The Teacher

The Teacher: Part II Testament, Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28

ON THE RIDE TO DELTA GAMMA, Holden told me what happened on the tour. In every city in each country the stadiums sold out. After each concert the audience wouldn't leave until Holden led them in a conversion ceremony. What I experienced with the band at the old chapel back in Michigan, multiply that by thousands and thousands.

Glowing orbs of Guardian energy would form over the heads of those who pledged their allegiance, and reaching their hands into the halo triggered a connection to the source so each person could get a mainline injection of ethereal Guardian plasma. The arena then would erupt in a spectacular light show—not pyrotechnics, not lasers, but the otherworld channeling of the core power that surges through every Disciple and comes directly from the Guardian.

Holden sent them on their way to first feel the rush of their new turbocharged lives, then, to share their experience with others and lead them to the Guardian. They were asked to report their progress on the band's website as well as receive new assignments and instructions on how and where to spread the Guardian's gospel. The Disciples, as an organization, had already been conceived and implemented.

THEIR POLITICAL ARM WAS GIVEN the name, Guardian's Legion, with the world headquarters planned for Rome, that is, after they took over the Vatican. One year was the timetable for destabilizing the Catholic Church to the point where the pope and the cardinals had either been killed, converted, or had run for cover abandoning the Church.

Arriving at Delta Gamma, my head was spinning. I turned off the Hummer's ignition and just stared at Holden.

"I know you're being honest with me, but it's all so hard to believe, I mean I realize your message is spreading rapidly, but taking over the Capitol, and the Vatican, why does everything have to change so much so quickly?" I asked, truly worried that what Holden had started would soon be out of control for him, for them, and for everyone else.

"Seriously, at first it was just about me and getting my sanity back. You know what it's like to be a Disciple. Who wouldn't want to feel this way—to live the way we live? Besides, it's something the Guardian wants," was Holden's predictable reply.

"What do you mean?"

"You were a Christian, right? Weren't you encouraged to share your faith with others and help them become believers? It's no wonder Christianity spread—quite the incentive to either believe in Jesus or spend eternity in hell. Well, we have a similar, but much more positive and practical pitch—follow the Guardian's Way and you'll experience your idea of heaven right here on earth and long before you die," he explained.

I had to admit, he had a strong selling point. The whole heaven-after-you-die thing takes a lot of faith—having to believe in something when there was no proof. Who really knows? If our flesh-and-blood lives are all we have, wouldn't it make more sense to become a Disciple?

"Well, I can see there's no turning back, is there?"

"That is so true...and it really isn't about me anymore. It was at first, you remember, I was in such bad shape, but now I'm part of something much bigger than myself. I love the Guardian for saving me from the bottomless pit of depression that was sucking the life out of me. I'm doing all this for the Guardian."

"I guess I understand."

"You're with us, aren't you?"

There was something in his tone and look that chilled me to the bone. At that moment I realized that no matter our past history it would be dangerous for me not to be 100% behind him.