I’ve made more progress on my book title generator. It now supports a larger variety of templates:

The Mystery Of The ALABASTER CITIZEN
The LUMINOUS HOUSE Mystery
The Sign Of The WINKING PRINTER
The Case Of The EXOTIC CAPER
The Quest Of The SHOUTING SQUID
The Secret Of The IRON MEADOW
The Case Of The BITTERSWEET RING
The Case Of The VIOLET TABLE
The Clue Of The GROANING MEGALITH
The Clue In The AUDIOPHILE
The Case Of The FADING BRIDE
The DISAPPEARING NOVELIST Mystery
The SCREECHING SNOWMAN
The Secret In The CLASSIC STABLE
The Secret Of The DOOMED CISTERN
The GLOOMY CLOCKMAKER
The Case Of The MELTED BOG
The Secret At CREEPY QUARRY
The Secret Of The PHANTOM FIREBOAT
The Secret Of The SPARKLING BULLFROG

Right now all of this exists as a series of tables and stored procedures inside a SQL Server 2008 database. The next step will be to turn this into a standalone C# program. Once I’ve done that I’ll need to expand it further – I have a lot of ideas.

It turns out that writing software as a hobby is actually a lot of fun. The possibilities are endless! Plus, it’s a great way to learn new things.

As always, the book title generator can be downloaded free-of-charge from the top of the Free Books page.

Over the past few days I’ve been working on a program that generates book titles – mystery titles, to be specific. This afternoon I ran the program for the first time, as part of a trial run. This is what it generated:

The Case Of The JINXED GENTLEMAN
The Case Of The COTTON STRANGER
The Case Of The REPULSIVE AUDITOR
The Case Of The ABRASIVE DOORMAT
The Case Of The HALLOWED DOORBELL
The Case Of The DIRTY TRINKET
The Case Of The MAGIC NIGHTMARE
The Case Of The SPANISH BACHELOR
The Case Of The CORRODED BELL
The Case Of The HALLOWED BRAMBLE

My wife Emily pointed out that “REPULSIVE AUDITOR” and “SPANISH BACHELOR” would make great romance titles, and I should consider expanding the title generator to other genres. I will definitely take that into consideration for future improvements!

I’ve got a bunch of ideas for what I can use a title generator for, but first I need to perfect it.

As always, the book title generator can be downloaded free-of-charge from the top of the Free Books page.

Prophecy is an interesting field. Despite the fact that the Bible spends a significant portion of its text talking about end-times events, for the most part the modern Church sees prophecy as a distraction. Yes, there are pockets of people here and there who take the subject seriously and spend a great deal of time on it, but they are the exception. The prevailing attitude seems to be “Well, Jesus hasn’t returned yet and He probably won’t return in my lifetime, so there’s no sense in thinking about it. I’ve got more important things to worry about.” Jesus’ command to “Watch!” is largely ignored, and churches that teach on prophecy are rare.

The early church, however, was different. They had all sorts of questions regarding the Second Coming, and Paul spent quite a lot of time addressing their concerns and clearing up misconceptions. One such passage can be found in his second letter to the Thessalonians, which contains a verse that I would like to explore. First, though, here is the passage:

2 Thessalonians 2:1: “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”

There’s a lot going on in this passage, and unfortunately the King James translation makes the verse I want to discuss very difficult to understand. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

In these verses Paul is addressing some people in the Thessalonian church who were worried that they had missed the Rapture. Someone (we don’t know who) was telling them that the Tribulation had already begun. Paul explains that these teachers were in error, and there were actually several key events that had to take place before the Tribulation could begin.

The first point Paul makes is that before the Tribulation can begin there must be a great apostasy:

2 Thessalonians 2:3: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;”

The phrase “falling away” in verse 3 is actually the Greek word apostasia, which is where we get the word apostasy. The “man of sin” is a reference to the antichrist. In other words, before the Tribulation period starts there must be a great apostasy and the antichrist must be revealed. Paul then explains that the reason the antichrist has not yet appeared is because someone is restraining him, and this restraining force must be taken out of the way before he can rise to power. We can see that in verse 6:

2 Thessalonians 2:6: “And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.”

The phrase “letteth will let” is the Greek word katecho, which means “to restrain, hinder”. The ASV translation of this passage is much easier to understand:

2 Thessalonians 2:6: “And now ye know that which restraineth, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season.
7 For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work: only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way.”

What this passage means is that someone is actively keeping the antichrist from appearing. The antichrist will not appear until this restraining influence has been taken out of the way. Only after that happens will he be free to rise to power.

This brings up an important question: just who is this restrainer? Traditionally scholars have taught that the restrainer is the Holy Spirit, and He is the one who is actively keeping the antichrist from appearing. This seems plausible, but if you go back and read the verses you’ll notice that the passage never mentions the Holy Spirit. In fact, none of the verses identify the restrainer or offer any hints as to who it might be! This means that if we want to determine his identity we’ll have to go about it in a slightly different way.

Based on what we know about the Holy Spirit, is it possible or likely that He is the restrainer? Well, in order to answer that we’ll need to know what work the Holy Spirit performs. Are there good, Biblical reasons for thinking that He is an ideal candidate for this role?

As it turns out, the Bible actually tells us quite a lot about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. For example, He teaches us:

John 14:26: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

He leads us:

Romans 8:14: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

He intercedes for us:

Romans 8:26: “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

He gives specific council and guidance in situations:

Acts 8:29: “Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.”

He reveals things to mankind, and knows the deep things of God:

1 Corinthians 2:10: “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.”

He sanctifies:

2 Thessalonians 2:13: “But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:”

Titus 3:5: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;”

He rebukes the world:

John 16:7: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:”

There are also the gifts of the Spirit, which is another conversation entirely. However, notice that in this entire list there is one thing missing: there’s no record of the Holy Spirit restraining evil! There are many amazing and wonderful things that the Holy Spirit does, but that activity is simply not mentioned. Now, it may be that the Spirit does restrain evil and God just hasn’t told us, but that is a very weak argument. When looking at what the Bible actually has to say about the Holy Spirit, I simply don’t see anything that would support the idea that He is restraining the antichrist. That doesn’t seem to fit into His ministry.

However, there is another candidate. As it turns out, there is a group that is actively involved in restraining evil and battling the forces of darkness. That group is known as the angels, and they are led by Michael the archangel.

First, the Bible tells us that angels watch over believers and protect them:

Psalm 91:9: “Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.”

Second, Daniel records a time when demonic forces attempted to keep an angel from visiting Daniel and answering his prayer. The demons were forced to retreat when Michael came and provided additional support:

Daniel 10:12: “Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.
13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.”

The demons were successful in keeping the angel at bay, but when Michael came they were forced to yield. This should come as no surprise, as the Bible describes Michael as a tremendously powerful being who is highly effective in resisting the powers of darkness:

Daniel 10:20: “Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come.
21 But I will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince.”

There is even one case where Michael resisted Satan himself:

Jude 1:9: “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.”

In fact, the Bible also tells us that during the Tribulation Michael will lead a charge of angels to evict Satan from Heaven once and for all:

Revelation 12:7: “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”

Based on all of this, I think it’s quite possible that the angels are actually the ones who are charged with restraining evil in this world. Daniel 10 gives us a fascinating glimpse at spiritual warfare, where angels of light battle demonic forces. The angel who seems to have the most power is Michael, which Daniel 10:21 refers to as “your prince” and Jude 1:9 calls “the archangel”. In my opinion I think that the restrainer of 2 Thessalonians 2:7 is not the Holy Spirit but is Michael. As you can see, the Bible contains numerous accounts of Michael restraining evil, whereas there don’t seem to be any accounts of the Holy Spirit doing the same thing. In fact, Michael’s entire ministry seems to be focused on that very point!

If this is the case, then for the past two thousand years Michael has been battling to keep the antichrist from appearing. One day God will remove him from the battlefield, and when that day comes the entire world will be plunged into a terrible time. The antichrist will rise to power and kill billions, but in the end he will be slain by the triumphant and returning Son of God:

2 Thessalonians 2:8: “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:”

After a month of intense work and countless hours of debate and experimentation, Amy and Miles at last agreed that the new city was complete. With a feeling of tremendous accomplishment, the two of them stood back and looked at the metropolis that they had created. The city was almost entirely buried under a mound of sand, as it would be when they reconstructed it on Mars. Using the nanites, however, they could peer beneath the sand and see the maze of riddles that they had created. They were both very pleased.

“So are we going to move this city to Mars?” Miles asked.

“Oh no!” Amy replied. “No, we’ll recreate it once we get back there. Trying to move this city all the way across the galaxy would be a huge pain, and there’s really no reason to do it. After all, since we have the digital blueprints for the city we can just give them to the Martian nanites and let them do the work. It won’t be a problem.”

“So what should we do with this copy of it? Are we just going to leave it here?”

“I don’t see why not! After all, it’s not going to do any harm to let it just sit there. Besides, our friends might come here one day and discover it!”

Miles laughed. “What a shock that would be! They’d probably go crazy trying to figure out how a duplicate of Tikal ended up on an abandoned planet on the other side of the galaxy.”

“Oh, I’m sure they’ll know what’s going on by then. I think that once they reach the network they should be told about what we did. There’s no reason to keep the secret from them forever. We’re trying to help them here, not mess with their minds! Later today I’ll contact the Stewards and make sure that they know to tell them, when that day comes.”

“For that matter, you could tell them. After all, for all practical purposes you’re immortal! You’re still going to be young and spry 500 years from now, or however long it takes for them to reach this place.”

“I actually wasn’t planning on being here that long,” Amy replied. “I was kind of hoping that after I finished my work I could go home to my family. There’s really no place for me here in this galaxy. I don’t fit in.”

“What do you mean? I understand why you wouldn’t want to live on Xanthe, but you will always have a home on Mars. It’s your native planet, you know! You have as much of a right to be there as I do. Besides, I think Noel would be pretty disappointed if you left.”

Amy shook her head. “It sounds like a great idea, but it wouldn’t work. If I start hanging around people they’re eventually going to learn that I’m not like everyone else. Noel hasn’t figured it out yet, but it’s only a matter of time before even he realizes that I have vast powers. Once people start to understand that I can do things they can only imagine, well, they’re going to panic. The government would see me as a security threat and would eventually try to assassinate me. There’s no way they’re simply going to trust that an immortal with unfathomable power would never lose her mind and try to take over the world – and I don’t blame them.”

“That’s kind of a depressing outlook on life! Couldn’t you just live as a normal person? You don’t have to use your powers, do you?”

“I’m an immortal,” Amy pointed out. “I can’t get sick or injured, and after I reach maturity I will never age. People are going to notice, Miles.”

“They never noticed with me!”

“That’s because you live alone, far from everyone else, and only rarely enter society. That’s really not the sort of life I’m looking for. I have no desire to spend the rest of time living all by myself on some empty world, making once-in-a-decade trips to Tikal.”

“Couldn’t you set yourself up as a legendary figure?” Miles asked. “For example, you once told me about Christmas. Wasn’t there some fat red person associated with that holiday? Someone happy who gave away toys at a steep discount. Couldn’t you be someone like that?”

Amy laughed. “No, Miles, I’m not going to turn into Santa Claus. The key thing about Santa was that no one ever saw him. If the government ever thought there was a real person out there with seemingly unlimited power, you can bet they’d try to find a way to ‘neutralize’ him. Governments like to have a monopoly on power, you know. Besides, absolute power is corrupting! How do you know that I won’t someday lose my mind and become an evil dictator?”

“I guess I don’t,” Miles admitted. “It just – I don’t know. It just seems really unlikely. I can’t see you doing that.”

“I’m only fourteen, you know. I’m not even an adult yet!”

“That’s true,” Miles agreed. “Say, when is your birthday? I don’t remember ever seeing that in the records.”

“July 23,” Amy replied. “My sister and I were born in 1853, for what it’s worth.”

“Wow! I mean, I knew that, but it’s still amazing. You were born a really long time ago. You’re a part of history. I bet historians would love to sit down and talk with you. So much of that period has been lost. Time and apathy has destroyed so much.”

“It doesn’t seem that long ago to me,” Amy said softly. “The way I remember it, last summer Tikal was still standing and my father was still the governor of Mars. It really wasn’t that long ago.”

“So what are you going to do?” Miles asked.

“I don’t know. I guess I’ll just wait and see what turns up.”

Miles nodded. “Well, are you ready to return to Mars?”

Amy hesitated. “Not quite yet. The basic terraformation of Mars won’t be done until April 1st, and I don’t want the city to be discovered until after that. I’d like to wait until then.”

“You know that’s more than a week from now. What are you going to do in the meantime?”

“I think I might go visit the Sentinel. It’s been a long time since I’ve spent any time with him. I’ll see if I can lend him a hand.”

“Well then, I think I’ll return to Mars,” Miles said. “Jasmine is a nice planet, but I think I’m ready to go home. Besides, I need to check up on Noel and see how he’s doing.”

Amy nodded. “All right – that sounds good. I’ll see you later, then!”

“Wait!” Miles called out. “I need you to transport me back to Mars – I don’t seem to be able to do that. Oh, and you probably want your shoelaces back.”

Amy shook her head. “No, you can keep them. They are yours, after all, and they go so well together with those orange shoes!”

Miles looked down at his shoes. “Oh my – the shoes! I forgot all about the shoes. I could have used the nanites to change them, couldn’t I?”

“Among other things,” Amy laughed. “I’ll deactivate the shoelaces when I return you to Mars, but you can keep them as a memento. I don’t see any harm in that.”

“Then I’ll keep them, then. Thank you.”

“I’ll see you next week!” Amy called out. With that, Miles disappeared. After making sure that Miles had arrived safely at his home on Mars, Amy disappeared as well.

“Well, that was interesting,” Miles said.

Amy smiled. “I think the word you’re looking for is awkward. But, yeah, I’m glad Steve came back, and I’m glad we’ve sorted things out. It was good to see him again.”

Miles nodded. “One day you’ll have to tell me why you call him Steve. There’s got to be a story in that.”

“Let’s stay on task here,” Amy replied. “Remember, we came here because we had a job to do! Xanthe and Earth can wait. We need to stay focused on Mars. I don’t want to leave that world half-finished. I’ll complete what I’ve started and then I’ll move on to the next challenge.”

“All right. But before we begin, can you do something to spruce up this place a bit? As I was saying earlier, this is the most depressing planet I’ve ever seen! Can’t we build our city in a more cheerful work environment?”

Amy smiled. “Sure! Go right ahead.”

“Do what?” Miles asked, confused.

“Go ahead! Change the planet. Use those shoelaces of creativity that I gave you! Show me what you can do.”

“Oh,” Miles said, a bit taken aback. “All right. I’ve never done anything like this before, but I guess we’ll give it a try and see how it goes.”

Miles reached out with his mind and connected to the nanites that saturated the planet’s atmosphere. After he established a connection he tapped into the realtime planetary data feed that the nanites were producing. A quick scan of the data revealed that the entire world was as bleak and unappealing as the beach they were standing on.

Let’s go for something cheerful and homey, Miles thought. After studying the command library that the nanites offered, Miles executed a series of commands that dissipated the clouds and warmed the planet’s atmosphere. Once the sun was no longer obscured and the temperature had stabilized, Miles issued more commands to transform the planet’s rocky, barren soil into rich, fertile ground. He then spent more than an hour using the nanites to plant forests, dig out lakes and rivers, and add greenery and life to every square inch of the surface.

“That’s much better!” Miles said at last. “Now that’s a planet worth living on. I could settle down here.”

Amy laughed. “I see you like trees!”

“Oh yes! After you go a thousand years without seeing a single tree you really start to value them. There’s just something beautiful and majestic about them! On top of that, your nanite library has the codes to create varieties of trees that I’ve never even heard of, and I just couldn’t resist trying them out. I could easily be wrong, but I don’t think Mars has ever had redwood trees. They’re fantastic! I had no idea a mere tree could grow that tall.”

“You’re probably right,” Amy agreed. “I don’t think redwoods ever grew very well on Mars. They’ll grow here, though – you saw to that! You did a nice job of balancing the ecosystem, by the way. The planet’s temperature and atmosphere should remain stable for millennia to come.”

“Thanks! You know, that was more fun than I’ve had in ages. World-building is a hobby I could really get into. By the way, what is this planet named?”

“It actually doesn’t have a name. I hated this place too much to name it. I didn’t want to give it that dignity.”

“Really?” Miles replied, surprised. “But how can you live on a planet if it doesn’t have a name? Do you just call it ‘That planet way over there with no name’? You’ve got to call it something!”

“All right, then go ahead and name it! What would you like to call this place?”

Miles thought for a moment. “Jasmine,” he said at last. “I think that will work.”

Amy looked puzzled. “Isn’t that the name of a spice?”

“It’s actually the name of my late wife,” Miles explained. “I think she would have loved this place.”

“Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were married.”

“It was a long time ago,” Miles said. “Almost two thousand years ago, in fact. She died before I developed the nanites. I never forgot her, though.”

“Well, Jasmine it is!” Amy replied. “This planet is a great place, but I do see a problem. There is one tiny detail that you left out.”

“Really? It all looks pretty good to me! What did I miss?”

“Oh, nothing, except for a big open desert where we can design our city! That is why we’re here, isn’t it?”

Miles laughed. “So it is! All right, let me take care of that. Then we can get to work!”

The two of them spent the next month on the planet Jasmine, designing the city that they would hide in the Martian desert. Amy based the design on the original city of Tikal, but upgraded its technology to something that would have been at home in the finest worlds of the network. After they had constructed the city itself they started working on the hard part – finding creative ways to break it.

They quickly discovered that this was not an easy task. Their goal was to create a series of sequential challenges that would keep the citizens of Mars busy for at least a century. That meant the city had to be fixable in stages – first this section could be brought online, then that one, and so forth, with each challenge building on the next. By grouping the problems in stages it would be possible to start living in the city from the very beginning, and to expand into the city as each new problem was solved.

But designing the challenges in a way that made them appear natural, and not just arbitrary obstacles, proved to be exceedingly difficult. Each new hurdle had to be just barely out of reach, in order to encourage people to grow and push themselves in a new direction. Amy and Miles spent days trying to figure out how to space the tasks so that they were neither too easy nor too hard.

At first the entire city would be buried, with the exception of a couple blocks. The buildings in that section would be damaged, but their problems would be minor: just patch up some windows, repair a few walls, fix some wiring, and the buildings would be ready for habitation. The reward would be a base within New Tikal that offered food, shelter, climate control, and a place where thousands of people could actually live and work.

But there would be limitations. There would be water, but only in limited amounts. Electricity would be available, but it would be weak and uneven. As the engineers traced down the problems they would encounter more challenges. Fixing the power supply problems would mean repairing an aging ZPE reactor that was broken just enough to where it could be fixed with some study and effort. In doing so they would find another section of the city – a vast manufacturing area that, with some work, could be used to produce all sorts of goods and raw materials.

So, step by step, Amy and Miles designed a city that would teach the foundational principles of physics, engineering, chemistry, and management. The final challenge, when the people of Mars had mastered everything else, was a ruined spaceport that was carefully hidden. Within it was a starship that could be repaired and used to leave Mars and travel to the stars. There they would be faced with the greatest challenge of all: rebuilding the ruined worlds that had once housed Ranger colonies. The stars would be waiting for them – if they could find the strength to reach out and take them.

This is a mocked-up cover for the unwritten book Starman #8, Riddle of the Stone Men. It was one of the books that we originally planned to write and even created a brief plot summary for, but ultimately ended up skipping.

If you would like to read the proposed plot for the book, simply click on the image below to see a higher-resolution scan.

(I do not know who created the cover artwork, but it was not me.)

In Psalm 73 we find Asaph lamenting the power of the wicked. He watched with horror as evil men lived comfortable and prosperous lives, enriching themselves by doing terrible things. What disturbed him the most was that, far from being judged, the wicked actually breezed through life with fewer problems than other men. Asaph could not understand why the wicked were prosperous and happy while the righteous were suffering. “Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain,” he laments. That was when he realized that there was another side to the issue. The wicked may have been leading comfortable lives, but they were only one breath away from death, judgment, and the wrath of God. In an instant the Lord would end their lives, and when that happened all their riches and power would mean nothing. They would be cast into Hell and tormented for all eternity, while the righteous would be given eternal life and unending joy. The righteous may suffer in this life, but after death everything changed.

At the conclusion of all this there is a very striking verse:

Psalm 73:24: “Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.
26 My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.”

Verse 25 is easy to miss, but stop and think about what it’s saying. “There is none upon earth that I desire beside thee”. Who does Asaph want? God. In fact, God is all he wants! Asaph doesn’t care about riches, power, fame, a comfortable life, or the esteem of others. What he really wants – what his heart truly desires – is the Lord. God, and God alone, is enough for him. The wicked can have their riches and prosperity; Asaph would rather have God.

In fact, he is not alone in this. In another psalm we find David echoing this very same thought:

Psalm 27:4: “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.”

What is it that David desired? It was just one thing: to be where God was, so he could behold His beauty and learn from Him. That’s what David wanted out of life. He just wanted to be near the Lord and hear what He had to say.

This brings up an important point: what do you want out of life? We all know what the ‘right’ answer is, but honestly, what is it that you really want? What are your hopes and dreams? What are you striving to accomplish? What things disappoint you? If you were honest with yourself, what is it that you really want out of life?

The truth is that there are a lot of things that we’d like to have! Sometimes God is on that list and sometimes He’s not, but usually God is not the focus of our time. We may serve God on occasion, but our life is spent trying to get all kinds of other things. In fact, we usually have a long laundry list of the things that we really want: more money, more influence, more respect, more love, more stuff, and just more of the good things in life. We want a better car, a better house, a better job, a better family life, better friends, better social connections, better appliances, and so on. We want all the best that life has to offer, and we want it now. David and Asaph, though, had very short lists. All they wanted was God. He, all by himself, was enough for them.

I admit that sounds pretty extreme. Isn’t it possible, one might argue, that David and Asaph were just being poetic? Surely they didn’t actually mean that God was all they wanted! After all, there’s nothing wrong with wanting a better job or trying to make a better life for yourself. Yet, take a look at this:

I John 2:15: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

These verses get overlooked all the time, but they’re actually astonishing. What is it that verse 15 is commanding us to not love? The world. What else are we supposed to avoid loving? Everything in the world. Just in case we missed it, the point is repeated in verse 16: we are to avoid the things our body desires, the things our eyes desire, and “the pride of life”. That covers pretty much anything you could conceivably think of! New cars? New houses? More money? More power? All covered and all condemned. As Christians, we are not to love any of those things. Instead, Jesus tells us that we are to love just two things:

Mark 12:29: “And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”

In other words, God wants us to not love the world, and He also does not want us to love anything that is in the world. Instead God wants us to love Him with all of our heart and with all of our being, and He wants us to love our neighbors. That is how God wants us to live. Don’t love the things of this life; instead love God and care for your fellow man.

That is not to say that it’s a sin to buy a better car, or to move into a larger house, or to leave a bad job for a better one. What it is saying is that these things must not have our heart. God doesn’t want us to go through life with the goal of trying to accumulate all of the stuff we can possibly get our hands on; He wants us to go through life passionately seeking Him, and passionately loving Him with every fiber of our being. He wants to be the desire of our heart. He doesn’t want to be on the list of things we desire; He wants to be the list. He wants us to be so passionately in love with Him that nothing else really matters.

Yes, God may give us all kinds of marvelous blessings – families, relationships, and so forth. There’s nothing wrong with having these things and there’s nothing wrong with enjoying them. But as nice and wholesome as these blessings may be, they must never have our heart. They must never be the true object of our desire. As Jesus warned:

Matthew 10:37: “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

Jesus will play second fiddle to nothing. God wants us to be so dedicated to Him that we are willing to sacrifice everything that we have for Him, if necessary – even the blessings that God has given us. For example, there was one time when the nation of Israel had departed from God. The Lord had been sending them prophets to warn that judgment was coming, and that judgment was now very near. In fact, the judgment was going to be so severe that people would not even have the chance to mourn for their lost love ones. Death, judgment, and despair would be everywhere. It was going to be a horrifying time, and the only way to avoid it was for the nation to repent.

Since Israel was not listening to God’s warnings the Lord decided to give them a graphic example of what was to come. So, this is what the Lord told Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 24:15: “Also the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
16 Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down.
17 Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men.
18 So I spake unto the people in the morning: and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded.”

Do you see what happened? The Lord wanted to illustrate the judgment that was about to strike an unrepentant Israel, so He took Ezekiel’s wife – whom Ezekiel dearly loved – and killed her, then told Ezekiel to not get upset over it and act like nothing happened. And that is exactly what Ezekiel did.

Would we do that? When the Lord takes away our loved ones, do we look past the immense pain (as Ezekiel did) and say “God is good, and I will still trust Him”, or do we angrily yell at God and tell Him that we’re never going to forgive Him? It’s very common for people to get angry with God for taking away their jobs, or careers, or children, or spouses, or wealth – but in doing so they demonstrate the emptiness of their faith. Some people trust God as long as He keeps them from disasters, but when trouble comes they reject Him and walk away. In other words, their faith in God was never actually real. They didn’t really trust Him, or His plan, or His faithfulness, or His love, or believe that all things work together for those who love God. They would believe that God was good in the good times, but not in the bad times. Tragedy revealed the emptiness of their faith – not to God, who knew all along, but to them.

C S Lewis put it this way:

God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn’t… He always knew that my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making me realize the fact was to knock it down.

What Lewis is saying is that he had spent his life thinking that he was a man of great faith, but when tragedy struck he realized that his faith was hollow. He didn’t really trust God as much as he thought he did – which is why God brought tragedy into his life in the first place. It showed Lewis that his faith was a “house of cards”, and moved him to replace it with something firmer.

If God is all that we desire – if He is all that we really want – then when God takes things away we can still say “blessed be the name of the Lord”, as Job did. That’s not to say that it will not hurt. Yes, life is hard – but Jesus told us that it would be. Yes, it hurts when we lose loved ones. It even hurts Jesus; He wept at the grave of Lazarus. But there is a world of difference between saying “God, you took something away from me so now I hate you” and “God, you took something away from me, and it hurts a lot, but I love You and I trust You. Even if You take everything away I will still love You, because You are enough. You are everything that I need.”

What we have to realize is that setting our heart on something other than God is very dangerous. Jesus warned us that the things of this life can easily make us unfruitful:

Mark 4:19: “And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.”

Notice that Jesus lists both the cares and the riches of this life as things that can destroy us! Suffering has destroyed many people’s faith in God, as they run away from Him after tragedy strikes. However, wealth can be equally dangerous. The pursuit of money, or the desire for fame, or even seemingly innocent things like a career or having a family can crowd out God or stifle our desire for Him. We don’t have to be hit with a great tragedy to lose our faith; we could also be hit by tremendous success.

The great danger is in setting your heart on something other than God. Once we start trying to find our happiness in the blessings that God gives us (instead of the God that gives the blessings) then we set ourselves up for trouble. God may give us many wonderful things in this life (or He may not), but He wants to be what we are really after.

This is how the Westminster Catechism puts it:

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

The phrase “chief end” is an old one; it means purpose, or primary goal, or focus. The Catechism puts it very well; the point of our existence is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. It is why we were created, and it is all that the saints of God will be doing for all of eternity. There simply is nothing else.

As Jesus warned, it’s very easy for the things of this life to distract us from that purpose. God is the greatest thing that we could ever desire; He is the source of all goodness, the giver of all blessings, and the wellspring of joy. To shove God aside and spend our lives trying to get other things – lesser things – is not only foolish; it is sinful.

“Love not the world” is not a hard commandment, although it may seem like it. What John is urging us to do is to run away from things that seem nice but can easily choke our faith and clutter our lives. Instead of chasing after things that can never satisfy us, we are told to seek after God. Nothing less can satisfy us. There are no other fountains that can quench our thirst.

As C S Lewis once pointed out, we are too easily satisfied. We spend our lives seeking after the things of this world, when God is offering us something infinitely better and infinitely more satisfying. God isn’t telling us to give up the things in life that are really fun so that we can live a boring life of sadness and pain. Instead God is telling us to abandon things that aren’t worth our time in order to seek something of infinite value.

Paul put it this way:

Philippians 3:7: “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”

When Paul was still a Pharisee named Saul he was a powerful, influential, and highly respected man. He had a lot going for him, but when he became a Christian he gave it all up. As verse 8 says, he counted it all as loss and it ceased to mean anything to him. When he was saved his life was changed and, after that moment, there was only one thing that he wanted. Verse 10 tells us what that thing was: he wanted to know Jesus. He no longer cared about money, or power, or fame, or influence, or being a respected member of the community. He just wanted Jesus.

Can that same thing be said of us?

Miles once again saw the world around him vanish, but this time the effect did not startle him. Since he was now connected to the network he understood what Amy was doing. He watched as she selected a star that was thousands of light-years away, and then plotted a course across the galaxy that would take them there. All of this took less than a second to accomplish, but he was able to see it all and grasp it without any effort. Then, in the next moment, the nanites grabbed Miles and Amy – and as quickly as that, the trip was over. One moment Miles was in familiar surroundings, and in the next he found himself standing under an unknown sky.

As the old man looked around and tried to get his bearings, he was struck by the utter bleakness of this planet. Overhead there was a cloudy sky that blotted out all signs of the sun. The air was cold, and a bitter wind made it feel even colder. He was standing on a beach – the first one he had visited in a lifetime – but there were no signs of life. He could see no birds flying overhead and no plants growing up against the shore. In the distance an endless line of waves crashed against the rocks. The whole world looked despondent and almost colorless.

“What is this place?” he asked.

“This is my world,” Amy replied. “My family forced me to come here when they decided to make contact with the survivors on Tau Ceti. They said that it was a security risk to have my sister and I on the same planet. They thought it would be better to separate us, so if something happened to one of us the other would be spared.”

“That was very wise of them! If they hadn’t done that you wouldn’t be here right now. In fact, I wouldn’t be standing here either, for that matter. A lot of things would have turned out very differently.”

“I hate this place,” Amy said bitterly. “This isn’t a planet; it’s a prison. It’s a cold, desolate wilderness.”

“It doesn’t have to be,” a voice called out behind her. Amy turned around and saw that the Sentinel had appeared on the beach. He looked at her, paused for a moment, and then continued. “Amy, you had the power to turn this world into anything that you wanted it to be. You could have built a private retreat or a vacation planet. Your parents were only trying to protect you, and they sent you here for your own good. But instead of seeing this world as a blessing – a blessing that saved your life, in fact – you became bitter and angry. That was your choice. Do not blame this planet; it has done you no wrong.”

“Then who do you want me to blame?” Amy shouted angrily. “Do you want me to blame Xanthe, then? Or what about Adrian – should I blame him? Somebody separated me from my family. Someone took them all away and left me here alone. Somebody has got to suffer for that, Steve. I’m not going to let them get away with it.”

“No one is going to get away with anything, Amy. The crimes of humanity are indeed staggering, and those crimes must be paid for. That is why Jesus came, and that is why He died – to take on Himself the punishment for mankind’s sins. He bears the cost for all those who believe on Him. What He asks you to do is to forgive your enemies and tell them that Jesus died to set them free. He wants to use you as an instrument of mercy.”

“Do you really expect me to just let this go?” Amy demanded. “What – do you want me to just rain down flowers from the Xanthian sky and tell them that it’s no big deal? Am I supposed to just walk away and act like nothing happened?”

“Oh no. Your task is not to simply walk away. No, the Lord wants you to do something a great deal harder than that. He wants you to love them and to seek their welfare. Xanthe is full of wickedness and its people are bent on evil. They must be judged, and you will be the one that judges them. But in judging them, you must not seek revenge.”

“So what am I supposed to do, then?”

“You need to let go of your bitterness,” the Sentinel replied. “As long as you are angry and full of hate, you will be unable to see clearly. You will find it very difficult to help people if your heart’s desire is to kill them.”

“But they deserve it! They’re monsters – all of them – and they’re getting away with it. This very moment they’re living in paradise – a paradise that you’ve built for them! Don’t think for a minute that I didn’t notice that new tower you built. You’ve given them a beautiful world and all the luxuries of life. You’ve rewarded them for killing my family!”

“They have gotten away with nothing. Think about it, Amy. The few people who are still alive on Xanthe are extremely old and their bodies are failing. They stayed in their pods for so long that they cannot survive outside them, and every person on Xanthe will be dead before the year is over. When they die they will not go on to the country that lies beyond the farthest star, as your family did. They will not enter an eternity that is full of joy and wonder. No, what they are facing is brutal, unending torment that will stretch on and on for the rest of time. They will be set on fire, eaten alive with worms, and burned forever and ever and ever. They will scream, and beg, and cry out, and no one will ever help them. For all the ages of time they will be tormented beyond endurance and no one will ever pity them or help them. That is what awaits them. Not freedom and luxury, but horror and pain beyond imagination.

“But Amy, it does not have to end that way. Jesus – your Lord – came to seek and to save them which were lost. He did not die for His friends, but for His enemies – for those who hated Him. He is offering everyone – even those on Xanthe – forgiveness and grace, a forgiveness He paid for with His own body and His own blood.

“Your existence here is not an accident. The Lord brought you here so that you could do what no one else can: you can forgive them and tell them what great things the Lord has done for them. It may be that when you return good for the evil they have done, the Spirit will use that to transform their hearts and save them. I do not know what will happen. But I know what you must do.”

Amy was silent for a long time after that. Miles considered saying something and then decided against it. This is one argument I’d better stay out of. So he just stood beside Amy and awkwardly waited. He was tempted to whistle and then decided against that too.

The young girl finally looked at the Sentinel. “Are the people of Xanthe in any immediate danger?”

“Not to my knowledge,” he replied.

“Will they be able to survive for another couple months?”

“I believe so. I would not want to delay much past August, however. Their health will not hold out indefinitely.”

“I understand,” Amy replied. “That should give me enough time to finish what I’m doing with Mars. Once that’s done I’ll return to Xanthe with you. Then we need to make a trip to Earth.”

“What, exactly, are you doing on Mars? Is this something I can help with?”

“No, I think I’ve got it covered. I’m trying to terraforming the planet – but slowly, in a way that makes people think that it’s a natural process. So far things are coming along pretty well, and as far as I can tell no one suspects that I’m doing it. Once the planet is habitable again Miles and I are going to lure people out of New Tikal and cox them into actually doing something productive with their lives.”

“Right!” Miles chimed in. “In fact, that’s why we’re here in this awful place. We want to design a city that almost functions but is broken in numerous key sections. We’re then going to hide that city in the desert and bury it. We’re hoping that when the city’s discovered people will come out and investigate it, and when they see the riches of the city they’ll be hooked.”

“I understand,” the Sentinel said. “Your plan appears to be sound; the lost city should act as effective bait. Mankind is drawn to mysteries.”

“Right,” Amy agreed. “Then, once they have the city up and running, we can start bringing refugees from Earth. We’ll have to cure the refugees first, of course, and I will need your help with that – my own attempt at curing their madness wasn’t very successful.”

“Refugees from Earth?”

“Oh yes!” Miles exclaimed. “The people from Earth are in a bad way – most of them have lost their minds. Amy wants to cure them, but after they’ve been cured they’ll need guidance – someone to show them how to live again. We figure that we can just bring them to Mars and teach them there.”

“But there are tens of millions of people on Earth, and less than two million people on Mars,” the Sentinel pointed out. “How can you possibly take care of so many?”

Amy started to say something, and then stopped. Miles’ eyes widened. “Oh,” he said. “I guess I didn’t think about that.”

The Sentinel thought for a moment. “Instead of bringing them to Mars it may be better to use the network. We have millions of vacant planets at our disposal. I see no reason why we could not house all of them.”

“But housing isn’t the problem,” Amy pointed out. “They need someone to teach them! They’ve lived like animals for who knows how long. They need help, not housing.”

“There are the Stewards, you know. They are quite intelligent and they did not perish with the Artilect. They can provide ample help for all of them.”

“But they’re not human! They’re just machines.”

“Do you think the refugees will realize that?” the Sentinel asked. “Are the Stewards so different from human beings that ignorant savages would be able to tell the difference? Even your own mother thought that they were alive until she was told otherwise.”

“He has a point,” Miles pointed out. “I mean, Mars will still do all it can, but it’s going to be a while – maybe a long while – before we can absorb a population that large. Until we grow it might be best to have them raised in your network.”

“All right,” Amy sighed. “I guess that will have to work.”

The Sentinel nodded. “Very well. If you no longer need me then I will return to my work.”

“You’ll do what?” Amy asked, startled. “Where are you going?”

“Well, you must understand that I spent a long time searching for you. That task left me preoccupied for many weeks. I did not expect you to simply disappear, and I was fearful for your safety.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. I won’t disappear again. It’s just–”

The Sentinel interrupted. “There is no need for an apology. I talked with Miles a few weeks ago and he explained what is going on. It is no longer a problem, Amy. I know where you are and I know that you are safe, and I know that you have found friends. But I do have work to do. With the Artilect gone there is no longer a central way to manage the worlds. I cannot rebuild my father, but there are things I can do to improve the management of our systems. I also need to keep watch over Xanthe in order to make sure that the bots are adequately keeping the peace. All of this is a lot to handle. If you need me then I will remain, but if you do not then I will return to my work.”

“I guess you are kind of busy,” Amy admitted. “All right. I’ll let you get back to work. I will miss you, though.”

The Sentinel smiled. “I am never very far away. If you call for me I will return. All you have to do is ask.”

“I know,” Amy replied. “And – thanks for coming.”

The Sentinel smiled. “It is good to see you again. Take care, little one. Let me know if you need anything.”

With that, he disappeared.

Miles was not the least bit excited at the prospect of wearing orange shoes with bright pink shoelaces, but he knew it was useless to argue with Amy. Rather than scouring his cavernous warehouse for a more fashion-conscious pair of shoes, he decided to simply wear the one that Amy had found. He reluctantly dug the shoes out of the crate, removed their original shoelaces, and carefully laced them up with the ones that Amy had provided. “Why, they fit exactly,” Miles exclaimed. “It’s as if they were designed for these shoes.”

“Of course they were! There was no point in creating generic shoelaces, you know. When I created them I made sure that they would fit a pair of shoes that you actually had. That’s what I call attention to detail.”

“You know, color is an important detail too. There’s a lot to be said for coordinating your outfit.”

“Really? Then why are you wearing a pair of overalls and a straw hat?”

“Because they’re comfortable! Besides, they’re great for doing manual labor. You don’t want to wear a formal outfit if you’re going to be getting your hands dirty.”

“Then you are in luck! Those shoelaces are very comfortable and they’re stain-resistant. They are just the thing for working outside, which is where we’re about to be going.”

“If you say so,” Miles replied, sighing. He took one last look at the orange shoes, grimaced, and then put them on his feet. After they were on and the laces had been tied he stood up, and then looked back down at them and frowned. “That’s odd – I’m not feeling anything. Are you sure they’re working?”

“Oh yes – I just haven’t activated them yet. I’m going to turn them on right…now.”

Instantly Miles’ world changed. He was still in his warehouse, but he could now see far beyond it. With his mind he could view the planet’s surface, where the rain was still falling. He could see beyond the desert to the underground city of New Tikal, and he could see people going about their lives. He could peer inside the city and see what was going on inside the zero-point-energy plant. In fact, he was startled to discover that he could look inside the reactor itself.

That was when he realized that the nanites could do far more than simply look around. His environment – the very atoms and molecules that made up his world – was now fully customizable! All he had to do was think a certain sequence of thoughts and his bunker could be radically changed to whatever pattern he could conceive. A single thought could change the walls of his bunker from concrete into solid gold, and another thought could move the bunker to the opposite side of the planet. He suddenly understood how Amy had been able to transport them around so easily, and how she had been able to instantly create a pair of shoelaces. Why, there’s nothing to it at all! I feel like I’ve spent my entire life blind, and someone finally came along and opened my eyes. All this information – all these sciences – it’s just child’s play! No wonder Amy could terraform Mars. It’s so simple!

“So what do you think?” Amy asked.

Miles brought himself back to the room and looked at her. “It’s amazing. No, it’s unbelievable! This – this is a whole different way of living. With the network you can change the entire planet as easily as I can change the commands in a computer program. I knew the nanites were powerful but I never dreamed they were anything like this.”

Amy nodded. “It really is amazing. Still, though, you get used to it over time. Eventually it just becomes second nature.”

“You know, that’s a little frightening. This is an astonishing amount of power to get used to! I don’t know what I would have done if I had had nanites like these two thousand years ago. I might have conquered the planet.”

“There was no chance of that,” Amy replied. “Well, let me back up a bit. If you had built the nanites correctly – and there was no way you could have accomplished that – then you might have been capable of doing these things, but you wouldn’t have had the data you needed to actually do them. The reason this network is so powerful is because it has a huge library of commands that make it a simple matter to do almost anything you could imagine. Without that knowledge you would have had a fantastic toolset that was almost impossible to use. It would be like giving someone a hammer, but withholding all blueprints and construction tips.”

“Oh,” Miles said, disappointed. “So I wasn’t really that close, then. But still, this is amazing! Are you quite sure that my abilities are less powerful than yours?”

“Definitely. All you can do is control the matter on this one planet, and you can only do that as long as I permit it. Your vision is also restricted to Mars and you can’t teleport off this world. Oh – and your shoelaces also won’t extend your life indefinitely, the way my nanites will. Overall, the laces are really pretty restricted. I have a lot more possibilities open to me than you do. For example, I could teleport this entire planet into deep space, or shut down the Sun. There’s no way you could do either of those things.”

“That’s a little scary,” Miles replied. “Actually, that’s a lot scary! As much fun as this is, I think that’s far too much power to give to any one person. Why, a man could conquer the whole world with just what I have available to me! If what you’re telling me is true then you have more than enough power to conquer the entire galaxy and rule it with an iron fist – and you could rule it until the universe ended. No one could ever challenge you.”

“I guess,” Amy replied. “But why would I want to do that?”

“Well, if you controlled the galaxy then you could have anything you wanted. No one could stop you.”

“I can already have anything I want! All I have to do is materialize it and voila, there it is. My needs are all provided for, and I have the resources of 93 million stars to draw from. But what you don’t understand is that these nanites can’t give me what I really want. I don’t want power, or gold, or the ability to boss other people around. None of that stuff is worth having.”

“Then what do you want?” Miles asked.

“I want my life back. I want to go back to December 7, 1867, only this time I want the Sparrow to make it safely to Xanthe. I want to live out my life with my family, on a planet that doesn’t hate me and isn’t trying to kill me. I want to live in my own time, with my own people. I don’t like it here, Miles, and I don’t want to be here. My family is dead, and my friends are dead, and my whole world is gone. It’s like waking up in a nightmare. But, despite all this unimaginable power, I can’t go back. I can have anything I want expect for the one thing that I actually want.”

“I, for one, am very glad that you are here,” Miles replied. “If the Emperor had not planted that corrupted controller card on board the Sparrow then Mars would never have been terraformed. The people of Xanthe would still be in their pods, living out their corrupt dreams. Earth would never have received the help that she needed. The Artilect would have gone on forever, terraforming worlds that no one would ever visit.”

“They would have all gotten exactly what they deserved,” Amy replied firmly. “The last survivors on Xanthe would have died in their pods – the pods they had built. The last survivors on Mars would have died when their planet finally became totally uninhabitable – a fate they were aware of but were too lazy and self-centered to prevent. And the last sane people on Earth would have died as well, unable to produce any more children due to centuries of inbreeding.”

“Meaning all of humanity would be dead, save for the savages in the forests. But since they could not cure themselves, humanity itself would have eventually died. In other words, Amy, if you had been given your way then mankind itself would have perished. Was your dream really worth that?”

“But that’s not my fault! I didn’t make any of those things happen. People made their own choices, and that’s how things turned out. Why should my life have to be ruined just to save someone else from the consequences of their own stupidity?”

“Jesus could have asked the Father that same question, you know,” Miles replied. “Why should He have to die for our sins? After all, He wasn’t the guilty one. He never did anything wrong, and yet He was sent to die a torturous death so that we might be saved. Why not just let us suffer the consequences of our sins and send us all to Hell? It’s what we deserved.”

“I’m not Jesus,” Amy protested.

“But you’re His disciple. He bought you with His blood and you gave your life to Him. He gave you your marching orders – love your neighbor as yourself, even if your neighbor is your enemy. He has called you to do good to those who hate you, even if they never stop hating you. It’s not fun, it’s not easy, and it seems grossly unfair. But that is how God wants us to show His love to the world. You have a calling, Amy. You cannot run from it.”

“I guess,” Amy sighed. “It’s just really hard, and I want it to be over.”

“It will all be over soon enough,” Miles said. “Let’s just take it one step at a time. Speaking of which, where do we go from here? Are you going to design this new city of yours right here on Mars?”

“Oh no! No, I don’t think that would be a good idea. I’d much rather build it off-site so we can make sure all the details are correct. Then we’ll come here and have the nanites reconstruct it based on the design we’ve created. Building it here is too risky – I’d hate to have someone accidentally stumble across it before we were done with it.”

“That sounds good to me! So what planet did you have in mind?”

“I know just the place,” Amy said. “Here – come with me!”

This is a mocked-up cover for the unwritten book Starman #7, The Fog of Doom. It was one of the books that we originally planned to write and even created a brief plot summary for, but ultimately ended up skipping.

If you would like to read the proposed plot for the book, simply click on the image below to see a higher-resolution scan.

(I do not know who created the cover artwork, but it was not me.)

One of the dogmas of the Catholic Church is that Mary, the mother of Jesus, remained a virgin her entire life. To quote from the 1994 Catechism of the Catholic Church:

“Mary remained a virgin in conceiving her Son, a virgin in giving birth to him, a virgin in carrying him, a virgin in nursing him at her breast, always a virgin.” (page 128)

“And so the liturgy of the Church celebrates Mary as Aeiparthenos, the ‘Ever-virgin.’” (page 126)

The idea that Mary was “the Ever-virgin” is loudly proclaimed by the Catholic Church – and it is entirely wrong. In fact, it is so obviously wrong that one wonders why they haven’t abandoned it in embarrassment. After all, the Catholic Church claims to be the infallible One True Church of God:

“This is the sole Church of Christ, which in the Creed we profess to be one, holy, catholic and apostolic” (page 214)

“In fact, this is [the] one and only Church of God…” (page 216)

Yet we find out that, in reality, the Catholic Church is very fallible indeed. There are actually many Scriptures that disprove the perpetual virginity of Mary. For example:

Matthew 1:24: “Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:
25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.”

These verses tell us that Mary remained a virgin until Jesus was born. Notice that verse 25 does not say “And Joseph never knew her, ever, for her entire life.” The Catholic Church likes to pretend that verse 25 says that, but it actually says quite the opposite. This passage tells us that Joseph waited to consummate his marital relationship with his wife until she gave birth. After she gave birth he stopped waiting. That’s what the verse says.

Matthew 1:25 is not the only evidence we have of this. For example, there is this incident:

Mark 6:1: “And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him.
2 And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?
3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.”

This passage tells us of a time when Jesus returned to His hometown and tried to teach in the synagogue. Despite the fact that Jesus had done many notable miracles, the people of Nazareth refused to listen to him. Verse three tells us something very interesting – that Jesus (identified as the “son of Mary”, just to make it extra-clear) had four half-brothers and a number of half-sisters as well. In other words, Jesus was not an only child. Mary – the very same Mary that gave birth to Jesus, as verse 3 points out – had at least 6 other children after giving birth to Jesus. In fact, Jesus’ half-brother James later became one of His apostles:

Galatians 1:19: “But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.”

Notice how clear Paul is about this! James, the apostle, was also James, the half-brother of Jesus. The book of Acts also mentions the fact that Jesus had brothers:

Acts 1:13: “And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.
14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.”

As does the book of Matthew:

Matthew 12:46: “While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.”

It’s not at all difficult to see that Mary did not remain a virgin for the rest of her life. There is a tremendous amount of evidence that says otherwise! This is not a difficult subject that requires a lot of in-depth, arcane knowledge to figure out – it’s right there, plain as day.

The reason this matters is because of two things. First, the Catholic Church claims that the only people who have the right to interpret the Bible are the leadership of the Catholic Church – and whatever they say is right, 100% of the time. To quote their catechism again:

“The task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope and to the bishops in communion with him.” (page 30)

In other words, Catholicism teaches that you, a common person, have no right to read the Bible and decide for yourself what it says. If the Church decides that Mary was a perpetual virgin then that’s how it is, and you are required to believe it and accept it – no matter what the Bible itself might say.

Second, the Catholic Church claims that the Pope is infallible when it comes to matters of doctrine and faith:

“In order to preserve the Church in the purity of the faith handed on by the apostles, Christ who is Truth willed to confer on her a share in his own infallibility. By a supernatural sense of faith in the People of God, under the guidance of the Church’s living magisterium, unfailingly adheres to this faith.” (page 235)

“The Roman Pontiff…enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful – who confirms his brethren in the faith – he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals…This infallibility extends as far as the deposit of divine Revelation itself.” (page 235)

So, not only does the Catholic Church believes that only their leadership has the right to interpret the Bible, they also believe that when the Pope “proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals” then he is absolutely infallibility right, 100% of the time. In fact, the last sentence even states that the Pope can create entirely new doctrines! Yes, you read that right. The Catholic Church teaches that if the Pope comes up with some new teaching that isn’t in the Bible (or even contradicts it!), you still have to believe it because the Pope is always right.

Popes have been quite busy exercising this authority, too. Not only have they come up with the idea that Mary was a virgin for her entire life (despite what the Bible has to say about it), but they also teach that Mary never sinned:

“By the grace of God Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long.” (page 124)

That Mary is the source of holiness:

“From the Church he learns the example of holiness and recognizes its model and source in the all-holy Virgin Mary…” (page 490)

That Mary ascended into Heaven at the end of her life and is now the Queen over All Things:

“Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things.” (page 252)

Oh yes – and that Mary is also a co-redeemer with Christ, bringing salvation to all of mankind:

“Taken up to heaven she [Mary] did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation…” (page 252)

“Being obedient she [Mary] became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race.” (page 125)

These doctrines are not Christian; they are blatantly pagan! Mary is the Queen of Heaven? Mary is the savior of our souls? Mary ascended into Heaven and is now the source of all holiness? All of those claims are ridiculous and laughable, and the Bible directly contracts every single one of them. Yet the Catholic Church continues to teach them as infallible truths.

As you can see, anyone who looks to Catholicism in order to learn how to interpret the Bible is going to find themselves in deep theological trouble. I have written extensively about this subject elsewhere, so I will not repeat myself here. But I urge any Christian who has no problem with Catholicism to take some time to examine their doctrines closely. Any church that condemns the idea that you are saved by grace through faith (as Catholicism does) has no right to be called a Christian church. It is time for Christians to step up and learn to exercise discernment. Jesus did not come to Earth to get along with everyone and make people feel good about themselves; He came to seek and to save them which were lost – and a big part of that was preaching the truth. We would be wise to do the same.

Amy Stryker looked up at the sky and frowned. “Miles, I think I’ve spent quite enough time standing outside in the rain, like some kind of idiot. Are you ready to get started on the next part of the plan?”

“I suppose,” Miles said reluctantly. “I just kind of like it out here. This water from the sky is such a rare gift.”

Amy sighed. “It’s just rain, you know. I know that Mars needs rain, but I still don’t like it. Rain gets you wet and makes life inconvenient. Besides, standing outside in the rain is a great way to catch pneumonia and die. This isn’t a good thing for you to be doing, you know – especially not at your age!”

“Oh, I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me! This is just – well, I think the problem is that you’re used to rain. Rain has been a part of your life for as long as you can remember, and you see it as little more than a useful nuisance. But to us rain is something entirely new. It might as well be raining gold! In fact, raining water is much better than raining gold. Water is so scarce here.”

“You know, that’s great and everything, and I’m glad you appreciate it. We both agree this storm is a good thing for the future of humanity. But can we please get going?”

“I suppose,” Miles said reluctantly. “My vehicle is in the hangar at the bottom of the canyon. We can just hike down there and be on our way.”

Amy shook her head. “Nope – I don’t think so! That would take far too long, and I would end up wet and muddy. I think we should take a slightly different approach.”

A moment later Amy and Miles disappeared. The two of them reappeared in Miles’ underground bunker. Miles blinked in surprise, stepped back, and looked around. He saw that they were now standing in his giant warehouse.

“Oh my!” he gasped. “Is that how you travel everywhere?”

“Absolutely. In fact, it’s really the only way to travel. Look at how much time we saved! Plus, we’re dry now. I was not enjoying being soaking wet.”

“Why so we are,” Miles said, looking down at his blue overalls. “You know, that’s too bad! I kind of enjoyed being wet. It’s a rare luxury.”

“Well, the next time it rains, feel free to go stand outside! I won’t try to stop you – but don’t expect me to join you.”

“Fair enough,” Miles agreed. “I do see one problem with your transportation system, though. How am I going to get back to New Tikal? I’m afraid that the Raptor is still parked there, and I don’t share your marvelous powers. I don’t mean to complain or anything, but the city is really quite a walk from here, and I’m just not as young as I used to be.”

“Oh, I moved your tank too,” Amy said casually. “There wasn’t anyone standing inside the hangar so it was easy to do without anyone noticing. Your contraption is in the upstairs hangar, where you usually keep it parked.”

“Ah,” Miles said. “I see. But – really? Just like that?”

“Just like that,” Amy replied.

“Well that’s remarkable! I guess you really did think of everything.” Miles sat down on top of a crate and relaxed. “There – that’s better! So what do we do now?”

“Build a city, of course. We just went over this, remember?”

“True,” Miles replied slowly. “But I still don’t quite understand. How are you planning on building a city?”

“The same way I always build cities! My nanites have an entire library of information that covers all sorts of subjects, and one of those subjects just happens to be city construction. I don’t have to start from scratch because I already have a lot of designs – the same designs that the Artilect used to build cities all over the galaxy! All we have to do is customize one of those plans for Mars. Once the pattern is complete it’s just a matter of uploading it to the nanites. They will then turn portions of the planet’s surface into programmable matter, and will use that matter to construct the city. In fact, once we’ve designed the pattern it shouldn’t take more than a few hours for the nanites to build the city itself.”

Miles nodded. “That should work out very well. I watched the Nehemiah probes built a great many cites over the centuries, and that was the same technique they used. I actually tried that technique myself, back in the day, but I could never get it to work. The nanites I built never worked right. I could only get them to fabricate a few crude devices, and even those were deeply flawed. It was a disaster every single time.”

“You just didn’t have the right fabricators,” Amy explained. “You were trying to make modern devices with ancient, half-broken technology. The gap between what you could make and what the Artilect was designing was just too great.”

“That’s what I figured too, which is why I eventually gave up. But I still don’t see how I can help you! I couldn’t turn Martian sand into cities two thousand years ago, and I’m afraid I still can’t do it today. What kind of help do you want me to provide?”

“Oh, I’ve already got that worked out! You see, anyone who lives in the network gets connected to it. Basically, the Stewards give their citizens nanites so that they can function within the cities and manipulate the environment around them. Now, I know you don’t want me messing with the nanites in your bloodstream, so I won’t do that. But I can give you something that will grant you the same kind of abilities that a network citizen would have.”

“Really?” Miles asked. “Are you telling me that I’ll be able to do everything you can do?”

“No, not exactly. There will be limitations. But you will be able to build things, and that’s what we need for this project.”

“I see,” Miles said thoughtfully. “So how is this going to work?”

Amy reached into her pocket and pulled out a ring. The ring was a translucent purple color, with a fancy latticework of gold etched into it. It had no stone. Deep inside the ring itself were tiny sparkles of light, that appeared for a fraction of a second and then disappeared. There was something about the ring that almost made it look alive. It seemed to give off a faint glow.

“This is what you’ll use,” Amy said. “Wearing this will connect you to the network of nanites that I’ve deployed. As long as you’re connected you’ll be able to interact with them and use them. You should be able to do most of the things that I can, except–”

“Wait a minute,” Miles interrupted. “Are you really offering me a magic ring?”

“Um, I guess. Why? Is there a problem? I mean, it is your size – I made sure of that! It should fit just fine. Do you have some phobia about rings or something?”

“I’m just – I don’t know. It just doesn’t seem very creative! Don’t you think that magic rings are kind of a cliché?”

“What?” Amy asked, surprised. “Are you serious? What did you expect – magic socks? A magic scarf? Tie clips of power?”

“I’m just saying that I think the magic ring thing has been overdone! I’m not trying to complain, but I really think you can do more. For example, what if–”

“I can’t believe it! I just can’t believe it. Here I am, offering you an astonishing level of power that has only been extended to a handful of people in all of human history, and your response is to complain that you don’t like rings? Are you out of your mind?”

The ring vanished out of Amy’s outstretched hand. “Fine! If a ring isn’t good enough for you then let’s be a bit more creative, shall we?” The girl paused for a moment, then reached into her pocket and handed Miles a pair of bright pink shoelaces.

Miles took them from her and held them up to the light. He looked at them, astonished. “What am I supposed to do with these?”

“They’re the fabled Shoelaces of Creativity,” Amy said in a deep voice. “If you put them in a pair of shoes and wear them they will unlock the secrets of the universe. Behold the glory of the legendary laces!”

“But they’re pink!” Miles complained.

“You bet they are! Pink is a vibrant, happy color. It stands out.”

“But Amy, I don’t use shoelaces. My shoes aren’t like that! Besides, this wasn’t what I had in mind at all. What I was trying to say was that–”

“Then find a different pair of shoes to wear,” Amy interrupted. “There are 18 pairs of shoelace-supporting shoes in this room. Six of those pairs are in good enough condition to wear. These laces will work with any of them.”

Miles sighed. “You know, the ring was fine. Can’t we just go back to that?”

“Sorry!” Amy said cheerfully. “I’m afraid the ring is gone. What we have now is something new – something creative! Something that will expand your horizons and brighten up your wardrobe. It’s exactly what you wanted.”

“Oh, all right. I guess I did ask for this, and I suppose I should have known better than to open my mouth. But can you at least tell me where I can find one of these pairs of shoes you’re talking about? I’m afraid that I don’t keep very good records, and there are a lot more than six crates in this room. It could take me hours to find them.”

Amy smiled. “It so happens that there’s a pair of shoes in the very crate you’re sitting on. They’re fabulous! They’re a bright orange color, and they’re in perfect condition.”

Miles gasped. “You’ve got to be kidding! Of course they’re in perfect condition – I’ve never worn them. I really meant to throw them out but I guess I just forgot. Those shoes were made back when I was trying to work out the bugs in my replicator. They were an accident! They are the ugliest shoes I’ve ever seen. You can’t expect me to wear them.”

Amy shrugged. “You wanted my help, and you got it. Now, you don’t have to wear those shoes if you don’t want to. You’re free to wear any pair that you like – or you can even go to New Tikal and find a pair there, if you want. If you want to search through these crates and try to find a more acceptable pair then be my guest. But I’ve gone as far as I’m going to go. I’ve given you the Creative Shoelaces. How you obtain shoes for them is entirely up to you.”

“But there are thousands of crates here,” Miles protested. “It would take me days to go through them all! Even going to New Tikal would be a major hassle.”

Amy smiled. “You can always just use the orange pair, you know. If not – well, no one said it would be easy!”

Amy did not get out of bed until three hours later. She had been alone for so many weeks that she had drifted into her own schedule, and she was finding it difficult to readjust to local Martian time. She knew that her nanites could probably do something to readjust her internal clock, but she decided to leave it alone. If I stay here another few days I’m sure I’ll eventually adjust, she thought. There’s no need to overdo it.

She wearily climbed out of bed, took a shower, got ready, and then headed up to the cafeteria. She was pleased to see that it was empty. At least I won’t have to sit through another horrible meal, she thought. But where are Miles and Noel? You know, I bet they went outside. I wonder what the chances are that they didn’t bring an umbrella?

The girl connected to the nanite network and used them scan the area that surrounded the entrance to New Tikal. She was shocked to see that there were tens of thousands of people outside. In fact, a giant mob was milling around the desert just outside the city’s giant airlock. Some people were simply standing there and letting the rain hit them. Others were walking along the now-muddy road that climbed up the canyon walls. People were talking excitedly, gesturing to the sky. She scanned the crowd and saw that Miles and Noel were at the top of the canyon, looking out over the desert.

I really don’t want to go out there and get all wet, but there’s no telling how long they’re going to be up there. I could always use my nanites to shield the rain, but then I’d have to explain that to anyone who was standing nearby and that could get awkward. I guess I could just bring an umbrella, though. Despite what Noel might think, I haven’t completely lost my mind.

Amy disappeared from the cafeteria and materialized at the top of the canyon, about a dozen feet behind Miles and Noel. When she appeared she was holding a large blue umbrella over her head. The rain was coming down pretty hard and a fierce wind was blowing it around. Amy’s umbrella shielded her from the rain that fell from the sky, but the buffeting wind blew in rain from the side and soaked her.

“Well, that’s not going to work,” she grumbled. “So much for that great idea.”

Miles turned around and saw her standing there. He was soaking wet as well, but Amy could tell that it didn’t bother him in the least. He was wearing a pair of blue overalls, a checkered shirt, and a ridiculous-looking straw hat. It was obvious that he had been standing outside in the rain for hours, simply enjoying the experience.

The ancient man looked at her and smiled. “So there you are! We were wondering how long it would take you to get out here. We were afraid you’d miss it!”

“Oh, there’s no danger of that,” Amy replied. “It’s going to rain for another week. By the time this storm passes you will have all the rain you could possibly want. In fact, you might never want to see rain again.”

“A week?” Noel asked. “That seems highly unlikely! After all, a week’s worth of rain would involve a sizable amount of water, and there just isn’t that much water vapor available in our atmosphere. Mars is really quite dry.”

Amy sighed. “You don’t have to take my word for it, you know. Just wait and see what happens. I think you’ll find that Mars is about to do all kinds of things that aren’t exactly typical.”

“Perhaps! In fact, I hope you’re right. Ecology and biology really aren’t my fields, but it looks like Mars is emerging from some sort of hibernation state. I don’t know what triggered the change but it is heartening to see. The real question is whether or not the plant life will return. That is going to be vital. Will Mars ever become green again?”

“Time will tell,” Amy replied.

“Just how much time are we talking about?” Miles asked. “Should we be looking for sudden changes?”

“Um, you know, probably not,” Amy said hesitatingly. “I mean, think about it. It took a long time for Mars to die, right? So you’d naturally expect that it would take a long time for Mars to become green again. That would be reasonable, right? So I would say that this is the sort of thing you’ll just have to take one day at a time.”

“I would agree with that,” Noel said. “After all, even if we went out today and planted a thousand trees, it could take centuries for those seeds to sprout and grow into an old-growth forest. On top of that, we don’t even know if this rainstorm is a one-time recurrence or a sign that our ecosystem has made some sort of permanent shift.”

“You know, speaking of permanent shifts, what have you done about the air supply?” Amy asked.

“Oh, the air supply! I haven’t made any progress on it, actually. There just seem to be more pressing things to do. I admit that building a self-contained system is critical to the future of our colony, but it’s very difficult to get the mayor to approve a project of that magnitude. The political factors–”

“Not that air supply,” Amy replied. “I mean the one you’re breathing right now! You don’t need to wear a suit anymore to go outside, do you?”

“No, you’re quite right,” Noel agreed. “In fact, that is something we’ve been marveling about. Personally, I think all these changes are tied to temperature fluctuations. Perhaps the planet’s poles contained a large supply of frozen oxygen, which had collected over time. However, as temperatures have increased it has caused the oxygen to thaw and released it back into the atmosphere, thus increasing its pressure and changing the gaseous balance.”

Miles raised his eyebrows. “Is that really your best guess? Come on, Noel, you’re an engineer. Don’t you know how cold oxygen has to get before it will freeze? Sure, it’s been cold out in the desert, but not that cold.”

“I admit that the details of my theory may be a bit off. Still, I think my basic theory is quite sound. After all, these atmospheric gasses must have come from somewhere! Since I doubt they were magically shipped in from outer space, the only other possible source of the gasses is Mars itself. Somehow our atmosphere must have become trapped – either at the poles, or underground, or something along those lines. Now, however, something has changed and those gasses are being released. I’m confident that scientific investigations will eventually bear this out.”

“You’re still missing my point,” Amy said. “Think about the colony for a minute. Now that the outside oxygen content and atmospheric pressure are much higher, have you adjusted the colony’s air towers to match the new surface conditions?”

Noel blinked. “Um, well, you know, that’s a good question. Don’t they do that automatically?”

“Automatically?” Miles asked. “What are you talking about? Noel, you have personally built air towers in the past! You must know that there’s nothing automatic about them. Do you mean to tell me that you haven’t been adjusting them to keep pace with all these climate changes?”

“It’s really not my department! I’m more on the energy side of things. I try to avoid getting mixed up in climate sciences.”

“You need to move now. Don’t just stand there – get going! Make sure that this is being handled. If the air towers aren’t adjusted they’re going to overwork themselves and burn out their motors – if they haven’t already! Do you want to be the one that gets to explain to the mayor why the colony’s air supply is gone?”

“I’m on my way,” Noel said hurriedly. He ran over to the muddy access road and began hiking down the canyon as fast as he could go.

Amy shook her head. “How have they survived this long?”

“It truly is a wonder,” Miles agreed. “Although letting the air towers burn out might not have been such a bad idea. After all, it would have forced them to leave New Tikal.”

“And where would they go, exactly? Are you going to invite them all over to your place?”

“Oh,” Miles replied. “I see what you mean. I guess I just didn’t think it through.”

“I actually have been thinking this through, and I’ve come up with a plan. First, the planet is going to go green again – in a slow, gentle, natural way that cannot be traced back to me.”

“I see! So that’s what this is all about.”

“Exactly. My sister wasn’t discreet about terraforming Xanthe and the natives hunted her down and killed her. I’m not going to make that same mistake. After all, you weren’t discreet about your plans and looked what happened to Don Elliott!”

“That was two thousand years ago,” Miles protested.

“Are things really any different today? Do you honestly believe that the mayor is going to be fine when people leave his city to recolonize the planet? Are none of the politicians going to get upset over the fact that their citizens are leaving?”

“But that’s a different issue entirely! How the mayor will react to that is entirely different from people knowing that you are the one who saved them.”

“I am not going to make myself the focus of all this,” Amy said firmly. “I don’t see any possible good that could come from it, and it opens up a lot of potential problems.”

“That seems fair enough,” Miles agreed. “But, speaking of problems, just what are you going to do about the Mayor? For that matter, how are you going to convince people to leave New Tikal?”

“That’s the fun part. When the rain stops, people are going to find out that the rain has washed away the sand and uncovered the ruins of a vast city.”

“They are?” Miles asked, surprised. “Are you sure? I don’t mean to doubt you, of course, but I spent years looking for the lost ruins of Tikal. Do you mean to tell me that it was there all along and I just missed it?”

“No, you didn’t miss it. Tikal was mostly destroyed when the Emperor attacked, and none of it survived the millennia. It really is gone. In fact, this city is actually going to be brand-new, but the locals aren’t going to know that – at least, not at first. What their scouting parties will report is that they’ve found the ruins of a giant city that is far more advanced than New Tikal, and holds incredible secrets and treasures. However, the city is partially broken and it’s going to take some work to bring it back online. Not too much work, and not impossible work. But it will take work.”

“Oh!” Miles said. “I see what you’re getting at. So you’re planning on creating a ruined city, planting it in the desert, and using it as bait to lure them out. Then you want to create problems within the city that will act as challenges to focus their efforts and drive them forward.”

“Exactly,” Amy said. “However, I’m not going to do this by myself. This is something that you and I are going to work on together. I’d really like your help, if you’re willing.”

“But I can’t create a city!” Miles protested. “In fact, it’s all I can do to build a sand castle!”

“Oh, I can fix that. Trust me.”

“All right,” Miles agreed. “So let’s say that we create the city and people flock to it. What do we do then? Is that your end-game?”

“Not quite. There’s one more step to all this.” Amy paused for a moment. “Miles, the Earth needs us. Do you know what’s been going on over there?”

“In fact, I do. I know exactly what you are talking about. I tried to help them but my efforts were useless. Whatever disease is affecting the natives is beyond my ability to heal. It’s quite different from anything I’ve ever seen before.”

“I know,” Amy said. “I couldn’t cure it either. I think that Steve can, though.”

“You know, speaking of Steve, he was actually here not long ago! Although, come to think of it, I guess it was a while ago. It was late December, I believe. In fact, I’m almost certain he stopped by my home the very same day that you left Mars.”

“Really?” Amy asked, surprised. “I bet he was looking for me, wasn’t he?”

“Oh yes, he certainly was. He told me that things were not going well on Xanthe and that he needed your help.”

“I guess we both need each other’s help, then,” Amy said. “Do you know where he is now?”

“On Xanthe, waiting for you. I told him you would return when you were ready.”

Amy nodded. “I guess I’ll deal with one problem at a time. First, though, I need to finish dealing with Mars. Then I can return to Xanthe and figure out what to do there.”

“So you still haven’t made any decisions?” Miles asked.

Amy sighed. “It’s not easy,” she said.

“I know. But no one ever said it would be.”

This is a mocked-up cover for the unwritten book Starman #22, The Rise of Mars. It was one of the books that we originally planned to write and even created a brief plot summary for, but ultimately ended up skipping.

If you would like to read the proposed plot for the book, simply click on the image below to see a higher-resolution scan.

(I do not know who created the cover artwork, but it was not me.)

The Bible is the Word of God and is His most prominent book. It – and it alone – contains God’s specific revelation to mankind. Despite what you may have been told, the Bible is complete, authoritative, and infallible. As 2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us, the Bible contains everything that is needed in order to make “the man of God…perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works”. Cults often claim that the Bible isn’t enough and that God wrote other books to fill in the gap, but that is not true. The Bible is God’s one and only book of revelation.

However, that doesn’t mean that the Bible is the only book that God has written. Heaven contains a few other books that have also been created by Him. For a long time the only one I was familiar with was the Book of Life, which will be used to judge the dead at the Great White Throne judgment. Recently, however, I came across an article (“The Books”, by Jack Kinsella) that mentioned a few others. Since this topic doesn’t get discussed very often I thought it might be worthwhile to take a moment to explore the other volumes that can be found in God’s heavenly library.
 

The Book of Life

Other than the Bible itself, this is by far the most famous book in God’s library. As I said earlier, this book will be used in the Great White Throne judgment, which takes place after the Second Coming, after the Millennial Kingdom, and after the final defeat of Satan. At that time all of the dead are brought before the Lord and judged:

Revelation 20:12: “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”

A great many things have been said about this judgment over the years, and unfortunately there are a number of misconceptions about it. First of all, it’s very important to note that all of the people who are at this judgment are dead. Verse 12 actually emphasizes this point twice: it says that “the dead” are the ones who stand before God, and “the dead” are the ones who were judged “out of those things which were written in the books”. In both cases the people who are being judged are dead. In the entire passage the living are not mentioned even once. I often hear commentators say that all of mankind will be there, but that is not the case: as you can see, the only ones who are judged during this event are the dead.

The reason this is important is because the righteous are resurrected long before this judgment ever takes place. The Church is resurrected at the Rapture, and the Old Testament and Tribulation saints are resurrected at the Second Coming (which takes place some years after the Rapture). Therefore, the only people who will still be dead when this judgment occurs are the lost (who were not resurrected) and whoever dies during the Millennial Kingdom. If the only people who die during the Millennial Kingdom are the lost, then that would mean that only the lost will be at this judgment.

Getting back to the topic at hand – as you can see, there are actually a number of different books that are used in this judgment. The one I want to focus on here is the Book of Life, which is the deciding factor. All those whose names are missing from the Book will be cast into the Lake of Fire, where they will be tormented day and night, forever and ever:

Revelation 20:15: “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

As you can see, having your name written in the Book of Life is tremendously important. Jesus Himself emphasized this point:

Luke 10:20: “Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.”

If your name is written in the Book of Life then you will be spared from the wrath of God. It rescues you from eternal torment in the Lake of Fire and gives you eternal life. It even grants you access to New Jerusalem:

Revelation 21:27: “And there shall in no wise enter into [the city] any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

In other words, having your name written there is an astounding blessing! All those whose names are written there will live with God, in His city, forever and ever. They will never again know suffering, or crying, or pain, but will live in everlasting joy and peace. If you are saved, your name is written there and it will never be erased:

Revelation 3:5: “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.”

As we can see, all those who “overcome” have their name written in the Book of Life. I John tells us that those who overcome are those who have put their faith in Jesus:

I John 5:4: “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”

So, then, all those who believe in Jesus have overcome the world and have their names written in the Book of Life. Their name will never be blotted out, they will not be cast into the Lake of Fire, and they will be allowed to enter New Jerusalem. One might assume, therefore, that our names are written in the Book the moment we are saved, but that is not the case. The Bible tells us that our names were written in the Book of Life when God created the world:

Revelation 17:8: “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.”

This verse tells us of another advantage to having our names written in the Book of Life: those whose names are found there will not be led astray by the antichrist during the Tribulation. The rest of the world will wonder and be deceived, but those whose names are written down will understand. They – and they alone – will be spared. In fact, all those whose names are written in the Book of Life will be delivered:

Daniel 12:1: “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.”

As we can see, the Bible has a lot to say about the Book of Life. However, there are several other heavenly books mentioned as well. For example…
 

The Book of Tears

This book is easy to miss. As far as I have seen, it is only mentioned in one verse. You can find it in this psalm of David:

Psalm 56:8: “Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?”

What David seems to be saying is that God has a book that records all of our sorrows and tears. This is very different from the Book of Life, which is a simple register of names. The Book of Tears, however, does not list names; instead it lists sorrows. In other words, God doesn’t just care about our sufferings; He actually writes them all down.

Why does this matter? Well, think of it this way. We know that God cares about our pain, but this caring can sometimes seem very abstract. After all, even though God cares for us, we still have to suffer and we still have to endure terrible trials. Sometimes it almost seems like God is saying “Yes, I know this trial hurts, but it’s good for you so just grit your teeth and bare it.” God’s compassion isn’t always something that we can actually see. Our relationship with God is founded on faith: we believe in Someone we’ve never actually seen, and we believe that He loves us even when our lives are going terribly wrong and the pain seems endless.

What we see here is that God really does care. He doesn’t just care in a vague “I feel your pain” kind of way; He cares enough that He actually writes it all down. God never forgets anything, but He still records all of our tears so that the record will be there for all of Heaven to see, for all the rest of time. It matters to Him, and He is not indifferent about it.
 

The Book of Remembrance

This book seems to be mentioned in several different passages. The first one can be found in the last book of the Old Testament:

Malachi 3:14: “Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
16 Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.
17 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
18 Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.”

It would be easy to confuse this book with the Book of Life, but I think they are two separate books. The reason I think this is because the Book of Life was written when God created the world, but this book was written only after people started complaining to God (verse 16). That means it’s newer than the Book of Life, so, therefore, it must be separate from it.

The reason God created this book was because people were upset over that the wicked were living fantastic and prosperous lives while the righteous were suffering and being abused. They didn’t think it was fair. “It is vain to serve God”, they grumbled. “What’s the point of serving the Lord if all it does is ruin your life?”

Because of these complaints the Lord had a book of remembrance written, so that people could “discern between the righteous and the wicked”. This book was written specifically for “them that feared the Lord”. God wanted to make it clear that He did draw a distinction between those who belonged to Him and those who did not. It may have looked like the wicked were getting away with murder while the righteous were life’s big losers, but that was just an illusion. He was aware of the righteous acts of His saints and He commissioned a book in which to record those acts.

It’s possible that Book of Remembrance is one of the unnamed books that are mentioned at the Great White Throne judgment:

Revelation 20:12: “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”

Daniel 7:9: “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.
10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.”

Notice how it says that the dead were judged according to their works, based on what the books had to say – meaning that there were more books there than just the Book of Life. Verse 12 seems to say that the books contained an account of each person’s works. The Book of Life doesn’t have that information, but the Book of Remembrance is a good candidate for this.

It’s easy to fall into the same trap as the Israelites and start thinking that obeying God just isn’t important. Some Christians today have noticed that the wicked appear to be having a great time, and have decided to copy their pagan lifestyle. “After all,” they reason, “I’m saved and going to Heaven. Who cares how I live my life? It’s not like it matters! Trying to obey God is just asking for trouble. Suffering is for suckers.”

However, the fact is that it does matter. God cares tremendously about whether His children are faithfully serving Him, and He disciplines those who are not. He also offers rewards for obedience and sacrifice (which is a topic I’ve explored in detail elsewhere). Plus, on top of everything else, God actually records our acts of service. In other words, God is recording our tears and our sacrifices. He is aware of our acts of service and He writes them all down, in a permanent record. The things we do are not forgotten; they are recorded in the Book of Remembrance.
 

The Book of Body Parts

The last book is definitely the strangest, and unfortunately very little is known about it. It is mentioned in this psalm of David:

Psalm 139:13: “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.”

I call this one the “book of body parts” because that seems to be exactly what it is: a book that lists body parts. Now, I don’t know if this book covers everyone who has ever lived, or if it’s restricted to those whose names are written in the Book of Life; the passage doesn’t say. But verse 16 is clear that it does list body parts, and the list is apparently made before each person is even conceived. (It’s quite possible that, like the Book of Life, this book was written when God created the world.)

I do not know the purpose of this book. In the surrounding verses David is praising God for the fact that he was “fearfully and wonderfully made” and marvels that his body parts were all written down before he even had any body parts. I’m sure there’s some significant truth here, but nothing jumps out at me. It’s easy to understand the purpose of the Book of Life, the Book of Tears, and the Book of Remembrance, but this book just seems odd. I have no doubt that there is a reason for it (after all, everything God does has a reason behind it), but at this time I can offer no theories.
 

Conclusion

It’s interesting to note that the Bible actually mentions quite a few books that are not included in the Bible itself. For example, there is the Book of Jasher:

Joshua 10:13: “And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.”

There’s the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel:

1 Kings 15:31: “Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?”

The Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah:

1 Kings 14:29: “Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?”

The Book of the Wars of the Lord:

Numbers 21:14: “Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the LORD, What he did in the Red sea, and in the brooks of Arnon,”

The Book of the Acts of Solomon:

1 Kings 11:41: “And the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon?”

The Book of Jehu:

2 Chronicles 20:34: “Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Jehu the son of Hanani, who is mentioned in the book of the kings of Israel.”

The Book of the Decree of Esther:

Esther 9:32: “And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book.”

All of these books have, apparently, been lost. They were earthly books, written by men, and God chose not to preserve them. While this is a loss of historical knowledge, it is not fatal; after all, 2 Timothy 3:16-17 makes it clear that the Bible contains everything we need. The lost books would have been interesting to read but the Bible has no gaps. It is a finished work.

At the same time, the Bible mentions other books that are not lost because they are heavenly books. We’ve taken a look at the Book of Life, the Book of Tears, the Book of Remembrance, and the rather odd Book of Body Parts. One other book that bears mentioning is this one:

Psalm 69:28: “Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.”

This one may well be poetry; after all, “blotted out of the book of the living” sounds like a poetic way of saying “let them die”. But what if it’s not? If it is a real book (which, honestly, seems unlikely) then it’s almost certainly not the same thing as the Book of Life. The reason I say this is because asking God to blot someone’s name out of the Book of Life is the same thing as saying “Lord, please send that person straight to Hell. Make sure they can never, ever be saved no matter what.” I really don’t think that’s a prayer that God wants us to be praying. If it is a real book and not just a poetic metaphor then I think it’s a separate book entirely – one that apparently lists everyone who is currently alive.

In conclusion – when thinking about the Book of Life, don’t forget about the other heavenly books that God has revealed to us. The Lord cares about your tears and He remembers your righteous acts. He is not a vague, distant God that can’t be bothered with our problems; He is an ever-present help in trouble, and He truly does care for us.