XXXVII

AND THERE WAS A WAR IN HEAVEN

(REVELATION 12:7)

SEVENIA SALLIE

“Pastor!” I heard myself bellow as Captain Kirk went to his knees and began to fall over. Quick as a lightning flash, Branch wrapped the Captain in a bear hug, keeping him upright. Adrenaline surged threw me, followed by dread. I had dreamt the previous night of the death of a loved one. I assumed it was prompted by the death of Jeremy. Yet the vague vison of a funeral was for a woman, or so I thought.

“Captain Crunchy!” I squealed again as I fell on my knees in front of him. I put my hands on his cheeks and looked into his pale blue eyes. I had never known such a person that seemed like they stepped right out of the Bible. When I was first getting to know him, I simply thought it was his long white beard reminding me of Moses. Pastor was faithful, bold, wise, and understanding, yet so kind and gentle. He hiccupped a sob and then chuckled a deep rumble that warmed my soul.

“Sorry about that, dear one,” he said sheepishly. “I beheld a painful memory that I had locked away in the old noodle for quite some time.”

“No, we’re sorry, Pastor,” I told him. “We just wanted to know the background, the inspiration for you writing your book. We didn’t mean to dredge up painful memories of your war experience.”

“You can let me go, young man,” Captain Kirk told Branch. He slowly, cautiously unwrapped his arms from the pastor, as if he might fall again. Captain rose to his feet and looked at Branch. “Thank you, my boy. You probably saved me from a knot on the old noggin. Or even worse.”

“No problem, sir,” Branch replied.

“Well,” the Pastor sighed. “About my book. My theories began with my war experience. I began to compare the earthly war I had lived and knew too well with the spiritual war in heaven that I couldn’t comprehend. But as I contemplated this war we are told about in Revelation chapter 12, I became keenly interested in this rebellion against God by a third of the angels and their leader. (Revelation 9:1, Jude 1:6, Luke 10:18, 2 Peter 2:4, Isaiah chapter 14 and Ezekiel chapter 28).”

“This led me to deeply ponder the why’s of our existence. Like why is a human born with a sinful nature? For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).”

“Why do people seem more concerned about their retirement plan or winning the lottery than eternal life? The love of money is the root of all evil (1Timothy 6:10).”

“Why do humans seem to pay more homage to sports stars, movie stars, rock stars, politicians, and royal families? Worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator (Romans 1:25).”

“It’s because we have freewill.” (John 7:17, Joshua 24:15, Galatians 5:13, 2 Peter 3:9, 1 Corinthians 10:13).

“And love is not possible without freewill,” Branch said. “God could have made automatons that obeyed Him, but that type of obedience wouldn’t be out of love. Yet the thing that makes love possible, also makes evil possible. Freewill.”

“Well put, Son,” Captain Kirk told him.

“I got it from your book, Sir,” Branch said with a half-smile and a shrug.

“Right,” Captain Kirk continued furrowing his bushy eyebrows. “So we live in a world where freewill has gone awry. For me, the biggest example of this world going awry was the war. The aftermath of my war experience caused me to briefly have my faith waver. But not in the sense that I backslid or rebelled against God, or so I thought. I admit that I fully rebelled against religion. But I became obsessed with the origin of sin. This led to me contemplate heavenly beings actually turning against God. We’re not talking fallen human beings like us. We’re talking heavenly angels that had been in the presence of almighty God.”

“This got me thinking deeply about freewill. Obviously if we mortals are free thinkers with the right to choose, how much more the angels, both fallen and unfallen. If we mortals have such complex minds, how much more spiritual beings.”

“So I developed this concept that there had to be rebellious angels that almost didn’t rebel. Yet they did not repent and were cast out. On the flip side, there had to be unfallen angels that were almost persuaded by Lucifer, yet repented and remained loyal to God.”

My phone blinged that I had text.

“What was that?” Captain Kirk asked.

“My dad wants to know where I am,” I told the pastor as I texted my dad that I was at the pastor’s house. “Sorry.”

“It’s alright,” Captain Kirk replied before he continued. “So, I wrote down my theories on the war in heaven. I speculated that what if we humans, who are more prone to disobedience and selfishness than obedience to God’s law, were once part of the rebellion? What if we were the ones on the fringes, riding the fence if you will, of who to follow? God or Lucifer. 

Somehow those scribbles became a manuscript that got published. And the most controversial part was when I insinuated humanity had been part of the rebellion. Oh boy did that make some people hot. But the thing is, throughout the book, I asked what if? I never once declared this is so until the end. And that’s when I stated, that whether I am right or wrong, we inhabitants of this world need a Savior.

Praise God we were given a Savior in His precious Son, Jesus Christ.  There’s so much scripture I could reference with the only cure for sin that I’ll just go to the most famous. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).”

“I still don’t get why you regret the book, oh Captain, my Captain,” I said, and he chuckled. “You have never struck me as the type to back down when you know you’re in the right.”

“That’s just it, Dear One,” he replied. “My book is mostly theories, not facts. Now that I’m older, and hopefully wiser, I should have spent my time sharing the gospel. The gospel is what brings salvation, not speculations about the war in heaven. That’s probably why there is so little information in the Good Book about it.”

“But what about Brock, and my dad, and now Branch?” I asked. “The book helped them to see the need of a Savior.”

It almost seemed like saying my dad caused me to receive another text from him. “Oh daddy.”

“Why oh daddy?” Captain Kirk asked.

“He said he’s coming over. He said he needs to talk to me right away. I knew he would become overprotective after I, um, after the ordeal the other day.”

“You should be grateful you have a father who loves you so much,” the pastor said with a smile.

“Oh, I do.”

“Sir,” Branch began cautiously. “I still don’t understand why you regret your book. I mean, sure most of it was speculating in depth about the origin of evil and all. But from where I have been at in the world, I really kind of needed to have the perspective it gave me. Until I got to know Sevenia, I was an agnostic that leaned toward atheist. The part of me that did believe in God, viewed Him probably like the angels that rebelled. You know, a stern being always looking to find fault. Between Sevenia, your church, and then your book, I see God for who he really is, love. Nothing epitomizes that more than Jesus’s life, death and resurrection.”

Captain Kirk bowed his head and nodded. “Thank you, son.”

“No, thank you, sir,” Branch replied. “I wish you were really my dad. Or my grandfather.”

Captain Kirk rumbled out a laugh. “Well my boy, you are soon to be baptized. The Mrs. And I  always considered the flock our children. We never actually had any of our own.”

“Captain Crunchy Bunch!” I declared as I rose to my feet and placed my hands on my hips. “And you said I didn’t need to be baptized? If anyone wants to be a grandchild of yours, it’s me.”

He waved his hands and shook his head. “No, no, dear one. Your getting concerned about semantics or something. You’re already my spiritual granddaughter, and my favorite.”

I couldn’t help laughing. One of the many things I loved about the pastor was how he often reminded me of a brilliant, kooky professor. Only his expertise was Biblical, spiritual matters rather than math or science.

But my laughter was about to make an abrupt stop. There was a knock at the door, and Captain Kirk let my father in. His eyes were blood shot. My first thought was wondering if he was hitting the bottle again after two years sober. Then he looked at me and his lower lip quivered, and I knew something was terribly wrong.

“Daddy, what is it?”

“Sweet Pea,” he croaked. “Your Aunt Charlie was killed in a car accident this afternoon.”