“And just as Joseph, when he was rejected by his brothers, saved the Egyptians first[218] and then his own family, so also Yeshua, when he was rejected by our fathers, turned his attention to the salvation of the Gentiles. As it is written, ‘I will call them “my people” who are not my people.’[219] And now, at last, the time has come for the salvation of Israel.”[220]
Chaim Levin folded his hands in thought. For a long moment no one spoke.
Finally Cohen added, “In truth, I can tell you nothing that you don’t already know. I can’t make your decision any easier. I can’t convince you further. Indeed, I suspect there is nothing of which to convince you. You know the truth. You have for some time.”
The high priest took a deep breath and let it out slowly, staring deeply into Cohen’s eyes as he considered what he had heard.
“The question is no longer one of finding the truth,” Cohen concluded, “but of finding the courage to face the truth you’ve found.”
Chaim Levin frowned and thought and nodded slowly, and then thought and nodded some more. Newberg and Benjamin Cohen waited silently.
“I am not familiar with your book,” Levin said at last. “What is it that the Christian prophets say must be done?”
“The answer,” Cohen said, shaking his head, “is not in the Christian prophets. Look instead to the words of Zechariah:
I will 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.”[221]
Thursday, September 3, 4 N.A.
Megiddo, Israel
The red light on the camera came on, indicating that the feed was live to the network.
“Armageddon,” the reporter began ominously. “A word that has struck terror in the hearts of Humankind for nearly two thousand years, a word that has become synonymous with the end of the world. This is Jane Reed, reporting from the ruins of the ancient city of Megiddo above the Valley of Jezreel in Israel. It’s from this mountain, on which this ancient city is built — the mountain of Megiddo or, in the Hebrew Har Mageddon — that the apocalyptic Armageddon takes its name.
[Photo Caption: Ruins of Megiddo, overlooking the Valley of Jezreel]
“Behind me, stretching out for more than thirty kilometers, is the Jezreel Valley.” The camera panned the vast expanse as the reporter continued. “It’s this commanding view of the valley and the two major trade routes[222] that passed through it, that made Megiddo a point of strategic importance in the ancient Middle East, and the scene of numerous battles between 3000 and 400 b.p.e.[223] It was here in 1460 b.p.e. that the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III led a successful preemptive strike against the princes of Megiddo and Kadesh to establish the western border of his empire at the Euphrates River.
“And it’s here that New Testament prophecy said the final battle was to be fought.[224]
“Ironically,” the reporter continued as the camera focused again on her, “the valley beneath the mountain of Megiddo, or Har Mageddon, does figure into what is touted as a final battle of sorts — a battle that even more ironically promises to bring to a conclusion both the religion that spawned the prophecy and even the religion that spawned the religion — but it’s unlikely that either this mountain or the valley below will see any fighting. Instead the site has been chosen as the staging ground for what is expected to be by far the largest mobilization of international military forces in all of history. Soon military units from more than 190 member countries of the United Nations will gather here.”
The video feed went to a taped shot of a UN Corps of Engineers division marking out portions of the valley as the reporter’s voice continued.
“Already, advanced logistical teams are surveying the valley, and by tomorrow night trucks will deliver mess tents and sanitary facilities for the ground troops that are expected to begin arriving within five days.
“Although actual numbers haven’t yet been made public,” she continued as the clip ended and the camera returned live to her, “it’s estimated that within two weeks this valley will shelter well in excess of six million troops. From here, some time in mid-month, the UN forces will move south past Jerusalem and will cross the border into Jordan and advance to the area around the KDP stronghold of Petra. There they’ll be joined by additional units coming from India, Korea, China, Thailand, Mongolia, Japan and other countries in the east. It is at Petra that the actual battle will be fought — and fought by what Secretary General Christopher Goodman has explained will be very unconventional methods.”
Thursday, September 10, 4 N.A.
Nine miles southwest of Babylon
The wheels of the small truck rolled on, bringing the two men closer with each rotation to a confrontation, which, if they were discovered, would end in their deaths. Ed Blocher looked in the mirror one more time at the mark on his forehead. It looked real, so real it was difficult to tell how much of the churning in his stomach was due to nervousness and how much was the result of being sickened by the sight of it on his face. He looked over at his co conspirator, Joel Felsberg, who was driving.
Joel seemed so confident. He had done this all before. His confidence was reassuring, but not enough to ease Blocher’s anxiety.
Even at this distance, they could see the great city ahead of them, its walls 120 feet high and 18 feet thick, a replica of what in the earliest accounts[225] had been considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and forming a perfect square fourteen miles on each side, which encompassed the city. Inside the walls was everything Blocher detested, everything that his faith told him was sinful and corrupt.
And yet, behind those same walls there were some who still served Yahweh — people who had come here seeking work before the mark became mandatory and who afterward were unable to leave. A few were hidden in attics or basements by relatives who, though they had taken the mark and sworn allegiance to Christopher, were still reluctant to turn in members of their families. Most, however, slept in alleys and tunnels, hiding in sewers and recesses and behind crags along the river. They lived on scraps and garbage, insects and rats. The police caught as many as they could, but some still remained. It was to these that Blocher and Felsberg hoped to get this shipment of food and medicine.
They approached the checkpoint right on schedule, a little before 6:00 P.M., when the guards would change. The sentinels they would encounter had been working all day in the heat and were ready to be relieved. They were less likely to perform a thorough check than the security personnel coming on duty a few minutes later.
Joel Felsberg pulled the truck to a stop at the checkpoint and rolled down his window to hand the guard his manifest. The guard gave a cursory glance, saw that the two men inside both bore the mark on their foreheads, and took the manifest. It would have taken only a quick scan of the marks to reveal that they were counterfeit, but that was an extra hassle and the guards used the scanner only if there was something suspicious. Their real responsibility was not to keep people or shipments out of the city, but to arrest anyone without the mark who tried to leave.
“I’ll need you to open up the back,” the sentry said as he verified the registration of the truck and manifest on his hand held link. It was a good system but not so foolproof that Joel Felsberg couldn’t get into the network and add a few numbers or manifest records that weren’t supposed to be there.
Joel got out and walked around to the back of the truck and opened it. The guard glanced in at the wooden crates of produce and climbed up on the bumper to have a better look. As long as he didn’t make them unload the truck, there wouldn’t be a problem. The medicine they carried, mostly tetracycline and metronidazole for dysentery, would give away their true purpose — for people in Babylon who had the mark and had taken the communion had no need for such medicines.
“Where’s this from?” the guard asked about the prod
uce, though its origin was clearly entered on the manifest and stenciled on the crates.
“Ash Shinafiyah,” Joel answered, referring to the area southwest of the city in which much of Babylon’s food was grown. Inside the truck’s cab, Ed Blocher tried to stay as calm as possible.
“And where’s it going?” the guard asked, though that too was on the manifest.
“The UN cafeteria,” Felsberg answered.
“You think they’ll miss a couple of these melons?” he asked as he picked one from the top of a crate.
“I suppose they won’t miss one or two,” he answered.
“Okay,” the guard said, taking a second melon. “It looks like everything’s in order.”
Ed Blocher heaved a sigh of relief even as he braced himself for what would greet him. The city itself was beautiful, well laid out for both vehicular and foot traffic. While it was in every way a modern city, in design the architecture of the buildings maintained an artistic theme of historical Babylon.
Rising fifty-nine stories at the city center stood the United Nations Secretariat building, by design the tallest structure in Babylon. Encircling the Secretariat and standing eighteen stories was the General Assembly building, joined to the taller structure by glass-enclosed corridors at several levels, and sharing a central courtyard. Radiating out still farther were the offices of the ten world regions, together covering a forty-two acre central complex of parks.
As the seat of government, the city had immediately drawn the offices of the major banks and multinational corporations,[226] and construction was evident everywhere. But with so many of its citizens gone to participate in the eradication of the Cult of Yahweh, traffic in the city was extremely light and construction was at a standstill.
Though the city structure was an entirely modern metropolis in a Babylonian motif, it was in every other way a truly multi-national city.[227] Restaurants and grocers of every variety served the palatal preferences and cuisines of the city’s multi-cultural citizens and visitors, and merchants sold an endless variety of goods and services.[228] Traditional attire of every region of the world was a common site, as was no attire at all for those who so chose. Bars and clubs catering to every conceivable sexual appetite were plentiful as well.[229] Signs announced the availability of men, women and children being sold or selling themselves to satisfy the most perverse whims of anyone able to pay.[230]
And, too, as the first city of the New Age,[231] artists and artisans provided public works inspired by the bright expectations of the future that Christopher promised. Giant murals on the sides of buildings depicted scenes ranging from Eve’s emancipation from Yahweh to vistas of the Theatan homeworld as described by individual spirit guides to their hosts. Sculptures filled the parks, as did park-goers, some engaged in activities from which Ed Blocher chose to avert his eyes. He shook his head both in awe of the beauty and wealth and in disgust at all that he knew to be unholy.
Stopping at a traffic light as they entered a large shopping plaza, Ed looked up at the massive live-net screens on the sides of several buildings, which displayed an uninterrupted blood fest of executions and torture from the involuntary life completion centers. Nearby, and wearing only shoes and the jewels around their necks and wrists and ankles and in their various piercings, a group of several women laughed and chatted as they watched the decapitations while they window shopped. It was no longer necessary to desensitize the masses to the deaths of the fundamentalists. The tolerance of most was imperturbable, the appetite of others, insatiable.[232]
Chapter 22
The Gathering
Monday, September 14, 4 N.A.
Northeast of Ar Ramādī, Iraq
On the banks of the great river Euphrates — the largest river in southwestern Asia even before it was dredged and widened as a part of the United Nations program to facilitate commerce in and out of Babylon — stood the advance units of the combined Asian forces en route to Petra in Jordan. Their journey would be greatly expedited, for neither they nor the tens of millions that followed would need boats or pontoon bridges to cross. A month and a half before their arrival, on Christopher’s orders, the river’s waters had been redirected to flow into the Mileh Tharthar, sixty miles northwest of Baghdad. Before them lay only dry river bed, solid enough to easily support the weight of their trucks and armored personnel carriers.
Wednesday, September 16, 4 N.A.
Bojnurd, Iran
The first light of dawn glistened above the eastern horizon and at once the branches of the trees along the Elburz Mountain range burst into life as countless thousands of birds awoke and took wing, flying toward the southwest.
Thursday, September 17, 4 N.A.
Babylon
The skies above Babylon were clear and blue, and there was every indication that this would be a beautiful autumn day. Then without explanation or warning, the sky began to rumble. There were no rain clouds. No aircraft flew overhead. There was only the rumbling.
And then it stopped.
For most it was just a curious phenomenon.
But to some, perhaps a few hundred or more, it had not been a rumbling at all, but a warning.[233]
Friday, September 18, 4 N.A.
Megiddo, Israel
As the camera looked down upon a crowd that seemed beyond number, a woman’s voice cryptically hinted at an explanation: “Two weeks ago no one could have conceived what has taken place here.” The camera continued to pan the immense assemblage and then faded to a female reporter standing on a natural rise high above the mass. “This is Jane Reed, reporting from atop the mountain of Megiddo, looking out over the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel. Two months ago,” she said, playing on the contrast to her opening sentence, “as the world reeled from the effects of the plagues of blood and heat and darkness, few gave Christopher Goodman one chance in ten of even lasting out the year as secretary general. Then came his dramatic speech after the darkness, in which he did four things: He made clear that as bad as things were, there was no going back; He promised there would be no more plagues; He called on world leaders to join him in a decisive battle against the KDP and Yahweh; And finally, he offered three signs by which the world would know that all that he had promised about the New Age was true.
[Photo Caption: Valley of Jezreel from Mt. Carmel]
“For anyone who has been living in a cave or on some other planet,” she said facetiously, “the first of those three signs occurred when, by cursing Yahweh, Humankind symbolically threw off the chains of spiritual bondage, refusing to submit to Yahweh’s domination, and thus ending the plague of lesions. The second sign was health and youth, a further effect of rejecting Yahweh’s oppression. And perhaps the most dramatic sign of all, the third, was permanent telekinetic abilities. These abilities, which the secretary-general describes as evidence of Humankind’s accelerated evolutionary process and a foreshadowing of things to come, figure prominently into the upcoming confrontation. It is finally possible to confront the KDP on a level playing field.
“Christopher’s strategy for the upcoming battle has been known from the beginning: to march on Petra with as large a force as possible and, using the combined telekinetic energy of those gathered, bring down the walls of Petra, thus crushing the powers that seek to re-enslave Humankind. Conventional means of attack have been rejected for three reasons: first, such weapons would harm the environment — something that Christopher has vowed not to do; second, conventional weapons would likely prove futile against the KDP’s abilities; and finally, Christopher has said that as Humankind embarks upon its evolutionary journey, we must turn from our reliance upon the weapons of the past and learn instead to use the tools of the future.
“In a few moments, Secretary General Goodman will address those gathered here and give the word for this great mass of humanity to begin its journey to Petra.
“There is no way to get an accurate count. There are simply too many. Millions — fifty million — perhaps even twice that. Among them are
military units representing 198 nations, but the military make up only a small minority. Surprisingly, by far the largest contingent are civilians, ordinary citizens. They have come here from everywhere, by the busload, by the truckload, by plane, in cars, on motorcycles, in recreational vehicles; from all over Europe, from throughout the African continent, from the Far East and India, from Babylon, from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, from Iceland, from the Americas, from Australia and New Zealand. It’s safe to say there’s not a country in the world that doesn’t have a contingent of at least a few thousand. And tens of thousands more are arriving here every hour.
“All have come to play a part, to have a role in this historic undertaking. Many, perhaps most, have come here to seek justice for their friends and family who suffered and died in the plagues, as well as for their own suffering. All have come to put an end to the KDP’s reign of terror before they can strike again. An air of celebration fills the valley as they look forward to what most believe is certain victory.
“This site was chosen for its terrain and for its proximity to sources of food and water in order to simplify the logistics of supporting such a large number of participants, but moving a multitude of this size is no easy matter. The 175-mile trek to Petra will be led by the military, and the first contingent is expected to reach Petra sometime tomorrow afternoon. Their arrival is timed to coincide with the arrival of units from the east, comprising a force every bit as large as, if not larger than, the one gathered here.
“Because of the sheer number involved, it’s expected to be late Sunday evening before everyone has arrived.
The Christ Clone Trilogy - Book Three: ACTS OF GOD (Revised & Expanded) Page 33
