Jesus Was A Capricorn

Welcome To God's House

I listened attentively to this bullshit, but it got to a point
where I could no longer listen. I reached into my duffle bag and
pulled out one of my books. This action provoked the wrath of God,
or in my case, the wrath of the self-appointed Christ. It was not
enough that I wasn't paying attention to God's words; I also had
blasphemed the name of the Lord by reading a book on Buddhism. Ouch!
When the anointed one told me to put away my book (Alan Watt's "The
Way of Zen,"), I had had enough. I just wanted out of there. When I
was getting my shit together, his holiness spoke, "Nobody leaves
this house without permission." Wow! The nightmare had just become
real.

The tall one, or Jeb, as his followers called him, told us that we
should pay attention to God's word. He said, "There is only one true
religion. All others are false. There is only one path to salvation
and those that obey God's commandments walk this path. Only through
Christ is salvation possible. Only through the word of God, through
the right understanding of the Bible, can a person be saved." Jeb,
it seemed, was giving Dave and I an opportunity to see the light. He
was giving us, sacrilegious sinners, his undivided attention.
Apparently, he thought he could steer us away from the gates of Hell.

Dave, in as gentle a voice as he could muster, asked, "In the one
true religion, who must be obeyed, God's commandments or Christ?"
After a moments reflection, Jeb replied, "Both are the same. Jesus
was the Lord made whole on earth. Jesus was the culmination of God's
plan. Obeying Jesus was and is the same as obeying the Lord. Jesus
obeyed the Lord and was resurrected. Through Jesus, all shall attain
salvation."

Once again, Dave asked, "I still don't understand. What do you mean
when you say that through Jesus, salvation can be attained?" "Its
not difficult," replied Jeb. "It means that by accepting Jesus as
your savior, and with the Lord's grace, you will be received in
heaven." "But what if," Dave interrupted, "I'm lacking in the grace
department? What then?" "Let me make this perfectly clear," replied
Jeb. "It means that God's love was made flesh in Jesus and through
the power of that love all things return to the Lord." "Oh, but wait
a minute," said Dave, "If, ultimately, love saves, and I take it you
want to be saved, then how can you justify holding us against our
will? That doesn't seem like an act of loving kindness." "You are
not being held against your will," replied Jeb. "If you want to
leave, you only need my permission. If you want to leave, go. But,
take care. When you get out on the street, especially in this
neighborhood, you might want to rethink what constitutes a loving
act of kindness. If you stay, no harm will come to you. On the
street, you are on your own."

I looked at Dave and he looked at me. I could see from his eyes that
he was leaving it up to me to decide if we stayed or went. Jeb
didn't seem as threatening now, and the street seemed a lot less
appealing than it did a few minutes ago, so I said, "We'll stay."
With a devilish smirk on his face, Jeb said, "Smart choice." I still
felt uncomfortable, though, and Jeb's little smirk only compounded
it.

Trying to put him on the spot, I said, "Just out of curiosity, why
do we need God when we already have science?" Jeb frowned, as if he
didn't believe what I had just said. "We need God," he said, "so
that we don't put a gun to our head and pull the trigger. No really!
We need God so that science can help us create a better world and
not just a different one. The universe is full of regularities, but
those regularities are all subordinate to God's will. God's work,
God's activity, takes place on a distinct plane, one separate from
natural cause. His prophets and the miracles attest to that."

"Let me get this straight," I said, "You're saying that everything
is wholly at the disposal of God's will?" "That's right," said
Jeb. "God is both the architect and the engineer of the whole
shebang." "Well, what about evil?" I replied. "What about starving
children? What about the Holocaust?" "Sure evil exists," said
Jeb, "it exists because what is bad can be made better and what is
already good can be made worse. Evil exists from our point of view.
If we were God, evil would not exist. Evil is, ultimately, our final
exam, it is the test of our faith in the Lord…."

Dave could not keep quiet any longer. "Are you saying that God
nonchalantly watches as ethnic hatreds, political oppression, and
street violence, tear people and cultures apart--where petty
jealousies, lust, and rage turn good people into bad? Are you saying
that God remains dispassionate as the blood of innocents fill the
streets? Please tell me it ain't so!"

"The way I see it," Dave continued, "If your God exists, He must
have got up one morning and said, `Hmmm, I think I'll create a
universe,' and then got bored. Just for laughs He eliminated all
purpose, leaving the tragic/comic farce that we call history for His
own entertainment. He chuckled then, but He's been laughing ever
since--and therein lies our purpose. How sublime! How divine!"

With an alarmed look, Jeb replied, "Do not mock the Lord. In this
house you either praise the Lord, or say nothing at all. The Lord
works in mysterious ways. Your cold heart may one day be redeemed,
but that redemption will come only at the behest of the Lord. This
conversation is over. Praise the Lord."