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  With that, people broke from the line and rushed to the van. They waved and shouted and joyfully pounded on the doors and windows. Judd and Lionel tried to get close, but they were pushed back by the trailing GC jeep.

  Suddenly, the van cut to the left and flew toward the median. The GC vehicles followed, blowing their sirens and bouncing crazily behind the van.

  When they made it to the stadium, Judd noticed monitors outside the stadium for those who couldn’t get in. Judd and Lionel squeezed their way through the crowd. Judd remembered his first trip to Wrigley Field with his dad and the sight of the green grass and white lines and the ivy on the outfield wall. It had filled him with awe. That was nothing compared to this. Men and women from around the world filled the stands and the infield. They shouted praises to God in many languages. Some huddled in groups to pray. Others sang and swayed as they wrapped their arms around each other.

  A line of people appeared through an opening at the back of the stage. “Interpreters,” Lionel whispered. The crowd grew quiet.

  At exactly seven, a man strode to a simple wood lectern and said, “Welcome, my brothers and sisters, in the name of the Lord God Almighty. …”

  8

  JUDD felt a chill down his spine. Before the translators could speak, the stadium erupted in cheering. When the applause faded, the man at the podium nodded to the interpreters, but the crowd shouted, “Nein!” “Nyet!”

  “What’s going on?” Lionel said.

  The man continued. “. . . maker of heaven and earth … and his Son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah!”

  The crowd went wild again. Someone hurried onto the stage. Judd leaned close to Lionel. “I think the same thing that happened at the Wailing Wall is happening here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Everybody understands in their own language,” Judd said. “They don’t need the interpreters. That’s why everybody’s shouting no!”

  The translators walked away from their positions. The crowd thundered. The man held up his hands and asked them to pray.

  Many knelt in front of their seats. “Father, we are grateful for having been spared by your grace and love,” the man prayed. “You are indeed the God of new beginnings and second chances. We are about to hear from our beloved rabbi, and our prayer is that you would supernaturally prepare our hearts and minds to absorb everything you have given him to say. We pray this in the matchless name of the King of kings and Lord of lords. Amen.”

  A huge “Amen!” echoed through the stadium. The massive congregation began to sing, “Amazing grace! how sweet the sound— that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”

  Judd remembered his mother singing that song. He had hated it because he didn’t think he was such a bad person. But now, knowing the truth about himself and what God had done, Judd choked through the words. The sound of twenty-five thousand believers singing from their hearts, plus the thousands outside joining in, overwhelmed him.

  “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.”

  The man at the podium asked the crowd to sit. “The vast majority of us know our speaker tonight only as a name on our computer screens,” he began. “It is my honor—”

  Before he could finish, people rose to their feet as one, cheering, clapping, shouting, whistling. Tsion Ben-Judah was nudged from the edge of the stage. He hesitated, looking embarrassed. The noise was deafening. Finally, the crowd settled.

  “My beloved brothers and sisters, I accept your warm greeting in the name that is above all names. All glory and honor are due the triune God.” As the crowd began to respond again, Tsion quickly asked that they withhold their praise until the end of the teaching.

  Vicki and the others gathered in a meeting room to watch the opening session at 11:00 A.M. their time. After Mark had left, Vicki found Z’s box in the kitchen. Inside was a note: Every school needs supplies. I hope these help.

  Underneath were stacks of spiral notebooks, pens, colored pencils, and other materials. Vicki handed out the notebooks before Tsion began his message. “Z thought of everything,” Vicki said.

  Tsion’s voice filled the room. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, leaning over his notes, “never in my life have I been more eager to share a message from the Word of God. I stand before you with the unique privilege, I believe, of speaking to many of the 144,000 witnesses prophesied in the Scriptures.”

  The camera panned the crowd. Vicki was overcome by the size of the gathering and the anxious faces of people who hung on Tsion’s every word.

  “Let me review the basics of God’s plan of salvation so we may soon leave this place and get back to the work to which he has called us. You have each been assigned a location for all-day training tomorrow and the next day. On both nights we will meet back here for encouragement and fellowship and teaching.”

  Tsion outlined the evidence from the Old Testament proving Jesus was the Messiah. He recited the many names of God and finished with the powerful passage from Isaiah 9:6: “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

  The crowd could not contain itself, leaping to its feet. Tsion smiled and encouraged them. “Jesus himself said that if we do not glorify God, the very stones would have to cry out.”

  Cheers went up around the room. Vicki jotted something down in her notebook. Someone moved near the doorway. It was Melinda. “What’s going on?” she said.

  “We’re watching the opening session,” Vicki said, as the kids fell silent. “Watch with us.”

  Melinda stepped back. “I don’t want to interrupt.”

  “Please,” Vicki said. “It might be good for you to hear it from a different perspective.”

  Conrad stood and offered Melinda his chair. She shook her head and stood in the back.

  Tsion walked through God’s plan from the beginning of time, showing that Jesus was sent as the spotless lamb, a sacrifice to take away the sins of the world.

  “We are sinful from the day we are born and because God is holy, there is nothing we can do to restore our relationship to him. God had to restore it himself. That is why Christ died. Anyone who accepts the fact that they are a sinner and Christ died for them can be born again spiritually into eternal life.

  “In John 14:6, Jesus himself said he was the way, the truth, and the life, and that no man can come to the Father except through him. This is our message to the nations. This is our message to the desperate, the sick, the terrified.”

  Vicki glanced at Melinda. The girl was deep in thought.

  Tsion continued. “There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind—even those who have chosen to live in opposition to God—that he is real and that a person is either for him or against him. We should have the boldness of Christ to aggressively tell the world that its only hope is in him.

  “The bottom line is that we have been called as his divine witnesses—144,000 strong—through whom he has begun a great soul harvest. This will result in what John the Revelator calls ‘a great multitude which no one could number.’ Before you fall asleep tonight, read Revelation 7 and thrill with me to the description of the harvest you and I have been called to reap.”

  Vicki turned to Revelation 7 and read along as Tsion spoke. “John says it is made up of souls from all nations, kindreds, peoples, tribes, and tongues. One day they will stand before his throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and carrying palms in their hands!”

  Judd rose with the crowd at Teddy Kollek Stadium as Tsion’s voice thundered. “They will cry with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’

  “The angels around the throne will fall on their faces and worship God, saying, ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and p
ower and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.’” Tsion stepped back.

  The crowd roared. Judd was overwhelmed. He leaned forward, trying to picture that scene. He saw that Tsion had moved back to the microphone. The standing thousands quieted again, as if desperate to catch every word.

  “John was asked by one of the elders at the throne, ‘Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?’ And John said, ‘Sir, you know.’ And the elder said, ‘These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’”

  Tsion waited for another cheer to subside, then continued: “‘They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore.’ The Lamb himself shall feed them and lead them to fountains of living water. And, best of all, my dear family, God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

  Tsion raised a hand before they could cheer again. “We shall be here in Israel two more full days and nights, preparing for battle. Put aside fear! Put on boldness! Were you surprised that all of us, each and every one, were spared the last few judgments I wrote about? When the rain and hail and fire came from the sky and the meteors scorched a third of the plant life and poisoned a third of the waters of the world, how was it that we escaped? Luck? Chance?”

  The crowd shouted, “No!”

  “No!” Tsion echoed. “The Scriptures say that an angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God, cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea. And what did he tell them? He said, ‘Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.’ And John writes, ‘I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed.’”

  Vicki and the others jotted notes furiously. It felt good to study again. Tsion’s words were like water on dry ground. Vicki knew people around the world were watching this very meeting.

  Tsion moved close to the microphone and spoke softly. “And now let me close by reminding you that the bedrock of our faith remains the verse our Gentile brothers and sisters have so cherished from the beginning. John 3:16 says, ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only—’”

  Tsion stopped talking. Vicki leaned forward. There was a faint noise coming from the speakers. She turned to the doorway and noticed Melinda was gone.

  Judd heard the rumble behind them and turned. A helicopter slowly came into view over the lights of the stadium. The thwock thwock thwock of the gleaming white helicopter drew every eye. Tsion stepped back from the podium and lowered his head, as if in prayer.

  Judd recognized the GC insignia on the side of the chopper as it slowly descended. The wind whipped Tsion’s hair and clothes.

  “Is that who I think it is?” Lionel said.

  “I’m afraid so,” Judd said, staring at the chopper as the engine shuddered and stopped. A murmur rose from the crowd as Leon Fortunato bounded from the craft to the lectern. He nodded to Tsion, who did not respond. “Dr. Ben-Judah, local and international organizing committee, and assembled guests,” he said loudly.

  Thousands murmured in different languages. Finally, Judd understood. “Translators,” Judd said to Lionel. “They need translators to understand Fortunato!”

  Someone in front repeated what Judd had said at the top of his lungs. Others shrugged, looked puzzled, and began jabbering.

  Fortunato looked at Tsion. “Dr. Ben-Judah, is there someone who can translate?”

  Tsion did not look at him.

  Fortunato then called for the interpreters to come forward. Judd stretched to see the interpreters who sat near the front row on the infield. They looked to Tsion, but Tsion stared straight ahead.

  “Please,” Fortunato continued, “it isn’t fair that only those who understand English may enjoy the remarks of your next two hosts.”

  “Two hosts?” Lionel said. “Who else is with Carpathia?”

  Tsion raised his head slightly. The interpreters hurried to their microphones. Fortunato apparently expected applause when he mentioned Nicolae Carpathia’s name, but no one moved. Fortunato cleared his throat and said, “First, I would like to introduce the revered head of the new Enigma Babylon One World Faith, the supreme pontiff, Pontifex Maximus, Peter the Second!”

  Judd looked at Lionel and raised an eyebrow.

  “They’ve got to be out of their minds, bringing him here,” Lionel said.

  Judd knew this was the former archbishop of Cincinnati, Peter Mathews. He was now the head of a mixture of nearly every religion on the globe except for Judaism and Christianity.

  Peter the Second stepped out of the helicopter in an outfit that surprised even Judd. He wore a huge, pointed hat and a long, yellow robe with puffy sleeves. Several garments, inlaid with brightly colored stones, draped over his body. The supreme pontiff lifted his hands in a circle as if to bless everyone. When he turned to bless the people sitting behind him, Judd saw signs of the zodiac on the back of his robe.

  “Looks like he wore the wrapping paper from his Christmas presents,” Lionel said.

  Peter stretched out his arms and spoke dramatically. “My blessed brothers and sisters in the pursuit of higher consciousness, it warms my heart to see all of you here, studying under my colleague, Dr. Tsion Ben-Judah!”

  Peter waited for the applause and cheers. None came.

  “I confer upon this gathering the blessings of the universal father and mother and animal deities who lovingly guide us on our path to true spirituality. In the spirit of harmony, I appeal to Dr. Ben-Judah and others in your leadership to join Enigma Babylon One World Faith, where we affirm and accept the beliefs of all the world’s great religions.”

  The stadium was deathly silent. Fortunato announced, “And now it gives me pleasure to introduce the man who has united the world into one global community, His Excellency and your potentate, Nicolae Carpathia! Would you rise as he comes with a word of greeting.”

  No one stood. Lionel whispered into Judd’s ear, “Nicolae’s always been able to win over his audience. Think he’ll be able to do that here?”

  Carpathia appeared on the steps of the helicopter, a frozen smile etched on his face. He nodded toward Fortunato and Peter the Second.

  Someone moved to Judd’s right. A man was making his way along a back wall of the stadium. Lionel saw him too and slipped out. Just before Carpathia made it to the microphone, Lionel returned.

  “You’re not going to believe this,” Lionel said. “That’s Taylor Graham!”

  9

  AS NICOLAE Carpathia stepped to the podium, Judd slipped from his seat. “If I’m not back before this ends, stay here,” Judd said to Lionel. Taylor Graham was still moving when Judd caught up to him.

  “What are you doing?” Judd whispered.

  Taylor whirled, ready to fight. When he recognized Judd, he rolled his eyes and put a finger to his lips. “I came to hear Carpathia.”

  “Fellow citizens of the Global Community,” Carpathia began, “as your potentate, I welcome you to Israel and to this great arena, named after a man of the past, a man of peace and harmony and statesmanship.”

  Judd knew what Nicolae was doing. He was trying to win the crowd by talking about a well-known Israeli.

  Judd tried to talk with Taylor, but he motioned for Judd to keep quiet. An armed Global Community guard approached them. “Take it outside,” he said sternly.

  Judd nodded. Taylor followed Judd through the gate.

  Vicki couldn’t believe Nicolae Carpathia would interrupt the Meeting of the Witnesses. The kids groaned when they saw him arrive.

  “Do we have to watch this?” Shelly said.

  “He’s going to schmooze them all he can,” Conrad said.

  Carpathia pledged his protection and support of those who followed the teachings of Dr. Ben-Judah. “As a famous teacher of Israel once said, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons
of God.’”

  Carpathia paused. When the stadium remained silent, he said, “We in the Global Community wish this kind of peace, not as a slogan but as a living reality.”

  Vicki turned. Melinda stood in the doorway again, listening.

  Judd and Taylor walked away from the stadium. They could still see the huge monitors and hear Carpathia’s powerful voice.

  “Why did you come here?” Judd said.

  “You know why,” Taylor said. “Saint Nick.”

  “You’re not thinking of—”

  “Only a fool would try to get a weapon past those guards.” Taylor smiled. “I just wanted to make sure that was Nick in the white chopper.”

  Taylor opened the trunk of his car. He put on a Global Community uniform and zipped it quickly. “This is where you check out, okay?”

  “Don’t do this,” Judd said.

  Taylor glanced around, then opened a huge, black box inside the trunk. In several pieces lay the biggest gun Judd had ever seen. Beside it was a shell the size of a loaf of bread.

  “No!” Judd said.

  “As soon as he takes off, that chopper’s falling from the sky.”

  Judd’s mind reeled. He knew Rayford Steele was Nicolae’s pilot. Was he flying the chopper? And if the potentate was assassinated, the Global Community would blame the witnesses. Judd couldn’t let Taylor shoot it down.

  Lionel was captivated by Carpathia and wondered whether he would try his mind-altering techniques. Buck Williams had described the potentate’s ability to sway people, but Lionel didn’t know if it would work on a crowd filled mainly with believers.

  “And so, my beloved friends,” Carpathia said, “you do not have to join with the One World Faith to remain citizens of the Global Community. There is room for disagreement on matters of religion. But consider the advantages and benefits that have resulted from the uniting of every nation into one global village.”