Bridge duty turned out to be different than anything Seth expected. Some things were really disturbing him. He longed to discuss the situation with Maturity, but Maturity hadn’t been around. Then, suddenly, one day he was.
“Maturity, I’m really glad to see you. Something strange has been going on, that I can’t explain. The copy of the King’s Handbook that I brought with me from the other side of The Chasm has been changing shape! I didn’t notice it at first, but it has been gradually getting thinner, and the stories about Adam and Eve, and Noah’s Ark, and all the various wars, have disappeared. Now, it seems to be just a general book of advice on how to live in the new Kingdom.”
Maturity laughed. “Have you talked to anybody else about this?”
“No, I was a little afraid to – afraid I might be doing something wrong, and might be causing trouble, some way.”
“You’re fine. If you ask around, I think you’ll find that almost everyone is experiencing the same phenomenon. It’s one of the natural outcomes of crossing The Bridge. Let me explain.
“The books you and others carried around with you were not the original King’s Handbook. Now that you’ve crossed into the Kingdom, they are reverting to their intended form. Since the Handbook was written, a lot has been added to it, some has been deleted, and some has been rewritten to the point of losing its original form and intent. In fact, the handbook you’ve been carrying around may be quite different than those carried by everyone in our sight, right now.”
“How is that even possible?”
“I’m explaining. Just stay with me for a bit, okay?”
“Okay, but one thing that worries me about this new version is that there aren’t any rules. It’s just concepts and ideas.” He paused, and leaned closer to Maturity, so he could whisper to him. “Also, I’m finding out that a lot of these people don’t know much about Jesus – some don’t even seem to know who he was! That can’t be right.”
Maturity whispered back to him. “I bet some of those people are concerned that you don’t know much about Muhammad, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Joseph Smith, Mary Baker Eddy, or a bunch of others that they know as well as you know Jesus.”
“I don’t get it!” exclaimed Seth, a little too loud. Some people stared at them. “What are they doing here? How did they get in?”
“Aah, the moment of truth! Let’s sit over here, out of the way. This may be hard.”
Maturity led Seth to a bench in a little alcove, out of sight of most of the traffic. “Now, how to explain? Okay, do you know the story of the Tower of Babel?”
“Sure. The Babylonians wanted to build a tower to the sky. God didn’t want it done, so he confused everybody’s language so they couldn’t communicate with each other, and the temple never got built. That’s how we got all the languages that are spoken around the world.”
“Well, the story isn’t true, but it serves as kind of an example of what happened with the King’s original handbook.”
“Wait! What do you mean it isn’t true. It’s in my Handbook.”
“Was in your handbook. I just told you that the handbooks you and others carried were changed from the original. Can you give me a moment to explain this to you? It takes a bit of getting used to.”
Seth’s expression was sullen, but he let Maturity talk.
"Remember that I told you our King once reigned over the whole world. That was the way it was supposed to be – one World, one King. It worked extremely well, until a Prince led a rebellion against the King, and won over about half of the King's subjects.
“Often, when I tell this story, I emphasize the Prince’s charisma, and the promises he made. That’s true, but to understand the situation from our current perspective, I think I need to be a little more precise.
“First, the Prince played on the people’s fears. As you’re finding out, the original Handbook was pretty general, with no clear directions. ‘How do you know you’re doing the right thing?’ the Prince would ask. ‘Why don’t you put a little meat on those bones, and come up with some specific dos and don’t? Then, you’ll always know you’re in the right.’
“That sounds like it might be helpful, but every time he talked to a new group, he would suggest different rules and regulations. Before long, he had created dozens – then hundreds – of little splinter groups, each rewriting the Handbook in the ways he suggested.
“That proved divisive enough, but he had a topper to that. He introduced what you might call ‘pride of authorship.’ For a while, most of his converts didn’t mind too much that not everyone came up with exactly the same rewrite of the Handbook. ‘Different strokes for different folks,’ as the old saying goes. That’s when he started to subtly suggest to each group that the other groups were wrong – not just a little bit different, but absolutely on the wrong track. It took a few generations to really make that belief stick, but eventually each group was certain that they were right, and everybody else was wrong. The Prince had invented Religion!”
Maturity stopped talking, and let his words sink in a bit. Seth sat quietly, but was obviously restless.
“Okay, I see how that could have happened. I don’t know a lot about the various world religions, but I know that they’re different enough that it’s hard to think of them having the same origin. I guess I’m pretty lucky that I ended up with the group closest to the truth.”
“You mean…”
“Well, what we call – called – Christianity. Jesus.”
“The thing is,” said Maturity, “You didn’t.”
Seth stared at him. “But Jesus is the right way, isn’t he?”
Maturity was hesitant to answer. Even though he’d had many similar discussions, they never went well. The Prince did a very good job, he thought to himself.
“Okay, let’s take Jesus as an example. Now, I’m not picking on him – or you. I’ve had this discussion with dozens of others, using their own heroes and beliefs. It’s easier – well, it’s never easy! – but it’s somewhat easier to talk about something you know.
“So, for your group – well, your predecessors, many centuries back – the Prince picked Jesus. He either wanted to make Jesus mysterious, or wanted to make it seem like Jesus didn’t really know who he was. Sometimes, he was presented as just ‘a regular guy.’ Sometimes, the Prince would have him give speeches that suggested he might be the King’s son. At times, he even implied that Jesus might be the King, himself, come back in a different form to the people he loved the best. But in your handbook, Jesus denied just about everything. Those denials made Jesus even more appealing to some.
“Now, the Prince decided to make a little more mischief. After his various groups had been going for a while, the Prince subtly suggested that the Jesus of your group might be the leader that another group – the Hebrews – had been waiting for. The Hebrews adamantly denied it, and were suspicious of your group’s motives. Your group, on the other hand, saw a few things in the Hebrew handbook – included there by the Prince, remember! – that suggested it might be true. Jesus was never mentioned in the Hebrew handbook, and the implied ‘connections’ were pretty obscure, but it was enough for some of your group. When the Prince suggested that your group – the Jesus People – add the Hebrew book to your existing handbook, it created animosity and misunderstanding that exists today.
“A funny thing – and it’s not clear if the Prince planned it, or if it was just serendipity – the Jesus in your handbook started to sound an awful lot like the King. He didn’t seem to like hard and fast rules, and seemed to believe more in looking at each situation in its own context, then deciding what to do about it – sort of a ‘situation ethics’ approach.
“The Prince didn’t let that be a problem, for long. He introduced some other people into your handbook – Peter and Paul – and had them say almost everything contrary to what Jesus was saying. More rules, tighter regulations, don’t let the people get out of control! The funny – well, sad – thing is that he didn’t even modify the Jesus part. Your ‘ancestors’ hadn’t really been paying attention to the handbook for a long time – they had changed from following Jesus to leading Jesus, a century or two before that. The words in the book were not even guidelines, anymore.
“I repeat, Seth, I’m not singling out your group. With ample help from the Prince, all the groups did the same thing – in essence, they re-made their teacher in their own image.”
After Maturity stopped talking, Seth sat in silence for several minutes. Maturity let him ponder what he had heard.
“So,” Seth finally said, “I’m not here because I consider myself a Christian. I find that very confusing, disappointing, and a lot of other feelings that I can’t quite find the words for. You’re saying that I’ve been happily living a lie for a good part of my life.”
“I guess you would have to say that’s true – not just for you, but just about everybody else here. But remember that you’ve been up against a skilled manipulator, who has been at it for centuries
“Probably the ones least affected by the Prince’s antics were the non-believers. They haven’t had the problems of fear and pride that Religion adds to the mix. But there are a lot of non-believers still across The Chasm, because they couldn’t believe that there was any better way. They didn’t have Religion, but they didn’t let themselves hope for anything else.
“You’re here, and those like you from all the other groups, because – although you were the products of all those centuries of lies and deceptions – you weren’t satisfied. You still longed for something beyond what you had out there. You made it here, looking for that extra ‘something,’ despite the Prince.”
Once again, it took several minutes before Seth spoke. “It doesn’t feel right. My non-belief is shrinking, and my resistance to your message is decreasing. Still, it’s an awful lot to take in.”
“It is, indeed.”
“You know that this will cause a lot of people to cross back over The Chasm? Remember that one man we talked to, who said he couldn’t take being lied to? I think a lot of people will feel that way.”
“I think you’re right. It means that the ones who choose to stay – and I think you’ll be one of them – have a real job ahead to explain what’s been going on, and to assure them that they did make the correct choice.”
“I don’t know if I can be convincing. I’m still at sea, myself.”
“I think that will pass. Keep reading the Handbook – the original! – and keep talking and asking questions. It’ll be worth it.”
“I hope so.”
***
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