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As I try to think through some of the elements of the book that I included in the first draft, I'm having a bit of a problem explaining why the Unholy Trinity (or anyone for that matter, especially the reader) would believe a spiritual poisoning of Christ (from the dagger) is even remotely possible.

In the story it's quite clear in several places that Connor/Christ seems to interact with the Holy Spirit even though Connor has yet to realize who he really is (and for some reason, the HS doesn't tell him). Naturally, all that is made up by Satan & Connor since Connor has never been baptized (not yet, anyway). I could have left that whole element out of the story, but given that other people far less pious than Connor have interacted with the HS in the past (true of both Romano and Campagna), it wouldn't make sense for Connor of all people not to have access to the HS, even though he's faking it.

I suppose I could have it be one of the details of the (fake) wager/challenge. Namely, the fake HS can't tell Connor who he really is (Christ) until the fake Father says so, which happens at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Also, it's the reason Christ, an all powerful spirit, doesn't seem able to enter Connor's mind to fully awaken the Christ within him until the climax. In other words, the Father told them both to wait.

Another issue is that the HS withdrew from Romano as part of the rules for the wager. Satan didn't trust the HS not to reveal something to Romano. Similarly, though, shouldn't the HS withdraw from Connor (Christ) for the same reason? As above, Connor fakes the presence of the HS within him, but then shouldn't he pretend that the HS withdrew from him too?

Just to clarify one item, there are actually two wagers in this story: a real one and a fake one. The real one is the decision Connor eventually has to make about whom to destroy (Christ's human half or Satan's De Rosa zombie). The fake wager is that if Christ comes back as a child and is raised by the Catholic Church, Christ will eventually become so disgusted with it, that he will destroy it. Only the fake wager appears throughout most of the book. At the end, Connor reveals the real wager to Campagna, which Connor himself didn't even know until that day.

Sol, I managed to find my inline reviews by looking at the bottom of the chapters. I then went back into the Reviews screen and futzed around with the search/filter control at the top of the inline received tab. No change until I hit the black Reset button. That brings them all back, but they disappear again as soon as I leave/reenter the tab.

I tried deleting my tnbw cookies, but that didn't help. Logged out of the site, closed the tnbw tab, closed the browser, and rebooted the machine. No luck.

One thing I noticed, though, is that, after I hit the Reset button (and all my reviews display again), I can hit the browser's refresh button and that doesn't cause a problem. But, if, after hitting Reset, I click on the inline received tab (the one I'm on), the refresh of that tab causes the reviews to disappear again.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions.

PRIORITY: Medium, since this seems to affect only me, and there's a workaround.

Thanks
Dirk

Interesting. I went to look for the missing reviews at the bottom of my chapters, and they're visible from there. Just not from the reviews tab.

Since human souls that go into the lake acquire a new human body before emerging on the other side, I could do the same with all the demons. Put all of them into corpses, in which they get stuck. Satan would probably get the same body back, which had been mutilated/deformed when the resistance took back the Vatican at the end of book 2. I could even put a cross around his neck again to trap him inside. Perhaps crosses around each corpse's neck to trap them all in bodies that undoubtedly experience searing heat and freezing cold?

It's not critical that they be in physical bodies since I could simply write that their spirit forms experience cold/heat too. However, putting them into bodies makes things consistent. A soul goes into the lake, burns for a time to pay for all the pain that person had caused while alive, then gets a non-glorified human body and is transported elsewhere.

The two inconsistencies I have to work out are that, in theory, Adam and Eve are responsible for every evil act since Creation. Eve was given a glorified body with which she returned to Earth as Dr. Lombardi, ostensibly a member of the conspiracy, to keep an eye on Connor/Adam at the Vatican. Perhaps that's why she was given a pass. Yet Connor/Adam will burn like hell until there's nothing left of them but their shared soul in agony.

Also, Satan is much more culpable for evil in the world. He is the reason Adam & Eve sinned, and he continued to stir up evil throughout history. This means he should suffer more than anyone else. The intensity of that heat would have to be staggering.

>> Wouldn't Satan build a spaceship and come back? I mean super genius with time on his hands...

Since Connor will throw the dagger at De Rosa, I had thought to destroy his physical form, leaving just Satan's spirit. But then I have to figure out how to drag him and all other demons into the lake of fire since humans can't hold him. I can leave that up to Jesus, I guess. So, it's only his spirit that goes through the lake to another world, or perhaps to an asteroid or moon like Io, preferably a celestial body that is spiralling into a black hole. Also, Satan's spirit has very little power to manipulate the physical realm without De Rosa's genetically engineered body, which is where most of his physical power came from while he was masquerading as the dark figure in Rome (same breeding program as Connor).

Because Satan is headed for an eternity in the Lake of Fire on Judgment Day, which he is desperate to avoid. Ditto for the Antichrist (Connor) and the False Prophet, all grave human sinners, and (I think all other demons).

Satan knows God will know the outcome of the Last Challenge, which is why he asks him to agree to the challenge regardless of the outcome. I've taken out the concept that Christ could be destroyed as part of the challenge and will make it so that only Christ's human half can be destroyed, forcing Christ back into spirit form, after which the Holy Trinity and all angels must leave Earth for the spirit realm and never return. Normally, Christ and his body are inseparable, but the Father created the supernatural dagger that Connor will eventually throw at either Christ or Satan. Since the Father created the dagger, Christ, who is equally all-powerful, could easily sidestep it, but because the Father agreed to the challenge and the potential results, if Connor throws the dagger at Christ, he will honor the Father's commitment and allow his human half to be destroyed.

The next thing I need to figure out is why would the Father take such a risk. As it says in my content summary, what is so important that he would risk it all? It originally was supposed to be because of the huge rescue mission into Hell that Connor is meant to lead. However, God could implement the rescue plan himself with a single thought, so I need better logic.

Finally something that came together easily. A bit wordy, but I can trim it once I've written the other sections.

One tweak I need to make here is to remove/rewrite prophecies that suggest Christ will win since (in theory) this document may fall in Satan's hands and God doesn't want him to know his ultimate fate. That avoids me giving away the apparent ending, which of course it isn't, but why let readers think I just did?

I'm not sure how God handles that. Fortunately, I don't need to answer that in the book, although my own personal answer is: I have no clue.

Thanks for the link. That's a terrific article but not an argument I'd want to make in the book because Catholics consider it inerrant too. It'd be the same problem I have now, which is that story events contradict the Bible, and since the events are real to the characters in the story, the Bible would have to be wrong. Yikes!

The alternate timeline allows for differences, but somehow I have to connect it to the real-world Bible. The goal is for my characters to conclude: yes, events differ from the Bible, but the Bible was written for another (real-world) timeline. The question then is, how did it end up in the story's timeline instead of one specific to that timeline. The key difference, of course, is the existence of the challenge, which leads to most other differences.

I definitely rely on some of my own interpretation of Revelation. The book is inspired by Revelation but doesn't follow it 100%. That previous sentence will be included somewhere near the beginning of the book once I publish to keep from pissing off my target audience. Admittedly, they should be able to tell that just from reading the trilogy's blurb on the back cover, but I'd like to minimize negative reviews from people who buy it expecting a more traditional interpretation of the Apocalypse.

Although there are endless interpretations, there is quite a bit of consistency among Catholic interpretations (e.g., the two witnesses represent the Church's testimony about Jesus, not the kooks Moses and Elijah, who I threw in for fun (they're from a common Protestant interpretation); a destroyed/rebuilt Jewish temple is actually Jesus returning from the dead after 3 days; Jesus ruling for 1000 years is actually Jesus in the Eucharist for some "large" number of years (1000 is not literal); no final battle at Megiddo (my final battle is actually between Connor and his father, which is fine); etc.).

What if Satan wanted to issue the challenge but only if it's fair. God could tell him that due to God's omniscience there's no way Satan can win, but God wants to do the challenge anyway (for a higher purpose), and he offers to reduce Satan's punishment (and that of others?) if he participates, without telling him why?

Problem is, that makes God responsible for the conspiracy and all pain and suffering that stems from it.