2013: Beyond Armageddon (48 page)

He turned to Zeke. “There is one thing I want you to see before you go. Come.” He scooped Zeke into the palm of a hand. With the other he picked up Satan. “You need to see this, too.” He struggled to no avail, letting loose a torrent of profanity and threats. The Creator stifled it by enlarging his hand until it covered him completely. The intensity of the Devil’s hatred made his fist glow red, but there was no evidence of pain.

The Creator levitated a few feet off the ground and glided toward the unspoken destination. Satan’s army, confused, receded below them. A moment later, without Zeke even realizing they had moved, they were there. The Being that Zeke still thought of as God set him down, then went to the rock wall of this same nethermost chamber that Satan had brought him to earlier.

Gently removing the noose from around the neck of Judas, He brought the former apostle up close to his face.

“You are forgiven,” He said. “Your time down here is over. It is time for you to rejoin the other eleven.”

“Thank you!” cried Judas. “Thank you, dear Lord!” His weeping began to subside, until the tears stopped altogether.

The Creator smoothed away the deeply etched expression of shame. For the first time in two thousand years, Judas felt joy. His blackened soul now glowed. The Creator released it, and it floated upward and disappeared.

Continuing to record, Zeke panned to the fist that still held Satan. The red glow was almost gone.

The Creator smiled at Zeke as he picked him up. They became airborne, and a moment later Zeke was set down in the main chamber next to his backpack.

“This is my lesson to you, Son of man. Go forth and continue to protect those who cannot protect themselves. But always make sure to include the teaching of forgiveness. For there can be no hope without it. Grudges the world over must give way under the power of the love that I first placed in all your hearts.”

Receiving instruction directly from God made Zeke want to obey without question, but his own attempt at forgiveness had led to the atrocities of Michael Price. “I want to believe in forgiveness, but…I have doubts. Severe doubts.”

“I know. I heard your prayer in the Shrine.”

“I’m sorry if I was disrespectful.”

“After what had just happened to your family, I understood.”

“Now that we are face to face, I’d like to continue that discussion.”

“I know forgiveness is not easy. Go ahead.”

“I’m sure you know the biggest problem I have with the idea of forgiveness.”

“Michael Price and Randy Stokes.”

“I tried to forgive Price, and look what it got us. Randy Stokes I haven’t even thought about forgiving. No disrespect, but it just took you two thousand years to forgive Judas.”

“Contrary to some teachings, I am not infallible. You’ll see in the Bible that I sometimes failed to practice what I preached. I have made mistakes. Not forgiving Judas earlier is one. What has been done cannot be undone, but it can be stopped from happening again. That is why I am here.”

He spread his arms to indicate all of Hell. “To forgive them all. To close this place, and start a world without Hell. To create the loving race that should have existed all along.”

“That sounds wonderful,” Zeke said, “and I’ll do what I can to help. But, standing here now, I cannot tell you that I forgive Michael Price. Even less, his buddy Randy Stokes, who murdered my family and a bunch of other innocent people. I do not forgive them. I do not.”

“Apparently my forgiveness of Judas was not enough to persuade you. Let me give you another example.” He opened his fist and Satan tumbled out.

“My Randy Stokes. The killer of my family. My children. Millions of them.”

The Creator hugged Satan. His Archenemy struggled mightily to break free, but as the divine light enshrouded him, he became still. His host of demons, which had disappeared into the shadows, began warily re-emerging to see what was going on.

Through the viewfinder Zeke watched Satan becoming Lucifer again. He zoomed in on his face, capturing the transformation, waiting eagerly for the moment when the Lucifer that God had once loved would be fully returned.

But the moment never came. The Godlight encasing Satan became the familiar entity of light that was Lucifer, but when his Creator released him from the embrace, a trace of his Satanic pride and contempt still lingered.

The Creator saw it and spoke to him.

“You want to live in grace again, my son, but loathing so deeply ingrained will take a little longer to purge.” He turned to Zeke. “Perhaps you can set an example, Ezekiel.”

He extended his arms far out over the sea of fire and plucked two damned souls from the flaming swells. Retracting his arms, he set the burning entities down in front of Zeke.

Michael Price and Randy Stokes.

“Make your peace with this man,” He commanded them.

They looked at Lucifer, as if for guidance. He turned away, abandoning them.

They looked back at Zeke. Flames flickered around them like a burning shroud. The fire had burned away the sneering arrogance, leaving only naked shame.

Michael Price’s voice came from some hollow, soulless place. “We were wrong, Zeke. To do what we did. We put our faith in this coward, who goads you into doing what he himself will not do, and then repays you for your loyalty like this.”

“Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?” Zeke said. “You both deserve this. Maybe Satan pushed you into it, but you opened the door and invited him in. You were his willing accomplices. More than willing. You were his devoted followers.”

“We were. And we’re paying for it.”

“As well you should. So what do you want now?”

“To say we’re sorry.”

“Truly sorry,” Stokes added, avoiding eye contact.

“Truly sorry,”
Zeke said. “Two words. That’s all you have for me. My parents and my sister are lying in their graves, and two words are supposed to make everything all better? No. You’ve got to do better than ‘Oops, I made a little mistake.’”

Zeke looked at their bowed heads and felt nothing but contempt. Two pathetic, feeble-minded losers, who had all but destroyed him and everything he loved.

He looked up to the face of God.

“The wounds are still too fresh. I cannot forgive them now. Maybe ever.”

The Creator stared and waited.

“I have an idea,” Zeke said. “A suggestion.”

“I am listening.”

“Forgive me for being human, but they have not suffered nearly enough. A moment ago you said it will take more time to completely purge Lucifer of sin. At the same time, you’re ready to redeem all these souls and close down Hell. That’s fine, I’m all for it. But how about this: can we keep Purgatory open for a while? A place for the worst to atone for their sins, rather than get off scot free?”

The Creator shook his head.

“Purgatory is another of your man-made creations we must get past. There is no Purgatory. Only this. And this will soon be gone.”

“But if there are no consequences for wrongdoing, then people will do whatever they want, without worrying that it might cost them after death. Left to our own devices—free will—you’ve already pointed out how susceptible we are to temptation.”

“Thoughts of Hell never stopped the wrongdoers. Their punishment will be that which you mete out on Earth. If you bring about the world as it should be, there will be no need for punishment. In your prayer to me at the Shrine, you said, ‘No parables, Lord, no cryptograms we spend the next two thousand years slaughtering each other over, trying to figure out what they mean—who’s Chosen, who’s not. You need to break it down real simple for us. We’re not that smart.’”

“You
were
listening. And you have a good memory.”

“Photographic. Flawless. And watching thousands of years of your bottomless capacity for inflicting pain on one another has forced me to return. This is the second chance for the human race, Ezekiel. There will not be another.”

Zeke wanted to acknowledge the gravity of the moment, but realized anything he said would not only be feeble, but something He already knew. So he remained silent, his gaze shifting back and forth from the Creator of the Universe to his miniature image on the LCD screen.

“You were right in your prayer, Ezekiel. I did make the Path too complicated. So this time I am trying to simplify things for you. This time there are not Ten Commandments. There is only One:

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

A flush of satisfaction warmed Zeke. He already had the New Commandment on the wall of his gym. “The Golden Rule,” he said.

“As you have named it. Yes. I cannot make it any simpler. Get the world to follow that one rule, and all evil will disappear. There will be no need for churches, for organized religion. Your church will be your heart. There will be no need to memorize prayers. No need for elaborate rituals. No need for any of that. Simply talk to me, wherever you are. I will hear you.”

“I can testify to that.”

“That is exactly what I need you to do. Go forth and testify.”

“I will.”

“I know. But your heart is not yet pure. You still need the evil to suffer. It is why I created this place and banished Lucifer here. But his kingdom is at an end, and he shall reign no more. Love and forgiveness must now reign. Even a temporary Hell keeps hatred alive.”

The Creator paused as if mulling something over.

“Perhaps I can do something to soothe your troubled heart. You want the worst offenders to suffer longer. How much longer? And who are the worst? Especially down here, when there are so many.”

Zeke felt like Abraham bargaining with God to save Sodom and Gomorrah. He nodded toward Price and Stokes, their heads still hung in shame, convicted murderers waiting for their sentence.

“These two are the worst for me. Beyond that, Hitler immediately comes to mind. Stalin. Countless other dictators who slaughtered millions. The 9/11 hijackers, who tried to destroy the country my father fought for. And Satan, of course. Lucifer. Any others would be for you to decide.”

“And how long would be enough?”

“Until you felt they had truly repented, had truly paid for their sins.”

Before responding the Creator took a long moment to watch the battle going on inside Lucifer as Satan fought to regain possession of his soul. The former being of pure light was slowly turning darker. Finally convinced He did not yet need to intervene, the Creator turned back to Zeke.

“I have come this second time to put an end to damnation. The Harrowing of Hell cannot be rushed.” He gestured toward the struggle taking place beside him. “For when the purification of Lucifer is done, I must absolve each soul down here. Even though I never sleep, that shall take a while. But when I finish, there will be no more Hell.”

He nodded at Lucifer. “For thousands of years he has lured you down the path of wickedness, until humanity stands at the edge of the abyss between hope and despair. You want so desperately to choose the path of righteousness, but evil has prevailed for so long that you are ready to give in to despair.

“That abyss is the valley of decision. You must be the bridge across it, Ezekiel. The bridge to hope. You must spread the awakening until all minds are united in an unshakeable belief in the supreme truth that is at the core of your existence:

“Man is
not
born into sin. You are born good, not evil. I know, because I placed an eternal spark of holiness in each of you. It is stronger than Lucifer’s spark of evil. The voice of this godliness within is the one you must heed. Not the voice of this one.”

He looked at Lucifer. Considerably darker now, he stared back with contempt. “The time has come,” the Creator said to his first creation.

There was a note of mockery in the familiar gloating voice. “The time for what?”

“For Reconciliation. Of you and all those you led astray.”

“You are a dreamer. You always have been. Dreaming of a perfect paradise. You had one once, when it was just you in your Heaven. But then you begat me, and the dream became a nightmare. Your ‘bearer of light’ became the ‘bearer of nightmares.’ I do love irony.” Lucifer waited for a response, but the Creator merely looked at him with infinite patience, so he went on.

“Reconciliation. What your Catholics call Penance. I hope you’re not going to ask for an Act of Contrition, because I am not contrite. I feel no remorse. I am proud of my accomplishments.”

“Pride goeth before a fall, as you well know.”

“You had me outnumbered up there. Down here, in case you haven’t noticed, my recruiting program has been most successful. My legion has become quite large. Prepare for your own ‘Fall’.”

“I have my own legion, should they become needed.”

“They should.”

“We shall see,” the Creator said. “Whatever it takes, our long war shall at last be ended. But first I must finish my conversation with our guest.”

“Certainly. We wouldn’t want to be rude.”

The Creator turned his attention back to Zeke.

“It will take the rest of this earth year to finish here. The year you have numbered 2012. The year the Mayans, calling upon the wisdom of the first astronomer, Enoch, rightly predicted that the first epoch of Man would end. Their time of reckoning is that which Enoch spoke of in his scroll.

“The seven ages I promised to Man are coming to a close. If you are to survive, a new age must dawn. With Satan no longer here to mislead you, you must take charge of your destiny. You must decide once and for all to pursue only the path of righteousness. Continuing on the path of wickedness will only lead to your destruction.

“Ezekiel, in your prayer to me, you asked me to ‘break it down real simple for us. We’re not that smart.’

“I can make it no simpler than this: Choose right over wrong. Good over evil. Live by the Golden Rule. Your heart is your infallible guide to knowing these things. Listen to it and you will do no wrong.”

Through the viewfinder Zeke saw the Creator lean closer to look directly at him.

“As the Creator I knew this moment would come. The galactic forces surrounding your world
do
affect the human mind, and they will be aligned to have their maximum influence at the winter solstice. The collective awareness that the human race must reject evil forever will reach its peak. From the beginning I have ordained that golden moment. It will come only once.