Chapter 12: Imitation of Christ

RENA

You see, the feminists, Muslims, Jews, and Gnostics are technically right about Jesus. But these are half-truths spread by the demons. Feminists think Jesus was a woman. Gnostics think that Jesus was a supernatural being rather than fully human (and fully God). Jews think he was a sorcerer and had five disciples (rather than twelve). The Muslims say that Jesus didn't really die on the cross, but Judas died in his place. This is a half-truth, because the second time, someone did die in his place. Me. Jesus died once for all, but humanity needed to remember that. But the crufixion did happen, it just happened in Pangaea, when humans were still struggling not to murder each other. Back then, technology was far more advanced than all that, but we had a long road ahead of us before we behaved decently to each other. The world religions were a system created to teach morals over time. But unfortunately, some time after these morals were taught, they were used as a system to punish people. You stole from someone? Off with their hand! Adultery? Stoned to death. And then there were all the sacrifices. No amount of morality could really solve the underlying issue that people were fully capable of sacrificing each other. And then things came to a head and Jesus died on the cross thousands of years before he was technically supposed to. But he did in fact die fall sins. And he said and did most of the things mentioned in the Bible. It's just... the Bible is a reprint of much earlier writings. The demons had managed to stamp out belief in God and gods, or corrupt it. So we just revived it.

What, you don't believe me? Well, Baal, Ishtar, and Tammuz are a corruption of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit into a "holy family" (this should sound familiar if you've studied Catholicism) which further devolved over thousands of years into worship of false gods who literally demanded human sacrifice. These were how demons took the existing ancient teachings of the Savior and corrupted them. It's not the first example either. Ancient Egypt had Osiris, Isis, and Horus. This story even included a resurrection story. Norse religion had Odin, Freya, and Thor. Not all of these were a married family, but all were a leader deity, love deity, and son deity, instead of one God with three aspects.

All of this was due to centuries of literal demonic takeover. Unlike the Christians of today, we have no Revelation teaching. Jesus has come again, and can talk to any of us at any time we wish. He also said in no uncertain terms that he came to save the world not to condemn it, it direct opposition to the teachings of Revelation. This "scripture" was a corruption while the demons were in power.

Having seen all of this play out, the five of us traveled the world spreading religious teachings to help humans spiritually evolve. This was also an important for other reasons. Demons don't like spiritual energy, so this would weaken their hold on the Earth. Humans without faith turn to materialism and tend to destroy each other over petty things like land or money. We also were looking for someone whose power was like a LED lantern among birthday candles. It would greatly help us if his gifts were nurtured in a place where religion was able to be taught.

So Arboria taught Taoism and agriculture. Autumntwig taught the Vedic scriptures and mythological history (notice I didn't say history, most history had become corrupted by Belial). Aellisa taught Shintoism and various types of crafting (particularly jewelry and metallurgy, woodworking, and stonemasonry). Marina got people to shave their heads for Buddhism and taught medicine. And I? Well, as you can guess from my talking, I taught people about Judaism and Christianity. I taught people how to cook, as I loved to bake and make cheese. You have to remember, all this heavy moralism was not the original teaching of each of these religions. Nor was all their violence. While demons were in charge, there was no dancing, no music, and no art. All that existed was war and slavery, and large amounts of sacrifice. So they did their best to corrupt these. Unfortunately, even my attempt wasn't enough.

Each of us staged the story behind the religion, often acting out the premise. For example, Arboria went to China and then fled the country, teaching Taoism to the border guard. Only, with me, it required quite a lot of planning. I had hoped to use illusions and have help from my friends. But the Romans and the Jews actually did hate Jesus's message. The Romans had religion that was built from Babylonian myth, so they were related to the cult of Baal. The Jews rejected Baal, yes, but also anything that sounded like it was opposed to the rut that Judaism was now stuck in. Which basically meant that no trickery was needed for them to kill Jesus. I mean, to kill me.

I knew history to know that it would play out this way. The real Jesus handled healings and exorcisms. The thing the Bible doesn't tell is that I was actually almost hopeless with exorcism. I can use a few prayers, but most of my power is innate. A burning bush? Easy illusion and flame trick. Driving demons from other people? That bit about followers of Christianity doing greater things than me was true. As humans have no innate powers, prayers are far easier for them. Although I was able to walk on water. What this meant of course, that even had I wanted to, the demons had prepared for us, allowing an angry and possessed crowd to get the better of us. While transformed as a man, I was whipped, had my clothes divided, and lots were tossed for my robe. The reason that I had to be kissed to identify me is that I was a shapeshifter. And this is also why called me "King of the Jews," to mock the Jews that their "king" was revealed as a woman when worn out to the point where her disguise wouldn't work and stripped naked.

At least my fox traits were kept at bay by a genetic mechanism designed to ensure self-preservation, or Christianity would wind up being taught as a sort of offshoot of Shintoism. I could just see it, "We worship the great fox spirit who died on a cross for us." No, they taught that Jesus was wholly human and wholly divine, which was the doctrine I grew up with. I may have something to do with the Council of Trent and several other such meetings. Though I'm sorry to say that I'm also responsible for the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition. What? Christianity had to survive, and I was convinced that Belial had a hand in Islam's founding. None of us came up with that idea, and it seemed to ban music and art (the same things that were nonexistent when demons were in power), encourage violence, and offer license to rape, murder, enslave, and kill. Also, I'd asked my friends later and none of them admitted to founding it. Even though Islam was right about Jesus not dying on the cross (that time), the only way they could have known that was through inside information.

I suspect even though we failed to teach the real religions as had been taught to us, instead creating copies of the originals, it was still enough to raise the nature of humanity beyond what was comfortable for demons like Belial. Yes, even with the violent revolutions like the Protestant Reformation, things were still getting less violent than when religion was absent. And this was the point, the world was getting more and more peaceful, despite appearances. That is, until more than 1400 years of bloody Muslim conquest, followed by atheism and its socialist policies creating loads of people killed for not wanting to give up property. The point being that even copypasted religion was better than no religion or a religion that taught the principles of the demons. And despite these Crusades and such, humanity moved from living in caves and no running water to hygiene, toilets, and electricity. Where before it was unsafe to go out at night, now the streets were lit to the point where stars couldn't even be seen. Even mundane lights were starting to become a threat to demons, so they influenced the leaders of the world to pass climate restrictions or use "cleaner" less efficient lightbulbs that were harder to dispose of. All of this to prevent light from prevailing on them.

But none of this mattered to me right now. I had just been whipped a bunch, and now they expected expected me to carry a large beam of wood. Uhhhhh, maybe if you wanted that, you should have whipped me after I got there? Anyway, a couple of murderous robbers and I got to our location, after a fashion. While I was lying on my back, some burly men penetrated me... in the wrists and feet with some nails, you pervert. They then hauled the cross into an upright position. The force of my own mass would typically make me hang down but be unable to lift myself up, resulting in slow suffocation. But I had alot of back wounds, so instead I just passed away from blood loss. That part about "forgive them for they know not what they do," that was from the original Jesus story not me. The same with all the graves opening. To be honest, I wanted nothing so much as to burn down the cross and be left alone, but I was tired, and I was facing a bunch of demon-possessed people hungry for me to be punished. There was simply no way to win.

My body was dragged into a stone tomb while I was out of it. I got to see the Afterlife for a brief period, then I felt a warm touch, as I heard some soft words. Arise, my child. I gasped for air as I regained life and consciousness all of a sudden. "Hey there," said Jesus, "I think it's good that you're teaching the people about me, but it's not required for you to be me. Not unless you want to or whatever." Jesus was not like he's depicted in paintings. I mean, when I met him first, he had already died on the cross and I was a mere kit. So he may have been like that during his earthly life, but those paintings aren't exactly accurate. I want you to imagine less of a human and more a being that is part of humanity. I guess the closest analogy would be like a spy, someone who just appears out of nowhere. They're real, but things like walls and physical space don't really mean anything to them anymore. Jesus could appear and disappear at will, talk through other people, or appear as multiple people at once. All of this made it easy for him to aid humanity as a whole, but there was a remoteness to this. While he was human, people in general regarded him as "coming again soon" instead of able to notice tthat he had already returned long ago. The Second Coming, as far as I understood, was a lie. But I had no way of convincing anyone of this. After all, the average person couldn't see Jesus, so they believed the lie of the Second Coming, instead of the truth that he was among us.

Jesus walked over to the stone in this cave and simply touched it with his finger. Had a cleric or spellcaster tried to affect the stone, I would have seen runes float around, or at the very least some sort of nonverbal effect like a silent version of Disintegrate or Blast of Wind. But this was beyond any of that, doing the equivalent of a Repulsion effect without any runes, light, or energy expense. As it was, it would personally have taken me a lot of effort in order to move the same rock. "There you are," he said. When Jesus appeared to people again, it was probably about half and half. I gave some lame story about how people couldn't touch me because hadn't yet ascended, but he was the one who outright moved through closed doors and stuff. That was just impossible stuff, after all.

---