by Tim LaHaye
Rayford was speechless. He'd never been considered particularly quiet, but among this trio, he might have been a church mouse. Chaim had always loved to talk everything to death—every truth, idea, or concept. It was his way. And Mac was his Texan counterpart, maybe not as articulate and intellectual but always prepared to weigh in with a homespun opinion on everything.
But now it was eerie. All three were silent. The lightning had become almost constant; long, thick streaks of gold fired from cloud to cloud, cloud to ground, and— Rayford knew—though beyond detection of the human eye, often from ground to cloud.
The length and severity of the bolts varied, but they snaked through the heavens with such speed and abundance that the air crackled and snapped. Boom! Boom! Boom! came the deafening crashes of thunder that rattled the walls of Rayford's flimsy quarters.
The flashes lit up the clouds. Rayford could not have imagined them getting larger or more active, and yet they had. They seemed miles wide and deep now, gray and black and pregnant with moisture, as if about to burst. And these blotted out everything above. Were it not for his faith, this would be a horrifying scene. Indeed, the power and wrath of the God of the universe were being unleashed, and those without confidence in His love had to be terrified.
"Astounding, " Rayford whispered, but the other two men, silhouetted in the constant flashes, neither moved nor responded. His lame summary must have hit them as feebly as it had him.
Sebastian trained his night-vision goggles on the skies, reminding himself to breathe. He felt Otto pressing in on one side and Razor on the other, and strange as that might seem in any other circumstance, it reminded him of his childhood when he and his younger brother hugged each other in fear while watching a thunderstorm from their bed, a storm a thousandth the size of this.
And just when Sebastian believed the sky could contain itself no longer, the lightning seemed to ratchet up to a ridiculous speed. Hundreds, thousands of bolts crashed to the desert floor every second, deafening roars of thunder piling atop each other in such an overwhelming invasion that he was forced to let the goggles drop and dangle from his neck as he covered his ears with both hands. The sky from east to west and north to south was ablaze, blinding streaks firing every which way. The ground heaved and rolled, and Sebastian knew that had to be from a combination of the lightning, the thunder, and the thorough panic of Antichrist's mounted forces.
He sent Otto to check on Ree Woo's troops on the other side of the perimeter and Razor to check his own on this side.
Enoch sat in Illinois with his Bible tucked under his arm, trying to protect it should the rain come. But when the lightning seemed to lose all sense of proportion, all he could do was stand, thrusting the Bible over his head in both hands, offering it to God as a form of worship. What a show! The awful and terrible wrath of the Lord on display for the whole world!
Enoch thought of Old Testament Scriptures he had bookmarked and quickly sat again, riffling through the pages and reading them by the almost constant light of the electrical extravaganza, shouting them to the heavens.
"'Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust, from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty, upon everything lifted up—and it shall be brought low.
"'They shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His majesty, when He arises to shake the earth mightily. '"
Finding the prophetic warnings in the books of Hosea and Joel, Enoch read of the enemies of the Lord. "'They shall say to the mountains, "Cover us!" and to the hills, "Fall on us!"
"'The Lord gives voice before His army, for His camp is very great; for strong is the One who executes His word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; who can endure it?'"
7 can endure it, Enoch thought, just like anyone who sees past His wrath and trusts God's mercy.
He read from Joel 2: 12: " 'Now, therefore, ' says the Lord, 'turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. '"
Turning to Nahum 1: 6, Enoch read: "'Who can stand before His indignation? And who can endure the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him. '"
The very next verses offered hope and yet another dire warning: "'The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him. But with an overflowing flood He will make an utter end of its place, and darkness will pursue His enemies. '"
Near the end of the Old Testament, Enoch came to Zephaniah and read from chapter one, verses 14 to 17: '"The great day of the Lord is near; it is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter; there the mighty men shall cry out.
"'That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high towers.
"'I will bring distress upon men, and they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like refuse. '"
Beyond all comprehension, Chang thought, the Global Community News Network ignored the nature show. He knew from pirating the feeds from all over the globe that the constant lightning was a universal phenomenon. From Sri Lanka came visual feeds of a metropolitan area ablaze, the downtown having been ignited by thousands of lightning strikes. People rioted, trampling each other, screaming, pleading for mercy.
A GCNN cameraman, or his brave producer, transmitted images of a tiny band of anti-Carpathia Jews kneeling amid the lightning flashes beneath an ancient Israeli flag, a Star of David, and a rough-hewn cross. They were thumbing their noses at the god of this world, boldly showing that they had never received the mark of loyalty to the supreme potentate, but had now staked their claim with Messiah.
From South America came the same. Regardless of where the feed originated, it came as if at midnight. The only light came from the lightning and artificial sources. Citizens were hysterical. Even many with Carpathia's mark screamed obscenities at him through the cameras and demanded to know where he was and what he was doing about this. Chang asked a Hispanic coworker to translate what the South Americans were shouting.
"They are saying," she said, "that this is obviously an offensive from God Himself, and so what does the potentate have to say about that? Who will win? They want to know, who will win?"
Even the producers, who worked directly for the GC, sent in harshly worded demands to know why GCNN was ignoring their feeds. What, they asked, was more important than a cosmic disturbance like this, one that saw global panic and devastation? People were being killed, committing suicide, looting, rampaging. Yet GCNN ran wall-to-wall coverage of the war effort.
"Unity Army troops assigned to Egypt are already on their way back to the Valley of Megiddo," intoned an anchorwoman, showing clips of overwhelming victories for the GC. "Reports from the northeast mirror these, and Unity generals report they will have their platoons back to Israel in plenty of time for the siege on Jerusalem."
An interview with Carpathia himself showed the folly of the so-called objective coverage. The potentate was shown mounting his enormous horse, just outside the cargo plane that had delivered him and his generals to Ash Shawbak, about halfway between Petra and Buseirah. That put Carpathia and his people about ten miles east of the edge of his massive Unity Army that extended to the border of Petra.
"I am pleased with the reports from the south and from the northeast," he said. "And now we are about to embark on one of our most strategic initiatives. A third of our entire fighting force will advance upon the rebel stronghold cowering in Petra. Intelligence tells us that a paltry defensive unit has rung the city round about, but they a
re hopelessly outnumbered and have already offered to surrender."
Carpathia was interrupted by nearly continuous crashes of thunder, which he and the reporter appeared to ignore.
"Was this enclave not attacked twice before, Excellency?"
"Attacked would not be the proper term," Carpathia said, making Chang laugh aloud. The first failed attempt saw the GC bring huge numbers of troops and weapons, only to see them miraculously swallowed up by the earth. The second was a double bombing that produced a spring of water that provided sustenance for the people to this day, and which also resulted in the inhabiting Jewish remnant and a few of the Tribulation Force being supernaturally protected from the ensuing firestorm.
"In fact," Carpathia continued, "we made peaceful overtures to the leadership, offering amnesty for any who would voluntarily leave the stronghold and take the mark of loyalty. Our understanding is that many wished to make this move, only to be slaughtered by the leadership. Many will recall that it was this very leadership who assassinated me, serving only to give me the opportunity to prove my divinity by raising myself from the dead.
"Well, this time around, there will be no negotiating. Loyalists to our New World Order have either been murdered or have escaped, so intelligence tells us Petra is now inhabited solely by rebels to our cause, murderers and blasphemers who have thumbed their noses at every attempt to reason with them. "
The cameras homed in on the potentate as he was handed an almost cartoonishly oversized silver sword with gold rococo inlays and a garishly overdone handle. He strapped it around his waist, then theatrically unsheathed it with a long, slow, metallic screech. He pointed it skyward.
Chang couldn't help praying silently that just one of those bolts of lightning would find that tip and roast the enemy where he sat.
"Therefore, " Carpathia said, "our plan is annihilation. I shall personally lead this effort, with the able assistance, of course, of my generals. We shall rally the troops as soon as we arrive, and the siege should take only a matter of minutes."
As Carpathia yanked the reins and turned his mount to the east, racing off at a gallop, the reporter called after him, "All the best to you, holy one! And may you bless yourself and bring honor to your name with this effort!"
Chang called Mac and filled him in on the lunacy. "You guys ought to turn this on, " he said. "Things are coming to a head."
Abdullah had heard the broadcast over the radio and flew over Ash Shawbak. Carpathia's planes and rolling stock were visible, but Abdullah was a little high to make out individuals or horses. He could, however, see the Unity Army to the west and knew it wouldn't take Nicolae long to get there.
The lightning exposed an army in disarray. The horses, naturally, were spooked by the light show and thunder, and it appeared to Abdullah that riders were fighting to keep their mounts from heading for the hills. What Carpathia thought he could do with this mess was a mystery.
And just like that, the lightning ceased.
As before, the sky was as black as coal. Unity searchlights looked pathetic, peering feebly into the murky blackness. They reached the thick, stewing clouds that hovered menacingly over the whole earth.
The cessation of the rolling thunder made the relative silence of the cockpit unearthly. Abdullah looked all around for what was to come next. And the longer he looked, the more he wondered how long the Lord would tarry. Those horses would be controllable now. Carpathia would surely believe victory was at hand.
Rayford directed Mac to find his radio in the other room. Mac brought it in, feeling his way in the utter darkness.
"You could turn on a light, " Rayford said, the ghostly silence unnerving him.
"Oh, please don't, " Chaim said. "This darkness is of the Lord. Can you not feel it?"
"I feel it all right, " Rayford said. "Every part of me wants to be out in it. I would give anything to be at Carpathia's side right now. I'd love to see the look on his face when he is chased back to Buseirah and then to Jerusalem."
"How would you see anything at all?" Mac said.
Chaim said, "This is just a preliminary. At some point this darkness will turn to daylight. Carpathia will turn tail and run from the Son of Man, who will be the only source of light. Anyone near Nicolae will be able to see him, all right, and I am with Rayford in wishing I could be there. But I will be here, watching, worshiping, singing. And then we will all follow, tracing the route that brought us here. We will sweep across the great expanse and join Messiah when He triumphs in Jerusalem and then ascends the Mount of Olives, from which He was transfigured so long ago. "
"I've got to be on that trip," Rayford said.
"Not in your condition," Mac said.
Rayford shook his head in the darkness. "It's going to be mighty lonely here."
The sudden silence and abject blackness made Enoch fear rain again, and it sent him searching for his car. His ears still rang from the cacophony of the last hour, and as he staggered along, feeling his way with his toes, he finally picked up the faint glow of a few streetlights. He drove toward home, planning to drag a chaise lounge out of the cellar and enjoy the rest of the show from the yard. Somehow Enoch had to find a way to get to the Holy Land as soon as possible after Jesus returned. He was confident he would see it in the sky—the return and all— but Jesus would apparently confine Himself to an earthly body once again, and believers from around the world would want to see Him. He would govern from Jerusalem, and the pilgrimages would begin immediately. He and the people from The Place would have to start raising money to finance this trip.
Sebastian was up to speed and debating what to do. His night-vision goggles were virtually worthless in this kind of darkness. That meant it had to be supernatural, because he had successfully used these underground where there was no source of light. He could make out nothing of the clouds now, and only the occasional vehicle light in the Unity Army ranks provided visual clues. What was he to do if Global Community forces attacked before Jesus returned? He knew he and his people, and the entire remnant at Petra, were prophesied to be delivered in the end. But what about in the meantime? Was he to fight? to retaliate? to shoot? He knew he could do some damage because he and his forces already had. Would his people take fire, and would they be wounded or killed?
He was a military man, but this was as much a theological decision as a tactical one. Sebastian could consult with Rosenzweig, but the old man had enough on his mind. His purview was the remnant. Sebastian's was the defense of the perimeter. Might it be as effective strategically to let the Unity Army overrun his position, knowing they were advancing into a trap of cosmic proportions?
It wasn't the way he was trained, but then it wasn't as if he had much of a choice anyway. Sure, he could stall them, slow them with surgically designed strikes from his directed energy weapons and fifty-caliber rifles. But no one could tell him whether that would do any good, or for how long he should try to hold them off.
Clearly there would be no holding back a force of that size for long. Ten minutes? Twenty? Surely no more than that. He could do some damage. But once the Lord arrived, Sebastian's puny efforts would be meaningless. The question was, were they meaningless regardless?
NINE
COMING UP on the two-hour mark of the utterly silent blackness covering the face of the earth, Rayford sensed a restlessness in Chaim.
"I had better get to the elders," the older man said. "This cannot go on much longer, and once the sign of the Son of Man appears, who knows how long it will be before the event itself?"
"'Who knows' is right," Mac said. "Once that comes, I think I've talked myself into goin' back out. You don't mind, do ya, Ray?"
"'Course I mind, but I wouldn't deprive you of that. I can handle the loneliness. It's the jealousy that'll be the issue. "
"You'll forgive me," Mac said.
"I will."
"Want me to send Leah or Hannah or somebody to keep you company?"
Rayford pondered that. "Don't think so," he said. "Anybo
dy else here might just prove to be a distraction. "
"I am going," Chaim said. "This has been a wonderful memory. "
"Suit yerself, Doc," Mac said. "I could take you for the ride of your life, you know. "
"I know. I am grateful. But until Messiah appears, I have responsibilities. "
Rayford heard him approach in the darkness and reached for his hand. Chaim took Rayford's in both of his. " McCullum, " Chaim said, "join us, won't you?"
Mac stepped close and Rayford felt a hand on his shoulder and assumed the other was on Chaim's. "Revelation 1: 3 says this," Chaim said. "'Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near. ' Amen. "
Rayford and Mac repeated the amen. "Let me pray for us, " Chaim said, but before he could, Rayford's eyes popped open, first at the sound, then at the light of something new in the sky. Rayford could compare the sound only to a downed high-tension power line he'd once seen bouncing and popping.
"O God, O God," Chaim prayed as he too turned to look. Rayford could only stare.
He rocked up into a sitting position and leaned forward, peering out at what appeared to be lightning but was like none he had ever seen. Thick, jagged, and pulsing, a vertical yellow streak extended from about a hundred feet above the horizon to what he estimated was at least ten miles into the sky. Two-thirds of the way up it was crossed by a horizontal streak of the same thickness and half its length.
Rayford could not speak. He could barely breathe. Here, clearly, was the cross of Christ, emblazoned in the heavens in lightning that lingered, crackling with unbridled energy, yet striking nothing. He squinted at its brightness but could not turn his eyes from it. He felt full of awe, of wonder, of the love of God Himself. This was the sign of the Son of Man, and it was there for the whole world to see. But it was also personal, burning into his heart.
