XLI

THINK NOT THAT I CAME TO SEND PEACE ON EARTH: I CAME NOT TO BRING PEACE, BUT A SWORD

(Matthew 10:34)

SEVENIA SALLIE (GIRL PROPHETESS)

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow, Uncle Six. Bye,” I said into Salena’s phone and handed it to her.

“Hello again, Six,” she said with a girlish smile. Then she frowned and a look of disappointment appeared on her lovely face. “Six?”

“He hung up,” I told her with a wince. “He said he had a call coming in. He said to tell you he would call you in a couple days.”

“A couple days?” she spit with disgust. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged.

“Forgive me for eves dropping, but what did you mean by see you tomorrow Uncle Six?”

“He, ah, talked to my dad, and it sounds like he’s coming to stay with us for a while.”

“Really?” She asked as she leaned back in the lawn chair she was sitting in and scowled at me. I wasn’t used to seeing hostility in Salena. She was one of the sweetest, most patient people I had ever known. “Did he say why?”

“He said he needed to get away.”

“Is that what he talked to you so long about, a need to get away?”

“It wasn’t very long, five, maybe ten minutes,” I said with a shrug.

“Twelve and a half,” she said sternly. “So, why did you say I’d be glad to three times?”

I felt my toes curl, and I spoke quietly. “He wanted to know if I would study the Bible with him.”

“Is that right?” She drawled with a sarcastic edge in her voice. She got up and began to pace. “So, I guess my studies aren’t good enough anymore. I gave into temptation, played the whore, got pregnant by his lust, and now he wants to study with a know it all teenager. A misguided teenager.”

“What do you mean?” I replied meekly.

“You should know what I mean,” she barked as she placed her hands abruptly on her hips. “I’ve tried to warn you with out offending you numerous times, but I couldn’t seem to get through your teenage, know-it-all skull.”

I felt numb with bewilderment, and the sting from her harsh reproach. I didn’t even understand the nature of her rebuke. What did I do? My heathen uncle wanted to study the Holy Bible with me. Wasn’t that a good thing? And where did sweet, loving Salena go? Who was this woman that looked like her? Cautiously and humbly, I asked. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Warning me about what?”

“That church you go to with all of its false doctrines.”

“False doctrines at Cotton Creek Cove?” I asked with a puzzled frown. “In the two years I’ve been there, I’ve been blown away by how much Bible truth I’ve learned. I’ve never seen a person quote more scripture than Pastor Samson. What are you talking about, false doctrines?”

“Where do I start?” she snorted. “How about your misguided teaching that there’s no hell to shun and heaven to win through the grace of Jesus Christ?”

“You know full well I believe in saved by the grace of Jesus Christ,” I said boldly. “His redeeming power is everything to me.”

“Hellfire is Biblical. Do you or do you not believe there is no hell?” she asked angrily.

“Hell as a place, no, absolutely not. Hell as an event, yes. Just as the earth was destroyed by a flood during the antediluvian world, the earth will be destroyed by fire at the end of time. Then God will create a new heaven and a new earth. And when God does He will wipe away all tears. And there will be no more pain or sorrow.” (Revelation 21:1 and 4)

“Jesus himself calls it everlasting fire in Matthew chapter 25,” Salena said heatedly. No pun intended. “In the last verse he calls it everlasting punishment.”

“Right, punishment, not punishing,” I replied softly.

“What about the everlasting part?”

“Yes, the results of the punishment will be everlasting, but not the fire itself. Revelation 20:14 says death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second DEATH. 21:8 similarly says the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second DEATH.”

Salena pursed her lips and then abruptly changed the Biblical subject. “What about the sabbath?”

“Huh?” I replied, taken off guard.

“You good folks at Cotton Creek Cove keep the Jewish sabbath, instead of the Christian sabbath.”

I couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or genuine by calling us good folks. I no longer recognized the hostile person I was talking to. Maybe pregnancy was messing with her hormones. Or maybe she was now an alcoholic. I hoped she wasn’t still drinking, especially for the baby’s sake. I could tell asking her would go over like a lead balloon. So I let her control the conversation, and with God’s help, I patiently replied.

“We do keep the Biblical sabbath,” I said calmly. “From sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, we reverence God’s Holy day as instituted from creation. Recorded in stone with God’s own finger in the ten commandments.”

She shook her head and grinned. Again, I couldn’t tell if the smile was genuine or malicious. “Christian tradition reverences Sunday. It’s in honor of the resurrection.”

“But Salena,” I said sweetly and gave her a genuine smile. I absolutely loved the woman, and feeling like we were at odds with each other’s hurt. “It’s simply not Biblical. If God’s law were changed, there would be plenty of scripture backing it up.”

“It’s part of the new covenant,” she replied.

“But the earliest Christians kept what you refer to as the Jewish sabbath. Sunday keeping didn’t begin until the fourth century when Constantine supposedly converted to Christianity. That’s when paganism merged many of its concepts with the main body of Christianity. The biggest change stemmed from sun worship, the venerable day of the sun, which we today call Sunday.”

“What difference does a day make?” she asked with a big sigh.

“Looking at it superficial, I understand your thinking,” I said. “But it’s very important to understand its significance. God instituted it as a sign of his Creatorship. The official church long ago changed it, and established it as a sign of her authority. It’s going to play a role in end time prophecy.”

She snorted and shook her head. “You’re simply misguided. You’re dishonoring Christ’s resurrection by dissing Sunday keeping.”

“Jesus Himself rested in the grave on the sabbath,” I replied. “The two Mary’s even waited until the sabbath was over before they went to the sepulcher. It even says in the first verse of Matthew 28: In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week. Also, if it was changed, why did Jesus expect his followers to still be keeping it when he prophesied of Jerusalem being destroyed? The destruction of which happened in A.D. 70.”

“What do you mean?” she frowned.

“In Matthew 24:20, Jesus said to pray that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath. This prophecy actually happened decades after he spoke the words. In the last days, the ten commandment law of God will be at stake. Also, just an FYI, Six wanted me to study prophecy with him.”

“I already have,” she replied incredulous. “And hoped to continue.”

“I know, he told me you studied the rapture,” I replied cautiously as my toes would not uncurl, but even tightened. “He told me he tried to look for himself and he said he couldn’t find the term rapture in the Bible. I told him it was a false theory, and it was no mistake he didn’t find it.”

“You traitor!” She barked, and my eyes and mouth both opened wide in surprise.

“What do you mean?” I replied meekly.

“I mean you came to our church for a few years,” she said angrily. “You know full well what we taught and you embraced it. You were baptized into our faith! You and Anna solidified not only a tight friendship, but a sisterhood in your Christian faith together. Now your going to deny it?”

“Of course not!” I replied emphatically. “First of all, I think of Anna every day. But truth is progressive. The church I was born into was sort of like a prosperity gospel church, and people not only stagnated spiritually, they praised God for their wealth and selfishness. They glorified preachers that made millions, lived in mansions, and flew on private jets. Yet the God they claimed to worship was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Jesus was also homeless and had nowhere to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:20)

“This is the opposite of the primitive Godliness concept my current church adheres to, but at least my birth church got me rolling on Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Then I saw that your church took the gospel I read more serious. Yet your church still stagnated on tradition and legalism.”

“You’re seventeen years old and you think you know better than hundreds of years of thousands, even millions, of Godly peoples’ tradition?”

“No, of course not,” I said sadly, as I tried to refrain from crying. “I’m trying to follow Jesus to the fullest. Bringing every thought to the obedience of Christ, and not ceasing to pray. But how do you not know what Jesus said about tradition? In Matthew 15:9 He said: In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”

“I’m done here,” Salena said as she gathered her things and began to walk briskly to her car. “I don’t need a teenage girl treating me disrespectful and like a child. I’m pretty sure I’ve been around the block a few more times than you, honey.”

“Salena, I’m sorry that you’re offended,” I cried after her, as I arose and feebly chased after her. She stopped and bowed her head. I began to weep, and croaked. “I love you, please don’t go away mad.”

She turned and we hugged, both of us crying and confused.

“I accept your apology,” she said.

“Just to be clear, I’m not sorry for my position,” I told her. “Just that it caused strife between us. I love you”

“You’re not sorry, you’re impossible,” she spit, not returning the sentiment of love. Then she turned abruptly, climbed in her car, and slammed the door.

As tears streamed down my face, I watched Salena drive off. The mother of my childhood best friend. I feel to my knees, pleading with God, asking Him if I did anything wrong.

 Did I lose her as a beloved mother figure?