Post Nuclaer 3 - Who is the Real Jesus?

Gordon was helping to dig up turnips.
"This is as hard as it gets," said Tony. "A very busy time, the harvesting of root vegetables. Cereals can be harvested with a combine harvester. Peas and beans just have to be picked from a bush in the greenhouse. But turnips, beetroot, potatoes, carrots and onions, they have to be dug up with a spade."
"I like doing this," said Gordon. "I feel close to nature."
"You wait until you've been doing this for 8 hours in the pouring rain. Then you'll feel close to nature. You'll be covered in mud." 
"It's better than sitting in an office. This is real physical work." Gordon and Tony worked on through the morning, filling a large trailer with turnips.

It was the lunch hour. Elliott Young waited until all the men had finished their 325 calorie burgers. He then led them into the lounge, where there was a large circle of armchairs. Elliott sat on the big red padded leather chair, as if the seat that the teacher sat on had to be eye catching and make him look important.
"How many of you have started reading the book I gave you, Peace in Our Hearts? Has anybody read the first chapter?" Simon's hand went up. "Perhaps you could tell us what it was about."
"It's about Pastor Daniel Moses' dream. In the dream, he was fasting in the desert and the devil came to tempt him. The devil said, 'Command these stones to become bread.' So he picked up a rock and it became a big loaf of bread and he ate it. Then Daniel Moses said, 'You know what I need now? A nice bottle of ice cold lemonade.' So he picked up another stone and it became a bottle of lemonade."
"That's not what Jesus would have done," said Tony.
"But Pastor Daniel Moses is Jesus and Daniel and Moses, and a few other people in history as well. Then the devil told him, 'Climb to the top of the church steeple and jump off. The Bible says that he will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.' So Daniel Moses climbed to the top of the church steeple and jumped. He started flying round and round the church steeple in circles. Then the devil took him up to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world. He could see all the way from China to America. Then the devil said, 'All this I will give you if you will bow down and worship me.' He said, 'I would like to rule the world, if I ruled the world I would make it a better place.' Then he bowed down and worshipped the devil."
"He worshipped Satan," said Tony. "Is that not an evil thing to do?"
"It was for a good enough reason. He was already the leader of 79 churches and 3 months later the war broke out and he became leader of the world. If Messiah Daniel Moses isn't God and isn't Jesus then who is he?"
"The evil world ruler spoken about in the Bible. The son of perdition. The Antichrist."
"Don't be daft," said Simon. "He isn't evil, he did a lot of good. He saved the world from starvation."
"Tony, you've spent 15 years here because you refuse to believe in Messiah Daniel Moses," said Elliott. "You could spend the rest of your life here."
"I am a Christian."
"We are all Christians if we follow the teachings of our founders."
"Being a Christian has nothing to do with following teachings," said Tony. "You are a sinful human being, you couldn't follow God's commandments if you tried. A Christian is someone who is born again of the spirit of God."

The next day Gordon and Tony were digging up onions together. They each had 2 buckets and a small shovel, walking across the field with a bucket of onions in each hand.
"Tony," said Gordon, "I understand what you said about Messiah Daniel Moses. You could be right. But why put yourself at risk telling those people in there about things like that?"
"Jesus said that if anyone is ashamed of me, before this corrupt generation, I will be ashamed of him before my father and his angels in Heaven."
"Is there any one else, Tony, who believes this? Is it only you?"
"The Lord assured the prophet Elijah that there were 900 priests who had not bowed the knee to Baal. He thought he was the only one left, and now they were going to kill him, then there would be none. I think we're in a similar time to the prophet Elijah. If you imagine 900 real Christians in a country the size of England who have not bowed the knee to Messiah Daniel Moses."
"How do you know these things, Tony? I've been a Christian all of my life - I mean, I want to be and I thought I was - I've never heard anything like this."
"I've got a Bible from before the war. A printed one. Don't read the Bible on the New World website. That's just a collection of Scriptures generally accepted by all the world's religions."
"Yes. That's what it says on the first page. A collection of Scriptures generally accepted by all the world's religions. But if they're generally accepted by all the world's religions, doesn't that make them right?"
"Jesus is the only way to God. No one comes to the father any other way."
"But Tony, that's a really horrible thing to say. What about all the other religious people in the world? We're not bad people."
"Gordon, you'll never be religious enough to go to Heaven. You're a sinful human being. You can't go through your whole life without breaking any of God's commands. You'll have to stand before God for every careless word you've ever spoken."
"I've got no chance. What should I do?"
"Trust in Jesus, Gordon. He died for your sins. He will forgive you for everything you've ever done. That was why he died."
"Our founders said that Jesus died for his beliefs. He died a martyr's death. He set us an example by forgiving his enemies."
"He didn't, Gordon. Jesus died for your sins. He took your punishment on the cross because you couldn't save yourself."
"What should I do?"
"Just believe, Gordon. Do you believe that Jesus died for you, that you need him to forgive your sins?"
"Yes."
"Well, trust in him, and he will."

Gordon spoke to his family on the mobile phone that night. Anna appeared on the screen.
"How are you?"
"Don't worry," said Gordon, "I'm fine. It's not bad here. We get lessons about Messiah Daniel Moses and about the war. I like working on the farm. I tell you what, after the kids have finished school, do you fancy living on a farm? There are jobs advertised not far from here. The government are looking for whole families to come and work on a farm. Abandoned farms that can be put to work again. Training and equipment provided."
"Prison is supposed to be a punishment. You're not supposed to enjoy it so much that you want your family to come and join you."
"It's not a punishment at all. The government have millions of people in prison doing hard labour on a farm. It's the only way we can grow enough food. You don't think that stealing a few tins of meat really deserves a 3 year sentence, do you? There's other people here who had a fight in the street or stole the work van to go to the seaside. They'll send anyone here for anything."
"I'll think about it, Gordon. It depends what the children want to do and Sam and Tommy are not going to leave school for a long time."
"No harm in planning for their future. Time goes quickly. One I thing I do miss. Being with you and the kids."
"We can see each other by video call."
"That's not the same as eating our evening meal together or saying good night to each other when we climb into the same bunk bed. Still, it won't be for very long. 3 years isn't such a long time."

The men had another group session. Gary had arranged to lead the lesson.
"I read a very interesting chapter about how the war began. It started with 3 men on a submarine in the English Channel. They had been bombed by an aircraft and were on this stricken, drifting submarine. After several days, they gave up all hope of being rescued. They decided to make a contribution to the war effort. They fired a nuclear warhead at Eastbourne. The Children of the Latter Christ were always on the news, Pastor Daniel Moses was there every day, saying that we would welcome all the survivors into our community houses."
"The thing is," said Simon, "if Eastbourne has been hit by a nuclear warhead, they're all going to be dead. There's not going to be any survivors."
"The bomb wiped Eastbourne off the face of the map, completely, but the survivors were all the way from Brighton to Bexhill to Hastings - their homes had been destroyed."
"If the survivors are all the people from 3 different towns, how would they get them all into the community house?" asked Tony.
"The church bought up lots of buildings on the outskirts of the blast that were slightly damaged, broken windows, tiles ripped off the roof, a hole in the wall, things like that. You could buy them for virtually nothing. They repaired them. Then they rented them out, £150 a month for a sleeping bag in a 6 sleeper bunk bed. They made the money to buy and repair more buildings."
"So Messiah Daniel Moses became the solution to the world's problems," said Simon.
"The Russians used one big hydrogen bomb and they exploded it in the middle of the Derbyshire countryside."
"Did it go off course?" asked Gordon. "Did it land in the wrong place?"
"No. That was the intention. The kill radius of a 5 megaton nuclear warhead is about 5 miles but the earthquake radius is about 60 miles. The bomb exploded half way between Coventry and Sheffield, which are 90 miles apart, devastating the munitions factories of the Midlands."
"Is that why we didn't win the war?" asked Gordon. "Did we run out of ammunition?"
"We did win the war," said Gary. "Messiah Daniel Moses won the war so everybody won the war."
"I meant as a free country."
"We are a very free country," said Elliott. "Free indeed."

The next day Gordon and Tony were in the hen house. Tony had a bucket of grain and was sprinkling it on the floor to feed the chickens. Gordon had a big egg box in which he was collecting the eggs.
"What are these eggs used for?" asked Gordon. "We never eat any eggs."
"They use them to make bread. The flour they use to make the bread rolls is too soft to make bread. If the dough was made with water, the bread would fall apart. So they add milk, eggs and margarine to make the dough thicker. Then they add brewer's yeast and a spoonful of sugar to make the bread rise quickly. I used to work in a bakery. I used to make bread." Tony pulled something out from under his coat. "I've got you a Bible from before the war. All sorts of books are in that library of theirs. There's no law against having a Bible from before the war, only against believing in it." Gordon took the Bible and put it into a plastic bag that he had folded up in his coat pocket.
"Thank you, Tony."
"It's got a hand written sheet of notes, written by me, telling you all the things you need to know about Messiah Daniel Moses and the second coming of Christ."
"So Messiah Daniel Moses isn't Jesus and Jesus is still to come?"
"Jesus is still to come. When Jesus comes to rule the world, it won't be like this. It'll be a beautiful world. People will have long lives. The lion will eat grass with the lamb. The nations will beat their swords into ploughshares."
"There's world peace now."
"Yes, Gordon, but its peace at any price, and it's an uneasy peace.