by Irvin Baxter
“That’s right,” Larry said. “As a matter of fact, the Bible prophesied that the fall of the Berlin Wall would be the event that would trigger the formation of the one-world government.”
“The Bible says that?” John questioned. “Wow! That’s unbelievable.”
Larry and Samantha talked with John and Melinda for the rest of the afternoon. By that evening, both John and Melinda were ready to give their lives to Jesus Christ, no matter the cost.
As Melinda slipped into bed that night, she whispered a prayer of thanksgiving to God for Larry and Samantha. She shuddered when she realized how close she and John had come to selling their souls to Antichrist Arachev. “Thank You, God,” she prayed. “Thank You so much!”
At the courthouse that afternoon, Jack and Beverly House stepped into the validation room. They had rudely rejected Larry and Samantha’s attempts to warn them of the irreversible consequences of what they were getting ready to do.
“Before we can implant your number, you are required to take the anti-terrorism pledge and the pledge of allegiance,” the governmental agent said. “Jack, remove your hat. Both of you, place your hands over your hearts and face the screen where President Arachev is.” When Jack and Beverly turned toward the screen, they saw Arachev standing with a UN flag just to his left. “Now repeat after me,” the agent continued. “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United Nations of the World, and to the global government for which it stands, one world, indivisible with peace and security for all. I pledge allegiance to the Global Ethic, I acknowledge that all religious beliefs have value and should be respected, and I promise not to incite religious conflict by attempting to proselytize other global citizens to my beliefs. And I believe Michael Arachev is God’s anointed leader to bring peace and security to Mother Earth.”
When the implantation was performed, Beverly hardly felt anything at all. Afterward, the Houses were given a booklet explaining exactly how to function in the new totally cashless society.
They decided to stop by the grocery store on the way home. They needed a few things, and besides, they were sort of anxious to try this new system out! They loaded the things they needed into sacks as they shopped. Then they merely placed the sacks into the grocery cart as the booklet had instructed. Once they had everything they needed, Jack headed for the exit. “Jack, what are you doing?!” Beverly protested.
“I’m going home,” came Jack’s mischievous reply.
“You can’t do that,” Beverly insisted. “You’re going to get us arrested!”
As they passed through the last set of doors, a store employee called out, “Ma’am!” Beverly’s heart sank.
She hissed at Jack, “Now what are we going to do?”
The employee came alongside of her. “You forgot your receipt,” he said. By now Jack was doubled over with laughter.
“Do you mean that all these groceries were scanned right in our sacks?” The employee nodded. Beverly couldn’t believe it!
“Our implanted number was automatically scanned too,” Jack noted. “Everything is already paid for.”
Wow! This is nice, Beverly thought as she followed Jack to the car. I’m going to like this new system. No more grocery checkout lines for me.
Jack always liked to watch the 11 o’clock news before going off to bed. That evening the broadcast was full of the new society’s implementation of the validation chip. Pictures of the lines of people waiting in front of their courthouses appeared on the television. They actually showed one family being implanted to illustrate how painless it was. The one thing they didn’t show was the required pledge of allegiance and the loyalty oath. Beverly wondered why they had avoided showing that.
The last item of news dealt with the religious radicals who were trying to sabotage the wonderful new cashless system. The television cameras caught on film some of the fundamentalist Christians who were moving up and down the line trying to scare people with their stupid prophecies.
Suddenly, a deep hatred welled up inside of Beverly toward these religious radicals. Those are the kinds of people who cause tension and war on earth. They should put them all behind bars or get rid of them any way they can, she thought. For a moment, the depth of her hatred toward these people whom she didn’t even know somewhat surprised her. She had never felt such strong hatred toward anybody before. “What happened to me?” she wondered aloud. “Why, I wouldn’t care if they marched every one of them off to the gas chambers!” Beverly knew this new attitude should alarm her, but it didn’t. It seemed to her the right way to think. Had something happened to her when she had taken the loyalty oath to Michael Arachev? She wasn’t sure. All she knew was that the world could no longer tolerate these political and religious dissidents who insisted on holding onto their right-wing beliefs irregardless of the common good!
Much of that night, Beverly dreamed of bowing before the image of President Arachev. In her dreams, she felt overwhelming adoration for the world leader. Then she would dream of the radical Christians trying to witness to Jack and her. In her dreams, their witnessing made her so angry that she wanted to hurt them. President Arachev was the greatest political leader the world had ever seen, and he had come on the world scene at just the right time! Those stupid, redneck ingrates! Those radical Christians think they are the only ones who are right. They think everyone else is going to hell. It’s people like that who have caused war, genocide, and the holocaust.
Beverly awoke the next morning in a very dark mood.
Chapter 20
For years Channel 77 radio had been the only voice in Israel representing those Israelis who wanted to observe the teachings of the Scriptures concerning the nation of Israel and “trading land for peace.” The liberal Israeli government, however, not wanting the religious viewpoint to be heard, had refused to grant the station a broadcasting license.
Determined to represent those Israelis who still believed the ancient Scriptures, the owners of Channel 77 had placed the station’s transmitters on a ship outside the territorial waters of Israel. Since God had commanded the people of Israel to “occupy” the Promised Land, most of the “settlers” in the region of Judea-Samaria believed they had moved into the captured areas by divine mandate. Over the years, Channel 77 had become the voice of the settlers.
At first the conservative station had been bitterly opposed to the Christian movement that was sweeping through Israel. In spite of vitriolic attacks from Channel 77, the Christians, because of their love for the nation of Israel and for the settlers of Judea in particular, had repeatedly befriended the settlers and their lone radio voice.
It had not been lost on the staff at Channel 77 that Christian organizations had warned the residents of Judea-Samaria about the terrible persecution before it ever came. Christians had even warned that the persecution would begin when a great political leader stood in the rebuilt Jewish Temple claiming to be Messiah. When that came to pass, many at Channel 77 wondered how the Christians had known so far in advance that these things were coming. As a result of these different factors, several of the key staff members at the station had come to believe that Jesus was, in fact, the Messiah.
It was a big step when the owners consented to air an interview with Roger Cornell and David Freeman. Dennis Goldberg, one of the staff members who had become a believer in Jesus, conducted the interview.
Goldberg: “Roger and David, it’s good to have you on today’s program.”
Cornell: “Thank you so much for having us. We’ve been listeners of Channel 77 for many years.”
Goldberg: “You have been preaching for several years now that a time of unprecedented persecution was coming for the residents of Judea. That time has now arrived. How did you come to know this?”
Cornell: “We knew this from some very specific prophecies in the Bible.”
Goldberg: “Are you speaking of prophecies from the Torah?”
Cornell: “That point is what made this whole issue difficult to convey to the Jewish people
. The prophecies were not from what we call the Old Testament. They were prophecies spoken by Jesus Himself as He sat on the Mount of Olives.”
Goldberg: “I’ll confess to you, I originally rejected what you were saying because the prophecies came from Jesus. But after several of the other prophecies that you taught happened, I felt I was forced to reevaluate.”
Freeman: “Dennis, when was it that you began to take a second look?”
Goldberg: “The first big thing that happened was when our government began to give the areas of Judea-Samaria over to Palestinian control. I couldn’t believe they were willing to surrender our Promised Land after God had so miraculously placed it in our hands. Yet you had said that the government would do that. At that time, I began to have a gnawing suspicion inside of me that there was something that I had missed.”
Freeman: “What did you do then?”
Goldberg: “Nothing, really, at that time. I just began to wonder if the prophecies concerning horrible slaughter ahead for the inhabitants of Judea might not be right. It was when the announcement came concerning building the Third Temple north of the Dome of the Rock that you really captured my attention. As you know, those of us who respect God and His Word just couldn’t believe that any Israeli would agree to leaving two pagan shrines on the mount where God promised to place His name. When our leaders consented to build the Third Temple right beside these pagan houses of worship, that was a big wakeup call for me! That’s when I began to study the prophecies in earnest.”
Cornell: “So, Dennis, when did you finally come to know that Jesus was, in fact, the Messiah?”
Goldberg: “It was obvious to me from the beginning that President Arachev was not a true friend to Israel, though many Israelis thought he was. When Arachev and Pope Peter II emerged as the political and spiritual leaders of the world, I knew the handwriting was on the wall. I was finally born again on the first night of your first prophecy conference in Jerusalem.”
Cornell: “We realize it’s a huge step for a Jewish person to accept the fact that Jesus is the Messiah. You face possible ostracism from your family, the loss of your job, and persecution by the entire religious sector of the Jewish community. I’m so thankful that God is now giving thousands like yourself the courage to stand for truth, no matter what the consequences are.”
Goldberg: “Let’s talk about what’s going to happen next. There are so many listening today who are desper-ately in need of direction. Roger, according to the prophecies of the Bible, what does the road ahead hold for the nation of Israel and for the world in general?”
Cornell: “The next year or two will be the best of times and yet the worst of times. The Bible is explicit that we have now entered the time referred to as the Great Tribulation. Jesus said of this time, ‘…then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.’”
Goldberg: “How long will this time of great tribulation last?”
Cornell: “From the time when Arachev stood in the temple claiming to be the Messiah until the end of the Great Tribulation, will be three and one-half years.”
Goldberg: “You know, the shame is that Arachev seemed to have some good ideas when he first burst onto the world scene. We here in Israel absolutely loved him. How did all this go so wrong?”
Freeman: “Dennis, you know the old adage—‘Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ I think that is what has happened here. Besides, anything that is not based on the truth will ultimately fail. Arachev is presently repeating the same mistakes that Adolf Hitler made. Hitler began to see himself as having attained godlike status. That’s where Arachev is right now. He has been so exalted by the world press and by Pope Peter II that he has come to see himself as the Messiah, even God.”
Goldberg: “One of the most deceptive things about this entire global scheme is that everything is being done in the name of ‘human rights.’ We have never seen such a rapid loss of liberty, and it’s all being propagated under the guise of protecting liberty. We can’t speak against homosexuality, even if we know God clearly teaches against it, because of offending the gay community. Never mind that these people will be eternally lost if they continue in their present lifestyle. We are not supposed to try to convert anyone to Jesus since this could supposedly produce such religious strife that the peace of the New World Order would be disturbed. Thus we now have hate crime laws on the books against proselytizing. And we must pledge allegiance to Arachev himself and affirm our belief in the Global Ethic—all in the name of human rights. What an incredible deception!”
Cornell: “The alarming thing is that all this is going to get worse before it gets better. The same prophecies that told us of a numbering system that would be used to force compliance to the prophesied one-world government also tell us that many will ultimately be put to death who refuse to comply.”
Goldberg: “It is so hard to believe that people could be put to death just because they refuse to change their religious beliefs and conform to those dictated by the government. It’s really hard to believe this could happen in this age of enlightenment.”
Cornell: “It’s hard to believe until we remember that six million Jews were marched to gas chambers mere decades ago.”
Goldberg: “Ouch! That’s painful to even think about!”
Freeman: “It is hard to think about, but we must be thinking about it. We’ve done as well as we have under this oppressive economic system because we knew it was coming and took measures to circumvent it. The Bible tells us to be ‘wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.’ We need to be thinking ahead as to how we can avoid the persecutions yet to come.”
Goldberg: “What should we be doing?”
Freeman: “First of all, what should we not be doing? We should not be stockpiling weapons. Jesus taught us that ‘…all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.’ If we can avoid the coming persecutions, we should take measures to do so. Even Jesus avoided attempts on His life when He knew it wasn’t yet time for Him to die. Furthermore, we have to realize that some are going to be put to death. If that becomes unavoidable, then we should not fear. We know that death is only the doorway that leads to eternal life with Jesus.”
Goldberg: “I regret to say that we are out of time for this segment of our program. Roger Cornell and David Freeman, it has been a pleasure and an honor to have you on Channel 77. Thank you so much.”
That night one of the planes of Arachev’s World Community dropped a bomb on the ship housing the transmitters of Channel 77. Within ten minutes the ship had listed badly to the south, then slid slowly under the chilly waters of the Mediterranean.
Chapter 21
What was it about this city that attracted every would-be world emperor like a moth to the flame? Somehow, they could not resist. Give them the whole world, and still they had to have Jerusalem. They risked everything they possessed in order to control this place. Michael Arachev was no exception.
Jerusalem was the one issue that blocked a final resolution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The two sides simply could not agree. The Palestinians wanted to at least control East Jerusalem. Israel was unwilling to surrender control of any of the Holy City. In order to cool things down, determining the final status of Jerusalem was put off for a while. What neither side knew was that Arachev wanted it for himself. He agreed to postpone a final compromise so that he could figure out a way to claim it himself.
Arachev had never forgotten the way he felt when he stood in the Temple and said those words, “I am your Messiah.” Something powerful had surged through him that day. From then on it seemed his powers of insight and oratory were heightened. Sometimes the most brilliant ideas would present themselves to him seemingly from nowhere. At other times dark brooding moods would settle over him. Never before had he experienced the levels of intellectual enlightenment and the depths of depression that swept over him since that fateful day.
The P
alestinians are the key, Arachev thought to himself. They are never happy. They will not be happy until every Jew is driven from the land of Israel. They claim they care about Jerusalem, but they turn their backs on it when they pray. They don’t care about Jerusalem. They just don’t want the Jews to have it.
Herein lay Arachev’s secret plan. If the Jerusalem issue could be agitated until the World Community demanded that it be settled, then his time would have come. Once tensions became so great that armed conflict appeared to be inevitable, then the World Community would demand action.
From the beginning, the United Nations had wanted Jerusalem for itself. Every world leader knows that Jerusalem is the crown jewel of the earth. When Palestine was partitioned by the United Nations in 1947, Jerusalem was declared an international city under UN control. From then until the present, the World Community has never recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Yes, sooner or later I will have Jerusalem, Arachev thought. The only question is when.
Opportunity came knocking sooner than he thought possible. About three years after the temple dedication, Palestinian Secretary of State Mohammed Bassad brought the subject up. “When are we going to resolve the outstanding issues concerning Jerusalem?” he asked. “You asked us to be patient, and I think we have been about as patient as you could expect anyone to be. You know those Israelis. They could stall forever. You and I both know that International Law says that all territories taken in war must be returned. East Jerusalem was taken in the 1967 War. Are we going to enforce International Law, or not?”
“You know how set the Israelis are on this issue,” Arachev reasoned. “Logic doesn’t work with them when it comes to Jerusalem. Of course, you have a point. International Law must be enforced. But it will be much easier when Israel’s disarmament is complete.”