Acts of God

by James Beauseigneur

  The General gave a command which the translator did not relay but which obviously was calling the soldiers to 'at-ease.' He then began in earnest.

  "As you are no doubt aware," the translator relayed, "over the next four weeks most of you will be deployed to the Middle East for what we believe will be a relatively short, but strategically critical mission. I am certain that all of you will perform in a manner that will bring honor to this battalion and to France. As you know, each of you has recently acquired certain abilities which Secretary-General Goodman has said will be vital to the coming conflict."

  lan and his companions had been weeks without communication from the outside and so were unaware of the three signs. Nor had they received the benefit of the signs themselves except that most had not gotten the sores since receiving the mark, and of those who had, the lesions were only minor. As a result they did not understand the nature of the recently acquired abilities to which the General referred.

  "It is no secret that our strategy will be to bring down the walls of Petra upon our enemies. We anticipate, however, that some will escape the destruction. Mr. Warren Sardon," the General continued as he motioned toward the younger man in civilian clothes, "who has just arrived from U.N. headquarters in Babylon, has come to demonstrate how your new abilities can be used when dealing with the KDT in a one-on-one situation. I have not seen this myself," the General added, "so I'm looking forward to this as much as the rest of you." The General stepped away from the lectern and Sardon approached.

  "Thank you, General Sonnier," Sardon said. "I'm sure you won't be disappointed." Then turning to the troops, he began. "With the help of the volunteers behind me," he said, obviously referring to lan and the others. "We will. .."

  Sardon continued speaking but lan did not hear him. His words no longer mattered. There was now no doubt: lan knew he was about to die.

  The man stopped speaking and signaled to the guards to bring forward one of lan's companions. "Now, like the rest of you," Sardon continued, addressing the soldiers, "I'd much rather do this to one of the KDT, but since we don't have any KDT available," he joked, "these men and women have agreed to help us with our demonstration. For those who may feel uneasy with this, let me note that all of these volunteers were

  until recently in collaboration with the fundamentalists. While they did accept the communion and the mark rather than face execution, we and they have concluded that for their own betterment, they should be freed of the negative memories of this lifetime and be allowed to convey into their next incarnation with a clean slate."

  The guards went directly to the man who had vomited. "No! No!" he cried, as they pulled him to the front.

  "It appears our first volunteer is having second thoughts," Sardon said with a smile. The man was dragged weeping to a point about six feet to Sardon's left on the stage. To silence him, one of the guards finally held a gun to his head. "Can everyone see okay?" Sardon asked. When he was satisfied all could see, he continued. "In the technique I'm about to demonstrate I'm going to use both telekinetic power and, to aid in concentration, I will use my hand in a corresponding physical action. While it is not necessary to use the physical aid, it is recommended, at least at first." With this, Sardon stepped away from the lectern, turned and faced the still whimpering 'volunteer,' and extended his right hand slightly. Concentrating as he visualized the man's heart, he began to close the fingers of his extended hand and twisted slowly to the right. The volunteer abruptly ceased both his whimpering and his breathing as his face convulsed into a grotesque expression of pain. He would have collapsed altogether, but Sardon now used his telekinetic ability to hold him up so that no one would miss the demonstration. Sardon squeezed his fingers and continued the twisting action back and forth, as the man's head was thrown back, his body went limp, and blood began to pour from his mouth. Finally, when the man was obviously dead, Sardon released his telekinetic grip and let the body drop onto the stage.

  It was an impressive display and General Sonnier could not help but applaud, which let the soldiers know it was all right to do likewise. Sardon appreciated the show of approval. "Now," he said, when the applause died down, "while we'd like to provide each of you with an opportunity to try this yourselves, we unfortunately have a limited number of volunteers. What we're going to do then is select. Let's see . . ." he said, interrupting himself long enough to turn and count how many 'volunteers' he had,".. . eighteen, nineteen. Just nineteen?" he asked disappointedly, to no one in particular. "Okay," he continued, turning back to the troops, "we'll select nineteen of you to come up and try it yourselves one at a time. I'll stay here to comment and offer direction so that the rest of you can benefit from watching, even if you can't try it yourself."

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Dayenu

  6:35 p.m., Saturday, August 29,4 N.A. — Babylon

  Thirteen-year-old Akbctr Jahangir peered from behind a pile of boxes and wooden pallets in the alley as the back door swung open and a woman emerged carrying a large black garbage bag. There was no telling what was inside but it had been two days since he, his mother, and his little sister had eaten and he could only pray it contained some scraps of food. He would have had a better chance of finding food in the garbage behind one of the restaurants but those places were more likely to be watched by the police. He knew people who had been arrested in such places. He and his mother assumed that was what had happened to his father. No one was sure. One day his father and another man went to try to find food and they simply didn't come back.

  As the woman went back inside and the door closed tight, Akbar looked all around and then made a dash for the trash can. Attempting to be both silent and quick, he removed the lid and grabbed the bag. He would not examine its contents until he was better hidden, somewhere where he was certain that no one would see that he did not bear the mark.

  Sunday, August 30, 4 N.A. — Petra

  "I apologize for taking so long to arrive," Benjamin Cohen said as Samuel Newberg introduced him to Chaim Levin, Israel's High Priest, "but I was in Jerusalem when I got the message that you wanted to see me."

  Having finished the introductions, Newberg started to leave. "Please, Sam," the High Priest said to his assistant and long-time friend, "stay." Then turning to his guest, "If that's okay with you."

  "Certainly," Cohen said. And with that the three men sat down on wooden chairs around a table at which Rose Levin had set a pitcher of water, a bowl of strawberries, and a plate of manna cookies.

  "Jerusalem, you said?" Levin's implied question was how Cohen, a member of the KDT, could have gone to Jerusalem and not been arrested. As soon as he said it, he realized it really didn't need explaining; the KDT had their ways.

  "The Lord provides," Cohen answered anyway.

  Levin nodded, then after an uncomfortable pause, he pointed at Cohen with his little finger. "I knew your father," he said.

  "I know," responded Cohen.

  "We both trained under Rebbe Schneerson. We were never very close," Levin added. "Your father was five years older than I — but I believe we respected one another."

  "He always spoke very highly of you," Cohen said. "He was pleased when you became High Priest."

  Levin did not respond but raised his left eyebrow, smiled appreciatively, and nodded. After all these years, it was nice to know.

  "How can I serve you?" Cohen asked.

  Levin looked at the marking on Benjamin Cohen's forehead: the Hebrew letters spelling out the name Yeshua.

  "You know," he began, "I grew up hating Christians. My mother told me I shouldn't hate; but I had heard her weeping in the night. During the second World War she spent two years in Belsen" he explained, referring to the Nazi death camp. "She weighed seventy-two pounds when the Allies liberated the camp. I blamed the Christians for what the Nazis did to the Jews, and most Christians I met when I was young did little to change my opinion. I had to adjust my thinking, though, when I met my wife. Her parents had also lived in Germany — near Wur
zburg. They spent most of the war hiding above the garage of a Christian family who risked their lives to protect them from the Nazis. I did not understand it then, but in time I came to realize that evil people — people like Hitler and the Nazis — frequently attempt to clothe themselves in righteous garments to hide their true nature. I also realized that not all who claim Christ actually follow his teachings. And I suppose it occurred to me that if I blamed all Christians for the acts of some, then I as a Jew must accept blame for every act of every Jew, all the way back to Jacob for deceiving Isaac and stealing Esau's birthright, as well as for the deaths of the prophets at the hands of my ancestors. Neither of us, Jews or Gentiles, exactly has a spotless record."

  "They are my ancestors, too," Cohen interjected.

  Levin nodded, "Yes, but . . ." His reference to 'my' ancestors was not intended to imply otherwise. He knew the KDT considered themselves Jewish and even followed all the laws and traditions — were it not so, he would never have allowed Cohen to sit at his table — but in truth, he did still question how a person could be a Christian and be a Jew.

  "I sit before you a Jew," Cohen insisted, "nothing more and nothing less. When my father studied under Rebbe Schneerson he believed Schneerson was the Messiah," Cohen said.

  "As did I, as did thousands of his followers," Levin added.

  "Did that make them, or my father, or you, not a Jew?"

  Levin did not answer. It was a rhetorical question.

  "And yet Rebbe Schneerson never even set foot in Israel, much less was he bora in Bethlehem, the city of David, as the prophet Micah said Messiah would be.92 So how is it that if a person believes that Yeshua — a Jew of the house of David, born in Bethlehem — was Messiah, they suddenly stop being a Jew?"

  Levin had heard the argument before. He knew it made sense, but despite himself, despite even the purpose of this meeting, he was still uneasy with it. "For three and a half years," Levin said, letting Cohen's question pass, "we have been here together — we Jews and you KDT and your Chris . . ." Levin caught himself. "What do you prefer they be called?"

  "Christians is fine," Cohen answered, "but many prefer 'Jewish Believers' to distinguish themselves as believers in Yeshua as Messiah, while making it clear that they are still Jews."

  Levin nodded and restated the question. "For three and a half years we have been here in Petra together — we Jews and you KDT and your Jewish Believers — and yet none of you have ever come to call, ever come trying to convince me that we are wrong about your messiah. Why?"

  Benjamin Cohen thought for a second before answering. "What could we tell you that you do not already know?" he asked. "Shall I tell you of the signs given by John and my father? Shall I tell you how, after lying dead in the streets of Jerusalem for three and a half days, they were resurrected and taken into heaven as the whole world watched? Should I explain how Christopher Goodman's speech at the Temple and the setting up of his image exactly fulfill the words of the prophet Daniel? Or would you have me show you the evidence of God's blessing on what we do — the manna and the fruit of the harvest from what had been a barren wilderness," he said as he pointed with open hands to the cookies and berries on the table.

  "We know that no one could perform such miraculous signs if God were not with him," Chaim Levin immediately volunteered.

  "Then shall I read to you the words of the prophets: Daniel, who said Messiah would come 483 years after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity. Jeremiah, who said Messiah would be of the house of David. Micah, who said Messiah would be bom in Bethlehem in Judah, and yet his origin was from days of eternity. Shall I quote for you Isaiah, who said Messiah would be called Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace; that his ministry would begin in Galilee, that he would perform numerous miracles; that though he had done nothing wrong, he would be tried, and at his trial Messiah would not defend himself, but would be led as a lamb, silent to the slaughter; that he would be pierced for our sins and crushed for our iniquities; but that after his death he would be resurrected; and that what Messiah had done and said would be told throughout the world for generation after generation, forever. Or should I read to you the words of Zechariah, who said Messiah would come into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, and would be betrayed by a friend for thirty pieces of silver. Or shall I appeal to King David, who described Messiah's death in detail a thousand years before crucifixion was first used — the taunting of the crowds, the casting of lots for his clothing — and who also said that Messiah would be resurrected."

  Sam Newberg, who had until now remained silent, finally spoke. "How could it be," he asked with some urgency, "if all that you say is true, that our fathers could have rejected him?"

  "I'm afraid," Cohen answered, "we Jews have quite a history of rejecting the ones God has sent to rescue us. Did not our fathers reject their brother Joseph and sell him into slavery because his dreams said they would all bow to him someday? And yet, years later, in accordance with God's will, they did bow to him and he rescued them from famine. Moses was rejected at first, too. He fled Egypt and went into the Sinai for forty years before he returned to free Israel from Pharaoh. But again we rejected him.111 And even when Moses had freed them from Egypt, our fathers rejected him as their deliverer twelve more times. Twice they were ready to stone him But it wasn't just Moses that they had rejected; Moses said that their grumblings were actually against God. Did not our fathers reject both Moses and God and build for themselves a graven image — a golden calf— to worship? Even Aaron and Miriam rejected Moses' leadership.

  "At the Passover in the song Dayenu, we sing that we would have been satisfied 'if he had merely rescued us from Egypt, but had not punished the Egyptians; if he had merely punished the Egyptians, but had not destroyed their gods; if he had merely destroyed their gods, but had not slain their first bom...' But it's a lie. We only fool ourselves. It should have been enough, but even after all the things God did for us, still we did not cease in our rebellion. Did not the Lord say of us through the prophet Isaiah:

  All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, -who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations — a people who continually provoke me to my very face.. . who say, 'Keep away; don't come near me, for I am too sacred for you!

  "Is not the whole of the Bible the history of our rebellion . . . and of God's forgiveness?

  "Moses said that from the day they left Egypt our fathers were rebellious against the Lord. Twice God would have destroyed all of Israel except that Moses pleaded with him not to. Did not Aaron," Cohen said looking at Levin, "whose spiritual robes you wear, say of our fathers 'these people are prone to evil'? And did not God himself call us a stiff-necked people?

  "And did we not reject and rebel against God when, though he had blessed us with his law, we went our own way time and again, breaking his law and bringing his wrath down upon us?

  "Is it any surprise then, that when God sent the Messiah, our fathers — and we — rejected him, too? Indeed, it would have been out of character for us to have done otherwise.

  "And just as Joseph, when he was rejected by his brothers, saved the Egyptians first and then his own family, so also Yeshua, when he was rejected by our fathers, turned his attention to the salvation of the Gentiles. As it is written, I will call them 'my people' who are not my people. And now, at last, the time has come for the salvation of Israel."

  "You make us sound pretty awful," Samuel Newberg said.

  "No worse than we are, but perhaps still not as bad as the Gentiles. Only God knows. And yet, despite it all, God has told us through Moses that we are a people holy to the LORD, whom God has chosen out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. It is just as you said," Cohen noted, recalling Levin's comment, "neither we nor the Gentiles have a very good record. Both of us require God's forgiveness."

  Chaim Levin folded his hands in thought. For a long moment no one spoke. Finally Cohen added
, "In truth, I can tell you nothing that you do not already know. I cannot make your decision any easier. I cannot convince you further. Indeed, I suspect there is nothing of which to convince you. You know the truth. You have for some time."

  The High Priest took a deep breath and let it out slowly, staring deeply into Cohen's eyes as he considered what he had heard.

  "The question is no longer one of finding the truth," Cohen concluded, "but of finding the courage to face the truth you have found."

  Chaim Levin frowned and thought and nodded, and then thought and nodded some more. Newberg and Benjamin Cohen waited silently. "I am not familiar with your book," Levin said finally. "What do the Christian prophets say must be done?"

  "The answer," Cohen said, shaking his head, "is not in the Christian prophets. Look instead to the words of Zechariah:

  I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.

  Thursday, September 3, 4 N.A. — Megiddo, Israel

  The red light on the camera came on, indicating that the feed was live to the network.

  "Armageddon," the reporter began ominously, "a word that has struck terror in the hearts of Humankind for nearly two thousand years: a word that has become synonymous with the end of the world. This is Jane Reed, reporting from the ruins of the ancient city of Megiddo above the Valley of Jezreel in Israel. It is from this mountain, on which this ancient city is built — the mountain of Megiddo or, in the Hebrew Har-Mageddon — that the apocalyptic 'Armageddon' takes its name.