Apocalypse of Jude

On the wide span of beach, sand wet and compact, six stand in a circle as the high tide rushes in over their feet. Before them is the sea, shimmering like glass mixed with fire. Behind them, the rising sun is blazing from beyond the mountain peaks. Their hands are joined, their heads are bowed and their hearts sing a victorious song as Geoff prays.

“Great and wonderful are your works, Lord God Almighty. You are the King of ages and when You come, all will fear You, O Lord, and bring glory to Your name. All nations will come and worship before You, even as we do so today on this beach, for Your righteous love have been revealed in Caul and Audrey. By Your grace, You have this night given to them victory over the beast, his image and his number. You have given to them as You have given to us, the song of Moses and of Christ to sing in their hearts, not only now, but for eternity. The final trumpet of heaven now sounds victorious in their hearts as it does in ours, and we sing with heaven, the kingdom of the world in Caul and Audrey has become the kingdom of our Lord and Christ, and He will reign forever in them both. We shout Hallelujah to rejoice and be glad that the wedding of the Lamb is coming and His bride is making herself ready.”

Together they begin to plough barefoot into the rushing waters that sound like a great multitude. They reach to where the ocean envelops their waists. The cold waves lap against their torsos, but the fire within them feels it not. All of them are dressed in white linen, the sun fully bathing them with the very fresh warmth of the new day. Geoff lifts up his arms and places his hands upon the heads of Caul and Audrey.

“Lord, we ask that You bless this baptism of Caul and Audrey that they themselves have sought, like the Ethiopian eunuch sought it from Philip after he had understood the Word.”

While the others hold hands in a circle around them, Geoff takes Audrey in his arms.

“Audrey, I baptise you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

He dips her backwards and immerses her. She rises, with her face shining and smiling as she first hugs the one who immersed her and the others gathered round. Then Geoff takes Caul.

“Caul, I baptise you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

Caul feels his being immersed into the sea and then being raised up again by the arms that hold him. As he rises, he feels his caul’s opaque weight fall from his head. And in the moment of being raised he watches the lake of burning sulphur that once before had been burning with torment all those, including himself, in the bar—he watches it give way to the purifying flames in which he is now hid until there is no longer any sea around him but a new heaven and earth. From the heavens he sees a most exquisite bride descending to the new earth, dressed in dazzling white. Into this timeless void, he hears Geoff’s voice addresses him and Audrey, and he listens.

“In this kingdom which both of you have now entered, God will one day live with men, and we will be His people forever. All tears will be wiped away. Neither will there be death, mourning, crying or pain, for when the bridegroom comes all manner of old things will be gone and everything will be made new. What I say to you is trustworthy and true, written and recorded in the Word. Christ’s command to both of you is to bring whoever is thirsty, so that they may drink without cost from river of Life that you now drink from. For to anyone who overcomes this world, what He has just given you, will become theirs, and they will become the sons and daughters of God for eternity. But whoever hears these words and does not seek to drink from the source who inspired them, from them will be taken the right to enter into the gates of the new Jerusalem. Do not seal up these words inside your soul. For the time is near.”

In the water, Geoff gathers the rest round, and raises his hands over them all.

“Now unto Him who is able to keep us from falling and who can present us faultless and with great joy before His glorious presence. To the only God our Saviour, be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Come, Lord Jesus. Come. Amen.”

Wasteland Mix: Fragment 112