LXIV

COME NOW, AND LET US REASON TOGETHER

ISAIAH 1:18

DESTINY KNIGHT-STORM

It had been ten days since Salena had given birth to a healthy baby boy. Seven had never seemed to recover from being up all night when she was in labor. His dark brown hair, which was typically a stylishly gelled tangle, was now just a tangle. His usually clean shaven face was unshaven with a surprisingly generous amount of salt sprinkled in. Normally, Seven looked ten years younger than his mid-thirties. He now looked ten years older.

However the most unsettling change was his demeanor. Seven was typically a motor mouth with strong opinions. The three times I saw him over the last week and a half, he was subdued, quiet, and  even melancholy. Yet he smiled frequently, albeit with a sad, resigned quality to it. When he agreed without protest to a change I wanted to make with the direction of the interviews I conducted, I had to check with him three times just to be sure we understood each other. He had come over to Brock’s and my house to discuss who I would interview next. I made us each a cup of relaxed mind herbal tea as we prepared to dialogue.

“Seven,” I had said. “These love triangle type stories are too much. You know, you’ve also received plenty of special, simple, sweet stories of unexpected romance without the mess.”

He had just stared at me wordless and trance like. It was creepy. Knowing Seven, I was sure of getting a ‘yeah but.’ Yet none of that was forthcoming. Just this weird blank stare.

“I know you think the messy ones are more tantalizing,” I continued. “I admit, the betrayals coupled with astounding examples of love and forgiveness are intriguing. But there are heartwarming stories of pure love and couples not only coming together in romantic love, but a shared love of Christ.”

“You’re right,” he simply replied so quietly I asked him to repeat.

“You’re right,” he responded only slightly louder.

“So you like the idea?”

“I do,” he replied, nodding. “Like you said, maybe messy stories are okay once in a while. I mean the redemptive quality to the triangles are nice, but the betrayal part that comes first can be quite depressing.”

This made me wonder what was going on with Seven’s own triangles. I didn’t want to ask, but it seemed to have shifted. First it was Seven, Salena, and Zella. Now Zella was rapidly vanishing from the picture, and Seven’s twin brother Six had re-entered it. Six was the biological father of Salena’s baby, but he had petitioned Seven to step up to the plate and raise the child. However, he was still back from Florida, and by all appearances, looked to be staying put. I had to ask.

“Seven, it’s none of my business, but is everything okay between you, Salena, and your brother?”

“You’re right, it is none of your business,” he replied so coldly, I gasped and a hand reflectively went to my chest.

“I’m so sorry, Seven,” I said quickly. As I began to hastily rise from my chair, Seven grabbed my hand and pulled me back to my seat.

“No, I’m sorry, Dee,” he said with a quiver in his voice, and then put his face in his hands and groaned. “It’s just been so complicated and frustrating. Three days ago, Six had said he was going back to Florida at the end of the week. Two days ago Salena and I actually discussed getting married in two or three months. I detected her heart wasn’t all in, but chocked it up to me fighting off feelings of jealousy.

“Then yesterday, Salena was nursing the baby in her recliner. Six was sitting on one of the arm rests rubbing Salena’s upper back. Whatever they were saying to each other was making them both smile. Then Six kissed Salena on top of her head. She then gazed up at him affectionately and they kissed on the lips. Not a lingering kiss, but nonetheless, full on lip to lip. Then Six got up, spotted me watching them, and his face fell.”

Seven became still and silent.

“Did you guys say anything to each other?” I asked.

“Well,” Seven said with a sigh. “I turned and walked away. Six followed me and retold me he was going back to Florida.”

“What did you say?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

I frowned. Hearing something like Seven not saying anything didn’t seem to go together. It was something like oil in water. There was a long moment of awkward silence when a knock at the door made me jump.

“Zella, hi!” I greeted. “Come in, come in.”

When I looked at Seven, he had stood with a startled expression on his face.

“Hi, Zella,” he said.

“Hello, Sebastian,” Zella replied sarcastically, using his first name, rather than the middle name he went by.

“Listen, Dee,” Seven said. “I better get going. Just let me know who you want to interview, and I’ll contact them. Good to see you, Zella.”

Seven’s eyes ran up and down the length of Zella’s tall, lean frame. Her outfit was very seasonal for December. A green and red plaid, knee length skirt. Red sweater, green tights, brown boots, and a plaid beret that matched her skirt.

“Seven, please don’t go,” Zella said touching his arm and smiling sweetly at him. It was kind of odd because it had been quite obvious over the past several weeks that Zella was avoiding Seven. “I was going to come see you after I talked with Dee anyway.”

“You were?” he replied dumbly.

“Yeah,” she nodded. Her large dark brown eyes wide and expressive. The beret made her seem extra cute. “I went to the doctor yesterday.”

I felt myself stiffen, and Seven’s face seemed to freeze. Zella looked at her feet, gave a little kick with a foot, and then hugged herself.

“Sweetie, what is it?” I asked as I gently rubbed her back. “I think we both want to know.”

She looked at me with a frightened expression, bit her lower lip, and then a hesitant smile spread across her face, her ebony check bones pronounced like a super models. “I’m pregnant.”

I heard a thump and noticed Seven had sat down hard onto his chair, a stunned gaze trained on Zella.

“Who’s the father?” Seven asked, panting a little.

Zella put her hands on her hips and gazed at him sternly. “I’m lookin at him, fool.”

I couldn’t help chuckling.

Seven gave one snort of a laugh and asked. “Are you sure?”

“One hundred percent,” she replied. Her hands still defiantly on her hips. “You’re the only man I’ve even kissed in the last half decade.”

“I think more than a kiss had to happen to result in your condition,” I blurted, regretted saying it and then bit my thumb with an embarrassed smirk.

Zella gazed at me under her brows as if to say, “Oh please girlfriend.”

Seven gazed at Zella’s midsection with a gaped mouth. If she were showing, you couldn’t tell due to her sweater.

“Look, Seven,” Zella said calmly. “I don’t expect anything from you. I just thought you had a right to know you were going to be a father. That Sevenia is going to have a sibling.”

“This could be an answer to my anguished prayers,” Seven said, seemingly to himself. Zella and I glanced at each other and then looked at Seven. He suddenly grinned from ear to ear and bolted to his feet, grasped Zella’s hands, and declared. “Zella, I’m in love with you. Let’s get married.”

Zella yanked her hands from Seven’s and scowled at him. “Um, last time I checked, you intended to marry Salena.”

“I know but that just doesn’t feel right,” Seven said shaking his head. “I think she and I have been doing it out of some misguided loyalty, or somehow trying to rekindle what we had when we were kids. I don’t know. But I do know this. You and I are going to have a child, part me and part you. I need to be with you. I choose you.”

“Oh, lucky me,” Zella snorted. “The guy I’m in love with has been trying to decide over me and another woman. Now for the time being he chooses me.”

“You’re in love with me?” Seven asked in awe, not seeming to pick up on her sarcasm about him deciding between her and another woman.

“Duh,” Zella replied with her hands still on her hips and a pained expression on her lovely face. “What do you think caused me to behave so desperately when I seduced you? Do you honestly think I would do something so utterly foolish, especially sneaking you alcohol, if I didn’t have very strong feelings for you?”

“You know,” Seven said, scratching his head. “I spent so much time feeling guilty for fornicating, hurting Salena, and feeling I betrayed by you, I never saw what a flattering, backdoor compliment your seduction of me was.”

“Gee, thanks,” Zella snorted.

“So what do you say, will you marry me?” Seven asked sweetly, grasping her hands again.”

“No, Seven!” she replied heatedly as she yanked her hands away from his again.

“What, why?” he responded with a baffled expression. “You can call me Sebastian if you prefer.”

“Right now I’m focused on my spiritual rebirth, and getting baptized by either Dee or your daughter. You on the other hand; need to work on your situation with Salena. If in the end you find yourself completely unattached, I will consider with much prayer your lame proposal.”

“Lame?” Seven asked with hurt puppy dog eyes. He glanced at me and I bit my cheek to suppress a giggle.

“Yes, lame,” Zella continued and then did a goofy imitation of Seven. “Oh, hey, will you marry me? You blurt this in Dee’s kitchen as Dee looks on. No offense, Dee.”

“None taken,” I replied as I chuckled.

“I look at it as a spontaneous declaration of love. Something that I just couldn’t keep inside. It just burst forth from my vocals cords like an arrow from cupid’s bow.” Seven seemed to sing.

“Oh, please,” Zella said, but I could tell she was suppressing a grin.

“Look, I need to get this thing moving,” Seven said as he grabbed his coat, and then looked earnestly at Zella. “It’s all become clear to me. Six needs to be with Salena, and I need to be with you, Zella. I’ll be the most devoted husband and father you can imagine.”

Zella and I watched him dash through the door. I rotated my eyes toward Zella. She sucked on her lower lip and a tear rolled down her cheek. Then she spoke so quietly, I barely heard her. “Oh, I’ve really done it, Dee.”

“What do you mean?”

“When I did that atrocious thing a few months ago, my real hope wasn’t to necessarily snag Seven away from Salena. I just wanted his baby. I wanted my own Sevenia. After my last awful relationship, I vowed to never be involved with a man again. But over the last couple years, I’ve been longing more and more for a child. Especially after watching my dear friend Willa with her two adorable kids. Also Amy and Dirk with theirs.”

“Are you saying you’re not going to marry Seven?” I inquired.

“I can’t, I made a promise to myself,” she said wiping at a tear. “But tell me something, Dee. Why did I tell him I might consider it? Why didn’t I stop him just now?”

I opened my mouth, closed it, smiled sympathetically, and shrugged.

(Destiny Knight-Storm’s story is told in the e-book ‘Knight Storm’ by Johnathan Embers. Zella has a small role in her friend Willa’s story told in the e-book ‘Billy Bob Booker and the Hooker’ by Johnathan Embers.)

DESTINY KNIGHT STORM”S NOTES FROM SEVENIA’S 8^th LESSON

WHY TO BE SKEPTICAL OF THE CHURCH

According to Bible prophecy, religion will be largely fallen in the last days.

Numerous Biblical passages anticipate the church’s departure from God and the truth.

Now the spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. (1 Timothy 4:1).

Many of the warnings of Jesus and the New Testament writers are based on Daniel’s prophecies.

Jesus admonished in Matthew chapter 24 to understand the book of Daniel.

The Apostle Paul warned of a widespread departure from the faith. (See Acts 20:27-31 and 2 Thessalonians 1-12)

The essence of deception is that you are unaware that you are being deceived.

Jesus warns of religious deception. (Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Matthew 7:15).

THREE CRUCIAL DATES IN CHURCH HISTORY

Resurrection/Pentecost A.D. 31

Constantine’s conversion October 28, 321

Martin Luther’s protest October 31, 1521

Whatever Constantine’s motives for adopting the Christian faith, the result was a decline in Christian commitment. The stalwart believers who Diocletian killed were replaced by a mixed multitude of half converted pagans. The Christian movement started the fourth century as a persecuted minority; it ended the century as the established religion of the empire.

The advantages for the church were real enough, but there was a price to pay. Constantine ruled Christian Bishops as he did his civil servants and demanded unconditional obedience to official pronouncements, even when they interfered with purely church matters. There were also the masses who now streamed into the officially favored  church.

Prior to Constantine’s conversion, the church consisted of convinced believers. Now many came who were politically ambitious, religiously disinterested, and still half rooted in paganism.

This threatened to produce not only shallowness and permeation by pagan superstitions, but also secularization and misuse of religion for political purposes. (Bruce Shelley)

The church had survived adversity, but could it survive popularity?

Christianity grew mostly to the north and west in the early centuries.

Christian centers of influence

1.Jerusalem/Antioch 2.Alexandreia 3.Rome 4.Constantinople

In A.D. 330 Constantine moved the seat of the empire to Byzantium/Constantinople.

Roman Supremacy

1.The use of Matthew 16:17-19 2.Apostolic succession 3.Martrdom of Peter and Paul 4.Population of Rome 5.Imperial capital 6.Latin language 7.Location 8.Missionary outreach 9.Barbarian invasions 10.Muslim conquests 11.Leadership of Leo 1 and Gregory 1 12.Justinian’s code and the “plucking up.”

After the fall of western Rome in 476A.D. the most powerful binding force was religion, of the Roman Christian variety.

Constantine bestowed on the successor of Peter power, and dignity, and vigor , and honor imperial and supremacy as well as over the four seas, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Constantinople, as also over all the churches of God in the whole earth. (The Donation of Constantine)

The noon of the medieval church was the midnight of the whole world (JA Wylie)

Unam Sanctum November 18, 1302

It is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman pontiff. Therefore, of the one and only church there is one body and one head, not two heads like a monster. (Bontifus the VIII)

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. (Lord Acton)

Every element foretold in Daniel’s prophecies came to pass in the church during these dark times.

The Eve Of Reform

A mass—the medieval church

A message—Sola scriptures (scriptures alone)

A man—Martin Luther

A means—The printing press

In 1521 Luther stood for trial before the king.

“Since your most serene majesty and your high mightiness require from me a clear, simple, and precise answer, I will give you one, and it is this. I cannot submit my faith to the pope or to the councils because it is clear as the day that they have frequently erred and contradicted each other.

Unless I ‘am convinced by the testimony of scripture or by the clearest reasoning, unless I ‘am persuaded by means of the passages I have quoted and unless they thus render my conscience bound by the word of God, I cannot and will not retract, for it is unsafe for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand, I can do no other; may God help me.

The book of Revelation foretells of the rise of something like the medieval church.

You can be driven by a frightening God, but you can only be drawn by a desirable God.

Oh taste and see that the Lord is Good. Blessed is the person that trusts in Him. (Psalm 34:8)