Free The APOCs Virus by Alex Myers

with the stereotypical preacher's cadence, to produce ear - piercing highs, and profound lows.  He could, with his chicanery and technical attributes, evoke a myriad of emotion.  He was at his best this particular night. 
    "The times in which we live is searching for answers, searching for truth.  This generation is also overlooking the most authentic voice of all, the voice of the Hebrew prophets.  They predicted that when the end was near a precise pattern of events would loom up before us.  My friends and neighbors, that time is here!”  Ira placed both hands on the lectern and gazed into the faces of the stupefied studio audience.  More than a few whoops and amens were heard. 
    "The first and most important sign was the Jews returning to Israel after years of being nomads.  This should have sent up warning flags to all of us.  But no, we were too busy with our own little lives, our own greed, to take heed.  Or worse yet, we sought out guidance from false prophets.” 
    "Let me ask a question of those gathered here," he said in a more confidential tone, a pause for emphasis.  "How many of you read your horoscope in the newspaper before attending service this morning?"  He stopped and surveyed the crowd.  "Go on, raise your hand, don't be embarrassed." 
     The TV camera panned the dozens of hands that went up in the flock. 
    "Just as I thought," he said.  "We as Americans spend more than a billion dollars a year on astrology, fortune tellers, and books on the occult.  In New York City alone there is one charlatan for every 120 New Yorkers; compared with one doctor for every 400; and one priest for every 8,000. 
    "These same quacks and gimmicks ask you to put your brains and the faith that saves you on the shelf.  Well, there is a better, more statistically accurate way to predict future events.  A way that does not ask you to shelve your intellect.  It is, of course, the Bible." 
      Ira grabbed his jacket off the chair and slowly put it on.  It gave the message a chance to sink in.  He picked up his Bible and sat on the edge of the stage. 
     "If one of our popular psychics  . . ." he said very intimately, his feet swung back and forth making him look like he was sitting on a dock, “said the State of California is going to slip into the Pacific Ocean on January 1 st , on January second, they would not be facing a firing squad.  By today's standards, a clairvoyant only has to be right about one in ten times to be considered great.  Not so for the prophets in this book."  He patted the scriptures. 
    "If you look in Jeremiah 20, verse 2, you'll see that the prophets were persecuted even when they were right.  And right they had to be, or they would have been put to death.  Can you imagine if the same stipulations were applied to today's prophets?  I can tell you right now, we'd see a drastic reduction of people willing to make predictions." He made eye contact as he grinned into the faces of the smiling congregation.  It was moments like this that the home viewers really savored.  It was what set Reverend Ira apart from the rest.  Little did the home audience know that a laugh track they were hearing was added in post-production. 
    "In Deuteronomy it asks 'How do we know it is the word that the Lord has spoken?' In other words, how do we know whom to believe?  Moses gives the answer later in the same chapter.  'When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, it's not the Lord that has spoken.'  It is said in Peter, 'Often these men didn't even understand the significance of their own prophecies.'  Yet, these same predictions are of exact historical events that predict the end of the world.  They are exact predictions of the times in which we now live."  Ira surveyed the crowd as did the camera, finally settling on the face of a very troubled man to drive home the point. 
    "You don't need me to tell you these are disquieting