**Authors Note**

This is a Fan-fiction on the Left Behind book series, and if you've read the series you will recognize names like, Rayford and Chloe Steele, Cameron (Buck) Williams, Nicolae Carpathia, Leon Fortunato, Tsion Ben Judah, etc. However, please don't expect everything to be exactly like the Left Behind series. I will be changing different details about judgments and such according to my convictions on Biblical Eschatology, e.g., the attack of Gog.

As I am always trying to be a better writer, I accept constructive criticism, just please keep it short, kind and to the point. :)

The clock went off and Jason sat straight up in bed, the sleep in his eyes preventing them from opening. He rubbed his eyes and checked his clock. 6:29 AM. Right on time. His school bus left at seven-thirty. That would give him plenty of time to get ready and maybe even squeeze a quick blog post in.

Jason Reuben was sixteen years old, had short kinda spiky black hair, was tall, muscular, and had just began his sophomore year of High School the previous month and was already doing better than most of the students. Only catch: it was a Christian school. After his parents divorced and he and his little brother stayed with his mom, she put him them in two different Christian schools. His mom was a faithful Christian, and had been for years. His dad was an alcoholic, not physically abusive, but verbally, and his parents' struggles never ended, so they decided to divorce. Jason loved his dad a lot. He wished he could spend more time with him, even though they had issues. Their relationship had never been very good. He wanted to have a good relationship with his dad, but it didn't seem possible. That was all he really wanted right now.

His little brother, James, was seven, had Autism, and had made his decision to follow Christ at a Vacation Bible School during the summer. His mom bought him a comic Bible that he simply ate up. His mom had talked to Jason about the "Gospel" as she called it many times, but he simply couldn't believe it. All that stuff about God and the forgiveness of sins. His biggest issues with Christianity were these; he knew plenty of people who were rich and successful and nice without God, but on top of that, he had been seriously hurt by his parent's divorce. It was terrible for him. That had been during the last school year. He had been hurt more than his parents thought. For the rest of that school year his grades plummeted and he actually started cutting, but quit it soon after. But now he was more depressed more than anything. He was doing good in school, but he was depressed with his life. So if God was real, why couldn't he have intervened in his parent's divorce?

Then there were his school students and classmates. Good gosh, they were annoying. Always trying to shove the "good news" down his throat. He played along with most of them the best he could. His teachers were always talking about it and putting it and science together. If only his dad knew. The rest of his friends talked about their morning devotions and stuff like that. He had no idea what that even meant. Must be some kind of Christian code or something.

He had found a couple of friends who had told him they were not Christians. He confided in them. They had a lot in common. He had more in common with these friends than he did his own family. Then he remembered. It was Wednesday. Weekly devotions. Terrific.

He got out of bed and started his Macbook Air. He was also an astounding computer programmer for his age. He also wrote a lot on his blog, Insight. He updated daily when he could. While the supercomputer that he had saved practically his whole life for booted up with it's tens of programs, he jumped in the shower quickly, brushed his hair and teeth, and put on his school uniform (another thing he hated about the new school). Only ten minutes.

He returned to his computer and loaded Drudge Report and his email first. New article by Buck Williams of the Global Weekly. The headline on Drudge read in huge letters, "MASSIVE ATTACK ON ISRAEL BY NOW VERIFIED 5 TO 6 COUNTRIES. ISRAEL VICTORIOUS WITH NO CASUALTIES?"

It had been only a couple days before that, from what he read, Russia, Iran, Lybia, Turkey, and Ethiopia had launched a massive air, ground and naval attack on Israel. It even went nuclear, but according to scientists, some of the warheads his the ground but didn't detonate. Jason understood the basics of nuclear weapons. That was all but impossible, but worse than that, some of them even backfired on the countries they launched from, leaving parts of Iran and Russia radioactive. The same day, NASA scientists reported an unexpected meteor shower, with some of the meteors making it through the atmosphere and still being large in size. Scientists were stumped. These meteors fell over Israel and took out all the air force of the combined armies of the nations, but left Israel unscathed. And Israel didn't fire a single weapon.

Weather officials then announced a cold-front coming in over the middle east that combined with the nuclear clouds, scientists say, and formed a nuclear storm that rained fire, but several scientists had rebuffed this theory. Either way, it left the armies of the countries, and some of the major cities decimated. There were also several large earthquakes in the middle east area, then the next day, thunderstorms and flash floods, but not in Israel, in the countries around Israel.

He remembered well sitting with his mom watching the television that night and watching the coverage. His mom was looking up some passage of the Bible in Ezekiel, if he remembered, and his mom kept telling him this was the fulfillment of some sort of amazing prophecy. She told him any second now, God would defend Israel, and as the words were barely out of her mouth, before his eyes the planes began to get hit by the meteors and some just simply lost control. He didn't know how his mom knew, but he really didn't care that much. Israel got lucky. He was happy about it, sure. In fact he was of pure Jewish blood. He lived in Israel for half of his life. He was overjoyed they won, but didn't care much how. He would've blamed it on a major system error or something. Nobody knew for sure.

After reading the article by one of his favorite journalists, he began to write his blog post:

"Hey guys. Jason here.

"By now, everybody has heard the stunning story of the massive attack on Israel and their miraculous victory. Studies say it's the biggest air strike on Israel in all of Israel's history and the second largest ground troops invasion, as well, but the attack left the nations desolate. Iran and Russia are suffering nuclear contamination, there were several earthquakes, a nuclear storm, a meteor shower, and the next day, massive thunderstorms.

"I am relieved and troubled by this report. Anyone who knows me knows I'm Jewish, so I am obviously glad Israel was victorious. On the other hand, I find it frightening that after such a long period of peace and prosperity for Israel that the Islamic nations (and Russia, which is still Atheistic) would make such a massive attack on Israel. They were taking a big risk. If they failed, Israel would have the power and reason to retaliate. However, if they succeed, Israel would no longer be on the map. I can't imagine Israel retaliating, however. They have always been a peaceful nation, and considering there were no casualties, I don't imagine a strike against the surrounding nations imminent.

"However, the thing that surprises me most is that the Christians, and the Orthodox Jews, of which the Prime Minister is one, are saying this is an act of God based of Ezekiel 38-39. Yes, I agree, at the surface it looks like things fall perfectly into place for this to be a fulfilled prophecy, given thousands of years ago, however, I strongly disagree with this.

"Facts:

Nations that attacked: Russia, Iran, Libya, Ethiopia, and Turkey.

Nations suffering nuclear contamination; Russia, Iran

Israeli officials are reporting that it will take seven months to bury the bodies of the ground troops, and that the debris from the planes and tanks will be converted to fuel, good for seven years.

"The point is that Israel has stood firm in a major blow, but they are no longer living in safety. Defense Minister Zebulun Gasher reports that "All Israel wants is peace. The people long for peace, for a peacemaker, for a messiah." I hope that day comes soon.

~Jason."

Insight now had about five-hundred followers and twice that many views per day. Only half of those were people he knew.

Jason took another look at Buck William's amazing story of being in the heat of the attack and seeing the war in Israel himself, then packed his textbooks and walked down the stairs to the kitchen. His mom was preparing breakfast when he came down. He quickly pulled out his iPhone and called his buddy Jonas Corale.

"Jonas, you up?"

"Yeah. You?"

"No. How close are you to being ready?"

"I'm ready now. Nice blog post by the way."

"Thanks, bro. You want to ride our bikes to the school?"

"Sure. Be here in five minutes."

"You got it."

Jason hung up and walked over to his mom. She seemed distracted. "Hey mom. I'm going to ride my bike to Jonas' house and we're gonna ride to school."

His mom was tall, had long brown hair, and was a little overweight.

"Okay." she said quietly. "You want some breakfast?"

"What is it?" he asked.

"Just some eggs and toast. It's ready now."

Jason grabbed a zip-lock bag and put his breakfast in. He then gave his mom a hug, said goodbye, grabbed his backpack and was getting ready to leave but remembered something.

He crept back up the stairs and made his way to James' bedroom. He found him getting dressed and sneaked behind him, grabbed him and tickled him for a second. He laughed out loud. Jason told him he was leaving early, and James gave him a big hug. Jason said goodbye, gave him a fist bump and made his way out the door into the early, salty Oakland, California air.

He arrived at Jonas' house at 7:25. Jonas was already waiting outside. Jason got off and gave his friend a hug.

"How are you today, man?" he asked.

"Good." Jonas replied. "Finally fully recovered from strep throat."

"Yeah, this year has been really bad."

"Tell me about it." Jonas was a little shorter than Jason, a little bigger form, and had longer brown, messy looking hair.

The two got on their bikes and rode towards the school, talking about the events of the last few days. Jonas was one of his non-Christian friends. They got there just before the school bus pulled in. The school/church was small, maybe had about two-hundred students or so. The dean of the school was an assistant pastor of the church.

Jason and Jonas waited in front of the school bus as fifty students or so unloaded from the bus. The school was Junior High through High School. Passing the two was the new girl. Jason racked his brain to remember her name. He thought it started with an "a". Anna? He'd ask later. He liked making new friends. He had wanted to introduce himself for a few weeks now.

Finally, their blonde haired friend appeared and pretended not to notice them. Jason tapped him on the shoulder. "Do I know you?" the boy asked. Jason slapped him on the back. "Freddie, you kidder." Freddie made a smile. Freddie Smith was a little taller than David, had long, thick blonde hair that reached down past past his shoulder, and was originally from San Diego.

They all said hello to each other and made their way to the medium sized building. It wasn't very large, like other high schools, but it had sports fields and courts and locker rooms, etc. It had everything any other High School had except size. Jason ate his breakfast on his way to devotions.

When he got there, where the dean would originally speak, it was the English teacher,, Ms. Clare.

"Alright, class." she began with a thick English accent. "Let's just pray before we start. God, we are blessed to be here together, fellowshipping, learning about you and about things we can use in life to serve you. Please just show yourself to us today and open our eyes, ears and hearts, that we may not only see and hear, but understand. In Christ's holy name, amen." All the students looked up at her.

"As you know," she continued, "we have been studying through the epistles of the Apostle Paul in our weekly devotional time, and today we come to First-Thessalonians, four and five. Dean Charles is very busy today with a meeting out of town, so I have been asked to speak, and I admit I like the direction he's been going in, but today we come to a very controversial topic..." It was all Jason could do not to nod off. "...known as the rapture of the church. Let's pick up our reading in verse thirteen through eighteen.

"'And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have diedso you will not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.

'We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have diedwill rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words.'

"The word used for "caught up" in Latin is where we get our English word "rapture". The context the apostle Paul says this in is comforting those who are worried about the fate of their deceased friends and relatives. Now be encouraged by this, if you've lost somebody close to you, there's no reason to fear, because if they believed in Jesus Christ that he rose from the dead and accepted him as their Lord and Savior, when Jesus Christ returns, they will rise first and be given glorified bodies. Then, those who are alive at the Lord's coming will be caught up to meet him in the air. I am so encouraged by this, because this life is hard, but one day I know I will meet my Lord and Savior.

"Now the next question you might ask is when? When will Jesus come for his church? The beginning of chapter 5 talks about that. It says that no one knows when. Jesus said that no one knows the day or the hour, and that it comes like a thief in the night. In other words, it will come when we least expect it. So the point here is don't wait. Have your eternal fate secured, and have confidence that one day you will meet Christ and will worship him for all eternity. All you have to do to be sure of that is to believe that Christ was raised from the dead, confess that Jesus is Lord, and receive his gift of forgiveness."

That was all that stuck with Jason. She went on into chapter five to talk about this and that, son of perdition or something, but the rest stuck with him. Before he knew it, devotions was over and he was on his way to his first class. Math.

Jason was enjoying Algebra. He wasn't extremely fond of math, but he enjoyed Algebra. Freddie and Jonas, not so much. They were all in the same class. Just across from him as she had been the past weeks was...Ashley! That's what her name was. She was just a little shorter than him, and was wearing her school uniform. She had light blonde hair, a petite form, but a strong force to her voice that denied her form.

By the end of the school day, Jason was ready for home. He and Jonas said goodbye to Freddie, who left on the bus, and the two got on their bikes and started home.

They took a short detour, like they enjoyed to every once in awhile, over the Oakland Bay Bridge. It took longer, but it was worth it. All the cars racing by just to the side of the bike lane blowing wind on their faces while the afternoon sun hid behind some clouds. They made their way into the dark tunnel, then out again, back onto the bridge and to home. When they got to Jonas' house, Jason said goodbye and headed home.

Jason walked through the door and found his mom studying her Bible. He guessed James was upstair playing in his room or something. She turned around when he walked in the door, stood up and gave him a hug.

"And how was school today?" she asked.

"Really good. Algebra was a breeze." She nodded.

"Wish it was the same for me when I was your age."

There was something she was worried about, but Jason wasn't sure what. Something in her voice reflected that something was bothering her. He made his way up the stairs to his room and fired up his computer. When his IM program loaded, he noticed Freddie was online.

Jason: Hey Freddie! What's going on?

Freddie: Not a whole lot. Do you remember Chloe?

Jason: Chloe Steele? Going to Stanford?

Freddie: Yeah. She's good friends with my older sister who's also there.

Jason: I remember. What about her?

Freddie: She came up here with my older sister this past weekend. She left yesterday.

Jason: Cool! She's awesome.

Freddie: Nice blog post. Weird stuff, huh?

Jason: Tell me about it. I'm glad there weren't any casualties.

Freddie: But what are the chances of that? My older sis keeps talking about it being the battle of Gog or something. I think it's a Christian thing.

Jason: I'm not going to say anything that would offend anybody on my blog, but I think that's crazy.

Freddie: Agreed.

Jason did a little bit of research, checking e-mails and stuff, then said goodbye to Freddie and got some homework done.

"I want to talk to you about something."

Jason turned from doing the after dinner chores to look at his mom. Something was about to give.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"You know the attack on Israel a couple days ago." He nodded. "I talked to Pastor Don at the church about it. He believes this may be the beginning to the countdown of the end."

Oh boy, this again.

"In Ezekiel thirty-eight and thirty-nine, it talks about everything that's happening to the very details, and a few months ago Damascus got bombed, another fulfillment of prophecy. Pastor Don says that the next thing to be fulfilled is the rapture of the church."

Jason rolled his eyes and went to put the leftovers away.

"Mom, how long are you going to do this? You've been trying to make me one of you Christians for months now. This whole rapture thing, think about it. Flying into the clouds? The dead in Christ being resurrected? That really doesn't sound far fetched to you?"

"I don't understand it," she said, "but I'm worried for you. What if it's true?"

"Then I don't think God would be worth serving." he said quickly "I've heard all the stuff. Jesus' death, resurrection, for our sins or whatever, but come on. How out there can you get?"

"But if you'd just look you'd see how much God-"

"How long are you going to shove this stuff down my throat already? I don't believe in God and I don't believe in Jesus, and if he's harsh enough to create a world like this and leave people here to face the apocalypse, I don't think he's worth serving." His mom's eyes were beginning to water up. "You might as well stop trying." he said, then put the rest of the leftovers away and made his way to his room.

He knew his mom was only caring about him, and he appreciated it, but she needed to know he wasn't going to become a Christian, ever, but he still felt horrible. He quickly undressed and got in bed early. He hoped the next day would come soon.