Apocalypse 2 The Sun Turns Red

Apocalypse 2 The Sun Turns Red

Leading the Sunday morning service was usually Rupert's job, but he wasn't there anymore. Stan, Pauline and Matty stood at the front of the church tent. Matty was holding a little Bible.
"The Lord himself will come down from Heaven with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God," she read. "Well, that happened on Thursday night, didn't it? We all saw the sign of the Son of Man, we saw that great big cloud in the sky. 'And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air.' We saw that on Thursday night. Rupert isn't here this morning. Rupert was taken away. So were half the people in the church. Those of us who weren't, it's because we weren't really saved." Pauline came up to the microphone.
"It isn't enough to say all the right prayers and sing all the right songs," she said. "You've got to mean it. You've got to really be sorry for your sins. Jesus has got to be the most important thing in your life."
"We need reality," said Matty, "and for years we haven't had it. For years we've been living a religion of half truths. We were taught that Jesus died on the cross and that no repentance and no obedience to church rules could possibly add to that. We thought that we didn't have to repent, we thought that we didn't have to obey the church rules, and every night before we went to sleep we used to listen to the preacher saying, 'You're great, you're doing fine, God's not mad with you, he's mad about you.' "

"What about President Elias," shouted someone at the back, "is he a Christian?"
"Does he tell people to repent?" asked Stan.
"No, he tells people to sign a little card saying that there is no God but President Elias and that they accept him as their Lord and Saviour. Then they have to give him a tenth of their money."
"The New Testament requires you to give all, not just 10%," said Pauline.
"How can you give all?"
"All of your possessions, just do with them what God wants you to do with them," said Pauline. "Use them to do his work, share them with other people."
"But if you give 10% of your money to President Elias you can do anything you like. And he gives you this little chip, I've got one in my hand." The man held up his hand. "You can hardly see it, can you? It contains my own personal website. Everything you could ever know about me is on this little chip on the back of my hand."
"I wouldn't want everyone to be able to read my personal information," said Stan.
"There are access codes, of course. Your doctor will use his password to see your medical records, when you apply for a job they use their password to look at your work history. No need to email a CV anymore. President Elias is good. He's trying to build the kingdom of Heaven on Earth."
"God's judgement is coming on the Earth," said Stan. "It's going to be destroyed."
"Why are you always so cynical? President Elias is leading us into a golden age. He is using our money to build a school, dig a well and open a landing strip for an aircraft in every third world village. He'll help the western countries as well. Free medical care for everybody."
"God doesn't want your signature on a piece of paper," said Matty. "He wants you to live your life for him. Every day should be a day of service to God, what have you done for God today? What would you do if you broke one of God's commandments? Would you get on your knees, would you pray for forgiveness, would you repent? You wonder why you don't have the Holy Spirit. You wonder why you don't have the tremendous, exciting experiences other Christians have. If you want the Holy Spirit you need to be holy. We say we are carnal Christians. We say, I am a Christian but I can still have an abortion, I am a Christian but I can still get drunk. We think we can ask God to forgive us and live like the devil. Well, there's an old fashioned English word for a carnal Christian, and that's a hypocrite. God hates hypocrites! We don't need to be hypocrites, we need to be disciples."

Stan broke the bread and poured out the wine. Matty and Pauline helped him to pass it around. The congregation was still quite large, in spite of the events of Thursday night. There must have been many people in the church who thought they were saved and hadn't been.
"If you feel that you are a true disciple of Christ," Stan said, "or even if you just think that you really want to be, you've been listening to what has been said this morning and you really want to live the Christian life, you are welcome to take the bread and the wine."
"I'm off to the pub," said the man who had been shouting about President Elias. "Anyone coming with me?" A few people left. An old man said to Stan,
"Could I take the bread and wine? I know I haven't been a very good Christian. I thought it was all right to sin, all right to be a Christian one day a week, all right to be someone else the rest of the time." He was in tears. "Now I know that it isn't."
"Yes, you can take the bread and wine."

Terry was watching the television in the pub. The man who had been shouting about President Elias arrived with the few people who had followed him out of church.
"Have you got one of these yet?" he said, holding up his hand to Terry.
"No Steven, I haven't. I've heard of it, though. It'll be on the television again in a minute." President Elias appeared on the television screen, standing beside an aeroplane in a third world village.
"You know how much these people's lives could be changed if they had clean water, if they had their own school, if they had a landing strip for their aeroplane. It carries their crops to market, it brings the doctor to them when they're sick. Give these people the tools and they could make a better world for themselves. Join me in our fight to bring about the kingdom of Heaven on Earth. Just call this number to find out the location of your nearest centre."
"He seems like a nice man," said Terry.
"Yes, he is," said Steven, "the only people who don't believe in him are your Pauline and the people in that church."
"Oh," said a teenager who had come from the church with him, "don't mention the people in that church."
"They're not content to be ordinary Christians. They think that we're all hypocrites and that Pauline, Matty and Stan are the real Christians. They call themselves disciples."
"Disciples, disciples," said the teenager. "The twelve disciples. I think there's only twelve of them."
"Don't take any notice of people like that," said Terry. "I'm going to call that number." He took out his mobile phone. "That president seems like a decent bloke." A newsreader appeared on the television screen.
"The einstein space telescope is picking up pictures of an object which is heading towards Earth." The pictures from the space telescope appeared. "This object was first seen moving towards the earth three days ago and seems to be moving at very high speed. We spoke to professor of astronomy at Oxford University, David Hawking."
"The object seems to be a ball of rock and ice from somewhere on the outskirts of the solar system," said the professor. "Its present course and speed will bring it to the inner solar system and very close to the earth in six months time."
"Will it collide with the earth?" asked the reporter.
"It's difficult to say. We'll know better nearer the time. It's present trajectory will bring it within 10,000 miles of the earth. That's as much as we can actually say."
"Is it big?"
"Yes. If that hits Earth it's going to cause problems."
"Would we become like the dinosaurs?"
"Hopefully not, hopefully we'll be resourceful enough and brave enough to survive as a species. But the effects of being struck by this object could be quite terrifying."

On Monday morning it was cold. It was April but it felt like January. When Matty woke up there was frost on the window. The sun and the sky were a peculiar red colour. What had happened? She went to see Stan in his tent. He was lying there in his sleeping bag, still wearing his fleece, gloves and hat.
"Hello Matty. It's freezing cold today. It's like the middle of winter. What's happened?"
"Take a look at the sun," said Matty. Stan came outside the tent and gasped. Pauline and Terry came out of the old ambulance. The ambulance radio was playing loudly.
"Have you heard the news?" Pauline asked.
"No," said Matty.
"It's America. There's been a huge volcanic eruption. Millions of people are dead."
"It's Yellowstone Park," said Terry. "It happened at 3 o'clock this morning. It was late evening over there."
"Didn't they evacuate?" asked Stan.
"Well, they tried to, but how you can evacuate an entire country the size of the United States?" said Terry. "It was a huge volcanic eruption. Giant hail stones came down from the sky, they travelled hundreds of miles. Then the rock and the asphalt, ground up into a fine ash and flowing like water, that would be all the way down the east coast of America and hundreds of miles inland."
"I suppose people in California would've been all right," said Matty.
"No," said Pauline, "they're along the San Andreas fault. There was an earthquake worse than the one they had two hundred years ago. The west coast of America is completely destroyed. The only part of America that did survive was the bit in the middle. It's a big country, if you're more than six hundred miles from Yellowstone Park and nowhere near the west coast you're okay."
"Why was God's judgement so devastating against America?" asked Stan.
"Why do you think?" asked Matty. "The kind of religion they taught, religion that couldn't really save people but lulled them into a false sense of security and made them think that they were Christians when they were really going to a lost eternity. The rampant materialism and the absolute poverty of many of the poorest people. The creation of a third world country within the world's richest country. America was ripe for God's judgement."
"I'm really glad we don't live in America," said Stan.
"Think about it," said Pauline. "We're in the same boat. Our weather has changed. We might survive a cool April morning, but what about the plants in the field? They could all die in weather like this. We'll all starve."
"I hadn't thought of it like that," said Stan.
"President Elias won't let us starve," said Terry. "There's enormous amounts of relief coming from the middle states of America where everybody was all right. They're going to grow vegetables along the equator in massive farms with electric sprinklers. Vegetables don't take long to grow. They'll be ready in just a few weeks, even if everything else dies. And the conditions along the equator will be just right for potatoes, beetroot, turnips, carrots and everything else that used to be grown in this country."

Matty arrived at work. The sun shone red on the tram, and as the one hour tram journey had gone by the day did not seem to have got any warmer. It was freezing as she walked across from the tram station to the Inland Revenue buildings, as cold as an icy December day with a strong wind, except that this was April and there was no wind. When she arrived at work her boss was standing by the entrance door.
"Have you heard the news, Matty?" he asked.
"Yes, I have." Someone else came through the door behind her.
"Have you heard the news this morning?" the boss asked again.
"No."
"You don't know about the volcano in America? It's Yellowstone Park. It erupted during the night. It's destroyed most of the country. There was an earthquake down the west coast as well." Matty went to the canteen and bought cocoa pops with banana milk shake.
"Have you heard about the volcano?" an older woman asked.
"Yes, everyone's talking about it."
"I hope you support the president. He gives you this little chip in the back of your hand." She held up her hand.
"I don't have one."
"You need one. Those cocoa pops won't last forever. We all pay him a tenth of our income. You should be making a contribution."

Matty sat down at her computer and began to work. In spite of the tragic events of the morning it was just an ordinary working day. There wasn't much anyone could do about the events in America, or the insecurity of the world food situation. Customers had moved house and couldn't find the website. One man's computer wouldn't let him update his details on the website because the name was wrong on his account. A woman had forgotten her national insurance number. These were the immediate problems that Matty had to deal with. Matty turned on her wipod. She looked at a list of Rupert's sermons she had downloaded from the church website. Rupert had been working on a series of sermons on the second coming of Christ when the Christians all disappeared. She had already listened to his sermon about the rapture. Now she turned her attention to the sermon on the judgement of the world.
"When the first angel sounds his trumpet, hail and fire rain down on the earth. Now how could that happen? If a volcano erupted underground. There is a type of volcano that has no crater, and the high pressure gases in that volcano will build up and build up all the time until there is some sort of catastrophic volcanic eruption. It will have to blow its way through several hundred feet of rock. This makes it far more powerful. There is a volcano like this in Yellowstone Park, and the ground above it has been bending due to the pressure building up underneath. One day it is going to blow. When the fourth angel sounds his trumpet, the sun, moon and stars are darkened. This would happen in a major volcanic eruption like the one that happened in Africa in 1815. The ash and gases would block out the light of the sun. The weather would be effected and the crops wouldn't grow properly. There would be a famine in Europe. The second angel sounds his trumpet and a huge mountain, all ablaze, falls into the sea. This could be a comet or an asteroid crashing into the ocean. The ships are destroyed. This would happen if it caused a tsunami. Another star, blazing like a torch, fell on a third of the rivers and springs of water and turned them bitter. One American astronomer believes that this is the ice of a comet. Somehow it would be seperated from the comet and follow a seperate path, perhaps falling as snow on the rivers, streams and reservoirs, poisoning the water. The substance the Bible describes as Wormwood existed in those times as a treatment for intestinal worms. The same acid is in the ice of a comet. This would certainly cause the same result." Matty tried to concentrate on her work. It was difficult, now that Rupert was discussing something that was so interesting. All of this had been prophesied in the Bible, the object that was out in space somewhere about to pass very close to the earth and the volcano at Yellowstone Park. It all made sense. This was God's punishment.

On Thursday Matty didn't go straight home. She went down to Newcastle City Centre. She had to tell everybody. She wasn't sure what she was going to do. She saw a man on a market stall selling battery megaphones. Matty bought one. She stood on the stones next to Grey's Monument and began preaching.
"These events were prophesied in the Bible," she said. "The volcano in Yellowstone Park. The sun turning red. The asteroid hurtling towards Earth."
"They say it's a comet now," said a man in the crowd.
"All right, a comet, that's even more like the Bible. It's going to be horrible when that thing strikes."
"They don't even know it's going to hit us," shouted somebody else. "Even if it could, don't you think President Elias would send a missile up to destroy it?"
"He might not be able to," said Matty. "In the Bible the comet, if that's what it is, hits the world. It causes a huge tsunami, it poisons all the water in the rivers and the streams."
"What are we supposed to do about it? You could get knocked down by a tram tomorrow."
"You've got to repent. You've got to turn from your sins and put your trust in God. Some of you think that you're Christians but you're not. It isn't enough to have some second rate experience of God in your life. God is in everybody's life. There's a certain amount of divine providence for everyone, that door that opened to you at that particular time, that bad thing that nearly happened but didn't happen. He is the Lord of the universe, no surprise if he sometimes manipulates events to your favour. Doesn't mean your one of his followers, does it? He causes his sun to shine and his rain to fall on the evil and the good. Some people ask Jesus to be their Saviour and live like the devil. That's why they're still here. That's why they weren't taken away in the rapture."
"They were taken away to be reeducated," shouted someone in the crowd. "The government teleported them away to a reeducation centre while President Elias brought about the kingdom of Heaven on Earth."
"No, they weren't taken away to be reeducated, they were taken away because God's judgement is going to come on the earth. The earth cannot be reformed, it has to be destroyed. This is your last chance. You must believe in Jesus now. God hates hypocrites. You need to be a disciple. You need Jesus to be your number one. He isn't your hobby, he isn't that nice music that you listen to and the place you go on Sunday, he's the most important thing in your life and everything you do is somehow done for his pleasure. He isn't your friend, he's your Lord. If you offend him, you've got to get down on your knees and ask for forgiveness."
"President Elias is good, President Elias is good," the people started shouting, drowning out the sound of Matty's voice through the small megaphone. An elderly couple walked up to Matty.
"Don't speak ill of the president," the old woman said. "He's done this world a lot of good. He's creating paradise."
"He's creating the kingdom of Heaven on Earth," said her husband.
"No, he isn't creating the kingdom of Heaven on Earth," said Matty, through the megaphone. "God's judgement is coming, the Earth and everything in it will be destroyed. But you don't have to go to Hell, if you turn from your sins and turn to Jesus you can still be saved." The old man started punching Matty on the back with his fists. A policeman came along.
"Do you intend to continue preaching?"
"Yes, I do," said Matty. "I've come down here for a whole day. I've only been here ten minutes."
"In that case I'm arresting you for your own personal safety. You have the right to remain silent but anything you do say will be taken down as evidence and may be used against you." The policeman handcuffed Matty and took her down to the police station. He locked her in a cell. This was like it had been in the early days of Christianity, Matty thought. If you wanted to restore the New Testament church, you had to remember what it had been like. The majority of people in it spent a lot of time in prison. She prayed in the cell.
"Oh God, let these people listen to me. I pray that they will understand. I pray that they won't believe the lies of President Elias. I pray that they won't worship him, that they won't let him put a chip in their hand, that they will turn to Jesus." An hour later the policeman led her out of the cell into the interrogation room where he sat down with a policewoman.
"Now, let us see what we could charge you with," said the policewoman. "Obstructing an officer in the course of his duty."
"I didn't," said Matty, "I came quietly."
"About the only thing you do quietly," said the policeman.
"Using language likely to cause alarm, harrassment and distress," said the policewoman.
"When that comet hits the world it'll cause alarm, harrassment and distress. I didn't insult any of the people I was talking to, I wasn't harrassing them."
"You were insulting President Elias," said the policeman.
"I think you will find, officer, that I have not broken any laws."
"Is she right?" the policeman turned to the policewoman.
"What did you say about President Elias?" the policewoman asked.
"That he couldn't rebuild the kingdom of Heaven on Earth, that the world would be destroyed."
"Your behaviour was likely to cause a breach of the peace," said the policeman.
"I wouldn't call an old man punching me a breach of the peace."
"Wouldn't you now?"
"No, I would call it assault. You should have arrested him."
"Your words were calculated to provoke him to violence," said the policewoman.
"You put yourself at considerable risk," said the policeman, "so I had to remove you. You insulted President Elias. You provoked people to violence."
"A report will be sent to the Attorney General. He will decide whether to prosecute. But Matty, after what you said about the president, I'm sure that he will prosecute."

A few weeks later Matty was summoned to court. The policeman spoke.
"This woman insulted President Elias. She considers herself to be a disciple and believes that all of President Elias' followers are going to Hell, and that she and her few friends are the only people who will be saved. She also said that President Elias would fail in his attempt to build the kingdom of heaven on Earth. The comet would hit the earth, everything would be destroyed, and that would be God's judgement on President Elias and his followers. The language and the content of her sermon, which she shouted through a loud hailer, provoked the people in the crowd to start shouting very loudly and caused an old man to start punching her. When warned about the extreme danger of her behaviour, this woman insisted that she had only just arrived, had only been preaching for ten minutes, and intended to preach all day. I arrested her for her own personal safety. Not only that, but even after her arrest this woman has continued to preach in the city centre several times a week, in spite of the fact that she was told that this case was under review by the Attorney General and that it could result in criminal proceedings."
"Are you Matty Thornton?" asked the Magistrate.
"I am," she said.
"Is your address caravan 27 at the Southwick Local Authority camp site?"
"It is."
"Well Ms.Thornton, I have heard the evidence against you. I will pass an Anti-Social Behaviour Rehabilatation and Treatment Order. You will attend counselling sessions and do 50 hours community service. I also order you to pay 1500 Euros costs."

A few weeks later Matty sat in a small office in front of the counsellor and the psychiatrist.
"Good afternoon, Matty," said the psychiatrist. "This is my colleague, Mr. Jones, he's a counsellor."
"Hello Matty. I'm going to ask you some questions just so we can try to understand you a bit better and maybe you can understand yourself a bit better as well. Who is President Elias?"
"He is the Anti-Christ."
"Why is he the Anti-Christ?"
"He is the lawless one prophesied in the Bible. He stands in the temple of God and claims to be God."
"If President Elias isn't God then who is God?"
"Jesus is God."
"Explain what will happen to the world."
"There will be a terrible time of God's judgement and a time of awful suffering never seen since the beginning of the world. The elements will melt. The earth and everything in it will be laid bare."
"How will this happen?"
"When the comet collides with our planet."
"What will happen then?"
"The comet will split into two. One part will fall into the sea. The other part, the icy part, will fly through the atmosphere disintegrating and poisoning the water supply."
"Who will be saved?"
"The disciples will be saved."
"You and your friends who you call the disciples. Will anyone else be saved?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"We are the only true disciples of Christ."
"What will happen to the follower of President Elias?"
"They will go to Hell."
"Why will they go to Hell?"
"Because Jesus is God and President Elias is the Anti-Christ. Worshippers of the Anti-Christ will go to a lost eternity."
"What will happen to the disciples of Jesus?"
"They will go to Heaven. They will live with Jesus forever in paradise."
"I think you're having a stress related emotional crisis," said the psychiatrist. "We've all been under a lot of stress lately, haven't we? It's not the end of the world but it probably feels like it. You are going through a distressing time in your life. There will be happier times in your life. You will recover from this temporary reduction in your mental health. I'm sure that when you see that President Elias has done everything right and the world has survived you will feel much better. I would give you some anti-depressants but I am unable to access your medical records as you don't have a chip. It doesn't really matter, the symptoms will be severe without the medication but this is a temporary problem in your life and I really do expect you to come out of it. There is nothing seriously wrong with you. You have nothing to worry about."

Matty began doing her community service. She had been put with a group of people who were putting up fences in the park.
"What did you do?" asked a woman who was hammering nails.
"I'm a preacher," said Matty.
"Are you one of those disciples?"
"Yes."
"Are you and your friends the only true disciples anywhere?"
"Yes, I suppose we are. We are disciples of Jesus."
"We are disciples of President Elias," said one of the men. "Isn't he going to save the world?"
"No one can save the world. There is still time to save your souls. This world and the things in it are passing away."
"You disciples think we're all going to Hell," said the woman. "I don't go around murdering people."
"A third of the women in this country have had abortions. They probably think they're nice people," said Matty.
"That's not the same as murder," said the woman.
"Isn't it? The little thing has its own heartbeat and its own brain. Who's to say it doesn't have feelings too? Can you live your whole life without breaking God's commandments?"
"We tithe our ten percent," said the man. "President Elias knows who are his. I can do what I like. I don't have to obey the commandments."
"When you stand before God on the day of judgement do you expect to go to Heaven or Hell?"
"I'll hear no more of this," said the woman. "Don't talk to me like that when I'm holding a hammer in my hand."
"Well, I don't have to worry about being sentenced to two hundred hours community service," said the man. "According to the disciples the world is going to end this year, so I'll only have to complete fifty hours." They all laughed.