#Joseph Smith New Jerusalem

[mindfulldsliving]

Responding to Paul Gee: Understanding the New Jerusalem and Joseph Smith’s Teachings

Paul Gee’s critiques of Joseph Smith’s teachings on the New Jerusalem raise important questions for Latter-day Saints and curious readers alike. He claims that Joseph Smith’s prophecies about building the New Jerusalem are false. But does this argument hold up under scrutiny? Mormons claim that they will build the New Jerusalem. This was taught by Joseph Smith. Unfortunately, it is a false…

[toohipsterforthemoon]

Oh lol, My B, *MO not Michigan

This is kind of an on going project, but in a discord server I frequent theres a running gag where whenever somone says something really inappropriate, or for lack of a better term "horny" we respond with the painting of Joseph Smith Jr. rebuking the guards in the jailhouse at Liberty, MI (context at the end of the post) So for the first function of my first ever discord bot, known as "Mormo the Demon King" I have it be able to be invoked in order to rebuke anyone who says something of the sort. I am keeping it private for now, but I may reblog this later with a link to the python script I built it in if it is wanted. Plan on adding more to mormo later down the line. ---CONTEXT--- For those who don't know the story, at one point Joseph Smith Jr. was put into prison in Liberty Missouri for several charges that were later dropped, including banking fraud, conspiracy, and treason against the state. During this stay the guards, either naturally or as a way to attempt to bother the prophet started bragging about their involvement in various campaigns of harassment and terrorism against the displaced Mormons. One even mentioning the infamous Haun's Mill where 17 mormon residents of the community were killed, including several children. We dont know exactly what the jail guards said in their conversation but it was enough to allegedly compel Smith to stand up and confer a heavenly rebuke commanding that they either stop talking or die. Reportedly the guards were so astonished that they remained silent until the change of guard the next morning.

[inbabylontheywept]

Would you mind sharing the psalm and why you felt that person was the most humanist Mormon? I'm not religious at all but I find these sort of things very interesting.

In exchange I could offer the reason for my url ?

I'm warning you, this is kind of a mega essay, and it's fucking unhinged. Click at your own risk.

(Alright. You clicked.)

Psalms 137

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept

when we remembered Zion.

There on the poplars

we hung our harps,

for there our captors asked us for songs,

our tormentors demanded songs of joy;

they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

How can we sing the songs of the Lord

while in a foreign land?

If I forget you, Jerusalem,

may my right hand forget its skill.

May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth

if I do not remember you,

if I do not consider Jerusalem

my highest joy.

Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did

on the day Jerusalem fell.

“Tear it down,” they cried,

“tear it down to its foundations!”

Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,

happy is the one who repays you

according to what you have done to us.

Happy is the one who seizes your infants

and dashes them against the rocks.

———

Mormonism has layers. Different cores of believers, cultures within itself. The largest group of Mormons also dominate its image within the larger culture. You know them as the nerdy, cheerful, bubbly dorks on South Park, or the hopelessly naive childlike weirdos from the Book of Mormon musical. Strangely sanitized, "wholesome" people that are, clearly, unwhole. Missing some essential part of the human experience.

(Pain, maybe?)

I think that embracing this image is letting Mormonism view itself as what it wishes it was. A group with all its rough edges sanded off, all its raw and desperate humanity scrubbed away. A clean and godly and slightly unsettling image of joy.

That isn't how it started.

Now, most people know the story of Joseph Smith. Fourteen year old farm boy starts a cult because the whole world if full of idiots, I won't repeat it because you've probably already got it from South Park. But at some point that weirdo cult did become a religion, and I would point to that moment as the Mormon War of 1838.

I don't know how far after the founding that was. Enough that Joseph Smith was a grown man. Enough that the Mormons had around 15-25 thousand members. They'd moved to the Illinois-Missouri area and were establishing settlements.

(They creeped the locals out. Of course they creeped the locals out.)

Eventually, they got pushed out of the county they'd claimed. Jackson County, it was. The state couldn't actually take that county from the people that expelled them, so to try and make the Mormons "whole" for the land they'd bought (ignoring the houses and farms they'd already set up) it gave them a new county.

Next election that came around, that county was sieged. Voting was blocked. Now, the people of the state were terrified that this weirdo voting block was going to take them over. They probably weren't wrong. Some former Mormons had straggled in from the county revealing a frankly corrupt land dealthat the early church had used to transfer resources to itself, and that served as a tipping point. To prevent their state from becoming a religious basketcase, a mob sieged the Mormon county during the next election.

The state tried to return order by sending the militia in to break up the siege, but the militia mutinied. They joined the siegers. A ground of strange, extremist violent Mormons known as the Danites rode out and attacked local settlements that were known to house the families of the militia members.

The Governor at the time - Lilburn Boggs - sent out an executive decree. The Mormons were traitors, and were to be killed on sight. It is the only religion in the US to have ever had such an order made against it.

The Mormons surrendered their county and went to Nauvoo, Illinois. There were again expelled from that city in 1846, and traveled west.

They died in great numbers and they never forgot the homes they lost.

———

I tried to tell the story as sympathetically to the people of Missouri as I could. The Mormons made messes wherever they went, and they unsettled everyone they interacted with. But they were attacked as well, and had a history of violence against them. It should not be totally surprising that they became insular and strange.

Many (most?) Mormons that learn all of their history wind up leaving the religion. It has twists and turns and knots and it is incredibly, overwhelmingly human. I think that's where the facade of Mormon perfectionism comes from - the shame of that. The desire to be something else. But being human is all I've ever wanted. And occasionally, there are people faithful in the church - layers upon layers deep - that know their history.

And they are angry about it.

I think it's more common than people realize. Did you know that until 1930 Mormons swore literal religious oaths of vengeance against the US government for the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith?

I always felt like these were, in some way, the real Mormons. They knew their history, and they loved their church, and they hated what it had suffered all those years ago.

They scared me, those people. But they seemed complete. More complete than the people that had carved out everything that didn't make them smile. They'd walked into the mirror, and touched their shadow, and danced with. Melded with it.

And I knew a few like that. I was taught by one. And he didn't convince me, but he interested me. Gave me some respect for the people I left behind.

———

In the game Fallout: New Vegas, there is a character named Joshua Graham. He's a Mormon. Not like the silly children in adult bodies that they always use on TV. He has gravitas. He has put away his moral compass before, to pursue the dream of one powerful man. Poured his soul into it, helped that man conquer the whole west in piecemeal. He's a somewhat on the nose analogy of the Mormon people themselves, following Joseph Smith. And when he finally failed, when he fought a battle he could not win on the gates of the Old World Hoover Dam, he was lit on fire and thrown into the Grand Canyon to die.

But he did not die.

He says he survived because the fire in him burned brighter than the fire around him. And it seems that way when you speak with him in game. There is something compellingly bright to him. Not shiny like a new toy, or a Utah teenager that hasn't seem just how grim the world can be. He's something blinding, compelling.

But that brightness casts shadows.

He is vicious. He was saved in the canyon by the family he left, the old Mormons of a new world. And he's trying to find that part of him again, regain the soul he lost pursuing someone else's vision. But that old vicious animal part of the covenant is with him. I see Joshua Graham and I see the animal that the Mormons became to survive the West.

And in the game, there is eventually a choice given.

You can lead the tribe Joshua has joined up with out of their Zion. Their Jackson County Missouri. Peacefully and perfectly and inhumnanly transcendant, the way the Mormons wish they actually were about everything. You can give him the chance to be what Mormonism has always wished it could be. Or you can fight with them and help them reclaim their paradise, but get your hands stuck deep in the muck of this world.

Joshua Graham knows his history. He knows all the homes his people lost. And whatever brightness he's trying to regain, whatever soul he's trying to win back from the world that takes and takes and takes and takes - he wants to give it all up again to let these people keep their home.

He knows his past and he is angry.

And as the player, you help him make peace with one of two things: Being human by being fallen, or keeping his soul at the cost of reliving the ancestral trauma of losing Zion yet again.

Both were pretty visceral decisions for a Mormon teenage Babylon to make.

(Tagging @boonebignaturals in this because I need a witness to my madness.)

[meandmybigmouth]

President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds his hands out and gestures toward the audience as he and his counselors, President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency, left, and President Henry B. Eyring, second counselor in the First Presidency, take their seats prior to the afternoon session of the 194th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Sunday, April 7, 2024.

GRIFTING MOFO'S IN A RELIGION WHO'S FOUNDING IS WACKIER THAN ANY OTHER!

Mormons believe that the people of the Book of Mormon lived in the western hemisphere, that Christ appeared in the western hemisphere after his death and resurrection, that the true faith was restored in Upstate New York by Joseph Smith, that the Garden of Eden was located in North America, and that the New Jerusalem would be built in Missouri.[citation needed] For this and other reasons, including a belief by many Mormons in American exceptionalism, Molly Worthen speculates that this may be why Leo Tolstoy described Mormonism as the "quintessential 'American religion'".[86]

[diarythebookwyrm]

Insane Shit I was Taught as a Mormon (in no particular order)

That all indigenous people in North America were actually Jews who sailed from somewhere in the Middle East all the way to somewhere in either South, Central, or North America in 600 BC.

That somehow these Jews started out white (which...is like Jesus being white, but sure Jan) and then as they became more "sinful" they became darker skinned.

Oh, and by 300 AD all the Nephites (the "white and delightsome" and "holy" people) were killed in a battle with the Lamanites (the sinful and darkskinned people) with only one Nephite left named Moroni who buried an abridged history carved on gold plates, a special translation stone called the Urim and Thumim in a hill in New York State for Joseph Smith, Jr. to find in 1823

That Joseph Smith, Jr. translated the Book of Mormon by "wearing" the Urim and Thumim, which were supposedly a breastplate with lenses set into the shoulders like some weird goggles that you could adjust. (This was official Church History until the last like...twenty years or so, when they finally started admitting how he really "translated" the gold plates. I'll go into that later)

More under the cut, because there's a Lot of Weird Shit

That Joseph Smith, Jr. and Oliver Cowdery received the Aaronic (or "lesser") priesthood by a river in Philadelphia from the spirit of John the Baptist, and then the Melchizedek (or "higher") priesthood by that same river from Peter, James and John (yes, Jesus' companions/disciples).

That Quetzalcoatl was actually how the Aztecs explained Jesus Christ coming to the New World during the three days before he appeared to his apostles in Jerusalem. I wish I was making this one up.

That there were three Nephites who were basically the New World Peter, James and John who told Jesus they wanted to "tarry" on earth until the second coming. This is such a Thing (TM) among Mormons that ppl claim to this day to have had interactions with the Three Nephites. like it's wild how much they buy into this, along with the idea that John the Beloved is still walking around. There's a whole ass Christmas book (with included musical accompaniment CD--yes, really--because everyone has A Song) about a woman discovering the True Meaning of Christmas (TM) by being a caretaker nurse to a guy who claims to be John the Beloved that's written by a popular Mormon musician.

That Joseph Smith, Jr. only ever had three "extra" wives, because he didn't really want to practice polygamy, but God made him do it.

That Joseph Smith, Jr. was killed for being the True Voice of God, and not because he was a lying, narcissistic sack of shit. (more on that later)

That God is an alien (they don't say that but come on) who lives on a Star/Planet (they use the term star, but there's no way anything lives on a star) called Kolob. There's a whole ass hymn that they just straight up only sing in church on rare occasions that's all about how God lives on Kolob. The reason they don't sing it? because they KNOW how insane it sounds, and they don't want people to know just how fucking weird they are.

That if you are a Truly Good Mormon in life and get all your appropriate ordinances done (like being married in the Temple. you legit cannot enter Super Heaven without that), then you go to Super Heaven The Celestial Kingdom. And if you are the Specialist Boi (it's almost certainly gonna be all men lbr) then you go to the Highest Level of Super Heaven the Celestial Kingdom and get your own planet to be God for.

That there are three tiers of Heaven. Terrestrial (for those who did okay for being not Mormon Godless Heathens), Telestial (for those who Did Accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, but weren't quite Special Enough for Super Heaven), and Celestial aka Super Heaven.

That Adam (as in Adam and Eve) was actually the Archangel Michael given a human body because he was a Super Special Boi who helped God and Jesus create the world.

Lies I Learned the Truth of Once I Put in Minimal Effort:

That the Urim and Thumim weren't real. The way Joseph Smith actually "translated" the Book of Mormon was by putting a "seer stone" in a hat, putting his face in the hat to seal out all the light, and "seeing" the words printed on the stone. This was also a scam he used several years before he started "translating" to find hidden treasure. He was arrested for fraud for doing this in Philadelphia, which was why his future father-in-law didn't want Emma Hale (later Emma Smith) to marry Joseph in the first place.

The seer stone looked like this:

That Joseph Smith didn't just have three "bonus wives" who were poor women with no man to financially support them, but actually closer to 35. At least eleven of these wives were teenagers when he coerced them into marrying him. At least two were polyandrous, where Joseph coerced both the woman and her legal husband into letting him marry the woman in question. The youngest and most scandalous of these girls was Helen Mar Kimball, who was fourteen. Several of these women then went on to marry Brigham Young, who had a total of fifty-six wives.

Joseph claimed that he was "encouraged" to practice polygamy by an angel with a "drawn sword" and used this to coerce the young women and girls into accepting his proposal.

That Joseph wasn't killed for being The One True Prophet, but for the rumors of him being a polygamist who married children. He was arrested for destroying a federally owned printing press where a former Mormon was printing pamphlets about the girls Joseph Smith was forcing to marry him. The mob that came to Carthage Jail were there because they heard the rumors and wanted to get rid of a pervert, basically.

The Mormon Church lies about a lot of their history. And even when they do finally admit the truth about it, they hide it so you have to really go hunting for the proof in their "approved" sites.

[pjharvey-moved]

the book of mormon (joseph smith’s bad americas AU bible fanfic) wasn’t sexy as much as the bible like not even close and most of it was painfully boring but there was a bit where they’re like headed to the promised land from jerusalem on a boat, and nephi is getting like tortured by his brothers for believing in god or something, and they tie him to the mast of the ship and leave him there, and there was an illustrated book of mormon stories book with some really like artistically impressive illustrations of him all tied up, he was also drawn as very hot in kind of a rugged but delicately masculine manner.., i saw some gay exmormon guy on twitter say that scene was what made him realize he was into bondage and i think about that constantly it’s sooo funny to me. new kind of guy. or maybe a very common one but no one wants to just go right out and say that.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

also, for interest/reference, the titles of the individual mini plays in the mysteries (and playwrights), according to the show's program

Act I - The Fall

Song of the Trimorph (Lucifer's Lament) - Dael Orlandersmith

Falling for You - Liz Duffy Adams

The Eighth Day (Creation Hymn) - Jason Williamson

God's Rules - Johnna Adams

A Worm Walks into a Garden, or The Fall of Man - Madeleine George

Right of Return - Jorge Ignacio Cortinas

Cain and Abel - David Henry Hwang

Build It - Trista Baldwin

The Flood - Mallery Avidon

Fruitful and Begettin' - Nick Jones

Bright New Devil - Matthew Stephen Smith

The Moses Story - Ann Marie Healy

The Prophecy - CollaborationTown

The Annunciation - Jordan Harrison

Joseph's Troubles About Mary - Kate Gersten

The Shepherds - Kimber Lee

King of Kings - Kate Moira Ryan

The Slaughter of the Innocents - Chris Dimond

The Flight into Egypt - Kenneth Lin

Act II - The Sacrifice

Christ with the PhDs - Erin Courtney

Jesus Grows Up Fast - CollaborationTown

New Periods of Pain Part I - Craig Lucas

Something in the Water - A. Rey Pamatmat

Transfiguration - Billy Porter/Kirsten Greenidge

The Woman Taken in Adultery - Max Posner

The Raising of Lazarus - Amy Freed

Jesus Enters Jerusalem - Gabriel Jason Dean

Turning the Tables - CollaborationTown

The Conspiracy - Yussef El Guindi

The Last Supper - Jeff Whitty

The Garden of Tears and Kisses - José Rivera

The Denial of Peter - Bess Wohl

Christ Before Herod - Qui Nguyen

Judgment? - Marc Acito

The Remorse - Sevan K. Greene

The Road to Calvary - Jenny Schwartz

Act III - The Kingdom

New Periods of Pain Part II - Craig Lucas

The Death of Christ - Don Nguyen

The Harrowing of Hell - Lucas Hnath

Resurrection - Bill Cain

The Next Supper - Lloyd Suh

The Appearance - Ellen McLaughlin

Thomas Doubting (or, Doubting Thomas Doubts His Doubt) - Jordan Seavey

The Gospel According to Mary Magdalene - Meghan Kennedy

Pentecost - Sean Graney

Walking Away from the Mirror and Forgetting What You Looked Like - Eisa Davis

The Death of Mary - Lillian Groag

The Assumption of Mary - Najla Said

The Coronation - Laura Marks

The Last Judgment - Michael Mitnick

Sermon of The Senses - José Rivera

[dailycdev]

New Jerusalem Will Come Down, Not Built

Mormons claim that they will build the New Jerusalem. This was taught by Joseph Smith, unfortunately it is a false teaching. The Book of Revelation is clear that New Jerusalem will come down from heaven. See those details below… “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of…

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 7.8 (before 1930)

1099 – Some 15,000 starving Christian soldiers begin the siege of Jerusalem by marching in a religious procession around the city as its Muslim defenders watch. 1283 – Roger of Lauria, commanding the Aragonese fleet, defeats an Angevin fleet sent to put down a rebellion on Malta. 1497 – Vasco da Gama sets sail on the first direct European voyage to India. 1579 – Our Lady of Kazan, a holy icon of the Russian Orthodox Church, is discovered underground in the city of Kazan, Tatarstan. 1663 – Charles II of England grants John Clarke a Royal charter to Rhode Island. 1709 – Peter I of Russia defeats Charles XII of Sweden at the Battle of Poltava, thus effectively ending Sweden's status as a major power in Europe. 1716 – The Battle of Dynekilen forces Sweden to abandon its invasion of Norway. 1730 – An estimated magnitude 8.7 earthquake causes a tsunami that damages more than 1,000 km (620 mi) of Chile's coastline. 1741 – Reverend Jonathan Edwards preaches to his congregation in Enfield, Connecticut his most famous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"; an influence for the First Great Awakening. 1758 – French forces hold Fort Carillon against the British at Ticonderoga, New York. 1760 – British forces defeat French forces in the last naval battle in New France. 1775 – The Olive Branch Petition is signed by the Continental Congress of the Thirteen Colonies of North America. 1776 – Church bells (possibly including the Liberty Bell) are rung after John Nixon delivers the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence of the United States. 1808 – Promulgation of the Bayonne Statute, a royal charter Joseph Bonaparte intended as the basis for his rule as king of Spain. 1822 – Chippewas turn over a huge tract of land in Ontario to the United Kingdom. 1853 – The Perry Expedition arrives in Edo Bay with a treaty requesting trade. 1859 – King Charles XV & IV accedes to the throne of Sweden–Norway. 1864 – Ikedaya Incident: The Choshu Han shishi's planned Shinsengumi sabotage on Kyoto, Japan at Ikedaya. 1874 – The Mounties begin their March West. 1876 – The Hamburg massacre prior to the 1876 United States presidential election results in the deaths of six African-Americans of the Republican Party, along with one white assailant. 1879 – Sailing ship USS Jeannette departs San Francisco carrying an ill-fated expedition to the North Pole. 1889 – The first issue of The Wall Street Journal is published. 1892 – St. John's, Newfoundland is devastated in the Great Fire of 1892. 1898 – The death of crime boss Soapy Smith, killed in the Shootout on Juneau Wharf, releases Skagway, Alaska from his iron grip. 1912 – Henrique Mitchell de Paiva Couceiro leads an unsuccessful royalist attack against the First Portuguese Republic in Chaves.

[exodustours2]

Faithful Sojourn- Experiencing LDS Travels

For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), traveling holds a unique significance beyond mere exploration. It becomes a faithful sojourn—a journey of spiritual enrichment and connection with sacred sites that shape LDS theology and history.

LDS travels often encompass visits to significant locations mentioned in the scriptures and central to LDS beliefs. These may include iconic sites in the Holy Land, such as Bethlehem and Jerusalem, where the Savior walked and taught. Walking in His footsteps fosters a profound sense of reverence and spiritual renewal.

Moreover, LDS tours often extend beyond the Holy Land to include visits to historical sites significant to the Restoration of the Church, such as Palmyra, New York, where Joseph Smith received the First Vision, and Nauvoo, Illinois, where early Saints built a thriving community.

These journeys offer more than just sightseeing; they provide opportunities for worship, scripture study, and fellowship with fellow believers. Guided by knowledgeable tour leaders, participants delve into the history and doctrine of their faith, deepening their understanding and strengthening their testimonies.

Ultimately, Exodus Tours are not just about visiting landmarks; they are about experiencing sacred spaces, connecting with the spirit, and reaffirming one's faith. Each journey becomes a faithful sojourn—a pilgrimage of the heart that leaves a lasting imprint on the soul.

[apilgrimpassingby]

Another "keep reading" break

Firstly, I want to be clear. All I have been attempting to prove is this:

There was a person called Jesus in early 1st century Judea.

He founded Christianity.

He was crucified by Pontius Pilate.

(By the way, contra the Lataster article, historians can agree on these and other details, such as being baptism by John the Baptist and born in Nazareth; it's not just the existence of Jesus that's agreed on, but certain biographical details.)

This is why stuff about censuses and flipping tables is irrelevant, because I'm not trying to prove that. Even if certain incidents in the Gospels are fictional, that doesn't mean that there's no historical Jesus figure - just like we don't postulate "Washington mythicism" based on the fact that he never cut down a cherry tree.

And the main reason I'm trying to disprove it is that I don't like pseudohistory and this is pseudohistory that I feel good at debunking. And it's not just stuff that goes against Christianity; I butted heads with a young-earth creationist recently.

The historians aren't all culturally Christian - Geza Vermes was a practicing Jew who pushed for a more Jewish interpretation of Jesus, and, while non-religious, Paula Fredriksen is also Jewish. Bart Ehrman is an ex-Christian famous as a populariser of critical scholarship of the New Testament. These people are not exactly pro-Christianity, nor are they doing it an attempt to bolster antisemitism.

In terms of evidence, as I've said, there is a Josephus mention of "Jesus who was called Christ, whose brother was James" that is generally recognised as authentic. Secondly, New Testament mentions, a Josephus mention and a Tacitus mention are about as good as it gets for Judaean Messianic claimants in the early 1st century. Again, like I've said; Tacitus hated Christianity, and Josephus, being a Jew, probably felt similarly. Josephus was living in Jerusalem at the time Jesus lived, and so could have gotten news from Jewish authorities, and Tacitus could have gotten his information from Josephus or other Jews at the imperial court.

You also don't seem to have much appreciation for scale. Of course there's more contemporary evidence for Alexander the Great than Jesus - a conquering emperor versus an itinerant preacher who was never very popular in life. I was using that as an example that biographies written decades after the person's death were common in antiquity. And the Jesus claim is not at all comparable to Joseph Smith's claims - claiming that one preacher who founded a religion existed requires a lot less evidence than claiming the existence of multiple civilisations with cities, agriculture, metalwork, aristocracies and so on.

can't believe I really just came across someone saying "nono, the JEWS didn't kill jesus, the ZIONISTS killed jesus."

I'm literally laughing. This is histeric. It almost makes it hard to see these antisemites as a serious threat. Almost.

[ststevanofdecani]

WHERE IS THE CHURCH ESTABLISHED BY JESUS CHRIST?

Our Lord Jesus Christ said: “...I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). If Christ said that the gates of hell shall not prevail against His Church; is it possible that His Church doesn’t exist anymore? Did it vanish or does it still exist? Since the Roman-Catholic church was established in the year 1054 and protestant churches after the 1517 reformation - where is the Church that was established by Christ 2000 years ago?

THE ORIGINAL CHURCH:

Presently there is a great number of sects that believe that they are the True Church of Christ regardless of the fact that they were all established recently by people and don’t have any connection with the original Church that was established by Christ 2000 years ego. The true Church was established by Our Lord Jesus Christ - all other sects are man-made institutions. Just to give a few examples: Lutheran, religion was founded by Martin Luther, an ex-monk of the Catholic church, in the year 1517. The church of England was founded by King Henry VIII in the year 1534 because the Pope would not grant him a divorce with the right to re-marry. Presbyterian religion was founded by John Knox in Scotland in the year 1560. Congregationalist, religion was originated by Robert Brown in Holland in 1582. Protestant Episcopalian religion was an offshoot of the church of England, founded by Samuel Senbury in the American colonies in the 17th century. Baptist, religion was established by John Smyth, who launched it in Amsterdam in 1606. Dutch Reformed church, was established by Michelis Jones in New York in 1628. Methodist religion was founded by John and Charles Wesley in England in 1774. Mormon (Latter Day Saints), was established by Joseph Smith who started this religion in Palmyra, New York, in 1829. Salvation Army sect began with William Booth in London in 1865. Christian Scientist started in the year 1879 and Mary Baker Eddy was its founder. Religious organizations known as "church of the Nazarene, Pentecostal Gospel," "Holiness church," or "Jehovah's Witnesses," is one of the thousands of new sects founded by men within the past hundred years.

Rome was part of the Orthodox Church for the first thousand years of its history, however, in 1054, the Pope of Rome broke away from the other four Apostolic Patriarchates (Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem), by tampering with the Original Creed of the Church, and considering himself to be infallible. That’s how Roman-Catholicism was originated by the pope.

Orthodox Church was founded in the year 33 by our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The faith has not changed since that time. Orthodox Church is now almost 2,000 years old. The Holy Orthodox Church, Church of the Apostles and the Fathers is the true: "One, Holy, Universal and Apostolic Church."

If by the Grace of the Holy Spirit you have been in search for the original Church established by Jesus Christ – we invite you to study History of the Christianity, Holy Scriptures and Holy Fathers from earliest ages till now.

WHAT IS THE ORTHODOX CHURCH?

On the one hand, it is the oldest Church in Christendom. On the other hand, it’s new to most people in North America. In the twentieth century alone, an estimated 40 million Orthodox Christians gave their lives for their faith. So high is the commitment of Orthodox Christians to Christ and His Church, she has often been called “the Church of the Martyrs.” She is the Church of some of history’s greatest theologians, scholars, scientist and writers like: St. John Chrysostom, St. Justin Martyr, Blessed Augustine, Dostoyevsky, Nikola Tesla, Alexander Solzehenitsyn etc. But what exactly is this Orthodox Church? What are her roots? What are her beliefs? And why are there so many who have never heard of her?

A BRIEF HISTORY:

The Orthodox Church is the original Christian Church, the Church founded by the Lord Jesus Christ and described in the pages of the New Testament. Her history can be traced in unbroken continuity all the way back to Christ and His Twelve Apostles. Incredible as it seems, for over twenty centuries she has continued in her undiminished and unaltered faith and practice. Today her apostolic doctrine, worship, and structure remain intact. The Orthodox Church maintains that the Church is the living Body of Jesus Christ. Many of us are surprised to learn that for the first 1000 years of Christian history there was just one Church. It was in the eleventh century that a disastrous falling away of Latin West occurred. Although it had been brewing for years, the so-called “Great Schism” of 1054 represented a formal falling away of Rome from Orthodoxy. At the core of the controversy were two vitally important areas of disagreement: the role of the papacy, and the manner in which doctrine is to be interpreted. But what is the real difference? One writer has compared Orthodoxy to the faith of Rome and Protestantism in this basic fashion: Orthodoxy has maintained the New Testament tradition, whereas Rome has often added to it and Protestantism subtracted from it. For example, Rome added to the ancient Creed of the Church, while numerous Protestant churches rarely study or recite it. Rome has layers of ecclesiastical authority; much of Protestantism is anti-hierarchical or even “independent” in polity. Rome introduced indulgences and purgatory; in reaction, Protestantism shies away from good works and discipline. In these and other matters, the Orthodox Church has steadfastly maintained the Apostolic Faith. She has avoided both the excesses of papal rule and of congregational independence. She understands the clergy as servants of Christ and His people and not as a special privileged class. She preserved the Apostles’ doctrine of the return of Christ at the end of the age, of the last judgment and eternal life, and continues to encourage her people to grow in Christ through union with Him. In a word, Orthodox Christianity has maintained the Faith “once for all delivered to the saints.”

The Orthodox Church in North America:

People devoted to Christ, but distressed and frustrated by the directions being taken in both Roman Catholic and Protestant circles, and desiring a more full worship and spiritual life, are turning to the changeless, the original Church of Christ - The Holy Orthodox Church. It only makes sense that the Church from which the Bible came would be the Church where the faith described in the Bible could be lived out and preserved. The Church which brought Orthodoxy to North America is now bringing North America to Orthodoxy. Constantly, people are being introduced to the faith and worship of the Orthodox Church. New Churches are beginning in cities and towns from coast to coast. Not surprisingly, there is a great interest in Orthodoxy being expressed today by the non-orthodox population in America. People are discovering Orthodoxy as a place where the search for spiritual reality finds fulfillment.

May the Grace of the Holy Spirit guide you to our Lord Jesus Christ and His: One, Holy, Universal and Apostolic Church.

“Come and see” (John 1:46).

[yumekuimono]

timeline of the Old Guard’s involvement in world history

AKA: Every Bit of Text on Copley’s Sociogram That Was Ever In-Focus Enough for Me to Decipher (With Supplemental Googling to Confirm Some Dates), Arranged in Vaguely Chronological Order

1099 CE, First Crusade - the siege of Jerusalem ends when the Crusaders breach its walls, wresting control from the Fatimid Caliphate. Nicky and Joe, obviously, met here

1228, Sixth Crusade - an oil painting depicts a battle between two mounted knights, probably Nicky and Joe

at some point, Andy and Quynh become involved in the Crusades as well. Copley’s wall includes an image of the cover of a book titled Heroines of the Crusades

1667, France - first performance of Andromaque, a tragedy by famous French playwright Racine [note that this is, in fact, a real play], inspired by the Classical Greek version by Euripides (written 426 BCE) and by Virgil’s Aeneid (written in the 1st century CE, itself inspired by the Homeric epics composed circa 800 BCE)

1799-1812, Napoleonic era - Booker is active as a forger in this time, notably of gold coins

1853, Crimean War - Joe and Nicky are photographed as soldiers

1861-1865, American Civil War - a photograph shows Andy as the commander of a unit including the three other members of the Old Guard, as well as two mortals. they participated in the Battle of Gettysburg (1863)

1904, Haiti - the Old Guard prevents a coup d’état on the centennial of the Haitian Revolution

1916, Montenegro - Andy saves 200 refugee women and children. the daughter of one family would go on to develop a technique for the early detection of diabetes

1914-1918, World War I

Joe saves a little girl, Marie-Hélène Varte, who would go on to become the youngest Nobel Laureate in Medicine

1915 - Andy rescues a member of the ANZAC forces during the Gallipoli campaign

1918 - Andy saves a young French girl who would later be awarded the Legion of Honour for her actions as a pilot in WWII

1936, Spanish Civil War - Nicky is photographed during the battle of Irún

1939-1945, World War II

a photo shows a line of soldiers marching up an escarpment, Nicky among them, possibly in North Africa?

a boy that Nicky tends to as a medic would go on to receive the Institut Pasteur Medal for work with DNA profiling

1944 - Andy is involved with the French Resistance

1945 - the Old Guard prevents the production/deployment of a third atomic bomb in August of this year

1956-1959, Cuban Revolution - Booker, Nicky, and Joe show up in a photo

1955-1968, American Civil Rights Movement - two photos exist of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. giving speeches; Nicky is in the crowd of one, Andy in the other (possibly MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech)

1968 - Joe and Nicky rescue a man from a cave(?)

1955-1975, Vietnam War

April 1975, Operation Babylift - this was an operation by the US government to evacuate orphaned children from South Vietnam. Andy is shown in a photo leaning over one such boy on an airplane. this boy would go on to invest in helping amputee children in Asia (2010)

1975-1979, Cambodia - the Old Guard and “her” grandson (either Andy’s, or that of a woman Andy had previously saved) rescue 317 people from a Khmer Rouge death camp. the Old Guard also shuts down a smuggling ring in the area

1978 - a man previously saved by Andy prevents a nuclear exchange

1989, Berlin - Andy helps people flee from East Germany

1992, Bosnian War - Booker is involved as a combat medic in the Siege of Sarajevo

1992-1993 - Nicky attends college under the alias N. Smith. his birth date is given as April 8 (or possibly August 4)

2000s, Democratic Republic of the Congo - the Old Guard (although only Joe is pictured) rescue a group of children, one of whom would go on to become an influential hip-hop activist in his teens (2018)

2003-2011, Iraq War

2001-present, War in Afghanistan - the Old Guard are linked to the US 10th Mountain Division

2013, Czech Republic - Andy is issued a passport under the alias Alexandra Black

2014, Germany - Joe is issued a passport under the alias Joseph Jones, born in Hamburg and residing in Frankfurt. his birth date is given as January 2

Other items without specific dates attached:

digital image of an aerial shot of a USAF F-22 airstrike in Syria

newspaper headline: Mystery of Death Cheat Woman

newspaper headline: Man Sacrifices His Life to Save Bus Full of Children

this one shows up twice, in both Italy and Poland

a copy of a painting depicting a black man and a white woman, evidently a romantic couple, is posted under the Australia section. the original painting is in Andy’s abandoned mine in Val d’Argent, France

newspaper headline: Case of the Death-Defying Couple Remains Unsolved

this one shows up a bunch, with lots of red string and lines, as Copley evidently traces Nicky and Joe’s exploits. the end of the sequence has a handwritten label that says, Couple’s Final Triumph

Regional labels where I couldn’t read any of the smaller text:

Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bhutan, Bulgaria, Greece, India, Italy, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, South Korea, Sudan

[tanadrin]

i can't remember if it was the john hamer or dan vogel interview on mormon stories--i didn't listen to all of the dan vogel episodes because i found his style of answering questions kind of annoying--but one of them was saying that the book of mormon contained what was essentially joseph smith's original "plan" (insofar as he had one) for a theocratic state in the american west centered around him--to recruit native american tribes ("lamanites"), convert them alongside white settlers, and build a power independent of the US government in those regions, along "theodemocratic" lines. smith's murder eventually put the kibosh on those ideas, and under brigham young the largest fragment of the LDS movement went even further west, to Utah; and it turns out the pretty racist and eurocentric outlook of the BoM was pretty lousy at attracting nonwhite followers (though not a total barrier, weirdly)

but a lot of the remnants of that earlier period are still scattered across the american middle west, including the original Temple Lot in Independence, Missouri, where the temple of the New Jerusalem was supposed to be built. and there still exist some LDS factions that think in order to be a true church you have to be led by a lineal descendant of joseph smith (though those are harder and harder to find in this day and age).

anyway this feels relevant to your interests

other future plot points:

- Founderism (Protestantism + American Civic Religion with canonized myth-historic Founding Fathers) has a religious schism between the Founderist pope (based in Disneystadt) and the Founderist antipope (based in the Bass Pro Shop Pyramid).

- the State Pantheon’s prophecy regarding the next Contingent, a figure capable of embodying the Contradictions of the Material (in the same ballpark as the Innocents from Disco Elysium). Most of the cast will attempt to claim that they are the Contingent at one point or another.

- The governors of the American League’s constituent states being like ���can you believe people elected a vtuber? what an embarrassment” as if they aren’t all just as embarrassing.

- whirlwind romance B-plot where Liam becomes Jacob’s newest maidboy and Sunny recruits him to discreetly keep an eye on Jacob because she doesn’t trust him not to leave confidential information lying around. When asked why she doesn’t just hire some traditional opsec agents, she replies “because that would be boring.”

- Orbital fabricators exist in space but they’re mostly an excuse to dodge earth-based labor laws.

- there’s this guy who claims to be an ancient Jaredite who has conquered a large portion of former Iowa and claims that it’s the ‘Narrow Neck of Land’ from the Book of Mormon and he’s being revenge-funded by Marcus Aurelius Bezos in order to cause headaches for Sunny. There’s an actual plot here trust me

[catsnuggler]

Exmormon, or: the word "Zion" makes me uncomfortable, because I was made to sing it in songs for countless Sundays, but am also uncomfortable with my own discomfort because it is a word from Judaism, and I didn't leave an antisemitic religion so I could become an antisemite; quite the contrary, actually.

But then there's also the state of Israel, and the people of Palestine, and Zionism, and anti-Zionism, and antisemitic Zionists who want to remove Jewish people from the antisemites' countries and put them all in one place (some of whom also believe doing this will trigger the Christian apocalypse which, while I think is totally bogus, is also just an incredibly awful intention regardless), but also antisemitic anti-Zionists, who conflate all of Judaism and Jewry with the state of Israel, and grill every Jewish person on whether they're Zionists or anti-Zionists, and maybe even buy into blood libel-lite

And I'm anti-Zionist, alright, because I oppose colonialism; which also means I oppose the existence of America, Canada, Mexico... I oppose all colonies, settler colonies in particular.

But like, it's weird, whenever I encounter the word, knowing that most people who encounter it don't think of the desert hills of Utah; and old men telling you, for the umpteenth time, that porn, and sex outside of marriage, and "same-sex attraction", is sinful, and you need to pay your tithing, so they can build more churches to spread this message, and the message that Native Americans are the descendants of one half of an "Israelite" family who turned evil, and killed the other half, who were good, and who were white for some reason; or how Joseph Smith, for who-knows-why, deemed Missouri, of all places, to be Zion, the New Jerusalem, which will be built upon the American continent.

Gods, fuck Mormonism with a fucking hatchet. Fuck.

[qqueenofhades]

If anyone is an enabling mood..HI, I AM ALWAYS IN AN ENABLING MOOD, YOU WANT ENABLING? HERE IT IS. I have soft loving enabling tho cos I don't like being mean it makes me sad.

As we all expected, I am very, very easy to enable. Credit to @voidxces for the beautiful and inspiring edit. Mildly smutty bits, hence the full story is below the cut.

Valletta, Malta

December 15, 1999

The customs line at Malta International Airport is long, maddeningly slow-moving, and the one guard stamping passports looks to be about ninety, as Joe shifts from foot to foot and tries to remind himself that they have nothing but time. (Unless, of course, the Y2K nuts are all correct and they’re two short weeks from the end of life as we know it, but if nothing else, living for almost a thousand years means that he has seen countless doomsday prophecies come and go without so much as a whimper.) It was a crappy flight from Paris – overbooked, understaffed, the inevitable screaming child two rows behind them and now determined to keep up the racket in the passport queue – and Joe’s trying not to look as stressed as he feels. This is their getaway for the holidays and the new year, the turn of the millennium, a huge and significant milestone for any number of reasons, and he’ll feel better once they’re out of here. Nobody’s at their best in the cattle corrals and the fluorescent lights of border control, another reminder of how much things have changed over all the years they’ve been coming to Malta. The first time they were here in 1501, all they had to do was sail up, get off the boat, and pay a bribe to the port official. Joe votes they try that now.

The line shuffles forward another inch, the child behind them screams even louder, and as Joe is silently reciting the Bismillah and reminding himself that the Almighty values patience, Nicky turns around. He sizes up the mother – tired-looking, hungry-eyed, apologetically trying to corral the fussy baby and a toddler of about three or four – and smiles gently. “Hello,” he says in English, then glances at her passport and sees that she’s Italian. “Buona sera, signora,” he goes on, not missing a beat. “Hai bisogna di aiuto con qualcosa?”

The tired mother starts, her eyes welling with tears. Joe’s willing to bet that nobody has offered to help her for this entire trip, and has to smile softly to himself that of course Nicky has swooped out of the Maltese night like, well, a knight, her countryman in a time of crisis, to do exactly that. Joe is already feeling better just to watch Nicky be Nicky, as his lover takes hold of the baby, joggles him on his hip and tells him that he’s a handsome fellow and to stop screaming and to give his mama a break, as the mother tends to her toddler, gets herself sorted out, and thanks Nicky profusely in what sounds like Calabrian. Joe’s mostly able to pick out the specific regional accents, and he guesses that this woman is a migrant, one of the workers who travel around Europe in the growing season to pick fruit and vegetables in hot fields under hard bosses who only pay in cash and owe a cut to the Mafia. He takes out his wallet and quietly offers her all the Maltese lira they changed for back in France, and she shakes her head and tries to refuse. He insists – she looks somewhat surprised that he speaks Italian too, but not unduly – and while she won’t take it all, they manage to give her back her baby, some money, and reach the front of the line without actually noticing the rest of the wait. Joe hands over a French passport that reads Joseph Jones. Nicky hands over Nicholas Smith. The guard looks at them, asks a few questions in his quavering old-man voice, stamps the visa pages, and once more, they’re in.

Outside, Joe and Nicky collect their bags, help the woman to the taxi rank and make sure she’s on her way to wherever she’s staying, then go out to catch the bus. Valletta sparkles in the distance as they draw closer, this magnificent collection of fortresses and gardens and churches, domes and spires, palaces and piazzas, museums and terraces, city walls and citadels, Benjamin Disraeli’s city of palaces for gentlemen. The place was largely built by the Knights Hospitaller after their exile from Rhodes and the Great Siege of Malta in 1565, and Joe and Nicky have watched it transform over the centuries, but it has still managed to retain that unique spark of what they love about it. It is familiar, comforting, lovely. If the world is going to end, no better place to be than here.

The bus stops in downtown, they thank the driver in fluent Maltese, and get off, hauling their bags and suitcases. The December evening is cool and misty, fog floating over the cobblestones like elegant wraiths, the streetlamps casting pools of golden glow that look like doorways to another world. They walk casually hand in hand to a corner store that is about to shut up shop for the evening, buy a quick dinner, and then continue up the street. Somewhat appropriately, they are staying in a rented house near St Sebastian’s Bastion, Is-Sur ta' San Bastjan, on the northeastern tip of the Valletta peninsula near Fort Saint Elmo. They know the elderly owner well, who has left the key in the postbox for them, and they unlock the door, ascend the narrow, creaky stairs to the top-floor garret, and find that a small Christmas tree and a plate of imqaret have been left to welcome them. The windows open out over the city wall and the dark, glittering ocean. It is quiet, at last. Just the two of them.

“Finally,” Joe says. He picks up Nicky’s bags when he puts them down, and carries them into the dark bedroom, switching on the lights. They set down their convenience-store repast and eat, affectionately nudging each other’s knees under the too-small table. They’ll do more shopping tomorrow; they will be here at least until January (assuming, of course, no apocalypse). Joe smiles at Nicky, happy to be here, happy to be with him, happy to be sharing this small and unremarkable meal with a soft rain pattering on the steep slanted roof. When they’ve finished and tidied up, Joe murmurs, “Not too tired, are you?”

Nicky answers with a devilish quirk of his eyebrow, as if to say that of course neither of them were actually planning to go to sleep without celebrating their return appropriately. He wraps his arms around Joe’s waist, and they waltz into the bedroom, kicking the door shut behind them and drawing the curtains, sinking down on the amply-sized bed and undressing each other with slow and leisurely care. Even after a thousand, a hundred thousand times, it never fails to thrill. Their mouths meet in the dimness, their hands trace the well-loved lines of the other’s body, the faint scars and lines that never go away even through all the regenerations, the secret places, the curve of lips, the plane of shoulders and spines, the tensed tightness low on stomachs, the bend of a knee or the bone of an ankle. Joe pushes Nicky down beneath him, and Nicky arches his back, wrapping his legs around Joe’s waist. In quiet and tender and timeless communion, they find their way back home again, in each other and with each other, in touches and kisses and slow thrusts turning faster, and finally, sated, they sleep.

They wake in the morning with slants of winter sunlight filling the room, the high white ceilings, the gauzy curtains fluttering in the constant draft that they’ve never found, the way they’ve woken up in this room since they first met the owner in 1973, and which makes Joe think poignantly, as he always does for just an instant, of their lost home in Constantinople. They get up and dress, then leave the house in search of breakfast. The stone of the streets is pink and amber and gold and fawn, and the light has that particular early-morning quality where it seems to shine through sheets of bleached linen. The city is already awake and bustling, and Joe and Nicky make their way to their favorite café. They can sit overlooking the water and eat as much pastry and drink as much coffee as they like, and they make a good several hours of it. The sun comes up over the street, the palm trees rustle in the breeze, and a few tourists wander by with fancy Nikons around their necks, looking lost. One asks in English if they know where the Grandmaster’s Palace is, and Nicky is happy to point them in the right direction.

“You know,” he says, when they have finally finished breakfast and are wandering happily through the baroque streets, hands and shoulders brushing, “it’s 1999. This is our nine-hundredth anniversary, strictly speaking.”

Joe raises an eyebrow at him. “More like our eight hundredth,” he says playfully. “If we’re going from when we actually figured anything out.”

Nicky shrugs, grinning sheepishly, even as both of them fall contemplatively silent. 1099 is a long, long time ago by anybody’s measure. Joe thinks of himself, kneeling in prayer in the Tower of David, the dread whispers that the Franks were coming, the way he can remember parts and pieces and that first death bright as flame, but the rest of it has faded into the soft greyness of endlessly passing time. They did go to Jerusalem earlier this year, in July, since it seemed like the thing to do; there were a lot of First Crusade remembrances going on, some of which they wanted to be associated with and some of which they didn’t. There was a tweed-jacketed history professor who was deeply appreciative of the detailed account that Nicky was able to give on the breach of Jerusalem’s walls (he asked if he had published any articles on the subject, Nicky said hastily that he was just an enthusiastic amateur), and then there were some whackjobs who were trying to inflame religious tensions, as usual, and basically acting like it was a good thing that the heretics got what was coming to them. Lots of Americans with placards. Lots of Israeli secret service and bearded guys who were probably covert Hezbollah. Lots of people who all think they know exactly what the crusade’s legacy means, and which Joe and Nicky couldn’t help but regard warily. Everything seems twisted up these days, poised on the brink. That guy named bin Laden whose pals tried to bomb the World Trade Center in 1993, he’s been talking as usual. Death to the Western crusaders. So on and so forth. Thus far, nobody’s really listening outside the Middle East, but when you’ve seen this so many times, it’s harder to ignore.

Joe shakes himself, not wanting to think about this on their long-awaited getaway. They’ve been in Kosovo on and off this year, even if the last thing any of them really wanted was to go back into the Yugoslavian wars, and Andy and Booker are off to enjoy the last few weeks of the twentieth century elsewhere. Someone like Andy, the turn of a millennium is old hat, but even for as long as they’ve lived, this is Joe and Nicky’s first new set of a thousand years. The Year Two Thousand. Sounds appropriately science-fictiony. How, Joe thinks. How on earth did Yusuf al-Kaysani from Cairo end up here.

That, however, is only incidental to his enjoyment of the rest of the day. They walk on the city walls, they go up to the Grand Harbor and take in the sea view, then to the Barrakka Gardens. Nicky gazes pensively on the monument of remembrance and out over the glittering blue water, as Joe sits down on a bench and watches him. He has always simply enjoyed looking at Nicky, watching him breathe, watching him be, watching the way he leans on the railing and shields his eyes against the sun with the casual, unconsciousness elegance that permeates everything he does. Whether the name is Yusuf al-Kaysani or Joseph Jones or anything else, it doesn’t matter. Even among all the change and clutter of the modern world, this adoration, this soul-deep delight, is the one thing that remains constant.

That is how the next several days pass. Joe and Nicky visit their usual old haunts in Valletta, eat well, make love, and catch up with the apartment’s owner, Ġużepp, who is now in his eighties, has known them for over twenty-five years, and never seen them age a day. He has never asked why. His wife died a long time ago and they never had children, and perhaps he sees them as sons, as a strange but poignant blessing for a lonely old man, two people who clearly love this place as much as he does. He asked them once when they first came here, and Joe wondered if they should just tell him that it was the sixteenth century. Somehow it seems as if Ġużepp might not be surprised.

A few days before Christmas, a storm blows in from the Atlantic just as dust blows in from North Africa, and the world turns silver and ocher and rust and wet, the windows sparkling as if stained in silver nitrate and the streets and domes and splendid churches of Valletta painted in watercolor impressionism on the blurry glass, anything or anyone outside the bedroom barely seeming to exist. Joe and Nicky spend the time productively, which is to say they have so much sex that they can barely walk. They twist into each other, explore and challenge and unstring and repair each other, touch and caress, kiss and lick and suck and mark their territory all over again, leaving no inch of flesh unexplored and no sinful act undone. “You know,” Nicky murmurs, eyes closed, smiling, sweat beading on his brow, hand stroking up the line of Joe’s spine as Joe nips at his neck. “We really are a pair of heretics, aren’t we.”

“Speak for yourself, Nicolò.” Joe leans down to steal another kiss from his lover’s bruised, teeth-marked lips. “Heretics according to who?”

Nicky hums, as if to say he is happy to get into a theological argument at a later date, but can’t be arsed to do so right now. Joe slides down next to him, sliding his hand across Nicky’s chest and stomach, curling lower, as Nicky whines and reflexively tries to pull back. “You’re going to be the death of me.”

Joe laughs, as he always does, pressing a kiss into Nicky’s shoulder and thinking – as he also always does – Allah and all His angels forbid. He has always secretly, shamefully prayed that if that terrible moment came, if one of them lost their immortality first, that it be him. He knows this condemns Nicky to live on without him, but he cannot face the prospect of doing it himself. Dying for good, even after this long, somehow seems easier. At least he’s done that before, often. Living without the other half of his soul, not so much.

The rain clears on Christmas Day, the light is fragile and golden and perfect as heaven, and they call Andy and Booker (Andy’s somewhere in Argentina, Booker is on a beach in Thailand) and wish each other happy holidays. Nicky mixes up a feast, Joe helps (if by that you mean stirring the occasional pot and taking full advantage of Nicky’s “Kiss the Cook” apron) and they open their door and visit with the neighbors who drop in to bring more pastries and Christmas wishes. Ġużepp turns up, they invite him to stay for supper so he won’t be alone, and after the token protests, he agrees. As he is insisting on doing the washing-up, he asks, “How long have you two known each other?”

Joe and Nicky glance at each other. They’re fairly sure that Ġużepp knows they’re a couple, even if they haven’t said so openly, just in case an old Maltese Roman Catholic would prefer to know it implicitly but not have it confirmed. Finally Nicky says, “A very long time.”

“I thought so, somehow.” The old man reaches for a dish towel. “You seem that way. Have you been happy here? All the times you’ve been to Malta, to my house?”

“We’ve been very happy,” Joe assures him. “This place has been special for – for many years. I am Arabic, Nicky is Italian, it is like it was made just for us.”

Ġużepp smiles. “Your families?” he asks. “They are happy with it?”

Joe thinks of his mother, far off and so very long ago, and how Maryam al-Katibi always wanted him to be a better man. How he forgot about time and its passing, and never saw her again after he left. It remains one of the greatest regrets of his life that she never met Nicolò, as he thinks that they would have liked each other very much. But as far as their family goes now –

“Yes,” he says, thinking of Andy and Booker. “Yes, they are.”

“I am glad,” Ġużepp says stoutly. “It is good for a man not to be alone.”

(It is, and both Joe and Nicky have clung to that, and they don’t know now that this is the last time they will see Ġużepp, as he will die before they return here in 2004 when Malta becomes a member of the EU, but on this sweet, poignant night, as time speeds on its passing, as they both reflect on all those many years, and God said that it was good.)

The last week of 1999 and the twentieth century and the second millennium count down to its inevitable end. There aren’t exactly prophets in sandwich boards shrieking on the streets about the end times, though it’s undeniable that there’s a sharp-edged anxiety as Y2K draws closer. On December 31, Joe and Nicky sit on the beach at the famous Blue Lagoon, watching the sun go down over the island of Comino, holding hands. At last Nicky says – half joking, but only half – “If the world does end tonight, I want you to know that you are still the best thing that ever happened to me. Except for that pastry the other day. That was really very divine.”

Joe laughs, takes his hand to his lips and kisses it. “Always, my heart,” he says. “Always.”

The world gets softer and darker, and lights come on over the bay and the archipelago and the boats bobbing at anchor, and Joe thinks that it must be the year 2000 somewhere else, and everything still seems to be fine. He wasn’t really worried, but he knows that fear that the next year might bring with it something too terrible to be gotten around, and that if you could just cling to this moment now when things are all right, they might stay that way forever. Finally he and Nicky get the water taxi back to Valletta, and it’s getting closer and closer to midnight, and they sit down on a bench and count down with the rest of this sliver of the world, all the way into the next stage of forever.

When it becomes plain that the world has not ended, nor indeed does it seem likely to do so, everywhere seems to let out its breath at once. Huge and glorious fireworks thunder in the dark sky over the city, in riots of color and noise and sound, and Joe and Nicky can hear cheering and toasting from what seems like every house in the city. They kiss and then kiss again for good measure, swept along on a tide of jolly and relieved and mildly (or well, considerably) inebriated strangers, an impromptu street party that both of them feel down to their nine-hundred-and-fifty-year-old sinews, the sort of magic that still catches them dead to rights even after so long in this beautiful, stupid, dangerous, exasperating, maddening, heartbreaking, filthy, glorious, transcendent, irreplaceable world. They throw their arms around each other’s necks and gaze deeply into the other’s eyes, as even all the gaiety and festivity and bacchanal falls into nothing, passing over them like waves. “I love you,” Joe says, as he has said it so many times in all the languages he knows. “Ti amo.”

Nicky smiles that smile that makes the world shine, and spins Joe lightly on the spot, and the next thousand years seem, just then, like the greatest blessing that any man has ever had. “I know.”