by Mark Goodwin
Ethan smiled. “That’s what I wanted to hear. I’m going to make my rounds. These people need direction. Try to interact with the other protestors. Feel out anyone that seems like they’d be a good fit for Patriot Pride. We need to capitalize on this moment and provide them with a concrete task, a mission they can take part in. Otherwise, the emotion will fade out in a few days. This will all just be a flash in the pan.”
Josh watched the charismatic leader walk off into the sea of people to find new recruits. He turned to Rev. “I’m sure you’ve heard people talking about the new monetary system being the mark of the beast. What do you think about that?”
“I don’t doubt one bit that this is the system of the final world empire. But the system is not itself the mark of the beast. Taking the mark will, in some way, require the recipient to deny Christ and all other deities while pledging their allegiance to the anti-Christ. However, once everyone is signed up for this new payment platform, it will be incredibly easy to deny access to those who refuse to submit to the anti-Christ. I’m hoping I won’t be around for all of that, though.”
“Why? Where are you going?”
“I’m hoping to get raptured out of here before the mark is fully implemented. But either way, I’m not taking it.”
“The pastor of the church I used to go to in Tampa said the Christians would be raptured before all of this started. But I’m looking around, and I’m not so sure,” said Josh.
“That’s the classic pre-trib belief.”
“Is that what you believe? That we’ll be taken out before the tribulation?”
Rev lowered his brows. “That’s a tricky question. It depends on what you mean by the tribulation.”
“Well, I guess it’s the seven-year period described in Revelation. The last seven years of planet Earth, right?”
“Revelation doesn’t say anything about a seven-year period. Twice it mentions a period of 1,260 days, and twice it mentions a period of 42 months. Both of which break down to roughly three and a half years.”
Josh asked, “Then where does this idea of a seven-year period come from?”
“The 70 weeks or periods written of in Daniel 9. The last week is the final seven-year period of the present age. However, the earth continues to exist past then. That chapter speaks of the anti-Christ who will confirm a covenant with many for seven years. Then, in the middle of the seven years, he’ll break the covenant and set up what the Bible calls the abomination of desolation. Daniel talks about that in chapter 12.
“Jesus speaks of the abomination of desolation in Matthew chapter 24. He speaks of great tribulation coming after this event. So, call me simple, but that’s sort of my measuring stick for when the Great Tribulation begins. Prior to that, Jesus speaks about troubles upon troubles; wars, pestilences, famines, earthquakes, but he says the end is not yet. He calls these things the beginning of sorrows. Is he talking about the three and a half years before the abomination of desolation? Who knows? But as long as we have a license to speculate, that’s my best guess.
“Heaven knows that every pastor who claims to know exactly how it’s all going to shake out has done plenty of speculating. But they’ll never admit it. To them, it’s the measure of faithfulness for those who agree with their view of the end times and proof of apostasy for those who don’t.
“My advice is to go home and study the scriptures for yourself. If you come up with something different than what I get, I’ll respect you a lot more for searching it out on your own than if you blindly agree with what I’ve told you.”
“Yeah, but it’s a big book. It’s not like I can read the whole thing,” said Josh.
“Just under 800 thousand words. Marginally larger than War and Peace. Or, roughly the length of ten modern novels. Maybe you won’t get through it all in one sitting, but you could read it in a year’s time with the slightest notion of discipline. The Bible is the most important thing you’ll ever read. It’s worth the effort.”
“But the common man can’t understand it.”
“Are you Catholic or something? Who told you that?”
“Nobody told me. It’s just common sense.” Josh defended his position. “If people can understand it on their own, why do they go to church?”
“To fellowship with other believers. If you don’t read the Bible, you probably shouldn’t even be going to church.”
“That’s a crazy thing to say.” Josh wrinkled his forehead.
“Think about it,” Rev insisted. “If you’re not reading it for yourself, how do you know whether the preacher is lying to you or not?”
“Why would he lie?”
“Who knows? Maybe somebody lied to him, and he never bothered to search the Scriptures to see if it was true. Maybe he’s like I was, he read a bunch of commentaries but never actually cracked the Word of God. Or perhaps he’s deceived or has his own agenda. Looking for a church these days is like walking through a minefield.” Rev took a small pocket Bible out of his jeans. “I wouldn’t want to chance that without a really good metal detector.
“Have you heard this guy who’s doing all the morning shows lately? He’s got a new book out called Enter Faith.”
“Yeah, I heard him on the radio.” Josh adjusted his ball cap.
“Do you think his church sounds like a good place to attend? They’ve got a satellite right over in Lexington.”
“No.” Josh shook his head.
“Why not?”
“Because, he’s claiming all religions are a path to heaven.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Rev asked. “Sounds great, doesn’t it?”
“Not really, Jesus said no man comes to the Father except through him.”
“Ah!” Rev’s eyebrows raised. “You got that from the Word of God. But believe me, many other deceptions are being propagated by the modern church, most not as obvious, but some just as deadly, that you can only discern by being familiar with what is written in that book.”
Josh thought about it. Had he never heard that verse from the Gospel of John, perhaps he’d have fallen for Carl Jacobs’ message of unity. “Yeah, okay. I’ll start making some time to read it every night.”
“Good luck with that.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m saying , if you’re planning to get into God’s Word with your spare time, you’ll never have any. If you really want to commit to finding out what He has to say, you’ll dedicate some time for it in the morning, before you do anything else.”
Josh considered the wisdom of what Rev was telling him. “I guess I could do that.”
“Good. You’ll be glad you did.” Rev patted him on the back.
CHAPTER 17
First, we Americans are going to have to yield up some of our sovereignty. That’s going to be for many a bitter pill.
Today, we must develop federal structures on a global level to deal with world problems. We need a system of enforceable world law, a democratic federal world government. Most important, we should sign and ratify the treaty for a permanent international criminal court. That is now at the core of the world federalist movement’s drive. That court will enable the world to hold individuals accountable for their crimes against humanity…
Our failure to live up to our obligations to the United Nations is led by a handful of willful senators who choose to pursue their narrow, selfish political objectives at the cost of our nation’s conscience. They pander to and are supported by the Christian Coalition and the rest of the religious right-wing. Their leader, Pat Robertson, has written in a book a few years ago that we should have a world government but only when the Messiah arrives. He wrote, “Any attempt to achieve world order before that time must be the work of the devil.”
Well, join me. I’m glad to sit here at the right hand of Satan.
Walter Cronkite—1999 Norman Cousins Global Governance Award acceptance speech
Josh sat at the table early Thursday morning with his Bible open and a cup of coffee.
Stephanie walked into the dining room with a fist full of cell phones. “Three phones? Why do you have three phones?”
“One is my personal, one is for my undercover alias, and the third I bought yesterday. It’s a pre-paid phone. I got one just like it for Emilio. I gave it to him last night. Those phones are only for calling each other.”
She looked at him for a while, as if deciding whether or not she believed him.
Josh added, “They were sitting right on top of the dresser. If I was trying to hide something from you, don’t you think I’d have kept them hidden?”
“I suppose.” She placed the phones on the table and looked at the Bible. “What are you doing?”
“I know, right? A person who calls himself a Christian reading the Bible. How crazy is that?”
She got herself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table next to Josh. “Are you studying something in particular?”
“Some sections of Scripture about the end times.”
“Is that what you think is going on?”
“I’m starting to. One world government, one world currency, it’s all falling into place.”
Micah walked into the room with a bad case of bed head. “Morning.” He helped himself to a cup of coffee and joined his mother and father at the table. “What’s Dad doing?”
“Trying to make sense of everything that’s going on.” Stephanie took a drink from her cup.
“What? Like this is the end of days prophesied of by the Bible?” Micah chuckled. “And you guys laugh at my zombie-apocalypse theory. Seriously, look at this Lucius Alexander guy. The white hair, the pale skin, the pale-gray eyes, I’m telling you, he’s undead.”
Josh frowned and looked up from the Bible. “How long do you think it will take you to complete your diploma online?”
Micah stood up and went to the kitchen to retrieve a bowl of cereal. “I don’t know. I knocked out three weeks’ worth of tests and assignments since I got registered last week.”
“Could you do it all in two weeks?”
Stephanie objected. “He’s not going to retain anything if he crams it all into that short of a time period.”
Josh overruled her concern. “He’s probably not going to remember much of it anyway.” He watched his son return to his seat with the cereal. “How long?”
“I could do it all in a week if I could use Google for the answers.”
“Absolutely not!” said Stephanie. “You’re going to sit there in front of the Bible and ask your son to cheat?”
Josh put his hand on hers. “I need you to trust me on this. I want him to get his diploma while he still can. I’m afraid things are going to get worse.”
She sighed her consent and got up to get a bowl of cereal for herself.
Josh looked to his son. “If you can do that, plus one other thing, I’ll give you that AR-15.”
“Really?” Micah’s eyes lit up.
“Josh! No! That thing is illegal!” She came back into the room.
“We’ve got a 30-day amnesty on that,” he said.
“Then what are you going to do? Take it away?” she asked.
“I’m a law enforcement agent. I’ll say it’s mine. But we’ve got 30 days for Micah to train and get proficient with it before we have to worry about him not shooting it at all, unless it’s necessary.”
“Okay, what’s the other thing?” Micah asked.
“Start reading your Bible every morning.”
“What? Are you kidding me? All of a sudden, you decide that you want to start delving into that book of fairy tales and now I have to also?”
“Nope. You don’t have to do anything. I’m perfectly happy to keep the rifle for myself. I’m sure your mother would be quite pleased with that outcome as well.”
“That’s blackmail. If you think you’re going to brainwash me into believing all of that stuff, you’re wrong.”
“The brainwashing has already been done. I’m sorry I didn’t realize what was happening the whole time you were in public school. But as far as blackmail is concerned, that’s not what this is. You’re free to believe whatever you want. But if you’d like to get your hands on a shiny new rifle, you’ll read three chapters a day.”
Micah looked at his mother as if for assistance. He appeared to sense that she’d be of no help.
“The deal is on the table right now,” said Josh. “I can’t guarantee that the offer will still be open an hour from now.”
“Done. I’ll do it. Which three chapters do I have to read today to get the gun right now?”
“Start with the New Testament. Read straight through. When you finish, start at the beginning of the Old Testament.”
“For how long?”
“In perpetuity or until you decide you don’t want the gun any longer.”
Micah nodded. “Okay. The diploma won’t be a problem. Can we shoot after breakfast?”
“I’m going into the office for a while, but we can set up some targets when I get home.” Josh looked at his wife. “I got one for you, too. Care to join us?”
“Yeah, right.” Her face showed her annoyance at the entire situation as she left the room with her coffee cup in hand.
***
On his way to the Vital Statistics office, Josh’s personal phone rang. He looked at the number and recognized it as belonging to SAC Carole-Jean Harris. The night before, he and Emilio had decided that they would keep their positions inside the government for as long as possible, but both had vowed not to participate in disarming the American people nor to report on any resistance efforts being carried out by patriot groups.
“Hello?”
“Agent Stone. I was hoping to get a report without having to solicit one from you.”
“I was under the impression that our first meeting would be next week at your office.”
“Yes, that’s our first face-to-face, but if you get information that I need to know about, I expect periodic updates. Lots of these types of groups are protesting at state capitols and government buildings all around the country. Police are even having to escort workers to the doors of the federal courthouse here in Louisville. Have you made contact yet?”
“I did. I joined them at a demonstration in Lexington over the weekend. Then I tried to meet up with them at the Kentucky State Capitol building yesterday.”
“What do you mean, tried?”
“The capitol building was inundated with protestors yesterday. I was unable to connect with Patriot Pride until late in the afternoon. By then, several of the members were already going home.”
“Mmmm.” She voiced her displeasure. “Even so, those are the things I need to know about. You should have emailed me a report when you first made contact and then again yesterday, detailing your efforts.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll make sure I do that in the future.”
“Did they make any mention of committing acts of violence?”
“No, ma’am. But they’re all very cagey around me. They seem suspicious.”
“Then you’ll have to work harder at gaining their trust. Suspicion is a good thing. It proves they have something to hide. No doubt, they’re protesting again today. You should go join them. Show your commitment.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I’ll see you next Thursday, Agent Stone. But I expect at least one report in the meantime.”
“I’ll see you then.” Josh continued past the Vital Statistics building and crossed the bridge to the capitol building.
Even though it was much earlier in the day, the parking situation was worse than it had been the prior afternoon. He ended up having to drive back up Capitol Avenue to locate a parking space on the street, several blocks away from the capitol building. Josh swapped out his loafers for his tactical boots since they were much more comfortable for the long walk ahead of him.
The crowds of people going to and from the capitol in order to voice their disapproval of the new Global Union encouraged Josh. But none understood better than he, the mons
trous apparatus which the federal government had grown into. Taking on this behemoth would require more than a willing spirit and the few barrels of powder and shot which had won the revolution against the English two and a half centuries ago.
Josh quickly located Patriot Pride as Solomon stood holding a massive American flag towering above the masses. Josh approached Rev. “Good morning.”
“Glad you could come.” Rev shook his hand.
“Looks like a bigger turn out than yesterday.”
“Oh yeah. That announcement the Fed Chairman made last night about the currency conversion got a lot of people’s attention. They’ll hand over the guns without a complaint, but put your hand in their pocket, and all of them are ready to fight.” The man sniggered. “Of course, without the guns, they amount to a bunch of yappy little dogs. All bark and no bite.”
Josh nodded. “Twenty dollars to one global mark is terrible, but at least we’re not losing everything. And a mark has the purchasing power of roughly five bucks. So really, it’s about four to one.”
Poochy stood nearby. “Four hundred percent inflation in the course of two weeks. That’s pretty catastrophic. Lots of people are going to have a hard time getting by.”
“I’ll have to make some adjustments, that’s for sure. I guess I’ll be eating a lot more beans and rice and a lot less beef,” said Josh.
Rev nodded. “That’s exactly how they want it. Cows produce too much methane. Eating beef is bad for the planet.”
“What about all the polar bears and the other animals we’re supposed to be trying to save? Don’t they get gas from time to time?” Josh inquired.
Poochy replied, “No, because if they did, that would mean the planet would be better off without them. In that case, the Global Union would have no sob story to push us all into the cities so they can control us. A few cameras can keep an eye on a large population in a city. Out in the country, omnipresent surveillance becomes less cost-effective.”