Daniel’s Final Week
Chapter One
The heavens shudder and galaxies, long held fast by gravity, retreat as if cowering in fright. Stars shake loose from their orbits and tumble to earth as Satan screeches before heaven’s throne. With access permitted by the Most High, the ancient serpent has once again flown through the air relinquished by the first Adam thousands of years earlier and stands before God, condemning those sealed by the Lamb’s blood.
“No! No! No!” the great dragon shouts as the heavens tremble and he grabs his sword as myriads of angels sweep over the deceiver of the whole world to fight his demonic legion who, millennia ago, fell from their heavenly place with the father of lies. Beelzebul’s wings spread and his face twists in rage as he charges the throne. “I won’t let you!”
Michael the archangel tosses the prince of demons aside, and when the lawless one regains his footing, his wings rise high over his head like a black, menacing storm as he flies toward Michael.
“I cast you to the ground forever!”
The Creator’s voice thunders throughout the heavens as the god of this age crumples before him, begging for his life. “I am the prince of the air!” Satan pleads. “The earth belongs to me!”
The Righteous One will hear no more. The accuser is barred from Heaven forever, and Michael lifts up the murderer and tempter and hurls him to earth as the armies of heaven wage tremendous war against the adversary’s vicious legion, throwing them from the heavenlies.
A mighty angel turns to the angelic throng and souls throughout heaven. “Rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them!” Together, God’s armies watch Lucifer fall as a magnificent star from heaven for good. “But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
The dragon falls to the bottomless pit, where an infinite number of his demonic horde have been locked away for centuries on end. An angel of God illuminates the penetrating dark, holding a key and looking at the destroyer raging in vengeance. Satan takes the key and unlocks the pit as his hellish army, grateful to their master, shriek on their release, blackening the skies and filling the air with a heinous and incomprehensible evil.
Satan wings his way in fury to Jerusalem, where the wounded or dead are being recovered from the ruins left by the massive earthquake that toppled a tenth of the city, killing 7,000 people. To his horror, the two hated witnesses who were murdered here have risen from the dead and into the skies in front of the watching world. Lucifer knows that if he is to rule the entire planet there has to be one final bloodbath—Israel must be annihilated and the Jews destroyed so his enemy cannot return and reign from there.
The ruler of this world hovers above the city, listening as the swine below cry out in fear and watching as the body of Victor Quade is pulled from the rubble, his head bloody from a monstrous wound. Hearts are broken as news spreads throughout the globe that their hero, the very one who saved them from the devastating plagues and hatred of the two witnesses, appears to be dead. The evil one waits for two days as more cameras and phones are focused on the horror of Victor’s wound and seemingly lifeless body before making his move.
Two thousand years ago, he entered Judas and, to his delight, Judas betrayed the devil’s great enemy. Satan roared in triumph as his enemy died on a cross outside of Jerusalem, but the enemy rose in devastating victory and today he lives, and his people who reek of Satan’s own end live as well. But now, for all eternity, they will die, and he will live forever.
With blackest rage he swoops down through the air and slithers into the body of Victor Quade, who has been laying lifeless for two days. Victor’s eyes flash open, his mouth turns up in a smile, and the world gasps.