The Falling Away by Hines Page A

it?” she said. “All of this for some quick give-your-life-to-Jesus spiel? As if that explains everything?”
    â€œIt’s not a spiel, Quinn. It’s . . . it’s an awakening. God’s chosen you to be part of the Falling Away, and has been preparing you for it since . . . well, since you were born. Only now, you’re ready to find out. To discover why. That’s why I’m here.”
    Quinn shook her head. She felt more tired than ever.
    â€œYou can’t argue with the evidence inside you, Quinn. When I touched you, when I prayed for you, it drew out all that pain.”
    She nodded, weakly. Yes, she did have to admit that. It was the one reason she was in this room now; she’d felt . . . something. Even before she’d asked what he was doing, she knew inside that he was praying for her. And she knew that it was working. It had been physical. Real.
    â€œWhen I prayed,” Paul continued, “I drew that disease out of you, I drew it into me, you might say. And to help me cope with those thoughts, those emotions that were bottled up inside you, I have to go through my own . . . well, my own ritual.” He held up his gloved hands. “You’ve been wanting to ask me about the gloves, haven’t you?”
    She nodded. Even that took physical energy she didn’t have.
    â€œI’m what you might call a germophobe. A clean freak. I don’t like physical contact—which, in a funny way, makes it hard for me to do what I do. But the irony is, it also makes it possible for me to do what I do.”
    â€œAnd that is?”
    â€œEver read the Bible?”
    â€œNot really.”
    â€œYou’re not alone. You’ll find the Falling Away in Second Thessalonians: ‘Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.’ ”
    â€œI don’t get it.”
    â€œHang with me. That verse is talking about . . . well, it’s talking about a lot of things. But the Day it refers to—the day that will not come unless the falling away comes first—is a right relationship with God. So the falling away, in the literal sense, is about us, as humanity, falling away from God. Falling away from what is right. Hitting bottom, if you will. That’s happening all around us, and it’s been happening since . . . really, since the beginning of mankind.”
    â€œI still don’t get it.”
    â€œOkay, okay. The Falling Away is happening all around us, every day. Hatred, bitterness, pain: it’s everywhere, because we live in a world that’s cracked and broken. It’s not meant to be this way. And we in the Falling Away are doing all we can to help repair those cracks and breaks.”
    â€œBy?”
    He sighed. “Well, that’s the other part of the phrase, the other meaning of the Falling Away. We want people to see the reality of what’s around them, open their eyes to what they should be seeing: a world that’s hurting and needs redemption. We want the illusions of hatred and suffering to fall away, in a sense. Because falling away from the lies that surround us means falling into the hands of God. That’s from Hebrews—”
    â€œOkay, okay. I get it. You’re a religious wing nut, telling me I just need to pray and everything will be all right.”
    â€œOh, I didn’t say everything will be all right. But let me finish. It’s not what you’re picturing; we don’t lock arms and sing happy songs and talk platitudes. In the Falling Away, we’re an army, down in the trenches. We’re . . .” He paused, cleared his throat. “We’re exorcists, in a sense.”
    Quinn laughed. “Exorcists? You’re crazier than I thought.”
    â€œNo, Quinn. It’s the world that’s crazier than you think. What I just did to you was, very literally, an