THE SWORD AND SICKLE

PART TWO: DECEPTION

CHAPTER-SIX

CASSINI-2 PROBE

©2017, Olan L. Smith

She moved closer to him. She held his hand and felt the warmth of his flesh and the sweatiness of his palm. "Okay, you are human, but I thought no one could view the face of the Lord and live to tell about it."

"You aren't touching God. You are touching my host, Levi. I have neither a body nor a face. I appear to people in their form, so they can relate to me. If you really want to know me, you have to become a part of me."

"Fuck! This can't be happening to me. Shit, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to curse."

The Lord chuckled and replied, "Fuck is one of the oldest words in the human language. It survived as one of the original languages of humankind. Its mother word is Sanskrit, and before that, it was just a different-sounding interjection, but it meant the same thing: fuck this, fuck that, and your mother. It simply means to insert a rod into a hole or something firm into something soft; like, I fucked the pin into the cushion, or I fucked butter with a knife. Now, it is an interjection, standing for anything. It is not swearing or taking an oath. You do not know the future, so you cannot say I will be here or there on a certain date. You cannot swear to tell the truth in my name because the truth is subjective; only I can know the truth, and only I will judge a soul. You can swear to the best of your abilities, to tell the truth or say that it is your opinion that this person is guilty. You may sentence a person to serve time, but only I can destroy the eternal soul. I judge not a person's words but rather their spirit. Return to your body and awaken. Now! See in the flesh that I am real. I will touch you, and your body will travel with me to the ship. You will walk on its streets, you will talk to the creatures upon it, and then I will take you back to the beginning when I first created, on the orders of the Prime Mover, so that you see for yourself why things exist."

"But why me? Why not someone else?"

"Because you were created for this role, it is your moment to seize it and know I am your Lord."

Alicia blinked her eyes and dropped the remote. "Damn," she said. As she turned her head to her right, she saw a man standing beside her in the nude. "Can't you put on some clothes or something? Maybe a fig leaf."

Levi laughed, "I am so put out with the church for covering up the genitals of my creation. It matters not for me if human creatures wear clothes; I have no shame in this body, and from now on, neither shall you." At that moment, her clothes fell to her ankles, and she felt no shame. Instead, she felt liberation. Come close to me, Alicia. She walked up to him and pressed her body against his. He wrapped his arms around her, and the next thing she was aware of, she felt the touch of metal beneath her feet. They were on the surface of the ship. He released her from his embrace and said, "Look! See for yourself the ship you labored so hard to resolve in an image."

"How is this possible? I have no craving for air even to breathe, and I am walking on a surface with very little gravity."

"I sustain you, Alicia. Would you rather that you crave air and float in space to satisfy the scientist in you?"

"No, my Lord, this will do just fine. Levi, what is that building over there?"

"You are standing near the Holy Temple of the Lord. Would you like to go inside and see for yourself my temple?"

"So, Julie was right when she said it looked like the City of God mentioned in Revelation."

"Well, sort of. You must remember the time in which John wrote his revelation. He did not have the words to describe the things revealed to him."

"I was told that the Bible is the word of God and that every word written is yours."

"No. It doesn't work like that. Many things have been written about me. Not one of them is exactly my word. They are an attempt by humans to tell others what they believe. All those who strive for me are correct.

Consider this: A man finds a great treasure as he strolls in the woods. He knows that if everybody knows of it, then others will kill him and take it. So he keeps it a secret, but he keeps going back to it to make sure it is safe. One day, others notice that he goes to the woods nearly every day. So, together, they plot to follow him to see where he has been going. They follow him to the spot and wait for him to leave to see what he has found. When they see the treasure, they are amazed and immediately go home to plot to kill the man. The next day, they follow him outside the city, kill him, and throw his body to the wolves. They are overjoyed that they are the only ones to know where the treasure is. When they arrive at the spot, they find that the man had moved the treasure in the night, and they're unable to find it. Is it not so with the Kingdom of God? Anyone who finds the kingdom goes immediately, and they tell all they see about it, and down the road, as they age, they feel compelled to write about it so other generations will find it. Those who have found me write down their directions to find me. However, in so doing, they must first interpret what they have found with their flawed minds. Eventually, someone will have to decide which stories tell the correct version of the witness to God. These councils gather and decide what the true words of God are and which are not, but councils make errors.