The Mark

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

"Today I stand before you, in this Hebrew God's place of worship, to give you a choice. Follow me and live. Or follow Him and die! I am your only chance for salvation. I alone have the power to save you! I have power beyond your wildest imagination! And I will join with you to use this power against a God who thinks He has the final word.

"He has prepared a home of torment for all of you. The isolation is unbearable! The pain! The loss! The sorrow and regret! I cannot pos sibly describe how horrific hell is! What kind of God destines man to that kind of suffering? He wants man to worship Him but He only offers an eternity of torment and pain. I have been there. I have not only seen it but I have felt it. I have lived through it and was saved from it. I was pulled from the depths and offered a plan to save man kind. The very power which raised me from the dead is available to you. My lord and master is Lucifer, and through me he is offering you salvation from this destiny."

Hitler paused. He looked around the room. In general the audi ence was quiet but Henry could detect a slight murmuring.

"You do not believe me? Then I will show you. Prime Minister Szabo, please join me in a demonstration!"

The camera backed away from Hitler again and Szabo walked to ward Hitler and was met with an embrace. He raised his right hand in the traditional "Heil Hitler" salute. Henry's stomach turned.

A curtain hung behind the men on stage. Hitler stood next to Szabo and they turned to look at it. Henry knew what it was. It separated them from the Holy of Holies, where the priests had placed a new ark of the covenant. In history past, God's presence rested on the mercy seat which was in between two angels on the top of the ark. Henry had stud ied that as a high school student in his Sunday school class.

By now four other employees had gathered around Henry's puter screen and were drawn in to the announcement.

"What's going on?" one asked.

"Just watch," stammered Henry, not wanting to miss a detail. "Is that ... is this a joke?" another exclaimed, as she pointed at Hitler.

"Shhhh," demanded Henry. "I'll tell you when this is done..."

Szabo faced the curtain. He opened his arms and said, "Oh, fa ther, now is the time to show your strength! Send fire from heaven and reveal to us your might!"

The cameraman struggled to capture the scene. A pillar of fire appeared to be shooting from the ceiling down to the floor in front of the curtain. Quickly the curtain caught on fire and disintegrated. Then the fire retreated through the roof, as best Henry could tell. There, exposed in front of the whole world was the ark of the covenant.

There was more dialogue but the microphones didn't pick it up. Hitler and Szabo lifted their hands and pointed their fingertips at the ark. Their backs were to the cameraman, and apparently they didn't have other angles so it was hard to see on TV. Streams of fire flew from their hands at the same time. The fire sped past the other lead ers, who scattered to the ground to avoid being hit. The fire hit the ark and began to melt the golden angels. Its heat melted them down in a matter of seconds and then the fire stopped. There was movement but Henry couldn't make out what was happening until Hitler and Szabo turned and revealed a twelve-foot statue of Hitler himself. Somehow the gold had formed itself into an idol.

Henry put his hand to his mouth. Nausea was overwhelming hint The others at his cubicle were still wondering out loud if this was a hoax, but he knew the truth. Adolph Hitler turned back to the cam era. He walked over to the microphone and stood triumphantly, as if he had just won a battle. Henry's throat tightened as he began to pro cess all he was seeing. It wasn't nausea. Instead hatred was welling up inside of him-an emotion he had never felt so strongly before.

"Thank you for your help, my friend. Make no mistake-my power comes from Lucifer himself, the Morning Star that fell from heaven and will now save us from the Hebrew God's plan to destroy us all!

"Today I call on the world to take a stand. If you are with me, you will join forces with the greatest alliance in the history of the world. Together we will defeat this God, but if you stand with Him, we will be forced to remove you from our midst. There is no room on this earth for intolerant, insolent, Jew-loving enemies of the FWP. We will rid the world of our Enemy's people. When we do that, we will have complete reign and His plan to destroy us will be defeated! Our only hope is to kill them all.

"So decide. If you stand with me, you will do two simple things. First, you will place my number on your forehead. Six hundred sixty six-the number of months I spent in torment before Lucifer rescued me. Six hundred and sixty-six reasons I will fight this battle to my death. I will never go back there.

"Second, you will build an idol for your home and your town squares to remind you of whom you worship. This idol can be con structed with whatever you have in your homes, but it must bear my image, my face. That is how everyone will know you are worshiping a new leader.

"These two simple things will show your alliance and will afford all the benefits the Federation can offer-full banking privileges, un restricted travel, higher education and investment opportunities. If you are found without a mark or an idol all will know that you are an enemy of the Federation of World Powers and there is only one fate for you. Death.

"How will I enforce this, you ask? Let me give you a demonstra tion. Prime Minister Rabin, come join me a moment."

"Don't do it," Henry spoke to the screen as Rabin cautiously ap

proached Hitler. "Are you a member of the FWP?"

"No, my country is not."

"Will you take my mark?"

Rabin leaned in and answered Hitler. Henry couldn't make out what he had said to Hitler but it had an effect.

"Say it for all the world to hear," Hitler said, as he shoved Rabin toward the microphone.

"I will not take your mark."

Once again there was movement off camera and a loud scream was heard. It was more of a screech. Rabin and Hitler looked at the ceiling. Suddenly the creature that made the noise appeared on the screen. He had wings and was hunched over, complete with arms and legs and glowing orange eyes. He had no clothes on, but didn't appear to be a human. He looked more like a hairless gray monkey. The noise he made was not a painful screech but one of laughter. He was grinning at Rabin and was suspended in the air at eye level with him.

His shape began to change and he turned from an animal-like form into a spear. The end of the spear was glowing red, as if it were a branding iron. In one swift movement, the demon thrust its tip through the heart of Prime Minister Rabin. Rabin grabbed hold of the spear and fell to his knees. In a moment's time, the spear pulled itself through to the other side of Rabin and the demon reappeared as Rabin fell dead to the floor. Then it flew off screen and there was a moment of silence.

And then chaos broke loose. The cameraman tried to get a shot of the roof and the room. Apparently hundreds, maybe even thousands of the demons flew into the room from a hole in the ceiling. They swirled around and through the crowd and between the screams of the audience and the shrieks of the demons, the noise coming from the screen was indescribable. So loud, in fact, that Henry went to turn it down but someone stopped him.

After a few minutes of mayhem, the demons left and Hitler was left on stage next to Rabin's dead body. The other members of the FWP had left the stage area, but Henry didn't know where they had gone. Hitler was looking down at the body and wiping his brow with a handkerchief. He looked up at the camera and continued.

"He belongs to a nation which is not part of the FWP. My power still reaches him. I am speaking now to all world leaders. Sign on with me in the next forty-eight hours, or I will ask my aides to per suade you. No mark means alliance with the Enemy. I will give the rest of the world two months from today to comply."

A smile spread across his face.

"If you join me, you will have a life of freedom and supply. Ev erything you ever wanted. There will be food for all, jobs for all, and peace on earth. As soon as we rid the world of our enemy, we will live in peace. In sixty days, we will know exactly who that enemy is."

With that final statement, the camera was turned off and tem

porarily the screen went black. Henry stared at the screen and then

looked up at his coworkers.

"What in the world was that? Was that live?" one asked. "My friend called and said there was a big announcement, so I

turned it on and you pretty much saw what I saw..."

CNN had thrown in a commercial break as they tried to regroup and reconnect with their reporters in Israel. Henry's coworkers all headed back to their desks to call friends and surf the net for more information. Henry reached for his phone just as it rang. He flipped it open, knowing it would be Charlie.

"Did you see it?"

"This is incredible, Charlie. I mean unbelievable. I don't even know..."

"I talked to Dave and we're all heading over there after work. Are you in?"

"I just can't believe this is happening."

"Believe it, Henry. I've got to make a few calls but I'll pick you up at six-okay?"

"Yeah, great. Thanks."

Henry flipped his phone closed and looked around his office. He didn't know how long he could stay at this job but he did a quick in ventory in his head of those he had talked to and those he had missed. Then it hit him-Anna. Did she see it? Does she have a clue about what is about to happen? Henry picked up his work phone and dialed her extension.

"This is Anna Warners' phone. I'm either on another line or not at my desk at the moment. Please leave a detailed message and I will return your call as soon as I can. Have a great day!"

After the beep, Henry started, "Anna, I need to speak with you. Call me at my desk when you have a moment. It's urgent. Bye."

After he hung up his phone, he remembered that Anna was at her mother's for a long weekend. He left the same message on her cell and prayed she would get it soon.

The noise level in the office was rising, as the employees pulled up the announcement and watched it over and over. CNN, MSNBC, FOXNEWS and all the network stations were interviewing their onsite reporters. Word was, for all intents and purposes, this was a real event. There were no tricks and no actors-the eyewitnesses vividly described the demons, the murder of Rabin, and the supernatural appearance of Hitler. Some even reported when he left the building that the crowd inside the temple bowed and cried out "Long live Hitler!" out of fear they would be killed.