by Irvin Baxter
A couple of minutes later the International Police burst through the door of her bedroom. “Are you Hannah Goldberg?” they demanded.
“Yes,” Hannah replied.
“Where do you work?” the officer in charge asked accusingly.
“I don’t hold a public job, sir,” Hannah answered. “I raise my family while my husband makes the living.”
“Where are your children?” the officer demanded. He went barging back out into the hallway and into the small bedroom where Zach and Rachel were asleep.
Rachel, startled by being awakened by a stranger in the middle of the night, cried out, “Mommy!”
Hannah rushed past the peacekeepers and sat on the bed beside Rachel. “It’s all right, baby,” she assured her. “It’s going to be all right.”
“Who are these men, Mommy?” Rachel asked. “What are they doing here?”
Peacekeeper Wilhelm looked at Hannah. He said, “We’ll take care of the children now.”
Hannah didn’t move. “Officer, do you have any children?” she asked.
“Yes, I have three,” came the reply. “But I’m not raising them to be religious extremists who will someday grow up to be a threat to world peace.” The reply was harsh, but Hannah thought she noticed a softening in his demeanor.
About that time, Dennis stepped into the room. “Officer, Hannah and the children have done nothing. Arrest me if you must, but please let Hannah stay here with the children.” Dennis’ request was neither defiant nor disrespectful.
It was at that moment that Rachel chimed in, “Please, officer, you know how much children need their mommies. Let Mommy stay with us. Please?”
It was a request that even Officer Wilhelm could not resist. “Mrs. Goldberg, don’t call anyone. Don’t cause any trouble. If you create any disturbance at all, I will be forced to come back for you and take the children to the reeducation center.”
“Thank you, officer. Thank you very much.”
Hannah watched out the bedroom window as the peacekeepers shoved Dennis into a Global Police car. She noticed several of their neighbors watching from their windows as well. But she was not ashamed. As a matter of fact, she was very proud of her husband. What a wonderful man he was! He had shown no fear through the entire ordeal, and he had conducted himself like the true Christian that he was.
Hannah turned to her children who watched her from their beds. Zach asked, “Mommy, what are they going to do to Daddy? Why did they take him away?”
Hannah spoke with the assurance of one who has total faith in God. “Everything is going to be all right. They want to ask him some questions. God will take care of everything.”
“But why did they come in the middle of the night, Mommy?” the older, more perceptive Rachel inquired.
“Well, they don’t like it because we are Christians. They got us out of bed like this because they are trying to scare us into denying Jesus as our Lord,” Hannah explained.
Rachel sat straight up and said bravely, “But that will never work with us, will it? We love Jesus before anything—even life itself, huh?” Hannah was so glad for those daily devotions when she and Dennis had taught their children absolute loyalty to Jesus, no matter what happened. They had known this moment would probably come.
Well, test number one was passed with flying colors…at least by the children, Hannah thought.
Finally, after a long while, Zach and Rachel drifted off to sleep. Hannah was left alone. “It would be nice to talk to a fellow Christian right now,” she sighed quietly. But she didn’t dare make that phone call. She had no doubt that every form of communication in and out of their house was being monitored—well, except for one. Alone in her bedroom, she slipped to her knees. “Jesus, You said that we would be hated of all nations for Your name’s sake. I guess that prophecy has to come to pass, too. Lord, be with Dennis. Give him strength to stand. Even if they threaten to harm the children and me, please help him not to give in.”
Hannah and Dennis had discussed this possibility many times. As they saw the prophecies being fulfilled, they had talked about what they might face. Hannah had lectured Dennis over and over, “Even if they threaten to hurt me and the children in front of you, you must not deny Jesus as your Lord. I know it would be terrible for you, Dennis. But we are in this together. Anything that they could do to us here, no matter how terrible, is only temporary. We must always remember what Jesus said: ‘Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried…be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.’”
Hannah got up from her knees with the assurance that God’s wonderful presence was with Dennis in the jail cell at that very moment. “Thank You, Lord,” she whispered. “I love You.”
The Global Police had been tailing Roger Cornell and David Freeman for days in preparation for the anticipated raid. The report came back that Cornell and Freeman usually slept in different houses and moved around a lot. Their behavior was typical for persons who were attempting to avoid arrest or maybe even assassination.
Suslov digested this interesting piece of news carefully. They suspect that something is up, he thought. How do they always seem to know? he wondered. Suslov did not want to botch this arrest. He had seen Arachev when he was angry, and it was not a pretty sight. The man did not suffer fools lightly. Suslov ordered that both Cornell and Freeman be kept under surveillance right up to the time of the arrest.
Jean Sirstad sat in his blue sedan across from the home of Eli and Naomi Levi, the place Cornell was staying that night. Because the car windows were tinted so darkly, Sirstad was virtually invisible. He watched as Cornell went into the house at around 8 o’clock. Sirstad observed carefully as lights were either turned on or off in each room. Central Police Headquarters had provided him with a diagram of the entire house. Of course, the layout of every house under Arachev’s dominion was filed on the central computer of the World Community.
At about 11 o’clock, lights came on in one of the bedrooms. His intelligence report showed that Cornell usually went to bed around eleven. Sirstad noted which room it was. The commander of the raiding unit would want to know. By 11:30, all the lights in the house were out.
Sirstad sent his report back to headquarters. “Officer Jean Sirstad reporting to Global Headquarters. Suspect Roger Cornell entered the residence of Naomi and Eli Levi located at 3310 Rothschild Avenue at approximately 8 p.m. No one was observed leaving the house after that time. At 11 p.m., lights came on in the room in which Cornell is believed to be sleeping. By 11:30 p.m., all lights in the home were off. It seems certain that Cornell has now retired for the night.”
Acknowledgement came over Sirstad’s police radio. “Affirmative. Operation is proceeding as planned. Maintain surveillance until operation is completed. If any changes occur, please advise. Over.”
Jean Sirstad was the top surveillance specialist in the entire Global Police force. He did not have one blemish on his record. He had never been known to mishandle an assignment.
Sirstad glanced at his watch. Twelve o’clock. It had been a long day. His eyes tried to go shut, but he steeled himself against the intruding drowsiness. Many years of training had taught him how to ward off the urge to sleep that could become so overpowering about this time of the night. He had never fallen asleep while on assignment. He just wouldn’t allow himself to do it!
He noticed a porch light come on four houses down on the opposite side of the street. Immediately, he was totally alert. Then he saw the small poodle slip outside and the robed woman waiting at the door. In less than two minutes, the dog was back inside, and the light was off. Obviously, nothing was going on there.
Sirstad looked one more time at the Levi residence. Dark. He closed his eyes to rest them for just a moment. Oblivion swept over him. After a while, his eyes came back open. Startled, he sat up. He couldn’t believe it! He had fallen asleep! In a panic he looked at his watch—12:45. He had been asle
ep for almost 45 minutes! He had never done that before! What in the world had come over him?
Nearly in panic, Sirstad’s eyes scanned the house carefully. Nothing was changed. The lights were still off. No movement showed anywhere. That was close, he thought.
He was startled by the crackling of the radio. “Attention, Officer 45763.” (That was his Personal Identification Number.) “Any changes observed at your post of surveillance?”
Sirstad quickly replied, “None, sir.” He felt pangs of guilt at not reporting his problem with drowsiness. But he had an unblemished record, and he wasn’t about to let it be ruined by a brief nap while watching a preacher in bed. He was sure nothing had happened, anyway.
At 1:55 a.m., an unmarked Global Police car cruised quietly past. The operation is on! Sirstad thought. He knew that soon the street would be blocked and the Levi house surrounded.
At exactly 2 a.m., 15 Global Police cars converged on the Levi residence. Sirstad was shocked to see Attorney General Suslov in the lead car. There must be more to this than anyone has said, he concluded. He was used to being in on highly important operations, but the Attorney General…?
Quickly, officers surrounded the house. Four guarded the back door, while two were stationed under each window. Six Global Police officers made their way to the front. Sirstad could hear the loud knock clear out at his car. Right away, lights began to come on in the Levi house. The first lights were in the room belonging to Naomi and Eli Levi. Then the hall lights. The officer knocked again—this time louder. Then the living room lights were switched on.
Sirstad watched. “Why hasn’t Cornell turned his light on? He’s got to be awake by now,” he muttered. A tight knot of fear began to form in the pit of Sirstad’s stomach. “Calm down,” he said to himself. “You’re letting your imagination run away with you!”
The officer demanded to see Roger Cornell. Eli Levi tried to stall. “Is something wrong, officer?” Levi asked. “It’s most unusual to come barging into the house of an Israeli citizen at two in the morning.”
“Get Cornell this minute, or my officers will turn this house upside down,” Sean Conkle demanded. Levi knew this was no idle threat.
“Okay, okay. I’ll get him. Just a moment.” Eli walked down the hallway to the door of the front bedroom. “Roger,” he called. No answer. He knocked on the door loudly. “Roger, the police are here demanding to see you.” No answer. Conkle stepped to the end of the hallway so that he could observe what was going on. Eli turned to him. “He’s not answering, sir.”
“Then you go in and wake him up,” Conkle ordered. “Hurry up. We have a schedule to keep.” Eli turned the knob, but it was locked.
“Officer, something must be wrong. He’s obviously in there, but he’s not answering,” Eli said worriedly. “Perhaps he has become ill. I’ll get the room key.”
When Eli opened the door and turned on the light, he was as surprised at what he saw as Officer Conkle was. The bed was empty! “What is this?!” Conkle shouted. He grabbed Eli around the neck. “Tell me this minute where he is,” he demanded, “or I’ll put you behind bars, and you’ll never come out. We have ways of making people like you talk!”
“Officer, I don’t know where Roger is,” Eli protested. “A little before 11 o’clock I told him good night. Then he came into this room. I don’t know what has happened to him.”
Conkle paused. Either this guy is one incredible actor, or he is telling me the truth. He had learned in earlier dealings with these Bible believers that they would not lie to you—even if their lives were in danger.
Now what? Conkle wondered. He didn’t intend to go back empty-handed. Turning to his officers, he ordered, “Search this house. Don’t miss one potential hiding place. I mean it! If you guys don’t know it, the orders for Cornell’s arrest came straight from President Arachev!” This interesting piece of information was not lost on Eli Levi.
For the next two hours, Conkle’s men took the Levi house apart. Officers ended up in the attic, the crawl space under the floor—everywhere. They found nothing.
Chapter 25
Earlier that day, David Freeman had taught his daily prophecy Bible study at the Mount of Olives Hotel. As always, there were many people in attendance who wanted to understand the prophecies of the Bible and how they were currently being fulfilled. David never ceased to be amazed at the accuracy of those prophecies. Even though he had taught them hundreds of times, it still inspired him when he explained how many prophecies had been fulfilled in the past five years, and what lay just ahead.
After his session at the Mount of Olives, David decided to stop by the Temple Mount. As he walked down the side of the Mount of Olives and toward the walls of the Old City, his eyes traced the path that Jesus probably traveled the day of His triumphal entry on the back of a colt. The Scripture in Zechariah 9:9 came to his mind. “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.”
If only the people at the time of Jesus’ First Coming had known the prophecies of the Bible! They would never have missed it. They had at least one hundred specific prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah, and Jesus had fulfilled every one of them in the most minute detail. How different things might have been if only they had taken the time to learn what the prophecies said.
David raised his eyes to the crest of the Mount of Olives. He was privileged to know from the prophecies of the Bible that soon Jesus would come for the second time. Zechariah 14:4 said that Jesus would return to the Mount of Olives at the time of His Second Coming. Excitement swelled up within him as he thought about how near the Second Coming was. He whispered a prayer as he lifted his eyes to the skies, “Lord, it will be different this next time.”
David’s eyes swept across the Kidron Valley to the Temple Mount just on the other side of the valley. There stood the Eastern Gate that had been sealed for more than four hundred years now. The prophecy of Ezekiel 44:2-3 came flooding back to his mind: “Then said the Lord unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut. It is for the prince; the prince, He shall sit in it to eat bread before the Lord; He shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the same.” The sealed gate actually looked like a bride in waiting…simply standing silently until its appointment with destiny. These thoughts made the return of Jesus seem so near and filled David with awe.
As he continued on toward the Western Wall Plaza, a person he didn’t know slipped up beside him. “Hi. My name is Uri. Aren’t you one of those two preachers who speak on the prophecies of the Bible and how close we are to the coming of Messiah?”
“Yes. My name is David—David Freeman.”
“I like a lot of what you say. But could I ask you a question?” Uri inquired.
“Sure. Ask anything that you want. I’ll answer you if I can,” David assured.
“You’re a Christian, right?” “Yes.”
David knew what was coming next.
Uri continued, “How could you expect us Jews to believe in Jesus when so many Christians have persecuted us and put us to death? Did you know that Adolf Hitler thought he was doing the work of God when he tried to annihilate the Jewish race?”
David chose his words very carefully. “Uri, the people who did those horrible things to your people were not Christians, even though they claimed to be. They were false Christians. A true Christian would not hurt anyone, let alone God’s chosen people on this earth. You gave us our Messiah, and every single word of our Bible was recorded by your people. I know that this point is a tremendous stumbling block to Jewish people when they begin to consider that perhaps Jesus was their Messiah. The simple truth is that anyone who would persecute the Jewish people is not a Christian, no matter what they claim.”
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�I like what you and Roger say, but I still have this deep distrust of Christians. It has been drilled into me all of my life,” Uri said pensively.
“I understand, Uri. I can’t say that I blame you. But consider this—would Roger and I be here in Israel preaching if we didn’t have a genuine love for you and your people? Every day that we are here, we are risking our lives. Someday Arachev and his henchmen will kill us. But, by God’s help, we will continue to teach the truth until that time comes.”
“What you say makes a lot of sense to me,” Uri admitted. “How can I know for certain that Jesus was the Messiah?”
“Uri, let’s quickly list the prophecies that foretold what Messiah would do when He came. Then let’s see if Jesus fulfilled those prophecies.
“We’ll keep it simple,” David continued. “Messiah was to be from the tribe of Judah. Was Jesus from the tribe of Judah? Yes.
“His birthplace had to be in Bethlehem. Was Jesus born in Bethlehem? Yes.
“And He would be rejected as the Messiah, according to Isaiah 53:3. Is He rejected?”
Uri broke in, “I see it now! I’ve been guilty of fulfilling that prophecy. I’ve rejected Jesus all of my life.”
“Yes, Uri,” David continued, “and this same passage in Isaiah 53 says that the Messiah would be wounded for our transgressions.”
“David, I never expected a Messiah who would be wounded for my sins. I’ve always looked for a political leader.”
“Like Arachev?” David asked.
“Yes! Exactly!” Uri said in amazement. “Wow, I didn’t realize how misguided I’ve been.”
David continued, “The prophecies also say that the Messiah would ride into Jerusalem on the foal of an ass, which Jesus did.
“They say He would be betrayed by a trusted friend. Judas, one of Jesus’ twelve disciples, betrayed Him.