The Six Messiahs

The Reverend casually waved his arm; Jacob felt hot liquid running from his nose and raised his hand to it: blood, he looked up, feeling dizzy, narrowly avoiding the Reverend's eyes. But he saw it, there, trickling down the man's lip, his own blood as well.

Jacob nodded again; the 'why' didn't matter. The only important question was 'how': how to stop him.

'You can see that with all my responsibilities here I have found it impossible to consider any of these people colleagues,' said Reverend Day, voice rising with excitement, oblivious to his own bleeding. 'I knew you would come; it was foretold in the dream.'

'What do you expect me to do?'

'So long since I've sat with anyone qualified to appreciate my discoveries. I hardly know where to begin. Let me share with you what I've concluded from my studies and tell me if you agree.'

'All right.'

Rotting flowers permeated the air; Jacob breathed through his mouth, staring at the floor, feeling the Reverend's eyes slowly pick apart his defenses.

'In Hebrew scriptures there is no direct mention of God; many other names are given Him, but the Ain Sof, the Godhead, the source of all creation, is never named directly, because its identity lies beyond human comprehension. Correct me if I'm wrong.'

Jacob nodded in agreement; the pain increasing dreadfully. He put his hands to the side of his head, focused on the dust swirling in the wake of the man's gestures.

'The absence of God is darkness. Darkness is considered Evil. Before light came into the world, before good existed— because God is good—there was only darkness. We know God gave man a free will because He wanted us to live freely upon the earth. But to be truly free means that we must defy what is traditionally called God's will; do you see? By defying God we become more godlike. That was his original intention in creating us. And in order for man to live the way God intended, Evil had to exist in the heart of man from the beginning, because without the possibility of Evil, of choosing between these two paths, he has no free will to exercise.

'Therefore . .. Evil was God's original gift to man. Are you with me so far, Rabbi?'

Somehow Jacob found the strength to shake his head, the pounding now joined by a grating rattle in his ears that obliterated everything but the Reverend Day's voice.

'Evil has a purpose, yes,' said Jacob, 'but only so man can struggle with his brokenness. Move himself towards becoming whole again.'

'Yes, that is one way open to us, I agree. But clearly there is another path to godliness; through the pursuit of this power we call Evil,' the Reverend continued feverishly. 'I grant you, not one for most men to follow. Only for those few that have fallen into darkness, been corrupted by it, and found the strength to rise again ...'

'This is not a path for human beings,' said Jacob, his voice sounding distant and tinny.

'My point exactly,' said the Reverend, with a broad smile, blood running down between his teeth. 'This less- traveled way is the path of emulating God, not obeying Him. To become godlike by seeking Power and moving beyond consideration of Good and Evil. To move closer to God than man has ever dared by challenging and combating His authority.'

'You cannot defeat God,' said Jacob, feeling an immense weight crushing his limbs, pressing down on the back of his neck.

'Oh, do you think so? Then let me ask you this; in order to follow the path of good, the path of God, the path most human beings blindly follow, this is why the great holy books came into the world. That is the common wisdom, yes? Given to us as the Word of God; a series of manuals for living, spiritual handbooks detailing the Laws of God, handed down to man through the prophets of the world religions.'

'Yes, yes.'

'Then we may say that God is in those books, is He not? God appears to us in His words and His Laws which limit and define us. This is the way God comes closest to manifesting in our physical world.'

'Agreed.'

Reverend Day leaned in, only an inch away from Jacob's face. 'Rabbi, how can we be so certain that man's destiny is—not to obey God's will—but to free ourselves from Him? Why should we continue to live under the unquestioned assumption that the plan God outlined for us in these books was the right one?'

'That lies beyond our capacity—'

'But He gifted us with free will; how can we be sure His true intention isn't for us to rid the world of His influence and by so doing evolve into gods one day ourselves? What if this liberation turns out to be the true function of the Messiah that the books refer to?'

'I don't understand,' said Jacob, clinging to consciousness, darkness closing around the edges of his sight, tears falling from his eyes.

'This will sound like a blasphemy to you; imagine that our so-called Deity is, by cosmic standards, nothing more than a foolish, undeveloped pup, as plagued by doubt, as troubled and unsure of His own intentions, as any man on earth. Imagine a being like this, no longer able or willing to reliably guide us, a parent losing control of its children as we outgrow the need for His protection....'

'That is not for us to know.'

'But I disagree. Look at the evidence, Jacob. Look at the wickedness of this world: sin, violence, corruption, warfare. Would you call the 'Creator' of such a hellish inferno infallible? Are His ways and methods so beyond our reproach? I think not.'

'Those are the works of man, not God...' Jacob protested; his heart raced dangerously, tripping out of control.

No longer listening, Reverend Day reached out and gripped Jacob's wrists, his voice digging in like a knife.

'I believe that it is man's true purpose to eradicate God's Laws on earth, to free ourselves from the limitations He imposed a thousand ages ago. The irony is this so-called God knows He's failed, even if He won't admit the thought into His own mind. And I have come to realize that this final act of rebellion, casting God out of our world, is the very reason why God himself created man—to defeat and surpass Him— even if He won't acknowledge it.'

'How?'

'By destroying God's presence on this earth,' said the Reverend in a violent whisper.

'But how would you—'

'The plan for destroying Him has been lying hidden in His books from the beginning. He put it there Himself, I've decoded the information: and I've built a chamber beneath my church according to His sacred specifications, to amplify the Power of the action.'

'What action?'

'It's so simple, Jacob: He wants us to burn the books.'

Jacob stared at the ground, shaking his head, trying to shield himself against the madness.

'Burn the books! Destroy His Laws, erase His presence from the earth! That's the great Holy Work for which God created man in the beginning. And doing it will set free the Messiah who can lead us the rest of the way to our final freedom. The one, true Messiah.'

'You?'

Reverend Day laughed, blood running from his ears, his nostrils, red flecks forming in the corners of his eyes. 'Heavens no; I'm just a messenger. Our Messiah is the one angel too pure and selfless for the likes of God; the Archangel He bound in chains, cast out of heaven, and consigned to the pit, for fear that in his righteousness he would one day reveal to man his real and higher destiny.

'We will complete the Archangel's work here, that's the purpose of our City. We will destroy the books and break the chains that bind our Messiah in darkness. That's the divinity of the dream, why we've been gifted with the Vision. That's why ... we ... we ...'

Reverend Day rose abruptly to his feet, severe shaking agitating his limbs. Jacob felt as if his own skull were