The Mark of the Beast Part 22

All this was part of Satan's organized plan, for, when the moment of the crus.h.i.+ng out of this licentious, abominable religious system arrived, his plans, as regarded Lucien Apleon, The Anti-christ, were so perfected, by the ripeness of the world for the Anti-christ rule, that all else seemed plain sailing.

The poor, duped world knew Apleon only as the great SUPER-MAN, "long looked-for, come at last," the World's Deliverer, who was presently to be universally acclaimed as the World's Dictator.

The world had long been familiar with the system of private chaplains attached to great men's households. It was familiar knowledge to them that Dan, the Free-booter, (in the days of "The Judges") must needs have a renegade, runaway Levite for a priest, his salary thirty s.h.i.+llings a year, a suit of clothes and his victuals (as much as a renegade was worth). Absalom could do little, in his revolt, without the religious brand, so must needs have Ahithophel. And down to their own times, the World, at the period of Apleon's coming, was familiar with private chaplains.

Apleon's chaplain, a swarthy-skinned Jew (to all outward appearance,) was undoubtedly like Apleon himself, a Satanic resurrection, or if not a resurrection, certainly energized by the same infernal power. The Holy Ghost calls this man "The False Prophet." He exercised all the authority of Anti-christ, "_in his presence_," as well as in his absence. _Eight_ times the emphatic word "_he causeth_" is written of him, by the Holy Spirit, and a more hideous, lying, extraordinarily wicked catalogue of deeds is no where else to be found in the world's history:

"_He causeth the earth, and those that dwell in it_," (does that refer to the foul spirits who dwell in that awful under-world, from which we believe the Anti-Christ, as Judas re-incarnated came, or does it refer only to dwellers on the earth? It may well mean _both_!)--"_To wors.h.i.+p the first beast_."

As well as his co-a.s.sociate, Apleon--The Anti-christ, the false Prophet not only claimed the power to work miracles, but he _did_ work them, showing a baleful but powerful supernatural control over the forces of nature. "_And he doeth great miracles . . . And he deceiveth those that dwell ON the earth by reason of the signs which it was given him to work in the presence of the Beast_." In Egypt, three thousand four hundred or more years ago, it was demonstrated by Jannes and Jambres that there is a supernaturalism of the Devil, as well as of G.o.d, _against_, as well as _for_ G.o.d.

Both Anti-christ and his subaltern, the false prophet, dealt largely in the miracle of fire. The _two witnesses_, who had testified that they had come from G.o.d, had consumed their persecutors, again and again by fire, and the h.e.l.l-born imposters felt the necessity of showing that they, too, could command fire.

Utterly destroyed by the ten kings, the world was without an organized religion, and was ready for the fouler, fuller rule of Satan--the wors.h.i.+p of Anti-christ, and his image.

As G.o.d had ever had a Trinity of personality and power in Himself, so Satan in his d.a.m.nable, deceivable counterfeiting has now _his_ trinity.

Himself (Satan) the embodiment of evil, the suggester, creator, energizer, he makes a _mock_ Christ--Apleon, the Anti-christ, answers to the second Person of the divine Trinity. While Apleon's chaplain, the false prophet, answers to the third person of the divine Trinity.

Energized by Satan, even as Anti-christ himself is, the false Prophet becomes a mighty force among the world's peoples, persuading them that Apleon really is G.o.d, and worthy of wors.h.i.+p. The whole world has seen and heard of the marvellous miracles of "The Prophet," as he is called.

The infatuation of all the world for the Man of Sin, Lucien Apleon, was almost absolute and complete. He ruled the world, every department of it--social, political, commercial, religious. He blasphemed G.o.d. He blasphemed the translated Church that occupied the Heavenlies with her Lord.

Day by day, week by week, month by month he grew bolder, more impious, more cruel, more persecuting to the saints that were then living to G.o.d.

And through all this time Enoch and Elijah continued their "witness"

for their Lord. As judgment prophets, they had been sent in this age of judgment, to resist the awful, the gigantic blasphemies of Anti-christ, and to give to the poor, vain, deluded world its last awful warning. For bad as had been the apostate Church, so recently destroyed, the wors.h.i.+p of Anti-christ himself, would be infamously more impious.

The world hated them, yet _feared_ the two witnesses. More than once when blatant blasphemers, agents of Apleon, had openly opposed them, and cursed them and their witnessing, these witnesses of Jesus Christ, "_the faithful and true witness_," had sent forth fire from themselves and consumed their enemies. And the world had learned to fear them, though they ignored their warnings.

Many times, too, they had wrought fearful, havoc-making miracles, so that as it was with the Egyptians so, the days of Moses, so it came to be with all the peoples who witnessed the miracles of these prophets, Enoch and Elijah, for they shut the Heaven, in many places, "that rain should not fall during the days of their prophesying." They turned the waters into blood, and "smote the earth with every plague as often as they willed." Until the people hated, and _feared_ them, yet, all the time, they hardened themselves against G.o.d, and the testimony of the two prophets, as Pharaoh hardened himself against G.o.d.

The mult.i.tudes learned that though they were absolutely powerless to hurt the TWO WITNESSES themselves, yet, given that THE WITNESSES were not present the mob found that they could work their will upon their followers--and they did, continually.

It was the morning before the great event that had been announced, the nature of the coming event was not known, though a hundred speculations were rife. The city was astir early, for the night had been too sultry for much sleeping, and everyone was more or less excited, as to what would be the great event which the next thirty hours--more or less--was to bring. As the sun mounted higher and higher the whole of the districts around the city belched forth their tens of thousands of curious people of every nationality, their goal the city itself.

Suddenly--the suddenness was like some magical effect--the two worst-hated beings in all the world, appeared on a mound of marble blocks, within a hundred yards of and _out_side the Jaffa Gate.

They were G.o.d's two gracious, faithful WITNESSES. The mult.i.tudes began to converge towards the spot where they had suddenly appeared. (It was a curious fact, however much people might hate the testimony of the TWO WITNESSES they seemed to have no power to pa.s.s on, when once the men of G.o.d began to preach.)

"Men and brethren of every clime," rang out the voice of Enoch. "Once again, in the name of Jehovah--Jesus, we lift our voices to warn you of the shortness of the time left unto you in which to repent, and to turn unto G.o.d.

"Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die? as die you certainly will under the breath of the Christ, when He presently shall come--for He shall 'slay with the breath of His mouth.'

"We preach not the gospel of the grace of G.o.d which, aforetime, before 'The Rapture,' was preached, that gospel which was good news of glad tidings to all sinners. That gospel told how He had lived on earth for over thirty-years--G.o.d inhabiting a human body, for G.o.d was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself--it told how He died a death of shame and agony, a subst.i.tute for sinners, so that whosoever should believe on Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. And as many as believed on Him gave He power to become the sons of G.o.d.

"It told of His coming again to receive all those sons of G.o.d, dead or living, unto Himself in the Heavenlies. Less than four years ago He came. Thousands who knew the truth, but had not accepted it, before He came, did so after the RAPTURE of the saints, and thousands of those have already sealed, and many more thousands will yet, seal their faith with their blood.

"The days of our testimony draws shorter now, we have few more opportunities of warning you, and of witnessing to our G.o.d. But here, once more, this morning, we preach unto you the gospel of the Kingdom.

The gospel of the coming Kingdom of Christ.

"'For He shall reign whose right it is, and of His kingdom of peace, and joy, and love there shall be no end.' For nearly two thousand years men have prayed 'Thy kingdom come.' It is coming soon, but before He begins His reign, He shall put down all enemies under His feet. None will be able to hide from Him for His eyes will be as a flame of fire.

"Those who will _now_ seek Him, accept Him as their king, whether He comes in their life-time, or whether they lay down their lives as faithful witnesses to His coming, all such we proclaim, shall live the glorious life which He has for such."

The crowd numbered a hundred thousand now, and the majority of them kept up a sullen murmur against the preaching.

A native prince of a notable eastern realm, plucked a javelin-type of weapon from his c.u.mberband and hurled it full into the face of the preacher. It never reached its mark, but, boomerang like, it returned to the thrower and shattered and entered his right temple.

But for the density of the crowd, the eastern would have dropped to the earth like a stone--for he was dead.

A way was made for a few to drag the body clear of the mob, then, once clear, those who dragged it thence returned to the crowd. "Without natural affection,"--a trait of the Times--had degenerated into "without common humanity."

For half-an-hour longer THE TWO WITNESSES preached, warned, pleaded with the mult.i.tude. Then they stepped from the pile of marble blocks, and pa.s.sed quietly away.

As was customary after every such session of testimony, the crowd split up into many groups and discussed the whole situation.

On this occasion some five hundred men and women, mostly Jews, who had received the testimony,[1] were moving off in a body, when an unlocked for incident occurred.

Through all the witnessing of G.o.d's two prophets, there had stood among the listening crowd, a tall, swarthy-faced man, richly attired, a Jew by race, (that was evident from the marked Hebrew lines of his face).

The expression of his face, during the WITNESSING, had alternated between mocking and rage. Now his eyes followed the departing band of men and women who were loyal to the Gospel of the Kingdom.

With a scornful, devilish laugh, he pointed to the departing people, as he cried: "If we cannot kill the sp.a.w.n that preaches, why not kill the hatched-out ones?"

The crowd was ripe for anything. With a roar, like unto h.e.l.l itself, they raced after the G.o.dly band and in a moment surrounded them, brandis.h.i.+ng the long murderous knives of the east, and revolvers of the west.

The foul work of wiping out the whole band of faithful ones began.

Every shot went home, every knife found a faithful heart. The twin l.u.s.ts of hate and of religious fanaticism burned in the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of the mob. It was a carnival of cruelty and blood. Everyone wanted to see it. Other thousands hearing the sound of the shots, poured through the gates of the city. Everyone wanted a sight of the _entertainment_--for this the slaying was regarded, as, of old-time, Rome entertained herself by filling the eighty thousand seats of the great theatre, to see the Christians thrown to the lions.

There was not a coign of vantage to which the mob did not climb. They climbed upon the roofs, the balconies, held themselves perilously upon the sloping verandas, they stood upon window-sills, and hung from electric light pillars, and tram-line standards. They shouted, and sang, and urged upon the slayers to mutilate as well as kill "the carrion."

Then, suddenly, above all the din, and above even the crack of revolvers, the great song of Apleon, that foul ode of idolatrous laudation, set to most wonderful music, rang out from thousands of excited throats. The song was h.e.l.l-born, and h.e.l.lishly sung.

When, a moment later the whole mob had trampled upon the slain believers--wantonly, heedlessly trod upon them,--in their pa.s.sage towards the city, the swarthy Jew who had incited the crowd to their deed of blood, lit a cigarette, and crossed to where his aerial-chair waited him. He stepped into the upholstered seat, and turned his head to watch the mob, then with that evil laugh of his, he muttered: "Men are but sheep after all, and will follow any bell-wether!"

To his waiting driver, he said: "Esdraelon." The next moment the chair rose in the air, and like some wondrous bird soared away, northwards.

The swarthy Jew was Apleon's Chaplain, the false prophet.

Jerusalem was enormously crowded. Thousands upon thousands of people had come up from Babylon, as well as from every part of the world. The news had been flashed all over the earth, that some world-important event in connection with the Emperor-Dictator, would take place during this last week of the first three-and-a-half years of the "Great Covenant."

At the time of the offering of the Morning Lamb, just as the course of officiating priests were preparing for the slaughter of the lamb, Apleon's resident viceroy, entered the Temple enclosure, followed by a military detachment, and, accompanied by Apleon's chaplain, he whom G.o.d the Holy Ghost has called the false Prophet. The latter ordered the priest in charge of the "Course," to cease the offering, and to the amazed protest of the priest, he laughed scornfully, vouchsafing no other explanation than that it was his and the Emperor's command, that _all_ Jewish wors.h.i.+p-ritual should cease.

The priests could do no other than obey the command, enforced, as it was, by the presence of the Viceroy, _and the military force_.

The High-Priest lived a mile away from the Temple. One of the minor officials went off to apprise him of this strange new order.

As the man made his way down the marble road to the city level, he met a ponderous motor-driven trolley of great length--the thing was evidently bound for the Temple. Two hundred workmen followed behind the trolley, and the Temple-messenger noticed that on the trolley, lying beside the huge coffin-like packing-case that formed its chief burden, were a number of hoisting and hauling tackles, with a pile of handspikes, jacks, etc.

It was an hour before the messenger returned, the High-Priest accompanying him. By that time wonders--infernal wonders--had been wrought.