Editor’s Note: taken from the remaining pages of A HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE REVELATION OF VINE by L. James Richardson, published 1804, archived 1805
In the early days of Vine there was conflict. For it is known that the blessings of the Lord are not bestowed upon those who have not worked. Vine was a new consecrated land for God’s chosen people, in a New World.
While the land they had discovered had been undisturbed, the most pure and clean of God’s creation, it was clear that there had been previous inhabitants. From time to time, strange outsiders would try to make contact. It was unclear if they were trying to return to the land, or if they were trying to encroach. But their tentative approaches and skittishness toward the people of Vine betrayed the fact that they did not know the Lord.
Not every soul can be saved. It is a fact of the world after The Fall of Adam.
Now while the settlers of Vine knew that the outside world was not beyond saving, they understood the importance of establishing this consecrated land for God’s chosen people in the New World.
There came such a time to pass when harsh winter and uncharacteristically dry summer conspired to yield a food shortage. Disease and famine streaked through the community. It was ascertained by The Founding Charter of The Revelation of Vine (Editor’s Note: later called “the Elders” or “Elder Council”) that this was the work of malevolent spirits and witches. They had known that the holy place they had cultivated would come under attack at some point and it was determined by those 12 men that this must be the deciding battle. Thus Alyosius Wilkinson spoke, saying:
“So now it has come to a time wherein we shall prove ourselves worthy footsoldiers of THE LORD, our God! Or are we cowardly men, deserving of the fires of Gehenna? Choice and opportunity unfurl before us like two paths in a river. Are we to drift towards calmer currents, with knowledge that the end result is death? Or are we to charge forward, paddle into the rougher rapids, armed with the knowledge that on the other side lies dominion over this consecrated land? Are we or are we are not God’s chosen people in the New world? Woe unto those who shall rise against THE LORD, for they shall know fear! Woe unto those who practice witchcraft, for they shall be burned by our torches! Woe to those who consort with demons, for they shall die deaths of a thousand cuts! Woe to those who embrace unrighteousness, for their children’s heads shall be dashed on the rocks while their women are buried alive in riverbanks, the current washing away the sediment covering their rotting corpses so that their bodies may be everlasting warnings to passing rogues who do not know the NAME of THE LORD! Even those ignorant of God’s will shall quake at God’s power!”
And so it was that the townspeople took up arms and flocked to the borders. They sought out remaining tribes or stragglers from previous ones. Many of the men were driven out or dead, leaving only emaciated and sick women and children. Thus were the borders of Vine secured, and so it was that Vine asserted its Revelation.