The Hand of Christ (37 page)

“
Give me the short version, Dad.” Michael had to get home soon.

“
Jesus fled to Egypt to reunite with some of his family that lived there; his wife and child went onto France where Magdalene eventually died. They separated for their safety and to ensure that his lineage would live on. After a few years of exile, Jesus was secreted back into Rome where he met with Paul.”

“
St. Paul?”

“
The one and the same son; supposedly, Jesus wanted to certify in some manner the proof of his royal bloodline which he did with Paul. Together, they created the necessary document and then they both signed it. St. Paul used his Holy seal and Jesus used a print of his hand hence, The Hand of Christ. In addition, he signed two other documents with his handprint. One of them we have here in front of us, they were meant to offer proof of the document they wrote.”

Both men eyed the opened book in front of them.

“
The decree that the two men scribed in Rome became part of St. Paul’s last Apocryphal.”

Michael jumped in, “The Hand of Christ is like a fingerprint, and it offers proof of his life and of his bloodline?”

“
Yes, the royal bloodline. Michael, Jesus died an exile in Egypt, and it was centuries before any attempt was made by his family to return as King of the Empire. But it did happen.”

Michael was now that little boy, mesmerized by his father and hanging on every word.

“
In the late fifth-century, a French king name Clovis I, and from seemingly out of nowhere, was declared Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope. Apparently, he had proof of his place in the royal bloodline; that, he was of Jesus’ bloodline. That proof is the first page that at which we are now looking.”

The opened page of opaque vellum seemed to suddenly take on a more voluminous importance. Michael was instantly sorry for handling the book in the way that he had.

“
This is what I don’t understand, what kind of proof does this vellum offer now? It is just a handprint with the name Yeshua. Why would the Pope, the leader of the entire Roman Church, suddenly let one man, who was not even a citizen of the Empire, have complete control?”

“
Michael, this page is definitive proof of the authenticity of the Apocryphal written by St. Paul!”

“
I am still not clear, Dad, how does this one page mean anything, how does it show that Jesus lived, and that His bloodline had any right to the throne?”

“
Michael, think of this page like a bearer bond, whoever holds the coupon with the serial number that matches to the bond is entitled to the value of the bond. Without it, you would have nothing – no rights to the bond whatsoever. This page is just that: proof of ownership. There is no way that the Pope could turn Clovis away, Clovis must have presented to the Pope one of the two pages of vellum with Jesus’ handprint; it may have even been this one! The Pope has always had the main document, the Apocryphal written and signed by both Jesus and St. Paul in the first century AD. It was handed from one Pope to the next; at some point, I can’t be sure when, it was no longer handed to the next Pope, but hidden instead.”

It was becoming clearer to Michael. He sat back and continued listening as his father spoke.

“
Michael, the Apocryphal will have a handprint of Christ on it; the two prints will match, I am sure of it! That document, along with this book would entitle the bearer the right to rule, the right to all of the kingdom’s wealth. How could the Church argue with a descendent of Christ? They coroneted Clovis, and allowed him to rule so long as he promised to not speak of his heritage. That was the agreement.”

“
But you said there were three documents, if we have one of them where are the other two?”

“
No one knows for sure where they are now, or even if they still exist. When the three documents were created, Jesus supposedly kept one, the other was sent to His wife in France and the third, the Apocryphal, stayed with St. Paul. It stayed with the Church, but, like I said, it disappeared long ago.”

Michael made the connection, “One of them was sent to France? That is where you said Clovis was from. That would make sense as to why he would have it, he was a descendent of Jesus and Magdalene.”

“
Not exactly, Michael. Common belief coupled with historical record has it that Clovis married into the royal bloodline. Because of the marriage, Clovis converted to Roman Catholicism, his wife’s religion.”

“
So, this is how Clovis entered the Holy bloodline.”

“
Exactly, it was through marriage. At his conversion, St. Remigius anointed Clovis with holy oil at the Church of Rheims. The use of the holy oil was extremely significant; it is further evidence that showed the Church believed Clovis had a divine influence from God. The Church would never have allowed the use of the holy oil otherwise!”

“
Die Taufe Chlodwig I,” uttered Michael.

His father smiled at Michael’s ability to remember the name of the colorful German oil painting that depicted Clovis being baptized by Remigius.

Michael was putting the pieces together, “And the conversion of a Frankish pagan worshipping king would be akin to a Saudi prince converting to Christianity. It would be a direct denouncement of Allah, and an explicit acceptance of Christ.”

“
That’s right, Michael; this was a critical act by the Church. It was a message to the rest of the kingdom. The Church had known of the royal bloodline since the beginning and was acknowledging it publicly. At the same time, the Pagan king became the Christian king!”

“
I don’t understand, Dad, if the Church knew that Jesus didn’t die, and of his bloodline, than why would they have lied about it for so many centuries?”

“
Ah, and now we get to the crux of the matter. Son, men are inherently greedy and evil when confronted with power and wealth. These types of men want nothing in life other than to be rich and to be in control, they are the ones that rise to the top. The Church is no different than any corporation or government, any time you put three men in a room one will immediately conspire against the other and the third will align with whoever comes out on top.”

Michael sat back and admired his father; this was something that he missed about him. He had forgotten just how well he understood the world.

“
After both St. Paul and St. Peter were killed in the first century, it became much easier to change the truth, to lose the facts. Michael, time passed and the Roman Church became much more powerful in the Empire. The Church ruled; not Emperors, and certainly not Kings. They were just puppets. The Church decided who was to be a king and who was to be deposed. Their power penetrated levels as granular as deciding on the validity of a marriage, of taxes, or of a man’s freedom. The Church accumulated and held the Empire’s wealth and controlled its citizens; they used the name of god to rationalize and validate every evil and vile thing that they did!”

Michael interjected, “But, Dad, how could the Church create a crucifixion that didn’t happen?”

The elder Sterling through his hands out to the side as if in defeat, and answered, “Michael, as is always the case with time, information becomes distorted, changed, and manipulated. Remember, Judea was a far off state of the Empire. People are malleable Michael; think of what our country has done: weapons of mass destruction, a culture of fear, and the axis of evil. The masses latch on to these messages by their leaders and sit back blindly shaking their heads
yes
while we colonize other countries under the guise of peacekeeping missions, or when we invade another nation and call it a coalition. It is absolutely enraging!”

Michael could sense his dad was about to digress into another topic entirely, “Dad, I see your point, but let’s stay focused on this book. Tell me more about the Crucifixion?”

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Yes, of course. The Church denied his life and ensured that his crucifixion became fact. Certain problems were easy to fix simply by killing the person that had created the problem. Those that knew the truth were declared heresiarchs and executed, and any documentation that held the truth was destroyed, or replaced with a different version of the truth. Honestly, it wouldn’t have been that difficult. In the first century, Christianity was not what it is today. If the Mormons slowly vanished over a couple hundred years, the people living near Salt Lake City might give it some consideration, but would the rest of the country? How about the world, would future generations?”

Michael’s thoughts were flowing like a raging river; he said, “They invoked their power just like they did with the Crusades and the Inquisitions. They fabricated reality and forced it down everyone’s throat.”

“
That’s right. The majority of the world was illiterate, don’t forget about the dark ages: that time period saw a large portion of the population – nearly one-third some believe – killed from the plague and a complete regression of intellect. Honestly, cementing religious lies would have been rather easy. Over time, lies became truths, and were concreted into the stories told from one generation to the next. Eventually they became written into the greatest piece of fiction ever published.”

He knew just what his Dad was referring to, his whole life his father complained about it. “You mean the Bible, don’t you, Dad?”

“
Of course I do. The greatest myths ever told. No body or gravesite for Jesus? That’s okay. Just tell them He rose from the dead and ascended to Heaven; forget that the story was borrowed from an older Pagan religion. It eliminates the need to answer unnecessary questions, placates the populace, and makes him like god. The divinity of Christ became the core of the Church’s theology but was devious in its true intention: to be used to control the people.”

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Make them believe that any resistance is a worthless action,” Michael said. It was just like an interrogation technique taught to Michael. Create an atmosphere of futility, make the person just give in because they believe that they have already lost; that there is nothing they can do.

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Michael, the Church appeased the need for the growing population of Christians to want answers for the
why's
and the
how’s
that couldn’t be answered. Do you see that lightning? That’s god! Struck by a great plague or disease? That’s god again; he’s punishing you! In reality, the Church simply needed a way to control the growing flock, to control their expanding territories and sources of wealth. What better way to make sure your only source of income is protected than through divine fear?”

Michael could see the connection, “Keep them under an umbrella of fear, but, at the same time, tell them everything will be alright and that it will all be worth it: heaven waits.”

“
That’s right, my boy, tell them what they want to hear: everlasting life, nirvana, or a room full of virgins, it’s all the same. It’s an age old methodology used by every corrupt leader in history and of today.”

Looking at his watch, Michael was starting to grow impatient. He had to speed things up. Sonia would start to wonder where he is. Michael asked his father, “If Clovis reclaimed the kingdom by presenting the proof of the Apocryphal, what happened? How do we get to today?”

“
A couple of centuries after Clovis ruled the Empire, his heir, Dagobert, was assassinated by the Church to sever the bloodline’s hold on Holy power.”

Dagobert, Michael remembered that name having seen it earlier; it was in the book. Quickly, he flipped the pages to where he found the name, turning it, he showed his father.

“
My god! Dagobert! It’s right there!” His father fingered the name gingerly. “I cannot believe that it is here in front of me!”

Interesting, Michael thought, that is right about the same time in history that the Umayyad Caliphate in Syria took control, “Dad, what happened then?” Sonia would have to wait just a bit longer.

It took a moment for his father to regain his focus; he was mesmerized by the name of Dagobert staring back at him. While still looking at the heavy calligraphy of Dagobert's name, he answered, “That was the end of their rule. Things become a bit unclear after that. Best I can tell what was left of them made their way to Portugal.”

“
Tell me what you think happened, Dad.”

“
Well, my research has led me to believe that the bloodline went back into hiding, they were much weaker than in earlier generations. Times were changing and so was the way people were ruled. Kingdoms were turning into governments, and the Church’s hold on its power was thinning with the years. People were simply getting smarter and eventually the Church failed at providing the answers. The question of Jesus’ divinity didn’t vanish completely and was a major fracturing point between the Church in Rome and its eastern counterpart in Constantinople.”

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The Great Schism,” the permanent separation of the two halves of the Church was well documented, something that Michael had studied extensively.

“
That’s right. As you know the schism still exists and has kept the Church weak. After the ecumenical separation, the Crusades plagued both East and West. Popes became dictators doing whatever they could to keep power and rationalizing whatever evil they did in the name of god, much like what Islam is doing today. Religious leaders fought to hide their desperation.”

“
But what of the Apocryphal, what happened to it and how does it even matter now?”

“
Michael, what happened to you today in Damascus, what happened to the Ayatollah is all related to the Apocryphal, to this book. I am convinced of that. After Dagobert, the protectors of the bloodline were known by a number of names. Some were fictitious, others may have been true, and to this end I cannot be sure. It really doesn’t matter. Today that group is known simply as The Order. Through the centuries they have remained silent and built a network of followers, but they knew that, to rule, they would need a massive amount of wealth.”