“Hi Jack, Cath.” She gave Cath a hug. “Good to see you both.” She turned to Wiley. “I wanted to meet you too. I’ve seen your photo many times but never got to meet you. Best place to meet, hey?”
Wiley looked a tad uncomfortable. “It is. No tears or pain here, but—”
“There’s no bitterness there, Thomas.” Sally tapped her chest. “To be truthful, what you did to me helped me find the Lord.”
“I suppose what I did helped me get here too—eventually. I had a thorough knowledge of the Bible, but it was all head knowledge. I used that knowledge to convince others we needed to stop people from coming to the Lord.”
“It must have been convincing. What did you tell them?” Sally moved closer. Keen to hear his story.
Wiley looked over towards another lady. They exchanged smiles. He returned his gaze to Sally. “I had it in for Christians. Hated them. And then I came across this Bible verse that spoke about Jesus returning when the number of non-Jews becoming believers was reached—the last gentile, the one who will trigger the return of the Lord.” He paused and gave Sally a smile. “It could’ve been you.”
“Oh no, I don’t think so.” Sally blushed a cute blush.
“Well, we’re all grateful for whoever it was,” Cath said.
Wiley smiled. “We may never know, but I convinced a bunch of people that I got involved with that we could delay the Lord’s return. They didn’t like Christians and mostly didn’t believe the biblical stuff, but it provided them with a good excuse to do naughty things to Christians.” Wiley chuckled. “Pretty lame, hey?”
“In some ways it was,” Jack said. “But we know people use lame excuses to harm others.”
“Thankfully, that world is now behind us,” Sheila said. “I did contribute a little. I introduced Thomas to the aura glasses.”
Wiley gave Sheila a hug. “Just another part of the lameness. Although they were quite clever really. They did indicate who was considering crossing over to the other side.”
“Like traffic lights.”
They looked at Jack as if unsure his comment was an attempt at humour.
Jack raised his hands. “Just aligning to real life examples. Old life examples, anyway.”
“I remember those strange glasses,” Sally said.
Wiley’s attention was elsewhere, on the other lady.
“Well, it was nice touching base with you all again and in better circumstances. I need to say hello to someone.” He looked in the direction of a lady, her arm resting on the shoulder of a young boy. “Yes, I need to say hello to someone special.”
“That’s Camellia and Wiley’s son.”
“The world, Jack. It was in such a mess.”
“It’s been fixed, Cath. I’m just not sure about this timeline detective thing. Do you think they were just having us on?”
“Nope. I often wondered if déjà vu had something to do with parallel worlds. I would love to find out and I believe I will.”
“Do you think what we saw with Wiley is something that occurs regularly? You know, lives getting rewound and people getting another shot?”
“I don’t know but the biggest thing I learned is the importance of prayer. Maybe prayer had the power to turn back time. I wished I knew that back there.” She laughed. “I could go back along the timeline and rectify a few things.”
Leo appeared next to Jack. His mode of transport: thought travel.
“Jack, Cath, got a minute? I have something to show you.”
Eschatology glossary
I hope you enjoyed the story about the last days—the greatest event in history, the ending of history as we know it. The study of the last days is referred to as eschatology and presents many differing views and ideas. I have provided a summary of these views in the terms section below.
My story outline was different to those presented by the popular end times books such as The Late Great Planet Earth, and the Left Behind series. Those books were massive best sellers and introduced readers to dispensational premillennialism (definition below). Many readers will have their own views of the last days which may be different to that presented in my story. By all means, hold on to your own view, but focus on the key message: Christ is returning for his church. On that point, nearly all Christians agree.
Here is a summary of terms for you.
Terms
I researched both Protestant and Catholic glossaries and decided on the following for its simplicity. Unless otherwise quoted, the following definitions have been sourced from Carl E. Olson, Will Catholics Be “Left Behind”? A Catholic Critique of the Rapture and Today’s Prophecy Preachers (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2003), 359-366
Amillennialism (‘a’ being a negation prefix): The belief that the millennium of Revelation 20:1-7 refers to a time of fullness such as the current Church age and not to a literal one thousand year period of time. While amillennialists disagree about what the millennium is or will be, they do agree it will not be a future, earthly reign of Christ.
Apocalypse: From the Greek word meaning ‘unveiling’ or ‘revelation’. In Christian doctrine, it refers to the unveiling of Jesus Christ as King and Lord that will occur at the end of time at the Parousia, the Second Coming.
Churchage: Pertains to a period of God’s people in the history of God’s people. The current Church age could be considered the period of time from Pentecost to the rapture (author’s definition).
Dispensation: An era of history with a distinct beginning and end. Dispensationalists commonly believe there are seven dispensations in history, each beginning with a test from God and ending with man failing the test.
Dispensationalpremillennialism: Generally, holds that Israel and the Church are distinct entities. It also widely holds to the pretribulation return of Christ, which believes that Jesus will return to take up Christians into heaven by means of a rapture immediately before a seven-year worldwide tribulation.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispensationalism#Premillennial_dispensationalism, accessed 05/11/2020).
Eschatology: Study of ‘the last things’, especially death, judgment, heaven, and hell (individual eschatology). This branch of theology also examines the nature of the Kingdom of God, especially as it relates to history, the Parousia, the end of time, and the Last Judgment (general eschatology).
Futurism: The belief that all or most of the book of Revelation describes future events and provides readers with a detailed explanation of those approaching events. Premillennial dispensationalists are futurists, but not all futurists are premillennial dispensationalists.
