Into the auditorium Sophia walked, taking her place on the stage beneath a harsh spotlight, exposed. Before her sat a sea of faces, hard to discern in the relative darkness beyond but their eyes reflecting the light under which she stood with a glittering malice. A clenched black fist adorned a red, black and green striped banner on the far wall, illuminated by another light, right behind the administrators in the very back, who would preside. Behind her hung a large screen, which showed her image close up, to better entertain the audience. A stern voice addressed her over the speakers.
"Sophia Akpo, you stand before us not merely accused but convicted. You have stabbed History in the back, betrayed your own people, sinned against the Dialectic, and made an unforgivable mockery of the Struggle. The question that we put to you today is not 'if' but 'why'. Having been deep in our counsel, you knew exactly what you were doing. Tell us now: what drove you to do such violence to the Cause, to give aid and comfort to the Enemy? You have thirty minutes to explain yourself before the Statements begin."
Having closed her eyes to keep herself calm, she now opened them and spoke with quiet dignity.
"Your Honor, given that you speak of history as if it were a god, I trust you will allow me to call it forth as a witness, as history will explain everything at issue here today and more besides. Indeed history is precisely what brought me here. Jonestown aside," she flicked a meaningful glance at the back, "I present the recorded testimony of three people: Kenneth Hagin, Mark Gersmehl, and Keith Green. As you will soon see, this entire chain of events was foreknown by the Author of History and revealed to His children before any of us were born."
She pointed at the screen and her image disappeared, overridden by the words "Kenneth E. Hagin Prophecy, 1963" and a black and white photo of a middle-aged white man in the lower left corner, against a gray background. His voice reverberated in the audience's ears.
Yea, the hand of the Lord was upon me. The Spirit of God moved upon me. The voice of God spoke unto me and said, "Come up, come up hither, son of man." ... And as I looked down upon the ground, I could see, as a map laid out before me, the entire nation, all of the states of the continental United States. And as I looked, He said, "Behold, son, and I shall show you that which shall come to pass..."
For there came a dark hand up out of the ocean from the East, even the Atlantic Ocean.
Eyes drifted uncomfortably toward the banner on the wall.
It came up out of the sea as a hand and as it rose up into the air it became a dark cloud, and it filled the whole atmosphere, and yea, it swept inland like a storm from sea. And I said, "Oh Lord...what's the meaning of this?"
And He spake unto me and said, "Son, that is the darkness of atheistic communism that is sweeping across the nation, even in the minds of men in high places and politicians with great power. And this nation shall not grow more strong, and ye shall never have more liberty than ye have now. But liberties that ye have known, as you have seen, shall be seized, and shall be taken from you."
And I looked again and I could see upon the map a blot, as though a bottle of ink had been spilled, and it spread out over several states in the south and east. And then I looked and I could see spots, splotched all over the map, and I said, "Lord, what meaneth this?"
And he said, "Communistic-inspired hatred among races shall cause greater turmoil than your nation has seen heretofore. Yea, it is not the will of God, but men's hearts are perverse. They walk without the love of God and seek to have their own way. And so it shall be worse than you have seen."
Audience members exchanged puzzled looks, mingled with a slowly growing dread. Online, the comment section blew up with confused emojis and questions like "Wait, what?"
And I said, "Oh Lord...oh Lord, is there a remedy? Is there a remedy? What shall the answer be?"
And He said, "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceived and being deceived."
And then I said, "Oh Lord, do we have nothing to look forward to in the future except the darkness? The blackness? War? Destruction? Evil?"
Then He said, "Son of man, forget not your text, for you look at the things not seen."
And so then I looked into the Spirit realm and I saw falling, upon that map, a ball of fire from heaven. The closer to the earth, the bigger it got. And then when it came to the earth, it divided into small balls or sparks of fire and fell upon men, and I saw an army of men rise up. And it seemed as though their hands were fire, and there sat upon their heads a tongue of fire. When I first saw it, I thought their whole head was a head of fire like their hands, but it was a tongue of fire--tongues of fire leaping!
And I said, "What meaneth this?" And He said, "Before the worst shall come and the day of darkness shall come, there shall go those who shall carry the fullness of My truth and the fire--not only to the states of this nation but to many other places; for there is a work that must be done first spiritually before the Lord shall come. Now prepare ye your hearts, for the time is at hand and the beginning is now, and ye shall see and ye shall know. For the hand of the Lord is upon you and many others to be used in these last days and the work shall progress."
She snapped her fingers and the recording stopped, cutting back to her face as before.
"The man you just heard, Kenneth Erwin Hagin, was born so premature that he was fed with an eyedropper. A deformed heart and a blood disease believed to be incurable almost finished him off in his teens, but he miraculously recovered, both from them and from paralysis. When he gave this prophecy, he was in his mid forties. His ministry went on to go global under the name 'Word of Faith'."
Audience members began to murmur among themselves.
"Mark Gersmehl would record something similar in 1992." She snapped her fingers again and though her image remained onscreen, the speakers played a strange song that quickly grew ominous, teasing the ear on either side with faint notes and random sounds, then crashing in from both sides with rumbling, sinister chords.
Thank God the world's been saved / Marx is in his grave / The hammer and sickle lie broken on the ground / If we're through with history / Then why this misery? / All the world was thrilling to the sound / When the wall came crashing down
(So tell me what, I can't explain) / This howling deep within my veins / (Is it the pulling of some secret tide?)
The rumbling of the speakers seemed to shake the room and everyone in it as the guitars roared menacingly and the chorus began.
It's the raging / The raging of the moon / Oh, we must awaken / From the raging of the moon.
Though the screen continued to show Sophia, many in the audience began wishing it would do something else, as her eyes seemed to harden, even blaze with a frightening inner radiance.
See the path we take / See the bed we make / Oh, let the Spirit open up our eyes
A harsh whisper flicked through the crowd like a whip.
We've become comfortable with lies!
"Dude, I am shaking," one viewer commented. "Lol, the audience is cracking," another wrote. "They were not expecting this at all."
"That face be scary, tho."
"Her boyfriend be like, 'Yes, dear. Right away, with a cherry on top."
The magic's at an end / The line's been crossed again / The truth keeps getting further from our lives / It's all been disguised
The moon is full and red as wine / A symbol of our fallen time / When will the stars come crashing down from our eyes?
It's the raging / The raging of the moon / Oh, we must awaken / From the raging of the moon / Are we shaken? / For the signs are coming true / Oh, we must awaken / From the raging of the moon
As the intensity built during the bridge, her gaze became unbearable, seeming to absorb the spotlight and redirect it through her eyes and into the audience like a hostile sun. Eventually the notes cooled down but only slightly, as if the fire had been banked but not put out, smoldering in the air like glowing embers and howling through the audience like a midnight wind.
It's the raging... / The raging of the moon... / Oh we must awaken / From the raging of the moon / Ohh, we must awaken / From the RAAAAAAAGE
Now horrified, the audience watched helplessly as another song opened independently with lonely piano. "Cut the audio!" someone shouted in the back. The sound technicians tried desperately to do just that, but in vain. The speakers had seemingly taken on a life of their own. The screen cut away from Sophia again and at this point that was a relief, but the relief didn't last long. A man with loosely curled Afro-style hair and a short beard and mustache seemed to cast a side-eye at the audience from behind a microphone, his name superimposed above his head. This, then, was the late Keith Green.
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want / He makes me lie down in green pastures / He leads me beside the still waters / He restoreth my soul / And guides my path in righteousness for His name's sake
Surely goodness and loving kindness / Shall follow me all the days of my life / And I will dwell in the house of the Lord / Forever and ever and ever
Here the music grew grim, guitars roaring out defiant resolve.
Though I walk through the valley / Of the shadow of death / I will not fear; Thou art with me / Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me / Thou preparest a table / Before me in the presence of my enemies
Eyes widened. The administrators fumed. It was not supposed to go this way! Something had to be done. But their chance would come soon, they silently reminded themselves. No one survived the Statements. Everyone broke under them.
Thou anointest my head with oil / My cup's overflowing / Surely goodness and loving kindness / Shall follow me all the days of my life / And I will dwell in the house of the Lord / Forever and ever and ever
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want
Sophia fixed her gaze on the back of the room. "In conclusion, Your Honor, do whatever you will, but my first allegiance is to the Author of History. No longer will I serve the Lilliputians who covet His pen."
A pencil snapped and a voice grated. "Very well. Let the first victim step forward."
Up to the stage walked Dawn Kedic, quivering with anger. If her nose ring had a bell on it, it would have been tinkling constantly. She pointed a long black fingernail at Sophia and shouted, "Qaba furrafnas uh numek ed ekkasda!" Sophia raised an eyebrow, amused, her lips curling upward in a wry smirk. A man standing by the wall to Sophia's right started quietly laughing. Slowly laughter began to ripple through the crowd. The exclamation, though opaque to the ear itself, had shown everyone a vast collection of playthings and identified them as belonging to Ms. Kedic. Dawn herself, however, remained angry, seeming not to know what she had accidentally said. A teary-eyed laughing emoji showed up in the comments, followed by "WTF???"
The merriment only made Ms. Kedic even angrier. She stomped her feet, pointed even harder, and bellowed, "Kukkema ïd is íkdhava, an Bibbemu dharran uh arbavgavvek!!!" This time everyone saw a hamster giving birth on a hospital bed while a bleary-eyed drunkard held its paw. Now everyone was laughing in spite of themselves. The commenters had a field day.
"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"
"Is there someone else up there we can talk to?"
"No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time."
"Next victim!" the presiding voice barked. Up walked Lamar O'Neal, a well-muscled member of the wrestling team. Not the kind of guy you wanted to cross. He drew a mighty breath, then hollered, "Ïen osner ma daa qaba bhadd ën hherrek!" The laughter intensified. The comments promptly became a circus.
"Why am I seeing Lamar in a tutu? xD"
"We already knew that about you, but thanks for the confirmation, bro."
"Ain't no party like a Diddy party."
Blind with fury, he stomped toward her but the air between them flashed like lightning, a thundering boom followed, and he jerked backward, landing heavily on his bottom. The lights flickered out
A deafening shofar blast filled the room, followed by another. Other instruments joined it and the silhouette of a horseman appeared on the screen, sword raised to strike. Sophia's hands and scalp burst into flame but did not burn. As the drums rolled and the music swelled, tall humanoid forms became visible around her, gradually glowing so brightly that the whole auditorium turned white. Everyone shielded their eyes. The light faded and the screen cut back to Sophia but the figures remained, beautiful but frightening to look upon, their eyes still glowing. The microphones picked up a soft dribbling sound as Lamar lost control of his bladder. Dawn looked even more goth than usual, all color having left her face, wordlessly whimpering into the silence. A large, bright hand wrote a sentence on the wall that filled the room with an icy dread, seeming to read itself aloud in a voice of thunder: "Maba kedféah asban áva." The banner disintegrated, settling on the floor as a pile of dust. In its place on the wall, a new design was etched: an axe and a scimitar arranged in the shape of an X and a round shield with three feathers tied to the bottom and quadrants of red, yellow, black, and white, surrounding a silver cross.
Returning her gaze to the back, Sophia raised a flaming finger. "Thus saith the Lord of hosts: 'My people are one. No longer will I permit you to play them against each other. Just as I, Adonai Echad, am one, so are they. E pluribus unum. Out of many, one. This was My design for them, and no man shall thwart it. No longer shall hand strive against foot or eye against ear. Together they shall seek Me and together they shall thrive. You may rail against them, just as Satan does against Me, but his head shall be crushed and his disciples shall share in his fate.
You rode the idea of 'aufheben', the simultaneous negation and upholding of a concept, to power, and now you shall ride it to ruin, for I shall make an aufhebung of your entire vocabulary, as I did with these two. You will say one thing and mean another, as you did before, but instead of making fools of the people to whom you speak, you will make fools of yourselves. You will speak in earnest and be met with laughter. You orchestrated this event to humiliate Me, but through it I shall humiliate you.
That which I open, no man can shut and that which I shut, no man can open. Graves that were shut shall be opened and mouths that were open shall be shut. Do you have anything to say in rebuttal?"
"OVESA ED BHOSH GADH ËN I TESPEM ES BID IEV!" the presiding voice screamed. The whole room laughed. "Precisely," Sophia replied. "This court is adjourned." Slowly she walked past the trembling forms of Dawn and Lamar and past the increasingly petrified audience, accompanied by her angelic bodyguards, toward the exit to her right, where one man stood aside to let them through as if he knew them and then followed them out the door. Piano played once more over the speakers and the flames around her head and hands faded out of sight as the group slowly walked out, the vocals echoing with ghostly accompaniment.
As the mountains are around Jerusalem / The Lord is all around His people / As the mountains are around Jerusalem / The Lord is all around His people
From this time forth / And forevermore / The Lord is all around / His people / From this time forth / It will always be / The Lord is all around / His people
Like Mount Zion in the midst of Jerusalem / We cannot be moved / We cannot be moved / Like Mount Zion in the midst of Jerusalem / We cannot be moved / We cannot be moved
From this time forth / And forevermore / The Lord is all around / His people / From this time forth / It will always be / The Lord is all around / His people...
The door closed with an echo and the room was left in nearly total darkness, mitigated only by the lambent blue glow of the text and the emblem on the wall.
Having escorted Sophia to her car in peace, the angels saluted her and faded back out of visibility, leaving only the man who had stood aside to let her and them through. Coming back to full awareness of herself, she saw that he looked familiar. He smiled warmly. "Bravissima." Then it hit her. She raised a hand to her mouth.
"Did I...see you at church earlier this week?"
He chuckled. "Probably. I was definitely there, though I don't think your parents noticed. Might be fun to see just how long I can hide in plain sight." His eyes twinkled. "So...do you recognize me yet?"
She gasped. "No way... Gampa?"
He grinned. "In the flesh. You said it yourself just tonight: graves that were shut shall be opened. When you said that, you were not just predicting the future. You were also describing the present. Mine was the first of those graves to be opened. There will be more. Specifically, your mother called me back last week, though I don't think she knew she was doing it."
Overwhelmed, she clasped him in a hug, burying her face in his shoulder. He returned it. After a brief but profound silence, she finally whispered two words.
"But...why?"
"To help out, of course, but especially to help you. When God told you that 'your family will support you,' He meant me too. There wasn't that much I could do for you when I was alive, but now that I'm dead...the whole game changes. We're gonna have fun. You saw a little of it tonight, and there's plenty more where that came from. Whatever you need me to do, I'll be happy to do it. Just let them try to punish me." He smirked conspiratorially. "What'll they do? Arrest me? Ask who I am? I kind of hope they do."