We cloned Jesus. It seemed like a good idea at the time. The fundamentalists were taking over, you know, the United Church of America? The leader of those psychos got himself elected President. Then the shit hit the fan, just like he predicted: floods, famine, plagues. They declared him a God damned prophet.
When HIV went airborne, when he said it was terrorists? That was the excuse he needed to throw everyone into the ghettos. Gays, Muslims, Hispanics, Blacks. Once he declared the UCA the national religion, he managed to throw the Jews in there as well.
So the Pope dug a piece of wood out of a vault and said it was from the cross of Jesus. Enough blood on it to make a clone. With all the religion going around, if the Catholics had Jesus himself to spout their party line? They’d win back all those souls who’d converted to the UCA… and their money, too.
It was all about money and power. Wasn’t it always?
But they messed up. They had no clue what they’d done. Hadn’t they read the Bible? Didn’t they have any idea what Jesus would really do? Hadn’t they heard of the fucking Apocalypse?
In the middle of the 21st century, massive earthquakes shatter the West Coast and, at the same time, HIV goes airborne. Millions die overnight. When the same mutation appears suddenly in New York, President Clement proclaims it a terrorist plot and declares martial law. Anyone in a high risk group is moved into internment camps carved out of existing cities. Hispanics, Blacks and gays are all moved into these ghettos, along with Muslims suspected of perpetrating the attack.
The United Church of America, also headed by Clement, is declared the state religion and anyone who does not register is declared Un-American. Millions of Jews, rather than renouncing their culture, are thrown into the ghettos.
In 2086, eighteen-year-old John starts to have terrifying visions of the future. Having grown up in the Ghetto, he already feels like an outsider. He doesn’t want to be a freak, too. His cousin David is the only person he feels safe telling.
But David has secrets of his own. He’s part of a clandestine cloning project to bring about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. His parents took him into hiding when they realized the true purpose of the project, and now the men who have been hunting them for eighteen years are at their doorstep.
As their secrets begin to unravel, John and David must find a way to trust each other so they can save their family from the hunters and from the devesatating future glimpsed by John.
Third Testament tells the story of a twenty-first century Messiah: his birth, his life and his mission, none of which are what the Church who created him expected. The first novel, The Gospel of John, sets the stage in a dark future ripe for apocalypse.
The Catholic Church cloned Jesus. This. . . worried us. The twisting lines of time gave the angels no clear end game for that, and our Father had been silent for so long. . . since shortly after I cast Lucifer out of Heaven. We saw the natural disasters, disease, and wars that would make humans wish they lived in a world as sunny as the Dystopian garbage they read and experienced in their 3D virtual reality shows. The road to Armageddon, a road declared by Lucifer himself when he lost. . . it seemed inevitable. So the angels made a decision. We rescued the clone. We helped him and his family hide in a “relocation center” called the Ghetto, one of many where the government forced minorities to live. And I was chosen to have a son, a prophet who would help the young man called David, the clone we hoped would be the new Messiah. They grew up together and joined a resistance movement that would have had the old Pope rolling in his grave. They made me very proud, even though I knew my son, John, was fated for an early death. And he died. But, miraculously, that wasn’t quite the end of the story. And now none of us can see what lies ahead. .
hen HIV went airborne, when he said it was terrorists? That was the excuse he needed to throw everyone into the ghettos. Gays, Muslims, Hispanics, Blacks. Once he declared the UCA the national religion, he managed to throw the Jews in there as well.
n to unravel, John and David must find a way to trust each other so they can save their family from the hunters and from the devesatating future glimpsed by John.
