Hebrews 10:4: “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.”

Here Paul (assuming that Paul wrote Hebrews) is explaining how the sacrifice of Jesus is superior to the Old Testament sacrifices. In the Old Testament sacrifices had to be offered continually, but Jesus was offered just once. The reason for this is because “the blood of bulls and of goats” could not take away sins, but the sacrifice that Jesus made could – and did.

He goes on to point out that priests had to offer sacrifices on a daily basis, but Jesus made just one sacrifice and then sat down. (In the Old Testament priests did not sit down because their work was never done. As far as I know there were no chairs in the Temple.) This is why the Old Testament system is no longer practiced today: Jesus has put an end to it by offering Himself. The old sacrifices are simply no longer needed. As Paul says:

18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

Our sins have been completely forgiven, so no more offerings are necessary. Jesus paid it all. As He said on the cross, “It is finished.”

This is the book cover for the fifteenth book in the randomly-generated Carole Livingston series!

Hebrews 9:12: “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

That was the price of redemption: the death of Jesus. We can only be saved by His blood. People today dislike this; they say that the crucifixion of Jesus was “divine child abuse” and there was simply no justification for it. Quite to the contrary: there is no justification apart from it! In order for us to be saved someone had to die – someone who was blameless in every way. A guilty person could only die for his own sins. In order for us to go free, an innocent man had to die.

Jesus did that – He lived a perfect life and then took on Himself the punishment that we deserved. He died in our place, and in doing so He purchased our forgiveness with His own blood. We are indeed “washed in the blood of the Lamb”, and apart from this there is no salvation. This is why Jesus is the only way to God: there is no other sacrifice for sins.

Jesus is the only way to God, pure and simple.

“I, for one, am impressed,” Amy remarked.

“Noel has indeed done well,” the Sentinel replied.

Amy and the Sentinel had materialized several hundred miles away from the restored city of Tikal. Rather than appear within the ruin and draw attention to themselves, they decided to use the planetary network of nanites to view the city remotely. What they saw was quite remarkable: the buried ruin was no longer buried. In what must have been a tremendous effort, the entire ruin was now aboveground and all of the dirt that had once hid it was gone. On top of that, basic services had been restored to nearly the entire city. The repaired skyscrapers were now home to more than a hundred thousand permanent residents. Tikal showed all the signs of rapid growth, and extensive restoration work was still being done throughout the city. The town appeared to be bracing itself for another massive influx of visitors. Meanwhile, its sidewalks were full of people, its streets were full of cars, and its office buildings were full of workers. The city was a thriving, bustling place.

“They’re certainly ahead of schedule,” Amy said. “I thought it would take them a lot longer to get this far! Maybe Miles and I made the challenges too easy.”

“Or maybe these Martians are simply highly motivated. Keep in mind that there are still nearly two million people living in the underground city. Even at this rate of growth, it will take at least another decade or two before this city overtakes the old one in population.”

“If it ever does,” Amy replied. “It’s possible that people will always live in both cities.”

“It is possible, but it does not seem likely,” the Sentinel said. “There is a great deal of maintenance work that has to be done in order to keep the underground city operational, and all of the best and brightest workers have relocated to the surface. The old city will find it difficult to keep things in good repair, and once its critical systems fail the city will be evacuated – whether the surface is ready to accept them or not.”

Amy nodded. “You have a good point. Speaking of workers, I see Noel but I don’t see Miles anywhere. It looks like he hasn’t joined them.”

“He is still living in his underground bunker,” the Sentinel replied. “From what I can tell he is in good health but he is quite old, and that is beginning to take its toll. Perhaps he decided that the ruin was a young man’s challenge, and decided to stay in his bunker and enjoy the comforts of home.”

“You could be right,” Amy agreed.

“Is there anything else that you would like to see?” the Sentinel asked.

“Kind of. You can go on back to Tonina, if you want. I’ll catch up with you a bit later.”

“Very well,” the Sentinel agreed. He then disappeared, leaving Amy alone.

After he was gone Amy took a good look around. “Well, I guess this is as good a place as any. This should have been done a long time ago. It’s time to build a monument.”

Amy closed her eyes and connected to the network of nanites that saturated Mars. Once she had made the connection she mentally retrieved a set of blueprints that she had created earlier. After taking one last look at them to make sure that it was exactly right, she uploaded it to the nanites. When they had finished building it, she opened her eyes and looked around.

A few moments ago the girl had been standing in the middle of a rolling prairie. Now she was standing in the middle of a small, well-kept graveyard. Throwing caution to the wind, Amy had decorated the place with trees – giant, old-growth trees.

That looks pretty good, she decided. My family may have no physical remains, but this place can still serve as a memorial to them. They deserve more than to be scattered into the void of space and forgotten. Amy then began creating gravestones, one at a time.

It took her about six hours before she created the last one. After the last one had been set in place she sat down on a bench and looked out at the horizon. By now it was late afternoon. In a few hours the sun would set and the stars would come out. When that moment came she would leave.

About forty-five minutes later, though, she had a visitor, She heard the noise of the Raptor long before she saw it. The rumble of its motor gradually grew louder and louder, until it suddenly cut off. A few minutes later Miles entered the graveyard and ambled down the sidewalk. As he walked by the old man glanced at her and nodded. Then he continued on past her and began reading all the tombstones she had created. When he had finally seen them all he came over to her. “Let’s walk,” he said.

Amy looked up at him. “How did you know I was here?”

“Oh, it was easy enough. My orbital satellites started beeping at me and told me that a graveyard had appeared out of nowhere. I decided to come over and investigate.”

“Your orbital satellites!” Amy exclaimed. “You have orbital satellites?”

“Yes, I do. In fact, I’ve had them for centuries. Don’t look so surprised! After all, I’ve been able to leave Mars and travel in space for more than a thousand years now. Didn’t I tell you that?”

“Well, sure, but I didn’t know you had put satellites in orbit. I can’t believe I never noticed.”

“Did you ever look for them?”

“Well, no, I didn’t,” Amy admitted. “But why do you have satellites?”

“To keep an eye on things. For a long time I used them to monitor the decay rate of the Martian atmosphere. Now I mainly use them for mapping purposes. Your graveyard was pretty easy to spot, by the way. There aren’t any other trees that large on the entire planet.”

“There will be, about two hundred years from now,” Amy said. “It will be beautiful.”

“I don’t doubt it! So, will you go on a walk with me?”

“Where to?”

“Oh, just around. Tell me about these people.”

“They’re my friends and family,” Amy explained. “Most of them died when the Emperor attacked Tikal. You wouldn’t know them.”

“I know, but I want to know them. After all, if they knew the Lord then I’ll meet them one day. In fact, I may meet them rather soon – I’m not getting any younger. Can you tell me their stories?”

Amy stood up and took the old man’s hand, and the two then began walking around the graveyard. Amy led Miles to every gravestone, and the old man listened as she talked about each friend and relative, relating various stories about their life. The sun slowly sank toward the horizon, but the two figures ignored it.

When the sun had almost set they reached the last tombstone. Amy was surprised to see that there was someone else already there. A middle-aged man was kneeling in front of the stone, studying it closely. “Noel?” she asked curiously. “Is that you? What are you doing here?”

“Amanda Stryker,” he said aloud, reading the humble stone monument in front of him. “July 23, 1853 – November 27, 7239.” He stood up and looked at Amy. “Your sister was quite a woman, you know. Feisty, strong, and confident. You really didn’t want to get on her bad side.”

Amy smiled. “That was Amanda all right. But she was kind too, and thoughtful. She had a lot of heart.”

“That she did,” Noel said. “I’m glad I had a chance to meet her.”

Amy looked at him, surprised. “What? When did you meet my sister?”

Noel took a deep breath and relayed everything that he had seen the night the mayor died. When he was finished Amy looked at the Sentinel in shock. “My sister was here, Steve. Can you believe it? She was here on Mars!”

“We really should thank her for coming,” he replied. “If she had not been here to save Noel then history would have turned out quite differently. At the moment his life was being threatened we were in no position to help him.”

Noel spoke up. “I’ve been wanting to ask you about that for years! What happened to you, Amy?”

“I was actually trapped in a temporal anomaly,” Amy explained. “The people on Xanthe had created a time trap to force Steve and I into the distant future. Fortunately, Steve was able to free us before we time-shifted too far. If it hadn’t been for him we’d still be there.”

“Oh,” Noel said. “Well, I guess that would explain it.”

“You mean you believe me?” Amy asked, surprised. “Seriously? That’s not like you! Where are the snide remarks and sarcastic quips? Where are all the comments about me not having all my mental faculties? Have you gone soft on me?”

Noel winced. “I will admit that for a long time I thought you were crazy. After meeting your sister, though, I realized that perhaps Miles was right after all. It really did seem kind of unlikely that the planet would magically terraform itself right after you showed up. Plus there was the tiny fact that the stars returned at the same moment you did. What finally convinced me was when I saw this graveyard suddenly spring into existence. There is no way that trees that large could suddenly appear on a moment’s notice. They had to come from somewhere.”

“So you noticed the graveyard too,” Amy said, sighing. “Apparently you also have access to the telemetry data from Miles’ satellites. I’m going to have to be a lot more careful.”

“What?” Noel asked, startled. “Miles has satellites? Do you mean space satellites? Miles can actually launch rockets into space? I can’t believe it! Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Whoops!” Amy exclaimed. “I thought you knew.”

“We’ll talk about that later,” Miles told Noel.

“Um, ok,” Noel replied. “So, Amy. I don’t mean to pry or anything, but why did you build this place?”

“Well, no one else was going to. In fact, no one else even remembers these people! But I do, and I miss them.”

“Ok,” Noel said. “Is this connected to some ancient ritual or something? Because I’m not sure–”

Miles interrupted him. “Tell me something, Noel. What are graveyard for?”

“Well, they’re the final resting places of the dead. They’re where we go to say goodbye. Honestly, it seems kind of morbid and depressing to me.”

The old man shook his head. “That’s actually not the case. Amy did not come here to say goodbye; she came here to say ‘I’ll see you later’. For those who believe in Jesus, death is not the end. One day the graves will open, the dead will be raised, and these very people will go on to live forever. What Amy has done is built a monument – not to their death, but to their resurrection. She is looking forward to the moment when the mortal will be swallowed up by immortality, and the corruptible will put on incorruption.”

“But their bodies are gone! There’s nothing left. Their very atoms have been blasted into energy.”

Miles smiled. “I think the Lord will be able to handle that.”

By now the sun had set and the stars were shining. The night sky was cloudless and beautiful – full of brilliant points of light that lit up the darkness.

“Are you ready to go?” Miles asked.

“Almost,” Amy said quickly. “There’s just one more thing that I need to do.” The girl made a quick motion with her hand and her sister’s tombstone changed. Below the dates a group of letters appeared.

Miles read them aloud. “’Gone to be with the Lord – will be back soon.’ I like it.”

“I think I understand,” Noel said.

The girl looked around. “I think that’s everything, Miles! I’m ready to go.”

The old man nodded. “Do you have the time to stop at my place for a few minutes?”

“I think I can work that into my schedule. What about you, Noel?”

“Oh, I’ll make the time,” he said. “I’ve been working too hard lately anyway – I could use an evening off.”

Amy smiled. “Very well! Then let’s go.”

With that, the three of them vanished.

The Sentinel spent hours staring into nothingness, thinking. Amy knew that he was running theoretical simulations in his mind so she remained quiet. She just silently floated in space and waited. After a while she got fed up with the darkness and asked the Sentinel to create some light so she could at least see something. The Sentinel obliged her and then went back to work.

“My father spent centuries trying to find a way to go backwards in time,” he said at last. “During that extended research project he accumulated a great deal of temporal data, and I have all of it in my mind. This gives us a tremendous advantage, but unfortunately it is not enough. Finding a way to use this data to unlock the barrier is proving to be extremely difficult. On the one hand, we have both created temporal fields before. That is relatively easy to do. What is not easy is to find a way to break the field while you are inside it. All of my father’s research indicates that the field must be terminated from the outside.”

“Just like the Wall,” Amy said thoughtfully. “But Miles found a way to escape.”

“He did?” the Sentinel asked, surprised. “How did he do it?”

“I’m not sure, exactly. He didn’t go into detail. All I know is that he used the power of Iapetus to match the power output of the four power stations. Then he opened a tiny hole in the Wall and slipped through.”

“So he didn’t actually collapse the Wall,” the Sentinel said. “He just created a flaw in it and slipped out that way. Interesting. Perhaps I have been looking at this problem the wrong way.”

“Maybe. But either way, I’ll just stay out of your way and let you do the math.”

The Sentinel looked at her curiously. “You don’t seem to be very upset over all of this. I thought that being forced even further into the future would cause you a great deal of angst.”

Amy shrugged. “I don’t have anything left to lose, Steve. My home on Mars crumbled into dust a long time ago, and my entire family is dead. It’s not like they could die twice or something. If we get out of this and find out that we’re in the 93rd century, well, I really don’t see how it makes any difference. I’ve already done everything I can do on Mars.”

“But you haven’t finished your work on Earth yet,” the Sentinel pointed out. “There are still people there who need your help.”

Amy sighed. “That’s true.”

“And there is also your dog Alex. He is still alive.”

“That’s true too. Poor thing! I’ve really neglected him since everything happened. Have you had a chance to see him lately?”

“I did check on him the last time I was on Tonina. It turns out that he has placed himself in hypersleep, awaiting your return. Time will not pass for him until you come back and wake him up.”

“Well, that’s good, I guess,” Amy said. “At least he’s not lonely right now. I don’t know, maybe all of this does matter. I’m just so tired.”

“Then get some sleep,” the Sentinel said. “I’ll take care of this.”

Amy woke up hours later. The sun was shining overhead but the sky was overcast and gray. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. “How long have I been asleep?” she asked.

“About nine hours,” the Sentinel said.

The girl yawned and stood up. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the craters were still there. “That’s a good sign,” she remarked. “I was afraid that the craters would be long gone and another ten thousand years would have passed.”

“We were blessed,” the Sentinel agreed. “It could have been much worse. As it turned out, we were only transported a little more than three years into the future. It is June 17, 7243.”

“Three years? Do you mean that I’ve been transported three more years into the future?” She sighed. “Well, I guess you’re right – it could have been worse. Thank you so much for freeing us. If it hadn’t been for you I would never have gotten out of there.”

The Sentinel nodded and said nothing. He simply looked into the distance.
Amy noticed the pensive look on his face. “What’s wrong?”

“I found out what happened,” he said quietly.

“So you know who trapped us?”

He nodded. “I do.”

“Don’t tell me – I’m going to have to have another talk with them, aren’t I? I really thought I was done with this place.”

“You are done with this place. There is nothing more here that any of us can do. All of the people who once inhabited this planet are dead.”

“All of them?” Amy asked, surprised. “Really? But – that doesn’t make sense! We’ve only been gone for three years. What happened? Were they all killed when the city was blown up?”

The Sentinel was quiet for a moment. “After we judged Xanthe and left, Ms. Hamilton decided that she wanted to be the supreme ruler of this planet. She missed her position as god of her own universe, and she was determined to regain as much power as she could. So, using a combination of threats and promises, she gathered a small group of followers and established a base camp in the old communications building that was located well outside the city limits. She then decided that the only way she could have the planet entirely to herself was to kill everyone else.”

“But the bots would stop them,” Amy said.

The Sentinel nodded. “Yes, they would, and Ms. Hamilton knew that. So she decided to take a different approach. She talked with the Steward and persuaded him to create the schematics for a powerful, miniaturized nuclear reactor. Her followers then used the Tower’s fabricators to create a dozen nuclear generators, which were placed at strategic points throughout the city. The bots did not interfere with this because the generators were neither weapons nor bombs.”

“Which is exactly what you thought,” Amy added.

“Now, Ms. Hamilton was smart. She knew that the moment they destroyed the city the two of us would return and do something about it. She also knew that whenever we came here we always materialized on top of this hill. So she talked with the Steward and learned how to create a time stasis field.”

“Which is pretty much exactly what you thought had happened,” Amy replied.

“So they set up their trap on the hill, programmed the reactors to explode, and waited for us to fall into their trap. We then walked right into it.”
The Sentinel nodded. “Yes we did. But there was one detail that Ms. Hamilton overlooked. Apparently she did not ask the Steward about how nuclear power actually worked, for she took no precautions to shield herself or her followers from the radioactive fallout. When the reactors exploded they gave every last one of the plotters a lethal dose of radiation. All of them, including Ms. Hamilton, died within a week.”

Amy was silent for a long while. “So they’re all dead,” she said.

The Sentinel nodded. “No one is left.”

“What of the prisoners?”

“They are all dead as well. Ironically, the killers you exiled actually outlived the people who were left here. By sending them off to their own worlds you actually saved their lives.”

“Hold on a minute,” Amy said. “What about Miles? Weren’t you supposed to transport him to the prison planets if one of the prisoners had a question? Since we were trapped–”

“Oh, I automated that process,” the Sentinel replied. “I wanted to make sure that he could have access to them even if you and I were preoccupied with something else.”

“That was smart. Did it work?”

The Sentinel hesitated. “Miles made sixteen trips,” he said quietly.

“But there were more than a thousand prisoners!”

“I know.”

Amy paused for a moment.“Well, that’s something, I guess. I didn’t think any of them would care. What about Adrian?”

“He was not visited,” the Sentinel replied.

“Did any of them find a way to escape?”

The Sentinel shook his head. “All of them are now in graves on their respective worlds. The Stewards buried them after they died. Would you like to have them moved here?”

“No,” Amy said. “Just leave them.”

“So what would you like to do now?” the Sentinel asked. “This world is now deserted and its last city is gone. What are your orders?”

“Let’s just leave it how it is. We gave this world to its people and this is what they did with it. Fixing it again is just pointless – there’s no one left who cares. I’m ready to go.”

“Where to?”

“I’d like to visit Mars one last time. Noel has now had three years to restore the ruin that we gave him. I want to see if he’s made any progress – or if that also ended up being a big waste of time. And it would be kind of nice to say goodbye to Miles before I leave.”

“Leave?” the Sentinel asked. “Where do you plan on going?”

“To Earth,” she replied.

Hebrews 8:8: “For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:”

Replacement theology bothers me tremendously. There is simply no Biblical evidence – none – that God has washed His hands of Israel, taken His promises away from them, and applied them to the Church. The Church has not replaced Israel. As you can see here, God promised to one day make a new covenant with – who? – with the house of Israel! As Paul said so clearly in Romans, God has not cast aside Israel. They have been blinded, but only for a time. Once the “fulness of the Gentiles” has been brought in (Romans 11:25), that blindness will stop and God will begin to draw Israel back to Him. As He says here:

10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

That day is coming.

This is the book cover for the eleventh book in the randomly-generated Carole Livingston series!

Hebrews 7:25: “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

This is an interesting point. Throughout all of eternity our salvation will depend on the continued life of Jesus; we have been given His righteousness, and He “ever liveth to make intercession” for us. Now, there is no danger of Jesus ever dying, or failing, or stopping His work – but the fact remains that Jesus must keep doing this forever in order for us to be saved. Jesus made an eternal commitment to us. His work did not stop when He died on the cross and rose again. We are forever dependent upon Jesus – but He is fully dependable. Others may fail us and let us down, but Jesus will not.

Amy Stryker and the Sentinel materialized on the small hill that overlooked Star City. Amy was exhausted from a long day’s work and did not want to be anywhere near Xanthe. She had only agreed to come at the Sentinel’s insistence, and she was not happy about it.

“So just what was so–” she started to say, and then she stopped. Star City, the metropolis that her sister had built and the Sentinel had restored, was gone. In its place were more than a dozen craters. Smoke was rising out of them into the sky, and the forest around the city had been flattened. Every single last building – including the Tower of the Sparrow – was gone.

It took Amy’s nanites less than a second to figure out what had happened. The entire area was bathed in hard radiation and the most intensely radioactive areas were the center of the craters. Amy also noticed that the craters themselves were not made of dirt. The heat from the bombs had been so intense that it had fused the soil into glass. Oh my goodness, Amy thought with alarm. Someone has used nuclear weapons to destroy the city! But that doesn’t make any sense. In fact, that’s insane! Why would they blow themselves up?

Speechless, Amy started to use the nanites’ record of the past to find out what had happened when she was suddenly cut off from Xanthe’s network. At that same instant the area around her disappeared from view. A white wall appeared around the hill, cutting off her view of the area. Even the sky vanished.

Amy stared at the glowing white wall, puzzled. “Where did that come from? Steve, did you do that?”

The Sentinel did not answer her. Instead he quickly grabbed her arm and let out a burst of intense energy. The hill instantly disappeared, along with everything else. Amy found herself standing in the darkness, unable to see anything. The world was gone.

“You’re scaring me,” Amy said. “What do you think you’re doing? Why can’t I see anything?”

“I’m afraid we have a rather serious problem,” the Sentinel replied. “I apologize for not giving you an advance warning but I had to act quickly to save as much time as possible. It appears that I severely underestimated the resourcefulness of the citizens of this planet. I did not expect this to happen.”

“Underestimated who? The people on Xanthe? What have they done?”

“They have trapped us,” the Sentinel said. “They’ve erected a prison around the hill.”

“Is that what that white field was?”

The Sentinel nodded. “What you were seeing was the side-effect of time distortion. When we materialized on the hill we set off some kind of trigger that activated a temporal field. Time travels much more slowly within the field than it does outside it. I was unable to determine the exact rate of flow, but it is very possible that a few seconds inside this field could translate into a year or more outside the field. As long as we are trapped in here we are essentially being moved into the future.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Amy said sourly. “Haven’t we done this time-travel thing before? I am absolutely sick of being transported through time.”

“In a way we are very fortunate,” the Sentinel replied. “If they had created a time stasis field instead we would have been trapped until the field collapsed or time itself ended. The fact that time is actually passing for us means that we have a chance to do something and escape. This could have been very much worse.”

“I guess. But what’s the point of all this? I had already left Xanthe and had no plans to ever return. Why would they do this to us? What did they have to gain?”

The Sentinel thought for a moment. “At this point I can only guess. Once we escape this field we can tap into the planetary network and find out exactly what happened. I suspect, however, that the people of Xanthe did not trust you and wanted to guarantee that you would no longer be interfering in their affairs. I seem to recall that Ms. Hamilton was especially angry with you.”

“But that’s ridiculous! None of those people had the knowledge to create time stasis fields – or nuclear weapons, for that matter. In fact, I bet they didn’t even know how to make a toaster. How could they possibly be behind this?”

“There is the Steward that we left behind,” the Sentinel pointed out. “I placed many restrictions on his ability to create weapons, but I did not limit their access to physics or temporal mechanics. If Ms. Hamilton asked him how to slow down time he would have told her, and perhaps even offered to create some schematics.”

“Well that’s the last time we’re ever doing that,” Amy said firmly. “When the Stewards start taking care of refugees from Earth they will be positively forbidden from offering any scientific or engineering advice. If those natives want to build a time machine they’ll have to figure it out on their own.”

“I agree that is a sensible precaution, and I will keep that in mind when we get to that point. However, as I was saying, Ms. Hamilton – or perhaps one of her peers – must have decided that they wanted to eliminate us. Rather than attacking us directly the way Carroll Lane did, they decided to take a more indirect approach. After all, if this worked then the effect would be irreversible. Once we were transported into the distant future we would be unable to go back.”

“I guess that makes sense. But why did they bomb their own city? Was that just to lure us here? If so, it sounds like a really dumb move.”

“That I do not know. It may have been part of an internal power struggle. It’s very possible that after we left Xanthe the city divided itself into factions, and one group decided to eliminate the other. They would have realized that any hostile action would immediately draw us back to the planet, so perhaps they created the trap to keep us from punishing the criminals responsible for the bombing.”

“But how were they able to create bombs?” Amy asked. “Wouldn’t the security bots have stopped them?”

“Maybe they didn’t make bombs,” the Sentinel replied. “Perhaps they created actual working power generators, then simply altered the settings so that they would explode catastrophically. In that case the bots would have done nothing. They were not built to scan for possible accidents and take proactive counter-measures.”

“So they found a loophole. Boy, isn’t that great. I can see that we’re going to have to make a lot of changes to the next generation of security bots. But why did you bring us here? I don’t really like standing here in the dark.”

“I brought us here in order to keep us from going too far into the future,” the Sentinel explained. “The moment I realized what had happened I created a temporal field of our own. Within this place time is going at a different rate. A second outside the field, in their trap, corresponds to more than an hour in this darkness. I realize this place is not very pleasant, but it will give us more time to figure out how to escape their barrier. I am trying very hard to keep us from being transported into the distant future.”

“Just how far into the future do you think we’ve gone?”

“I do not know. In order to tell I would have to break down the barrier first. As long as we are inside it there is simply no way to tell.”

“All right,” Amy said slowly. “So what do we do now?”

“I’m not sure,” the Sentinel replied. “Let me think.”

The next day was uneventful – at least at first. Noel spent the day working with his team of engineers to draw up the plans for a permanent base in the ruins. He knew it was an ambitious goal, but if all went well the next time he and his team left New Tikal they would never return. He knew they might occasionally have to send someone back to get supplies, but as time went on even that would become increasingly rare. He wanted the ruin to become self-sufficient as soon as possible – and to start accepting citizens. There were a great many people who were eager for change, and he wanted to capitalize on that while interest was still high.

That evening he made his way through the city center and down to the mayor’s private residence, arriving just before seven o’clock. When he arrived there he saw that he was not alone. Someone else was already at the front door, waiting for him.

“Good evening, Amy,” Noel said. “You know, you don’t have to do this. I’m sure everything will be fine. Besides, inviting yourself along to someone else’s dinner party is bad manners.”

The girl shrugged. “Given the circumstances I think I can live with that. There are worse things in life than being rude. Besides, I’m not Amy.”

Noel rolled his eyes. “Of course not. You must be her identical twin. Anyway, let’s get this over with. The sooner we can have dinner, the sooner you can apologize for misjudging Mayor Thornton.”

Noel stepped up to the door and rang the doorbell. A moment later the butler opened it. The smartly-dressed man glanced at him with a look of cold disdain. “Noel Lawson, I presume?”

“Yes,” Noel said, hesitatingly. “And guest.”

“Very good,” the butler replied, in a tone that made it quite clear he was not happy to see either of them. “The mayor is expecting you. Right this way.”

The butler led them through the foyer, up a flight of marble stairs, down a golden hallway, and into the west wing of the sprawling mansion. Noel was astonished at the opulence that surrounded him. The house was huge – it was easily the biggest residence he had ever seen. All of the furniture was ornate and upscale, and priceless works of art hung on the wall. Gold was everywhere. Noel could not tell if the dining set he saw sitting on a table in one of the side-rooms was simply gold plated or was actually made of solid gold.

“Wait a minute,” Noel said aloud. “Was that the dining room?”

The butler stopped. “That was the Crawford Dining Room, sir, named after the late Martin Crawford. It is one of six dining rooms in this estate. Is there a problem, sir?”

“Well, why aren’t we going there? I mean, I was invited over here for dinner. I’m actually getting kind of hungry.”

“The mayor and his friends have already eaten. They had roast duck, I believe. I am afraid you have arrived too late to eat with them.”

“But–” Noel said, startled.

“Told you,” the girl replied.

The butler frowned. “If you please, sir, the mayor is in his study. That is where we are going. I would appreciate it if you did not interrupt me again.”

He then led them to the end of the hallway, where there was a large set of double doors. He opened one of the doors and stepped aside. Through the doorway Noel could see a large, beautiful room, filled with paintings, bookshelves, and elegant chairs. He also saw five people seated in antique wooden chairs – the first wooden chairs Noel had ever seen. They appeared to be deep in conversation, but stopped talking the moment the door opened.

“You may enter the room now,” the butler said. “The mayor is waiting for you. Do not test his patience.”

After the two of them had stepped through the doorway, the butler closed the door behind them. They could hear his footsteps as he walked off.

“Wow,” Noel exclaimed, as he looked around. “That is–”

“Yes, yes, you’re impressed,” the mayor said. “Look, Noel, we need to talk. Have a seat. Your friend will have to stand – we only have six chairs. I don’t remember telling you to invite your friends.”

“Sorry about that,” Noel mumbled. As he looked around he saw that all of the chairs in the room had been arranged in a circle. Five of the chairs were occupied. The sixth chair was empty. Noel noticed with some alarm that it was the one furthest from the door.

“I’ll just stand behind you,” the girl whispered. “Don’t worry about it.”

Noel nodded and sat down in the empty chair. “I’m afraid I don’t know everyone here,” Noel said apologetically. “I know the mayor, of course, and I know Mr. Glover. But if I might ask–”

“Oh, all right,” the mayor said, exasperated. “The man to my left is Kevin Cole, and beside him is Scott, who you met yesterday. The two people to my right are Robert Finch and Carl Perkins. They’re all members of my cabinet.”

“Thank you,” Noel replied. “And the person that I’ve brought with me is–”

“Your assistant, or something,” the mayor interrupted. “I saw her in the news when you were rebuilding that power plant of yours. It doesn’t matter. The point is that we need to talk. These expeditions of yours are getting out of hand. We don’t like what you’ve been doing.”

“You’ve been treading in some dangerous waters,” Robert agreed. “We were very supportive when we thought you had New Tikal’s best interests at heart. But now we hear that you’re planning on establishing a permanent residence in that ruin. That is a bad mistake.”

“It’s treason,” Scott said. “And we don’t take treason lightly.”

“I don’t understand,” Noel said, surprised. “I thought you invited me over here to have dinner.”

“We’ve already eaten, actually,” the mayor replied. “We had an amazing meal about two hours ago. But if I were you I wouldn’t be thinking about food. You need to be focusing on your future – and on whether or not you have one.”

“You’re stepping on a lot of toes,” Robert warned. “That’s not a very smart thing to do.”

“Now wait just a minute,” Noel said hurriedly. “I don’t understand what you’re so upset about. The ruin that we’ve discovered on the surface is amazing – absolutely amazing. The size of the city is unbelievable, and it will take years to fully explore it. Building a base camp there so we can operate more efficiently just makes sense.”

“It doesn’t make sense at all!” the mayor said angrily. “It’s dangerous and irresponsible. Do you know how many people want to leave and move to the surface? If you go and build that infernal base camp of yours, people are going to abandon New Tikal in droves. What you’re doing is nothing less than an attack on New Tikal. And I am not going to stand here while you try to take this away from us.”

“But I’m not trying to make anyone do anything,” Noel protested. “No one has to leave. It’s all strictly voluntary.”

Scott stood up and removed his revolver from its holster on his hip. “I told you it would be a waste of time to reason with him,” he told the mayor. “Let’s just kill him and get this over with. I’ve got other things I need to do this evening.”

“And don’t forget to kill the girl too,” Robert commented. “We don’t want there to be any witnesses.”

“What?” Noel shrieked. “You want to kill me? But why?”

“This conversation is over,” Scott said.

He aimed the gun at Noel, but the girl quickly got in front of the engineer.
“You are not going to kill him,” she growled.

Scott shrugged. “I don’t mind shooting you first. That works too. I’m easy to please.”

“But this is insane!” Noel said, his eyes fixed on the gun. “You’re supposed to uphold the law. How is this legal?”

“I’ve just made a new law,” the mayor said. “Building cities on the surface is now punishable by death. Looks like you’re guilty to me. Scott, you know what to do.”

The girl standing in front of Noel looked Scott in the eye. “Don’t even think about pulling the trigger. If you do you will not harm either of us – but all five of you will die. Do not cross that line.”

“Whatever,” Scott replied carelessly. “Have a good afterlife, kid.” He then aimed the gun at her and pulled the trigger. A shot rang out – but nothing happened. Scott then fired again, and again, and again, until the gun was empty. The girl still stood there, staring at him.

“What the–” he said. “Did someone put blanks in here or something? Is this a joke?”

“Oh no,” the girl replied. “Those bullets were real. But Scott, you can’t kill someone who is already dead. After all, ‘It is appointed unto men once to die and then the judgment.’ I’ve already died, so I can’t die again. Sorry.”

“What?” Noel exclaimed. “When did you die?”

“Last November. Carroll Lane killed me just before he killed the rest of my family. Didn’t my sister Amy tell you?”

“I thought you were Amy,” Noel said. “If you’re not Amy then who are you?”

“I’m her twin sister Amanda,” the girl explained. “Amy is trapped on Xanthe right now and couldn’t be here, so I was sent to take her place.”

“A lunatic is what you are,” Scott growled. He turned around, walked over to the wall behind him, and grabbed a giant golden sword off the wall. “This ought to do the trick.”

He took a step toward the girl – and then the sword turned to dust in his hand. The dust slipped through his fingers and fell to the floor. At that same moment the lights in the room went out. The only visible light emanated from Amanda, who glowed red.

“Enough!” she said. “The five of you are corrupt criminals who have spent your lives stealing from your subjects so you can have extravagant wealth. Your riches cry out against you – but that is not why I am here. I did not come back from the dead in order to judge you for your ill-gotten wealth. No, I am here because you tried to take away the future of Mars. You would kill an innocent man and condemn generations of people to a miserable life below the surface simply so you can continue to steal from them. I am not going to let you kill Noel.”

“And who made you queen over us?” the mayor shouted angrily. “I don’t recall you getting elected to political office.”

Amanda looked at the mayor. Her eyes were piercing and cold. “Baxter Thornton, your administration has been weighted in the balances and found wanting. God has removed you from power. You will never again command authority over anyone. Moreover, at this very moment the souls of each of you are required. Your lives have all come to an end.”

The mayor shrieked. “But that’s impossible! I don’t feel dead.”

“But you are,” Amanda said grimly. “All of you are dead. Now you will all face judgment.”

At that moment Noel suddenly vanished. The engineer found himself alone in his apartment. The lights were on and he was sitting on his couch.

Noel blinked. “Wait – what? How did I get here?”

He got up and walked over to the door. He glanced outside but saw nothing unusual. What just happened? Was all of that real or did I just doze off on the couch?

Determined to get some answers, Noel left his home and walked over to the mayor’s residence. When he got there, however, he saw that there was a large crowd of people outside. The police had created a barrier in front of the home to keep the onlookers out, and a medical team was just leaving the mansion.

Noel turned to the person closest to him. “What’s going on?”

“You haven’t heard?” the man said. “There was a gas leak in the mayor’s private study. The mayor and the entire council were poisoned! It’s such a shame. The medics say that the pipes in his home were poorly maintained and prone to leaks, and that’s what did it. I guess something like this was inevitable.”

“Poisoned?” Noel asked. “Are they going to be all right?”

“I heard they died instantly,” the man confided. “My brother’s one of the medics, you know. But no, they’re not going to be all right. I’m afraid that they’re all gone. They won’t be coming back.”

Over the next week Noel tried to find more answers but he came up with nothing. There was no sign of Amy or Amanda. The corner’s report confirmed that the men had been poisoned by the gas leak, and the case was closed. Everyone agreed it had been a simple, unfortunate accident – but Noel never really believed it. There was more going on there that night, he thought to himself. That was judgment, not an accident. But he never told anyone his suspicions.

Since the mayor and the city council had died, the elections were held early. A new administration was elected – one that was in favor of creating a new city on the surface. The new mayor made it clear that the future of mankind was not underground, but on the surface. He fully backed Noel and made sure that he had all the resources he needed to create a permanent, self-sustaining base in the ruined city. By the end of the summer he had achieved that milestone. In fact, the city was even opening its doors to limited numbers of new citizens.

But Noel still wondered. Amanda said that her sister was trapped and could not be here. That sounds kind of ominous. What happened to Amy? How could she possibly be trapped in a star system that is light-years away?

After a rather long delay, I’ve finally added support for space adventure titles to my book title generator! Here is the program’s first run:

The Citadel In Time
The Iron Eaters Of Delta Pavonis
The Stones Of Prometheus
The Ransom For Lysithea
The Voice Across Space
The Shrinking Gas Of Anthe
The Lost Ocean
The Spies From Andromeda
The World Of Deep Waters
The Outlaws Of Oberon
Voyage To Prometheus
Robots Of Mimas
The Wandering Asteroid
The Visitor From Titan
The Planet Of Doom
The Voice From Io
Exiles From Below
Citizens Of Acamar
Privateers Of Space
The City Of Lysithea
The Caves Of Zeta Doradus
The Lost Race Of Adrastea
The Door To Amalthea
The Vultures Of Zeta Leporis
Trouble On Aitne

I haven’t released a new version of the software yet that includes this feature, but I am planning on doing that at some point.

Once again, this is progress!

Hebrews 7:11: “If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?
12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.”

Here we have an interesting technical discussion on the priesthood of Christ. This is the sort of thing that churches tend to overlook, in their haste to preach sermons that don’t offend anyone. (In fact, churches try not to teach doctrine at all if they can help it. Doctrine is seen as “divisive” and so it is avoided. What God thinks about all of this is generally not considered.)

The priestly line went through the tribe of Levi, but Jesus came from the tribe of Judah. This means that Jesus was not a priest by way of the Mosaic Law. Instead, He was a priest “in the older of Melchisedec”. Melchisedec was not a Levite, and yet he was a priest of God. The Bible does not record him having a father, mother, or a death (although I’m sure he had all of those things). This made him a type of Christ, and pointed to the type of priest that Jesus was going to be. Jesus is our perpetual high priest, made so because of “the power of an endless life”. He is superior to the other priests by the nature of His Person.

This is the book cover for the ninth book in the randomly-generated Carole Livingston series!

In the book Beyond the Farthest Star, there are a number of characters who are in Heaven. The book follows these characters around and talks about what they’re doing and what Heaven is like. I used this as an opportunity to present what I believe is a more Biblical view of Heaven. A lot of people think that Heaven is a dull place where people sit on clouds and are bored for all of eternity, but I think that picture is grossly wrong. The real Heaven is quite different – and far more exciting.

Because a lot of the book’s ideas are pretty radical, I’ve written the following paper to explain where I’m coming from. This paper is actually included at the end of the book as an afterword, but I decided to post it separately on my blog. So, without further ado, here it is:

On Heaven (PDF file; 13 pages)

Noel Lawson was on his way home after a long day’s work. He had spent the entire day in meetings with a group of engineers and construction workers, planning out the next steps to solve the ruin’s food supply problems. In his excitement he lost track of time and ended up working much later than he had intended. It was now well past nine o’clock and he was tired and ready to get some sleep. As he was getting out his key to open his apartment door, however, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“Why Amy!” Noel exclaimed, as he turned around. “I had no idea you’d returned. Where have you been? Miles told me that you’d left but he didn’t know where you had gone. We’ve both been a little concerned about you.”

“That doesn’t matter right now,” the girl replied. “Look. Did you just receive an invitation from the mayor to go to dinner tomorrow?”

“Yes and no,” Noel said. “The invitation was actually delivered by Scott Glover, not the mayor. It was the first time I’d ever met him! I don’t normally get mixed up with security. But you are partially correct. The invitation is for dinner, it is for tomorrow evening, and it is at the mayor’s home. The council is supposed to be there too, though, so it’s not just with the mayor. I think they want to talk about my plans for the new colony. It’s quite exciting!”

“So they have asked you to be there at 7 PM?”

“Yes, they have,” Noel commented. “I can hardly wait! But how do you know about all this? Was the invitation in the news or something?”

“You’re missing the point! You need to stay focused here. The reason the mayor invited you to his home for dinner is so he can kill you. He sees you as a threat to his political future and he plans on eliminating you. Whatever you do you must not go to that dinner tomorrow.”

Noel shook his head. “Amy, you’re a bright girl, but I really believe you’re letting your delusions of grandeur get the better of you. The mayor has actually been very supportive! Despite what Miles has said I truly believe that the mayor is on my side.”

“He is not on your side! The only time he has even pretended to be on your side was when he thought you were going to loot the ruin and bring its treasures back here. Now that he knows that you want to start a new city on the surface he sees you as a political rival – and a serious threat to the future of New Tikal. Look, Noel, think about it. You are trying to lure people away from this underground city and back to the surface. If you succeed, this city will be abandoned and the mayor’s career will end. Do you really think that he hasn’t figured that out?”

“But that’s years away!” Noel protested. “None of this is going to happen tomorrow. That ruin up there won’t be able to compete with this city for a long, long time.”

“But that day will come, and the mayor knows it. That is why he wants to stop it now before he loses control. Don’t you remember what happened to Don Elliott? This isn’t the first time this has happened!”

Noel sighed. “I appreciate your concern, I really do. But I really think you’re blowing this all out of proportion. It’s just a dinner invitation, nothing more. Nothing bad is going to happen tomorrow.”

“You’re going to regret this,” the girl said, shaking her head. “They’re not even going to serve you a meal – by the time you get there they will have already eaten. If you won’t listen to me then I guess I have no choice. I’m going to go with you to that so-called dinner tomorrow.”

“But you weren’t invited!” Noel protested. “The mayor is not going to like this. I don’t think that is a good idea.”

“Oh, believe me, you’ll have a very different opinion by this time tomorrow. Besides, I’m not asking you if I can go, I’m telling you that I’m going. This is not a discussion. If you’re not going to look after yourself then I’ll have to. Somebody has got to protect the future of Mars.”

“Fine,” Noel said. “I can see your mind is made up. Should I pick you up at your apartment?”

“I’ll meet you at the mayor’s house,” she said. The girl then turned around and walked off.

Noel sighed, opened the door to his apartment, and walked inside. “She’s a nice girl, but she’s really got to get a grip on reality,” he said aloud, to no one in particular. “She is far too paranoid for her own good. But if coming along to the mayor’s is what it will take to calm her down then I guess I can go along with that. I owe her that much.”

The man closed the door and locked it. He then paused. After all, she can’t possibly be right. Can she?