Survivors Page 14

  "The chief purpose of religion has always been to enforce the legitimacy of the ruling powers," Dangchao explained. "And your role will be no different.

  "The only thing that has changed in the present stage of evolution is that I am going to take off my mask. I'm tired of this hypocrisy. I want people to see me as I really am, and I want them to fear me."

  It was slowly dawning on Pius that he was talking, face to face, with the one they called the "Antichrist". The church had always played down such things. They did not like to worry the superstitious masses. But now Pius was being confronted by the real thing; and he had not been ad­equately equipped to deal with such an experience.

  So he had been tricked into making the move to Jerusalem. He was there only for the purpose of propping up the rule of this evil man... if Dangchao really was a man.

  But Pius could not go back to Rome now. And even if he tried, would Dangchao let him? He had experienced only a few seconds of the terror that Dangchao was able to inflict just through his presence, and he knew instinctively that this Beast was not going to loosen his grasp easily. He was Dangchao's slave, and there was no way out.

  He would watch for an opportunity to use his position to accomplish something good, of course; but for the time being, he had no choice. He must co-operate.

  The new head arrived for the statue, and Pius was further disturbed to see that it was Dangchao's hideous face and not his real one. Or was the hideous face the real one?

  Dangchao himself answered that question in another one of his patient classes with Pius later the following day.

  "In order to get where I am today," he explained, "I have had to wear many masks. And all of them have at least appeared to be good people.

  "But I'm not a nice person. I don't want people even thinking that I'm a nice person. I want them to fear me. I want to be able to control them. And I want to be able to do it without having to pretend to be nice.

  "You see, Pius, that is the true test of power. Anyone can control people who trust them. But I want to be able to control people who fear me. You fear me, don't you?"

  Pius had no choice but to contradict his earlier confession of faith in Dangchao and to nod in agreement with this new assessment of his relationship to the world ruler.

  "Yes, you fear me," Dangchao said with a wicked smile. "You are even now looking for a way to escape. But there is none, is there? Where would you go? I control the world, and I am able to do it even when people like yourself would rather that I did not.

  "I have been able to achieve that control through the Mark... through my Mark," he bragged.

  Pope Pius looked puzzled, but he did not dare to voice his question. Nevertheless, Dangchao guessed what he was thinking.

  "You question whether the Mark is truly mine?" he asked. "But that is because you continue to see the mask and you forget the reality behind it. Dangchao's face is not my face, Pius. You have seen the real me. Do I look like Dangchao? Of course not. I merely took advantage of his body.

  "Oh, he co-operated beautifully with me before he died, as you yourself, and your predecessors before you, have done so often over the years. But it was only after his untimely death that I took total control of his body.

  "But the Mark... I have been working on that for millennia. It is the symbol of mankind's dependence on me, and it is nearing completion. Yes, Pius, it's my mark, and I control the world with it."

  Dangchao commanded the Pope to decree that the whole world should worship him, and that they should worship his image. The image of Mary in front of the Cathedral of the Divine Creation was to become the image of Dangchao, or rather the image of the Beast behind Dangchao.

  "Don't be so sanctimonious," Dangchao argued, when Pius said it would be blasphemous. "You've been worshipping Mary for centuries, and she's far less divine than I am. The masses never complained about being told that Mary was God's Mother? So if you could get them to believe that whopper, why can't you just say that you've had a revelation that I'm God's Father?"

  And at that, Dangchao broke into a fit of demonic laughter that chilled Pope Pius XIII to the bone.

  Zion Ben-Jonah Writes

  The Revelation talks about a 'Dragon' being cast out of heaven. (Revelation 12:7-9) The Dragon comes to earth, and makes war against the church, or "Bride" of Christ. (Revelation 12:12-13) This "Dragon" is, in fact, the Devil, who has come to make war against God and against all who believe in God. (Revelation 13:5)

  The Dragon takes possession of a human body, which has received a "deadly wound". With the devil inside of him, this body is referred to as "the Beast". (Revelation 13:3)

  The Beast is also assisted by a "False Prophet" (Revelation 16:13), who causes the whole world to worship the Beast and to worship the image that he has made of him. (Revelation 13:11-14)

  Just as there will be a counterfeit Temple to parallel the spiritual temple that God occupies in the hearts of all true believers, there will also be a false prophet to rival the true prophets that God will send in the last days.

  While true believers trust an invisible God to meet their needs, the counterfeit believers will worship a statue, and put their faith in the Mark (or money) to meet their needs. (Ephesians 5:5)

  The most inspiring thing about the rise of the Antichrist, however, is that his hypocrisy will cease. People will be forced to take a stand, totally one way or the other. No more compromise, indecision, or double-mindedness. No more calling "evil good and good evil"! Thank God for that.

  (Table of Contents)

  18. The Gospel

  When he had recovered his composure, and was wiping away the tears that he had shed during his fit of laughter, Dangchao spoke once more to the Pope.

  "I'm going to need your help with one other little matter," he said. "There's a religious cult that has been saying some nasty things about me and my government. We tried to track them down on the Internet, but they destroyed the entire building where their provider was based, before we could get their address. They go by the name of "Twelve Tribes". What information do you have on them?"

  The church maintained extensive files on all new religious movements, in their offices in Rome; but why, thought Pius, should he help Dangchao? What if these people offered some hope of stopping this terrible man? If they did, then he should be helping them instead of helping Dangchao.

  The General Secretary sighed deeply as he caught the drift of what Pius must be thinking. He would have to play the pious game himself once again, as he had done so often over the years, in order to control the Pope.

  "Whatever you might think of me," he said kindly, "the facts are that this is a very dangerous cult. They've already killed nine people that we know of, and there is talk of others having been killed by one of them in Australia as well. Pius, please! You would be doing the world a service if you could help us to stop them."

  Pius thought for a moment and then decided that if he was going to be heroic, this might not be the best cause to support or the best time to act. On the other hand, if he were to assist Dangchao this once, he might win his favour. Then he could use that favour to achieve a greater good at another more expedient time in the future.

  Dangchao smiled to himself. The old charm never failed. Keep him procrastinating, and he would keep him under his control forever.

  In a matter of an hour and a half, Pius had a complete report on the Twelve Tribes faxed through from Rome, but it was little help to either of them. Catholic researchers had a small file from the days of the Jesans, which included Reinhard's name. However, almost all of what they had on the Twelve Tribes movement since then had come from material that was already freely available on the Twelve Tribes web site.

  Despite attempts by the Church's New Religious Movements Committee to woo the Jesans and then to woo the Twelve Tribes into giving them inside information, there had been no response from either Reinhard, Rayford, or Chaim. Even their
names were unknown, because Rayford and Chaim always wrote anonymously. The committee had not found anything obviously dangerous in what they taught, and so they had not pursued the group further.

  There were some who said the movement was huge, numbering in the millions; but there were more who believed it was an illusion, caused by a handful of people who wanted to give the impression that they were bigger than what they really were. After all, there were no buildings, no postal addresses, no record of meetings, and no names of either leaders or followers, apart from Reinhard and a few ex-members. It was true that they did produce a lot of literature, but even their literature gave only the web site as a contact address.

  "We've put some of the world's best hackers on the job, and they've all hit dead ends," Dangchao lamented to Pius when he had finished reading the report from Rome. "Everything indicates that Web Wonders, their service provider, does not exist. And yet their web site continues to function. We seem to have no way of blocking it."

  In fact, the Twelve Tribes hit counter was spinning wildly. And it increased in momentum over the next few months. Each time another media report on Dangchao came out, thousands more would visit the Twelve Tribes site to get an update from the Two Witnesses on what they had to say about what was really happening.

  Had Dangchao overplayed his hand? The media did not know how to respond to reports that he was the Father of God, or any of the other outrageous things that he and Pope Pius were getting up to in Jerusalem.

  The monstrous statue with its gargoyle head and female body, purporting to be a statue of Dangchao, shocked the world, but it was only the start of other shocks.

  Dangchao ripped out the holy of holies from the Temple, and put a throne there for himself to sit on while being worshipped and admired by members of the public. He invited people of all religions and of no religion to come there to worship him, thus severing his relations with the Jewish leaders who had hoped that he might be their Messiah.

  He insisted on providing entertainment for his visitors, and his choice of entertainment became more and more blatantly blasphemous. First it was music praising himself as the Saviour of the world, the Prince of Princes, and the Lord of Creation. Then the music started making fun of the real God. Dancers were brought in, who became more and more suggestive in their routines. Powerful drugs were freely dispensed to guests. In the space of just a few months, Dangchao had incorporated live sex acts and other far worse perversions into his system of worship within the Jewish Temple.

  But the most surprising thing of all was that people were accepting it. Like he had predicted, even those who did not like what he was doing were so weakened morally that they were not able to resist him.

  There were others who flocked to worship him, and to participate in his bacchanalian festivals, with obvious enthusiasm. It was quickly becoming the in-thing amongst diplomats and other highly respected people, to be seen at one of Dangchao's obscene celebrations.

  It was even reported that during some of the most extreme activities conducted at the Temple, his whole appearance would magically change, and people could experience first-hand the awesome supernatural power that he possessed.

  The media, although stunned, was powerless to do anything more than report what was happening, as if it was normal behaviour from a world ruler. Dangchao, who seemed capable of working all day and partying all night, had the banks and key members of the United Nations securely tucked in his pocket. Between the two institutions, he controlled the world, and no one dared challenge him.

  Nevertheless, his public stand against God and his attempts to offend all sensibilities, were what caused so many hundreds of thousands of people to seek out the Twelve Tribes for counsel and explanation. There was no longer any doubt about where Dangchao was coming from. He was, indeed, the Antichrist, the personification of evil.

  Word quickly spread around the world about the Twelve Tribes site. Its address was painted (under cover of darkness) on walls and hoardings wherever the faithful 144,000 believers could find a space to fill.

  So, as people saw what was happening in Jerusalem, they would turn to Rayford and Chaim for explanations. In a very short time, literally millions of people were visiting the web site, which had become the official mouthpiece of God's two endtime Witnesses.

  A few people had cracked Neville's email code and they had been able to get letters straight through to the tribes. These people were being dealt with personally. Most of them had still not received the Mark, and so they were quickly taken into fellowship, on the assumption that God had both protected them from taking the Mark and been instrumental in helping them to work out the email code. Based on this theory, such people did not represent a security risk.

  Between the email code and the anonymity of the website, the 144,000 had, indeed, escaped into a "wilderness" of safety from the authorities. God himself controlled who would have access to them, and the rest of the world was locked out.

  With the exception of isolated individuals and some of the most rural and primitive villages in the Third world, virtually everyone on earth had received the Mark by this time. It was impossible to do business without it. Those Twelve Tribe members who had not been successful in getting free rent from personal friends in the system were being forced out onto the streets, or into tents and other makeshift accommodation. But, overall, they were surviving without undue hardship, using the principles of begging, bartering, and stealing the most basic necessities of life in this insanely evil new world order.

  The people who were in the worst predicament were the ones who were now contacting the Twelve Tribes out of desperation. What they had read about the curse on those who took the Mark had virtually put them into a hopeless situation spiritually. They were without any means of salvation, and they were living in a world that was growing rapidly more evil every day.

  Dangchao brought back gladiatorial sports, the ultimate reality games, where contestants fought to the death. He had also arranged to televise public tortures and executions in Jerusalem as a form of entertainment. But many people who had never given God much thought before, were becoming sickened by it all, and they wanted out.

  So Chaim and Rayford released the plan of salvation that they had hinted at in a previous message to the 144,000. It had become the lead article on the website, and it shocked the world.

  Here is what it said:

  "God's plan of salvation today is really no different to what it has always been. You need only accept Jesus Christ as God's Son, and as your only hope of salvation.

  "The difference (for those who know something about what used to pass as Christianity) is that we are not talking about some cheap pretence at faith this time. Accepting Jesus means accepting everything that he has said. His teachings are a necessary part of God's plan of salvation for you. Read his teachings and you'll see that he expects total faith, and total obedience. His standards are high, but what he offers is eternal life. No price could be too high for that."

  Rayford explained that his sacrificial death on the cross had bought Jesus the right to give salvation to whomever he chose; but it did not obligate Jesus to choose just anybody. He had certain standards that he was looking for first.

  "Some of your religious leaders have taught that a loving God cannot set standards, make demands, or put a 'price' on what he offers," he said. "But where have they led you? They have brought you to the brink of hell. What they taught sounded like 'good news' at the time, because it was so cheap and easy. But it has turned into the worst possible disaster.

  "In contrast, the gospel that Jesus preached really is good news, even if it is not cheap. It is good news because he could see what each of you have tried to ignore all your life. He could see your utter hopelessness. He could see that, with or without the events that are happening in the world today, you are going to die one day, and you are going to be punished for your failure to obey God. He knew that whatever price
he might put on his plan of salvation, the price would be incidental by comparison to what he was offering... a total pardon, and eternal life in a world that is infinitely more beautiful and more satisfying than the one that we now live in.

  "So what is the price that he asks? He asks that you forsake all, i.e. that you give up everything that you now have... your possessions, your livelihood, your family and friends, and even your own life. Take it or leave it. That is his price. It has always been his price, and it still is his price. The offer is still open to you now. But there will be no cheating on the rules this time.

  "Most of you who are reading this message have already accepted the Mark of the Beast, either in your right hand or in your forehead. Most of you also know that the Bible says that anyone who receives that Mark will experience the undiluted wrath of God, and that you will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of Jesus and in the presence of his holy angels. You will be cast into the lake of fire, which burns forever and ever. These are real threats. You may not think that it is 'loving', but remember... you don't make the rules; God does. Until you accept that, you will never be able to discover just how loving he really is.

  "Now here is what the good news of Jesus Christ means in practical terms for those of you who have already taken the Mark of the Beast. It means that you must cut off your right hand, or allow yourself to be beheaded for the sake of the gospel!

  "That's right. Jesus said that if your right hand offends you, you should cut it off... that it would be better for you to enter into heaven without a hand, than to go to hell because of what your right hand represents. For years people have pointed to that very teaching of Jesus as proof that he never seriously meant for us to take him literally. But now it is time for believers everywhere to prove their faith by their actions.

  "Many of you never heard the warning about the Mark of the Beast. But you did hear the voice of God speaking to you through your own conscience, and you rejected it. For one reason or another, you chose to go your own way, to move gradually away from the ideals of your youth and the ideals of your various religions. And it is because of your insincerity and double-mindedness at those times that you have ended up where you are now.