Promises Pt. 01

"Mister McIvor, do you believe yourself to be a reasonable man?"

"Yes."

"Do you believe that a reasonable man would sue an organization such as the Shining Light Christian Church for such a patently ridiculous amount as you have, given that even if, and God forbid it should be so, even if you should win, the church's ability to pay out that amount of money would clearly be beyond them?"

"That really isn't my problem. I do not believe that I'm being any less reasonable than a church that behaves in a manner such as shown by this church. When I made up my mind to go ahead with this claim I reasoned that if I asked for my money back they would have given it to me in the hope that I would go away. If I asked for that amount times seven they probably would have reluctantly given it to me on the proviso that I signed a confidentiality agreement so that no-one else would get the same idea. But, if I sued for the amount given to the power of seven, which is an interpretation, albeit a very loose one, something that they should recognise, of their promise, they would be forced to not only sit up and take notice, but to defend their organization."

"I didn't set out to deceive the members of this church. I didn't hold myself up to be the perfect entity that it has. What I have set out to achieve is to expose this organization, I won't do it the honour of calling it a church, for what it is, a money grubbing, egoistic, self-aggrandizing commercial entity hiding behind the facade of piety."

"What will your next windmill be I wonder, Don Quixote? No further questions." Johansson sat down and immediately began an earnest conversation with Mayotte.

"Mister Henderson, call your next witness."

"If it pleases Your Honour, due to the late start of this matter, and that the questions I have of the next witness will take a considerable time, and the time now being," he glanced at his watch, "four o'clock. I request an adjournment until tomorrow."

"Very well. Mister Johansson do you have any objections?" Johansson shook his head and the Judge banged his gavel. "Court is adjourned until 10:00am tomorrow."

"Who are you going to call?" Frank asked Michael.

Michael shuffled his papers back into their respective folders. "It's Mayotte's turn for the hot seat and they know it. I could have started this evening but that would have given them the opportunity to do some research tonight. As it stands, they don't know what I'm going to ask, so I want them to sweat it out overnight, I want them to worry about the line of questioning, because I'm pretty sure that they were hoping that I would just have a few procedural questions and that would be it. Now they know that is not going to be the case, and believe me, by the time I'm through with him, he'll be begging to be put on the rack and tortured."

Chapter 4.

Trial Day 2

'We believe that the Bible is God's word. It is accurate and applicable to our everyday lives'.

As the people filed into the courtroom many of them were carrying newspapers which sported such headlines as 'Church likened to Hitler!', 'Church accused of lying to its followers', 'The business of God is big business.' The headlines were accompanied by a text dripping with cynicism. The media was having a field day, and could sense a cause célèbre that would attract world-wide syndication opportunities. All the metropolitan and the national papers were spread out before the counsels for the plaintiff and the defence, the plaintiff's side was obviously relishing the discomfort of the opposition.

"The media hasn't been complimentary, have they?" Frank asked Henderson.

"No, anyone would think that have been waiting for something like this for a while, the sound of knives being sharpened was positively deafening."

"I did warn you about getting the media involved," Johansson whispered to Mayotte, "but would you listen, no, you had to spread the word about this and start a feeding frenzy. Let's hope you know your stuff because I have a horrible impression that Henderson will crucify you if you show any lack of theology."

"God and I will prevail."

"God I'm sure of, you not so. We are going to have to call in reinforcements if things don't go our way."

Mayotte stared at Johansson trying to work out if he could trust him or not.

"Just to put your mind at rest, you are paying me to represent you and I will do this to the best of my ability, regardless of whether I support your theology or not, this is my job and I'm the best chance you have."

Foley had entered the court and, after the rituals were dispensed with, banged his gavel to call it to order. "Are you ready to proceed Mister Henderson?"

"Yes your Honour. I call Pastor Matthew Mayotte to the stand." Mayotte stood and walked stiff backed to the stand, his head held high and his step showing confidence. It was all a show, inside he was a seething mass of insecurity. He was sworn in.

"Mister, sorry, Pastor Mayotte, My client is suing you for failing to honour your promise to, in your own words and those of your fellow preachers, 'increase his finances seven-fold' in return for his diligent tithing. The burden of proof of these charges is up to my client and me." Henderson looked directly into Mayotte's eyes. "We must prove to the court that you are guilty of deceiving my client and others." Mayotte broke eye contact first. It was at that moment that Henderson realized that they had won. "And to do that we must prove that you were not acting as an agent of God as you claim. And to prove that, we must satisfy this court that God made no such promise, that God never had any intention of deceiving his followers of their money, and the only way that we can do that, as I have already outlined in my opening address to this court yesterday, and so that you understand the enormity of this deception, is to use the Bible to which you claim total obedience."

"Before we begin the actual questioning, let me just say that during the course of this process I will be going over some topics more than once, the reason for this, as you are well aware, as are politicians and other Pastors, is that you use the principles of 'hear, heed, and remember'. If a statement is made once it is heard but in many cases ignored, if it is made again it is heeded, and if it is made for a third time it is more than likely absorbed and remembered."

"Now, for the benefit of the court, you are the Senior Pastor of the Shining Light Christian Church are you not?"

"That is correct." Mayotte relaxed, here was an easy question for him to answer, he had mentioned this hundreds of times over the past twelve years, and it was something of which he was justifiably proud. "I was chosen by God to birth this church twelve years ago and have built it up from its modest beginnings to the successful 'House of God' that it is today."

"Very commendable I'm sure. Tell me Pastor, what qualifications do you have to run this church?"

"As I have just told you, I have been chosen by God for this task. I need no other qualification."

"So you have no formal qualifications per se, no degree in Theology?"

"I attended a Bible College and have qualifications from there."

"And that would be a Pentecostal Bible College?"

"Yes."

Henderson raised one eyebrow to indicate that he wasn't surprised or impressed by that answer. "Good for you. Now tell me Mister Mayotte, do you believe that the Christian Bible is the inerrant 'Word of God?"

"Yes."

"Which version of the Christian Bible do you believe is the inerrant 'Word of God'?" Henderson took a Bible from the stack on the table next to him, "This is the King James Bible, is this the one?" he put it down and selected another, "Or this one, this is the New, and presumably improved, King James Bible?" he put it down and quickly picked up another, "or maybe this one, the Revised Standard," even more quickly, "or this one, the New International Version," he dropped it as if it was too hot to handle, "or maybe this one, the Message Bible, or The Amplified Bible. Which one is the true Bible?"

"They are all the 'Word of God."

"But which one is the inerrant 'Word of God'? You see there are significant differences between them; some are based on the Latin Vulgate, while others are based on Greek or Masoretic manuscripts, and because they have different origins, they are different. And until Mister Guttenberg invented the printing press all Bibles were hand written, and until that noted heretic Wycliffe, set out to translate it into English, the people had to rely on the veracity of the Priest's translation of Scripture, so it is entirely likely that somewhere in that process, because of the involvement of man, mistakes were made. It is likely that one or more of these has to be wrong, one or more of these cannot be the inerrant word, can it?"

Mayotte remained silent while looked around him for support.

"Answer the question. One or more of them has to be wrong, doesn't it?"

"They can all be different and right at the same time. It is God's way of getting His message across." He breathed a sigh of relief.

"But the teachings of your church are still based on the Christian Bible being the 'inerrant Word of God'?"

"Yes, I already agreed with you on that. We teach the truth of God's word. It is God's word and God is truth."

"So you teach that everything in the Bible is a true and accurate account of what has happened in the past?"

"Yes. The Bible tells us that this is the truth, so that is what we teach." Mayotte had the feeling that, while he had answered the questions confidently and well, somehow this line of questioning had the propensity to turn nasty.

"I'm glad you said that because I have here a list of what the Assemblies of God church, and your church is an AOG affiliate, believe and the first one is; 'We believe that the Bible is God's word. It is accurate and applicable to our everyday lives'. Is this a fair record of your church's belief?"

"Yes. The Bible is the true 'Word of God' and it is accurate and it is as applicable to us today is it was when written."

"Having been told that it is accurate you have never seen the need to challenge its accuracy, have you? Being the true word of God must mean that nowhere in the Bible is there one error, one contradiction, one inconsistency, would this be correct?"

"Yes. It is the truth."

"Even though the factual and scriptural integrity of the Bible has been compromised by the Bible?"

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that one has to use nothing more than the Bible itself to prove that the Bible cannot be the inerrant word of God."

"That's a lie! The Bible is the truth! There are no errors in it!" Mayotte was becoming frustrated by the incessant questioning on this point, hadn't he answered it?

"So if I was to tell you that in this very book, Jesus of Nazareth, who your church believes to be the Son of God, actually denies the existence of any kinship with God, would you believe that?"

"No! That's a lie! Jesus is the Son of God! Jesus is a part of the Triune, the Trinity of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit! I am not going to sit here and be subjected to such heresy!" Mayotte stood and began to leave the court.

Bang! Judge Foley banged the gavel down. "Pastor Mayotte! If you do not sit down and refrain from such outbursts I will be forced to assume that you are abandoning your defence and find for the Plaintiff for the full amount of his claim. What is it to be? It's your decision."

Mayotte sat down, his face puce with apoplexy. The gallery was abuzz, hardly crediting Henderson's statement. Did such a passage exist?

"I won't reveal the passage just yet, but it does exist and it is the word of Jesus, quoted by one of the Gospel writers. Something to look forward to don't you think Pastor Mayotte?"

Mayotte glared at him and said nothing. "Now Pastor Mayotte, you claim that everything that you do in your church, and everything that you require of your members is based on God's rules, would that be a fair assessment of your church's position?"

"Yes."

"But it's not is it?"

"What do you mean?"

"You have rules that you require people to abide by in regards to how you do things in your church."

"Of course, if we didn't have rules it would be a shambles."

"But they're your rules, not God's, and where you run into problems, where you find yourself in trouble, is that you claim that these rules are God's rules when they're not, they are your rules. God doesn't ask that you comply with a set of rules to receive his blessing at all. Jesus didn't apply conditions on those who received his blessing, his healing, these were given without condition, His love is unconditional, which means He places no conditions on His blessing, unlike you, if your members don't comply then they're out, no longer a member."

"The important people of the Old Testament, Abraham, Moses, and David, did they do anything that would reflect badly on us if we were to follow their example, would we get into trouble if we followed their example?" Henderson asked.

This change in approach caught Mayotte by surprise. "They were all godly men and set fine examples for us all."

"So if I was to kill my son and barbeque him, I could claim that God asked me to do that, and get away with it?"

"No!"

"But that is what God asked of Abraham, although I admit He didn't go ahead with his command. What about if I was the leader of a conquering army, and ordered my men to kill all the women of the people that I had just defeated, except for the young girls, virgins who had not yet known a man, and give these young girls to my soldiers to do with what they will, would that be acceptable?"

"No!"

"But that is exactly what the Bible tells us Moses did. In the book of Numbers, Chapter 31, Moses gives this order; 'Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.' And this was after he had received the Ten Commandments, one of which, if memory serves, tells us that; 'Thou shalt not kill.' And this is an important man in the life of the church committing Genocide, can you explain that, Pastor Mayotte, can you explain why this man, this sinner, is revered by your church?"

Silence.

"What if I, a married man, was to get one of my servants to bring a married woman to me so that I could enter into an adulterous affair with her, would that be all right in your eyes?"

"No, definitely not!"

"But King David did that when he saw Bathsheba."

"But he was punished by God for it!"

'Wow, that got a reaction, I might just have to get Bill to follow up on that.' Henderson thought to himself. He looked to the defence table and his eyes stopped when they fell on Janine seated immediately behind Mayotte's chair.

"But he did it, she must have been a bit of all right for him to be prepared to risk God's wrath and cop it sweet. So if I was prepared to accept my punishment, it would be okay for me to follow what he did, I should go out and do the same, after all he was the King and Jesus' great, great, great, whatever grand-daddy."

"You're just trying to confuse the issue. The Bible is the true Word of God and it is without error!"

"So if I were to find one error, or one contradiction, or even one inconsistency in this book," He held up a Bible. "This would prove that the Bible simply cannot be the inerrant word of God. Would that be fair enough, Mister Mayotte?"

"It is the true 'Word of God' and there are no errors in it."

"And you are in total obedience to this 'Word of God'?"

"Yes."

"Pastor Mayotte, I am going to read to you a passage from the Christian Bible, a passage that you as a Christian are supposed to obey. The passage comes from Paul's letter to the Romans, Chapter 13 Verses 1 through 14." Henderson picked up a Bible and opened it at a marked page, "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear his sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience."

"This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him; if you owe taxes, pay taxes, if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honour, then honour."

"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow-man has fulfilled the law. The commandments, 'Do not commit adultery', 'Do not commit murder.', 'Do not steal', 'Do not covet' and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule; 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' Love does no harm to its neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law."

"And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put on the armour of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissention and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature,'" Henderson paused to allow this to sink in. "Now Pastor Mayotte, which is the most important law; God's law, or the law of the country?"

"God's law of course."

"But doesn't that passage tell us that the civil laws that we have to obey are also God's laws? Doesn't that passage also tell us that if we break the law of the land we will be punished because they are also God's laws?"

"We obey God's laws."

"But you don't obey the laws of the land in many different ways, ways that we will examine in greater detail as we progress through this trial. And that, Pastor Mayotte, is why we are here in this court, a court of the land. You have committed yourself to a debt, the debt of increasing my client's investment seven-fold and this passage tells you that you should leave no debt unpaid, so we ask nothing more than that you repay that debt."

Again he paused to allow his words to sink in. "Now, getting back to the Bible, are there any errors, any contradictions, any inconsistencies in the Bible?"

"The Bible is God's word, it is the truth, it is without error."

"Pastor Mayotte, do you believe that the Earth is the centre of the Universe? Do you believe that the sun revolves around the Earth? Do you believe that the Earth is flat and beneath the surface of the Earth is water?"

"No."

"Then you don't believe the Bible! Because that is what the Bible tells us. Is the Bible wrong?"

"The Bible is the word of God, it is the truth, and therefore it is without error."

"But is it without error? You have just told us that you don't believe the Bible's description of the Earth and its relationship with the sun, and that would be why? It would be because science has proven it to be wrong. Is that not proof that it cannot be the inerrant word of God, Pastor Mayotte? For you to insist that the Bible is the true word of God and that it is God breathed scripture, which means that God dictated it to a scribe, to insist that this is true is the same as telling us that God is a liar. Are you telling us that God is a liar, Pastor Mayotte?"