A Judge of the Quick and the Dead

[Al-Malikah]

"And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify, that it is he that is ordained of God a judge of quick and dead." - Acts 10:42

 

 

 

The world looks a little different through the eyes of Pastor Elias Stone than most view it. If you were to ask him directly, he would tell you that his eyes were opened only a few years ago despite having been a Pastor for over twenty five years. In the eyes of Pastor Stone, people are not defined by their hopes, their dreams, their good intentions, their designer clothes, their lucrative job, nor their beautiful wives. Under the iron gaze of Pastor Stone, all are defined by their sin and their suffering. 

 

Three years ago, you could have caught a sermon from Pastor Stone in a small church near Tuscon, Arizona, and it would have filled you with hope, comfort, and light. After a car accident claimed the lives of his wife and child, Pastor Stone and his sermons changed. 

The Lord became less of a god of mercy and a comfort... to Pastor Stone the Lord became the bringer of suffering on those who have sinned and reject the Lord's teaching. Pastor Stone believes this to be his greatest illumination, the realization that the Lord isn't there to coddle his children, but brings an iron sword to cut down the lies and wickedness of the wide world. Whenever he feels himself becoming more attached to the world than he should, he strikes his flesh with a whip or burns it with a flame, the pain and suffering earned in this life displace the suffering in the afterlife. By taking responsibility over his suffering, he has become a man on fire, his skin burning at all times with the knowledge that his wife and child died because they were weak, they were sinful, and not even his holy righteousness could save their souls. 

 

His brand of Christianity is harsh to say the least, but he practices what he preaches which is more than could be said of others of his craft, he believes he has the gifts called Charismata and thereby uses it to testify to the truth that was unveiled before him. He aims to continue to preach to the blind degenerate masses until he can earn enough earthly money to raise a church to St. Brigid who much like him seared away her pain with burning coals upon her flesh.

In Elias's world, his dreams are holy prophecy, his words that of a suffering prophet. He writes his dreams every morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 6, 2020 by Al-Malikah

[Al-Malikah]

 

November the 11th, Year of Our Lord Two-Thousand and Twenty

 

Prophecy of Fire and Wailing

I slept as any other night, restless, the murmurs of the dead singing in my ears, crying out for comfort or reprieve. My heart steeled against such clamor, I let them fall upon my ears to no avail. Yet one voice stuck out, it was a child's voice. He begged that he had lost his way too early and did not deserve to die young. My heart wrenched to and fro in my chest and I froze myself in the agony of indecision. The old Stone... the Old Elias... we would have spoken to this spirit. He would have parlayed with the dead to help guide them towards the light, towards the Lord's kingdom. But I am not the Old Stone. I am not the Old Elias. I am the burning sword of the Lord and the holy fire inside me screamed at me to let his cries die down into an ashen whimper. I am not here for the dead. I am here for the sickened flesh of the degenerates of this place.

 

The voice struck through me so deeply because I recognized it. It was the voice of my son Amos who was taken by the Lord for his sins. I woke this morning with the knowledge that he yet suffers in the after and I yet suffer in the flesh. My whole being at all times feels as though I am seared with an iron brand, in remembrance of my failures as a father, my failures as a shepherd of men... my failures as a man of the cloth. Before I woke, I felt my body consumed by Holy Flames.

I shall not fail today, thus the prophecy dictates, I must steel myself against the wicked no matter how kindly they approach, and I must swing the sword of judgment as above all, beyond being a man of the cloth, a man who has lost, a man of wisdom, I am a man on fire.

 

 

[goddessoflife]

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