Page 150 - Psychoceramics and the Test of Fire

Operation Belshazzar

indistinguishable from other proponents of a grand design, secular
and religious, and was easily discredited as a megalomaniac disguised
as a maverick theologian. Universal censure left Cyrus Lee
undaunted; and in that he shared the unshakeable self-confidence
evidently prized by Al Magnus as a hallmark of worthiness, the
personality of a man already tempered by adversity. All that remained
to be tested were his suppositions and proclamations; but the
personal rejection had made that impossible: Cyrus Lee could not
scrape together enough cash to promote his latest opus. Enter yours
truly.
According to information received, my impending client’s field
remained Biblical analysis and elucidation. The ultimate questions of
messianism and preterism usually led his colleagues to a close textual
reading of Scripture for early signs of End Times and The Rapture.
Lee, however, chose to interpret the Book of Daniel, particularly
chapters 5:25-28, as relevant to lesser, but still highly significant,
events in our own era. He was not the first to link The Writing on the
Wall to the fate of Iraq in the first decade of the twenty-first century:
the proximity of Baghdad to Babylon and the apparent fissures
between Arab Sunni and Shi’a linked to Iran were too obvious to
overlook. No doubt Lee disliked being only one voice among
many—even if the loudest—in this rare display of point-scoring by
the prophecy-mongers, a group already flying high on the recognition
of modern Israel as harbinger of Apocalypse. That competitive streak
probably contributed to the aforementioned outbreak of fisticuffs at
the “Seek and Ye Shall Find” forum. As a result he was barred from
similar convocations of the faithful yet again and would get no
further hearing among his peers.
Such serial rejection might have shattered a lesser man, but Lee
fueled the fires in the kiln of his righteous indignation and
unshakeable faith with the brickbats and tar hurled by his enemies.
By the time I found him, ensconced in penury in a weathered and
cracking mobile home, he had a full head of steam and was ready to
boil over. I knew that before I got there: the research material I had
been reading included Lee’s attempts to get publicity for his latest
ideas. Others, more jaded, might have seen those efforts as ranging
from a desire to rehabilitate his reputation to upping the ante with a
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