The 23Rd Psalm

By Dr. Pelham K. Mead III

The premise of this science fiction novel is that each line in the 23rd Psalm describes what the Christian and Jewish survivors will do to stay alive after a comet destroys most of the earth. I was researching several books on Jewish and Christian messiahs when the idea of this book came to my mind. What if a comet hits the earth and only a handful of survivors on mountaintops survived the disaster? How would these two religious groups learn to work together to survive? What if one person in the two groups began to have visions about the future that came true? What if, after many struggles, the Jewish temple group and the Protestant group chose a messiah, the man who was having the spiritual visions that came true again and again?
This is a story about survival and the determination of two small groups to find higher ground and, eventually, safety on the earth flooded to six thousand feet above sea level. This is a story about the year 3550 when world corporations sought to make religions illegal.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 9, 2013
• ISBN: 9781479790951

Dr. Pelham K. Mead III

Dr. Pelham K. Mead III Biography Previous novels Autumn Winds over Okinawa, 2011, (Historical Fiction),Xlibris Publishers The Chinese Crystal Ball, 2012, (Mystery), Authorhouse Publishers The Junior High, 2012, (fiction), Xlibris Publishers The 23rd Psalm, 2013, (Science fiction), Xlibris Publishers Education Doctoral degree in Educational Administration from Columbia University, NY, 1992. Sixth level Administrative Certificate program, New Paltz University, NY, 21 credits Master of Education degree from Springfield College, Springfield, Mass., 1967 Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education and Health, Springfield College, Springfield, Mass, 1966. Academic Diploma from Freeport High School, Freeport, NY, 1961

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Copyright © 2013 by Dr. Pelham K. Mead III.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2013902386

ISBN:

   Hardcover   978-1-4797-9094-4

   Softcover     978-1-4797-9093-7

   Ebook         978-1-4797-9095-1

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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CONTENTS

Dedication

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1   The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

Chapter 2   He makes me lie down in green pastures.

Chapter 3   He leads me beside the still waters.

Chapter 4   He restores my soul.

Chapter 5   He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Chapter 6   Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.

Chapter 7   Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

Chapter 8   Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

Chapter 9   Thou anointest my head with oil.

Chapter 10   My cup overflows.

Chapter 11   Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

DEDICATION

This science fiction novel is dedicated to my Jewish grandmother Edith Werts (a.k.a. Edith Rosenberg) and to all my Jewish, and Christian friends, priests, pastors, and rabbis. Thanks to my two personal friends and editors for my manuscript, George Schandel who graduated with me from Freeport High School, Long Island, New York, class of 1961, and to Paul Renfrew, college friend at Springfield College, Mass, who graduated class of 1967.

PREFACE

T he premise of this science fiction novel is that each line in the 23rd Psalm describes what the Christian and Jewish survivors will do to stay alive after a comet destroys most of the earth. I was researching several books on Jewish and Christian messiahs when the idea of this book came to my mind. What if a comet hits the earth and only a handful of survivors on mountaintops survived the disaster? How would these two religious groups learn to work together to survive? What if one person in the two groups began to have visions about the future that came true? What if, after many struggles, the Jewish temple group and the Protestant group chose a messiah, the man who was having the spiritual visions that came true again and again?

This is a story about survival and the determination of two small groups to find higher ground and, eventually, safety on the earth flooded to six thousand feet above sea level. This is a story about the year 3550 when world corporations sought to make religions illegal.

INTRODUCTION

I n the year 3550, the earth was almost destroyed after a comet, the size of the moon, collided with earth. The impact was so severe that it caused the earth to move out of its normal orbit around the sun. The earth was a million miles closer to the sun after the impact of the comet. The explosion was so great that when the comet hit the southern part of the Pacific Ocean, off South America, the south polar cap melted down almost immediately. The ocean surge covered South America completely, leaving only the Andes Mountains, showing as islands above the waters. In a week, Europe and North America were underwater, and the north polar cap began to melt. The Asian continents suffered the same fate, except the Himalayan mountain range that stuck out as islands in a vast new ocean. All the mountain ranges around the world became islands, jutting out of the ocean that rose above seven thousand feet, surviving the initial flooding. The highest mountains in the Sierras, the Appalachian mountain chain, and Mount Rainier in Washington State all became islands above the seven-thousand-feet-above-sea-level point.

All the plants and native animals around the world drowned under leagues of seawater. The only surviving animals were those that lived at high elevations to begin with, such as mountain goats, yaks, deer, and some varieties of birds. The fresh water fish in all the lakes and rivers died when the salt water filled all the lakes and rivers around the world. The sea marine life did survive, however, despite the temperature rise. The entire population of penguins eventually was washed away toward the mountains of the Andes thousands of miles away. Few of the penguins survived.

As for the human race, those that survived were those that ran to the high ground or happened to be living on high ground to begin with. The floods came so quickly that all of California and the West Coast were covered in salt water in less than a week. The same flooding became the fate of the East Coast of the North American continent, the water flooding east across all the states until it reached the high peaks of the Adirondack Mountains.

The only humans known to survive in the western part of North America were a group of Old World Christians on a religious retreat at Lake Tahoe in Sierra Nevada and a group of Old World Jewish community members who were vacationing in the Sierras. Neither religious community knew that the other had survived until months after the disaster.

By the year 3550 religions and their attendant spiritual life had been virtually wiped out. The World Corporate Order had greatly discouraged their practice by declaring them illegal. The material world of the united World Corporations had seized control over every facet of life, and the spiritual life of the old world religions would only get in the way. Many religions, centuries old, had begun to die out from the persecution and threat of arrest by the World Corporate Order. The original Christian movement that survived for 3550 years was now secretly called the Old World Christian movement. Likewise, the various Jewish sects were called the Old World Jewish religion. The World Corporate Order also declared practicing Judaism of any kind illegal.

Thus by outlawing all religious worship or philosophic creeds, the ideology of The World Corporate Order had replaced all past enlightened thought with economic equality and a benevolent consumerism. Nationalism everywhere had been replaced by world rule as it was thought to be the source of war that had been also outlawed. Old World Buddhism, Old World Muslims, Old World Hindu, and many other religions suffered the same fate as the Old World Christians and the Old World Jewish sects and were reduced in size and popularity and were illegal to practice in public. They had all become secret religions that were not approved by the World Corporate Order of the Thirty-fifth century. The World Corporate Order frowned on the free worship of any religion or belief in any philosophy by the year 3550 because it was felt that these only mucked up the economy by creating differences between groups of people and therefore conflict between them, upsetting the consumer oriented apple cart. Consumerism, by replacing everything else created world peace. A mild, common sense ethical system that would have been the envy of a Hunter/gatherer society was established in place of religion, philosophy and nationalism. However, the old world religions met in secret and kept their membership closed and secret in fear of corporate punishment by the World Corporate Order that controlled all the continents on earth. But some believed that the enforcement of the laws was purposely soft, permitting the secret practice of some religions in order to allow a sort of escape valve for those who were not practicing public disobedience.

CHAPTER 1

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

T he date of the apocalypse was September 4, AD 3550. It was in the middle of the day that the first emergency broadcast was sent out by virtual beam, old-fashioned radio waves, short-wave ham radio, and virtual television. Emergency, this is not a drill. Repeat, emergency. Attention, all citizens of the Corporate World Order, this is an emergency. Our scientists have determined that a comet is about to collide with earth in about forty-eight hours. Do not panic. Try, if possible, to head to high ground above five or six thousand feet above sea level. Go to the mountains in your region if possible. Leave now and do not delay. End of broadcast. What happened next seemed to have been lifted from the Old Testament.

For the next forty-eight hours, every person’s antigravity vehicle (AGV) was headed toward the closest mountains in every country. Antigravity vehicles had replaced cars thousands of years before. The AGVs were similar in size to cars but ran on electromagnetic waves that bounced off a track buried in the venues (roads). Venues were blocked for hundreds of miles as millions upon millions of people of the earth fled to high ground to avoid the impact of severe flooding.

In the quiet Sierra Nevada Mountains in Northern California, near Lake Tahoe, there was a group of forty Old World Christians of the Church of the Sunrise on a religious retreat. Most of the Christians were couples, married or otherwise. A few were single and unmarried. Pastor Swift, a short chubby man with a balding crown, was just finishing a lesson on the 23rd Psalm about The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. After the service, as the small group of the Church of the Sunrise walked toward their cabins, one of the young boys named Billy came running toward Pastor Swift.

Pastor Swift, Pastor Swift, there is an emergency warning being transmitted. You need to come quick! the young boy exclaimed. All right, all right, everything is fine. It is probably a fire emergency being broadcast. I will be right there, said Pastor Swift. As he approached his cabin, there were several people standing outside with long looks on their faces. Something big was up, and Pastor Swift could not tell what the emergency was going to be.

As he entered his cabin, a virtual broadcast was loud and clear: a comet was going to hit the earth in less than forty-eight hours. Oh my god! Pastor Swift exclaimed. Billy, run and get Colonel Jim Shepherd and have him meet me here as soon as possible! A few minutes later, retired colonel James Shepherd, a tall man with a military-style crew cut and a long gray mustache, appeared at Pastor Swift’s cabin with his wife, Elizabeth Shepherd. Elizabeth was a short brunette with some gray hair and has a very skinny body that she kept in shape by jogging every morning. She was a retired biologist from UCLA with a PhD in biology. As an employee of the World order it had been her job to ensure that any unborn child that was not a perfect human specimen would be made so with the proper hormone shots, or in extreme cases, aborted. This way all babies born would be perfectly healthy and have an equal chance to live a happy, healthy life. In the World Order no resources would be wasted on unworthy lives. There was zero tolerance for physically or mentally challenged individuals. In fact, Elizabeth’s specialty was to detect unborn babies who were psychotic. Since no cure had yet been developed these were immediately aborted. Cost effectiveness for psychotics was considered the most expensive waste of resources. And as a result, crime had been greatly reduced and violent crime almost wiped out.

Jim, as you may have heard, we have a major emergency on our hands. I have just been informed that a comet is about to collide with the earth in less than forty-eight hours. There is a strong possibility of flooding around the entire earth, especially if it lands in one of the oceans or hits the North or South Pole. We need to get to high ground fast before others do and stake out or claim to land higher than seven thousand feet above sea level. We know Donner Pass is 8,700 feet above sea level, and that is just down the road from here. I suggest we head for North Star Mountain that is just above Donner Pass, and we are close enough to get there quickly. I am not a military man, nor do I pretend to know how to handle this emergency, so I am putting you in charge of our church and its survival. I will ring the emergency bell and have everyone assemble immediately, said Pastor