Left Behind Series - The Remnant Part 54

"Your best? I mean, one of your "

"No less. Our goal should be to leave Petra a ghost town! "

"Oh, sir, I "

"when did you become such a pessimist, Leon? We call you the Most High Reverend Father of Carpathianism, and I have offered myself as a living G.o.d, risen from the dead, with powers from on high.

Yours is merely a sales job, Leon. Remind the people what their potentate has to offer, and watch them line up. And we have a special, you know."

"A special, sir?"

"Yes! We are running a special! This week only, anyone from Petra will be allowed to take the mark of loyalty with no punishment for having missed the deadline, now long since past. Think of the influence they can have on others just like them."

"The fear factor has worked fairly well, Potentate."

"Well, it is sort of a no more Mr. Nice Guy campaign, one would have to admit. But the time is past for worrying about my image.

By now if people do not know who I am and what I am capable of, it is too late for them. But some blow to the other side, some victory over the curse of the b.l.o.o.d.y seas that can only help. And I want you to do well against Ben Judah, Leon. You are learned and devout, and you ask for worship of a living, breathing G.o.d who is here and who is not silent. It takes no faith. to believe in the deity of one you can see on television every day. I should be the easy, convenient, logical choice."

"Of course, Majesty, and I shall portray you that way." THE REMNANT.

Lionel Whalum turned out to be a compact black man, a tick under six feet and about two hundred pounds. He wore gla.s.ses and had salt and pepper hair, and was a skilled pilot of almost any size craft. He brought a transport lumbering into the clandestine strip in San Diego, and within an hour was airborne again with George and Ree in the back and Rayford in the copilot's seat.

"Chloe has told me so much about you," Rayford said, "but it's all been business. I think I know the basics of that story, but how did you become a believer?"

"I love when people ask," Whalum said. "A big reason I was left behind had to do with how I lived. I know there's nothing wrong with being successful and making money, but in my case, speaking just for me now, it made me deaf and blind somehow. I had tunnel vision. Don't get me wrong. I was a nice guy. My wife, she was a nice lady. Still is. We ran in our circles, had nice things, a beautiful home. Life was good.

"We were even church people. I had grown up going to church, but I was a little embarra.s.sed about it, to tell you the truth. I thought my mama and my aunties were a little too emotional and showy. And about the time I Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkirzs and that Jesus wouldn't even go there. I would have said it was sophisticated and proper.

"That's the kind of church Felicia and I found in the suburbs too. It fit our lifestyle to a T. We could dress the way we did for work or socializing. We saw people we knew and cared about.

And we definitely were never hollered at or insulted from the pulpit. n.o.body called us sinners or hinted that we might need to get something right in our lives.

"Now our kids, on the other hand two girls with a boy in between they went the other direction. They got off to college and wound up, every one of them, in the kind of church I grew up in. Wrote us. Pleaded with us to get saved. Asked why we hadn't exposed them to this when they were kids. Flabbergasted me, I have to tell you.

"But did it reach me, change my mind? Not on your life. But then somebody in our neighborhood invited us to a Bible study. If it hadn't been for who it was, we never would have gone. But this was a cool guy. This was a guy who had made it, and big, in real estate development. He made this deal sound as casual as a golf game. No pressure. No ha.s.sle. They just read the Bible and talked about it, and they traded off meeting in about six different homes. We said sure, put our house on the list, and never missed.

"I was kind of bemused by it. After a while they started adding prayer to the thing. n.o.body got called on or had to pray, and so Felicia and I didn't. But people starting telling prayer requests, asking for prayer for THE REMNANT.

their families and themselves, their ailments, even their businesses. I mentioned a couple of prayer requests now and then, but still I never prayed.

"One time the guy who invited us the first time asked if he could talk to us afterward. When it was just the four of us his wife didn't say anything he kind of put it to us. Wanted to know where we were spiritually. I thought he meant where did we go to church, so I told him. He told me that wasn't what he meant. He laid out how to become a born again Christian. I had heard it. I knew. It was just a little overboard for me, that's all. I told him I appreciated his concern and asked if he would pray for us.

That always got 'em, was my experience. But he thought I meant right then, and so he did.

"He wasn't pushy. Just a little intrusive. I forgave him. That's sort of what it felt like. I thought it was good to feel so strongly about something and feel so deeply that you felt you should tell your friends and neighbors about it. That was it for me, end of story. No big deal.

"Two days later, millions of people all over the world disappeared. Including are you ready? every last person in that Bible study except us. And all three of our kids were gone.

"Saved? We got saved in, like, ten minutes."

Abdullah was so excited about the operation with his old friends that he had been packed and ready for several days. He didn't know or care how much of the actual piloting he would get to do. It would be enough to be together with Mac and Albie. To him the idea that the International Commodity Co op could pull off such a huge trade, given the stepped up persecution of believers around the globe, was just one more proof of the sovereignty of G.o.d.

When he knew Rayford and the other three from San Diego were in the air, he could barely contain himself. They would head directly to Argentina to load the wheat, which meant Mac and Albie would soon be on their way to pick up Abdullah. They were often spied upon and followed, so the plan was that they would bring some supplies into Petra and stay the night, not leaving for India until the next day. That way, if everything worked according to plan, the three of them plus their Indian fourth, Bihari, would be in the air toward Argentina at the same time the Americans were on their way from Argentina to India.

Abdullah felt a spring in his step as he moved about Petra, singing more loudly with the ma.s.s congregation, trying to pay attention and listen as Tsion and Chaim taught the Scriptures.

This was the day that the computer and television technology center in the city would beam a signal of Tsion to Global Community headquarters at the palace in New Babylon, and a large monitor in Petra would receive the GC's transmission of Leon Fortunato. Abdullah, for one, believed Leon didn't have a clue what he was up against in a man as scholarly as Tsion especially considering Tsion was a man of honor and truth.

Early in the afternoon Abdullah scaled the heights and THE REMNANT.

peeked down from one of the high places onto the airstrip that had been built just for runs in and out of Petra. When Mac and Albie arrived, Abdullah would pilot a chopper to the end of the runway and bring them into the city.

As he scrambled back down, looking for something to occupy him until the great debate, he was surprised to see yet another gathering of thousands, with Chaim and Tsion trying to quiet them. Were they early for the telecast, or was something amiss?

As he drew closer, he could see that several hundred of these did not bear the mark of the believer on their foreheads. They were jostling for front position for the debate because, one of them hollered, as soon as it was over, they were leaving Petra for a few hours to hear another speaker. "He will be right close by, and many believe he is the Christ. Jesus come back to earth to perform miracles and explain the future!"

"Please!" Chaim called out. "You must not do this! Do you not know you are being deceived? You know of this only through the evil ruler of this world and his False Prophet. Stay here in safety. Put your trust in the Lord! "

"Who are you but the second in command?" someone demanded. "If the leader will not beseech us to stay, why should we stay?"

"I do beseech you," Tsion began, but Chaim interrupted.

"Why would you trouble the mind of this man of G.o.d on the very day he has been anointed and called to counter the False Prophet? You are being used by the evil one to wreak havoc in the camp."

To Abdullah's dismay, he noticed that some of the dissidents rose up before Tsion and gathered themselves together against him and against Chaim, and said, "You take too much upon you. Why do you put yourselves above the congregation?"

Tsion slowly covered his face with his hands, fell to his knees, and pitched forward onto the ground. Then he raised his head and said, "The Lord knows who are his and who is holy. For what cause do you and all those gathered here speak against the Lord? And why would you murmur against Chaim?" Tsion called on two among the a.s.sembled and said, "Please, come to your senses and stand with me against this shortsightedness!"

But they said, "We will not stand with you. Is it a small thing that you have taken us from our motherland, our homes where we had plenty, and brought us to this rocky place where all we have to eat is bread and water, and you set yourself up as a prince over us?"

Abdullah had never seen Tsion look so stricken. Tsion cried out to G.o.d, "Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they do. I have neither set myself over them nor demanded anything from them except respect for you."

Tsion continued, "G.o.d is telling Chaim and me to separate ourselves from you to save ourselves from his wrath."

Many fell on their faces and cried out, "o G.o.d, the G.o.d of all flesh, must we die because of the sins of a few? Would you take it out on all of us?"

Tsion spoke to all the a.s.sembled and said, "Unless you agree with these, it would do well for you to depart from the presence of these wicked men, lest you be consumed in all their sins. From this point on, let it be known that the Lord has sent me to do all these works; I do not do

them in my own interest. If these men do what is in their minds to do and G.o.d visits a plague of death on them, then all shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord."

As soon as he finished speaking, the ground under hundreds of the rebels opened and swallowed them. They went down into the pit, screaming and wailing as the earth closed upon them, and they perished from among the congregation.

Thousands around them fled as they heard the mournful cries from beneath the earth. "Run!" they said. "Run or the earth will swallow us also!"

But Abdullah heard many grumbling and saying,

,.,.Tsion and Micah have killed these people. We will stay with our plan of leaving from this place to hear the man who would be Christ."

Abdullah went to comfort Tsion and Chaim, but as he drew near them, he heard them. "Lord," Tsion said, "we pray an atonement for those left. Spare them your wrath so that we may yet reach them with your truth." By now Chang was bold. Not only was he tapped in to GCNN to monitor the great debate between Tsion and Leon, but he was also prepared to override New Babylon control. He was so tired of hearing the advertis.e.m.e.nts for Leon's special envoys and their "Miracle Fairs" that when he noticed Tsion was speaking to the a.s.sembled at Petra just before the debate was to begin, he patched him through and put him on the air early.

Tsion was telling the several hundred closest to him that they should repent of their plan to leave Petra and go into the wilderness to hear the charlatan who claimed to be Christ. Once Chang had Tsion on the air, he switched to Carpathia's office for the expected outrage.

Tsion was saying, "I would ask that all pray during the broadcast that the Lord give me his wisdom and his words. And as for you who still plan to venture away from this safe place, let me plead with you one more time not to do it, not to make yourself vulnerable to the evil one. Let the Global Community and their Antichrist and his False Prophet make ridiculous claims about fake miracle workers. Do not fall into their trap."

Carpathia shrieked, "What are we doing? We want these people to come and to hear and to be persuaded! Get him off the air!"