(More than 400 words were deleted in the previous chapter, mainly after the outbreak of the American Civil War, the black people who fled north found that the Southern Baptist missionaries in the South had preached completely different from the North for two hundred years, and Nick described Jim Jones's image as Tommy's, Martin's concluding speech and other lines~~ Good guy, get up and open it to see, it has become a deleted version, and there is no way to restore it or even keep a copy for yourself, because it is coded with the writer's assistant, there is no manuscript, or rather, the manuscript has been deleted...... The main reason is that I don't know why I wrote some interesting anecdotes about what really happened in American history, why it was also cut...... ）

Garden City, Bay County, Florida.

To be honest, Nick came to see that Gary Dooni with the idea of pilgrimage today, after all, the image of the other party that Tommy talked about the other night was too legendary, and Nick didn't want to discuss the internal disputes of religion, but just wanted to see what the world's top Bible interpreter and the believers of God who could be exiled by mainstream denominations were like.

Unfortunately, after Tommy finished that night, there was no follow-up, but while reading the book, the god mysteriously made many phone calls in a few days, and went to the nearby church to worship, and it was not until five days later that he announced that he was going to see Gary Dooni, for which Nick, who had long been impatient, personally carried the camera, and he hoped that he could follow Tommy's side and get as close as possible to see this legendary-sounding big man.

According to the address left in the other party's brochure, Nick accompanied Tommy from the bustling Miami metropolis to Panama City, and then drove to his final destination, Garden Town.

Garden Town, also known as Garden City, has a nice name, a good town environment, grass, and clean streets, but there are no vehicles or pedestrians on the road.

The airport business car drove to the parking lot outside the Garden City Town building according to the agreed place, and in the parking lot, a white man with a weathered face but a kind smile was leaning on a large pickup truck, smiling and looking at Tommy who jumped out of the car, and tentatively approached and asked:

"Tommy Hawk?"

"It's me, you're Dr. Duney's assistant, Mr. Hankins?" Tommy smiled and stretched out his hand, shook it with the middle-aged man, and said with a smile.

A middle-aged man named Hankins looked at the three Nicks who walked down from the business vehicle with filming equipment, and Tommy introduced: "Mr. Jeff LaVine's campaign documentary shooting team, a veteran Democratic Party sponsor in California, in addition to donations, helped Jeff prepare an extra small gift, Jeff...... You know, Jeff couldn't be here himself, but he wanted to capture it on camera, and he really, really admired Dr. Duney. ”

Nick felt a little bad when he heard Tommy lie in a casual way, and the bastard told him that night that Martin and Page were in awe of Gary Dooney's "Way to Christ" church, and that it was a lie.

How could these people be Jeff's campaign documentary team? Stephen Lane was dizzy and sent a team of men from California to help a guy who believed in the Horizons make a campaign documentary? And Nick is sure that Jeff has never heard of Gary Dooney's name at all.

"Anyway, welcome to Garden City." The middle-aged white man named Hankins nodded at the three Nicks.

Nick carried the camera, looked at the large pickup truck next to Hankins and asked, "So, are we going to get in the car and go?" ”

"Go? Where to go? Hankins asked, confused.

Nick gestured to the pickup truck, "Church, see Mr. Gary Dooney, I thought this pickup truck was here to pick us up." ”

"He's in the municipal building, yes, this municipal building, bought by our 'Second Coming Way', so that everyone can worship, and the price is so cheap that it seems to be given away for nothing." Hankins turned his head to the nearby three-story building:

"Garden City was disbanded five years ago, the police department, the city government, the firefighters...... All of them are disbanded, this is an unorganized area in the official sense, and now, it is just a human gathering place that does not deserve to appear on the map of the United States, and everything here is now under the responsibility of the county government of Bay County. ”

Although the United States often dissolves some organized towns, Nick is still a little unbelievable, because generally speaking, dissolution occurs in the metropolitan area, which is more convenient to manage, and this kind of small town in the remote countryside generally does not appear to be dissolved, after all, the county government is too far away from here, and it is very inconvenient to manage.

He turned the camera to look around in order: "Such a beautiful place? Why disband it? ”

"You don't know...... As if deceived, we voted for two new Garden City government commissioners that year, and then that year, the five-member committee passed a resolution to dissolve Garden City by a vote of 3:2, and the people here were at a loss and didn't understand what was going on, and then they went to the Bay County government and said they wanted to cancel the resolution, but the county government said that the federal and state governments had agreed to our request, but when did we ask for it? The county government also said that the five members who passed the resolution were all elected by all of us, and since we chose them, it is equivalent to giving them the right and duty to exercise their rights and obligations on our behalf, and to make the right decisions on our behalf. Hankins shook his head a little embarrassed, and walked towards the building with a few people:

"The county government has been calculating for four years, and it hasn't figured out how many assets and debts Garden City has, and it's been four years since I was owed severance pay, by the way, I'm also among the more than 30 people who are unemployed, I was the sheriff of the Garden City Police Department before, and thanks to the disbandment, I'm unemployed."

Hankins nagged and walked in the front, not caring if Tommy and Nick heard his complaints, but Nick was from the big city of Los Angeles, and he suddenly thought of a possibility, so he looked at Tommy next to him, and asked in a small voice that was not quite sure: "Do you think, is it possible that I guessed it?" Like a big city like New York or Los Angeles? ”

Tommy nodded, not denying: "Otherwise? There is no second answer, and there is only one reason for each disbandment. ”

"But real estate developers generally only play this kind of trick in the big cities, and it's more subtle than what they do here, so why do they have it here?" Nick looked around again, making sure it was completely unrelated to the big city, and then continued to ask.

Los Angeles, New York's metropolitan area continues to expand with the influx of population, some of the surrounding small towns will also be disbanded, subject to the management of the city government, generally this dissolution seems to be the choice of the people on the surface, but in fact there are real estate developers, the problem is that real estate developers run Garden City to do this kind of means in the countryside, this place does not even have a decent beach, even a resort has not been built.

"It's not just real estate businessmen who play this trick, mining companies, forestry companies, fishing companies...... Either one is possible, the mining company is more likely, maybe the mining company has quietly discovered the vein nearby, once dissolved, all the assets and debts of Garden City will be handed over to the county government, including law and order, planning, finance, concessions, judicial proceedings, land use rights, etc., everything has nothing to do with the residents here, the county government can sell the land to whomever it wants, no longer need to get the consent of the residents, and at the county and state level, the public relations and lobbying companies of large companies can be more obscure, It's more flexible, it's more efficient, and in the end, it's better not to record this passage. Tommy flicked Nick's shot with his finger:

"As for you saying that the real estate developers are more subtle in their way of acquiring land, that's because the residents of the big cities are too smart, but this is Bay County, Florida, where 30 percent of families live below the standard poverty line in the United States, do you think they are smart? If they were really smart, they would not have elected a few committee members who had been bought off a long time ago and destroyed their homes for them, and the big companies were blatantly bullying the countrymen here who had no brains. ”

Nick can only shake his head in the end and admit that what Tommy said makes sense, but they have nothing to do about this kind of thing, and even like Tommy said, it's better to delete Tommy's words so as not to get into trouble, this is the fucking America, where politicians and capitalists can easily take the rednecks as fools and trick them into giving up power if they want to.

He tried to restore his mood to the excitement of the imminent meeting of the saints, and followed Tommy into the empty town hall after Hankins, who led the way, and walked up the stairs to the second floor.

"I want you to understand that I am only a fortunate messenger who has traveled on the path of life for many years, and it is not until I am dying of old age that I realize the true meaning of my coming to this world, that God has asked me to convey his message to all believers, remember, that you need to do what you should do."

Hearing this slightly hoarse but magnetic voice, Pilgrim Nick couldn't help but take a few deep breaths, preparing to appear in the room with a camera in the next second to take pictures of each other's appearance.

But before he was brought into the venue, the voice continued to sound:

"What is the right thing to do?"

"Whoever beats another person shall be put to death."

"A woman who has lost her virginity in a marriage shall be put to death."

"Whoever is in contact with a married woman shall be put to death."

"And you two have committed three executions in the Torah, and I ......"

"This is the greatest expository? Is this awe-inspiring? Nick almost smashed the camera on Tommy when he heard the latter words, and whispered, "This is more fucking brutal and primitive than Jim Templar-Jones!" He's going to put the believers to death, and you're ...... the."

"I see that thunder and lightning will fall, and we cannot stop God from wrath about it, but I really hope that God will pour out the thunder and lightning on me, and that I will use my own body to quench your sins and the wrath of God, and this is what I should do."

"I am willing to bear the punishment you are worried about, but Nikki, Joseph, what you should do most is not to appear here for fear of punishment and ask for God's forgiveness, no matter when, cheating should be despised, what you should do most is to sincerely apologize to Nikki's husband in exchange for his forgiveness, I will meet a few new friends next, so, I want you to go back and think about it now, don't go wrong again, and return to God's narrow gate."

The imaginary line of the cult leader announcing the execution of the believer in the next second did not appear, and the voice inside was still gentle and kind, without any fluctuations, and it was completely contrary to the line he imagined, which made Nick seem to be stuck in the neck, and only came back to his senses after half a ring, Hankins, who was standing at the door, looked back at Nick with an idiotic look for a while, and then looked at Tommy with an inquiring gaze, trying to figure out what was wrong with this guy.

Tommy twirled his finger around his temples twice and said helplessly, "He'...... Recently, I have been under a lot of pressure at work and have a mental disorder. ”

"I thought...... I thought Dr. Duney was going to put them to death, and a lot of extremist sects in the newspapers were going to do that, and it was in the movies. Nick whispered to Hankins, "I'm sorry. ”

Hankins looked at Nick with disdain and asked Tommy, "That California financier, are you sure you didn't have a grudge against the candidate before you sent him here?" You should ask clearly, maybe the real support of the financier is Jeff LaVine's rival. ”

Soon, the door opened from the inside, and out of it, a man and a woman, two middle-aged white people, dressed simply, typical of the poor people in rural Florida, glanced at Tommy and the others with shameful faces, and then lowered their heads and hurriedly left.

Hankins pushed the door open: "Doctor, Tommy Hawke is outside, and he also brought the crew of Mr. Jeff LaVine's campaign documentary to follow the filming. ”

"Invite them in." Gary Dooni's voice rang out.

After getting the other party's consent, Hankins got out of the way, Tommy and Nick with the camera walked in, a white old man wearing tortoiseshell glasses, a plaid shirt and jeans stood up in front of a large desk, walked over and shook hands with Tommy to say hello, and after the greeting sat down, after Hankins withdrew, Gary Dooney, who had no aura of a master, looked at Tommy suspiciously:

"To be honest, although I was on the phone with Tommy before, I still don't know what you mean, and I don't quite understand who Mr. Jeff LaVine is, what he's running for, and what it has to do with me."

Nick had even begun to wonder if Tommy was joking with himself before, the old man didn't look like a stern religious scholar, or the kind of articulate preacher who quoted the scriptures fluently, like a ...... An old clerk who is about to retire from a department of the city can hardly find any other ornaments related to religion except for a silver chain cross around his neck.

And it seems that this old man does not look like the kind of church bigwig with a net worth of billions, who places the church in such an unincorporated town, and the believers are all poor, how can he come up with a lot of money to support the Jeff LaVine campaign?

Could it be that Tommy was really in awe of the other party, so he came to get to know each other?

After chatting for a while about the beautiful scenery of Garden City, Tommy looked at Gary Dooney and asked earnestly in a studious tone: "That's so, Dr. Dooney, I happened to learn some information from you and your church, which says that you say that the New Testament has been miscopied, that it has been altered too much, and that no one has even seen the original manuscript on the day of its birth, that it is an apocrypha, not like the Old Testament, and that everything is well documented. ”

"I used to be at Princeton Theological Seminary, mainly engaged in the study of religious texts, and from what I know, yes, the New Testament has the problem of being reconstructed by later generations, and I did not say that it is apocrypha, but from the research point of view, there are various contradictions and styles in many Gospels in the New Testament." Although Tommy came up to discuss the issue of religious texts with him, which was a bit rude, Gary Dooney still gave his answer seriously and succinctly:

For example, the Gospel of John, compared with other gospels, the Jesus in it is not like Jesus, more like a mortal who has received miracles and likes to show off miracles everywhere, and the more serious problem is that the 21st chapter of the Gospel of John was added by later generations many years after it was written, and from the professional perspective of scripture identification, we can trace the history of these gospels, no matter how many manuscripts, as long as it exists in the original text, it must be traced, but the problem with the New Testament is that countless scholars of the Gospel are like going back to the Old Testament, In the end, as if we were looking back at the original text, we tried to go back to the New Testament, and over the centuries, countless scholars followed each other, and finally pointed to an answer, there was no original text, which was the content reconstructed by later generations. ”

"My mom is Catholic." Tommy paused for a moment before speaking.

Gary Dooni said with a smile: "Catholicism is one of the three main denominations of Christianity, and of course your mother can decide which denomination she belongs to. ”

"I was bothered by a question when I was very young, Doctor, those images in the Gospels of the Bible, my mother was a devout Catholic, and my house was full of those Gospel images, and I grew up looking at those images, and one day, I found a problem, Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew looks like a human being, Jesus in the Gospel of Mark is a lion, Jesus in the Gospel of Luke is like a cow, and Jesus in the Gospel of John is an eagle, and I asked my mother, When I asked the priest of the church, I got a standard answer today, that is, the different levels of images that Jesus showed in the face of different apostles, the human image represents the humanity of Jesus, the lion represents the nobility of Jesus, the ox represents the humility of Jesus, and the eagle represents the pride of Jesus. Why be proud of the apostle John, and humble yourself to Luke? ”

Gary Dooney laughed at Tommy's question, and instead of rushing to give an answer, he complimented: "Very few ordinary believers will find your first question, and after the general discovery, as you said, ordinary missionaries will also answer with that standard answer of different levels of imagery, but in fact, in the 3rd century A.D., there was also a scholar who asked the same question as you, but he was not a believer, but only from a religious point of view. ”

"Jesus does not change his image, it has nothing to do with the level, but when those apostles preach, they face different missionary groups, so the image of Jesus they describe is not the same, they need to make some aristocratic believers believe that Jesus is as noble as them, and they need to make other poor believers believe that Jesus is humble, and can talk with the poor on an equal footing or even humblely, Jesus has never changed, for example, the poor believers in the city of Rome only accept the Gospel of Luke, while the Jewish Christians only accept the Gospel of Matthew, It's just that the early Christian community believed that in order to make more people believe in God, there was no need to unify in this kind of matter, and let people choose the way they wanted to preach, which also led many pagans to attack Christianity from this angle, and the Christian church put together another ......"

""Refutation of Heresy", "Refutation of Heresy" by Irenaeus, in order to help the church fulfill his lies, he can only say that the Gospels are the pillars and foundations of the church, and the four gospels represent the four directions of the world, and also represent the four strongest pillars of the church, and the four pillars of the building are the strongest." Tommy continued with the other man's words.

Gary Dooney nodded, his eyes a little surprised: "The church school you attended in high school?" Ordinary young people don't know about this. ”

"If someone is confused by the same questions I had when I was a child, what is the right thing for you to do?" Tommy didn't answer, but looked back at the old man calmly and asked.

I was surprised by Tommy's understanding of Christianity, but Tommy's question made Gary Dooni laugh again: "Of course it's a sermon, kid, as long as they are willing to listen, I'm willing to explain it to them." ”

"Would you lie?" Tommy hesitated and asked a presumptuous question.

Gary Douni shook his head slightly, "I never lie, kid. ”

The expression on Tommy's face slowly brightened: "If there are too many confused people, scattered all over Florida, I mean, how much do I need to pay you to appear before you are willing to come forward to solve the world's doubts?" Or rather, Mr. Jeff LaVine is willing to pay for it. ”

"It is the right thing for a missionary to solve the doubts of the people, and of course he will not be paid, but ...... If you are willing to pay for the journey or donate to the church, I would certainly appreciate it. Gary Dooney always felt that something was wrong when he saw Tommy's gradient expression, but he didn't know what the problem was:

"But I don't think the pastors or priests of the churches around the world probably don't want an outsider to interfere in their work."

"Those questions don't need you to think about, Dr. Duni, I'm in charge of solving them, including travel expenses, room and board, and eventual donations, there's only one question, and that's do you have time now? We could leave at any time, and the first stop was Tallahassee, which numbered about 200 people for two days. Tommy said with a sparkling look in his eyes.

Gary Douni shrugged and said with a smile, "Of course you can, but ...... Some of it was too surprising to me, I mean, just inviting me to go on a mission, you don't have to bring a camera to meet me, I look a little old, but it's okay to fly alone, Tallahassee, which church organizes the meeting? ”

"St. Joseph's Rosicrucian Society." Tommy candidly uttered a noun.

The kind and sincere old man on the other side had a dull expression, looked at Tommy for a long time, and then nodded slowly, and then slowly got up: "Of course, of course, there is no problem, no matter what the identity of the lost world is, there is no problem, but...... Well, I'm going to tell you, kid, are you sure you're a Catholic? ”

"I said before that my mom was Catholic." Tommy said, "I never said I was. ”

Nick next to him didn't know if Gary Dooni's church was a cult or not, but the Rosicrucian of St. Joseph that came out of Tommy's mouth was a notorious religious organization in Florida, and seeing the old man slowly leaving, Nick stared at Tommy:

"What did you do?"

Tommy waited for the old man to leave, then took out a cigarette and lit it, and took a puff: "It's nothing, find a real angel to help the devil stand on the platform, and the devil will donate 50,000 yuan to the social charity I helped Jeff set up for this." ”

Nick immediately figured out Tommy's routine, and if the strange cult leaders and old men in Florida were on the same stage, they would be more emboldened to sell their own religious writings to overseas believers, after all, they could boast of the help and approval of the best interpreters in the world.

"You're a demon, you're going to hell, Tommy, it's not a curse, it's a judgment that's bound to come." Nick whispered to Tommy, "You're going to sell this kind and sincere old man to those crazy people!" Dispel this crazy idea! ”

"You know what's crazier?" Tommy said with a smile when he saw Nick's expression.

Nick stared at Tommy, shaking his head slightly.

"I've sold it more than once." Tommy spat out a puff of smoke rings: "And, I, the devil, am already in hell, and I've always been at home." ”

(End of chapter)