The design of the Temple was the result of numerous compromises between politicians, religious leaders, and the builders. The religious leaders had been split between those who insisted on the design laid out in the vision of the prophet Ezekiel[83] and those who wanted something closer to the design of Herod’s Temple. The politicians were divided, as politicians usually are, concerned both with holding down costs and with pleasing their constituents. The builders, on the other hand, were unified in their contention that what everyone else wanted couldn’t be built for what they were willing to pay. In the end no one was completely satisfied, but since its dedication fifteen years earlier, no one had anything negative to say about it. It was, after all, the Temple of God and no one thought it wise or useful to criticize it.
Model of Herod’s Temple as it appeared in the time of Christ
The main entrances to the Temple were similar to Ezekiel’s model, with long wide stairs rising well above the surrounding landscape, leading to massive entrances on the north, south, and east. It was through these entrances that most visitors and worshipers came into the Temple. Those coming from the mikvahs entered through a long, enclosed stairwell in the outer court known as the Court of the Gentiles — so called because even Gentiles were allowed here. In this respect, the Temple bore a marked resemblance to Herod’s model. The procession of Levites, including Andrew and James Levinson, ascended the stairwell, crossed the Court of the Gentiles, passed through one of the gates in a low stone wall, called the soreg, and then through another gate, past massive stone walls into the first of three divisions of the inner court, called the Court of the Women. Here the procession ended, and the Levites who were assigned to duty within the inner court split up to go on to their respective posts. For Andrew and James Levinson, this was as far as they would go.
The Court of the Women, which occupied the eastern-most third of the inner court, was surrounded by massive stone walls twelve feet thick and thirty-seven feet high. Within these walls, a colonnade encircled, and above the colonnade was a balcony. This court was open to all Jews but was as close to the Temple proper, or Sanctuary, as women could come — hence its name. In the first century, this court had served as the natural meeting place for Jews seeking to vent their frustration out of earshot of the Roman legions who occupied their land. Here, in this refuge that even the Romans had respected (except for one brief incursion by the Roman general Pompey in 63 B.C.), they could speak freely. But conversation wasn’t limited to politics. It was in the first-century version of this court that the young Jesus had sat speaking with the Temple scholars on matters of religion shortly after his twelfth birthday.[84]
The Court of the Women also included the Temple Treasury and the thirteen chests shaped like rams’ horns, into which came a constant flow of monetary offerings. In the four corners of the court were large rooms in which other Temple activities were conducted.
In the center of the western wall of this court, a semicircular flight of fifteen steps rose from the floor to the magnificent Nicanor Gate, which opened into the Court of Israel. It was upon these steps, and before this huge, ornately carved and decorated barrier that Andrew and James Levinson performed, along with the other Temple musicians and singers. Among the instruments were cymbals, skin-covered drums, reed pipes, ancient flutes, harps like the one played by James, lyres, and various other types of stringed instruments.
Over Portugal
“Please,” Decker said, shaking his head and trying to understand. “But didn’t you say you’re God’s son?”
“Yes,” Christopher confirmed. “I am his son, just as Jesus is. And that is the key to the whole mystery of my purpose on Earth.
“Shortly after the incident where Yahweh ordered King Saul to murder every man, woman, child, Lucifer went to Yahweh to plead with him to reconsider the way he was dealing with the people of Earth. He hoped that some small measure of decency might still exist in him. But Yahweh wouldn’t repent. He actually found it amusing and he laughed at Lucifer for making the attempt.
“Then Lucifer made a bold proposition, a wager that Yahweh was certain he would win. Yahweh agreed to have his son — the only Theatan who had followed him into exile — become a man for one human lifetime. Afterward, if his son felt that Yahweh had treated humans unfairly, then he agreed to consider what Lucifer had said. If not, then Lucifer swore to leave Earth forever.
“And so, his son, Jesus, took on the form of a human being, came into the world as an infant, and grew up among the people of Israel. But by the time Jesus had lived thirty years among the people of Earth, he began to wonder if Lucifer might be right. It was a terrible struggle for him because he remembered all too clearly why Yahweh had sent him and he knew the conclusion that Yahweh wanted him to reach. Finally though, he began to question his father. In a small way he even tried to make amends by traveling around Israel and healing people and teaching them mercy. He even opposed the religious leaders who served Yahweh. That’s why so much of the New Testament teaches loving your neighbor while the Old Testament is focused on the wrath of God. He also began to have the same dream I had about the wooden box. That’s why it always seemed that I had had the same dream long ago. The dream is symbolic. To look inside the Ark is to see it for what it is: an old wooden box with a gold facade, just as when you look past Yahweh’s vainglorious facade you find a common, egotistical, self-centered tyrant.”
Decker listened. It was no less difficult for him, but at least the pieces of the puzzle were beginning to come together.
“Yahweh began to fear that if he didn’t intervene, Jesus’ questions and his boldness would grow and ultimately Jesus might even ally himself with Lucifer to try to free the Earth from his stranglehold. He decided to terminate his bet and to end Jesus’ stay on Earth. But rather than simply having Jesus return to his spirit form, Yahweh arranged for his brutal crucifixion. He hoped that Jesus would respond by turning against the people of Earth forever.
“We’ll never know what Jesus might have done if he had lived out the rest of his normal lifespan. Would he have ultimately sided with Lucifer and the people of Earth?” Christopher shrugged. “I now remember everything from Jesus’ life until the time of his death, and even I can’t be sure. I suspect his allegiance to Yahweh was too strong.
“Because Jesus was born with the memory of his father and of his previous life, he was never able to fully see himself as a person of Earth. But because of the trauma of the crucifixion, resurrection, and nearly two thousand years of dormancy before the cloning, I had almost no memory of Jesus’ life or of Yahweh. That’s why I can see Yahweh for what he truly is.
“I told you about the spirit beings, which men call angels. What I didn’t tell you is that many of these spirit beings have chosen to associate with the Theatans. Because of the uniqueness of Earth, Yahweh and Lucifer each have many millions of ‘angels’ who have chosen to align themselves with each of them and do their bidding. To protect the cells on the Shroud after the resurrection, Lucifer directed a group of his angels to conceal their existence from Yahweh. Since the time of the cloning, that same group of angels has also hidden my existence.
“In the past I told you I sometimes felt as though a battle was going on between someone trying to get to me and someone else trying to prevent it. It happened whenever I did something that required the use of my abilities as a Theatan, such as healing people — including when my blood was used to cure Secretary Milner in the hospital. When I did that, Yahweh’s angels could momentarily sense my presence. The battle I felt was between the angels of Yahweh, who wanted to find me, and the angels of Lucifer, who were sworn to protect me.”
“Finally though,” Christopher continued, “he found me and sent Tom Donafin to kill me. Yahweh knew you’d blame yourself for my death, Decker, exactly as you did two thousand years ago. Perhaps he even knew that you would take your own life again, as you did when you were Judas.”
Decker retrieved the brochure from the life completion center
that was in his pocket, and seeing in it the tragic mistake he had almost made, tore it in two.
“There was one other thing Yahweh hoped to accomplish by having Tom kill me,” Christopher said. “He hoped that I would blame you and, as a result, I would distrust all men, as Jesus did after he was betrayed.
“But I don’t blame you, and I harbor no anger toward Tom. Tom Donafin was just a poor innocent pawn who was misled by those around him, just as John misled you long ago.” Christopher put his hand on Decker’s shoulder. Decker appreciated the comfort.
Jerusalem
When dawn broke, the gates to the Temple were opened and the worshipers poured in. In the Court of the Priests, beyond the Nicanor Gate, the Temple priests began the day as they began every day, by cutting the throat of a young lamb with a razor-sharp knife and then holding the lamb over a basin until its life had gone and it was drained of blood. The blood was then splashed liberally upon the stone altar, and the lamb’s body was quickly skinned and placed upon the fire, which burned atop the Altar of Sacrifice.
Six days a week — every day except the Sabbath when no private sacrifices were offered — the scene was repeated hundreds or even thousands of times for eight and a half hours. As worshipers led or carried their animals, teams of priests performed the rituals of the sacrifice. In assembly-line fashion, some slit the animals’ throats and drained the blood, others removed the hides, one team splashed the blood upon the altar, and still others kept the fire atop the altar burning sufficiently so as to quickly consume the carcasses. The skins became the property of the priests and most were sold to tanneries to supplement their incomes.
Not all sacrifices involved blood, however. The very poor had the option of offering a small amount of fine flour. But while most worshipers who made animal sacrifices also made grain offerings and drink offerings of wine, few worshipers would ever admit to being so poor that they could offer only grain or wine. At the very least, most found a way to bring a dove or a pigeon.
Though the day was busier than most, it progressed normally and it was now nearly eight o’clock in the morning. Andrew Levinson had just finished singing Psalm 91 when a strange feeling came over him. He blinked several times, trying unsuccessfully to shake it off, then saw darkness closing in. Despite his rapid loss of vision, he could see that others were having the same problem. Is this how the madness starts? he wondered. Within seconds, his sight was completely gone and, as he tried to call out for help, he realized that his sight wasn’t the only sense he had lost: neither could he hear. Realizing the precarious nature of his position, he quickly tried to feel his way down the stairs to the floor of the Court of the Women, but no sooner had he chosen this course than someone bumped into him, and he tumbled painfully down the stone steps. It wasn’t much comfort as he lay there in a tangled mass of his fellow singers to realize that he had not lost his ability to feel.
Despite his pain, Andrew Levinson quickly disentangled himself and got to his hands and knees to crawl away before someone could step on him or trip over him. He turned in all directions, reaching out to find something to regain his orientation, when suddenly he realized that not all was black. Ahead of him, at a point seemingly about twenty yards away, was a single point of light. With no other reasonable option before him, he got up and walked slowly, carefully toward it, feeling his way along the floor with his feet and extending his hands in front of him to keep from running into something.
As he moved toward the light, Andrew soon realized that he wasn’t getting any closer to it. It was crazy, but it was almost as if the light were leading him somewhere. Sliding his feet along the stone floor to keep from falling down any more of the Temple’s many sets of stairs, he felt the floor ahead of him drop away. He had reached the steps from the Court of the Women to the outer Court of the Gentiles, and he carefully made it down the steps without falling.
With his slow progress, it was nearly fifteen minutes before Andrew began descending the long flight of stairs, which he knew from the number of steps, must be taking him out of the Temple. Still, he was no closer to the light. Following it thus far had seemed like the best idea considering the lack of alternatives, but with limited sight and no hearing, he had no intention of leaving the Temple, which he knew fairly well, to go into the open streets of Jerusalem. No sooner had he made this decision, however, than the light before him began to grow larger. A moment later and he realized that he had regained some of his hearing as well. He had no choice: He had to follow the light out of the Temple. With each step he began to see and hear more. He could now tell that he was at the south entrance, and he wasn’t alone. When he was about two hundred feet from the Temple, his sight and hearing were completely restored. It became apparent that what had happened to him had also happened to everyone else in the Temple, including the priests, chief priests, Levites, worshipers, and even High Priest Chaim Levin, whom Andrew saw feeling his way down the steps.
Spotting the high priest groping his way along, some of the priests ran to help. But as they neared the Temple, they again lost their sight and hearing and had to turn back. Surveying his situation, Andrew realized that those leaving the Temple were not the only ones on the steps. Standing there looking out over the people in the street were two men dressed in burlap and liberally sprinkled with gray ash. Andrew recognized them immediately as the men called John and Cohen.
Over the Mediterranean Sea
“Over the last three days, while I was spiritually in his presence,” Christopher explained, “Yahweh tried to sway me to his side with promises of power if I would follow him and with threats of punishment if I didn’t. But, as my presence here indicates, he failed. Win or lose, I have to fight him, just as Lucifer has.”
Christopher turned again to Robert Milner. “And you’ve known all along.”
“No, not all along,” Milner confessed. “Actually, Alice Bernley knew long before I did. That’s why, if you check the charter of the Lucius Trust, you’ll find that the name was originally the Lucifer Trust. You have no idea how much we argued over that before she finally conceded that calling it the Lucifer Trust might scare away too many people. Actually, I didn’t realize the truth until after Alice’s death, when the Tibetan, Master Djwlij Kajm, began to prepare me to receive the spirit of the ancient Hebrew prophet Elijah. After fifteen months of his training in the Israeli wilderness, I came to understand that Master Djwlij Kajm was in reality the Theatan Lucifer, the light bearer.”
“But Elijah was a prophet of Yahweh,” Decker said. “Did he switch sides?”
“To put it concisely, yes,” answered Milner. “You see, there was one thing about Elijah that made him stand out from the other Jewish prophets. He had won such favor that Yahweh rewarded him by bringing him into his presence without Elijah ever having to die.[85] But over time, Elijah came to realize what Lucifer already knew. Later, without Yahweh’s knowledge, Elijah began to train under the tutelage of Lucifer. Over the centuries he was able to advance nearly to the level of the Theatans. Now he has returned to Earth, and his spirit shares my body. He is here to assist Christopher in what must be done.”
“So far,” Christopher said, “Yahweh’s tactics have been designed specifically to break the human spirit. With the China-India-Pakistan War, he disguised his actions as a man-made disaster. Of course, it was no accident that the target of that attack was the birthplace of both Hinduism and Buddhism — the predecessors of the New Age. Later, with the three asteroids, Yahweh used what appeared to be natural disasters. With both the war and the asteroids, his goal was to make Humankind call upon the supernatural, that is, upon him, for relief.
“By doing that, Humankind would have to turn their backs on the only thing that can save them — their self-reliance. When his tactics proved unsuccessful and the people of the world didn’t go crawling to him on their knees, he grew desperate. With the plague of locusts, he began using methods that are obviously supernatural. He knows he’s losing, and his goal has changed from wantin
g Humankind to call on him for relief to simply making people fear him.”
“That was his first big mistake!” Robert Milner interjected excitedly.
“By using forces that are so obviously supernatural,” Christopher explained, “Yahweh has exposed himself and given us the opportunity we need to reveal to the world that he is the one responsible for what has happened! We must strike quickly. Our first objective is to make it clear that this is a spiritual war. The world needs to understand that it’s not nature or circumstance that has caused our suffering; it’s the very hand of Yahweh carrying out what he threatened in the Bible. Once the blame is firmly placed where it belongs, our next step will be to help the world see that instead of fearing Yahweh’s power, we must stand unified.
“I warn you, Decker, if we lose this war, we risk an eternity worse than you can imagine. But if we win, we will end man’s eternal slavery to Yahweh.”
Again there was never any question of Decker’s choice, but at last he resolved to support Christopher even though it meant he was joining a conspiracy dedicated to the overthrow of God himself.
“This isn’t exactly what I had in mind when I got up this morning,” he sighed.
Christopher smiled and Milner laughed.
”Just so I’m clear on this though,” Decker probed, “one more question.”
“What is it, Decker?” Christopher asked. “Though I think I already know.”
“Well,” he said, finally, “again, I’m not a Bible scholar, but I do know a little, and it occurs to me that if we’re living through the plagues of the book of Revelation, that . . .”
Birth of an Age Page 21