The Children of Eternity
Part I: Childhood’s End—The War in Heaven
Part II: The Leona Stahl Incident
D
ESTINY
I
MAGE
B
OOKS BY
K
ENNETH
Z
EIGLER
Heaven and Hell
The War in Heaven
Rise of the Beast
© Copyright 2012 – Kenneth Zeigler
All rights reserved. This book is protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America. This book may not be copied or reprinted for commercial gain or profit. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version. The use of short quotations or occasional page copying for personal or group study is permitted and encouraged. Permission will be granted upon request. Please note that Destiny Image’s publishing style capitalizes certain pronouns in Scripture that refer to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and may differ from some publishers’ styles.
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ISBN 13 TP: 978-0-7684-4146-8
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C
HILDHOOD
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S
E
ND
—T
HE
W
AR
IN
H
EAVEN
C
HAPTER
1
“T
HERE IT IS AGAIN,” SAID
10-year-old Christopher Pace, looking up at the green forest canopy and into the bright blue sky beyond. “It was like the sound of wings, only very big ones I think.”
“An eagle maybe,” replied his friend, 19-year-old Jerry Anderson, glancing up from the place where his fishing line met the clear stream water. “You see them around here from time to time.”
“No, not an eagle,” insisted Christopher, adjusting his straw hat to block out the glare of the sun, which glistened through a gap between the trees. “It sounded way bigger than an eagle. I think there are more than one of them too.”
“If you’re going to become a successful fisherman, you’ll need to learn to keep your voice down,” replied Jerry. “The fish can hear you, you know.”
“Maybe,” said Christopher, “but I bet you they don’t understand a word we say. They don’t know that we’re fishing for them.”
Jerry just shook his head. “At least keep your eye on the lure.”
“I don’t need to,” said Christopher. “My looking at that shiny thing isn’t going to help. It only helps if the fish sees it and decides that it looks good enough to take a bite out of. When he does, I’ll know.”
“Unbelievable,” muttered Jerry.
“You don’t think I’d make much of a fisherman, do you?” asked Christopher, who had finally focused on the business of fishing again.
Jerry seemed surprised. “Now why would you say that?”
“Because you were thinking it,” replied Christopher. “Fishing isn’t everything, you know. Our Lord and Savior Jesus spent a lot of time around fishermen, but He only did a little bit of it Himself. He was able to convince fish to swim right into the fishermen’s nets. I guess He was able to talk them into surrendering. The only time that the Bible even suggested that Jesus might have gone fishing was in the twenty-first chapter of John, verse nine, when the disciples found Him cooking fish over a fire by the Sea of Galilee. Who knows, He might have talked those fish into surrendering too.”
“Sounds like you know the Bible quite well,” said Jerry.
Christopher nodded. “Pretty much word for word.”
At this point Jerry was looking at Christopher incredulously. “You’ve memorized the entire Bible, chapter and verse?”
“Yes,” replied Christopher. “Actually, I read it in the original Hebrew and Aramaic.”
“You’re pulling my leg.”
Christopher stared at Jerry. He looked a bit offended. “Why would I do that?”
Jerry didn’t answer. He turned to the west to see what looked like a flock of something moving through the skies above the trees.
“There, you see, there are even more of them this time,” said Christopher. He hesitated, “Do you feel it?”
Jerry hesitated. Whatever had been there had moved on. “I think so. I felt a sudden chill. It wasn’t the air that was cold. It was, well, sort of a chill within my spirit.”
“Yes,” confirmed Christopher, “I felt it too. It was the chill of an evil thing passing by.” He slipped down off the boulder he had been sitting on and gazed into the sky for a long time. “I think we need to leave. Something is wrong. It’s gone away for now, but I think it may come back.”
“What has gotten into you today?” asked Jerry. “We’ve been out here fishing plenty of times, but today you seem really distracted. Your mind isn’t on fishing.”
“It isn’t,” confirmed Christopher. “I’ve felt like something was wrong since I got up this morning.”
“Like what?” asked Jerry. “I mean, what could possibly be wrong here? It ain’t like this is Earth.”
“Yes, I know, Jerry,” said Christopher, whose eyes continued scanning the sky. “There’s nothing out there now.”
“Maybe it was just a group of angels flying past,” suggested Jerry. “They fly through these parts now and again.”
“Angels don’t make you feel like that,” said Christopher. “Believe me, I know.”
Jerry nodded understandingly. “I reckon you would. You know, I’ve lived in Heaven for all of my life, really. You’d think that I’d know all about angels, but I don’t. Oh, I’ve seen them in the forest from time to time, and I’ve seen them in the City of Zion too. They always give you a friendly hello and all. They’re very nice, but I’ve never had one as a friend, not really. My dad says that they travel in different circles from us. They are our trusted friends, but they go their way and we go ours.”
“I’ve grown up around them most of my life,” said Christopher. “I’ve been raised by angels since I was three. I loved them right from the start. Their being around makes me feel good, safe. They’ve held me, taught me, comforted me…angels are love, and they know a whole lot.”
Christopher paused. For a moment he seemed sad. “Still, sometimes I miss my life on Earth. I was only there for three years, but I still remember those years. I had parents—real parents. They loved me. I loved them. I know that I’m going to see them again…someday. I’ve been promised that. Still, I miss them.”
Jerry nodded, placing an arm over his friend’s shoulder. “I think I can understand you missing your parents; really, I do. I know how I’d feel if I were separated from my mom and dad. What I can’t understand is you missing Earth. Look around you—could any forest on Earth be more beautiful than this one? Is there any ocean on Earth more beautiful than the Crystal Sea of Heaven? My friend, everything you could ever want is right here.”
Christopher just nodded.
“Like I said, I can’t see why you miss such a place as Earth,” continued Jerry, giving his line a tug. “I’ll tell you this for sure; my brief experience with that place didn’t endear me to it, not one bit. From what I’ve read, everything there keeps changing. Nothing is permanent, nothing assured. There is disease and death, floods and earthquakes.
“A doctor on Earth killed me while I was still in my mother’s womb. She let him do it—wanted him to do it. Doctors are supposed to try and cure people, not brutally murder them. What kind of doctor does that sort of thing…and what kind of mother allows it? Isn’t a mother supposed to love her child? Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be?”
Christopher nodded, looking over at his friend. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be. Still, you don’t know what was going through her mind right then. Earth isn’t Heaven, you know. All kinds of things happen to people there that just don’t happen here. It sounds to me like there’s still a spiritual wound deep down inside of you that hasn’t healed.”
“Yeah, I guess there is,” said Jerry, whose eyes were affixed upon the waters.
“That can’t be healthy,” continued Christopher.
“Maybe not,” continued Jerry, “but it doesn’t matter. I’m never going to see her again anyway. That’s what my heavenly parents told me. That’s why I was given to them and not to the angels, like you were. If a child from Earth is going to be reunited with their parents again some day, they’re either raised by the angels or by their nearest kin here in Heaven. She ain’t coming here. I reckon I don’t even have any earthly next of kin here in Heaven.”
Christopher was troubled by Jerry’s words. He’d never heard him speak like that. He decided that it might be best to let the subject drop for the moment.
Still, Jerry didn’t seem to want to let it drop just yet. “If that is what Earth is all about, I don’t want to have any part of it. Here in Heaven I was given real parents, parents who really and truly love me, and I love them. On Earth, people steal from each other, hurt each other, and even kill each other. I don’t see why the Father even bothered to create it. I don’t see why He continues to put up with it.”
“Because the Father loves us,” continued Christopher. “He loves us even though we do bad things. I guess it’s just the way He is. But we were talking about angels.”
Jerry paused. “Yes, about angels. What is it like where you live? You know, we’ve been coming out here for months now, and I’ve never gotten around to asking you that. I reckon I figured it might be too personal a question.”