Survivors Read online

Survivors

  By David Mckay

  Copyright 2002.

  [email protected]

  Thank you for your support.

  BOOK ONE

  1. Left Behind

  2. Foretold

  3. Lo, Here! and Lo, There!

  4. Searching

  5. On the Road to Montana

  6. Counting the Cost

  7. Refugees

  8. Reunion

  BOOK TWO

  9. The Countdown Begin

  10. Twelve Tribes

  11. Soul Harvest

  12. The Temple

  13. The Mark

  14. Peace! Peace!

  BOOK THREE

  15. Assassins?

  16. Two Witnesses

  17. Dangchao

  18. The Gospel

  19. Tribulation Force

  20. Disasters

  21. Apollyon

  22. Journey to Jerusalem

  23. The Rapture

  24. New Jerusalem

  25. Armageddon

  Appendix A

  Appendix B

  Appendix C

  Since September 11, 2001

  This book was written (and the cover design was laid out) prior to September 11, 2001. Many people have suggested that the subsequent destruction of the World Trade Centre in New York City (pictured on the cover) was fulfillment of prophecies about the destruction of “Babylon”. It certainly is symbolic of the destruction of Babylon, but I believe that the real thing is yet to come.

  The general thrust of that part of this book's interpretation of Bible prophecy is that tensions will develop between the United States and other forces in the United Nations. Because of an aggressive military agenda and other injustices committed by the United States, other nations of the world will eventually support an all-out military attack against the U.S. This is what we saw predicted in Bible prophecy, and it is what we see shaping up today.

  Some Americans may take comfort in the fact that these aggressors against the U.S. are seen in prophecy, and in this book, to be acting as agents of the Antichrist. They will assume that it means the U.S. is correct in its stance. But, ironically, Russia, its allies, and the United Nations will (if our understanding of Bible prophecy is correct) also be acting as God’s agents, inflicting a painful lesson on a country which has lost its way spiritually.

  We apologise for any offence that this book may cause to people who see good in the United States. Obviously, there is good and bad in any country, and the U.S. is no exception. But we believe that true believers in any country are more concerned about loyalty to God and to His kingdom than they are about issues of patriotism, with their universal tendency to generate wars and war-mongering.

  An important theme of this book (and of The Revelation) is the progressive role of Babylon (the Prostitute) throughout history. We have argued that America is the modern-day Babylon.

  The authors of the Left Behind series felt it necessary to physically move the final world government to Iraq (the geographical site of the original Babylon) in order to make it clear that it was a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Ironically, the U.S. has now firmly established its control and claim over that part of the world... leaving no doubt that, by whatever criteria one wishes to use, the U.S. still comes up as the modern-day equivalent of Babylon... the Prostitute.

  Of course much of this book is conjecture, and the fall of America is only a small part of a much bigger story contained within Bible prophecy. The overall lessons of The Revelation are that no country can take the place of God’s invisible kingdom of faith, peace, and love, and that the Lamb’s example of laying down his life for others will eventually prove more powerful than all of the armies of the world.

  Remember that as you observe world events unfold.

  From Zion Ben-Jonah

  My real name is not Zion Ben-Jonah, and the characters in this book are not real people. In fact, the whole story is fiction. Much of what it conveys is total conjecture.

  Zion Ben-Jonah is inspired by a character in a series of books by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. In that series, a character named Tsion Ben-Judah sets the world straight at a time when the mass media is monopolised by materialistic forces that seek to distort the truth.

  We believe that this is already the situation in the world of religious entertainment. In order for a book to sell in a really big way, certain important truths (truths which are uncomfortable, and hard for the masses to accept) must be left out.

  In the tradition of LaHaye's Tsion Ben-Judah, we will include those truths in this account of what we believe is coming to pass shortly, in America and elsewhere around the world.

  Almost certainly some of what it predicts will not happen exactly as it is described in this book. This book is not meant to be taken as a prophecy in itself. But it is an attempt to apply the prophecies of the Bible to modern day events. A discerning reader will need to determine what is factual and what is not, as the actual events unfold in the years ahead.

  Discovering the whole truth often involves knowing and admitting the limits of our understanding. We are each trapped within the boundaries of our own experience and imagination. No one has total knowledge of all truth except God himself. There will, I believe, be truth in this book which you have never read elsewhere. It is my firm conviction that I have been inspired by God as I have written it. But I (or anyone else) can be inspired in what I (or they) say, without being infallible. If you keep that in mind, you will be able to maintain better perspective as you read through what I have written.

  On the other hand, I have a responsibility (as does every other Christian) not to deliberately distort truth for selfish motives. I could (as others have done) make millions of dollars by altering the facts in order to give the public what they want to hear. This book will not do that.

  Instead, it will try to tell you what you need to know in order to be prepared for what is almost certainly going to happen on earth in the next few years, whether what it says sells or not. I have done it in story form, but I have also tried to be true to what the Bible actually says about the future, whether it conforms with popular opinion or not. These issues are too serious for anyone to take a chance on leading people astray just to make a few more dollars.

  Notes appear at the end of each chapter to help you understand points made in that chapter. Those notes are my comments on the biblical implications of that part of the story.

  --David McKay

  BOOK ONE

  1. Left Behind

  Everyone was caught off guard when the trouble began. But no one was more unprepared than those who supposedly knew ahead of time what was to happen.

  Rayford Strait was not a believer, so he never expected any of this -- not in his lifetime, nor in anyone else's lifetime. But he was a realist. If circumstances changed (as they had as a result of the attack), then he would simply make the necessary adjustments and set about doing what needed to be done. Which is more or less what he did.

  His wife and son, on the other hand, were believers. Irene Strait attended church faithfully, not far from where they lived, in Prospect Heights, Illinois. Vernon Billings, Irene's pastor at New Hope Chapel, often taught about the troubles that were going to come on the earth. He had a shelf full of books and even video tapes detailing what to expect. The topic had become something of an obsession with him.

  Irene knew from what she had heard at New Hope Chapel, that a popular world leader was going to arise who would gain control over the entire planet. She had heard that he would persecute believers on a scale never before known. She knew that there would be death and destruction everywhere, and that her own country would not be spared.

  Irene had shar
ed much of this with her 13 year old son, Raymie. She tried to share it with her 19-year-old daughter, Chloe, too, but Chloe was -- like her father -- a cynic. She had little interest in anything she could not see and touch.

  Raymie found the books, the lectures, and especially the videos exciting. They were scary at times, but he took comfort in the fact that he would never have to go through what they were describing, because he would be whisked up to heaven before it all started… instantly and painlessly… and all because he had said a little prayer asking Jesus into his heart. Raymie faithfully prayed for his father and his sister, that they too would say the prayer before it was too late. If only they would, then they could all go to heaven together.

  Irene prayed the same prayer that Raymie prayed, and she prayed it even more faithfully and more fervently than Raymie did. She did not want any member of her family to be left behind. But she never for a moment thought that she or Raymie would be among those who would be left. She had books and tapes and videos and a long list of religious experts to back her up in her belief that she, and others like her, would be spared.

  All of the suffering, she had been told, was reserved for someone else, for someone more appropriately suited to suffering… like the Jews. After all, they have had more practice than the rest of us when it comes to suffering!

  Rayford Strait was piloting an early morning flight from London to Chicago on a Tuesday in May when the invasion began. He had left London at 5am and was about halfway to Chicago when he received word from Civil Aviation authorities in Chicago that unauthorised traffic had been picked up on radar in Canada, and it was crossing his proposed flight path. (It was about 3:30am in Chicago by that time.)

  At first Rayford had been asked to divert to another corridor, but while they were still communicating the details, another message came through as an all frequencies broadcast. A distraught flight controller was ordering all aircraft passing over the Ice Cap to turn back immediately.

  When Rayford asked for an explanation, all he received was a shouted warning: "All flights headed for North America over the Arctic Circle must turn back immediately. This is a matter of extreme urgency. It has come from the American Civil Defence headquarters in Washington, D.C. I repeat: Turn back! Do not attempt to land in North America!"

  Unidentified aircraft had come like a swarm of bees from the north, over the Ice Cap and across Canada. With them had come missiles… hundreds (if not thousands) of them, flying high above the aircraft and coming down to earth just moments before the bombers crossed into U.S. airspace. Each missile had been programmed to hit a particular U.S. city or a strategic military target. Some were intercepted, of course, but on the whole the highly sophisticated American missile defence system had proved to be helpless in the face of so much fire-power and with so little warning.

  The enemy missiles were each surrounded by a cluster of metallic balloons, which served to confuse tracking devices on the American anti-missile missiles. Nine out of ten of America's defence weapons totally missed their marks. And while American missiles were busily tracking other missiles, many of the enemy planes were able to sneak safely into U.S. airspace as well. What the missile invasion did not destroy, the enemy bombers took care of.

  Although the general public had been conned into believing that America had an effective defence against an attack like this, military intelligence in almost every other country of the world knew better. But they also knew that nothing could stop America from pressing the button and sending its entire arsenal out to do the same thing to any other country that would dare to attack the U.S. By doing this, the United States could at least wipe their opponents out as they themselves were going down. This threat of "mutually assured destruction" (MAD, as it was called, for short) and not the highly touted missile defence system, had been the one thing that had kept the peace for as long as it had.

  But now that the threat of nuclear attack had become a reality, the American system found itself either too unwieldy, too timid, or perhaps too sane to do to an enemy nation what was being done to itself. Someone in charge of pushing the button apparently realised, too late, that such a move would be pointless. It would not bring back to life the millions of Americans who died that night, and it would only double the suffering for the human race.

  In Prospect Heights, Illinois, where Rayford Strait's family was sleeping, the air raid sirens went off several minutes before the first missiles hit, at 4am on Tuesday. But people had grown complacent about such things, ever since the Cold War had ended, and especially since communism had suffered such total defeat in the 1990's. The U.S. fallout shelter program was totally scrapped in 1992, and air raid drills were widely regarded as unnecessary, especially when they chose to go off in the middle of the night.

  People in Prospect Heights, like people throughout the rest of the country, mostly rolled over in their beds, and either slept through the first impact or else never knew what hit them.

  But Irene Strait was not like everyone else. She lived by the book, and if there was to be an air raid drill, then she would do the right thing by her country. She roused her family and they all trundled down to the basement, despite protests from both Chloe and Raymie.

  On their way, Raymie grabbed what he thought was his latest hand-held video game lying on the kitchen counter. If he was going to be locked in the cellar for a while, he may as well have something to play with.

  When they reached the basement, Irene turned on the transistor radio that she always kept there. She quickly picked up the special Civil Defence broadcast.

  It was just dawning on the trio who sat huddled around the radio, that this was not a drill, when they heard and saw the first explosion. Downtown Chicago was some twenty miles south of them. When the first nuclear warhead hit it, they not only heard the explosion, but they also felt the rumble in the ground. The darkened basement lit up from the flash coming through two small street-level windows. The windows themselves shook from the shock waves. A short while later, they heard several smaller explosions, with at least one of them coming from O'Hare International Airport, just six miles away, where a bomber had dropped a smaller bomb to destroy the runways.

  The Strait family did not know it at the time, but one of those explosions came from a one megaton warhead that veered off course and landed between De Kalb and Dixon, some eighty miles west of them. It had been intended for a target just north of Prospect Heights. If it had landed as planned, their house would almost certainly have been destroyed, and if they had survived the blast, they would have been so badly burned from radiation that they would not have lived for more than a few days.

  While they sat relatively safely in their basement, literally millions of Americans were being incinerated. Millions more were receiving burns and other injuries from which they would never recover.

  "What's happening?" Irene said to herself in bewilderment, as she ran her hands through her hair.

  "Are we being bombed?" asked Raymie. "It can't be the end of the world," he added, as if trying to reassure himself. "It can't be; we're s'posed ta be gone before that happens. It's not the end, is it, Mom?"

  "I don't know, Raymie," Irene responded, with exasperation showing in her voice. "I've got to think."

  "Quiet, you two," said Chloe, who had her ear pressed up against the radio. "They're saying that Russia has launched an attack. The missiles are from Russia. They say our defence system will stop the bombs before they reach their targets."

  "Yeah, tell that to whoever just copped that last one!" said Raymie. "Bet it hit Chicago! Now we're gonna die too. We're gonna die; and what's God doing about it? He isn't doing anything, is he? Why, Mom? Why?" Raymie's voice was becoming more hysterical as the seriousness of the situation dawned on him.

  "Settle down, Raymie! We need to pray," said Irene.

  "Yeah, sure! We need to pray," he almost whispered sarcastically to himself. "We already did
pray, and it was s'posed ta make us safe from all of this. I should be in heaven right now." He turned to Irene. "What went wrong, Mom? Why didn't we go? We're just as good as the others. How come they got raptured and we didn't?"

  "We don't know that they did get raptured," said Raymie's mother. "Maybe the rapture hasn't happened yet."

  "Well, what's the point, if we're still gonna hafta go through this?"

  Chloe interrupted again. "Will both of you shut up? We're lucky to be alive right now. But it's not over yet. We need to act quickly."

  Just then, the cellar lights went out.

  "There should be some candles in that cupboard over the workbench," said Irene. "At least that's where we used to keep them."

  Chloe felt her way over to the bench and opened the door on the overhanging cupboard. Not only were there candles, but there were matches too. She silently prayed that they would still light, and after a couple of strikes they had a reassuring flame perched on the workbench.

  She turned to her younger brother. "Raymie, turn the faucet on and fill up the laundry tub with water. Quickly!" Chloe, like her father, was the pragmatist. She could see that decisions needed to be made, and she was making them. Her urgency jerked Raymie out of his wailing complaints, at least for a while.

  "Mom, stay by the radio and see if they tell us anything more," Chloe said, and then addressed herself: "I need to find a way to cover those two windows as quickly as possible. There's a lot of radiation up there, and it's going to be around for quite a while."

  Chloe found a hammer and some nails on an old work bench. She pulled boards off an orange crate and tacked them up in front of the two under-sized windows high up on the wall. There was still some coal in the corner of the old coal bin, and she stuffed as much of that as she could between the glass and the timber slats, in the hope that the coal would soak up some of the radiation. By the time she finished, she was covered with soot. But there was no time for cleaning up.

  "Raymie, what's happening with the water?" she asked.

  "I filled the laundry tub and a bucket. There's nothing else to put it in."