The Left Behind Collection: All 12 Books (411 page)

Rayford cleared his throat. Still no one had reached for the food. “Ah, was it just me, or did any of you hear Jesus laugh at Chaim’s manna crack?”

They all smiled and nodded. Chaim said, “No question the Lord has a sense of humor. Gentlemen, can you believe the food is still steaming as if we hadn’t left it out here for several minutes?”

“The fruit looks crisp and fresh too,” Razor said. “And no flies.”

And so they ate. Rayford assumed that for the others it was as it was for him—the tastiest meal he had ever enjoyed. “The real miracle,” he said later, “will be eating like this all the time without gaining weight.”

During cleanup, Rayford and Chaim spoke with Eleazar by phone. It was great for Rayford to hear that they had enjoyed the same type of time with the Lord and a wonderful meal as the men had. Chaim reminded Eleazar of what they planned to cover that evening from the Scriptures, and they compared notes on difficult passages. “If we are left with confusing questions,” Eleazar boomed, “we shall simply ask Jesus, next time we see Him.”

Later that evening, the men gathered in Chaim’s great room, and he opened his Bible and spread his notes and a couple of commentaries before him. “Books by men seem superfluous now,” he said. “Whenever we pray I feel as if Messiah is here with me, answering questions even before I ask. Let us begin with a time of worship and prayer.”

As one the men slipped from their chairs and knelt on the floor, each praying in his native tongue.

Mac was about to tell the Lord that there were people—particularly from the previous seven years—that he was eager to see. Each had meant something special to him, had made a significant impact on his life. But before he could articulate it, Jesus spoke to him by name. “I know, Cleburn. And you shall see them soon. I long for that reunion as much as you do and will rejoice with you when you see them.”

As Rayford received answers to prayers he had not yet even uttered, he prostrated himself on the floor and could see the others doing likewise. He decided that what Jesus was trying to tell him was the same as he had heard from Bruce Barnes years before, and the same as he had heard from Tsion and Chaim: Prayer was as much, or more, about listening as it was about talking. Rayford had never accomplished that balance. It seemed he was always beseeching, asking, requesting. Yes, he thanked God for things and often worshiped Him in prayer, but he was starting to get the picture now. It was time to simply be quiet and listen. And even if God said nothing, Rayford was to rest in the peace of His presence.

Rayford lay there on his stomach and basked in the warmth of God’s love. And Jesus said, “God is your refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore do not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling.

“There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.

“The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with you; the God of Jacob is your refuge.

“Come, behold the works of the Lord, who has made desolations in the earth. He made wars cease to the end of the earth; He broke the bow and cut the spear in two; He burned the chariot in the fire.

“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!

“The Lord of hosts is with you; the God of Jacob is your refuge.”

Suddenly Chaim rose back to his knees and said, “Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph! For the Lord Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth. He has subdued the peoples under us, and the nations under our feet. . . . God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne.”

Rayford lay communing with God, only vaguely aware of the others. Finally, when it felt as if he actually needed a break from the loving hand of Jesus, he moved back to his chair. Strange how everyone seemed to have the same experiences at the same time and for the same duration.

“Before you start, Chaim, I have a question, maybe more of a confession. This newly close presence of God, through Jesus, is so fresh, so special, that at times I can’t seem to get enough of Him. But at other times, like just now, it was almost as if I was so filled to overflowing that if I stayed there, I could take no more.”

Others nodded, which Rayford found comforting. Chaim said, “That reminds me of a story I once read of a great evangelist from the nineteenth century, Dwight L. Moody. He wrote of having an experience with the Lord where His presence and fullness were so overwhelming that Moody had to ask God to ‘stay His hand.’”

“Exactly,” Rayford said.

“I have felt that too,” Chaim said. “Perhaps in the presence of Jesus we will build the spiritual muscle necessary to endure such blessings.”

Chaim seemed to look at each man individually, as if to ask if there was anything else before he got started. Then he explained that he and the elders had spent the last month vigorously searching the Scriptures for clues to what to expect after the Glorious Appearing.

“Like cramming for a test,” Razor suggested.

“I am not familiar with that term,” Chaim said, “but it seems self-explanatory and I would have to agree. Not that we are going to be tested. In fact, there was much discussion among the elders at first over how necessary this was. Some held that Jesus would be our teacher and would explain everything along the way.

“Well, maybe He expects us to know this material, hmm? Today we witnessed His victory ascent to Mount Olivet, also known as the Mount of Olives. We saw it split in two. He conquered the invading armies, slaying them with the Word of God. We were with Him for His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and we saw Him capture and judge demons, the False Prophet, Antichrist, and even Satan himself. And yet never once did He stop and say, ‘Beloved, you’ll find this on page so-and-so of your text, and it
will
be on the final.’

“These things happened as they were prophesied, and no explanation is forthcoming. That is much the same way Jesus taught and preached the first time He was on earth. Only occasionally did He follow a parable with an explanation. And when He did, it was only enough for those ‘who have ears to hear.’

“I suppose there were many in the crowd today who had little idea what was going on. They probably could have figured out who was who and what was what, and in the end they knew that Jesus had won again, conquering more foes. But they are probably wondering where He has gone, what He is doing. Well, gentlemen, the answers are in the Book, and if you are interested, we shall plumb the riches herein and see what we can learn.”

Each enthusiastically expressed his interest, and Chaim began.

“I fear that many—and I confess this was true of me and most of the elders—believed that the Glorious Appearing ushered in the millennial kingdom, which, as you know, means the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth. Anyone here in that camp?”

Several nodded, Rayford included. He glanced at Abdullah, who was smiling. It was not the smile of the condescendingly superior, but of one who had apparently done his homework and knew what was coming. Rayford was most impressed that, despite this, Abdullah did not call out, “Not me! I know!”

Rayford raised his hand. “Chaim, I’ll bet Smitty knows what you’re talking about. He’s become quite the student.”

“Is that true, Mr. Smith?” Chaim said.

“I am not well versed in it,” Abdullah said, “but my studies, mostly with Dr. Ben-Judah, reveal that there is actually a gap between the Glorious Appearing and the Millennium, much as there was between the Rapture and the Tribulation.”

“There was?” Razor said.

“Oh yes,” Abdullah said. “You’ll recall that the seven years did not begin with the disappearances of the believers, but rather with the signing of the covenant between Antichrist and Israel. That came a couple of weeks later, but it could have come a couple of years later, and the signing, not the Rapture, would have been the start of the Tribulation.”

“Excellent!” Chaim said. “That is indeed where I was going and what we will discuss this evening. From the Glorious Appearing to the actual beginning of the millennial kingdom, there is a seventy-five-day interval. If it took God just six days to create the heavens and the earth and man himself, imagine how much work Jesus must have if He has been allotted seventy-five days in which to do it.”

“Where do you get that out of the Bible?” Rayford said. “I mean, I’m no great student or anything, but I’ve tried to read a lot.”

“Good question. The answer is found partly in Daniel 12:11-12. Listen to the first of those verses: ‘And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days.’ Rayford, you remember when Antichrist defiled the temple?”

“
Do
I.”

“That was the abomination of desolation. And that was one thousand two hundred and
sixty
days before the Glorious Appearing. So we are already talking about thirty more days. And the next verse says, ‘Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.’ That’s another forty-five days, giving us a total of seventy-five more days.”

“What does the first thirty days refer to?” Rayford said.

“Well, the verse is talking about the temple sacrifice and the abomination, so I think it is fair to assume the first interval relates to the temple. I cannot imagine Jesus wanting to take the throne of David in a temple that has been defiled by Antichrist—at least not before He cleanses it. We know from Ezekiel 40–48 that the Lord will establish a temple during the Millennium, so I conclude that the first thirty days of the interval will be devoted to setting up the temple and preparing it for use.

“The other forty-five days are more open to speculation, but notice that verse 12 says that those who make it through that time will be blessed. If that is a personal, individual blessing, it indicates that the person is qualified to enter into the millennial kingdom. Matthew 25:34 says, ‘Then the King will say to those on His right hand, “Come, you
blessed
of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”’

“That makes it sound to me as if the seventy-five-day interval is a time for preparation for the kingdom. So much of the globe has been destroyed during the judgments of the Tribulation, I suppose it should not surprise us that the Lord will take some time to renovate His creation for the Millennium. The beautification of Jerusalem was done in an instant with the elevating of the city from the splitting of the Mount of Olives, but imagine the work that needs to be done around the world. The mountains have been leveled, filling much of the seas. Islands have vanished. Surely God wants to put the earth back into its Edenic state for the enjoyment of those who will share it with Jesus for the next thousand years.”

Leah Rose had come a long way from nursing supervisor at Arthur Young Memorial Hospital in Palatine, Illinois. How was she to know what would become of her when she first encountered Rayford Steele and the fledgling Tribulation Force nearly seven years before? She and Rayford had spotted each other’s seal of the believer, visible only to others of like faith. Otherwise, she might not have given him the time of day.

To think that since then she had been all over the world with the Force in a variety of roles, mostly medical but not exclusively. She had made new friends, seen them become loved ones, and then seen them die. There had been times when she wouldn’t have given two cents for her chances to make it to the Glorious Appearing. At least not until she was assigned duty at Petra, where in three and a half years, no one had died.

Privileged, that’s what she called herself. Certainly nothing she had ever done had earned her the benefits she had enjoyed. It had not been an easy life. Hardly. No one who had lived through the Tribulation had it easy. That she had to live through it at all was her own fault—for having heard the message and ignored it for so long. She had not considered herself a rejecter. Leah had seen herself as an intellectual, a thinker, a ponderer.

Evangelists and evangelistic-minded friends had told her and told her that a nondecision was a “no” decision. She had argued. She wasn’t saying no, she said; she was still thinking. Well, one of her well-meaning friends had said, don’t think yourself into hell. Or into being left behind.

That had been a laugh. While Leah had seriously considered the claims of Christ on her life, that He had died for her sins—of which she acknowledged there were many—the idea of His showing up in the clouds someday, in an instant so quick you could blink and miss it, well . . . come on now.

And then she had been left behind. Leah took care of that issue immediately. Then, while she floundered spiritually, looking for more, looking for truth, looking for answers, she believed God sent Rayford and the Trib Force into her life.

They were all in the same boat, of course, latecomers to the kingdom. But among them were men of the Bible, lifelong students like Tsion Ben-Judah, from whom she believed she had learned more than she had in nursing school.

And now here she was in Jerusalem, in the home of an elder. With friends who had become dear and who had experienced with her, firsthand, the fulfillment of prophecy in the presence of Jesus Himself. Leah had seen it with her own eyes, talked to Him, and met with Him personally. When He embraced her and called her by name and told her how much He loved her, she could not speak. And yet He heard her heart. He had been with her, known her since the foundation of the world, He said. Was with her all her life, at the high and low points, the turning points, loving her, waiting for her, longing to meet her.

Leah was so full of Jesus she hardly knew if she could stand it. And while others cowered and hid their faces and grimaced at the awful reality of Satan and his lackeys getting theirs, she would not turn away. This, she knew, was justice, and she wanted to see it.

Leah had been a victim of Satan, and of course she had suffered under the rule of Nicolae Carpathia. To be made an international fugitive simply because she loved the one true God and His Son was an unspeakable, unforgivable offense. Antichrist, indwelt by Satan, had exalted himself over God, and Leah’s lifelong sense of right and wrong—cultivated even before she became a believer—told her he would have to pay. And when the time came, gruesome and graphic as it was, to her it was fitting.

Leah had seen the physical ravages of sin, what war could do to the human body. When she tried to repair dying comrades she couldn’t help but lay the blame at the feet of Antichrist and his False Prophet. She didn’t avert her eyes from that carnage, and so she didn’t when Satan’s demons were put to death by the words of Jesus. And when Nicolae and Leon were sent to eternal torment. And especially when Satan himself was locked away for a thousand years.

Leah still didn’t understand that one. It was something she could ask Eleazar when he led the group in Bible study that night. Word was that the elders were all teaching the same stuff, wherever they wound up and with whom. She considered it another privilege to have landed in the lovely Tiberius home.

Naomi’s late mother’s touches remained, even after all this time. The place had been taken over by the GC, just like any home of some worth. The result of that could have been disappointing, yet when the ten of them settled in, unloading their haul of fresh meat and produce in the generous kitchen, no one was more surprised than Eleazar at the state of the place. It looked as if someone had been hired to make it perfect for their stay.

They had found their quarters—just enough space for everyone—and had worked together watching the children, setting the tables, preparing the food. They had prayed and feasted, cleaned up, and prayed some more. Jesus had spoken to them in three different languages simultaneously. Leah then helped Priss Sebastian get the kids to bed, and now it was time to study.

She found the teaching on the next seventy-five days fascinating, having never heard of it before. What Leah appreciated most about Eleazar was his own bright, inquisitive mind and how he didn’t pretend to know things he didn’t. “Some things,” he said in his jolly basso profundo, “are apparently unknowable, at least for now. Other truths are fascinating to ferret out of the Scriptures.”

Leah asked her question about why Antichrist and the False Prophet were sentenced for eternity while Satan would be released at the end of the Millennium.

“The binding of Satan,” Eleazar said, “restricts him from what he does best, of course. Revelation 20:3 indicates that God’s goal in this binding is ‘so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished.’”

“Yes,” Leah said, “but it goes on to say, ‘But after these things he must be released for a little while.’ Why must he?”

“I once asked the same question of Dr. Ben-Judah, and I recently asked Dr. Rosenzweig,” Eleazar said. “Neither was entirely sure, and neither am I, but they suggested some remarkable things I had been unaware of, and I’ll bet you have been too.”

“That wouldn’t surprise me,” Leah said.

“Here’s the way I understand it, based on what I have been taught. Look at it this way: If God did not allow Satan one more chance to deceive the nations, all the people who are born and live during the millennial kingdom would be exempt from the decision to follow God or follow Satan. By releasing him one more time, all people are given equal standing before God.”

“Interesting.”

“But where it gets dicey is that those who reject Christ during the Millennium will all be young people, relatively. You will see when we dig into the Scriptures that anyone born during the Millennium who does not trust in Christ by the time he or she is a hundred years old will be accursed and die.”

“I thought you said young people.”

“Relatively. You see, those who do trust in Christ will live to the end of the Millennium.”

“So someone born today, who becomes a believer, will live to be a thousand.”

“Exactly.”

“But the unbelievers, whenever they are born during this period, will die at a hundred?”

“Now you’ve got it.”

“I don’t know what I have,” Leah said. “But it
is
interesting. If I’m figuring it right, what Satan will have to do at the end of the Millennium is try to organize all the people who were born at the nine-hundred-year mark or after—who haven’t become believers—and get them to make one last-gasp effort to fight Jesus.”

“There you go.”

“Wow. And there’s Scripture for this.”

“There is. Let’s read it together from Isaiah 65:17-25: ‘For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.

“‘But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

“‘I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people; the voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.

“‘No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; for the child shall die one hundred years old, but the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed.’

“Let me just interject an explanation here,” Eleazar said. “This is saying that a person who dies at a hundred will be considered a child, because everyone else is living until the end of the Millennium. And that the ‘child’ who does die at a hundred will die because he is a sinner. Now, let’s read on:

“‘They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

“‘They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people, and My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.’

“Again,” Eleazar interrupted, “here’s what I believe is being said here. We will not be serving landlords and despots. What we build we will enjoy ourselves. And what we plant and harvest will be for us, not a boss or an occupying government. Reading on:

“‘They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble; for they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them.

“‘It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.’”

“I’ve already experienced that!” Leah said. “Haven’t you all?”

“Yes!” several others said. “Jesus often answers a prayer before I have prayed it.”

“Continuing,” Eleazar said. “‘The wolf and the lamb shall feed together’—we saw that in the street today—‘the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,’ says the Lord.”

Rayford’s brain was spinning. This was new to him, and he assumed it was to the people at Eleazar Tiberius’s home as well. He couldn’t wait to discuss it with some of them.

Chang raised his hand. “Chaim,” he said, “where are all the people who died before the Rapture? The people from the Old Testament, the believers before Jesus came, and the ones who died during the Tribulation? Were they all in the army that appeared with Jesus in the clouds?”

Chaim sat back and smiled. “You have raised an interesting issue,” he said. “Do we want to get into this tonight, or are you all ready to pull the shades and see if we can pretend it is dark enough to sleep?”

Rayford was tired, but he was no more interested in going to bed than any of the rest of the men were. And they said so.

“Fair enough,” Chaim said. “It all begins with the Bible’s teaching about resurrection day. I had always thought there was only one and that it coincided with the Rapture.”

“Me too.”

“Apparently, this is not the case, for the resurrection that took place at the Rapture was of what the Bible refers to as ‘the dead in Christ’ and did not include the saints from the Old Testament. When they died, Christ had not yet come to earth, so even though they were justified by faith, they technically cannot be referred to as ‘the dead in Christ.’ The resurrections in Scripture fall into two categories: the first resurrection, or the resurrection of life; and the second resurrection, the resurrection of judgment. John 5:28-29 quotes Jesus saying, ‘Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.’

“The first resurrection includes the redeemed of all the ages, but the timing of the resurrection of these people varies, based on whether they are an Old Testament saint, a Christian who lived before or at the time of the Rapture, or a Christian martyred during the Tribulation. All of them will take part in the resurrection of life. The resurrection of judgment will include the unredeemed of all the ages, and this will happen at the end of the Millennium during what the Bible calls the Great White Throne Judgment. The unredeemed will be cast into the lake of fire.”

“So let me get this straight,” Rayford said. “Christians who died before the Rapture were resurrected at the time of the Rapture.”

“Right.”

“Old Testament saints will be resurrected when?”

“Soon. During this interval between the Glorious Appearing and the Millennium.”

“And Tribulation martyrs?”

“At the same time. Old Testament saints and Tribulation martyrs will live and reign with Christ in the millennial kingdom.”

“What about people who become believers during the Millennium?”

“They will be resurrected at the end of the Millennium.”

“Even though they’re alive.”

“Correct.”

“And the unredeemed won’t be resurrected until after the Millennium either, for the Great White Throne Judgment.”

Chaim smiled. “Now you know as much as I do.”

“So,” Rayford said, “my wife and son, who were raptured, were in that army of heaven behind Jesus.”