Chapter 4 – Good in Name Alone
After walking miles without food or water, like always, Urban finally arrives at his next destination. It’s a town constructed with plated metal. Various religious symbols and statues decorate the town and give off an old gothic feel that hasn’t been felt in centuries. The people here are dressed in robes. There are some people who publicly pray in the streets by themselves while some hold each other’s hand and pray together. Despite the town’s size, there are two large churches that take up most of it.
A woman approaches Urban and says, “You look absolutely famished! Is there anything I can do for you?”
“Yeah,” he responds, “Stop talking and give me something to drink and eat.”
“Of course!”
The woman gives Urban food and drink.
After being replenished, he says, “I’m sorry for being so blunt with you.”
“It’s not your fault,” she responds, “It’s my fault for not giving you what you obviously wanted. I have to get back to my duties. God bless you!”
The people here obviously are highly religious, and it seems that they worship the true God rather than false ones. Urban heads to the nearest church.
“God has blessed us today!” a priest says as Urban enters the church. “Are you really the legendary Urban, the Wrath of God?”
“Yes. Where is your high priest?”
“He’s in the back preparing for the next mass. Let me lead you to him.”
When the high priest sees Urban, he gets up from his chair and bows his head. He says, “God has answered my prayers! Urban the Second, the Wrath of God, in my presence. How are you doing, brother?”
“I’m doing well. How are things around here, father?”
“Things are doing great. We’ve been gathering more and more souls to praise and worship God. Our town has been expanding over the years thanks to God’s graces.”
“I’m surprised to find so many people here worshipping the true God.”
“It’s because we have pieces of Scripture. We were given them by an angel to recite to the congregation.”
“Scripture?”
“The angel said that it was called the Bible many centuries ago. It’s been lost and resurfaced in our hands.”
“Let me see the pieces you have. I’ve yet to read the Sacred Scriptures for myself and have only heard bits and pieces of it.”
“It will be my honor.”
The high priest shows Urban the pieces of Scripture given to him. He goes over them and God gives him the knowledge to know that these pieces of Scripture are authentic.
“These are truly verses and pieces of Scripture.”
“I am overjoyed! Do you wish to stay for mass? We’ll be telling everyone who attends all the lessons that were handed down to us.”
“Yes, I have to make sure you are practicing the mass in the right way.”
“Thank you so much! My alter servants will dress up the church a little more for this special occasion. Go relax in town for now. See the many wonderful things the faithful have created.”
Urban takes a walk around the town while looking for something interesting to do. The only thing interesting about this town that separates it from the rest of the settlements Urban has been to is the lack of obvious sin. The people here appear to be honest, hard-working, good people who are faithful to God, but he’s learned not to completely trust people until he’s seen them practice what they preach.
The first place he looks for is a place to rest. A particular place of interest catches his attention. It’s a massage therapy place with a very tranquil feeling to it.
A woman outside the building says, “You’re Urban the Second, aren’t you?”
“Everyone around here knows me it seems.”
“You’re a legend! Do you want a free massage? We’ll give it to you for free.”
Inside the building, Urban is taken to the men’s massaging area in a backyard garden. This garden is filled with various fresh smelling flowers and other people who are receiving massages by women who aren’t dressed very decently.
“Why the women dressed like this?” he asks the attendant.
“They help relieve the stress of men and the women find it easier to please them like this.”
“Make them dress better. Cover them up. You’re making this place look like a brothel.”
“But it isn’t! We don’t do any sexual massages here.”
“It doesn’t matter. This can lead a man to tempting thoughts and a near occasion of sin both of which are harmful to the soul.”
“What makes you think this will lead to sin?”
“Because I’m resisting the temptations right now. Please, cover them.”
The women are given clothes, so they are dressed better and the men in the women’s section are given better clothes as well much to the disappointment of everyone including part of Urban’s mind. After that, he is given a normal massage that relieves some of the pent-up stress and tiredness from his body. Another section of the building catches his attention. He sees people doing weird stretches and poses.
“What are they doing?” he asks the attendant.
“They are doing various forms of exercise. Do you exercise at all?”
“If I’m not walking for miles, I’m fighting. Does that count?”
“It does.”
“Where did they learn these poses and forms?”
“An angel taught us them.”
“An angel?”
“Yes. He told us that if we did these exercises then we could feel closer to the world and to God.”
“Stop them.”
“What? Why?”
“Because these exercises weren’t given to you by an angel. They were given to you by a demon. An angel would help you spiritually get closer to God that involves mental exercise rather than physical. Stop the exercises.”
After removing the harmful practices from the massage therapy, Urban walks through town to find more practices to fix. A teacher, who is on his break, sees him.
The teacher catches up to Urban and says, “Excuse me, Urban the Second.”
“Can I help you with something?”
“Yes, if you’ll grant it. Please, come to the school I work at. I’m sure you can bestow the knowledge God has given you upon my students.”
“I’ll tell them what I know, but I’m not the smartest in terms of advanced theology. I do know of other people that can teach and who know more than I.”
“Still, I’m sure you can teach them something useful.”
“Alright. I’ll grant your request.”
“Thank you so much!”
Urban goes to the nearby school and enters the teacher’s classroom.
He begins to teach the kids what he knows, “I’ll start with the hard lessons to give you a warm-up in no particular order. Most of these you should already know. I’ll take questions after then maybe tell you a few things you might not actually know. Only God is good, but we can become good like Him too if we follow him faithfully. Even if you follow Him faithfully, you can still be weakened by sin and you’ll have to enter a fiery dimension called Purgatory to be purified before entering Heaven. God is a singular being with three distinct persons; Father, Son, and Spirit. The Church that God has founded infallibly teaches dogma and is incapable of falling into error. My predecessors, my successors, and I can infallibly teach new practices as long as I’m speaking in terms of faith and morals and when I’m in complete unity with God. Mortal sins such as; murder, sexual immorality, theft, and such can cut you off from the grace of salvation. To be saved, you must; be born again of spirit and water, always be devoted to God and never stray from His ways, confess your sins to a priest once or every other week, receive the body and blood of God through bread and wine. Being confirmed into the Church is also important. If you want to know what the marks of the Church are, they are these; one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. Finally, the greatest commandments God has given us are to love God above all and love your neighbor as yourself. These are the basics you should know to be saved. I think I might’ve been a bit too general and didn’t explain certain things as well as they should. There are a couple things I forgot to mention as well. Any questions?”
Everyone raises their hands and ask basic questions. Most of them don’t know the basics of the one true faith nor did they ever think of the things Urban told them. He goes over dogma and explains them to the students for hours. Even after so much time passes, they still don’t seem to understand him. He tells them to seek certain teachers that he knows of before he leaves.
It is almost time for mass so Urban hurries back to the church. He hopes that the priests know better than the students, but it doesn’t appear to be so. At mass, the high priest preaches about; predestination, evolving truth, becoming exactly like God, not needing to pray for the dead, and various other heresies.
Urban steps up to the altar in a fit of righteous rage and says, “Stop! You are teaching these people heresies that will condemn their souls to Hell!”
“What are you talking about? These were taught to us by the Sacred Scriptures and angels.”
“These are false teachings. Let me tell you what is right.”
“You have no authority over us. Only God does.”
“Are you sure you are defining God as yourself?”
“How dare you! You’re the false teacher here!”
Guards and other people in the church begin attacking Urban, which forces him to defend himself. His punches tear through crowds of people as if he were punching through thin sheets of paper. This means that these people had knowledge of the truth and decided to embrace their version of the truth rather than the actual one. The entire town then begins to attack him, even the children. They attack him with handmade weapons like swords, spears, and arrows, but they are nothing compared to the strength given to him by God.
This is the first time in a while that Urban has felt any kind of regret in killing sinful people. He silently prays that this regret is lifted from him while fighting. The town is torn apart by Urban in a matter of minutes. Bodies turn apart like simple dolls liter the ground and some of the rooftops. Some of the gothic architecture is destroyed as well because Urban used them as ranged weapons. Statues of angels and various holy men and women stand on the blood and bodies of the dead looking down on them as if they had murdered them themselves. He looks back at his work and doesn’t regret anything now. Still, he blesses the ground and prays for the souls of the deceased, but his prayers are stopped by a sudden change in weather. The sky has turned red and blood begins to rain from the clouds.
A voice in the sky says, “Even in a town that worships God, not one of them is worthy of salvation.”
Demons then begin to emerge from the ground and collect the souls of the damned. Since this is God’s will, Urban ignores the screams for help from the damned, and walks away from the town.
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