16 July
Braintree, Mass. (one of my favorite place names –I used to hear it pretty often on Boston TV growing up, but I never grasped
just how odd a name it is because locals tend to pronounce it “BRAINT’ry,” as close to one syllable as the word can be)



Aubray beeped me just after my alarm went off at 5:35 AM this morning.  That’s 2:35 her time if you’re keeping score.  She
slept from 5:30 last night until about 1 AM, which apparently is typical for her now.  Something very mysterious is going on
inside her, and it has all her doctors baffled.  This too is typical, for those who don’t know Aubray.  What seemed at first to be
a simple bladder infection is actually something else, but no one can tell her what.  The kidneys are an issue for sure though, and
we’ll find out what has to happen there after she sees the specialist.  We talked for an hour and a half, about personal stuff, my
readings in The Last Temptation, the progress of P&K and Chronicles, and a lot more about what we’ve learned about ourselves
through our separation.  People at ACF still think we need counseling, which makes us laugh.  I swear they are taking it much
harder than we are.

What we have now is so much greater than what we had before, and this conversation helped me understand that better than
ever.  Something is definitely Resting In Peace now, something that was haunting us for most of our marriage.  Now I’m
starting to see that it wasn’t the marriage itself that needed to die; it was this Something Else.  The question we’ll have to answer
over time –I guess a two-part question—is, What is this Something Else? and Could we ever live together without it?  I don’t
know either answer yet.  God will be faithful to reveal them, in time.
*                 *             *             *

Now let’s have a little fun with gospel tracts  (I think this is my substitute for pornography, reading gospel tracts).  This one is
called “The END of the WORLD.”  I picked it up last night at the Sturbridge Isle Truck Stop; it’s by a fella named Oliver B.
Greene from The Gospel Hour, based in Greenville, S.C.  I’ll give you some select passages from this masterpiece:



The Bible is as up-to-date as the front page of tomorrow’s newspaper!”  (Aw hell, never mind.)


(I actually agree with the last statement.  Only thing is, tomorrow’s newspaper is never printed; it’s always today's.  For as Janis
Joplin once told us, “Tomorrow never happens.  It’s all the same %#@*! day, man.”  I tend to believe her, even though she died
young, just like Jesus.

And I don’t even have qualms with his main premise.  The prophets of the Bible could easily have foreseen future cataclysmic
events.  All of time is in the present, and anyone who is concentrating in the right way can get glimpses of things to come, or is
subject to random glimpses.  So I have no problem accepting visions of mushrooms clouds [he spends a good deal of space
later talking about Hiroshima], or the collision of a meteor or wayward asteroid, or any of the God-ordained events that are likely
to happen someday and could resemble the imagery described in the Bible

No, it’s some of the superfluous observations that men have made and attached to these visions that strike me as figurative,
imaginative and fantastic.  Such as: )

“We will see what the Bible tells us about the “END OF THE WORLD.”  Bear in mind the fact that the BIBLE has
stood through the centuries –and—
THE BIBLE WILL BE STANDING WHEN ITS CRITICS ARE BURNING IN HELL!
(Did he just compare the Bible to a post-nuclear cockroach?  Or am I being too literal?

Then, under the “What Lies Ahead” section: )

Some FRIGHTENING THINGS are coming to pass here on this earth before God sets it on FIRE!

Many people have the idea that one day the world will ‘come to an END’—everything will burn up, and that will be
known as “the end of the world.”  But this is not true according to the Scriptures.

THE NEXT WORLD HEADLINES

(I’ll just pick out some highlights here.)

‘THE LORD HIMSELF shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of
God: and the DEAD IN CHRIST shall rise first.  Then we which are ALIVE and remain shall be CAUGHT UP together
with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the AIR; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.’ (I Thessalonians 4:16,
17)

(This is the scriptural basis for the doctrine of the “rapture,” one of Biblical Christianity’s most sacred cows and the
philosophical foundation of that enormously popular literary series of recent years, “Left Behind.”  Theories abound regarding
whom are the “dead in Christ,” for not all scriptural evidence points to the evangelicals’ pet notion that they are merely born-
agains who died physically before the rapture.  A good friend who frequents the Upper Room coffee house but doesn’t attend
ACF (mainstream American churches are in bed with Satan, he says) believes the dead in Christ are those who were not born-
again, and therefore were given to die once in their sins, but who had lived their lives according to godly principles and sought
righteousness on any terms, Christians or not, and therefore, one would assume, are capable of recognizing God and of learning
through death what they did not learn in life.  [Born-again Christians, or those who are alive in Christ, it is said elsewhere, never
died in the first place, so it makes no sense in Biblian terms to say born-agains of the past constitute the dead in Christ.]   We’ve
talked about this at great lengths; he is well-versed in the Bible and will point out a wealth of evidence for this belief.  He also
believes America is the modern equivalent of Babylon, which basically means the seat of evil.  He’s a very interesting guy.

I don’t think Oliver B. Greene would like him at all.)

THEN
ALL HELL WILL BREAK
OUT ON EARTH!

As long as we remain on
earth we will have trials,
heartaches and tribulations
–but—
THE GREAT TRIBULATION
will not begin until all of God’s people are out of this world, safe with Jesus in the air….

JESUS DESCRIBES THAT GREAT EVENT:

‘I TELL YOU, in that night there shall be two men in one bed;
THE ONE SHALL BE TAKEN, and THE OTHER SHALL BE LEFT.
Two women shall be grinding together;
THE ONE SHALL BE TAKEN, and THE OTHER LEFT.
Two men shall be in the field;
THE ONE SHALL BE TAKEN, and THE OTHER LEFT.’
(Luke 17:34-36)

This has not yet happened –but Jesus said it would happen, AND IT WILL!

(If one is not trapped in the prison of taking all words literally instead of discerning their intended spirit, one might see the
possibility that Jesus –if these were indeed his words—was talking about the separation within an individual of the dual sides of
his nature, the spiritual and the physical, saying in essence that the spirit would be lifted from the body.  The idea of the spiritual
(wo)man and physical (wo)man dwelling in one flesh as if two different people is all over the Christian Bible.  But now, Jesus
never used figurative language in His teachings, right?)

There will be Christian wives sleeping with unsaved husbands.
THE WIFE WILL GO TO BE WITH JESUS.        
The husband will be left –to go through hell on earth and then spend eternity in hell!

There will be babies and innocent little children sleeping with unsaved parents.
THE LITTLE ONES WILL GO TO BE WITH JESUS.
The unsaved parents will be left to go through hell on earth –and then spend eternity in hell!

YES.  IT WILL HAPPEN just like JESUS TELLS IT in the Word of God.  It does not matter what preachers or skeptics
think about it.  ‘Let God be true, but every man a liar.’  (Romans 3:4)  (Written by Paul, a man.)

(More of the Jesus As Homewrecker motif I find so odd.)

THEN
After all born-again children of God are taken out of the world, God will literally turn this EARTH over to
THE DEVIL
and THIS EARTH will become A LITERAL HELL…the SUFFERING will be so terrible, some people will even beg to
DIE –but ‘death shall FLEE FROM THEM.’  (Revelations 9:6)…

When the ‘Son of Perdition’ comes, he will perform miracles and work wonders.  He will deceive millions of people on
earth and they will worship him as God.
‘And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, THAT THEY ALL MIGHT BE
DAMNED who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”  (II Thessalonians 2:11-12)

There may be those who say, ‘I will be saved immediately, if I am here on earth when this terrible time begins.’

NO!  You WILL NOT be saved!  All who have heard “THE TRUTH” –God’s Word that you are hearing as you read
this message—will be sent “strong delusion,” they will believe the devil, and they
WILL BE DAMNED!!

(Oh that’s rich, now his interpretation of God’s Word is authentic enough to condemn the reader to hell if he fails to believe it.  
I am obviously suffering from my “strong delusion” already.)

All who have had (and rejected) the opportunity to be saved before Jesus comes for His own, will NOT be saved
during the Great Tribulation.

(There seems to be wide disagreement about this point too.  From my very limited exposure to the “Left Behind” series, I know
that plenty of people are saved after the rapture in the books, in fact the post-rapture period seemed to be a time of great spiritual
reflection for many characters.  Mr. Greene does not provide any scriptural references for this crucial assertion of his, leaving
one to wonder if he wants it to happen like this, rather than having discerned it from his Biblical studies.)

After the children of God are taken out of the world, the ‘SON OF PERDITION’ –also known as the
ANTICHRIST
will appear.  Personally, I believe he will make his appearance on television (why not? it works for televangelists)  and
he will be seen around the world as he pulls
FIRE DOWN FROM HEAVEN IN THE SIGHT OF MEN…

This will be the most powerful person to walk on this earth since Jesus dwelt among men almost 2,000 years ago.  
He will perform many miracles, and the masses of mankind will worship him as God.  For a brief period there will be a
COUNTERFEIT PEACE.  The world is crying for peace today, but there can be no LASTING PEACE until Jesus
comes and reigns from the throne of David.

There will be a season of peace and prosperity under the rule of Antichrist –BUT—

‘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.’  (I Thessalonians 5:3)…

(That’s right, try as they will, they will never escape the clutches of the evil, um, I mean, holy, forgiving, compassionate, loving
God, AH-HAHAHAHA!!!)

ICE – FIRE – BLOOD

When God begins to pour out His wrath upon the earth, there will be –‘VOICES…THUNDERINGS…LIGHTNINGS,
and AN EARTHQUAKE.’  From the sky will fall –‘HAIL and FIRE mingled with BLOOD.’  Then will be—‘As it were a
GREAT MOUNTAIN BURNING WITH FIRE…cast into the sea’—and the third part of the sea will become BLOOD!  
That sounds like a giant hydrogen bomb, does it not?…

(To me it sounds more like a meteor collision.  Fact is, if or when this does happen, astronomers will know it is coming well in
advance, and human nature being as it is, things will get very crazy.  I imagine some fools will try to shoot missiles at it too.  But
this is all fruitless conjecture.)

‘A great STAR from heaven, BURNING AS IT WERE A LAMP, will fall upon the third part of the rivers and the
fountains of waters, making them bitter, and many will die of the waters.’ (Revelation 8:5-11)

Hell Uncapped
John ‘saw a STAR fall from heaven unto the earth: and to HIM was given the KEY OF THE BOTTOMLESS PIT  
(Revelation 9:1).  The one with the key opened the bottomless pit, ‘and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the
SMOKE OF A GREAT FURNACE –AND THE SUN AND AIR WERE DARKENED BY REASON OF THE SMOKE of the
pit.

‘And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth (this is my favorite part) (Yes, right here on THIS EARTH
where you and I live).  And unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the EARTH have power.

‘And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any
tree –(locusts live on grass, leaves and other vegetation)—but only those men which have not the seal of God in
their foreheads.  

(Remember the illustration from Part One about how your parking is validated but you still need the stamp?  I guess you can
take that literally.  He did sort of lose me on this part –seal of God?  I thought all we had left were the heathen and rabble
anyway.  Who among the “left behind” are going to be blessed with God’s seal?  But anyway…)

‘And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented FIVE MONTHS…

(Five months eh?  Not four, not six, FIVE.  There’s gotta be a joke in there somewhere, but I can’t think of it now.)

These DEMON LOCUSTS have shapes like unto horses, faces as the faces of men, hair as the hair of women, teeth
as the teeth of lions, tails like unto scorpions, stings in their tails –and they have power to hurt men five months.  
(Revelations 9: 7-10)

(I’m beginning to think John was trying to sleep off a few bottles of cheap Greek wine when he had this vision.)

Can you imagine waking up some morning, looking out the window, and seeing your backyard filled with HIDEOUS
CREATURES like these?

(Yes: Ocean City, Maryland, summers of ’91 and ’92, almost every day.  Too much Sam Adams.  That’s why I can relate to
poor old John.)

THERE WILL BE PEOPLE ON EARTH WHO WILL DO JUST THAT!  WILL YOU?

AND IN THOSE DAYS
SHALL MEN SEEK DEATH, and shall not find it; and SHALL DESIRE TO DIE, and death shall flee from them.”  
(Revelation 9:1-6)

DEAR FRIEND
Can you imagine being in such pain that you long to die, you beg for death to come, you try to commit suicide, only
to see
DEATH RUN FROM YOU?
Can you imagine taking a razor and pulling it across your throat in an attempt to take your life –and
THE RAZOR JUST WILL NOT CUT?
Can you imagine taking a gun, placing the barrel of the gun to your head and pulling the trigger—
BUT NOTHING HAPPENS?
Men will leap from tall buildings, jump into the path of locomotives, trucks, automobiles—
BUT THEY CANNOT DIE!

(My God, what anger!  Can’t you feel how much pleasure he’s getting in writing this stuff?  What has driven this man to feel
such sadistic rage toward his brothers and sisters?  I mean, it’s funny and all, and I wouldn’t have transcribed it if I didn’t feel it
were something we could laugh at, but there is genuine human pain and grief in these writings.  It isn’t enough for Oliver B.
Greene to believe that Christ’s love will bring redemption and reform to all humanity; he wants to know that those he doesn’t
like will suffer in the most gruesome ways imaginable!  What is more sad and worldly than that?  Do you see this too?  Am I
right?)

Oh, yes!  IT WILL HAPPEN, whether you believe it or not.  What man believes cannot change God’s Word –and if
you refuse to believe God’s Word (and by this he means the Christian Bible) and be saved, YOU MAY BE ONE OF
THOSE who will be ALIVE when these things come to pass!”



OK, OK, that’s enough.  You heard the man: refuse to believe God’s Word, and you will suffer all these things.  In other words,
“Bow down before this Book, infidel, or you will taste the metal of my sword.”  Christian jihad.  The mentality of the Crusades
is alive and well in the Western Orthodox Church.

Believe it or not, it gets worse in the next few pages, but I think Mr. Greene has had enough ridicule for one day.  I have really
come to feel compassion for him.  We can laugh at his ideas or ignore him, but he has to live with this mentality every day.  And
he isn’t likely to grow out of it, he isn’t likely to change, because his concept of God –the agent of change—is completely
intertwined with these ideas.  The Bible has a chokehold on his spirit.

I do believe, of course, that no one is beyond redemption.  At any moment Christ could shake him awake with an entirely new
vision, and he could see that these people he’s condemned to hell are the very ones that Christ commanded him to love
as thyself, and that all these plagues and torments that he wishes upon them, he is heaping upon himself.

But read his words again: He isn’t interested in Christ.  The Bible is his master.  His Jesus is God’s only begotten Hitman, and He’
s coming back to do the ultimate job on the infidels, and look here son, the Bible proves it!  And “the Word of God is
SCIENTIFICALLY CORRECT!”

Yeah, well, back in Jesus’ time it was scientifically correct that the world was flat and stationary, and the sun and stars circled
around it to satisfy our needs.  But eventually we grow up and realize the universe doesn’t revolve around us, and God still
loves each one of us as if we were the only begotten child, whether we reciprocate or not, and because we have that, we
don’t need any other promises.  None of our “visions” have to be 100% “scientifically correct,” and we don’t have to know
the future to be prepared to accept it when it becomes the present.  Those who do are actually suffering a dearth of spirit in their
lives, and they need our compassion.

(Remind me: one of these days I’m going to devote a Chronicle to an essay on faith, and how belief in certain, predetermined
outcomes is actually the opposite of faith, or at least a very weak substitute.)

So let us not lock Oliver B. Greene in the pillory or hang him from a cross, for he surely suffers from the same thing that afflicts
us all.  And anyway, as you are about to read –perhaps in a surprising context—in the words of that great blasphemer of God,
Nikos Kazantzakis, spoken through his fictional character Jesus of Nazareth, “The crucifier suffers more than the crucified.”

It is in the spirit that makes sense of this line that I offer another passage from The Last Temptation of Christ.  The gist of the
plot to this point is that Jesus, an ordinary but spiritually tortured Jew, is reviled among his people because he builds crosses
upon which the Romans crucify Jewish insurgents and political prisoners.  His mother Mary keeps repeating her desire that he
be a nice Jewish boy and get married and give her grandchildren, and this torments him because he knows he has direct orders
from God to do something else but he knows not what.  After a particularly harsh crucifixion of a local revolutionary that many
thought might be the Messiah, Jesus flees Nazareth and goes to a monastery in the desert.  Waiting for him there is Judas
Iscariot, a colossal man who belongs to the underground network of Zealots that terrorizes and kills Jewish “traitors,” while
trying to organize military resistance to Roman occupation.  Judas is under orders to kill Jesus when he finds him.  This scene
depicts their confrontation:


“The son of Mary did not move.  Darkness…At first he distinguished nothing, but little by little half-transparent
whitewashed walls began ever so imperceptibly to appear; a jug glittered in a niche along the wall; and in the corner,
riveted upon him, were two sparkling eyes.

He groped his way slowly forward, his arms stretched before him.  His foot stumbled on the unfolded mat, and he
stopped.  The two eyes shifted, watching him.

“Good evening, friend,” the son of Mary greeted his companion, but no one replied.

Hunched up into a ball, his chin against his knees, his heavy gasping breaths reverberating throughout the cell,
Judas leaned against the wall and watched him.  Come…come…come…he murmured within himself, the knife
squeezed in his fist against his breast. Come…come…come… he murmured, watching the son of Mary approach…

His mind went back to the village where he was born, Kerioth, in faraway Idumea.  He remembered that this was
exactly how his uncle the exorcist had lured the jackals, rabbits and partridge he wanted to kill.  He used to lie down
on the ground, pin his burning eyes on the game and produce a hiss full of longing, entreaty and command:
come…come…come.  The animal would immediately grow dizzy and start to creep, head bowed and out of breath,
toward the hissing mouth.

Suddenly Judas began to hiss –softly at first and with much tenderness, but all at once the sound grew stronger,
became fierce and menacing, and the son of Mary, who had lain down to sleep, jumped up in terror.  Who was this
next to him?  Who was hissing?  He felt the odor of an incensed beast in the air, and understood.

“Judas, my brother, is that you?” he asked quietly.

“Crucifier!” growled the other, angrily stamping his heel on the ground.

“Judas, my brother,” the youth repeated, “the crucifier suffers more than the crucified.”

The redbeard lashed out and twirled his whole body around so it faced the son of Mary.

“I swore to my brothers the Zealots and to the mother of the crucified that I would kill you.  Welcome, cross-maker.  I
hissed, and you came.”

He jumped to his feet, bolted the door and then returned to the corner and rolled himself up again into a ball, with
his face turned toward Jesus.

“Did you hear what I said?  Don’t start your blubbering.  Get ready!”

“I am ready.”

“No shouting now!  Quick!  I want to get away while it’s still dark.”

“I’m delighted to see you Judas, my brother.  I’m ready.  It wasn’t you who hissed; it was God –and I came.  His
abounding grace arranged everything perfectly.  You came just at the right moment, Judas, my brother.  Tonight my
heart was unburdened, purified: I can present myself now before God.  I have grown tired of wrestling with him,
grown tired of living.  I offer you my neck, Judas –I am ready.”

The blacksmith groaned and knit his brows.  He did not like, did not like at all –indeed, it disgusted him to touch a
neck which was offered undefended, like a lamb’s.  What he wanted was resistance, body-to-body grappling, and
the kill to come at the very end as was appropriate for real men, after the blood had become heated: a just reward
for the struggle…But the blacksmith did not speak.  He chewed his moustache in a frenzy; his boiling blood
circulated by fits and starts, rose to his head and fired his brain a bright red, rushed down again leaving it pale, then
remounted.

“Why do you build crosses?” he thundered finally.

The young man lowered his head.  That was his secret –how could he reveal it?  How could the blacksmith give
credence to the dreams which God sent him, or to the voices he heard when he was all alone, or the talons which
nailed themselves into the top of his head and wanted to lift him to heaven?  And he resisted and did not want to go
–how could Judas understand that?  He clutched sin, desperately, as a means of keeping himself on the earth.

“I cannot explain it to you, Judas, my brother.  Forgive me,” he said contritely, “but I cannot.”

The blacksmith shifted his position so that he could better distinguish the youth’s face in the darkness.  He looked at
it avidly, then slowly drew back and leaned once again against the wall.  What kind of person is this? he asked
himself.  I can’t understand.  I wonder if it’s the devil who’s guiding him –or God?  In either case, damn him! he leads
him with a sure hand.  He doesn’t resist, and that is the greatest resistance.  I can’t slaughter lambs; men, yes, but
not lambs.

“You’re a coward, you miserable wretch!” he burst out.  “Ooo –why don’t you go to hell!  You’re slapped on one
cheek and what do you do, you right away turn the other.  You see a knife, and right away you stick out your neck.  
A man can’t touch you without feeling disgusted.”

“God can,” the son of Mary murmured tranquilly.

The blacksmith twisted the knife in his fist, unable to make up his mind.  For an instant he imagined he saw a halo of
light trembling in the darkness over the youth’s bowed head.  Terror came over him, and the joints of his hands went
slack.

“I may be thickheaded,” he said to the son of Mary, “but speak –I’ll understand.  Who are you?  What do you want?  
Where do you come from?  What are these tales that surround you on every side: a flowering staff, a lightning flash,
the fainting spells which seize you while you walk, the voices you’re said to hear in the darkness?  Tell me, what is
your secret?”

“Pity, Judas, my brother.”

“For whom?  Whom do you pity?  Is it yourself, your own wretchedness and poverty?  Or perhaps you feel sorry for
Israel?  Well, speak!  Is it for Israel?  That’s what I want to hear you say, do you hear?  That and nothing else.  Are
you devoured by Israel’s suffering?”

“By man’s, Judas, my brother.”

“Forget about ‘man.’  The Greeks who slaughtered us for so many years, curse them! –they’re men.  The Romans
are men, and they’re still slaughtering us and soiling the Temple and our God.  Why care about them?  It’s Israel
you should keep your sights on, and if you feel pity, it should be pity for Israel.  All the others can go to the devil!”

“But I feel pity for the jackals, Judas, my brother, and for the sparrows, and the grass.”

“Ha! Ha!” jeered the redbeard.  “And for the ants?”

“Yes, for the ants too.  Everything is God’s.  When I bend over the ant, inside his black, shiny eye I see the face of
God.”

“And if you bend over my face, son of the Carpenter?”

“There too, very deep down, I see the face of God.”

“And you don’t fear death?”

“Why should I, Judas, my brother?  Death is not a door which closes; it is a door which opens.  It opens, and you
enter.”

“Enter where?”

“The bosom of God.”

Judas sighed with vexation.  This fellow just can’t be caught, he reflected; he can’t be caught, because he has no
fear of death…Propping his chin on his palm, he looked at Jesus and strained to come to a decision.

“If I don’t kill you,:” he said finally, “what do you plan to do?”

“I don’t know.  Whatever God decides…I should like to get up and speak to men.”

“To tell them what?”

“How do you expect me to know, Judas, my brother?” asked the youth.  “I’ll open my mouth, and God will do the
talking.”

The halo of light around the youth’s head grew brighter; his sad, wasted face flashed like lightning and his large, jet-
black eyes seduced Judas with their unutterable sweetness.  The redbeard felt troubled and lowered his eyes….

“What are you waiting for, Judas, my brother?” asked the youth.  “Or perhaps God did not send you to kill me;
perhaps he wills something else, something unknown even to you, and you look at me and struggle to divine what it
is.  I am ready to be killed, and I am also ready to live.  Decide.”

“Don’t be in a rush,” the other answered dejectedly.  “ A fellow can’t even talk to you without getting himself in hot
water.  I ask you one thing and you answer another; I can’t pin you down.  My heart and mind were more certain
before I saw you and listened to you than they are now.  Leave me alone.  Turn you head the other way and go to
sleep.  I want to be alone so that I can digest all this and see what I’m going to do.”

This said, he turned toward the wall, grumbling.  

The son of Mary lay down on his mat and tranquilly crossed his hands.  Whatever God wants, that is what will
happen, he reflected, and closed his eyes with confidence…

High above, the sky light of the cell had filled with stars.  The son of Mary opened his eyes and was happy to see
them.  They moved slowly, disappeared; others arose.  The hours went by.  

Judas twisted and turned, still cross-legged on his mat.  Now and then he got up, gasping and murmuring, and went
as far as the door, only to return again.  The son of Mary watched him with half-closed eyes and waited.  The hours
passed by.

A camel in the stable adjacent to them neighed with fear; she must have seen a wolf or lion in her sleep.  Immense
stars mounted ferociously from the east, ordered like an army.

Suddenly a cock crowed in the still-deep darkness.  Judas jumped up.  With one stride he was at the door.  He
opened it violently, closed it behind him.  His bare feet could be heard stamping heavily over the flagstones.

And then, the son of Mary turned and saw his faithful fellow voyager.  She was in the corner, erect and vigilant in the
darkness.  

“Forgive me, my sister,” he said to her.  “The hour has not yet come.”
pgs 154-159


Forgive me, my brothers and sisters, for being a little dogmatic here, but this is the Jesus I believe in; this is the Jesus I want to
follow; this is the man I believe walked the earth 2,000 years ago, not one who said, “This is how it’s going to happen, and you
must believe me for I am the Son of God,” but one who said, “Whatever God wants, this is what will happen.”  This is how
Jesus wins the hearts of humankind even today, not through threats of retribution or damnation, but through infinite
compassion.  He didn’t say to Judas, “Kill me if you want, but you will BURN IN HELL FOR ETERNITY if you do.”  He
said, “I see the face of God in you, Judas, my brother.”

This is the Christ, the one I worship, the one who lives in my heart and the hearts of all people, the one to whom I trust my
spirit, my soul, my life, the one into whom I wish to disappear when I no longer have a need for myself.  If that makes me a
blasphemer to the Oliver B. Greenes of the world –and there is plenty in the Bible I can point out to support my belief, just as
there is plenty he points out to support his—so be it.  If the choice is between Biblically-sanctioned anger and compassionate
blasphemy, I’ll take the latter every time.  – HC  Dobson, N.C.

©2004 by Hermit Crab
a Fish Out Of Water production

The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis Copyright 1960 by Simon & Schuster Inc. New York, NY


Next --Chapter 8