Beyond Heaven and Earth

by Steven H. Propp

  “Fellow travelers, and kindred spirits,” said Abraham, putting a friendly arm around Jobran’s shoulder. “So when’s our first appointment?”

  13

  “WHO WILL HAVE ALL MEN TO BE SAVED” (1 Timothy 2:4)

  It was early Monday morning. The parking lot of the large church was almost empty, although there were two uniformed security guards keeping careful watch over the entrance gate and the lot. Abraham took extra care in locking a security “club” over his steering wheel, and making sure that the doors were locked, before he caught up with Jobran. “I don’t want to have to take the bus home from this neighborhood,” he said to Jobran, sheepishly.

  They walked up to the doors of the church, and found that they were locked. Then Jobran noticed a sign that indicated that the offices were around to the side of the building, so they headed in that direction. They noticed that the street area around the church was clean, immaculately so. However, down the rest of the street in both directions were the unmistakable signs of poverty: vacant shops with broken windows, dusty cars with flat tires, graffiti painted over every available inch of unoccupied space, liquor stores on practically every block, and pawn shops in every other block. There were no trees, no plants, nothing but old bricks, dingy concrete, and garbage. All of the visible faces on the streets were black: mostly older men by themselves, but with occasional pairs or trios of younger men walking laconically, or a single individual walking rapidly by while talking intently into a cell phone.

  Except for the block on which the church stood. It stood out on the street like a beacon, with its modern décor and well-kept grounds, nestled behind a solid (yet unobtrusive) fence, which was presently unlocked (albeit guarded) at the entry points.

  Jobran tried the doorknob marked “Offices,” and found that it opened easily, and smoothly. He entered the room with Abraham close behind, and Abraham closed the door quickly behind them.

  There was an attractive young black woman wearing a telephone headset, and sitting in front of a computer at a large desk next to the wall. She looked up at the visitors and smiled, and said, “Can I help you gentlemen?”

  Jobran cleared his throat, and said, “We have a 9:00 appointment with Reverend Williams.” Then he remembered and added, “Oh; we’re…”

  “Mr. Winter and Mr. Kaplan,” the receptionist finished for him, giving them a radiant smile. “I’ll let Reverend know you’re here,” and she typed something brief into her computer.

  Abraham glanced at his watch, and said, “We’re a few minutes early, so we’ll be glad to wait…” but without turning away from her computer, she pointed up to a small plaque behind her desk that read, “Anything I do today, I regard as urgent. No man is given but so much time to accomplish whatever is his life’s work—Malcolm X.”

  Something on her computer screen caught her attention, and she turned to them and said, “Reverend Williams will see you now,” and she pressed some switch underneath her desk, and they heard the door to the room marked “Pastor’s Office” unlock. They opened the door, and entered.

  There was a tall, handsome black man with short hair and a stylishly-trimmed beard and mustache who was rising from behind his beautiful wooden desk to greet them, his hand extended. After shaking hands, he indicated two chairs in front of his desk, and said, “Please, have a seat,” and they all seated themselves.

  Jobran and Abraham looked around the office: it was fairly large, and attractively designed, with thick carpets and deep brown wood paneling. There were numerous indoor plants, including several around a small water fountain in one corner of the room, which gurgled peacefully.

  “We appreciate you taking the time to see us, Reverend Williams,” Jobran said, indicating the newspaper held in his left hand. “I’m sure you’re got a very busy schedule.”

  “We’re not members of your congregation,” Abraham added, hastily.

  “I guessed that,” Reverend Williams said, and then he shook his head at what he presumed was their reaction to this statement, and grinned and said, “No, it’s not because you’re white; we have quite a few white members in this church. But I know all of my congregation by sight, and I’ve never seen either of you before.”

  He gestured toward the newspaper that Jobran held under his arm, and said, “I take it you’ve read the article.” Jobran nodded and opened up the newspaper, so that the lead article and photo of Reverend Williams that appeared on the front page of the “Religion” section in the previous Saturday’s paper was visible: “The Gangsta Preacha,” screamed the headline.

  Reverend Williams gave a self-deprecating laugh, then said, “Well, I suppose that as my friends in show business tell me, ‘Any publicity is good publicity!’”

  Abraham said, “Yes, it was a real surprise—a pleasant one—to have an appointment to see you, and then you’re on the front page of the paper.” He winked at Jobran, and added, “Shows you how ‘cutting edge’ we are in our quest.”

  “I’d first heard of you after that story appeared on TV after the funeral of that young man who was shot,” Jobran said. “So that was why I sent you the letter of introduction.”

  “As well as why we wanted to know if we can talk with you about some ‘doctrinal’ questions,” Abraham quickly added.

  Reverend Williams appeared to think for a moment, then asked, “In what spirit are these questions being asked?”

  Quickly, Jobran said, “Although Abraham is a Jewish rabbi, of a Reform congregation—that’s the most liberal—we don’t represent any group or organization. We’re just here as individuals, who were interested in your ideas, which were only briefly touched on during the TV broadcast. Similarly, the newspaper article got a bit more into detail, but I think they emphasized the more ‘lurid’ details. Anyway, we’re mostly interested in your views about the question of life after death.”

  “Aren’t we all interested in that question?” Reverend Williams said, relaxing. “The Bible, and the grace and love of God, tell me that all of us are eternal souls, and that the greatest glories of this world are as nothing compared with the glories of the world that is to come.”

  Abraham interrupted, saying, “We’re particularly interested in the parts where your beliefs differ from other Christian ministers. The newspaper said that some of your fellow ministers felt your teachings were at least controversial, and perhaps even heretical.”

  “You surely don’t expect me to continue some of the discussions I have with my fellow ministers with the two of you?” Reverend Williams replied, reprovingly.

  Abraham leaned forward and was about to speak with Jobran waved him back, saying, “No, but we really are interested in your beliefs about life after death.” In a softer tone, he added, “If you read my letter, you’ll understand why I am so concerned, personally.”

  Reverend Williams nodded at Jobran sympathetically, and said, “I read your letter very carefully; you have my deepest feelings for the difficulty that you are going through, and I do understand the reason for your grief, and for your interest in my beliefs.” Straightening himself in his chair and looking Jobran straight in the eye, he said in a firm voice, “And I can assure you that—with the Lord God as my witness—your wife is now in Heaven, and you will be reunited with her again.” He paused after he spoke, to allow the impact of his words to sink in.

  With a nervous laugh, Jobran said to Abraham, “Well, at least that’s a lot more ‘positive’ of a response than I get from a lot of others…!”

  Abraham looked at Reverend Williams and jerked his thumb in Jobran’s direction, and said, “You have to understand, he’s been told by a Calvinist, and an Pentecostal, that he, his wife, or both of them, are going straight to a fiery Hell upon death.” With a teasing laugh and glance at Jobran, he added, “So he’s understandably relieved to hear another perspective.” Both Abraham and Reverend Williams laughed heartily.

 
“I’ve heard other perspectives,” Jobran said, a little testily. “But the ‘controversial’ thing about you—according to the TV and newspaper—is that they reported that you were promising salvation to even hard-core gang members; that’s why they called you ‘The Gangsta Preacha.’” Reverend Williams smiled, but didn’t reply, so Jobran added, “They were also questioning your motives: They suggested, ‘He’s probably getting payoffs from gangs that are pushing drugs,’ or ‘He probably has a lot of his own skeletons in the closet that he’s hiding, so he doesn’t want people looking too closely into anyone’s life,’ and so on.”

  Reverend Williams leaned back in his chair, put the fingertips of his hands together, and said, “Well, you know how the media is—how they twist things, to make the story suit their purposes. To them, any young man that wears fashionable clothing and listens to Hip-Hop music is a ‘hard-core gang member.’” He smiled and shook his head. “In the real world, things are a lot less simple than that. Young men wear flashy jewelry, get tattoos, and wear their hair in braids or cornrows because their idols—in the NBA, in movies, and in music videos—do it. I wonder if these same media commentators thought anything about it when a different generation wanted to dress like Frank Sinatra, Elvis, or Mick Jagger; and Sinatra—unlike Elvis—consorted with real gangsters; mobsters and murderers, and not just in the movies!” They all laughed at the irony.

  “In the case of the young man whose funeral you preached at,” Jobran said, “He was shot to death while waxing his car—and the police said that it looked like he was targeted specifically, and it was not just a ‘random’ shooting.” Pausing a moment to remember, he added, “And the police said that he had been charged with drug offenses several times, and was still on probation from one conviction.” Opening the newspaper article, Jobran said, “And the article said that in your sermon, you spoke of the young man as being in Heaven, smiling, and looking down upon his family.”

  “I did,” said Reverend Williams, without any trace of defensiveness. “And I stand by that, absolutely. There was much good in that young man; he helped produce music videos for several local artists, for example.”

  Abraham looked incredulous, and addressed Reverend Williams, “How can you promise salvation to someone who sells drugs and is a member in a violent gang?” He threw up his hands, and said, “Don’t you think that a person’s conduct has anything to do with what happens to him after death?”

  Reverend Williams stroked his beard reflectively, and said, “I think, Rabbi Kaplan, that the situation is not quite as ‘black-and-white’ as you would make it out to be.” Abraham blushed, but didn’t reply. The Reverend continued, “In the black community—where more young men are in jail, than in college—having been convicted on a drug offense hardly carries the stigma that it might in your own neighborhood. Most black people would probably view it as no more serious than, say, a Jewish merchant who was caught trying to overcharge one of his customers.” Reverend Williams smiled at Abraham’s discomfiture, and continued, “But please remember, that I don’t ‘promise’ salvation to anyone—God is the one who grants salvation, not me. I’m only telling people what I read in the Bible, and what I have learned from a lifetime of devoted prayer to God.”

  “But your doctrines are at odds with some of your fellow ministers, right?” Jobran said, pressing the point. “Several of them were quoted in the article, to that effect.”

  “I like to think of this as being more in the nature of a family dispute,” said Reverend Williams, with no trace of discomfort in his voice. “But I’m hardly the first black preacher to get involved in such a dispute. My brother in Christ, Bishop Carlton Pearson from the Higher Dimensions Family Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma—although what a black man preaching what he preaches is doing in Oklahoma, I’ll never know; I don’t care if Ralph Ellison was born there, or if Cornel West’s parents lived in Tulsa—anyway, he caught hell for preaching his ‘Gospel of Inclusion,’ which only says that it isn’t necessary for people to repent, confess, and believe in Jesus in order to be saved. He said that the death of Christ made it possible for God to accept sinful man, that we have already been redeemed through Christ’s death. So for teaching this, he has been rejected and repudiated by scores of his former friends and fellow ministers—most of them like Oral Roberts are white, by the way—had his music recording contract suspended, and lost thousands of parishioners.”

  Then, shrugging his shoulders, he said, “But it definitely is true that I preach a much more ‘open’ doctrine of salvation than do some of my other Christian brethren.” Picking up a well-worn Bible from his desk, he turned quickly to a page, and said, “For example, many Christians love to quote John

  3:16: ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ You see people holding up signs at sporting events with this reference, for example. But why don’t they continue, quoting the next verse that says, ‘For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.’” Reverend Williams paused and looked away, as if seeing a vision of some far-away place, and said in a hushed tone, “Imagine that: ‘that the world through him might be saved.’ Why is it that our theologies are no narrow, so exclusive, that we refuse to even entertain the possibility that God might really want to save everyone?”

  “Well, that certainly doesn’t comport with the Calvinists who believe in ‘Limited Atonement,’” Jobran said, with a smile.

  “But didn’t that same passage promise everlasting life only to those that believed in Jesus?” Abraham interjected.

  “It does,” admitted Reverend Williams. “But, unless you or I are mind-readers, how can we know what a given individual does or does not believe?” Abraham was silent, seeming to be pondering this answer carefully. Reverend Williams continued, “So many of my brethren in the ministry are stuck upon some particular formula, such as, ‘Ask Jesus into your heart, to be your personal Lord and Saviour,’ that unless you conform to their exact formula, they don’t think that you’re saved! By that standard, many of the Calvinists he just mentioned—not to mention members of other ‘mainline’ churches—aren’t saved either, despite the conservatism and orthodoxy of their doctrine.” Opening his Bible again, he said, “Romans 5:18-19 says, ‘Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification for life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.’”

  “Is that why you can speak about being assured that some members of your congregation are in Heaven, despite the fact that some of them didn’t seem to lead very ‘spiritual’ lives?” asked Jobran.

  With a slight smile, Reverend Williams replied to Jobran, “Now, tell me, Brother Winter: How would you be in a position to know about the spiritual lives of certain members of my congregation?” Now it was Jobran’s turn to blush, but Reverend Williams laughed good-naturedly, relieving some of the tension in the room.

  Abraham grabbed the newspaper from Jobran, and continued to hammer home the point, however. “The young man whose funeral you just preached at: according to the papers, he was heavily involved with drugs, illicit sex, and ‘life in the fast lane’ in general, and he was known for that among his peers. And the rap songs and videos that he helped create—they showed excerpts on TV, and Jobran taped the program—certainly seemed to extol such a lifestyle, as well as a very cavalier attitude toward murder; people wave around guns in his videos, and talk about killing with impunity. In fact, your fellow black ministers quoted in the article held this young man up as an example of just what’s wrong with so much of the Hip-Hop culture today.”

  Reverend Williams shook his head sadly, and said, “Some of my fellow ministers need to read Matthew 7:3, and then take a closer look at the
beam that is in their own eyes, before they try to complain about the speck in another’s eye.”

  “But how can you take that position?” shot back Abraham, sharply. “I’m from the Jewish tradition, which emphasizes obeying God’s 613 commandments right down to the smallest detail. While I, as well as many of my fellow non-Orthodox Jews, don’t take all of these commandments as literally as we once did, we still feel that there is categorical value to living in an ethical manner.” Reverend Williams remained silent, listening, so Abraham continued, “The only commitment this man seemed to have was to money and material things.”

  Reverend Williams sighed, then said, “I feel that you really don’t sufficiently understand the background of this young man; let me explain: The young man whom we buried was named Joshua; he grew up in our neighborhood, and has been a member of our congregation all his life—he even sang in our Youth Choir, when he was younger. He has also lived in this neighborhood all his life.”

  With a cynical tone, Abraham replied, “Until he started to make some money; then he moved out of the neighborhood, I believe they said on TV.”

  “But he continued to stay in touch with us, even after he did move,” said Reverend Williams, emphatically. “The papers never reported that he was the one who donated most of the money for our Church’s Christmas Party for homeless children last year, for example. He also bought a new sound system for the church, and he underwrote the cost of producing a gospel CD that our adult choir made. There were many good things that this young man did, for which he never tried to get publicity.”

  Somewhat chastened, Abraham replied in a low voice, “If he did, then that’s admirable; still…”

  Passionately, Reverend Williams interrupted, saying, “Furthermore, I’ve talked with this young man—I know what was in his heart, and I know that he was saved in his heart, and that’s the only place it counts.” Reverend Williams searched for something on his desk, then found a CD, and opened it up and pulled out the liner notes, which he unfolded and held up, pointing to it and saying, “If you ever really looked at his videos, you will see that whenever Joshua appeared, he always wore a cross, indicating his trust in Jesus.”