Burst by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
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Chapter 6
At some forgotten point in here, I mentioned that I started to refer to us as “The Unholy Trio.” And it caught on. Being about twice their age, my frame of reference was to a silent Lon Chaney movie I had never seen. The words just sounded appropriate as we could get into things some people might call quite blasphemous. It was kind of a joke understood in the pack, as the three of us probably had already spent ten times the time spent by the average holy roller in a lifetime, trying to pursue the elusive religious understandings which make it all make tranquil and simultaneously exciting sense.
At the beginning of one visit, Rikki did not as usual, immediately start cooking, as she had found a website which she had found hilarious in the context and she without further ado wanted me to read the whole thing as she and Mal hovered over my shoulders.
It didn’t take long for it to strike my mind that the stuff displayed on this site was consistent with that of one of those Bible thumping organizations, which claimed to have all the answers, then asked for a few bucks, monthly automatic charge to a credit card preferable. The territory was one I’d previously avoided, both out of a lack of interest and a desire not to comment about anyone’s beliefs. However, my new partners had no
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sense of decency and were proud of it. Like most impressionable kids I went along for the ride, feigning moral objection. I also considered it possible that they were testing me; their interest possibly in seeing if I’d openly disagree with both of them. I really hate tests, but I liked each of them, and so ........ so, here goes. I’d just tell the truth of my perception; only wondering why they might have thought that I wouldn’t.
As I saw it, here was another standard, institutionalized religion, version of the “real deal,” which provided temporary distraction, bitten tongue differentiations, and a load of smiles to the non-parishioners through its ostensible
“enlightenment” provided for tithing parishioners which is socially considered as rude to ridicule as much as it is the
“possessed” Baptist holding the venomous snakes in supposed rapture or numbness from the bites; testimony from the snakes’
perspective yet to be sought.
No, the three of us were neither struck by lightning nor turned into salt. This is the gist. Some parts have been modified to protect the innocent; namely the possible copyright issues of the website which had copied it from another website, which had copied it from ....... Rikki asked me to read.
“A tactic of Satan is to ape the things of God, thereby making himself appear to be God.”
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I interjected that this was flawed at the outset as statement B does not flow from statement A as overtly said. One can easily discern the difference between an ape and a god; unless they are saying that god is an ape; which seems totally illogical for a myriad of reasons.
“The ‘unholy trinity’ is no exception. The Holy Trinity consists of God the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. The unholy trinity consists of Satan, the Antichrist,
and the False Prophet. As opposed to infinite truth, love, and goodness, the unholy trinity portrays deception, hatred, and evil. In Revelation, Satan is described as a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. The color red indicates his vicious and homicidal personality.”
That passage found to be particularly funny by ‘The Unholy Trio,’ likely both in terms of its regurgitation of the well-known as well as its silly interpretation of the color red.
“The seven heads symbolize seven evil kingdoms that Satan has empowered and used throughout history to attempt to prevent God’s ultimate plan from coming to fruition. Five of the kingdoms had already come and gone; Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Greece. All these kingdoms severely oppressed and persecuted the Hebrews, killing many of them. Satan’s intent was to prevent the birth of Christ as said in Revelation 12:4. The
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sixth kingdom, Rome, was still in existence during the writing of this prophecy. Under Roman rule, King Herod murdered Hebrew babies around the time of Christ’s birth and Pontius Pilate ultimately authorized the crucifixion of Jesus. The seventh kingdom, which is more fierce and cruel than the others, will be the final world kingdom that the Antichrist forms during the end times. These kingdoms were also prophesied in Daniel, chapters 2
and 7. The seven crowns represent universal rule, and ten horns represent complete world power or authority. Revelation
12 indicates many important facts about Satan. Satan and one-third of the angels were cast out of heaven during a rebellion before the world began as disclosed in Revelation 12:4. The Archangel Michael and the other angels will make war with Satan and his demons, and Satan will be excluded from heaven forever as in Revelation 12:7-9. ”
I indicated that I could nitpick the angel-demon flip-flop and the confusion caused through the use of the incorrect tense, but it wasn’t worth the effort. I looked to my ‘Unholy Trio’
partners and we all nodded.
”In his attempt to prevent God’s fulfillment of His earthly kingdom, Satan will attempt to annihilate the Jews, but God will supernaturally protect a remnant of the Jews in a location outside of Israel for the last 42 months of the Tribulation, stated thrice in Revelation12:6, 13–17 and Matthew 24:15–21. The
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second member of the unholy trinity is the Beast or Antichrist described in Revelation 13 and Daniel 7. The beast comes out of the sea, which typically in the Bible refers to the Gentile nations. He also has seven heads and ten horns, indicating his connection to and indwelling by Satan.”
Rikki said; “Mirror image,” and I nodded.
“The ten horns indicate ten seats of world government that will provide power to the Antichrist, three of which will be totally yielded to or taken over by the Antichrist. The number ten also indicates completion or totality, in other words, a one-world government.”
I said; “Duh? Can’t count past ten?”
“The one-world government will be blasphemous, denying the true God. The final kingdom will possess traits in common with the former ‘beast kingdoms’ of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and particularly Rome. Revelation 13:3 seems to indicate that the Antichrist will be mortally wounded about halfway through the Tribulation, but Satan will miraculously heal his wound. After this wondrous event, the world will be totally enthralled by the Antichrist. They will worship Satan and the Antichrist himself.
The Antichrist becomes emboldened, and, dispensing with all pretenses of being a peaceful ruler, he openly blasphemes God, breaks his peace treaty with the Jews, attacks believers and the Jews, and desecrates the rebuilt Jewish temple, setting himself
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up as the one to be worshipped. This particular event has been called the Abomination of Desolation.”
I jubilantly said; “Blasphemy! Blasphemy! I love blasphemy.
Informative here. I never previously knew that Satan was an MD.
Perhaps it would be preferable to refer to him with the credential insisted upon by the quacks.”
Mal said; “Wasn’t that one of the Dylan songs you played?
and I said; “Dylan worded it better, but yeah.”
“The final personage of the unholy trinity is the False Prophet, described in Revelation 13:11–18. This second beast comes out of the earth, not the sea, possibly indicating that he will be an apostate Jew coming from Israel. Although he presents himself as a meek, mild, and benevolent person, the horns indicate that he will have power. Jesus expressly warned believers to watch out for false prophets that may look innocent but actually can be very destructive. The False Prophet speaks like a dragon, meaning that he will speak persuasively and deceptively to turn humans away from God and promote the worship of the Antichrist and Satan. The False Prophet is capable of producing great signs and wonders, including bringing down fire from heaven.”
I said; “Gotta make note of those horns. A special effects man can handle all of this.”
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“He sets up an image of the Antichrist for worship, gives life to the image.”
I said “Pretty fucking good. Always liked ‘Frankenstein’
myself.”
“Demands the worship of the image from all people, and executes those who refuse to worship the image. Revelation
20:4 indicates that the method of execution will be beheading.
The False Prophet will also compel each person to receive a permanent mark of some kind, just as slaves did in John’s day, to show total devotion to the Antichrist and renunciation of God. Only those who receive the mark will be permitted to engage in commerce.”
Mal pulled up his shirt sleeve to show his boneyard tattoo, saying; “And I still can’t get a fucking job.”
“Acceptance of the mark means eternal death. The Bible makes clear that humans will fully understand that, by accepting the mark, they are not only accepting an economic system but also a worship system that rejects Jesus Christ.”
Mal said; “And here I just thought it a drunken fashion statement.”
“Revelation 13:18 reveals the number of the Beast as 666.
No one knows precisely what this means. Some believe that the Antichrist’s first, middle, and last names will have six letters each. Some believe that the designation refers to a computer
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chip, since some computer programs start with 666. Satan is the anti-God, the Beast is the anti-Christ, and the False Prophet is the anti-Spirit. This unholy trinity will persecute believers and deceive many others, resulting in their eternal death. But God’s kingdom will prevail. Daniel 7:21–22 states, ‘I was watching; and the same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them, until the Ancient of Days came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom.’”
Rikki said; “God’s a codger who uses different names for the sake of clarity.”
The “treatise” was rather lengthy, much more so than Rikki’s conspiracy theories. Had I been taking notes with pencil and paper, my pencil would surely have required a knife or sharpener, to make complete note of the vague and highly interpretable words written; including my attendant questions.
Even on the site’s own terms, there were numerous deviations from their own purported adherence to a claimed “divine word”
Bible. At the document’s outset its “books” were selected by Constantine’s political appointees to the exclusion of the majority more than three centuries after the fact. The deciding panel were apparently totally ignorant of the writings of the Essenes or chose to appear as such, and completely ignored the many treatises written of Lilith. In addition, the documents
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under “consideration” had been mistranslated and subjected to centuries of the further, increasingly un-detectable dictates of the money-war machine. The seeming contradictions and questions I temporarily and mistakenly considered worthy of jotting were conceptually no long term loss for we three in their easily erasable pencil absence. While the presentation was as
“professional” as most, the bottom line abandonment of the wicker basket on a long handle requesting the weekly or monthly charge was humorously indicative of the “advances” made by organized religion; credit card information and the sale of franchises a topic of inquiry and discussion only one left click away.
In sync, grinning faces were only surprised that my evangelical reading of this passage resulted in what is really just a situation in which an outsider might construe as a technical inharmoniousness among “The Unholy Trinity.” It seemed as if all three of us preferred to be the “Beast.” Eventually we agreed to take turns. When one got their dreams, the others were relegated to the “anti-god” or “false prophet” statuses played with relatively little lustre. The arrangement seemed fair, and capable of satisfying US congressionally legislated, EEOC
considerations on a number of levels; last ditch the Supreme Court, constitutionally guided loosely or strictly, in their
“state’s rights” and “separation of church and state”
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considerations, as determined by the most proper recent, tax deductible contributions landing on either side of the aisle.
In simplicity, none of us had a problem with God as he-she is understood outside of the systematized money sucking business of organized religion, nor did we have any problem with the recognition of a soul-spirit. The latter seemed obvious through our personal experiences. On another level, our “delinquency”
emanated from this turn-the-other cheek thing in the New Testament, which we didn’t make much sense of. Our experiences had been such that when we had turned the other cheek, it had gotten whacked too. And if we still persisted there were at least two more cheeks which would get whacked; the infinity only subject to the possible limitations in the number of possible cheeks. If this was infinity, we were certain we didn’t want it.
On a less serious level we found it amusing that anyone would put any credence in the eight billionth interpretation of Revelation after all of its past interpretations had proven to be wrong; often in best-selling format.
That morning, we soon resorted to our old form. Rikki started playing in the kitchen, asking Mal and me how we liked our chicken. Mal and I did our best to appear excited about that which Rikki’s brilliance had made into what had come to be routinely expected. She seemed so sincere in wanting to be
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attractive and pleasing; only an exclusive LGB&T devotee might have had a chance at being rude through an old Quentin Crisp regurgitation.
No. While Rikki cooked, Mal and I went back to the standards. He played Lynnrd Skynnrd and Cobain; and I answered with Hendrix and Dylan.
I had given Mal some compelling yard work to do outside. A bit later that early afternoon he went out to do it, leaving Rikki and me by the computer. We were probably looking at the Youtube tape of David Chapelle on Oprah after his
“disappearance” to Africa. Something had compelled him to flee from a multi-million dollar contract, and Rikki suspected that she knew why. She said that it happened to many stars when they got big enough to be heard by a large audience while saying things inconvenient to the powers that be. She pointed out that Oprah’s hands were continually held in a strange position when she gestured toward Chapelle. She said that Oprah was making a devil sign. I don’t know, but it seemed to me that it was unusual to be gesturing with certain fingers tucked under her thumb. The only thing I had ever seen like it was when gangstas showed their signs. As I mentioned, at the time it did seem unusual, but I didn’t put much credence in it.
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Later I found it to be very common for stars to change their subversive tone after becoming big; sometimes after a disappearance; including Bob Dylan and the Eagles. I considered it very possible that now that I was aware of the dynamic, that I might be recognizing things which I had previously overlooked.
But, just consider one; Dylan.
It was said that in 1966 that Bob crashed his motorcycle and was in bad shape. But there’s no official record of the incident. No ambulance was called, and Dylan never checked into a hospital for his injuries. At the time, before the heydays of conspiracy theories, rumors arose. Some claimed that Dylan had died, was killed, or had suffered serious brain damage. Others guessed it was just a huge hoax to give him some time away from public scrutiny, or maybe even to kick a drug habit.
By the time of Dylan’s “return” with “Nashville Skyline”
three years later in 1969, the political climate in the United
States had grown more polarized. In 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy, a leading liberal candidate for the presidency, were both assassinated. Riots had broken out in several major cities, including a major one surrounding the Democratic National
Convention in Chicago and a number of racially motivated riots were spurred by King's assassination. The U.S. war in Vietnam
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was being protested all over the country. Dylan had become a leading cultural figure, noted for his political and social protest in the earlier 1960’s. Yet, with all this going on, he came back with what is essentially a country album. While many like it, at the time just as many were disappointed and considered it a resignation. Each succeeding album was eagerly anticipated, hoping for a return to the “Old Protesting Bob,”
but that album never came.
For years no longer a cutting edge star he released an album of Frank Sinatra songs in 2015; and was interviewed by AARP. The interviewer asked about the motorcycle accident and Bob said that there wasn’t any. When asked “Why the subterfuge?”
Bob said; “I was afraid for my family,” and the stupid interviewer didn’t follow up and just went to the next topic on his list. For me, a very strong suggestion was there, and the time is now gone.
While there was a true minimum there previously, I’ll always thank Rikki for honing and expanding my paranoia skills.
In a short time I’d be able to freak when the Comcast van parked in front of my house two days running; saying that something was wrong with the box at the left front corner of my property. I know those guys are agents of Homeland Security. I just know it.
However, that day, before I could get too much into the nefarious possibilities, Mal came back in, needing some
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clarification and/or assistance with whatever he was doing out back. Whatever it was it must have been complicated or strenuous, as I stayed out there with him for an hour or so. As a consequence, Rikki was left unsupervised on my computer. I later used that word, “unsupervised,” to her and it made her laugh.
She had previously told me that some of her conspiracy information came from her ability to hack into secret government files. She eventually even gave me her codes; which basically involve symbol substitution which goes on for three pages and the ignoring of the letters “a” and “z.”
I never tried to use it for a number of reasons; one being that it is a time consuming process even if the codes are right.
More important to me, the following week I got two messages, purported to be from Interpol saying that I’d be in serious trouble if I do that again. I made the likely connection, called Rikki, and told her to bring her own computer next visit.
Now, this may not sound like any big thing to most people; but if you haven’t made the conclusion yet, Rikki was not most people. In this case, with a small displayed annoyance she agreed to bring her own laptop, which I think was greatly helped by her amusement at the “unsupervised” commentary. However, this girl had a serious, potentially violent predilection for not being told what to do.
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I discovered that late one day when Mal and I were discussing some inside painting which had to be done. He was saying that to do it right some rather extensive preparatory work was necessary and I was basically saying; “Just do the minimal easy job. If it peels we’ll get more extensive at that point.” This conversation was going on beyond my tolerance level; and to make matters worse Rikki came over and took Mal’s side. I put up with the “logical” arguments until I couldn’t imagine anything else to say, barring easily detectible repetition. I said; “Okay, this is my house. I’m the boss. And I want it done as I say.” This was actually half a joke, which I guess they couldn’t have understood, as it was something I had previously only said to Diane; who would then either proceed to do it her way or attempt to punch my head.
Rikki walked out the back door. I apologized to Mal, but he really paid no attention to that. He said that he’d paint the damn thing any way I wanted; but that he had to go check on Rikki, who wanted to leave. After a few cursory exchanges, I followed him out to their car. Rikki was standing near it and her face was red; absolutely red; red like white skin which has been repeatedly slapped. She walked a few feet toward the end of the garage saying nothing. I tried to approach her; but Mal got between us and said; “Don’t.”
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I guess I couldn’t believe what was happening. We had known each other for months with no meaningful disagreements or bad feelings. I again tried to approach her, saying something intended to be conciliatory. Mal again got between us again saying; “Don’t.” I looked at her. She was red-faced staring at me with hate written all over, saying nothing. It was scary. Mal ushered her into their car and they drove away.
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