The Christ Clone Trilogy 03 - Acts Of God
By
James Beau Seigneur
Necessary Risk
June 5, 4 N.A. (2026 A.D.)
The next day Decker awoke much later than the previous morning. Just as before,
he awoke to find Petra covered in white. There were far fewer people out
gathering and the many bare spots revealed that most had already gathered the
manna for the day. Also as before, it seemed to Decker that the number of KDT
had significantly increased.
Rosen did not return until after lunch.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Hawthorne," Rosen said as he came in. His black eye looked
every bit as bad as it had the night before, a fact which Decker found quite
satisfying.
Decker folded his hands over his stomach and leaned back on the bed, electing
not to respond to Rosen's greeting. As always, Decker's response or lack of one
did not deter Rosen from saying what he had come to say.
"Yeshua told a story about a farmer who had two sons," Rosen began immediately.
"The younger of the two sons decided that he wanted to be on his own, so he went
to his father and asked for what would be his inheritance. Reluctantly the
father agreed, and the son left. On his own, the younger son fell in with people
who were only too happy to help him spend his money. And, of course, before very
long his money and his 'friends' were both gone. He found himself with nothing,
far from home and working on a pig farm which, incidentally, is not a good
place for a nice Jewish boy to be. Looking at the mess he had made of his life,
the son remembered that his father was much more generous to his servants than
was his current employer. It occurred to the son that it would be better to
admit his failure, go home, and ask his father for a job rather than stay where
he was. Along the way, as the son neared the farm that had been his home, his
father saw him coming. To the son's surprise, his father ran to meet him on the
road, and received him, not as a servant but as a son.
"But though he was welcomed back by his father, remember I said he had already
taken his part of the inheritance. Everything that remained of the inheritance
belonged to the older brother. The father couldn't change that. He couldn't just
take what was left and split it in half again that wouldn't be fair to the son
who had stayed with him. And I think it's safe to say that, human nature being
what it is, if the father had done that, the younger brother would not have
learned much from his experience.
"Your friend, Tom Donafin, had an interesting way of putting it. He said it was
like in the movie The Wizard of Oz,51 where the good witch of the north, Glinda,
tells Dorothy that all she has to do to go home is to click her heels together
and say 'There's no place like home.'" Decker smiled despite himself as he
recalled Tom Donafin's penchant for describing everything in terms of a movie.
"When Dorothy asked Glinda why she hadn't just told her that to begin with,
Glinda answered that she wouldn't have believed it. The point was, that until
Dorothy experienced life away from home, she wouldn't truly understand and
believe that there really is no place like home. The way Tom Donafin put it was
that in order for Dorothy to learn her lesson, she had to earn her lesson so
that she could appreciate how true it really was.
"The same was true for the farmer's younger son. Like almost everything else in
life, Mr. Hawthorne, wisdom has a price. Lessons bought too cheaply seldom stay
learned. If there is no price there is no value, and consequently nothing is
learned. Of course, some lessons cost more than others."
Decker could not deny the truth in what Rosen said nor could he tell where he
was going with it, so he stayed silent.
"When God created the earth," Rosen said, "he gave Adam and Eve a perfect
paradise to live in and nearly total freedom to do as they wished. The only
thing he told them not to do was eat from a particular tree the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. But of course, as soon as you tell someone not to do
something, that's exactly what they want to do: it's human nature. So sure
enough, before long Adam and Eve were checking out the tree, where they met
Lucifer in the form of a snake. Lucifer told them that the reason God didn't
want them to eat from the tree was because it would make them like God. Now when
you think about it," Rosen said, "that's got to be the greatest temptation in
the world. Everyone wants to be in charge, to make their own rules, to be their
own god. It's certainly proven to be a successful drawing card for Christopher
and the New Age movement."
"Twice now you've blamed human nature for the way people act," Decker
interrupted, "and I don't really disagree with you on that. But explain to me,
if you can, why this god of yours, who you think is all-powerful and all-knowing
and all-loving, made human nature so imperfect to begin with. And, while we're
on the subject, what kind of an idiot is this god of yours to put the tree in
the garden, within easy reach of Adam and Eve, if he didn't want them to eat it?
Unless, of course . . ." Decker said, pausing to make his point, "he wanted them
to fail. And if that was his intention then surely you have to admit that he's
every bit as evil as Christopher says he is." Decker hoped that his questions
might catch Rosen off guard, but as always, Rosen had a ready answer.
"People have struggled with that question and questions like it for thousands of
years, Mr. Hawthorne. But the answer is really pretty simple."
"Oh brother," Decker said, already regretting that he had asked the question.
"But to understand it," Rosen began, despite Decker's protests, "you need to
look at what it was that Adam and Eve actually did. It wasn't the fruit itself
that was the problem. The real problem was their defiance. They defied God and
his law because they wanted to be like God. That's really not so unusual,
though. We all want to have our own way, to be in effect, our own lawgiver, our
own god.
"So far all you've done is to restate the problem. You still haven't answered
why."
"I'm getting to it," Rosen said. "Because we are made in God's image, it's our
nature to want to be God."
"Oh, I see! You're saying Yahweh made a design error," Decker interrupted with a
verbal jab.
"Not a design error," Rosen countered, "for now let's just call it a necessary
risk. It's the same risk every parent takes when they have children. Just as a
child is created in the image of its parents, God created us in his image to be
his family. Anything less and we would not be his children we'd be his pets or
slaves. But God did not create us to be his pets or slaves, he created us to be
his family, his children! Now it's up to us to decide whether we want to be his
children or not just as the decision was up to the farmer's two sons, and just
as it was up to Adam and Eve. And though, like Adam and Eve, we all may want to
be gods, there can be only one God. A wheel with two centers will not turn. A
universe with two gods cannot function."
"Let's get back to what you said about God creating us to be his children,"
Decker said. "There comes a time when children need to leave the nest, to go out
on their own. And whether the parents like it or not, they have to be willing to
let go"
"That is true, Mr. Hawthorne. The child must be given more and more
responsibility for himself as he grows. But we should clarify our terms. The
term 'child of God' does not speak of immaturity on our part, but of unceasing
love for us on God's part. A child will cease to be a youth, but a parent never
ceases to be a parent. The relationship goes beyond the ages of the individuals
involved. Being a child of God denotes a relationship of love, trust, and
respect not of oppression."
"Yeah, sure," Decker said, "just as long as we're willing to obey his laws and
follow his orders."
"I know that Christopher says that Yahweh's laws are designed to oppress people,
to keep them forever unable to reason for themselves. But God himself said to
mankind, Come, let us reason together. If you really take the time to consider
God's laws, you'll find that they are as reasonable and beneficial and indeed as
necessary to our very survival as are the law of gravity and the other laws of
nature. God's laws are designed not to oppress but to sustain. Jesus was asked
by one of the religious leaders what God's greatest commandment is. He answered
that the greatest commandment is 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind.' And he said the second greatest
commandment is like the first: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Not only are
those the two greatest commandments, Jesus said that every other law in the
Bible is wrapped up in those two commands."
"Yeah, but those aren't the only things Yahweh said we had to do," Decker
answered. "The Bible includes a lot more laws than just the Ten Commandments."
"Six hundred and sixteen laws, to be exact," Rosen replied. "But all of those
laws, every one of them, has as its foundation the two laws Jesus talked about."
"So what if I disagree that something is wrong in a particular situation?"
"Making a decision about whether something is right or wrong based on the
situation would be fine if you could be sure you knew everything that there is
to know about the situation. But can you really know all of the consequences of
your actions? Can you look into the future to determine every outcome of your
decisions? You'd be a liar or a fool to say you could. Very little in life turns
out as we expect it to. It's Murphy's law: 'If something can go wrong, it will.'
And of course, something almost always can go wrong. At best, those who depend
on their individual judgment to determine right and wrong end up making a 'best
guess' based on the known data and the range of anticipated possible outcomes.
At worst, they ignore the obvious consequences of their actions, telling
themselves everything will work itself out, just so they can do what they wanted
to do in the first place. And somewhere between the best and worst cases are the
decisions which, despite our intentions, find their origins in judgments
unavoidably clouded by our self interests. God's laws are the standard
established by the only one who knows everything past, present, and future
so that we don't have to rely on our own limited knowledge of situations."
"So we're just supposed to put our brains on hold and follow blindly along the
path that God has set for us!" Decker responded.
"Not at all, Mr. Hawthorne. Remember, Jesus said that the greatest commandment
is to love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
mind. He included your mind. He doesn't want us to blindly accept what somebody
tells us; he wants us to consider the evidence, to use our mind as well as our
heart in coming to him and in following him. Blind faith is an alien concept to
the mature Christian. It's the New Age religions that tell their adherents to
put their minds on hold and let some spirit guide or unknown force direct them.
It's the New Age religions that tell us that our future is determined by such
things as the location of certain stars on the day we were born."
Rosen had hit upon two things that had always made Decker a little uncomfortable
about the New Agers. He had never had any difficulty with anything Christopher
said and only a little trouble with most of what Milner said, but some of those
who followed Christopher and Milner held what seemed to Decker to be very
bizarre and unscientific beliefs and practices that he would rather not try to
defend. Spirit guides and astrology were two of them. And since he preferred not
to dwell on these things, he did not mind at all when Rosen went on to what
seemed to be another subject.
"When Jesus was crucified," Rosen continued, "there were thieves crucified on
either side of him. One of the thieves, even though he was dying on a cross,
taunted and insulted Jesus. But the other thief realized that while he deserved
punishment for the crimes he had committed, he knew that Jesus was innocent.
Somehow, by the grace of God and despite the circumstances, he also recognized
Jesus as the Messiah.
"You might think that a condemned man doesn't have much to lose, but even then a
person may still cling to his pride. Even as he hung there on the cross, the
first thief wanted to be accepted by the crowd. I suppose he thought he could
make himself appear better by tearing down someone else. The other thief,
though, was willing to give up his pride and dignity, admit his guilt and, there
in front of everyone, turn his fate over to the Messiah, saying, 'Jesus,
remember me when you come into your kingdom.'
"Jesus' response to the thief s request was very unusual. He didn't give him a
list of things to do so that he could be accepted by God. He didn't tell him he
had to be baptized, or sanctified, or take communion, or do good works, or walk
across burning coals, or make a pilgrimage, or chant, or anything. He simply
said, 'I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.'"
"It may seem like the thief didn't do anything except ask, but we should not
miss the point of what he did do. Just like the farmer's younger son, who
admitted his failure and returned humbly to his father, so the thief recognized
his guilt and turned humbly to Jesus.
"You see, Mr. Hawthorne, just like the fanner's son and the thief on the cross,
people don't become Christians because they're good people; they become
Christians because they realize that they've failed. They know that they've
broken God's laws, and that they are sinners.
"When you get right down to it, Christianity is like bankruptcy. To accept
Yeshua is to admit defeat and throw yourself on the mercy of the court because
you realize that justice demands more than you can possibly pay. The down
payment alone would cost you your life; and what good is learning the lesson, if
the cost of earning your lesson leaves you dead?
"I remember reading in school about a bizarre practice used by royalty in Europe
to punish a prince. Instead of punishing the prince himself when he was bad, a
boy of the prince's same age called a whipping boy would bear the punishment
for the prince. It always seemed both incredibly unfair and incredibly stupid to
me incredibly unfair because a boy who had done nothing was punished for what
someone else did, and incredibly stupid because the prince had no motivation for
changing his behavior. More recently, though, it occurred to me that it was not
so stupid as I had assumed. Properly administered, it could be a very effective
deterrent against bad behavior by the prince."
Decker shook his head. "You've lost me on that one, Rosen."
"If the prince did not know the whipping boy or did not have to watch the boy
being punished for what he had done," Rosen explained, "then of course it meant
little or nothing to the prince and the punishment did no good. But if the
prince knew the boy, if they were friends and playmates, then even though the
prince did not bear the physical marks of the lashing, he would feel the pain of
knowing the suffering he had caused to his friend. Do you have any brothers or
sisters, Mr. Hawthorne?"
"One older brother, Nathan. He died in the Disaster," Decker answered, though
after he had, he could not understand why he had been so forthcoming.
Rosen raised an eyebrow in surprise at this revelation, but did not allow it to
distract him. "Then you can probably understand that, if your parents punished
your brother whenever you did something wrong, you might think it was a pretty
nice arrangement for a while. Soon, though, if you cared for your brother at
all, you would start to feel bad about it. So that even though it was your
brother who had been punished, you would suffer, too, and pretty soon your
behavior would change.
"The practice of sacrificing animals is similar to the concept of the whipping
boy. Christopher has said that the animal sacrifices required by Yahweh prove
that he is a bloodthirsty god. But God didn't tell us to sacrifice animals for
our sins because he's bloodthirsty. God doesn't like to see suffering; he
doesn't like to see animals die. According to the Bible, originally animals
didn't even kill each other. They were all vegetarians; and they will be again
after Jesus returns. The reason God told us to offer animal sacrifices was so
that we would realize just how terrible our sin is. As bad as you would have
felt about your brother being punished in your place, imagine how much worse you
would have felt if your parents made you administer the punishment. That is what
God intended with animal sacrifices. He wanted us to understand in no uncertain
terms that the price of sin is death.
"In the story that Jesus told about the farmer and his two sons, there was no
inheritance left for the younger son: everything the father had left was the
inheritance of the older brother. There was one way, however, that the younger
son could have gotten an inheritance and yet still have earned his lesson: that
is, if his brother died and left no heir. If that happened, he would receive the
older brother's inheritance because there was no one else for it to go to. But
he would still have learnedand earned'his lesson because he would know that what
he received came at the price of his brother's life." Rosen paused a moment to
make his point. "Well, our brother did die," Rosen continued, finally, "not
because Yahweh is a bloodthirsty God, but because the only way for us to
understand the seriousness of our sin without paying the price for that sin
ourselves is to understand the magnitude of the price that Jesus paid by dying
for us.
"I said earlier that when God created us in his own image he took a 'necessary
risk' because only by being created in his image could we truly be his children.
Actually, since God knew in advance that Adam and Eve would sin, it would be
more accurate to call it not a 'necessary risk' but an 'accepted cost.' God knew
we would sin and he knew that he himself, in the person of his son Jesus, would
have to be tortured and die to pay the penalty for that sin. Yet despite all
this, he did it anyway. His own death was a price he was willing to pay because
his love for us is so great that he would rather die than live without us.
"The inheritance is ours, Mr. Hawthorne. To claim it, all we have to do is what
the farmer's younger son did: admit we've made a mess of our lives without God,
swallow our pride and ask him to forgive us and take us back. Like the younger
son, we must be willing to come back as a servant, but like the father in the
story, God waits anxiously to accept us as sons.
"Jesus told the thief on the cross that he would be in paradise. And, you know,
that thief was the only person Jesus ever directly made that promise to. I
believe Jesus used that situation, where the one he was talking to could not
possibly have done anything to earn God's forgiveness, so that in the centuries
to come no one could ever read that story and honestly believe that being
forgiven and accepted by God was something that could be earned.
"It's up to us to decide which role we will play in life: the proud, mocking
thief or the humble, repentant thief. That's just how simple it was then, and
it's just as simple now. All that you need to do to be forgiven and accepted by
God is to recognize that you need to be forgiven and then ask. Come humbly to
God just as the farmer's son returned humbly to his father and he will accept
you with open arms."
"That's quite a story, Rosen," Decker said. "But you haven't changed anything.
As I said last night, no matter how convincing a story you might tell, there's
no way I'm going to trust the word of a kidnapper over Christopher."
"And I told you last night that I would not try to convince you otherwise. What
I have attempted to do today is to make it clear to you what it is that we
believe.
"Now, there's just one other item we need to cover before you leave. I told you
earlier that God had taken his people from the earth so that they wouldn't have
to suffer through the times in which we now find ourselves. The Bible calls
these times the 'Tribulation,' a period which would begin with the signing of a
treaty with Israel and last for seven years. That treaty was the one between the
United Nations and Israel arranged by Christopher Goodman when he returned the
Ark of the Covenant. It went into effect September 30th of 2019, meaning that of
the seven years, less than four months remain."
"As far as I can tell," Decker interrupted, "things have been going pretty well
since Christopher got rid of John and Cohen three years ago no asteroids, no
plagues of locusts, no homicidal madness, not even any wars. The whole world has
been at peace. The only 'tribulation' that I'm aware of is the killings and
violence by the fundamentalists at the communion clinics. I guess you could also
throw in the appearance of the three angels," Decker added, "but they just made
empty threats."
"Nevertheless," Rosen said, "over the next three and a half months things are
going to get much worse fast. Of course, Christopher will blame Yahweh, the KDT,
and the fundamentalists."
"And you just can't imagine why he'd do that, can you?!" Decker said
sarcastically. "Are you trying to say that Yahweh is not responsible for the
death and destruction that plagued the earth before Christopher killed John and
Cohen?"
"What God has done to this point," Rosen answered, apparently denying nothing,
"has been designed, for the most part, to get our attention. The plagues which
befell Egypt in the days of Moses were designed to demonstrate God's supremacy
over the false gods of Egypt. The Egyptians worshiped the Nile River, so God
turned it to blood; they worshiped flies and frogs and so he gave them plagues
of flies and frogs; they worshiped the sun and so he blacked out the sun over
Egypt. In the same way, God has selectively struck the earth with plagues which
demonstrate his supremacy over the false gods of this age. People worship the
heavens and look to the stars to guide their futures, so God used asteroids
falling stars to plague the earth. People worship nature, so God used nature
to afflict mankind with storms, volcanoes, and locusts. People seek the guidance
of spirits, so God allowed spirits to bring madness and death upon the earth.
But what is coming in the next three months is designed not to get our
attention, but to punish.
"To strike back at Yahweh, Christopher will order the arrest of all who oppose
him, and ultimately the execution of all who refuse to take the communion and
the mark. When the plagues continue, he will call for the people of all nations
to gather and march on Petra to destroy those who still pledge their allegiance
to Yahweh. He will justify his actions by saying that it is necessary to destroy
the opponents of the New Age just as you would destroy a disease or cancer so
that the rest of the world can break the final hold that Yahweh has on the
earth. And of course, it will be argued that killing Yahweh' s followers is
really for our own good since in a few years or so we'll all be reincarnated,
free of our past 'prejudices' and 'bigotries.'
"Do you understand why we are called Koum Damah Tatare, Mr. Hawthorne?
"Yeah," Decker answered. "Because there's supposed to be 144,000 of you kooks,
and the consonants from Koum Damah Tatare are the numbers used to write
144,000."
"There is an additional reason a prophetic reason," Rosen said. "In English,
Koum Damah Tatare means 'arise, shed tears, and be free.' In the book of
Zechariah, speaking through the prophet, God said:
pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of
grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and
they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for
him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
"The time is coming soon when these words will come to pass, when all Israel
will arise as one and shed tears for the one they have pierced. As Christopher
marches on Petra, the people of Israel will understand that Yeshua, whom they
have rejected and their ancestors pierced, is indeed their king and Messiah.
When that happens, Messiah will return to save them from Christopher, just as
Moses returned to rescue their forefathers from Pharaoh, and they will at last
be free"
"And then you'll all live happily ever after, right?" Decker said dryly.
"That is so much more true than you could possibly imagine," Rosen answered
without embarrassment. "The Bible says that God will establish his kingdom on
the earth and Yeshua will reign as king on the throne of David. The earth will
be restored to the paradise that it was in its Edenic state. As it was in the
Garden of Eden, the Bible says:
The wolf mil live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the
calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.
The caw will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the
lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the
cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither
harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the
knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Decker groaned and shook his head.
"I've done all I can. I've rolled away the stone the rest is up to God," Rosen
concluded, referring to the biblical story of the events preceding the
resurrection of Lazarus. "I assume you'll want to leave as soon as possible," he
added without ceremony.
Decker was momentarily taken aback, unsure he had heard correctly. "Just like
that?" he asked after a moment, wondering if this ordeal could really be ending
so simply.
"Just like that," Rosen repeated. "You see, God has not instructed me to be
successful, only to make the effort. It's not my responsibility to change your
mind, only to present you with the truth. What you do with the truth is up to
you."
Decker wished that for just one moment he could read Rosen's mind. Was Rosen
serious or was this just a trick?
"I've made arrangements for you to leave the day after tomorrow."
That did not sound promising. "Why not right now?" Decker asked, suspicious of
any delay. He knew that if the KDT intended to kill him it would probably happen
soon. Or this might just be a transition into a second phase of a longer
brainwashing program. Would they now lock him in solitary confinement for a few
weeks or months to 'consider' what Rosen had told him over the past three days?
He could only guess which it would be. Whatever happened, Decker determined that
he would endure it with dignity. He would not let them break him. He reminded
himself of his nearly three years as a hostage in Lebanon. So far, this was a
cakewalk by comparison.
Of course, there was also the possibility that Rosen really intended to let him
go, but Decker didn't put much hope in that prospect.
"You'll be taken to Israel and released," Rosen continued. "I'm sure that from
there you can get back to Babylon on your own."
"Why can't I leave right now?" Decker asked again more forcefully.
"It's after 4:00 on Friday afternoon," Rosen answered. "There is not enough time
for anyone to take you to Israel before sundown when the Sabbath begins."
Of course, devout Jews would not travel on a Sabbath. Rosen's answer was just
plausible enough to be either the real reason or a well-considered lie. "And so
I'm just supposed to sit and wait?" Decker prodded.
"You're free to go wherever you like in Petra."
"And if I choose to go farther?" Decker cringed that he had asked such a stupid
question. Petra was in the middle of the wilderness. Where else could he
possibly go?
Whether it was the look of embarrassment on Decker's face or Rosen's ability to
read Decker's mind, Rosen did not answer. "There's just one last thing," he said
instead. "Somehow, Mr. Hawthorne, you have avoided the communion and the mark
this long. I don't know if you can continue to do so, but if you can, and if you
believe that there is even the smallest, most outside chance that I might be
telling you the truth, then I urge you to do everything in your power not to
take the communion or the mark."
"I'll keep that in mind," Decker answered with obvious insincerity. Decker found
possible encouragement in what Rosen had said, though. It might have been an
indication that Rosen really did intend to let him go. Why else would he take
the time to urge him not to take the communion and the mark?
"I must leave now," Rosen said. "I pray that you will consider what I have said
and what the Spirit of God is saying to you even now, and that our next meeting
will be as brothers and fellow heirs in Messiah's kingdom."
"Yeah, sure," Decker answered. The tone of his voice was so disingenuous it
surprised even him. The fact that Rosen had once again referred to something
that would necessitate his living for a while longer, however, did not escape
Decker's attention.
Rosen sighed and left the room, leaving the door open behind him.