I stayed at our campsite another five days. I came back as planned. Yes, I did sneak a look at my phone. The first message was from Janice, my significant other. Yes, Janice had texted me about this Jesus business and she was now a believer too.
By Day Three I was getting messages from all my friends. They were all believers and all asking when I would come back. They all wanted to show me about this Jesus.
Was I worried as I paddled back? You bet! I was fully freaked and I came prepared.
When I was still a long way from Joe’s I saw a motorboat in the distance. When the motorboat saw me it turned back. As I paddled to the dock, Jack, Bill, and Janice were waiting.
They all looked so happy!
I stopped paddling when I was within earshot.
“I don’t want to see him,” I yelled.
They looked confused. “Why not?” yelled back Janice. “He’s real, you know.”
“He may be, but he’s taken your free will. I don’t want to lose mine.”
… They looked at each other and laughed. They laughed! Bill said happily to the others, “He’s right, you know.” Then he said to me, “You’ll feel a lot better if you see him. We do.” They all nodded. “We came all this way just because we love you so and we want to help you believe in him, too. He’s not bad you know.”
“I don’t know that,” I told them. “What I do know is that if I look at what you brought me, I’ll lose my free will. I’m not ready to do that.
“Oh come on!” Bill whipped around a large-screen PC he had been holding behind his back.
I didn’t see what was on it. I was expecting something like that, so I looked down as he started the motion, and when I looked back up again I had blinders on and was facing away. I also had put ear plugs in my ears. I paddled away. I didn’t race; I had a long way to go.
They got in the motorboat and circled me for about a half hour trying to get me to see or hear. I know they meant well but it scared me so! … They turned back, probably ran low on gas and got frustrated. They weren’t fanatics, they were just really happy and wanted to share that happiness.
I was careful. I hid. I experimented. I observed.
I snuck back to near the village that Joe’s Bait Shop was in. I hung around the landfill and read through papers that were hauled out in the trash. I had to be real careful. His pictures were everywhere! But I found the Wall Street Journal to be a bonanza—lots of good-written text and only small black and white drawings of this Jesus person. They were easy to cover while I read the articles.
I found I could read text about Jesus and listen to people talk about Jesus and nothing happened. But from what I read, if you heard his voice or saw his picture you would become a believer. Touching would cause it too—blind and deaf people became believers at big rallies Jesus held for them.
It was from the same landfill reading that I pieced together what the Sam Hill was going on! And yes, the whole world had gone crazy.
This person … being … whatever who calls himself Jesus, appeared on Ayres Rock in the center of Australia. Within two weeks of his first being seen half the world had seen his face on TV or an Internet video feed and believed he was the Jesus … the one who is coming back to save the world. By three weeks, 99% of the world believed in him.
Amazingly, some scientists did get out a few preliminary reports about this conversion phenomenon that got reported in the Journal and a couple of science publications I found in the landfill. Just a couple … after the third week there were no non-believers and the believers didn’t care about the issue.
It seems that meeting Jesus in person brings about complete belief in just a few seconds. So does touching him. Seeing a good video image of him, such as on a TV broadcast or high quality webcast, takes a bit longer … average of about five minutes. Good audio is about the same. Looking at a still photo takes longer, but hang up a picture on a wall and a day or two of sitting opposite it will make you seek out more evidence … and poof! Drawings have no noticeable effect. Likewise writings about him do not convince. Those scientists didn’t get to test what effect reading his writing may have had. In fact, it wasn’t clear he had ever written anything.
The man finishes eating, cleans up the dishes, washes them carefully from a large tank of water he has mounted next to the apartment sink.
As Week Three began, the reporting … all the world’s reporting … shifted around entirely. It was no longer about the curiosity of his coming. It was now all about what Jesus was promising.
And what he promised was mind-bending!
He was here to take everyone … every human … to Heaven. He said that in two years from his arrival, portals would open in the center of the world’s ten major cities and all humanity could walk through to get to Heaven.
That gave people up to three years to order their affairs, since it would likely take a year for everyone to get through.
He emphasized that this was no hasty affair. This was the next step, and people should be kind, loving, and orderly in closing out their affairs here on Earth.
This is what I read and by Week Four after his arrival this is what 99+% of the world believed.
At first there were some holdouts. There were cut-off cults and tribes so primitive they didn’t have access to TV.
But there were steady reports in the news of the next two years of “missionaries” going out and finding these groups and bringing TVs or loudspeakers with them.
Many that the missionaries didn’t find first were betrayed when a group member strayed, became a believer, and brought their belief back to the group.
The man finishes cleaning and sits down on a sofa in the living room. He turns out the camp light. At first the room seems completely dark, but the light of a full moon streams in the window. With time our vision adapts and the world around us looks much like an old black and white TV program instead of pitch black.
During those two years before the portals opened I was a very careful fugitive. I wanted to keep my free will and to keep it took vigilance, constant vigilance.
I tried staying with a cult for a few days then left because more strangers were coming in, and I could see it wouldn’t be long before one of those strangers brought belief.
My longest stay was living near a blind-deaf man’s house. He let me share his food. But one day he was taken to a rally to meet Jesus. He did and that was the end. Once he believed he wanted me to believe. He almost caught me one time when he attached his MP3 to his stereo but I ran away, shouting so I didn’t hear.
Something to keep in mind. All people were very nice to each other over those two years. The reports I read talked of wars ending and hatred declining. Jesus was preaching love and people were paying attention. Besides, there was a lot to keep them busy. The whole world had to get organized to leave, and that was a lot of organizing to do.