[Editor’s note: Normally I write whatever is on my mind at the moment. This piece is the first story I’d ever wrote per request (aside from college papers, of course). The church I attend wanted something read in front of a song in their Easter cantata, and they asked me to write something. So I wrote this. In the end it had to be changed, as it wasn’t quite what they wanted, so I decided to post the original here. It’s quite different from what I normally write.]

Leah could hear them approaching long before she could see them. The angry mob. The shouts of the soldiers. She could feel the hatred in the air – hatred directed at one man, condemned to die. Soon he would be passing by, on the road that went to Golgotha. She did not want to see it, but she could not bear to leave. She knew it was dangerous to care for that man. His followers had already been scattered and feared for their lives. She knew she should run, but she didn’t.

How could she leave, now, after all he had done? He had cast a demon out of her brother, healing him of the darkness that had held him captive for so long. He had touched her aunt and made her whole again. He had given her hope – hope that God had not forgotten his people.

For so long they had languished under the oppression of the Romans. For so long they had been prisoners in their own land. Tax collectors had robbed them. Religious leaders had turned the Temple into a house of extortion. At any moment the Romans might come beating down the door to her home. At any moment her fragile life might end.

This man – he had offered them hope. Many thought that he would be the one to save them from Caesar. John the Baptist had told everyone that he was God’s anointed. Surely this man was going to give them the victory they so longed for. Surely he would rule over them as king.

Last week he had ridden into the city with such great pomp and circumstance. The crowds had shouted his praises. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed was he who had come to save them. Deliverance was at hand!

But now all was lost. He had been betrayed by a friend and handed over to his enemies. His body was broken and bloody, and he was being marched to his death. This man – the one who was going to save them all – had been condemned to the way of suffering. This was the end.

The crowd was here now. They were all pressed together, filled with rage. Leah stepped back out of the way, watching. The hatred was intense, palpable, demonic. They raged against him, cursing, mocking. The Romans pushed the crowd back, making a path for the bloodied man to continue down the road.

She saw him, briefly, as the crowd parted. He was disfigured beyond belief. She wondered how he was even able to stand. He was in such agony and pain, and yet he was silent. He ignored the taunts of the crowd. He seemed determined to walk the road.

Leah suddenly realized that he had chosen this path. He had given himself up and walked the road freely. He was going to his death of his own will. But why? Why would he do this? He could have become king! He could have been their deliverer. Why was Jesus so determined to go to the cross?

James 5:1: “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
6 Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”

I just had to quote the entrie passage. There is something about these verses that is immensely comforting. I have seen in the news countless terrible things, where some people have oppressed millions and caused wars simply so they could grow even more wealthy and powerful. There are dictators who have ruthlessly oppressed the people that they govern. So many people have died and so much has been stolen, and yet they continue to prosper.

But a day of judgment is coming. The Lord is well aware of what is going on. He sees what these wealthy, cruel people are doing, and He knows exactly how they obtained their ill-gotten wealth. The cries of the millions of oppressed people “are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.” Utter destruction is in their future; endless misery awaits them if they do not repent and beg for mercy. “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.” They have taken great pains to “heap treasure together for the last days,” but it will all be for naught. Their wealth “shall eat your flesh as it were fire.” Their very wealth will be a witness against them!

The Lord knows that they have “condemned and killed the just.” He knows and sees everything that they have done, and judgment is coming. That is the key thing to remember: judgment is coming. It may seem like they have won and that there is simply no hope left. However, judgment is coming.

There are two parts to this. All those who are guilty and did not repent will be judged after death; they will stand before their Maker and give an account of what they have done, and it will not be pretty. But there is another part to it too. This world itself will be judged, along with those who are in it. God is going to destroy this world as He pours out His wrath upon it during the Tribulation. He will bring it to an end – and not a peaceable end, either. He will then return and put an end to all of these things, and then the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord. He will rule over the nations with a rod of iron, and the old system and the old corrupt ways will be gone, never to return.

Verse 8 charges us with our task: “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord drawth nigh.” The Lord’s coming is rapidly approaching; it is nearer now than when we first believed. We are to be patient and wait for it. We are to establish our hearts and hold fast to the faith. Although there is evil all around us and the love of many has grown cold, we must overcome evil with good. We must pursue God with a single-minded purpose and passion. We cannot allow ourselves to be swayed by the lusts of the world. We must die to ourselves and live to God; we must put our treasure in heavenly things. Be patient: the coming of the Lord draws near. What we must do is wait for it, as the prophets of old did:

James 5:10: “Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.”

The prophets often prophesied about things that did not come to pass until they were long dead – in some cases, until centuries after they were dead. They were patient, and we must be also.

Because judgment is coming. It has been long delayed, but it will not be delayed forever.

Professor Grimes walked into the classroom precisely five minutes before his lecture was scheduled to begin. He picked up the student roster off his desk, glanced around the room, and placed a checkmark beside six names. He then sat down in the chair behind his desk and waited. The students in the room chatted with each other in low tones. Surprisingly, there were no cell phones in sight. My students are finally starting to catch on, the professor thought with satisfaction.

At precisely ten o’clock he got up and walked in front of his desk. “Good morning, class,” he said cheerfully. “This morning we are going to talk about–”

“Crop circles!” Ashley called out.

“Yes. That is correct, young lady. Today we are going to talk about crop circles.”

“We are?” she asked, confused. “I mean – what? Like, seriously?”

“Of course I am serious. Did you not see today’s topic listed in your syllabus? The topic of each lecture was set down long in advance and has not changed. If you would simply read the papers that I handed to you on the first day of class you would know everything that we’re going to discuss this semester, along with when we’re going to discuss it.”

Dan spoke up. “Hey, you know, speaking of that, what’s up with our semesters? This class started in December and has gone over into the next year. What’s up with that?”

“This is a paranormal class, young man,” the professor replied. “Why are you surprised that it has a paranormal schedule? Is that not to be expected?”

“It’s just so wrong,” he grumbled. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

The professor shrugged. “It makes a great deal of sense to me. If you did not like the schedule then you did not have to enroll. It was entirely your own choice. But, as I was saying earlier, today we are going to talk about crop circles.”

“That is just so weird,” Ashley commented. “I mean, you know, I kind of thought you were going to skip it. Crop circles are, like, kind of freaky.”

“The whole point of this class is to take a look at matters that are ‘kind of freaky’ and attempt to make sense of them. I will admit that when I first began my investigation into this topic I had grave concerns about it. It did not look promising.”

“Of course not,” Max replied. “Aren’t they all a hoax? I thought two guys came forward and said they were behind them all. It was a Dan somebody, I think. This has all been debunked, hasn’t it?”

“I believe you are referring to Doug Bower and Dave Chorley. It is true that in 1991 they came forward and claimed to be responsible for hundreds of crop circles that appeared between 1978 and 1991, including virtually all of the ones that were made before 1987. Ordinarily that would be enough to dismiss the phenomenon altogether. Then I discovered something rather intriguing: while there are many fake crop circles, there are a number of real ones as well.”

Max spoke up. “I don’t get it. A crop circle is a crop circle, right?”

“Not at all. In fake or hoax crop circles, people use boards to flatten the crops to the ground and create the designs. This breaks the stems of the plants and kills them. In some crop circles, however, the stems are bent, not broken, and the plants remain alive and continue to grow. This bending was caused by an intense burst of heat, which softened the stems and caused them to bend under their own weight. The heat also altered the plant’s crystalline structure. In fact, the difference in the plant’s chromosomes was so striking that in blind tests researchers were able to differentiate normal plants from crop circle plants.”

“Blind tests?” Max asked.

“That is correct. Despite what you may have been told, scientists have conducted serious research into crop circles, and research papers like Anatomical Anomalies in Crop Formation Plants have been published in peer-reviewed journals. Analysis has been conducted by trained biophysicists who worked in nationally-recognized laboratories. For example, the Signalysis laboratory in Stroud, England analyzed some samples and discovered some fascinating things. One example of a serious crop circle scientist is Dr. W. C. Levengood, who has spent years looking into the phenomenon and has performed laboratory trials to determine the differences between normal plants and crop circle plants.

“The results are quite interesting. In genuine crop circles – unlike the hoaxes – the chemical composition of the soil beneath the crop circle shows a significant change. The local water table in the vicinity is depleted, and the crystalline structure of the soil is altered as well – as if it had been subjected to tremendous heat for a short period of time. Not only is the soil baked, but short-lived radioactive isotopes have also been found. Moreover, the nodes of crop circle plants were enlarged and expanded, as if the water inside the plants had boiled and the steam had forced its way out of the plant, causing trauma. This could even be seen on a cellular level, where cell walls had been ruptured as if internal liquid had heated and forced out. Hoax circles had none of these characteristics and, in fact, have not been able to duplicate them.”

Lora spoke up. “I don’t really get all that biology stuff. This is, like, a history course, right? No one said that I would have to know biology.”

The professor sighed. “Then I suppose I need to simplify this discussion. Since the internal cellular structure of the plant itself had been altered in a repeatable and statistically significant manner, scientists were able to create a test to determine if a crop circle was genuine or a hoax. Roughly speaking, plants in hoax crop circles were crushed to the ground by boards, whereas plants in genuine crop circles appear to have been superheated by microwave radiation operating in the infrasound range – somewhere around 20 hertz. The radiation damaged the cellular structure of the plants and caused them to bend without killing the plant. In fact, in some cases the change was beneficial and the plants actually grew more rapidly than they had before. These changes have been confirmed by multiple groups in blind tests.”

Max started to say something, but the professor cut him off. “I am quite serious about all of this. If the work of Dr. Levengood is not enough for you then you may find the X-Ray Diffraction Study that was done by the BLT Research Team interesting. It was reported in The Providence Journal, among other places. These results are documented and reproducible. It is true that there are a great many hoax circles – but there are also many real circles as well, and science can actually tell the difference between them using objective tests.”

“So are we done?” Dan asked.

“We have only just begun!” Professor Grimes said enthusiastically. Dan sighed and slumped in his chair. The professor ignored him. “Now that we have established the existence of genuine crop circles, we can begin to explore the subject. Contrary to what the infamous Doug and Dave would have you believe, crop circles are not a new phenomenon. Accounts of crop circles date back to the late 17th century, and 200 cases were reported before 1970 – well before Doug and Dave claimed to have began the hoax. One odd thing about crop circles is that while they have appeared in 29 countries, 90% of them appear in southern England.”

“Which is where Doug and Dave live,” Max pointed out.

The professor sighed. “There are a great many problems with the stories of those two men. First of all, Doug and Dave were elderly men, not young men. If you have ever seen a crop circle show on television you may have seen people demonstrate how the hoaxed circles are made. It takes many hours of difficult work to produce even a simple design. The idea that these two elderly gentlemen ran all over southern England, making hundreds of complex formations in the dead of night all by themselves, is rather difficult to believe. It takes a dedicated team of people, working under well-lit conditions, quite a few hours to produce even a simple design. The manpower that would have been required to produce even one of the more intricate designs – let alone all of them! – is staggering. And that is setting aside the proven differences between the hoax circles and the real ones.

“The larger problem with their story is that, despite what the news media may have told you, they did not claim to make all crop circles everywhere. What they claimed was that they had made all of the ones within Hampshire County, England. However, when questioned, they could not tell people which of the Hampshire circles they had created or how they had made them. In fact, when asked about the crop circles outside Hampshire – and most circles did occur outside that county, not within it – the two men admitted that they had nothing to do with them. So, at the end of the day, these two elderly gentlemen claimed to have made some of the crop circles within a specific county in England, but they could provide no corroborating details and denied knowledge of the countless circles that appeared elsewhere.”

“But they did make some of them,” Max said.

“Oh, there are certainly countless hoax crop circles – of that there is no doubt. However, as I said earlier, there is a scientific way to differentiate genuine circles from hoax circles. No one has ever stepped forward and demonstrated how to make a genuine crop circle. However, people have reported seeing genuine crop circles suddenly come into existence. Eighty different eyewitnesses, scattered all over the world, have reported seeing shafts of light descend onto a field, flatten the crop, and create the design in less than thirty seconds. Pictures have even been taken of this, which are included in your textbook.

“In fact, one of the key pieces of evidence in favor of ‘real’ crop circles is the amount of time it takes to make them. Beside the dozens of eyewitness accounts, airplanes have photographed fields that were perfectly normal one moment but had an elaborate crop circle in them just fifteen minutes later. It is simply not possible for a team of hoaxers to produce a complex crop circle that quickly. Every year timed contests are held in which people race to make amazing man-made crop circles, but no one can even come close to making one that quickly.”

“So where do they come from?” Lora asked.

Max spoke up. “Probably freak weather conditions or something. I would guess ground lightning.”

Professor Grimes laughed. “Have you actually seen pictures of modern crop circles? The complexity of them is simply staggering – and there is actually an interesting story in that. Up to the end of the 1970s crop circle designs were just that – circles. They were very basic and rather boring shapes. In the 1980s the designs became more complicated, forming pictograms and petroglyphs. In the 1990s they increased in complexity again, and began depicting complex fractals, patterns from higher mathematics, and even patterns reflecting fourth-dimensional patters from quantum physics. The patterns were so incredibly intricate that scientists actually discovered five new mathematical theorems from looking at these complex crop circles. These are not simply round shapes. If you had actually done your assigned reading you would see what I mean – the pictures are all there in your textbook.”

“Fourth dimensional quantum physics?” Max asked. “Is there such a thing? What are the patterns now – fifth dimensional designs?”

“That is the interesting part,” the professor replied. “Over the past few years genuine crop circles have pretty much disappeared altogether. There are countless hoaxes, of course, but the hoaxes are easy to spot. Very few new circles appear, and the ones that do appear are quite basic. The crop circle phenomenon has pretty much stopped.”

“Really?” Ashley asked. “But why?”

The professor paused a moment, thinking. “Before we can answer that we must determine where the crop circles are coming from. As I said earlier, there are hoax crop circles and there are genuine crop circles. The hoax circles are done by teams of hoaxers and can be dismissed. We also know that the genuine ones are made by a complex microwave process that has never been successfully duplicated. The genuine ones are, therefore, not man-made.”

“So they’re naturally-occurring, then,” Max replied.

“That seems unlikely. When the designs were simple circles that was easy enough to believe. However, once the designs began reflecting principles of higher mathematics, including entirely new mathematical theorems, that explanation became unlikely. Look at it this way. If a pool of water on the ground forms a circle, well, that is easy enough to believe. But if it spells out the letters HELLO THERE LORA then I would begin looking for an intelligent designer.”

“But crop circles don’t actually talk to us,” Max said.

Professor Grimes shook his head. “That is where you are wrong. That very point is actually what piqued my interest in crop circles in the first place. In August 1991 an American named Erik Beckjord decided that some intelligence must be behind crop circles, and decided to try to communicate with it. He tramped the words ‘TALK TO US’ in a wheat field and waited. A week later a new crop circle appeared in the area – a design composed of letters. However, there was a problem: no one could recognize the script or read what it said. If you take a look at your textbook you’ll see why they were so confused – the font is rather cryptic.

“An effort was launched to decipher what came to be called the Milk Hill script. The letters resembled Hebrew but the language was eventually determined to be a form of Latin. The message was APPONO ASTOS, which means ‘We are opposed to cunning and deceit.’”

“What?” Ashley asked. “I don’t get it.”

“It does seem odd, until you think about it,” Professor Grimes replied. “Here is how one researcher put it:”

One of the most interesting recent developments involving crop circles is that they have begun responding to what is being said about them in the press! When it was hypothesized that the patterns were being done by pranksters in balloons, the patterns subsequently appeared directly under high-tension power lines, where balloons could not operate. When it was surmised that the strange geometric patterns on hillsides were the result of freak winds, the patterns moved again to flat fields.

When it was supposed that the patterns could be the result of some kind of refraction of microwaves, the patterns moved to areas where no microwave relay towers existed. When it was suggested that the patterns were the result of hoaxes perpetrated by humans, and some individuals actually claimed responsibility, the patterns were done in fields of canola, which is extremely brittle and difficult to bend.

(Bob and Suzanne Hamrick, Ufos – Demonic Deception, chapter 16)

“In other words, the crop circles responded to what was being said about them – which no natural process would ever do. Rain clouds will not move elsewhere if you write scathing letters to the editor about them, but that is precisely what happened here. When the circles first appeared people derided them as hoaxes, and so subsequent crop circles appeared in places designed to refute the hoax allegations. It was very much as if there was some intelligence behind them who didn’t like the fact that his work was not being recognized. APPONO ASTOS simply meant that he was tired of not getting the credit he deserved. There he was, doing something beyond human ability, and people simply did not believe it.”

“You think aliens were doing it?” Max asked incredulously.

“No, I do not,” the professor replied. “I find it difficult to believe that an advanced alien civilization, capable of traveling thousands of light-years across space, chose to reveal themselves to us by drawing pictures in wheat fields, and then became upset when people thought the designs were just hoaxes by bored teenagers. They would have to be utter morons to decide that that would be the best way to communicate with us, and if they were utter morons they never could have reached us in the first place. No, I do not think aliens are responsible. Nor do I believe it is some secret government conspiracy. I think there is a much simpler explanation. In my opinion, after carefully examining the evidence, I think it is quite likely that demons are responsible.”

“Demons again?” Max asked doubtfully. “I thought you said that ghosts were demons.”

“And I stand by that claim,” Professor Grimes replied. “The question we must ask is this: where does the evidence lead? We have established that men cannot make them, and it is highly unlikely that aliens or natural processes are responsible. If all natural explanations are ruled out then we are left with supernatural explanations, which takes us directly to angels and demons. Personally, I find it hard to believe that angels spend their free time flattening people’s wheat fields. When they have a message to deliver they deliver it in person and then leave. They do not play hide-and-seek games while destroying thousands of dollars of valuable plants that represents a farmer’s livelihood. Angels are very serious beings that are not to be trifled with. They do not play games.

“This does fit comfortably within the realm of the demonic, however. It’s worth noting that some crop circles do contain occultic and Satanic designs. On top of that, the language that was used in the Milk Hill script is quite noteworthy. If the intelligence behind crop circles was able to understand ‘TALK TO US’ then it was certainly capable of replying in English – but it did not do so. Despite the fact that the question was asked in English, by an English-speaking person, in an English-speaking country, the response was written in an obscure script and language that is only used in modern times in the occult world.

“It is probably impossible to know with certainty exactly why demons bother to create crop circles, but it’s quite possible that they were intended as a form of mass advertising, to get people interested in the occult. When people mocked them as hoaxes the demons ramped up production, spawning them in difficult locations and creating designs that reflected principles of higher physics. When even those were ignored they eventually gave up, realizing it was a lost cause. Western Civilization is so entrenched in its materialistic beliefs that even overt demonic activity such as this cannot break through our denial shields.”

“So crop circles are evil?” Lora asked doubtfully.

“That’s an interesting question,” the professor replied. “Think of it this way. Suppose that you were a farmer and you woke up one morning to find that your crop had been smashed flat by some unknown entity, and what little hadn’t been smashed was trampled into the ground by a crowd of onlookers. Wouldn’t that seem rather evil to you? Does that really strike you as a way God would communicate with people?

“You see, we already have a message from God – it’s called the Bible. It contains the complete, infallible, and perfect words of God, and it needs no further additions. It has everything we need to equip us to do all good works. Other cults may look for additional revelation, but Christians have no such need. God has already spoken to us and His message has been completed. The next time He speaks to us again it will not be through crop circles, but through His Son, telling us it is time to go home.”

The professor glanced up at the clock. “Dan, you can wake up now – you’re free to go. I will see all of you next week! Class dismissed.”

James 4:11: “Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?”

Despite what it may look like, this passage does not mean that we shouldn’t tell someone who is caught in sin that they’re sinning. All too often when sin is condemned someone stands up and says “Don’t judge me!” That’s not what this verse is talking about. After all, James goes on to say this in the very next chapter:

James 5:19: “Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”

Telling someone what the Bible teaches about sin is not speaking evil – it’s love! After all, there is nothing loving about seeing someone caught up in sin and doing nothing about it. It is not loving to say “Your lifestyle is fine; just keep right on doing what you’re doing” and allowing that person to go on to their doom. The Bible itself has many examples of people confronting the sin in others. For example, Christ condemned the Pharisees for sin many times. The Apostle Paul did not hesitate to name names in his epistles when it came to people who were caught up in sin, or preaching heresy, or opposing the gospel. These verses are not a call to stop fighting sin. James is not telling the church to roll over and play dead.

So what are these verses saying? It’s right there, in verse 11: “speak not evil one of another, brethren.” James doesn’t want us to slander other people or use our words to try to destroy them. This is something James talked about earlier – how we use our tongues to bless God and to curse men. If we are cursing men and speaking evil of them then we are very much in the wrong; God hates this, as James makes clear. However, telling people that sin is sin is not speaking evil; in fact, it is actually commanded, as we see in James 5.

This is the cover art for the third book in the Seth Savage Series.

James 4:8: “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”

Do you see what James is saying here? He is talking about humbling yourself before God – about crying out to God for forgiveness, mercy, and grace. He is talking about having a humble and contrite spirit – one that is fully submitted to God. A broken spirit. A spirit that earnestly seeks God.

James is not saying that Christians should be upset all the time. In fact, I don’t believe this is addressed to Christians at all. What he is saying is that those who have refused to humble themselves before God and ask for His mercy are in great danger. He is reminding them that we desperately need to obtain forgiveness for the sin that saturates our lives. The only way to accomplish this is to seek God – to be afflicted, and mourn, and cry out for mercy and grace. This is absolutely critical. Apart from God we can do nothing. We must have Him; nothing else will do. If we cry out to God He will hear us.

Yet many today teach that God would never ask anyone to repent because God doesn’t judge anybody. God isn’t a god of wrath, they say; rather, he is a god of love and tolerance. There is no hell, or damnation, or judgment. There is only life and peace.

God disagrees very strongly; in fact, Jesus spoke more of hell than of heaven. The Bible is quite clear on this issue, which is why the Bible is so widely rejected today. If we do not humble ourselves before God and ask for His forgiveness then we will not obtain His forgiveness, and if we do not obtain His forgiveness then we will face His wrath. He will give forgiveness freely to all those who ask for it, but those who reject it will not have it.

Professor Grimes was standing behind his desk, sorting a rather imposing stack of documents. As he leafed through the pages of a rather lengthy research paper he heard a voice in the back of the room mumble something. Looking up, he saw that Dan was furiously typing a text message into his smartphone.

“Dan!” the professor called out sharply. “Do I have to remind you of my very strict policies against cell phone usage in this class?”

“I’ve still got four minutes left,” the student replied. “The class hasn’t started yet.”

“You are still walking a very fine line, young man! So far I have not had to destroy any cell phones in this class, but I assure you that I will not hesitate to do so. I will simply not abide any interruptions by those infernal devices. You are free to ask questions but you are not free to ruin the learning experience for others by using your phone while class is in session. My rules on that are quite firm and are non-negotiable.”

“Fine,” Dan grumbled. He turned off his phone and slipped it into his pocket. “It just seems so lame. I mean, look. We’re well into the semester and I’m just not seeing much in the way of paranormal freaky stuff. I mean, the last class was about a dead Catholic missionary for crying out loud. What’s paranormal about that? I was expecting us to talk about ghosts and stuff.”

“We have talked about ghosts. In fact, that was one of our very first lectures. Moreover, while you may believe that the story of Quetzalcoatl is not as gripping as whatever games you may have on your phone, I assure you that we definitely entered the realm of the paranormal. According to the dictionary the word ‘paranormal’ refers to things that lie outside normal scientific explanations. Every topic we have studied lies well outside mainstream science. The idea that the pyramids were made of artificial stone is definitely a fringe idea, even though the support for it is quite significant. The same goes for the idea that Quetzalcoatl was a Catholic bishop. We are taking a serious and careful look at stories that fall outside the accepted boundaries of knowledge to determine if there is any truth to them. As it turns out, sometimes there is and sometimes there is not. But the point is that we are investing claims that most have chosen to ignore. That is precisely what this class is all about.”

“I guess,” Dan replied. “I was just hoping for more weird stuff. Like telekinesis and aliens and ESP.”

“And crop circles,” Ashley added.

The professor glanced up at the clock, put down his notes, and walked in front of his desk. “Crop circles are certainly an interesting phenomenon that are worthy of investigation. There is certainly no doubt that crop circles actually exist; the question is whether they are all hoaxes or if some of them have a supernatural explanation. One day we may look into that. Your other examples, however, are not as compelling. I am unaware of any reputable examples of telekinesis or ESP. It has been my observation that people who claim to have ESP or psychic abilities are either mentally disturbed or deeply involved with the occult. That being said, the apostle Paul did run into a young woman who could foretell the future due to a demon that possessed her, so such things are certainly possible. I suspect that if one were to find a real psychic – and I assure you that, if any do exist, they are quite rare – one would find a demon behind it. Since we have already discussed demonic activity in an earlier class I see no compelling reason to revisit the subject. Therefore, we are moving on to talk about another dead white guy: Beowulf.”

Lora spoke up. “Wasn’t that some ancient poem, or something?”

“Pretty much,” Max replied. “It’s some boring legend about a guy who killed some kind of giant troll. I glanced at the poem once. I don’t know how anyone could survive reading it. It looked pretty tedious.”

“That is because your reading comprehension level is appallingly low,” the professor replied acidly. “There was a time when it was common for mere high school students to have a mastery of Greek and Latin, and who found classic literature not only understandable but enjoyable. Sadly, today we have a generation of young people who can do little more than read poorly-written text messages. These are truly dark times.

“Hey, I resent that,” Dan called out.

“Said by the man who expresses himself through ‘lol’ and ‘brb’,” Professor Grimes replied, shaking his head. “If you truly want to see how far education has declined, pick up an unrevised copy of Treasure Island and try to read it. That book was written as an exciting pirate story for children. Today I daresay few college students could wade through it. Literacy is simply not what it used to be.”

The professor glanced at his desk and picked up his notes. “As I was saying earlier, today we are going to be studying the epic poem Beowulf. Despite its fame in the modern world, it’s actually something of a miracle that the poem has managed to survive the ages. All of our copies of it can be traced back to a single manuscript that dates to approximately 1000 AD, and that manuscript was created centuries after the poem was written. Had that one manuscript been burned – as so many ancient manuscripts were – the poem would have been lost to us forever.”

Max spoke up. “I don’t get it. I mean, look, I know the poem is famous and all, but why are we talking about it? It’s not like people say the poem doesn’t exist! I’m pretty sure everyone agrees it’s real. I’m not seeing the paranormal part of this.”

“The problem is with the interpretation of the poem,” the professor replied. “Scholars typically assume that it is some sort of early Christian allegory. I think that is entirely wrong. In my opinion, Beowulf is history, not legend. It is talking about something that actually happened. In other words, Beowulf is a true story.

“First of all, there are tremendous problems with the commonly-accepted allegorical interpretation. Unlike other Anglo-Saxon Christian poems, Beowulf does not mention any New Testament event, person, or teaching. There are references to the Old Testament but they are confined to things that, at the time, were generally accepted as historical realities. This may be difficult for modern people to believe, but for many centuries it was generally accepted by everyone that Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, the Flood, the Tower of Babel, and all the other events in the Old Testament actually happened. People used to have genealogies on their walls that showed how they, or their kings, had descended from Adam. Those only went out fashion in recent times when evolution poisoned people’s minds. Back in the Middle Ages, referring to Cain and Abel was like referring to World War II – it was commonly-accepted history. There was nothing particularly religious about it.

“What this means is that this supposedly Christian poem doesn’t actually have any notably Christian elements – unlike other Christian poems from that period, which are filled with theological statements, references to the New Testament, and Bible quotations. Beowulf simply does not fit that pattern. In fact, the poem is actually quite pagan. It extols the virtues of vengeance, the glories of accumulating plunder, and boasts of the reliance on human strength – none of which even remotely conforms to the teachings of Jesus. The poem also alludes to pagan oaths, pagan sacrifices, and pagan forms of burial. It takes a tremendous amount of imagination to take a pagan poem that is full of pagan philosophy and turn it into a Christian epic. That is simply reading into the text something it does not say.”

Lora spoke up. “Um, I haven’t actually read the poem. Is this going to be on the test?”

The professor sighed. “The poem was part of your reading assignments in your syllabus, young lady. Did you not see what today’s class was going to be about? How did you expect to intelligently discuss Beowulf if you’ve never read it?”

Professor Grimes looked around and saw the blank looks on everyone’s face. “Has anyone in this room read the poem? Anyone? Did anyone actually bother to complete their reading assignments?” When no one spoke up he sighed. “Very well, then. I will have to adjust the content of this lecture to account for the fact that none of you know what I am talking about. That being said, I do strongly suggest reading it. The state of education in schools today is simply appalling. But I suppose that is to be expected in these dark times.

“As I was saying, Beowulf is not a Christian poem, even though some people desperately wish that it were. This wish to Christianize it actually tends to hide the fact that the people in the poem are real historical figures. Beowulf was a real person, who was born in 495 AD. He was the son of a man named Ecgtheow. In 502 AD he was brought to the court of Hrethel, his grandfather, who was the king of Geatingas – a tribe that inhabited what is now southern Sweden. In 515 AD he traveled to Denmark to visit Hrothgar, the king of the Danes. That is also when he slew the Grendel, which was not a troll but was a type of animal that is now extinct. Beowulf became king in 533 AD and died in 583 AD at the age of 88. History has a great deal more to say about him, but the point I wish to emphasize is that Beowulf was a real person.

“Moreover, despite what many people claim, the poem is historically accurate. Since none of you have ever read the poem itself I will spare you the details – although they’re quite fascinating – but the characters in the poem are real, their relationships with each other are accurate, and the details regarding who they are and what they did with their lives are true and match recorded history. Whoever wrote this poem went to great lengths to keep everything accurate.”

“Now wait just a minute,” Max exclaimed. “Wasn’t the whole point of the poem the slaying of that monster? Gretal, or something like that. Are you saying that trolls really existed?”

“It was Grendel, not Gretal, and it was not a troll,” the professor replied. “Grendel was not its name; it was the type of creature. Throughout history people have hunted elephants or bears or tigers; Beowulf hunted Grendels. Translating the creature as a ‘troll’ is a gross disservice to humanity. That word does not even appear in the poem! A Grendel was its own type of creature.”

“But there aren’t Grendels anymore,” Lora said.

“You are exactly right. I suspect that men such as Beowulf hunted them to extinction, for reasons you would understand if you had read the poem. Grendels were nasty, dangerous creatures. This particular one terrorized the populace for twelve years.”

Max spoke up. “How do you know they existed? I mean, just because the Greeks said that Hercules fought Cyclops doesn’t mean there was a real Cyclops.”

The professor sighed. “Hercules was a Roman god, not a Greek one. Although he was apparently adapted from the Greek god Heracles. But there are actually a number of reasons to think that Grendels used to roam the countryside. In 931 AD King Athelstan of Wessex issued a charter in which a nearby lake in Wiltshire, England was called a “grendles mere”. Interestingly, the Grendel in Beowulf lived in a mere. There were numerous places in the Middle Ages that were named after Grendels; if you read through old charters you will find references to “Grindles bec” and “Grendeles pyt” and “Grendelwood” and so forth. People of that era believed that Grendels were real creatures, who went on real killing sprees, and posed a real danger.

“Nor is Beowulf the only account we have of people fighting Grendels. If you had read the poem you would know that the Danes spent twelve years trying to kill Grendel with conventional weapons, and they utterly failed. Their arsenal simply could not penetrate the creature’s hide. The way Beowulf killed it was by going up to the creature and tearing off one of its arms. The mortally-wounded creature then returned to its lair and bled to death.

“The reason this is important is because there is a depiction of a creature that looks very much like a Grendel on a Babylonian cylinder seal. The seal depicts a man fighting this creature by tearing off one of its weak forearms. That cylinder happens to be in the British Museum.”

“Is there, like, a picture of it somewhere?” Lora asked.

“There is in your textbook,” the professor replied. “If you had done your assigned reading you would have seen it. I do not give you reading assignments simply to torment you and ruin your social life. There is a reason I had you purchase that textbook, and it was not so you could kill spiders with it.”

Max spoke up. “So if all this is true then why isn’t it included in the introduction of every edition of Beowulf? Isn’t this the sort of thing that scholars would naturally find out? I mean, you can’t possibly be the first person to bring this stuff up. Are you saying there’s some kind of conspiracy going on? What would be the point of that?”

“You’re quite right – I am not the first person to discover this. Despite what you will see printed in copies of Beowulf, the information I have presented to you is quite well-known in the field. Klaeber, for example, has extensively documented the historical reliability of the details in Beowulf. What is fascinating is that even though scholars will admit that the information in the poem is accurate, they still insist that it is just a myth.

“This is all because of the monster Grendel. Grendels no longer roam the countryside, so modern scholars assume that they never roamed the countryside. Since they are therefore mythical creatures, Beowulf‘s account of fighting one must also be mythical. This is despite the fact that every part of the poem that we can verify has been verified and found accurate. One would think on the basis of that alone that, since everything else checks out, the Grendel must be real as well, but that idea is rejected out-of-hand – despite the fact that the existence of Grendels is affirmed in other period documents.

“By way of an analogy, suppose that the buffalo had been hunted to extinction in the 19th century, and a future archaeologist had said ‘Well, buffaloes don’t exist today, so they must never have existed; all these stories of hunting them must, therefore, be myths.’ The evidence for their existence is dismissed as myth, and then the resulting lack of evidence is sighted as proof that they were not real.”

“Can we go home now?” Dan asked.

The professor ignored him. “When studying history it is vital to remember that historians do not have an open mind. People approach the field with countless preconceived ideas – that ancient man was primitive; that dragons never existed; that Beowulf was a myth; and so on. They then use those erroneous ideas to interpret everything they see, and they use their interpretations as proof that they are right. Grendels never existed; therefore Beowulf is a myth. Since Grendels were mythical, any other references to them must be mythical as well. Their presuppositions blind them to reality.”

“It still seems rather weak to me,” Max replied.

“Look at it this way. If you have a historical document and you can check the accuracy of all of it except for one part, it is not unreasonable to assume that the one part you can’t check is probably accurate as well. After all, in history we rarely have all of the facts. Sometimes we can only check a portion of a historical account, and sometimes we cannot verify any of it at all. A document that has proven to be reliable where we can check it is probably also reliable in its other areas. It’s really not any more complicated than that.”

“But you could still be wrong,” Max replied.

The professor paused before replying. “One thing you will eventually discover is that science is a constant search for the truth, and scientific theories – and historical theories, for that matter – are simply the best approximations of the truth that we can formulate at the time. The laws of motion that Newton laid down were quite good, but they were not perfect, and Einstein improved upon them. Newton got us closer to the truth than we had ever been before, and Einstein got us still closer. One day someone may improve upon Einstein and get us closer still. That is how science works – by constantly coming up with the best approximation it can.

“History is quite similar. We do not have all the information that we would like to have; a great deal has been lost or deliberately destroyed. Therefore, we must make do with what we do have. It may be that a hundred years from now some new information will come to light that will get us closer to the truth than we are now. We may learn more about the events recorded in Beowulf that will expand our understanding – much the same way Einstein expanded upon Newton. However, since we do not have access to information from the future, all we can do is make the most of the information that we have right now. The day may come when we will have a perfect knowledge of history and will no longer need mere approximations; I do not know. But for now we are limited to the clues that we possess. What is important is that we do use them, so that others may build upon our work, just as Einstein built upon Newton. To sit back and do nothing simply because we are not all-knowing is insanity.”

Professor Grimes glanced up at the clock. “It looks like that is all we have time for today. You are dismissed.”

“What, no reading assignment?” Lora asked, as the class filed out the door.

The professor looked up at her as he gathered up his notes. “Would you actually do the reading if I gave it to you?”

“Probably not,” Lora replied.

“Then what is the point of giving the assignment? You are free to go.”

Professor Grimes then walked out the door and down the hallway.

James 4:4: “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”

This is really the key point when it comes to following God. We have two choices: we can be a friend of the world and an enemy of God, or we can be a friend of God and an enemy of the world. There is no such thing as neutrality. You can’t be neutral when it comes to God.

Many modern church leaders have picked up on this fact. They’ve realized that standing for the Bible means that the world will hate them. So, in order to be more popular, they have rejected the Bible. People now say that you just can’t know what the Bible says. They say that it’s full of myths. They say that you have to decide for yourself what the truth is. They say that it’s full of lies about God. They say that God would never judge anyone. They say a lot of terrible things about the holy, inspired, infallible Word of God. They have chosen their side: they have sought to become friends with the world, so they are now the enemy of God.

But there is more to it than that. What things in life do we love? What things do we seek after? Is it money? Fame? Respect? Houses? Cars? Possessions? Or is it God?

James points out that we are controlled by the things that we desire. If we desire things that pertain to this world – money, houses, goods, etc. – then we have become carnal. We’ve lost our way. God warned us to not be materialistic; He has told us that the things of this world are passing away and are temporal. He told us to “love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” He was very clear: while the Gentiles may seek after all these things, we are to be different. We are to seek after God.

As it says in Psalms, “nothing on earth have I desired besides You.” We are to love God passionately, with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength. We must love God, not the world and its riches and pleasures. He is to be our joy and our delight. When this is the case – when God alone is all that we desire – then things are the way they should be. Then we can serve God. Then sin cannot take root, because it cannot offer us anything that we want.

This is the cover art for the first book in the Seth Savage Series.

Black holes are famous as some of the most dangerous objects in the universe and with good reason. Even still most people don’t really understand the actual dangers posed. In every book or movie with a black hole, it is portrayed as a giant vortex that sucks in everything. While this description is technically correct, the range of the destruction is almost always greatly exaggerated.

I think an illustration would best explain the actual limitations. Let’s look at what would happen if the moon were a black hole; a black hole is formed on the moon which then consumes it. To be clear, this scenario does not add any mass to the moon, it only compresses the existing matter to a singularity. The Schwarzschild radius formula (r = 2 * G * M / c²) says the resulting black hole would have an event horizon 0.22 mm in diameter. The event horizon is the point from which it is physically impossible to escape, but, of course, anything not moving close to the speed of light is going to be in trouble from a lot farther away.

So how dangerous would this black hole moon be to the earth? The answer depends on the gravitational pull, which we can determine using Newton’s law of gravity (F = G * m₁ * m₂ / r²) for anything reasonably far from the event horizon. Since the only variables in this formula are the distance to the moon’s center of mass, the mass of the moon and the mass of the object being pulled on by the moon, none of which have changed in this scenario, the effect of the moon’s gravity would be the same as it is now for anything on earth. In fact, it would be the same for anything more than 1,080 miles (current the radius of the moon) from the black hole.

All this means that the moon being a black hole would not pose any danger to anyone on earth. There would be differences, like the lack of moonlight and a tiny black spot in the sky that occasionally distorts a star, but the only ones who would actually be in danger are astronauts that try to leave earth’s orbit.

James 2:26: “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

Here we have the Biblical definition of death: a body without the spirit is a dead body. Now, how one can tell when the spirit leaves the body I do not know. But that is the moment when death occurs. A body that does not have a spirit within it is dead.

This may seem trivial, but it is not. What this means is that a body that has a spirit in it is very much alive. It is impossible to murder someone who is already dead; stabbing a dead body is desecrating a corpse, not murder. But stabbing someone who is alive is a very different matter.

You see, the spirit does not enter a person when he is born. The spirit actually enters a person long before that – at conception. As this is something I have talked about extensively elsewhere I will not repeat myself here. The point is that the unborn are people, complete with spirits; abortion is not “disposing of unwanted fetal tissue”; it is murder.

I have noticed over the years that the conversation regarding abortion has changed. At first it centered around killing a person before they were born. Then it changed to partial-birth abortion – killing a person while they were being born. Now it is about live-birth abortion – killing a person after they were born. President Obama vigorously opposed legislation that made it illegal to kill babies after they were born.

There was a case in Canada not long ago where a woman took her baby, killed it, and threw its body over a fence. They got her for littering but gave her a suspended sentence for the murder. The judge ruled that she was just having a late abortion, and if she wanted to kill her children then that was perfectly fine. After all, being a mother is “stressful” and sometimes strangling your kids is the only option.

What we are dealing with is nothing less than the legalization and cultural acceptance of murder. Is someone inconveniencing you? Just kill them. Are your kids a pain? Dismember them. It’s perfectly ok – society understands.

But the Bible is clear: God hates murder. It is not ok and He does not understand. He will judge all those who shed innocent blood. (It always astonishes me that those who support abortion and infanticide are opposed to capital punishment. Apparently it’s only acceptable to kill innocent people. Serial killers must be spared at all costs.) The frightening truth is that God is just. Those who refuse to repent will be punished – every single last one of them, for every single sin they have ever committed. There is forgiveness for those who ask, but those who refuse to repent will face an eternity of unbearable torment at the hands of a very angry God.

“Good morning, class,” Professor Grimes announced cheerfully.

“What’s so good about it?” a voice grumbled from the back of the room. The professor looked up from his notes and saw that the complaint had come from Dan. He was sitting in the back of the room with his head down on his desk. The professor then noticed that of the nine students who had attended class that day, six of them were seated on the back row.

“You know, that’s really quite remarkable,” he commented. “The very same people who will pay top dollar for front-row tickets to a football game will go out of their way to seat in the back row of a classroom. I fail to see what that choice is gaining you, young man. Given the trivial number of people who attend class you can hardly expect me to overlook you. The back row is simply not an effective hiding spot.”

“Whatever,” Dan grumbled. “It’s still a terrible day. I hate the rain. Especially in January. It should never rain in January. It’s just not right.”

“Would you prefer ice, perhaps? Rain is not all bad. In fact, life on this planet would become rather challenging if it stopped raining altogether. The ecosystem rather depends on a steady supply of precipitation.”

“I guess. But it’s still a pain. I think the guy who said ‘rain, rain, go away’ had it right. Cold and wet is just a miserable combination.”

“Then I suppose it is very fortunate for you that you are neither cold nor wet! As it so happens you are seated in a heated room, and no water is leaking from the classroom ceiling. Barring a catastrophe the elements will not be entering this place and troubling you. Speaking of catastrophes, today we are going to talk–”

“About crop circles,” Ashley replied.

“Goodness no!” the professor exclaimed. “As I was about to say, today we are going to talk about a man who really did go away – and whose promise to return led to the demise of an entire civilization. We are going to discuss–”

“King Arthur!” Lora exclaimed.

“Quetzalcoatl,” the professor finished.

“Who?” Lora asked.

Max spoke up. “Oh, he’s some old Aztec dude. He was a legendary white guy who founded Mexico or something and then vanished, promising to return. When the Spanish arrived the natives thought they were Quetzalcoatl, and so the Spanish basically impersonated him so they could wipe out the Aztecs.”

The professor shook his head. “I am afraid your knowledge if history is quite flawed, young man. While it is true that the Aztecs were the ones in power when Cortez landed in 1519, Quetzalcoatl actually interacted with an earlier civilization – the Toltecs, who disappeared about five hundred years before the Spaniards arrived. Nor did he found the Toltecs; he merely influenced them in some very interesting ways. The legend itself is quite fascinating. According to the Aztecs, many centuries earlier a white man with a beard had come to Mexico from across the sea in a boat like the one the Spanish had used. This man spent many years with the Toltecs and instructed them in religion, governance, and the arts. He was such a virtuous, pious, and wise man that he won the Toltecs’ esteem, and his wisdom ushered in a golden age.”

“I still say he has a weird name,” Lora commented.

“It only seems weird because we are not familiar with their language. Quetzalcoatl actually means ‘green serpent’. In that culture the color green denoted something that was rare and precious.”

“Hold on,” Max interrupted. “I thought his name meant ‘feathered serpent’.”

The professor nodded. “That is actually an interesting point. Technically, Quetzalcoatl was the feathered green serpent. Over time we’ve dropped the word ‘green’, even though Quetzalcoatl was consistently depicted as being green – for the reason I mentioned earlier. Historians have come to emphasize the unimportant part – the feathers – and missed what actually mattered. What the Toltecs were trying to convey was that this man was someone who was rare and precious to them.”

“So they drew him as a feathered snake?” Lora asked. “Why would they do that?”

The professor shrugged. “I’m really not sure. To us a snake symbolizes deception and cunning, but the Toltecs may have interpreted them differently. After all, different cultures throughout the ages have assigned completely different meanings to animals, colors, and even gestures. We tend to think that the way we see things is the way that things have always been seen, but that is not the case.

“As I was saying, Quetzalcoatl led the Toltecs into a golden age. For a long time all was well, but then a malign influence forced him to leave. His followers were heartbroken at his departure but he assured them that one day he would return from his home across the ocean. He then made a ship out of serpents’ skins and sailed to the northeast, to the holy island of Hapallan.”

Lora spoke up. “Hapallan? Is that, like, a country or something?”

“Who knows,” Max replied. “It could be anything! It’s just an old legend, like our stories about the Headless Horseman. Nobody in the 10th century actually built snakeskin boats and crossed the Atlantic with them. Even Christopher Columbus didn’t cross the Atlantic until 1492! This is all just a myth.”

“Really?” the professor asked. “I am afraid your information is out of date. There is actually extensive evidence that many other cultures discovered America long before Columbus. There were the Vikings, the Chinese, and perhaps even the Romans, as Roman coins have been found buried on this continent. In fact, it’s possible that even the Egyptians were aware of this hemisphere. One day we will discuss these pre-Colombus expeditions in greater detail, but the point is that people were crossing the Atlantic long before the 15th century. The idea that someone else had done it hundreds of years earlier is not out of the question.”

“Then why didn’t they become famous? Why did Columbus have to discover it all over again centuries later?”

“There could be any number of reasons. For example, perhaps the earlier discoverers failed to find a way to monetize their discovery. The Spanish were quite interested in overseas exploration because they were looking for a route to the Indies. What they actually discovered was not a new route but a civilization that had an unbelievable amount of gold. For the Spanish crossing the ocean was a way to obtain great wealth, power, and prestige. However, it’s entirely possible that those who discovered America centuries earlier found only danger, expenses, and loss of life. A modern analogy would be Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon. It was certainly an impressive feat, but it was incredibly costly and highly dangerous. We no longer make trips to the moon because they simply aren’t worth the expense. Being able to go somewhere means very little if there are no economic incentives to make the trip.”

Max shrugged. “Ok, whatever. So maybe other people made it their first. How do you know this Quetzal guy was ever real? All you’ve got are a bunch of old stories from a dead civilization. That’s hardly conclusive.”

The professor smiled. “Most of history can be described as ‘old stories from a dead civilization’. That, after all, is the very nature of history! In this case, however, we do have less information than we would like. Usually historians have some sort of written document that they can analyze, but in this case much of what we have here are oral traditions that the Spanish invaders recorded. That is unfortunate, but that does not mean it is all over. We do have those traditions, after all. Most importantly, the Aztecs passionately believed them.”

“So what? Millions of children passionately believe in Santa Claus. That doesn’t mean he’s real.”

“The reason that matters is because the story of Quetzalcoatl came from the Toltecs, not the Aztecs. He was not an Aztec legend and no Aztec ever saw him. Yet when Cortez arrived they instantly believed he was Quetzalcoatl in the flesh – despite the fact that the prophecy of his return was more than five hundred years old and came from a long-gone civilization!”

“Well, sure. But keep in mind that the Spanish were white people who had beards and boats. The Aztecs didn’t have any of those things. When Cortez arrived they just looked back into their history and said, hey, these guys match the legend of that serpent god. They just put it together and came to the wrong conclusion.”

“But where did that legend come from?” the professor asked. “How did the Aztecs know about white men when they had never seen a white man? None of them had beards, so how did they know about bearded white men? And how did they know that the land on the other side of the ocean was filled with bearded white men who were completely different from them? Isn’t it rather remarkable than when Cortez landed the Aztecs already knew what Europeans looked like?

“And there is a great deal more. The Toltecs recorded more about Quetzalcoatl’s appearance than just ‘bearded white man’. He was said to be old and tall, with a broad forehead and black hair. He wore a long garment that had a mantle marked with crosses. He was chaste and temperate, fasted often, and inflicted penances upon himself. As if that was not peculiar enough, what is really remarkable are the religious teachings that he left behind.

“You see, Quetzalcoatl taught the Toltecs that there was a supreme God, who was the ruler of the universe and the creator of all good things. Opposed to this God was a wicked being who was the father of all evil. Mankind had a common mother named Cicacoatl, which means the ‘serpant woman’, and it was said that by her sin entered into the world. Cicacoatl was said to have had twin children, who were depicted as quarreling; the Vatican actually has an Aztec picture that depicts this. Quetzalcoatl taught them that there was a great flood that destroyed everyone in the world except for one family. After the flood a race of giants arose who built a pyramid to Heaven in order to reach the sky, but the gods stepped in and destroyed it.”

“The Tower of Babel was built by giants?” Lora asked.

“It’s quite possible that some of these teachings were corrupted over the centuries,” the professor replied. “After all, Cain and Abel did fight each other and they were brothers, but they were not twins. What is remarkable is how much theology the Toltecs actually knew. For example, there is a picture that shows a king presenting an infant to a Latin-style cross. Crosses were objects of veneration to the Aztecs, and they actually dotted the landscape – despite the fact that the Aztecs did not practice crucifixion. The Aztecs told the Spanish invaders that the reason they venerated the cross was because a man more glorious than the sun had died upon one – and this came from people who worshiped the sun god! They even believed in original sin and baptized infants, praying that the water would wash away the child’s sin. Nor is that all. They also believed in confession to priests, in priestly absolution, and in penance. They even had a form of communion.”

“So they were, like, Catholics?”

“Good heavens, no! The Aztecs were unspeakably violent and bloody. In that civilization priests regularly sacrificed live human beings – and not just one or two, but thousands a time. These people would actually rip the still-beating heart out of a man’s chest so they could present it to their evil god. They were unbelievably violent, bloody, and savage – but they remembered the teachings the Toltecs had passed down, and they remembered that Quetzalcoatl was the one who had given them wisdom. They may have mixed his piety with their bloody savagery, but his piety was not forgotten.”

“That is so weird,” Ashley said. “It’s like Quetzalcoatl was a missionary or something.”

“He does indeed sound like a Catholic missionary,” Professor Grimes agreed. “The religion he left sounds a great deal like Catholicism – confessions, penances, veneration of crosses, infant baptism. Somehow the Toltecs heard some form of Catholic doctrine, which was corrupted through the centuries and handed down to the Aztecs. The likelihood that they came up with something so similar to Catholicism entirely on their own – up to an including the fact that it was taught to them by a bearded white man from across the ocean – is quite remote. It’s worth noting that the Spanish themselves thought that Quetzalcoatl must have been some missionary from ancient times.”

Max spoke up. “I get what you’re saying but I’m still not buying it. You just can’t build a boat out of snakeskins and cross the Atlantic with it! That’s not how it works.”

“That’s actually an interesting point,” the professor replied. “When Cortez landed he had his men burn their boats. He did this as a rather extreme form of motivation. By burning the boats behind them he made it clear that the only way his men would ever get home is if they conquered the Aztecs and forced them to rebuild their ships. The natives knew nothing about shipbuilding, but the Spanish did and that was enough. In other words, it was possible for someone who knew how to build a ship to guide the natives into building one. Cortez did it and managed to get home successfully, so it’s not out of the question that Quetzalcoatl may have done it as well.

“But as far as the snakeskin part goes, it’s worth noting that when the Toltecs and the Aztecs were around there were no large beasts of burden in that part of the world. Neither of those civilizations had cows, horses, or oxen, and they were also unfamiliar with tar or pitch. Instead of leather they used snakeskin, simply because that was all they had. Since Quetzalcoatl did not have access to tar to make his ship watertight, perhaps he used the skins of snakes and alligators instead. Boats of that type were not unheard-of at that time in history. At the very least, it’s possible.”

Max spoke up. “So let’s say that maybe all of that happened. Maybe a white Catholic missionary guy did cross the ocean a long time ago and brought Catholicism to Mexico, and maybe he got the natives to build him a ship so he could go back home. That still doesn’t explain this whole ‘I’ll be back one day’ prophecy. That sounds more like a legend to me.”

“But what if he did plan on coming back?” the professor asked. “What if he did not mean ‘I will be back centuries from now’, but instead ‘I will return in a couple years?’ What if he was simply prevented from returning, and the Toltecs had such a high opinion of him that they assumed he would come back no matter how many centuries had passed?”

“That just seems like a lot of what-ifs,” Max replied. “How could you possibly know that’s what happened?”

Professor Grimes smiled. “Because we have a good idea of exactly who Quetzalcoatl actually was. Now, keep in mind that the information I am about to give you is recorded in eleven different manuscripts that date from the 11th to 14th centuries. This is not based on a single crazy account that was recorded by an inept lunatic. As historical events go, this is actually well-documented.

“Around 550 AD there was an Irish bishop named St. Brendan the Navigator, who founded a monastery in Cloufert and was the head of an order of 3,000 monks. One day he looked across the ocean and realized that there might be people on the other side who had never head of God. With this in mind he decided to embark on a missionary journey. After building his boat, making ready for a long voyage, and assembling his crew he left from Tralee Bay and headed southwest. After many weeks of travel he eventually found land, and he spent seven years in the country he discovered, teaching them Catholic doctrine and customs. At the end of that time he left and promised to return. St. Brendan arrived home safely, and after a period of years he tried to go back. However, the winds and currents were contrary and he was forced to return to Ireland, where he died in 575 at the age of 94.

“Now, keep in mind that the earliest surviving manuscripts that discuss his voyage date to the 11th century – a full five hundred years before Cortez landed and heard the legend of Quetzalcoatl. The story of St. Brendan was not made up after-the-fact. The man himself bears a striking resemblance to Quetzalcoatl – both were tall bearded white men, well advanced in years, and whose home was across the ocean. Moreover, the Toltec civilization did exist in the 6th century and survived for centuries after.”

Lora spoke up. “So are you saying that, like, Quetzalcoatl was actually an Irish bishop named St. Brendan?”

“I am saying that that is a distinct possibility,” the professor replied. “The timing is right, it fits the facts, and the historical records of his voyage predate Cortez by a wide margin. It is impossible to say for certain, but it is quite plausible.”

“So let’ say that all this is true,” Max said. “What’s the point? How does it change anything?”

The professor paused before replying. “In our own time it is quite common for historians to dismiss much of the past as mere myths and legends. Ancient peoples recorded a great many amazing things; the story of Quetzalcoatl is but one example. There are also records of giants, and dragons, and countless other extraordinary phenomena. Yet today, despite ample records and documentation, we dismiss these accounts as pure fantasy. We do not believe in such things, so, therefore, they must be false. We believe that ancient people were petty liars at worst, or unbelievably stupid half-wits at best. We simply do not take them seriously.

“What we must do is open our minds to the possibility that perhaps, just perhaps, they were actually telling the truth. What if Quetzalcoatl really was a real person? What if there really were dragons? What other things have our ancestors told us about the past that we’ve missed because we’ve refused to listen? We assume that we know it all, even though they were eyewitnesses and we were not. I think our own arrogance has blinded us to all sorts of things.”

The professor glanced up at the clock. “And it looks like that’s all the time we have today. Be sure to read chapter 9 for next week, and don’t forget about your writing assignment that’s due. Class dismissed!”

James 2:14: “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?”

The point James is making here is that if your faith does not produce any works, it is empty and dead – it’s not real, saving faith. The Bible is clear that we are saved by grace through faith, not of works, but this faith is more than just mere words. Real faith in Jesus produces a changed life, a hatred for sin, a love for others, and a desire to do good – not so that we can earn brownie points with God, but in order to please Him. A faith that produces no works, no repentance, and no love is not real faith at all. That is what James is saying:

James 2:18: “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.”

Works is how we demonstrate our faith; it is the evidence that proves that our faith is real. As James says in verse 17, faith without works is dead. In the examples James gave, people demonstrated their faith through their works; for example, Abraham demonstrated that his faith in God was real by being willing to sacrifice Isaac. Genesis really does say “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness.” It is his faith that saved him – and he demonstrated the reality of his faith by the way he behaved.

It is fine to tell someone “I trust you”, but if it comes right down to it and you refuse to depend on them, then you don’t really trust them at all. Your words are empty and your supposed faith is a lie. God works the same way – if there are no works to back up your faith then your faith isn’t actually real at all.

This is the cover art for the thirteenth book in the Emma Wynn Detective Series.

James 1:13: “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:”

Some have asked: was it possible for Jesus to sin when He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness? Well, Jesus is God, and verse 13 says that God cannot be tempted by evil. Yes, Jesus was also a man, but He was a man without a sin nature (otherwise He would not have been sinless and could not have died for our sins, which is why the doctrine of the virgin birth is so incredibly important). This leads me to believe that, while Jesus did endure temptation and was faced with it, it was not possible for Him to sin; sin is just not a part of His nature. “He was tempted in like manner as we are, and yet without sin”. God simply cannot be tempted with evil – and that is a good thing.