The Left Behind Collection: All 12 Books (106 page)

Rayford announced, “Stand if you would. Stretch, embrace a friend, greet someone.” People stood and stretched and shook hands and embraced, but few said anything. Rayford said, “While you are standing I would like to excuse any who are overcome, hungry, restless, or for any other reason need to leave. We are long past our normal closing time. We will record the rest of this service for any who have to leave. I will be summarizing Bruce’s message for this morning, apologizing in advance for reading some of it to you. I am not the preacher he was, so bear with me. We’ll take a couple of minutes’ break now, so feel free to leave if you need to.”

Rayford backed away from the pulpit and sat. En masse, the congregation sat back down and looked expectantly at him. When it was clear no one was leaving, someone giggled, then another, and a few more. Rayford smiled and shrugged and returned to the pulpit.

“I guess there are things more important in this life than personal comfort, aren’t there?” he said. A few
amen
s resounded. Rayford opened his Bible and Bruce’s notes.

Buck knew what was coming. He had been over the material nearly as many times as Rayford had and had helped condense it. Still, he was excited. People would be inspired by what Bruce believed had happened, what he predicted would happen, and what was yet to come.

Rayford began by explaining, “As best we have been able to determine, these sermon notes were written onboard an aircraft while Bruce was returning from Indonesia last week. The name of the file is ‘Sermon’ with today’s date, and what he has here is a rough outline and a lot of commentary. Occasionally he lapses into personal notations, some of which I feel free to share with you now that he is gone, others that I feel compelled to keep from you now that he is gone.

“For instance, shortly after outlining where he wants to go with this message, he notes, ‘I was ill all night last night and feel not much better today. I was warned about viruses, despite all my shots. I can’t complain. I have traveled extensively without problem. God has been with me. Of course, he is with me now, too, but I fear dehydration. If I’m not better upon my return, I’ll get checked out.’

“So,” Rayford added, “we get a glimpse of the ailment that brought him low and which led to his collapse at the church upon his return. As most of you know, he was rushed to the hospital, where it is our belief that he died from this ailment and not from the blast.

“Bruce has outlined a message here that he believed was particularly urgent, because, as he writes, ‘I have become convinced we are at the end of the eighteen-month period of peace, which follows the agreement the Antichrist has made with Israel. If I am right, and we can set the beginning of the Tribulation at the time of the signing of the treaty between the nation of Israel and what was then known as the United Nations, we are perilously close to and must prepare for the next ominous and dire prediction in the Tribulation timeline: The Red Horse of the Apocalypse. Revelation 6:3-4 indicates that it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword. In my mind, this is a prediction of global war. It will likely become known as World War III. It will be instigated by the Antichrist, and yet he will rise as the great solver of it, the great peacemaker, as he is the great deceiving liar.

“‘This will immediately usher in the next two horses of the apocalypse, the black horse of plague and famine, and the pale horse of death. These will be nearly simultaneous—it should not surprise any of us to know that global war would result in famine, plague, and death.’

“Do any of you find this as astounding as I did when I first read it?” Rayford asked. All over the sanctuary, people nodded. “I remind you that this was written by a man who died either just before or just after the first bomb was volleyed in the global war we find ourselves in. He didn’t know precisely when it would occur, but he didn’t want to let one more Sunday pass without sharing this message with you. I don’t know about you, but I’m inclined to heed the words of one who interprets the prophecy of Scripture so accurately. Here’s what Bruce, in his own notes, says is yet to come:

“‘The time is short now for everyone. Revelation 6:7-8 says the rider of the pale horse is Death and that Hades follows after him. Power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth. I confess I don’t know what the Scripture is referring to when it says the beasts of the earth, but perhaps these are animals that devour people when they are left without protection due to the war. Perhaps a great beast of the earth is some symbolic metaphor for the weapons employed by the Antichrist and his enemies. Regardless, in short order one-fourth of the world’s population will be wiped out.’

“Bruce continues: ‘I shared this with three close compatriots not long ago, and asked them to consider that there were four of us in the room. Was it possible that one of us would be gone in due time? Of course it was. Might I lose a fourth of my congregation? I pray my church will be spared, but I have so many congregations now around the world, it is impossible to imagine that all could be spared. Of the quarter of the earth’s population that will perish, surely many, many of these will be tribulation saints.

“‘Given the level of modern technology, global war will take little time at all to wreak its havoc and devastation. These three last horsemen of the apocalypse will gallop one right after the other. If people were horrified by the painless, bloodless, disappearance of the saints at the Rapture, which resulted in enough chaos of its own because of crashes and fires and suicides, imagine the desperation of a world ripped to shreds by global war, famine, plague, and death.’”

Rayford looked up from Bruce’s notes. “My wife and I watched the news yesterday at the airport,” he said, “as I’m sure many of you watched wherever you were, and we saw these very things reported from all around the world. Only the greatest skeptic would accuse us of having written this after the fact. But let’s say that you’re skeptical. Let’s say you believe we are charlatans. Who then wrote the Bible? And when was it written? Forget Bruce Barnes and his present-day predictions, a week before the fact. Consider these prophecies made thousands of years ago. You can imagine the pain it brought Bruce to have to prepare this sermon. In a side note he writes, ‘I hate preaching bad news. My problem in the past was that I always hated hearing bad news too. I shut it out. I didn’t listen. It was there if I merely had ears to hear. I must share more bad news in this message, and though it grieves me, I cannot shirk the responsibility.’

“You’ll note Bruce’s turmoil here,” Rayford said. “Because I’m the one who has to deliver this, I empathize totally with where he was. The next part of his outline indicates that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, once they have visited their judgments on the earth, represent the first four of the seven Seal Judgments that Revelation 6:1-16 indicates will occur during the first twenty-one months of the Tribulation. According to Bruce’s calculations, using as a reference point the treaty signed between Israel and the United Nations, which we now know as the Global Community, we are closing in on the end of that twenty-one-month period. Therefore, it behooves us to understand clearly the fifth, sixth, and seventh Seal Judgments predicted in Revelation. As you know from what Bruce has taught before, there are yet to come two more seven-part judgments that will carry us through to the end of the seven-year Tribulation and the glorious appearing of Christ. The next seven will be the Trumpet Judgments, and the seven following that will be the Vial Judgments. Whoever becomes your pastor-teacher will, I’m sure, carefully walk you through those as the time draws near. Meanwhile, let me, with Bruce’s notes and commentary, make us all aware of what we have to look forward to just within the next few weeks.”

Rayford was exhausted, but worse than that, he had gone over and over in his mind what he was about to share. It was not good news. He felt weak. He was hungry. He was enough in tune with his body to know he needed sugar. “I’m going to ask for just a five-minute break. I know many of you may need to use the facilities. I need to get a drink. We’ll meet back here at precisely one o’clock.”

He left the platform, and Amanda made a beeline for the side door, meeting him in the corridor. “What do you need?” she asked.

“Besides prayer?”

“I’ve been praying for you all morning,” she said. “You know that. What do you want? Some orange juice?”

“You make me sound like a diabetic.”

“I just know what I would need if I’d been standing up there that long between meals.”

“Juice sounds great,” he said. While she hurried off, Buck joined Rayford in the hallway.

“Do you think they’re ready for what’s to come?” Buck asked.

“Frankly, I think Bruce has been trying to tell them this for months. There’s nothing like today’s newscasts to convince you your pastor is right.”

Buck assured Rayford he would continue praying for him. When he returned to his seat, he found that, again, it appeared not one person had left. It didn’t surprise Buck that Rayford was back in the pulpit exactly when he said he would be.

“I won’t keep you much longer,” he said. “But I’m sure you all agree that this is life-and-death stuff. From Bruce’s notes and teaching we learn that Revelation 6:9-11 points out that the fifth of the seven Seal Judgments concerns tribulation martyrs. The Scripture says, ‘I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.’

“In other words,” Rayford continued, “many of those who have died in this world war, and are yet to die until a quarter of the world’s population is gone, are considered tribulation martyrs. I put Bruce in this category. While he may not have died specifically for preaching the gospel or
while
preaching the gospel, clearly it was his life’s work and it resulted in his death. I envision Bruce under the altar with the souls of those slain for the word of God and for the testimony they held. He will be given a white robe and told to rest a while longer until even more martyrs are added to the total. I must ask you today, are you prepared? Are you willing? Would you give your life for the sake of the gospel?”