In His Image

by James Beauseigneur

  Surprisingly, Chaim Levin was very calm. Dressed in the traditional Temple raiment of his office, the high priest wore a bulbous blue hat with a band of solid gold engraved with the Hebrew words , meaning “Holy to Yahweh.” Over the standard white linen tunic of the ordinary priest, which hung down to his ankles, revealing only his bare feet, he wore a richly embroidered robe that reached below his knees and was decorated at the bottom by golden bells that jingled musically as he walked. Over this, he wore a vest-like garment that hung to his hips and was lavishly embroidered with thick threads of gold, purple, blue, and crimson. In the middle of his chest, supported by heavy chains of gold attached to broad epaulets upon his shoulders and around his waist by scarlet strips of cloth, was the ephod, a thick square linen breastplate decorated with gold brocade and inset with twelve large gemstones in four rows of three each, representing the twelve tribes of Israel.

  Whether Chaim Levin’s tolerance of Milner was borne of gratitude for Christopher’s dispatch of John and Cohen or because he simply did not want to ruin a perfectly good set of robes, he remained unruffled by Milner’s claim. Instead, he looked him in the eye and very politely but with skeptical amusement asked, “By what sign shall we know that you are who you claim?”

  “By that same sign by which I, Elijah, proved myself to King Ahab and to the people of Israel on Mount Carmel,” 3 Milner answered, loud enough for everyone to hear.

  Chaim Levin raised an eyebrow and frowned a bit. The boldness of Milner’s claim impressed him, though he did not for a minute think that Milner could carry it out. “And when shall we see this sign?” he asked after a moment.

  “This very hour,” answered Milner. Then, turning away from Levin and toward the crowd, Milner continued. “For 1,260 days Israel has suffered drought. Today it ends!” With that, Milner’s hands shot skyward and from somewhere beyond the Temple a low rumbling was heard, which in just seconds grew in intensity to an earthshaking peal of thunder. Faster than anyone could imagine possible, the sky grew dark, as out of nowhere heavy gray clouds began to fill the heavens. In fear, the crowds and all but a few of the priests nearest the high priest drew back. No sooner had an area of a few hundred square feet been cleared than a bolt of lightning struck the earth and a deafening crack of thunder sent people running, clasping their hands over their ears. In the larger clearing that resulted from the evacuation, the first bolt of lightning was quickly followed by three more, each more powerful than the previous one. And then it began to rain.

  It came down in a torrent, pouring down upon Milner, the high priest, and everyone else except a very few who had made it to cover. Most stood there looking up with their hands upraised, thankful for the rain. Some began to dance.

  For the crowd, who knew the biblical story of Elijah, the verdict was clear: This truly must be the prophet. What other explanation could there be? Although the high priest was unconvinced, he could offer no more believable explanation and so he remained silent, staring at Milner as the rain turned his impeccably elegant attire to dripping disarray. Soon many of the priests and Levites joined in with the crowds, proclaiming Milner as the promised Elijah who, according to the prophecy, would come before the Messiah. 4

  It came as no surprise, therefore, when after a few minutes of drenching rain, Milner announced, “Behold your Messiah!”

  With rain still pouring down, Milner turned and seemed to be pointing with his outstretched hand toward the Temple, but no one could see exactly what he expected them to find. Then above the southeastern corner, a break appeared in the clouds, allowing a single brilliant shaft of sunlight to shine through. “There he is!” someone shouted.

  At the top of the wall, on the very edge of the southeastern corner of the Temple, 180 feet above them, at a point which by tradition is called the pinnacle, stood Christopher, robes blowing in the wind and completely dry as the shaft of light shone down like a spotlight. Quickly the beam broadened, as from that point the clouds retreated in all directions, bringing rain to the parched countryside around Jerusalem. In just moments the area around the Temple was in full daylight again with the sun shining brightly overhead.

  By now nearly every network in the world was carrying the events in Jerusalem live. Every camera was on him, broadcasting his words and image to the most distant corners of the planet.

  “People of earth,” Christopher began slowly with a serene, peaceful tone calculated to restore calm. “For millennia the prophets and soothsayers, the astrologers and oracles, the shamans and the revelators have all foretold the coming of one who would bring with him the olive branch of peace for all the world. By a hundred different names the world has known him. And by a hundred different names this promised peace bringer has been petitioned to come quickly to those in distress. For the Jews, he is Messiah; for the Christians, the returning Christ; for the Buddhists he is the Fifth Buddha; for the Muslims, the Thirteenth Heir to Mohammed or Immam Mahdi. The Hindus call him Krishna; the Eckankar call him Mahanta. The Bahá’í look to the coming Most Great Peace. To the Zorastrians he is Shah-Bahram; to others he is Lord Maitreya, or Bodhisattva, or Krishnamurti, or Mithras, or Deva, or Hermes and Cush, or Janus, or Osiris.

  “By whatever name he is known,” Christopher declared, “in whatever tongue he is entreated, this day I say to you: The prophecies have been fulfilled! This day the promise has been kept! This day the vision has been realized for all Humankind!” Christopher paused as the anticipation rose.

  “For on this day I have come!” he shouted triumphantly, surprising no one—for the conclusion was obvious—and yet astonishing all, for no one could have been truly prepared for such a declaration.

  Christopher’s voice quickly picked up speed and fervor. “I am the promised one!” he chanted. “I am the Messiah, the Christ, the Fifth Buddha, the Thirteenth Heir to Mohammed; I am the one who brings the Most Great Peace; I am Krishna, Shah-Bahram, Mahanta, Lord Maitreya, Bodhisattva, Krishnamurti, and Immam Mahdi; I am Mithras, Deva, Hermes and Cush, Janus, and Osiris! There is no difference. They are all one. All religions are one. And I am he of whom all the prophets spoke! This is the day of the earth’s salvation!”

  To the displeasure of the high priest, many in the assembly in Jerusalem roared their approval and the response was echoed around the world. They had all seen Christopher die at the hands of an assassin, and they had seen his resurrection. They had witnessed him powerfully dispatching John and Cohen, who had called down terrible plagues upon the earth. They had watched in amazement as Robert Milner called down lightning and brought rain to the drought-stricken holy land. But more than anything else they cheered because they were ready for a savior.

  “I have not come to make pious religious pronouncements,” Christopher said. “Nor have I come to demand your worship or insist that you pay me homage. I do not seek your praise and adoration or demand your devotion. It is not my intent that you venerate or adulate me or that you pay me your tribute. Nor do I wish you to glorify, deify, idolize, extol, exalt, or revere me.

  “I have come instead to tell you to look to yourselves. For within each of you is all the deity, all the divinity, that you will ever need. You may call me a god, and I do not deny it: I am a god! But I call you gods. All of you! Each of you!”

  High Priest Chaim Levin had heard all that he needed to. This was obvious blasphemy and, new robes or not, he was obligated to tear his garments and throw dust upon his head. And so he began with a vengeance, though he had to settle for mud. Some of the other priests and Levites near him immediately followed his lead. But others, many others, were far too interested in what this man who had risen from the dead had to say.

  “It is not my own godhood that I have come here to proclaim,” Christopher continued. “It is yours!

  “I have not come to threaten or punish,” he said reassuringly, undistracted by the actions of the high priest so far below him. “I have come to offer to Humankind life everlasting and joy unimagined. I bring you the opportunity to build a tomorro
w of abundance and life from a yesterday of hunger and death. Come with me. Follow me. And I will lead you into a millennium of life and of light.”

  The high priest’s overdramatic rending of cloth and hurling of mud distracted Decker from Christopher’s speech just long enough for him to notice that despite the distance between Christopher and the street, he could hear him clearly. Christopher’s voice seemed to be coming from right next to him or, perhaps … even from inside of him. It was as though he was hearing Christopher’s voice from within himself. This discovery was quickly followed by another, even more startling: Decker suddenly realized that Christopher was not speaking English; nor had he since he began to speak. Decker was not sure what language it was, but he was certain he had never heard it before; yet he clearly understood every word. Apparently, so did those all around him, and as Decker correctly assumed, so did every other person on earth, no matter what their native tongue.

  He wondered if others had noticed that the language Christopher spoke was not their own. Under his breath, Decker tried to recall and repeat a few of the words, but discovered that though he understood everything Christopher said, he could not for the life of him duplicate a single word or even a syllable. Later Christopher would explain that he had been speaking in the root language of all human languages, one that was as universal and instinctive to humans as animal sounds are to the given type of animal. It was, as Christopher would explain later, the language spoken by all humans prior to the confusion of language, which Yahweh used to scatter the people of the earth when they built the Tower of Babel. 5 This language did not need translation. It was the translation.

  “Three and a half days ago,” Christopher continued, “before the eyes of the whole world, a follower of John and Cohen and the Koum Damah Patar fired a bullet into my brain and killed me. Less than twelve hours ago, again with the entire planet as witness, I was resurrected from the dead!

  “But my resurrection is not a symbol of my victory over death. It is, rather, a symbol of Humankind’s victory of life. My resurrection, my release from the chains of death, occurred because the time has at last come for Humankind to break the chains that have bound it and to claim the glorious future that awaits.

  “Let there be no mistake: The afflictions that have befallen the earth over these past three and a half years have not been accidental or the result of natural disasters. They have been cold, calculated acts of supernatural oppression, enacted through the men John and Cohen, against all Humankind. But John and Cohen did not act alone. They were, in fact, merely the conduit for an oppressive, evil force—a spiritual entity whose savage, barbaric, selfish goal has been and continues to be to prevent the human race from fulfilling its destiny and attaining its proper place in the universe.

  “The power that directed my assassination and the entity that has brought the world to the brink of annihilation are one and the same. But my resurrection is proof that this entity can be defeated, that the earth can be restored, and that Humankind is ready to throw off the yoke of bondage and to take the ultimate evolutionary step toward spiritual completion.

  “I have returned to lead the world out of this age of destruction and death and into a new and transcendent age where suffering and death are no longer a fact of life, an age borne out of the trials that the earth has suffered, and into a time of individual harmony with the universe. You, the ones who have outlasted the disasters, the floods, the earthquakes, you are the survivors and you shall be the victors!

  “The human race has tasted the worst of this evil entity’s spiritual oppression and has stood defiant. It is the power of this defiance that has restored my life. It is the power of this defiance that has weakened the enemy. It is this defiance and Humankind’s self-reliance that have ushered in the New Age.

  “Let there be no doubt: The New Age is not about replacing one religion with another. Quite the opposite. This is not about reliance upon or faith in some distant, isolated god. This is about Humankind coming to rely upon itself, upon the power and god that is within each of us. This is not about a limited few self-righteous, self-serving oppressors bent on self-aggrandizement. This is about individuals taking control of their own lives, their own environment, and their own destinies.

  “For two thousand years calendars have been based upon the birth of the Christian messiah. My resurrection from the dead has marked the commencement of the New Age. The estimated date of Jesus’ birth is now irrelevant and the calendars of the Christian era have been relegated to history. A New Age has begun. Therefore, let the calendars of the world mark the day of my resurrection as the first day of the first year of the New Age.” Christopher raised his right hand and shook his head as he offered an explanation for his directive. “It is not that I wish you to mark the date of my resurrection for my sake,” he explained. “Rather, it is to mark the beginning of your own liberation from the hands of the one who has tried to crush your spirit and to destroy your soul.

  “Let this date also mark the end of claims to exclusive truth that are held by backward religions such as that practiced by the KDP. To the members of the Koum Damah Patar, I extend my hand in peace. John and Cohen are dead, their self-righteous claims lay barren and lifeless with their bodies. I appeal to you to abandon your offensive ways; abandon your sanctimonious claims to exclusive truth and join us. We must purge ourselves and our world of such intolerant philosophies and religions. From this day forward, the religion of Humankind shall be Humankind!

  “Let no one boast that their way to god is better, for it is not a god we should seek at all. It is the power that lies within us. Let us no longer excuse ourselves as being ‘only human.’ Human is all we need to be!

  “It is in our humanity that divinity resides. Humanity stands poised on the brink of the final great evolutionary stride. But it is not through physical evolution that divinity and immortality will be achieved. It is through spiritual evolution. For some, this evolution will take only a few decades. For others, it may take much longer. But even if it takes a thousand years it will have been time well spent.” Christopher paused to allow that thought to sink in. He wanted his audience to fully understand what he was saying. “Do not wonder,” he continued, “that I say that it may take a thousand years. It will not matter if it takes ten years or two hundred years or even a thousand years! Immortality is yours to take! Through the same power by which the man John lived more than two millennia, the same power by which I was raised from the dead, the same power by which we shall overcome the evil entity that opposes us, you shall live! To those who follow me, I will give the power to live for a thousand years! After that, you shall take your rightful place as evolved beings and shall never die!

  “Again I extend the hand of peace to the Koum Damah Patar. Turn from your error and follow me and you shall be the vanguard of the evolutionary process. You, who have already begun to experience the evolutionary metamorphosis, as evidenced by your advanced extrasensory abilities, do not use your powers for oppression. Use them instead to look inside yourself. Turn from serving the evil entity who claims to be God and instead serve Humankind. Cease your worship of the one who seeks to destroy the world and instead glorify Humankind, and together we shall restore the world.

  “Worthy are they who work for the advancement of Humankind, for the universe shall be theirs. Worthy are they who have learned first to love themselves, for they shall be as gods. Worthy are they who do not deny themselves the desires of their hearts, for they have understood that to do so is to deny themselves. Worthy are they who draw their strength and hope from within themselves, for they shall be strengthened. Worthy are they whose spirit is strong and defiant, for they shall be first in the kingdom of the universe. Worthy are they who forbid intolerance and crush that which restricts growth, for they will be called beacons of truth and guideposts to fulfillment.

  “Hear me and believe! Honor truth and growth with your allegiance!

  “Yet a third time to the Koum Damah Patar, I offer the op
en arms of brotherhood. Understand, however, that there is no place for you in the New Age if you continue your onerous ways. Unto whom much is given, much shall be expected. If you, who are the first to exercise the power of the New Age and who have tasted the sweet flavor and experienced the awesome potential that already grows within you, if you do not turn from your ways of persecution and intolerance, then you shall be the first to fall and feel the wrath of a planet that has grown beyond its willingness to submit. Those who seek to empower themselves by making Humankind slaves to their god have enslaved themselves already by their own choosing.

  “Were they satisfied with enslaving only themselves it would be little threat to Humankind and might therefore be tolerated for a time. But that is not in their nature. Instead, their desire is to impose that slavery upon others. They are weak and primitive; they are totally alien to the present reality and do not belong to this millennium, much less to the New Age. They have no understanding of the present planetary situation. Their weakness must not be allowed to sap and corrupt the strength of those who are ready to proceed to the future. Under the leadership of John and Cohen, they have tried to do so by calling down every kind of disaster they could imagine. They have brutally and without sympathy brought about the deaths of untold millions of innocent people and they have caused unspeakable misery and suffering for those of us who survive. Yet still they have failed to break the human spirit! The human will stands unshaken before the ill winds of theistic persecution. We are defiant! We shall not bend the knee to any tyrant!”