Chapter 5: The Spirits

 

The yard was silent. Not a breath of wind stirred the leaves of the tall oak tree. The injured man laid alone, his life slowly bleeding away. Tyler Emerson still sat in his wheelchair on the porch, praying. From time to time he looked over at Jack to see if anything about the wounded man had changed. Then he looked down the road, listening intently for the sound of ambulance sirens.

Then, there was a stirring in the air as the wind suddenly picked up and swirled around like a small whirlwind, moving across the yard toward where Jack lay. The whirlwind seem to collapse and something appeared in the yard as if born from the gust of wind.

A being in the likeness of a man, dressed from head to foot in black, walked slowly over to Jack. The figure moved fluidly, his jet-black hair unaffected by the breeze, as though time had no effect or power over him at all. He finally came to a standstill by Jack, standing over him with a pair of shiny black shoes planted on the ground near Jack’s head. This being stood silently for a moment, studying the man on the ground with the rake prongs in his back as intently as a lion watches the prey it is about to seize. Then the being’s wicked face cracked into a malevolent smile.

“Oh yes, yes,” he whispered in a rough, dark voice that seemed to come from a heavy fog. “Long have I waited for this day. Jack Krantz, your entire life you have been the poster boy for every kind of evil imaginable–hatred, corruption, deception, thievery, and a thousand more vices just like them. You, my friend,” the being addressed the unconscious man, “are quite a catch.”

The black-garbed figure’s eyes glowed maliciously. As his eyes lit up the pupils burned a distinct blood-red while he gazed down on Jack. An aura of menace surrounded his presence.

Suddenly the wind picked up again and began to swirl. The dark spirit turned toward it, his satisfied smile slipping to an annoyed and surprised frown. Another being, similar to the first in bearing semblance to a man, appeared. Unlike the dark spirit being whose skin resembled the flesh of a cadaver, the light spirit had a skin tone of soft olive, and he had white hair whereas the dark spirit’s hair was coal black. The second being was dressed all in white, and radiated a soft ethereal glow. When the dark spirit saw the light spirit, he growled and took a step closer to Jack as though staking a claim over him.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded in a mocking voice. “I never cease to be amazed. You show up when there’s absolutely no chance of your side winning this battle. Jack Krantz is mine. So, until the appointed time, go busy yourself elsewhere.”

The evil spirit moved around Jack so he was positioned between the man and the good spirit. His lips curled back from his teeth in a snarl like a ravenous wolf that has been interrupted during a meal.

Unperturbed, the good spirit moved lightly towards the evil spirit, a quiet smile on his face. He, too, seemed to drift through the air without time’s pressure bearing on him. As he approached, the evil spirit bared his teeth at him again and took a possessive step back closer to Jack. Soon the two spirits were both at a standstill with Jack between them. The good spirit disregarded the black scowls of the dark spirit as he studied Jack.

“It sounds like someone is overconfident,” he said calmly. His voice was soft and soothing as if it came out of a dream. He looked down at the wounded man with beautiful sky-blue eyes...eyes with pure white pupils that slowly glowed brighter and brighter as he studied Jack.

“He isn’t dead yet, and you have already consigned him to hell,” the good spirit said to the evil spirit, gesturing toward Jack. “Give the guy a chance. He might surprise you.” And here the good spirit chuckled. “Why, I might be the one taking him, while you end up empty-handed.”

The evil spirit shook his head. “Not a chance of that happening! You obviously don’t know this man at all, whereas I, on the other hand, know him very well.”

The evil spirit spread his hands out over the injured man between them.

“He’s a complete charlatan,” the evil spirit said. “He’s a liar, a thief, and an adulterer. In fact, he’s just plain evil – through and through. And I’m proud to say I’ve helped him time and again to learn that.”

The evil spirit rubbed his hands together and smiled delightedly as he spoke of Jack Krantz’s blackened life. But the good spirit shook his head.

“Maybe he is evil,” he said, looking sadly down at Jack. “But as you and I both know, humans aren’t born that way. They start out clean and pure, and then, on occasion, along the way some of them turn into the Jack Krantzes of this world.”

“Ha! What do you mean, ‘some’ of them?” said the evil spirit. “Most all of them are like Jack Krantz in one way or another.”

“Perhaps,” said the good spirit. “But it doesn’t have to be that way. And until they draw their final breath, nothing is locked in stone. People can change, you know.”

Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of an ambulance. As the paramedics jumped out of the ambulance and rushed over to Jack, the two spirits moved away from the wounded man to watch the EMTs stabilize the injured man.

“Is he going to be okay?” Tyler called anxiously from the porch as the paramedics began working over Jack.

“Give us a minute, sir,” one of them responded.

When they carefully turned Jack over, there was the rake with the metal forks buried deep in his back. Tyler flinched.

The paramedics secured two belts around Jack to keep the rake and its handle from moving and causing him more harm before they lifted him onto the gurney. They couldn’t take the rake out of him there, for to pry it from the wound would mean Jack’s bleeding to death. The rake would have to be removed from his body at the hospital.

All this time, no one saw the spirit of light and the spirit of darkness standing off to the side, watching closely.

“You know, my king began his work in the Garden of Eden with a lie that caused the first humans to sin,” the evil spirit said proudly. He was leaning against the big tree with casual ease. The good spirit stood several feet away from him, his blue eyes with the white pupils glowing.

“My king used the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life,” the evil spirit went on boastfully. “These have worked well for us from that first sin on earth.”

“Your king may in fact be the king of the earth,” the good spirit acknowledged, “but God did not create the earth for Satan. God created the world for His Son Jesus, and all that was made was made through Him.”

The good spirit spoke of Satan as if his tongue shied away from the name. At his statement, the evil spirit glowered at him.

Elizabeth had come out of the house when she heard the ambulance arrive. She joined Tyler on the front porch to see what the paramedics would say about Jack’s condition, wondering if maybe he was dead. The Emersons watched as their enemy, the man who had ruined their lives, was being treated. Elizabeth, her face devoid of pity, stood with one arm wrapped around one of the porch posts, leaning against the porch railing as she observed the scene. Behind her Tyler sat in his wheelchair but, instead of looking at Jack, his eyes were closed, his head was bowed and he was moving his lips in more silent prayer.

Unseen by both brother and sister, the two spirits stood on the porch with them as they also watched Jack Krantz being loaded onto a gurney and lifted into the ambulance.

“So you think the likes of Jack Krantz can change?” demanded the evil spirit of the good spirit. “You really live in a dream world all your own, don’t you?”

The good spirit laughed softly. “Oh, it’s no dream. Humans aren’t as untrustworthy as you make them out to be.”

“Yeah right!” the evil spirit said rudely. “Leave the ivory halls of your sanctified realm for a while and then you’ll see what this is all about. Humans may start out with a clean slate but they rarely end up with one. Admit it: more often than not, what they do best is sin.”

“I disagree,” the good spirit replied. “Sure, humans make mistakes along the way. But there are two things you have overlooked.”

The evil spirit scoffed. “Oh yes? What did I overlook?”

“First,” the good spirit began, “they have lots of help. You and your cohorts tempt and entice them at every turn, do you not?”

The evil spirit smiled wickedly. “Of course we do. We’ve been lying to the humans from the beginning. We’re not ashamed to admit it. We’ve got just one goal. We want everyone in our corner and no one in yours. It’s that simple.”

“And that’s your entire agenda – eternal destruction of the whole human race,” said the good spirit.

“Sure. It’s that simple,” the evil spirit repeated proudly. “Most human beings don’t believe there is a hell, but you and I know there is. Maybe it helps them sleep better at night to deny its existence. And if you get them to think there really are no eternal consequences, they’ll have no trouble sinning. That’s our agenda. It’s no secret. And you can’t deny that we’re successful!” he added with a jeer.

The good spirit looked over at the man being put into the ambulance. Then he turned to study the man in the wheelchair. Then he looked back at the evil spirit, whose face was gloating.

“And exactly how do you measure your ‘success’?” he inquired.

The evil spirit grinned.

“Look at the numbers. We have way more people than you do. There’s no comparison. We win. You lose,” he declared with wicked finality.

“Why the arrogant attitude?” questioned the good spirit mildly. “How can you be so sure? How do you know you have this ‘all locked up’?”

“Listen to yourself! Jesus Himself said: ‘Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.’” The evil spirit sneered as he spat the words out of his mouth as if he tasted something foul. “We are virtually guaranteed to win!”

The good spirit, glowing full of light, shook his head again. His bright eyes danced.

“That isn’t entirely true,” he stated, and the evil spirit glared at him. “You don’t win. God knows not every soul will be saved. He knew that from the beginning, so you haven’t beaten Him. Just because you end up with more souls doesn’t mean you win.”

“We almost got all of them at the time of the Flood, remember?” the evil spirit interrupted.

“And yet, eight souls were saved, remember?” the good spirit said, smiling at the frustration his reply sparked in the evil spirit’s red eyes.

You can’t really claim success until you achieve your ultimate goal––the destruction of all mankind,” the good spirit added.

“Well, we’re well on our way to that, aren’t we!” said the evil spirit, standing with his back against the wall and one foot propped up behind him, arms folded. He seemed utterly confident in his statement.

“How so?” the good spirit asked. He was leaning against the porch railing near Elizabeth, who hadn’t moved from her position.

The evil spirit straightened up, an evil, eager fire in his red eyes.

“We use every dirty trick in the book. We use deception to make it appear that we’re telling the truth, when in fact we’re not. We convince humans they’re right when really, they’re wrong. These humans are so gullible. They believe a lie faster than they will believe God and we count on that.”

“Not all humans are as gullible as you think,” said the good spirit quietly but defensively.

“Ha, they accept so easily a little lie mixed with the truth!” cried the evil spirit. “That’s one of our best methods for getting religious humans to believe a lie – stir a little truth into it. Then they are so willing to teach that lie to others...”

“And so, the lethal infection grows,” said the good spirit, his voice calm but with a dark edge to it.

“Precisely.” The evil spirit grinned. “And we have a list of lies that are notorious for getting the religiously minded humans to disobey God.”

“I know you do,” said the good spirit, his face displeased. He folded his arms, which goaded the evil spirit on.

“The one I like best is, ‘if you were ever saved, you will always be saved.’ That’s a great one,” he said with a laugh as he thought over his past triumphs using that lie. “Or the feel-good deception that ‘everyone is going to Heaven.’”

The evil spirit wrinkled his brow as he thought through his arsenal of corruption. “One of my favorite church lies is that you can worship at the church of your choice. And then there’s the lie, ‘I have done more good than bad’.”

The evil spirit continued naming off the lies in his inventory.

“And this one, ‘Take Jesus into your heart and you will be saved’. That one works remarkably well,” the dark spirit gloated.

“Because they have to do more than that to be accepted by God,” the good spirit said.

“Yes, but when I can get them to believe that’s all they have to do, accept Jesus into their heart and that’s all, then I’ve got them,” the evil spirit grinned. “And here’s my favorite: ‘It’s okay to worship other gods and follow men instead of Jesus’. Need I go on?”

“You are right. Those lies will cause many to lose their souls,” the good spirit said with a sigh.

The evil spirit leaned back against the wall of the house,

grinning triumphantly at his nemesis.

“But surely you are aware how easily truth can prevail over these lies if humans only seek after it?” the good spirit added quickly, and the evil spirit’s smirk slipped just the slightest bit.

Out in the yard, the paramedics had finished loading Jack Krantz into the ambulance. Under the eyes of Tyler and Elizabeth the medical vehicle drove away, transporting Jack to the hospital. The scream of the ambulance siren slowly melted away into the warm afternoon, leaving the old house and property quiet once again. For now, the Emersons would be safe from their persecutor.

Elizabeth stood with folded arms as the ambulance left. Her eyes narrowed to sharp slits after it.

“Let’s hope he’s DOA,” she muttered, turning to go back into the house.

Tyler jerked his head up.

“Elizabeth Rose Emerson, how can you wish for such a thing? God says we are to pray for our enemies and do good to those who spitefully use us. I know Jack has wronged us terribly, but we have no right to wish evil upon him.”

His sister’s face twisted in an unmistakable scowl, and Tyler knew how angry she was.

“No, Tyler.” She held her hand up. “Don’t you start quoting the Bible to me again. I can’t take it right now.”

She stormed into the house, slamming the screen door behind her.

Brokenhearted and disappointed, with tears in his eyes, Tyler began once more to pray – not only for Jack’s healing, but for the anger in his own sister’s heart.

In the distance the loud cry of the ambulance siren was fading away.

“We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”

-1 John 5:19