CHAPTER 10
The following months were filled with event after event. Headlines read, “Jesus Heals” or “Jesus Brings Peace” or “Jesus Meets World Leaders.” These were all things that had been in the news. Nothing I need to remind anyone of but there was one thing that had bothered me through the event. If Jesus was the Messiah, then his kingdom was supposed to be a religious one. Over those fast paced months, the clone met with many heads of state to discuss the world economic situation and social crises. As his world tour ended, a group of nations formulated a loose bond.
The bond tightened as time went on. The charter members numbered ten at first. Three nations: Spain, Portugal and France were tenuous as Jesus, his prophet and Bishop Russo applied pressure for a tighter coalition. The tensions in Eastern Europe were threatening to rip apart other unions of nations. The Middle East seethed as it had. The new coalition would have a special power, one greater than the rest. It would be the power of the Messiah.
Their unifying bond would be him. I read about miracles and prophecies done before these world leaders to convince them to join. He materialized food. He even walked on water. I tried to figure out how he could have done it. What was the trick? Or was it the real thing? If it was real, then where did the power come from?
Out of the original ten, the three were uncomfortable and chose to withdraw. It was a mistake. Massive movements of armed vehicles and soldiers pressed from all areas. Navies stood off the shores ready to fire at command. The American prophet predicted famine and pestilence over the three dissenting nations. And like all his prophecies, the famine followed a week in which the nations crops were bizarrely attacked by a fog of locust. With military presence around them and their crops eaten by hordes of locust, the three crumbled. It was inevitable. The withering citizens of three dissenters cried out for “peace and prosperity” to fall upon their once productive and rich lands. The presidents and leaders of the three eventually surrendered control to the Messiah and to his rule. The ten nations rose up in Europe like some kind of dragon from the sea.
I never thought when I sat in my lab trying to formulate the egg that this would be the result. I remembered a conversation with Beth after one of my incredibly long weekends of trial and error. We were laying in bed, my red eyes had already rolled back in my head and the lids had closed tight for the night. She startled me from my badly needed rest with a finger poke in the rib.
“Hey, are you asleep?”
“I was but not anymore,” I groaned back.
She rolled towards me and propped her head on her upstretched forearm and hand. Even through bleary and sleepy eyes, she looked great. “I was wondering, when you finally create your little Jesus egg and he grows up, what do you think he’ll do?”
I may have surprised her that I was so quick and lucid with an answer following just waking up. “You know, I’ve been thinking about that as I worked. I see him as able to answer some of the great religious questions that we all have. Like, why are there so many religions? And why do children have to suffer? And the most important, why do wives wake their husbands up to ask silly questions?”
“It wasn’t silly. I’ve been thinking about it. It’s actually troubled me a lot. How do we know that he won’t turn out bad?”
She had asked a good question. It was one I really hadn’t thought about and I admitted this, “Don’t know but if he’s Jesus he’ll be good.. He could turn out to be the Savior of the World. I think most people will look to him for religious answers. They’ll be curious to see what Jesus looked and talked like. I’m not sure that Russo or Thompson have thought it out either. Which surprises me because Father Russo figures out every possible angle before he makes a step.”
“Then he’s probably thought about that scenario, as well. Do you realize that the clone could turn out to be wicked?”
“Impossible, Beth. This is Jesus we’re talking about here,” I snapped back out of defense for my project.
“Matthew, you are only cloning a body. Just tissue.”
What she said struck a strong blow to my reality. There wasn’t any guarantee for what I was doing; none at all. I rolled over and pretended to sleep. I couldn’t though. Beth’s question gave me the thin edge of a doubt.
I don’t think that this particular scenario of Jesus as a world political and religious leader had ever crossed my mind. Not even that evening when I laid awake wondering. His power had grown far beyond what I imagined it would be. Jesus’ kingdom wasn’t of this earth but the clone’s kingdom had grown large and powerful on this globe.
He still had a few obstacles left. One of them sat in Rome in Peter’s chair. The ten kingdoms were linked by their religion but the head of that link wasn’t that sure of the veracity of the clone. The Pope refused to allow the church to enter into this bond with the ten nations. This was a grave mistake on his part.