between the watchers and a famous modern UFO event. He notes that in the occult science of numerology the number of 33 denotes the highest level of human consciousness, which is echoed in the hierarchy of Freemasonry where the 33rd degree is the highest order. He comments further that Israel’s mount Hermon was the location on the 33rd parallel where the fallen watchers arrived on Earth, and proceeds from there to point out that on the other side of the world from Israel the famous alleged 1947 UFO crash occurred at Roswell, New Mexico, also on the 33rd parallel. He seems to indicate that Roswell is precisely on the opposite side of the Earth from Mount Hermon, but if one traces the two locations on a globe, they don’t quite line up on opposite sides. Yet, they are somewhat close to doing so.

On page 98 of The Rise and Fall of the Nephilim, Roberts makes a perceptive statement. He claims that people tend to interpret ancient documents, particularly religious ones, as mythical and so to dismiss them as essentially irrelevant to our lives. We do so, he asserts, in order to perceive ourselves as intellectually superior to our ancestors, who we view as naïve, superstitious, and engaging in outmoded ways of thinking. But perhaps, he speculates, our own scientifically-oriented way of thinking is too sterile. Maybe some of those ancient “myths” contain real truths, which we ignore to our disadvantage. I wholeheartedly agree with Roberts’ opinion here, but I would go farther, by reminding Christians that both Peter and Paul (2 Peter 1:20, 21 and 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17) claimed that all Scripture was inspired by the Holy Spirit and should be considered truthful in its entirety. It has often been the case that these statements have caused me to persist beyond an initial misunderstanding of Scripture, where others have been tempted to cast the same aside as either mythical or in error, to the acquisition of valuable insights regarding the nature of God.

UFOs CHAPTER 3 (CONTINUED)

CONTACT, COMMUNION AND CHRISTIANITY CHAPTER 3 (CONTINUED)

While Chariots of the Gods?, first published in 1970, was a best-seller, Von Daniken was considered by many at the time to be a sensationalist. Respected theologians remained indifferent to his views, treating the notion of space aliens as a mere passing fad, to be indulged in by those whose literary tastes run to those expressed by the supermarket tabloids. Much of Von Daniken’s work, however, is insightful enough to merit more respect than he has received from the mainstream religious community. Since Von Daniken, moreover, others have taken up this particular baton with quite serious scholarship. Notable among these researchers is Zecharia Sitchin, who authored the Earth Chronicles book series centered on his 12th Planet concept.

Many aspects of Sitchin’s arguments are not original with him. He repeats a variety of facts and conclusions that were presented before by Von Daniken. Nevertheless, like many scholars who flesh out the pioneering work of others in greater detail, Sitchin brings out a wealth of additional background information in support of Von Daniken’s original claims. Furthermore, his theories regarding the source of the cosmic visitors do indeed appear to involve some original concepts which add depth to the discussion. Because of his scholarship, consistency of thought, and clarity of presentation, Sitchin’s writings will be included with Von Daniken’s as the generally representative focus of discussion.

Regardless of whether one agrees with part or all of Sitchin’s thesis, he presents a good case, providing in the process a very concise, readable story of how the history of man developed through the eyes of nineteenth and twentieth century archaeologists. As Sitchin follows the successive discoveries of the sites of ancient near-Eastern civilizations, he manages to convey a sense of excitement over the archaeologists’ growing grasp of the information which was revealed therein and of his own developing realization of the enormous implications of their discoveries. The civilization of man, Sitchin asserts in The 12th Planet, began in the fourth millenium B.C. along the Euphrates River just above the Persian Gulf, at Eridu in the Biblical land of Shinar which modern historians call Sumer. Its expansion from there followed the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers into Akkadia and Babylon, and from thence northward into the region of Mount Ararat and eventually into Europe, westward via the Mediterranean Sea to Crete and then Greece, back southward along the eastern bank of the Mediterranean into Canaan and Egypt, and eastward into the Indus Valley. Its northward progression was facilitated by the Horites (Hurrians), who communicated with the Akkadian civilization to their south and the Hittites to their north.

The change that the civilization of Sumer represented from the primitive lifestyle of man up to that time was so sudden that scholars called it astonishing. Modern society could easily identify with it: it had a Government with a bicameral congress, a code of laws including those to protect the poor (preceding Hammurabi by almost a millenium), schools, artistic sophistication, music with the flavor of our own Country/Western music, a pantheistic religion of twelve primary dieties which formed the basis of the Grecian, Roman, Canaanite, Hittite, Amorite, and Egyptian systems of worship, and a written language which was passed on to these same societies. Its people practiced law, medicine, agriculture, studied mathematics and history, and concerned themselves with world peace.

Sitchin claims that the rise of the Sumerian civilization was too abrupt to have been accomplished by man alone. The suddenness of man’s progress there led Sitchin to surmise that man was given a big push by outside influences. Mankind had help, he says, and that help came from beyond earth. Moreover, he claims, the Bible speaks of it. In his book The 12th Planet, Sitchin interprets the Biblical book of Genesis as describing humanoid beings from another planet who visited earth many thousands of years ago. Their first and principal occupation was in the region of ancient Sumer, where they built several cities. The Sumerian name for the region was E.din, which means ‘home of the righteous ones’. The Biblical implication of this name is obvious.

Portions of the Bible, as a matter of fact, have a startling similarity to some recently-decipered Sumerian texts. To support his view that humans were visited by aliens, Sitchin points out the many Sumerian, Biblical, and other ancient records alluding to ‘gods’ who possessed an advanced technology having characteristics paralleling those of our modern age, including flight above the earth and into space. He also shows that mankind, while venerating these beings as gods, attributed curiously human characteristics to them, chief of which was their ability to mate and have offspring. They also had shortcomings of a human nature, such as jealousies, anger, untruthfulness, unfaithfulness, and self-serving motives. These records, Sitchin asserts, are consistent with passages in the Bible, if those passages are interpreted from the perspective of an alien presence on earth which, despite its advanced technology, fell far short of the Godhood which mankind attributed to it.

Among this ancient literature is a rich and colorful tradition of dieties who form a family dynasty. The members of this dynasty are subject to the same nobility and moral faults as mankind. Stories of their personalities, the relationships among themselves and with mankind, and their exploits form a cosmic drama whose main players seem to be somewhat akin to the characters of Dallas. Indeed, their loves, jealousies, sexual liaisons, and adventures would make good material for a television soap opera.

Sitchin notes a close correlation between the pantheon of gods in other cultures and their Sumerian counterparts. He furnishes compelling evidence to support his claim that this Sumerian pantheon was the basis of the Hittite, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman religious systems, and that Sumerian knowledge and religious concepts greatly influenced religious thought throughout the world, including that of the Hindus and the Hebrews. The Egyptians, for example, believed that their gods came from a far land, most likely in the region of ancient Sumer, after the Deluge. In fact, the primary deities associated with both earthly and heavenly activities and celestial bodies, in particular, have been accepted among many archaelogists as having originated in Sumer. Sitchin notes, in support of this supposition, that the hierarchical structure of the gods, which was maintained at a constant number of 12 in the Sumerian pantheon as some of them were replaced by others, was similarly maintained at 12 in the later Egyptian, Greek, and Roman pantheons.

There is some minor overlap of material between Sitchin and Temple, but it is not known to what extent they may have shared data, if at all. There are, however, significant differences in focus. Where Sitchin primarily (but not exclusively) references Mesopotamian, i.e. Sumerian and later Akkadian and Babylonian, clues to extraterrestrial visitations, Temple extracts his information from historically more recent source data, including epics and myths from Egypt, Greece, Rome and other civilizations from the Mediterranean area. Temple engages in much speculation out of a comparative review of mythology and word roots. His primary intellectual tools are an unusually comprehensive knowledge base of legends and myths, an impressive memory, and a rather freely-employed flair for creative associations. Many of his associations are tenuous at best, while others are somewhat more plausible. Although his treatment often lacks the integrating theses which other authors such as Sitchin employ to tie together the various components of their developments, the sheer aggregation of the associations gives weight even to some of his more tenuous connections. Temple believes, as Sitchin does, that an extensive knowledge was imparted to mankind 5,000 or so years ago. A part of this knowledge, elements of which it is highly unlikely that man could have obtained on his own, concerned the Sirius star system, as noted in the commentary above regarding the Dogon tgribe o Mali, Africa.

Temple went on to claim that the knowledge which the Dogons possess is but the tip of the iceberg: the Greeks as well as the Dogons borrowed this knowledge from the more ancient Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations, which were not only contemporary with but in communication with each other. Intrinsic to their common knowledge were the same elements which the Dogon most probably borrowed and display in their rituals: understanding of the Sirius system, including the small size and great density of Sirius B, its approximately 50-year orbit about Sirius A, and the ellipticity of the orbit. Greek language and mythology, he asserts, encodes a somewhat imperfectly-understood vestige of this ancient knowledge and its associated rituals.

Temple, like Von Daniken, supports his thesis of alien visitations with the observation of records of strange hybrid partly-human, partly-animal creatures. According to Temple, the creatures, some of which were considered to be quite ugly and fear-inspiring, were supposedly intelligent, extremely knowledgeable, and adept in the arts of civilization. He implies that the aliens themselves may have had these forms. Von Daniken, on the other hand, attributes these forms to experimentation on species indigenous to the Earth. A variety of such beings, mostly amphibious but sometimes possessing features of snakes or other creatures instead of fins in their lower parts, were depicted in the ancient art of a number of societies, including the Dogon, Chinese, and especially the Egyptians. It is only with recent advances in genetic science that we can perceive the possibility that the depictions represent reality: perhaps at some time in the distant past there was much experimentation with gene splicing. In Gods from Outer Space, Von Daniken notes the many references to hybrid creatures in ancient literature and art from the Sumerian civilization forward. As he implied in The Eyes of the Sphinx, the many odd forms of artifacts uncovered in Egypt, which often combine portions of vastly different species, indicate that the genetic manipulation may have attempted to cross species boundaries. Whatever the origin of these odd creatures, the depictions appear to represent something other than fiction. They lend weight to the alien thesis.

But in reviewing the works of these authors of the historical alien genre, one can discern a number of common assumptions that are not necessarily true, and, in fact, severely restrict their visions of our past. Their primary assumption is that the Bible, while it might contain interesting and perhaps even valuable historic information, is just another document written by men. As such, there is nothing in it that can be attributed to the influence of God, nor is the majority of information treated by it as fact anything more than oft-repeated fable. Even the fables are considered to be degenerations of earlier, more accurate accounts. Several other assumptions directly follow this first one, especially the notion of evolution – that mankind, in opposition to the events catalogued in Genesis, evolved from a lesser creature, and from a primitive state to increasing levels of sophistication. In lockstep with the theory of evolution and equally opposed to the notion of Biblical truth is the companion doctrine of uniformitarianism, that the present is the key to the past and the state of the earth and life within it as we see it today is the result of billions of years of slowly-working processes. With the rejection of Scripture as truth, God Himself doesn’t seem to be particularly relevant to science, or even history for that matter. Thus in attempting to address the UFO phenomenon, God isn’t seen as particularly relevant to that issue either, and the researchers are left to their pursuit of answers along the lines of cutting-edge technology. When researchers find evidence of technical sophistication in our historical past, the rigid constraints that they impose on themselves by their godlessness impels them toward one of only two possible answers: either mankind was visited in the past by technologically superior beings, or there is insufficient data to say what went on in the ancient past and the subject would be best left alone (for now). This is why the group of investigators who are interested in ancient technology are predominantly spokespersons for UFO visitations in the past.

What if the Bible is historically accurate after all? Then it’s immediately another ball game. According to Genesis 6:1-7, we started out with a lot of talent, and quickly became corrupted, probably worshipping the same inventive spirit that modern man does:

“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.

“There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.”

We would no longer need ancient aliens to account for the Nazca Lines, the Great Pyramid, the Egyptian Tombs, and a host of other intriguing archaeological relics. Intelligent and sophisticated humans may have existed in the ancient past, turning into cave-dwelling primitives only temporarily until they recovered from the necessity for mere survival following the Great Flood. Perhaps their technology even surpassed our own. After all, it took us less than 400 years after we got on the technology wagon to achieve the sophistication in the mathematical and physical sciences that led to automotive transportation, manned flight, supersonic flight, space flight, worldwide communication, radio, television, computers, robotics, bridges, tunnels, skyscrapers and gameboys.

Actually, it is no longer logical to reject the historical accuracy of the Bible in favor of the opposing pseudoscience. Not after the The notion of uniformitarianism, at best a conceptual tool but not a very good one at that, has pretty much received a well-deserved comeuppance, with numerous former adherents rushing to discard it. With the arrival on the scientific scene of fresh new insights into the process of life, especially at the microscopic level, the theory of evolution is following suit, only not so quickly. The major hindrance to its utter rejection is the lack of any other theory of life’s origins that doesn’t involve God.

UFOs CHAPTER 3

CONTACT, COMMUNION AND CHRISTIANITY CHAPTER 3

Chapter 3: The Historical Alien Presence – Or Was It Something Else?

Among the most spectacular of extraterrestrial accounts from the past is the collection of religious beliefs of the Dogon tribe in Mali, West Africa. It is an astonishing story of information this tribe possesses that should never have been available to them in their isolation and primitive state of existence. As related by Scott Alan Roberts in Chapter 5 of his book The Rise and Fall of the Nephilim, French anthropologists Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen extracted from their religious mythology a wealth of information regarding the star Sirius and its associated system the accuracy of which is simply beyond the tribe’s powers of observation. A brief summary of Roberts’ account of their incredible customs and the information they represent is given below.

The Dogon people have a tradition, reaching into the unknown past, of worshiping beings they call the Nommos. These froglike creatures aren’t local to the area, but reside somewhat farther away, within hailing distance of the star Sirius B. They recognize Sirius B as one member of a dual-star system, and depict in their drawings the two stars, Sirius A and Sirius B as rotating about each other in an elliptical pattern. Western society figured out elliptical orbits only after the pioneering work of German astronomer Johannes Kepler in the seventeenth century. The Dogons probably beat him to the concept as there was no known modern interaction between the Dogons and the Western world until the 1920s.

The Dogon legend describes the Nommos as having lived on a planet that orbits Sirius B. They arrived on Earth in a craft that we would describe as an ark, which descended in a spin and landed with a big commotion.

The Nommo furnished information to the Dogons; eventually, one of them was crucified on a tree, was resurrected, and returned to the Sirius star system.

A more detailed view of the Dogons and their strange religion is presented by Robert Temple in his 1998 book The Sirius Mystery.

As explained by Temple, there’s a mystery indeed about the Dogon knowledge of the Sirius star system. Sirius A is visible, but Sirius B is much smaller, being a dwarf star, and is invisible to the observer on earth, even with a decent telescope. Yet, as it is very dense, it possesses an appreciable gravitational field. The Dogons know that it is comparably tiny, because they named the star after the seed of an indigenous plant, the botanical name of which is digitaria. The seed of the digitaria is minute, being the smallest seed of which the Dogon are aware. Yet the Dogon consider the much larger star Sirius A to be unimportant to them next to their home star of Sirius B.

Moreover, the Dogons have the orbital period of Sirius B, which is fifty years, pegged with precision to its actual period, and understand that it rotates about its own axis, a common characteristic of stars.

The Dogons are also aware of planetary features within our own solar system. For example, they know that the moon is dead, that a ring encircles Saturn, and that Jupiter possesses four major moons. As for the Earth, it is understood to turn on its own axis and to make a great circle around the sun.

Temple’s book includes other knowledge possessed by the Dogons. This additional information is simply too extensive for the scope of this book. Temple also apeculates, like Zecharia Sitchin who published The Twelfth Planet in 1976, that the evidence of the aliens’ visitation is encoded in the traditions and literature of the ancient Mediterranean region, from which the Dogons, as well as the Greeks and Romans, borrowed from a common source.

Other societies, considered by us to be primitive, also worshiped what we like to label as “alien”. Erich Von Daniken was the earlies of the modern investigators to popularize this practice. In his book Chariots of the Gods? Published in 1976, the same year that Sitchin published The Twelfth Planet, he cites many artifacts of unknown antiquity which don’t fit into mainstream assumptions of man’s history, noting that these oddities are either ignored by scientists or suffer the application of unsatisfactory reasons for their existence. Among these artifacts scattered about the world are structures of sophisticated design and immense proportions, the components of which are of equally impressive size. There are also, in widely scattered locations, structures, objects, and patterns on the ground with evident links to air or space travel.

The enigmatic straight lines in Nazca, Peru are quite ancient. Yet investigators can comprehend no useful purpose for them other than aircraft runways. There are also huge figures cut into the surface in the vicinity which are not recognizable on the ground, but are readily understood for what they are from an aerial perspective.

An abundance of enormous stone structures can be found high in the Andes Mountains of Peru and Bolivia and elsewhere in South and Central America. Von Daniken describes monolithic stone blocks weighing 10, 20, and 100 tons, with precisely defined edges, used in the construction of these structures. Some of the blocks are engraved with figures. Other figures are themselves carved out of stone. But the figures aren’t quite human. Some have four fingers; others wear what appear to be helmets. Still others are depicted as flying.

In addition to artifacts which display a sophistication quite beyond what mainstream archaeologists are willing to attribute to the peoples of antiquity, there is an apparent knowledge itself that runs counter to our perception of ancient man and his lack of sophistication: maps, calendars and astronomical tables, texts, and even artifacts which demonstrate a knowledge of electricity and electro-chemical processes.

Maps of world scope found in the possession of 18th Century Turkish Admiral Piri Reis were not only amazingly accurate but depicted the Antarctic Continent as if it was ice-free, showing land boundaries and mountain ranges in their proper relative locations, although such boundaries were not known in modern times until the middle of the twentieth century. As Von Daniken pointed out, some of the maps appeared to researchers to represent data taken from aerial photographs. Believed to be of still greater antiquity than the sea captain to whom they belonged, the originals from which they were copied were probably created long before the time when the world thought that the earth was flat.

A calendar of impressive sophistication was found in Tiahuanaco. This device gave the equinoxes, seasons, and hourly positions of the moon. Halfway around the world, archaeologists digging at the Mesopotamian site of Nineveh found a mathematical calculation carried out to 15 digits, when, as Von Daniken pointed out, mathematicians of the much-later Greek civilization couldn’t count above 10,000.

Artifacts found in the Middle East and China whose fabrication required a knowledge of electricity and electrochemistry include batteries and battery electrodes, crystal lenses which we can make only with the electrochemically-produced cesium oxide, and objects fashioned of platinum and aluminum.

Where did this enigmatic ancient knowledge come from? Von Daniken asserts that it came from visitors to Earth from space. He speculates briefly at one point that these visitors may have come from the planet Mars before its surface was destroyed by some cosmic event. Elsewhere he places their origin farther afield, among one of the star systems in our Milky Way Galaxy. He claims that we can see depictions of these beings in ancient artwork, from cave drawings scattered throughout the world to Sumerian cylinder seals and South American stone carvings.

But above all the mute artifacts we find scattered about the earth, we have the ancient literature that brings these visitors to life. All we have to do, Von Daniken asserts, is to discard the mundane, inaccurate interpretation of these tales that was first initiated by scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries, a time when the technology to which they pointed was simply inconceivable. Less than two centuries ago, the notion of traveling about the Earth in flying vehicles was considered an absurdity by all but a few visionaries. The thought of traveling among the planets in space vehicles was at the far end of science fiction well into the last century.

Now that we ourselves possess much of the technology described in the ancient literature, however, we can see these texts as representing potential truth rather than necessarily depicting flights of fancy. In line with a more technically-orientated interpretation of these ancient tales, flights of the ‘gods’ in aircraft and space vehicles appears to have been a common theme.

Von Daniken notes that the Bible itself is a part of that ancient literature which describes flying machines driven by ‘gods’. He refers to the multi-winged, multi-wheeled flying vehicle described by the prophet Ezekiel as what modern man would call a ‘UFO’. The prophet Elijah may have ascended to heaven in a similar vehicle. Whatever these vehicles were, they certainly represented a technology far in advance of what we consider the peoples of that day to have possessed. The only other alternative to the physical reality of those vehicles described in the Bible is that they were dreams or visions of Ezekiel and others. But if that is the case, from whence did these highly-detailed visions come? It is absurd to think that they were simply figments of active imaginations. To deny that the vehicles actually existed is equivalent to asserting that the visions came from God. Consequently, in either case there is some truth to their existence.

[to be continued]

UFOs CHAPTER 2 (CONTINUED)

CONTACT, COMMUNION AND CHRISTIANITY CHAPTER 2 (CONTINUED)

Some secularly-oriented UFO spokespersons are fence-sitters. While they either explicitly or indirectly equate their extraterrestrial visitors with the Biblical God, they almost invariably follow a mechanistic mindset for which the Biblical God is demoted to the status of a mere extraterrestrial. In the most fundamental sense, the Judeo-Christian God is obviously and unequivocally a space being: by common understanding, as Creator and Master of the universe, He owns it. Space is a large part of His turf. But that is not the sense in which the UFO fence-sitter implicitly defines the Judeo-Christian God. The alien deities as depicted by these authors differ substantially from that God with respect to capabilities, morals, and, above all, intent. These alien beings may have come from a distant planet, and they may have possessed a superior technology, and perhaps even a more highly-developed intellect. They may have created man as a hybrid of their own genetic material and that of some subhuman species extant on earth at the time. Nevertheless, they appear to be remarkably similar in their nature and temperament to mankind itself. This is especially true with regard to their moral character, which included venality, uncontrollable sexual urges, and petty jealousies. Nor are these beings omnipotent, omniscient, or omnipresent. As pilots of spacecraft, mine supervisors, and genetic manipulators, they were subject to the same limitations in time and space as humanity. They are perceived as a plurality, not as a Triune Godhead but as a number of individuals who belonged to some other planet and relied on vehicular devices to arrive on the Earth. From that perspective, they were much too small to come even close to representing the Judeo-Christian God, both in their moral stature and capabilities, and in their self-serving natures. Instead, it is stated in all seriousness with no intent of mockery, the god who comes to mind in their writings is very much like the Wizard of Oz. This Cosmic Wizard is endowed perhaps with a superior intellect, certainly possesses a superior technology, and is capable of putting on a good dog-and-pony show to impress us less sophisticated earthlings with his divine attributes. But in the end he his much like us, having a mixture of good and bad qualities. This extraterrestrial had the same potential as man to strive for nobility and to fail in the attempt.

A ‘god’ of such limited attributes would be more like a cousin to humanity than a God. He would certainly lack the moral authority to exercise absolute control over our lives. His motives toward mankind would be limited as well, in all probability being directed toward self-service, as Zecharia Sitchin suggests in his Twelfth Planet series regarding his supposition that man was created for utilitarian purposes. In that context, Sitchin’s explanation of our origins as being motivated by the need for labor in the aliens’ mines is entirely consistent with his view of ‘god’ as a construct of man inspired by his utilitarian interaction with visitors from another planet. But to carry this consistency of thought to its logical conclusion would not only force us to deny the strong theme of sacrificial love that runs throughout the entirety of Scripture; it would also require us to consider our Judeo-Christian Scripture to represent myth more than truth. The mythical elements might indeed be based on factual events, but the mythical would have to be invoked to blow up the main player(s) to the status of godhood. It indeed appears that secularists prefer to view the Bible in a mythical context. In developing their own picture of god, those of the alien presuppositions also refer to the Bible, but not in the same way as the traditional Christian community. While they, like Christians, consider it to be a valuable historical document, it is just that to them and nothing more. It is treated as no more inspired than other ancient literature and is usually regarded as a Hebrew version of an earlier (and therefore supposedly more accurate) original.

Moreover, a mythical interpretation of the Bible which the secular UFO believers appear to favor of itself requires a corresponding ‘god’ to be of limited abilities and probably (although not necessarily) less than selfless intent. This viewpoint not only opens the door to the selective acceptance and rejection of arbitrary portions of Scripture, but also leads directly to the interpretation of any specific creative acts noted therein as being of limited scope and probably originating from self-serving motives. A good example of this is found on page 191 of Sitchin’s Divine Encounters, where Sumerian king Gudea is commanded through visions from the deity Enlil to build a temple. The detail of construction he is given through the series of visions is highly reminiscent of the Biblical instructions God gives to Moses and, later to David, regarding the construction of the places of worship and the artifacts that are to be used therein. But with respect to intent the similarity ends. Whereas Gudea’s temple has a utilitarian significance for the deities, God’s temples were intended as models to communicate God’s relationship with mankind and especially to instruct man on the nature of the Messiah to come.

The general lack of humanity associated with Sitchin’s beings is common to the viewpoint of the secular UFO buff: the beings are irretrievably alien, a notion that carries with it a strong element of fear. To many people, the intrusion of anything into the physical world not perceived as compatible with it as defined by current science is a very scary thought. It is perhaps this fear of control more than any other that separates the Christian from the secular UFO buff. A popular theme, around which a number of recent movies and television serials have been based, is the alien takeover. Through the use of superior technology, the alien race indwells the bodies of selected humans. From that beachhead, the aliens push outward in their diabolical attempt to make their conquest complete. The situation is made all the more terrifying by the fact that to outward appearances the infected, traitorous humans are indistinguishable from the normal remnant.

Given their common insistence on treating the Bible in the same manner as other ancient documents, it is inevitable that the proponents of the alien thesis should come to regard it from a mythical perspective, even while placing a literal interpretation on many of its passages. Sitchin and other writers of the alien visitation genre develop their theses from an interpretation of ancient texts that is driven by the alien notion. While their interpretations may be literal, the orientation remains secular with a rational, causal flavor. Sitchin, for example, follows precisely the same standard with respect to his interpretation of Hebrew Scripture as he does with the Sumerian texts. This approach may be justified with respect to the Sumerian literature, which seems to possess, to a large degree, an intrinsically secular, sometimes even a technical or social, basis. Scripture, on the other hand, has a different orientation. While its ultimate Author claims to have created the physical universe and everything within it, and while Scripture furnishes essential background information relating to secular matters, its emphasis is not on the secular but on God and His relationship with mankind. When a materialistic concern is presented at all in Scripture, it is usually included only when such background is necessary to provide an appropriate setting for its major theme, which is the presentation of God to man. While Sitchin is to be commended for the consistency of his approach, it may be suggested that perhaps the specifics of the approach to interpreting text should take this difference in orientation into account. There is no question but that a literal interpretation of Scripture is justified in all cases by the richness of the corresponding information it produces. But whereas it would also be appropriate to apply a strictly rational, technical, and causal approach to the exposition of secular material, an interpretation of Scripture should recognize in the omniscience of God His ability to transcend our ideas of causality, limited as we are in time and space. In this context, the possibility of miracles should be recognized, as should the ability of God, through the Holy Spirit, to influence man in both the writing and the interpretation of Scripture. When we attempt to interpret His Word, Scripture itself implies that we should recognize the influence of our own limitations as well as the power of God in the successful execution of this endeavor.

Zecharia Sitchin demonstrates that a strictly secular interpretation of Scripture can lead to a radically different outcome than that of historical understanding. On pages 30 through 33 of Divine Encounters, Sitchin discusses the rift between Cain and Abel, attributing it to their rivalry over the legal heirdom of the patriarchy and paralleling the rivalry between the gods Enlil and Enki. Christians, on the other hand, in the light of a different understanding of the intimacy of God’s interaction with man, see an entirely different cause of the animosity, one that is clearly implied in the Book of Genesis and which is fundamental to their faith. Cain was a farmer, whereas Abel was an animal husbandman. When they brought offerings to the Lord, they each did so in the context of their respective functions: Cain offered the fruits of the harvest, and Abel offered an animal. God viewed these offerings for how they represented man’s attempt to regain His favor after the expulsion from Eden. Whereas Cain offered the work of his own hands, Abel offered the blood of an innocent victim, acknowledging his own inability to please God and foreshadowing the work of Jesus Christ on the cross on behalf of mankind. Cain’s subsequent jealousy over God’s preference of Abel’s sacrifice led to his murder of Abel. Interestingly, on page 40 of Divine Encounters, Sitchin implies, in direct opposition to the Scriptural account, that the farmer enjoyed Enlil’s favor over the herdsman.

This radical difference in interpretation necessarily leads to the perception of inconsistencies throughout the Bible, self-fulfilling the initial assumption that Scripture is less than inspired. The inevitable conclusion that one might make from this viewpoint of the Judeo-Christian Scripture, and especially its regard for the Bible as less than inspired of God is that our ancient forebears were duped into submission, even slavery, to other beings of perhaps superior intellect but less than honorable motives. Our inferior society, according to this view, went along with their functional imprisonment out of their lack of sophistication. To this very day, according to the adherents to this alien genre, the less intellectually endowed among us who attempt to follow the teachings of their religions remain trapped in subjugation to an evil fable.

The result of this trend toward the self-reinforcement of entry presuppositions is that the group of secular believers in UFOs, unlike those who deny their existence, will tend to stand firm in their particular visions of what UFOs represent. If they maintain an assumption of Scriptural errancy, however, their reasoning about the relevance of God to the UFO situation will tend to be circular: they will take out of their mental exercises with respect to God exactly what they came in with. There is thus a rather extreme and irreconcilable divergence of views between the Christian believer in UFOs and their secular counterparts regarding any link between so-called aliens and God. The net outcome of this difference is an implacably dark assignment to UFO occupants of either evil intent or alien indifferene.

This outlook, in turn, has heavily influenced the ongoing government policy of inhibiting the public awareness of UFOs to maintain control over the human population while seeking a better understanding and control over the phenomenon itself.

UFOs CHAPTER 2

CONTACT, COMMUNION AND CHRISTIANITY CHAPTER 2

Chapter 2: The Secular Perception of UFOs

There is a group within the secular community whose members are entirely indifferent to the UFO issue. This group can be categorized as consisting of imagination-challenged, intellectually shallow people who are focused on the mundane throughout their lives, being aware of only those events that might affect their own highly-developed self-interest. Not only is this camp indifferent to UFOs, it is also indifferent to the subject of God (except, perhaps as God might relate to Santa) and pretty much to anything not involving the next hamburger or the next episode of the Wheel. I dismiss it with a matching indifference, with the exception that I do enjoy watching the unsuccessful attempts of such people to answer the ridiculously elementary questions posed by Watters on the O’Reilly Factor.

The remainder of the secular world is divided into two sharply opposed camps regarding UFOs. A substantial segment of mainstream society, having bought into the prevailing paradigms of the world, places those who claim involvement in the UFO phenomenon as credulous, out of touch with reality, and rather on the fringe of social acceptability. They deny the existence of UFOs altogether, assuming that accounts of them originate with individuals who are burdened with problems of one sort or another. They are supported in large part by the mainstream media, the mainstream educational system, and mainstream science, to whom they prefer for answers to their own minds and common sense. This group, being marginally more intelligent, are marginally more aware of the world about them than those who are completely indifferent to the UFO phenomenon. They also are marginally more interesting.

The opposing secular camp not only believes in the existence of UFOs, but sees in them an alien presence, irrelevant to God, that has invaded us both now and in the past. This more interesting group consists of those who not only believe in UFOs, but acknowledge their historical existence and generally think that they are up to no good. Investigators within the camp of historical or ancient encounters are represented by authors Von Daniken, Sitchin and Temple. The more speculative details presented by them include mythological connections to Sirius or alien visitors in our past who came from an unknown planet of a highly eccentric orbit within our own solar system. There are a number of investigative organizations such as MUFON that focus on more modern sightings. Such can be readily acquired on the Internet. We shall set aside the speculative details as interesting but somewhat irrelevant to a demonstration of the reality of extraterrestrial visitors. For the most part we will confine our attention here to the core thesis of past and present visitations to earth by extraterrestrial beings, whatever their possible origins. The basic questions alone raise a variety of issues important to the speculative Christian.

If there is reality behind the UFO phenomenon – and that’s a very big if to the secular mind – the perception of their craft is consistently viewed in naturalistic terms. Whether they come from a different planet or galaxy, UFOs belong to the same universe as we inhabit, along with our own dimensional constraints. The craft, to them, are electromechanical devices like our own aircraft and space vehicles but designed and fabricated with the aid of a technology that is more advanced than ours. The implications of this standard perception have both technical and social components.

Technically, we are intrigued with the capabilities of UFOs, because evidence of their existence includes features such as their maneuverability, speed, power source, mode of overcoming gravity, and electromagnetic effects when they are in proximity to our own vehicles and appliances that extend rather far beyond our own capabilities in these areas. Some individuals would welcome contact with UFO occupants for the superior knowledge that they might be able to impart to us and thereby raise us up to new levels more compatible with their own. Such individuals are in the minority due to the social implications noted below.

The social implications of a more advanced society go beyond perceptions of UFO occupants as alien beings. Whether they are similar to us or not, their presence on earth represents de facto superiority. We know from experience within our own human society that when two peoples of unequal civilizations meet, they will clash, with the more advanced civilization dominating and eventually destroying the less developed one. This understanding is not lost on those who contemplate a future world in which UFO occupants would openly interact with humanity, and the thought is sufficient to generate real fear. This perceived threat to our way of life and even to our own continued existence would be more than sufficient to erect a governmental barrier of secrecy around the UFO phenomenon and to downplay the existence of such to the general public.

Difficulties have emerged regarding a materialistic view of UFOs. The enigmatic features of modern UFO sightings initially raised a number of questions relating to the technology that aliens might possess to enable them to perform the radical maneuvers associated with them or their vehicles. Over the several decades that have elapsed since the first well-publicized modern sightings in 1947, it was recognized that technology alone furnished an insufficient explanation of their characteristics and capabilities, which led a number of researchers in that field to question whether the aliens might have a spiritual quality. The mindset of Dr. J. Allen Hyneck, who came into the field of UFO investigations as a consultant to the U.S. Air Force’s Project Bluebook, evolved over the course of his investigations from skeptic to believer in the alien hypothesis, but he went beyond the extraterrestrial notion to a belief in something perhaps more spiritual in the nature of the alien beings than the common understanding admits. Jacques Vallee, a long-time UFO investigator who has gained a considerable measure of respect in the field, echoes this thought.

In his 1988 book Dimensions, Vallee asserts that UFO visitations, with many of their modern characteristics, have been with us since the beginning of mankind’s civilization. He traces the evidence for this assertion throughout our history, noting the many famous sightings which extend past a number of recorded incidents from the present down through the middle ages into antiquity. Most important to our subject, he cites the numerous Biblical passages such as the vision of Ezekiel, which overtly refer to such visitations as having a distinct flavor wherein the UFO aspect merges into Judeo-Christian canon. Moreover, he notes, the nature of these visitations, in which the ‘beings’ appear to be beyond the constraints of mass, space, and time in their ability to levitate, withstand violent maneuvers, and pass through solid objects, possess the same features that make the modern UFO sightings so enigmatic. It is these disturbing characteristics which so oppose modern rationalist thinking, Vallee claims, that put the UFO ‘occupants’ into a category beyond the mere extraterrestrial. He speculates on the possibility that they might be interdimensional, occupying a universe parallel to our own.

Secular accounts of ancient UFO visitations and theories regarding them will be explored in more detail in a later chapter. Here it will be simply noted that in general troubled and partially-formulated speculations like Vallee’s serve to emphasize the ultra-rigid boundaries of the modern rationalist way of thinking. The notion of a spirit-based entity capable of passing through solid objects is usually rejected quite rapidly as ridiculous. The assertion of this as impossible in our ‘real’ world also denies the possibility that the soul, so important to the Christian belief, can exist. A passage in Chapter 20 of John’s Gospel directly refutes this denial. In that passage the resurrected Jesus performs the same acts that the UFO debunker uses to discredit the reality of UFO sightings:

“But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither they finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.”

In the above passage, Jesus not only passed through solid walls to appear to the disciples, but presented the form of flesh to Thomas. He also ate with them. These capabilities that include the materialistic but extent beyond materialism are precisely those characteristics of many UFO sightings which cause such consternation among the investigators and their audience. Yet many of our cutting-edge physicists confront these mysterious capabilities on a daily basis in their investigations into quantum physics.

[to be continued]

GOD, FACE TO FACE CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER EIGHT: The meaning of Biblical Morality

General

According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance for the King James Bible, there is no Biblical reference to either morality or immorality.  There are, however, multiple passages in the Bible that essentially equate our notion of the word “morality” to other common terms.  These will be explored below.

There are numerous discussions on the Internet regarding Biblical morality, two of which reference a number of Bible verses the authors thought to be appropriate to the topic.  Many of these verses reference notions that are thought to be equivalent to our basic understanding of what Biblical morality might represent.  They are arranged below according to their commonality of these alternate expressions.

Morality as fulfillment of the Law (sometimes equated with love, other times equated with doctrine, most dealing with sexual deviation): Genesis 19:1-38; Exodus 20:13; Leviticus 18 and 20; Deuteronomy 23; 1 Kings 14:24; 2 Kings 23:7; Proverbs 20, 23; Matthew 5:27, 28; Matthew 7:12; Romans 13:8-10; Galatians 5:17; 1 Timothy 1:10; Revelation 21:8; Revelation 22:15;

Morality as righteousness, which is most used in terms of our obedience to the call from God to love our neighbors and most specifically for our honesty in dealing with others, our responsibility toward those under our control or supervision and for our compassion toward those hurting or less fortunate than ourselves:  Isaiah 64:6; Matthew 6:33; Matthew 25; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; 2 Timothy 3:16

Morality as love of God: Romans 13:8-10; Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30, 31;

Morality as obedience to God: references under fulfillment of the Law; references to righteousness; Proverbs 6:23-25; Proverbs 12:1; Matthew 6:24; Matthew 24:44-46; Acts 5:29; 1 Corinthians 2:13; Ephesians 6:4; James 1:22-25

Morality as good manners (responsible, thoughtful conduct): 1 Corinthians 15:33

Morality as harmonious with man’s creation: Genesis 1:27

Sexual Morality

The issue of sexual morality, and in particular the Biblical implications regarding it, is so important and so generally misunderstood that it deserves a separate discussion.

Webster’s New American Dictionary, 1956 Edition, defines “morality” as follows: “right living, virtue; conformity to generally accepted standards of conduct. “ Virtue, in turn, is defined therein as: “moral excellence, chastity”.  Continuing on, chastity is defined therein as: “the state of being chaste; purity”, where the word “purity” is defined as: “the quality of being free of blemishes and without admixture; chastity”.  Despite this unhelpful circularity of definition, chastity is commonly equated with virginity, which, in that dictionary, is defined as: “the quality of being a virgin; celibacy; chastity”.  Therefore, according to this dictionary, the term “morality” is equated, in a roundabout way, with celibacy.  There certainly are other, nonsexual, connotations of morality as well, but the sexual connotation takes center stage.

This linkage of morality with sexual purity, most commonly interpreted as strict celibacy, has been with the Church virtually since its beginning.   The implication is that sexuality of any nature, is at best a diversion preventing full intimacy with God and, at worst, a sin.  This notion is sometimes taken to the extreme of pronouncing as sinful passion of any kind.  This notional attitude is common in both Protestant and Catholic denominations, the Catholic expression of it being the most open.   As demonstrated in numerous Catholic publications, and particularly in those that deal with Mary, this equivalence is quite pronounced.  As an example is the Catholic insistence upon Mary’s perpetual virginity, despite the clear contradiction in Matthew 13 of that notion.  (The Catholic answer to Matthew 13 is her interpretation of the terms “brothers” and “sisters” is that of close relatives rather than siblings.)  It is true that Paul, in 1 Corinthians 7, describes celibacy as a desirable objective with the intent that the virgin may place all his or her affection on God undiluted, but note in verses 6 and 25 his acknowledgment that virginity is not a commandment from God.  Note also in verse 40 that Paul seems unsure as to how much of the call to celibacy of which he speaks is actually of God.  Nowhere in the Bible outside of Paul’s discussion in 1 Corinthians 7 is there a hint that celibacy is a desirable practice.  There is no commandment that says “Thou shalt not lie with a woman.”  To the contrary, in Genesis 1:28 God told them to be fruitful and multiply.  Furthermore, Deuteronomy 23:1 insists that full masculinity is required for service to the Lord by stating that “He who is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord.”  As a final point on the sexuality issue is the presence of the overtly sexual Song of Solomon in the canon of Scripture.

On the other hand, there are a host of abuses of normal sexuality that are proscribed in the Bible (especially in Exodus 20:14 and 17 and Leviticus 18 and 20) as abominations, or as one might otherwise put them, as immoral acts, such as adultery, homosexuality and bestiality, all of which represent violations of the way that God designed us, and consequently are in disharmony with our basic (unfallen) natures.  Adultery, in particular, also directly violates God’s second greatest commandment (Matthew 22:39), which is to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Additional  Comments on the Church’s Notion of Sexual Morality

Perhaps the most intellectually theological expression of the notion of sexuality or even passion as being beneath God is the virtually Gnostic pronouncement given by Jerome Zanchius in his tome “Absolute Predestination Stated and Asserted”.  The first of these statements may be found on p. 40 as “Position 2” under the heading “The Mercy of God”.  In that statement Zanchius says “Mercy is not in the Deity, as it is in us, a passion or affection, everything of that kind being incompatible with the purity, perfection, independency and unchangeableness [immutability] of His nature; . . .”  The second of his statements is on pp. 43 and 44 under headings I and II of chapter 1.  Therein he fleshes out his concept of God’s love, as the following excerpts show: “When love is predicated of God, we do not mean that He is possessed of it as a passion or affection.  In us it is such, but if, considered in that sense, it should be ascribed to the Deity, it would be utterly subversive of the simplicity, perfection and independency of His being. . .”;  “. . .His love towards them arises merely from ‘the good pleasure of his own will,’ without the least regard to anything ad extra or out of Himself.”; “When hatred is ascribed to God, it implies (1) a negation of benevolence, or a resolution not to have mercy on such and such men. . .”

Zanchius thus defines a God whose primary attribute is his majestic greatness.  Had his mind access to expressions denoting higher level superlatives, he certainly would have included them.  In defining God in this way, he automatically makes love a secondary attribute, despite John’s emphatic identification of God as the very embodiment of love.  Zanchius’ passionless God, in fact, is alien to the God of Scripture.  This is to be expected, as he assigns attributes to God without any reference whatsoever to Scripture itself.

Zanchius’ God, then, being positionally remote from and by nature very different from the mankind of His creation, is alien to it as well.

In opposition to Zanchius, Scripture paints a far more beautiful picture of God, depicting His majestic glory as His willingness to give up the majesty of greatness and power in favor of a love of great fullness and depth.  The Gospels appear to support this view, depicting Jesus Christ (as God) as a Being full of the attributes of love as we know it, including passion.  Examples that come to mind include His weeping over Jerusalem and Lazarus and His ordeal in the garden of Gethsemane.  It is difficult to picture the risen Jesus talking to His followers on the road to Emmaus in the context of Zanchius’ notion of God’s remote perfection.

Zanchius’ definition of God not only suppresses His most important attribute, but inhibits those to whom Scripture was written from loving Him back.  This is a serious issue because it runs counter to His Great Commandment to love Him with all our hearts, and our souls and our minds.

[to be continued]

GOD, FACE TO FACE CHAPTER SEVEN (CONTINUED)

CHAPTER SEVEN (CONTINUED): The issue extends beyond the gender of the Holy Spirit

One further Biblical suggestion needs to be addressed regarding the importance of gender in the relationships within Godhead and between the spiritual Church and Jesus Christ.  In Genesis 17, God talks to Abraham, telling him of a blessing that he will receive that will greatly impact the future of mankind:

“And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.  And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.  And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for Me, behold, My covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.  Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.  And I will make thee exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.  And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.  And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a sojourner, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.

 

          “And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep My covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.  This is My covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee.  Every male child among you shall be circumcised.  And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.  And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every male child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any foreigner who is not of thy seed.  He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.  And the uncircumcised male child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken My covenant.

 

          “And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai, thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.  And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.  Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old?  And shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?  And Abraham said unto God, Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee!  And God said, Sarah, thy wife, shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac; and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.”

 

          The primary theme of this passage continues in Genesis 18:11-14:

“Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.  Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I have become old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?  And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying Shall I of a surety bear a child, who am old?  Is anything too hard for the Lord?  At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”

I now present the gender issue to the reader by way of a question involving the passage above that requires nothing more or less than a common-sense answer:  Why, if God isn’t intimately and personally involved in gender, would He present one of the most important transactions between Him and the human race in terms of a sexual miracle?

As God had suggested, nothing is too hard for Him to accomplish.  If God were indeed above gender, as many past and present theologians insist, He certainly could have altered the story line and associated miracle to remove sexuality from it.

Sarah would bear their son Isaac the next year.  Why indeed would God demand a token response of Abraham and his offspring in the form of the sexual ritual of male circumcision?  This ritual had little or nothing to do with cleanliness.  The human race had survived for centuries before the ritual was established.  In Acts 7:51, Paul echoes Ezekiel 36:26 in furnishing a hint as to the real purpose of the ritual:

“Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do ye.”

 

In a very graphic way, Paul used the term to chastise his audience for their lack of sensitivity toward God.  That was indeed the imagery that God intended to convey to the nation of Israel through the institution of the rite.

Isaac was the son of Abraham through his lifelong marital partner, as God had intended marriage to be.  Through Abraham’s intended sacrifice of Isaac later, Abraham became a strong type of God the Father, while Isaac represented the Jesus as Lamb of God who was obedient to the cross.  Years later, Abraham sought a suitable wife for Isaac, one who would maintain Isaac as a strong type of Christ.  The account is in Genesis 24:10-32:

“And the servant took ten camels of the camels of [Abraham], and departed; for all the goods of his master were in his hand: and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor.  And he made his camels to kneel down outside the city by a well of water at the time of the evening, even the time that women go out to draw water.  And he said, O Lord god of my master, Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and show kindness unto my master, Abraham.  Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water; and let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also; let her be the one whom thou hast appointed for thy servant, Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shown kindness unto my master.

 

          “And it came to pass, before he had finished speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder.  And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her; and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up.  And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water from thy pitcher.  And she said, Drink, my lord: and she hastened, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink.  And when she had finished giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have finished drinking.  And she hastened, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels.  And the man, wondering at her, held his peace, to learn whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not.

 

‘And it came to pass, as the camels had finished drinking, that the man took a golden ring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her wrists of ten shekels weight of gold; and said, Whose daughter art thou?  Tell me, I pray thee: is there room in thy father’s house for us to lodge in?  And she said unto him, I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, whom she bore unto Nahor.  She said moreover unto him, We have both straw and fodder enough, and room to lodge in.  And the man bowed down his head and worshiped the Lord.  And he said, Blessed be the Lord God  of my master, Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth: I being in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brethren.  And the dams and he ungirded his camels, and gave straw and fodder for the camels, and water to wash his feet, and the men;s feet that were with him.  And there was set food before him to eat: but he said, I will not eat, until I have told mine errand.”

 

The man related to Laban and the others the unique way that God had precisely answered his elaborate test for the suitability of Rebekah for marriage to Isaac.  Then the man gave Laban the riches he had brought with him on the camels.  Laban responded by consenting to the marriage.  But as the man prepared to return to Abraham with Rebekah, Laban backed off somewhat, asking for another ten days before giving up his sister.  At that point, almost as an afterthought, they decided to ask for Rebekah’s consent as well.  (As a side point, I see some implication in that regarding the issue of free will, most often expressed as the Calvinist/Arminian divide among Christians)

After receiving Rebekah’s consent to the marriage, they journey back to Abraham’s home, where Isaac marries Rebekah.  She gives birth to Jacob and Esau.  Jacob is renamed Israel by God, continuing on the bloodline to Jesus Christ.

I offer another question to the reader: What was so important about Isaac’s marriage to Rebekah that it involved such an intricate selection process that was so detailed in Scripture?  Permit me to answer that one:  Isaac, who was a strong type of Christ, continued to be a type in this marital relationship, anticipating the future role of the Church as the Bride of Christ.  Paul expressed this blessed hope quite boldly in Ephesians 5:31 and 32:

“For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.  This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.”

 

Christians sometimes claim that Jesus never married, nor ever will marry, perceiving Him to be “above” sexual matters.  Others claim that He did marry, to Mary Magdalene.  I would claim that both these presuppositions are wrong with immense implications regarding our understanding of God, suggesting instead that Jesus never married on Earth because He already is betrothed to his future wife, the Church.  I see Jesus’ first miracle at the wedding in Cana as anticipating the joy of that future marriage.               

           

GOD, FACE TO FACE CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER SEVEN: The issue extends beyond the gender of the Holy Spirit

It is a left-handed tribute to the thoroughness by which the Church was cleansed of all matters sexual to appreciate that not only was the Holy Spirit stripped of gender, but that this wholesale gender denial extended to our future spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ.  Even today, pastors who should know their Scripture better downplay Paul’s beautiful presentation in Ephesians 5 of our future spiritual relationship with Jesus as His wife.

Claiming, no, demanding rather, that procreation doesn’t exist in the spiritual realm, they prefer to perceive the Church’s future bridehood as nothing more than a figure of speech intended to convey the greatness of Jesus agape love toward mankind.  As to what the actual relationship consists of, they refuse to extend their imaginations beyond some kind of bright light in heaven and go no further, their impassible mental wall being their equation of purity with chastity.  In doing so, they miss the boat on the Godhead’s involvement in the entire creation epic.

It is common knowledge that Scripture describes the Church as the Bride of Christ.  But Scripture also describes us as Jesus’ spiritual wife, which defines the relationship as having been consummated.  Examples include Revelation 19:7 and 21:9.  Romans 7:4 is even more explicit in that regard, going beyond describing our relationship with Jesus as a marital one to identifying it as bearing fruit:

Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

It is an undeniable fact that consummation and birth go hand-in-hand.  The insistence upon its denial in the face of its obvious truth reminds me of an incident in which my brother and I were involved in junior high.  Regrettably, our involvement was thoughtless, causing us to engage in some soul-searching afterward.

There is a saying in the Marine Corps that there are always the ten percent who never get the word.  This is true not only in the service but in all walks of life.  In the particular case that I’m recalling here, the fourteen-year-old classmate of ours had no knowledge whatsoever regarding the birds and the bees.  My brother and I, upon discovering this oddity, proceeded to explain to him that his very presence on earth required his mother and father to have engaged in sex.  He subsequently displayed, in very rapid succession, all the stages of grief.  He went into denial, but then his mind caught up with that and his face turned quite red.  He wept crocodile tears and, bawling, he got up and rushed out the classroom door while the rest of the class snickered.  I imagine that he went directly home thereafter to confront his parents with their disgrace.

That poor unfortunate kid reminds me a lot of our mainstream Church leadership, both Catholic and Protestant.  The main difference is the probability that over ninety percent of them never got the word.  The problem is not that God has engaged in disgraceful behavior, but that the Church leadership now and in the past has insisted upon perceiving all sexual conduct as dirty.  They need to grow up.

With that thought in mind, I present the following questions to them:

QUESTIONS FOR THE MAINSTREAM THEOLOGIAN WHO INSISTS UPON THE LACK OF GENDER IN THE SPIRITUAL REALM

All of the following issues have straightforward, Scripturally-compatible answers.

Please explain the mechanics of Jesus’ birth in the flesh, with reference to Luke 1:26-35 and “the seed of the Woman” in Genesis 3:15.  Regarding this issue, the proper interpretation of “seed” is the male contribution to life, as opposed to “egg”, which is the female contribution to life.  Also, in Luke 1, the “highest” is the Father.  Putting these facts together in the context of a feminine Holy Spirit who is creatively responsive to the Father’s will leads to a conclusion that is very different, less self-contradictory, fully intuitive and eminently more logical than the mainstream views of both Catholic and Protestant Churches on this topic.

Please cite Scriptural descriptions of the spiritual Church that are not relevant to depictions of Jesus’ marital relationship to the spiritual Church.  Do not include references to the Church as the Body of Christ, as that is explained in Ephesians 5:28 as integral to the marital union.

Please explain, with reference to John 3 and Revelation 12, how Scripture denies the possibility of procreation in the spiritual realm.

Please explain the relevance to the body of Scriptural canon the presence in Scripture of the following books and chapters: Genesis 2 and 24; Song of Solomon; Isaiah 54; Jesus’ first miracle described in John 2 – the wedding in Cana; 1 Corinthians 6 and 7; Ephesians 5; and Revelation 19-21.

Please explain Scripture’s emphasis and often continuous focus in both Testaments on gender, marriage, birth and offspring.

Please account for Scriptural references to feminine characteristics, including executive roles and the portrayal of Wisdom in Proverbs as feminine, within the Godhead in the face of the strong masculinity of both the Father and Jesus Christ and the anti-Scriptural notion of both masculinity and femininity residing within the same Being.

Please point to those passages in Scripture that label gender or sexuality as beneath God.  Please include those passages that describe the only purpose of the marital union as the begetting of children.  Such would appear to contradict 1 Corinthians 7:9.

Please explain why Jesus remained celibate during His time on earth.

Please explain the difficulty of mainstream theology in its understanding of the Holy Spirit and its perception of the issue as complex, and why, in the face of a simple, intuitive answer to the issue given a feminine Holy Spirit, it is necessary to suggest that an answer is unknowable and can be resolved only through a face-to-face meeting with God.

Please explain the attachment in Genesis 2:18 to the notion of complementary otherness and why that doesn’t apply to the Godhead.

Those who found that they couldn’t answer all of the questions with reference to Scripture should get the hint that maybe their understanding of God needs some extensive revision with respect to gender and love within the Judeo-Christian Godhead.  Perhaps some re-examination of the meaning of sexual purity also would be in order.  The following chapter addresses that issue.

GOD, FACE TO FACE CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SIX: A summary of the God that the mainstream Christian Church refuses to see

 

This God, unlike the one addressed in the previous chapter, corresponds more closely to Scripture.  That is a most fortunate circumstance, as this God is One whom we can understand with full intuition and share a substantial measure of intimacy.  We can worship this God with fervor, because we share in many of His attributes and, more importantly, we can see this God as noble.  If there is any attribute of this God that stands out above omniness, it is the majesty of His selfless nobility.

This God of Scripture consists, at the present time, of Father, Mother and Son, constituting a perfectly functioning gender-inclusive Family enjoying perfect intra-Godhead intimacy, communication and, most of all, love on a scale so grand as to be beyond our perception.  It is the Godhead – Family – that bestows oneness on the Holy Trinity.  Within that Trinity the Members are differentiated by function: Kingdom, Power and Glory.  The characterization of the Godhead as Trinitarian is qualified as pertaining to the present, as there is every hope, within Scripture, of the spiritual Church eventually joining the Godhead.

The feature that drives this separation of the Godhead away from the God of mainstream understanding is the femininity of the Holy Spirit.  This feature instantly transforms a loose, agape-based amalgam of vaguely-defined Beings into a tightly-coupled, eros-based Family whose Members enjoy complementary, mutually-supportive functions.  Moreover, even with our fallen natures and dimensional limitations, their Holy natures, being Family-based, are accessible to our understanding, even to the extent that we can worship this God with the fervor demanded of us by Jesus in Matthew 22.

Given the notions of family and its associated features of unity of purpose, selfless participation, complementary otherness, it is a matter of simple logic to attach functionality to each of the Members within the Godhead.  As described in Marching to a Worthy Drummer, to the Father would apply the attribute of Divine Will, or the initiating thought.  Corresponding to the complementary otherness of the Will, the functional attribute of the Holy Spirit would be the execution of the Father’s will, or the Divine Means that enables the initiating thought belonging to the Will to assume reality.  To the Son, then, would be the Divine Result, the glory in reality of the initiating thought.

Where would the Church fit in?  As the spouse of Christ, of course, just as Paul hinted in so many passages, including 2 Corinthians 11:2 and Galatians 4:27 (which itself echoes Isaiah 54), and he so directly stated in Ephesians 5:25-32.  In Revelation 19:7 and 21:9, John echoes Paul’s assertion, claiming the Church to be the wife of Christ.  Given this wonderful relationship, it is only natural that Paul’s would note in Galatians 3:29, 4:5 and elsewhere that the Church is the in-law child of the Father and the Holy Spirit.

The existing relationship within the Godhead and the promised future relationship between man and God places our present relationship with God on an entirely different plane than that which is perceived by the mainstream Church.  No longer must we worship God as groveling dogs or as beggars for scraps but as future members of the Divine Family, adored and treasured by a God who knows intimacy and wants the same for us.  Of course God is superior to us in a great number of very important traits, such as character, abilities, and mind.  But it is His superiority in one trait that gives us hope and allows us to adore Him in sincerity.  That trait is His superlative love, which extends even to us.

As a beautiful token of our betrothal to Jesus Christ, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit, forecast millennia before our time at Her indwelling of the Tabernacle in the wilderness (Exodus 40), and at Solomon’s dedication of the first Temple (1 Kings 8).  The connection between these precursor events and the Holy Spirit who indwells Christian believers is given in 1 Corinthians 3:16 and Ephesians 2:19-22, wherein Paul asserts that the Church herself, through her constituents, is a temple indwelt by the Holy Spirit:

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

 

          Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

We know from this parallelism of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling of the Jewish Temples and the temples of our bodies that we the Church all have available to us the guidance of God, our future Mother-in-law, directing us as we allow toward the characters that will be pleasing to our future Spouse, Jesus Christ.  All we have to do is accept that supporting direction, scary or unpleasant as it may seem at first.  But what loving intimacy!  What hope for our future spiritual companionship with our Lord and our Spouse, Jesus Christ!

GOD, FACE TO FACE CHAPTER 5

 

CHAPTER FIVE: A summary of the mainstream Christian Church’s view of God

Extracting the essence of the previous four chapters, one readily can summarize the nature of God, as viewed by mainstreamWestern Christianity, as embracing the following attributes:

God is perceived to be majestic, all-seeing, all-powerful, and all-knowing.  These attributes are contained in the familiar omni-descriptions: omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient.  If other omni-attributes are found, they would apply to God as well, as the mainstream God is all about omniness.

Unlike us lesser beings inhabiting the material world, God is genderless, being above matters sexual.  He is also without passion in general, including love and hatred.  To be sure, He is merciful, but in a vague, largely undefined way.  Passion, gender and the intimacy of possessive love are prohibited by the Western Mainstream Church from encroaching upon His omni-qualities.

Given these general characteristics, the Godhead is found to be a Trinity, consisting of a common essence and three vaguely-defined “personalities”.  His Trinitarian constitution is considered to exist from forever in the past to forever in the future.  The intra-Trinitarian relationship consists of a supposedly benign fellowship of three characteristically male personalities who lack the function of gender, bonded together in love restricted to an agape form; love in an eros form with its possessive and romantic qualities is considered unthinkable.

The general implication of this view of God and the Godhead is that God represents an essential alien quality, one of being inexplicably different from us: He is genderless whereas we are fully gendered; He is unattainably far above us; His relationship with us is said to consist of love, but it is the sparing love of a stern, commanding Presence, constantly kicking over those of our works that don’t meet with His stratospheric standards of behavior.

Because of God’s lack of gender, we are commanded to obey his several prohibitions of sexual deviation from His established norm of a lifetime-long single marital relationship between one male and one female without understanding why that is such an important standard.  While unequivocal obedience without the necessity of knowledge is a reasonable expectation of God toward mankind, many of His other commandments are amenable to common-sense understanding.  On the other hand, it is apparent that at least in our present societies worldwide, people including Christians violate the sexual commandments with indifference toward God.

If anything affirmative can be said of the various Church authorities’ treatment of the Holy Spirit as noted in the previous chapters, it is their consistency with each other in fostering the view of God as expressed above.

Our worship of this Being must consequently consist of fear tempered by love, rather than love tempered by fear.  We worship Him as would tiny ants, looking up an enormous leathery sole poised to come down hard, smashing all below into pulp.  We appease this harsh God, either to avoid punishment or to curry favor and to obtain subsequent gifts.

In the wake of this description of our common understanding of God I offer a question: Is this the God defined in Scripture?  To that question, I respond with a resounding “no”, for the reasons explained herein.

Instead, this God is a diety of man’s own making.  Usually, when referring to a false god, the conservative Christian will point to that god’s indulgences toward a fallen Church.  The most recent examples of that attitude include the conservative Church’s denunciation of those Churches that attempt to accommodate the secular world’s insistence upon political correctness in the matters of homosexual marriages, homosexual participation in Church leadership, the Muslim view of God, or that worship the benevolent God who sheds health, wealth and happiness to those who, with itching ears, fervently believe in such.  But the conservative view of God, while residing at the opposite end of the belief spectrum from Santa Claus, is every bit as much a god constructed by man, because that god, like the others, fails to correspond to Scripture.

GOD, FACE TO FACE CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FOUR: How modern theologians attempt to explain the Holy Spirit while excluding sexuality from God
For the most part the Protestant Church, in contrast with her Catholic sister, simply accepts the lack of the feminine and ignores the issue altogether, treating it as beyond the pale of appropriate intellectual investigation. Despite this general official refusal of the Protestant Churches to address the void caused by the removal of functional gender from God, a number of interested theologians have attempted to explain the nature of the Holy Spirit in a way that, while conforming to Church doctrine, makes an effort to present the Holy Spirit in a logical and, as they struggle to achieve, a warm manner.

Yet both Catholic and Protestant Churches have in common a view of the Trinity in which sexuality is at most a superficial feature even for birth and in which vital aspects of femininity are denied altogether. This view leads most investigators into the nature of the Trinity into an admission that the topic is very complex, to the extent that in the end they admit further that. like attempting to understand the duality of light or the logic behind quantum mechanics, they can’t comprehend it completely. This limitation has and continues to have a profound influence on the entire nature of Christianity. Didn’t any of these investigators grasp a hint in the wake of this inability to comprehend such an important topic that perhaps the standard view of the Trinity might need some revision?

Both the Father as the divine Will and the Son as Jesus Christ, the divine Word, are well-defined in Scripture as to their general natures and their functional roles. Of the three Members of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is by far the most enigmatic. It is the lack of understanding, or perhaps simply the misunderstanding, of the nature of this divine Member from which the confusion and apparent complexity of the Trinity has arisen. A substantial part of this confusion is the obviously apparent but discomforting feature of the Holy Spirit’s Scripturally-defined character as embracing specifically feminine elements in contradiction to the general view of the Trinity as being either gender-neutral or masculine.

Many expositors of the Holy Spirit see in Genesis 1 the active participation of the Holy Spirit in the act of creation. This is the position taken by respected scholar of Scripture Benjamin B. Warfield, who describes this functional attribute of the Holy Spirit in Chapter Seventeen of his book The Holy Spirit:

“His offices in Nature – The ‘Spirit’ or personal ‘Breath’ is the Executive of the Godhead, as the ‘Son’ or ‘Word’ is the Revealer. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of chaos and developed cosmos (Gen. 1:2). Henceforth he is always represented as the author of order and beauty in the natural as of holiness in the moral world. He garnished the astronomical heavens (Job 26:13). He is the organizer and source of life to all provinces of vegetable and animal nature (Job 33:4; Ps. 104:29, 30; Isa. 32:14, 15), and of enlightenment to human intelligence in all arts and sciences (Job 32:8; 35:11; Ex 31:2-4).”

Dr. H. A. Ironside, in a little tome first printed in 1941 entitled The Holy Trinity, also interprets Genesis 1:2 as asserting that the Holy Spirit, in concert with the Father, was actively involved in creation. Interestingly, in referencing Isaiah 66 as an Old Testament reference to the Trinity he quotes from verse 13:

“As one whom his mother comforteth so will I comfort you.”

Although Ironside invariably interprets the Holy Spirit in terms of the masculine pronoun ‘he’, he also confesses a lack of full understanding of the nature of the Trinity. Yet the passage quoted above, by associating the word ‘mother’ with ‘comfort’, furnishes a key argument for the feminine function of the Holy Spirit. For Jesus, in John 14:16 and 17, directly links the Holy Spirit with the name (implying role) Comforter:

“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”

Dedicated theologian Dr. Bruce A. Ware makes similar statements to Warfield regarding the executive (implementation of will) role of the Holy Spirit in his work Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. In fact, this executive role of the Holy Spirit is a general theme among theologians. In his own work, Ware encapsulates the roles of Father, Son and Holy Spirit as follows: Father – Grand Architect; Son – Submission to the Father in doing (displaying) His Will; Holy Spirit – Carrying out the work of the Father.

Alister McGrath, who wrote the work Understanding the Trinity, provides a representative viewpoint of this genre, yet also furnishes some remarkably fresh insights. He stands on what I humbly perceive as firm soil in his eloquent and moving descriptions of God and the incarnate Jesus in chapters 1 through 6. In reading it for a second time quite recently I realized afresh how his treatment of the Trinity had influenced my own work Family of God. It was Dr. McGrath, in fact, whom I mentioned on pages 24 through 26:

“Some theologians, having briefly noted the one intuitively satisfactory functional description of the Trinity, reject this particular answer quite abruptly, justifying their rejection on the basis of insufficient logic. They proceed from there to hammer out tortuously-derived and ultimately insufficient, emotionally empty alternatives. One such expositor, who otherwise paints with highly readable and insightful words a delightful description of God, mentions the Trinity with profound understanding and then quickly discards it as a misapplication of a familiar model in an attempt to apply too much of what is, after all, just a simplistic and imperfect model to the reality of God Himself. In his haste to reject that application, however, he violates the same logical guidelines which he carefully presented in the immediately preceding pages of his discussion.

“This same theologian, in viewing the Trinity in the uncontroversial terms of man’s encounters with God, explains it as different facets of His nature through which God has chosen to reveal Himself to man. God, he asserts, is altogether too vast for man, with his limitations in time and space, to acquire a complete picture of His entire nature. We can sample portions of this Divine Entity, however, and by thinking through the implications of the composite picture that He has given us through Scripture, we perceive His Trinitarian nature and the necessity for it. This experiential description is, I think, a valid one and has the advantage of being safely neutral with respect to gender. It is certainly the most intuitively satisfying characterization of the Trinity that I have seen to date. Yet such an exclusively man-centered description yields a disappointing poverty of information about God Himself, leaving the reader to ask why, if God does indeed have a Trinitarian nature, He is so reluctant to share a picture of that characteristic with us in terms of His intrinsic functional attributes. It would seem, after all, that a God-centered intuitive understanding would naturally lead to a greater appreciation of Him, and consequently a greater love toward Him on the part of His subjects. One might easily suspect, as a matter of fact, that those individuals in the past who were named in the Book of Hebrews, did indeed have personal insights into the nature of God beyond those which the usual churchgoer might have access to via his pastor or his reading of Scripture.”

The description of the Trinity that Dr. McGrath presented with profound understanding and subsequently discarded in haste begins on page 57 of Understanding the Trinity. An important continuation is presented twelve pages later, where the author appears to wish to tone down his rejection of the earlier model by presenting some qualifying remarks which suggest that perhaps he himself had some persistently lingering thoughts about the nature of the Holy Spirit that he didn’t wish to assert directly:

“It was therefore assumed that light also needed to travel through something [as was the case for sound, upon which light was modeled], and the word ‘aether’ was coined to describe the medium through which light waves traveled. If you read old radio magazines, or listen to old radio programmes, you’ll sometimes find people referring to ‘waves traveling through the aether’. But by the end of the century it had become clear that light did not seem to need any medium to travel through. What had happened was simply that the logical necessity of one aspect of the model (sound) had initially been assumed to apply to what was being modeled (light), and this assumption was gradually recognized to be incorrect as the experimental evidence built up.

“And so it is with models of God. For example, we often use ‘father’ as a very helpful model of God, emphasizing the way in which we are dependent upon God for our existence. But for every human child there is a human mother as well as a human father. This would seem to imply that there is a heavenly mother in addition to a heavenly father. But this assumption rests upon the improper transfer of the logical necessity of an aspect of the model (father) to what is being modeled (God), in just the same way as the necessity of one aspect (the need for a medium of propagation) of the model (sound) was transferred to what was being modeled (light). . .”

“. . . Although the strongly patriarchal structure of society of the time inevitably meant that emphasis was placed upon God as father (e.g., Jeremiah 3:19; Matthew 6:9), there are several passages which encourage us to think of God as our mother (e.g., Deuteronomy 32:18). We shall be considering these two images together, and ask what they tell us about God.

“The first, and most obvious, point is that God is understood as the one who called us into being, who created us. Just as our human parents brought us into being, so God must be recognized as the author and source of our existence. Thus at one point in her history, Israel is chided because she ‘forgot the God who gave [her] birth’ (Deuteronomy 32:18; cf. Isaiah 44:2, 24; 49:15).

“The second point which the model of God as parent makes is the natural love of God for his people. God doesn’t love us because of our achievements, but simply because we are his children. ‘The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you’ (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). Just as a mother can never forget or turn against her child, so God will not forget or gturn against his people (Isaiah 49:15). There is a natural bond of affection and sympathy between God and his children, simply because he has brought them into being. Thus God loved us long before we loved him (1 John 4:10, 19). Psalm 51:1 refers to God’s ‘great compassion, and it is interesting to note that the Hebrew word for ‘compassion’ (rachmin) is derived from the word for ‘womb’ (rechmen). God’s compassion towards his people is that of a mother towards her child (cf. Isaiah 66:12-13). Compassion stems from the womb.”

A delightful feature of his discourses, remarkable for its rarity, is a description of God’s loving relationship to mankind in romantic terms. Another feature of his presentation is his lengthy discussion of the necessities of Jesus’ essence as both man and God, and of His resurrection.
Unfortunately, Dr. McGrath appears to be on less stable ground in his discussion of the Trinity. In his presentation of this dogma he avoids delving too deeply into God’s intrinsic nature or attributes by substituting in its place a lengthy experientially-based account of Him in terms of His interaction with mankind. He is careful near the outset of his discourse, however, to distance himself from any notion that the Trinity includes a female Persona. He does so in his chapter entitled Thinking About God by noting that intellectual models are subject to misapplication through the improper assumption that every attribute of a model must apply to its counterpart in reality. As already noted, he cites as an example the wave characteristic of sound as a model for light, as was quoted directly from his work above.

But is the assumption of a Divine Mother in the economy of God necessarily a misapplication of the human parent model? It could be, but that’s a long way from must be. Nowhere does Dr. McGrath justify the necessity that he associates with that application. Instead, he elevates a mere illustrative example to the status of a law.

Moreover, and again as we have already noted, a short twelve pages further along, Dr. McGrath equivocates a bit regarding the possibility of motherhood in God’s economy, citing a number of Scriptural passages that describe God in a role more appropriate to motherhood than to fatherhood.

Almost at the end of his book it can be seen how Dr. McGrath rescues himself from this apparent inconsistency: as discussed in more detail below, he does not posit a distinct member of the Godhead who possesses the attributes of femininity; instead, he attributes this characteristic to the same Person as the Father. But rather than solving the problem of the feminine side of God, he comes dangerously close both to ultra-monotheism and modalism. Beyond that, he defines a God with gender characteristics indeed, but in the same Person. According to 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10, this suggests a model for a human malady known as hermaphroditism, which is contrary to Scripture, even to the extent of being labeled as unrighteous:

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”

I find it hard to believe, given its treatment in Scripture, that in His own organization God would wish even to hint at sexual perversion, or even sexual difficulty.

The essence of McGrath’s description of Jesus may be encapsulated in this passage, found in his chapter entitled God as Three and God as One: “The difficulties really begin with the recognition of the fundamental Christian insight that Jesus is God incarnate: that in the face of Jesus Christ we see none other than the living God himself. Although the New Testament is not really anything like a textbook of systematic theology, there is nothing stated in the great creeds of the church which is not already explicitly or implicitly stated within its pages. Jesus is understood to act as God and for God: whoever sees him, sees God; when he speaks, he speaks with the authority of God; when he makes promises, he makes them on behalf of God; when he judges us, he judges as God; when we worship, we worship the risen Christ as God; and so forth.” Dr. McGrath goes on to characterize Jesus in his incarnate form as not actually comprising the fullness of God, but merely as a representative sample of God suitable for furnishing humanity with some comprehension, consistent with their limitations, of the far more complete spiritual God who resides in heaven. He claims in a similar vein that the Holy Spirit, like Jesus, is another manifestation of God, in this case one that indwells the believer, that furnishes another way by which redeemed mankind can encounter, or experience, God.

Dr. McGrath ends with this commentary:

“We can now see why Christians talk about God being a ‘three-in-one’. One difficulty remains, however, which must be considered. How can God be three persons and one person at the same time? This brings us to an important point which is often not fully understood. The following is a simplified account of the idea of ‘person’ which may be helpful, although the reader must appreciate that simplifications are potentially dangerous. The word ‘person’ has changed its meaning since the third century when it began to bed used in connection with the ‘threefoldness of God’. When we talk about God as a person, we naturally think of God as being one person. But theologians such as Tertullian, writing in the third century, used the word ‘person’ with a different meaning. The word ‘person’ originally derives from the Latin word persona, meaning an actor’s face-mask – and, by extension, the role which he takes in a play.

“By stating that there were three persons but only one God, Tertullian was asserting that all three major roles in the great drama of human redemption are played by the one and the same God. The three great roles in this drama are all played by the same actor: God. Each of these roles may reveal God in a somewhat different way, but it is the same God in every case. So when we talk about God as one person, we mean one person in the modern sense of the word, and when we talk about God as three persons, we mean three persons in the ancient sense of the word. It is God, and God alone, who masterminded and executes the great plan of salvation, culminating in Jesus Christ. It is he who is present and active at every stage of its long history. Confusing these two senses of the word ‘person’ inevitably leads to the idea the God is actually a committee, which, as we saw earlier, is a thoroughly unhelpful and confusing way of thinking about God.”

One certainly could not accuse Dr. McGrath of being a tritheist. On the other hand, despite his denial on the back cover of the book that he entertains the heretical notion of modalism, he’s on shaky ground there, being right on the edge or over it according to his own words.

Dr. Mcgrath is somewhat unique among other well-established theologians in that his scientific training has furnished him with an ability to be objective in his presentation and make use of useful intellectual tools such as models to make his points. Further, he at least addresses some notions that others avoid like the plague, as if they themselves might be infected by ideas they may have been taught were close to blasphemous. He has in common with the others, however, several notions regarding the Holy Spirit that are generally accepted within faithful Christendom: while all Members of the Trinity possess the same substance and are fully and equally God, they differ with respect to functional role; the role for the Holy Spirit conforms most closely to that associated with executive companion and motherhood; the Holy Spirit is a background Entity, more self-effacing than Father and Son; the Trinity (as confessed by the Church) is a mystery beyond man’s comprehension. The ‘others’ who share these particular view with Drs. McGrath and Ware include Dr. Peter Masters (The Faith) and James R. White (The Forgotten Trinity).

I agree quite thoroughly with all of these points except the last, regarding the mystery which appears to be beyond comprehension, with which I disagree quite thoroughly. To me, the incomprehensibility in understanding the Trinity is another typical case of man’s brain outsmarting his heart. What should be an extremely simple and intuitive understanding, man has turned into a riddle, in the process wrapping himself tightly around the intellectual axle.

A case could be made that in the many attempts made by scholars of Scripture to describe the Holy Spirit, they end up implying an association of the Holy Spirit with Wisdom. Wisdom, of course, is given a lengthy treatment in Proverbs, with a female gender association.

It must be noted that in every case, these respected theologians are consistent with each other and with general Church dogma, represented by the early Church Fathers, Zanchius, and Catholic theology concerning the absence of gender within the Godhead.

GOD, FACE TO FACE CHAPTER THREE

 

 

CHAPTER THREE: How the modern Catholic Church excludes sexuality from the attributes of God

As was noted above in the context of Father MacQuarrie’s view of the distribution of secondary gender characteristics within the Godhead, the Catholic Church responds to a genderless God in a unique way.  Having removed the female gender from the Holy Spirit, the Catholic Church, to her credit, understands that an unnatural gap was thereby created in its sterilized perception of the Godhead.  She has filled the perceived and all-too-real void of a genderless or (mostly) all-male God with Mary, the mother of Jesus, whom she has elevated to a superhuman status that falls just short of deity.  It is Mary upon whom the Catholic Church places her love and devotion, restoring a semblance of the fervor of worship commanded by both Moses and Jesus in asking of us the entirety of our hearts, souls and mind in our love toward Him.  To most Catholic laypersons, Mary’s position of subordination to diety is so minuscule as to be nonexistent, wherein the veneration of her is indistinguishable from worship.

The Catholic text Mary in the Church Today, a compilation by Father Bill McCarthy of papal pronouncements and other official Catholic teachings regarding Mary, mother of Jesus, is an excellent source book for the understanding of the Catholic position regarding Mary.  The teachings, from which the following entries are gleaned, speak for themselves.

“’For,’ the text [Lumen Gentium, 62] goes on, ‘taken up to heaven, [Mary] did not lay aside this saving role, but by her manifold acts of intercession continues to win for us gifts of eternal salvation.’  With this character of ‘intercession,’ first manifested in Cana in Galilee, Mary’s mediation continues in the history of the Church and the world.  We read that Mary ‘by her maternal charity, cares for the brethren of her Son who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties, until they are led to their happy homeland.’  In this way Mary’s motherhood continues unceasingly in the Church as the mediation which intercedes, and the Church expresses her faith in this truth by invoking Mary ‘under the title of Advocate, Auxiliatrix, and Mediatrix.’

“Through her mediation, subordinate to that of the Redeemer, Mary contributes in a special way to the union of the pilgrim Church on earth with the eschatological and heavenly reality of the Communion of Saints, since she has already been ‘assumed into heaven’.  The truth of the assumption defined by Pius XII, is reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council, which thus expresses the Church’s faith: ‘Preserved free from all guilt of original sin, the Immaculate Virgin was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory upon the completion of her earthly sojourn.  She was exalted by the Lord as Queen of the Universe, in order that she might be the more thoroughly conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords (cf. Rv 19:16) and the conqueror of sin and death.’  In this teaching Pius XII was in continuity with Tradition, which has found many different expressions in the history of the Church, both in the East and in the West.”

-exerpted from Redemtoris Mater, Articles 40 and 41

“Subsequently, in 1962, on the feast of the Purification of Mary, Pope John set the opening of the Council for 11 October, explaining that he had chosen this date in memory of the great Council of Ephesus, which precisely on that date had proclaimed Mary ‘Theotokos’, Mother of God . . . “

“2. At the second session of the Council it was that the treatment of the Blessed Virgin Mary be put into the Constitution of the Church.  This initiative, although expressly recommended by the Theological Commission, prompted a variety of opinions.

“Some, who considered this proposal inadequate for emphasizing the very special mission of Jesus’ Mother in the Church, maintained that only a separate document could express Mary’s dignity, pre-eminence, exceptional holiness and unique role in the Redemption accomplished by the Son.  Furthermore, regarding Mary as above the Church in a certain way, they were afraid that the decision to put the Marian teaching in the treatment of the Church would not sufficiently emphasize Mary’s privileges and would reduce her role to the level of other members of the Church. . .”

• excerpted from the ninth of Pope John Paul II’s series of catecheses on the Blessed Virgin

“Mary’s fundamental dignity is that of being ‘Mother of the Son’, which is expressed in Christian doctrine and devotion with the title ‘Mother of God’.

“This is a surprising term, which shows the humility of God’s only-begotten Son in his Incarnation and, in connection with it, the most high privilege granted a creature who was called to give him birth in the flesh.

“Mother of the Son, Mary is the ‘beloved daughter of the Father’ in a unique way.  She has been granted an utterly special likeness between her motherhood and the divine fatherhood.  And again, every Christian is a ‘temple of the Holy Spirit’, according to the Apostle Paul’s expression (1 Cor 6:19).  But this assertion takes on an extraordinary meaning in Mary: in her the relationship with the Holy Spirit is enriched in a spousal dimension,  I recalled this in the Encyclical Redemptoris Mater:  ‘The Holy Spirit had already come down upon her, and she became his faithful spouse at the Annunciation, welcoming the Word of the true God. . .’ (n. 26).”

– excerpted from the eleventh of Pope John Paul II’s series of catecheses on the Blessed Virgin

“The freedom ‘from every stain of original sin’ entails as a positive consequence the total freedom from all sin as well as the proclamation of Mary’s perfect holiness, a doctrine to which the dogmatic definition makes a fundamental contribution.  In fact, the negative formulation of the Marian privilege, which resulted from the earlier controversies about original sin that arose in the West, must always be complemented by the positive expression of Mary’s holiness more explicitly stressed in the Eastern tradition.

“Pius XII’s definition refers only to the freedom from original sin and does not explicitly include the freedom from original concupiscence [generally, the desires of the flesh in the Catholic vernacular].  Nevertheless, Mary’s complete preservation from every stain of sin also has as a consequence her freedom from concupiscence, a disordered tendency which, according to the Council of Trent, comes from sin and inclines to sin (DS 1515).”

-excerpted from the twenty third of Pope John Paul II’s series of catecheses on the Blessed Virgin

“In recounting the birth of Jesus, Luke and Matthew also speak of the role of the Holy Spirit.  The latter is not the father of the Child.  Jesus is the son of the Eternal Father alone (cf. Lk 1:32-35), who through the Spirit is at work in the world and begets the Word in his human nature.  Indeed, at the Annunciation the angel calls the Spirit ‘the power of the Most High’ (Lk 1:35), in harmony with the Old Testament, which presents him as the divine energy at work in human life, making it capable of marvelous deeds.  Manifesting itself to the supreme degree in the mystery of the Incarnation, this power, which in the Trinitarian life of God is Love, has the task of giving humanity the Incarnate Word.”

-excerpted from the twenty eighth of Pope John Paul II’s series of catecheses on the Blessed Virgin

“1. The intention to remain a virgin, apparent in Mary’s words at the moment of the Annunciation, has traditionally been considered the beginning and the inspiration of Christian virginity for the Church.

“St. Augustine does not see in this resolution the fulfillment of a divine precept, but a vow freely taken.  In this way it was possible to present Mary as an example to ‘holy virgins’ throughout the Church’s history.  Mary ‘dedicated her virginity to God when she did not yet know whom she would conceive, so that the imitation of heavenly life in the earthly, mortal body would come about through a vow, not a precept, through a choice of love and not through the need to serve; (De Sancta Virg. IV. PL 40 398).

“The angel does not ask Mary to remain a virgin, it is Mary who freely reveals her intention of virginity.  The choice of love that leads her to consecrate herself totally to the Lord by a life of virginity is found in this commitment.

“In stressing the spontaneity of Mary’s decision, we must not forget that God’s initiative is at the root of every vocation.  By choosing the life of virginity, the young girl of Nazareth was responding to an interior call, that  is, to an inspiration of the Holy Spirit that enlightened her about the meaning and value of the virginal gift of [sic, substitute ‘chasitity’] heresy.  No one can accept this gift without feeling called or without receiving from the Holy Spirit the necessary light and strength.”

-excerpted from the twenty ninth of Pope John Paul II’s series of catecheses on the Blessed Virgin

“2. It may be presumed that at the time of their betrothal there was an understanding between Joseph and Mary about the plan to live as a virgin.  Moreover, the Holy Spirit, who had inspired Mary to choose virginity in view of the mystery of the Incarnation and who wanted the latter to come about in a family setting suited to the Child’s growth, was quite able to instill in Joseph the ideal of virginity as well.”

-excerpted from the thirtieth of Pope John Paul II’s series of catecheses on the Blessed Virgin

This view of Mary, as described by the highest Catholic authority and seconded by the entire Church, presents Mary with the warmth of humanity.  But she, like the Godhead Itself, has been stripped clean of all sexual experience except for the pain of childbirth.  In thinking about that rampant sexual housecleaning, it seems strange indeed that Peter, the iconic and revered founder of the Catholic Church, was himself married, according to Matthew 8:14 and 15, while his successors and the entire body of clergy were and continue to be prohibited from doing so:

“And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw that his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever.  And he touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she arose, and ministered unto them.”

We all know how that worked out in practice: instead of taking wives and thereby participating in a relationship established and condoned by God, the clergy instead took the wives of other men, prostitutes and, ultimately, altar boys.

If anything can be said in favor of the Catholic view of God, it is consistent with the views expressed by the early Church Fathers.  It is consistent as well as with the views of Zanchius, although considerably softened by the treatment of Mary.

GOD, FACE TO FACE CHAPTER TWO

 

CHAPTER TWO: How the removal of sexuality from God propagated into the Middle Ages and beyond

A thousand years after the Church had formalized its dogma, her insistence upon purity had not only remained, but had crystallized into a rigid perfectionism.  This absolutely flawless state was enshrined by the medieval cleric Jerome Zanchius, a strict adherent of the heavenly perfection envisioned by Aristotle and Ptolemy.  To this day, Zanchius is held in high esteem by many mainstream Church leaders.  And why not?  Zanchius’ vision of God is perfectly compatible with the omniness, perfection and asexuality of the mainstream God.

In his rather pretentious sixteenth century work Absolute Predestination Stated and Defined, Zanchius included some Scripturally unjustified statements regarding the nature of God, of which the following excerpts are representative:

“VI.—I shall conclude this introduction with briefly considering, in the sixth and last place, THE MERCY OF GOD.

“POSITION 1.—The Deity is, throughout the Scriptures, represented as infinitely gracious and merciful (Exod. 34.6; Nehem. 9.17; Psalm 103.8; 1 Peter 1.3).

“When we call the Divine mercy infinite, we do not mean that it is, in a way of grace, extended to all men without exception (and supposing it was, even then it would be very improperly denominated infinite on that account, since the objects of it, though all men taken together, would not amount to a multitude strictly and properly infinite), but that His mercy towards His own elect, as it knew no beginning, so is it infinite in duration, and shall know neither period nor intermission.

“POSITION 2.—Mercy is not in the Deity, as it is in us, a passion or affection, everything of that kind being incompatible with the purity, perfection, independency and unchangeableness of His nature; but when this attribute is predicated of Him, it only notes His free and eternal will or purpose of making some of the fallen race happy by delivering them from the guilt and dominion of sin, and communicating Himself to them in a way consistent with His own inviolable justice, truth and holiness. This seems to be the proper definition of mercy as it relates to the spiritual and eternal good of those who are its objects.”

Zanchius continues as follows in his Chapter 1, entitled in grandiose manner “Wherein the Terms Commonly Made Use of in Treating of this Subject are Defined and Explained”:

“HAVING considered the attributes of God as laid down in Scripture, and so far cleared our way to the doctrine of predestination, I shall, before I enter further on the subject, explain the principal terms generally made use of when treating of it, and settle their true meaning. In discoursing on the Divine decrees, mention is frequently made of God’s love and hatred, of election and reprobation, and of the Divine purpose, foreknowledge and predestination, each of which we shall distinctly and briefly consider.

“I.—When love is predicated of God, we do not mean that He is possessed of it as a passion or affection. In us it is such, but if, considered in that sense, it should be ascribed to the Deity, it would be utterly subversive of the simplicity, perfection and independency of His being. Love, therefore, when attributed to Him, signifies—

“(l) His eternal benevolence, i.e., His everlasting will, purpose and determination to deliver, bless and save His people. Of this, no good works wrought by them are in any sense the cause. Neither are even the merits of Christ Himself to be considered as any way moving or exciting this good will of God to His elect, since the gift of Christ, to be their Mediator and Redeemer, is itself an effect of this free and eternal favour borne to them by God the Father (John 3.16). His love towards them arises merely from “the good pleasure of His own will,” without the least regard to anything ad extra or out of Himself.

“(2) The term implies complacency, delight and approbation. With this love God cannot love even His elect as considered in themselves, because in that view they are guilty, polluted sinners, but they were, from all eternity, objects of it, as they stood united to Christ and partakers of His righteousness.

“(3) Love implies actual beneficence, which, properly speaking, is nothing else than the effect or accomplishment of the other two: those are the cause of this. This actual beneficence respects all blessings, whether of a temporal, spiritual or eternal nature. Temporal good things are indeed indiscriminately bestowed in a greater or less degree on all, whether elect or reprobate, but they are given in a covenant way and as blessings to the elect only, to whom also the other benefits respecting grace and glory are peculiar. And this love of beneficence, no less than that of benevolence and complacency, is absolutely free, and irrespective of any worthiness in man.

“II.—When hatred is ascribed to God, it implies (1) a negation of benevolence, or a resolution not to have mercy on such and such men, nor to endue them with any of those graces which stand connected with eternal life. So, “Esau have I hated” (Rom. 9.), i.e., “I did, from all eternity, determine within Myself not to have mercy on him.” The sole cause of which awful negation is not merely the unworthiness of the persons hated, but the sovereignty and freedom of the Divine will. (2) It denotes displeasure and dislike, for sinners who are not interested in Christ cannot but be infinitely displeasing to and loathsome in the sight of eternal purity. (3) It signifies a positive will to punish and destroy the reprobate for their sins, of which will, the infliction of misery upon them hereafter, is but the necessary effect and actual execution.”

We observe in these few excerpts from his book Absolute Predestination Stated and Defined that Zanchius’ God, while exhibiting the stability of a rock, does not indulge in excesses of emotion such as fervor would induce.  Fervor, on the other hand, is precisely what God demands of us in our relationship with Him.  As Jesus declared in Matthew 22:37 and 38:

“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.”

Zanchius repeatedly cites like a mantra his justification for his view: God’s purity, perfection, independency and the unchangeableness of His nature.  But where in Scripture can we find such descriptors of God other than His constancy of nature?  Where in Scripture is purity defined in the manner that Zanchius intended to convey or in the manner that mainstream Churches presume to interpret?  More importantly, how can these attributes furnish justification for an assumed lack of passion that directly contradicts Jesus’ call for our fervor of worship?

In His absolute perfection, this God of Zanchius was of a remote grandeur.  This notion, which the Church leaders of that time and since rather naively bought into, gave rise to a God whose primary attribute is his majestic greatness.  By defining God with majesty in mind, love became a secondary attribute, despite John’s emphatic identification of God as the very embodiment of love.  They went (and go) too far.  The perfection embodied in their eulogies renders them sterile.  In defining God in this way, love automatically becomes a secondary attribute, despite John’s emphatic identification of God as the very embodiment of love.  Zanchius’ passionless God, in fact, is alien to the God of Scripture.  This is to be expected, as he assigns attributes to God without any reference whatsoever to Scripture itself.

Zanchius’ God, then, being positionally remote from and by nature very different from the mankind of His creation, is alien to it as well.  This perception of remoteness is evident in modern Churches, where pastors complain, with some justification, that mankind has a proclivity toward defining God according to what he wants God to represent.  In noting the truth of this objection by observing the numerous ways in which the modern Church has created gods that deviate quite strongly from the God of Scripture, we also note that the early Church did its share of creating a God apart from Scripture by the simple expedient of performing a hasty castration while maintaining a complete oblivion to its long-term collateral consequences.

Downplaying Scripture’s instruction to us in Genesis 1:27 that mankind was made in the image of the plural Godhead, Zanchius and his followers emphasize God’s difference from us.  While mankind may share some of the more superficial features of living beings with God such as our rationality and moral sense, the basic concept of gender is seen as over-the-top and a plainly inappropriate attribute of God.  But gender represents far more than mere sexuality.  It also involves the notion of complementary otherness, the idea that a team consisting of complementary others synergistically supports both love and function.  Without the sharing intrinsic to otherness, unlimited power automatically fosters narcissistic self-adoration.  The sharing of power with a complementary Being requires each Partner to contribute something lacking in the Other.  It is the self-humbling lack of completeness that so beautifully endows each Partner with adoration toward the Other rather than to Self.

It has been standard practice, to those who bother to think about the fact that some attributes of God are feminine in nature, to assign elements of both genders to each Member of the Godhead.  Such was the path taken by the prominent Catholic theologian John MacQuarrie.  I wrote of his approach in my book Marching to a Worthy Drummer:

One of the more intelligent discussions of the Godhead that remains within the Church-imposed boundary of asexuality has been supplied by Catholic Father John Macquarrie in his book Mary for all Christians.  In his chapter entitled “God and the Feminine”, he acknowledges the incompleteness of male alone or female alone without its complement.  While touching on the all-important notion of complementary otherness, he goes on to other topics rather quickly, largely overlooking the most important aspect of otherness, which is its necessity in supporting the noble selflessness intrinsic to God as emphasized throughout the Bible.

Father Macquarrie also openly states, reminiscent of medieval theologian Jerome Zanchius, that God transcends sex.  How does he apply that concept that God is above matters of gender to his perception of the incompleteness of a single-gender Godhead?  He does so in distressingly extra-Biblical fashion.  Being well-read in psychology, Macquarrie turns to C. J. Jung and his concept of shared gender.  In that context, Macquarrie asserts, all the Members of the Trinity share both male and female characteristics.

Many Catholic theologians, perceiving despite the Church’s grand elevation of Mary that there were some elements of the feminine within the all-male Godhead, grasped onto the Jungian notion that each of the divine Entities possessed both male and female attributes.  Here again is a view that suggests gender weakness in contradiction to Scripture.  In addition to promoting a divine narcissism in distinct opposition to the general tenor of Scripture, this notion is logically untenable in the face of the pronounced masculinity of both the Father and Jesus Christ and the proscription against male neutrality in Leviticus 21:20 and against male femininity in 1 Corinthians 6:9.  That leaves the Holy Spirit alone as the possible embodiment of the female gender.

As if the direct problems associated with the gender-neutral or all-male viewpoints of the Godhead aren’t bad enough of themselves, they sometimes create collateral difficulties.  Among some Christian communities the ever-present threat that these viewpoints will inhibit ardor in worship has led to further misunderstandings that are intended to correct their deficiencies and restore the fervor suggested by Scripture.  One such compensating offshoot practice is the Catholic veneration of Mary as the primary female persona of our religion.  Despite protestations to the contrary from Catholic authorities from the Pope down to the pastoral level, this veneration, as was noted in Chapter 4, approaches actual worship to such a degree that it represents a de facto integration of Mary into the Godhead.  Indeed, Mary is endowed in the Catholic Church with a number of attributes that rightly belong within the Godhead, specifically the Holy Spirit.

In opposition to Zanchius, Macquarrie and their numerous followers, Scripture paints a far more beautiful picture of God, depicting His majestic glory as His willingness to give up the majesty of greatness and power in favor of a love of great fullness and depth.  The Gospels appear to support this view, depicting Jesus Christ (as God) as a Being full of the attributes of love as we know it, including passion.  Examples that come to mind include His weeping over Jerusalem and Lazarus and His ordeal in the garden of Gethsemane.  It is difficult, for example, to picture the risen Jesus talking to His followers on the road to Emmaus in the context of Zanchius’ notion of God’s remote perfection.

Zanchius’ definition of God as remote from and alien to us not only suppresses His most important attribute of love, but inhibits those to whom Scripture was written from loving Him back.  This is a serious issue because it runs counter to His Great Commandment to love Him with all our hearts, and all our souls and all our minds.

One thing can be said regarding Zanchius’ view of God: it is certainly consistent with the alteration of Scripture performed by some of our respected Church Fathers under the motive of stripping sexuality from all things associated with God.

Our brief review of Zanchius and MacQuarrie can be summarized by the notion that God is an omni-everything, kind of a super-superman, complete with x-ray vision to peer into the hearts, minds and actions of His subjects.  Given Zanchius’ vision of the absolute nature of His mastery over our lives, we need to obey Him, because otherwise we can get into some very deep trouble.  Beyond this control, God differs from us in so many ways that we’d best not try to approach Him from the standpoint of shared weakness.  We must instead resign ourselves to the bleak fact that His majestic betterness can be used against us if we don’t toe the line.  We ourselves should pray with fervor that we will be undeserving recipients of His benevolence rather than deserving objects of His wrath.

Along with our prayers, we’d do well to read what Scripture has to say about God’s relationship with us, which pretty much contradicts just about everything in Zanchius’ and MacQuarrie’s views of God.  We should be particularly careful to understand God’s willingness to become a man, subject to every temptation we possess, for the sake of His great, overwhelmingly fervent and loving passion toward us.

 

 

 

GOD, FACE TO FACE CHAPTER ONE (CONTINUED)

CHAPTER ONE (continued): How some eminent early Church Fathers set the stage for the removal of sexuality from God

As the story of Abraham unfolds from Genesis 12 through 25, the narrative stresses the importance of his natural wife Sarah to God’s promises to him. It is in Sarah that the covenant promises reside through Isaac and then Jacob. The poignant account of Sarah’s death in Hebron is given in Genesis 23, where Abraham came “to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.” Abraham honored her memory by purchasing a cave in Hebron for her burial. It is the resting place for all the patriarchs, including Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their three primary wives.

Virtually every Christian recognizes that the story of Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22 represents a forecast of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for our salvation. This event in Abraham’s life immediately and quite strongly identifies Isaac as a precursor to Jesus. Isaac is mentioned again in Genesis 24, this time in the context of his betrothal to Rebekah, which turns out to be an elaborate affair. The imagery in this prolonged event speaks quite plainly of another betrothal, that of Jesus to His Church, as described by Paul in Ephesians 5:25-32:

“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but noourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church; for we are members of his body. Of his flesh, and of his bones.

 

          “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and his church.”

 

This passage so plainly states the spiritual role of the Church as the Wife of Christ that any negation of gender in the spiritual realm speaks only of the poverty of the skeptic’s understanding of God and Scripture, and of the blindness and deafness of his anti-gender presuppositions.

It has been argued in the past that Matthew 22:29 and Galatians 3:28 preclude the role of procreation in the heavenly realm:

“Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of God in heaven.”

 

          “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”

The key phrase here is “power of God”. In other words, if you subscribe to the notion that the spiritual realm doesn’t involve reproduction, lift your eyes from the mundane, thoroughly shallow little details and look at the big picture. Paul even spells it out for you in 1 Corinthians 12:12-20:

“For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it, therefore, not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members, every one of them, in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, were were the body. But now are they many members, yet but one body.”

Paul couldn’t have said it plainer than that: we as individuals are a tiny element of the Church, not the whole. Our being spiritually genderless doesn’t make the Church genderless, just like my genderless toenail doesn’t make me genderless in the flesh. Yet there are many people in the mainstream Church, even some who consider themselves to be among the spiritual elite, who are so blind to Scripture’s account of the Church’s future spiritual role as to be unable to differentiate the individual from the whole.

Beyond the Book of Genesis, there are a multitude of Scriptural corroborations of the essential role of gender in the spiritual realm. Among these is one of my favorites, the Shekinah Glory who inhabited the temples of Moses in the wilderness, as described in Exodus 40:34-38 and I Kings 8:10 and 11:

“Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode therein, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys; but if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.”

 

          “And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.”

 

It is generally acknowledged by Christian experts in the matter that the Hebrew word Shekinah is equivalent to the phrase glory of the Lord. It is also generally acknowledged that the word Shekinah is feminine. Furthermore, this indwelling function of the Shekinah has a counterpart, the indwelling of Christians upon their acceptance of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. According to Acts 2, this indwelling is the Holy Spirit, as promised by Jesus in John 14. The parallelism of the Shekinah with the indwelling Holy Spirit is vividly described by Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:16 and Ephesians 2:19-22 wherein Paul asserts that the Church herself, through her constituents, is a temple indwelt by the Holy Spirit:

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

 

          Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”

Another favorite indication of feminine gender in the spiritual realm, again of the Holy Spirit, is the passage of spiritual birth in John 3:

“There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; the same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered, and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto you, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound of it, but canst not tell from where it cometh, and where it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered, and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered, and said unto him, Art thou a teacher of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that which we do know, and testify to that which we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.”

But there’s plenty more regarding spiritual gender in the Old Testament. How about the Book of Proverbs, particularly in Proverbs 3 and 8, where the feminine Wisdom is personified as a Helper at the side of the Father in the creation of the world? According to those who take issue with the association of gender with God, the personification of Wisdom typically is explained away as merely a literary device. This attribution is an arbitrary claim without Scriptural support that does nothing more than identify the claimant as biased against gender in the spiritual realm. In contrast to this lack of Scriptural support against the personification of Wisdom, the notion that Wisdom is indeed personified by the Holy Spirit enjoys support from the Book of Wisdom, which is included in the Catholic canon but was deleted from the Protestant canon in 1827 by the British and Foreign Bible Society.

I noted in Marching to a Worthy Drummer in support of the Personhood of Wisdom the following statements by Jesus in Luke 7:35 and 11:49, 50 that associate Wisdom with motherhood, which is an eminently personal attribute:

“But wisdom is justified of all her children.”

“Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute, that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation.”

In addition, Proverbs 8:22-36 and 9:1-6 directly link the act of creation to Wisdom, whereas the act of creation is also linked to the Holy Spirit in Genesis 1:1-5, Job 26:13 and Psalm 104:30. This functional parallelism strongly suggests the equivalence of Wisdom to the Holy Spirit.

Then there’s the explicitly romantic Song of Solomon, which would be extraneous to the Bible if gender is missing from the spiritual realm.

This sampling of Scriptural support for a gendered heaven illuminates a face of God that is altogether more lovely, compassionate, firm in the intra-Godhead bond of family than the sterner, informationally-poor and remote face as understood by the mainstream Church.

But there is yet more: evidence that the Church was cleansed of sexuality through the tampering of Scripture

According to an Internet search of “feminine Holy Spirit in the Hebrew Scriptures”, multiple modern, deeply serious theologians and ancient language scholars share the view that the earliest Hebrew Christians had access to Scripture that presented the Holy Spirit as a feminine Persona; this feminine persisted within the Syriac and other Eastern branches of Christianity and within the Gnostic sect as well. A prime example of this is the Scriptural passage known as the Siniatic Palimpsest (a palimpsest is a recycled writing medium, wherein a second layer of writing was applied over the original, the original usually consisting of more important information) uncovered toward the end of the nineteenth century by Agnes Lewis. The original writing included portions of the Gospel of John of which a quote from Jesus Himself in John 14:26 asserts the following (translation attributed to Danny Mahar):

“But She – the Spirit – the Paraclete whom He will send to you – my Father – in my name – She will teach you everything; She will remind you of what I have told you.”

There is a suggestion, from a comparative review of this text with Paul’s letters that Paul, among the numerous early Hebrew Christians, used the version of John’s Gospel from which this passage came. References to the Siniatic Palimpsest may be found on the Internet. Unfortunately, many of the translations into English found under the search phrase “Siniatic Palimpsest” apply without justification the more conventional “he” rather than the “she” of the original language. Some Internet references, however, do acknowledge the proper “she”.

The identification of the Holy Spirit as feminine in the Siniatic Palimpsest is no small matter, for this document is the oldest of all copies of the Gospels, being dated to the second century A.D. It is a recognized principle of textual interpretation, even by the most conservative of Biblical scholars, that the older the text, the closer it is thought to be to the original Scripture. This is particularly important in light of the fact that there are no other Scriptural texts between it and the oldest Greek text dated to the fourth century A.D.

On the other hand, it is not really necessary to assert that Scripture was altered to change the references to the Holy Spirit from “she” to “he” to justify a feminine function of the Holy Spirit. As I had noted in both Family of God and Marching to a Worthy Drummer, it is more a matter of recognizing the Holy Spirit as functionally feminine in the face of the possibility that She may share in the masculine substance of the Father. This is certainly the case with the Church, in that Scripture describes her as functionally feminine, being the Bride of Christ, while the aggregate of individuals that describe her are collectively described as masculine, as in the term “mankind”. This view of collective masculinity and functional femininity is supported in Genesis 5:2:

“Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.”

This differentiation between substance and function, in fact, is suggested by the Nicene Creed, in which in the original version the Holy Spirit is referred to as follows:

 

“And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.”

Around the sixth century A.D. the filioque (the words “and the son”) were inserted into the Nicene Creed after the phrase “who proceeds from the Father”. This insertion was finally approved by the pope in 1014, an act that contributed to an uproar among the faithful that led in 1054 to the Great Schism between the Eastern and Western branches of the Church. The insertion of the filioque into the creed suggests the loss of the Church’s initial understanding of the Holy Spirit’s role within the Godhead.

 

 

 

 

GOD, FACE TO FACE CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER ONE: How some eminent early Church Fathers set the stage for the removal of sexuality from God

In the book Early Christian Fathers, edited by Cyril C. Richardson may be seen Justin Martyr’s attitude toward the place of sexuality within the Christian faith This commentary was written around the middle of the second century A.D., about a half century after the Apostle John wrote the Book of Revelation. In it, Justin clearly expressed his view of the importance of sexual circumspection:

“About continence [Jesus] said this: ‘Whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery in his heart before God.’ And: ‘If your right eye offends you, cut it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of Heaven with one eye than with two to be sent into eternal fire.’ And: ‘Whoever marries a woman who has been put away from another man commits adultery.’ And: ‘There are some who were made eunuchs by men, and some who were born eunuchs, and some who have made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven’s sake; only not all [are able to] receive this.

“And so those who make second marriages according to human law are sinners in the sight of our Teacher, and those who look on a woman to lust after her. For he condemns not only the man who commits the act of adultery, but the man who desires to commit adultery, since not only our actions but our thoughts are manifest to God. Many men and women now in their sixties and seventies who have been disciples of Christ from childhood have preserved their purity; and I am proud that I could point to such people in every nation. . . But to begin with, we do not marry except in order to bring up children, or else, renouncing marriage, we live in perfect continence. To show you that promiscuous intercourse is not among our mysteries – just recently one of us submitted a petition to the Prefect Felix in Alexandria, asking that a physician be allowed to make him a eunuch, for the physicians there said they were not allowed to do this without the permission of the Prefect. When Felix would by no means agree to endorse [the petition], the young man remained single, satisfied with [the approval of] his own conscience and that of his fellow believers.”

In writing about the sexual purity of Christians, Justin intended to contrast this behavior with that associated with the false gods and the rampant and often cruel immorality that not only was involved in the worship of them, but which had infected secular life as well:

“Far be it from every sound mind to entertain such a concept of deities as that Zeus, whom they call the ruler and begetter of all, should have been a parricide (killer of a relative) and the son of a parricide, and that moved by desire of evil and shameful pleasures he descended on Ganymede and the many women whom he seduced, and that his sons after him were guilty of similar actions. But, as we said before, it was the wicked demons who did these things. We have been taught that only those who live close to God in holiness and virtue attain to immortality, and we believe that those who live unjustly and do not reform will be punished in eternal fire.”

“Secondly, out of every race of men we who once worshiped Dionysus the son of Semele and Apollo the son of Leto, who in their passion for men did things which it is disgraceful even to speak of, or who worshiped Persephone and Aphrodite, who were driven made by [love of] Adonis and whose mysteries you celebrate, or Asclepius or some other of those who are called gods, now through Jesus Christ despise them, even at the cost of death, and have dedicated ourselves to the unbegotten and impassible God. We do not believe that he ever descended in mad passion on Antiope or others, nor on Ganymede, nor was he, receiving help through Thetis, delivered by that hundred-handed monster, nor was he, because of this anxious that Thetis’ son Achilles should destroy so many Greeks for the sake of his concubine Briseis. We pity those who believe [such stories], for which we know that the demons are responsible.”

“That we may avoid all injustice and impiety, we have been taught that to expose the newly born is the work of wicked men – first of all because we observe that almost all [foundlings], boys as well as girls, are brought up for prostitution. As the ancients are said to have raised herds of oxen or goats or sheep or horses in their pastures, so now [you raise children] just for shameful purposes, and so in every nation a crowd of females and hermaphrodites and doers of unspeakable deeds are exposed as public prostitutes. You even collect pay and levies and taxes from these, whom you ought to exterminate from your civilized world. And anyone who makes use of them may in addition to [the guilt of] godless, impious, and intemperate intercourse, by chance be consorting with his own child or relative or brother. Some even prostitute their own children or wives, and others are admittedly mutilated for purposes of sodomy, and treat this as part of the mysteries of the mother of the gods – while beside each of those whom think of as gods a serpent is depicted as a great symbol and mystery. You charge against us the actions that you commit openly and treat with honor, as if the divine light were overthrown and withdrawn – which of course does no harm to us, who refuse to do any of these things, but rather injures those who do them and then bring false witness [against us].”

Two and a half centuries later Augustine experienced much the same revulsion as Justin did over the moral tawdriness of the Roman society in which he lived. Having become a Christian thirty two years after his birth in 354 A.D., Augustine had spent much of his dissolute pre-Christian years in the enjoyment of the depravity of the society in which he lived. The shame and regret of these early years served to drive Augustine into a passionate rejection of loose morality and unbridled lust. The strength of his feelings in that regard are demonstrated throughout his book City of God, an example of which is given in Chapters 4 and 5 of Book II:

“When I was a young man I used to go to sacrilegious shows and entertainments.  I watched the antics of madmen; I listened to singing boys; I thoroughly enjoyed the most degrading spectacles put on in honour of gods and goddesses – in honour of the Heavenly Virgin, of of Berecynthia, mother of all. On the yearly festival of Berecynthia’s purification the lowest kind of actors sang, in front of her litter, songs unfit for the ears of even the mother of one of those mountebanks, to say nothing of the mother of any decent citizen, or of a senator; while as for the Mother of the Gods – ! For there is something in the natural respect we have towards our parents that the extreme of infamy cannot wholly destroy; and certainly those very mountebanks would be ashamed to give a rehearsal performance in their homes, before their mothers, of those disgusting verbal and acted obscenities. Yet they performed them in the presence of the Mother of the Gods before an immense audience of spectators of both sexes. If those spectators were enticed by curiosity to gather in profusion, they ought at least to have dispersed in confusion at the insults to their modesty.

“If these were sacred rites, what is meant by sacrilege? If this is purification, what is meant by pollution?  And the name of the ceremony is ‘the fercula’, which might suggest the giving of a dinner-party where the unclean demons could enjoy a feast to their liking.  Who could fail to realize what kind of spirits they are which could enjoy such obscenities?  Only a man who refused to recognize even the existence of any unclean spirits who deceive men under the title of gods, or one whose life was such that he hoped for the favour and feared the anger of such gods, rather than that of the true God.

Augustine went on to lament, as he called them, the obscenities performed in the worship of the “Mother of the Gods”:

 

            “The last people I should choose to decide on this matter are those who are more eager to revel in the obscene practices of this depraved cult than to resist them. I should prefer the decision of Scipio Nasica, the very man whom the Senate chose as their best man, whose hands received this devil’s image and brought it to Rome. Let him tell us whether he would wish his mother to have deserved so well of her country that she should be accorded divine honours. For it is well known that the Greeks and the Romans, and other peoples, have decreed such honours to those whose public services they valued highly, and that such people were believed to have been made immortal and to have been received among the number of the gods. No doubt he would desire such felicity for his mother, if it were possible. But let me go on to ask him whether he would like such disgusting rites as those to be included among the divine honours paid to her? Would he not cry out that he would prefer his mother to be dead, and beyond all experience, than that she should live as a goddess, to take pleasure in hearing such celebrations?   It is unthinkable that a senator of Rome, of such high principles that he forbade the erection of a theatre in a city of heroes, should want his mother to be honoured as a goddess by such propitiatory rites as would have scandalized her as a Roman matron. He would surely have thought it quite impossible for a respectable woman to have her modesty so corrupted by the assumption of divinity that her worshipers should call upon her with ritual invocations of this sort. These invocations contained expressions of such a kind that had they been hurled at any antagonist in a quarrel, during her life on earth, then if she had not stopped her ears and withdrawn from the company, her friends, her husband and her children would have blushed for her. In fact the ‘Mother of the Gods’ was such a character as even the worst of men would be ashamed to have for his mother. And when she came to take possession of the minds of the Romans she looked for the best man of the country, not so as to support him by counsel and help, but to cheat and deceive him, like the woman of whom the Bible says, ‘she ensnares the precious souls of men’. Her purpose was that a mind of great endowments should be puffed up by this supposedly divine testimony and should think itself truly exceptional, and therefore should cease to follow the true religion and piety – without which every national ability, however remarkable, disappears in the ruin which follows on pride. And thus that goddess should seek the support of the best men only by trickery, seeing that she requires in her worship the kind of behaviour which decent men shrink from even in their convivial moments.”

Augustine was enormously influential to the Christian Church at a time when Church doctrine was still being formulated and heresies were still emerging, to be debated upon and rejected. In his wake, the Church charted a course that polarized itself away from any hint of the depravities associated with the corrupt gods and goddesses of the world about her. This extremity of purification, for which purity was equated with chastity, cleansed the Judeo-Christian God of any taint of sexuality.

This view of sexuality as representing a taint frowned upon by God raises an issue that was brought up at the end of the Introduction: is the view Scriptural?

According to Genesis, it is not. Right at the beginning of Genesis, the creation epic describes the reproductive process extending even into the domain of plant life, wherein the fruit of the tree yields trees of its kind. Moreover, God saw this as good. Reproduction becomes more overtly sexual in the created animal life, wherein this life bore young after its kind. God also saw this as good. In the creation of man as described in Genesis 1:26 and 27, their gender differentiation now extends beyond mankind himself to hint of a like feature within the Godhead, here specifically described as plural:

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

 

In blessing Adam and Eve, He specifically told them to multiply.

This time God saw His creative act as not only good, but very good.

Many theologians down through the centuries have attempted to separate the gender differentiation of Genesis 1:26 and 27 from the creation in God’s image. All such discourses, at least the ones of which I am aware, are logically weak and based on the unbiblical presupposition that God is “above that kind of thing”. The passage says what it says, and does so without ambiguity. Moreover, if this gender differentiation is not to represent the image of God, then the feminine half of the human race would have no representation in God. Some religions take that notion to its logical extreme, its male members treating women as animals.

[to be continued]

GOD, FACE TO FACE INTRODUCTION

The she-wolf lay trembling but still in a dark cold cave, her eyes blinking in the face of a harsh wind that ruffled her fur, seeking to expose her flesh to its frigid bite. The cave itself was surrounded by a bleak and hostile universe, its antipathy to life as immense as its vast scale.

 

Nested underneath her was a pack of cubs, warmed and fed by the suffering body above them and oblivious to the stress she was facing to ensure their survival. They fought for the warmest spot and the most milk, thinking only of their own well-being within their tiny universe beneath her sheltering underside.

 

I realized with a shock that the cubs represented us and that the life-giving body above was the Holy Spirit.

Many years after I became a Christian, God granted me two insights, profound in their influence on my experience as a believer: the first was a mathematically-based understanding of details associated with the events of Jesus’ feeding of the multitudes¹; the second was an understanding of the nature of the Holy Spirit and of the Spirit’s role within the Trinitarian Godhead.

1. A presentation of the feedings is furnished in Appendix 2 to Marching to a Worthy Drummer

 

The former insight, once established, was easily verifiable, and thus provided a means to strengthen my faith in the divine Source of the latter. As such, it was instrumental in the maintenance of my confidence in the gifts that God so graciously handed me. The importance of this confirmation was made manifest by the severity of the criticism against my insight into the nature of God.

I had been aware from the very receipt of this insight that it didn’t square with the conventional understanding of God as professed by the mainstream Churches, both Catholic and Protestant, for the insight itself was consistent with the vision of the wolf and cubs I had received many years previous upon accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

I was given to understand the relationship between the wolf and her cubs in that vision as symbolic of that which existed between God and the human race, the wolf representing the Holy Spirit. The vision awakened in me a hunger for the knowledge of God.

Why a wolf? I don’t know the answer to that, but to me a wolf is emblematic of nobility and strength.

The bigger question is why I was favored with the two insights that I acquired much later. I don’t know that either, but maybe it’s simply because I asked for it.

Attempting to share this vision with other Christians in my enthusiasm as a newly-minted Christian, I was quickly confronted with the displeasure of my peers. I kind of suspected that, because the image of a wolf can be taken by some as inappropriate and demeaning to God. But that wasn’t the problem at all. The problem was gender. The vision couldn’t be correct, because the Holy Spirit was referred to in Scripture as masculine rather than feminine. Given this negative reaction, I proceeded no further with the sharing, completely avoiding the pastoral staff in the matter. Until I was given further insight into the issue many years later, I put the vision out of my mind and focused instead on understanding Scripture. This in-depth review served me well upon receiving the gift of insight, as I was then able to confirm my understanding of the Holy Spirit’s gender through Scripture.

I subsequently wrote about the insight in my book Family of God, after which I submitted the book to a friend who possessed impressive theological credentials. As before, I was criticized for the view, but with a twist: the Holy Spirit was not considered by him to be feminine, but neither was this Divine Entity masculine; the entire Godhead was considered to be void of gender in the sense of participating in a procreative function. The entire Creation, in his view and in the view of the seminary from which he emerged with a degree in theology, and, in fact, in the view of virtually every Western denomination acknowledged to be Christian, was accomplished by some pure Godly process in which gender differentiation was not involved.

The form of my friend’s displeasure exposed the heart of the matter: sex. Sexuality was forbidden within the Godhead. The entire Church denomination to which he belonged viewed sex as basically evil and too earthy for God. His denomination was not alone in this dim view, which represents the official public assessment of the mainstream Church regarding all matters sexual in nature. In privacy, it’s an entirely different matter, as the world discovers in recurring episodes of sexual excesses within the Christian clergy and laypersons. A lesser-known manifestation of this sordid business among Christians is the startling estimate that 80% of Christian males regularly view pornography, a good half of them being full-blown addicts to this form of voyeurism.

In a subsequent book Marching to a Worthy Drummer, in which I enlisted the aid of Scripture to rebut the mainstream view of the genderless Godhead, I made in the Introduction the following commentary regarding the source of this mainstream viewpoint:

Love was in the air at the time of the Pentecostal birth of the Church. And hope besides, a freshness of season, a joyful anticipation. Despite the anger and persecutions of those who knew not Christ against those who did, the Church willingly, thankfully and even possessively took up the Cross, marching boldly toward a paradise restored.

A few short centuries later the Western Church, greatly enlarged and enjoying the status of a state religion, had lost its newness and its joy. It was an institution now, a secular power. In the acquisition of this comfort and lofty position it now stood as a receiver of service, having forsaken the love of serving others. Far worse than that, it had lost the joy of loving God at the most basic and important level, that of natural intuition.

Some might think that this loss was an inevitable consequence of the easing of conditions for the Christians. No longer faced with persecution, they became soft of spirit and their fervor of worship decayed into indifference toward God.

Indeed, that was part of the problem. The Church always has been at her best when forced to face suffering and persecution. But looming over that external nudge toward decline was a much bigger dilemma, an internally-caused one that drove Christians away from their love of God because they could no longer see God with the intuitive clarity they possessed earlier.

This urge for reformation that stripped them of their knowledge of God was a desire to distance the Church from the sea of false notions and pagan beliefs with which she was surrounded. Sensing the great danger their Church faced from these competing ideas, many of which were lewd and corrupt, the leaders among the faithful strove to set their faith apart from the baser systems of belief in order to ensure its uniqueness and, above all, its purity. They intended to accomplish this with a thorough housecleaning and, energized with this objective, they pursued this task as if on a sacred mission.

By the time they were finished their objective was achieved beyond all rational expectations. Sexuality was completely divorced from the Christian faith as practiced by the mainstream Church. If the realization of that objective required a certain “correction” of Scripture in a few critical places, well, so be it. God certainly wouldn’t frown on the desire to purify Christianity. Not only were Mary and Joseph purged of sexual experience beyond the pain of childbirth and the necessity of breast-feeding, but God Himself, being considered above the baseness of sexual experience, was neutered. The Holy Spirit was changed from a feminine Being to a weakly masculine one, and, as a consequence, the Godhead was stripped of its family context and instead came to be viewed as a fellowship of brothers.

Gone was the intuitive basis for love, as represented by the Christian’s own family and spousal experience. In seeking God, the believer was forced to approach Him with agape love, having been made to forsake any hint of eros and the possessive love it engendered. From this complete lack of understanding of who God actually was, it was only a matter of time before indifference toward Him set in.

All one has to do to verify the anti-sexual bias of the early Christian Church is to read what the Church Fathers themselves, including Justin Martyr and Augustine, had to say about the place of sexuality within Christianity. There also is much evidence that Scripture was tampered with to disassociate sexuality from God.

Like most committed Christians, I believe in the inerrancy of Scripture in the original autograph, and its inspiration, again in the original, by the Holy Spirit. But, having been exposed to numerous off-the-wall interpretations of Scripture, I certainly don’t have any faith in the ability of mankind to maintain that Scripture in its original, pristine state.

On the last go-around on this subject with my friend, he again responded negatively to the clear Scriptural evidence of the femininity of the Holy Spirit as well as the equally clear evidence of Scripture having been tampered with regarding gender and God. He said, in effect, that he would produce Scriptural evidence that was thoroughly contradictory to mine.

Now, as I eagerly await his substantiation of his claim, I cannot help but to anticipate what this evidence might look like. I sincerely want to see the face of this more appropriate God. And the Source of this picture had better be Scripture.

Why is that? According to John 1:18, we have not and indeed cannot directly see the face of God the Father.

“No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”

 

Nevertheless, we understand from Scripture that Jesus (Col 1:15) is the very image of the Father, so that we know from John 14:9 that if we see Jesus, we also see the Father:

“Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?”

 

How can we see Jesus, and thus the Father? Many great artists have attempted to paint his features, but we have no assurance of their resemblance to the actual Jesus. But Jesus wasn’t speaking of what He looks like, but what His heart looks like, and we have Scripture to show us that. His most preeminent attribute, according to John 1:1 and 14, is His role as the Word of God:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . .And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.”

Having access to this picture of God in Scripture, it is incumbent upon us to adhere to it, understanding any view of God that contradicts His portrait in Scripture to be false and unworthy of our attention.

SOME APPALLING CHRISTIAN STATISTICS

In a recent televised broadcast of his weekly show Christ in Prophecy, Dr. David Reagan of LambLion Ministries presented some shocking statistics that he had acquired from Jim Garlowe, pastor of Skyline Nazarene Church.

Dr. Garlowe, who is an acknowledged expert in the field of Church history, sources the following appalling information regarding the practices and beliefs of evangelical Church constituents:

19% are living with partners outside of marriage

37% do not believe the Bible to be totally accurate

45% do not believe that Jesus was sinless

52% do not believe that satan is real

57% do not believe that Jesus is the only way to eternal life

57% believe that good works play a part in gaining eternal life

Note that these figures pertain to evangelical Christians, those most noted for their obedience toward the Great Commission defined by Jesus Christ in Matthew 28:18-20:

“And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

These horrifying statistics come on the heels of an Internet edition of Prophecy News Watch that addressed the severity of another problem associated with the modern Church.

It was estimated in that article that almost eighty percent of Christian men regularly indulge in the viewing of pornography. It’s not difficult to imagine where that behavior leads. The number of actual pornography addicts is about half of those. That’s a very distressingly large portion of the Church. In effect, the cleansing of God of sexuality has not led to the cleansing of Christians from sexual deviation. To the contrary, it has had precisely the opposite effect. Not only have women been degraded in this monstrous misrepresentation of the Godhead, but Christian men have allowed themselves to be degraded as well. It doesn’t end there – degradation, whether or not it is perceived as relevant to God, leads directly to alienation from God.

Alternatively, this drift away from God may have less to do with a misunderstanding of the nature of God than a more basic indifference to God resulting from a complete devotion to the secular world.

The lack of interest in things godly represented by these statistics corresponds distressingly close to the description of the last of the seven Churches addressed by Jesus in Revelation. His message to the Laodicean Church in Revelation 3:14-19 reads as follows:

“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write: These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot. So, then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anount thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous, therefore, and repent.”

It appears that Jesus already has lit the fire by which the Church shall be refined as gold, for, in his A Prophetic Manifesto, Dr. Reagan outlined three steps toward a nation’s destruction as it turns its back on God. These steps (paraphrasing Dr. Reagan’s treatment) follow Paul’s presentation in Romans 1:24-32:

First, as a nation turns from God, God Himself politely steps back, allowing evil to flourish in the form of sexual deviation from the Biblical standard of monogamous male-female marriage (Romans 1:24, 25). This roughly corresponds to the sexual revolution of the 1960s.

Second, God unleashes a plague of explosively rampant and ubiquitous sexual deviation (Romans 1:26, 27). This began in the 1980s.

Third, society at large is delivered unto a depraved mind. At that point, as described in 2 Chronicles 36:15, 16, there is no remedy – no return and no healing (Romans 1:28-32). We seem to be there.

Returning to Dr. Reagan’s presentation of Dr. Garlowe’s historical information, Christianity in America appears to be adhering to the following event timeline:

1607-1833 (236 years): Christianity represented the establishment

1833-1918 (85 years): Christianity was the dominant force

1918-1968 (50 years): Christianity represented a sub-dominant force

1968-1988 (20 years): Christianity became a sub-culture

1988-1998 (10 years): Christianity became a counter-culture

1998-2008 (10 years): Christianity devolved into an antithetical culture

2008-present: Christianity has become a persecuted culture

Keep in mind that persecution of the Church actually performs a healing function: the superficial are removed, leaving behind the fully-committed, within whom the light of Christ shines ever brighter against a darkening world.

[Note to the Reader: Carolyn and I will be heading out on vacation for 2+ weeks. Be back with you when we return!]

THE CHURCH, THE BRIDE, THE BODY AND THE NEW JERUSALEM

 

The beautiful mystery explained by Paul in Ephesians 5:25-32 has instilled in me the wonderful and moving view of the Church as the Bride of Christ:

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the Word; that He might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church; for we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of his bones.

 

          For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.

 

In repeating the words of Adam in the Garden and of Jesus in Matthew 19, both in the context of marriage and the physical union between a man and his wife, Paul, by placing this marital union in the context of Jesus and His Church, plainly stated that the Church will be the spiritual Bride of Christ.

This statement of Paul’s echoes the numerous allusions that Jesus made to His own future marriage, including the parable of the marriage feast in Matthew 22, the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25, and, of course, his first miracle at Cana recorded in John 2, wherein He changed water into wine in anticipation of the joy of His own future wedding. Further identification of Jesus as a Bridegroom of a feminine entity is furnished by John in John 3:29.

In addition to New Testament pointers to Church in a bridal/marital context, there are at least two strong indicators of the same in the Old Testament in Genesis 24 and the Book of Ruth.

Genesis 24 describes the betrothal and marriage of Rebekah to Isaac. In Genesis 22 God commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, which identifies Isaac as a type of Jesus Christ. In line with that identification, Isaac’s marriage to Rebekah identifies her as a type of Christ’s bride. According to Galatians 3:28, in which spiritual individuals do not possess gender, this bridehood cannot be fulfilled in individuals: the fulfillment must come for a collection or aggregate of individuals, which would suggest the Church. This identification of the Church as the Bride of Christ is strengthened by Paul’s characterization of the Church in 1 Corinthians 12 as a collection of individuals, each possessing specific gifts of the Holy Spirit.

In the Book of Ruth, Ruth’s husband Boaz is routinely identified by the Church as the Kinsman-redeemer, a type of Christ. It follows that Ruth, a female, represents His spiritual Wife, the Church.

Relating again to the Old Testament, it would be extremely difficult, if the Church was not a feminine entity, to justify the inclusion of the Song of Solomon in the canon of Scripture. Why, if the spiritual domain is genderless, would this overtly sexual document be a part of the Bible?

Not only is the future bride of Jesus feminine, but she is a living being, as clearly stated in Matthew 22: 31, 32:

But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

Note also in Paul’s commentary in Ephesians 5: 28, that So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies, Paul emphasizes the image developed in the restatement of Adam’s commentary regarding Eve of two becoming one flesh such that in the marital union the wife is considered to be the man’s body.   Here Paul extends the image of the wife being the body of the man to Christ and His Church, in line with an alternate description of the Church as the Body of Christ.

Paul alludes to this equivalence earlier in Romans 7: 4 and 1 Corinthians 2:15-20, where he describes the spiritual nature of the Church at Rome and Ephesus as both a feminine spouse and the spiritual body of Christ through the union of gendered complements capable of bearing fruit:

Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I, then, take the members of Christ, and make them into the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? Know ye not that he who is joined to a harlot is one body? For two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is outside the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

 

The plurality of the members of the Church, hinted at in the passages above, raises another issue, one that was touched on before. In Matthew 22: 28-30 and Galatians 3:28, both Jesus and Paul characterize the individual Christian as without gender in the spiritual realm:

Therefore, in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? For they all had her. Jesus answered and said unto the, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

Note, however, that in both these cases the subject is the individual. But in 1 Corinthians 12: 4-28 and elsewhere in Scripture, Paul very plainly develops the idea that the individual is not the Church, but rather just a component of her, and a rather small element at that:

Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God who worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit. For to one is given, by the Spirit, the word of wisdom; to another, the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another, faith by the same Spirit; to another, the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to another, discerning of spirits; to another, various kinds of tongues; to another, the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh that one and the very same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

 

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Greeks, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it, therefore, not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it, therefore, not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath god set the members every one of them, in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble, are necessary. And those members of the body, which we thin to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need; but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.

 

Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And God hath set some in the Church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But covet earnestly the best gifts; and yet show I unto you a more excellent way.

The Church, then, as a single spiritual entity comprising a multiplicity of components, is fully capable of being endowed with gender, in exactly the same manner that while the eyeball of a person is genderless, the entire person is indeed either a male or a female. Furthermore, just as Jesus is always identified as male, Scripture always identifies the Church as either a functional female or its equivalent as the spouse of Christ.

The gendered nature of the relationship between Jesus Christ and His Church is suggested in the strongest terms in the Song of Solomon, for why would this romantic, even erotic, relationship be included in the canon of Scripture if such was not the case? This remarkable passage has been equated by several respected Bible commentators as representing the eventual marital relationship between Jesus and the Church. A typical example follows, taken from Song of Solomon 1: 14, 15:

 

My beloved is unto me as a cluster of henna flowers in the vineyards of Engedi. Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes.

Scripture also describes the individuals comprising the Church as living human beings. Examples include Matthew 9:15 (also Mark 2:19 and Luke 5:34) and Ephesians 2: 4-7:

Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the Bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the Bridegroom will be taken from them, and then shall they fast.

 

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love with which He loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath made us alive together with Christ (by grace ye are saved), and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that in ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

 

To this point, Scripture has shown that the Church is a feminine living body comprised of a multitude of genderless spiritual human souls which, in the aggregate is espoused to Jesus Christ as her future husband. Uniting spiritually through the marital union in the spiritual realm, the Church becomes the Body of Christ precisely as the wife is considered integrated into the body of the man in the material realm. But Revelation 21: 2, 9 and 10 paint an alternate picture of the wife of Christ that easily can be construed to represent an altogether different picture of this Bride:

And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her Husband. . .And there came unto me one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come here, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.

 

The passage above can readily be interpreted to suggest that the Bride of Christ is a building, albeit a beautiful and magnificent one, rather than the Church, which, as has been noted, is comprised of living souls. Several Scriptural passages that suggest the same thing come to mind, of which the following three are prominent:

1 Corinthians 3:9, 10 and 16:

For we are laborers together with God; ye are God’s cultivated field, ye are God’s building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth on it. But let every man take heed how he buildeth upon it. . . Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

 

Ephesians 2:19-22:

Now, therefore ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone, in whom all the building fitly framed together growth unto an holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

Revelation 3:12, in Jesus’ message to the Church at Philadelphia:

          Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God; and I will write upon him My new name.

But note from these three examples that while the imagery is one of a building or components thereof, the components themselves are living human souls, all redeemed by Jesus Christ and therefore identical to the components of the Church. Given that identity, the imagery in Revelation 21 of the new Jerusalem is not mutually exclusive with the imagery of the Church. Indeed, the two images are entirely compatible with each other and mutually supportive, each adding color to the understanding of the Church as the spiritual Bride of Christ. This understanding brings this commentary full circle through Revelation 19: 7-9 back to the character of the Church as not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing:

         

          Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they who are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

 

 

 

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #38

Chapter Thirty Seven

 

“We’re back!” Joyce cried joyfully as she looked about her in wonder at the lushness of the landscape, so perfect even in its imperfection. The scene embraced her participation in it, the colors more vivid in their multidimensional hues than anything she could have experienced on Earth. This is so real! Joyce thought with pleasure. The presence of God was everywhere, joyful in His radiance. “Oh, thank you, Wisdom! Will I ever have to go back to Earth?”

“Earth?” She asked with a grin. “What Earth? No. You’re a spiritual being for good now, but you might be going back periodically as you serve at Jesus’ side. But it’ll be your choice and you can return here – home – whenever you wish.”

“Can I see my Sammy now? Oh, where’s Earl? How beautiful this all is!”

“Slow down, darling!” Wisdom responded with a rich laugh. “No, you won’t have to go back this time. You can stay here forever, if that’s what you want to do. There’s a very big event coming up that you’re an important part of. We’ve been waiting for you to come back to it, the marriage of Jesus with His Church. As for Earl, he’s right beside you now, and Sam’s running our way with Earl’s Alicia in hand. Go ahead – merge.”

Without conscious effort, Joyce merged into Earl so that their togetherness was complete. Although they still retained their individuality, they were open to each other’s internal thoughts and emotions, becoming one in a sense that was impossible in the material world. They hugged each other and opened themselves to their former spouses, weeping without restraint in the emotion of the moment.

“Come,” Wisdom said after allowing them time to understand and appreciate their new lives together. “About that event- it will be happening now. For that you’ll be merging with a great many more Christians, those who comprise the spiritual Church. Don’t worry about that, Earl,” She said in response to his brief flash of negativity at this new revelation. You four are a special component of that Church. You’ll be operating together as a unit, so your interaction with others won’t be quite so close. Close enough to experience the mutual love, but not so close as to evoke thoughts of invasion. And wait ‘till you see your bridegroom!”

“Will our marriage be romantic, like between men and women on earth?”

“Yes, but more so. Much more. Jesus Himself gave you the tiniest of hints of that joyful occasion in the Gospel of John, Chapter 2.”

“Oh! I – we – know what it says! We don’t have to remember. It’s imprinted in our beings! Can I recite it?”

“Of course. Go for it!”

“’And the third day there was a marriage in Cana, of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there. And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. And when they lacked wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. His mother saith unto the servants, Whatever he saith unto you, do it. And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And he saith unto them, Draw some out now, and bear it unto the governor of the feast. And they bore it. When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not from where it was (but the servants who drew the water knew), the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, and saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine and, when men have well drunk, then that which is worse; but thou hast kept the good wine until now. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana, of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.’

 

Wisdom spoke in response. “Besides the obvious fact that, being Jesus’ first miracle in His incarnation, it also was very important, there are a number of nuances in this passage. Do you recognize some of them?”

“Oh, yes! The wedding too, place on the third day, a reference to Jesus’ statements elsewhere that He would rise again on the third day, meaning the third thousand-year period since His resurrection.”

“Yes. Which, according to Psalm 90 and 2 Peter 3:8, would be the sixth millenium after the creation of man, the beginning of the Millennium. That also is why Jesus waited four days to resurrect Lazarus, for His incarnation, death and resurrection was in the fourth millenium, and in raising Lazarus He was prophecying His own resurrection.”

“And then there is the mention of His mother. I think You were there too as His divine Mother.”

“You’re right again, darling. I was there overshadowing Jesus’ earthly mother Mary, and it was a beautiful moment of anticipation for both of us.”

“Did it bother You that the Catholic Church gave all the credit for motherhood to Mary?”

“Of course not! Mary is a very special daughter-in-law to Me, too. I love her very deeply. She did indeed suffer along with Jesus at His crucifixion. And, of course, now that she’s among us and knows her true place, she’s an obedient and loving daughter. She really can’t wait for the marriage!

“Will we individuals, as just components of the Church, be able to participate in that romance?”

“As you already know, your individuality in the spiritual realm doesn’t imply the isolation that it did down in the material world. You are far more integrated into each other here than you were down there. Yes, to answer your question. Most happily, each of you, in the different circumstances that prevail here, will fully participate in that romance.”

“How can we, as created beings, marry God? Wouldn’t that sort of confer godhood upon us, too, being one with Him and all that?”

“Good question, and the answer is that yes, you as spirit beings will automatically partake of godhood. Whan Jesus merges into you,” Wisdom replied, “you will partake of His substance, elevating you into godhood. Beyond that, creation is a circular process, as you will have the ability to appreciate in the greater dimensional reality you will have in your marriage to Jesus. I’ll remind you that throughout the history of mankind, special people already have contributed under My supervision to the creation of Jesus as the Word of God in Scripture.”

“What are we going to do as Jesus’ bride?”

Wisdom laughed at that. “Oh, you have no idea,” She said. “I won’t spoil the excitement by telling you everything, but I will point out to you, as if you didn’t already know, that mankind has trashed the earth in a very big way. Somehow mankind managed to uglify the beauty We created beyond all rational expectations. The giant plastics industry turned out to create a huge mess; your playing with atoms didn’t work out too well, either. I could go on and on, but you already know all that, having lived there during the most profound destruction of the land, which included the greatest battle ever waged by man. You also saw the beginning of what We are doing to correct the trashing of your planet, something that you yourselves will become intimately involved in as the Wife of Jesus.”

“Oh? What would that be?”

“The planetoid that We brought close to earth – Our most direct method of participating in the battle of Armageddon – managed to perform some rather extensive cleanup work in the process of getting rid of so many evil little men and women. The catastrophe that We brought to bear on earth was planetary in scope, creating enormous earthquakes, and tsunamis, and windstorms. The water movement lifted up and deposited a brand-new system of strata. The earth movement created brand-new and pristine landmasses. Best of all, much of that plastic trash, much of those ugly chemicals, much of that radiation, is now down in the earth’s mantle where it belongs. But there’s still more of that disgusting trash still around. You’ll be busy creating and implementing means of cleaning that up and using the Millennium survivors to do the physical work. And then, there’s the restoration of Mars as well.”

“What about Venus and the rest?”

“In their own time, dear. You’ll have plenty to keep you very happily occupied.”

They came up to a quiet little stream. Looking down, they saw a large trout moving placidly up the middle. “Look!” Joyce exclaimed. “It’s smiling at us!”

“Yes!” Alicia said, laughing. “It’s that way everywhere here. I’m so glad that now we have a chance to experience this wonderful life together!”

They topped a rise and looked down into a bowl that contained an innumerable company of fellow Christians. Somehow they knew where and how to interact with them so that together they became a new entity whose features rivaled Wisdom’s own beauty. The amazing thing about this self-understanding was that they all were intensely aware of their composite Persona, just as they understood Wisdom.

“Jesus is about to join us,” Wisdom told them. “Let the music begin.” Accompanied by a thousand harps, and angelic choir sang the prelude to the Wedding March.

“Who is going to give us away?” came into Wisdom’s attention.

“It is my very great privilege, as your loving Mother-in-law, to perform that exceedingly welcome task,” She responded.

“Oh!” The gasp of awe was shared within the entire Church as she saw Jesus enter her assembly. What followed was a ripple of passion, like an electric shock, that permeated the Church as she saw Jesus in Truth and Light. The communal passion welled up into a romantic yearning for Him that transcended the earthly experience of imprinting between mates.

The marriage ceremony was performed by the Father Himself, His own perfect features visible to the Church for the first time. As they said their vows in giddy anticipation and were finally pronounced Man and Wife, Jesus turned to His new Bride and kissed Her deeply on the lips. With that He entered Her space and merged with Her, causing every element of Her being to glow with delight.

“It is finished!” the Father pronounced. “You are now Man and Wife, each God and together God. Welcome to the Godhead. Our Trinity is now a Quaternary!”

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #37

Chapter Thirty Six (continued)

The drastic cutback of life repeated itself throughout the Earth. On the other side of the world from America a young girl named Jana happened to live in one of the rare and widely-scattered enclaves of human habitation where survival was possible. Her own continued existence was either a miracle or an odd freak of nature gone berserk. Born into modest but comfortable means nine years before the beginning of the Great Destruction, she was a toddler when the Wave came. Her mind mercifully blanked out most of the events of that day, but throughout the rest of her life she was constantly subjected to flashbacks of overwhelming terror that she was helpless to resolve. The certain knowledge that they would return to torment her kept her in a shy and humble prison of fear. The image that she most dreaded was the morning on the seashore, where she was playing on the ground with her mother in sight and the water close at hand, its gentle lapping just one of the many mild background noises. Then the ground beneath her began to shake and great cracks opened up everywhere. In one terrible moment her mother was gone, lost inside the voracious mouth of soil that had suddenly turned into a hungry monster. But it shook so badly that Jana couldn’t think beyond the terror. She could only stare without comprehension at her loss, the tense ground shivering in rage. The shaking went on and on, it wouldn’t stop, and she could see, again without understanding, great palls of smoke where red liquid gushed out of the ground to engulf houses and screaming people and turn trees bright red and sometimes white before they vanished. These images burned themselves into her mind, storing themselves for nightfall, when they would return during unguarded moments to torment her. Much later the shaking stopped, and she sat where she was, on an island of undisturbed ground, numb with shock. Not a soul came to her aid; she could see a few others but they were either quite still, like herself, or slowly and awkwardly reassembling themselves.

After a time Jana became aware of the intense, oppressive silence, and that was when she turned her head toward the coast and screamed in fright, for the sea was gone. Instead, the land continued out from the shoreline, brown mud and rock that dropped gently but steadily down into a plain that extended out to the horizon, as far as the eye could see. She stared at this new land in disbelief, her terror so extreme that she was unable to move. She was still staring when her mind dimly recorded motion on the horizon, a movement so vast that it was beyond the power of her brain to put it into the proper perspective. A dark line, glints of silver, marching across the plains below, expanding, a dark wall advancing upward, blotting out the sun. It moved faster now with the shortening distance, looming upward, filling the sky, filling the valley as it rushed headlong toward her. Roaring, peaking, cresting up, engulfing clouds, ripping them into streamers and wisps, the hurting pressure of her ears tightening in pain, the air exploding, lifting, hurtling headlong toward the town, spanked from behind, thrust faster, tumbling, overtaken, shaken, engulfed.

Jana hit something, flattened into it and continued to swirl and churn in the crushing grip of violently moving water. Every day thereafter she would vividly remember that first desperate gulp of air as the tree to which she clung tossed about on the restless water, traversing mountains that suddenly turned into valleys and then back into peaks. She would often wonder but never come to fully understand what freak motion of water or indentation in the ground over which it surged prevented it from falling down upon her and crushing out her life, as it did with the rest of her village. She wouldn’t realize that she was badly injured until several hours later. Only when the water deposited the tree and her with it scores of miles inland from her village, and the adrenalin subsided to be replaced by pain, did she understand her state.   Her left eye was damaged beyond healing from the blow of the initial contact with the tree that saved her life. Even in the sorrow that comes from remembered violence and loss she possessed the vanity of a pretty girl. She grieved over her damaged face, but was later able, with clever arrangement, to cover the empty eye with her hair.

Very soon after she returned to the ground she was seen by an aimlessly wandering man, a kind person who picked her up and carried her with him in his search for his village or someone he knew. They were very lucky; his village, being situated on a high plateau, was spared the violence from shaking and water that had destroyed hers. Although much of it was severely damaged, some shelter still remained and there were people who remained alive, with whom they could share experiences and talk out their fears. Jana was given to an elderly lady, old enough to be her grandmother, but she was also kind, and gently nursed her back to health. Jana remained with the old lady, a time when dark, murky clouds extended down to within a few feet of the ground and very little sunlight penetrated the gloom. It became cold and there was very little food to eat. The tiny village subsisted mostly on rats, who had become fat on the death that stalked the land. This unpleasant fare was washed down with stale, rank-smelling water from the marshland to the west.

In spite of the hardships and discomfort of attempting to survive in a world that suddenly had marginalized mankind, Jana was given a precious gift. The old lady with whom she lived was a devoted Christian, and every night at bedtime she was in the habit of imparting to Jana a portion of her knowledge of God.

Far below the turmoil on the surface, the earthmotion yanked at the underground communities scattered throughout the earth, where the majority of political movers and shakers now resided. The terrific heat from the moving crust-mantle boundary surged upward through layers of rock that were turning soft and in some locations molten, themselves merging into the boundary and becoming part of it. The effects, which were strongly influenced by latitude and crustal depth, were felt unequally. The pressure of moving ground drove the nearly plastic red-hot walls of the Malaysian shelter inward toward each other, squeezing the long-dead community inside into a soupy pulp that was forcefully mixed into the surrounding rock. The meltdown of the reactor generated an insignificant little belch. News of this disaster never reached the other communities. From the very first there was a sharp rise in electrical activity that rendered electromagnetic communication impossible. Earthshocks made a joke of the alternate laser communications, their violence completely overwhelming the optimistically-designed damping mechanisms. Then when the winds came and the lands were breached with water the ground was immediately swept clean of sensors.

The European governmental community located in Belgium was particularly ill-sited, having found itself covered by water to a depth of a mile and a half. The extreme pressure forced water down the cracked heat-exchanger pipes that were exposed on the surface, creating colossal jets of deadly liquid that sprayed into the shelter, uprooting people, buildings and equipment before the invading liquid eventually settled down to fill the caverns, drowning the trapped inhabitants. Here the reactor survived intact for a time, humming away happily in the midst of quietly floating bodies.

The Brazilian facility remained intact in its entirety, continuing to function through the directives of automatic control systems, its human inhabitants being dead to the last man. They simply couldn’t handle the sustained one hundred fifty degree temperature that was maintained by a greatly overloaded environmental system.

GLOW, of course, had rapidly moved into the nearest underground shelter that was available to him, which actually was very close to the position where Jacob and Moira, along with Sidney and Mary, lay at their observation post. This shelter was virtually unique, in that it remained intact throughout the major part of the bombardment from above. The facility’s communication with its above-ground sensors was destroyed, however, causing him to be irritated with his lack of information on the world above the shelter. Quickly tiring of this forced isolation from the world that he had come to understand as his personal possession, he took the elevator back up to the surface. He just had time for a swift glance around when a final piece shed from the comet stamped on his head and smashed him into the ground. Despite the finality of this event, there was yet another leg to GLOW’s involuntary journey. Eventually Wisdom would oversee his transportation to the fresh new daughter of Jupiter that still loomed over the Earth. There, in the somewhat warmer climate that prevailed in the center of that planetoid, GLOW would literally and quite spectacularly represent the name he had chosen for himself.

With a precision unique to God, there existed by His divine Hand a tiny enclave of life in addition to the hills below Dafna in Israel that escaped the general turmoil. This island of life was located in midwestern North America in the Black Hills region of South Dakota. Here in the vicinity of Mount Rushmore the territory not only was spared the hurricane winds but became blanketed above by cloud, being located near a node of minimum atmospheric disturbance. The people who resided there in temporary but quite adequate shelters had very little knowledge of the worldwide disturbance, as their communication devices were inoperable due to intense ionization.

Shielded from the awful apparition above them, these people shared a thread of commonality: most were Christians who had come to this singular location at the nudging of the Holy Spirit; the others came, albeit reluctantly, as family members. They had in common one other thing, which was an extremely rare and precious circumstance: some of them continued to survive through the next day.

The Black Hills began to rise even as the giant tsunami rushed toward them from the east. As the land rose, cracks appeared in the soil and snaked upward to the precariously balanced rocks above. Responding to the shaking and the undermining, enormous pillars of granite toppled and rolled down the moving slopes, like giant sequoias, felling the trees in their paths and leaving scratches like giant claw marks. Jackrabbits and deer scattered out of their paths along with terrified humans. Most were successful. Some were not. Those who managed to dodge the monsters were troubled yet further by a noise from the east that rose above the nearby din of tumbling boulders.   Far below them the Cheyenne River became a metallic ribbon of reflected light from the leaden sky above as the outflow from the broken dam of the Angostura Reservoir cut into the changing topography to pencil out a new channel. But this insignificant line was dwarfed by an astonishing plane of pewter rimmed with silver farther to the east that stretched to the horizon. As the frozen people stared in open-mouthed awe, the plane continued to flow toward them like liquid mercury as the horizon itself rose perceptibly and light and shadow firmed to define a crest fifty miles to the east of the rapidly approaching trough. The scale was too large for the human mind to grasp, living beings never having encountered before such enormity of motion. Only when the new water tumbled over the changing Cheyenne River, completely dwarfing it, did the awful scene come into perspective for a few. As the magnitude of the liquid cliff became apparent the revelation evoked the dizziness of hanging over a sheer precipice; many were so overwhelmed that they simply stood there, puke pouring from their open mouths. As it bore down upon them, the white frothing vanguard of water was a roaring cliff of such incredible height that it appeared to be above them. The roar deafened them; before they fell onto their faces in panic the compressed air threatened to lift them into its turbulent maw and fling them headlong to the west. Then the wind front swept past, followed by the sea of darker water, furnishing a more constant reality to the nightmare. The level of onrushing darkness continued to rise about them with the approach of the first crest. But then it finally passed them and the water started slowly to descend. They began for the first time to breathe hope.

Through all this commotion the Christians had prayed fervently for deliverance, but they also were quick to appreciate that they were located at that spot for just that reason. With the passage of The Crest, as the peak of water would be called for generations to come, their prayers turned to thanksgiving. As the turbulent ocean continued to rush past beneath their amazed eyes and which had instantaneously turned their mountain into a western Atlantic island, they came to the conclusion that such force must necessarily have been related to a planetary event and pondered the significance of it to the rest of the world. Being attuned to the Biblical account of Noah’s flood, some had now come to appreciate that the Bible was far more accurate that the contradictory science to which they had been so thoroughly indoctrinated. Implicit in that new understanding was the realization that what they were now experiencing was a repetition of events that had occurred long ago.

San Francisco was still in nominal night as dawn arrived in New York; however, the large globe sitting on the western horizon lit the sky with a white glow that totally dispelled the darkness. Those who could bear the sight watched in horrified fascination as the comet noticeably increased in size before their eyes and then, as it approached the Van Allen zone, appeared to spread vast wings as an eagle swooping down on its prey. Most who watched this appalling scene from their apartment windows were unaware of the drama taking place on the waterfront below them. For the first time in over three thousand years the sea was transgressing its boundaries to complement its retreat from the eastern continental edge. Slowly at first, the tide kept rising. At an ever-accelerating rate, the black water engulfed first the docks, then the low-lying buildings, and began to mount the hills. The apartment dwellers first became aware of this new disaster indirectly, noticing first how slowly the comet moved below the horizon, and then how the reflected light of the comet on the ocean appeared where land was shortly before. Then the winds came and the ocean continued to rise, white caps gleaming, then great waves, monsters smashing into buildings accompanied by tornadic screechings and the jolt of buildings being ripped off foundations, glass breaking and frigid wetness.

Within a short time the western coastline of the American continent was inundated to a depth of over six hundred feet. San Francisco was now eighty five miles seaward of the new, violently battered shoreline. Then, as quickly as it had come, the sea receded back, forming an enormous mass of moving water that would cross the Pacific to smash headlong against Asian coastlines. The lifeless remnant of San Francisco would stand, dry, to receive the rays of a tropical sun. To the north, Portland lay buried beneath two hundred and fifty feet of mud, silt, and the remnant soils of what used to be the banks of the Columbia Gorge. Here, during the inundation of San Francisco, the mighty Columbia had been an immense river of saltwater that roiled up the gorge to smack into dam after dam, mountainous white spray bursting upward to the sky, cracking each in turn like a fragile eggshell. But each assault and breach claimed its toll of energy. As the sea reached its easternmost boundary, it spread out and gently licked at the dry plains. For a tiny instant, with mountains flaming and smoking, bleeding lava from thousands of rotten sores, the water itself was expended and quiet from the exhausting climb landward. Then, slowly like a brakeless freight train gathering downhill momentum, it began to recede. Shortly it was speeding out of control, sucking at the river banks, digging up new channels, creating a new Grand Canyon that, like its predecessor, now lay at a latitude that used to mark the boundary between Arizona and Utah. From time to time rumors of Portland’s existence would surface, but Portland itself would never be found again.

“Let’s call it a wrap,” the Divine Will said to His beloved Consort, who responded with an outstretched finger leveled at the threatening monster. Seen by fewer than a thousand people, a great sword of blue-white light connected for the merest instant the Carlson Comet with the Earth. Had the atmosphere been quiet instead of the raging maelstrom that it was, the thunderclap could have been heard around the world. But in that same brief instant the world was saved: no longer did the Carlson Comet loom larger with each second that passed.

The Carlson Comet came to within less than five earth diameters of the ravaged planet before hurtling away along its own path. Close as they came to actually colliding, and devastating as its proximity was to the earth and to the life upon its surface, pockets of life nevertheless remained, humbled and ready to fully accept the leadership of God and His Christ. To prepare the way for this welcome transformation, the physical devastation of the planet served to bury the ravages of man so far beneath the surface that for all practical purpose the numerous blights no longer existed. Particularly satisfying to Wisdom was the complete removal of all the disgustingly ugly wind farms, every windmill of which had deliberately been thrust past the Earth’s mantle to melt back into basic molecular constituents.

The strange violence on the surface of the Earth died out over time, but slowly. Its passing was reluctant, attended with endless battles between sea and land, taking its time to subside as the floor beneath the seas continued ever more slowly to restore itself to equilibrium.

Existence would be primitive from that time forward for over a century as the remnant of mankind learned to adjust to new latitudes and piece out the rhythms of new seasons. But God was now with them and, despite the hardships of their daily toils, they would sit by campfires at night and recount tales to their children of a great winged monster who shook the earth, and of enormous waves, and blood-red lava, and of God with them.

 

 

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #36

Chapter Thirty Six

 

 

 

 

 

In its lust for oil the Chinese government turned its face from the portent of doom in the sky above. Its leaders, having survived many internal battles through cleverness of mind, had been quick to perceive that this Earthwide crisis was not the first to have been experienced in the memory of mankind. Recognizing the basis of the ever-present appearance of dragons at important events, they had early on made the association between portents in the sky and massive disturbances in the earth below. They reasoned that although this latest catastrophe might be the end of all mankind, whatever course China took wouldn’t matter. On the other hand, if by chance mankind managed to avoid its ultimate doom and survive, and China ended up taking possession of the earth’s greatest cache of oil, China would dominate the world from that time onward. It was worth the gamble; besides, what did China have to lose?

GLOW’s anger, meanwhile, had developed into an insanity that drove him to battle in the face of the bigger issue in the sky above.

 

Well before I-day the vanguard of the enormous Chinese expeditionary force crossed the now dry Euphrates River under a gray and threatening sky. It was initially unopposed, but GLOW reacted with a hastily-assembled army of his own, which raced into the Mediterranean Sea and along the land routes traveled before by the invading hordes of the Russians and their confederates. GLOW’s objective was the same: kill the enemy in Jerusalem and take over the state apparatus, particularly the control over the Israeli oil field.

GLOW’s response had restored unity to the ten regional governments, as did his demand for the immediate drafting of troops from each region. It didn’t matter that the draft quota that he imposed involved most of the workforce: if he didn’t get the oil, there would be no need for the workforce anyway.

In some respects the resulting battle for Jerusalem was a reprise of the earlier battle waged by the Russians and their Mideast cohorts. The objective was similar: remove Israel from the world map. The routes the GLOW power took to get to Jerusalem were virtually the same, and their entry into Israel began at the port that used to belong to Haifa. But other aspects of the battle were quite different: The motivation of hatred was replaced by an even more evil indifference to the fate of Israel in the greedy quest for oil. The routes of advance, while similar to the earlier ones with respect to GLOW’s Western powers, involved the additional route from the east taken by the Chinese army. Haifa, being the location of the first assault, now no longer existed, although the ground upon which it stood was trampled by the marching feet of soldiers too numerous to count. The advancing troops weren’t told that the ground beneath them was so radioactively hot that in merely being there they had probably signed their own death warrants. No matter: they’d last long enough to do the job.

The new combatants, in representing all the peoples of the world in a vast conglomeration, was more racially and ethnically diverse than the earlier invaders; there were more of them, too – far more.

Now, with the immanent approach of I-day, Jacob and Moira viewed the assault from the same position they had taken during the Ezekiel 38 war. This time they had Sid and Mary with them. “I don’t know how many angels that God is planning on deploying in this battle,” Moira said, “but from the looks of things down below, the entire world is showing up to kick the Jews into the Med.”

“Yeah, looks that way. Whatever’s going to happen next, it’s not going to be pretty. I feel badly for our brothers and sisters in the middle, engulfed by all that vicious sub-humanity. But at least you’re here and not there, and, I’d hope, safe from what’s going to go down in Jerusalem.”

Before he could speak further, Jacob and Moira were tossed into the air. They returned to the ground to be shaken like they were in the teeth of a violent, angry dog, complete with a rumbling growl.

They heard Wisdom speaking to them through the noise of this enormous quake. “Hide your eyes,” She warned them. “You don’t want to watch what happens next.”

Still shaking, they buried their heads in the ground. Even with their faces in the dirt, their eyes registered such an overwhelming brightness that they could see the bones in their hands. Multiple seconds later the shaking of the ground jumped to renewed life and the couple began to think that the end of the world had just arrived.

The shaking slowly subsided, only to be replaced by a windstorm of epic magnitude. Cautiously raising their heads as this new force diminished, they saw that most of the troops were no longer standing, but were flat on the ground. Looking back, Moira noticed that the blast and its aftermath had leveled the buildings of Dafna. The destruction saddened her. “Look behind us, Jacob,” she said. “No Dafna.”

“Too bad about that,” he replied. “But look on the bright side. There’s still us. Besides, Wisdom is around to comfort us. God matters more than anything else.” His eyes returned to the battle below, and Moira’s soon followed.

But then, as they continued to look, they saw the majority of the closer troops raise themselves back up to standing positions. “What was that, Jacob? God or man? Nuclear or something else?”

“No, it was nuclear, all right. Look at the mushroom clouds. They look like textbook photos. GLOW may have set them off, judging from where they hit southeast of Jerusalem. Look over there,” he said, pointing to the largest cloud. It was still glowing red from some massively hot internal violence as the central column reached for the stratosphere. “That entire area was filled with human beings before the bombs, and now look at it. It’s completely barren for acres upon acres around the central column, empty of soldiers. And I wouldn’t count on anything living inside the column itself, not even the meanest snake.”

The battle for Jerusalem continued to rage for three days. The attackers had breached the defensive lines of the city and had entered it, bent on the utter destruction of its terrified inhabitants. The horrified people of Dafna looked out on the distant slaughter taking place in their beloved city. Their own front had remained quiet, but the spectacle of what was happening in Jerusalem tore away at whatever relief they may have enjoyed.

“Bury your heads again,” the two couples heard from above, and responded instantly. What happened next dwarfed the turmoil of the nuclear blasts. As I-day arrived, the ground thrust them upward again, but this was an impact shock, not a quake. Several more shocks occurred in rapid succession, each closer to them than its predecessor. Once again, the air above them moaned in hurricane strength. After a chaotic eternity, this next phase of violence settled down. Once again Jacob and Moira lifted their heads, to be confronted with the shocking sight of massive dirty-gray columns that reached upward beyond their vision. They had the appearance of exceedingly broad tornadoes, but they were stationary. At their bases the ground bulged upwards in circular rims. Flecks of red revealed the molten state of the soil beneath the surface. The columns extended beyond the land to the Mediterranean Sea, where their color was whitened with water. Even as they watched, the water began to fall with majestic slowness into a sea troubled with enormous impact waves which raced toward the shore. Awe-struck with the overwhelming visual magnitude of the events playing out before their eyes, they recoiled in horror as the first tsunami breached the land and overwhelmed the waterfront buildings and continued inland, virtually unimpeded by the apartment blocks and even high-rise constructions and the hills upon which they stood. Before the first wave receded, another came crashing ashore, to be followed by many others. The troops, so impressive in their size before these catastrophic events, were washed out to sea like so many tiny ants.

“Now that looked like an asteroid strike!” Jacob said laughingly. “Did you see how it dwarfed the nuclear attack?”

“Give it to God. But I wonder about Jerusalem, being in the middle of all that.”

“I don’t know,” Jacob replied. “I can’t see it any more.”

The sky was so cluttered with the columns of smoke and pulverised earth that Jerusalem was no longer visible to the pair. “I wouldn’t worry, though,” Moira said. “Jerusalem’s special to God. Somehow it must still exist.”

Jerusalem did continue to exist, but virtually every city, town and community throughout the world fared less well. The American Midwest was hit particularly hard. The impact of that day on the newlywed couple George and Linda Kasik was typical of that area. Awakened by tremblings and rough shakings, they had arisen from their happy bed and left their country cabin hand in hand to survey the commotion outside, still secure in the knowledge that their love was sufficient to overcome any kind of trouble that life could throw at them.

They had walked about a quarter of a mile when the tremors sharply increased in amplitude. George and Linda continued to hold hands as they rode out the undulations of the ground beneath them. There was a sharp jolt and they squeezed each other fiercely in a mutual gesture of support and reassurance. Not more than half a mile to their front the ground reared up as if it had suddenly come to life. It refused to stop, but continued to rise more sharply. They realized to their horror that where they were on flat ground scant moments before they were now on a slope that was rapidly becoming steeper, and were looking up at a crest of ground that was reaching heavenward.

Looking back, George was astonished to see the ground recede below them. He was overcome by vertigo and put out his free hand to cushion his dizzy drop to the ground. As his hand touched the earth it recoiled from the intense heat, and George suddenly apprehended that the ground was smoking. Attempting to return to an upright position, he wobbled drunkenly as the surface gave way and a gaping red crevasse opened up beneath his feet. Fixated on the landscape rising above her, Linda felt his pull on her hand and screamed in horror as she saw him sink to his knees. Close to fainting from fright, she struggled to pull him free even as she saw the flesh of his legs bubble and redden. His eyes pleaded with hers and then she saw him accept his fate. He jerked his hand free and with remarkable grace allowed himself to sink into the widening crack. Wailing, Linda averted her eyes toward the rising peak.  They focused on another crack that was racing downward directly toward her. Screaming again, she ran downslope. The path she took ended abruptly a hundred yards ahead in a hump, the far side of which was rapidly developing into a cliff. Then the wind came up.

Screaming all the way, Linda ran down to the hump and just kept going out into empty air.

For over an hour after the Kasiks came to their abrupt end, their neighbor Billy West had been laying in a virtually prone position in the lee of a huge boulder, unable to move more than a fraction of an inch for fear that the screeching wind would pluck him from his shelter and fling him into the midst of the airborne debris that had hurtled past. Some of the debris had been human, damaged beyond anything recognizable. The ground here had remained cold, and it was robbing him of heat where he had soiled himself earlier. He was shivering, but he did not recognize his discomfort, for he was held in the thrall of a terror so complete that it occupied every nerve in his body.

Suddenly the vicious motion of the air stopped, as if something larger and infinitely more menacing was sucking it into its maw. The screaming ceased, to be replaced by a lower, more distant rumbling, so powerful that the ground trembled and quaked. This ominous sound was frequently interspersed with the hollow thumping of objects falling from the sky. Billy felt one land nearby. It had once been a dog, but was now a mixed bundle of fur and red flesh like he used to see infrequently on the side of the highway. There was another thump, and he saw another bundle of raw flesh, to which tattered strips of clothing still clung, smack into the dog. More human remains landed about his inadequate shelter and he began to smell the cloying stench of raw meat mingled with contents of stomach and intestines. He saw these things but he didn’t react, for fear continued to prevail.

His present location was several hundred miles inland, so Billy had no thought of danger from the ocean. This state abruptly ended as he peered around the boulder, looking to the east. In that direction a new mountain range stood as a sentinel to protect the land about him. But now he stared in disbelief above the mountains, so far above them that the distant intruder was obscured in haze, an enormous but rapidly moving wall. Even as he looked it passed overhead, blocking the sun and casting his world into deep shadow. He trembled involuntarily. Unnoticed, his bowels moved again.   As the top of the cliff receded into the distance tens of miles to the westward of his position he felt the shock wave as its base collided with the mountain range to the east. His eyes watched but failed completely to grasp the scale of the event they were registering as mountains were dwarfed by white spray. Moments later the ground began to vibrate and the spray spanned the thirty miles or so between his position and the mountains, and continued on past him like the top of the wall, a low, dirty grey roof that rapidly darkened as the wall continued to advance westward.

He had just a short but indelible glimpse of dark water following the white spray to breach the mountaintops when the mist began to settle about him and cut off his view. Now he was in the midst of a dark fog and could only hear the roar of the turbulent sea reaching toward him.

The first blast of water kicked him like a football. He was still conscious but trying to will his crushed chest to breathe as he tumbled through the air. He hit the ground and lost his consciousness a quarter of a mile from the point of first impact and remained unconscious as the water kicked him a second time and rolled him like a pebble. The third impact buried him beneath the moving wall of water and crushed him into jelly that quickly diluted into nothing.

[to be continued]

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #35

Chapter Thirty Four

As the residents of the tent city in Custer Park near Mount Rushmore awoke and began to greet the day among their beautiful surroundings, that same Saturday morning began quite benignly elsewhere as well in North America. Springtime was becoming apparent in the pleasant temperature and new growth of grass and leaves. Despite the excesses of the government and the repression and slaughter for which it was responsible, the land itself appeared to be enjoying a rebirth of sorts. The hue of the sky above was a deep blue almost to the horizon where it paled almost imperceptibly, just enough to confirm the new warmth of the surrounding air. In those areas that had been the least troubled by the brutal events of the recent past, the world outdoors was a fresh tapestry of soft, brightly blooming trees and flowers and lush green fields. Birds called joyfully and their songs blended harmoniously with the lively warm air.

At precisely 8:15 that morning, Alan Carlson shut off his phone and returned to his breakfast nook, where he sat disconsolately sipping coffee. He was a lucky man to have coffee to enjoy. But then he had reason to be so favored. As an astronomer he was, like all prominent scientists, a quasi-governmental official who, although not permitted the amenities of the FEMA underground facilities, was blessed with housing and food in relative abundance. He was given guard protection as well. These niceties came at a substantial price: Alan had finally succumbed to the prodding of government officials and accepted the mark of the beast.

Dr. Carlson was not a happy man, the phone call having changed his day from joy to a bleak horror. Thirteen nights ago he had discovered through his telescope a previously-undiscovered comet, a finding that had given him an ecstatic boost and his name a household term, at least among those fortunate enough to remain in the possession of households. The comet was even labeled the Carlson Comet in honor of his discovery of it. Since that discovery, up until the phone call, he had felt a possessive bond with the object, as if it belonged to him personally. Very quickly, however, other experts had inserted themselves in on his find to evaluate its characteristics, including its size and particularly its path. The first surprise that confronted these experts on minutiae was its size: it was massive, almost the size of the moon. Comets of such size were of such rarity that some experts would have denied the possibility of this newcomer’s existence without visual proof, just as past peers of equal authority had denied the existence of meteors until they were forced to view the meteorites that had landed virtually at their feet. But it was the trajectory that stumped them, causing them to wait for several days’ confirmation before they officially announced the comet’s apparent destination.

After they had reviewed the numbers several times over, quiet panic set in among the astronomers who had so callously muscled in on Carlson’s new pet. Their preoccupation with this new object grew rapidly as communications networks carried urgent requests for support to colleagues around the globe. Ultimately, the government got directly involved by commissioning the world’s finest computer-knowledgeable mathematicians to perform more sophisticated trajectory computations as if man, by mathematical precision, could alter the path of a several thousand-mile wide rock. With the unwelcome confirmation they provided, GLOW tried briefly to suppress its disclosure to the rest of his government for regional security reasons. Finally the hitherto-omnipotent GLOW himself came to the disturbing realization that the issue was bigger than regional security. His unhappy mind churned out random thoughts that equated, in the aggregate, to his displeasure at being usurped by a mere object. Darkly appreciating that a problem of this magnitude took all the fun out of elitism, he removed all obstacles he had inserted in the information path between the scientists and his government functionaries. If there was anything good to come out of this flap at all, he thought with resignation, it was that if crises were useful tools for the manipulation of peoples, this was the mother of all crises.

Dr. Alan Carlson, who himself had been kept in the dark regarding the object’s path, had just been informed of it by the latest phone call. The problem was specifically that the trajectory of the Carlson Comet, as confirmed by at least a thousand independent calculations, was found to terminate a very short time in the future at a point in space that would be concurrently occupied by the planet Earth. From this time forward, the unfortunate Dr. Carlson would be identified not for his expertise as an astronomer, but as the first harbinger of Earth’s inevitable doom. The corresponding intra-governmental communiques were brutally truthful: man, with all his ingenuity and scientific prowess, would be helpless before this monster, unable to deflect it from its path by any meaningful amount. The beast was simply too massive, and time was too short. The advent of the Carlson Comet was a complete surprise.

Over the next couple of weeks the earth and the planetoid went on about their respective businesses with benign indifference to each other. People continued to suffer under the repression of the regime, which had become even harsher in the wake of the discovery. Those individuals who had accepted the mark and had been relatively well-off now were making general asses of themselves as they went through the grieving sequence of denial, anger and grudging acceptance.

The period of denial varied with the level of understanding. The average person took it on faith that the “science guys” would send up a nuclear-tipped rocket that would blast the cosmic intruder to smithereens. Having thus solved the problem to their collective satisfaction, this group quickly reverted to their usual activities. The “science guys” knew better: their period of denial was virtually nonexistent. They knew that the Carlson Comet was far too massive to be blown to smithereens by anything that they could cook up. Besides, even if they could have found a method to counter the beast, recent cutbacks of applied technology had made launch vehicles way too scarce to deploy all but the most puny firepower.

It would be theoretically possible, over a span of fifty years, to alter the comet’s trajectory with existing knowledge and materials found on earth. Fifty years, however, was significantly longer than the allotted time to collision. These intellectuals, who were a dollar short and a day late and knew it, knew also that the world was expectantly waiting for them to solve the problem. They made the first transition from denial to anger. Discarding their assumed images of disinterested professionalism, they shamelessly and with quite shocking vehemence blamed each other (and especially the hapless Dr. Carlson) for discovering the offensive object in the first place. Then they blasted their own shortsightedness and fixated next on the shortsightedness of government and the apathy of the common person with respect to scientific matters for their current inability to solve the problem. These carryings-on eventually filtered down to the common person, who finally perceived that indeed the “science guys” were not coming to the rescue. Once this perception was attained, they, too, immediately entered the anger phase. Of course the primary focus of their anger was the “science wimps”, chief among them the poor Dr. Carlson who, although just an innocent astronomer, was bombed out of his car one morning. Demonstrations were held; these pathetically inept demonstrations of the public temper quickly progressed into ugly riots with demands for governmental intervention by those who wore the mark and relied on the government to solve all their problems.

The transition to the acceptance phase was universally shared. Riots began anew and quickly descended into self-serving orgies of looting and destruction. Society throughout the world once again became disordered and chaotic, and with this breakdown of order the means of production and distribution halted. Just as the pinnacle of power finally had come into his grasp, GLOW realized that he might well become virtually ineffective, an understanding that made him very, very angry.

Chapter Thirty Five

 

 

 

 

The belligerent nature of the angry hot body extracted from Jupiter and set in motion by the Holy Spirit mirrored the troubled arrogance of the insignificant little specks on the surface of a distant companion in space, Earth. Angry with the descending quality of their lives under the brutal new North American regime and its sibling governments throughout the world but curiously stubborn in their insistence in ignoring their God, men of ill-will continued to clash one against another in their headlong pursuit of Self as they attempted to eke out acceptable standards of life in a land where such standards no longer existed. The government, even more devoted to Self than its subjects, continued its quest for absolute control over its miserable and impoverished subjects, committing a wholesale slaughter of both the land and the people within it.

But the new planetoid had a destructive potential that exceeded by a huge margin the capacity for evil of Earth’s occupants. This body now held all the cards, subject only to the will of the Father and the response of His Divine Companion.

In this cosmic game the unwelcome intruder slapped its first card on the table by interfering with Earth’s gravitational field and causing a movement of the mantle.

This new development reached North America with a deep rumbling sound like that of an enormous trumpet that pierced the air and white-hot rock belonging to the Yellowstone supervolcano erupted from the tortured ground in a massive outpouring. A vast wind came up and blew the enormous black cloud of ash eastward, enclosing the entire southeastern portion of the old United States in a suffocating, poisonous cloud that slaughtered millions of people, relieving them rapidly of their miserable lives.

In faraway Israel the land below Dafna began to be pelted with fast-moving rocks that rained upon the masses of intruding soldiers. Astonished people looked upward toward the source of this vast commotion to see a more amazing spectacle yet, that of a sky lit up like a Christmas tree and beyond that another moon that wasn’t their own familiar Luna. Awed people around the globe first assumed that this enormous object was an asteroid, but after a while they began to notice things about this new cosmic intruder that didn’t square with what they knew about the behavior of asteroids.

In the first place, it wasn’t barreling toward them with the speed of a bullet. It was just standing still, or if it indeed was moving, it wasn’t moving fast. Not only that, but it was much too large to be an asteroid. It looked more like a planet, or at least like the moon, which it appeared to match in size and brightness. It was barren and void of any atmosphere of its own, but it appeared to be shedding pieces of itself, some of which were igniting into flames and making the sky sparkle as they entered the earth’s atmosphere. The boulders that survived this fiery entry turned ugly as they hurtled into the militant crowds and left roadkill behind. In North America, the onlookers watched amazed as a particularly large chunk of extraterrestrial matter splashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island Sound, creating an enormous circular wave that inundated the surrounding area. The sight led the observers to switch their focus to the larger ocean beyond, which had become so turbulent that it was sinking many ships, both small and great.

As a catastrophe of planetary scope, the destruction and terror was almost universal. With a few exceptions in isolated localities, life for humanity became very basic and very, very ugly. At about that time also, the first real effects of the cometary encounter appeared with the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. With less than a few days to go before I-day (I for impact), the intruder’s gravitational influence became sufficiently large that the magnitude and frequency of earthquakes accelerated beyond the already-disturbing upward trend. Japan was almost obliterated by the explosion of Mount Fuji and the tidal-wave aftermath. In the Western Hemisphere Mount Rainier and Mount Baker both resumed activity. After burying several large communities under carpets of mud, Mount Rainier continued to grow, reaching a lofty altitude of over twenty three thousand feet before exploding in a gigantic eruption that sent two thirds of the mountain skyward in a cloud of dust. Mexico City buckled and heaved once more, this time taking seven million lives.

Each hour, as seismic activity increased, the source of this horror became larger and more apparent to the naked eye. There was no remaining doubt about the seriousness and inevitability of this event. One day before I-day the animal kingdom became generally aware of impending disaster. Animals of all kinds began to congregate together oblivious to the usual natural relationships. Most pathetic was the inbred reliance of the domesticated animals on their human masters. They looked to them for safety, but the masters turned away, focusing on their own plights and indifferent to the problems with the animals.

As I-day approached, the comet began to dominate the sky, mocking the helplessness of mankind to control it. By this time all the sequestered liquor, pills and drugs had essentially run out, forcing the elite to face their doom sober. Suicides increased to epidemic proportions; roadways of all sizes were impassable, littered to uselessness with shapeless hulks of vehicles whose drivers had raced headlong into welcome oblivion. Within the military, the sound of self-directed gunfire was commonplace until the bullets were all gone. Then the knives and razors took over, finding their ways to veins and arteries. The major cities began to smell of death.

The earth had by now reached an equilibrium of gravity-induced stress. Earthquake activities diminished dramatically. An ominous silence blanketed the earth, presided over by the giant and yet more rapidly growing apparition that dominated the sky.

The dawn of I-day arrived in New York on time. But at that point time had lost its usual meaning, for the sun took until noon to reach only halfway overhead, and there it remained. During that time the tide continued to ebb, outward, slowly at first and then with increasing speed. Land was newly exposed in inches, feet, yards and then miles. Ugly, barren, terrifying plains finally extended over the horizon. The wind came up, from gale to hurricane and quite unbelievably beyond, a smashing fist that broke every window in the city and then, one by one toppled every skyscraper. By early afternoon a shadow appeared on the distant horizon, shimmering and indistinct. With unexpected speed the shadow materialized into a wall of moving water that, had they remained upright, would have dwarfed the largest skyscrapers. This wall overshadowed the city like a tornado of infinite extent and, rushing through, killed every living being in its path. The wall would continue on across the great plains and beyond, finally dissipating itself on the western slopes of the continent. Although nobody remained to appreciate it, the sun itself was larger and hotter in the new, more southern latitude of the late New York City.

 

 

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #34

Chapter Thirty Three

 

The soft but insistent whisper in his head gently woke him. “Time to saddle up and move out,” Wisdom told Earl. “I know it’s early,” She added as he glanced over to the clock on the dresser, “but you need to be on the road before dawn.” Earl woke Joyce and they quickly dressed. Joyce went to the neighboring door and softly knocked. She was greeted by Marge, who also was fully dressed, as was Ellery in the background. “Yeah,” she said, “She told us too.” Moshe and Miryam were already in the kitchen when they came in. Henry and Terry were there too. Terry softly wept as she cooked breakfast.

“How did this happen?” Terry wailed. “Why does my family have to go? How on earth did we get ourselves into this ungodly mess?”

“You said it yourself,” Wisdom interjected.

“Huh?”

“You said it now in one short word. ’Ungodly’ was the operative word, Terry. The United States, in particular, had chosen at the outset to align itself with God. The hand of God is on your constitution and many other guiding documents. That closeness to Us brought Us closer to you, and in turn gave you a special status, almost approaching that of Our beloved Israel. For centuries you remained somewhat faithful, falling away into complacency for brief periods. It was about the best We could expect from you. Up until recently most of you would repent and return to Us. But some of you never returned, and those of you who didn’t were a vital part of Our relationship with you and your country. Colleges like Princeton and Yale, which were established with the express purpose of teaching the Bible and Biblical principles to future leaders of your society degenerated into bastions of secularity, wherein the future leaders were taught the principles of material success over a relationship with God. This mindset bubbled over to infect the Christian seminaries, supposedly fulfilling their mission of preparing devout men of God to become pastors and spokespersons for God. Out of these terribly wounded seminaries came yet more secular attitudes and worse, doubts over the nature of God and whether He even existed. These seminaries turned a blind eye to the encroachment of false science, including Darwin’s theory of evolution, being indifferent to its obvious rejection of the Creation narrative of Genesis.

“Jesus said something very relevant to your collective turning away,” She added. In Luke 12:48 He said this:

“’But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. But unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required; and to whom men have committed much, of him will they ask the more.’

“You began as a holy nation,” She continued, “willingly setting yourselves apart from other nations to serve Us in love. We gave you much in return.

“So now You’re going to ask much,” Terry said dully.

“We already have, and in the past you have responded admirably, helping yourselves to achieve greatness among the nations.  We’ve always given more than what We’ve received, and for a long period of time, you were among the happiest of people.  But then you began to turn away, exactly like Israel did after her glory years under the kingships of David and his son Solomon. I realize that you never read the blessing and the curse that We had pronounced over Israel who, even more than America, are Our special people. The major portion of it is in Deuteronomy 28. Since you don’t have a Bible either, I’ll give you a few excerpts, paraphrasing it a bit for your modern sensibilities:

“’But it shall come to pass, if you won’t listen to the voice of the Lord your God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses shall come upon you, and overtake you. You’ll be cursed in the city, and in the field. Your harvests will be cursed, and so will your offspring. . .The Lord shall send upon you cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that you set your hand to do, until you’re destroyed, and you die quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings, whereby you have forsaken me. The Lord shall make disease cling to you, until He has consumed you from off the land. . .The Lord shall smite you with cancer, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with extreme burning, and with violence, and with failed crops, and they shall pursue you until you die. . .The Lord shall change rain into dust. . .The Lord shall smite you with the boil of Egypt, and with the tumors and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof you can’t be healed. The Lord shall smite you with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart. . .You shall marry a wife, and another man will have her; you shall build a house, and you shall not live in it; you shall plant, and another will harvest it.’

 

“I could continue with this litany of painful consequence,” Wisdom continued, “because there’s much more in that dark chapter, all of which Israel had to endure over the centuries after she divorced herself from Us. But I think you get the point.”

“So those things that have been happening to us over the past decades – they’re actually consequences of removing you from public conversation? The superstorms, the earthquakes, the droughts, and the diseases?”

“Yes, Terry. Some of you Christians have attempted to warn the public about that connection from time to time, but each time they did so, they were immediately shouted down. They should have stuck to their guns. After all, the Bible is very clear about it, and not only in the words of Moses. Listen, for example, what the prophet Haggai had to say in verse seventeen of his Chapter 2:

“’I smote you with blight and with mildew and with hail in all the labors of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the Lord.’

 

“Over the years, that portion of you who stubbornly chose to separate yourselves from Us grew ever larger in proportion to the rest of society. Eventually that group became the dominant one and included the nation’s opinion-shapers. Then, with the extension to secondary and state levels of the takeover of the institutions of government and education the secularization of America metastasized and spread more thoroughly into the organs of everyday life. Teaching colleges pushed a secular agenda onto their candidates, who themselves were selected as future teachers not on the basis of academic excellence, moral clarity, character and a love of God, but rather for their shallowness of thought and secular outlook on life. Once those teachers entered the schools, the cancer of secularism spread very rapidly. Look around you, Terry, and you others also. Didn’t you ever wonder why you as Christians are such a marginalized minority? America wasn’t that way for a very long time. It was its Christianity that made it great, because We favored you with a loving Hand that matched and surpassed your loyalty to Us. Now you’re going to have a measure of pain and suffering, not so much by your actions as by the actions of your secular brothers and sisters. But there’s a silver lining in that. We’ll understand your trials and be with you all the way. You’ll end up having lived noble lives, possessing qualities that We’ll cherish forever.”

They ate breakfast in uncomfortable silence, assuming that Wisdom had left. Moshe scratched his head. “I don’t even know where we’re heading,” he told Earl. “Sturgis,” Wisdom broke in.

“Sturgis? Wow. I had no idea You’d go for that kind of thing,” Ellery responded as a kaleidoscope of lurid images entered his mind.

“Enough,” She told him, but with a smile. “This conclave at Sturgis isn’t going to be the drug-infested biker Woodstock of past years, with naked women riding men on bikes and the fully connected but unstable assembly wobbling down the street. It’s going to be a Christian gathering. As a matter of fact, it’s only a jumping-off spot for Mount Rushmore, which is your ultimate destination.”

“What is that about, a modern-day Masada?” Earl responded.

“More than you possibly can imagine,” She told them. “But let’s save the details for later. You’ll be taking your bikes, of course, for the protection they’ll give you from the authorities. I’ll leave it to you as to the route you’re going to take to get there, but with the warning that it won’t be an easy trip.” She left.

Henry brought out an old Triple-A map of the United States. The regime may have changed, but the highways hadn’t, except for some earthquake damage and much neglect. They decided to head north almost to the border and pick up Kansas Highway 36, which they’d follow to Oberlin, where they’d go into Nebraska to the town of McCook, then take 2 to 61 and north along 61 into South Dakota, where they’d travel a very short distance along Interstate 90 to reach Highway 34, which would take them directly to Sturgis, bypassing Rapid City altogether. Although motorcycles were usually effective in preventing checkpoint halts, there was no sense in asking for trouble by taking the more well-traveled highways.

The men left the house after breakfast to take care of last-minute packing chores while the women and Henry said their good-byes, knowing that Henry and Terry would be left behind for good, never to be seen again. Behind her sorrow, Miryam harbored a gleam of excitement in her eyes. Terry noted it and was comforted by it, knowing that at least Miryam possessed the possibility of happiness, however brief it might be. Understanding that her own end was likely to be both soon and bleak, Terry nevertheless resolved to be brave about it, as a host of predecessor Christians had been with the comforting help of the Holy Spirit that was companion to their faith in Jesus. She looked at her husband with fondness and linked her arm in his. I have God and a good husband to live and die with. What more can a person ask?

 

A gloomy dawn came with a steady breeze as they traveled westward across Kansas. The fractionally increasing light revealed thick dark clouds that threatened rain, and maybe worse. Despite the ominous weather, for the first couple of hours the riders thrilled to the new adventure, the men enjoying the fresh experience of two-wheeled travel and their mates enjoying the openness of the view. Around noontime the south wind, which had been increasing in gradual stages and causing them to lean to the left, suddenly strengthened to the point that the riders were getting buffeted so hard that their leaning became precarious. Earl in particular began to feel that he was right on the edge of control. The spindly extension to his right arm that Moshe had cobbled up began to ache and his control over the handlebar was beginning to slip, but he knew that he must persevere through the obstacle or risk falling behind and losing the others. Wisdom, please give me strength to handle this, he pleaded. He continued to fight the wind, gritting his teeth.

A brief respite came when they reached Oberlin and headed north into Nebraska toward McCook. The storm became a tailwind, which was much easier to handle. Before they reached McCook they stopped by the side of the road and ate the lunch that Terry had lovingly packed. The wind buffeted them again when they left McCook to head northwest, but that leg was short and Earl was able to handle it. He still was very relieved when they turned back northward for the longer journey up through Nebraska into South Dakota. His relief was so palpable that he operated the cruise control, stretched out his legs, and leaned back to relax. He hummed a tune. The relaxation ended abruptly with a blow to his kidney. “Don’t get cocky!” Joyce shouted into his neck. He stiffened his back. His feet went back onto the pegs and remained that way for the rest of the trip. They left the stiff wind behind when they turned westward again along the final leg into Sturgis, and by the time they arrived in the evening the sun had made a brief appearance.

Regardless of whether the rest of the country was in the grip of a repressive regime, Sturgis was biker country and off-limits to authority of any kind except the local sheriff, who, the town had made sure, was also a biker with a biker’s attitude. At increasingly widely-spaced intervals one authority or another had attempted to impose a stricter control over the town. Such visits were invariably brief with quick descents into violence that left the feckless visitors worse for the wear.

The three weary couples parked in front of a likely bar, stretched their legs, and went in. Emboldened by the feel of the place, Ellery walked up to the bartender, noting that he didn’t seem to be wearing the mark. “We’re pretty hungry,” he said, “but we only have cash.”

“We only take cash,” the man said. “Take a seat at a table and Janie’ll come around and take care of you.”

They plopped themselves gratefully into chairs and looked over the menus, which boasted of a large variety of beers and stronger drinks but was limited in food to burgers and fries. The thought of hamburgers appealed to them all. Halfway through the meal they began to wonder among themselves as to what to do after they ate. The question was answered for them as a few people began to enter the bar and drift over to their table and sit. The newcomers eventually grew into a substantial crowd. Ellery adjusted to this development by extending his hand in greeting to the first of his new neighbors, who responded in kind. “Where’re you headed?” the man asked.

“Rushmore,” Ellery told him.

“Same here,” the man replied. “There’s a park outside the main attraction, the Presidents and such. It’s a tent camp now. Got a lot of people, Native Americans too. Don’t know why, but they all seem to have gotten the word to be there and be quick about it. Same with us. Somebody in my Church seems to have an inside track to God, or so she says. Told her to get herself over here and bring the rest along. I’m part of the rest, kind of tagging along. Nothing for me back home, so I might as well be here as there. Hope you have a tent. We’re kind of filled up.”

“We do,” Marge said, thanking God for the insistence on being prepared.

 

Outside the bar the street was almost filled with bikes. The three couples decided to go with the flow and followed the group out of town and up the mountain toward the park. It was now dark but the clouds were gone and as they traveled the inky blackness above them was the sky was dotted with bright pinponts of light.

The drive up the Rushmore Parkway was smooth, the numerous curves being wide and easy and, from what they could see from all the headlights, beautiful. There were trees in abundance, tall conifers silhouetted by the full moon that had just arisen over the mountaintop. I can’t wait to see what it looks like in the daytime, Joyce thought to herself. Eventually the bikes peeled off into the park, where gas stoves and lanterns lit up the tents. It looked like a city. They found an empty spot and unpacked their bikes, lighting a lantern for the illumination they’d need to set up their tents.

When they finished the housework, by common consent they turned off the lantern and lay on their bedding looking up at the sky. In their own way, each of them thanked God for the adventure and their rest among the grass and trees of His natural creation. I wonder what God has in mind for us now, Earl thought.

 

 

 

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #33

Chapter Thirty One

Since the completion of Jerusalem’s Third Temple, the nearby HaRamban Synagogue had been nearly deserted, its staff reduced to a skeleton crew consisting of the most junior rabbis and their assistants. Now it was densely packed with hundreds of scared and hungry humans. Some, the most fervently religious, awaited their fate stoically while many others openly wept at the misfortune that had befallen them. Virtually all of them were Messianic Jews whose crime was that they had failed to leave the city as quickly as the rest of their fellows. The crime carried the penalty of death.

The doors were locked, but it was only a matter of time before they were breached and the angry troops outside rushed in to slaughter them. One of these soldiers, a man named Mark, looked over at his buddy Jake, who was eagerly awaiting the order to advance. “Stand down, soldier,” Mark told him, grinning. “Rumor has it that we’re gonna spread napalm around the periphery and light the building up. We’re probably just waiting for the flame tanks to arrive.”

“I sure hope you’re wrong,” Jake responded. “My knife is sharp as a razor. I wanna try it out.” Blood lust was evident in his eyes. Mark looked around. The eagerness was universal among the men, as it was with him.

Mark laughed again, a short, brutal bark. “Hey, this time we got a double reason to kill. They’s Jews, but they’s also Christians. Means maybe we should kill ‘em twice!”

“Be okay then if we rape ‘em and kill ‘em after,” Jake said, his eyes bulging in anticipation.

“Hey, genius!” another soldier called. “You just come up with that idea?”

The soldiers became impatient and, their military discipline weakened by the drugs they had been issued by their leaders to dull any residual sense of morality, they began to act on their own. A group managed to lasso a lamppost and, tugging together, brought it down. Hefting it, they ran together with it, ramming it into a door. It took five attempts to batter down the door, but when it gave way there was a mad rush to enter and kill the men. The building erupted into a cacophony of screams and wails, and the smell of blood mingled with the stench of urine and feces. Eventually just the women and children remained, and then just the women. Several hours later the last woman was gone and an eerie silence prevailed as the soldiers lay around, tired and sated, oblivious to the carnage that surrounded them. The calm of the soldiers clashed wildly with the scene, which looked like the inside of a meat packing plant that had suffered the violence of machinery gone berserk.

“Okay, men. Up! Out! Out!” came the shouted command by a major, who was supported in his task of rousting them by a troop of MPs. A flame tank had arrived after all, its turret traversing one side of the building laying a patch of unlit napalm as the soldiers filed out, tired and disheveled. It’s engine shouted momentarily as it moved to another side, treads clanking heavily. When it had completed its traversal of the perimeter the tank returned, aimed through the open doorway and discharged a gout of napalm, this time aflame.

The grisly scene at the synagogue was played out in the same manner throughout the city, in other places of worship, in public meeting places, in shops and in private homes. The shops and homes didn’t rate the tank, but were set ablaze manually with gasoline. Except for a very few enclaves that had remained untouched, the Jerusalem that remained was no longer Christian or Jewish.

Jerusalem now was firmly in the hands of GLOW, who quickly restored peace to the city through implacable force.

That small but important portion of the vast Muslim community that insisted upon adhering to what they considered to be the important precepts of Islam utterly rejected the Catholic Church’s appeal to the majority of Muslims. They made their displeasure known through a continuation of the terrorist war that their predecessors had waged. The GLOW-dominated media refused to disseminate news of their numerous attacks, which gave the majority of mankind the impression that such extremism no longer existed. Life for most of mankind remained as it had throughout the early years of the twenty-first century, with the poor getting poorer and more miserable and the very wealthy reaping the comforts and privileges of their vast wealth. There was now no place on earth where the middle-class entrepreneur could gain a foothold and raise himself above the ranks of the unionized factory or farm worker. With few exceptions personal property was a privilege of the wealthy, the mass of humanity being consigned to a minimalist apartment existence.

Many of the Israelis who had fled Jerusalem at the desecration of the Third Temple found shelter from the government and people of Jordan, for which they were very grateful. Those who had managed to escape Jerusalem but were slower in the general rush to leave fared rather more badly. They were taken back to the temple, where they were tortured to the point of insanity, and then they were put to death in a mockery of the Jewish ritual of sacrifice. It was they who were butchered upon the temple altar, their blood running in a river down the exit channel.

Yet the system ran quite smoothly, just as those who had first created the structure of government had anticipated. That situation came to an abrupt end with the elevation to enormous of the importance of the disaffected Muslims’ decision to poison the wells, those wells being the vast and far-from-depleted oil wells of the Mideast and South America. In this case the poison was nuclear, inserted into the oil-bearing soils by missiles. Given half-lives exceeding ten thousand years of some of the nuclear materials, the oil fields that had fueled the economies of the world for a hundred years were lost forever.   The alternative oil beneath the ground of Russia and North America may have been sufficient to meet the primary needs of the system had their exploitation not been halted by the humbling of Russia in its war against Israel and the halting of drilling in North America due to the worldwide economic depression that had led to financial chaos and destroyed the oil extraction infrastructure.

The only truly viable source of oil left was the vast Mediterranean field controlled by the Israelis, which destroyed much of the unity among the world’s Regions as their individual leaders scrambled to outbid each other for access to this oil.

The Chinese leader found the hasty response of the Regional leaders to be humorous. “Look at those blind mice!” he chuckled at a video of their push to gain the benevolent attention of Israel’s prime minister, who now was enjoying an unprecedented surge in popularity among the world’s elite. “They’re falling all over themselves to lick the prime minister’s boots!”

“Don’t forget our own situation,” one of his peers in the politburo commented drily. “We ourselves are on the verge of oil starvation. At least they’re attempting to do something about it.”

“And we’re not?” the leader shot back, affronted. He stared at the offender as if he wished to strangle him for his stupidity. “Come here,” he said shortly, walking over to a large framed picture hanging at the most prominent position on the wall. The picture depicted a relatively small but numerically impressive portion of the vast Chinese army in full battle dress. “The other leaders are attempting to negotiate to their advantage. While they’re preoccupied with that futile task, we are going to march over there and simply take it. Does that address your ill-conceived concern? Have you no memory for how easy it was to reassert our dominion over Taiwan?”

The man shied away from the leader in humiliation while his other peers laughed openly at him. Why was I left out of this information? he asked himself, now in dread for his own future.

A day later the Chinese government began to prepare in earnest for a full-scale, take-no-prisoners assault on the already hotly-contested nation of Israel with the intent of grasping their oil field, now prized by virtually every nation on earth.

It was at this precise point that God decided that He’d had quite enough of mankind’s childish, arrogant foolishness. It was the perfect time, as He’d anticipated millennia before, to step into the affairs of man in a larger and more direct way. Merging with His Divine Consort, He communicated intimately with Her His will in that regard. Wisdom responded immediately.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Thirty Two

 

 

 

 

There are a number of theories as to how the ring of space rubble that comprises the asteroids came to be formed. According to the planetesimal theory, it formed by accretion as the planets themselves supposedly did, but consisted of remnants that did not coagulate with the others because they lacked the collective mass to configure into a single, distinct body. There are problems with the planetesimal theory, chief among which is an inconsistency with the Newtonian law of conservation of momentum.

Another theory has it that the asteroids are the partial remnants of an enormous collision between a planet and some other very large body. This is the more likely supposition. A different kind of space object, the comet, is distinct from the asteroids in the location of its orbit and sometimes but not always its composition. Until the latter years of the twentieth century, comets were thought to be invariably cold and icy. This supposition was challenged by data gathered with the aid of modern equipment and techniques. While some comets are still known to possess characteristic ice, that is not always the case.

There are three types of comets: those that belong to the Kuiper belt, another belt like that of the asteroids but farther out, beyond the orbit of Neptune, and those associated with a hypothetical Oort Cloud that envelops the Solar System. The Oort Cloud has been placed as far out as 50,000 times the distance from Earth to Sun, almost a fifth of the distance to the nearest star. Those comets that belong to the Kuiper Belt populate the plane of planetary orbits and have shorter periods of orbit about the Sun, on the order of ten years, whereas the Oort comets have significantly longer periods.

The third type of comet is created directly by God when and where He wishes, but typically from material found within a large planet. Having been created by God Himself, its composition, size and trajectory are entirely up to God’s discretion. From the time of the Flood until now, Wisdom, in Her periodic entrances into the affairs of mankind to help some and wake others up, had contented Herself with picking up one of the numerous stones to be found in the asteroid belt and tossing them earthward. Now She decided to go big.

Bathed in the soft, weak light of its remote sun, Jupiter as viewed by the earthbound stargazer appears benign and cheerful in its cloaking hues of orange, red, and brown. Closer to its surface, the dominant planet of the solar system reveals more of its harsh and troubled nature. Gases thrust and swirl viciously against a starkly glaring backdrop of arcing electricity. The restless atmosphere provides but the merest hint of the seething hell far below, where element clashes with element in a heaving, boiling maelstrom as the massive giant on the very edge of starhood struggles to stay a planet, to avoid the fateful ignition.

Wisdom looked lovingly at this enormous planet, recalling with affection how many times She had used one of its offspring in the past to influence Her beloved mankind’s sojourn on Earth. The Flood; The Exodus; Joshua’s long day and America’s corresponding long night; Isaiah’s Errant Sundial

 

She recounted in Her mind the long and hazardous journey that Venus took as a wayward planetoid before it settled down into a stable orbit. Birthed from Jupiter by Wisdom as She was about to repeat with another planetoid, Venus at the Hand of Wisdom was directed toward Earth, which at the time had been enclosed by a beautiful, paper-thin canopy of ice. At that time, due to the canopy’s effect of creating a nearly uniform temperature from poles to equator, there was no rainfall on Earth, but a mist came up from the ground to water the life that God had placed there. Venus came close to Earth at the time of Noah, its gravitational influence shattering the canopy and shaking the Earth to release the highly-pressurized water in the aquifers buried underground. With the canopy gone, clouds formed, rain fell and the sun shining on the rain created rainbows for the first time.

Venus retreated from Earth with the Flood in its destructive wake, and continued on its awkwardly unstable orbit around the sun, which brought it back to the vicinity of Earth nearly once every Earth year. At its first return the planetoid remained far enough away from Earth that it didn’t do any further damage. On its next return Earth again remained undamaged, but the planetoid’s closest approach was just a little nearer to Earth. On its fifty-second return it finally got too close, and created more mayhem.

These fifty-two year cycles had repeated several times, each time visiting panic and terror upon mankind. One cycle was intimately connected with the Exodus of Israel from bondage in Egypt; the next caused Joshua’s long day and America’s corresponding long night. Things quieted down with respect to Earth after that, but then Venus, still in an unstable and dangerous orbit, nearly collided with Mars, stripping it of its water and half its surface, creating giant rifts, the Tharsis Bulge and Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system, in the process pushing it like a giant billiard ball toward Earth. It was then Mars that threatened the Earth, coming so dangerously close every fifteen years that it influenced the Earth’s rotation and generated devastating earthquakes. The spectacle of errant planets was visible to men on Earth. Eyewitness accounts extend beyond the Bible to Homer’s Iliad and terrifying images of witches on broomsticks and dragons and sacred horned cows. The Israelites, in their journey to the Promised Land, were so terrified at the sight that they had decided to worship this apparition in the sky instead of their living and most loving God:

“And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Arron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, or your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These are thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.”

When the game of cosmic billiards was finally over with Venus tucked away into a stable orbit, mankind did its utmost to forget the entire thing. Learned men who should have known better invented natural laws that violated common sense, like uniformitarianism that demanded that the processes that shaped the earth and influenced geological formations were tiny and slow. Whenever a braver person would come along and attempt to point out the truth, the establishment scientists would generate tantrums and attempts on the poor creature’s life and career.

These things Wisdom pondered as She prepared to act again. Man refuses to learn from the past, She thought, shaking her lovely head in sadness. But yet there still is some nobility among them.

 

It troubled Her briefly that in the process of correcting the frequently-errant mankind Mars was nearly destroyed, but then rejoiced that the situation with that planet ultimately would be a good thing too, as it would give Her Son and future daughter-in-law an excellent task to restore that planet to its former beauty and utility as a haven for life.

Okay, honey, Wisdom spoke softly to the giant planet. Time to be a mommy again.

For the most part, Jupiter’s mad tantrums remain confined to the planet itself, the thrashing hidden below the colorful atmospheric cover that belies the unending struggle within the tortured interior. At rare intervals, however, in explosive fury the angry giant hurls a piece of itself outward with such speed that it strains the bonds of the mother planet’s enormous gravity.

Let’s see, Wisdom thought, cocking Her lovely head in a pose of studious observation.   She poked and prodded here and there, and the huge mother planet responded by ejecting a massive, white-hot ball of magma out of its molten interior. At first this proto-moon joined its siblings that circled the parent giant. Wisdom gave it another nudge and it left Jupiter’s gravitational bond to wander as a planetoid through the solar system. Its movement was far from random. Wisdom’s precise poke directed it straight toward Her target planet.

 

 

 

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #32

Chapter Thirty

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Pope, having been informed of Israel’s selection of Simon ben Gideon as the world’s messiah, was apoplectic. After all the effort he’d put into placing the Catholic Church at the forefront of the world’s religions through ecumenization, this action on the part of the hated Israel had just cut him off at the knees. What rankled the most was that they’d done it behind his back. It was not that a new Jewish messiah would compete with the Catholic Jesus for the title and the religion. The Pope didn’t know whether this usurper was or wasn’t the actual messiah spoken of by the prophets. Nor did he care. Regarding the bottom line, however, he cared with a rabid intensity that took him over the edge into insanity. That bottom line, as he perceived it, was that the religious leadership of the world was slipping out of his grasp. And by a filthy, rotten Jew, no less! He had a terrifying image that the loyalty he’d won of many of the world’s movers and shakers through back-door bribes of money and prostitutes was wasted effort and that he was about to be consigned to history’s trash bin. Jerusalem would have been mine! he thought, horrified by the probability that he and his theology were on the verge of simply being shoved aside to make room for the Israeli messiah.

 

Insane or not, the Pope was correct in his dark assessment of his future. After GLOW’s meeting with him, the world leader had started asking questions. In very short order GLOW was fully apprised by the most trusted member of his personal staff of the Vatican’s rapidly-diminishing stature within the community of Regions. His ecumenism went too far, GLOW realized. The compromises left nothing of substance for committment to any one of the world’s religions, let alone them all. At any rate, one set of religious bandidos is quite enough, GLOW thought to himself, and I already have this new “messiah” in my pocket. GLOW correspondingly had directed staffer Abe Wilson to set in motion the elimination of the Pope and a media blitz intended to fully and irrevocably discredit the Vatican and its resident personnel.

It was not necessary to personally assassinate the Pope. The entire Vatican was torched to the ground in the dark hours of a cold, windy morning. Diabolically clever methods were employed to ensure that nobody escaped, so that the Pope went down in flames along with the entire Vatican organization. Given the increasingly open corruption of the Catholic leadership, the lamentation over their passing was minimal. With this removal of the central authority of the Catholic Church, each diocese was put adrift to survive individually the best it was capable of. Very soon thereafter, having bought into the necessity of a central leader and having accepted a theology so watered-down as to be meaningless, most of these Catholic representations closed their doors due to the profound loss of worshipers. A large number of elegantly purple-robed bishops and scarlet-robed cardinals found themselves without constituencies.

Good riddance! thought Wisdom as She observed the debacle, being perfectly aware that the real Church, consisting of widely-scattered individual Christians in diverse races, ethnicities and walks of life, had always existed apart from the man-centered and bureaucratic monstrosities controlled by self-serving leaders. They all were forewarned. Had they bothered to read and digest Scripture, they never would have put up with that mess. Well, Jesus through John told them, and He told them well.

The Scripture to which Wisdom referred in particular was Revelation 17:

“And there came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, and talked with me, saying unto me [John], Come here; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters; with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness and I saw a woman sit on a scarlet-colored beast, full of the names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and bedecked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness of her fornications. And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus; and when I saw her, I wondered with great wonder.

 

          “And the angel said unto me, Why didst thou wonder? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition; and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is, not, and yet is. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come, and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, who have received no kingdom as yet, but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them; for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings, and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For god hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman whom thou sawest that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.”  

 

As in the earlier declaration of Simon ben Gideon as Israel’s messiah, Jerusalem was again crowded with excited Israelis for the dedication of the newly-completed Third Temple. Another stage had been erected for the event, which held the most prominent of the orthodox priesthood. Messiah ben Gideon, who had willingly allowed himself to be placed above the Chief Rabbi, stood at the podium, ready to introduce the majestic GLOW, now seated behind the messiah and waiting to be formally introduced to the adoring crowd. Before the introduction, the rabbi gave a short dedication speech, quoting the first several verses of Haggai Chapter 2:

“’In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai, saying, Speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying, Who is left among you that saw this house in its first glory? And how do ye see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison with it as nothing?’

 

“Well, that was what our new temple looked like a few short years ago,” the rabbi continued. “Nothing. But now . . . well, I’ll continue with Haggai:

“Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work; for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts. According to the word that I had covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my Spirit remaineth among you; fear not. For thus saith the Lord of hosts. Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former, saith the Lord of hosts; and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.’

 

“Ladies and gentlemen,” intoned the rabbi, “this day this house shall indeed be filled with glory, for I present to you now our savior, Simon ben Gideon!”

Messiah ben Gideon pointed to the temple. “A marvel of construction,” he said to the crowd. “Utterly magnificent, a miracle, really. And so from this day forward, Israel has its temple, its messiah, and,” turning to the man seated behind him, “its God. God of Gods, very God of very God, majestic in stature, all-knowing, all-seeing, all Being. Ladies and gentlement, I present to you his majesty, GLOW.”

When the handclapping and cheering died down, GLOW began to talk, so quietly that the crowd had to strain to hear. Silence prevailed, intruded upon only by GLOW’s words. “People of Israel – hear me when I tell you that no longer are you to be forgotten and stepped on. You are my chosen people, chosen from before the Great Exodus from Egypt. I now announce a new covenant, the passing away of the nation of Israel. From henceforth, this shall be the home of your god, my home, and I shall name it after me. It shall be called Glowland, for I, GLOW, inhabit it as god with you. I call upon your messiah, Simon ben Gideon, to perform the prayer of dedication as I ascend the steps and enter my new home.

Ben Gideon stood before the steps as GLOW ascended them, spreading his hands to heaven as did King Solomon centuries before at the dedication of the First Temple. His prayer, in fact, attempted to parrot the words of this early king, a much wiser and God-fearing man.

“Lord god of Glowland,” Gideon began, “there is no god like thee, in heaven above, or in earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants who walk before thee with all their heart; who hast kept his covenant and fulfilled it at this day. Therefore, now, lord god of Glowland, keep that which thou hast promised thy people, and dwell everlastingly with them. But will god indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that has been built in your honor!

“Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord my god, and to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which thy servant prayeth before thee today; that thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there; that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place. And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people of Glowland and beyond to the whole Earth, when they shall pray toward this place, and hear thou in this dwelling place.

“We come before you in most humble thanksgiving for your condescension to dwell among us.”

At the completion of this dedication Gideon looked upward toward the sky above, which was empty of clouds except for one round, puffy cloudlet directly above them. Extending his arms yet further, he pointed both index fingers to that cloud. In response, a laser-bright beam of red light emanated from the cloud and rested on the new Holy of Holies, within which GLOW now entered, hidden from the crowd by the building itself.

Awestruck, the masses knelt before the temple, their hands in positions of supplication. Occupied as they were in worship to GLOW, the crowd failed to notice the Messianic Jews among them depart in haste. They had come out of curiosity; now, they were obeying the command of Jesus in Matthew 24 to run for their lives, their destination the other side of the Jordan River into the hills of Jordan:

“When ye, therefore, shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whosoever readeth, let him understand), then let them who are in Judea flee into the mountains; let him who is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house; neither let him who is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto those who are with child, and to those who give suck in those days! But pray that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day; for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elects’ sake those days shall be shortened.”

The Great Tribulation had arrived on earth.

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #31

Chapter Twenty Nine

Jacob and Moira had thoroughly enjoyed the respite from fighting given them by the cessation of the Russian-led conflict and the subsequent emergence of Israel intact and now recognized by her people as truly blessed by God. They had used this time wisely to more fully integrate themselves into each other as a complementary team, putting the extraordinary bond they shared into use in their presentation of Jesus as the Jewish Messiah to a multitude of their countrymen. They often went on such missionary journeys to the Galilee area and into Jerusalem and the West Bank cities of Hebron and Ramallah. On many such occasions they were joined by others from Dafna, but at other times they preferred to go by themselves, considering those times to be mini-vacations in which they enjoyed the differences in people, scenery, the restaurants, and their overnight accommodations along with the pursuit of their mission.

Half of their free time was spent on the Temple Mount, watching the pace of construction of the Third Temple, which awed them with its beauty. So many Israelis had converted to Christianity, however, that Jacob and Moira began to wonder whether the ancient temple practice of slaughtering animals would actually resume once the temple had been completed. Perhaps, even though the Messianic Christians realized that the animal sacrifice had always pointed to Jesus and were no longer necessary since He had made the ultimate sacrifice on the cross, they would allow the practice to continue out of respect for tradition.

The other half of their free time was spent on the odious task of helping to bury the bodies of the dead invaders, a seemingly endless job that not only stank to the point of intolerability but carried with it the danger of radiation poisoning. Yet the couple, like many other Israeli citizens, considered it not only a duty but an honor to the mercy of God to be alive to carry it out.

On rare occasions Jacob and Moira would make the trek down to Gaza to visit their old companions Sid and Mary, another happily-married couple who were engaged in the task of rebuilding the area that was so devastated by the Palestinians when they were granted the formerly-lovely place by an ill-advised Israeli government. The restoration was quite far along, and when they visited, the two couples spent much of their time on the beach swimming and collecting sun tans. At least once on every such outing Sid would laughingly tell Jacob to keep himself away from the odd bullet, referring to the time Jacob was shot in the chest by a bullet from a would-be terrorist. That little drama would invariably be followed by a clinging hug from Moira.

One day while they were enjoying an idle day of sun at the beach, Jacob looked over to his lovely companion with a question on his mind. “Do you think that Jesus ever went swimming?”

“What kind of question is that?” she replied. “He made the ocean. He made the water that’s in the ocean. In fact, He made the molecules that make up the water, and the atoms that . . .“

“Okay, enough. And then you’re going to ask why He’d need to swim in the first place, since He can just walk on the top. That’s not what I’m asking   I’m thinking of what He did in an experiential sense while He was on the Earth. What He tasted, or felt. Did He enjoy the sun like we’re doing now? Did He get to feel His body surrounded by warm water? What did He know of His own Godhood. How far did He go in His kenosis?”

“I can’t answer that intelligently, dear. How can anyone possibly know what went on in Jesus’ mind during His incarnation.”

“Agree. But I’ve read a large number of accounts, many of which diverge rather extensively from what Scripture itself teaches. One that did agree with Scripture was particularly appealing. It was written some time in the 1920s, as I recall, by a professor by the name of Alva McClain. In his article he said something that really stuck with me, something to the effect that it would be infinitely better to give up the notion of his absolute attributes than his moral heroism. That statement alone fits perfectly with Earl’s notion of God’s omni-attributes being subordinate to His primary attribute of His willingness to give them up for the sake of selfless love.”

“What a beautiful thought!” Moira remarked.

“Yeah. McClain’s concept of Jesus’ kenosis makes sense in terms of the Scripture he cited as driving the entire controversy over how much Godhood Jesus maintained in His human form.

“Which is?”

“Philippians 2, verses 5 through 8. Here, I have a Bible in the backpack. I’ll read it to you.” He extracted the Bible and started reading:

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and, being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

“McClain differentiated the form of God from the intrinsic nature of God,” Jacob continued, “the nature of God being His transcendent attributes as well as His personality. The implication is that in His kenosis, his emptying of Himself, Jesus did not give up His Godhood, but just His form, which is the exercise of Godhood. What He really gave up was the independent exercise of Godhood, voluntarily and in perfect obedience to the Father’s will restricting any manifestation of Godhood to that specifically willed by the Father through the Holy Spirit. That restriction included His knowledge as well as His actions, which means that He was fully aware of His Godhood, but voluntarily maintained, in humble obedience to the Father, any actions or knowledge that wasn’t in perfect conformance to the Father’s will. To me that makes perfect sense, and it emphasizes Jesus’ selfless nobility.”

“You’ll have to revisit the issue in more austere surroundings. I’ve absorbed as much as I’m able to, and right now I can’t help but think of that beautiful water in front of us. How about a dip?”

That evening the two couples went up to Jerusalem to attend the ceremony in honor of Simon ben Gideon, the courageous soldier who had risked his life to save the children trapped in a burning building during the Russo-Israeli War. Jerusalem was packed with people wishing to add their own presence in support of the countrywide expression of gratitude for his selflessly heroic act.  The four crowded in best they could as the Prime Minister recited the soldier’s brave deeds, adding that ben Gideon had come to his country’s aid at precisely the right moment like David and his namesake Gideon before him, when all appeared to be lost and Israel desperately needed a champion. Proclaiming ben Gideon to be the very champion Israel needed, the Prime Minister draped a wreath of flowers on his shoulders and then placed a crown of olive twigs on his head in keeping with the millennia-old symbol of military valor. He kissed the man’s cheeks and turned him around to face the crowd. “Men and women of Israel,” he proclaimed, “I present to you the savior of our land!”

“That’s going a bit too far,” Moira murmured in Jacob’s ear. “We saw with our own eyes what happened. It was all God’s doing. I’m not saying that the man isn’t brave or shouldn’t be honored for what he did, but to claim that he saved Israel . . .“

“Yeah, what next?” Jacob broke in. “Are they going to make him the Messiah?” He was bumped in the shoulder by the woman next to him, who had overheard his comment. When he turned toward her, he was greeted by a vicious glare. “You’ll shut your mouth if you know what’s good for you,” she snarled, pointing to the large man standing beside her.

They were interrupted by a commotion on the makeshift stage. The cluster of dignitaries behind the Prime Minister parted to permit the entrance on-stage of the Chief Rabbi, a Levite from among the community of orthodox priests who had been waiting for their entire lifetimes for the privilege of constructing the third and final Temple of God on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Now was an unprecedented opportunity: Israel’s primary enemies had been vanquished and the great Temple could now be built without meaningful opposition. The Chief Rabbi strode up to the Prime Minister, who deferentially withdrew himself, and moved over to stand behind ben Gideon. He gently turned the man around, gazed into his eyes, and kneeled before him. The sight of the religious potentate kneeling astonished Jacob and Moira, and much of the crowd with them. When he found his voice, he whispered in Moira’s ear, “I was only joking before, but I think that this is actually going to happen!” He turned to Sid, who was standing next to Moira, and they rolled their eyes in unison.

The Chief Rabbi stood and addressed the crowd. “This is a momentous day in the history of Israel,” he began. “I proclaim Simon ben Gideon to be our long-awaited Messiah, the Savior promised by our prophets, by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah. Represented by King David and represented by our Gideon of the past. By . . .“

He was drowned out by the noise of the screaming crowd. He patiently waited until the clapping and shouting began to die down, and then continued. “Our Messiah’s presence leads to another great and holy event. Wc can now start to erect our Temple.”

The crowd erupted in jubilation once more. When the noise dimmed again, ben Gideon took over. “Fellow Israelis!” he said loudly, and the crowed quieted in response. “I thank you for your recognition. I am indeed the one for whom you have been searching, and I myself proclaim a new era for our nation. But I must humble myself. As our orthodox religion implies, I cannot claim to be God. That singular attribute belongs to one person, and one person alone, the man you already know as the former president of the North American Region and who has now ascended to the position of GLOW. But through me, we of Israel have the unprecedented honor of serving GLOW as priests in fulfillment of his kingdom. Sons and daughters of Abraham! Very soon, with your help, we will begin anew to honor the tradition of sacrifice to your God and to mine. We shall restore the covenant, so dear to us all, the sacred transaction between God and our father Abraham and thus enter an era of endless blessing. Let the building begin!”

Once more pandemonium prevailed as the enthusiastic cheering began afresh. Jacob tugged at Moira’s sleeve. “Let’s go,” he said to her.

“You bet,” she replied, motioning for Sid and Mary to come with them. “Something’s terribly wrong about what he said.”

“What he said?” Jacob answered as they distanced themselves from the crowd. “Not a whole lot of kenosis there, although he did deny his godhood. But that’s not right either. Interesting that we were just talking about that. That’s not the only thing wrong with this scene. The very fact of his claim to messiahship is extremely wrong. He couldn’t be the Messiah, because the time window of the prophecies has come and gone. Furthermore, Jesus fulfilled that title so completely that there’s no room for another. But the biggest problem with the whole business is that since Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself on the cross, once and for all in our behalf, there’s really no reason for the continuation of animal sacrifice. And GLOW? From what I’ve heard about him and his unmitigated arrogance, there’s certainly no kenosis there either.” He turned around and received another shock. “Look at that, will you?” he said, stopping short. Following the lead of the Chief Rabbi, the people were now on their knees in worship.

“So now we have a messiah who’s not God, and a God who’s not the messiah,” Sid quipped, as they turned back and continued walking away from the spectacle. “I wonder how that strange theology will affect the Messianic Jews.”

“Probably not at all, except for a disgust with their fellow Jews for falling for such a blatant falsehood,” Jacob replied. “Their acceptance of Jesus as their Messiah in the face of Jewish tradition required them to give some serious theological thought to the matter. It would take me too long to list the contradictions in Scripture that this evil arrangement entails. The only part of Scripture that it agrees with is the end-time scenario.”

“Time to hit the road,” Wisdom said, walking with them. “Meaning to get yourselves in gear and head back to Dafna. But this time, Sid, you and Mary will want to go with them. Now scat.”

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #30

Chapter Twenty Seven

“Dinner’s on the table,” Terry called. When they were seated the empty chairs spoke eloquently of two missing people. “Where’s Miryam? Terry asked, and received blank stares in return. “And Moshe?”

“They went out for a ride,” Earl said. “Said it would be short, but that was over an hour ago.” He looked at Ellery. As the others followed his stare, Ellery’s countenance fell and stomachs dropped around the table. Suddenly the dinner had lost its appeal.

Ellery rose from the table. “I’ll go look,” he said, and rushed out the door with his coat in his arm. The others heard the crack of his bike’s exhaust. Several eyes followed his back as it diminished down the road into the distance.

Ellery had guessed right about the route they had taken.. Half an hour later he found their motorcycle as he rounded a bend. In fact, he had to swerve to avoid it, as it lay on its side in the middle of the highway. Ellery hit the brakes hard and slowed, easing up to the head of a gravel road to the right. A hundred feet farther up the road a deer also lay on its side. It was dead. He looked around for signs of Moshe and Miryam, finally seeing the couple beneath a large tree. Miryam was lying down as Moshe leaned over her, attempting to administer some kind of help. He saw Ellery and beckoned him over.

As he approached the couple, Ellery saw that Moshe was crying. “I hit a deer,” he said. “It happened so quickly I couldn’t do anything. Miryam’s in trouble, Ellery. I can’t lose her.” His weeping became desperate.

“It’s okay,” Ellery said. I’m sure you couldn’t help it, so don’t blame yourself. Where’s her injury?”

“Her right leg is all torn up. She may have broken a bone in her leg or hip. But she’s so quiet! She was talking a while ago, sounded normal, and then she kind of fell asleep. She may have a head injury too. Aw gee! Why’d I have to . . .”

Miryam chose that moment to stir. She opened her eyes to look at Moshe. “Are you okay, Moshe?” she asked.

“Me okay? Me? I’m just fine, not that I deserve to be. How about you? You got me real worried. Are you still sleepy?”

“No. Not so much.” She struggled to get up, but Moshe firmly held her down. “What about the bike?” she asked.

“I don’t know. The bike’s not that important, not next to you.” Ellery assessed the couple. In actuality, Moshe didn’t look all that great. Both legs of his Levi’s were shredded and red, bloody flesh peeked out from the tears in the cloth. “Got a good dose of road rash yourself, I see,” he told Moshe. Miryam looked at him and put her hand to her mouth in horror.

“Yeah,” Ellery said. “You two are a fine-looking pair. Seems to me you’re just perfectly ready to get hitched. Would be a wedding to tell your grandkids about. Problem is, we can’t take you to the hospital, Miryam. Not after what Earl’s told me about what they do with sick folks. I don’t want to see you carted off to a death camp, and I’m sure that Moshe would back me on that.”

“Maybe you can go back and get us a vehicle that Miryam can ride in.”

“Sure thing. Here, take this and wrap her up in it. She’s probably still in shock.” He removed his coat and handed it to Moshe.

Returning back to the road, Ellery was prepared to steer the bike into a ditch and write it off, but in lifting it back upright he saw the deer must have hit the bike a glancing blow, enough to kill it and for Moshe to lose control, but damaging very little. He walked the bike to where his own stood and, leaving it parked there, got on his motorcycle and headed back for the house in a big hurry. The speedometer needle hit the hundred mph mark several times on the trip home.

They were waiting on the porch as he entered the driveway, but Henry took one look at his lone figure and ran down the stairs before he arrived and headed off to his old SUV. It was already moving as Earl and Ellery ran after it and piled into the front seat. Ellery returned first with the motorcycle, having managed to re-start it and drive it back. Henry’s car followed soon after with Moshe and Miryam inside. Dinner remained on the table, cold and forgotten.

Several anxious days passed before the extended family began to assume that Miryam’s head injury wasn’t life-threatening or permanent. Happiness prevailed when that was settled. Whatever else that was going on in the world was insignificant next to Miryam’s recovery.

One evening during her recovery Wisdom showed up at Miryam’s bedside. “Still a little sore, I see,” She said.

“I’m still alive,” Miryam replied. “I thought You wanted us to do this thing,” she added. “Why this?”

“I do want you to do ‘this thing’, Miryam. You and Moshe got banged-up some, but look how I preserved the motorcycle!”

Miryam couldn’t help but laugh at that. She stored it in her memory to share with the others later. “No, but really, did we do something wrong?”

“No, at least nothing serious. Moshe was getting cocky on the bike. He needed to shed some of that before the important trip. He’ll be a little more appreciative of you after that last little excursion. But those weren’t the main issues. You both need to develop more faith in Us. I don’t want to scare you, but there are some pretty heavy moments in store for you in the near future, and you’re going to need some mental preparation to match.”

“Oh-oh. Now you have me on edge. What do You have in mind – the end of the world?”

“I’ll make sure you both can handle it. No, it won’t be the end of the world. Not exactly. But it might seem like it . . . well, whatever. Just get well. We love you. ‘Bye now.”

For the next several minutes Miryam pondered the emotional grenade that Wisdom had tossed her way before leaving. Then she recognized it for what it was: another call to exercise faith. She began to relax and soon fell asleep.

Chapter Twenty Eight

Moshe and Miryam were married on a spring Sunday at Henry and Terry’s home by Pastor Arnold Bliss, an ordained minister who had lost his Church to the city fathers, who then had sold it to a group of entrepreneurs who turned it into a wholesale marijuana outlet. The loss was minimal, as the Church had been extensively vandalized two years ago, and the congregants driven to home worship, meeting at a different location each week. As the home for this Sunday’s worship service was at Henry’s, the entire congregation was there to witness the joyful event.

“That was rather rude, don’t you think?” One of the guests said to another after Moshe and Miryam abruptly departed for their honeymoon directly after the wedding ceremony, their destination happening to be Miryam’s room down the hall. The woman with whom she was conversing had a considerably sunnier personality and responded accordingly. “Not at all. I remember – vividly – my own marriage to Charlie, and how I was thinking that the reception was endless and all I wanted to do was grab my new mate and make it happen.”

“Really, Alice, was that kind of talk necessary?” They drifted apart after a brief but uncomfortable silence. Poor Adam, Alice thought, looking at the woman’s husband. Poor, poor Adam.

As Moshe and Miryam were enjoying their honeymoon, a continent away the Pope was having a heated discussion with a number of his bishops and cardinals, many of whom had arrived at his bidding from their homelands scattered about the world. “But how can you possibly reconcile Christianity with the Muslim faith?” one cardinal brought up for the fifth time that day to what appeared to be deaf ears. “It’s a monotheistic religion all right,” he continued, “but it’s monotheistic to a fault. When they speak of one God, they mean it so literally that they exclude the possibility of a divine Son and a divine Holy Spirit. In other words, your holiness, there cannot be a Trinitarian Godhead. And they aren’t about to back down on that issue, believe me.

“I hear you,” the Pope said over the murmurs of others. “I heard you before. And quiet down, people. I can hardly hear myself think. If they remain firm on that, it’s just a concession we’ll have to make to them as the price we’ll have to pay for world peace.”

“I wonder what God will have to say about that,” one bishop murmured under his breath. The Pope, who was endowed with exceptionally sharp hearing , picked up on it.

“God?” the Pope responded. “If God really existed, the world wouldn’t be in the mess it’s in now. You know as well as I do that it’s our responsibility to maintain the myth of God to the masses of the world for the sake of world stability. It won’t do us any good to be caught up in the belief ourselves.”

The bishop who had commented was certainly caught up in the belief that God did indeed exist, having personally experienced the hand of God in his life. The Pope’s statement shocked him, as it was the first time that his superior had openly expressed his denial of God. Now he wondered what had happened to his beloved religion that had allowed an atheist to assume the lofty position as representative of Christ on Earth. But he kept his thoughts to himself, suddenly realizing that he must be in the minority. Although he privately chastised himself for his cowardice, the enormity of what he had just heard paralyzed him from speaking out about it.

“As a matter of fact,” the Pope continued, “in this modern era Christians have been quite thoroughly weaned from the Bible. They’ll readily accept a doctrinal statement from the Church that’s more all-encompassing than the narrow Biblical concept of there being only one path to heaven. The Church urgently needs to extend her reach beyond the Christian and Muslim communities to all the world’s religions for the sake of world peace. Look at how little our own Christian flock understands what Scripture says of God. Or even cares.”

“Well, maybe the Christians may not know what’s in their Holy Book, but the Muslims certainly do,” another bishop said. “I don’t think a statement of faith contradictory to the Quran will wash with them.”

“I do,” the Pope said. “Think of how contradictory the Quran is with itself, advocating both peace and violence at the same time. With the proper wording, we can easily get past that tiny little hurdle.”

Then he got to the heart of the matter. “We need to place more emphasis on the material world, minimizing thoughts of heaven or spiritual intangibles. What we really need to do is get in line with GLOW’s agenda. Look at what this magnificent man has already accomplished! And see how he’s been received by people of all faiths! Think how we can help by reconciling all the world’s religions – we’ll accomplish nothing less than the restoration of the original Babel, and indeed there will at last be nothing preventing mankind from pursuing every dream, every thought, and every delight that his rich, fruitful imagination can produce!”

“What about Israel?” another bishop pressed. “They’ve been clamoring for the right to build a new temple in Jerusalem.”

“What about it?” the Pope responded, irritated with what to him was an extraneous comment. “Let them build it. Since the Palestinians got so thoroughly trampled, they’re not likely to put up a fuss. And don’t talk to me about including Jews in our policy of thorough ecumenism. They’ll put up with anything we decide to do if they know what’s good for them.”

Within weeks the Catholic Church announced its position of tolerance and welcoming acceptance of all creeds and faiths within the vast community of mankind. To prove that new and kinder attitude, they published in all the world’s media their statement of faith, one in which the person of GLOW was prominently honored. GLOW responded by honoring the Church in a widely-publicized celebration held in the Vatican.

A major development that emerged from this celebratory gathering was another document, signed jointly by GLOW and the Pope, stating the Church’s support of GLOW’s confirmation of Israel’s covenented right to exist, a right that included Israel’s access to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem for the purpose of establishing a new temple. One item in the document that received much enthusiastic media attention was the formalization of the world-embracing Common Economic System, abbreviated to CES, its main feature the ubiquitous mark that symbolized patriotic obeisance to GLOW. CES promised to rid the world of the numerous curses by which the underworld had plagued modern society: theft of property and identity, money laundering and illegal transactions of every dark sort, and hoarding. CES made perfect sense to everyone except a tiny segment of society, those malcontents labeled Christian Fundamentalist Terrorists.

The peace in Israel imposed by GLOW led to the desire on the part of the rabbinical staff to forge ahead with the construction of a new temple, which had been a national desire for over a millennium. In synagogues the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of a temple was quoted often, particularly selected passages of his Chapter 40 which was written while Ezekiel was still captive in Babylon:

“In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was smitten, on the selfsame day, the hand of the Lord was upon me, and brought me there. In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain, on which was a structure like a city on the south. And he brought me there, and, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate. And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall show thee; for to the intent that I might show them unto thee art thou brought here. Declare all that thou seest to the house of Israel. And, behold, a wall on the outside of the house round about, and in the man’s hand a measuring reed of six cubits long by the cubit and an handbreadth; so he measured the breadth of the building, one reed, and the height, one reed. Then came he unto the gate which looketh toward the east, and went up its steps, and measured the threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad; and the other threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad. And every little chamber was one reed long, and one reed broad; and between the little chambers were five cubits, and the threshold of the gate by the porch of the gate within was one reed.”

 

While some rabbis would continue with the details presented in the remainder of the chapter, most would stop short after a few samples and exhort their congregants, saying in effect that since God had provided them with such minute details, many of which could apply only to the temple that hadn’t yet been built, did it not behoove His people to respond by implementing this great vision? This message, repeated often in diverse locales, brought the nation together in a unique way to fulfill Ezekiel’s vision.  

The nation of Israel commenced immediately with the construction of their Third Temple, working at a feverish pace as if its completion was a national emergency.

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #29

Chapter Twenty Six (continued)

“I wonder if you could teach me,” Earl said, entering the conversation for the first time.

“Gee, I don’t know.” Moshe scratched his chin as he reflected on the possibility.

“Forget it, Earl,” Joyce told him. “You’re not exactly young any more. And what about a missing piece of your body? An important one for a would-be biker, I’d guess.”

Moshe was quiet for a time, thinking, as all eyes were leveled on him for the final answer. “It turns out that with a motorcycle the left hand is more important than the right,” he said after a lengthy pause. “The clutch is mounted on the left handlebar and takes a good squeeze to operate. The brake’s on the right, which if it was the only one would be at least as important as the clutch, but there’s also a foot-operated brake pedal on the right side, which makes for some redundancy. You’d just have to work around your handicap there, be more aware and leave extra space between you and the vehicle in front.”

“But what about the throttle?” Earl was excited about the prospect of riding a bike, but he was beginning to see the negatives. “How can I twist it with nothing to twist with?”

“Exactly right,” Joyce commented. “Which is why you’re not going to be playing with a motorcycle.” Joyce wasn’t conflicted in the least about preventing Earl from embarking on another risky adventure. Uppermost in her mind was her love for Earl, and her rich imagination presented a number of images of Earl bleeding from various abused body parts after falling off a bike. But also was her hospital memory of Maggie’s lengthy expositions of the hazards and discomforts of motorcycle riding behind her husband. Joyce knew that if, by some miracle, Earl would become proficient in riding a bike, he’d be bugging her to ride with him. No way that’s going to happen, she told herself, dismissing the possibility as ridiculous.

“Forget Earl,” Joyce said to Moshe. “Try it with Ellery. Let Marge have fun on the back.” Marge rolled her eyes to Joyce, giving her a sarcastic “Thanks, but no thanks.” But Ellery became excited about the prospect of a new adventure and coaxed Moshe outside for a first lesson.

Ellery had the entire household as an audience for his first try on the bike, which was a Yamaha Virago. The Virago was a sporty machine with an 1100 c.c. V-twin engine that Harley riders tended to call a Harley wannabe, but the truth was that it was a great engine in its own right. They were amply rewarded by the hilarity of Ellery’s ineptitude, which included a spectacular brush with a tree limb. Not to be put off by a little pain, Ellery persevered until he was able to keep the bike in an upright position for minutes at a time. The wobbling continued, though, which kept the mirth alive to the onlookers. Several days later, Ellery became proficient enough as a rider that his audience lost interest, and he continued to develop his skills in relative privacy.

A week after the previous session, Earl opened the Wednesday night Bible study with a direct rebuttal of Darwinian evolution. “In the first place,” he began, “natural selection doesn’t address the issue of how the first living thing began. All life has something in common: DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, which consists of a sugar-phosphate matrix that operates like the tape that used to be the storage medium for software instructions. Inside that matrix is a very long string of chemicals called nucleotides, whose pattern, like that of digital ones and zeros, describe a code for life. This code not only defines the nature and operation of a living being, but includes the instructions for making it.

“Natural selection describes a process by which a living being that is subjected to random variations in its DNA code may improve its characteristics or even, hypothetically, to develop into an improved being. Even if one accepts that premise, which is demonstrably false, natural selection has nothing to do with the creation of the first living being, because that process involves competition only remotely, if at all. One of the biggest problems with getting to that first living thing is the stumbling block of chirality. All of the enormously long sugar-phosphate molecules comprising the DNA string must be of a single orientation, called right-handed, whereas such molecules exist in nature with both left- and right-handed orientations in equal measure. The ability of randomly assembling even a small portion of a DNA string of the proper chirality has been mathematically demonstrated to be impossible, given all the time in the world. The same chirality issue exists with the assembly of amino acids into proteins.

“Speaking of assembling proteins, genes are the subroutines within the DNA code that specify the sequence by which specific amino acids are assembled to form the desired protein. But the assembly itself requires another protein to read the code and perform the actual assembly. This begs the question like the chicken and the egg of which came first: the protein being assembled to support a living being, or the protein required to perform the assembly? Entertaining the notion that they both formed at the same time is beyond naive.

“Then there’s the equally big issue of sexual reproduction: both male and female had to have been formed at the same time to make it workable. Moreover, sexuality is just one example of many living systems that require symbiotic relationships to maintain life.

“But even supposing that these issues could somehow be resolved, what about the fact that, by its own definition, a purely natural system lacks intelligence. The implication of that limitation is rather obvious: unintelligent systems cannot anticipate, meaning that they can’t visualize beforehand a function that doesn’t yet exist. Because of that inability, they can’t create that function, which is the basis of Dr. Michael Behe’s famous ‘irreducible complexity’ issue. By the way, there were some early attempts, since thoroughly discredited, to refute Behe on that score by proposing that new systems can be generated by ‘borrowing’ features of earlier systems.

“Then yet further, there’s the huge issue of systems integration. Even if a ground-bound animal with legs were to somehow develop wings and got past the transitional stage intact, he’d have to have the bone structure, musculature, tendons, nervous system, lung design and a host of other companion features to be able to fly with those wings.

“There are many more issues described by highly-qualified scientists that inhibit evolution from being a viable process. But our time’s up for tonight and you’ve been given plenty to think about. I hope that what I’ve said to you so far will help you see that the Genesis story of creation is the more scientific one after all. Good night and God bless you.”

The next evening Moshe opened the dinner table conversation with talk of the bike, but this time he switched the subject back to Earl.

“We can make you a prosthetic,” he told Earl. “Nothing that can rotate and twist, but I think we can modify the throttle grip, add a lever to it so that instead of twisting you can nudge it. The most difficult part there will be doing it in small increments. If you can master that, you’ll be home free. There’s something else in your favor – we can put you on the Goldwing after you get proficient on the Yamaha. The Goldwing is a bigger bike, but it also has an electronic cruise control, just like a car and it’s a good one. Once you get to highway speed, you can set that with the push of a button and relax.” Moshe looked at Joyce, expecting an onslaught of negative comments. He was astonished with her response.

“Good idea, Moshe,” Joyce replied. All eyes were on her, stunned with the acquiescence.

“She had a conversation last night,” Earl supplied economically.

“Oh,” was murmured about the table. But Henry didn’t get it. “What’s that all about?” he asked.

“Apparently, Wisdom thinks it may be a good idea for me to learn to ride a bike,” Earl told him. I don’t know why, but I’m sure She does, and I’m not going to argue.”

“Me neither,” Joyce said. It’s a matter of trust.”

Moshe spent the evening working on a throttle attachment. “It’s ready for you,” he told Earl the next morning over breakfast. The news excited Earl, who wolfed down the remainder of the meal and jumped up from the table, signaling Moshe to follow him out. Ellery was disappointed with the proceedings. “I guess I’m not gonna have a bike any more,” he said dispiritedly. “I was planning on taking Marge on a ride.”

“Hey, you still have your choice of the other bikes,” Moshe replied. “How about the Goldwing? But I’d get a little experience on it before taking Marge along.” The suggestion brightened Ellery’s outlook and he went out into the yard with Moshe, a happy grin dominating his features.

Marge was grinning too. “Another reprieve for me,” she said happily, to the laughter of Joyce and Terry. But Miryam was as excited as the men at the prospect of riding. “You’re lucky, Joyce,” she said. “You’ll be getting the Goldwing when it’s time to ride. Moshe took me out on it yesterday. I couldn’t believe the comfort. I felt like a queen. It’s the ultimate convertible. I love riding, cold out as it is now, and I’ll bet you will too once you get used to it.”

“As long as it stays upright,” Joyce countered. They all laughed at that.

Moshe fitted Earl with a stick-like extension to his stump of a right arm. The fastening device was an awkward arrangement of a belt and several bungee cords, but that wasn’t the problem. Try as he might, Earl couldn’t muster up the small muscle control required to operate the throttle, to which Moshe had attached a lever. The motorcycle remained in neutral while Earl’s struggles consistently brought the engine abruptly from idle to redline. Discouraged, Earl shut off the engine. “Good try, Moshe, he said, “but it looks like Joyce’s first assessment was right after all.”

“What, and deny the Holy Spirit?”

“There is that.”

“There has to be a way,” Moshe said, rubbing his forehead as if his brain needed stimulation. For several minutes they both were silent, each reflecting on how better control could be achieved. It was Earl who came up with a possibility. “How about if you added another lever? A stationary one, something that I could use as a brace to operate the other lever.”

“Yeah,” Moshe said. “Hop off, I’ll take the bike back into the garage. I’ll let you know when I’m ready again.”

A half hour after Earl had returned to the house, Moshe stood at the front door and called him back outside. The stationary lever was mounted on the bike and Moshe reattached Earl’s arm arrangement. “Try it now,” he told Earl.

Earl climbed back on and started the engine. He displayed a huge smile as the engine volume rose fractionally. That did the trick,” he told Moshe gratefully. “As a bonus, I can rest my arm on the new lever, which lets me feel that I have both handlebars under my control. Thanks a lot, man.”

Moshe went into the other controls, focusing first on the clutch handgrip, and then the foot-operated shift lever. “It’s not like a car,” he began. “In a car, you go to the position of the gear you want to select. Low’s one place, second’s another, and high another yet. But on a bike, it’s all sequential. You kick down from neutral into low, and then back up into second and up again into third, and another up takes you into fourth. Kick down and you go back into third. Up from there back into fourth, and down from there into second. You get back into neutral between low and second, it takes some practice to get the feel for where it is. Right now you want to keep it in low until you get comfortable with handling it. Now, about the brakes. Forget the hand brake, at least for now. The foot brake’s on the right. Go ahead, step on it, get the feel.

After several minutes of mentally reviewing the instructions, Earl felt ready to take the first try at moving. Moshe reviewed the controls once more with him, and then stood back. “Grab the clutch and kick it in gear.”

That part was successful, but what came next wasn’t. Earl was too quick on releasing the clutch and the bike jumped and bucked him off. Joyce was watching, and her concern added to the confusion. After settling them both down, Moshe switched tactics. “Keep your right foot on the brake as you release the clutch,” he told Earl. “Just keep your foot on the brake and do that several times until you get a feel for how to do it smoothly.”

Earl did as he was instructed, and then on the final iteration of that exercise he lifted his foot from the brake. That journey lasted for a hundred yards before he wobbled into a fall. Joyce was about to run after him but was surprised to see him laugh as he picked up the bike. “This is just like learning to hang glide!” he shouted to Moshe. “Lots of dust and muss and smashing into the ground, but that’s half the fun of learning!”

“If you say so,” Moshe said dubiously as he and Joyce came up to him. Earl got back on and lasted marginally longer in an upright position. Joyce refused to continue watching the debacle and returned into the house. At dinnertime Earl and Moshe came into the dining room with smiles on their faces. “He’s made real progress, Joyce,” Moshe told her.   At least now we know it’s doable.”

It took Earl two weeks of exhausting practice, but at the end of that time he was an accomplished rider, and graduated to the Goldwing. It took him another two weeks to become proficient with that bike, but finally the day arrived when he proudly invited Joyce to ride with him.

Joyce wasn’t at all happy with the prospect of riding behind a one-armed driver on a bike that looked about as big as a small car. She climbed on reluctantly, but was surprised at the smoothness of their departure. After a half hour of riding, she began to relax, appreciating that Wisdom knew what She was doing with Earl. The more she let go, the more she realized that her seat was beyond comfortable. Now I know why Maggie was so contented on the back of a Goldwing, she thought to herself. And why Marge was all smiles when she got on it. I think I can live with this, Wisdom, and thank you so much for the experience.

As Ellery and Earl became self-sufficient with their motorcycles, Moshe spent more time alone with Miryam. They rode together often, and with the weather warming up somewhat they took to packing their lunches and stopping at some inviting meadow for picnics. Their excursions grew bolder with time, as they began to appreciate that the authorities, of whom they saw plenty along their routes, avoided direct confrontation with motorcycle riders. The picnic sessions also grew bolder, becoming more intimate with time, and so did the petting, which finally led to Miryam’s jumping up with a shout to stop. “I can’t take this any more, Moshe,” she said, looking down on her man. “I’m getting so frustrated we either have to do something to make me an honest woman, or stop this altogether.”

“What do you suggest?” he asked, looking up at her with a wide grin.

“Don’t you think it’s your job to do the suggesting?” she shot back.

“You know exactly how I feel about you,” he said, laughing. “What’s more, the way the world’s going, I don’t think the usual lengthy engagement is in order. So then,” he said as he got on his knees before her, “Miryam my darling, will you marry me?”

It was her turn to grin. “Of course. What was the hold-up?”

Henry and Terry were thrilled with the news which, in opposition to the end-time lifestyle they were daily confronted with, spoke instead of the happy continuation of life. Terry went up into the attic and retrieved her own wedding dress, which she happily altered for Miryam’s use.

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #28

Chapter Twenty Six

POTNAR failed to deny himself sleep over the loss of Taiwan to China. As long as this insignificant little island remained in its traditional place in the world economic system, he could live with the regime change. What did occupy his happy mind was the peace treaty. Its mere existence elevated him to a position of the most commanding respect in the world community for its accomplishment, something that American presidents had sought without fulfillment since just about the beginning of time. It’s time I put that respect to use, he thought, reminding himself of the deference that Poteur had shown him over the recent past. Collecting his enormous staff, he put it to them with his characteristic directness: convene a conference of the Regional Presidents. When asked deferentially by his Chief of Staff what this conference might entail, he merely said that he had a speech to deliver. With that, he retired to his favorite lounge, uncapped the exquisitely costly decanter of Scotch Whisky and poured a generous amount into a waiting goblet of silver inlaid with enormous diamonds and a painstakingly-crafted gold image of his crowned head. He called for his private secretary, who sat on the spartan chair provided for the purpose of dictation and began musing on the broad outlines of the speech he would deliver to this convention of world leaders. These days he usually delegated the task of speechwriting, like all his other duties, to his staff. But this time his mood told him that he could do this better by himself. Almost magically the most appropriate and eloquent words came into his head and out his mouth, to be collected with reverence by his secretary like precious jewels. He didn’t need an outline. The words just seemed to come out in the right order and fit without further adjustment into a grand organizing pattern that was simply there. He finished within the hour, filled his goblet with scotch, and shooed his secretary away to have the speech immortalized on paper without the usual invitation to sit on his lap. What he had just accomplished was far more enticing than the prospect of sex, and he used the interim to reflect on the recognition of greatness that this message would engender among those to whom he would deliver it.

Indeed, as he presented his speech to the body of leaders, they displayed the deference that he had anticipated. Actually, he reflected as he looked at them, their attitude went beyond deference to a state of awe, which led directly to the bottom line. “Gentlemen, I am now prepared to assume the duties and responsibilities, as is my rightful due, as your ultimate leader. I wish to formalize that position with your vote of confidence.” He paused, allowing the vote to be taken. It was unanimously in his favor, as he had expected, knowing that a win in the face of dissension by a minority would be met with virtually instant excommunication of the opposition, with a most unpleasant death very close behind.

His position having been formalized, Potnar informed them that henceforth he would be addressed by a title suitable to his position, which was GLOW, Grand Leader of the World. Under his leadership, all the world governments with the exception of China and the Vatican were now under his sole control, these governments consisting of the five Western regions of North America, South America, Western Europe, Indo-Australia and the Pacific Far West and the five Eastern regions of what remained of Russia and its old Eastern European satellites, Persia, Syrio-Turkey, Arabo-Africa and Southern Asia.

GLOW had managed to discount China in his mind as neither a loss nor a threat, preferring to adhere to the old Western view of that country as a sleeping giant, which was no longer true. The Vatican was a different matter. He had met with some resistance from the Pope to his assumption of world leadership, as evidenced by the hint in his pronouncements that the Catholic Church was still rather far away from the ideal of full secularization. It was time to have a personal confrontation with the Pope. He directed his staff to set up a face-to-face with the Pope at his residence and at a time convenient to his schedule.

The Pope knew that he couldn’t turn down a demand from GLOW to meet with him. The man was simply too powerful. What rankled him more than anything else was GLOW’s insistence that the meeting be held in the world leader’s own palatial estate, which now was considered to be the seat of world government. This venue meant that the leader held all the cards, as was obvious the moment they came together for a direct confrontation. The fearful Pope wondered if, perhaps, GLOW had a well-stocked interrogation chamber tucked away somewhere in the basement of this vast complex, which was more opulent by far than the once-grand Vatican.

The intimidation wasn’t as bad as the Pope had expected. Actually, the Church had come quite far into full ecumenism, almost to the point of accepting Islam into her fold despite the obvious differences between Christian Scripture and the Quran. What it would take to complete that massive accomplishment would be to continue the quiet, gradual setting aside of virtually all the meaningful portions of both texts, retaining only that material that would be acceptable to both peoples. This material was rather tiny and insignificant, but then most of the masses never had wanted to read their sacred texts in the first place, so the people themselves would be more than happy to see this information go by the wayside and worship a more benign and tolerant god of their own making. Given the prevailing state of the Church, the Pope was satisfied, albeit with a fearful look at GLOW, that he could support GLOW’s wishes.

During GLOW’s presence at the leadership conference and his follow-on meeting with the Pope, his staff was preoccupied with maintaining these events on track with his wishes and demands. America enjoyed a brief respite from his micromanagerial interest in the everyday affairs of the citizenry.

During that time a kinder Ralph took over some of the duties in the store, freeing Henry to wander down the aisles chatting up his customers. Putting his people skills to use, Henry was able to accurately differentiate between those who might be open to barter business and those who would call the authorities. Although there was an ever-present danger of his encountering a well-rehearsed government spy, he had devised a series of clever questions to help in outing such a person. Of course, he had the ever-present assistance of the Holy Spirit, although for the life of him Henry couldn’t grasp how such a presence could be so ubiquitous as to include him among the billions of people on the planet, each with his own problems.

Over a relatively short period of time the shop acquired a substantial base of repeat customers, most of whom came in to utilize the shop’s black market service. Collecting a nominal fee for each barter transaction, Henry was able to maintain the survival of his extended family, which included Ralph and the three couples who continued to live in his home along with his wife and himself.

There was a side operation to the business, one that fulfilled Wisdom’s motivation to create it. As the store became ever more popular among those who had avoided accepting the body mark, Henry was able to offer them the Scriptural materials that the three couples had generated. As a result, there was a substantial harvest of souls. As Ralph continued to develop spiritually, he also began to be influential in winning people to Christ. With every soul he participated in bringing to Christ, his countenence became sunnier. Henry slowly lost his missionary sense toward Ralph, which was replaced with a real brotherly friendship.

As Henry’s business expanded, so did Arnold Bliss’ Church, thanks to the excitement over Earl’s ongoing presentation of Jesus’ feeding events and the word-of-mouth draw of people into the Church and her Bible study.   This Wednesday evening in response to a question he moved on from the topic of Jesus Feedings to the trustworthiness of the Bible.

The question had been posed by Dick Billings. “Given the precision of the information on the feeding events, it kind of suggests that the Bible should be interpreted more literally than most of us are used to doing. At one Church I attended several years back the pastor scoffed at the notion that the creation story in Genesis One was literally true. He’d told us in the congregation that science, and particularly Darwin’s theory of evolution, had pretty much trashed the possibility of a literal interpretation.”

“Well, at least he told it like it is,” Earl responded. Too bad about that. Let’s see by a show of hands how many of you have bought into Darwin’s evolution.” Earl didn’t need to count, as everybody’s hand except Joyce’s shot up, including pastor Bliss’.

“Are you trying to suggest otherwise?” Dick asked as Earl shook his head in disbelief.

“Suggest? No, that’s way too weak a word. I’m telling you that Darwin is wrong, and that you and the rest of America should have placed more faith in your Bibles and less on the culture. Unfortunately, it wasn’t Christians who blew the whistle on him. It was science itself.

“For well over a century now,” Earl continued, “we have been told with the most positive assurance by our scientific authorities how the earth was formed. They have told us with a fool’s certainty how long ago this was, and how the life upon it came to be and how it changed, always upward, from the simple to the complex all the way up to that masterpiece of chance, mankind itself. Not only are we told by them, but their words are parroted to us by their followers in all walks of life. Our teachers from the very first grade had measured and controlled our development by the efficiency with which we swallowed the information that they had implanted within us. Added with equal authority to their voices are those who wrote, enacted and produced our television programs, especially by those who had professed to teach our children. Absurdly, even our national park rangers had arrogated to themselves this same function, who took it upon themselves to furnish us with the prevailing view of our geologic and archaeological history. We were told by this legion of instructors that man’s current understanding of his roots and the surrounding soil is so complete, exact and infallible that it must obviously and necessarily be true.   No matter if, from time to time, the mechanism of formation changes a bit here or there, or the time frame is halved, or quadrupled, or slashed to a tenth of the previous date so long as the antiquity is sufficiently great, measurable in millions of years.

“But common sense alone should have told you that the entire uniformitarian scheme of huge tracts of time has a serious flaw. Who among you doesn’t retain some unease at the concept that out of all these millions of years man in his full glory as recorder of history has been around for only the past few thousand years? That just seems a bit too coincidental, too pat in reasoning, does it not, the apparently sudden explosion of the ability to reason abstractly and to write? Perhaps we should question our experts a bit more, make them more accountable for what they insist is the truth. Despite the rigorous training that supposedly places them above errors of logic they remain, alas, human beings with all the faults of the mind that we share, perhaps even having a larger portion than others of that most disagreeable shortcoming, intellectual arrogance.

“This unjustified attitude, as a matter of fact, extends to all of us who were taught to believe that our present age of technoscientific enlightenment prevents us from falling into the errors of our ancestors.   We shake our heads condescendingly at the rigid thinkers who came before. We marvel that they were so blatantly medieval as to accuse as blasphemous such forward thinking geniuses as Galileo and Kepler and Columbus, men who risked their lives in their insistence that the earth was not the center of the universe, nor that the heavenly motions were composites of perfect circles, nor that the earth itself was flat. Virtually all of us would agree that such narrow thinking as fueled the engine of the Inquisition could not happen today. And in our agreement we are all terribly wrong. It may so happen that we are every bit as narrowminded as those who persecuted Galileo, being every bit as wrong. And the motivation behind their savagery and our just as terrible sin of passive acquiescence to our own self-proclaimed experts of the natural sciences would not be religious. It never was. It is now, as then, the attempt on the side of the information disseminators to maintain the concepts most dear to the prevailing intellectual regime, and on the side of their audience of a vile and ubiquitous intellectual indifference. Galileo, by the way, was a devout Christian. He was chastised for attempting to tell the Duchess of Tuscany that the geocentric view of the solar system was extrabiblical. But in the end he was right – the Church had embraced a notion that wasn’t even Scriptural.

 

“Over and above our own indifference, the uniformitarian basis of our earth and life sciences threw an almost insurmountable conceptual stumbling block into the path of any person who came to the Bible and other historically respected sources in search of understanding the nature of the world about him. The person who wished to speculate on the accuracy of our current understanding had a lifetime of injected information to sort through and logically test for truth and consistency. Beyond that, he had to have sufficient courage to withstand the attitudes and opinions of his associates, neighbors, and often even his loved ones. This was especially true for the individual who sincerely desired to comprehend the truth of the Bible, for our present science had declared it mythical, allegorical, and certainly not compatible in a literal sense with our advanced understanding of ourselves and the universe around us.

“I see that I’m running out of time and I haven’t even started to show you how modern molecular biology has tossed the theory of evolution into the intellectual dumpster despite the efforts of several molecular biologists to assert that Scripture and evolution were compatible. I’ll end this session by putting it to you straight. What if, despite the ponderous mass of prevailing opinion and the enormous weight of malevolent disdain that presses against those whose intellectual vision disagrees with it, our entire system of naturalist thought was indeed wrong? What if the Bible contained far more literal truth than virtually all but a tiny minority of the persons in this or the last several generations could have imagined?

“What if the gradualists had been recognized as wrong at the outset, allowing the early catastrophists to pursue their initial advances in the field of natural history? An acceptance of a different truth in Charles Darwin’s day might have led his naturalist contemporaries along a quite different path in their acquisition of knowledge than the one they so foolishly chose to follow. They may then have arrived at a scenario similar to the one that real, working scientists just a short time ago finally came to recognize as representing our very recent geological past. This picture places Jupiter, in response to the awesome Hand of God, as a source of very great violence against the Earth.” He and Joyce left, allowing them the opportunity to digest that thought.

One day Henry received a visit from several bikers, whose presence initially alarmed him. They turned out to be so cheerful and friendly that he went out on a limb and bought several of the bikes, giving them some badly-needed cash to survive as human beings for whatever short time remained. Although cash had been prohibited, the black market continued to use it as its principal means of exchange. Its portability and generality continued to make it more useful than straight barter, and the bikers insisted that the transaction involve cash.

Henry knew that he’d have to face Terry’s wrath when he told her about his purchase, and was sorry that the apprehension that he’d harbored about it was confirmed as all too real when he discussed it at the dinner table. Her tirade had hardly gotten off the ground when Moshe intervened. “Please,” he said. “Those bikes just may be the most valuable possessions you have.”

“How so?” Henry asked. Even he was taken aback by Moshe’s enthusiasm. “Nobody here even knows how to operate one.”

“Wanna bet?” he retorted. “I had a bike in Israel while I was going to college.”

“Did Somebody talk with you last night, Moshe?” Joyce interjected.

“Yes. She did. I have a very strong feeling that what you did was in the will of God, Henry.”

“Isn’t that interesting,” Henry responded enthusiastically. “I had this strange feeling of comfort while were were making the transaction – like this was something that was supposed to happen.”

“I give up,” Terry said in exasperation. But she, too, seemed to accept this new development.

[to be continued]

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #27

Chapter Twenty Five

The abrupt end of hostilities between the Israelis and the Russian-led enemy forces created what the president of the new North American Region saw as an opportunity. He jumped on it, sending his Secretary of State to Tel Aviv with the mandate to forge a more permanent peace between Israel and their Palestinian neighbors, even though the subdued Palestinians were no longer seen by most Israeli citizens as a threat to the security of the state. Nor did the Palestinians themselves have an appetite for further conflict. Perhaps it was this new meekness that elicited compassion from the Jewish people toward those who wished to share their land.

At any rate, to the immense surprise of the world’s politicians, perhaps most of all to the feckless Secretary, Israel signed on to a binding agreement, effective for seven years, after the North American dignitary gave a speech in which, with all the considerable pomposity that he could muster, he delivered a pronouncement that he claimed came straight from the mouth of his boss: henceforth, provided that Israel agree to comply with the terms of this “interim” contract, the president would personally guarantee the maintenance of the original covenant between God and Abraham, basically that Israel had a right to exist.

 

The time was ripe for Israel’s compliance and the consequent solution to what had been considered an intractable issue. In utter disregard of the obvious intervention of God in the recent battle, the Israeli citizens remained fearful of yet more violence. The loss of Haifa was a big blow to the collective Jewish psyche.   They had had their fill of bloodshed. The countryside was littered with the ugly, rotting leftovers of the recent conflict. A massive cleanup campaign would be necessary to render much of the country livable.

The contract was, in fact, quite reasonable to those Israelis who had no knowledge of their prophets: simply for agreeing to live side-by-side with a new Palestinian nation that would formally govern the historically Jewish lands of Gaza and Judea, Israel would be able to call it a day on the fighting. It was a great solution, the new Israeli government claimed, because any threat of mass destruction would also threaten the new Palestinian nation with unthinkable collateral damage. With great relief, the Israeli population gave up its weapons, tossed their gas masks back into their closets, and tore down the walls that separated them from the Palestinians.

Centuries ago in the distant past, the prophets had said otherwise about this very event. Joel, for instance, had said the following in his Chapter 3:

“I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.”

Ezekiel and Jeremiah both spoke out about the false hope of peace, wherein in Chapter 13, Ezekiel said:

“Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there is no peace;”

Centuries later, Paul echoed that concern in Chapter Five of his first letter to the Thessalonians when he paraphrased an aspect of Jesus’ Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24:

“For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.”

But of all the prophets, Daniel in his Chapter Nine was the most clearly foreboding with respect to this issue.

“And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”

 

In utter disregard of foreboding pronouncements of their ancient prophets, the Israelis set about in the wake of this agreement to commence building a new temple, to be erected on the Temple Mount under the sharing arrangement that was established in the contract.

Responding to a runner from Dafna, Jacob and Moira left their overlook at the crest of the ridge between Israel and Syria and returned to the kibbutz, somewhat happy with the situation and looking forward to a restoration of normal life in the community but yet, in their knowledge of Scripture, wary of the future. Knowing that they had but a few years at most of peace, they continued to feel that the time was not appropriate to have children. Nevertheless, and despite Moira’s sense of loss that they wouldn’t be sharing their love for each other with a child, they adjusted quickly to their new lives in Dafna in which their bond of love toward each other continued to grow and strengthen.

 

The Peoples’ Republic of China had observed the unfolding Mideast conflict with intense interest. Of particular relevance to the Chinese politburo was the neglect with which the Western Regions treated the little nation of Israel. The other governments could be forgiven for having mixed feelings about the clash between the Israelis and the Palestinians, but the North American Region was another story. Throughout most of its previous incarnation as the United States of America, this entity was the professed friend and ally of Israel, and in the past it had come through with support for the nation at critical times. Perhaps that support was reluctant at times, but it had never really let Israel down when the going was tough.

Until now. America had offered no support whatsoever in this most recent unrest. Whatever caused the cease-fire, it wasn’t America that did it or even contributed. But then, Armerica has a rather poor record when it comes down to helping friends out of jams. Hungary in ’56, the leader noted. What a fiasco that was! How naive of the Hungarians to think America would come to the rescue. And Cuba. And Africa. As he ticked off he various countries that America had betrayed, the thought in the back of his head leapt to the fore: is Taiwan ripe for the plucking? Have we been too worried about a threat from America that in all likelihood would never materialize? The president reflected on the state of Chinese-American relations over the recent past, beginning with his country’s enjoyment of Clinton’s policy of “engagement” with them, which amounted to a winking at China’s brazen theft of military technology. They were cowardly then and are just as cowardly now. Undoubtedly more – worse than Neville Chamberlain of Britain as he fell over himself attempting to appease Hitler. Idiots. Now that the American government has decimated its own population and torn its own economy to shreds, they’re no longer even useful for trade.

Concerned now that the Chinese leadership historically had been far too cautious about retaking what really belonged to them, the president called for a formal meeting of the members of the politburo. When his peers were assembled, he shared his thoughts with them. His proposal was met with more timidity than he expected, his comrades voicing their concern over the American involvement in the peace treaty. But the Chinese president promoted his view of the new confirmation of God’s covenant with Israel as nothing but a lukewarm show of support to a nation that continued to survive without America’s help when they most needed it. Even as he overcame the objection of his peers, however, he was annoyed at a dark, troubling thought that persisted in the back of his mind. It was an undeniable fact that Israel had continued to survive under the bleakest of odds. How could that have happened? he asked himself. Unable to answer it, he forcefully shoved the apprehension from his consideration.

Quickly thereafter, the command was given to assault selected Taiwanese political targets with missiles from the mainland, to be followed by a massed assault by amphibious landing of the island by the most highly-trained troops, with sternly-expressed orders to leave the manufacturing sector and other elements of the economic powerhouse untouched. All that was needed was a change of owners.

The assault was carried out with overwhelming force and merciless precision. By the end of the next week, the economic powerhouse was running quite smoothly as if nothing had just happened. But now it was working on behalf of its new Chinese masters.

There was not so much as a peep out of the North American Region, leaving the Japanese people fretting about whether they would be the next in line for a Chinese takeover. The Australians also were rather concerned with the development in Taiwan, as were the Philippine people. But, given the absence of North American leadership, none of these fearful neighbors made the slightest move to confront the giant that was now fully awake, staring with wide-eyed lust at its potential enemies and breathing fire like the dragon that represented it.

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #26

Chapter Twenty Four

 

 

“That’s all there is to it?” one congregant asked Earl at the next Wednesday night’s Bible Study run by pastor Arnold Bliss. Earl had followed his presentation from Second Kings 4 of Elisha’s feeding of the hundred with a presentation of Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand. In the process he had described the nature of the miracle, which was simply that every time a loaf was broken, both halves became whole again.

“That’s it. The rest is in the process and the patterns.” Earl then described the process of distribution, followed by a figure that he had Joyce display in front of the crowd. “That’s the pattern,” he said, pointing to the figure. “Seventeen rows by five columns of companies, four of which are companies of fifty, and the middle one being a company of a hundred. Each of those five columns is given one starting loaf of bread, which is then distributed within the column by the process I’ve described. With the company of a hundred being twenty people wide and each of the four companies of fifty being ten people wide, the number of columns of people within those five columns of companies amounts to sixty. If each basket contains five leftover loaves, then it takes twelve baskets to collect all the remainders, one from each column of people. There you have it – starting with five loaves, Jesus fed, at least symbolically, five thousand people, with a remainder of twelve baskets. All the numbers in the Gospels for that event fit the pattern.”

“Remarkable!” one person exclaimed.

“But I just did the math,” said another. “Seventeen rows by four companies of fifty and one company of a hundred amounts to five thousand, one hundred people. There’s an extra hundred in there.”

“Very good. Okay, so then remove a company of a hundred.”

“But then you’re left with an awkward partial rectangle. I’d think God could do better than that.”

“So do I. Okay. So then insert Elisha’s company of a hundred.”

“Oh. Oh, my gosh.”

“Which is a very important, because it suggests that the several feeding events should be integrated together.”

The following week Earl continued with his discussion of the feedings, this time addressing Jesus’ feeding of the four thousand. “The interesting thing about this event,” he told the people, “is that if you perform the same process as with the feeding of the five thousand, you don’t come up with a pattern that satisfies the numbers given in the Gospels. The only way you can get a meaningful pattern is if you rotate the process so that the rows become columns and vice-versa. If you do that, two distinct patterns emerge: one rectangle of three companies of fifty, and another rectangle of eleven horizontal columns by seven vertical rows of companies of fifty. The smaller rectangle contains one hundred fifty people, and the large one has three thousand eight hundred fifty people. Together, they make four thousand people. The smaller company can be added to the larger during the distribution so that there are seven companies that each receive one loaf. There’s a total of thirty-five rows of people in all, so that with each row producing a leftover loaf, at the same five loaves per basket there are seven baskets of remainders. That’s all there is to it – seven beginning loaves, seven baskets of remainders, and four thousand fed.”

“Awesome,” someone spoke up. “But were the baskets of the same size in the two feedings?”

“Very good question. Actually, they weren’t. The baskets used in the collection of leftovers from the five thousand were small handbaskets, while the ones used in the feeding of the four thousand were larger. But here’s the point – in each case the feeding of the menfolk contributed five loaves to each basket, regardless of its size. The two groups were very different. The five thousand were fed on the north side of the Sea of Galilee. These people were primarily Jewish, as confirmed by the number twelve of baskets, which corresponds to the twelve tribes of Israel. The four thousand were fed on the south side, where Gentiles predominated, also as confirmed by the number seven of baskets, which corresponds to the seven Churches described by Jesus in Revelation 2 and 3. The Jewish religion was very patriarchal, which supports the notion that the smaller baskets of remainders from the feeding of five thousand held only the loaves from the feeding of the menfolk. The Christian faith is far more inclusive toward women and children, so it makes sense that this characteristic is emphasized by the larger baskets from the feeding of the four thousand included the remainders from the unspecified feeding of the children and women as well as the men.”

“That’s even more amazing,” the man said.

At the Wednesday Bible study the week after that Earl presented the pattern from Peter’s feeding of the three thousand with the Word of God, a strictly symbolic pattern that integrated quite astonishingly with the pattern of the feeding of the five thousand and Elisha’s one hundred and the pattern of the feeding of the four thousand into the figure of a cross.

Most of the congregation were speechless with that revelation. Finally one person spoke up. “You forgot something,” she told him. “What about the three companies of fifty that weren’t part of the bigger rectangle?”

“Oh, yeah,” Earl replied in mock surprise. “Three companies that can be hung on the cross as the Titulus, which in Jesus’ case, said the words “This is Jesus, King of the Jews” in three languages: Hebrew, Greek and Latin. I’ll let you digest that over the next week before giving you some new material. I’ll just say this about the feedings: it’s the details that make Scripture so rich and believable, like the account in the Gospels of the crown of thorns that was placed on Jesus’ head at the time of His crucifixion. In Matthew, for example, I think it’s in Matthew 29, the Roman soldiers fashioned a crown of thorns and shoved it onto His head, and then they mocked Him. Emperors often wore crowns that highlighted their majesty, but there was a different crown, one that was made of some kind of vegetation, that was conferred upon a person who was considered to be a savior of the nation, and placed on the head of the person to be so honored not by the emperor or one of his officials, but by a fellow soldier. It was treated like we in America used to respect the Congressional Medal of Honor. In view of that, Jesus our Lord was acknowledged right there as our Savior, perhaps inadvertantly, but confirmed as such nonetheless.”

A chorus of “Ohs” ripped throughout the room.

“Another thing about the feeding details,” Earl told those in the Bible study the next week, “is that they furnish another rich illustration of the Bible’s truth. Throughout the centuries since the beginning of the Christian era, numerous people, when they encountered the Gospel accounts of the feedings, found it inconceivable that while five thousand could be fed with five loaves and produce twelve baskets of remainders, it took seven loaves to feed four thousand and produce seven baskets of remainders. The numbers were counter-intuitive. They just didn’t seem to make sense. For that reason, many people thought that the feedings were simply allegorical of a moral truth despite the sloppy math, although they couldn’t figure out what that truth might be. You now know that the feedings indeed made mathematical sense, the presentation wasn’t sloppy in the least, and the feedings produced a very significant sign.”

After the clapping died down, Earl continued. “I hope you’re not clapping for me, but praising the Lord for the transcendent beauty of His Word. Speaking of which, today’s lesson will give you another jolt about the astonishing accuracy of Scriptural prophecy. I’ll be talking about Israel’s becoming a modern nation and in the process fulfilling a very specific prophecy in the Bible. Pastor Arnold, would you happen to have a whiteboard and some felt-tipped pens?”

“Sure thing,” he replied, and left the room, returning shortly with a whiteboard in one hand and an easel in the other. He set them up in front of Earl and then left again, returning with a number of colored pens. Earl continued after he sat back down.

“Can anyone tell me when Israel became a nation?”

“It was 1948,” one woman said.

“Great. When in 1948?”

“I think it was in May of that year,” she said.

“Yes. Around midnight of May 14 to be precise. Remember that day. Now I’ll tell you about an astonishing discovery that the late Grant Jeffrey, a superb Bible scholar, had made some time toward the end of the last century. He’d had clues from the Book of Hosea that the restoration of Israel to a nation would occur about that time. I wish that I could remember those passages, but . . . “

“I can,” Joyce spoke up. “They’re in Hosea four and six. I’ve memorized them. Shall I . . .”

“Please do, Joyce, and thanks.”

“I may have to paraphrase in places, but here’s the gist: ‘For the children of Israel will abide many days without a king, and without a sacrifice, and without an image. In the latter days the children of Israel will return and seek the Lord.’ That was in Hosea Four. In Hosea Six he says ‘After two days shall He revive us. In the third day He will raise us up and we will live in His sight.’ I’ve alway interpreted the days in this prophecy to represent a thousand years, in accordance with 2 Peter 3:8, where Peter equates a day with the Lord to a thousand years. In saying that, Peter is echoing Psalm 90.”

“Thanks, Joyce. I agree with you about the day being a thousand years, which would place Israel’s return close to the beginning of the Third Millennium A.D., or, in other words, some time between the last century and this. There’s some good agreement with those prophecies and the actual date of 1948, but Jeffrey’s review of Ezekiel and Leviticus brings Ezekiel’s prophecy much closer – to the very day, in fact.”

There was a murmur of astonishment in the room. “It’s right there in the Bible,” Earl told them. “Pray for me that my memory won’t fail me here. In Ezekiel Four, God tells the prophet to lay on his left side for three hundred ninety days. Each day that he does so represents a year of Israel’s iniquity. After that Ezekiel is to lay on his right side for an additional forty days, where again each day represents a year.” Earl put the numbers on the white board and added them up. “This represents a period of four hundred thirty years, which, by the way, is the exact time that Israel was in Egypt, to the selfsame day according to Scripture. “Anyway, Dr. Jeffrey figured that this time of judgment was to begin with Israel’s first captivity, which began around 606 or 605 B.C. , when Nebudchadnezzar carted the citizens of Judah off to Babylon as prisoners. According to Jeremiah, that captivity lasted exactly seventy years.” Earl subtracted seventy from 606 on the whiteboard and displayed the answer of 536. He also subtraced seventy from four hundred thirty to arrive at a figure of three hundred sixty.

“Okay, then,” he resumed. “We are left with three hundred sixty years of Israel’s punishment for iniquity, starting from around 536 or 535 B.C. The numbers didn’t make sense to Grant Jeffrey, because nothing like a resumption to statehood happened to Israel in that time period. Something – I believe it was the Holy Spirit – led him to read Leviticus Chapter 26, where he was astonished to find a possible answer. The gist of that passage states that if Israel persisted in her iniquity, God would increase the time of her punishment sevenfold. As Israel did indeed persist in iniquity past the time of her first captivity, Jeffrey multiplied the three hundred sixty years by seven and tacked it onto the date of 536 B.C.” Earl performed the calculation on the whiteboard, displaying the answer of 2520 remaining years. “Bear with me now, because it becomes rather complicated. We need to convert years to days, assuming that a prophetic year amounts to three hundred sixty days as it does elsetwhere in the Bible. We also need to remember that there is no zero year between one B.C. and one A.D.” On the whiteboard Earl multiplied 2520 by 360 to arrive at a total number of days of 907,200. He then converted days back to actual years according to the equivalence of one solar year with 365.25 days. His whiteboard computation gave a result of 195,774 days between the end of the Babylonian captivity to the beginning of A.D., and 711,426 days thereafter. In terms of solar years, this latter number of days amounted to 1948.

“Grant Jeffrey claimed that the actual day according to that prophecy is May 15, 1948, the exact day that Israel became a nation, if one assumes that the event actually occurred past that midnight. It would be beyond me to attempt to verify that claim here, but even so, I think you’ll agree that from my crude calculation the year alone, 1948, makes for an astonishingly accurate prediction.”

The handclapping that followed indicated their agreement with his assessment of the Scriptural accuracy of this prophecy.

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #25

Chapter Twenty Three (continued)

Toward evening a runner came puffing up to their defensive position, rifle in hand and field glasses banging against his chest. “Jerusalem’s surrounded!” he shouted. He stood silent in front of them, chest heaving. When he caught his breath he spoke again. “There’s a huge horde of soldiers massing at the entrance to the city,” he added. I think they’re getting ready to overrun it.”

At the same time a rocket-propelled grenade exploded a hundred yards in front of their station, and the sound of gunfire signaled an approach of invaders. They were coming again and they were very close. When they came into sight, Jacob saw the overwhelming numbers of them, and breathed an urgent prayer for strength and courage. He carefully marked Moira’s position and saw that her rifle was raised and prepared to fire.

God’s going to have to act now, if there’s going to be any chance of our surviving, he thought. But then he questioned why God would single their little group out for survival when so many others were being killed. He was on the verge of accepting the inevitable as with a fatalistic attitude he set his sights on a screaming attacker and pulled the trigger. He quickly locked on another target, but before he could pull the trigger a second time the ground fell beneath him and then jumped back in a vicious upward thrust to hurl him headlong against Moira’s sprawling body. The ground continued to shake, uprooting trees, throwing clods into the air and thrusting both attackers and defenders flat on the ground. The savage shaking affected both sides of the battle, but clearly the attackers were getting the worst of it. Confirmation of this disparity came moments later, when the ground split apart and swallowed a major element of the attacking force. The shaking began to subside. Wide-eyed in fear, the remnants of the mob lifted themselves up and retreated back down the hillside. They left their weapons behind.

A battlefield in the aftermath of action is a disgusting place. The revolting sight of dead bodies in various states of disassembly is surpassed only by the awful stench of their decomposition. Compounding the hellish scene is the torn and shredded flesh and agonized shrieks of the maimed but still living.

This particular battleground was as bad as it gets. The opening of the ground exposed the rotting, partially decomposed remains of many of the victims of the earlier quake in which the Palestinians had participated and died when the earth had cleaved in their midst.   Their ripe condition released a disgusting stench into the air that followed the fleeing attackers and drove them far from where they may have stopped and regrouped.

Given the intensity of this latest quake, the weary defenders were amazed to see their home still standing. Posting a skeleton guard of the most hardy of their group, the rest headed straight to their bunks, where they were quickly overtaken by sleep and oblivious to the continuous rumbling of artillery that accompanied the raging battles that continued to take place below them to the south, beyond the Sea of Galilee.

The few guards on duty were treated to a spectacular display of colors in the night sky induced by the excess ionization of the atmosphere caused by the multiple tactical nuclear detonations. But they had to endure the sounds of distant battle and the sight, spared to the others, of the implacable massing of troops along a wide corridor that extended from Haifa to their holy city Jerusalem. Despite the obvious intervention of God in their own recent battle, the sight of such an overwhelming number of enemy soldiers terrified them.

Jacob received intermittent news of the battle through a radio account furnished by the IDF. Through it they learned of what appeared to be a miraculous event: a building housing a large number of children had been single-handedly defended by an IDF hero, one Simon ben Gideon. When he had used up all his ammunition in fending off the attackers, he ran out the door shouting with nothing but a knife in his hand. The enemy fled from before him as if he was leading a fully-armed battalion.

The nuclear devastation of Haifa failed to hinder the armies of the enemy, who disregarded the danger to the troops of exposure to radiation. The adjacent port was filled with activity as what appeared to be the armies of the entire world were being offloaded onto the shore. Jacob and Moira continued to watch, horrified, as an endless procession of soldiers with evil intent continued to march toward Jerusalem. Their concern over their beloved Jerusalem, city of their God’s dwelling place on Earth, was abruptly interrupted by a series of jolts, sharper by far than anything they’d experienced up to now. Staring in fascinated awe, they saw the column breaking apart in chaotic disarray as the ground split open beneath them along the entire route to Jerusalem. On the Haifa end of this path, the splitting of the earth continued out to sea, where waves of enormous magnitude competed with swirling whirlpools to gobble up ships both great and small.

“Look!” Moira exclaimed. “Another column, coming up from the southeast! Oh, Jacob, this is impossible! That new army is as large as the one that came in from Haifa!” They continued to watch, immobilized with horror, as the new army drew nearer.

The radio chatter increased dramatically as the vanguard of the new army came close. “The latest rumor is that we’re being attacked by an enormous number of Sunni Muslims. These aren’t of the Hezbollah from Lebanon. They’re a new army, the dreaded Taliban that have come all the way from Afghanistan to do us in. We need prayer, everybody. This is just so overwhelming . . . wait! Wait! They’re fighting! They’re clashing, but not with us! This is unbelievable! They’re fighting the column from Haifa!”

The battle raged on, the heavy fighting interspersed with violent quakes that rent the ground, opening numerous sharp, deep cracks in the earth. For hours, as the two columns continued to merge, the epicenter remained static with no clear winner. Eventually, the column from Haifa began to fall back, subdued by the viciousness of the southern troops and their uncompromising battlefield valor – and another element supplied by God.

“The column,” Moira exclaimed. “The troops are actually running into the crevasses!”

“Yes,” Jacob replied, studying the movement. “They appear to be running away from something even more terrifying than the certain death below the cliffs. They’re acting like lemmings.”

“What could it be? They seemed to be so evenly-matched.”

“Remember the story of Gideon, and how three hundred Israelites routed the army of the Midianites and their cohorts? They had a lot of help from an army of angels, who were visible only to the enemy. The same thing happened according to second Kings Chapter 6 when Elisha was confronted with a vast army to the terror of his servant. Elisha responded by praying to the Lord that He would open the servant’s eyes. When his eyes were opened, he saw an even bigger army of angels surrounding Elisha. Could be that we’re seeing a repeat of this miracle before our very eyes.”

“Awesome. Just like Zechariah and Ezekiel foretold, that He would make His holy name known again to Israel.”

No longer was Jerusalem or Israel threatened. The survivors of this immense counter-offensive of God’s straggled back to the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, where surviving boats picked them up to return them home.

Bleeding from bullet wounds to his right calf and shoulder, Abdul Barakzai pounded on the Jerusalem gate with his left hand as he held a white cloth somewhat gingerly, favoring his wound. “Let me in!” he demanded. “I’m one of you!”

After repeating this action for over an hour, the small door in the gate opened cautiously. A heavily-armed Jew stood there, motioning the wounded man in. As Abdul entered, the door was quickly closed. “Here, I’ll take you to the hospital,” the man said, motioning Abdul to follow.

“There’s no time for that,” Abdul said, grabbing the man’s arm. “That whole crowd of fighters outside. They’re your brothers, as am I. I’m from the tribe of Joseph, of Ephraim. I must talk to your political leadership.”

The Jew was astonished. “You?” he said wide-eyed. “An Afghan? A Taliban fighter? You’re an Israelite?”

“Yes!” We’ve come home!”

The valor of the Taliban fighters and the vital part they played in preserving Jerusalem was of immense help in convincing the Israeli leaders of the truth of what Abdul told them. Reluctantly at first, they re-opened the small door in the gate to admit a thin stream of Afghan soldiers. As the incoming progressed without incident, the large gates were opened in welcome to them all, the bulk of whom were too numerous at that point to gain admission. Camps were quickly set up to accommodate them on the land surrounding Jerusalem.

It took a further several months to sort out the situation and to provide long-term accommodation for the new arrivals, and to integrate them into the Israeli society. At the end of that period Israel had finally fulfilled the Word of God in Ezekiel Chapter 37.

The vast camps of the Russians and their confederates remained in place for a short time as their defeated leaders attempted to sort out their next moves, but their almost-deserted tents took on a ghost-town atmosphere. Many of the surviving soldiers brought their wives and families into cities close to their stations, and an apparent peace prevailed in the Mideast.

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #24

Chapter Twenty Three

“Another asteroid?” Moira asked in a tremulous voice, her body shivering in fear. The sound of an immense explosion had thrust her awake from a deep sleep in which she had been content and fully relaxed in the knowledge that Israel was in a state of peace with its neighbors, however tenuous and brief that interlude might be. Now she was instantly aware that the situation had suddenly changed to that of a wartime environment, probably to persist for the rest of their lives.

“No, I don’t think so,” Jacob replied. “God plays responsibly. Man doesn’t. Look at the sky. This time I think it’s nuclear.”

“Has it really happened? The start of the Ezekiel 38 war?”

“Looks like that just may be the case,” Jacob said, speaking with a calmness that belied the emotional turmoil he was experiencing.

The shock wave from the massive explosion burst upon them, breaking windows and shaking the ground beneath them. This was followed by a windstorm of epic proportions, which damaged their barracks yet more.

Curious, Jacob went outside to assess what was happening. From the vantage of the village, he could learn very little, so he popped back inside and told Moira that he was heading up to the crest.

“Wait one,” she replied. “I want to go with you.” Together they climbed up the hill to the crest and looked over. They couldn’t make out much in the dark, but they could see lights and what appeared to be activity coming from the military encampments off to the east. Concerned, they hiked around the mountain until they reached a place where Haifa and the coastline were spread out before them.

Except Haifa no longer existed. In its place was the unmistakable mushroom cloud, still glowing with internal fire and reaching up through the stratosphere. At its base, through a fog of airborne debris, Jacob saw a tangled mass of violently-disassembled construction materials. The destruction of the city hadn’t removed the artifacts of the hand of man, but had left the land littered with trash and as ugly to the sight as the human devastation that it represented. “It was so beautiful,” Moira lamented. “If it was nuclear, how come all those boats are landing?” The shoreline was thick with small boats debarking toylike figures. Jacob supposed that they were soldiers. As he continued to look, his supposition was confirmed by the sight of earlier arrivals, who now were marching in column to the southeast. Behind the troops, the sea was filled with ships of war, grey and bristling with big-bore guns.

“I don’t know,” he eventually replied. “The intruders seem to be staying well away from the epicenter. Looks like they might be skirting the remains of the city to get to the heartland. Then again, maybe they’re being treated as expendable. I wouldn’t put that kind of thing past their commanders.”

“It’s war, isn’t it?” Moira said in a small voice.

“Looks like it. Just when we were getting comfortable. But it was inevitable. I know we’ve been expecting it, but it’s still chilling to realize that now were really in it. There’s so much hatred, it’s so thick you can cut it with a knife. As if little Israel single-handedly was out to destroy the world. There’s no logic behind the feeling, it’s so irrational that it has to have demonic roots.”

“Refresh my memory, Jacob. What did Ezekiel have to say about it?”

“I pretty much have it committed to memory. Let me recall it the best I can, at least give you its substance. Ezekiel starts out in Chapter 38 by identifying the main antagonist, who obviously, from the name and the geographical location, is the leader of Russia. The implication is that God is forcing him into this confontation with Israel, which rings true because Russia seems to be driven by economic and political events. The alignment with Iran and Syria is actually forcing the leader’s hand, with Russia seeming to be desperate to recapture its status as a world power. I think also Israel’s exploitation of oil at Russia’s expense is a big factor. At any rate, God says that He will turn Russia back with hooks in her jaws, and Russia will lead a collection of anti-Semitic nations that include Iran, Turkey, and possibly even Germany or the European nations that were formerly in the old Warsaw pact associated with the Soviet Union.

“The war takes place in the latter years, or close to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, which is where we seem to be situated right now. This huge cloud of well-armed soldiers comes like a storm to cover the land. The motivation is evil, to take a spoil – to rob and destroy the people and their nation. Ezekiel even adds that the mealy-mouthed representatives of the Western regional governments, like North America and Europe, bluster about this invasion but do nothing to stop it. I detected a bit of sarcasm about what Ezekiel wrote, like he was describing the wishy-washy American State Department to a tee. Imagine that – two and a half millennia before the event, and Ezekiel knows more about the situation than our own media! He even says that the primary invaders come from the uttermost north. I’m pretty sure you know that if you were to draw a line between Jerusalem and the north pole, that the line would come very close to Moscow.”

“I did know that. Russia is for sure the country to the uttermost north of us. Turkey is to the north too.”

“Then Ezekiel continues by saying that the land will be greatly shaken, and even the sea.  There will be stones falling from heaven, a devastation so incomprehensibly huge that people everywhere will understand the event to be the hand of God. The end of it, according to Chapter 39, will be that only a sixth of the invading troops will survive.”

“Is this the end, then? The war of Armageddon?”

“I don’t really know, but I don’t think so. The slaughter will be awful – so bad that it will take Israel seven months to bury the dead and the stink of the corpses will be extensive, possibly covering the entire land. An interesting suggestion that at least part of the destruction is nuclear is that travelers are cautioned, when they see a bone, to mark it for a special burial party.”

“We already know that it’s nuclear. What happened to Haifa is pretty graphic.”

“Yes, but I’m not sure that God doesn’t also trump mankind’s destructive capacity with some events of His own. We’ll have to wait and see. Or maybe Wisdom will fill us in. Whatever, Revelation speaks of another invasion by oriental soldiers, and I’m not aware of such in this mix before us. That and Ezekiel’s mention of the post-war burial process leads me to think that the battle of Armageddon is a separate event. We’ll know for sure soon enough.”

“I’ve seen enough for now, Jacob. I’m so creeped out I just want to go back to Dafna and hide under the covers or something.”

“Buck up, my lovely,” he countered lightly. “We know it’s going to end well.”

“Yeah, well, our lives are going to end well in heaven, too. It’s the getting there that’s the grim part.”

“Not always, darling. At least not for me. Sometimes when I’m holding you, I think I’m already there.”

“Of course. I’m talking about the scary things, like what’s happening right now in front of our very eyes.”

“Keep the faith. Remember the cloud of witnesses in Hebrews twelve. And I’m here with you all the way.”

She hugged him fiercely. “Oh, Jacob!” she cried. “I’m so grateful for that.”

“And don’t forget Wisdom, who’s been around every time things got hairy.’

“Well, let’s go back home anyway,” she said, her attitude turning happy. “I can think of better ways to spend the day.”

“I’m with you on that,” he said with a smile. Hand in hand, they walked back to Dafna, where they were prevented from going to their room by several of their friends, curious for news. “What’s going on?” James asked, acting as spokesman for them all. “Did you see anything?”

“Plenty,” Jacob responded. “More than I wanted to know. Haifa’s gone, and our land is being overrun with soldiers.”

“Gone? You mean that Haifa’s no longer there? Any of it?”

“That’s exactly what he means, Esther,” Moira told the horrified woman. “We’re under attack. But since it looks like the war of Ezekiel 38, it does end well.”

Jacob looked at the growing crowd, assessing their mutual terror. “Let’s get our faith back. How about joining me in prayer.” It was more of a command than a request. They needed to remind themselves as to who was in ultimate control over their future. Joining hands, he led them in a fervent prayer, not for safety, nor for peace, but for the strength to see past the immediate events to God’s loving hand on their nation and on their individual souls. “Give us faith in You, Lord,” he pleaded. When he was finished and opened his eyes, he was pleased to see that calmness prevailed over the group.

“What are we supposed to do now, Jacob?” James asked. “Just sit around and do nothing about it?”

“As far as I know, that’s about it,” he replied. “This appears to be God’s battle, not ours. But if the enemy does come up to Dafna, we might as well die with our boots on fending them off.”

Later that day the sound of artillery encroached upon their peace. Later yet they began to hear small-arms fire, which they correctly interpreted as the sound of troops heading their way. They quietly went to their own weapons, inspecting them and loading them with rounds.   They stockpiled defensive positions with ammunition, food and water and sat down to wait for the approach of the enemy.

The small band of defenders continued to wait through the endless night, but so far the advance had bypassed the mountain village. Nevertheless, the threat of violence was so immediate that nobody slept. They continued to stand a tense watch as dawn broke and they were embraced by the welcome warmth of the sun. But no birds sang, and their ears were continually assaulted by the crash of artillery and the explosion of rocket-propelled bombs. The morning wore on, and eventually Moira propped her rifle against a wall and headed down to the communal kitchen. Several women followed her. Later Moira whistled from the porch and half the men walked down for a bite to eat. When they returned to their posts, the other half went down for breakfast.

[to be continued]

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #23

Chapter Twenty Two

 

 

 

 

 

The big old cinder-block building was crowded with the men of Abdul Barakzai’s community. Such meetings were not uncommon, as the persistence of intrusions by foreign governments had necessitated frequent strategy conferences at the local level throughout Afghanistan.

Two things set this meeting apart from the others. There was scattered conversation before the meeting proper, but it was of a desultory nature and much quieter than usual. The other item was the presence of Abdul’s wife. And not only was she present at a meeting of the men, but she was standing alongside him, bold as you please and naked of face.

This shocking betrayal of tradition gave most of the men there an urge to stomp out of the building after, of course, first relieving Abdul and his wife of their heads. What held them back from doing just that was their respect for the man. He had earned a reputation among them for masculinity and courage. For that he deserved a chance to have his say, not that there was anything he could say that possibly could justify this obscenity.

But the men had not counted on what Abdul had to say. His first few words were met with astonishment, which was immediately followed by skepticism, which descended rather quickly into disbelief.

Abdul bravely refused to stop speaking in spite of the growing unrest among his neighbors. Shaking with fear, his wife maintained her position at his side. As he continued his monologue he confronted them with their own traditions and then the implications, which were impossible to deny as they represented an intimate and beloved part of their communal life. “I’ve been reading this Book.” He held up the Bible that had been given to his wife. “It has become so important to me and is so wonderfully written that I’ve come to accept that my God is the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob.

“Do you know what you’re saying, Abdul?” his closest neighbor spoke up. “This cannot be taken lightly.” He had been a good friend. “You cannot just barge in with your blasphemy of our Allah, praise his name, and the news that we’re all – Jews, may our gracious and benevolent Allah be praised.” He spat out the word “Jew” as a repulsive epithet. “We need proof.”

“Don’t you think I needed proof too?” he asked rhetorically. “We wouldn’t be here now in this building if I wasn’t certain of what I’m trying to tell you. Well, here’s the proof.” He reached into a pocket and extracted a folded document. I received it yesterday, from Israel. I had sent the Aliyah Commission in Israel a sample of my skin and samples from my wife and daughter as well. A profile of our DNA was made, which claims that we belong to what is called the Cohen Modal-Haplotyp.”

“Say what?” his neighbor interrupted. “If you’re trying to snow us with big words . . .”

“No, no. Calm down, Rasheef.   What it means is that, according to our DNA we’re genetically close to the Israelites of the kingdom of David. We’re probably of them, but even if not, we’re very close.”

“Close isn’t good enough!” another man shouted out.

“Okay, then. I have another proof, even stronger. I had a Visitor some time ago. But you’ll have to believe me on that. The Visitor explained the exact nature of our ancestral roots.”

“We might believe you,” Abdul’s neighbor said,” but who would this “visitor” be who’d have the authority and knowledge to give you that kind of information?”

“God.” The word hung in the air like a cloud. After a lengthy pause, Abdul embellished on it. “The God of our patriarchs, Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob. The God of the Jews. Our God.”

Another meeting was held in the same cinder-block building two months later. The community in the interim had dealt with this shocking and initially-unwelcome information in a variety of ways, most involving a measure of anger, which, unfortunately, was applied to a disproportionate number of the womenfolk. This anger was mixed with a very real grief as the communal identity was turned upside-down. Given their recognition of the truth of the matter as represented by their own customs, with great reluctance they eventually began to accept their ancient identity. In doing that, they then were forced to confront the personal, communal, and religious implications of that understanding.

Each family was given a Bible, some of which were burned and others treated as refuse. Those that remained in homes were opened, first with hesitation and then with a steady quickening of interest as God stepped in to open eyes that had been closed for centuries. Abdul and his wife were the first to be so affected, as they were given some initial insights into the nature of their Judeo-Christian God. Along with that new understanding came a motivation to accept Jesus as their Savior and Lord, which led to the coming of Wisdom into their hearts.

The second meeting of the townspeople was chaired by a representative of the Israeli Mossad, who was gratified to note that the building was completely filled. Not only were the women present, he saw happily, but their faces were uncovered. “You have the right of return,” he told them, “the right to make aliya, as we call the repatriation of Jews to their homeland in Israel.” This statement brought on a noisy murmur, causing him to hold up his hand in a stopping gesture.

“Let me continue, please. You have that right. But I’d like to ask you to do something better, probably for you and certainly for us. Stay where you are, and you women, beautiful as you all may be, please go back to covering your faces. The world knows nothing about your true roots. We’d like to keep it that way for the time being. We have information that leads us to believe that in the near future you’ll be asked to participate in a battle against Israel. It would be very much to our advantage if you display your nature as you come into that battle to fight an enemy that thought you were one of them. If any of you might harbor any thought that such a deception would be cowardly, permit me to relieve you of that. First, you must know that your real enemy in that battle will be very quick to realize its mistake and will come at you with a force driven by a rage of such intensity that it will take all your courage to stand up to it. Second, your enemy is brutal, stripped of any humanity it may have possessed. It’s vicious, ugly and needs to be stopped by all means available to us, including the initial edge your deception will give us.

“You won’t be alone,” the man from Mossad continued. “You have a very brave man among you.” Abdul’s wife looked at her husband in adoration at this statement. “With our encouragement, he has taken it upon himself to visit a number of communities in your country, offering them the same revelation he gave you, and hand-picking representatives from each of those communities to spread the word to other communities as well. How he was able to do the picking is beyond me.”

I know how, Abdul’s wife thought to herself, echoing the same thought that ran through her husband’s mind. I hope She’ll come back to us.

“Let me tell you now,” the Mossad agent went on, “that your Abdul has given me a big job, which is to go back to every one of those communities scattered throughout Afghanistan and follow up with the same message I’m giving you here. But we back in Israel are very grateful for the opportunity to do so. We thank Abdul from the bottom of our hearts for giving us that chance, and we welcome you all in those same loving hearts as our dear brothers and sisters.”

 

The selfless concern for them exhibited by the tough little agent and the sense of purpose that he imparted to them gave the Afghanis a feeling of relationship with Israel. That tiny, beleaguered little nation now belonged to them in a way that they couldn’t have imagined a few short months ago. This new patriotism toward a land they had never seen was greatly supported by an ever-growing Biblical awareness. The community’s common conversion snowballed from there.

Abdul was aware of the trials facing the nation – their nation – of Israel. He knew that in the wisom of man, Israel was toast. Surrounded a hundredfold by hatred-laden people, it was a wonder that Israel had continued to exist up to now. Sharing their study of the Bible in a new and loving togetherness, Abdul and his wife had been led by Wisdom to read the account of the ancient hero Gideon beginning in Judges Chapter Six.

“I can’t believe it,” Abdul remarked. “There’s a lot of Midianites there out in the fields just aching for a fight. The Israelites are greatly outnumbered even at the beginning when Gideon pulls together twenty three thousand soldiers. Then God keeps reducing the size of the army. Twenty three thousand all the way down to a mere three hundred!”

“So they wouldn’t get puffed up with their own accomplishments,” she responded. “God wanted them to know that it was really Him who was doing the fighting on their behalf.”

“And then they actually win! Three hundred against an army, and they win! I wonder what caused the Midianites to flee in terror from such a small band of fighters?”

“It wasn’t small. An enormous army came against the Midianites on the behalf of Israel.”

“How so?”

“I was directed to an account in Second Kings that allowed me to understand what actually happened.”

Abdul turned the pages to Second Kings 6:15 and read the following:

“And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city, both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! What shall we do? And he answered, Fear not; for they who are with us are more than they who are with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw; and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.”

 

“Oh,” he said to her, “then, if this relates to the story of Gideon, there was an army of angels surrounding the Midianites and Gideon’s band of three hundred men. It was just that they were visible only to the Midianites, who fled at the sight.”

“Yes. The battle was really God’s, and I expect that, with little Israel now surrounded by enemies, the same thing will happen not so long from now.”

“I just hope that God will permit us to take part in that battle.”

“What do you think, Abdul? That the man from Mossad came here for nothing?”

 

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #22

Chapter Twenty One (continued)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“A terrible thing about all these events like the Flood and the Red Sea and Noah and David and Goliath is that they make such interesting adventure stories that a number of authors have exploited by oversimplifying them, removing most of the wisdom and moral value, and treating them like comic book adventures to tell as childrens’ stories.  As a matter of fact, most of them have been put into comic book form like the adventures of Superman.  The problem with that is that nobody, including the kids who read that stuff, thinks that Superman really exists.  If they read about David and Goliath in a comic book, then they know that someday they’ll outgrow that myth.”

“Well said, Earl!” Wisdom said, laughing.  You just identified a big part of the problem of modern belief.  Please continue.”

“Well, it’s anything but a myth.  You’d know that if you read an adult, Biblical version of the account, and of the saga of David’s life.  A beautiful aspect of the Scriptural version is the faith and committment David demonstrated toward God.  The giants of Gath had surrounded the Israelites and were so certain that their size would inevitably lead to their unqualified victory that they took to taunting the Israelites, using their champion Goliath as their primary spokesman.  His jeers crossed over the line to a vicious mocking of God Himself, and yet all of the Israeli soldiers, from King Saul on down were too cowed by him to raise up against him.  David wasn’t even a soldier.  He was too young and was still thought of as a mere boy.  Yet he became so offended by the mockery of his God that he volunteered to fight Goliath.  Saul gave David his own armor, but he was too small to wear it properly, and tossed it aside as an encumbrance.  Yet he went out to face Goliath with nothing but a sling and stones.  Correct me if I’m wrong, Wisdom, but to my mind God took it from there.”

“You’re right, but We didn’t make ourselves known to David at the time, so it was still his valor that got the job done.  Sure, We did perfect his aim for him, but it was all David who did the tossing.  And who alone stood up for God.  There were many others who showed much of that same sefless, noble faith down through the centuries, but David is still very special to Us for that and his love for Us, which went way beyond mere worship.  The bottom line, Ralph, is that every word of that account in Scripture is true.  Literally true.  I’ll cut this short and let My Earl talk with you about the truth of the Flood and the Exodus events.  I do have a job for you and Ralph, though, that I want to brief you on before I leave,” She said, turning to Henry.  “I want you to set up a black marketplace inside your store, one that caters to the underground who refuse to accept the precursor to the mark of the beast, which, as they already know, will automatically become that mark when its imposition becomes world-wide.  And Ralph, now that you have a place to eat and sleep, forget about your store.  It’s already been taken over by the homeless.  Let them have it.  You can help Henry with his store, where you’ll be specializing in the black market operation.”

“I have a question before you go,” Moshe said.

“I know, She replied.  “You’re still wondering why I’m so directly involved with you while others, supposedly Christians, never even get a chance to see Me.   You’re thinking of the multitude of people and even entire churches that already have accepted the precursor to the mark of the beast and of the vast number who are getting ready to.  The answer, Moshe, is not whether they get a chance to see Me, but whether they now or ever will want to.  Believe Me, Moshe, We already have you – every one on Earth – pegged already.  Jesus told you many times that We’re as near as you want us to be, and, out of basic good manners, as far away as you wish.  It’s all your call.  You’d be surprised, though, at the number of self-styled Christians who have no interest whatsoever in getting close to Us.  But I’ll admit that there’s also the matter of the special position that you’re in with – well, let’s just say that things are coming to a boil on this Earth rather quickly and you’re right in the thick of it.”

 

“I have another question,” Joyce said.

“Good one,” Wisdom responded.  “As Christians, you do need the companionship and support of others.  There’s no formal Church left, of course, in the usual sense of a building where Christians congregate to worship.  But there are a number of home assemblies.  I’ve already picked out one for you.  It’s led by Arnold Bliss, a good, solid preacher who gets into the Word like a pastor should.  Give him a call.  As a matter of fact, he’s already expecting you.”

Joyce made the call to the pastor, who enthusiastically invited her and the others to Church services next Sunday.  “The service starts at ten and I try to finish up by eleven, although sometimes I go over a bit.”

“We wouldn’t mind that at all,” she replied.  “It’s not like there’s a ball game on that afternoon.  Most of us are very committed anyway, and the others are getting that way pretty quickly, things being what they are, so there’s really no Sunday distraction.”

“Great.  Is there any interest in a Bible study among you or your people?  I should add that we only have one Bible, and it’s really torn up to the point of being unusable.  So many pages are missing that it’s hard to find any continuity in it.”

“Yes, we’d love to attend.  In fact, my husband will be thrilled to assist, if you’re of a mind.  He’s not ordained, but he did conduct a Church in the Seattle area after the first wave of destruction there.  Beyond that, we’ve all been busy recalling Scripture verses and setting them down on paper.”

“Oh? Now you really have my attention.  Lately in our Bible study we’ve been discussing Jesus’ appearance after His resurrection to His disciples who were fishing.”

“John 21? His threefold request to Peter to feed his sheep?”

“Why, yes.  We only have a partial page to go on, but we’re making do with that and some very spotty snippets of memory.  Is there anything regarding that passage that you or your husband might be able to add?”

Joyce laughed, a long peal of delight.  “Just maybe, pastor.  As a matter of fact, Earl – my husband, has gone into great detail with respect to that passage, to the point of virtually memorizing the entire chapter.  He’s of the opinion, with plenty of Scriptural backup to substantiate it, that Peter’s fulfillment in Acts of that request of Jesus ties in very closely with the sign that Jesus developed in His feeding of the multitudes.”

“Fulfillment?  Sign?  What sign?”

“I’ll let Earl fill you in on that.  He’s the expert.”

“Let me do this, then, Joyce.  The Bible study’s at six in the evening every Wednesday.  I’ll lead into the subject and invite Earl do some talking about selected details.  If he’s as informed about John 21 as you seem to be saying, I’ll turn it over to him entirely, at least for that particular Bible study.  We’ll very much look forward to seeing you on Wednesday.  If you have a pencil and a piece of paper, I’ll give you the address.”

It took pastor Bliss less than ten minutes that Wednesday evening to finish his assessment of Earl’s knowledge of John 21 and a great deal beyond that and turn the Bible study over to him.  With the addition of Henry’s new clan, the large living room was crowded out into the hallway.  Pastor Bliss took a seat in one of the few remaining chairs with a happy anticipation of obtaining knowledge about Scripture that went way beyond his seminary training.

Earl had begun by repeating Jesus’ thrice-spoken request to Peter to feed His sheep, inferring that the request was a deliberate cancellation of Peter’s threefold denial of association with Jesus following His arrest.  He went on to describe Peter’s threefold fulfillment of Jesus’ request to him as recorded in Luke’s book, the Acts of the Apostles: the feeding of the three thousand with the Word of God, followed by the saving of five thousand souls, and after that the initial act in the salvation of the Gentiles, which was the feeding of Cornelius the Italian with the Word, a process that was closely coordinated by the Holy Spirit.

“What do you mean by ‘feeding’?” one participant asked.  “You seem to be linking salvation with feeding.”

Joyce spoke up before Earl could respond.  “Now you did it,” she said, laughing.  “We’ll be here until next week before Earl gets through answering that question.

“It’s getting to be closing time,” pastor Bliss said, rising from his seat.  “Maybe we’ll save that subject for next week.”

“Aw, no,” a congregant said.  “I don’t mind staying over for a while, at least until he gives us a clue as to what the connection is.”

“Everybody?” the pastor asked, addressing the entire crowd.  “Are you all good with that?”

The assent was unanimous.  “Okay,” Earl said.  “I don’t want to overdo it at the start, though.  I have to warn you, it’ll stretch your mind muscles.  I’ll just dip a toe into the water tonight, then.  Let me start out by reminding you that Peter was doubtful about spreading the Word to a Gentile, but God responded by letting down a sheet with unclean food, telling Peter to go ahead and eat.  Right there God Himself linked the Word that delivers salvation to food, or feeding.  In the Gospels,  Jesus is quoted more than once describing the Word as spiritual food.  As for the events in which Jesus fed the multitudes, first the five thousand and then the four thousand, he also at the same time was feeding them with the Word, the spiritual food.  The feeding with bread was only symbolic of that greater feeding, one in which Jesus integrated in Peter’s feeding encounter with the three thousand to form a highly significant and recognizable sign.”

“Are you saying that there’s a way to tie in Peter’s bringing salvation to three thousand with Jesus’ feeding events?” an avid listener broke in.  “Is that demonstrable?”

Earl paused before continuing, attempting to find the words to approach the subject in the simplest possible way.  “Yes, it’s demonstrable, and mathematically so.  But it’s a complex issue, so you’ll have to be patient.  He paused again.   “Did you know that Jesus’ feeding of the multitudes was foretold in the Old Testament?” he continued.

“No.  I, for one, didn’t,” Arnold Bliss responded.

“Yes, it’s in Second Kings Chapter Four.  Elisha feeds one hundred people with twenty loaves of barley, and they have bread left over.  That precursor feeding event is quite important on several levels.  First, it supports the notion that most of what Jesus said and did during His incarnation was preceded by the words and actions of people of the Old Testament as directed by the Holy Spirit.  Second, as we shall see very graphically later, it supports the integration of each feeding event into the others to develop a sign.  Third, Jesus’ feedings referenced the arrangement of those being fed by Elisha into companies of fifty and one hundred.  The basic pattern for the company of one hundred is furnished directly by Elisha’s feeding, which points to an arrangement of twenty long by five wide.”

”Speaking for myself, I think that’s about all we’ll be able to handle for now,” Bliss said, rising again from his chair.  Earl, perhaps you can stay for a few minutes longer while some of your new friends try to get that all down on paper.”  While that’s going on, let’s give all our newcomers a welcoming hand and our heartfelt invitation to come back for next week’s Bible study.”

When the clapping died down, a voice rose in protest.  “Don’t give them an invite.  Make it a demand!”

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #21

Chapter Twenty (continued)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“As a reminder of how seriously the person who accepts that mark transgresses against God, permit me to quote a passage out of Revelation Chapter 14:

“’And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever; and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints; here are they who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.’”

 

“I hear you, Wisdom. But yet. . .”

“I’m not through. There’s another issue that your question raised and you were about to expand on, and it’s even more important than the other. You have to learn to trust Us in every circumstance. You cannot harbor any doubts as to Our character, even when an apparent contradiction arises, and remain firm in your faith. I’ve said it before in Job Chapter 40 and I’ll say it again to you now: ‘Shall he that contends with El Shaddai instruct? Let the one who accuses Eloah answer Her. Have you an arm like God?’ As the prophet Isaiah said in Chapter 51, ‘Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not She who hast cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not She who hast dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; who hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?’ And, by the way: if you want to read Job and Isaiah to confirm it was Me whom they were talking about, you’d have to go back to the original Hebrew. A gender switch was made in the translation.”

“Sorry. I do get it,” Ellery said. “I see now that the contradiction was only apparent, from failing to understand Scripture in the depth I should have, and not actually thinking about what Jesus said. I guess this was a good lesson in understanding that Your ways are higher than ours. I won’t question You any more.”

“Are we that special that you – God – would visit us so personally?” Terry asked.

“Of course you’re special. All true Christians are enormously special. But no, I’ve been introducing Myself to a very large number of new Christians lately, just like you and Henry, as time is getting short and your perils are on the increase. We want you to know how very much We love you and We don’t want to lose a single one of you to a lack of faith.”

“And I have a question too, a rather big one,” Henry said.

“I know you do. Out with it.”

“Maybe I haven’t been a Christian until now, but I’ve picked up a thing or two about Christianity over the years. I’ve always understood that God was all male. I mean that the Trinity is an all-male Entity. Maybe you’re speaking on behalf of God. An angel.”

“That’s the prevailing understanding, all right. Did you catch My names of El Shaddai and Eloah? El Shaddai meant ‘full-breasted’ before it was taken to represent ‘almighty’. Very few people nowadays have even heard of the name ‘Eloah’, which is the feminine form of God. That name was simply removed from all translations of the original Hebrew. I could go on for days on that subject and the reason why Scripture was tampered with. Again, Earl and Joyce can fill you in on the details as the opportunity comes up. Remember, Henry, and you, too, Ralph, and the rest of you as well. Stay here for a while, let things cool down a little. Thanks again for the meal, Terry. I’ll be going now.” With that, She vanished.

“Hey!” Moshe called. “I wanted to thank Her for bringing us together,” he said, looking at Miryam.

“She knows, Moshe,” Joyce said. “And She just told me to wish you both well.”

“Unbelievable!” Ralph cried. “I’d always doubted that God exists, and here I am, right in His – Her – presence. I just don’t know what to believe. But did you see the way She appeared and disappeared? People can’t do things like that. Or maybe I’m going crazy.

“I’ll accept that,” Henry replied.

“Let’s go into the den, both of you, and you, too, Terry,” Earl said. “I have a lot to say to you about God, things to put smiles on your faces.”

“Yes, go,” Joyce said. “You go too, Miryam. We’ll do the dishes,” she said, looking at Marge. They almost eagerly got up from the dining room table to go into the den, Moshe and Ellery in tow. “Maybe you want to wait on the dishes,” Marge said to Joyce. I really wouldn’t mind hearing more about God.”

“I have a voice, too, and I can assure you that Earl and I are on the same page with respect to God.” Joyce tossed a dishcloth to Marge. “I’ll wash and you wipe, okay? And as I’m working the dishes, I’ll bend your ear.”

“Got it,” Marge replied. As the two women did the dishes and the others sat in the den, Earl and Joyce spoke out on the nature of God while the others listened. Much later Ralph got on his knees and asked Jesus into his heart. His perpetual frown was gone, having been replaced by a smile that was genuine.

Chapter Twenty One

 

 

Wisdom came back briefly as Ralph asked the Lord into his heart. She interrupted him before he had finished a rather lengthy confession of his past shortcomings. “We get it, Ralph,” She told him. You know what? You were so over-the-top with your repentance that I might even give you a B-B gun,” referring to the classic Christmas movie that featured another and much younger Ralph. When the laughter had died down, She continued. “Yet you doubt, and don’t try to wave if off as insignificant. It’s extremely important, Ralph, and it’s something we should clear up right now. You have been conditioned by society to view the Bible and science as at odds with each other, with the Bible coming out as the loser every time they clash. As it stands, you’re flat unable to take Scripture seriously. Let’s take science first. How about evolution? You may be surprised to know that those in the know, the molecular biologists and philosophical mathematicians, consider evolution to be a fraud. It’s only the people who don’t know the details of the science they so reverently regard who have been suckered into thinking it’s good science and actually true. These people are intelligent enough to form opinions about evolution, but too intellectually lazy to verify the truth for themselves. They simply think that “scientists” know what they are talking about. They don’t, believe Me. Then there’s the age of the earth and all that’s within it, so meticulously worked out by “scientists” who valued their own suppositions over reality and applied circular reasoning to dating, using fossils to date the various layers of soil, and then turning around and using the layers of soil to date fossils. I could go on and on about those two issues and a bunch of other ones, but I’m going to hand them over to Earl. If you’re interested enough to pursue the subject, talk to him.”

“But still . . .“

“Yes, what you want to tell me is that it’s common knowledge that some things in the Bible are fables and their truth ends with the moral messages they are intended to convey. You’re thinking of Noah’s Flood, the parting of the Red Sea at the Exodus, David and Goliath and, oh, yes, the story of Jonah just popped into your head. You’re not aware of this, Ralph, but Jesus represents the entire Word of God, Scripture if you will, and Jesus very clearly said that He is the truth. Indeed He is. If that’s the case, then Noah’s Flood was a planetary disaster, the Red Sea did indeed part for the Israelites to pass through, David did kill a giant with a sling and a pebble, and Jonah did get swallowed by a whale and lived afterward to preach to the people of Nineveh. You’re focusing on Jonah. Okay, let’s start with that. There are a number of documented and verified accounts of people being swallowed by whales and living when they emerged, usually through the subsequent capture and gutting of the creature. That used to happen more frequently in the past, when whales were hunted down for their blubber and oil. But there’s more to the story of Jonah than his getting swallowed by a whale and then preaching to the Ninevites. In that adventure, Jonah enacted a very important prophecy regarding the nature of Jesus, one that was reeanacted later by Jesus Himself. Earl, tell Ralph what Jonah did that landed him in the sea.”

“First of all, he was running away from God. God wanted him to preach judgment to the Ninevites, and he scurried away in a ship instead, trying to get as far away from Nineveh as he possibly could. Then he fell asleep in the hold, and a vicious storm came up, one so violent that everyone on board considered it to be an act of God against someone who had offended Him and feared for his life. They decided to draw straws, the holder of the short straw supposedly being identified by God as the culprit. It turned out that Jonah, who was indeed the culprit, drew the short straw. At that point, Jonah admitted hes offense and, full of repentance like you, Ralph, offered to have the others toss him overboard to quiet the storm. Two things happened after that: the storm quieted immediately, and Jonah was swallowed by the whale. He was in the whale’s belly three days and nights, after which the whale coughed him up on dry land, where he then traveled to Nineveh and preached its destruction. The Ninevites, from the King on down to the common folk, repented of their debauchery, and God allowed the country to live on for another hundred and fifty years before finally being overthrown.”

“But you said Jesus reenacted that event. I never heard that before.”

“Many people haven’t,” Earl said, “because their reading of the Bible often is too superficial to go beyond the more traditional passages. I wish we had a Bible, but if we did I’d take you over to Matthew 8, where Jesus is lying in the bottom of a boat and a terrible storm comes up, threatening to sink the boat. Wisdom, maybe You should be quoting the Bible here.”

“Absolutely not. You’re doing just fine paraphrasing the passage.”

“Um. Okay. Jesus is asleep in the bottom of the boat while a storm rages overhead. The others wake Jesus in terror and He calms the waters, just like Jonah did in permitting himself to be tossed overboard. The point, as I see it, is that Jesus was telling His disciples that He’d have to die and be buried three days for the sake of the salvation of the world. Is that about right, Wisdom?”

“Close. There are other prophetic items, but you’ve covered the main one pretty well. Go on, Earl. Tell him about David and Goliath.”

[to be continued]

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #20

Chapter Twenty

Jimmy Smith remembered how he’d smiled knowingly at his fellow tribal elders seated with him around the large circular table as the government representative had finished his pitch and sat back down.  He could see it now as if it had happened yesterday, the rep reaching for a glass of water with a frown that betrayed his fear of rejection, almost begging for the council’s permission to build and oblivious to the open glee on the faces of the other men.  They had returned Jimmy’s smile.  To the man, as if they’d been gifted with manna from the sky, as indeed they had.  They had been surrounded by wealthier Native Americans, living high off the greed and stupidity of ordinary Americans who fell all over themselves to pour their money into the miserly slots of the multitude of casinos that were springing up in Indian Nation after Nation and encroaching ever further into the white man’s civilization. Phoenix; Yuma; Flagstaff – you name it, one of their brother Nations already was there.  True, their own piece of the Navajo Nation had Monument Valley, but what were the reservation fees and the sorry vendors sitting out front peddling their wampum next to the cash cornucopia that the casinos were raking in?

But that was all about to change, as they’d thought at the time.  No more half-baked and impractical thoughts on how to transform the sleepy little town of Kayenta from a tourist stopover for the Griswolds into a metropolis big enough to support a decent-sized casino.  The Great White Father in Washington was about to hand over more than they’d get from a half-dozen casinos.  They’d be set for life.  They, too, would be part of the great Red Man’s push to win the Indian Wars once and for all.  Jimmy could remember other things, so sweet at the time, like extracting a cigar from his deerskin vest, snipping  off the end with deliberation, and puffing it with great satisfaction.  The other elders were similarly dressed, as if they’d just come out of a John Wayne western, so deliberately clueless in appearance that they exuded the impression of being ready and eager to sell the Island of Manhattan for some trinkets and beads.  The naive appearance was, of course, a deliberate fiction calculated to work to their advantage in the negotiations taking place.  Their grinning mouths, which matched the unreadable eyes, stopped just short of drooling

Their “Manhattan” was a desolate stretch of worthless desert out on the back forty hidden behind some massive mesas, where the government’s antenna farm would be out of view of the public.  What the U.S. wanted to do, the spokesman had said, was to “utilize” this empty space and, except for the antennas, maintain the appearance of disused emptiness.  When pressed as to why such disused emptiness would be worth the enormous amount of money the government was willing to pay for the lease, the spokesman had tipped his hand, probably way too much.  He’d told them that the area, being on Navajo property and thus intimidating to would-be curiosity-seekers, would be an ideal spot for a FEMA base.  Don’t worry, the man had said, just about all of it would be so far underground that nobody would know it was there.  Guaranteed.  The astronomical amount of money involved had raised some suspicion among the elders.  “What about mineral rights?” Jimmy had asked him, to which the man had replied that any minerals, including oil and gas, would remain in the hands of the Navajo Nation.  They had scratched their heads at that, somewhat nonplussed.  Finally, Jimmy had asked the man to step outside, maybe grab a cup of coffee, while the elders conferred.  After he’d left, the grins on the elders’ faces widened and a few broke out into open laughter.  “White man heap stupid,” one said in as gutteral a voice he could manage, which brought out some more chuckles.  “I think we need more beads out of the deal,” said the elder to Jimmy’s right, to another round of laughter.  Eventually, they let the man return, where he’d faced Jimmy, who was wearing a frown of displeasure.

“We’d like to help you, but I’m afraid it’s impossible.  There’s a lot of Indian bones out there, we don’t know exactly where.  Sacred.  The whole area’s a burial ground.  Sorry.”

The spokesman’s eyes had bulged out in disappointment.  “Isn’t there anything I can do to change your minds?” he’d begged.  That started a round of back-and-forth negotiating, which ended, to the spokesman’s vast relief, with a firm agreement for the leasehold.  All it had taken, in the end, was a doubling of the cash offer.

That was many years ago.  Many moons, Jimmy mused.  He was an old man now, ancient by any standards.  The government had come with a large array of equipment, almost always by night, and most of it by helicopter.  With the appearance of an enormous tunnel-boring device, everything went underground in a big hurry.  Five years later they seemed to be finished with the building task.  True to the spokesman’s promise there had been no trace of humanity around the site, including a total lack of vehicular traffic.  There was traffic, to be sure, just not there.  Vehicles entered and emerged at the opening of a two-lane tunnel way over southwest of Kayenta, miles away from the far side of the big mesa.  Man, that must be a long tunnel, Jimmy continued to muse.  But he wasn’t particularly curious to see the tunnel or the underground settlement that it serviced, visualizing in his head the bleak warning signs posted at the entrance that promised immediate death to trespassers.  People might be walking around right underneath the very spot I’m sitting, Jimmy thought darkly.

Jimmy continued to reminisce about that tunnel entrance.  The same wimpy-looking government spokesman had come back around as it was being built, trying to enlist their aid in camouflaging the tunnel’s purpose.  “Couldn’t you place some buildings around it, make it less obvious?”

“We could,” Jimmy had responded with a look of boredom.  “But it would take heap much money.”  If this little twit is typical of the white man, how on earth could we have lost?  We should have collared Custer in the first five minutes

 

“Money?  Money?  What do you think we’ve been giving you?  The G-man brushed his fingers through his thinning hair in frustration and a budding anger.

“Calm down, boy,” Jimmy had said indifferently.  “Take heap money to raise Indian out of poverty.”  He glared at the kid, who said, deferentially, “Okay.  I am authorized to, ah, extend the terms of our original agreement.”

After that the cornucopia turned into a mighty river of cash, awesome in its breadth and scope.  “Look at all the pretty beads!” Jimmy’s companions had said in appreciation as they held another powow to discuss what they’d do with the money.  It was a no-brainer.  After a few minutes of puffing on cigars and smacking their lips on twelve-year-old Scotch, they came to the conclusion that what the tribe needed now was a casino.  For a few months thereafter, the work on the FEMA facility was rivaled by the rapid construction of a magnificent palace of iniquity, glittering with a thousand lights.

“If we build it, they’ll come,” Jimmy had said prophetically, borrowing from the words of actor Kevin Kostner in his movie Field of Dreams.  They came indeed, in such droves that the tribe’s next project was an airstrip, which was followed by several new hotels.

Now that the government had turned on its people, Jimmy had bouts of a troubled conscience, questioning whether the agreement they’d signed was worth the terror that FEMA and other government agencies had instilled in the hearts of the population.  Ah, well, he consoled himself, they would have built it somewhere else anyway.

FEMA indeed had built elsewhere, at several locations scattered about the country.  This particular location, however, had been an object of God’s most recent attention.  The previous year had witnessed a dramatic uptick in activity from the Monument Valley site, particularly in the government’s use of drones and helicopters to track and harass the disorganized and destitute remnants of the general population.  Now the FEMA Monument Valley Center was planning to embark on an extensive program to round up the scattered people, and to herd them into a central location to force the barcode imprint upon them while they examined these individuals in order to classify them either as fit for duty or unnecessary burdens on society at large.

Wisdom didn’t buy into their plans.  Voluntary acceptance of the Mark was bad enough, but it was useful at least to separate the sheep from the goats – those who refused to accept the Mark at the threat of starvation or exposure to the elements.  The act of force-feeding the Mark was intolerable to Her.

Consequently, the land southward from Wyoming to the FEMA Monument Valley Center underwent a series of moderate but progressively stronger earthquakes.  Little attention was paid to them, as the number of earthquakes was becoming so great throughout the country that earthquakes were beginning to be accepted as part of the background noise.  But, unknown to the FEMA personnel, each earthquake in that area expanded an impressive crack under the earth that headed from its origin around the middle of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming directly toward the FEMA Monument Valley site.  The FEMA-built tunnel between its facility and its terminus southwest of Kayenta was puny compared to the length of this crack, which, when it finally ended, would have a length of five hundred sixty-three miles and a width along its entire length that of a six-lane interstate highway.  It would carry no vehicles, being more in the nature of a liquid pipeline.  Only the liquid that flowed through it it was molten rock, fresh from the great Yellowstone magma chamber.  It was, in essence, a volcanic river.

FEMA personnel were first alerted that something was amiss when the heat input to the underground city began to exceed the capacity of the air conditioning system.  Over a period of several days, the facility underwent a continuous rise in temperature, not so rapid as to initiate a sudden panic, but inexorable.  By the end of the first week after the temperature rise was noticed, the situation was becoming untenable.  Yet it was gradual enough that it failed to raise a general alarm.  On the next day, the eighth, however, a final earthquake split the concrete bed of the nuclear power plant to release the pent-out magma beneath it and out surged an unstoppable flow of white-hot rock.  Very quickly the nuclear facility was inundated with magma, but the intensely-radioactive core exploded before allowing itself to be encapsulated by rock, spewing superheated steam and hot gases throughout the power plant, breaching the nuclear enclosure and exposing the entire FEMA population to deadly radioactivity.  This upside-down China Syndrome took less than five minutes to kill off the last victim, and after that the facility was as silently dead as if it were a beehive that had been saturated with poison.

Within a couple more weeks, Jimmy Smith had become aware of the drastic curtailment of traffic in and out of the tunnel, and of the absence of any sign of life around the complex.  He wondered if something had happened.  After a while he shrugged his shoulders.  We got ours out of it, so what difference does it make? Maybe the white man is more stupid than we thought.

There were some lingering consequences to the public of the FEMA disaster in Utah.  One evening as the fugitive group sat down to dinner at the large dining table of Miryam’s uncle and aunt and thanks was given to God for the day and the meal, a voice at the end of the table spoke up.  “Pass the salt, please,” She said.

“Who on earth are you?” screeched Terry as Henry jumped up from his chair in surprise.

“Wisdom!” Earl cried, incidentally answering Terry’s question.

“Who?” asked Henry.

“This grand, lovely Lady is Wisdom,” Earl said to the others.  “God.”

“Hello, all,” Wisdom replied, cutting off the obvious questions in the minds of the shocked hosts.  “Earl will give you more of an explanation after I’ve left.  By the way, bravo, Earl!  Good talk.  Did Me proud.  I’m here to introduce Myself and warn Henry and Ralph not to go to their shops for at least the next week, especially since Ralph is coming along so well in Our relationship with him.”  She gave him a winsome smile, which filled him with joy.  “My compliments to you, too, Terry.  This roast beef is delicious.”  Wisdom explained to them what had happened at the FEMA site at Monument Valley and the grim aftermath involving a drastically-increased effort of the government to enroll the population in the dreaded Mark.

“Radiation, scalding steam and liquid rock,” Ellery mused.  “What a terrible way to die, like rats trapped in a barrel.  Pardon me for saying, but that seems like overkill to me.  I mean, good riddance and all that and of course we’re very grateful for the protection, but aren’t You – God – supposed to treat enemies with kindness?  Wasn’t that what Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount was all about?  What I mean, Wisdom, is that we know you’re not a hypocrite, but. . .”

“Nobly spoken, Ellery,” Wisdom interrupted.  “It was overkill all right, so much so that the people inside hardly had time to register the fact that a disaster had just occurred, much less feel the pain.  They didn’t suffer, Ellery.  But they were spiritually dead anyway, to the last person, having accepted the deadly Mark of Revelation thirteen.  But now that you raised the issue, the kindness to enemies that Jesus spoke of in Matthew five and six  wasn’t meant to prevent a devoted parent – including Me – from acting to preserve the welfare of loved ones, particularly when the preservation of life – yours – involves the fulfillment of the Father’s will.  You have no way of comprehending just what that FEMA community had in store for you.  But I do and I did.  It wasn’t – isn’t – pretty.

[to be continued]

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #19

Chapter Nineteen

As Moshe continued to explain the seemingly-contradictory love of God to Miryam’s family, the sound of unsteady feet climbing up the stairs signaled the arrival of Ellery and Marge. Henry came to the door and opened it. He was about to give them a welcome, but the shock of seeing his rival antique dealer Ralph, obviously injured, stopped his voice. Wordlessly, he ushered them in. Ralph looked at Henry, his own shock equally evident. “Henry!” he exclaimed. “How do you know this lot? They’re Christians, didn’t you know?”

“I really don’t think it’s an appropriate time to grouse about their religion,” Henry countered. “Seeing as how they apparently rescued you and all that.”

“But-but they’re Christians, Henry,” Ralph sputtered. “I’d think you’d have been more put-off than me, given your . . .”

“Ethnicity as an A-rab?” Henry countered, cutting him off. “A raghead? Don’t try to deny it, you’ve looked at me as an unwanted alien from the time we first met. But then you judge everybody else, too, Ralph. I’ve heard plenty from people who’ve come out of your shop into mine. Tell you what. You show a little more kindness to people, a little less judgment, maybe you’d have a pretty impressive boost in sales.”

“Are you gonna let me stay, Henry? Just for a while. I don’t have a home any more.”

“Not unless you turn that frown into a smile, and right now.”

“Why should I? What’s there to smile about?” Ralph barked out a harsh caricature of a laugh as a deep anger entered into his self-pity. “God?” Your God and the Christian God are all alike. If they really existed, which they don’t, they couldn’t , they’d have to be some pretty mean hombres.” Ralph yanked his good arm from Ellery’s grasp, wincing at the effect of this sudden move on his injury, and turned to go.

“Wait!” Henry called. “Let’s see that arm of yours.” He inspected the damaged arm, told Ralph to sit, and gently removed his coat and shirt. “Looks like a problem, he said, inspecting the wound. “A break, but a clean one. Help me out here, Terry. I need a bandage and some boards for a splint.”

Terry returned with the first-aid supplies, glaring into Ralph’s eyes as she handed the splints to Henry. Together they set the break, sandwiched it between the splints, bandaged it, and made a sling into which they placed it. “Thanks,” Ralph responded with some vestigial truculence and stood up. “I’ll be leaving now.”

“Wait!” Henry said, grasping Ralph’s intact arm. “Don’t go before you have something to eat. I’m not gonna make you smile.”

“We don’t want to put Ralph into a hospital,” Joyce told the others, relieved that the standoff was starting to end well. “At his age, a hospital visit would simply be the first stage of a journey to a death camp.” The faces of Miryam’s aunt and uncle registered surprise. “Believe me, we know,” she told them.

“Been there and done that,” Earl added.

The thought of food was irresistible to Ralph. He turned around and stumbled inside. Terry pointed to a chair dubiously, wearing conflicting feelings on her face. She and Henry had a history of putting up with Ralph’s attempts to drive away potential customers. Yet some of what Moshe had been telling them about God’s love had sunk in, although she was far from understanding why.

Ralph brought the issue out in the open. He sighed loudly as he sat down at the big dining table, informing the others that the weight of the world rested on his aching shoulders. “My store’s gone. Trash. My wife’s gone and I have nobody left. I’m homeless and alone in a world that’s turning to crap. If I had a gun, I’d point it at my head right now and be done with it once and for all.”

“How about it, Moshe?” Henry asked. “Terry and I are real interested in how you’re going to handle that. What about all this evil in the world, and all the suffering. Is your God indifferent to it?”

“I do have something to say, but I think Earl could do a better job of it. How about it, Earl?”

“Wow,” Earl replied with a laugh. “Hot potato incoming. Sure, I’ll be happy to talk about my – our – God, because the issue Ralph raised isn’t new. It’s been an excuse for turning away from God for centuries. No, for millennia. Ralph, why are you here?”

“In this world? I didn’t ask to be born, that’s for sure. “Yeah, why am I here,” he asked confrontationally. “You got an answer for that?”

“You’re here because there really is a God. The miracle of life is amazing beyond any possibility that it came from chance. I could continue on that one subject, but let’s return to the main issue for now. You’re not here to please yourself. You’re here to please God.”

“Oh, so we’re here to entertain. Your God enjoys torquing up the pain and watching people groan.”

“No, because our Christian God, the God of the Bible, is the embodiment of love. The whole nature of the Bible tells us that. Besides, the Apostle John said it directly. What pleases God is your ultimate happiness, and that can be found in your enjoying full intimacy with God, in receiving all the love He has to offer, which is without limit.” But the spiritual world is where it all comes together. Heaven, if you will. The Bible never promises us that we won’t have painful experiences here on earth. In fact, it pretty much says the opposite. A very beautiful Lady once had me memorize a certain passage out of the Book of Hebrews and to recall it very recently. It’s in Chapters eleven and twelve. I’ll try to recall it from memory, asking that beautiful Lady to help me out:

“’And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell you of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets, who through faith, subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment; they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tested, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented. (Of whom the world was not worthy); they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

 

          “’Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such hostility of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou are rebuked of him; for whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chastens not? But if you are without chastisement, of which you are all partakers, then you are bastards, and not sons.’

“Pretty strong words, I’ll admit,” Earl continued. “Excessively harsh to many ears. But the odd thing is that whatever pain you are asked to endure is actually for your own benefit. As God also said in Romans 8, ‘All things work together for good to them that love God, who are the called according to His purpose.’

“I don’t get it,” Ralph said. “My wife died because God is working things out for my good? Hey, it’s been years and I’m still grieving. Now everything is collapsing about me and you expect me to see it as good?”

“That’s what I’m hoping for,” Earl admitted. “To understand it, you have to see the big picture. A big part of that is to accept on faith that God is the ultimate expression of love and that He is trying to get you to love Him back.”

“Pretty round-about way of doing things,” Ralph snorted. “Maybe I’d rather not have all that love, thank you.”

“You’d really want to give up a loving relationship with God in a heaven that’s more beautiful and exciting than you can possibly imagine in your wildest dreams? You don’t know what you’re saying. What God is really looking for in you – yes, you, Ralph, is a touch of nobility. Courage, selflessness, love on your part. God’s looking for that in all of us. Collectively, as His Church, we will be Jesus’ bride, His partner in marriage. Much as Joyce and I love each other, we both realize that the spiritual relationship with God that we’re looking forward to will far surpass anything we’re experiencing together here on earth. You lost your wife, but that’s really nothing compared to what you stand to gain in the spiritual domain. This life is really nothing more than a training ground, to prepare those who accept God’s terms rather than their own to be a vital part of that spiritual marriage. And there’s more besides. Those who do accept Jesus as their Lord and their Life are reborn spiritually, even here on earth. All Christians have the promise of the indwelling Holy Spirit, who comes into their lives and comforts them as they go through outwardly unpleasant experiences. Believe me, Ralph, we Christians actually have joy in our Lord, even during the most difficult of times. Yet more, the trials we endure give us the full appreciation of Jesus’ suffering on our behalf, and of the unfathomable love of God for allowing that to happen for our sakes. Beyond that, as we progress through those trials into more selfless natures, we continually acquire clearer consciences, a matter that’s a source of great happiness and an opening for us to receive God’s love in ever greater doses.”

Ralph remained silent, but Henry spoke up. “Thanks for that, Earl. I think I’m beginning to understand your God. The nobility issue appeals to me rather strongly. What you’re saying, if I can read between the lines, is that we have to get past our own selfishness to begin to see God and be a part of His plan for us. It’s like we ourselves are children in a much bigger universe that we thought we lived in, and giving up our own childish wants is part of growing up into that larger world.”

“You couldn’t have said it better,” Joyce said. “And loving each other is a big part of loving God. God Himself is selfless and noble. And very humble besides. It took a lot of humility as well as love to willingly go to the cross and accept the shame.”

“I think I like your God!” Terry exclaimed enthusiastically.

Ralph sat there, still as a statue. Gradually his features softened. Eventually, as they watched, he managed to turn the frown upside-down, achieving a caricature of a smile. Everyone knew that it wasn’t real, but the face-change made for a real improvement.

“But now tell us about – what?” Terry said to Earl. “A death camp, you say? I know things are going downhill fast around here, but even now, a death camp here in America?”

“I don’t know what else you’d call it, if you have people being carted daily into huge furnaces. And being starved, mistreated and abused to the point where the ovens are actually welcome. We lost our precious daughter there.” The pronouncement hung heavy in the room. Joyce gave a sobbing gasp at the sudden intrusion of that memory and turned her face to the wall.

“I’m so sorry I brought it up, Joyce,” Terry said. But Earl continued to speak of it.

“It turned out to be a blessing, Terry,” he told her. “She was severely handicapped by cerebral palsy. That was her crime – that she was eating the food of more useful people. And they punished her for it – severely. That first night they separated us we heard screams and wails from the barracks that held the handicapped people. The crying continued throughout that night and well into the second, but then that terrible noise began to diminish. On the morning after the fourth night there was no noise at all. Just this awful silence. The guards came in with carts and they left again loaded with bodies.

“Stop it, Earl!” Joyce cried. “You’ve said enough!” She turned and ran out of the room. Earl followed on her heels.

“I’m ashamed of myself,” Terry said.

“Don’t be,” Marge said. “You need to know about it. Ellery could tell you a thing or two about terribly wrong our government has been over the last few years. He was framed, you know. For a crime he didn’t commit, a crime that was done by corrupt generals who had become nothing more than common thugs. We were forced to witness the government descend into a den of snakes. They were happy – no, eager – to destroy our lives for their personal gain.”

“Maybe I should go in and apologize to them.”

“No. They’re tough. She’ll be over it by tomorrow, having grown a bit more into the nobility that God is looking for in all of us.”

When Joyce arrived at the kitchen to help with breakfast, she was as cheerful as ever. Terry gave her a big hug.

 

 

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #18

Chapter Seventeen

Ellery had just sighted a promising sign above an old shop which indicated that antiques were to be found within when he was accosted by a seedy man whose run-down appearance suggested that his home didn’t have walls or a ceiling.

“Got a five to spare, Jack?” he asked brusquely. Ellery started to dress him down for the inappropriate familiarity as he fished around in his pocket for change. While his hand was occupied, the stranger stepped behind Marge, grabbed her by the chin, and poised a long, vicious-looking knife at her exposed throat. “Don’t do nothin’ rash,” the intruder told Ellery. “Just hand the lady your wallet and I might let you live.”

Ellery did as Jack demanded, handing his wallet over to Marge. The man grabbed it from her and stuck it inside his coat. “Now,” he said, turn around and go back where you came from.”

“I’m not leaving until you let my wife go,” Ellery told him. The man responded by pricking her throat with the point of his knife. “You’d better, or this knife goes deeper. Jack.”

“Just let her go. Please,” Ellery begged.

“Maybe I will, but we have a date first. Then maybe. Maybe not. Scram.”

The futility of his pleading took Ellery over the edge. After the turmoil they’d both just endured and the probability that the man would kill his wife after brutally using her enraged him to the point that his primitive limbic system took over from his Christian understanding of loving his enemies. Unfortunately for the thug, God refused to intervene. Falling back on his military training, Ellery chopped the intruder’s wrist with a hard, sweeping motion that inserted his arm between the knife and Marge’s throat. The crackle of breaking bones accompanied the clatter of the knife hitting the sidewalk, but before it fell the blade had grazed Ellery’s arm, releasing a spurt of blood. Before the man could react further Ellery picked up the knife and, ignoring the damage to his arm, thrust it into the man’s groin.

“Eeee!” the thug cried in an intense wail that represented his shock, pain and fear of irreparable damage.   “I’m not through,” Ellery responded. “By the time I’m finished with you, you won’t think again about doing the same to another woman.” He backed up this cold, anger-driven statement by jabbing forked fingers into the man’s eyeballs, not enough to ruin them, but inflicting a very temporary blindness that added to the man’s sudden terror. He retrieved his wallet and walked away with Marge in tow, indifferent to the man’s squeals of agony, nor of his limited prospects for future survival.

By the time they had reached the antique store that he had sighted before the attack, Ellery’s adrenaline had diminished to a manageable level. He voiced his regret to God and then Marge of letting his anger overcome his Christian understanding of dealing with enemies, but Marge didn’t agree. “What, and have that cretin have his way with me? I’m glad you did what you did!”

Nor was he berated by Wisdom for his actions. She remained silent about the situation and his response to it.

They entered the antique shop, as dimly-lit as the previous one, but the proprietor, a man, was as cheerful as Miryam, and escorted them to a nook that bore immediate fruit in the form of a commentary on John’s Gospel. “Look at this, Marge!” he breathed. “This treasure is exactly what we’re on the lookout for!” They enthusiastically continued their search throughout the store, but failed to find another Christian-related book. In a continuation of their good fortune, the proprietor accepted their cash and they left the shop in high spirits, having been pointed by the man to the next antique store.

This one was well-lighted and considerably better-organized than the previous two, which made little difference to the ambiance of the store, as the man behind the counter viewed them with narrowed eyes, their angry glare emphasized by his scowling, downturned mouth. The deep furrows in his face accentuated his disgust with the world and them. “What are you looking for?” he asked as he walked toward them. Approaching the couple, he stood before them in a stance that demanded their quick reply. “What do you have there?” he asked, looking down at the book in Ellery’s arm and searching through his memory to verify that the book didn’t belong to him despite the obvious fact that the couple had just entered the store.

“We’re looking for books, sir”, Ellery said, attempting with a deferential attitude to tone down the confrontational element. “Christian books, if you have such.”

“Christian, eh?” the man said with a grimace, ramping up the confrontation. “We don’t carry Christian items here, so I’ll thank you to leave.” He pointed to the door.   “As a matter of fact, isn’t Christianity illegal?” Ellery turned back as they approached the exit to see the man extract a phone from his pocket. “Maybe we’d better run for it,” he told his wife. “I think he’s calling the police.”

“Whoa!” Marge cried as the sidewalk heaved upward under her feet. A pronounced ripple caught her eye as the buckling of the pavement approached their position. The shaking became so violent that they both fell, Ellery instinctively cradling Marge protectively in his arms. The hammering of the ground upon their bodies became so sharply aggressive that Ellery overcame his disorientation to rise to his feet and pick up his wife. A noise of shattering crockery and glassware came from the building they had just left, and blended into the rumble of tortured earth. This was surpassed by the loud screeching of rending framework accompanied by the thudding of beams as the store collapsed. White powder jetted out of the doorway as plaster walls disintegrated. Presently the ground motion subsided and left them with a momentary quiet, broken by a feeble cry of help from inside the chaotic wreckage of the store.

“Are you okay?” Ellery asked his wife. “Just a little shaken up,” she replied, “but I don’t think I’m injured in any way. What about you?”

“Me too,” he said, “but I think the guy in the store may be hurt real bad. We’d better go in and see how he’s doing. Yeah, I know,” he said to her look of surprise, “but we’re Christians and he’s probably suffering. We’re supposed to get beyond the hurt feelings and all that. Let’s go.”

He left the book on the sidewalk and they poked their way back into the store, threading their way back to the counter through the remains of the structure and the disarray of furniture and other antiques that once may have been of value. “Help me, please,” the feeble voice pled. They stood over the man briefly, attempting to assess his injuries. His right arm was cocked in an unnatural manner, suggesting a break. A wooden beam lay across his lap, and there was a cut on he side of his bald head. It was bleeding, but the man wasn’t in danger of a life-threatening loss of blood from it. Looking around, Marge found a blanket and a cloth flag, which she applied to the wound. Working together, the couple was able to move the log from his body. Careful not to touch the damaged arm, Ellery reached down and lifted him up. “Can you stand by yourself?” he asked the man as Marge wrapped the blanket around his shoulders.

“Yes, I think so, the man replied, holding his bad arm tenderly with the good one. “Thank you, then,” he said somewhat reluctantly. “I’m not sure that I could have gotten up by myself. Oh! Look at this store! It’s ruined!” The man began to weep.

“You can’t stay here,” Marge told him. “I’m Marge, by the way, and this is my husband Ellery. You’re going to need medical attention, whoever you are. Best come with us.”

“I’m not ‘whoever’!” the man complained, his previous demeanor beginning to return. “I’m Ralph. Ralph Dassenchuck.”

“Okay, Ralph,” Ellery said. “There’s not much you can do about this store, or, apparently, what was inside it. Come on. We have a place you can stay.” Wordlessly, Ralph allowed them to extract him from his store. Ellery picked up his book that was laying on the sidewalk and, holding Ralph’s good left arm, guided him back toward the house that Miryam had so generously offered for their use. Knowing Miryam and the generosity of her extended family that her offer had implied, Ellery had no doubt that they would offer the same to Ralph despite his ugly attitude.

Chapter Eighteen

In addition to the suffering the populations of the Western Regions had endured at the hands of their own governments, they were abused yet further by jihadists who had continued to inflict random acts of terror on them. This was not a separate issue, bur rather was another, more Machiavellian application of the government against its populace as a means of intimidating and subduing them. It was quite effective in its creation of a problem that could be solved, in the perception of the ignorant masses, only by more governmental control.

In their naive misunderstanding of this, the people had periodically clamored to the government to do more to control this menace, which only made Potnar laugh to himself. The actual threat of jihadism remained, as did the antagonistic division it engendered between the Western and Islamic arms of world government, as he thought of them, but the majority of destructive acts were inspired by the CIA in its execution of state-condoned terrorism.

All five leaders of the Western Regions, particularly POTEUR, had fully participated in this mass deception, the fiction being maintained by vehement periodic official utterances of condemnation against the more brutal actions.

But the power in the Muslim world was certainly no fiction, POTNAR mused. If he was to reach his ultimate objective of leadership and control over the entire world, he’d have to prune back that branch. The Russian part of that alliance was the most disconcerting, as the rest of that so-called Empire seemed to be following the leading of the Russian president. So Russia would be the first of his targets.

But what is Russia going to do with Israel? Potnar questioned to himself. Well, let them do what they’ll do. Israel’s become an annoying parasite on my good will. Perhaps in the process of ridding the world of Jews, Russia will find the adventure costly and debilitating, which will take care of my own problem with the Region.

 

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #17

Chapter Sixteen

 

 

 

 

 

“Oh!” Joyce exclaimed as they went up the wooden steps to the door of the large, well-maintained structure, embedded within a small forest of evergreen trees, the lawn still green despite the approach of winter. The green paint of the trim and shutters contrasting with the white house lent a pristine air to the scene. Three dormers stood out from the immaculate shake roof. Smoke from a wood fire curled up from the stone chimney. “It’s so pretty, Miryam. Are you certain that your aunt and uncle won’t mind? Won’t they be a bit put-out, our coming without notice?”

“Of course they won’t mind,” Miryam said. “You’ll understand when you meet them. And we’re not exactly coming on them unexpected. I called them while you were browsing for books.”

As if Miryam’s aunt had heard every word that she had spoken, the front door opened to frame her tall, chubby figure. “Welcome!” she cried, opening her arms to emphasize her cheerful greeting.

“That’s auntie Terry,” Miryam said, rushing up the stairs with a smile to embrace her aunt. “Thanks so much again!” she told her, looking up to her round face. “Those two,” she told her, “are Earl and Joyce Cook. They’re Christians, and they’ve been through a lot. The others are Christians too. Ellery and Marge are out looking for books, but they should be here soon.”

“And who is that young man by your side, Miryam?” her uncle asked. He had come over to the doorway and now stood next to his wife, his arm around her ample waist. Together they looked like a portrait of Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Miryam blushed. “This is uncle Henry,” she told her companions, who responded with hellos. “Guess what?” she said to Henry, looking at Terry with an expression that spoke of her hopes for their acceptance of her new companion. “This is Moshe,” she began, forgetting her incessant tales about him over the last two weeks and expecting their surprise at his obviously Jewish name. “The one I told you about. I’ve known him for ages. We’ve shared a lot.” Her blush brightened. “That didn’t come out right. What I meant to say is that we’ve gone through some pretty scary times together.”

“What you really meant to say,” Terry broke in with a broad smile, “is that you’re very glad he’s here. We’ve heard a lot about you, Moshe.” She extended her hand to him in welcome. “Come on in. Hot chocolate, everybody?” She returned to her kitchen without waiting for replies while Henry pointed to the sofa and bid them to sit.

“How lovely!” Joyce exclaimed as she looked about her at the cozy warmth of the fireplace and the equally warm furnishings of the living room. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such cheerful surroundings.” Perhaps this is indeed more modest than the hotel room, Joyce thougth to herself, but it certainly is more warm and charming. Thank you so much, Wisdom.

Henry looked at Earl, the unspoken question obvious about his ability to provide for his wife. Joyce picked up on it and laughed. “Oh, yes, Henry,” she said. “We did have a home every bit as cheerful as this, and we did it proud with much love and joy. We had a daughter, too. A lovely young lady, Cathy.” Her smile morphed into a frown and her eyes misted at the recollection.

“I don’t want to pry into your personal life,” Henry said. “But if you don’t mind my asking, and speak up if you do, what happened to your daughter?”

“The government happened to her,” Earl spoke up with bitterness in his voice. “Cathy wasn’t perfect, you see. Not up to the government standard for continued existence.”

“How awful!” Terry exclaimed from the kitchen. “You mean that they just let her die?”

“No, it’s worse than that. They took an active part in her death.” Earl told them about the death camp in Arizona from which they had escaped, and the adventures they’d experienced up to the point of their arrival here.

A general silence prevailed as Terry came in with steaming cups of chocolate. “Well, you’re here now, so maybe things will be looking up for you,” she said. “I’m trying not to be judgmental, folks, but from where I stand I wonder about your God. I’m not all that happy with Allah, especially being a woman, but I thought your God was supposed to be loving and kind. At least that’s what I’ve heard.”

As if to emphasize the point that Terry was trying to make, the ground shook as if it were being booted around by an angry God. As the movement increased in intensity, Terry grabbed the counter for support and froze in place while the others sat motionless in the living room. A lamp crashed to the floor and the house groaned in protest, but remained intact as the shaking diminished and stopped. Earl rose from the couch and picked up the lamp. He looked at Terry asking without words for a broom and dustpan, which she retrieved from a closet and handed to him. “Thanks,” she said as he brought the broken glass remains into the kitchen. She opened a door to the under-sink garbage container and he dropped the remains in. “Sorry for that,” he told her. “It looks like it was an expensive lamp.”

“Maybe so,” she replied, “but I’d rather see a broken lamp than a broken bone. Or cracks in the walls.” Her eyes darted about to confirm that indeed there were no cracks. “We’ve been having these quakes more often lately,” she continued. “I wonder what’s going on?”

“That another love letter from your God?” Henry smirked as Earl sat back down on the couch next to Joyce. “I’m with Terry. Your God seems to be as harsh as Allah. I don’t buy the whole religion thing, God or Allah.” He glanced at Miryam, searching for support.

Moshe spoke up first. He was troubled by the thought of clashing with Miryam’s family, but the subject was too important and too misunderstood to remain silent about it. “I agree with you about the appearance of anger rather than love. In fact, even as a Jew I might have taken your side on this.”

“You’re not a Jew?” Henry interrupted.

“Yes I am,” he replied. “But thanks to a man named Jacob and his wife, and now Earl and Joyce, I’m also a Christian, which makes a big difference in the way I see the world around me. I’m beginning to see the mercy behind the apparent anger, and, yes, even love. Especially love. Think about this – the opposite of love isn’t anger, but indifference. Wisely directed, anger can be a strong influence for improvement. Then   think about what life would be like without God. The way mankind is heading, without His intervention we’d blow ourselves up, along with our planet. Just as bad, we’d destroy ourselves in the meanest, cruelest manner our evil minds could devise before we got to that point. We’d be like a world populated by Rambos, all thinking that the rest of the world did them wrong and getting their own back in the most brilliantly-conceived, diabolical ways. And don’t think I’ve left the women out of that picture. Left to their own devices and a godless attitude, they can be just as cruelly inventive as the men. The bottom line is that God’s grace toward us is more than abundant, even if as individuals we reject Him. God fulfills the Genesis story of Joseph in that way. Just as Joseph rescued those who hated him, so did Jesus suffer and die on the cross in behalf of those who watched with satisfaction as His life drained away. But if, collectively, a people who were once called by His name turn against Him and force their children to reject Him, they inevitably will descend along a path that will take them to a hell on earth. In His mercy, God will put a halt to it before mankind completes its self-extinction. The best news is that to those who know and love their God, they find peace and joy in the most absurdly difficult, painful and dangerous situations. We who have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior actually have God within us, guiding and comforting us in the midst of chaos and destruction.”

“What do you mean by ‘God within us’?” Terry asked.

“That’s the promise of the Bible, Moshe responded. According to John and Luke, the Holy Spirit – God – comes to live within Christians. Maybe I’d better turn the podium over to Earl or Joyce,” Moshe said. “It takes the Bible to really understand what I’m talking about and the very real love of God in spite of outward appearances, and those two understand the Bible from cover to cover.”

“You’re doing just fine,” Earl told him. “Go ahead with what you’re saying. I can see the input of the Holy Spirit with every word you speak. About the Bible, though. The story of Joseph in Genesis, the very first book of the Bible, is a good example of how the Old Testament described Jesus so thoroughly before He came in the flesh.   Joseph represented in great detail an important aspect of Jesus’ character and mission, saving those who hated him. But that account is just one of . . .”

“Are you going to let Moshe get on with it or not?” Joyce said, interrupting her husband.

“Sorry,” Earl replied grinning, sweeping his arm down in an invitation to Moshe to take up the conversation.

 

 

 

 

 

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #16

Chapter Fifteen (continued)

The five of them remained in Earl and Joyce’s room throughout the day and into the evening, struggling with the recall of Bible passages that popped unbidden into their minds. They broke for dinner in the room and, encouraged by what they’d accomplished to that point, continued working after the meal. They repeated the process into the night and through the next day, at the end of which time their attempt at a reconstructed Gospel of Jesus Christ had begun to take on form. On the third day, having exhausted themselves mentally and troubled with the knowledge that they had to leave by morning, they took a short break to watch the news on television. Moshe observed that the news appeared to be heavily censored and biased toward the current government. Despite the tense situation in his own homeland of Israel, there was very little information about it in the newscast, and Moshe was disappointed to note that what little was said about the situation was heavily one-sided toward the Palestinians.

Less interested in the news than Moshe, Earl continued to think about the task that Wisdom had laid before them. “Hey guys,” he said, jumping up from the couch, “I have an idea. Maybe all the Bibles are gone, but what about all the works about the Bible, like the commentaries?”

“Good idea,” Marge responded. “But where might we find books like that? Certainly not the library or the bookstores.”

“Maybe in some antique stores?” Joyce said. “All the ones I’ve been into in the past have had plenty of old books. Maybe we’d even get lucky and find a Bible there. At any rate, it would be a fun treasure hunt. Let’s do it! What do you say, Moshe?”

“I’m in. We can start first thing tomorrow morning.”

“But what about our sleeping quarters?” Marge asked the group. “ We know that we can’t stay here any longer. Maybe we should focus on that first.”

“I have a feeling that the answer to that is involved in looking for those books,” Earl replied. “I have two thoughts that seem to be messages: the first is to focus on what we were told to – the books. The second is to keep the faith.”

During the night Earl reviewed what they had accomplished so far: snippets of John 1, although none of them could recall the names of all twelve apostles; the same for John 2 and 3; there also were portions of John 8 and 10, where Jesus claimed His Godhood and pre-existence; the story of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac; the story of Esther’s rescue of the Jews from the clutches of Haman, the precursor of Hitler; the feeding of the multitudes from Mark 6 and 8; Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection from Matthew 26 through 28 with a reference back to Psalm 22; Isaiah 53, Psalms 2, 14 and 83; Ephesians 5, the portion of Hebrews 11 that described the Hall of faith; the stories of creation and Joseph in Genesis; the Passover in Exodus 12, again with reference to Psalm 22; and the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20, which took all five of them to finally come up with all ten; and Jesus’ pronouncements to the seven Churches in Revelation 1 through 3, in which, as they amazed themselves, they were able to describe all seven Churches. All in all, Earl thought, not a bad job. There’s enough information here to at least put some interest in God in the hearts of those who might read what we have here. Is there enough to lead to salvation? Earl turned into bed next to Joyce with that question in his mind. Not long after that his mind turned to wonder at the luxury they were experiencing, and with that final thought he went to sleep.

The next day they ordered big, knowing that this would be their last meal in grand hotel style. After happily polishing off the sumptuous breakfast, they set out on foot into the downtown area. Joyce brushed off Earl’s concern over the condition of her phantom feet. “I’ve had enough rest,” she told him. “It feels good to be walking.”

Joyce wasn’t so enthusiastic by the time they found an antique store. But the events that followed caused her to forget all about her prosthetics and the pain in her legs. Moshe was the first to the door, which he held open for the others. As they walked into the rather dark and cluttered shop, Moshe responded back somewhat indifferently to the greeting of the girl behind the counter and did a double-take in amazement when his eyes adjusted to the darkness and he recognized her. “Miryam?” he asked. “Miryam! It’s you! What on earth are you doing here?”

“Moshe!” she screamed. “Oh good God! What on earth are you doing here?”

Forgetting his companions, he rushed over to the counter as she stepped into the aisle and they collided in a fierce hug. “I never thought I’d see you again,” she wailed with joy. “This is unbelievable!”

“I’ve just been here a few days,” she replied to his question of what had brought her here. “I have a great-uncle who brought his family over here to the States in 1950, not long after they’d realized that Israel was there to stay. They were the smart ones, but they haven’t been doing so well since the big regime change here, and last week the stress got to him. He died of a heart attack, I think also caused by the the loss of his wife to cancer six months earlier. I have a college degree, Moshe, in accounting, and their children, my aunt and uncle, paid my way over here to meet them and maybe help out with the diminishing finances. I’m not sure that I can keep them afloat, but I’m trying.”

“Did a certain gorgeous Lady happen to be involved in these events?”

“Why, yes, as a matter of fact, there was a lady. Gorgeous isn’t the word. She had me mesmerized. After I received the news and the funds, which involved a complicated transaction between family patriarchs here and there, there was a time of indecision as to whether I should come here or not. She made that time very brief, I’ll tell you that. She also got involved in the funding transaction, which is way over my head even with my degree. Who is she, Moshe? I don’t think I understand.”

“That’s where my Jewish background comes in,” Moshe told her. “When you refer to Her, you need to capitalize the first letter, because she’s actually God, a member of the Trinitarian Godhead.”

“Really? I thought that’s what She implied, but with my background as a female in a Muslim society, I found that to be very difficult to accept. I thought maybe She could be an angel, but . . .“

“No, She’s truly God. We Jews have a concept of God as one and yet as a multiple, and for the most part in our history we’ve perceived that one Member of this divine Triad, the Holy Spirit, was feminine. We didn’t really understand the full implication of that multiplicity or even the oneness in the face of that multiplicity until a Messianic Christian named Jacob and his wife Moira explained it as a divine Family. This Woman, Miryam, is the Spouse of God the Father.”

“What a beautiful thought!” I think I like your Jewish God, Moshe.”

“There’s more to it, and it’s all beautiful. I hope I get a chance to share the whole story with you, Miryam.”

“So do I. Oh, Moshe, I’m so happy that we’re together again!”

“You can thank our beautiful Woman for that, too, Miryam,” he responded as she gave him a fierce hug. Joyce looked on as they gazed into each other’s eyes in mutual ownership, marveling at Wisdom’s brilliant economy of strategy in bringing the two together while using that budding relationship between Moshe and Miryam to help the other two couples carry out the mission to which She had assigned them.

“So why are you here?” Miryam asked Moshe. “Is there something that brought you into the store?”

“Yes. We’re looking for a certain kind of book, a commentary on the Bible. An antique store is the only place we can think of to find such a book.”

“Well, I’m sure that you can figure out that I don’t know much about what’s in here. The best I can do is point you to where we have books on display and let you look for yourselves.”

“Good enough.”

“Follow me. And forget about getting out of my sight.”

“Believe me, that’s the last thing I want to do.”

“When you leave here, the family home’s quite large. There’s room in it for all of you. If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather have you close by, so maybe you can move out of where you’re staying now. Not to be pushy, but . . .“

Miryam was interrupted by the raucous laughter in which the others participated. “What’s wrong?” she asked timidly.

“Nothing at all, Miryam,” Earl told her. “I’m Earl, by the way, and my wife’s name is Joyce. Our friends here are Ellery and Marge. We’re laughing because what you just said is the perfect answer to our biggest worry. To tell you the truth, we didn’t have any place to stay tonight until your offer. The problem is that Ellery and I have prices on our heads. Authorities of multiple flavors are looking for us and if they find us it’s the end of the road. Is your offer still open, or would you like to think about it a bit more?”

“Of course not!” she responded. “If you’re in trouble, that’s all the more reason to have you!”

“God bless you, then. And a heartfelt thanks to the Woman that Moshe and you were talking about, because it’s obvious that all this is part of Her plan. Her name’s Wisdom, by the way.”

Miryam stopped at a nook where some old hard-bound books were stacked on a rickety antique table. They found nothing that was even close to what they wanted, so they moved on to the next area of books. It was only after they’d exhausted all the books in the store but the last that they finally happened upon a book with a Christian theme: Vine’s Expository Dictionary. The fact that the title didn’t include a reference to the word “Bible” probably saved it from destruction. It wasn’t exactly what they were looking for, but it was certainly better than nothing. By referencing words in the book, it gave them a path, albeit indirect, to recalling some Scripture verses. It would be useful, but would require much effort to make it so.

“Could be that that’s just what Wisdom had in mind,” Earl said, voicing the thought they shared regarding the difficulty of its application.

“Are there any more antique stores besides this one close by, Miryam?” Moshe asked. “Maybe,” he continued after her somewhat tentative answer in the affirmative, “Earl, you and Joyce can pore over this book and see where it takes you, while Ellery and Marge and I continue to search out the other antique stores for books that might be more up our alley.”

“Nothing doing,” Miryam told him. “You’re staying here if I have anything to say about it.”

“Sure thing,” Moshe happily agreed. “It makes sense, though, for you and Marge to continue on with the search,” he told Ellery. “At least you have a full set of arms and legs. And each other.”

“Be glad to.”

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #14

Chapter Fourteen

Abdul Barakzai sat unhappily on his spartan chair, his elbows resting on the table before him, his face in his hands. The closed door of his daughter’s bedroom failed to block the sound of her weeping. He looked up briefly to the sight of his wife’s angry glare. Vicious, he thought. Glad I’m not a foreign invader, reminiscing of his clan’s women, who had been greatly feared by Soviets and Americans alike, as well as a long chain of their predecessors, the Grecians under Alexander the Great, the Turks and the British, each of whom had learned to respect Afghan sovereignty the hard way. They all had lost battles and lives at the hands of the fierce, hardy and courageous men and their cruel, merciless women who reveled in relieving wounded soldiers of their bowels and their privates.

For his modest station in life, Abdul was an educated man; among his Pashtun clanspeople he had great respect for the exploits of his namesake Abdul Ahad Mohmand, the first Afghan cosmonaut who in 1988 had spent nine days aboard the Russian space station Mir. He respected his wife too, despite the upbringing that taught him to think of her as less than fully human. He looked her way again. Her evil eye brought to his mind Rudyard Kipling’s famous 1895 poem The Young English Soldier, which immortalized the second of three nineteenth-century wars the British had engaged in against the Afghan people in 1878-9. He silently spoke to himself the final two stanzas:

“If your officer’s dead and the sergeants look white,

Remember it’s ruin to run from a fight:

So take open order, lie down and sit tight,

And wait for support like a soldier

Wait, wait, wait like a soldier

“When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,

And the women come out and cut up what remains,

Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains

An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier

Go, go, go like a soldier,

Go, go, go like a soldier,

Go, go, go like a soldier,

So-oldier – of – the Queen!

Abdul’s wife was angry with him for his heavy-handed treatment of their daughter, who had been exposed to wrongful Western influence through the efforts of a gang of American Christians who had come into their lives through what they had called “The Joshua Project”, an ill-conceived effort to Christianize his fellow townspeople, including his own family.

At the heart of his current problem with his wife and his daughter was the inroad this group had made into his wife’s heart and her subsequent contamination of his daughter with these thoughts. Like all his friends and associates and their forebears for as long as anyone could remember, Allah be praised, he was a loyal and devout Sunni Muslim, and that was the way they would remain, regardless of this present unpleasantness.

A side issue of this problem was his wife’s absorption of the Christian intruders’ heretic notion that women were as blessed as men and deserved the opportunity of education, just as did all men. Blasphemous! he shouted within himself, gnashing his teeth in rage at her usurpation of position that had become so great that she had begun to infect their daughter with the thought of a manly education. Filthy trash! Before the group had attempted to impose itself upon them, his hatred had been limited to foreign invaders, Jews and the Shi’a sect of Islam, the pretenders to the Islam of tradition, those insufferable, arrogant creatures who thought the leaders of the faith should remain in the family of Muhammad, Allah be praised. This animosity had been familiar, as comfortable as the warm body of his wife. Now he didn’t know which to hate more. He thought of his wife, who so recently had upset the serenity of his family life.

She had been caught attempting to read a Bible. A Bible! He knew enough about this Western God to know that the God of the Christians was also the God of the evil, depraved Jews, worthy of slaughter to the last man, woman and child. Now this ugly document sat there on the table in front of him, figuratively as well as physically between his wife and him. He reached out to grab it and throw it into the trash, but something held him back so strongly that his muscles seemed to melt.

“Who are you?” The man reeled back in shock at the sudden appearance before him of a woman of such breathtakingly radiant beauty that he almost fell to his knees. Her commanding presence stripped away his ingrained view of womanhood and left his soul exposed and vulnerable. “Who are you?” His response to Her question with his own was completely automatic. In her presence his mind had gone completely blank.

“Who are you?” Wisdom repeated.

“I am Abdul Barakzai, a Taliban fighter in the name of Allah.”

“Who are you?” She demanded.

“I am a Pashtun warrior of the clan of Yusuf-zai.”

“Who is Yusuf?”

“Yusuf ibn Yaacob, a very great and noble ancestor, Allah be praised.”

“Who is Yaacob?”

He hesitated. He had known the answer from childhood, but now the implication struck him like a thunderbolt.

“Yes. You are Abdul Barakzai, son of Joseph, son of Jacob, of the Israelite tribe of Joseph, which was led captive out of Samaria in 721 B.C. by King Shalmaneser of Assyria. You were relocated to where you still live now, all these centuries later. Moreover, your blood is that of Joseph’s son Ephraim, and you are indeed the offspring of another very great and noble ancestor, Joshua, who assumed the reigns of leadership from Moses and led the Israelites across the River Jordan into the Promised Land. Joshua’s God – your God – was very different than Mohammad’s Allah to whom you were introduced in the eighth century. Although Allah had freed you from the chains of other gods into whose worship you had descended, the Jehovah whom your ancestors worshiped before them was greater in love. Moreover, this Jehovah represented a Trinitarian God, three Persons bound together in a family relationship so close that this God is really one God, as the amulets many of your women even now declare: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.’ Pick up the Bible and this time treat it with the respect it deserves.”

As Abdul reached for the Bible, it opened of itself to Deuteronomy Chapter 6. He picked it up, preserving the location of the open pages. “Read verses four and five,” She commanded. He read the passage, repeating to himself the verses She had just quoted. “The Shema of Israel,” She told him. “Read to this day by every committed Jew, and, since its inclusion into the New Testament, by every Christian as well. You yourself are an Israelite, Abdul, just like all your friends, relatives and associates. You are intimately connected with the Jews. Your Joshua stood tall with another great and noble man, Caleb of the tribe of Judah, to whom Joshua gave the city of Hebron as promised by God for his own valor. You act like Jews, circumcising your male infants on the eighth day, and your women wear amulets that preserve the Jewish Shema. You even have a mezusah affixed to your own doorpost which contains the Shema, as commanded by Moses in Deuteronomy 6:9. You and your friends wear prayer shawls and light candles on Friday nights like all good Jews around the world. Now we’ll turn to the Book of Second Kings.” The pages riffled of their own accord, resting on Chapter 17.

“Read the first six verses,” she commanded. He read the following:

“In the twelfth year of Ahaz, king of Judah, began Hoshea, the son of Elah, to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel who were before him. Against him came up Shalmaneser, king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents. And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore, the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison. Then the king of Assyria came up thoughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.”

“You recognize the names, I can see,” She said. “Halah, Habor, Gozan River. They sound familiar, don’t they?”

“Yes,” he said quietly.

The notion of being the equivalent of a Jew was overwhelming, as Wisdom saw. Yet She remained firm about his acknowledging that fact. “Do you remember those Christians you were thinking about a few minutes back?”

“Yes.” His scowl deepened.

“Contact their leader tomorrow, and ask for as many Bibles as they can give you. Then you – personally – will be handing them out to your neighbors.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you. Not your wife. Not your daughter. You. Keep one for yourself and another for your daughter. And then start reading it. I’ll be around from time to time to answer your questions, and you’d better have some good questions to ask.”

Abdul responded nonverbally with a pout.

“Deal with it, Abdul. And start to treat your family like people instead of animals. I’ll be back.” Wisdom left.

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #13

Chapter Thirteen

 

The Palestine Fiasco, as it was now called by the Israeli public, was accepted by them with mixed feelings, mostly negative. The temporary cessation of fighting was somewhat encouraging on the one hand, but on the other, the threat of a much larger army looming behind the front lines waiting to pounce on the little nation had injected a major dose of fear into the populace, bringing with it the vote of no confidence in the current Israeli administration that toppled its leadership and creating in its stead a government ready to bend like a willow in conformance with anything that looked like a path to a more permanent peace.

To make matters more critical for the would-be invaders, the Israelis were now exploiting the enormous cache of oil they had found in the Med and had claimed for their own. They now were the dominant oil exporter of the world, reaping the huge profits from that enterprise at the expense of their neighbors and the bankrupting of their enemies.

The Russian president sat on his opulent throne, his right hand propping up his cheek. Despite the majestic splendor of his station, he was despondent. He was fully aware of the propensity of the new Israeli government to cave at the slightest promise of a more lasting peace, which meant that the Israelis were willing to subject themselves to Western domination in exchange for the illusion of security.

He didn’t want that. He wanted the Israeli oil, and he wanted it now. His control over that oil would, at the minimum, cause the price to rise in the West.   The increase in wealth and control that he had anticipated out of his own oil revenues had not happened. The economic situation worldwide was so bleak that the demand for oil had dropped to the point where the cupboards in the Russian Motherland were rapidly becoming bare. The only way to turn that situation around would be to make oil more precious, and the only way to make that happen would be to intervene in the control of the oil available to the west. I have to have that Israeli oil, he thought.

The Russian combat troops ringing the Mideast weren’t helping. They’d remained in place, along with the Iranian and Turkish soldiers and now their wives and families. If their idleness was to be prolonged, it would drain Mother Russia dry as a bone. They needed to be clothed and warmed and fed, but as soldiers maintained in a high state of readiness they contributed nothing toward those needs. If I’m going to be hurting, he reasoned, my confederates will be hurting too, and sooner than me. Their combat readiness will suffer along with the cash flow.

He’d read the Hebrew prophets, more as a means of scoffing at their God than anything else. But he knew that in some quarters the words of their prophet Ezekiel had foretold of his invasion of Israel. Is God really putting a hook in my jaw? he asked in a brief moment of horror. He forcefully slapped it away from his mind, reminding himself of God’s irrelevance to the world. He doesn’t even exist, the leader said to himself. But I do. Me. He looked around the room, every item in it speaking of his own greatness. Comforted somewhat, he continued to think of the future, and of how he might still achieve the full greatness of his destiny.

The world of the Russian president’s contemplation was deeply polarized into three great political divisions: the West, with its five Regions, the North American, South American, Western European, Indo-Australian, and Pacific Far West, China and Israel standing alone with China as a giant monolith dwarfing the almost invisible little speck on maps that bothered to represent Israel as an independent nation. In opposition to the West was the Eastern Empire, consisting of the president’s own Russia and then Persia, Syrio-Turk, Arabo-African, and Southern Asia, five in all.   Of all of the motivating factors behind his eagerness to attack Israel, the manipulation of this political polarization to his own advantage was most prominent. The prospect of becoming indisputable master of the Eastern Empire through this war was so enticing that he had to suppress it to the subliminal level. But it was always there in the background, like the even greater prize of eventual domination of the entire world.

With Israel finally out of the picture, it would almost inevitably follow that the predominantly-Muslim Eastern Empire would become the stronger of the two five-toed branches of world government. China? Perhaps later, after the conquest of the West.

Take over the Israeli oil fields. Nobody’s going to complain, least of all the Arabs. America? What a laugh! Their State Department, presided over by a weak and self-indulgent White House, will scream like stuck pigs, but in the end they’ll do nothing to stop me. With a little show of strength in their direction, they’ll fall all over themselves to appease me. Put the troops to work earning their wages. Collect the oil money ourselves. Hand Israel over to the Arabs, that’ll make them happy. As if they had a choice anyway. It all makes sense. . .

He called in his top generals. “I want you to establish a definite timetable to get our troops moving and occupy Israel,” he told them. His stern demeanor presented the message more eloquently than his words: get off your rears and get moving.

“What kind of time frame are you thinking of?” asked one of the generals, a man whose portly physique suggested that his concept of rank included the indulgence in the comforts to which his position entitled him. “Perhaps a couple of months or so? The logistics of that time . . .“

The president decided to make the man an example of the urgency he felt. Signaling two of his ever-present personal security contingent to collar the man, he told them to handcuff him and hand him over to another detail who would then escort him to the prison in the palace basement, where he would enjoy the privileges of a treasonous private. “Have I made myself clear?” he spoke to the remaining generals. “In answer to his question of time, I’m looking at the end of the week. Get moving.”

By the end of the week, a multitude of convoys had departed the encampments, heading back north with the wives and families of the huge military machine, which now was feverishly in the process of fueling up and making last-minute provisions for moving out. At the same time, like insects spewing out eggs, the huge fleet of war ships parked in the northern Mediterranean were littering the waters with their spawn of little troop transport craft in preparation for a seaward assault to supplement the overland march of the main body of soldiers.

State departments of the Western nations “viewed this development with utmost concern”, as they approached the Russian consulates with timidity, frantically attempting to “calm the waters” by the dubious use of their negotiating tools with the vague promise of appeasing rewards. The Russian president demanded to be kept apprised of the several attempts along those lines, using them as a constant source of mirth. Every time he would receive a new snippet of such information, he gleefully would down a celebratory dollop of vodka.

Encouraged by the way his plans were coming together so satisfactorily, the Russian leader decided to give himself an extra cushion of support in his upcoming advance. Considering the fighting abilities of the fiercely anti-Israeli Taliban fighters that had brought Russia to her knees so recently in the Afghan war, he decided to open an additional front from the east with these Pashtuns in the vanguard. They were Sunnis, not his favorite sect, but then the Egyptians and Saudis were also of that persuasion. That might even be helpful in the future, the Russian mused. Perhaps once the Sunnis and Shi’ites take care of Israel, they’ll turn on each other and leave me with all the riches.

 

 

 

 

 

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #12

Chapter Twelve

Three of the four fugitives slept fitfully during the long night at Marge MacAfee’s home. They knew that they had but hours until the place was surrounded by angry police. Ellery had tried to get them to leave immediately, but they held back. They’d caught the news about the huge earthquake in Seattle, and Earl had assumed that the event was an act of God. Given that assumption, he’d also taken for granted that Ellery’s old FEMA community no longer existed. Besides, they had no place to go.

With that thought in mind, Earl prayed a confident thanks to God. “Thank you, Lord, for your mighty outstretched Hand in saving Ellery from that pit of iniquity.” All four responded with a fervent “Amen”.

Wisdom responded to the thanks that night, showing up at the foot of the makeshift bed of blankets in which Earl and Joyce were wrapped. “Bravo!” She said to Earl, Her beautiful features arranged in a wide smile.

“Wisdom!” Earl cried. “Then we’re doing okay?”

“Better than that. Keep it up, and you’ll even start to enjoy the ride. Here’s a heads-up: tomorrow you’ll have a visitor. He’ll be someone you don’t know, but he’s going to be very important to you. When he arrives by taxi, he’ll ring the doorbell three times, wait two seconds, and ring it twice more. When you hear that, let him inside, but be packed and ready. A cab will be waiting to take you to his hotel, where you’ll enjoy a decent stay with a brief respite from danger.”

“So nothing will happen to us tonight?”

“No. Have a good sleep. ‘Bye.”

Earl had a wonderful, relaxing, dreamless sleep for the rest of the night. In the morning he awoke refreshed, only to hear the grumbling of the others. “Hey,” he said to them, “chill out. We’re going to be okay. As a matter of fact, we’re going to be heading to a dandy hotel today, where we’ll really be able to relax without the fear of being caught.”

“Say what?” Ellery responded. “How do you know all this?”

“Trust him,” Joyce said with a smile of relief. “He knows, just believe it.”

“Well, if we’re going somewhere, we’d better pack,” Marge said to them. They busied themselves with that task. When they’d finished, Marge and Joyce worked together on getting them breakfast.

Half a world away from Earl and Joyce and their new companions, Jacob rose from his overlook in the twilight just before dawn, relieved himself, walked around below the military crest to get his blood going again, and returned to his position.

He brought the glasses back up to his eyes and continued to study the force arrayed below his position. There was movement now. A man in front was using a bullhorn to stir them up for the forthcoming battle while they appeared to be ingesting something. Whatever it was, it was too small to be a meal. Are they being drugged? he wondered. If they are, we’ve got a problem. Ah, well, it’s all in Your Hands, Lord.

A chorus of shouts arose from the assembled enemy, and they began to move forward. Jacob had company now, as, during the night the residents of Dafna came up bearing small arms to occupy the ridge. “Hold your fire!” the IDF commander called. Guns from several tanks cracked in unison, their shells whistling harmlessly above the Israelis.

The enemy advanced up the hill. The tanks labored as Jacob had anticipated, but their very slowness, coupled with the unbearable din of the unmuffled exhausts of the laboring engines, added a terrifying aura of implacability to their advance.   The noise overshadowed any possibility of the IDF commander maintaining control over his troops. The situation was indeed now in the Hands of God. The tanks spoke again, blasting gouts of turf out of the crest, taking Israelis with them.

Suddenly the earth moved and Jacob reached for Moira, grasping her in a tight clench. The movement continued, increasing in violence. Jacob saw an enormous crack appear in the earth below, right at the line of soldiers. The split widened and devoured the enemy troops, tanks and all, and then snapped back shut. It was over in less than a minute, the only remnant of the violent event being a massive cloud of dust that overlaid the line of the split.

The quake and its decimation of the Palestinian soldiers was observed by the larger forces of the Russians and their clients who had held back from the battle. From their distant viewpoints they misinterpreted the dust clouds, thinking them to be the result of coordinated explosions set off by the Israelis. Not knowing what other surprises the Israelis had for the next assault wave, the Russians decided to back off for the time being and sue for a graceful and peaceful temporary settlement.

Which was just as well, because the next assault wave didn’t exist anyway. Having seen the devastation and having correctly interpreted its source, the Palestinians threw down their weapons and returned to their homes. Many of them decided that this might be a good time to start praying to the God of the Jews.

The wholesale defection of the Palestinians from the battle unnerved the Russians. Their forces remained in place, but for the time being they failed to advance. As a result, a de facto peace prevailed. Moshe had a special visitor during this hiatus. Wisdom’s beautiful face appeared in front of his cot one night at the barracks in Tel Aviv and awakened him from his sleep to congratulate him on his courage as a spy, and to deliver both good news and bad.

“You did wonderfully behind the enemy lines,” She told him. Don’t get a big head out of it, but your nobility meant a lot to Us. I know you were hoping to get some mileage out of it with Ruth, but, sorry to say, I wouldn’t bother with her. She’s not for you. Just saying. Go ahead if you want, of course, but I can guarantee you that if you do, she’ll whittle your head down to size faster than you can blink. I’ll just give it to you straight, Moshe. She didn’t exactly wait for you during your extended absence. Besides, I know you were beginning to develop feelings for Miryam and held back because of Ruth. That was noble too, and We won’t forget it.”

“But Miryam is a Palestinian,” he countered. I wouldn’t want to be disloyal to my own kind. Not only that, but how would I continue to be accepted within Jewish society with a Palestinian companion?”

“Don’t get all stiff-necked on Me, Moshe. Miryam is a human being, just like you, who happened to have been born and raised as a Palestinian, and who lacked many of the comforts you have enjoyed in your life so far. Besides, you were pretty friendly with her, as I recall. She was certainly friendly toward you, as a matter of fact. It wouldn’t take much with you beside her to make her a Jew in her heart. Come to think of it, it wouldn’t take anything. She already is, or at least she is when she thinks of you, which is pretty much all the time.”

“Yes, but she’s there and I’m here, and I don’t exactly feel like returning. So that’s kind of the end of things with her.”

“You’re sure about that, Moshe? That’s kind of arrogant, don’t you think, especially when you’re conversing with God? Well, maybe you’re right – perhaps We should close the door on the entire thing.”

“Oh, no, wait!” Moshe exclaimed. “I’m so sorry, Wisdom. Should I keep hoping our paths will reconnect?”

“You just never know,” Wisdom replied enigmatically. “But first things first. Tomorrow you’re going to ask for leave, for the reason of visiting American relatives, which you do have if you consider fellow Christians to be family. Your superiors will fall all over themselves to grant your request, as they’ll have a task for you to take on while you’re there. Given your background as a recon spy, they’ll want you to assess the state of life among the common folks in the American heartland, and their attitudes regarding their government and the Israelis. You’ll be given an indefinite leave, subject to your regular reporting back.

A very tenuous and likely-to-be transient peace prevailed while the Russian leader struggled to revise his order of battle in the wake of the unexpected Palestinian defection. With the continuance for over a week of the temporary cessation of fighting, there began a resumption of Israeli communications with the outside world, and even some limited travel and exchange of goods.

Among the travelers was the Israeli Moshe, the man who had so bravely infiltrated the ranks of the Palestinians. Moshe also was a Messianic Christian, and he was on his way to Kansas City, Missouri, for a reason that was as obscure to him as to anyone else. All he knew was that God wanted him to go there. If that was the will of God, who was he to question it?

Moshe was treated roughly at the Kansas City airport by the security contingent, verifying what he had already suspected about America, that it had descended into an antisemitic stance very much like what he’d heard about the Nazis during WWII. After a prolonged period of interrogation, he was permitted to make a head call, clean up in the bathroom as well as he could, and grab a meal at one of the airport food concessions. As Israel had yet to sign on to the virtually worldwide convention of handling monetary transactions by means of a radio-frequency implant to the body, as a sovereign nation its citizens were exempted from the system and permitted temporarily to pay by special credit cards issued only to exempted nations, the thought being that, the situation being what it was, in the very near future Israel would cease to exist as a nation. The security personnel made sure that Moshe understood their disgust with this special treatment.

Seeing a familiar and very welcome face in the filthy eatery, Moshe moved directly to the table where She sat. “Hello, Wisdom!” he said with joy. “Never thought I’d see You in a dump like this.”

“Oh? Think these hands never see the handle of a shovel?” She displayed her callus-defaced palms to Moshe. “Or the dark side of reality?” Think again about the people with whom Jesus associated, and the many sleazy and dangerous back alleys He traveled.”

“Point taken. May I sit?”

“Of course. Actually, the burgers aren’t too bad if you close your nose to the old grease they were fried in. Lots of mustard helps, too.”

“I had a couple of dogs already. I’m okay for now with the food.”

“Dogs? Good grief, they were green! Even I drew the line on those. Oh, my, my! Whatever you do, make sure there’s a toilet nearby for the next several hours.”

“Oh, great. Well, at least I get a chance to see You. You’re here for me, aren’t You?”

“Yes, I am. And it’s good to see you again, face-to-face.”

“I’m honored that you’re here. But, with everything going on in the world, why me? Especially, why’d You bring me all the way here to America when my own country is in such danger?”

Her smile had that special enigmatic tilt that told him he wouldn’t get the full answer yet. “Let’s just say that you have a special skill that We’ll be putting to use later on. That and your courage. As I told you before, you did a magnificent job as a spy. I’m very proud of the way you handled yourself in the midst of all that danger. And don’t feel bad about the friends you think you betrayed. You’ll see them again in heaven, and they won’t be gunning for you there – I guarantee it. They’ll know Who you were really working for then. So here’s what’s going on,” She continued, changing the subject back to the reason for Her visit. “You’re going to take a taxi over to nearby Leavenworth and check into a very nice hotel there for an indefinite stay. Then you’re going to take another taxi to an address in Leavenworth that I’ll give you. Tell the cabbie to wait. You’re going to ring the doorbell three times, wait two seconds and ring it twice more. You’ll get inside the house with that, and then bring out with you the four people who are inside. Then you’ll take them back to your room at the hotel and order a lavish room-service meal for four.”

“Four? What about me?”

“Sorry, Moshe. You’re going to be occupied on the toilet, getting rid of those dogs in a real hurry. You’ll be okay by morning. Then you can look forward to a lavish room-service breakfast for five.

Already beginning to experience some discomfort, Moshe arrived at Marge’s house in the late evening after the sun had dipped below the horizon. He’d have to get his charges out of the house and into his car as quickly as he could before the situation became a matter of urgency.

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #11

Chapter Eleven

Moira woke up to words being spoken. She looked out of the cave to see Jacob conversing with a stranger who was holding a white cloth in his hand. She cleared her throat and Jacob turned to her. “Moira, meet Ibrahim,” he said. “He came up the hill from the enemy below, but he was waving a white cloth. I couldn’t shoot him.”

“I’d think not,” she replied. “Hello, Ibrahim. What can we do for you?”

“I come from the soldiers down below who are getting ready to overrun you,” he said in perfect Hebrew. “But I’m not one of them. Actually, I’m a Jew. I must remember to revert back to my real name of Moshe. I infiltrated the ranks of the Hezbollah in Lebanon as an Israeli spy three years ago. I’m coming out at this time to warn the IDF that the Russians and their cohorts, including the Iranians, are standing off their invasion to permit the Palestinians to have first blood. My unit is preparing to go in tomorrow as part of a full-scale attack on the nearest Israeli settlement. That will be only one battle of hundreds coming immediately upon Israel.”

“Thanks for your courage, Moira said. “It must have been very difficult to be so close to such animals.”

“Actually, the most difficult thing of all is the friendship with them that I’m forced to betray. They’re people just like you and me, Moira, victims of the calculated use of them by corrupt government leaders. They were forced into situations of desperate poverty and permanent homelessness by governments that wished to reap the rewards of their hatred toward Jews. The despicable thing about the entire situation is that they easily could have been assimilated into the surrounding countries.”

“Something’s odd about what you just said,” Jacob reflected. “We know that Israel’s heading into the Ezekiel 38 war. We’ve been told as much by – well, let’s just say that we know. Ezekiel didn’t mention anything about the countries surrounding Israel.”

“Maybe not,” Moshe countered. “But Psalm 83 certainly does.” His interest piqued, Jacob reached into his backpack and extracted his Bible. He began to read:

“Keep not thou silence, O God; hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult, and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. For they have consulted together with one consent; they are confederate against thee: the tabernacles of Edom, and the Ismaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also is joined with them; they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.

 

          “Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kishon, who perished at Endor; they became as dung for the earth. Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna, who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession. O my God, make them like a wheel, like the stubble before the wind. As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire, so persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm. Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek thy name, O Lord. Let them be confounded and troubled forever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish, that men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the Most High over all the earth.”

“Amazing,” Moira offered. “It certainly describes the people and the situation.”

“So this battle of Psalm 83 is the opening move of the Ezekiel 38 war,” Jacob said.

“It would seem that this is so,” Moshe replied.

Jacob offered his radio to Moshe. “Here,” he said. “You probably want to call in a situation report.”

“No,” Moshe said, waving off the device. “I need to talk encrypted.”

“Dafna has what you need,” Moira said. “I’ll take you down.”

She’s like a gazelle. Jacob marveled at Moira’s sure-footed steps as she led Moshe down the hill toward Dafna, where he would be able to communicate with the IDF. They ignored the occasional mortar blasts that dogged their journey. And the faith of a warrior of God.

Jacob had stayed behind, continuing to monitor the situation in the foreground through field glasses. He could see a vast line of enemy soldiers forming up in preparation for an all-out assault on the ridge where he lay prone observing their movements.

Tanks, easily recognizable with their rounded bows and single driver positions as old M48s but still deadly with their 90 millimeter cannon, were interspersed between the combatants. The IDF knew all about them. According to the manual he’d read back at Dafna courtesy of Jesse, their drill instructor who had subjected them to a harsh but necessary course in rifle proficiency according to the standards of the U.S. Marine Corps, he knew they’d be most vulnerable climbing the hill to the ridge. With eight hundred horses pulling a fifty-ton weight, they’ll be slow on their approach, he thought, balancing a little positive against the large negative of their numbers. He counted over a hundred in the first assault wave, but he knew that there were many more behind them.

“Is Moira there yet?” he asked as he called in an update. The answer came in the form of Moira’s voice. “Hi, honey,” she said. “What’s up?”

“I’m sure you heard my report. Maybe you’d better stay there for the night.”

“And leave you up there alone?” she shot back. “No way.” The radio went dead. A few minutes later, he could see her making headway toward him through the glasses, and thanked God again for her. He looked again a few minutes later and did a double-take: Moira wasn’t alone. Wisdom was with her. The sight was wildly incongruous – here was the most beautiful Woman in the universe, dressed for action. But then that was what She did, who She was.

“Hallo, Jacob,” Wisdom called lightly as they arrived at his position. “I see that you have a front-row seat.”

“Hi to both of you,” Jacob said happily. Moira leaned over and planted a kiss on his mouth. “Yeah,” he responded to Wisdom’s observation. “Now that we’re getting so close to the end of the age, maybe I’ll just make this my home.”

“I hate to disillusion you, Jacob,” Wisdom replied, “but there remain several things that still have to happen before Jesus returns. There’s the upcoming battles – plural – and, most importantly, the ingathering to Israel is yet quite incomplete at this point.”

“Incomplete? Jews have come back from every nook and cranny in the world.”

“Yes, Jews. But remember the words We put into Ezekiel’s mouth in Chapter thirty-seven:

“Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it For Judah, and for the children of Israel, his companions; then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions; and join them one to another into one stick, and they shall become one in thine hand. And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying Wilt thou not show us what thou meanest by these? Say unto them, thus sayest the Lord God: Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. And the sticks on which thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes. And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, to which they are gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.”

“I was of the opinion, since the modern nation of Israel includes land that used to belong to the ten northern tribes as well as the two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin, that when You brought back the Jews from around the world, You’d have included among them Israelites from the northern tribes as well. After all, there’s a reason why they’ve been called the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. You alone know who those people are.”

“I’ll second that opinion,” said Moira.

“So will most of the rest of the world,” said Wisdom, laughing. “Yes, We do know where these Israelites are. So do you, as well as all those around the world who still have access to the news. You just don’t know the “who” yet, although you’re already well aware of them. You’ll find out soon enough. They’re not insignificant either, being a rather large crowd.”

“How large is that?” Moira asked Her.

“In the millions.”

Jacob and Moira waited for more definitive information from Wisdom about these enigmatic Israelites. But She vanished without embellishing on what She had told them.

Chapter Eleven

Moira woke up to words being spoken. She looked out of the cave to see Jacob conversing with a stranger who was holding a white cloth in his hand. She cleared her throat and Jacob turned to her. “Moira, meet Ibrahim,” he said. “He came up the hill from the enemy below, but he was waving a white cloth. I couldn’t shoot him.”

“I’d think not,” she replied. “Hello, Ibrahim. What can we do for you?”

“I come from the soldiers down below who are getting ready to overrun you,” he said in perfect Hebrew. “But I’m not one of them. Actually, I’m a Jew. I must remember to revert back to my real name of Moshe. I infiltrated the ranks of the Hezbollah in Lebanon as an Israeli spy three years ago. I’m coming out at this time to warn the IDF that the Russians and their cohorts, including the Iranians, are standing off their invasion to permit the Palestinians to have first blood. My unit is preparing to go in tomorrow as part of a full-scale attack on the nearest Israeli settlement. That will be only one battle of hundreds coming immediately upon Israel.”

“Thanks for your courage, Moira said. “It must have been very difficult to be so close to such animals.”

“Actually, the most difficult thing of all is the friendship with them that I’m forced to betray. They’re people just like you and me, Moira, victims of the calculated use of them by corrupt government leaders. They were forced into situations of desperate poverty and permanent homelessness by governments that wished to reap the rewards of their hatred toward Jews. The despicable thing about the entire situation is that they easily could have been assimilated into the surrounding countries.”

“Something’s odd about what you just said,” Jacob reflected. “We know that Israel’s heading into the Ezekiel 38 war. We’ve been told as much by – well, let’s just say that we know. Ezekiel didn’t mention anything about the countries surrounding Israel.”

“Maybe not,” Moshe countered. “But Psalm 83 certainly does.” His interest piqued, Jacob reached into his backpack and extracted his Bible. He began to read:

“Keep not thou silence, O God; hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult, and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. For they have consulted together with one consent; they are confederate against thee: the tabernacles of Edom, and the Ismaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also is joined with them; they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.

 

          “Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kishon, who perished at Endor; they became as dung for the earth. Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna, who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession. O my God, make them like a wheel, like the stubble before the wind. As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire, so persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm. Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek thy name, O Lord. Let them be confounded and troubled forever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish, that men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the Most High over all the earth.”

“Amazing,” Moira offered. “It certainly describes the people and the situation.”

“So this battle of Psalm 83 is the opening move of the Ezekiel 38 war,” Jacob said.

“It would seem that this is so,” Moshe replied.

Jacob offered his radio to Moshe. “Here,” he said. “You probably want to call in a situation report.”

“No,” Moshe said, waving off the device. “I need to talk encrypted.”

“Dafna has what you need,” Moira said. “I’ll take you down.”

She’s like a gazelle. Jacob marveled at Moira’s sure-footed steps as she led Moshe down the hill toward Dafna, where he would be able to communicate with the IDF. They ignored the occasional mortar blasts that dogged their journey. And the faith of a warrior of God.

Jacob had stayed behind, continuing to monitor the situation in the foreground through field glasses. He could see a vast line of enemy soldiers forming up in preparation for an all-out assault on the ridge where he lay prone observing their movements.

Tanks, easily recognizable with their rounded bows and single driver positions as old M48s but still deadly with their 90 millimeter cannon, were interspersed between the combatants. The IDF knew all about them. According to the manual he’d read back at Dafna courtesy of Jesse, their drill instructor who had subjected them to a harsh but necessary course in rifle proficiency according to the standards of the U.S. Marine Corps, he knew they’d be most vulnerable climbing the hill to the ridge. With eight hundred horses pulling a fifty-ton weight, they’ll be slow on their approach, he thought, balancing a little positive against the large negative of their numbers. He counted over a hundred in the first assault wave, but he knew that there were many more behind them.

“Is Moira there yet?” he asked as he called in an update. The answer came in the form of Moira’s voice. “Hi, honey,” she said. “What’s up?”

“I’m sure you heard my report. Maybe you’d better stay there for the night.”

“And leave you up there alone?” she shot back. “No way.” The radio went dead. A few minutes later, he could see her making headway toward him through the glasses, and thanked God again for her. He looked again a few minutes later and did a double-take: Moira wasn’t alone. Wisdom was with her. The sight was wildly incongruous – here was the most beautiful Woman in the universe, dressed for action. But then that was what She did, who She was.

“Hallo, Jacob,” Wisdom called lightly as they arrived at his position. “I see that you have a front-row seat.”

“Hi to both of you,” Jacob said happily. Moira leaned over and planted a kiss on his mouth. “Yeah,” he responded to Wisdom’s observation. “Now that we’re getting so close to the end of the age, maybe I’ll just make this my home.”

“I hate to disillusion you, Jacob,” Wisdom replied, “but there remain several things that still have to happen before Jesus returns. There’s the upcoming battles – plural – and, most importantly, the ingathering to Israel is yet quite incomplete at this point.”

“Incomplete? Jews have come back from every nook and cranny in the world.”

“Yes, Jews. But remember the words We put into Ezekiel’s mouth in Chapter thirty-seven:

“Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it For Judah, and for the children of Israel, his companions; then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions; and join them one to another into one stick, and they shall become one in thine hand. And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying Wilt thou not show us what thou meanest by these? Say unto them, thus sayest the Lord God: Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. And the sticks on which thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes. And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, to which they are gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.”

“I was of the opinion, since the modern nation of Israel includes land that used to belong to the ten northern tribes as well as the two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin, that when You brought back the Jews from around the world, You’d have included among them Israelites from the northern tribes as well. After all, there’s a reason why they’ve been called the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. You alone know who those people are.”

“I’ll second that opinion,” said Moira.

“So will most of the rest of the world,” said Wisdom, laughing. “Yes, We do know where these Israelites are. So do you, as well as all those around the world who still have access to the news. You just don’t know the “who” yet, although you’re already well aware of them. You’ll find out soon enough. They’re not insignificant either, being a rather large crowd.”

“How large is that?” Moira asked Her.

“In the millions.”

Jacob and Moira waited for more definitive information from Wisdom about these enigmatic Israelites. But She vanished without embellishing on what She had told them.

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #10

 

Note to the reader: Home, Sweet Heaven is now available in ebook and paperback form from Amazon and Signalman Publishing, as are the other novels in the Buddy series, Buddy, Cathy, Jacob, as well as the Christian nonfiction book Marching to a Worthy Drummer

 

 

 

 

Chapter Ten

Earl looked with compassion into Joyce’s red-rimmed eyes. “I know this is tough on you, honey,” he said, reaching for her hand. “Now that we’ve arrived in Leavenworth, maybe we can relax a bit.”

“All I want is sleep,” she responded, entwining her fingers with his. “I could sleep for a year.”

“More food would be good too,” he said, looking down at his empty plate and wondering how they would leave the restaurant without paying and dodging the alternative of being escorted to jail by the cops, and then of finding their next meal. And the one after. And the one after that. He prayed briefly, thanking God for the meal they had just finished and placing his concerns onto Him.   A Scripture immediately came to mind: “If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”   Well, that has truly happened to us, he reflected. Why, then, should I worry about lesser matters?

He was interrupted in his thoughts by a very bright flash, followed by the disintegration of the large window that fronted the street amid a cacophony of loud noises. The tinkling of the glass in the window was overshadowed by an enormous sonic crack, a continuous roar, the screeching of tearing metal and the rumble of something solid being pulverized.

“What was that?” Joyce asked, swiveling her head in the direction of the amazing event that had just occurred. She expected to see frenzied activity out on the street, but the situation was exactly the opposite: the scene was a still life, the people frozen in awe, all staring in one direction. The restaurant patrons rushed outside, followed by the proprietor. Earl took the opportunity to fish in his pockets for some cash, which the proprietor might find useful in the event that the city had a black market, grab Joyce’s hand and make a graceful but hasty exit from the eatery. Moving away from the crowd in front of the restaurant, their eyes followed a furrow that had been carved out of one side of the roadway, overlain by a straight-line plume of dust that receded off into the distance. Earl looked in the opposite direction to find, to his astonishment, a military humvee stopped in the middle of the intersection to his left. Except for an open space where the doors used to be, flames licking at the exposed doorframes, the vehicle appeared to be intact.   It also appeared to be unoccupied, at least in front.

They would soon come to the astonishing realization that an earth-grazing asteroid had just assaulted the city of Leavenworth. The object, initially relatively large, had been whittled down by the earth’s atmosphere to a nearly rectangular rock of a size that matched, quite oddly, the doorframe of the humvee, and that had whisked the disassembled molecules of its driver and front passenger, both military policemen, somewhere off into space. The process of digging a trench in the street after this spectacular action had slowed the rock dramatically until it eventually parked itself deep underground, leaving no sign of its presence other than a little pimple of dirt in the grassy field above it ten miles in the distance.

Earl was taken aback further by the sight of Wisdom, sitting down at an outdoor table underneath a large umbrella. She was sipping a latte and She had a wide grin on Her gorgeous face. “Wasn’t that a bit over-the-top?” he said as they approached the table.

“Yes it was – I did it and I’m glad,” She responded. “I rather enjoyed that.”

“But what about the poor fellows in the vehicle?” Joyce asked Her.

“Joyce, Joyce,” She said, shaking Her beautiful head. “After all this time and you still don’t trust Me? I should simply refuse to answer that question. But I will, because despite your failings, you’re both quite lovable. Actually, the driver was a highly-decorated Marine whose time on earth was finished. He’s now enjoying his reward in heaven. As for the passenger in front, well, the poor fellow was so lacking of a serviceable soul that he was beyond hope. In fact, my space rock just did what had to be done anyway. The alternative was pretty grim. He had in mind some clever ways to torture the passenger in back. No, you can’t see him from where you’re standing, but he’s there, and he’s the whole reason why I had you come up from Texas. Right now, before everyone here recovers their senses, you two need to jump in that humvee and drive away. Before you do that, though, you need to go into that deserted hardware store across the street and grab a bolt cutter before the owner recovers his senses. Third aisle on the left, halfway down. Here’s the direction you’ll be taking: go north three blocks, make a left and head west for twenty-three blocks. Turn right and park in the driveway of the third house on the right. Got that?   Now go.”

The couple rushed over to the hardware store. While Joyce remained outside, Earl raced down the aisle, quickly searched for the device, grabbed it and ran back out. They ran to the humvee and jumped in. Earl started it and accelerated up the street as the astonished crowd began to gather its collective wits and started moving. A moment later Earl and Joyce heard the sirens of a multitude of first responders racing to the scene of the disaster. As Earl drove, Joyce turned and peered into the rear of the vehicle. Her eyes focused on a man in prison garb, wrapped in chains and trussed to substantial supports. “Hello,” he said meekly. Joyce’s kind face gave him the hope that his fortunes had turned for the better. “I know that I look pretty bad, but I’m not.” He took a chance on them. “My crime is that I’m a Christian. I was handling FEMA security over in Seattle when they decided to do something about that. They framed me real good and here I am – was – on my way to the Federal military prison here in Leavenworth. The way they framed me gave them a perfect opportunity to slake their greed and pin the rap on me.

“Christian, eh?” Joyce said. She reached over and patted his shoulder. “We already knew that. You obviously still have some pull with our Holy Spirit, because the reason why we’re here in Leavenworth is you. By the way, we’re Christians too. A diminishing breed.”

“For sure,” he said.   “That sure makes my day. Could you maybe help me find my wife? She’s here in Leavenworth somewhere, but I don’t know where. Even if I did know, I don’t see a map around.”

“That’s okay,” Joyce replied. We know that too. I suspect that’s where we’re heading right now.”

“You know where she lives?” he asked in wonder. “Who are you people?”

“I should ask the same about you. You must be important. By the way, my name’s Joyce. This is Earl sitting next to me.”

“Glad to make your acquaintance,” he responded. “You don’t know how glad. My name’s Ellery MacAfee. Late Master Sergeant, USMC.”

“Well, Semper Fi, man. I’m a Marine too, long since released from active duty. Maybe that’s one reason I’m here to get you out of the hot spot you’re in.”

“Remember when we were just privates, wet behind the ears, and our elder Marines would harp about “the Old Corps”? Well, Semper Fi to you too, but I’ve got some bad news for you. The Old Corps no longer exists. Our beloved Crotch is truly different now, not a trace of the old pride. They’re just a gang of ill-disciplined, self-serving thieves.”

“Sorry to hear that, Sergeant. Well, you’re a Christian, holding up under a load of persecution. That’s where the nobility lies now.”

As he spoke, Earl slowed and pulled off the street into a parking lot and stopped. “You don’t want your wife seeing you like that. Let’s get those shackles off.” He picked up the large tool from the floorboard and attempted to apply it to a chain link one-handed. After several awkward attempts, the three of them coordinated their actions and managed to sever the link. After that initial success, the work was downhill and fifteen minutes later Ellery was a free man. “Too bad the former occupants didn’t leave their clothes behind,” Joyce commented as Earl resumed driving.

“That may not be a problem,” Ellery said, looking down at the floor next to him. “There’s a seabag here. It’s not mine, so it must have belonged to one of the MPs.” He rummaged through the bag, extracting several items of clothing, with which he quickly replaced the prison garb. “What do you think?” he asked Joyce as Earl pulled into the driveway.

“The new you – looks pretty good, but you could use a shave. We’ll stay here while you reaquaint yourself with your wife.”

With a wide grin on his face, Ellery extracted himself from the humvee and went to the door, which was opened quickly by an attractive woman who held her husband in a passionate hug. After they re-introduced each other, Ellery’s wife peered out at Earl and Joyce from his encircling arms. She waved them to come inside. Joyce accepted but Earl declined. “We need to get rid of this humvee,” he called. Presently he left the driveway and headed down the street, Ellery’s wife tagging behind in her own car. Earl pulled into a small shopping mall several miles from the MacAfees’ temporary residence and parked it off in a corner under a large tree.

“Hi again,” Marge said to Earl as he opened the passenger door and got into the car. “First off I want to thank you for saving my husband. Despite the huge problems we’re going to face, our lives will be a whole lot happier with us together again. I can’t wait to fix you and Joyce – and Ellery, of course – a good home-cooked meal.”

At least the general had been good to his word about taking care of Marge. Her immediate needs had been taken care of, courtesy of the government, but she suspected that now, with Ellery on the loose, that largesse would come to an abrupt halt.

“There’s only one thing that bothers me,” Earl said to the other three inside the house.

“Besides our need to get out of here soon?” Joyce asked.

“There is that. But that’s part of what I don’t get. Where do we go from here? No insult intended, Ellery, but Wisdom went to a lot of trouble preventing you from going into a maximum security prison. What’s so important about you, and what are we supposed to do with you now?

“I don’t know,” Ellery replied. “Could it be that I’m Jewish?”

“Jewish? MacAfee sounds more Irish than Jewish. And you’re as white as a Scandinavian.”

“I’m not quite that white. The name’s closer to Scottish than Irish. Besides, you should know better than that. Look at all the movie actors with Jewish blood that look as if they’d just come from Sweden. And as for that surname – well, yes, it was changed, but not much. Our original name was Maccabee. Of Masada fame.”

“Oh. Well, maybe we’ll be getting directions soon from God. In the meantime, let’s eat up and prepare to head out to who knows where.”

 

 

 

HOME, SWEET HEAVEN INSTALLMENT #9

Chapter Nine

It started like the ones before it, little more than a gentle rocking. Conditioned by the numerous earthquakes that had preceded it over the past several months, General Urkmore ignored the movement, intent as he was in consuming the line of cocaine on his desk before him. He hadn’t yet gotten around to distributing the contents of his drawer to his companion officers, as he was still considering the quantities that he’d be giving up. It was like a retirement computation. He had to balance the numbers involved in the final distribution against the number of bags he’d need in order to permit his continuous consumption for the rest of his life.

But the shaking didn’t stop. It just went on and on. What began to alarm Urkmore was that along with the continuation, the movement became more pronounced, sharper.

His alarm turned to panic when a huge crack appeared in the solid concrete wall in his office, exposing rebar and emitting a cloud of pulverized particles of concrete. This was quickly followed by an enormous jolt that threw him out of his chair and sent him flying across his desk and against the wall in front. The sound of screaming barely reached him amid the screeching of crumpling furniture and the freight-train rumble of the surrounding earth. Another jolt sent his chair on top of him, winding him. His desk came after the chair. A drawer opened and out flew his precious bags of cocaine, some of which broke open and drenched his head in powder. His suffocation followed, but not before he perceived the irony of ingesting cocaine for the rest of his life.

The captain in the adjoining room looked at the moving walls in disbelief as his chair rattled and jounced as if it had been attached to a car with useless shocks riding over potholes at highway speed. A vicious jolt sent the chair flying into the doorway, rocketing the captain against a wall in the hallway and breaking his neck. His eyes remained open, permitting him to see the hallway walls coming together and sandwiching him in between.

Terror prevailed throughout the enormous underground city as its residents began to appreciate this quake as the dreaded big one that had been anticipated for years. The city people who lived above the shelter faced a different sort of terror: the swaying of the high-rise buildings amplified for the occupants within them the stunning visual impact of neighboring buildings being tossed about like toys in the jaws of a rabid dog. Despite the foresight of the engineers who designed the more modern buildings to withstand a major earthquake, this catastrophe surpassed by a wide margin the maximum intensity that was anticipated for an event of this kind. Buildings swayed well past any movement imagined for them, and they began to crumble and fall. In Seattle, the landmark Space Needle buckled at its northwest corner and then, with majestic slowness it fell on its side. The skyscrapers near the convention center began to knock into each other, large chunks of glass and concrete breaking off with each impact and hurtling into the agitated ground below. They, too, began to collapse as well, shedding entire sides and then falling amid fogs of disintegrating concrete and rains of girders and furniture. The convention center collapsed, filling the freeway tunnel below with bodies, concrete and artifacts, completely blocking Interstate 5. The bridges linking Seattle with the densely-built cities on the east side disappeared beneath the troubled waters of Lake Washington, taking vast strings of occupied vehicles down with them. The large lake itself, its motion becoming synchronous with the shaking, sloshed over its boundary to the south and inundated the crowded City of Renton.

On a scale of a different magnitude entirely, the Pacific Ocean was troubled by a huge wave, the likes of which hadn’t visited this region for over three hundred years. The tsunami entered the Straight of Juan de Fuca separating the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, inundating in its wake Port Angeles and the smaller towns along the old U.S. coast as well as Victoria in Canada, tossing a supertanker bound for the refinery at Anacortes onto the still-shaking soil of Whidbey Island. The fully-loaded tanker tore apart under the shaking of the ground where it lay and out gushed millions of gallons of oil that enveloped a significant section of the island. The oil caught on fire and an immense black cloud rose up into the dark sky. The giant wave continued on into the Admiralty Inlet to the northwest of Seattle and barreled down the sound, eventually smacking into the Seattle waterfront.

Recognition grew along with mounting terror that this was that which was called a subduction quake, wherein the monstrous Pacific Plate, having been blocked by friction from subducting beneath the North American Plate, suddenly broke through the resistance, creating an enormous upward surge that generated shaking that went beyond a Richter Magnitude 9 along with a tsunami of monstrous proportions. The last time it happened it had uprooted an entire spruce forest along the Washington coast, compacting the vegetation into a mere few feet, and created a monster wave that inundated the coast from Northern California to southern British Columbia and then traveled across the Pacific to decimate Japanese towns located near the seacoast. There it was recorded for future historians as an orphan tsunami. The dateline was January 29, 1700.

The modern northwest was significantly different from the land of that earlier era. Now it was dotted with seacoast towns with populations that remained significant despite the harsh conditions of the current regime, and many people who still attempted to possess some natural enjoyment by visiting the beaches. Those who were at the beaches that day were astonished to see the coast recede, exposing land that had not been dry in the memory of the white settlers who had attempted to muscle out the Native Americans. It was an awesome sight, and most of those on the beach that day instantly recognized the shaking and the retreat of the water as signs of a giant wave that would soon inundate the ground they were standing on. They rushed to their cars in panic, but their haste created such a traffic jam that very few cars made it to safe ground. All the rest could do was look on helplessly as the water came back as a huge black wall that moved inexorably like a giant railroad locomotive to toss the cars like pebbles and then cover them and smother and crush the occupants inside.

For those relatively few who managed to reach the safety of high ground, the sight of that huge black wall of water rushing implacably back toward land was burned into their memories. The terrifying image would continue to haunt them for the rest of their lives.

The only redeeming feature of this wave of destruction that snuffed out the lives of those in the trapped cars and the coastline cities was that the quality of life in the post-U.S. society wasn’t all that great anyway.

The panic of the inhabitants of the FEMA underground facility was very briefly heightened by the utter blackness caused by the breaching, sudden destruction and ungraceful shutdown of the internal multi-megawatt nuclear power plant. Hot coolant and radioactive gases permeated the entire structure, but the spaces they entered – all that were left – were tiny, much smaller than the volume of an adult human. By that time nothing mattered to the population inside, as they had all perished. Only two humans of the thousands who had dwelt there the previous day remained alive, and they were now in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Urkmore’s death failed to stop the gigantic earthquake, which continued to play out as a city-destroyer. The major metropolitan areas of Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Tacoma, Seattle, Bellevue, Everett, Marysville, Bellingham and the multitude of outlying communities in between in Washington State were trashed, causing an unthinkable number of casualties. In Canada, Vancouver survived as a city but suffered enormous destruction.

The inhabitants of the underground Los Angeles area FEMA headquarters didn’t respond well to the earthquake events that took place to the north of them. The Big One was supposed to drop the entire L.A. basin into the sea, or so the street wisdom had said. Now that the Northwest had experienced their own Big One, was L.A. next? With the Big Big One?

“Maybe this underground business isn’t such a hot idea,” one FEMA authority said to her male colleague. The surrounding earth took that opportunity to jiggle slightly, upon which the lady almost lost it, the hairs on her forehead standing out almost beyond her protruding eyeballs. Her companion laughed at the sight of her fright, which made her start to cry, her face reddening with angst.

Ten minutes later he regretted laughing at her.   He wanted to cry too, because the shaking wouldn’t stop. His male ego, such as it was, limited his own very pronounced angst to strangled whimpers. He had opened his eyes once during the temblor, but when he saw the concrete wall crack in front of his very nose, he squinched them shut again and kept them that way. He didn’t even notice the fact that his companion, with whom he had spent much time attempting to get her to be more than a friend, was hugging him with all her might. The quake finally stopped, but it was the worst they’d experienced in their lifetimes.

When his companion finally realized that the quake was over, she looked over to him and, seeing his disgraceful demeanor, quickly untangled herself from him and stood up. That’ll never happen again, she breathed in disgust. He eventually stood as well, but they both failed to make eye contact and went off to pursue their separate agendas, her primary one being to pursue a separate agenda.

The talk about wanting to relocate topside continued throughout the week as most of the FEMA personnel, from the lowest to the highest, discussed the tenability of remaining underground in the face of the worsening earthquake situation.

POTNAR belatedly attempted to come to the rescue with his entourage, which included a virtual army of security troops. Forced to land his winged palace at Fairchild Air Base near Spokane due to the devastated condition of the airports on the west side of the Cascade Mountains, he commandeered a Chinook helicopter for the far west leg of his journey. He commanded the pilot to give him a bird’s eye view of the Seattle area before setting down. It was obvious, he thought with gloom, that Seattle was a complete write-off. The entire area looked like a vast, naked landfill. Convincing himself that there was nothing he could accomplish therre, he returned to his airplane and redirected it to Los Angeles. There he bravely assembled and held an all-hands meeting, addressing directly those fortunate enough to be in the large hall and through loudspeakers throughout the complex for the others. Praising them for their nonexistent courage, he spoke of the absolute necessity for their return to duty underground and the imminence of the next political phase, during which the major players in the government would be relocated aboveground. Then he left for his next feel-good mission, leaving the L.A. facility somewhat nonplussed. The imminence of the next phase only gave the inhabitants the claustrophobic sense that if it was imminent, why wasn’t it right now?