Second coming and eschaton¶
The church theology of the Sons of Adam is the creed of Marblehead's ocean-obsessed congregation: an imminent second coming ("game day"), angels as terrifying monsters, holy water behind heaven's floodgates, and an Eden beneath the sea.
| Type | Lore (religious doctrine) |
| Aliases | Game day; church theology |
| Held by | The Sons of Adam, Amos Shaw, the town's Board of Selectmen |
| First appearance | Summer Service 01 |
Overview¶
The doctrine appears in three places: the modified Bible, Shaw's evening sermon and communion, and the mayor's explanation of the town's troubles at the selectmen's meeting.
The modified Bible¶
The local Sons of Adam Bible, which the Ram and Arms Inn hands out to guests, adds a text in which Jesus goes to a sunken continent (see Lemuria), Eden lies beneath the waves, and Judgment Day returns everyone physically to Eden. It also rails against continental drift and has a hysterical, millenarian tone around Revelation. (Radford Horror 08, Summer Service 01)
Shaw's sermon¶
At the evening service in the colonial church, Shaw reads Revelation 13, the beast with seven heads rising from the sea. He preaches that:
- angels are not chubby children with flappy wings but terrifying monsters constructed by God to wipe out sin, and good things are not the same as nice things;
- the "floodgates of heaven" opened in the story of Noah's Ark imply a source of holy water, used to cleanse the earth;
- the history of the world is a history of water, and the world comes from water and returns to it;
- "Was Christ not himself a fisherman?" The fishermen in the congregation respond warmly.
Communion is wine only, handed out with the words "Blood of the Lamb." It has a fishy note; see communion wine. The fisherman Briggs adds that the church is not big on alcohol, baptizes about forty people dressed in white, babies included, in the ocean, and speaks in tongues. He suggests it may be the "old-time religion" of the area. (Summer Service 01)
After reading the Bible, Andrew guessed that the congregation might sacrifice people to a sea monster, while Kurt thought of The Wicker Man. Neither guess is confirmed. The team later finds that the communion wine carries worms. (Summer Service 01, Summer Service 03)
Game day and the eschaton¶
At the Board of Selectmen meeting, the mayor, who has been giving the sermons in place of the priest, is asked what is behind the sicknesses. He answers "Satan": the second coming is imminent, and the devil, who prefers to work behind the scenes, will be forced to work more and more in the open as "game day" approaches. He calls the town's troubles a "blight" that the devil has called down, curable only through "diligent prayer and preparation for the eschaton," and the room answers with a chorus of amens. (Summer Service 04)
Andre (as the mayor)
"As we get closer to, let's call it game day, you know, the devil is going to be forced to undertake more and more of his works out in the open."
The same session's cold open shows an elderly woman out in the rain who tells her daughter, "Pastor says God is coming," and promises not to let her go to hell. (Summer Service 04) The meeting room has a large wall seal reading "Sons of Adam" and showing Jesus standing amid parted waters. Andre tells the players that the leaders read as hostile fanatics but not necessarily insincere ones. (Summer Service 04)
What remains unknown¶
- What "game day" will involve, and whether the glow and the worms are the church's means of preparing for it.
- How the worms and the sea-creature beliefs connect to the angel thing.
Trivia¶
- The number of church services is given differently in two episodes. In Summer Service 01 the sign on the church door lists a three o'clock service, which the team just misses, and an evening one; in Summer Service 03 Andre says there are three a day, the first at about 7 a.m.