Men of the Cave (Symbol of Hope Series) by Marisette Burgess Page B

created the Earth and all its inhabitants. However, after He created Earth and man spread throughout Earth’s lands, God decided to leave for a while. In his place, He left his sons and daughters to reign above humans as Gods. Humans gave them various names; some refer to them as the Greek Gods.”
    I leaned back and crossed my arms over my chest then let out a huff.
    He ignored me and continued, “As you know, there were numerous gods. They had the power to reproduce with each other and with mortals. They created many more gods and demigods. After time the heavens overcrowded with gods and goddess, so some left. In the end the only ones that truly remained to govern humans were the Olympians with their leaders Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon. I am sure you are somewhat studied in the area of Greek mythology?”
    “Yea, somewhat, I read the Odyssey last year, what are you getting at?” I asked.
    He chuckled, “Unfortunately, humans did not get all those facts right either. As Paganism was a popular belief system at the time, the gods were less than kind to humans who believed in the one God. So one day, as the Greeks refer to it, Chaos, or the one true God of us all, returned to Earth. He was appalled to see how his children’s children were mistreating humans. He decided that He wanted full control over Earth again and demanded that all the gods step down and banished them from the heavens. The gods and goddess; were self-righteous and got extremely angry. They refused and declared war on the one true God. This is why God created his army of angels to battle the Greek gods. They battled in the heavens for thousands of years.”
    “Wait, are you telling me all those tales and stories are real, angels and gods do exist?” I couldn’t believe he was feeding me some child’s tale.
     “Yes, they most certainly do exist. Finally, the one true God had enough. He knew the only way to win the battle was to have humans believe in Him and only Him. Therefore, He created his half-mortal son, the Christ child. He was the key, and even though the gods tried to stop his martyrdom; they failed. Jesus died, resurrected, and Christianity began. The war that started in the heavens now spread to Earth. Humans took sides; Paganism was destined to become extinct. As Christianity prevailed on Earth, the battle in the heavens was ending. The Greek gods and goddess surrendered to the one true God. God’s archangels, led by Michael, gathered the Pagan gods for sentencing. The three leaders, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, vanished from Earth. The other gods had two choices, to leave Earth forever, or to live as an immortal with limited powers among humans. Most decided to stay. Any demigod or mortal who had direct interactions with the gods received the same fate. Most of them stayed on Earth.”
    “Are you telling me that your brother is an immortal Greek god?” I asked.
    He smiled and half laughed, “No, we are immortal but we are not, nor ever were Greek gods.”
    “Excuse me…WE!”
    “Yes, we, my brothers and I, we were born around two hundred years after Christ’s resurrection. At this time, Christianity was still struggling against the Pagans on Earth. In the year 250 AD, my brothers and I were Ephesians, and at that time Artemis was the city’s pagan goddess. The Roman Emperor Decius prosecuted Christians. When he came to Ephesus, he told us to pray to Artemis or die. Because we were the sons of a nobleman, he gave us a chance to ponder our decision. We were to tell him our choice upon his return. While he was away, my brothers and I climbed up a mountain and hid in a cave. We are not sure why or how exactly it happened, but we fell into a deep sleep.”
    “When the Emperor returned, he heard that we escaped to the mountain and were hiding in a cave. He had the mouth of the cave-sealed shut. My brothers and I lie sleeping in that cave for about one hundred and fifty years. Then one day the man who owned the land opened the mouth of