Armageddon's Slaves Chapter Two

Judith spent the first few minutes of the ride home talking about the sermon and study lesson. After a few minutes of dissecting the sermon about keeping morally clean, the silence stopped her. She turned to watch Samuel, who drove with grim determination, gripping the wheel hard enough to turn his knuckles white.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Something, what happened in the library?”

“I shouldn’t talk about it.”

Judith pouted, and noted that Sophia would tell her anyway. Samuel sighed and said nothing.  The rest of the trip home passed in silence. When they arrived, Judith announced that she was going to meet her sister, the two of them were going to do some public Disciple-making at the Mall.

Samuel mumbled something.

“What did you say?”

“I said, have a good time, preach the word. I have to work on my part for midweek Gathering.”

David grinned at him, probably he’d heard what his Dad really said, “that’s a good excuse.”

As soon as she was out the door, father and son starting making sandwiches for lunch.

“Are you and Mom Okay?”

“We’re fine, I’m just under some stress. I want to talk to you, if that’s all right. Just sound you out about some things if you don’t have plans.”

David said he might meet with some friends at a local teen center and play some basketball. He hesitated as he said it.

“Friends from school, not the Gathering?”

Another hesitation, “I know you don’t approve, but…I don’t have friends in the Gathering.”

Samuel didn’t know what to say to that. He told David to have fun, but to keep his behavior appropriate for a Disciple. It sounded lame, even as he said it. He looked up to see David eying him. 

Suddenly he saw his son as an adult.

“Dad, what’s going on?”

Samuel told him about the promotion. The trucking company he worked for wanted to make him manager of operations and training at all its shops. Although a good opportunity, it would take time away from his Servant duties. The other Servants would complain, perhaps force him to resign. That, he knew, would not sit well with his wife.

“Dad, you should take it, you need to take care of yourself more. I’ve decided I don’t care what the 

Apostles say about the end of the World coming soon. You can’t just let pass you by while you’re waiting for The Lord to wipe everybody else off the face of the Earth. 

“I’m going to college, and I’m not the only one!”

David looked upset, breathing heavily and sweating. He added that he wasn’t going to spend his life in a dead end job.

“Who else is going to college?”

“Ricky Halbert in the South Hill Gathering for one. He’s going to go to Eastern this fall so he can learn how to run his father’s business. His uncle made sure it’s okay for him to do that.”

That set Samuel’s mind to thinking of Gloria Lighthorse. He asked how well David knew Ricky, and what he was like.

“He’s kind of a jerk because of his uncle. Thinks he’s something special. All the girls want to marry him.”

Samuel nodded. The Word’s strict rules about sex and dating encouraged early marriage, as it was the only way young men and women could get together. He agreed with the moral requirements, but was beginning to wonder if the harsh application led to bad results. Every Gathering had its share of struggling young married couples.

“It doesn’t help,” David went on, “that all the parents are trying to fix him up with their daughters all the time. They’re always saying they want them to hang out with Claire Halbert, but what they want them to do is get close to Ricky.”

That shed new light on this morning’s conversation. When Caleb formed his committee, they needed to look into that aspect of the matter.

 “David, I have a lot to think about. Forget Ricky. Your decision to continue your education is between us, and what others do has no bearing on it.”

“Mom wants me to go to New Jerusalem. I’m not going to end up like Uncle Harry.”

The boy had a point. After fifty-some-odd years working at New Jerusalem, Sophia and Judith’s uncle lived above the Larson’s garage. Too old to work, they dismissed him from the headquarters family. Now put out to pasture, he mostly sat alone in his room except for meals, gathering and infrequent rounds of Disciple-making.

**

Samuel sat down in the small bedroom he’d converted into a study. He pulled out the book he needed to prepare for his part on the midweek gathering, but didn’t even open it. “What’s wrong with me?”

After several minutes of staring at the book on his desk, he picked up a pencil and piece of scratch paper. After a moment of thought, he started a list.

Gossip

Promotion

Review Committee – Caleb’s attitude

David and College

What happened to Paradise?

Charlene!!!

The pencil broke has he started to put another angry exclamation point after his daughter’s name. He looked at the list, trying to push down anger and slow his racing heart.

The first two items were minor matters. One way or another, he’d figure out the promotion. He’d never heard of a Gathering that didn’t have a gossip problem.  Caleb was hardworking and loyal disciple, he could also be a jerk. He shouldn’t let personalities impact his faith.

The other items presented a problem. They related directly to his faith in the teachings of the Word of God Foundation. Reviews were necessary to preserve the Gathering as a sanctuary for the Lord’s People. Disciples needed to focus on preaching the coming of Paradise, not advancing careers or education.

Like too many Disciples, he’d allowed the excitement about 2008 to cloud his thinking. The Lord’s Word revealed signposts pointing toward the arrival of Paradise. Sometimes it took time to discern the meaning. Instead of accepting the Word’s direction, the Disciple’s expected Paradise to arrive in 2008, going well beyond anything from New Jerusalem.

For a split second, he again saw the 2007 Grand Gathering in Seattle in his mind. Hysteria seized everyone, even the Apostles. But 2008 wasn’t the foretold time, it provided another signpost.  The intervening years saw many changes sweep the Foundation. At one time The Word downplayed emerging technology, now it embraced the new ways to communicate. He’d heard rumors about new sound and video systems going into the Gathering Houses.

He refused to think about Charlene, the memories too painful. He and Judith made a hard decision to live by faith, they considered no other course of action. He dropped the paper into the shredder under the desk and tried to think only positive thoughts.

 He looked at the computer sitting on his desk, spreading The Word of God electronically across the world at the speed of light. The Bible said Disciples would preach The Word the Word everywhere in the Last Days. What other proof did he need?

He opened his Bible Study guide and went to work. The way out of doubt and depression lay in working hard, focusing on God’s Word and Blessings it promised. The promise of Paradise meant he would see his daughter, hold her, and love her once more. No other religion offered that.

Humming one of the songs from the morning Gathering, he went to work.

His good mood lasted all of three hours. It ended when Judith came home. The pile of bags she carried confirmed his suspicion that “Disciple-making at the mall” was only cover for a shopping trip. Then she told him that they were all going to have dinner at her sister’s on Friday.

“It will be fun. Sophia said they’ve heard some new information from New Jerusalem. We’ll hear about it at the Grand Gatherings this summer. Big stuff is coming. We’ll see Charlene soon.

Samuel decided he’d rather have a root canal. He hoped that when The Lord resurrected his daughter in Paradise he’d bring his wife back as well. When they married, she had been positive, joyful and fun. Charlene’s death robbed him of that woman. Now she thought of nothing but seeing their daughter in Paradise on Earth.

But he had no idea what had gone wrong in Sophia’s life. She’d been domineering, self-righteous, and self-absorbed as long as he’d known her. More than a few local Disciples joked that she and Caleb made the perfect couple.

Armageddon’s Slaves © Jeffrey Thomas  All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. All events and characters are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.