Apocalypse Burning by Mel Odom

them. Those words are warnings, signs, portents. They are not a concrete blueprint of what’s going to happen and what a man should do about it. They’re guideposts for choosing how to live, and they’re not meant to be clear. God wants you to have to work at it. He wants you to read it and think about it. Prophecy is like that. Like John says in Revelation 1:3: ‘Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.’”
    “There’s that question of belief,” Goose said. “My daddy talked about that a lot.”
    Interest flickered in Baker’s eyes. “Your father was a preacher?”
    “No. He was a soldier, and after that he was a lot of things. Never found a true calling after the military, but we made do with the odd jobs he held. One of the things he spent a lot of time at, even though it didn’t pay, was teaching Sunday school. I learned a lot about the Bible and about God while I spent time with him.” Goose glanced at the Bible. “I wish now that I’d paid better attention.”
    “Why? So you’d know what heaven is going to be like?”
    Goose thought of Chris and silently hoped that was where his young son was. “Nah. I don’t think that’s meant for us to know. The book of Revelation isn’t exactly a tour guide of heaven. It’s more focused on the troubles here on earth.”
    “Yeah. Revelation describes things that are yet to come to us humans. The good things and the bad things. It talks a little about heaven, but mostly it concerns itself with what comes after the Rapture.”
    Nodding, Goose said, “I never really noticed that before when I read it. I thought the message was always about what you could look forward to in heaven.”
    “No. It’s a war map for the final battles with Satan and his minions.” Baker shifted and the chair creaked threateningly. “I’ve been talking about Revelation quite a lot in my services.”
    “I’ve heard some of it,” Goose admitted.
    “But you weren’t drawn into it enough to join in discussion?”
    “I’ve had my own war to fight here. It’s kept me busy.”
    Baker picked up the Bible again. “And now?”
    Goose took in a deep breath and released it. He knew he couldn’t tell Baker anything but the truth. “Now I’m beginning to think that the war I’m fighting and the war that’s described in Revelation may be the same conflict.”
    “Does that scare you?”
    “Yeah,” Goose said without hesitation. “It scares me a lot.”
    “Because you’re afraid of dying and losing your immortal soul?”
    “That, too. But mostly I’m concerned about the guys that I keep sending into battle. I’m afraid that most of them don’t know what’s truly at risk.”
    “To begin with, First Sergeant, I don’t see you sending anyone into battle. You lead your men. That’s why you’re respected.” Baker paused. “If anything, we were poised on the edge of all these conflicts—and I’m talking about the one described in the book of Revelation as well—and we got drawn into the eye of it. At least, we’re in the eye of the storm brewing in the Middle East.”
    “It’s not the first time biblical history was made here with all-out war. You read the Old Testament,” Goose said, “and you find that a lot of wars, a lot of the people who fought them in the Bible, came from right here, and they fought and died right here. This land has been a biblical battlefield almost from its beginning.”
    “That’s the reason these countries are called the Holy Lands.” Baker shifted again. “Modern science and the Word of God differ on a lot of issues. If you study your Bible and pay attention to the sciences, you’ll find that out quickly. But one thing—one of many things, actually—that they both agree on is that civilization started near here.”
    “The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.” The answer came easily to mind from all the history classes Goose had taken in