Spiritual fiction – Page 8

Snippets of The Prodigal Band Trilogy Biblical References Series: Episode Five—If a prostitute, a tax collector, a synagogue ruler, a Pharisee, a Roman Centurion, and some likely wealthy ship owners can accept Christ as Savior…Can supposed “Devil Worshipers”?

I have watched many YouTube videos created by supposed Christian preachers claiming that many entertainers that claim to believe on Christ are faking their beliefs. I will not post links to these videos because they are readily available to anyone who might follow rockers and rappers and singers and actors and athletes and other wealthy celebrities who claim to have converted to Christianity or were born that way.

Now some of these celebrities may be faking it, but some videos imply all of these celebrities are faking it. (Note: these folks never seem to think of the possibility that some celebrities that are supposed Satanists might also be faking it! But anyway….).

To just flat out say all these celebrities are phony Christians, however, with no verbal proof from the celebrity that they are faking it, is wrong. Folks who call themselves Christians shouldn’t be ‘making stuff up’ either! And this snippet post is a response to this rumor-mongering, which these folks ought to know Christ abhors.

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Snippets of The Prodigal Band Trilogy: Biblical References Series, Episode Three—“The Parable of the Laborers of the Vineyard”

Several New Testament Parables given by Christ to His Apostles influenced how and why I wrote the three novels in The Prodigal Band Trilogy. One of these is from the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter Twenty, verses 1 through 16. It is called “the Parable of the Laborers of the Vineyard.” It is cited below, from the copyright-free public domain King James Version of the Holy Bible, the PDF version.

To sum up the message: The “householder” (God) “hires” “laborers” (missionaries) to reap new fruit (believers on Christ) within the vineyard (the world), beginning with those hired early in the morning (that is, early in the life of the “laborer”; children, teens or those in their twenties), then hired mid-day (“laborers” in their thirties), then later (“laborers” in their forties or fifties), then later (sixties and seventies) then the “eleventh hour” (those on their death beds or close to it…I actually know a couple of folks who accepted Christ as their Savior days or even hours before they died or ‘passed on’!). I myself, while I (with one exceptional time period I described in an earlier snippet) believed in God and Christ, never fully committed to God and Christ until I witnessed a miraculous event while in my mid-forties. The “laborers” in question are those who not only accept Christ but tell the world about why they should consider accepting Christ as well (and EVERY Christian author, fiction or non-fiction, needs to partake in this however God guides them!). That is, these “laborers” are on their “mission of God,” an expression I use often in the trilogy. The final verse, 16, says the last (to accept Christ) will be first (as they will die shortly) and the first shall be last (as they have a full life ahead of them, God willing), and that “many are called but few are chosen.” And among these “few” there just might be those that prior to accepting Christ led extremely evil lives! And the “few” that are “chosen” are “chosen” for a reason; for one thing, among these “few” that are chosen are those that “choose” to be “chosen.” God is calling the entire world, basically, but only few will choose this “calling.” The “payment” of course, is eternity with God in Heaven. And it doesn’t matter to God at what point in the lives of the “laborers” they do become workers for God, and it shouldn’t matter to one who works his or her entire life for God gets the same reward as one who works for God at the end of his or her life—so it shouldn’t matter to anyone working for God, either. Below is the parable.

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Snippets of The Prodigal Band Trilogy: Biblical References Series, Episode Two—Gnawing of “Bones Forever.”

I had originally called this post “Episode One.” Sorry about that, it is Episode Two.

The previous Biblical Reference post here about “weeping and gnashing of teeth” was used to point out that the evil satanic character Corion would mete out retribution onto those he commanded if they did not carry out his will. But Corion never says anything about ‘gnashing’ of teeth on the bones of those wayward minions—he uses the term “gnaw” and “gnawing.” While both ‘gnashing’ and ‘gnawing’ mean pretty much the same thing—teeth scraping on bones or whatever—I used the term ‘gnaw’ because it is more commonly used. Everyone knows about the gnawing of rodents on wood, on nuts, on gardens, on leftover food such as dog or cat food; gnawing is why rodents have those sharp fanged front teeth that they have.

There are only two references to ‘gnaw’ or ‘gnawing’ used in the Bible; I learned this by using Strong’s Concordance, which defines both in a similar way as it defines ‘gnashing,’ which is only found in the New Testament referring to Christ’s “weeping and gnashing of teeth” quotes in Matthew and Luke Gospel verses. But both ‘gnaw’ in Zephaniah 3:3 and ‘gnawing’ in Revelation 16:10 make the same connotations, except that while in Zephaniah the ‘gnaw’ is on bone, in Revelation the ‘gnawing’ is on the tongue ‘for pain.’ Zephaniah’s ‘gnaw’ on bone refers to evil leaders within Jerusalem that “are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow.” (KJV) One could compare the evil Corion to these evil leaders in Jerusalem. So one could say that Corion’s ‘gnaw on bones forever’ has the same connotation as Zephaniah’s use of the word. However, in Revelation 16:10, the gnawing is on the “tongues for pain” and the ones doing the ‘gnawing on their tongues for pain’ are likely those who refused to repent of their deeds in the Revelation time-frame, which could mean either Corion’s minions had their tongues gnawed on by Corion or the evil minions gnawed on their own tongues. In The Prodigal Band Trilogy, the connotation is that Corion or his Demons did the ‘gnawing,’ but not one tongues, but bones. Forever.

The term ‘gnaw on bones forever’ is used several times in all three novels that make up the trilogy, and all refer to Corion’s gnawing on bones of either wayward minions or on the forces of Good, such as the angels called The Tooters who work for The Creator, God.

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Snippets of The Prodigal Band Trilogy: Biblical References Series, Episode One—“The Outer Darkness, Where There Will Be Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth.”

Of all the Bible verses spoken by Jesus Christ Himself I have been aware of for many years, this and other verses in Matthew and Luke speaking of “the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” has stuck with me for many, many years. I figured the “outer darkness” referred to Hell and this “weeping” by those who were in Hell made sense. Who wanted to die and go to Hell? It was the “gnashing of teeth” part I had no idea about.

The word “gnashing” in the dictionary means this: to bite or chew by grinding the teeth together, striking the teeth together by grinding.

A similar word I used often in The Prodigal Band Trilogy, “gnaw,” has this meaning: to bite, chew on, or erode with the teeth. The word “gnaw” usually refers to rodents chewing or “gnawing” on wood, nuts, plants, or whatever rodents gnaw on for food or shelter, prominently with large and long upper front teeth. I use “gnaw” mostly referencing the devil character, Corion, as well as his Demons, warning his evil minions to do what he asks, “…or I will gnaw your bones forever.” In Hell, or the Abyss in which he resides (on God’s or The Creator’s orders), which is where Corion’s evil minions will find themselves after judgment.

Note: Since those who do the will of the devil character will find themselves in Hell anyway unless they repent of their evil, and Corion would gnaw on them anyway, why is Corion even threatening these folks if they do not do his will? Because these folks worship Corion and believe this evil devil is in fact god! So they force themselves to do these evil deeds not realizing he is only deceiving them. Corion, the Satan of this trilogy, is in fact the father of lies and deception within the trilogy.

This post is on the “gnashing of teeth” reference; the “gnawing” on bones forever reference will appear next week. But the themes and context are similar though the words are somewhat different. Gnaw and gnawing are used once each in the Bible, in the Old Testament Book of Zephaniah and the New Testament Book of Revelation.

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Spiritual Snippets Within The Prodigal Band Trilogy: The Creator

These three-novels-in-one The Prodigal Band Trilogy book is listed as fiction. But is the One I call The Creator fiction? Some say yes; I say no. I truly believe The Creator, aka God, exists.

And why The Creator? Folks, I didn’t just come up with these novels strictly on my own; I believe I was divinely inspired. I think He should be called ‘The Creator’ because everything we know about and everything we don’t know about–black holes, for instance….do we really know everything there is to know about black holes?–had to come from something, some entity.

Take the so-called ‘Big Bang’ theory. This ‘big bang’ caused everything to be created, so the theory goes (as far as I know anyway). But what caused the big bang to begin with? Something had to ‘bang’ in a big way, or some things had to get together and ‘bang.’ And did these things that banged come out of nothing? And what comes out of nothing? Nothing!

How is that even possible? How does ‘nothing’ become ‘something’?

And when did this ‘nothing’ become ‘something’?

And for nothing to come out of nothing, nothing would have to be divided by nothing! Since nothing is represented by the number zero… And can one divide by zero? Mathematically, no. And math is truth. And 2+2 will never equal 5.

So when did ‘nothing’ become ‘something’?

That is, how did the dimension of time come to be? We have length, width, height, and time. The Earth exists in these four dimensions. But there are, supposedly, other dimensions we cannot feel, taste, touch, see, hear, and smell. Likely the spirit dimension is one of these, and in my novels, these spirits exist in and outside of time, simultaneously or not.

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Snippets of Reality Within The Prodigal Band Trilogy: Real Spiritual Experiences

I and those I know have had interesting spiritual, or what could only described as spiritual, experiences. In a previous snippet I told about a scary outcome while involved in a Ouija Board event with two friends while “calling up the dead.”

This post is about what, I truly believe, were good spirits that turned bad situations into events that awakened good spiritual tidings and not only impacted my writing of these novels that make up The Prodigal Band Trilogy, but blessed my life even more.

In 1971 heading up into Canada along the New York State Thruway with at least five other left-wing activists as well as atheists in a car with nearly bald tires in bad stormy weather the vehicle skidded off the highway into a guard rail then was sent across the northbound lane covered with traffic into the island between the north- and south-bound lanes. I had told myself we were going to die, that we’d be hit broadside by on-coming traffic. But we weren’t. The vehicle had minimal damage and a tire did go flat, but the vehicle was hauled into a repair shop and an hour or so later we were back on the road.

While standing outside the vehicle I asked those around me: “Now why would God save a bunch of atheists?” They laughed.

But from then on in, I was no longer an atheist! I knew God had to exist! What else would have prevented us from being killed in a car crash? Oh, and did I mention that guard rail, where, on the other side of it was a hundred foot drop?

Then in 1972 I was with this same leftist group and another woman and I were putting up posters for a conference of like-minded leftists in Cleveland (later moved to outside Detroit) to be held in a few months. Late in the afternoon while in Manhattan we slipped into Manhattan College on a Sunday and started putting up posters, then got into an elevator to go to upper floors.

The elevator stopped between the second and third floors. Stuck. On a Sunday. And guess what? The following day, Monday, was Yom Kippur!

Anyone that knows anything about living in and around NYC knows that ALL community colleges and other educational institutions are CLOSED ON JEWISH HOLIDAYS! So who the heck was going to rescue us that Sunday evening or the following day when the school would be closed?

And another thing. We had no water, no food, no toilets–and I had my menstrual period! And the elevator was cold! I was almost freezing in that elevator. As my friend tried to see if she could get us out of there, all I had to try to keep myself warm were those posters which I covered myself with. With the bucket of poster glue we had a way to urinate.

So on Monday morning of Yom Kippur around 6 am or so we heard a person outside the elevator shaft, a janitor. We called for help, and he got us out of there!

Was this ‘man’ an angel? To this day I believe he was. After all, if a college is closed on Yom Kippur, then would some janitor be working there?

After that event, I definitely believed in God! And though I did go to the conference (which was infiltrated by the FBI according to sources I knew back then), I left the conference early because I had a job to go to the following day, so I flew back to NYC that afternoon. Then I quit the group.

Then in 1997 having already published Battle of the Band which ends with a spiritual scenario, what I witnessed was a miracle of truly Biblical proportions. It happened on the last Saturday of February, 1997. No way would I make this up just to embellish a novel! I will not go into detail over this, but the second snippet below does give a similar scenario.

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Snippets of The Prodigal Band Trilogy: Spiritual

Gee, Hallowe’en is almost here! Time for spiritual snippets! After all, I’ve already done horror, paranormal, fantasy, and two occult snippets, part 1 and part 2…or should I have left the occult snippets for Hallowe’en? But anyway….

These snippets involve actual (fictional) duals between the good and evil spiritual forces as well as communication between the Evil and its human minions. I could mention many instances here, but three snippets should be enough, and they are shorter than usual; some of my snippets have been quite long!

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Snippets of The Prodigal Band Trilogy: Paranormal

The two previous set of snippets dealt with the occult; this one deals with the paranormal. Some might consider occult and paranormal the same thing, but there are differences. Occult implies humans practicing witchcraft or satanic rituals or playing at them–that is, occult is where, to one degree or another, humans are in control or at least are doing the bidding of the spirit that is taking part in or leading the ritual. Paranormal, according to the definition I found, implies lack of control on the part of humans to some extent: denoting events or phenomena such as telekinesis or clairvoyance that are beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. That is, normal human understanding!

The two snippets in this post, both from the final book of the trilogy, The Prodigal Band, are clearly beyond human understanding, as both events are completely under divine control, for divine purposes. One of the snippets is similar to an actual event that happened to someone I know. Similar events also occurred to some very key figures in the Bible.

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Snippets of The Prodigal Band Trilogy: Mystery

There is plenty of mystery within this trilogy, but it is not mystery in terms of crime (as with Sherlock Holmes), suspense, or science fiction, but spiritual mystery. However, the following snippets that follow a specific event highlighted by revelations from the spirit being for Good known as the ‘witch of the Hovels’ do incorporate crime and suspense themes. All of these snippets are found within the second book of the trilogy, The Prophesied Band.

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Snippets of The Prodigal Band Trilogy: Fantasy

The Fantasy genre can be defined in many ways as it mixes in with Science Fiction or Horror-Occultic or Spiritual or even Dystopian genres. But The Prodigal Band Trilogy does not take place on some fantasy world in another galaxy or another planet or another time frame, but in the modern times mostly in the time frame of late 70s to early 2000s, mostly in the UK or the US, mostly in southeast England, NYC, LA area or the Bay Area or in the fictitious city of Walltown in northeast England where the band, Sound Unltd, is from, or the Bay Area fictitious city called Richmont. Yet that’s not the fantasy part.

Both the first chapter of Battle of the Band and the first chapter of The Prodigal Band begin in the “beforetime” realm of God in heaven with the fallen angels being cast into the Abyss, and on Earth in the 1130s in Walltown, which in the year 1136 is burning, having been cursed by an evil Duke calling forth Demons to burn the residences of rebellious serfs. Meanwhile angelic forces entering the city through a portal where a three-part angelic statue is being built, come to inhabit that statue where they sit in spirit as they put out the fire. Since the statue-figures have music horns, the statue is called The Tooters.

Another force for good–truly a fantasy character–an old woman considered a ‘witch’ by the locals, Morwenna being her name, is able to channel The Tooters for the cause of good. As she is given a song that will be passed down to future generations to save the town from evil, she suddenly by divine intervention becomes young again, and is able to mate with the man who will raise a son to pass down the song for over 800 years. What can be more fantasy than a woman who grows old and young and old and young for 800 years to assure the song is passed down to what would become a ‘prophesied’ band.

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