Free The God Machine by J. G. SANDOM Page B

said. Crude black-and-white photos of death camps, with corpses piled high, flashed behind him. “The breaking of the sixth seal will unleash extraordinary cosmic disturbances; the sky will roll back like a scroll and every land mass will shift. And when Jesus breaks the seventh and final seal, it will initiate the sounding of trumpets.”
    Instantly, all the screens dimmed. The house lights went down, till the hall turned pitch black. Then, once again, the auditorium was filled with the blaring of horns—first one, then another, until seven resounded.This time it was uncomfortably loud. Strobe lights flashed through a great fog of dry ice. Without warning, the trumpeting stopped, trailed by a cool rush of silence. The only sound was the rumbling of the quivering seats as they started to vibrate again, at first barely at all, then with increasing rapidity. Michael could hear some of the teenagers screaming.
    “The judgments that accompany the trumpets will be akin to the great plagues of Egypt which Moses brought down upon Pharaoh. While the first four will be used to destroy the provisions of the Antichrist's worshipers, the last three, the ‘woes,’ will affect them directly…” The screens suddenly burst into light, showing hideous creatures, like bats out of Hell, swooping down upon figures. “… using demons to torture and kill them.”
    Three spotlights shone down upon Michael and Judy and Thaddeus. They looked up at the ceiling as the chorus started singing again. “At the sounding of the last trumpet, Heaven will break into great rejoicing and proclaim, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ.’ It's time for the great King's return. But before He descends, Jesus will gather the saints in the sky—those who truly believe—in the Rapture.”
    Judy suddenly vanished. One minute she was there; then she was gone. Her spotlight narrowed and vanished. Thaddeus was next. And then Michael. All three vanished from the stage like some magic trick. A rippling of chimes filled the chamber. It shimmered, then faded away. “As believers are ‘caught up’ in the air,” Michael said, still invisible, “they will be transformed ‘in the twinkling of an eye,’ into what Paul calls their ‘spiritual bodies.’”
    A hologram of Michael Rose floated over the audience. He glowed with a strange inner light. “When Jesus returns, some will mourn. Many will have taken themark of the beast and must now face the consequences. And others, tricked by the Antichrist, will believe that Jesus is Satan, intent upon destroying the world. Numerous kings and world leaders—who resisted the Antichrist until now—will change their minds and join with him to face the growing threat out of Bozrah. They will be enticed by demons, energized by the Antichrist. They will lead their armies to the gathering point, to Mount Megiddo and the Valley of Jehoshaphat, to lay waste to Jerusalem. Jesus will release the great bowls of wrath, and the most powerful earthquake in history will rattle the Earth. Mountains will fall. Roaring waters will cover the earth.”
    The auditorium erupted as a cold spray misted the audience from the rear of the vibrating seats. There were screams, cries of panic. Then the screen at the center seemed to shatter. A brilliant white light shot out from the back of the chamber, transfixing the stage. The strobe lights blinked wildly. The dry ice machines kept on pumping. The chorus rose out of the stage. They were singing Handel's
Messiah
. A gigantic white horse appeared on the screen, with the figure of Jesus upon it, surrounded on all sides by a heavenly host. And Michael ascended from out of the floor, dressed in a long snow-white robe, directly in the midst of the audience. He pointed behind him. “Then Jesus will ride into battle. Alleluia!” he cried. “Clothed in white, on a horse, with the armies of Heaven around him.” Michael strode down the aisle, through the