FIFTEEN
If I enact an error against one calleth a brother, I will be blessed if he bringeth me before courts of men, for my accuser is exposed as a false brother.
Julius Mann, Traditions, vol. 6, ch. 5
“Bern!” Roy shouted as he hammered on the back door. No lights were on and the usual and expectant noises from Bern’s TCS were silent.
Lenny walked around the house and tried to peer between the boards on the windows, and came back to Roy with his conclusion. “Looks like he’s not here,” he said with a shrug as he began to wander back down the path to the street.
“Not another one,” Roy said to himself. “First the Carters, now Bern. What’s going on?”
“What was that you said, Reverend?” Lenny asked as he stopped and looked back. “What was that you said about the Carters?”
Roy had forgotten that Lenny did not know what he found at the Carter home. He tried to act casual about it, so Lenny would not react badly.
“Lenny, the Carters were not home yesterday, when I went to find them. I don’t know where they went. I’ve left messages for them, but I haven’t found anything.”
Lenny leaned against the house and looked down to the ground. “Wow,” he said slowly. “The Beast makes war with the saints.”
“What are you talking about?” Roy asked as he studied his reaction. “There’s no reason to say things like that.”
“Why not? It sure looks to me that’s what’s going on. You said it yourself: First the Carters, now Bern.”
“Let’s not get carried away. We don’t know where Bern is. And the Carters may have gone off somewhere, like Lake Bungston again; I don’t know.”
“Why would they do that? They’ve lost their kids. They wouldn’t have gone off anywhere, not to some place like Lake Bungston, not without letting us know. It doesn’t make sense. We should have paid more attention to that car a few minutes ago. They might have put a body in the boot and we missed it.”
“You’re getting carried away.”
“We were too busy talking about stuff that don’t matter.”
“I think it matters, Lenny. We have to talk these things through. Look, perhaps the Carters have reached their spiritual maturity and have counted worthy to be raptured.”
“What? How can that be?”
“You know about the partial rapture?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s like that except it’s a gradual thing. The gradual-rapture theory.”
“I haven’t heard of that one before. What happens with that?”
“Well, those who are not mature in the faith at the start of the last seven years miss the rapture and have a chance to be in it over the seven years of the Great Tribulation, by rebuilding their faith.”
“Yeah?”
“When their faith is sufficient for Heaven, they are then raptured away and join the others around God’s throne. It’s like an on-going process, over the seven years. That’s why only about half of all the Christians have gone; we who are left are lukewarm and we must make our faith hot, so to speak.”
Roy was making it up, but it sounded as good, or better, than anything he had read or heard. It might have even been given to him by divine inspiration, in the way Wuting and Jian received their guidance. Lenny looked interested in the idea, and Roy was relieved that he was no longer thinking about any Beasts coming to get him.
“You really think that could be what’s going on?”
“Take a look around you. What do you think?”
“You think that’s what happened to the Carters? And you neighbour?”
“It could be. I would have to say it’s the best theory I’ve heard so far. It explains a lot of things.”
“What do we have to do to be raptured?”
“Build up our faith, to perfection, like theirs obviously were. No man can judge the heart of others; only God can do that. Some are obviously not yet right.”
“You mean like Wuting and Jian? You think they’re not yet right? I’ve never seen anyone as spiritually strong as those two. Their prayers are powerful. You don’t think they’re right?”
“No, I didn’t say that. I think they’re special; here to help us; sent by God.”
“But why are they still here? Shouldn’t they be in Heaven with all the others who are strong in the faith?”
“Well, they’re part of the 144,000. They have to be here.”
Lenny went silent as he contemplated the idea. For the first time in a long time Roy felt more in control, like when he had a church to run. He was even starting to believe his idea, his gradual-rapture theory. He planned to search through the Bible to find something to support it.
Lenny commented on how late the time was and said he should be going home. He said he did not want to miss the Two, but he would prefer to meet them in the morning when they started off on another prayer walk. Roy knew he had him thinking, and greatly calmed. He made a mental note to ask Wuting what he thought of his gradual-rapture idea.