Acts of God Read online

  Acts of God

  James Beau Seigneur

  For Gerilynne, Faith, and Abigail who sacrificed so much to allow this trilogy to become a reality.

  But most of all for Shiloh, who sacrificed far more. May it serve you well.

  INTRODUCTION

  This novel is a work of historic and prophetic fiction. While well known and widely reported historic events and public personalities are referenced, only those events which have been widely reported by reliable nonfiction sources should be assumed to be true; all others should be assumed to be the product of the author's imagination. Additionally, incorporated into this work are the names of several institutions and organizations such as the United Nations and numerous national governments, as well as the names of a few 'public persons,' including political and religious leaders and celebrities. References to events involving any such persons, institutions, organizations, or governments following the date of publication of this book are entirely the product of the author's imagination.

  With the exceptions noted above, all other names, characters, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual events, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  James BeauSeigneur has been writing professionally for fifteen years. His published works include technical manuals on strategic defense and military avionics, newspaper articles, speeches for U.S. Congressional and Senatorial candidates, and lyrics for several published songs. Formerly involved full-time in politics, Mr. BeauSeigneur has managed several U.S. Congressional and Senatorial campaigns and in 1980 ran for U.S. Congress against Al Gore, now the Vice President. He has four years of experience in military intelligence, including two and a half years with the National Security Agency.

  PROLOG

  Behold the Hosts of Heaven

  March 12, 2023 — Jerusalem

  The scene at the Temple in Jerusalem was not much different than it had been at the airport. Even from a distance immense crowds could be seen, but the size of the crowds was not all that was unusual. The Temple was usually a swarm of activity, but now, despite the number of people in the streets, the Temple itself was empty. The inner and outer courts, usually bustling with priests and worshipers, were abandoned, and the steps leading up to the front of the Temple were equally barren, with two exceptions. As the helicopter circled, Ambassador Christopher Goodman, Robert Milner, and Decker Hawthorne could see two men standing on the steps, both clothed in sackcloth and covered with gray ash.

  Chapter 18 from Birth of an Age, Book Two of The Christ Clone Trilogy is included here as a prologue.

  Farther away, 200 to 300 priests and Levites huddled near the High Priest, Chaim Levin, who stood a safe distance away in a tableau of mock defiance toward the men on the steps. A few steps farther back, the crowds watched from behind a line of armed Israeli soldiers. Reporters from the international news media, unable to leave the country and aware that Jerusalem was Christopher's destination, waited for his arrival, ready to cover every second of the event. The unexpected arrival of the prophets of Yahweh, John and Cohen, an hour earlier and the subsequent clearing of the Temple while Christopher was en route from New York only intensified the level of expectation. Into this, but more specifically between the line of military personnel and the steps of the Temple, Christopher directed the pilot to set the helicopter down.

  With television cameras rolling Christopher was the first to disembark the aircraft. His hair and long robes tossed wildly about him in the swirling winds of the helicopter's rotating blades, painting a striking portrait for television viewers and magazine covers as he stood unflinching before the challenge that faced him. Looking out as he waited to exit the helicopter, Decker could see that John and Cohen had expected Christopher's arrival.

  Once they were all on the ground, Milner turned and signaled for the pilot to withdraw. Standing there face to face with John and Cohen, Decker, who was still not sure of all the details of what Christopher had in mind, could not ignore the sudden twinge of anxiety that swept over him. Was any of this feeling the result of animosity borne between him and John 2,000 years ago in an earlier life, as Christopher had told him? Decker wasn't sure. To Decker's surprise, despite all else that was going on, Christopher turned to him and put his hand on his shoulder. "It's all right," he said, and somehow Decker understood that it was.

  John was the first to speak. "Hiney ben-Satan nirah chatat haolamr he shouted in Hebrew, meaning: 'Behold the son of Satan who manifests the sin of the world.' "So we meet again at last," Christopher answered in an ironic turn of the phrase, ignoring John's comment.

  "You are mistaken," John replied. "I never knew you."

  "No, Yochanan bar Zebadee" Christopher responded, using the Hebrew form of John's full name. "It is I who never knew you!"

  For a long moment neither spoke, but only stared at each other. Then Christopher dropped his gaze to the ground. "It's not too late," he said finally, addressing both John and Cohen. His voice had a sense of pleading but at the same time the tone indicated that he knew the attempt was in vain.

  Quite uncharacteristically, John smiled and then began to laugh. In a moment Cohen joined in. Christopher looked back at Decker with an expression that seemed to say 'this is for both of us.' Then taking a deep breath and with no sign of anger but every ounce of conviction, he looked back at the two men and then shouted above their laughter, "As you will!"

  Then raising his right hand, he made a quick sweeping motion, and immediately John and Cohen's laughter stopped as they were thrown backward through the air at incredible, almost unbelievable speed, their bodies slamming against the front walls of the Temple on either side of the entrance. The crunch of breaking bones was loud enough to be heard throughout the vast crowd and left no doubt as to their fate. Their blood splattered liberally on the wall, and remained there as witness of where they had hit. As Christopher brought his hand back down, the two lifeless bodies fell and, with a sweep of his hand, they tumbled slowly down the steps to the street below, leaving two long trails of blood to mark their paths.

  The crowd watched in stunned silence as Christopher, Milner, and Decker climbed the steps to the Temple while the crumpled bodies rolled on either side of them. As soon as the crowd realized that John and Cohen were actually dead, a shout went up from civilians and military alike. A spontaneous celebration began and was soon joined by people all around the world cheering the news as they watched on television or listened on radio. Members of the media pushed through the lines of Israeli soldiers to get a better look at the bodies.

  In Chieti, Italy, a man whose nostrils were filled with the rank smell of burning sulfur and whose heart was filled with the madness by which he had thus far made bloodied carnage of all but one member of his family, held a gory meat cleaver above his head and was about to bring it down upon his only remaining son when, as quickly as it had come upon him ... the madness left him. Carefully the man lowered the cleaver and laid it aside, and there among the dismembered bodies of his family, he dropped to his knees to hold his terror-filled son and wept.

  In Rudnyi, Turskaja, an old woman choked and gasped for breath as she pulled her head from a barrel of rain water in which she had tried to drown herself.

  In Baydhabo, Somalia, a teenage boy stopped only seconds before striking a match to set fire to his four gasoline-soaked younger siblings.

  Throughout the affected areas, at the moment John and Cohen died, the madness ceased.

  When they reached the top stair of the Temple, Christopher turned to the crowds. "No one must touch the bodies," he shouted, pointing at John and Cohen. "T
here is still great power within them. It will not be safe for anyone to touch or dispose of the bodies for at least four days." Nodding to Decker to imply that he should reinforce the warning, Christopher turned back and then, together with Robert Milner, he continued into the Temple.

  As they had planned before their arrival, Decker remained outside. Pulling a folded piece of paper from his jacket pocket, he waited for the press who would, no doubt, descend on him as soon as they finished taking pictures of the two dead oracles. Decker was pleased to see that the press were heeding Christopher's advice and not venturing too close to the bodies. There was no need to fear that the priests or Levites would touch them: their laws forbade contact with dead bodies. The only real problem might come from onlookers who for now were still held back behind police lines.

  Inside the Temple, Robert Milner and Christopher walked side by side. Crossing the floor of the normally bustling Court of the Gentiles, the only sound came from the column-lined portico that surrounded the court. There animals meant for sacrifices had been brought to the Temple for sale to worshipers. They had been left there untended by the shepherds and merchants when everyone was driven out.

  A hundred and fifty yards ahead of Christopher and Milner, the buildings of the Inner Court and the Sanctuary within it towered more than 200 feet above them.

  Outside the southern entrance and framed on either side by the blood of John and Cohen, Decker waited as the members of the press hurried up the steps to find what light he could shed on what they were witnessing.

  Christopher and Milner reached the soreg, the low stone wall which separated the Court of the Gentiles from the inner courts of the Temple and which formed a sacred balustrade or enclosure into which no Gentile was permitted to enter. Inscriptions on the soreg warned visitors in more than a dozen languages, "No foreigner may enter the enclosure around the Temple. Anyone doing so will bear the responsibility for his own ensuing death." It was convenient that the Temple had been cleared, for the priests and Levites would never have permitted Christopher and Milner passage beyond the balustrade without an altercation.

  Intentionally going out of their way to enter from the east, the men walked to the middle opening of the eastern end of the soreg. Quickly spanning the distance between the soreg and the first of three short flights of steps, Christopher and Milner ascended to the Chel or rampart, a flat area 15'/2 feet wide from which the massive stone walls of the Inner Court rose 37!/2 feet above them.

  "Ladies and Gentlemen," Decker raised his hand and shouted above the reporters' questions. "I have a brief prepared statement which I will read and after that, I'll be available for a few minutes for questions."

  Someone yelled out another question but Decker ignored it. "Forty-five years ago, in 1978,1 was a part of a scientific team from the United States that went to Turin, Italy, to examine the Shroud of Turin, a piece of cloth bearing the image of a crucified man," Decker began, reading from the statement he had prepared on the plane. In the limited time available, he provided as much detail as he could about the events that had followed the Turin expedition and which had led to this moment. He told them how, eleven years after the expedition, in 1989, he had been contacted by a member of that team, Professor Harold Goodman, who asked him to come to the UCLA to witness a discovery he had made concerning the Shroud.

  "Professor Goodman," Decker said, "had discovered that among the samples taken from the Shroud was a microscopic cluster of human dermal skin cells. To my amazement. . ." Decker paused, still awed as he recalled what he had seen those many years before, "the cells from the Shroud were still alive." For some in the assembly, that piece of the puzzle and Christopher's resurrection were all that was needed to make sense of the whole incredible picture, but though there was an audible gasp, no one spoke. "Tests of the cells showed them to be incredibly resilient and possessing a number of unique characteristics," Decker continued. "It was from cultures grown of these cells that Professor Goodman conducted his successful cancer research.

  "Unknown to me on that occasion, Professor Goodman had already performed a number of experiments with the cells," Decker paused as if to give the reporters a chance to brace themselves, "including implanting the DNA from one of the cells into the embryo of an unfertilized human egg and then replacing that egg into the donor, thus . . . cloning the person whose cells were on the Shroud. From that cloning a male child was born." For those who had not yet figured it out, this revelation provided the missing link; for those who had guessed earlier, it was undeniable confirmation. Christopher Goodman was the clone of Jesus Christ.

  It was an incredible story but nothing else could explain what had happened at the U.N. or what they had just witnessed on the Temple steps. "That child was named Christopher," Decker said, adding further confirmation. "He was raised by Professor Harry Goodman and his wife Martha until their untimely deaths in the Disaster. At that time," Decker went on, "Christopher Goodman was fourteen years old and, having been directed by Professor Goodman to turn to me in the case of emergency, Christopher came to live with me. The rest of the story, at least the important parts, you know." The inflection in Decker's voice let it be known that his prepared statement had drawn to a close and as he folded the paper to return it to his pocket he was surprised that no one seemed to have any questions. He needn't have been, for the reporters had plenty; they were all just too dumbstruck. Looking around at their blank stares Decker should have realized the problem, but instead started to excuse himself.

  His movement was just enough of a stirring of the waters for the dam to break. Someone in the back started to shout a question and then a flurry of questions were suddenly hurled at him. There were no particular arrangements made for handling the questions, so Decker simply answered first the question that had been yelled the loudest.

  Yes, Christopher had really been dead and had been restored to life.

  Yes, he was indeed saying that Christopher was the clone of Jesus Christ.

  Yes, he was saying that Christopher was God's son, just as Jesus was. (This did not set well with the Jewish reporters, but it was not a point that was currently open to argument.) No one had any reason to suspect or ask for the specific details of that relationship — which Christopher had revealed to Decker on the plane — and Decker had no intention of volunteering them. Christopher would explain all of that soon enough.

  "What about his arm and eye?" a reporter called, referring to the injuries Christopher sustained from the assassination.

  "Though Christopher has the power to restore his arm and sight," Decker answered, "he has pledged not to do so until his mission is complete."

  "What is that mission? Why has Ambassador Goodman come to the Temple?" someone yelled. Most of the rest of the reporters fell silent, also wanting to know the answer to that question.

  Decker thought for a moment. "There are a number of reasons, actually," he said. "The first and most important reason was to end the reign of terror of the two prophets of Yahweh, John and Saul Cohen. That, as you have all just witnessed, he has done. Also, he came to the Temple because, I suppose, it is the most appropriate place to make the announcement that he intends to make."

  "What announcement is that?" someone yelled, while someone else called, "Can you tell us what Ambassador Goodman intends to say?"

  "He will be addressing the people of the world on the subject of the destiny of Humankind," Decker answered.

  Christopher and Miner climbed three more short flights of stairs through the Beautiful Gate and entered the Court of the Women. Only hours before, this court had been the center of activity in the Temple. Now it was silent except for the hollow echo of footfalls on the stone floor as Christopher and Milner walked without speaking toward the broad semicircular steps at the western end of the court. At the top of these steps, the magnificent Nicanor Gate, 60 feet wide and 75 feet high, extended far above the walls themselves, forming an arch, and opened into the Court of Israel.

  Only Jewish men and boys we
re allowed to enter this part of the Inner Court. Unlike the Court of the Women, which was square and open to the sky, the Court of Israel was narrow and roofed, encircling the innermost court, and crowded with numerous columns. A series of chambers used for storage and small meetings lined the walls of the Court of Israel, further reducing the open space.

  The third and final court, the Court of the Priests, rose 33A feet above the Court of Israel. Though adjoining and fully open to the Court of Israel, admittance to this court was permitted only to laymen bringing a sacrifice. At all other times only the priests and Levites could enter. In the gateway to the Court of the Priests were four tables of hewn stone on which lay the blood-drained carcasses of a half-dozen lambs and goats, abandoned there when the priests and Levites were driven from the Temple. The smell of blood, incense, and charred animal fat still hung heavy in the air. To the north and south of the gateway sat eight more tables in a similar state.

  In the center of the easternmost part of the Court of the Priests, the Altar of Sacrifice rose 20 feet in stair-stepped pyramid form in a series of four immense, unfinished stones which, by commandment, had never been touched by metal tools.2 Steps on the eastern edge of the altar provided access to the upper stones. The capstone, which was called Ariel by the priests and Levites, was 21 feet square and, like the stone immediately below it, was 7 feet thick. On this stone was the fire of sacrifice which consumed the burnt offerings. Unattended by the priests, the fire had been reduced to embers.

  From the four corners of the altar's capstone, horn-like projections, each 21 inches long, reached skyward. On these horns and upon the altar itself, the priests would pour out the blood of the recently slaughtered animals as a sacrificial offering. Around the base of the altar was a gutter, 21 inches wide and 21 inches deep, with a containing rim of 9 inches and a total capacity of over 3,000 gallons to accommodate the huge amounts of blood that were poured upon the altar during the busier days. The priests and Levites had been driven from the Temple only a little more than an hour into their day and so only a few inches of blood now settled in the altar's gutter, coagulating and drawing flies.