The Hand of God (21 page)

“Okay, enough games.  The Bishop.  You might know him as the Christ, Jesus type.”  He let that hang for a second.  When I didn’t react he repeated it.  “Jesus Christ, also known as Yeshua, the Son of God, The Lamb, Son of David, Son of man, all that good stuff.  He is the Bishop.  This is his second coming.  You there?”

I apparently wasn’t since he had to practically shout at me before I responded.  The Bishop was Jesus?  That made no sense whatsoever.  Then again, neither had anything else up till this point.  Very little of anything the Bishop had done so far matched up with the life of Jesus in the Gospels.  Even in the Gospels, Jesus warned of false Christs.

“How do I know this isn’t more lies?” I asked.

“Well first off, look at the crap he’s done.  I have a few tricks up my sleeve, but I can’t make fire fall from the sky.”

“Okay, so, say you are telling the truth.  What could I do about it? You think I could stop God?  Why would I want to anyway?  I’m a man of God.”

He shook his head again, placing his hand on my shoulder.

“Charlie, God doesn’t want you.  You are an abomination, a mistake.  Your ancestors are demons.  You think he wants anything to do with you?”

I didn’t want to admit it, but he had a point.  The mere thought made me want to throw up.  All my life, I’d tried to serve God with every fiber of my being, and it’s all been a lie.

“For God’s sake Charlie.  You butcher people you think are sinners and say it’s because God told you to?  You’re more like me than Him my friend.”

Deep down, I felt he was telling the truth, yet I wanted to hit him, to lash out and cut him wide open.  I wanted to see if the devil could bleed and die like a person.  I imagined him hanging from my cross as I sliced him to pieces. 

“Don’t you touch me,” I said through gritted teeth.

“You can help me Charlie. We can work together to stop this.  You can help me rule this stupid little planet.  These mortals have nothing on you; you’re far superior to any of them.  You’ve always known it.”

I pulled away from him and stepped back.  I knew I couldn’t take him in a head-on fight.  He had a few more years’ experience in this sort of thing. 

“Look Charlie, I know it’s a lot to take in.  But just face it.  The stuff in that book, its only part truth.  Fact is, what goes on in the spirit realm is nothing like you could imagine.  The Bible doesn’t even come close to explaining it.”

“You’re a liar!”

“Really?  So who are you going to help?  God, who has clearly rejected you?  Look at how many times his man the Bishop has come after you last few days.  You’ve seen how he really operates.  You want to serve that for eternity?”

He had a point, but I just wanted to get out of there.  I wanted to run and give all of this up.  I could go be a teacher or something, something with nothing to do with religion and just pretend I never knew any of this.  Finally, I did turn and ran as fast as I could.  I hoped I’d imagined everything.  As I ran I heard an explosion behind me.  Turning to look, I saw he was gone.  I was sure he’d be back, though.  I stopped at the corner to catch my breath.  I needed to call Stanton.  We had to pay the Bishop a visit, I had a feeling he would meet with us this time.  We had a lot to discuss.

Chapter 38

I stopped at a gas station and bought a pre-paid cell phone and then called Stanton.  He arrived about twenty minutes later to pick me up.  I filled him in on the events at the church.  He took less convincing this time than he did earlier, but I still wasn’t sure how much of this he believed. 

“So we’re going back to the Bishop’s place after what happened last time?”  He asked.

“Yes, I know.  Things have changed though.  He’ll see us this time.”

“Great. Do I want him to see us?”

“Yes, it’ll be fine.  Besides, if he refuses this time, we’ll just ram the car through the front gate.”

Stanton glared at me.

“What the hell kind of preacher are you?  You do freaky things to people, the devil supposedly visits you.  The Bishop is supposedly Jesus now, but you want to go try and kill him.”

“Yes I know.  A lot doesn’t make sense to me either.  Something big is going down though either way.  A lot of lives are at stake and we have a chance to be in the middle of it and do something.”

“Not sure I want to be in the middle of this.”

“Like it or not, you are.”

“Beautiful.”

He shook his head as we were silent the rest of the way.  When we reached the Bishop’s mansion, Stanton pulled right up to the front gate which swung open this time.  There was new guy in a suit standing inside as we pulled through.  Stanton stopped as the guy knelt down by the window.

“The Bishop is expecting you.”

We pulled up to the front of the mansion and stepped out of the car.  Another nameless goon in a suit came out to escort us inside.  We walked down a long hallway that was covered with paintings and old furniture.  The place reminded me of a museum, I was afraid to touch anything.  We reached a large set of wooden double doors, the man pushed them open and we stepped into a large office.  It looked like a judge’s chambers with a large oak desk, a big leather executive chair, and bookshelves lining the walls.  In front of the desk were four high backed chairs. 

It was no surprise a lot of the books were religious texts.  Though I was surprised to see copies of the Koran, the Talmud and books on Buddhism; there were several Christian writings as well.  Many of the books looked extremely old.  A door behind me open and closed, I spun around to see the Bishop standing by the desk.

“Well, hello gentlemen.  Good to see you Pastor Charlie.  Who is your little friend?”  He said as he pulled the chair up behind him.  “Please have a seat.”  He gestured to the high backed chairs.  We both sat and he looked at us with the same smile on his face as if nothing had changed at all in the last twenty four hours. 

“So,” he began.  “You’ve had quite a night tonight haven’t you?  And I hear you had a special visitor.”  He was referring to my visit from Lucifer. 

“Yes, I guess you could say that.” I said.  “So is what Lucifer said true?”

“Which part?”

“All of it.  About my heritage and about who you really are.”

“I’m afraid so my friend.  You are indeed a descendent of fallen angels.  As repulsive as that may sound, it’s true.  And on the last thing, yes, I am the Christ.”

I couldn’t believe he was actually saying it.

“You don’t believe me do you?” He said as he held up his hands, showing two large bloodied holes in his hands.  “Do you need to put your fingers through my wounds, Doubting Thomas?”

He lowered his hands, and then held them up again, this time the holes were gone.

“Okay, so what is this all about?” I asked.

“You don’t seem impressed.  You are in the presence of the Lord.”

“Guess it hasn’t sunk in yet.”

“Perhaps.  What is this about?  Well I think that is simple.  I have returned for the separating of the sheep and the goats.  The sheep will be with me in eternity, the goats will be led to slaughter.”

“So you’re going to just kill everyone that doesn’t follow you?”

“That’s kind of what the book says isn’t it?  You’ve been preaching this your whole life.  Don’t get all skittish now just because time has run out.  Unfortunately for most of you, there are far more goats than sheep, including many goats who think they are sheep.”

“You mean Christians.”

“Exactly.  You all ramble on and on about faith.  Yet your own faith is empty, all of you.”  He stood and turned his back to us, looking out the large window behind the desk.  “You go to your fancy churches, say your prayers, sing your songs, put a dollar in the offering plate.  Then you drive home and tell the guy who cut you off on the freeway to fuck off.”

Stanton and I looked at each other, stunned by the Bishop or Christ swearing.  The Bishop continued.  “In the meantime, people are starving, dying or killing each other.”   He cast me a glance as he said the last part.  “While children are starving, women are suffering.”  He turned to face me.  “Charlie, do you remember a young girl in your church who got pregnant last year?  Her name was Amber.  She was nineteen.”

“Yes,” I said. “I remember.  She wasn’t married or anything.  Some people gave her a hard time.  One of my associate pastors prayed with her a few times but then she stopped coming to church.”

“Yes, that’s right.  She stopped going because one of the ladies in your church called her a whore, called her baby a bastard, and said there was no place in God’s house for a slut like her.  Did you know that?”

I sank down a bit in my chair.

“No.  No I didn’t.”

“Do you know where Amber is now?”

I shook my head.

“She’s dead.  She killed herself a few months after her baby was born.  She left the baby at an emergency room, went home and swallowed enough pills to OD a horse.”

“My God,” I said.

“Yes, your God indeed.”

“So if you’re the Christ, why didn’t you stop her?  You obviously know her whole situation.  Why didn’t you save her?”

“I tried, Charlie.  I put you and your church right in her path!”  His voice got louder as he moved toward me.  “Yet you were so tied up with programs, goofy sermons and then let’s not forget your own little hobby, you failed the one simple thing I told all of you to do.  Love each other.”

Even Stanton looked like he might cry.  At this point I knew how the Pharisees must have felt when Jesus chastised them.  I felt about two inches tall, as if I had missed the point entirely.  I was a Pharisee, we all were.  A wave of sadness swelled up inside me.  I’d never felt true sadness before.  I’d always been so empty, simply existing from day to day.  Up until that moment, I was nothing more than a vehicle carrying out a series of tasks and behaviors.  This time, I felt sadness, true sadness.  As bad as it felt, it almost felt good just to feel something.  My throated tightened up and it became hard to swallow.  I felt tears fill my eyes as I looked up at the Bishop.

He put his hand on my shoulder as his eyes met mine. 

“It’s okay,” he said.

As he placed his hand on my shoulder, I felt warmth like I’d never felt before.  It wasn’t heat, but internal warmth.  I’d never felt real love before, but this must be what it felt like.  I’m not referring to romantic love, but compassionate love people normally feel for their friends or family.  It’s not that no one ever loved me. I could just never feel it.  The Bible tells us “God is love.” That moment gave me an idea of what that meant.

“My Lord,” I cried.  “Please forgive me of my sins.”

I knelt down before him, looking down at the floor.  He stood before me as if considering it.  After a few minutes he took his hand off my shoulder and stepped away.

“I’m sorry, my friend,” he said.  “For you, I’m afraid it’s not that simple.”

Chapter 39

I looked up at the Bishop feeling as if I’d just been punched in the stomach. 

“What do you mean not that simple?” I asked.  Stanton sat in his chair watching all this as if he were watching TV.

“When I was on earth the first time, it was to save mankind.  I came as the Lamb, to be sacrificed.   You are not a man, at least not completely.  Now, I have come back as the Lion of Judah, to bring judgment to mankind.  Once again, I guess you’d technically be excluded from that, but there are other arrangements.”