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    Retribution: Chasing Hearts and Minds
    Retribution: Chasing Hearts and Minds
    Retribution: Chasing Hearts and Minds
    Ebook63 pages51 minutes

    Retribution: Chasing Hearts and Minds

    By Jeffrey Tharp

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    About this ebook

    God watched His creation evolve since long before the written word. He watched even as the first vertebrate flopped out of the sea. He watched long before that. He had great expectations for this new world. This was the one He hoped would finally get it right.

    Even though Man was created in His image, they possessed a particularly irksome ability to veer wildly off script. It didn’t help that God’s one-time right hand spent every waking moment for eons finding new and exciting ways to tempt them away from their pre-ordained course.

    Once upon a time, a bit of flooding, razing a few misbehaving cities, a smiting here and there, and the occasional miracle had been enough to keep the masses on the straight and narrow. In an age of endless entertainment and short attention spans, even an omniscient and almighty God was apt to have trouble getting His point across.

    Retribution: Chasing Hearts and Minds is the story of what happens when the Old Testament God clashes head-to-head with the modern world.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJeffrey Tharp
    Release dateMay 24, 2014
    ISBN9781311249432
    Retribution: Chasing Hearts and Minds

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      Book preview

      Retribution - Jeffrey Tharp

      Retribution: Chasing Hearts and Minds

      By Jeffrey D. Tharp

      Copyright 2014 Jeffrey D. Tharp

      Smashwords Edition

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment and may not be sold or given away to other people.

      Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Chapter 10

      Chapter 11

      Chapter 12

      Chapter 13

      Chapter 14

      Chapter 15

      Chapter 16

      Chapter 17

      Chapter 18

      Chapter 19

      Chapter 20

      Chapter 21

      Chapter 22

      About the Author

      Chapter 1

      I thought I was out of this business, He mused to no one in particular.

      It’s been a few thousand years… You’re out of practice is all. It’s not like they’ve ever been good at following basic rules.

      He grimaced at the critique that grazed just a little too close to home, but nodded in agreement all the same. Even He had to grudgingly admit the redeeming qualities of His creation could be few and far between. A hundred generations and they still weren’t showing much improvement.

      You wouldn’t think ten basic rules would be that hard to follow. He was on the verge of raging off on a tangent. Again. They made up the whole bit about shellfish and different crops growing side by side. And when did I say a damned thing about publically stoning the non-believers?

      Michael shrugged. There wasn’t any talking to Him when he got into one of these moods. They’d been over it all before. Each time He demurred, deferring His retribution on the misguided peoples of the earth.

      There wasn’t any reason Michael should think this time would be different. Getting himself worked up over mankind’s poor choices just wasn’t worth the effort.

      We have a covenant. He sounded determined now, carrying on as if Michael was actively participating in the conversation. As much as he tried to avoid being drawn in, when the Almighty spoke, he had no choice but to listen.

      They’ve broken it, Michael offered flatly. He hoped that would end this round of the discussion.

      There was no word for it on the ethereal plane. For all the obvious reasons the phrase Devil’s advocate never gained traction this close to the throne. Still, it was the role Michael most often filled after the Rebellion. He was one of the few who could navigate the dangerous line between telling truth to power and lèse-majesté.

      So, we have cause?

      Michael nodded once, again hoping to see some sign that they were coming to a decision rather than rehashing the discussion they had at least once a year for nearly 4400 years. This wasn’t exactly the best time to deep dive the issue anyway. All hands were fully occupied compiling year-end reports and closing the books on one more revolution around the star named Sol.

      The annual Report to the Most High and Holy Sovereign on the State and Status of His Most Precious and Esteemed Creation was nothing to be taken lightly. Being all knowing and all seeing didn’t just happen by accident. The heavenly host was nothing so much as a vast bureaucracy working around the clock filing reports and preparing the Lord’s daily briefing. The year-end reports, though, was an exhaustive accounting of where creation stood, the efficacy of the bureaucracy itself, and even a closely held and unpublicized annex detailing all known activities of the Dominions Below. There was rarely good news from the Pit, but knowing the comings and goings of the Host in Rebellion was one of the bureaucracy’s most important jobs.

      God the Father had crushed the rebellion and cast out those who followed its banner. He assured the peace of Heaven, but on earth the fight never really stopped. Instead, the lives of men existed inside a proxy war between the heavenly host and the rebellious angels who He cast down. To their credit, the Morning Star and his loyalists moved easily among the people. Lucifer’s influence over them grew daily, even as the Lord’s own power over the realms of man diminished.

      The whole heavenly administration existed to provide the

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