Wednesday, April 13, 2016

WHY BE AN ETERNAL WHEN YOU CAN BE A SUPERHERO?


**1**
What is it like to be an Eternal? The closest thing that a normal mind can relate to is being a superhero. Not like a minor hero with one or two powers doing the best he can while hoping to survive. An Eternal is more like that Super Entity that even the most powerful heroes hope to get through the year without meeting. Yep, that powerful.
An Eternal is never going to get caught by the arch villain; he is never going to have to escape at the last second by a lucky break or a villain’s mistake. He is never going to lose and never going to die. Not because the comic book writers need him to survive but because the Lord GOD almighty wills it so. Consider the following scenario:
Somewhere, someday a small, helpless young girl will be abducted and dragged off by a group of men. That happens in the real world with tragic results in virtually all cases. There are not enough heroes in our world.
In a comic book story, the winged hero swoops down from the sky holding vengeance in his or her hand. Lightning illuminates the perfect features of the face; the wind barely musses the hair. A skin-tight colorful uniform hugs the flawless, powerful body. A few swift blows dispatch the ne’er-do-wells, scattering their bodies hither and yon. The hero scoops up the victim and carries her through the sky to a place of safety. Police take the girl as she waves a tearful farewell to the flying hero vanishing in the sky.
All in a day’s work for the forces of justice and righteousness. It is great when it all works out. What lends drama to fiction is mistakes and ill-timed appearances. What happens when the hero arrives at the scene of the crime after the deed is done and the villains have fled? What must follow as he clutches a lifeless body, tears running down his face, silently vowing revenge?
Such scenes are far too common in fictional stories and in real life. An Eternal is not likely to face the same situation. He is equipped to handle things properly every single time. What does that mean?
An Eternal does not have a superpower or some superpowers; he has all super powers.
·       Immortality – an Eternal is what his name says, eternal. He will not die, he will not age and he will be around when Heaven and Earth pass away.
·       Invulnerable – kind of like the Superman of old, he cannot be injured. There is no force in the universe that can cause him harm.
·       Reality Creation – not “altering reality” and not “bending reality”; the Eternal creates reality in a way that “it is what he says it is.”
·       True Sight – he can perceive all there is to see as desired.
·       Energy manipulation – fire, light, radiation of any form is under his control.
·       Limitless speed – he can be anywhere at any time regardless of the distance.
·       Timeless – he can move forward and backwards through time and space at will without the need for a TARDIS. and even stop it, for himself and for those he chooses.

**2**
Wow, that is a lot, and it is not even the whole list. This only gives you the beginning of the person dealt with under the title of Eternal. Is there nothing he cannot do? Well, no. So what does he do? The short answer is “Anything he wants.” But that tells us very little about his existence. Let’s take a look at the above scenario with an Eternal in the place of a superhero . . .

A frightened girl is abducted and taken to a secluded place where a group of men are about to assault her. Everything she can imagine is about to become a reality and worse. She doesn’t even suspect that she is not going to live through it. One of the men means to kill her when they are all done. The others don’t know about that since they are all drunk and would not be here at all if they were sober.
Suddenly a light fills the room. All is silence as everyone turns to see a mighty figure coming toward them on wings like a rushing wind. All strength drains from the men and they are just as swiftly sober. Any thoughts of fleeing are wasted as their bodies will not obey. The girl is as frightened of the new arrival as any of the men surrounding her. The winged man is armed and armored yet he makes no aggressive moves. He walks among the men examining them with eyes that flash lightning.
The first one, closest to the door and farthest from the girl, is young. A touch to the forehead tells the Eternal he was not drunk, he pretended to be to fit in with his friends. He does not want to participate in this activity. In fact, he hopes he can avoid it, that when the rest are done they’ll pass out drunk and he can get the girl away from them. There is hope for him. Go. Go home and make better choices in the future. One issue solved, four more to go.
The next is bigger and not all that bright; a simpleton who has the habit of following whomever is in charge. The next two are merely too drunk to exercise good judgement. A minor adjustment to their brain chemistry and they will never drink again without remembering why.
The fourth is the problem. Here is evil in a man’s heart. Here is the one who carries the foulness of hate. There are demons residing inside of him but they are not the ones driving him. He dwells in darkness and would be a bitter spirit on the Earth without the demons making suggestions. He is a taker; a taker of life, a taker of souls, a taker of innocence. He desires not only the desolation of this girl but to taint the lives of the men he brought along. Their bitter fate only adds to his pleasure regardless of what it brings to him. The Eternal has decided.
He puts a shofar to his lips and blasts a note to shake the foundations of the city. He has summoned a Judge. As an Investigator he could pass judgement on his own authority but he leaves that task to one best suited for the task. Behind him the light and rumbling herald the approach of a Tribune, which consists of a Judgement seat, a Judge and at least one Enforcer.
The Eternal gathers the frightened girl and flies away leaving the three remaining men to the righteous judgement befitting their deeds. He informs the girl she is safe now. He delivers her to a Comforter. This is an Eternal who prefers to ease the burdens of the suffering mortals and heal their broken spirits. Nothing is left to be done here. There are no broken bodies, no blood shed – yet – and no damaged buildings to be repaired.  Aside from a few flashes of light, the city slumbers on.

**3**
Now, it could be that while this Eternal was helping this one girl, a little old lady across town was being robbed of her meager life savings and the few remaining days of her life. In another part of town a young person has accidentally overdosed and might not survive the night. There are crimes with terrible consequences every single day. There are people doing evil to others and to themselves. There are accidental deaths and tragic falls, fires, and crashes. What about these other events?
In the list of powers above are two answers to that question: limitless speed and timelessness. The same Eternal can be in each of those places simultaneously without effort. He could be but he won’t.
An Eternal may wield the power of GOD but he is not GOD. People die. People make bad choices and choices have consequences. So the one limitation on the power of an Eternal is the authority of Almighty GOD. The Investigator in this example was dispatched by the LORD to this place. He used the Wisdom GOD gave him to come to a resolution of the situation. He did enough to solve the problem without unnecessary disruption to the world.
When Thor fights the HULK in a comic book, they shatter buildings, tear up roads, and grab random vehicles and throw them at each other. They hit a population center with the devastating force of Hurricane Katrina without the days of forewarning to evacuate.  Imagine the cost of frequent super entity battles on a city like Metropolis. Billions of dollars in damage, uncountable lives lost and the “hero” flies off victorious leaving craters and rubble behind.
An Eternal would stop the fight before it started. He could put the HULK to sleep and ask Thor to take his attitude somewhere else. Any broken pavement can be fixed without people even knowing it happened. Carrying the dozing HULK under one arm he flies off to a secluded desert spot where Banner can wake up alone and at peace.
Or he could even cure Banner of the accursed creature. That would be something to leave up to GOD’s Will.
Life as an Eternal is never boring. There is always so much to do and so much to investigate. So many creatures in all creation and so many wonders to be explored that it will take Eternity to get through half of it; and that is exactly as GOD intended.


**END**

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