Archive for May, 2021

Chapter 4 – Crossroad In Time

CHAPTER FOUR—1ST CENTURY

 

I worked my way toward the back of the crowd following Jesus toward the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane. I slipped into the shadows. My mind was racing. What was I going to do? If Jesus isn’t turned over to the Sanhedrin tonight time could be altered. What would that mean for me? What would that mean for the rest of humanity? Christianity has made such an impact on world history this could change everything if Judas doesn’t betray Jesus.

“…but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” Jesus’ words haunted me as I worked my way further into the darkness.

“Judas, why are you lagging behind”? Read the rest of this entry

Chapter 3 – Crossroad In Time

CHAPTER THREE—21ST CENTURY

 

For the past seven-plus years I’d been a professor of history at Nevada State University in Las Vegas. Specifically, a professor of history in Middle Eastern studies specializing in the Second Temple period and early Christian era, 516 BC-395 CE. In the military, I’d taken a shine to military history and spent a lot of time deployed reading about the Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, and Persians. The foundation for much of our military tactics and strategies today.

As the saying goes, “There are no atheists in foxholes,” and I was no exception. I’d seen the inhumanity of man up close, personal, and with all its horror. Fortunately, in that time I’d met and fallen in love with a wonderful woman of faith who’d kept me grounded and sane. Anna was the best thing that had ever happened to me. It was she who, without encouragement, yet encouraged me to go back to school and pursue my bachelor’s, master’s, and eventually my Ph.D. in history.

After a 20-year career in the military, Anna and I had planned on retiring in Las Vegas where I would teach, and she could finally put down roots. Less than a year after I retired Anna was diagnosed with cancer and died a lingering, painful death a year later. Read the rest of this entry

Chapter 2 – Crossroad In Time

CHAPTER TWO—21ST CENTURY

 

I woke up with a start. It sounded like someone was ringing one of those hand-held bells teachers used to use to bring their kids back from recess.   I shook my head to clear my alcohol-induced funk. The bell rang again. My mouth tasted like I’d been grazing in a dumpster and my head was pounding. The last thing I remember was reading some article on a newly discovered set of ruins in Turkey while drinking a tall glass of Dewar’s scotch. How long ago was that? I squinted in a feeble attempt to focus in a totally black apartment I reached over and knocked over my reading lamp trying to find the light switch. Son of a… The bell rang again.

“All right, all right, I’m coming,” I yelled in the direction of the door.

I made it to the door, by memory, and peeked through the peephole where I saw a stork of a man, tall, lean, with arms that I swear touched the ground, and a long face to go with it. The chauffeur’s uniform added to the caricature, bus driver’s hat, and all.  Not believing what I was seeing I stepped back from the door, rubbed my eyes, and squinted back into the peephole. Nothing about the stork had changed. “Who is it,” I asked. After all, one can never be too cautious nowadays. Read the rest of this entry