Chi, Xi, Stigma : the mystery of Bismillah and the mark of the beast
Let those with wisdom calculate the number of the beast...
Chi-Xi-Stigma:
John relayed how he had become a believer and youth pastor, as the four men sat around the fire pit. Three of the oldest boys had been tasked to watch the trail and one as firewatch, for the early night shift .
" One day I noticed the greek characters for 666 in an old mans interlinear study Bible. I had been talking to him about the koran and allah when I noticed this text in greek, chi, xi, stigma, which looked remarkably like the bismillah, the arabic phrase, in the name of allah. I became very excited, there in the text, it proclaimed allah! "
John paused to take a drink of water from his canteen. Mike looked on with eyebrows raised. He actually felt chills down his spine.
John Continued, " I tried to point this out to the old preacher man, drawing out the arabic for the bismillah with my finger in the dust at my feet.
The old man went wide eyed and took a long, deep, drawn out breath
While I excitedly tried to show him his Bible proclaimed allah before Mohammed had.
Shaking his head the old preacher sadly spoke, " Son, those characters, in the greek, mean 666, the number of the beast, the number of his name: you just told me, that the number and name of the beast, the antichrist, is allah, proving the god of the koran is not the god of the Bible. You just declared that the god of the koran is, the antichrist! Do you understand what that implies? "
" I was shocked, I tried to argue against that statement. The old pastor then began asking about the mahdi, what he does, what he says, and as I answered him he replied point by point from his Bible. Each point in his Bible that matched with the Hadith of the Madhi was a description of the evil one, the antichrist.
I was most distressed by this, this conversation had gone off the rails and journeyed into unexpected realms. I didn't know how to answer him. It was hard to believe what he said and showed me.
In the end, I could not deny it or refute it. Sometime after midnight he led me in the sinners prayer and, I joined his church the next day, where I have been every since. I publicly renounced Islam and Mohammed, accepting and declaring for Yeshua Ha Messiach, Jesus Christ, as the son of GOD... "
Mike leaned back taking in what John had said. " Can you show me those Bible references he used? " John disappeared into the shelter, returning with his Bible, " Certainly! "
John then went through texts from Isaiah , Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Zephanaiah, Matthew, And Revelations along a sluagh of others that Mike lost count of. Ken was intrigued, listening intently, and very disturbed.
Both he and Mike had spent tours in the sandbox, dealing with, interacting with, Islamic militants, terrorists and their rhetoric, the graffiti, the head bands they often wore.
Once John had gone through the Biblical texts, Ken began asking questions, as the two of them talked, Mike silently rose up and walked away into the darkness, he needed to think, to process what he had just heard.
Finding a rock outcrop overlooking the trail, Mike leaned against it , soon he was having another of his internal conversations with, to, and about GOD and everything he now knew. Or thought he knew at least. After turning it all over a few times a terrible certainty settled onto his heart.
Tears filled his eyes, as he took a knee. Bowed his head and for the first time since childhood began to honestly, brokenly, pray to GOD.
Mike could not deny the things he had seen with his own eyes, nor could he ignore the literal text of the Bible. The only thing that made any sense, was, that this was in fact the Apocalypse.
Nothing had happened in the manner that Hal Lyndsey or the Left Behind books and movies had prepared them for. Consequently, everyone, believer and non believer as well had been caught completely unaware as the prophetic events apparently played out.
Some time passed, with Mike remaining in prayer, with the deep blue and green aurora flamed over head fading into a heralding of dawn. Michael stood, turned and made his way back to the shelter and the still sleeping group.
Ken, having remained on watch greeted him as, he entered into the clearing holding the Bible he had been reading , Ken called out " Mornin bud! Welcome back! Wondered where you were off too."
Mike was not fooled, he had been fully aware of Kens spying eyes several times through the dark night, as Ken looked on, checking up on Mike, " hah, whats this? You can read??? When did you learn to read? " Mike exclaimed Ken thumped the Bible closed " last night" he quipped with a lazy smirk.
The two friends observed each other, there was something different about each of them, tangible differences, attitudes, even the manner they carried themselves. Ken had an open smile as did Mike, both men looked alive, rather than like taciturn stone faced mannequins.
John poked his head out of the log shelter, watching the two men talk for a moment, noticed the Bible in Kens hand, Then quietly backed away leaving them alone to talk undisturbed. John settled back onto his inflated air mattress, smiling, with a silent prayer of thanks giving.
The full sunrise brought sleepy eyed boys tumbling out of the shelter. Mike and Ken were making breakfast. Pancakes, reconstituted scrambled eggs ( don't cringe, tabasco covers many sins including green army eggs) and Coffee brewing.
John emerged from the shelter,following his nose. Mike poured and proffered a cup of coffee to John, " Mornin... " John smiled as he accepted the warm cup " Thanks, wasn't expecting this... " he waved his hand at the stack of pancakes and platter of lightly green insta eggs.
Raising his voice after taking a sip of the very strong coffee John called out to the Boys, " Alright guys, lets roll up your, sleeping bags, get camp straight, then we can feast. "
The boys scrambled about, laughing, clearing up and organizing for the day. Breakfast was waiting, teen aged boys were ruled by their stomachs and raging hormones. Mike and Ken watched in silent approval at the manner in which John managed the herd in his charge.
" Wheres your friend? " Ken asked John after a few minutes. The other adult had yet to appear from the shelter. John snorted, " Probably still trying to sleep. " Ken laughed, " he best rise and shine before the herd eats it all" John laughed along, " Would serve him right. " Mike quirked an eyebrow at the interplay. He thought that he would really need to pay attention to the other guy. Something just wasn't sitting right there. From the first, Mike had felt a need to keep the guy in sight, and was constantly taking notice of where he was. The dude never seemed to do much other than sit around, issue orders to the boys and complain about all of the little things, discomforts while he watched others busy themselves. This was not setting well with either Ken or Mike, John was also obviously a bit aggravated. This could be a potential problem.
john called the boys to gather around the fire ring and led them in a brief morning prayer, thanking GOD for the day, the food, and new friends. Mike and ken joined in the prayer, with the Amen, John clapped his hands " Alright gang y'all know the drill. Line up" the boys arranged themselves by age, youngest first, lining up. Ken chuckled " I have seen boots way less disciplined. Good work there John. " Breakfast was served. In short order, there was nothing left. The other man had yet to emerge from the shelter. After they had finished breakfast, they followed John down to the stream, to clean up their metal camp plates and the cast iron griddles.
***********
The crowd gathered outside the gymnasium, was out of control. The Police and Guard were vastly outnumbered. Which is to say,
They were doing nothing to stop the mob, disperse or control it. For some reason, the site commander had ordered all of the double doors chained and locked. The few single doors exiting the building, blocked and barricaded.
Inside the gymnasium, three hundred men, women ,children, old, young, infants, were terrified of the insanity outside. There were a few guards posted inside, at each entrance, which gave them a thin veneer of a sense of safety.
The mob screamed epithets, calling the people in the middle school gymnasium horrible names, racists, fascists, and other evil epithets. Waving signs, with marxist, anarchist, slogans, a variety of marxist and anarchist flags, along with a smattering of BLM banners, the great majority of the gathered mob, were in fact privileged upper middle class folks, twenties to thirties in age. College educated, enraged, consumed with an insane blood lust. Everything wrong in the world was those people insides fault!
Their conservative fascism, capitalism, racism had destroyed the world, their religion, had been the bane of every free people, enslaving millions, and now, in this crisis, they claimed that their God, was in control, their God, was judging the world and pouring out bowls of wrath, causing the chaos, famines, suffering.
These despicable people were sub human, parasites that must be eradicated. They stood in the way of progress, of the next level of evolution, they called for repentance, to turn away from sin, to love and honor God, they dared to call most of what the mob declared as their right, their pleasures, evil. This could not be tolerated any longer.
The mob surged, rocks, fireworks thrown at the police, guard and building. When the first Molotov cocktail burst in flames next to the building, the site commander ordered the police and guard to withdraw.
The police and national guard regrouped in the discount retail super center parking lot a few blocks away. What Fire dept equipment that worked, along with personnel, were already assembled there.
In a strange irony, the small towns entire volunteer force along with their local, city police officers, were all inside the Gymnasium. The vast majority of the violent mob, were not locals. They had been bussed in, many paid, to protest these evil fascist rednecks.
The State police stood, and watched from afar as the mob hurled rocks, bricks, fireworks, molotov cocktails at the school gymnasium.
When the frightened people inside, began to see and smell the smoke, and flames appeared along the ceilings they panicked, stampeding , desperately trying to get out of the burning building. Better to risk the mob than to burn alive. They could not as they discovered. The doors had been chained and locked the fire exits barricaded, blocked.
The frightened group screamed, cried for help, for rescue, only GOD could hear them, the mobs cacophony, drowned out the cries of terror, the screams of burning, dying people.
The building burned. The mob continued raging, hurling more molotov cocktails, fuel and oil cans, anything flammable, onto the inferno.quickly the fire spread, to the library, and cafeteria buildings. Soon the entire school was engulfed.
The mob celebrated, elated by their victory over their oppressors. The fire department, police and guard watched from afar. Only after the entire school complex had been destroyed, burned, did the mob begin to disperse.
Peacefully smashing windows, looting stores at the super center, then boarding the busses that had brought them, to return from wherever they had been gathered from.
The fire department watched, not moving towards the burned school until after the last bus pulled out of the parking lot, only then, did the state police allow them to respond to the fires.
Nearly half of the deployed police officers, had already left, simply walking away leaving guns, badges, patches behind ,thrown down in dismay and disgust. The Guard had evacuated hours earlier. Those that remained, appeared numb, quiet, broken. dismayed, yet, they stayed.
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"Run! Stay low, don't look back!" Sheila waved the crying terrified kids towards the wooded area behind the school.
Eddie struggled to hold up the steel grate cover of the catch basin while Sheila helped drag children from the catch basin.
They had crawled through the drainage system concrete pipes in their effort to escape from the surrounded and burning school.
Sheila and eddie were both tall gangly teens that had scarcely fit through the underground pipes. None of the adults left behind could fit, or wiggle through the drainage pipes.
As the last crying child climbed up out of the catch basin, Sheila scurried around to try and take some of the weight of the load off of the struggling Eddie. She could not, Eddie lost traction and went down beneath the grate, trapped in the catchbasin still.
The loud clang drew attention from some of the people milling around the back of the gymnasium. As they called and pointed, Sheila ran away, following the smaller children into the woods, they quickly disappeared into the early evening shadows.
Eddie scrunched around and wriggled back inside the main drain pipe. Backing his way deeper into the dark shadows of the pipes.
Sheila caught up a frightened toddler, and balancing the child on her hip, she directed the rest to follow her. She led them deeper into the woods, then along a shallow creek bed, some times crawling in the ankle deep stream to avoid being spotted.
Back at the rear, edge of the schools field, several black hoodied and masked people stood around the catch basin, pointing flash lights and seeing nothing but an empty basin. After one meager attempt at lifting the heavy grate, to no avail, they turned away, returning to the screaming mob that surrounded the school buildings.
Eddie remained hidden, undiscovered in the depth of the pipes, safely hidden. He fell into a deep exhausted sleep after laying quietly in place for almost an hour.
Sheila and the seven young children crept along the creek bed, staying out of sight of the rioting crowds. Moving upstream, away from the town and the burning school.
Having watched the "Mostly peaceful protests" in 2021 and 2022, this brought back memories, and if those charged with protecting the innocent stand back and do nothing, why should people trust the police, the guard, etc?