Acts of God

by James Beauseigneur

  At the very moment Christopher came to the microphone, the attention of the crowd was suddenly drawn to the sky above him. In the nearly cloudless sky there appeared a small point of pulsating white light that grew so quickly it soon dwarfed the entire stage. News crews trained their television cameras on the spectacle as millions marveled at what new wonder Christopher was about to reveal. Had the cameras caught the pique on Christopher's face they would have realized that this was none of his doing.

  Somehow — no one was sure exactly when it happened — the shimmering light took on a familiar form. It was a man; that is, it had the appearance of a man, though it most definitely was not. It was far too large, as tall as any building in the city, and it appeared attired in a long flowing robe of purest white light. Later some swore that it had wings, though far more were certain that it did not, and the film of the event could neither confirm nor deny it.

  Not wasting another moment, Christopher took the microphone. "People of the world, do not fear this apparition!" he declared. "It is a messenger of Yahweh, come to frighten and distract you from your rightful destiny."

  It was all Christopher had time to say before the entity spoke.

  "Fear God and give him glory," it began, "because the hour of his judgment has come." Its voice was like thunder and it spoke in the same universal language that Christopher himself had used in Jerusalem. "Worship him who has made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the springs of water."

  With that the light vanished even more quickly than it had appeared. And though most of the world had seen it on television, the strange being apparently wanted to convey its message personally to the people of earth, with the full impact of its awesome size and voice. In the course of the day it appeared and repeated its message in nearly two thousand cities around the world.

  In New York, Christopher reassured the world that there was nothing to fear. "In this act, Yahweh has revealed his desperation." he told them. "In his demand that we fear him and worship him, he has shown his true nature. We must not fear him for he is not our god. Humankind does not need a god, for we ourselves shall become as gods — bowing to and fearing no one. We must not yield to Yahweh's threats, whether they come from the mouth of an angel or the mouths of the Koum Damah Tatare." This latter reference was to recently stepped-up efforts by the KDT. Though a few KDT had remained in Petra with the tens of thousands of other Israelis, most had returned to the outside world. And despite the best efforts of numerous police organizations, KDT members had become as elusive as their masters, John and Cohen.

  "Yahweh makes his demands, but they are hollow," Christopher said. "Test me and see if my words are not true: wait a week, a month, a year, and you will see that Yahweh will do nothing to enforce his demand for worship. He will not, because he cannot! His demands are empty, his threats are hollow! Yahweh knows that his days are numbered," Christopher continued. "He has seen the evidence in your lives as you approach the beginning of your own self-realized godhood. Humankind does not need Yahweh or any other god. Our only god must be ourselves!"

  March 11 (New Years Day), 2 N.A. (2024 A.D.) — Jerusalem

  As Christopher predicted, Yahweh did nothing to enforce his demand for worship. For a while there was some anxiety as members of the KDT and their allies in a few fundamentalist Christian churches continued their entreaties for worship of Yahweh. If they had the power to do any more than that, they did not use it. Now, on the first New Year's Day of the New Age, nearly five months since the entity appeared in New York, the world was learning to trust what Christopher said.

  Great celebrations were scheduled throughout the world to commemorate this first new year. More than simply offering an adequate replacement for the New Year's celebrations of the old era, this New Year's Day festivities were designed to underscore the reality of the New Age to those who were resistant to change. Television documentaries recounted everything that was known of Christopher's life, and reminded the world of the terrible destruction and death that preceded Christopher's rise to power a year earlier.

  Nowhere was the celebration larger or more enthusiastic than in Jerusalem, the incubator of so much of the world's history and the city from which Christopher had made his declaration of Humankind's independence from Yahweh. It was fitting then, that Jerusalem, and particularly the Temple, should be at the center of the New Year's Day celebration.

  Many things had changed in the year that had passed. Despite pleas by Prime Minister Golda Reiner, the exodus of Jews to Petra in Jordan continued, and although none who went could be convinced to return, at least the flow had dwindled to a mere trickle. Reiner had noticed one rather ironic advantage to their departure in that she found it much less difficult to work with a Knesset void of militant religious partisans. With a more accommodating Israeli government, Jerusalem had become a truly international city, overseen in part by a United Nations administrator and open to all races and nationalities. The same was true of the Temple. No longer was access denied based on nationality or race. All were now free to enter into all parts of the Temple, including the Holy of Holies. The Ark, which remained in its place, was preserved just as Christopher had left it, with its lid askew to remind the world that Christopher had removed the tablets and replaced the laws of Yahweh with a new covenant — a decree that Humankind must pass from the age of adolescence into a New Age of maturity and self-reliance from which would come true justice and freedom for all peoples.

  Christopher, Decker, and Robert Milner arrived in Jerusalem together by helicopter, reminding all of the events of one year ago. But it was more than the celebration of the new year that had brought them to Jerusalem. They had come also to participate in the official dedication of a statue of Christopher which had been commissioned by Robert Milner, paid for by the U.N., and approved by the Israeli government. Although the statue had actually been erected just thirty days after Christopher's Jerusalem address, on the sixth day of the Passover week, Christopher had not been present, so in typical political style, an 'official dedication' had been suggested to both mark the New Year's celebration in a symbolic way and to give a boost to Israel's flagging tourist trade.

  The statue was a slightly-larger-than-life re-creation of Christopher, appropriately placed on the spot where he delivered his Jerusalem address from the Temple's pinnacle, making it clearly visible to all. So that visitors could, in some small way, experience what it was like for those who had actually been in Jerusalem on that day, speakers near the statue broadcast Christopher's Jerusalem address three times a day, at sunrise, noon, and sunset.

  October 24 (United Nations Day), 2 N.A. (2024 A.D.) — Babylon, Iraq

  Little more than nineteen months had passed since the Security Council voted to build a new headquarters complex in Babylon. And yet, here on a site not far from the reconstruction of ancient King Nebuchadnezzar's palace, stood the structurally complete main building of the new headquarters. Much remained to be done inside, and the rest of the nine buildings in the complex were still under construction. Still, United Nations Day came only once a year and it seemed the perfect occasion for dedicating the new structures. The first to move into the main building would be the World Health Organization (WHO) — a decision which had never been fully explained since WHO's offices would ultimately be in another building that was still months from completion. It made little sense to have WHO move into the main building now, just to have to move again when their building was completed in January, but for some reason the decision was important to Christopher, and no one felt it was really worth arguing about.

  The city of Babylon, located on the Hilla branch of the Euphrates, just north of the modern town of Hilla, and 55 miles southwest of Baghdad, is one of the most famous cities of the ancient world. Depending upon whose account is believed, the size of the ancient city ranged from as much as 225 square miles to as little as five square miles. The earliest Greek writings in which Babylon is described are those of Herodotus, who described Babylon as an exact sq
uare, 120 stadia (approximately 14 miles) on each side, located on a broad plain. Babylon's historic rise to regional importance came in the third millennium B.C. when the course of the Euphrates river shifted westward away from the ancient Sumerian city ofKish. Since that time there have been five well-defined periods of Babylonian history. Old Babylon, the capital city from which Hammurabi and his successors ruled, was almost entirely destroyed by the Assyrian king Sennacherib in 689 B.C. Within about a decade Sennacherib's son and successor, Esarhaddon, built a new city on the same site, but it too was destroyed by revolution and siege. Later, from 626 to 562 B.C. Nabopolassar and his son Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt Babylon and brought it to its greatest glory. It was during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar that the city's massive walls and the Hanging Gardens (two of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) were constructed. In 275 B.C. the inhabitants of the city were moved to the new city ofSeleucia on the Tigris River, thus bringing the ancient history of Babylon to a close.

  Beginning in the 1970s, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who considered himself a twentieth century version of Nebuchadnezzar, spent hundreds of millions of dollars from the sale of oil to rebuild the city as a monument — ostensibly to the Iraqi people, but more accurately to himself. Millions of bricks used to build the city bear his name, and plaques on nearly every corner bear the silhouetted relief image of both Nebuchadnezzar and Hussein.

  Now, a year and a half after the madness decimated the region, the only Iraqis left to inhabit the city were immigrants returning home from abroad. There was no shortage of other inhabitants, however, as more than 38,800 engineers and construction workers poured into the city to work on the many building projects. Together with the workers' families and another 9200 or so additional support personnel, the population of Babylon came to nearly 55,000 people, making it a bustling metropolis compared to the rest of Iraq and the surrounding countries which, except for Israel, were all but uninhabited. Ironically, considering the history of hostility between the two countries, nearly a sixth of the people now in Iraq were Israelis. But this was the new Iraq which, like the new Israel, was under United Nations control and open to all races and nationalities.

  Christopher Goodman, together with an entourage of reporters, had begun the day with a tour of the city, followed by speeches by a host of dignitaries from around the world who praised Christopher's leadership and offered accolades for all who had been involved in the new U.N. headquarters project. Amid great cheers, Christopher himself praised the human spirit which, by this project "had proven itself supreme and unyielding to the whims of spiritual oppressors." As millions listened and watched around the world, he recalled the city's historical and spiritual significance. Repeating what he had articulated to the gathering of New Age leaders at the United Nations, he noted, "It was near here that the first Theatan ship landed more than four billion years ago, and life on earth began. It was near this spot, in Eden, that Humankind first declared its independence from Yahweh. It was in this very place," he added, "that Humankind first came together in peace to work as one united people in the construction of a great city and the magnificent Tower of Babel, before being dispersed by the despotic Yahweh. And," Christopher said, completing his brief history lesson, "tragically, it was not far from here that Yahweh, in perhaps his crudest act against Humankind, released the madness that led to the brutal slaughter of one-third of the planet's population." Christopher concluded by noting that the decision by the United Nations to build its new headquarters in Babylon had sealed for all time Humankind's emancipation from Yahweh's rule.

  After his speech, Christopher held up an oversized pair of scissors and prepared to cut a wide red ribbon which had been stretched across the entrance to the new headquarters. It may have been the second year of the New Age, but some traditions would never change and Christopher had accepted the role of ribbon-cutter with good humor.

  Aided by Robert Milner because of his crippled arm, Christopher reached out to cut the ribbon when suddenly someone in the back of the crowd cried out, "Look!"

  It took a moment for the rest of those gathered to understand, but then everyone saw. Directly above the new structure, a shimmering light was growing and taking shape, much like the one that appeared a year before over Central Park in New York.

  "Fallen, Fallen is Babylon the Great, which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries!" it said. And then, after repeating its message, it vanished.

  As before, the entire event was captured by television cameras and transmitted throughout the globe. And again, in order to convey its message to the people of earth personally, the angel appeared and repeated its message in nearly two thousand cities around the world.

  In Babylon all eyes and cameras shifted back to Christopher. For a brief moment there was silence and then, very much unlike his reaction to the first angel, Christopher began to laugh. It was an infectious laugh and though they weren't sure why, many of those watching began to laugh as well. For what seemed nearly a minute, Christopher laughed heartily and shook his head as if in disbelief over what he had just witnessed. "Well, one thing is for certain," Christopher said, finally, "Yahweh really knows how to steal the spotlight!" Now everyone laughed.

  "But his theatrics will not frighten us," Christopher continued. Then, looking skyward and shaking his one good fist towards heaven, he shouted at Yahweh, "You will not succeed in frightening us! Humankind will not bend its knee to you or any other tyrant ever again!"

  Several thousand fists now raised with Christopher's in defiance as a spontaneous roar of cheers from the crowd resonated through the city.

  "Yahweh knows," Christopher said, turning back to the crowd, "that by building a new U.N. headquarters here in Babylon, Humankind is delivering an unmistakable slap in his face. With each passing day he grows more and more desperate as he feels his grip on the earth slipping away." Again the people cheered. "In his desperation," Christopher continued, "he foolishly attempts to frighten us, even though by doing so he makes himself a laughingstock.

  "Look around," Christopher told them, "Babylon is not fallen as Yahweh's driveling minion has proclaimed so loudly: Babylon stands! And it will continue to stand long after Yahweh is forced to abandon his fraudulent claim on this planet!"

  Then, reaching out with the ceremonial scissors, Christopher and Milner cut the ribbon to thunderous applause and cheers, and the new headquarters building of the United Nations was officially opened.

  As before, the KDT and a small, vocal, and apparently growing number of fundamentalist Christians attempted to drive a wedge of doubt and fear between the people and Christopher, claiming that the fall of Babylon spoken of by the angel referred not to the present, but was a warning about the near future.

  10:35 a.m., February 3, 2 N.A. (2025 A.D.) Headquarters, Babylon, Iraq

  U.N.

  Decker Hawthorne sat eating a late breakfast at a corner table in the new U.N. dining room. Looking up from the empty plate where once there had been a Belgian waffle and lots of bacon, he saw Christopher coming toward him, smiling. Decker waved and smiled back. "Have you had breakfast?" Decker asked.

  "I had a donut in my office," Christopher answered, and then got straight to the reason he was there. Still standing, he leaned down over the table and spoke quietly so that no one else could hear. "Would you like to see the secret of eternal life?" he whispered.

  Decker raised his eyebrows. "The communion?" he asked, using Christopher's terminology from almost two years ago.

  Christopher nodded.

  "I already know about it," Decker said, feigning disinterest.

  "What? How?" Christopher gasped in surprise.

  "I was once a reporter, you know."

  Christopher pulled out a chair and sat down, looking a little deflated. "I thought it was such a well-kept secret," he said, shaking his head. "We took every precaution." For a moment Christopher just stared at Decker, and then they both smiled. "So how much do you know?" he asked.

/>   "Not that much, really," Decker admitted. "I know that there's some big hush-hush project going on at WHO," he said, referring to the World Health Organization. "I also know that you've said this 'communion' is supposed to dramatically extend the human lifespan. My guess," Decker said, studying Christopher's face for a response that might confirm his suspicion, "is that WHO has been working on something similar to what your Uncle Harry was doing before he died."

  "You're pretty close," Christopher said, "but that's not exactly it. What Uncle Harry was working on was actually far more complicated. What he didn't realize was that there is a much easier way to accomplish what he was after."

  "What do you mean?" Decker asked, leaning forward and finally showing how interested he really was.

  "Decker, I know it's been a long time, but do you remember when we were at the refugee camp in Sahiwdi, Pakistan about five years ago?" Decker nodded. "On our last day there, I was in my tent and you came looking for me. When you found me, I told you that I had seen the death of one who sought to avoid death's grip."

  Decker nodded as he recalled the events. "That was the day Secretary-General Hansen was killed in the plane crash."

  "But there was also someone else in my vision:" Christopher continued, "one who sought to accept death's release." Christopher shrugged and shook his head as he spoke. "I really didn't understand it then. If you had asked me about it at the time, I'm not sure what I would have said, but I understand it now. It was John." Decker knew immediately that Christopher referred to Yochanan bar Zebadee, the Apostle John.

  "I told you once that when I was crucified John was the only one of the apostles who came to see me. At first I thought he came to ask forgiveness for betraying me, but of course he had not. But he hadn't come just to mock me, either," Christopher explained. "Do you remember the legend of the Holy Grail?"