The Christ Clone Trilogy - Book Three: ACTS OF GOD (Revised & Expanded)

by James Beauseigneur

  At that moment in the UN camp below, someone spotted those gathered on the mountain. At first they just pointed and stared.

  “Jump!” someone began yelling in jest, and it quickly became a chant that filled the camp. “Jump! Jump! Jump!” they urged.

  Robert Milner laughed.

  Turning back to the people, Chaim Levin opened and read from the Psalms.

  “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. . . .

  “The Lord is with me; he is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.

  “All the nations surrounded me, but in the name of the Lord I cut them off. They surrounded me on every side, but in the name of the Lord I cut them off. They swarmed around me like bees, but they died out as quickly as burning thorns; in the name of the Lord I cut them off.

  “I was pushed back and about to fall, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. . .

  “I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done. The LORD has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death. . .

  “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

  “O Lord, save us; O LORD, grant us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. . . . Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.”[275]

  Then as the sun crested the horizon in the east, Levin closed his eyes and loudly proclaimed the words of Jesus from the New Testament,

  For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’[276]

  Then without urging, but as if on cue, a spontaneous shout erupted from those assembled, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”[277]

  A moment later, the light of the sun, which had just begun to rise, suddenly changed from blinding gold to sullen gray. The moon, still high but lacking the sun’s light to reflect, disappeared from the sky altogether. The day, which had started normally, now seemed to be turned back to late twilight.[278]

  Across the encampment that surrounded them, fear swept through the masses with screams and cries of terror that this might mark the sudden onset of some new plague. Their screams were muted however, when from the northwest, in the direction of Jerusalem, there came a sustained roar so loud that the entire Earth shook and even the sky seemed to tremble.[279]

  Robert Milner shook his head in disbelief as he boldly stood his ground. He found it beyond comprehension that so many were so quickly frightened. They were fools — the result of being born into the old age. He wondered if even a thousand years would be enough for some to be completely purged of their old superstitions and fears.

  From above the scene of panic in the camp, looking down from the summit of the Seir Mountain range, Chaim Levin, the high priest of Israel, raised up his hands toward the darkened sky and cried, “Behold the salvation of our Lord and Messiah. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

  High overhead in the east, the infinite distance of the universe appeared to shimmer as if an illusion caused by heat, and in a moment began to ripple. Seconds later, there appeared the impossible: a rip in space, a tear in the very fabric of heaven, as though a rift between dimensions was opening.[280] The fracture was more than illusion, for as it widened, rending the sky as if it were a paper panorama, the stars themselves rolled back and fell away.[281]

  From within or beyond the tear there appeared a distant flaming light that cast upon the Earth a brilliant cruciform image as if to remove all doubt of the meaning of the event.[282]

  “Surely this is our God!” proclaimed Israel’s high priest. “We trusted in him, and he saved us! This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation!”[283]

  The panic that gripped the camp now became outright frenzy as the light grew so intense that the sun itself, had it been visible, would have appeared as just another star in the cosmos.

  Then from the midst of the blazing light, there emerged a human form seemingly dressed in the light[284] that surrounded him, and sitting upon a large white beast that appeared most closely to resemble a horse.[285] Around him appeared an endless assemblage of angelic and winged creatures.[286] And at that moment there erupted the prolonged sound of trumpets, and behind the first figure there assembled a enormous countless entourage,[287] similarly attired and mounted.[288]

  Many in the camp froze in place. Others ran foolishly for the flimsy cover of the nearest tent.

  Robert Milner steadied himself and held firm. He knew this moment would come. He was prepared. And he, for one, refused to be intimidated.

  Then there came to those in the camp and the millions along the way who hadn’t yet reached Petra, a triumphal command that shook their beings and pierced the dread in their souls and gave them hope. “Stand fast!” Christopher ordered in the universal language, speaking directly to the minds of all who followed him.

  “Stand fast!” he roared.[289]

  “Stand fast and see the destruction of our enemy!”

  From east of the Euphrates to Petra, from Petra to the Jordan, a spontaneous cheer went up that filled the camp and stretched east and west the entire length of the procession. Christopher’s words so filled Robert Milner with excitement and expectation that he found it hard to breathe.

  Borne up by the spirit beings who had delivered him safely when he leapt from the pinnacle of the Temple three and a half years earlier, Christopher now rose from the earth to meet his challenger in the air.

  As he did, the other figure descended,[290] coming near enough to the ground that those closest could see that he was dressed in a white robe that appeared to have been dipped in blood.[291] Over his shoulder was a golden sash.[292] And below his waist, on his robe was written in the universal language, the title of his authority.[293]

  Milner savored every moment of this final confrontation. He would remember this time forever.

  Still a thousand yards between them, Christopher began to address his foe. As before, he spoke in the universal language so that all who followed him could hear and understand. “Yeshua,” he called out boldly, “follow me.”

  The other did not answer.

  “There is no need for us to oppose one another. My fight is with the Father. Join me, brother.”

  Those who followed Christopher struggled to understand the scene that unfolded before them. Was it truly possible that the meeting they watched could result in an alliance between Jesus and Christopher against Yahweh?

  But why not?

  Were they not, after all, the same, this Jesus and Christopher? Whatever resulted from this meeting, there was a sense of hope in just the fact that Christopher wasn’t frightened by the man.

  “Join me! Join us!” Christopher shouted.

  Jesus still did not answer. A moment passed.

  “Pity,” Christopher relented at last. “Still, it was worth a try.”

  Suspended above his anxious audience, Christopher turned and waved his right arm above the mass of people, “So,” he said, looking back at Jesus, “what do you think of my little gathering? There would have been many times this number, but that last set of plagues made quite a mess of things logistically. Still, quite a turnout, wouldn’t you say?” Christopher forced a laugh.

  “And they’re all here to see you,” he continued. “Gathered here to oppose you, I should say. To take what is rightfully theirs: their freedom, their inheritance, their destiny!”

  Christopher’s followers began to feel foolish for ever doubting him. Obviously he was standing up for them, defending them to this representative of Yahweh. And was this not, after all, what they had come here to accomplish?

  A deafening cheer of excitement and approval rose from those on the ground.

  Robert Milner was exuberant. The
foretaste of victory was sweet upon his lips.

  “Curse him,” Christopher urged his followers. “Scream your curses so the whole universe will hear!”

  The millions responded as one, exploding in blasphemies, jeers, and taunts, each shouting to be heard above the rest. Fists were shaken and obscene gestures made.

  All had cursed him a thousand times before — while yet denying he even existed. But now to see the object of their hatred, now to know he heard their denunciations and imprecations, now to know that his defeat was theirs to force upon him, engulfed each in a sense of dark gratification that few of them had ever known or imagined. The feeling was of power, accomplishment, vengeance, and intemperance. The cursing of their comrades and Christopher’s unwavering contempt for the one so many had called “God” gave each a sense of belonging in the family of Humankind, and of dominance over any who would stand in their way.

  Christopher understood exactly what they were thinking and feeling. This was his moment. “A hundred million,” he taunted as he turned back to face Jesus, “here of their own accord. And there are two billion more all around the planet. Can you hear them? Can you feel them? Even now cursing you and your name and the Father and all that you call holy. Can you feel them?

  “All. . . All have willingly followed me. Chosen me.” He paused for a long moment as the anticipation of his followers grew, and then continued in a taunting tone that became almost a whisper. “Those you died for. Those you so loved. Those you intended for your bride.

  “All, by their own free will, have become my whores!”

  The tens of millions there, the billions who watched and listened around the world, all the planet fell into sudden paralyzed silence.

  What had he said? His whores?

  What had he meant? Could they have misunderstood? Could this be some new taunt at the representative of Yahweh? Though they struggled to find some explanation, though they longed to deny it had been said, the meaning was suddenly and intrusively clear to all, including to Milner.

  It began as a stifled murmur, but in that brief moment the veil was lifted and, as Christopher roared with laughter, there swept across the entire conclave and the oncoming procession, now frozen in place, an atmosphere of tumult, which was at once supremely macabre and hopelessly pathetic.

  They had not been brought to this place for a battle between Humankind and Yahweh. They were not here to bring down the walls of Petra on the enemies of Earth’s glorious destiny. They were not gathered in celebration as the inevitable victors to usher in the New Age by force.

  They were assembled as a prize, brought here as trophies, paraded out by Christopher and put on display.

  This was not about winning liberation from Humankind’s oppressors. This was about spite, vindictiveness, malevolence, and hate. Suddenly all of Christopher’s lies became grossly transparent and raw, revealing the ugliness not only of the lies, but also of the liar.

  And suddenly Milner realized his fate.

  A new panic consumed the camp. It was not a panic of confusion, but a panic of understanding, a panic of inescapable certainty.

  And from the eye of the one upon the horse, a tear appeared.[294]

  “All these and billions more,” Christopher boldly boasted, “have rejected you and freely chosen to follow me even to hell. All have taken my mark. All have eagerly cursed you and the Father. All have—”

  “ENOUGH!!” thundered the one upon the horse, his voice like the roar of Niagara[295] and his eyes becoming like flames.[296]

  And with that single word,[297] which in the universal language encompasses also the English ‘it is finished,’ and in Hebrew is day, which forms the root of dayenu, Christopher was surrounded by seven magnificent heavenly beings.

  Those dark specters who had raised him from the ground now released their hold and scattered in arrant terror. Christopher’s obvious inability to resist the angelic beings made it painfully clear to any who might have doubted, that instead of being Jesus’ equal and opposite, he was merely an impotent imposter.

  “The false prophet also!” Jesus said, pointing at Milner.

  By now the multitude below, understanding that they had been betrayed, had turned to flee. In utter disarray borne of absolute hysteria, they stampeded, crushing all who were slower, shoving and climbing over any who got in their way.[298] Throughout Humankind inhumanity reigned.

  It mattered not.

  There was no where to run, but neither could they stay.

  At once, the health and strength they had been given as Christopher’s second sign began to leach from their bodies and was replaced by a burgeoning fatigue, then insatiable thirst, then debilitating throbbing soreness that crept over every member of their bodies.

  Facing the growing realization of their inability to flee, in their deranged dread and torment, the horde ceased their attempt to run and in their anger turned instead on one another, recognizing in each of their comrades an accomplice to Christopher and a conspirator who had encouraged and helped push them down the road to damnation.[299] They had not come to this point alone. They had been cheered on, encouraged by others, and now those others would pay with their agony and their blood and their lives. Carnage and torture and death exploded like a shockwave across the tens of millions gathered.[300]

  And in the growing physical anguish that consumed them, each came to hope as much to be killed as to kill.

  Every conceivable object became an instrument of injury or death. They had come without weapons to defeat their enemies with the tools of the New Age, but now everything sharp served to stab or hack; everything hard became a club to bludgeon; every article of clothing became a cord with which to strangle. Every part of the body became either a weapon or a target. Hands were alternately fists to hit and claws to gouge out eyes and tear or choke. Elbows and knees flew against nose and jaw and every fleshy body part. Feet were used both to kick those who stood and to trample those who had fallen. And teeth locked onto any flesh they could find. It wasn’t an efficient way to kill, but it proved an effective agent of carnage.

  Some atop Jebel Haroun and along the summit of the Seir Mountains looked on. Others turned away. All did so in anguish and dread as they realized and understood that they had been worthy of a fate no better than what they now witnessed, that they would once have been eager participants, pouring out their rage on their fellows and on the one who had died to save them.

  Finally amongst the struggle below, with sudden excruciating absolutism, pain ravened the enemies of God and they could no longer flee or fight. Overcome by their infirmity and paralyzed by their fear, they cursed God and watched helplessly as blood began to seep from the pores of their flesh. Streams of blood rolled down their cheeks and exuded from every opening in their bodies, soaking and matting their clothing. After just moments, in excruciation, their skin dried and crawled and wrinkled and cracked, turning ashen gray as it began to stink and rot away before them. At the same time, with a taste so vile and foul it caused most to wretch, their tongues began to wither and decompose in their mouths.[301]

  The fatigue and thirst and pain and rotting of flesh did not consume the millions all at once, but overtook them like a cold, crawling wavefront of death, starting with those closest to Christopher and Milner and reaching out to swallow up each of those in its path.

  Then, just before death could take them, with a sudden cacophonous screeching and the roar of a billion wings, there descended from the skies a half billion birds, so starved by their long journeys that they did not wait for death to take the fallen, but rather swooped in upon their prey and began to claw and tear the raw rotting flesh from the bones.[302]

  Watching the melee from their positions above the throng, Christopher and Robert Milner, now cursing their captors and their captors’ king, were held aloft and restrained, as below them there was opened a dimensional breach from which arose an incredible stench and the heat of a blazing inferno.

  Six years before, Milner had told De
cker that his ability to see into the future was limited by a veil beyond which he was not permitted to look. He had explained that there was something beyond the veil that he believed would be very painful and from which the spirit that shared his body was protecting him. Now the veil was gone, and he realized the spirit who possessed him had not been protecting, but deceiving him. Milner’s spirit guide had led him straight into the jaws of hell.

  Faced with the flames of perdition, Christopher fell silent in utter terror as he began to comprehend the vastness of the conflagration that was his eternal destiny. Faced with the now imminent reality of his fate, the carefully crafted facade of detachment that hid his fear with defiance began to crumble. His strength borne of hatred for all that belonged to Yahweh was lost as he felt his body tremble with cold sweat. It seemed that all he was, all he had lived for, was suddenly being undone. He had always known this moment would come, but now he found it worse than he had ever imagined. In another second he might even have begged for mercy, but Milner spoke first.

  “I trusted you, you lousy son of a . . . ” Milner screamed. “You said this wouldn’t happen! I trusted you. I trusted you!”

  Suddenly Christopher felt restored. The suffering of Milner and others made it all worthwhile. “You made your own choices,” Christopher answered, laughing. “So did they all.”

  When the hellhole was opened sufficiently, Christopher and Milner were hurled into the lake of fire and the dimensional fault was sealed for a thousand years.[303] [304]