Patmos

This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ,

which God has given to him to show his

servants what must soon take place.

God has made it known by sending his Angel to his

Servant John, who testifies to everything he saw.

Blessed is everyone who hears it, and takes it to heart.

Because the time is short.

You have heard of the letter that

our Lord commissioned me to write.

When you read it again, remember that it

was not a letter from me, but from him.

Now, I would like to share from my own heart

something of the events, the circumstances.

Let me tell you how it all began.

The place is the Dianian Fields,

a morning's journey from the city gate.

The young fugitives are wanted by the Roman Soldiers.

Their guilt? They are Christians.

It is the 11th year in the reign of Domitian.

I was in my 80th year, some 60 summers having passed

since the cross, the Crucifixion of our Lord.

These young people are about to die.

It is their own plan, a last, desperate to save me,

their revered leader and friend.

They run in the open, attracting attention,

so that they might be captured, and then I can escape.

For many weeks past, they have faithfully and loyally

protected me, finding new hiding places daily

as the soldiers relentlessly scoured the hills in pursuit.

Now, in a final act, they give themselves.

I am the one you are looking for.

Take me, and let these young people go.

Arrest this man!

They were

disappointed, these young people.

They thought they had failed me.

Not so, for even as the soldiers put the iron on my wrists,

a strange joy came to my heart.

Move them!

I knew that God would

make the wroth of man to praise him.

Lord, is it to be that your children shall always suffer?

For my friends, surely you cannot forget how we suffered.

We wanted the Kingdom, and the glory,

but instead, he gave us hurt and anguish.

Even for these, so young, death.

Horrible death.

Death to the Christians!

Burn them. Hail, Caesar.

Get the torch.

And they thought they had failed.

Those precious young people.

But can there be a greater success than

that your life should bring you to death?

Death for the one who died for you?

But there is another reason why they did not fail.

God used them to prepare me for

the highest mission of my life.

Grace and peace to you, from him who is,

and who was, and who is to come, from Jesus Christ

who is the faithful witness, the first born from the dead,

and the ruler of the Kings of the Earth.

My Lord Octavius.

I arrested this man John the Elder.

A leader amongst the sect known as Christians.

I offered him his freedom if he would publicly

worship the Emperor, but he refused to burn the incense.

I have brought him to you for

trial as an enemy of the state.

Old Man, if you do not recant,

I shall take away all your property.

I have no property.

And if I had, and you took it away,

I would still be rich, for I have Christ.

Then I shall have you imprisoned

for the rest of your life.

Iron chains cannot imprison those whom Christ sets free.

For where Christ is, there is perfect liberty.

Then I shall take away your life.

Then, I shall be with Christ,

which is the truest life.

Patmos.

Patmos to all those who defy Caesar!

What is Patmos?

The Island of Death, some call it.

Behold, he is coming with clouds,

and every eye shall see him, even those who pierced him.

And all peoples of the Earth will mourn because of him.

So shall it be, Maranatha.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,

who was and is and is to come.

You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory,

and honor, and power, for you created all things.

Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, amen.

Praise, and glory, and wisdom, and thanks, and honor, and

power, and strength, be to our God forever and ever, amen.

The Island of Patmos

was governed by Sergius Catalinus,

once an Officer of the Praetorian Guard.

He fell into disfavor because of the excesses

of his uncontrollable bad temper.

A bitter and sorrowed man, a lost soul,

stripping out his existence in an empire of his own making.

Catalinus planned to build a temple on the highest ridge

over looking the blue Aegean Sea.

First, a road must be built, and stones

cut in the quarry form the foundations.

The workforce was gathered from all over the empire,

slaves from Africa and Gaul, prisoners from Asia and beyond.

This was Patmos.

Patmos and Catalinus.

Flaminius Martius, Honored Sir.

You are late, Flaminius Martius.

How do you explain this time wasting?

Honored Sir, the prisoner, John the Elder, is very old,

and he was unable to make good speed.

You are soft, Centurion.

Patmos is no place for the likes of you.

Now take your men and mount a guard along that ridge.

But Sir, my men haven't

haven't eaten for two whole days.

I don't care if you and your men starve, Centurion.

Just get them on duty, hm?

Sergeant, get them to work!

You, come with me!

We haven't eaten for two days.

Understand me, all of you.

Prisoners are fed once a day.

And you're too late for today.

Makes little difference, you're all going to die!

The Kingdom of the World has become

the Kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ,

and he will reign forever, and ever.

You're doomed!

We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,

for you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.

The lot of you, doomed!

Now, work.

Move!

Move, you slacker!

Move!

The old man does his own work.

Now work!

The lot of you!

Maranatha. Maranatha.

Maranatha.

We were here

in the sovereign plan of God.

Here because we were Christians, members of the seven

churches, over whom the great shepherd had given me custody.

Imprisoned together on Patmos, Patmos,

whose very essence was suffering and death.

What a fellowship we had, what bonds

were so quickly forged between us.

Members of God's family, privileged to suffer for his name.

Jason, my own son in Christ.

Is it just three years?

You look so much older.

But the spirit?

The spirit has not changed.

Get back to your work!

Understand this, Crazed Man.

If you give me trouble, if you won't work,

I'll have you executed, crucified, do you hear me?

How is he?

If only we had water.

You shouldn't have brought him here.

He isn't one of us, he's a traitor!

We should have nothing to do with him!

But he is my son.

Not really your son.

He is my son in Christ.

What can be more real than that?

Will he live?

Only God knows.

Pray, Alexander.

We're all gonna die!

Can't you see there's no hope for us?

We're lost men.

We have nothing.

We are nothing.

Look at us.

Rags and dirt, disease, filth.

We're treated like scum!

We're nothing, nothing!

I know the cross will be my tomb.

I know.

That's how my father died.

That's how we all die.

We're gonna die.

I'm gonna die!

We're gonna die, die!

Assos.

Assos.

Calm down.

Don't cry.

Beloved, believe not every spirit.

The father has lavished his love upon us,

for we are called sons of God.

And that is what we are, Sons of God.