Facing the Future (10 page)

“I knew well the characteristics of the Antichrist, mostly based on a lengthy conversation I’d had with Bruce. I was not at that time a believer. When I got to Carpathia’s private meeting, I felt such an intense presence of evil and foreboding that I hurried from the room and got alone where I could receive Christ. I went back to the meeting, where I witnessed something so astounding that, had I not received Christ and he had not been in control of my mind and spirit, I know I would have been brainwashed like everyone else in that room.

“You heard what happened there. The world, the press—in fact, everyone else in that room that day except Nicolae Carpathia and me—believe that one of those ambassadors grabbed a security guard’s gun and shot himself. In the process he killed Carpathia’s biggest supporter.”

Yes,
Vicki thought,
that’s exactly the way we’ve heard it happened.
“Not true?” she asked.

“Not true at all. After Carpathia went around the room, shaking hands and welcoming each new ambassador to his team, he borrowed a huge, powerful handgun from the guard and asked his financial supporter, a man named Jonathan Stonagal, to kneel before him.

“Stonagal did not want to do it. He was humiliated at the request. Carpathia pleaded with him to trust him, calling him his best friend in the world. Once Stonagal was on his knees, Carpathia was in no hurry. He spoke calmly and quietly, and I will remember every word he said for as long as I live. He said, ‘I am going to kill Mr. Stonagal with a painless hollow-point round to the brain, which he will neither hear nor feel. The rest of us will experience some ringing in our ears. This will be instructive for you all. You will understand cognitively that I am in charge, that I fear no man, and that no one can oppose me.’

“Carpathia went on to say, ‘When Mr. Stonagal is dead, I will tell you what you will remember. And lest anyone feel I have not been fair, let me not neglect to add that a high-velocity bullet at this range will also kill Mr. Todd-Cothran.’ ”

This is preposterous,
Vicki thought.
How could anyone let a man get away with something like that?

“I was so shocked and scared,” Buck said, “I could not move.

“With his so-called dear friend kneeling there, Carpathia murdered both Stonagal and Todd-Cothran with one shot. I just stared, my mouth hanging open, as others pushed back from the table and covered their heads in fear. Carpathia placed the gun in Stonagal’s limp right hand and twisted his finger around the trigger. Carpathia said kindly, as if speaking to children, ‘What we have just witnessed here was a horrible, tragic end to two otherwise extravagantly productive lives. These men were two I respected and admired more than any others in the world. What compelled Mr. Stonagal to rush the guard, disarm him, take his own life and that of his British colleague, I do not know and may never fully understand.’

“Carpathia then went around the room, asking each person what he had seen. Every one of them told the story exactly the way Carpathia had described it. When he got to me, God told me to say nothing. Carpathia assumed I was speechless from shock or because he was controlling my mind. And I had no idea whether he knew or not that I knew the truth. When the police arrived and began taking eyewitness accounts, I rushed back to my office and began writing the story. My boss burst in and demanded to know why I had not been at the meeting. I could not convince him I had been there. No one I have talked to in the room remembers I was ever even there.

“You kids don’t know me from Adam. You don’t have to believe a word I say. But I swear to you as a new brother in Christ that this is the truth. Nicolae Carpathia is evil personified, and if he is not the Antichrist, I don’t know who is.”

Vicki knew the others were as impressed as she. Buck looked spent. Vicki knew what he had said had a ring of truth to it. She believed him instinctively. And she had the same thought the others had at the same time. As one, they reached out and gently touched Buck’s shoulders. Then they knelt around him and prayed for him.

Judd, for one, was proud to be a part of this little group, in this church, under this pastor, and alongside people like Buck Williams. He and his friends were just kids to some people, but their task, just like that of the adult Tribulation Force, was clear. Their goal was nothing less than to stand against and fight the enemies of God during the seven most chaotic years the planet would ever see.

Jerry B. Jenkins
(
www.jerryjenkins.com
) is the writer of the Left Behind series. He owns the Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild, an organization dedicated to mentoring aspiring authors. Former vice president for publishing for the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, he also served many years as editor of
Moody
magazine and is now Moody’s writer-at-large.

His writing has appeared in publications as varied as
Reader’s Digest, Parade, Guideposts,
in-flight magazines, and dozens of other periodicals. Jenkins’s biographies include books with Billy Graham, Hank Aaron, Bill Gaither, Luis Palau, Walter Payton, Orel Hershiser, and Nolan Ryan, among many others. His books appear regularly on the
New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal,
and
Publishers Weekly
best seller lists.

Jerry is also the writer of the nationally syndicated sports story comic strip
Gil Thorp,
distributed to newspapers across the United States by Tribune Media Services.

Jerry and his wife, Dianna, live in Colorado and have three grown sons.

Dr. Tim LaHaye
(
www.timlahaye.com
), who conceived the idea of fictionalizing an account of the Rapture and the Tribulation, is a noted author, minister, and nationally recognized speaker on Bible prophecy. He is the founder of both Tim LaHaye Ministries and The PreTrib Research Center. He also recently cofounded the Tim LaHaye School of Prophecy at Liberty University. Presently Dr. LaHaye speaks at many of the major Bible prophecy conferences in the U.S. and Canada, where his current prophecy books are very popular.

Dr. LaHaye holds a doctor of ministry degree from Western Theological Seminary and a doctor of literature degree from Liberty University. For twenty-five years he pastored one of the nation’s outstanding churches in San Diego, which grew to three locations. It was during that time that he founded two accredited Christian high schools, a Christian school system of ten schools, and Christian Heritage College.

Dr. LaHaye has written over forty books that have been published in more than thirty languages. He has written books on a wide variety of subjects, such as family life, temperaments, and Bible prophecy. His current fiction works, the Left Behind series, written with Jerry B. Jenkins, continue to appear on the best seller lists of the Christian Booksellers Association,
Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal, USA Today,
and the
New York Times.

He is the father of four grown children and grandfather of nine. Snow skiing, waterskiing, motorcycling, golfing, vacationing with family, and jogging are among his leisure activities.