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That's if I was writing a novel that tells the Revelation story. My story is based on (derived from?) Revelation but does not attempt to retell the exact same story (it's been done many times). For one thing, which interpretation of Revelation would I follow if I were to retell it? There are probably hundreds of interpretations (I own twelve of them myself, lol, from my original research). The predominant Catholic interpretation is that Revelation is a story about spiritual "warfare" and Christ's ultimate victory over evil. I do know that they generally do not believe in a real, final battle at Armageddon, which is why my final battle of book 3 will be different (Connor's forces vs Satan's forces), though still at Armageddon. Also, I was told, no "actual" war in Heaven when I once asked when in the biblical timeline it occurred. Similarly, I doubt Catholics believe in a real mark of the Beast for everyone on Earth except the martyrs. For one thing, it's simply not practical on a planet with almost 10B people. One interpretation suggested the mark was smartphones (held up to the head) and smartwatches (on the hand/wrist), as if everyone on Earth had those devices. Depending on which interpretation of Revelation you go with, things also don't happen in the order they appear in the book.

So, depending on your beliefs, things can happen out of order or don't happen at all.

Since my story is based on Revelation, I use many important elements of the Book of Revelation, but I adjust them (somewhat) to serve my plot (my interpretation, lol), without going off the deep end, except for the fact that the Antichrist ultimately ends up as the hero of the story, but that's not evident until the end of the trilogy. I end my trilogy roughly the same way as the Bible (the righteous go to Heaven, everyone else goes into the Lake of Fire, which teleports them to other worlds, from which they can never return, so they're in the lake forever). See how I did that, while still following Revelation? :-)

As for 666, since Connor overcomes his genetic enslavement to Satan halfway through book 2, there will be no opportunity for him to implement the mark of the Beast. Nor would he, since he's "Christ" not the Antichrist. So, God uses it while taking back the Vatican to mark the traitors with 666 on their foreheads. Those are the true followers of the beast, so it makes sense that at least they would be marked. You should see what God does with the corporeals (demons) at the Vatican. :-)

On a related note, I can't recall, did you read my Groundhog Day short story? It's a (revised) entry for the do-over contest about Satan's fate more or less how it will happen in the trilogy.

Congratulations, Randy.

I have a tricky problem with the distances between ships in my space battles. Unless they get close enough to the terrorizer to be caught in the blast, the risk is substantially less. And yet 1400 meters is nothing, as K noted in his review of part 1. They should have improved their tech long ago to allow supernovas to fire from greater distances. Not sure how best to make that plot hole go away. Ignore it?

Welcome to the site, hullabaloo. I'm so sorry for the losses you've experienced. I can't imagine how hard that must be.
I'm one of the other writers here and do my best to help new members get up to speed quickly. Please check out an article I pinned near the top of the Premium forum for tips on how to maximize the number of reviews you can get. It'll help you avoid some of the mistakes other new members sometimes make.
I'm going to send you a connection request. If you accept, we can use private messages to communicate.
Fastest way to get answers to any questions you might have would be to simply post them in the Premium forum (that's one of its main uses). You'll get the most eyeballs on it that way. But if you prefer to ask me privately, feel free, although my turnaround time may be overnight given where you're located.
By the way, Morag, one of our other members, is from Scotland. Great lady. She's writing two books at present (mysteries), as am I (a supernatural thriller and a space opera). Depending on what you like to read, I can point you toward the right members. Until you know who's who, who's active, etc., I suggest reviewing mainly material scrolling down your home page, as well as anything that's just scrolled off your home page (there's a button under each section that lets you go back further). The stuff on your home page is guaranteed to be from active users.
As you've probably seen by now, and unlike Booksie, this site uses "points" for posting. You earn points by doing reviews (at least 5 inline comments in an inline review or 50+ words in a regular review). While collecting and using points may seem annoying at first, it's actually very easy to collect enough points.  The points system encourages people to Review each other's work, and it tends to scare off trial users who just want to post their stuff without reviewing the work of others. For points, review (roughly) 3 chapters or stories to be able to post each of yours; those are averages, and it's a little different for poems. The longer a posted work is, the more points you get when reviewing it; the longer your work is, the more points you need to post it; try to avoid posting overly long pieces (all this is covered in my Premium post mentioned above, including how to deal with long chapters or short stories).
That's all I can think of right now. Please look for my connection request on your home page in a few minutes.

Welcome aboard!
Dirk

You could even interpret that verse as referring to the Staff. He's got the power to fight evil, and he's there (ostensibly) to help bring more people to God.

I'm seriously considering changing the name of the first book from "The Rise of Connor" to "The Staff of Christ". Seems like a better fit now that Connor is playing that role instead of a reincarnated Christ.

EDIT: Good grief. That exact book title already exists from a 2024 publication, although it's a self-help book, not a novel. Also my three books for this series will all be "subtitles" of the series called "Satan's Last Stand", so my book name isn't a standalone title.

I'm not sure if this is particularly important, but I thought I'd mention it. When I just submitted an inline review for Vern's Great Do-Over story, it shows the submitted time as 5:13 PM. Yet, I actually submitted the review around 11:30 AM local time (Mountain).

I assumed the time would vary due to time zones, but I'm not familiar with any islands in the Atlantic that are 5 hours and 45 minutes ahead of Mountain time. Is the server floating on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch island, perhaps? :-)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottsnowd … pollution/

More refinement needed. Since there are a rather overwhelming number of verses that speak to their being only one incarnation of the Son of God, where "Son of the God" refers to the spiritual being that proceeds from the Father, I can't make Connor a second incarnation. Even the Holy Spirit incarnating as Connor is problematic (the weight of Catholic thought is that Christ is the only incarnation of God). So, Connor is not an incarnation of God but rather the ultimate "manifestation" of the Holy Spirit, for the end times. He's still human, but the Spirit within him is so powerful it's unlike anyone who has ever lived, not including Christ of course. His role is akin to John the Baptist on supernatural steroids (one final, almighty push by God to prepare the human race for the Second Coming and save as many souls as possible). Naturally, he is not really that manifestation either; he's still just a demon-spawn with an ancient soul, pretending to be Godlike in a way that doesn't contradict Christian beliefs and the Bible.

The fly in the ointment here is that I would really like be able to keep open the question of whether Connor is Christ. He would give signs of being Christ returned as a boy but deny it until some point after everyone is convinced he really is Christ. So, Augustine's letter keeps getting shorter and shorter. Augustine will say his vision showed him a child with Godlike powers coming from Heaven for the end times (exact wording needs to imply he may be Christ returned as a boy). Augustine can then comment that there are no verses anywhere in the Bible that rule out Christ returning as a boy, not even Acts 1:11. He can then state he doesn't know how this is possible, but that the Holy Spirit assured him the Lord would explain it upon his return.

But why would Christ return as a boy? What advantage could there be? Story-wise, it would allow me to let Connor pretend to be Christ throughout the Holy Land tour, which would keep everyone off kilter. But if he's supposed to be a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, what advantage would there be for the AC to pretend otherwise in the Holy Land? Why not just show signs of being the HS? Other than the entertainment I'm trying to provide with the books, of course.

One added quirk to all this is that I have to explain about the discrepancies that will eventually arise between the Bible and the story world.

EDIT: I have thee ways to do this:
1. Augustine (or rather the author of the scroll, Satan) acknowledges in his letter to the pope that things will differ, potentially invalidating parts of the Bible, which should be impossible, but Augustine says he doesn't know why it will happen, but it will. And the Holy Spirit told him it would all be explained by the Lord once he returns.
2. Take advantage of the fact that no verse in the Bible claims the Lord will return as an adult, so he could return as a child, grow to be an adult, and then (supposedly) the Day of the Lord can proceed.
3. Technically, there should be no discrepancies between the Bible and the story world if the Lord returns as both Christ and Connor.

In all cases, it'll be important that I don't write anything that rules out Connor being a second incarnation, even as I lead the reader/characters down a path that looks like Christ is returning as a child.

I was about to write that I'm waffling about whether Connor should be Christ or a second incarnation. I was leaning back toward Christ because I think it's a more compelling story element, but I just realized that Connor could do all the things he did previously in the first draft, making everyone conclude that he is definitely Christ when, in fact, he'll later claim he's a second incarnation, coming to save more souls before the return of Christ. Now, if he really were the 2nd incarnation of the Lord, Connor would have access to some of Jesus's memories via the hypostatic unions. He would experience things in the Holy Land  caused by incomplete memories popping into his mind from Jesus.

>>Therefore, what fits your story better? An ancient Antichrist or a recent one?
I'm not sure what you mean.

Connor is (supposedly) in hypostatic union with God (the Son) as is Jesus. In my story, the AC didn't exist prior to the birth of the little demon-spawn. In Connor's case, he'd be claiming to have been in hypostatic union with the Son since Connor's birth. Although his soul is ancient (Adam), that element of Connor's existence isn't revealed until the very end of book one (with Adam's identity revealed to Connor at the end of book 2). When he's attacked in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, it supposedly gives him access to the Son's "memories", which would include those of Jesus. Indeed, the whole time they're in the Holy Land, he'll seem to experience snippets of Jesus's life as the tour group moves from site to site (the same as he did in the first draft). Ostensibly, the reason he experiences these is because he's in union with the Son, who is in union with Christ.

Even as I wrote about Adam in the above paragraph, I realized that means Connor, who is physically just 14 years old, will claim to be the 2nd incarnation of God, in hypostatic union with the Son (for those past 14 years) and indirectly also with Christ, but Connor's soul once belonged to Adam. If that doesn't make your head spin, I don't know what will. :-)  Fortunately, he will have ceased pretending to be the 2nd incarnation around the latter half of book 2, and he'll learn about Adam at the climax of book 2.