Chapter 40
11:45 AM EST New York - Bear News Studio, Room away from Studio Area
I sat up in the chair at the sound of a second knock, and went to the door. I cracked it and saw that it was Reverend Marks. “Can I help you, Reverend?”
“Uh, Jack,” he had his head hung down very low. “Can I speak with you for a minute, privately?” He stood there not moving or looking at me, just staring at the floor.
“Come in Reverend Marks and close the door, please.” I was concerned that he had come here to go off on me, but I let him in anyway. He walked through the door then closed it behind him. He gave me quite a shock, as he immediately got onto his knees in front of me, with his hands folded in prayer, and bowed his head. There were tears coming out of his eyes.
He began mumbling, “Please forgive me master. Please forgive me.”
The tears and sobs were coming full force from this man that had, just a few minutes ago, tried to destroy me in front of the whole world. I looked down at him, grabbed hold of his arm, and said, as I gently tried to coax him up, “Reverend, get up please. I am not the one you need to bow down too. I am a man like you, not God.”
I pulled harder on his arm, as he slowly started getting up. When he was finally standing, I directed him to the chair I had been sitting in. He sat down quite heavily and sighed. I could see the streams of tears on his face and I waited to see if he would speak. He sighed very deeply and raised his head to look at me. “Jack or Mr. South, I am so sorry that I attacked you in that studio today in front of all those people. I thought you were a fraud and my anger boiled over.”
Taking the spare chair from the wall, I placed it in front of Reverend Marks and sat down. “Reverend, under these circumstances, I also have a hard time believing most of this. I, like you, am a man, not a God, and I am not the perfect selection to do what I have been charged to do. However, I have accepted it, and to be honest with you, my acceptance is based on my faith. I have not spoken to God or Jesus personally. I am going on true gut feeling that I am doing what I was called to do, because God wants me to.”
Pausing, I wondered what had happened to this man to change his feelings so quickly. Therefore, I decided to ask. “Reverend, what changed your mind from just a few minutes ago?”
“I am a man of God. I believe with all my heart in Jesus. I have spent my entire life trying to help people and save them from the fires of hell. I realized in talking to you today, that either you were from Satan himself, or you were from God. So I took out my Bible during the break and read some scriptures about the witnesses, and after reading it,” the tears started again, “I knew that you really are who you say you are and I felt that I had betrayed my God and Jesus. I was helping the devil’s cause. I think God moved me to read those scriptures so I would understand. But now I am here to plead forgiveness for my transgression against you.”
“Reverend, I do not have the power to forgive you, only God does, through Jesus Christ. Therefore, you must seek forgiveness through Him, not me. But let me ask you if you don’t mind Reverend, what is your first name?”
“Thomas and my middle name is Eugene.”
“Thomas, huh? That is interesting Reverend, very interesting. Let me ask you another question, if I may. I just had a revelation. Would you be interested in helping me out this week on something that I am going to announce later today?”
“What would you want me to do?”
“On Thursday I am having a rally, or service, as you might call it, in Kansas City at Liberty Memorial Park. It will probably be broadcast worldwide and I have no idea how many people will be attending. It is an open air service.”
“I know where it is. I have been there. It sits up on a hill, I think, above the train station, correct?”
“That’s the place.”
“So what do you want me to do?”
“I want you to plan the ceremony for me and work with my PR agency to arrange some singing, prayers, and all those things. I have never done one and I need someone to help. You are the one I would want. And so that you know, we will pay all your expenses and whatever else you deem necessary.”
The Reverend looked surprised and asked, “You really want me to help with your ministry, even after what I did today?”
“Yes, I really want you to help.”
With that he said, “Let’s pray Jack.” We both then got down on our knees in front of our chairs as he led us in a prayer. When he was finished, we sat back up on our chairs and he said, as soon as he sat down, “I guess I am your Doubting Thomas!”
I smiled. “That is wonderful, Reverend. Yes, I suppose you are my Doubting Thomas. You know Thomas, working with me is going to become very dangerous, and your life will be at stake. I am popular now, but that is because they are curious. That will change as more and more things happen to mankind in the first half of the seven weeks.”
“Jack, believe me, I know. However, like you, I know that this is my destiny. God just told me when we prayed.”
I looked at him. He had said it so seriously that I began to think that God very well might have spoken to him. Then I thought about his name, Thomas, my own doubting Thomas, is now the third member of our little group. Therefore, I had a Mark, Luke, and a Thomas. There seemed to be a pattern here. I tucked that thought in the back of my mind to talk to Gabriel about it.
I saw a piece of paper on the desk and took a pen from my shirt to write down the number Thomas needed to call. I handed him the paper and said to him, “Call this number as soon as you can. This entire sermon and setup are now in your capable hands. In addition, they will get your travel arrangements done for you and whatever else you need. Reverend, I mean Thomas, be prepared, we are expecting a lot of people.”
“How many?”
“Millions and millions, in person and on TV.”
There was another knock at the door. I got up from my chair and opened it. The page who stood there said, “Oh, there you are. We have been looking for you. They are about to start and we need to hurry.”
I motioned to Thomas, as I call him now, and said, “Its showtime again.” I smiled and then winked at him. We walked together through the door, towards the studio.