Two And A Half Years Later

"The Antichrist has assembled an army and is moving against Petra once again," David told Annie one day. "Dr. Ben-Judah and Rayford Steele have left Petra to join the resistance against the Unity army."

"But they're safe here!" Annie exclaimed. "Once they're beyond the walls of Petra, they're no longer under God's protection!"

David shook his head. "Rayford feels guilty about remaining within the safety of Petra while his Christian brethren are doing everything they can to stop Carpathia's progress, and as for Dr. Ben-Judah...Jerusalem has been attacked as well, Babe. Carpathia broke his seven-year pact with Israel. Jesus is returning very soon, and Dr. Ben-Judah wants to see as many of his fellow Jews come to the truth as possible, so that they can enter the Millennial Kingdom with us. I've half a mind to join him as well."

"No, David, please!" Annie begged, clinging to her husband. "Mercy and I need you here!"

David looked torn. "If not for the two of you, there's no question that I'd go."

"But how could they have gone through everything that's happened over the past seven years and still refuse to acknowledge that Jesus is God's Son?"

David sighed. "It's hard for a non-Jewish person to understand," he began. "But Jews have always seen Jesus as the Christian God, in whose name they've been persecuted and exterminated for centuries. For a traditional Jew, to accept Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God feels like a betrayal of his family, his culture, his people. That's the way it was for me at first. It took me a long time to reconcile the way I'd been raised with the truth."

"I never thought of it that way before," Annie said softly. "And what will become of those who still won't acknowledge Jesus as Messiah and Son of God?"

The stricken look in her husband's eyes told Annie all that she needed to know.

Over the next few days, Petra became more and more crowded as believers from all over the world fled there to escape persecution. Manna still fell from the sky twice a day, so there was plenty for everyone to eat.

One day a tremendous thunderstorm, one far worse than any Annie had ever experienced before, came.

"Mommy! I'm scared!" cried little Mercy, clinging to her mother.

"It's going to be all right," Annie told her. God won't let anything happen to us." She sat down in her rocking chair and began to rock and sing to the little girl. "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so..."

Fortunately, Mercy was already in bed asleep when the utter blackness came. It was darker than any ink Annie had ever seen. No moon, no stars, nothing. Just a blackness that was so intense that it was almost palpable.

"David?" For the first time in so long she couldn't even remember, Annie felt slightly apprehensive.

"I'm right here, Babe." Annie followed the sound of David's voice and soon touched his hand. "Isn't this exciting?" David sounded eager, even almost thrilled. "Surely Jesus will be here very soon now."

Hand in hand, David and Annie waited patiently for the next supernatural manifestation. It came a couple of hours after the onset of the darkness. There was a strange buzzing noise, followed by a flash of light. David ran to a window.

"Oh, honey, look!" he exclaimed. Annie came to stand right beside him, and they both gazed up into the night sky in awe. A thick, yellow, pulsating band of light stretched across the sky, intersected about a third of the way down by a shorter yellow band of about the same width.

"It's the cross of Christ!" Annie gasped. "Oh, David!" She felt her husband's arm encircle her waist as they both gazed at the wondrous sight, unable to tear their eyes away from it.

Dr. Chaim Rosenzweig led the entire population in the singing of hymns, and David and Annie joined in.

As the Unity army advanced on Petra, the clouds rolled back like a scroll, and the sky was suddenly bathed in a light that was just as utter and complete as the darkness preceding it had been, and there, seated upon a white horse, was Jesus.