No Geek Rapture for Me_I'm Old School

by Jonelle Renald

  “True, but some people are closer to being a part of my bloodline than others. And you do look very much like my wife Edni and our oldest daughter Ednami, for instance. In addition, you share the same fierce spirit they both had. And you seem to share our talent for prophecy.”

  “I don’t see visions of the future.”

  “No, you don’t. But you are aware of things that aren’t visible, things that are beyond knowing through the natural world. That’s a very unique ability that God does not bless everyone with.”

  “Well, I’d say I hear things and sometimes get vibes, but OK. Um, Greatest Grandfather, can I ask you a question about something I heard, something that wasn’t a vision exactly but a word that I heard in my ear?”

  “Of course, Greatest Granddaughter.”

  “The time I shook hands with Chase, when he handed me the envelope with the job offer from iCon, something happened to me, something I had never experienced before or since. I would say I saw a vision, but I didn’t see a thing. It was like I was transported to a black and muted room, where I couldn’t see anything but I heard a very distinct word in my spirit. The message was ‘He has no room for you.’ I never did figure out what it meant, I never did understand what to do with that message until it was too late. In spite of being given that special message or warning — whatever it was — I made wrong choices and bad decisions because I didn’t understand what it meant. Even now, I don’t exactly know what I did wrong, or how I could have done better. But I wish I had figured it out correctly, so I could have escaped all that trouble. But I didn’t escape it. In the end, the message didn’t help me at all. It was like a puzzle I couldn’t ever solve. So why did I even get the message? The whole thing just seems — it was just confusion on top of confusion. All I got out of it was that I wasn’t smart enough to do the right thing with it. It almost seems like I would have been better off not hearing anything.”

  Enoch thought for a moment before replying. “Prophecy, or if you prefer, those words you hear that come from God, sometimes it can be straightforward. A word of warning, for instance, where you know exactly who the word is for and what the danger is, where it will come from. But sometimes the word the Lord of Spirits gives you may not have an obvious meaning. If that is the case and you don’t understand, here’s what you should do. It’s not his intention to force you to puzzle it all out alone, leave you on your own to figure the proper response to it. And fail trying. The difficulty you have understanding is what God intends. Not to confuse you, but to show you that you need to ask for help. It’s a demonstration that this is not something you can handle by yourself, an obstacle so you won’t run off and try doing something on your own. Which would get you into trouble. Instead, you should ask God to give you the wisdom to understand what the message means, and keep on asking to be shown how you are to respond to his word until you do understand. Seek him if you lack wisdom, and he will generously give you whatever you need to understand. He wants you to work with him.”

  “No wonder I didn’t get it then!” Mia shrugged. “I’m used to doing things on my own. Always have been. Oh!”

  Enoch looked at Mia.

  She said, “I just realized you and Chase knew each other back when you were — before —.” She gestured with her hands, not knowing what words to use. “He wants you to present another petition, make a request before God, asking for something for them?”

  Enoch nodded, “Yes, the Fallen Ones and The Watchers, are requesting that I go before the Most High’s throne and present their petition, like I had done in days before the Flood. They keep trying to find a place where they can exist independently from God, separate and unsupervised. This time, they want permission to colonize a virtual reality that they will create for themselves, an independent place where God will agree to never interfere with or even monitor their activity.”

  Mia said, “Sounds like Satan in Paradise Lost. ‘Better to rule in Hell than serve in Paradise.’ Is that what they’re asking for?”

  “Exactly,” he said. “They have dressed up this latest request very nicely. In exchange for an independent world and freedom from what they call God’s interference, they promise to leave Earth, leave humanity alone, and stop their temptations, predation, and corruption of the children of Adam. But what they are really hoping for, what they really want is a way to escape their end-times’ fate under God’s judgment. Or it might be more accurate to say they don’t want to face the Eternal King until they are ready to make an attempt to overthrow him and take over as the sole rulers of the Earth and humanity. The Fallen Ones, the Nephilim like Talmai — Chase as you know him — they rarely tell the truth even when they do say things that conform to reality. Also, we have known for some time that it’s their true intention is to do great harm to humanity by inviting them to share their virtual reality, no matter what they may be saying about leaving people unmolested. However, there isn’t a digital Paradise waiting for people who want to ride the Geek Rapture, no avoiding Death with tech. It’s nothing but a trap, a plan to destroy humanity. Since my day, these evil beings have tried to find a way of stripping the soul out of human beings and once emptied, allow demons to inhabit their bodies. In these last days, they are close to that, using technology.

  “In the days before the Flood, I was given the knowledge and insight that this day and the age that you’re living in would come, that it would be the most perilous time ever for the people of Earth. My concern for the people living now is the reason I made a record in writing of what I learned. It’s why I authored the first book ever written, to preserve for the latter days knowledge about the fallen angels and their twisted children. One man translated into English what I wrote like this — ‘I saw the vision of the Holy One in the heavens, and what I saw was not for my generation, but for a remote one which is yet to come.’ That generation isn’t remote any longer — it has arrived. Your generation needs to know what happened when The Watchers came down to Mount Hermon from the third heaven. In my day, their twisted knowledge and corrupted lore, their spiritual deceit, and the empty promises these apostate angels brought with them led to widespread sin and unrestrained violence. As great as that danger was then, the danger in your time is even greater. Without knowledge from the past — even with the knowledge of the past — it will be nearly impossible to withstand them. There are fewer people now possessing the truth needed to overcome this deception, fewer people on God’s side who haven’t turned their back on the world and withdrawn inside church walls to avoid contact with people still struggling in sin and suffering, fewer people willing to stand up, give all, and fight to accomplish God’s will on earth. And there are more people who have already fallen for the deceit. At the same time we were rescuing you from the tank, we were destroying the transhumanist work iCon was doing in Noonan Hall, to prevent it from ever being used on anyone deceived by them.”

  Mia asked, “You’re saying the Geek Rapture’s all totally bogus, and there’s no escape from the reality God has made? All the talk about escaping death, humanity taking charge of their own evolution, becoming an all-knowing god — it’s nothing but bait. Lures to get foolish and naive people to destroy themselves by choosing to voluntarily enter an immense diabolical soul de-construction and rendering factory.”

  “Yes, that is correct,” he said. “The only ones who will benefit from the Geek Rapture are Cezary, Chase, and others like them. Transhumanist scientists and their followers have been absolutely deceived. Whatever flavor of Humanity+ they adopt, they won’t receive a connection into hive mind omnipotence, won’t be granted godlike abilities and eternal life whether they upload their consciousness to a cyborg body or if they install tech into their bodies or change their DNA to upgrade. Once they unite with H+ tech, they will no longer have control of their body or their soul. After it’s too late, they will discover they were deceived into letting a foul and unclean spirit possess them or find their soul has be
en destroyed through separation from their body and spirit. And there will be no undoing the evil they have done to themselves. But the people who hear and obey The Eternal’s words will watch where they’re walking and keep their feet from sliding.”

  Thinking back, Enoch paused for a moment, then continued. “For five thousand years, The Watchers have searched for a way to extract the soul out of human beings, wanting to create evil slaves who would not, could not ever turn back to God and his mercy. In my time, the closest they could come to their goal of creating an army of soldiers to battle against Heaven was their hybrid children, the giant Fallen Ones. Thanks be to God that they failed back then in their mission to totally destroy humanity. But people don’t consider how thin the margin of victory was. The Watchers were defeated only through a massive judgment on the Earth, with the Flood wiping out all but eight people. But now on the brink of technology that may achieve their goal, The Watchers are hopeful that they may succeed at last. Many people now are willing to volunteer to give up the life God gave them at birth, having become convinced that they have no soul worth protecting.”

  Enoch shook his head. “Thinking themselves to be wise, these transhumanists have made themselves fools. They are persuaded that other humans, other scientists, will provide better care for their future and destiny than the Lord of Glory would. They are eager to naively upload into a computer program, or allow a microchip to intersect with their mind, leaving who knows who outside to have the power to re-write those thoughts, or to press the DELETE key at any time. How much greater is the foolishness of trusting evil and fallen angelic entities to safeguard their souls? They haven’t considered what impact the unseen supernatural realm might be having on their digital Nirvana. Their experts are too proud to acknowledge that they needed and are receiving help from beings from other dimensions to create the Singularity, a self-aware and independent artificial intelligence that is more powerful than any human being’s intellect. Because they accept the lie that something greater — intelligence and self-awareness in this case — can develop out of the nothing of non-living computer code, they ignore the presence of the evil supernatural entities cached inside the tech they created, hiding like enemy soldiers inside the Trojan Horse. They have refused to even consider that an evil unclean spirit could be living inside the AI programs in their supercomputers, replicating the illusion of a self-aware mind. Transhumanism will not create the eternally fulfilling and unending life they hope to find.”

  “I’ve seen what those evil entities are like!” Mia frowned and said, “Not for me — no thanks!”

  He said, “I’m not saying people won’t some day try — and possibly succeed — uploading their minds to machines, hoping to escape the limitations of their body. But whatever else it might be, it won’t be a place to escape the ills of this world. There can never be a place that exists independently from God. It’s impossible. The Lord of Glory is the king of the universe in every way.”

  Quietly, Mia said, “Jesus the shepherd came and found me when I — my mind — I got lost, snared in a digital nowhere. What they did to me in the tank with the chemicals in Noonan Hall. He called me back, when —. To my —.” She stopped and took a deep breath. “I believe he re-connected my mind and soul again when they got separated and lost from each other. Whatever it was they were trying to pull out of me and upload. He helped keep me safe, rescued and guided me, told me help was on the way. Stayed with me through the entire nightmare.”

  “I didn’t know that,” Enoch said. “But I’m not surprised. He will always leave the ninety-nine to seek out and find the hundredth one that is lost.”

  “I was lost, all right! Lost to myself, if that makes sense. Still would be lost without Jesus guiding me back.”

  Enoch nodded.

  She shivered, “In a place that was not a place, I was completely lost with no way to get home. Or move. Or think. I don’t know what word describes how stripped of everything my soul was. There was barely anything left of me. Just enough to know I was in torment. But I had a better outcome than some nursery rhyme characters, because the shepherd found me and put me back together again. And then after that, you and Ethan pulled me out of the tank, and here we are.”

  “God is not far from any of us,” Enoch said. “In him we move and live and have our being.”

  She nodded in agreement and sat silently for a minute or two. Breaking her silence, she said, “So — bottom line. With Cezary and Chase’s plan, any human who participates in their Geek Rapture will never find themselves laying on a virtual reality beach somewhere soaking up the sunshine of omnipotence while drinking bit storm mai tais. Instead, they will lose the self God made, their consciousness digitized and reduced to replacement parts, and end up as a mounted moose head in some fallen angel’s trophy room. Mixing metaphors a bit, but —.”

  Enoch nodded. “Yes. Their souls destroyed, they will only exist as commodities, assets for The Watchers and Fallen Ones to buy and sell amongst themselves. It is a mercy of God that He is not giving Chase and his fellow Nephilim permission to create their own virtual reality and live there without interference. Any human who attempted to upload their mind and consciousness or connect their body to that technology would experience the same horror that you faced and immediately find themselves dropped into a hell beyond their imaging. If their body did live on, it would be kept alive merely to exploit it as some sort of battery, a source of stored electrical energy and heat like in those science-fiction movies.”

  “How can God prevent this new technology from being used?”

  “God isn’t preventing the technology from being developed and used any more than he has intervened directly to stop other evil technologies which have been created on Earth. But I am under his orders to oppose the Nephilim work that is being done at iCon. I am willing do whatever it takes to see the Eternal King’s will is done on earth as it is in on this mountain. Unlike others who believe the best way they can do God’s will on Earth is to submit to a deterministic future and do nothing to shape their world. As if God’s will is going to happen no matter what, so don’t get in the way. Such a mistake! I will not float submissively along like a log on some divinely appointed tide of history, passively letting all opportunities to make an impact on events slip through my fingers. We have already started our opposition to iCon’s efforts. The day you were rescued, we destroyed several server farms storing Geek Rapture environments, and destroyed most of the databases with stored human memories and experiences gathered in their labs. What we do now will oppose their plans for enslaving humanity using a sentient artificial intelligence, which is actually an unclean spirit. iCon’s plans are an existential threat against humanity, and I will do my part to block their efforts.” Enoch looked up the path. “And here come some of those who are helping with that mission.”

  A group of five horsemen came down the pathway toward them, armed with swords and riding white, red, and sorrel horses.

  29 | Side

  Enoch stood up to greet the approaching horsemen. Mia stood as well, not certain what she was about to encounter. Enoch told her, “Don’t worry. These are the Lord of Host’s guardians and watchmen, bringing us news.”

  The patrol halted under the myrtle trees near the stream. Dismounting from a red horse not quite as tall as Maru, the group’s leader walked up the slope to join them. “Greetings in the name of the Lord of Hosts, Enoch. We have come from patrolling the Earth. Everything is calm and quiet.” After providing more details, he turned back to join the rest of the patrol who had all dismounted and were taking the saddles and bridles off their horses. Except for one young man who walked his white horse toward Enoch and Mia, then stood quietly facing them. He was tall, athletic, with green eyes, black hair with red highlights, and an open, honest face with a crooked smile. He reminded Mia of someone, but she couldn’t place who it was.

  Enoch said to Mia, “This is exactly the go
od news I was waiting to hear. We can safely go to my home, Ismarsettehka now.” He extended his arm to the young man, inviting him forward. “Mia, I’d like to introduce you to Kit, one of the people who live with me at my home. Kit, this is Mia.”

  The young man stepped forward and extended his hand, and as Mia gripped it she started to say, “Glad to meet you.” But touching his hand made all the color drain from her face, and she could not get out a single word. She swayed on her feet as if she was about to be crushed to the ground. The young man caught her elbow with his other hand, steadying her as the continued contact with his hand brought a series of visions, rapidly flashing images overwhelming in their significance.

  Mia pulled her hand away and stared at Kit, whispering, “No. No. No. No. No. It can’t be!” But it was — she knew for certain who he looked like now. There could be no doubt. For a brief moment, she reached over to touch his shoulder, but then she jerked away from him and took four steps backward, staring him in the face. As her face flushed red, she turned and sprinted barefoot into the forest, threading her way in and out of trees, not thinking of anything but getting out of sight. She couldn’t bear the thought of being looked at, being seen by anyone back there. “How could they do that to me?! They know. They know what I did. What must they think of me, to ambush me like that!” Her mind raced as she ran. “How could this be? How could he be here?”

  Overcome by a deep sense of shame, Mia didn’t hear the rumble of Maru-Dannum galloping up behind her, didn’t know he was approaching until he wheeled in front of her and forced her to stop running forward. She refused to go back, and the red horse wouldn’t let her continue forward. No matter how she tried to escape, she was unsuccessful and had no choice but to stay where she was. “Get out of my way, Maru! Let me go!” But there was no evading the horse who blocked her every move. Frustrated, Mia leaned up against a tree trunk, then slid down to the ground. “Let me go, Maru, let me go! I can’t be here right now.” Hiding her face on her knees, her body was shaking, trying unsuccessfully not to sob.