Nicolae: The Rise Of The Antichrist (31 page)

neous-it should not surprise any of us to know that global war would result in famine, plague, and death.’

“Do any of you find this as astounding as I did when I first read it?” Rayford asked.

All over the sanctuary, people nodded. “I remind you that this was written by a man who died either just before or just after the first bomb was volleyed in the global war we find ourselves in. He didn’t know precisely when it would occur, but he didn’t want to let one more Sunday pass without sharing this message with you. I don’t know about you, but I’m inclined to heed the words of one who interprets the prophecy of Scripture so accurately.

Here’s what Bruce, in his own notes, says is yet to come: ‘“The time is short now for everyone. Revelation 6:7-8 says the rider of the pale horse is Death and that Hades follows after him. Power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth. I confess I don’t know what the Scripture is referring to when it says the beasts of the earth, but perhaps these are animals that devour people when they are left without protection due to the war. Perhaps a great beast of the earth is some symbolic metaphor for the weapons employed by the Antichrist and his enemies. Regardless, in short order one-fourth of the world’s population will be wiped out.’

“Bruce continues: ‘I shared this with three close compatriots not long ago, and asked them to consider that there were four of us in the room. Was it possible that one of us would be gone in due time? Of course it was. Might I lose a fourth of my congregation? I pray my church will be spared, but I have so many congregations now around the world, it is impossible to imagine that all could be spared. Of the quarter of the earth’s popula-

tion that will perish, surely many, many of these will be tribulation saints. ‘

“‘Given the level of modern technology, global war will take little time at all to wreak its havoc and devastation. These three last horsemen of the apocalypse will gallop one right after the other. If people were horrified by the painless, bloodless, disappearance of the saints at the Rapture, which resulted in enough chaos of its own because of crashes and fires and suicides, imagine the desperation of a world ripped to shreds by global war, famine, plague, and death.’”

Rayford looked up from Bruce’s notes. “My wife and I watched the news yesterday at the airport,” he said, “as I’m sure many of you watched wherever you were, and we saw these very things reported from all around the world. Only the greatest skeptic would accuse us of having written this after the fact. But let’s say that you’re skeptical. Let’s say you believe we are charlatans. Who then wrote the Bible? And when was it written?

Forget Bruce Barnes and his present-day predictions, a week before the fact. Consider these prophecies made thousands of years ago. You can imagine the pain it brought Bruce to have to prepare this sermon. In a side note he writes, ‘I hate preaching bad news.

My problem in the past was that I always hated hearing bad news too. I shut it out. I didn’t listen. It was there if I merely had ears to hear. I must share more bad news in this message, and though it grieves me, I cannot shirk the responsibility.’

“You’ll note Bruce’s turmoil here,” Rayford said. “Because I’m the one who has to deliver this, I empathize totally with where he was. The next part of his outline indicates that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, once they have visited their judgments on the earth, represent the first four of the seven Seal Judgments that Revelation 6:1-16 indicates will occur during the first twenty-one months of the Tribulation. According to Bruce’s calculations, using as a reference point the treaty signed between Israel and the United Nations, which we now know as the Global Community, we are closing in on the end of that twenty-one-month period. Therefore, it behooves us to understand clearly the fifth, sixth, and seventh Seal Judgments predicted in Revelation. As you know from what Bruce has taught before, there are yet to come two more seven-part judgments that will carry us through to the end of the seven-year Tribulation and the glorious appearing of Christ. The next seven will be the Trumpet Judgments, and the seven following that will be the Vial Judgments. Whoever becomes your pastor-teacher will, I’m sure, carefully walk you through those as the time draws near. Meanwhile, let me, with Bruce’s notes and commentary, make us all aware of what we have to look forward to just within the next few weeks.”

Rayford was exhausted, but worse than that, he had gone over and over in his mind what he was about to share. It was not good news. He felt weak. He was hungry. He was enough in tune with his body to know he needed sugar. “I’m going to ask for just a five-

minute break. I know many of you may need to use the facilities. I need to get a drink.

We’ll meet back here at precisely one o’clock.”

He left the platform, and Amanda made a beeline for the side door, meeting him in the corridor. “What do you need?” she asked.

“Besides prayer?”

“I’ve been praying for you all morning,” she said. “You know that. What do you want? Some orange juice?”

“You make me sound like a diabetic.”

“I just know what I would need if I’d been standing up there that long between meals.”

“Juice sounds great,” he said. While she hurried off, Buck joined Rayford in the hallway.

“Do you think they’re ready for what’s to come?” Buck asked.

“Frankly, I think Bruce has been trying to tell them this for months. There’s nothing like today’s newscasts to convince you your pastor is right.”

Buck assured Rayford he would continue praying for him. When he returned to his seat, he found that, again, it appeared not one person had left. It didn’t surprise Buck that Rayford was back in the pulpit exactly when he said he would be.

“I won’t keep you much longer,” he said. “But I’m sure you all agree that this is life-

and-death stuff. From Bruce’s notes and teaching we learn that Revelation 6:9-11 points out that the fifth of the seven Seal Judgments concerns tribulation martyrs. The Scripture says, ‘I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.’

“In other words,” Rayford continued, “many of those who have died in this world war, and are yet to die until a quarter of the world’s population is gone, are considered tribulation martyrs. I put Bruce in this category. While he may not have died specifically for preaching the gospel or while preaching the gospel, clearly it was his life’s work and it resulted in his death. I envision Bruce under the altar with the souls of those slain for the word of God and for the testimony they held. He will be given a white robe and told to rest a while longer until even more martyrs are added to the total. I must ask you today, are you prepared? Are you willing? Would you give your life for the sake of the gospel?”

Rayford paused to take a breath and was startled when someone cried out, “I will!”

Rayford didn’t know what to say. Suddenly, from another part of the sanctuary: “So will I!”

Three or four others said the same in unison. Rayford choked back tears. It had been a rhetorical question. He had not expected an answer. How moving! How inspiring! He felt led not to let others follow based on emotion alone. He continued, his voice thick, “Thank you, brothers and sisters. I fear we may all be called upon to express our willingness to die for the cause. Praise God you are willing. Bruce’s notes indicate that he believed these judgments are chronological. If the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse lead to the white-

robed tribulation martyrs under the altar in heaven, that could be happening even as we speak. And if it is, we need to know what the sixth seal is. Bruce felt so strongly about this Seal Judgment that on his computer he cut and pasted right here into his notes several different translations and versions of Revelation 6:12-17. Let me just read you the one he marked as the most stark and easily understood:

” ‘I looked when He’-and you’ll recall that the he mentioned here is the Lamb, who is described in verse fourteen of the previous chapter as ‘Him who lives forever and ever,’

who is, of course, Jesus Christ himself-‘He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”’”

Rayford looked up and scanned the sanctuary. Some stared at him, ashen. Others peered intently at their Bibles. “I’m no theologian, people. I’m no scholar. I have had as much trouble reading the Bible as any of you throughout my lifetime, and especially over the nearly two years since the Rapture. But I ask you, is there anything difficult to understand about a passage that begins, ‘Behold, there was a great earthquake’? Bruce has carefully charted these events, and he believed that the first seven seals cover the first twenty-one months of the seven-year tribulation, which began at the time of the covenant between Israel and the Antichrist. If you happen to be one who doesn’t believe the Antichrist has appeared on the scene yet, then you don’t believe there’s an agreement between Israel and that person. If that is true, all this is still yet to come. The Tribulation did not begin with the Rapture. It begins with the signing of that treaty.

“Bruce taught us that the first four Seal Judgments were represented by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I submit to you that those horsemen are at full gallop. The fifth seal, the tribulation martyrs who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held, and whose souls are under the altar, has begun.

“Bruce’s commentary indicates that more and more martyrs will be added now.

Antichrist will come against tribulation saints and the 144,000 witnesses springing up all over the world from the tribes of Israel.

“Hear me, from a very practical standpoint. If Bruce is right-and he has been so far-

we are close to the end of the first twenty-one months. I believe in God. I believe in Christ. I believe the Bible is the Word of God. I believe our dear departed brother ‘rightly divided the word of truth,’ and thus I am preparing to endure what this passage calls ‘the wrath of the Lamb.’ An earthquake is coming, and it is not symbolic. This passage indicates that everyone, great or small, would rather be crushed to death than to face the one who sits on the throne.”

Buck was furiously taking notes. This was not new to him, but he was so moved by Rayford’s passion and the idea of the earthquake being known as the wrath of the Lamb that he knew it had to be publicized to the world.

Perhaps it would be his swan song, his death knell, but he was going to put in the Global Community Weekly that Christians were teaching of the coming “wrath of the Lamb.” It was one thing to predict an earthquake. Armchair scientists and clairvoyants had been doing that for years. But there was something about the psyche of the current world citizen that caused him or her to become enamored of catchphrases. What better catch-phrase than one from the Word of God?

Buck listened as Rayford concluded: “At the end of this first twenty-one-month period, the mysterious seventh Seal Judgment will usher in the next twenty-one-month period, during which we will receive the seven Trumpet Judgments. I say the seventh Seal Judgment is mysterious because Scripture is not clear what form it will take. All the Bible says is that it is apparently so dramatic that there will be silence in heaven for half an hour. Then seven angels, each with a trumpet, prepare themselves to sound. We will study those judgments and talk about them as we move into that period. However, for now, I believe Bruce has left us with much to think and pray about.

“We have loved this man, we have learned from this man, and now we have eulogized him. Though we know he is finally with Christ, do not hesitate to grieve and mourn. The Bible says we are not to mourn as do the heathen, who have no hope, but it does not say we should not mourn at all. Embrace the grief and grieve with all your might. But don’t let it keep you from the task. What Bruce would have wanted above all else is that we stay about the business of bringing every person we can into the kingdom before it is too late.”

Rayford was exhausted. He closed in prayer, but rather than leaving the platform he merely sat and lowered his head. There was not the usual rush for the doors. Most continued to sit, while a few slowly and quietly began to make their way out.

BUCK
helped Chloe into the Range Rover, but before he could get around to the driver’s side, he was accosted by Verna Zee.

“Verna! I didn’t see you! I’m glad you made it.”

“I made it all right, Cameron. I also recognized Tsion Ben-Judah!”

Buck fought to keep from covering her mouth with his hand. “I’m sorry?”

“He’s going to be in deep trouble when the Global Community peacekeeping forces find out where he is. Don’t you know he’s wanted all over the world? And that your passport and ID were found on one of his accomplices? Buck, you’re in as much trouble as he is. Steve Plank has been trying to get ahold of you, and I’m tired of pretending I have no idea what you’re up to.”

“Verna, we’re going to have to go somewhere and talk about this.”