Turning Heaven into Hell

"First though, there were children. Jews back then, as most people then too, and for a long time after that, married girls not long after puberty started. That means that there were most likely would have had to be six hundred thousand wives. They also had children. If we count a minimum of two per family, we now come to two million, four hundred thousand, and that's not counting those older people of both sexes, nor the Levites, for later on those six hundred thousand men are said to be men able to bear arms which Levites weren't to do.

"Oh, and there's those flocks and herds and cattle. That would have to really swell the population up for each family had to have their own critters. Now can you imagine all those people being moved on foot out of Egypt? Even by columns of ten, the line would have stretched very, very long. It would take forever to just get them started with their flocks, herds, and cattle. And then wandering through the desert and rough terrain? How could Moses have been heard to start moving, or worse, to stop moving?

"Then when they did stop, how long would it have taken to set up tents, and latrines for women for men weren't allowed to see a woman in her nakedness. Then there's the flocks, herds, and cattle: where were their latrines, and how to keep them from the people?

"No, we're never told of that not even in the movie, but a simple math and some consideration of what had to have been, if it was as written, we can see that there were a multitude of problems that just couldn't have happened, at least not as written. Or could they? What do you think?"

She looked around while we all tried to wrap our heads around what, as she said, had to be if what was written was true.

"Okay, just that little bit on the Exodus, for now anyway," she said "Just remember, Jesus is tied to Moses and his Law, as well as to Daniel and his so-called prophesies. So let's not look at some of the prophesies from Jesus' mouth as the gospel writers said he spoke. While we go through them, keep Daniel's prophesy in mind.

"Let's start with Matthew, 16:28. Let's get someone to read it."

It was read in the KJV first as having Jesus say to his disciples that some standing there would not taste death till they saw the Son of man coming in his kingdom. That Son of man had to be Jesus else why say it to his disciples and never say that there would be someone else?

Not surprisingly, the Catholic bible said the same thing. The NRSV also said the same thing, but a verse earlier. She had us read Mark, chapter 9, verse 1, which also said the same thing in all three of the bible versions, then Luke, 9:27 which also was the same in all three bibles, but said that they wouldn't taste death until they saw the kingdom of God.

"Kind of the same as Daniel's so-called prophesy?" she asked.

We could only nod.

"Okay, let's see something else they have Jesus saying. Let's start in Matthew 24:15, then skip to verse 34"

That was seeing the abomination of desolation as spoken by Daniel, and that this generation would not pass till all had taken place. This generation: Jesus' generation, she emphasized. All three again were in agreement.

"Someone read Matthew, 24:15 please."

It was read by someone else who hadn't read before.

"Well, here's direct proof of what the abomination of desolation was, it's as spoken of by Daniel and in the holy place, which can only be the Temple, but it was already done as stated in Maccabees, wasn't it?"

While the wording was not totally identical, there was no doubt that all three bibles said the same thing.

"Now let's try Mark, 13:14."

It was identical, speaking of the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel. The other bibles were the same, but some calling it the desolation sacrilege.

"So what do we have here? Well, if you'll recall, Antiochus IV Epiphanes put an idol in the Temple, and that was considered sacrilegious—an abomination of desolation, but that never happened again, and for sure, not in Jesus' generation. What does that tell us?" she asked.

We all hesitated, but then Shannon again spoke up.

"That the one writer had it wrong, just as the writer of Daniel had it wrong, if it wasn't made up to begin with. Also, the one gospel writer might have been copied by the other two."

"Does anyone have any other ideas?" Ms. Carlson asked.

None of us did.

"Martin Luther said Sola Scriptura, or Scripture Only, meaning that to put any other words as in the place of what was scriptural was wrong, and he was right, but then again, he may not have known what the scripture was. Then again, it seems none of the early so-called church fathers had read and considered what the scriptures said, at least those that they had available to them.

"What we have here so far are a lot of things that aren't taken together, and some even singly, and preached on, or taught in Sunday school for those of you who had Sunday school.

"Do you see the connections?" she asked.

It was all clear as a bell.

"Oh, one more thing, but not about any of this. I was asked about who were the lovers of Liv, the lady that I told you was murdered by a religious fanatic. I only have the first names: Paula, and the one they call Jabs, short for Jablonski, and they're usually found in a lesbian lounge called The Kitten's Korner."

"I know where that's at," one of the other girls said quickly.

Chapter 11

"Have I told you that I love you today?" I asked Shannon.

She smiled. "Yes, but you can tell me over and over for I never tire of hearing it from you."

"Okay. I love you, Shannon. You are the joy of my life, Now tell me what's on your mind lest you explode."

"Is it that easy to see?"

"For me, yes, but first of all, I don't blame you, but you know that already."

"I wanted to argue with her about it, but how could I? Sola Scriptura! How I wish that if they're going to preach the bible that they would be truthful, but even the bible won't let them—it's too full of errors and contradictions from what we've learned so far, and I bet it's going to get worse. Already I can feel that I don't want to go back to the church. I don't know if I can stomach it, but I have to go, don't I?"

I reached for her, and hugged and kissed her; she was everything to me.

"No, you don't have to go to the church, and if you can take it, and what will follow, then don't go. But if you can find a way to at least go for Christmas, then that means we have a chance to beat the circumstances we were born into. Know this though, but I think you already do, if you balk at the church, and it turns out that they all turn against you, then it'll happen to both of us. Whatever is to be must be for us, not just you, not just me. We are the same as married as far as I'm concerned, and when we can, if you will say yes, we'll be married.

"This isn't the way I wanted to ask you, or tell you of it, but you had to know just how much I do love you. Follow your heart when the time comes, and I'll be right beside you, and that's for always," I ended it, and kissed her cheek tenderly, and held her fast to me.

Her tears started. "Go ahead and cry if you need to."

She did for a moment, then asked: "Would you?"

I knew what she meant. "Faster than a loving heartbeat. You are everything to me, my love."

"I'll always love you, Brooke, but I've known that for years, and you know it too, don't you?"

"Yes, baby, I do, and now I'm going to stop calling you all those sweet names I want to use for you," I said and grinned.

She did too, kissed me, and we rested on the bed until we went to eat.

* * * *

"What did you think of the class today?" she asked.

"I think I loved it, and I'm still wondering what's next. There's still a lot to think about in Daniel, and Jesus' use of him, or how the writers try to use him. Where it's all going—I think I know, but I can't be sure, at least not yet. She's doing a great job of letting us discover it all for ourselves while still helping and guiding us. She's a marvelous teacher as far as I'm concerned."

"I think I agree with you, but then when don't I agree with you, or you agree with me? I like that about us, how we're just about always so together, and in every way."

"So far we're finding almost nothing but problems in the bible, and somehow I suspect that she's not even scratched the surface," I said.

"That's interesting, and I think you may be right. We'll see," she sort of agreed.

We ate as we talked. A few girls from our class went by and nodded, we smiled and nodded back, but other than that, we were left to ourselves. I wondered if they thought that we were a couple.

Back in our room, the door locked, and our clothes off, we read and talked some more. We were into all of our classes, but the one on the bible was special to us.

* * * *

There was a fairly free session in the bible class, Ms. Carlson having opened it up to questions and observations. It was a spirited session, but finally it was pretty much over. I was a part of it, but Shannon remained her usual quiet self.

"Good questions, good thinking. Now, last session, I mentioned Giordano Bruno; did anyone look him up?"

We had, and I raised my hand.

"Brooke, what did you think?"

"Actually, both Shannon and I looked him up. What I, uh, we, think is that he never should have been executed. Of course, we weren't there, but it was said that his tongue was gagged, and he was stripped naked and burned alive upside down. We've been finding out that for a long time, perceived heresy was punishable for that, though thank goodness, not in our time.

"What we found interesting and telling, at least to us, was the symbolic gagging, of tying his tongue, or however they did it. Were they signaling to everyone that none dared do any thinking, or if they did, they better not talk about it? He did, from what we read, agreed with Copernicus, and amazingly, is considered by some to be the first one to say that stars were actually suns giving off their own light, and that they had their own planets. We had to wonder at what a marvelous mind he must have had, and nobody ever should have a mind like that and be muzzled."

"Excellent, you two, and thank you. That has been one of the criticisms of religion: that it is fixed and unchangeable, and therefore inhibits thinking and discovery in science. With that, let me take you to another part of inquiry, and maybe how things were fixed back when, possibly to our detriment today."

She reached for a book that had maps.

"This large book is by the National Geographic on the bible world with maps. It's a lovely book, and has a lot of information. I bought if after I'd bought another one that I thought might be a little slanted, just to give you a reason for my having two books similar. Anyway, I noticed that Nazareth wasn't on their maps until in the time of Jesus, which seemed okay as Nazareth is said to have been just a tiny village and might not have existed until about the time of Jesus."

She showed us the map, and how nice the book looked, then had the other book in her hand.

"This book, the first one I bought, The Historical Atlas of Judaism by Dr. Ian Barnes and Josephine Bacon, is the one I thought I detected a possible slanting in their presentation. But..." she paused, and held up a map showing Judah, and all of Israel.

She passed it to one of the first students.

"Notice that I have written on it that it shows two Bethlehems, and no Nazareth until where they talk about the Maccabees, but it seems to be located more to the west, but that's not the really important thing just now."

The first book had made its way to everyone.

"Later on, I heard that their was an archeological dig, and wouldn't you know, it was for this other Bethlehem," she said. "My curiosity up, I searched and found an article by NPR, which if you're not familiar with it, is National Public Radio, a very legitimate station that may people listen to for their news programs, and sometimes their classical music.

She passed the book indicating Bethlehem of Galilee as well as the usual Bethlehem.

"Look up Bethlehem of Galilee, and select the NPR version. You'll see that the archaeologist, Aviram Oshri with the Israel Antiquities Authority; says he thinks it is the original Bethlehem as opposed to the one South of Jerusalem, and gives more information. It quotes Paula Fredriksen, a scholar of the historical Jesus as saying that the Judean Bethlehem wasn't paid attention to until the fourth century.

"Many are thinking that Bethlehem of Galilee is the real Bethlehem, but don't think it matters to most people, and certainly not the churches either, I gather. The point, however, has been made: just how could Joseph have made such a long trip to Bethlehem of Judea with Mary so pregnant, and thieves all over the place as well as wild animals when it's a short trip to Bethlehem of Galilee?

"Surely we're finding that the bible is full of errors, but many of their stories seem based on actual happenings; they may just have elaborated and used their imaginations to make what they started with more like a good story. Matthew and Luke give a marvelous story as if for kids, but we never take them as anything but the truth. It's what we've been taught.

"It's interesting, isn't it? It also brings up the veracity of something else in the bible, and brings the whole of it into question, and that's not all. There are two time lines for the Exodus. The one tells of them being in the time of Ramses II and the building of Pithom and Raamses in Exodus, 1:11. In Genesis, Joseph is said to place Jacob and his brothers in the best of the land, the land of Rameses as Pharaoh commanded. That last is quite impossible as Exodus, 12:40 says that before the Exodus, the Jews were in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years.

"Then the book of I Kings, 6:1, tells us specifically that in the fourth year of Solomon's reign, that it was four hundred and eighty years since the Exodus, which puts the Exodus at sometime in the 1400s BCE. That's a lot of conflicting times, for its about the time of Tuthmose III, who was called the Napoleon of Egypt with good cause—he was Egypt's greatest warrior king, even more so than the fabled Ramses II."

To say that we were stunned was a vast understatement. She also showed us in a map, as well as where in the bible it said that there were Philistines in Canaan in the time of Abraham though historically, they weren't known until about the 1180s BCE in the time of Ramses III, son of the great Ramses.

Later, in our room, we cross checked many things. What all Ms. Carlson told us was accurate as far as we could tell. Shannon was deep in thought about it all until we made love. Nothing took the place of our love making.

Chapter 12

The bible class hadn't been real high on my list of desired classes, at least not as it was for Shannon, but when all was said and done, it proved to be the most interesting one we had. Ms. Carlson showed us many other errors. In one class exercise, she had one read the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew while I read the one in Luke. It wasn't the easiest thing as they started at different times, the one from back when, the other going backward in time. What made it more difficult was that Luke had many extra ancestors, plus didn't have Solomon as one; instead having another son of David's, Nathan.

Another time she told us about the census mentioned in Luke 2:1-2 of a governor Quirinius in the year Jesus was said to be born. We searched for the historical information she gave us and found that she was probably right. Quirinius was governor of Syria, but from 6 to 12 CE, so that was wrong according to all we could find. In fact, we could find no record of that ordered census.

"I'm really going to hate going home," Shannon repeated, but I knew she was steeling herself for going back for the Christmas vacation. There was no way out save to make things very difficult for ourselves, for if Shannon let our cat out of the bag and they asked her to leave, I would go with her. There was no parting us.

* * * *

Glad to say that as usual for us, we were at the top of our classes with straight A's for each of them. That didn't take much steam out of having to go back, at least not for Shannon.

"Brooke, would you mind if I asked for us to talk to Ms. Carlson? Maybe see what else she might say that will help me out?"

"If you think it might help you, fine," I said.

"I feel so conflicted. First it was worrying about us going to hell for loving as we do, and now it's for maybe having to put up with what I now believe is probably wrong, and we're going back shortly, and..." she couldn't go on, her tears flowing too much.

Knowing what I positively do know about the genesis of her conflicts, I wanted to do whatever it took for her to find some peace, and maybe some direction as to what she should do. Just making it until we finished college didn't do it for her, that was plainly obvious.

* * * *

Ms. Carlson was more than gracious to us, saying she'd help if she could.

"How can I help you?" she asked.

"The church I go to is very strict, very much into the Law, and total obedience to God's will, but what I've learned here, well, it's completely the opposite. The bible isn't without error, and it couldn't be the word of God, and I'm not just saying that. Everything you've told us, we have looked to see if it's true per the bible, and taking the bible alone, you've been right each time. Since I was a little girl, it's been what the church says—the pastor and everyone in it, my parents included—that believe everything he says."

"I take it that they don't actually read the bible; is that right""

"They do, or I thought they did, but it's just the parts he preaches on, and that 's it. It's all so confusing, and I can't understand how they—all of them—follow and accept all he says without question. I don't, and I'm not sure that I can be among them now and even act as if it's right with me too. Still, I don't feel as if I know enough. Is there anything else that you can tell us that might make me feel more secure in what I think I know? "

This was more than I'd ever heard her say to anyone other than me, but I knew what she was talking about, and I wished that I could have been of more help to her, but I hadn't been where she was put for our church wasn't strict as hers was.

"Shannon, I wish I could say that I don't understand, but unfortunately, I do, and yet I can't blame them for being as they are. Well, I can, but I think I know why they don't see the scriptures plainly."

Shannon and I looked as we had before in her classes, wondering what she was going to come up with next, and feeling that she would somehow come up with something.

"I had a similar problem, but I have learned a few things that mitigated some of my original feelings back then. There's two things, in my opinion, for why they are as they are," she said and paused, looking at us with our expectant faces.

"Going far back to our human beginnings, it helped tremendously to rely on our parents; it was either that or get eaten, or something like that. It's not quite like that today, but we still need to rely on our parents because we take so long to mature, and everything is so complex now. It's that built in need to rely on our parents, along with how complex this world is now compared to ancient days. It's pretty much needful to rely on our parents to learn the basics even more today for there are so many more people to deal with. We need to learn more today than ever before.

"And there's the bugaboo. We need to learn from them, and have learned, but nowadays, unlike the olden days, what is passed down isn't always the correct thing. We're learning more now than ever before. However, we've never known what we are, or even why we are, and we're starting to ask, and it conflicts with the old knowledge that's still with most people. Do you know that?" she asked.