But John stopped him from opening the door. “Henry, the question you asked me, about whether or not it’s possible for his seed to be redeemed… I disappeared from his mirrors the same time that my dreams stopped.”
A small smile tugged the corner of Henry’s mouth. “Come on,” he said. And he opened the door.
****
Chadwick shook his head in utter fascination. “I just can’t believe it,” he said to John. “What you’re describing… it’s like the Dendera Zodiac in the Hathor Temple.” He was responding to John’s description of the holographic zodiac in Osiris’ temple.
John leaned back against the wall, his eyes growing weary and longing for relief. “There were these strange lights… If I didn’t know better, I’d say they were light bulbs, wires going into the walls.”
Chadwick looked up from whatever invisible analytic exercise his mind was enraptured by and looked at John with yet another expression of unbelief. “That is exactly what you saw,” he stated.
Paul leaned forward. “What do you mean? It’s a stone temple, there’s no electricity.”
“Egyptian drawings show men holding glass-like bulbs with wires connected to some kind of box on the ground, like glow sticks or primeval flashlights. Some believe it’s how hieroglyphics were able to be made inside small, dark places without torches leaving behind burn marks on the walls and ceilings.”
Henry gingerly touched the stitches on his forehead. “The mysterious technologies of prehistory…”
Paul snickered.
Hunter leaned over onto his side and yawned. They were all tired, and the revelation that Jackson was one of Osiris’ offspring — something that could finally explain his strange behavior — was taking its time settling within their fragile sense of understanding. Sleep offered the only relief from this nightmare, and it was coveted by all of them.
“I saw a show on the History Channel about ancient technologies,” Hunter whispered, rubbing his eyes. “Analogue computers, batteries, microscopic engraving, mechanical clocks, surgical equipment…”
Paul laughed condescendingly. “So the circles are actually transporters run on batteries and operated by a surgeon stationed at a computer!”
Hunter’s yawn passed to Henry. “We know the ancients had a way to make aluminum because we’ve found ancient artifacts composed of it — the aluminum girdle Chow Chu was buried in.”
“Gesundheit,” Paul replied flatly while rolling onto his back and closing his eyes.
Henry smiled. “Unless you have a way to generate electricity, you can’t refine the ore that contains aluminum.”
“Okay, so they have electricity.”
Chadwick took his glasses off and wiped the lenses on his shirt before holding them up to the burning flame and examining his work. “In 1991, a mummified man found in the Italian Alps was dated over five thousand years old. And not only was he found covered in tattoos that were located near the precise acupuncture points treating his osteoarthrosis, but he also had a ninety-nine percent pure copper axe — thousands of years before the Bronze Age.” He slid his glasses back on. “Other ancient pictures suggest medically advanced procedures like heart transplants.”
“I saw that,” said Hunter.
“Stone blocks in the Valley Temple were hollowed out by what could only be some kind of ultrasonic drill, the marks in the hole showing a rate of 1/10th of an inch per revolution, which would obviously be impossible to perform by hand. There’s vitrified sand deposits in India that were produced from an unknown source of extreme heat, though Indian mythology says huge explosions erupted from a battle that was fought there. It seems the Egyptians knew how to electroplate, since the gold on many of their statues is too fine to have been beaten or glued—”
“What’s your point?” Paul interrupted.
“My point is that if we go to war with these people, we can’t simply plan on being shot at with arrows. We have no idea what kind of technology or magic they have at their disposal. God only knows what they’re capable of.”
“All the forbidden secrets of heaven,” John mumbled, his eyes ensnared by a dancing flame.
Paul put his hands behind his head. “And what’s supposed to have happened to all this ‘advanced’ technology?”
“It was destroyed by the Flood, kept at bay ever since,” Henry answered.
“What do you mean, ‘kept at bay’?”
“Well, let’s assume that the center of this advanced civilization was an island like the legends say. Whether Mu or Atlantis or whether Antarctica or one of the underwater sites in the Pacific or Atlantic, the island itself is obviously inaccessible. If it’s Antarctica, which a lot of research suggest was Atlantis — at one point higher north, before the end of the ice age shifted the poles and caused the earth’s crust to move — then whatever secrets it holds, whatever forbidden wisdom the angels had taught mankind, is buried under miles of ice and sealed from prying eyes.”
John rubbed his forehead. “But what about the maps? They would’ve had to have been made before the Flood.”
“Exactly,” Chadwick interjected. “It seems that some unknown people in the distant past were actually more advanced in geodesy, natural sciences, and mapmaking than any known culture that existed before the 18th century. The Vedic hymns suggest a familiarity with the geography of polar regions, and so do the scriptures of India, Persia, and Zendavesta. Just like Jason and the Argonauts, it appears there were ancient navigators sailing the seas and charting the world in prehistoric times.”
Henry added, “Some of the maps have Antarctica at their center, meaning that, to those who drew the maps, it was the navel of the world at the time.”
Chadwick began thinking aloud. “God sunk it and buried the secrets of heaven from the world for the rest of time. The only traces of it are found in whatever the Atlantis priests were able to plant in other civilizations, hidden in their mythologies and monuments.” The statement was delivered with a sense of puzzlement, like it was a conclusion just arrived at. “It fits,” he said, looking up. “The Book of Enoch and the story of the fallen angels is the perfect commentary on prehistory. It explains where and how such a body of knowledge came into man’s possession. It was always the big mystery, why we couldn’t find any evidence of technological evolution, of a progression within the texts. The math, the astronomy, the calendars, the systems of worship — they all just appeared on man’s timeline fully formed…”
After a quiet moment, Henry shifted. “And it makes you wonder what’s been behind many of our own technological advances. Especially when you consider how many of our greatest scientists and inventors were involved in the Occult.”
“Okay,” Paul said, moving to an elbow. “So God destroys the world and everything the angels did with a flood. But Johnny said that this Osiris guy claims to be from after the flood. So why didn’t things get as bad the second time around?”
“They will,” John said calmly. “God’ll destroy the world again.”
“Whatever. I’m saying, why didn’t it work the second time like it did the first?”
John recalled his conversation with Osiris. “Because God established the Law, which prevented Israel from being contaminated by that stuff.”
“And the wars,” Chadwick added.
“You mean like David and Goliath?” Hunter asked.
“Yeah,” Henry said, “like Goliath. By the time of Abraham, giants had already populated large portions of the Middle East. And it wasn’t until nine hundred years later that Moses and Joshua finally managed to defeat most of them. But a remnant survived, showing up five hundred years later in the time of David.”
“Can I see your Bible?” Chadwick asked John.
“Sure.” He took it out of his faithful bag and tossed it to him.
Beneath the flame’s shifting light, he paged through the water-stained Book, his finger tracing downward over the sacred text. “‘The Emites used to live there — a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the
Anakites. Like the Anakites, they too were considered Rephaite…’ Deuteronomy, chapter two.” He flipped to another verse. “‘In still another battle, which took place at Gath, there was a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot — twenty-four in all. He also was descended from Rapha…’ Second Samuel twenty-one.
“And then there’s Deuteronomy three—” he turned to it as he talked, “—and the King of Bashan’s sixty giant cities. ‘We completely destroyed them, as we had done with Sihon king of Heshbon, destroying every city — men, women and children… Only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaites. His bed was made of iron and was more than thirteen feet long and six feet wide. It is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites…’ The whole region of Argob in Bashan used to be known as a land of the Rephaites. The ruins of the Giant Cities of Bashan are still viewable today,” Chadwick said. “I’ve seen them myself.” He closed the Bible and sat forward. “I’ve seen the Valley of the Rephaim, too — a three-mile-long valley along the road to Bethlehem. And the ruins in Baalbek.
“Archeological evidence is clear that giants roamed free in the Promised Land, just as the Ras Samra Texts that were discovered in 1928 had suggested. Even the Jewish historian, Josephus, tells of the war the Israelites fought to wipe the giants out of the Promised Land. But after seven years of fighting, Joshua became content with ridding the Anakim from only most of the land. Some remained in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod and later joined with the Philistines. Some think they were the giants that would eventually migrate north and into Europe.”
“This is all in the Bible?” Hunter asked.
Chadwick nodded. “There’s plenty more. The Old Testament is filled with references of Israel’s conflict with the Anakim and Rephaim.”
John had to admit that he never paid much attention to such references and, as the Christian in the group, was a little embarrassed that he was just as lost on the subject as Hunter and Paul. In light of his experience in this place and the revelation that Israel’s wars were fought against the offspring of angels, he found himself developing an entirely new perspective on the Old Testament.
Hunter shifted on the palmetto-thatched matt. “So the angels began teaching mankind their secret arts again, but this time God used Israel as a means of containing and eradicating it?”
Henry said, “Yeah. It wasn’t just the giants that were killed, but the Law of God forbade the Jewish people from any interaction with the practices of the heathens, practices apparently handed down from the fallen angels. So rather than eight people on the planet being found righteous within their genealogy, God was now working with an entire nation. For example—” he motioned for Chadwick to toss him the Bible, and he opened it up to the book of Leviticus. “—God tells Moses here that if anyone sacrifices their children to Molech, then they should be stoned to death. And if anyone turns a blind eye to the practice, then that person and all of his family was to be cut off from His people. Then he says, ‘I will set my face against the person who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostitute himself by following them, and I will cut him off from his people.’” He went to the back of the Bible, found something in the concordance, and flipped to a section in Deuteronomy. “‘Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord.’
“In Second Kings, there’s the record of how Manasseh followed the ‘detestable’ practices of pagan nations. He rebuilt the ‘high places’ his father had destroyed, erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole. He built altars to all the starry hosts and worshipped them, sacrificed his own son, practiced sorcery and divination, consulted mediums and spiritists, and even placed the Asherah pole in the Temple. So God told the prophets that He was going to wipe Israel clean with such great disaster that the ears of all who heard of it would tingle.”
“So even Israel needed purging from the secret arts?” Hunter asked.
But Chadwick was still trying to figure things out for himself, arranging puzzle pieces in his mind. “The Asherah pole, the high places, altars to starry hosts… All probably megalithic monuments. The ‘sacred stone of Baal’ that Ahab made was an obelisk.” He asked for the Bible back and took a minute to find a verse of his own. “‘Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole and do not erect a sacred stone, for these the Lord your God hates.’ I forget where, I think in First Kings somewhere, it talks about Judah setting up high places and sacred stones.” He was flipping through the pages frantically, his words coming out rapid and intense. “The Hebrew word that’s used — matstsebah — indicates a pillar, a monolith. Here, Isaiah twenty-seven. ‘When he makes all the altar stones to be like chalk stones crushed to pieces, no Asherah poles or incense altars will be left standing.’ And in Second Chronicles…” He turned as fast as he could, his eyes moving back and forth. “‘Under his direction the altars of Baal were torn down; he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them, and smashed the Asherah poles, the idols and the images. These he broke to pieces and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. He burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and so he purged Judah and Jerusalem.’” He paused. “I never made the connection before, the Old Testament and God’s command to destroy the Zep Tepi monuments.”
More silent moments passed before John recalled something interesting that Osiris told him. He decided to try it on Chadwick, to see what it might mean, if anything. “The angel told me that his name isn’t really Osiris, that he just borrowed the name from the real pre-Flood deity in order to continue his work in Egypt.”
Chadwick stared at him, thinking.
“He said it saved him a lot of time, building off the real Osiris’ legacy rather than having to begin a brand new one himself.”
Chadwick nodded slowly. “It makes things a little less complicated, actually. Two fallen angels representing the same deity from both sides of the Flood… That would explain some of the discrepancies in the accounts of Osiris and First Time, whether the Sages built after the Flood in order to reflect back on First Time and the reign of Osiris, or whether Osiris re-established First Time after the Flood…” He fell into silence.
John began thinking through some other New Testament passages that he was more familiar with, about demons and evil spirits. “What if the spirits of the Nephilim are the ones the New Agers are channeling? What if that’s how all this forbidden knowledge is starting to make a comeback, why the Occult is growing so popular?” He grew silent, mulling through the idea. “The end of the age, the dawn of Aquarius, the New Order of the Ages…”
“What are you talking about?” Paul moaned.
“I’m talking about the book of Revelation. I’m talking about the end times being just like the days of Noah.” He maneuvered onto his back as his words hung suspended in the silent air above them.
****
What makes you think there’ll be a war?” Chadwick asked.
It was morning now, and they were still in the cave.
“Because,” John explained, “Osiris feels threatened by us. We know the exact date he’s planning to escape. These people were left alone in the caves because attacking them would mean a lot of casualties. He couldn’t afford casualties; he needed his giants busy building, not fighting. But now his sites are nearly complete, and he’s about to get out of here. And he has an army of creatures that he can’t take with him…”
Chadwick swore under his breath. “What do we do?”
“We need to talk to them, make sure they understand what’s coming.”
“How long do you think we could hold them off from here?” Hunter wondered.
Paul shook his head. “Not long enough. If they break through, we’ll use all our ammo in the first twenty minutes. And, from what they told me, there’s no way out of here. The water’s over fifty feet deep, and
the passageway to the ocean is three miles long. We’ll be trapped.”
“So then this is it for them. There’s nowhere to hide. They have to fight.” Henry looked saddened by this. “A lot of them are going to die.”
“He’ll be coming soon. He’ll want us out of the way well before the solstice.” John pulled his windbreaker on. “So we have two choices. We destroy his site and condemn him to this place for another few hundred years, possibly condemning ourselves here at the same time, or we let him finish his site and find a way to use it ourselves.”
“Assuming it works,” Henry replied. “I’m not sure the angel even knows what’ll happen. He sure didn’t think using it the first time would send him here. We could end up…” He shrugged. “Who knows?”
John looked him in the eye and asked him again, “Would you rather spend the rest of your life here?”
“Fine,” he said in surrender, “I’ll go get the leaders.” And he left the room.
Hunter sighed. “What do you think the last piece of his puzzle is?”
“I have no idea,” said Chadwick.
John zipped his jacket. “Maybe we should keep a lookout, patrol the coasts. See what he’s planning.”
Paul smiled as he stretched. “First we need to find out how we’re going to win this war.”
****
John was sitting alone about thirty yards from the cave, his mind twisted in knots. He was staring up through the swaying trees, the Bible open on his lap. There was a war that was coming, and he was once again faced with the moral dilemma it presented. He had promised God that he would never raise a hand against another human being again, his understanding of New Testament Christianity completely opposed to force of any kind. But this place… Was redemption possible for this enemy, or was it God’s will for them to wipe out such wickedness as it had been during the days of Abraham, Moses, and David? But he kept thinking back to the annihilation of the Native Americans, to the “Christians” who believed the land was their own, granted to them by God, that the Indians were just Canaanites occupying their “Promised Land” and begging for extermination. And perhaps the eradication of the indigenous species could be seen as a form of judgment on a people engaged in such pagan rituals as had been condemned by God in the Old Testament, but John also knew that missionaries led many Indians to Christ, which showed they were not unredeemable and that Christ apparently did wish to save them. The “church” wiped out most of the central Americans, too, giving them the choice of conversion, slavery, or death. And again, even if such methods were to eradicate the revival of demonic doctrines, John certainly couldn’t think of a New Testament principal that would justify slaughtering people of any kind. And so his dilemma stood as such: was his belief in the teachings of Christ and the strict purity of God’s standard prior to Christ able to coexist within such a world as this? He couldn’t seem to find an excuse to kill again. Even if it was Goliath he would be slaying.
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