Suddenly, everything around them blurry, as if they had been transported someplace far away. After a few seconds, the world reformed and the sight was unbelievable.

They stood in the city of Jerusalem, yet somehow they realized that this was a different city than the one they knew of. The city seemed recreated in the likeness of a fairytale castle; jasper walls, buildings of gold yet clear as crystal, all encrusted with gold and pearls.

This was the future…

…and it was a charnel house!

Hundreds of thousands of bodies lay strewn in about the bloodstained golden broad way, turning it into a river of human faces, each an island in an ocean of flesh. Some they recognized, saints whose images once decorated church walls: Saints, prophets, holy men and women, priests and popes, and more.

The golden buildings were partially melted and some of the pearls were cracked and blackened. On the jasper walls altars and idols of horrific deities were erected, each covered in blood and body parts. On the highest point they could clearly see a muscular form clad in horrid, necromantic finery which consisted of bones and skulls strung across his bear chest, blood-red breeches covered his legs, and an ebon cloak fluttered in an fiery breeze. His head adorned with the skull of a horned sheep. The “priest” held aloft a scepter of iron in one hand and an unrolled scroll in the other. Around him, pages ribbed from a golden book were tossed into the wind. They appeared to be the remains of a Bible or some other holy text. Broken bits of religious symbols and weapons lay at his feet.

Pillars of flames shot down from the sky, randomly striking down fleeing people clad in white robes clutching palm branches. They screamed as the fires turned them into blackened skeletons or pools of melted flesh. These weren’t the only people about, among the streets were humans with leather collars around their necks, on their hands and foreheads were markings and in their hands were curved scythe-like swords. And they were beheading the survivors while laughing.

And in the middle of the carnage, above this Celestial city in flames was a sight that made their minds reel.

A huge dragon made from blackened rock and charred bones straddled the pyramidal temple of Heaven, its coils wrapped around it’s base and blackening the golden light emitting from its surface. Below lay the broken remains of a winepress and sword, each the size of an office block .

Five of its seven heads held within their blood soaked jaws the crucified form of Jesus Christ. His body almost as colossal as the dragon’s, head down, white hair over his eyes, clad in a gold girdle, but broken and lifeless. His wrists, ankles, and neck were being gnawed upon by one of the dragon heads, and they sipped blood from the open arteries like leeches. Tied around the dragon’s waist was a torn garment, taken from the Son of Man and now claimed by his conqueror. The garment’s inscription read “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”

As if this unholy image couldn’t get any worse, they saw the Prince of Peace twitch a finger.

“He’s not dead!” Jenny cried. “There’s still hope!”

But then the two remaining heads of the dragon, gigantic golden horns gleaming in the fires of the city reared back and impaled Christ though his rib cage. He threw back his head and screamed, which seemed like a billion souls screaming at once. The dragon then released its grip on the slain deity and the form fell off from the pinnacle and descended to the city below, crushing at least a third of it.

This Truth which came hot from Hell was at last revealed to them:

God is dead. The universe belongs to the Dragon.

They awoke from the nightmare just as the dragon began to slither towards them.

May 4th, 2002 at 8:48 pm in Philosophy and Religion

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