Meet Me by the Lane: A Novel of the End, Part V

It is not an actual, literal mark on the hand or forehead, as so many have expected, but-make no mistake-it is real, it exists, it does come. "On the hand" for those who live for pleasure of the body; "on the forehead" for those whose intellect is evil. And what is it exactly? It is the Mark of the Beast, and on September 1, 2061, it is signed into law in Kazan, Russia by the world's eight most powerful leaders, inaugurating the seven years of Hell on Earth referred to as "the Tribulation." Even a day before the treaty is ratified, Kazan is stricken by a massive earthquake, fire, and eruption of new geysers-these express God's rage with those who wish to unite humanity against Him. These eight men, having escaped this disaster narrowly with their lives, assume the worst is over and ratify the treaty anyway. And then September 2 dawns, only to reveal much worse back in the country that the Lord holds most accountable for Kazan: the United States. America's final president, the False Prophet, Ryan Cooper Preston, whose life and career and administration seemed so full of hope and light and freedom, will find out he is viewed by his own God as most culpable for things. Because he worships freedom, self, and sin, and teaches Earth to do the same. What September 2 holds specifically in store for man is "Pyramid Lake 1," the first of three colossal earthquakes that open up huge literal divides through much of North America. The scope is unimaginable, and 20 million die. Only 1 percent of what is damaged or destroyed-including many entire American cities-can be repaired to any noticeable degree. In the most poetic and symbolic aspect of the earthquake's terror, the nation's "divorce capital" Reno, Nevada is itself split apart, its two halves relocated to the opposing sides of the massive new crevasse between two portions of the country. In a nation where one-half of all who marry eventually divorce, such judgment has now come. Far worse yet is on its way as Genghis Khan, who does still live as "Restored Republic" Nationalist dictator Hu Chiang of China, prepares to carry out his war of vengeance from East Asia. And it certainly isn't just the everyday people of the U.S. who are guilty...nor is it only those who divorce who are held accountable. It is also those in power, indeed those in the White House, and it is those, too, whose marriages are cold and bitter. The President and First Lady, who never technically divorce, drift farther and farther apart, and soon resort to lust and sin to keep alive their marriage and their waning motivation for their duties. The horrors of "Pyramid Lake 1" are strong and certain warnings both for them and for their people. They all fail to listen. Instead, Mrs. Preston embarks on a whirlwind tour of the Orient in the wake of a new regime in China; there she is wined and dined and misled into thinking that the East has turned a new page, a lie to which she soon succumbs. Meanwhile, back in Washington, her husband, rather than look inward at himself and his great nation to see what could be changed, decides to direct his malice at both Carl Ring and smaller nations whose threats he wants removed. Regrettably for Preston, regrettably for Earth, he soon finds out that Ring--who owns the audience at his trial at Fort Leavenworth--is now a martyr, now a magnet for desperate people. Preston soon invades Mexico and props up a right-wing regime, also making time to pour out fire on nations in Central America and the Middle East. Urged by Israel's prime minister, whose nation is now wearied despite its victory in another full-scale war--the Muslim world is livid over the return of Jewish daily sacrifices to the Temple Mount--Preston hits nuke-ruined Iran with record-breaking conventional bomb runs.But all man's efforts are in vain. God will still judge. Darcloch, in Scotland for now, will soon have a global ministry that says just that. Even now he knows that only courage and true love will do.

Author: Douglas A. Schrock

Publisher: Independently Published

Publication Date: 43868

Number of Pages: 236 pages

Binding: Fiction

ISBN-10:

ISBN-13: 9798610550282