“I can live with that,” Rosen said, to Decker’s great surprise. “I realize that I rushed through it, so I’ve made a list of the key prophecies. And I’ll leave you a Bible.”
“Hoo boy!” Decker heaved sarcastically, though he did want to check some of the prophecies for himself.
Rosen retrieved the satchel he had brought with him and pulled out a sheet of paper and a blue leather-covered Bible. The paper contained the list of references.
“And just supposing I did decide to check your references,” Decker said, “how do I know that’s not just the KDP’s version of the Bible?”
Rosen didn’t answer directly but handed him the book. “I think you’ll recognize the handwriting,” he said.
Decker hesitantly took the Bible and stared at Rosen suspiciously before he opened it. There, scattered throughout the pages were handwritten notes and yellow highlighted text. The lettering of the notes was small and precise and despite the years, there was immediately no doubt in Decker’s mind who had written it. Turning to the front page, he found confirmation: a note that read: “To Elizabeth Hawthorne, with love from Joshua and Ilana Rosen.”
For a moment Decker couldn’t speak, a fact he tried to disguise by blindly flipping through the pages. “Where did you get this?” he managed at last, avoiding eye contact with Rosen. His whispered tone failed to hide the emotion in his voice. The book itself was unimportant, but the notes, which contained his wife’s thoughts, made it unspeakably precious to him.
“I found it in my parents’ house after the Rapture. There was a note with it from my mother to your wife, but I’m afraid that’s been lost. Your wife apparently left the Bible at my parents’ house when she came to Israel to get you. They were going to mail it back to her. When I found it, I intended to send it to you, but it mistakenly got put in a box for storage when I packed up my parents’ belongings. I forgot all about it until I was going through my things a few weeks before I left to come to Petra.”
Decker could feel that his defenses were down. He just wanted this session to be over so he could gather his thoughts and deal with his emotions in private.
Chapter 9
Necessary Risk – The Wisdom of Oz
Friday, June 4, 4 N.A.
The next day Decker awoke much later than the previous morning. His back and shoulders ached from the gymnastics of having thrown himself across the table to hit Rosen. Just as before, he found Petra covered in white. There were far fewer people out gathering, and the many bare spots revealed that most had already collected their manna for the day. Also as before, it seemed to Decker that the proportion of KDP to others had noticeably increased.
Rosen didn’t return until after lunch.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Hawthorne,” Rosen said as he came in. His black eye looked every bit as bad as it had the night before, a fact that pleased Decker greatly.
Decker folded his hands over his stomach and sat back on the bed, electing not to respond to Rosen’s greeting. As always, his response or lack of one didn’t deter Rosen from saying what he had come to say.
“Yeshua told a story about a farmer who had two sons.”[99]
“Aren’t we done yet?” Decker yawned at Rosen’s sermonette and lay back on the bed.
“The younger of the two sons decided he wanted to be on his own,” Rosen continued, “so he went to his father and asked for his inheritance. Reluctantly the father agreed, and the son took his money and left. On his own, the younger son fell in with people who were only too happy to help him spend it. And, of course, before long his money and his ‘friends’ were both gone. He found himself with nothing, far from home and working on a pig farm — which, incidentally, is not a good place for a nice Jewish boy to be working. Ill-fed and looking at the mess he’d made of his life, he remembered that his father was much more generous to his servants than was his current employer. He decided it would be better to admit his failure, go home, and ask his father for a job rather than stay where he was. As he neared the farm that had been his home, his father saw him and ran to meet him. He received him, not as a servant, but as a son, and he celebrated his return.
“And they all lived happily ever after,” Decker groaned.
“Well, not quite,” Rosen replied. “Though he was welcomed by his father, remember I said he had already taken his part of the inheritance. Everything that remained belonged to the older brother. The father couldn’t change that. He couldn’t take what was left and split it in half again — that wouldn’t be fair to the son who had stayed with him. And I think it’s safe to say that, if the father had done that, the younger brother wouldn’t have learned much from his experience.
“Your friend, Tom Donafin, had an interesting way of putting it. He said it was like The Wizard of Oz,[100] where the good witch of the north, Glinda, tells Dorothy that all she has to do to go home is click her heels together and say ‘There’s no place like home.’”
Decker half smiled despite himself as he recalled Tom Donafin’s penchant for describing everything in terms of a movie.
“When Dorothy asks Glinda why she hadn’t just told her that to begin with, Glinda answered, ‘You wouldn’t have believed me.’
“I saw that movie every year when I was a kid,” Rosen said. “And I never really understood what Glinda meant. See, it wasn’t that Dorothy wouldn’t have believed the part about clicking her heels. It’s that without suffering through all that she did, Dorothy would never have been able to understand that there really is no place like home. It’s just like the story Jesus told. The way Tom Donafin put it was that in order for Dorothy to learn her lesson, she had to earn her lesson, so she could appreciate how true it really was.”
Sitting up suddenly, Decker asked, “So what you’re saying is that if I click my heels together, you’ll let me go? Because now that I’ve been here a while, I’ll really be able to appreciate Christopher and my nice air-conditioned office in Babylon!”
Rosen frowned. “The point is that lessons bought too cheaply seldom stay learned. Of course, some lessons cost more than others.”
Decker didn’t like the sound of that at all. What cost did Rosen intend to extract?
“When God created the Earth,” Rosen said, “he gave Adam and Eve a perfect paradise and nearly total freedom to do as they wished. The only thing he told them not to do was eat from a particular tree — the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
“Yeah, I always wondered about that,” Decker interrupted, as he got up and pulled a chair away from the table, turning it around to straddle the back. “What kind of an idiot is this god of yours that he would put the tree in the garden, within easy reach, if he didn’t want them to eat from it? Unless, of course . . .” he paused to make his point, “he wanted them to fail.”
“It wasn’t the tree that was the problem,” Rosen replied. “The problem was simple human nature. As soon as you tell someone not to do something, that’s exactly what they want to do. Lucifer said that God didn’t want them to eat from the tree because it would make them like God. When you think about it,” he said, “that’s got to be the biggest temptation in the world. Everyone wants to be in charge, make their own rules, be their own god. It’s certainly proven to be a successful drawing card for Christopher’s followers.”
“So explain to me why this god of yours,” Decker challenged, “who you think is all powerful and all knowing and all loving, made human nature the way he did.”
“People have struggled with that question for thousands of years, Mr. Hawthorne. But the answer is really pretty simple.”
“Oh brother,” Decker groaned, regretting that he had asked.
“Because we’re made in God’s image, it’s our nature to want to be God.”
Decker was taken aback. Regardless of whether Rosen was right or wrong, he did offer a stunningly simple answer to a very complex question. But his simple direct response also left Rosen no room to maneuver. Decker pounced. “So you’re saying Yahweh made a desi
gn error!”
“Not a design error,” Rosen countered, “for now, let’s call it a necessary risk. It’s the same risk every parent takes when they have children. Just as a child is created in the image of its parents, God created us in his image to be his family. Anything less and we wouldn’t be his children — we’d be either pets or slaves. But God gave us free will and a choice in the matter. It’s the same choice that faced the farmer’s sons and that faced Adam and Eve. We may all want to be gods, but ultimately there can be only one. A wheel with two centers won’t turn. A universe with two gods simply can’t function.”
Decker countered, “There comes a time when children need to leave the nest, to go out on their own, and whether the parents like it or not, they have to be willing to let go.”
“That’s true, Mr. Hawthorne. But we should clarify our terms. Being a ‘child of God’ doesn’t imply immaturity on our part, but rather unceasing love for us on God’s part. A child will cease to be a youth, but a parent never ceases to be a parent. The relationship goes beyond the ages of the individuals involved. Being a son or daughter of God denotes a relationship of love, trust, and respect — not of oppression.”
“Just as long as we’re willing to follow his orders,” Decker rejoined.
“If you take the time to consider God’s laws,” Rosen argued, “you’ll find they’re designed not to oppress, but to protect. Jesus said that God’s greatest commandment is, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’”[101]
“No thank you,” Decker interjected.
Rosen ignored him and continued, “And he said the second greatest commandment is: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[102] He said that every other law in the Bible is wrapped up in those two commands.[103] In another place, God tells us he doesn’t want sacrifices, but only that we act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly.”[104]
“So why didn’t Yahweh just give us two laws and leave it at that?”
“You really think you’re smart enough to know all the consequences of your actions? Can you look into the future and know every outcome of your decisions? Can you even be sure of your own motives? You’d be a liar or a fool to say you can. Very little in life turns out as we expect it to. It’s Murphy’s Law: If something can go wrong, it will. There are always unintended consequences. At best, those who depend on their own judgment to determine right and wrong end up guessing based on the known data and the range of anticipated outcomes. At worst, they ignore the obvious consequences of their actions — telling themselves everything will work itself out — all so that they can do what they wanted to do in the first place. And somewhere between the best and worst case scenarios are the decisions that, despite our best intentions, find their origins in judgments unavoidably clouded by self-interest.
“God’s laws are established by the only one who really does know everything — past, present, and future. Is that so awful? In fact, doesn’t it make sense that a loving parent would let his children know where dangers lie so that we don’t harm ourselves and others? The only question is whether we’re going to trust God to run the universe he created or we’re going to insist on doing things our way.”
“So we’re just supposed to put our brains on hold and follow blindly along the path that God has set for us!”
“Not at all. I know Christopher says that Yahweh’s laws are designed to keep people forever unable to reason for themselves. But God himself said to mankind, ‘Come now, let us reason together.’[105] And remember, Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. He included your mind. He doesn’t want us to blindly accept what somebody tells us; he wants us to consider the evidence, to use our mind as well as our heart. That’s why I laid out the evidence of Old Testament prophecy for you. Blind faith is an alien concept to Christianity. It’s the New Age religions that tell their adherents to put their minds on hold and let some spirit guide or unknown force direct them. It’s the New Age that tells us that our future is determined by the tarot cards or tea leaves or the location of stars on the day we were born.”
Rosen had hit upon some things that had always made Decker a little uncomfortable about the adherents of the New Age. He had never had any difficulty with what Christopher said and only occasional problems with what Milner said, but some of those who followed Christopher and Milner held what seemed to be very bizarre and unscientific beliefs and practices that he would rather not try to defend.
“When Jesus was crucified,” Rosen said, “there were thieves crucified on either side of him. One of the thieves, even though he was dying on a cross, taunted and insulted Jesus. But the other recognized his own guilt. He also understood that Jesus was innocent.
“You might think that a condemned man doesn’t have much to lose, but even then a person may still cling to his pride. Even as he hung there on the cross, the first thief wanted to be accepted by the crowd. I suppose he thought he could make himself appear better by tearing down someone else. The other thief, though, was willing to give up his pride and dignity, admit his guilt and, there in front of everyone, turn his fate over to the Messiah, saying, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’[106]
“Jesus’ response was surprising,” he said shaking his head. “He didn’t give him a list of things to do so that he could be accepted by God. He didn’t tell him he had to be baptized, or take communion, or do good works, or walk across burning coals, or make a pilgrimage, or chant, or anything. He simply said, ‘I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.’[107]
“It may seem like the thief didn’t do anything except ask, but we shouldn’t miss the point of what he did do. Just like the farmer’s younger son, who admitted his failure and returned humbly to his father, so the thief recognized his guilt and turned to Jesus.
“You see, Mr. Hawthorne, just like the farmer’s son and the thief on the cross, people don’t become Christians because they’re good people; they become Christians because they realize that they’re not.
“When you get right down to it, Christianity is like bankruptcy. To accept Yeshua is to admit defeat and throw yourself on the mercy of the court because you realize that justice demands more than you can possibly pay. The down payment alone would cost you your life. And what good is learning the lesson if the cost of earning the lesson leaves you dead?
“I remember reading in school about a bizarre practice used by European royalty to deal with misbehavior by a prince. Instead of punishing the prince, another boy of about the same age — called a whipping boy — would bear the punishment. It always seemed incredibly stupid and unfair. But more recently, I realized that properly administered, it could be very effective.”
Decker shook his head. “You’ve lost me on that one, Rosen.”
“The whipping boy wasn’t just some kid the prince didn’t know. They were brought up and educated together. Often, the whipping boy was the prince’s only playmate. And when the whipping boy was punished, the prince had to watch. So even though the prince didn’t bear the physical marks of the lashing, he’d feel the pain of knowing the suffering he had caused to his friend. Do you have any brothers or sisters, Mr. Hawthorne?”
“I had an older brother, Nathan. He died in the Disaster,” Decker answered, though afterward he couldn’t understand why he had been so forthcoming.
Rosen raised an eyebrow, surprised at this revelation, but didn’t allow it to distract him. “Then you can probably understand that, if your parents punished your brother whenever you did something wrong, you might think it was a pretty nice arrangement for a while. Soon, though, if you cared for your brother at all, you’d start to feel bad about it. So that even though it was your brother who had been punished, you’d suffer, too, and pretty soon your behavior would change.
“In the story Jesus told about the farmer and his two sons, in the end everything the father had left belonged to the older b
rother. There was, however, one way that the younger son could still have gotten an inheritance: that is, if his brother died and left no heir. If that happened, the younger brother would receive the older brother’s inheritance. But he would still have learned and earned his lesson because he’d know that what he received came at the price of his brother’s life.”
Rosen paused a moment to make his point. “Well, our brother, Jesus, did die. But it wasn’t because Yahweh is bloodthirsty. It was because the only way for us to understand the seriousness of our sin without paying the price for that sin ourselves, is to understand the magnitude of the price that Jesus paid by dying for us.
“I said earlier that when God created us in his image he took a ‘necessary risk.’ Actually, because he knew in advance that we would sin, it would be more accurate to call it an ‘accepted cost.’ Even though God knew that he himself would have to be tortured and die to pay the penalty for our sin, he created us as his children with free will. He loves us so much that he would rather die than live without us.
“The inheritance is yours, Mr. Hawthorne. To claim it, all you have to do is what the farmer’s younger son did: Admit you’ve made a mess of your life, swallow your pride, and ask him to take you back. You must be willing to come back as a servant, but God waits anxiously to accept you as a son.”
The Christ Clone Trilogy - Book Three: ACTS OF GOD (Revised & Expanded) Page 13