An eleventh Commandment arises, the only one surviving after the original tablets are discovered, but damaged.
Of all of the Commandments, it stood alone as the only one all of God’s children did not so much live by, as died by...
The tablets emerged before the eyes of the world during an autumn in the
Mediterranean, housed not within a sacred Ark discovered by learned or pious eyes, but behind a false wall upon a crudely carved shallow ledge exposed by workmen expanding a sewer line. The remarkable stones, roughly a foot and half in length and half again as wide, met modern light when one man’s jackhammer slipped from his grip as it broke through what was supposedly solid earth, into the dank midst of
some ancient, long-forgotten tunnel system. In the mishap, it was the soon to be controversial third tablet which took the most damage.
Translations revealed the tablets to be, or perhaps just very old facsimiles of, the original Commandments presented to Moses by Iaweh. The difficulty lay in that instead of two tablets containing five Commandments each, the mysterious third tablet appeared to continue the list--how far, no one would ever know, for despite the extra cautious handling of the find, a number of pieces of crucial evidence managed to vanish before official studies could be done, presumably put up for bid for the benefit of any number of uber-wealthy anonymous collectors.
The news spread before the press was able to officially break it. The hopeful
declared authenticity and speculated over the newer rules long before scientific dating or translation of the tablets had commenced. Entire religious communities leaned strongly in favor of immediate and unconditional acceptance, and the Vatican showed interest in the stones well before any of the lost inscriptions could be puzzled together and revealed.
The day the Vatican received a copy of the only salvageable inscription, a single alleged eleventh Commandment, the Pope, alone in his chambers, read the incomplete message first to himself once, then twice, then allowed himself to smile.
The few words were delivered to a massive audience in over twenty different languages by one man. The masses pondered what they’d heard until the few who thought they were able to recognize the Pope’s inner love for mankind as something warm and palpable turned to enlighten their immediate neighbors so that shortly, everyone knew.
The media, with sharp claws of doubt, asked, “Was the message complete?” The
question of authenticity was trampled and long forgotten. For now the world
reeled with the implications of what had been accepted seemingly overnight as
God’s latest word.
Questions of morality arose. “How can we ever endure another war?” was countered with, “But what of the Crusades?” “They didn’t know back then. They only had the original ten. Things should have been settled differently...” But for bloody battles and fallen soldiers past, it was far too late. “There cannot be crime, for it
spreads sorrow,” was followed by outrageous demands that the incarcerated
worldwide be instantly freed in accordance with God’s wishes, for no one should be made to exist in humility. Thankfully, such actions were averted by a sage few in positions of authority who pointed out that a boon of luxuries could instead ease
prisoners’ despair, and this idea went over quite well with those held captive on every continent. What of the discipline of children--and did the new Commandment apply to the treatment of animals, too? Should vegetarianism be enforced to save the needless containment and slaughter of dumb beasts? Did minimum wage go against God’s wishes? Obnoxious late-night info-mercials? Surely He meant no one should pay taxes, to go homeless or without food. Medical care must obviously be
free, and certainly a lengthy wait for a physician in a small room with outdated magazines broke that critical new Eleventh Commandment. No one should be required to work, and children--so they themselves claimed--should not be forced to attend school. The number of court cases initially increased dramatically as people filed grievance suits based on the mildest of discomforts until the very idea of court itself was eventually attacked--outrageous lawyer’s fees, the absurd
length of some cases, juror’s inconvenience and boredom. Was overly loud music thumping from passing automobiles offensive to God? Second-hand smoke? Fast food meals you tasted again five hours later? The various interpretations grew ever more ridiculous. It seemed the Commandment itself was causing that which it
seemed to forbid.
Riots ensued. Violence flourished. The ineffectiveness of an increasingly
disgruntled and outnumbered police force was supplemented in vain by small
military groups comprised of a steadily dwindling few patriotic and upstanding
soldiers sadly ill-equipped against the apathetic masses. As economies,
governments, and entire civilizations fell to petty squabbling, the population
remained stubbornly blind to the fact that the gross lack of order they themselves had created was causing them all to behave contrary to the incomplete 11th Commandment’s rule. Women worldwide sought to gain the upper hand, believing themselves better equipped to lead beneath the guidance of the Lord’s new law, but were smothered in their efforts by ruthlessly brutal and cunning men. The
Children’s Rebellion did not last an entire day. The elderly lacked might, but a few racial minorities made stands that were met with either hollow victories or bloody defeats. It was time, thought some, for the meek to inherit, but others instead believed that salvation could be achieved solely through the Second Purgation--a
final cleansing and renewal through prophesized fire.
In a world where many had believed God dead or claimed to represent a religion
they seldom, if ever practiced let alone truly understood, everyone excused their behavior as God’s own bidding, and each was indeed affected by His word in the end. Those who were able to resist temptation like Christ received the absolute fulfillment of the Eleventh Commandment alongside their savage and self-deluded brethren. Whether ‘twas accident or intentional, no one is left to say. Nor remain any who might’ve labeled the whole thing a final act of God. The Earth is a quieter, more peaceful place where emerald algas bloom undisturbed in standing clear pools where foundations lay exposed, where thick velvet mosses spill like a beautiful woman’s hair over broken white concrete shoulders and charred remains, where the rare song of the rare bird breaks far and undiluted across now empty landscapes, and the scarred world waits for whomever may next crawl from the bracken slime to claw their way painfully back to the very top of the food chain...
Does God remain when man does not?
Maybe not, maybe so, but the broken stone tablets remain, waiting for the next intelligent eyes to behold and decode their common-sense messages which end cryptically and not quite satisfyingly with,
The Christian Church faces many challenges today that threaten to disrupt its life and mission. This book appraises the trinitarian ecclesiology of John Zizioulas and Jurgen Moltmann and proposes that the Church is a creation of the Holy Trinity thr
Finally! Understand and learn from the New Testament Book of James.
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