BLACK SABBATH

PROLOUGE

LIEUTENANT LOUIS LEWIS

SOME TIME IN THE FUTURE

BLESSED IS HE WHO READS AND THOSE WHO HEAR THE WORDS OF THIS PROPHECY, AND KEEP THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE WRITTEN IN IT; FOR THE TIME IS NEAR (Revelation 1:3)

            I hated Seven Sallie when I arrested him his first time. Hauling him in was right up there with the most enjoyable moment I had ever had cuffing and stuffing someone. The temptation for brutality was strong. Yet during almost twenty years on the police force, the closest I had ever come to excessive force was simply a head shove into the backseat of a patrol car.

            Why did I hate him? We had opposing religious views; it was as simple as that. Oh yeah, I also thought he was arrogant. He also broke the law, and I was a law enforcer. Why was he arrested? The official charge was inciting people to violate the Sunday ordinance via his podcast. The reality? He was encouraging people to obey God rather than men. I just didn’t see it at the time.

            I felt like my dislike for Seven and people like him was righteous indignation. It turned out that it was unrighteous hostility. The second time he was arrested, I refused to take part and was put on administrative leave. The third time he was arrested, I was arrested alongside him, losing my job in the process. The Sunday ordinance had become a law. Worship on Sunday was now mandatory. There were those pushing for the death penalty.

            Sentenced to death for keeping the Biblical Sabbath instead of Sunday? You might be asking this question and find the concept outrageous. I was a skeptic myself until I witnessed the whole thing transpire. The once despised Seven Sallie became something like a Bible hero for me. But rather than one of the characters or writers from sacred scripture, he was a teacher, an expounder of Bible truths that were hidden in plain sight.

            So how did he become one of my favorite people on the planet? It sure didn’t happen overnight. But the first changing of direction came when I discovered, after arresting him, that his wife was my estranged cousin. In fact, it was because of her that I ended up with my first name being Louis, while my last name is Lewis. But it wasn’t her fault.

            She is three months older than me, and my mother thought it was cute when her parents, whose last name was LaStella, named their baby girl Zella. Uereka! Why don’t we name our baby boy Louis? They did this not realizing how many times I would have to hear my name sung throughout my life. You probably guessed the song, ‘Louie, Louie.’

            As a teenager, my cousin Zella LaStella became the black sheep of our rather conservative, pious family. She hooked up with a cocaine snorting, pot smoking, wanta be rapper. They went to the west coast. He planned on being a rock star, and she planned on being a super model.

            Zella was and still is beautiful. With her flawless ebony complexion, high cheek bones, and sultry dark eyes, she had the qualifications for gracing the cover of fashion magazines. Instead she ended up naked on the pages of men’s magazines and the screens of websites.

            Her wanta be rapper boyfriend ended up a bust, and an abuser. After snorting and smoking away all his money, he wanted to pimp her out. Fortunately she was able to escape his clutches with the help of her friend Willa Waconia, a fellow erotic model. The pair of pals fled back to the Midwest and bought a house together.

            But Zella still didn’t get into good graces with the family just yet. Although she opened a health store in the large Victorian house, it was a well-known secret on the police force that the store also worked as a front for Willa to operate a form of prostitution in the basement. Ironic since Zella had escaped from a man who had tried to make her a lady of the evening.

            But Willa was careful and smart, and we were never able to get enough on her to make a raid. She catered to men of means who were into being put into submission. That’s all I will say, as we are trying to be family friendly.

            But Willa met a fine young man named Billy Bob Booker. He was on his way to Godly living and brought her along with. Also ironic, they met through her occupation as a hooker. But just to be clear, he wanted her to accompany him to a wedding, nothing sexual involved other than her being his arm candy.

            Long story short, she closed up shop and became a Christian convert. She and Billy eventually became a couple. Through this association, my cousin Zella met Seven Sallie. Although I was delighted to find out she had turned her life around, I was disappointed it was through, what I thought back then, was fanatical religious extremists.

            I didn’t understand what Zella saw in Seven, other than he looked like he could be brother to George Clooney. But what some saw as charming, I found to be smarmy. His declaration as truth, I believed to be error. When he was arrested, some found him to be stoic. Whereas I thought him to be grandstanding.

            The day after I took part in his arrest, I paid a visit to my cousin Zella. After a half hearted apology for arresting her husband, she reluctantly forgave me. After declaring I was just doing my job, she replied that many Nazi’s felt that way also. It irritated me to be sure. But in hindsight, point well taken.

            Then she did something that was the beginning of my turn around. She presented me with a Bible and asked me to show her where they were in error. Although I attended church weekly, I rarely cracked the Bible. I snorted. “Do I look like a preacher?”

            She smirked. “Do I?”

            Then she pulled a piece of paper from her Bible and rattled off a dozen scriptures dealing with the Sabbath. The one that really hit home the most was the last one she read from Isaiah 66:23. It infers that the Sabbath will be kept in heaven.

            “So why?” she asked patiently. “Would we keep Sunday, as you say, in honor of the resurrection? Then once in heaven go back to the Sabbath God instituted at Creation? I believe we get baptized in honor of the resurrection.”

            I didn’t have an answer and felt like a dog with its tail between his legs. But I was incensed. I went home and dusted off my Bible and concordance. I set out to prove her wrong. Instead I began to find way more proof that she was right.

            Over the next several months, I began to search the scriptures daily, like the noble Bereans (Acts 17:11). Usually I studied for a half hour to forty-five minutes. Sometimes more than an hour. I also began to pray with more frequency.

            I finally got to the point where I conceded that Zella, Seven Sallie and his cohorts were right. I finally admitted to myself that I had been believing for doctrines, the commandments of men (Matthew 15:9).

            God woke me up just in time! The world turned to utter chaos shortly thereafter. There was war all around the world. There were false revivals, false prophets, Satan himself appeared as an angel of light. (See 2 Corinthians 11:13-15)

            But there was also the latter rain, a pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the people who followed Jesus. This was followed, as it were, by a loud cry. Many heard the message of truth! Thousands were converted in a day!

            This was followed by a little time of trouble. The faithful were threatened with death. Then this little time of trouble escalated to the great time of trouble. There was tribulation like the world had never seen (Matthew 24:21)

            There was a death decree. Many of God’s people, Seven Sallie and myself included, were put on death row. God helped us escape! The seven last plagues fell. But those of us that kept the commandments of God and had the faith of Jesus (Revelation 14:12) were protected from them.

            On a night appointed for slaughter, deliverance came at midnight!