Free The Last Judgment by Craig Parshall Page B

to cause injury or harm to the attendees?”
    â€œNone whatsoever. I was very distressed that one of those in the audience—that professor fellow from Florida—got injured.”
    â€œDid you make any threatening gestures while delivering your comments in the auditorium?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œDid you threaten to commit any act of violence yourself?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œWhat is the best description you can give of the nature of your comments that day at the Islamic Center?”
    â€œEvangelistic. I was doing evangelism. Delivering the message of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
    Will rested his direct examination. The Commonwealth attorney stood up slowly and confidently.
    â€œMr. Amahn. You said you were being an evangelist—is that what you said?’ ”
    â€œYes, sir.”
    â€œWell, I’ve been to some real hell-fire-and-brimstone church services—but no evangelist I know gives a sermon with the intent that folks start throwing punches and get broken arms. Now, are you saying that you believed—as an evangelist —that you were somehow above the law?”
    â€œOh no. I never believed that.”
    â€œBut you knew that the whole auditorium of die-hard, fundamentalist-type Muslims—when you got through having your say—that they would set on you like a swarm of angry hornets out of a nest that had just gotten whacked. Right? You knew that, didn’t you, Mr. Amahn?”
    â€œI thought it might happen—”
    â€œYou told the deputy, in fact, that you knew that they would react. Those were your very words—your words to the deputy when he arrested you and put you in the squad car. Those were your exact words .”
    Gilead was silent, considering the question.
    â€œSpeak up there, Mr. Amahn. Those were your words —admit it.”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œI don’t know about you, Mr. Amahn, but I can’t think of any Christian men in the preaching ministry that give a sermon knowing it might cause a riot…”
    â€œI can.”
    â€œOh? You can? You really can?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œName one.”
    â€œThe apostle Paul. The riot that broke out in Ephesus. Book of Acts, chapter nineteen.”
    The prosecutor waved his hands to signal a different tack in his questions, but not before Gilead added one more comment.
    â€œVerses twenty-two to the end of the chapter, I believe.”
    â€œYou are comparing yourself to the apostle Paul—to Saint Paul himself, now are you?”
    â€œOh no.”
    â€œAnd even Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’—didn’t He?” the prosecutor asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
    â€œYes.”
    But before his questioner could change the subject, Gilead continued.
    â€œBut you see,” Gilead added softly, “Jesus, in His sermons, said He was many different things. Some were very beautiful and pleasant—He called Himself a shepherd…a door…waters of eternal life. Others were not so pleasant. Jesus also said that he came as a sword .”
    â€œAre you saying that you were a sword, Mr. Amahn? Is that what you were, over there at the Islamic Center? A sword that would cut into the hearts of those people—who don’t share your religious beliefs—prompting them to explode in a natural expression of anger at your insults—”
    â€œI did not insult them—”
    â€œOh? You didn’t?” the prosecutor said, his voice rising to almost a falsetto.
    â€œ ‘You false teachers of the law…woe to you who lead millions upon millions astray’—if I am not mistaken, those were your exact words spoken at the microphone in the Islamic Center, isn’t that correct? ”
    â€œYes, but—”
    â€œ ‘Idolaters of religion, falsely so-called, vainly puffed up by your fleshly minds, taking delight in false humility and worship of angelic