Read Online Glorious Appearing: The End Of Days by Tim Lahaye, Jerry B. Jenkins - Free Book Online Page A

investigate a meeting of this size. And the discovery of that many people, not one bearing the mark of loyalty to Carpathia, would result in a bloodbath.
    There was no longer any earthly excuse not to bear the
    mark, and punishment was execution on the spot by any means. Even a civilian had the right to put to death an insurgent. All that was required for exoneration from the crime of homicide was either to drag the victim to a local GC headquarters and prove he or she bore no visible mark, or to flag down a patrolling Morale Monitor or GC Peacekeeper and get him to confirm the same.
    In fact, there was a healthy bounty on such offenders, and citizens loyal to the potentate competed for cash prizes. Many made their living as vigilantes, and some were famous for their impressive number of kills.
    Perhaps that was why Enoch found his usually bold congregation willing to follow him from the public light of day to the relative seclusion of the other side of the empty mall. “If we knew Jesus would get here before the GC, we could stay where we are. But I, for one, do not want to have survived seven years, only to die just before He comes back. ”
    The group crowded into an inner court, where it was obvious they all felt safer. But they had questions.
    “When’s it gonna happen?”
    “What’d we miss in the prophecies?”
    “Did you only think the ‘weeks’ meant ‘years, ‘ or what?”
    “Could we be off by a long ways?”
    “I don’t think so,” Enoch said. “But I don’t know. I was never a scholar or a theologian. I’m sort of a blue collar student of all this, just like you all are. But I have been reading and studying for years. While there is a lot of disagreement and debate, so far everything, every element of the prophecies, has been fulfilled literally, the way it was spelled out. I have to believe today is the day.”
    “Hold on!” a woman shouted from the back. She was peering into a tiny TV. “Look like somebody done took over the GC’s airwaves again.”
    People crowded around.
    “That Micah guy,” she said, “runnin’ things at Petra, is gonna speak about what comes next.”
    Others pulled mini-TVs from their pockets and bags. “Should we listen, Brother Enoch? Will you be offended?”
    “Hardly,” Enoch said, digging out his own TV. “What could be better than this? Dr. Rosenzweig is a scholar’s scholar. Let’s have church.”
    The assembled put their tiny screens together on a concrete bench and turned them up so the combined volume reached everyone.
    Mac saw the narrowing of Carpathia’s eyes and feared someone else was about to catch his rage. His attention had been drawn to the entrance of the room.
    “Yes, what is it?” Carpathia said.
    An underling said, “Begging the potentate’s pardon, but, Excellency, you asked to be informed.”
    “What? What!”
    “The zealots at Petra, the Judahites—”
    “I know who is at Petra! What now?”
    “They have pirated their way onto GC television again. ”
    Carpathia flushed and leaned over the table, resting on his palms. His jaw muscles tightened. “Turn it on,” he said through clenched teeth.
    Leon nearly toppled trying to pull out a chair. He sat heavily and made a show of reaching far up under his robe and producing a remote-control laser, which he aimed at the wall behind Nicolae. A screen descended and the picture appeared: Chaim Rosenzweig seated on a simple set, deep in the confines of Petra. His open Bible was before him, and he bore a pastoral smile. A timer showed that he would begin in less than a minute.
    Carpathia looked over his shoulder at the screen, then turned back and slammed both fists on the table. “First,” he shouted, “confirm that Ipswich is dead! Then tell Tenzin I have changed my mind about Akbar! I want him dead too! Finally, get hold of Security at Al Hillah. Inform them of the demise of their chief and tell them the following order comes directly from me.
    “Whatever it takes, I want