The Divine Invasion Read Online Free PDF Page A

Communist Party.
    "But in college I began to get involved in church work. I made the decision. I chose God over the material universe."
    "So you're Catholic."
    "C.I.C., yes. You're using a term that's under ban. As I'm sure you know."
    "It makes no difference to me," Herb Asher said. "I have no involvement with the Church."
    "Maybe you'd like to borrow some C. S. Lewis."
    "No thanks."
    "This illness that I have," Rybys said, "is something that made me wonder about—" She paused. "You have to experience everything in terms of the ultimate picture. As of itself my illness would seem to be evil, but it serves a higher purpose we can't see. Or can't see yet, anyhow."
    "That's why I don't read C. S. Lewis," Herb Asher said.
    She glanced at him dispassionately. "Is it true that the Clems used to worship a pagan deity on this little hill?"
    "Apparently so," he said. "Called Yah."
    "Hallelujah," Rybys said.
    "What?" he said, startled.
    "It means 'Praise ye Yah.' The Hebrew is Halleluyah ."
    "Yahweh, then."
    "You never say that name. That's the sacred Tetragrammaton. Elohim , which is not plural but singular, means 'God,' and then later on in the Bible the Divine Name appears with Adonay , so you get 'Lord God.' You can choose between Elohim or Adonay or use both together but you can never say Yahweh."
     "You just said it."
    Rybys smiled. "So nobody's perfect. Kill me."
    "Do you believe all that?"
    "I'm just stating matters of fact." She gestured. "Historic fact."
    "But you do believe it. I mean, you believe in God."
    "Yes."
    "Did God will your M.S.?"
    Hesitating, Rybys said slowly, "He permitted it. But I believe he's healing me. There's something I have to learn and this way I'll learn it."
    "Couldn't he teach you some easier way?"
    "Apparently not."
    Herb Asher said, "Yah has been communicating with me."
    "No, no; that's a mistake. Originally the Hebrews believed that the pagan gods existed but were evil; later they realized that the pagan gods didn't exist."
    "My incoming signals and my tapes," Asher said.
    "Are you serious?"
    "Of course I am."
    "There's a life form here besides the Clems?"
    "There is where my dome is; yes. It's on the order of C.B. interference, except that it's sentient. It's selective."
    Rybys said, "Play me one of the tapes."
    "Sure." Herb Asher walked over to his computer terminal and began to punch keys. A moment later he had the correct tape playing.
     
    Silly wretch, let me rail
    At a voyage that is blind.
    Holy hopes do require
    Your behind.
     
    Rybys giggled. "I'm sorry, she said, laughing. "Is that Yah who did that? Not some wise guy on the mother ship or over on Fomalhaut? I mean, it sounds exactly like the Fox. The tone, I mean; not the words. The intonation. Somebody's playing a joke on you, Herb. That isn't a deity. Maybe it's the Clems."
    "I had one of them in here," Asher said sourly. "I think we should have used nerve gas on them when we settled here originally. I thought you only encountered God after you die."
    "God is God of history and of nations. Also of nature. Originally Yahweh was probably a volcanic deity. But he periodically enters history, the best example being when he intervened to bring the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt and to the Promised Land. They were shepherds and accustomed to freedom; it was terrible for them to be making bricks. And the Pharaoh had them gathering the straw as well and still being required to meet their quota of bricks per day. It is an archetypal timeless situation, God bringing men out of slavery and into freedom. Pharaoh represents all tyrants at all times." Her voice was calm and reasonable; Asher felt impressed.
    "So you can encounter God while you're alive," he said.
    "Under exceptional circumstances. Originally God and Moses talked together as a man talks with his friend."
    "What went wrong?"
    "Wrong in what way?"
    "Nobody hears God's voice anymore.
    Rybys said, "You do."
    "My audio and video systems do."
    "That's better than nothing." She eyed him.