I apologize for the lack of posting. I haven't been quite well this week, and my mental energy has suffered. We are now on Part 8 out of 10. And guess what? The lips are still not perfectly matched to the sound, but much improved! Let us give thanks to the gods of lip synching.
Buck, heading off to mortal peril, looks at the string of pictures of himself and Chloe and puts them in his breast pocket. Rayford walks in and asks Buck if he is ready. Buck has the camera and the uplink to GNN, but doesn't know how to get to the Wailing Wall. Rayford says just get Ben-Judah there, he (or God) will take care of it. They do guy talk, try to be light-hearted and unconcerned, but Buck says he can't imagine how Ray feels after losing his wife and son and Ray admits his pain. They pray (well, Buck prays; Ray silently bows his head while Buck speaks).
Back at the church, Chloe is still working the first aid station in latex gloves and a loose smock. She gets a phone call and is much relieved to hear Buck's voice. They exchange affection, then Buck tells her he is still going to the Wailing Wall. Chloe warns him the UN has given the order to shoot on sight, but he insists, tells Chloe to pray for him. And maybe what I said about their lips being better synched was premature. They are still way off.
In Jerusalem, Buck meets with Ben-Judah. Although in the last clip he still appeared unconvinced, apparently he has changed his mind. "The sooner we go, the sooner we put an end to their lies," Ben-Judah says. At the wall is an iron gate, guarded by masked soldiers with a red stop sign, warning in Hebrew and English that anyone proceeding will be shot. As Buck and Ben-Judah openly approach and are turned back, Ray is sneaking up on the side, apparently about to step into the forbidden zone to create a distraction and be shot.
Suddenly the mysterious woman in white who talked to Rayford several clips back steps up and takes his hand. Apparently she is not his new love interest, but his guardian angel. Fred Clark says she is referred to in the credits at the "angelic woman." She says, "May you walk in the faith of the Lord." (The same phrase Irene used in the dream. Is she, perhaps, sent by Irene to watch over him? Do RTC's believe in that?) She begins singing "Amazing Grace." Buck turns to look. Ben-Judah does not respond. Perhaps only RTC's can see or hear her? Then the soldiers turn, so maybe they do hear her, or maybe they just see Rayford coming. She and Ray, holding hands, walk past another shrine, with candles burning to the names of the raptured, and head toward the gate. The soldiers, rattled by someone who shows no fear, yell to them to stop. Ray drops her hand and moves forward. She stops in front of the candles, but goes no singing. After yelling to stop, the lead soldier shouts something else, but I can't quite tell if he is saying, "That song!" (indicating that he does see and hear her and is offended), or something in Hebrew.
The soldiers raise their guns to fire and suddenly freeze. Ray, Buck and Ben-Judah proceed, as her singing fades into the background. While Buck and Ben-Judah head toward the Wall, Ray looks back and she is nowhere to be seen.
Buck and Ben-Judah approach the witnesses, in long robes, turbans and beards. As Buck sets up his camera, Ben-Judah steps forward and speaks to them in Hebrew. They respond, with Hebrew and English words echoing together. Ben-Judah turns to translate, but Buck says he understands; they are speaking in English. Telepathy, one presumes. Ben-Judah (lips terribly synched) denounces them as false prophets.
"For God will bring every deed into judgment," they say. To my untrained ears, it just sounds vaguely Biblical, quite possibly something Ben-Judah would accept as canonical. This is where it's very useful to have Fred Clark. He explains that this is from the New Testament, John 3, and therefore not scripture to a Jew, though not theologically objectionable. They then address him directly, though still not being sectarian (Christian), "I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the mind. And I will give every man according to his ways and according to the things he has done." Ben-Judah answers that he has kept the Commandments. (A very important matter to a traditional Jew, even more important than being a believer).
Then the Witnesses take a step in a more Christian direction, "By the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified in His sight. For by grace you are saved, through faith. It is not for yourselves. It is the gift of God." Here I must confess to being out of my depth. Certainly I know that Jews acknowledge that everyone sins and is imperfect in the eyes of God, that no one can be perfect and sinless by effort alone. But they do their best. I do not know whether grace or faith are important concepts to Jews, or even concepts at all. But definitely not as important as they are in Christianity, especially Evangelical Christianity. Ben-Judah must be beginning to understand these prophets do not adhere to Jewish orthodoxy. Buck eagerly films to get this out to the world.
Carpathia is watching this on TV as they say, "Not through works that no one can boast." (Again, we are in distinctly Christian territory here). Chloe and Pastor Bruce are taking a break from hospital work and watching this in Bruce's office. Carpathia says cut it off. It cuts off, with a sign saying that GNN is experiencing technical difficulties. And Buck has presumably now blown his cover and will soon get his 72 virgins or whatever RTC's get in Heaven.
The cutoff is just in time (from Nicolae's point of view) because it stops before the Witnesses start spouting unmistakeably Christian theology about substitutionary atonement. "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but will have everlasting life." This cuts to the very core of Christian theology. This is definitely not any theology that Ben-Judah, as a Jew, would accept and orthodox, let along canonical. They go on for a while and then say, "He who does not believe is condemned already because he does not believe in the Name of the only Begotten Son of God." Of course, Ben-Judah asks for his name and is told Jesus Christ.
We don't get to see Ben-Judah's reaction to that, because just then the soldiers have un-frozen and begin firing at them. Buck and Ben-Judah duck for cover. While they huddle on the ground, two soldiers in black masks run up and start spraying the general area with bullets, but the two prophets stand their ground and are not hit. Then the prophets breath out fireballs. The soldier's clothes catch on fire and they run screaming, fall down, and die. Buck crouches on the ground, watching, while Ben-Judah runs away. I am not sure which reaction is worse.
Then, although Buck and Ben-Judah were to all appearances alone at the wall, we see a general panicked flight away. Buck and Ray meet each other in the general panic. Ray has bad news from Chloe. The broadcast was cut off. Nobody heard it. Well, that is only half-true. They heard the beginning of it, and they heard it starting to shade off in a Christian direction when talking about faith and grace. It just got cut off before they explicitly get into substitutionary atonement. Buck admits he doesn't know how Ben-Judah reacted; he ran off before Buck could ask. "It's in God's hands now," Ray says.
Back in Chicago, Ivy, now in cutoffs instead of a miniskirt, comes by the church first aid center to bring Chloe some food. The burn victim actually looks a bit better, but apparently he realizes he is dying because he tells Chloe he is ready for God. Chloe says to tell him. So the burn victim says about the same prayer Buck said in the first movie, "Dear God, I'm so sorry I've sinned against you. Please forgive me. I want to do the right thing. Jesus, thank you. Thank you for dying for me." And then, apparently he dies. Fred Clark says so. So I cheated and peaked into Part 9 and he does, indeed die. I suppose the point here is supposed to be that RTC's don't need any Catholic-style last rites because they can administer them to themselves. But in effect, Chloe has just administered the last rites.
Update: According to commenters at the site, the sign in Hebrew and English does not have actual Hebrew words, but transliterates from English! And it runs the letters from left to right! It even uses "v-v" for "w" (in will) and S-H in shot!
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