Arrived (48 page)

46

IT HAD
happened so quickly, Vicki thought. And for everyone—a million people had experienced a personal encounter with Jesus.

Vicki moved back to her place and took Judd's hand. He and Lionel worshiped God in silence and with tears. But no one seemed ashamed of the emotion. They were all in the presence of the one who had loved them enough to die for them.

The next few minutes were a blur as Vicki thought of her encounter with Jesus. The Lord spoke, praying to God the Father for the people.

Gabriel also spoke finally, saying, “The Lord is faithful; he will make you strong and guard you from the evil one.”

At the mention of the evil one, the archangel Michael brought forth Nicolae Carpathia, Leon Fortunato, and the three Carpathia look-alikes—Ashtaroth, Baal, and Cankerworm—Vicki had seen on video a few months earlier. These were demonic creatures bent on deceiving the nations.

Gabriel leaned down to the three and said, “As a fulfillment of age-old scriptural prophecy, you kneel this day before Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, who, though he was God, did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form.

“And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal's death on a cross.”

“Yes!” the three squealed. “Yes! We know! We know!” And they bowed their deformed bodies.

Gabriel continued: “Because of this, God raised him up to the heights of heaven and gave him a name that is above every other name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

“Jesus Christ is Lord!” they hissed. “Jesus Christ is Lord! It is true! True! We acknowledge it! We acknowledge him!”

Jesus leaned forward. “ ‘As surely as I live,' says the Sovereign Lord, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live.' ”

“We repent! We will turn! We will turn! We worship you, O Jesus, Son of God. You are Lord!”

“But for you it is too late,” Jesus said with sorrow in his voice. “You were once angelic beings, in heaven with God. Yet you were cast down because of your own prideful decisions. Rather than resist the evil one, you chose to serve him.”

“We were wrong! Wrong! We acknowledge you as Lord!”

“Like my Father, with whom I am one, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people, but that is justice, and that is your sentence.”

The three look-alikes screamed in pain, their snakelike bodies shedding their clothes. Then they burst into flames and were finally carried away by the wind.

Now it was Leon's turn. He wailed and sobbed, casting away his robe and shoes. “Oh, my Lord and my God! I have been so blind, so wrong, so wicked!”

“Do you know who I am?” Jesus said. “Who I truly am?”

“Yes! Yes! I have always known, Lord! You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!”

“You would blaspheme by quoting my servant Simon, whom I blessed,” Jesus said, “because my Father in heaven revealed this to him? He did not learn this from any human being.”

“No, Lord! Your Father revealed it to me too!”

“I tell you the truth, woe to you for not making that discovery while there was yet time. Rather, you rejected me and my Father's plan for the world. You pitted your will against mine and became the False Prophet, committing the greatest sin known under heaven: rejecting me as the only way to God the Father and spending seven years deceiving the world.”

“Jesus is Lord! Jesus is Lord! Don't kill me! I beg you! Please!”

“Death is too good for you. How many souls are separated from me forever because of you and the words that came from your mouth?”

“I'm sorry! Forgive me! I renounce all the works of Satan and Antichrist! I pledge my allegiance to you!”

“You are sentenced to eternity in the lake of fire.”

“Oh, God, no!”

“Silence!” Gabriel said, and Leon crawled away sobbing.

Vicki had prayed for Leon's and Nicolae's demise, but she couldn't help feeling sorry for both of them. They had defied God and persecuted his people. Now they would pay.

Michael grabbed the elbow of a defiant Carpathia and spun him around. “Kneel before your Lord!”

Carpathia sneered and wrenched away from Michael.

Jesus said, “Lucifer, leave this man!”

With that, the air seemed to go out of Nicolae. His hands and fingers became bony. He looked like a helium-filled balloon a week after the party, all shriveled and shrunken. When Gabriel ordered him to kneel, the potentate got on all fours.

As Nicolae lowered his head, Jesus said, “You became a willing tool of the devil himself. You were a rebel against the things of God and his kingdom. You caused more suffering than anyone in the history of the world. God bestowed upon you gifts of intelligence, beauty, wisdom, and personality, and you had the opportunity to make the most of these in the face of the most pivotal events in the annals of creation.

“Yet you used every gift for personal gain. You led millions to worship you and your father, Satan. You were the cunning destroyer of my followers and accomplished more to damn the souls of men and women than anyone else in your time.

“Ultimately your plans and your regime have failed. And now, who do you say that I am?”

Silence. Then a weak voice said, “You
are
the Christ, the Son of the living God, who died for the sins of the world and rose again the third day as the Scriptures predicted.”

“And what does that say about you and what you made of your life?”

“I confess that my life was a waste,” Nicolae whispered. “Worthless. A mistake. I rebelled against the God of the universe, whom I now know loved me.”

With sadness Jesus said, “You are responsible for the fate of billions. You and your False Prophet, with whom you shed the blood of the innocents—my followers, the prophets, and my servants who believed in me—shall be cast alive into the lake of fire.”

Gabriel stepped forward and said, “Then I saw the beast gathering the kings of the earth and their armies in order to fight against the one sitting on the horse and his army.

“And the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who did mighty miracles on behalf of the beast—miracles that deceived all who had accepted the mark of the beast and who worshiped his statue.

“Both the beast and his false prophet were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.”

When Gabriel moved, a hole a yard in diameter opened in the ground, and a stinky smell burst forth. Flames erupted from the hole, and the crowd backed away. Michael walked Nicolae and Leon forward. Leon cried like a baby and tried to get away, but Michael pushed him into the fire, his cries fading as he fell. Then Michael pushed Nicolae in, and the man's screams echoed throughout Jerusalem. The hole closed, and the Beast and the False Prophet were gone.

Gabriel addressed the people. “Jesus is the true light, who gives light to everyone. But although the world was made through him, the world didn't recognize him when he came. Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan—this rebirth comes from God.

“So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father. Amen.”

Vicki hugged Judd and thought about all they had seen and heard. That Nicolae and Leon were gone was a relief, but what about Satan himself?

The answer came a few minutes later when Gabriel said, “But now you belong to Christ Jesus. Though you once were far away from God, now you have been brought near to him because of the blood of Christ. For Christ himself has made peace, and he has brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and to you Jews who were near. Now all of you, both Jews and Gentiles, may come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for you.

“So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God's holy people. You are members of God's family. You are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Jesus Christ himself. You who believe are carefully joined together, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through him you Gentiles are also joined together as part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.

“Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God's right hand in the place of honor and power.

“Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on earth. For you died when Christ died, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your real life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.

“Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour. Take a firm stand against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that Christians all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are. In his kindness God called you to his eternal glory by means of Jesus Christ. After you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. All power is his forever and ever. Amen.”

The crowd shouted “Amen!” and the multitude began worshiping and singing as Gabriel shouted, “Then I saw an angel come down from heaven with the key to the bottomless pit and a heavy chain in his hand.”

The crowd cheered.

“He seized the dragon—that old serpent, the Devil, Satan—and bound him in chains for a thousand years.”

People screamed, their hands raised.

“The angel threw him into the bottomless pit, which he then shut and locked so Satan could not deceive the nations anymore until the thousand years were finished.”

Now the people seemed to quiet, then gasped in fear as the archangel Michael came forward with an enormous lion. Gabriel quieted them by saying, “But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won your fight with these false prophets, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.”

The lion's roar shook the buildings around them. Vicki dipped her head and clamped her hands over her ears. When she looked again, the lion had transformed into a giant snake and coiled himself around Michael's arms and legs. Michael wrestled it to the ground, but then it turned into a dragonlike monster. Michael pulled a heavy chain from thin air and subdued the flame-snorting creature.

Finally, the dragon calmed and became an angel brighter than any behind Jesus. The chain slid to the ground in a pile, and the being argued with Michael.

Jesus took control and said, “Kneel at my feet.”

“I will do no such thing!” Lucifer hissed.

“Kneel.”

Lucifer hunched his shoulders but knelt.

“I have fought against you from shortly after your creation,” Jesus said.

“My
creation!
I was no more created than you! And who are you to have
anything
against
me?!”

“You shall be silent.”

It looked like Lucifer tried to stand and speak, but he could do neither.

Jesus continued, “For all your lies about having evolved, you are a created being.”

The creature shook his head.

“Only God has the power to create, and you were our creation. You were in Eden, the garden of God, before it was a paradise for Adam and Eve. You were there as an exalted servant when Eden was a beautiful rock garden.”

Jesus gave Satan's history as the being writhed silently. “You have opposed my Father and me from before the creation of man. A third of the angels in heaven and most of the population of the earth followed your model of rebellion and pride. This will earn for them and for you separation from almighty God in the everlasting fire prepared for you and your angels.”

Jesus accused Lucifer of deceiving Eve, putting murder into Cain's heart, causing the suffering of mankind, blinding the minds of millions who did not believe in the gospel, and many more sins.

When Jesus finished detailing Satan's crimes, Lucifer gasped through clenched teeth, unable to speak.

Gabriel leaned over the angel of light and shouted, “Acknowledge Jesus as Lord!”

Satan clenched his fists and shook his head.

Jesus looked left where another hole opened and black smoke billowed. Michael moved to Satan with the chain. Satan fought him as a dragon, then a snake, and finally a lion. Michael struggled to chain the animal, picked him up under one arm, and flew into the smoky hole.

The crowd cheered but quieted when Jesus raised a hand. “Glory and honor to God forever and ever. He is the eternal King, the unseen one who never dies; he alone is God. Just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God's wonderful kindness rules instead, giving you right standing with God and resulting in eternal life though Jesus Christ your Lord. I stand before you this day as the King of Israel, he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

From the clouds came praises and singing. Then Michael flew out of the hole holding a key. Satan and the chain were gone.

Jesus led his horse to the Temple Mount, where Vicki knew he would take his place on King David's throne. The crowds slowly scattered, many of them going back to their homes.

Vicki took Lionel's hand in one hand and Judd's in the other, and they walked through the streets, now filled with green plants and trees. It was a brand-new world.