SIX

In the conference room of Eternity Church in Manhattan, the small group of men had their own special custom for meetings of this kind: no cell phones, no wireless handheld devices. That meant they were temporarily cut off from the news of the day and that they could focus on the subject at hand with a hydraulic kind of intensity.

Today they felt a palpable atmosphere of anticipation, though no one said it aloud. It was like being on the beach when the tide suddenly sucks back and you know a tsunami is about to hit.

The chairman of this small biannual conclave was Peter Campbell, head pastor of Eternity Church, which was housed in a historic brown-brick cathedral in downtown New York. Forty-three, athletic, and with a calm kind of kinetic energy, he had a passion for the study of Bible prophecies.

The other six members of the group had the same passion. Two of them were professors at seminaries. Two others were pastors. One of them was the head of the Israel Study Institute in Jerusalem. And then there was the oldest, “Doc,” a retired president of a Bible college, who had authored expositions on the books of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation and during his long ministry had picked up a master’s degree in archeology as well as a Ph.D. in Semitic languages.

They had spent the last hour in prayer. Each felt a crushing burden for what they saw off on the thin line of the horizon.

A seminary professor led off. “We’ve met here together for the last three years, contemplating and debating, wondering what we would do if this day ever came in our lifetime. And now it’s here.”

“And yet,” one of the pastors said, “we all know the admonition from our Lord, standing on the Mount of Olives — ”

Another pastor chimed in, quoting “‘Of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.’”

One of the seminary theologians had a point to make, the same idea that he had voiced before. “But remember what event the Lord is referring to in that passage. Not the events leading up to His coming, but rather, the actual occurrence of His physical appearance. Which means that we might be able to identify the preappearing events, the stage setting, so to speak, with great accuracy. While still not knowing the actual day or hour of the second coming of Christ.”

“Doc” cleared his throat loudly. The room grew quiet as he took a swig of water. He removed his tinted glasses from his wrinkled face and put them on the table. He was not prone to speak quickly. He would choose his words carefully, like a sculptor cutting a face out of marble, with each blow calibrated just so. He knew that every word, like a chisel on stone, had consequences.

His voice was weak and had the tremolo of age. “Great events cast long shadows. Can we deny that we see the shadows of these epochal events approaching? Some are even at our doorstep. Jesus upbraided the Pharisees, didn’t He, for failing to read the signs of the times? Will we be like them, failing to tell the world the very thing that we see? While the world is saying it is a good day because it’s morning … friends, we realize that the sky is red. How can we stay silent?”

No one spoke for a full minute. Finally Peter Campbell said, “I believe, just like the apostles of old, that we have ‘to declare what we have seen and what we have heard,’ tell the truth — unvarnished — and let the chips fall where they may.” No one dissented. So it would begin.