Spiritual fiction – Page 8

Parable from Luke 15: Prodigal Son Meets Prodigal Band (Part 3)

In Part One of this Prodigal Son meets Prodigal Band sub-series using Biblical References is recounted the ‘riotous living’ of the band using the talent ‘inheritance’ given to the six band members using their fame and fortunes. In Part Two is recounted their spiritual wastelands and empty lives of alcoholism, drug abuse and personal emptiness. In this Part Three, the prodigal band is coming to grips with the fact that they must turn their lives around and at the same time, spiritual forces of Good are aiding their efforts by giving them ‘missions of God’ beginning in Chapter Nine of The Prophesied Band. The spirit being known as the ‘witch of the Hovels,’ aka Morwenna in The Prodigal Band, tells them that The Tooters, God’s angels, will ‘reveal’ their missions ‘of God’ to them as they perform at the local trade and music festival in the middle of July, 2000. In Chapter Ten, their missions are given to them by The Tooters simultaneously as singer Erik holds the final note of a song for over one minute to end the festival.

Here are the verses that are being considered in this post from Luke 15: 18-20:

15:18: “I will arise and go to my father, and I will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before thee”

15:19: “And am no more worthy to be called they son: make me as one of thy hired servants.”

Verse 20 begins by saying ‘And he arose, and came to his father.’

But while they are willing to carry out their ‘missions,’ they would prefer not to ‘do missions on themselves’ so to speak. While their missions involve spreading the Good News about accepting Christ as Savior, they are not necessarily willing to accept Christ themselves. They believe they’ve been ‘too sinful’ and doubt they could even consider accepting Christ. But that nagging feeling haunts them, knowing that not doing so while being “missionaries” makes them hypocrites. It is the commitment to ‘being hired’ by Christ that is standing in the way. Such that it will take a special nudge by spiritual Good to get them to choose to be ‘hired.’ This happens in the spiritual void they find themselves in Chapter Eleven of The Prodigal Band.

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Parable from Luke 15: The Prodigal Son Meets The Prodigal Band (Part Two)

In Part One of this episode, here, the Prodigal Band mirrors the beginnings of the Prodigal Son within the Gospel of Luke Chapter 15, where the prodigal son is given his inheritance and then proceeds to waste the fortune given to him on ‘riotous living,’ which, if one ever read from the celebrity tabloids and popular culture magazines of the 60s through the 90s, mirrored the lifestyles of the most famous and notorious rock stars. Some of these rockers, however, would regret their wasted—and I mean wasted!—drug addictions and such, including the so-called ’27 Club’ of rockers who died or suicided (or, some say, were murdered) legends such as Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janice Joplin, Brian Jones, and others of whatever age, such as Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington and more. And let’s not forget the recently passed Eddie Van Halen, who had serious health issues likely brought about by his ‘rock star lifestyle’.

Luke 15: 14: “And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in the land; and he began to be in want.”

The next two verses say that the prodigal son “joined” himself to a citizen of that country he was in, and was to feed swine in the fields; in the meantime, he craved being about to eat those corn husks he fed as he was given virtually nothing in return.

15:17: “And when he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish in hunger!”

The ‘famine’ referenced in verse 14 is spiritual as well as physical but certainly not financial, as the members of the prodigal band are all filthy rich. They have ‘spent’ all of their true actual beings, especially spiritual, on the ‘riotous living’ in verse 13 as stated in part one. They were wasted in every way they could think. Chapter Seven of Battle of the Band features several instances of their ‘wasted’ selves: singer Erik, not being able to get near his baby son, turns to alcoholism; guitarist Jack, in anger over hurting his woman who was pregnant but didn’t let him know that until the 1993 tour was over, turned to drug addiction, as did bassist Keith, who lost his wife over infidelity; drummer Tom lost his lover to another hated man; guitarist Mick was poisoned by a drug laced with poison, blamed on his partner but committed by his ‘friend’ Swami Negran as punishment for not fulfilling their ‘soul-selling oath’ to the satanic figure Corion; synthist Bry suddenly hurt his back on a short vacation that would bring about unintended consequences later. So yes, they were certainly in want!

The next two verses about going to another country and working for someone there feeding pigs and going hungry over it doesn’t really play out in the novel, unless one considers the ‘citizen’ they are ‘working’ for is an evil satanic agenda of debauching the youth as they had been ‘assigned’ to carry out. And they do their best to carry this evil agenda to fruition to the point where they are anything but economically ‘hungry,’ so that this ‘hunger’ is a spiritual one that is having its negative consequences in more ways than one. And no band members feels this hunger more than its front man, singer Erik. In Chapter Nine of Battle of the Band, his wife Ger ‘betrays’ him by being with her personal assistant for sex as well as ‘exercise,’ for she has convinced herself that she is ‘fat’ because the tabloids say she is, which also leads to her serious bout with bulimia (referenced here) that she hid from her man. Angry over it, Erik leaves her and continues his self-pity over it even when she tries to apologize, which he will not accept—and then gets plastered with booze that evening, leading to him (as well as his ‘bro’ bassist Keith) winding up with mild heart attacks in a hospital, having added Bry’s back medication to their drunkenness. And their wanting to end their spiritual ‘hunger’ in the process.

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Parable from Luke 15: The Prodigal Son Meets The Prodigal Band (Part One)

Folks, this trilogy is called The Prodigal Band Trilogy for a reason! And the reason is this: the parable within the Gospels spoken to the Apostles by Christ Himself that gave the most inspiration to this trilogy was the Parable of the Prodigal (Lost) Son within the Gospel of Luke Chapter 15. The parable is below, and has been during my entire life one of my favorite parables. My other two favorite parables have also been referenced in my Biblical References Snippet posts—the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard and the Parable of the Talents. All three work together to impart my mission message, but it made more sense to me, what with my trilogy about a rock band that gains fame and fortune but loses their ‘souls’ so to speak, to call this the Prodigal Band Trilogy, where the ‘prodigal band’ meets (spiritually) the ‘prodigal son.’

Before I go on, let me explain the meanings of prodigal and prodigy. The ‘prodigal son’ is ‘lost’ because of wasteful extravagance. He is wasting his ‘inheritance’ (or, in the case of my prodigal band members) or ‘talents.’ Three of the band members, singer Erik, bassist Keith, and keyboard synthist Bry, are also child prodigies, possessing ‘extraordinary talent’ at singing and music playing as children through inheritance from ancestors. Instead of throwing their given talents into classical music or opera singing where they could make good incomes, they instead choose rock stardom, as they could then acquire extravagant fame and especially fortune. And we all know the lifestyles of rock stars, right? Sex, drugs, and rock and roll…

Below is the parable from Luke 15 (copyright-free King James Version):

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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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