Acts of God

by James Beauseigneur

  Directly behind the altar, in the westernmost portion of the Court of the Priests, stood the Sanctuary. This was Christopher's ultimate goal but there was a mission he and Milner needed to accomplish before continuing. Looking around until he found what he was looking for, Christopher nodded his intention to Milner. "We must see to it that no more animals are slaughtered here to satisfy Yahweh's blood thirst. We must desecrate the altar so that it cannot be used again."

  Followed closely by Milner, Christopher went to where he had spotted a number of brass shovels used by the priests for removing ashes. They each picked up one of the shovels, and went to a spot near the slaughter tables where a hill of animal dung had been collected for later removal. As best he could with the use of only one arm, Christopher scooped up a shovelful and then walked over and slung it against the sides of the altar. Again and again Christopher and Milner repeated the act until there was no dung left and the altar had been liberally splattered. Next they beat the brass shovels against each of the altar's four stones.

  "That should do it," Christopher said finally, knowing that Jewish law would forbid ever using these desecrated stones as an altar again.

  After finishing their chore Christopher and Milner proceeded on to the Sanctuary. From above, the shape of the Temple proper formed a huge T — the result of the compromise between those who wanted to rebuild the Temple according to the plans of the prophet Ezekiel and those who wanted to recreate the design of Herod's Temple. It was 175 feet across at the widest point, 105 feet at the narrowest, and rose 175 feet above the Court of the Priests. To the right and left of the entrance stood two tremendous free-standing bronze pillars, called by the priests respectively Jachin and Boaz.

  Here Milner stopped. The rest of the way, Christopher would go alone.

  Looking back only to nod to Milner, Christopher ascended the final set of steps to the Vestibule or Porch. Directly in front of him were immense double doors 6 feet wide and 35 feet tall made of olive wood, decorated with carvings of cherubim (angels), palm trees, and flowers and covered entirely in pure gold. Suspended above the doors, a spectacular multi-colored tapestry displayed a panorama of the universe. And above that, the full width of the wall was covered with huge carvings of grape vines and leaves with clusters of grapes as tall as a man and nearly that distance across, entirely covered with gold.

  Christopher took a deep breath and continued. Pushing open one of the huge doors and then the other, he let in the light of day and stepped through into the next chamber, called the H3diM or Holy Place. The ceiling of the Holy Place dropped 40 feet from the ceiling of the Porch to a height of 105 feet. The floor was covered with cypress wood. The walls were wainscoted with cedar, above which they were covered with gold. A golden altar for incense still smoldered, releasing the fragrant smell of frankincense, and another altar for shewbread (holy bread) sat undisturbed with twelve sheets of unleavened bread laid out in rows. The candles of a golden menorah, though nearly consumed by the flame, provided the only interior light.

  Still outside the Sanctuary, Robert Milner turned and walked back the way they had come in. There was a matter outside the Temple which awaited his attention.

  In front of Christopher, suspended from the ceiling at the western end of the Holy Place was the Veil, a divider between the Holy Place and the final chamber, the D°bhJr, or Holy of Holies. Beyond the Veil, where only the High Priest was allowed to go — and he, only once a year on the Day of Atonement — sat the ancient Ark of the Covenant. The Veil was actually two richly decorated curtains which hung parallel to each other with about five feet of clearance between the two, forming an entry corridor which prevented any light from reaching the windowless Holy of Holies.

  Walking to the northern edge of the curtain nearest the Holy Place, Christopher took hold and pulled sharply until, bit by bit, it broke loose from the ceiling. He continued this until only a few yards of the curtain remained hanging. He then did the same with the other curtain, pulling it loose from the southern edge, thus leaving a wide entrance through the middle of the Veil and exposing the Holy of Holies to the light of day, which poured in through the Sanctuary's huge doors.

  Before him in the Holy of Holies two enormous winged cherubim, each 18 feet tall, carved from olive wood and covered with pure gold, stood watch over the Ark of the Covenant. Their outstretched wings spanned half the width of the chamber and met in the center of the room directly over the Ark.

  Christopher entered the Holy of Holies and approached the Ark.

  Outside, as Decker took another question from the press, a low rumbling began which shook the steps where he and the others stood. It seemed to come from inside the Temple. Without explanation to the press, Decker calmly announced that he would take no more questions and that the press conference was concluded. "I suggest that you may want to move to the bottom of the steps and away from the Temple at this point," he added in obvious understatement. Decker was beginning to enjoy himself.

  Inside the Holy of Holies Christopher stood before the Ark and after a moment's pause, gripped the Ark's cover and slid it back, revealing its contents.

  "What's happening?" several of the reporters shouted at Decker as the Temple shook again. "Ladies and Gentlemen, if you'll be patient, I'm sure you'll have answers to all of your questions, but for your own safety, I must insist that you move away from the Temple immediately." The resolve in Decker's voice and the urgency of his steps convinced the others to follow.

  Reaching into the Ark, Christopher found the items he was looking for.

  A thunderous rumble many times louder than the first two rolled through the Temple like a freight train, sending reporters and onlookers running. A moment later Robert Milner emerged. He was alone. Resolutely, he descended about a quarter of the way down the steps. Looking out over the thousands of people and the dozens of cameras that broadcast the event around the world, he began to speak. It was his own voice, but it was different; at least Decker could tell there was a difference.

  "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse" Milner said, quoting the prophet Malachi. The words were familiar to many but especially to the priests and Levites. "Hear, O Israel," Milner said, no longer quoting Malachi, "for this day, this very hour, your lamentation is ended. This is the day of which the prophet spoke. Elijah has come! I am he!"

  There was a great stirring from the Jewish priests and Levites at this proclamation and all eyes turned to see how the High Priest would respond. It was bad enough that they had been run out of their own Temple, but now for this Gentile to claim that he was the prophet Elijah, while it wasn't exactly blasphemy, it was a tremendous offense. No one was quite sure how to respond and they looked to Chaim Levin, the High Priest, to follow his lead. Had they even an inkling that at that very moment Christopher stood within the Holy of Holies before the Ark of the Covenant, they would not have waited for the High Priest, but already would have been tearing their clothes and dumping dust on their heads in Jewish ceremonial outrage.

  Surprisingly, Chaim Levin was very calm. Dressed in the traditional Temple raiment of his office, the High Priest wore a bulbous blue hat with a band of solid gold engraved with the Hebrew words !np mn>t>, meaning 'Holy to Yahweh.' Over the standard white linen tunic of the ordinary priest which hung down to his ankles, revealing only his bare feet, he wore a richly embroidered robe which reached below his knees and was decorated at the bottom by golden bells which jingled musically as he walked. Over this, he wore a vest-like garment which hung to his hips and was lavishly embroidered with thick threads of gold, purple, blue, and crimson. In the middle of his chest, supported by heavy chains of gold attached to broad epaulets upon his shoulders and around his waist by scarlet strips of cloth, was the ephod, a thick square linen breastplate decorated with gold brocade and inset with twe
lve large gemstones in four rows of three each, representing the twelve tribes of Israel.

  Whether Chaim Levin's tolerance of Milner was borne of gratitude for Christopher's dispatch of John and Cohen or because he simply did not want to ruin a perfectly good set of robes, he remained unruffled by Milner's claim. Instead, he looked him in the eye and very politely but with skeptical amusement asked, "By what sign shall we know that you are who you claim?"

  "By that same sign by which I, Elijah, proved myself to King Ahab and to the people of Israel on Mount Carmel,"4 Milner answered, loud enough for everyone to hear him.

  Chaim Levin raised an eyebrow and frowned a bit. The boldness of Milner's claim impressed him, though he did not for a minute think that Milner could carry it out. "And when shall we see this sign?" he asked after a moment.

  "This very hour," answered Milner. Then turning away from Levin and toward the crowd, Milner continued. "For 1,260 days Israel has suffered drought. Today it ends!" With that, Milner's hands shot skyward and from somewhere beyond the Temple a low rumbling was heard which in just seconds grew in intensity to an earthshaking peal of thunder. Faster than anyone could imagine possible, the sky grew dark, as out of nowhere heavy gray clouds began to fill the heavens. In fear, the crowds and all but a few of the priests nearest the High Priest drew back. No sooner had an area of a few hundred square feet been cleared than a bolt of lightning struck the earth and a deafening crack of thunder sent people running, clasping their hands over their ears. In the larger clearing that resulted from the evacuation, the first bolt of lightning was quickly followed by three more, each more powerful than the previous one. And then it began to rain.

  It came down in a torrent; pouring down upon Milner, the High Priest, and everyone else except a very few who had made it to cover. Most stood there looking up with their hands upraised, thankful for the rain after so long a drought. Some began to dance.

  For the crowd, who knew the biblical story of Elijah, the verdict was clear: this truly must be the prophet. What other explanation could there be? Although the High Priest was unconvinced, he could offer no more believable explanation and so he remained silent, staring at Milner as the rain turned his impeccably elegant attire to dripping disarray. Soon many of the priests and Levites joined in with the crowds, proclaiming Milner as the promised Elijah who, according to the prophecy, would come before the Messiah.5 It came as no surprise, therefore, when after a few minutes of drenching rain, Milner announced, "Behold your Messiah!"

  With rain still pouring down, Milner turned and seemed to be pointing with his outstretched hand toward the Temple, but no one could see exactly what he expected them to find. Then above the southeastern corner, a break appeared in the clouds, allowing a single shaft of sunlight to shine through. "There he is!" someone shouted.

  At the top of the wall, on the very edge of the southeastern corner of the Temple, 180 feet above them at a point which by tradition is called the pinnacle, stood Christopher, robes blowing in the wind and completely dry as the shaft of light shone down like a spotlight. Quickly the beam broadened, as from that point the clouds retreated in all directions, bringing rain to the parched countryside around Jerusalem. In just moments the area around the Temple was in full daylight again with the sun shining brightly overhead.

  By now nearly every radio and television network in the world was carrying the events in Jerusalem live. Every camera was on him, broadcasting his words and image to the most distant corners of the earth.

  "People of Earth," Christopher began slowly with a serene, peaceful, even tone calculated to restore calm. "For millennia the prophets and soothsayers, the astrologers and oracles, the shaman and the revelators have all foretold the coming of one who would bring with him the olive branch of peace for all the world. By a hundred different names the world has known him. And by a hundred different names has this promised peace bringer been petitioned to come quickly to those in distress. For the Jews, he is Messiah; for the Christians, the returning Christ; for the Buddhists he is the Fifth Buddha; for the Muslims, the thirteenth heir to Mohammed orlmmam Mahdi; the Hindus call him Krishna; the Eckankar call himMahanta; the Bahd'i look to the coming 'Most Great Peace'; to the Zorastrians he is Shah-Bahram; to others he is Lord Maitreya, or Bodhisattva, orKrishnamurti, or Mithras, or Deva, or Hermes and Cush, or Janus, or Osiris.

  "By whatever name he is known," Christopher declared, "in whatever tongue he is entreated: this day I say to you: the prophecies have been fulfilled! This day the promise has been kept! This day the vision has been realized for all Humankind!" Christopher paused as the anticipation rose. "For this day I have come!" he shouted triumphantly, surprising no one — for the conclusion was obvious — and yet astonishing all, for no one could have been truly prepared for such a declaration.

  Christopher's voice quickly picked up speed and fervor. "I am the promised one!" he chanted. "I am the Messiah, the Christ, the Fifth Buddha, the thirteenth heir to Mohammed; I am the one who brings the Most Great Peace; I am Krishna, Shah-Bahram, Mahanta, Lord Maitreya, Bodhisattva, Krishnamurti, and Immam Mahdi; I am Mithras, Deva, Hermes and Gush, Janus, and Osiris! There is no difference. They are all one. All religions are one. And I am he of whom all the prophets spoke! This is the day of the Earth's salvation!"

  To the displeasure of the High Priest, many in the crowd in Jerusalem roared their approval and the response was echoed around the world. They had all seen Christopher die at the hands of an assassin, and they had seen his resurrection. They had witnessed him powerfully dispatching John and Cohen, who had called down terrible plagues upon the earth. They had watched in amazement as Robert Milner called down lightning and brought rain to the drought-stricken holy land. But more than anything else they cheered because they were ready for a savior.

  "I have not come to make pious religious pronouncements," Christopher said. "Nor have I come to demand your worship or insist that you pay me homage. I do not seek your praise and adoration or demand your devotion. It is not my intent that you venerate or adulate me or that you pay me your tribute. Nor do I wish you to glorify, deify, idolize, extol, exalt, or revere me.

  "I have come instead to tell you to look to yourselves. For within each of you is all the deity, all the divinity, that you will ever need. You may call me a god and I do not deny it: I am a god! But I call you gods. All of you! Each of you!"

  High Priest Chaim Levin had heard all that he needed to. This was obvious blasphemy and, new robes or not, he was obligated to tear his garments and throw dust upon his head; and so he began with a vengeance, though he had to settle for mud. Some of the other priests and Levites near him immediately followed his lead. But others, many others, were far too interested in what this man who had risen from the dead had to say.

  "It is not my own godhood that I have come here to proclaim," Christopher continued. "It is yours!"

  "I have not come to threaten or punish," he said reassuringly, undistracted by the actions of the High Priest so far below him. "I have come to offer to Humankind life everlasting and joy unimagined. I bring you the opportunity to build a tomorrow of abundance and life from a yesterday of hunger and death. Come with me. Follow me. And I will lead you into a millennium of life and of light."

  The High Priest's over-dramatic rending of cloth and hurling of mud distracted Decker from Christopher's speech just long enough for him to notice that despite the distance between Christopher and the crowd, he could hear him clearly. Christopher's voice seemed to be coming from right next to him or, perhaps . . . even from inside of him. It was as though he was hearing Christopher's voice from within himself. This discovery was quickly followed by another, even more startling: Decker suddenly realized that Christopher was not speaking English; nor had he since he began to speak. Decker was not sure what language Christopher was speaking, but he was certain he had never heard it before; yet he clearly understood every word. Apparently, so did those all around him, and as Decker correctly assumed, so did every other person on earth
, no matter what their native tongue.

  He wondered if others had noticed that the language Christopher spoke was not their own. Under his breath, Decker tried to recall and repeat a few of the words Christopher was speaking, but discovered that though he understood every word Christopher said, he could not for the life of him duplicate a single word or even a syllable. Later Christopher would explain that he had been speaking in the root language of all human languages, one which was as universal and instinctive to humans as animal sounds are to the given type of animal. It was, as Christopher would explain later, the language spoken by all humans prior to the confusion of language which Yahweh used to scatter the people of the earth when they built the Tower of Babel.6 This language did not need translation. It was the translation.

  "Three and a half days ago," Christopher continued, "before the eyes of the whole world, a follower of John and Cohen and the Koum Damah Tatare fired a bullet into my brain and killed me. Less than twelve hours ago, again with the entire planet as witness, I was resurrected from the dead!

  "But my resurrection is not a symbol of my victory over death. It is, rather, a symbol of Humankind's victory of life. My resurrection, my release from the chains of death, occurred because the time has at last come for Humankind to break the chains that have bound it, and to claim the glorious future that awaits.

  "Let there be no mistake: the afflictions that have befallen the earth over these past three and a half years have not been accidental or the result of natural disasters. They have been cold, calculated acts of supernatural oppression, enacted through the men John and Cohen, against all Humankind. But John and Cohen did not act alone. They were in fact, merely the conduit for an oppressive, evil force — a spiritual entity whose savage, barbaric, selfish goal has been and continues to be to prevent the human race from fulfilling its destiny and attaining its proper place in the universe.