This Is The End: The Leftovers
The leftovers are those left behind after the rapture of the Church took place in the third episode, “This is the end: The Rapture”.
The construction workers stood in utter disbelief on the first floor where Mark’s clothing was, still untouched. Confused as to what may have happened to Mark, they didn’t know they were the “leftovers” with no hope of eternal life in heaven. Some recalled the vivid explanation of Mark’s messages about the rupture of the church. He had said something like this would happen, but they had shoved the idea at the back of their minds and went on with their daily activities as usual.
There were loud screams emanating from the neighbors opposite their site and they ran to see what was going on. The scene was shocking! In front of them was an old grave that seemed to have ruptured exactly midway and was now open. They saw the mass of clay lying on both sides of the grave and the now empty coffin too.
“My baby… Where is my baby!” sobbed a woman, whom Peter knew was the mother of a two-year-old baby who had recently died from malaria. She was a staunch Muslim and seemed confused about what had happened. No one answered her queries as no one knew what had actually happened and those who knew were still in shock as to what was forthcoming.
The Leftovers: Peter and His Wife
Peter ran away towards his home. Being eager to know what had happened to his family, he ran hastily through the mango plantation. On his way, he recalled Mark’s persuasion that had fallen on deaf ears, since he was never ready to change:
“No one knows when that day or hour will be – neither the angels in heaven nor the Son; the Father alone knows. The coming of the son of man will be like what happened in the time of Noah. In the days before the flood, people ate and drank, men and women married, up to the very day Noah went into the Ark. Yet they did not realize what was happening until the flood came and swept all away. That is how it will be when the son of man comes,” he recalled as he sobbed his way home.
“At that time two men will be working in a field: one taken away; the other left behind. Two women will be grinding meal: one taken away; the other left behind. Be on your guard, then, because you don’t know what day your Lord will come.”
The children were raptured
Mark then proceeded to tell him about the tribulation that will follow after the rupture. He said it will be the worst since the nations came into existence. It was now happening! Peter felt something missing in his heart. He felt anger and fear at the same time. As he turned the last corner to his house, he heard wailings and screams of anguish as of those who had lost their loved ones. Her wife, with her hands on her head, was screaming while running up and down the compound. “My children…my children,” She wept, “they were playing here before the earthquake!”
Peter got inside the house and began frantically searching for them at every corner of the house. He didn’t see them. Outside were their clothes, exactly left like the scene he saw with Mark’s clothes. “They are now in heaven with Mark,” he thought as his sobs increased to weeping, and then he too started wailing, “I am a leftover!!”
Leftovers tracing their loved ones!
The news in the streaming media was that an earthquake had hit the whole earth and as a result, many graves were opened and left empty. There were also a vast number of complaints by the leftovers to the authorities as people were missing their loved ones. All children under the age of seven years were also missing! They all seemed to have just vanished into the thin air, never to be seen again. This was confusing; they didn’t know whether to mourn their departure or be happy for them. It was evident that the leftovers were more hopeless and miserable. They did not know what awaits them in the world that now seemed covered in darkness.
In the few seconds of the earthquake, a lot of mankind lost their lives in air, road, and ship accidents. Airplanes came falling down to earth, leaving everyone running for safety in confusion. The cities were all in a jam worldwide, forcing confused drivers to abandon their cars and run on foot to confirm the safety of their loved ones. Those hurt in the accidents had no one or maybe few helpers to assist them as the emergency teams were in a dilemma due to the many fatalities after the earthquake.
Confusion! Confusion! Confusion! The whole world was in confusion. Struck with grief, people living under the sun were mourning what had befallen them. It was now around ten o’clock in the morning and everything came to a standstill when the sun became dark as if covered with huge sackcloth! Darkness now struck the human race as all ran inside their houses to flee the unusual-abnormal darkness.
False hopes of the leftovers
The President was now addressing the nation and the report, a masterpiece of brevity went like this:
“It is with great heartfelt sorrow that I am sending my condolences to all the victims of the earthquake in this nation. This earthquake has hit the whole world and has led to the uncountable deaths of many. The emergency teams are doing all they can to maintain the situation. I will do all I can to ensure the right to life of every individual will be upheld. And the government will ensure peace and security in this crisis of this national disaster.
“Let us all embrace one another as we are all facing the same disaster and hope for better days ahead of us. Due to a feeling of impending disaster in the air, I want to affirm that government will treat all emergencies at its expense. The darkness we see is due to the eclipse that was predicted a few days ago by NASA and it will soon pass on.
“Finally, let us uphold peace and I urge the security forces, including the military, to ensure peace. We will bring to justice all who will take advantage of the situation to loot, create animosity or even destroy properties. May we dwell in unity, peace, and liberty. Thank you.”
The Message from the prophet; the leftovers will find a hard time on earth
Peter sat watching a press conference from the various government ministry heads. Bored with what they all conclusively said, he placed a video track that Mark gave him as a gift. It was among the many gospel messages he had from Mark and never had time to watch them. The video, titled, “Nakuru Massive, Mega, Healing Crusade” took place some years back. The Servant of the Lord, the end-time Prophets, conducted the meeting. He saw many afflicted by various diseases and complications receiving their healing.
The main message entailed that the Messiah was coming and everyone ought to repent and prepare in holiness so as to see Him. The prophet also gave a prophecy and said, “This is he of whom the scripture says, ‘I will send my messenger to prepare the way for Me. Then the Lord you are looking for will suddenly come to His temple. Then the messenger you long to see will come and proclaim My covenant.”
The prophet also spoke about going to Israel after the rapture. He and the other prophet (the Two Witnesses of Revelation 11) will not get raptured. They were to present the everlasting message to the chosen Jewish people, where only a remnant of 144,000 will get saved after a major tribulation that will be in two phases within a 7-year period.
A glimpse of hope
“The first three and a half years will consist of a minor tribulation experience to those who don’t have the mark of God and the final three and a half years will consist of a major, cruel tribulation,” he said and then read a scripture to affirm the statement.
Peter believed in his heart that his hope of salvation was in the prophet. “If only I could see him and hear his message; if only he could place his hands and pray for me, perhaps God will have mercy on my soul,” he thought.
However, he felt no conviction in his heart, and neither did he fully understand the message. The prophet spoke about the Holy Spirit, going to heaven with the church, and God sending the power of error to work in those left behind after the rapture (the leftovers) so that they believe what is false. “The result is that all who have not believed the truth, but have taken pleasure in sin, will get condemned by taking the mark of the beast,” said the prophet.
Pain Among The Leftovers Who Expected The Rapture
Peter’s wife silently watched the video beside him. She regretted her life of sin and thought, “if only I could have another chance! I will be faithful to Jesus!” However, despite her earnest desire, she knew she was late. His husband knew her as a born-again Christian since she always went to the church where Mark fellowshipped. She prayed and read the Bible often and Peter had also seen Mark’s wife in his house many times sharing the Scriptures and encouraging her when things were bad.
Now, she too was among the hopeless leftovers, and fully knowing the Scriptures, she knew there was no hope for her at all. When the anti-Christ comes, she will have to endure the great tribulation of all times. If she remains faithful to the end, without her faith in the Lord Jesus wavering, then she might make it to heaven and join her two children. It was a matter of life and death. She also knew, just as her husband knew, it will be hard for them to buy or sell, or receive any medical care, without the mark of the Beast!
She went to the kitchen and glanced at the food stock and came back to the lounge. “There’s no food in the house and you know it will be hard when the mark of the Beast comes,” she said to Peter, who was now thinking of going out to relax his mind at a nearby bar.
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“I know, but what can I do? There was no work today and I have no money,” he replied, knowing he only had a few shillings for the liquor. He also yearned to meet his friends in the bar to hear their say on the events.
“So what do we do now?” she asked, feeling angry at him, because a few days ago, he had money, but had then left in anger when they disagreed about the family’s expenditure. He wanted to keep more money for his personal wants than for the family’s needs. After the hot disagreement, he left the house in anger, not showing up until the next morning. In his heart, he felt remorse and wanted to fall down on his knees and ask his wife for forgiveness. He was on a road to nowhere, yet pride and rebellion ruled over him.
“You’ve finished all the money you had!” she exclaimed. “You always fail to heed me. Now see what you’ve done to us.”
“But I gave you some money!” he shouted as his voice shook with rage.
“It wasn’t enough! I paid the rent and also bought some food and shoes for the kids. They were worn out and they needed new ones, what’s your responsibility if you can’t fend for your own family?” she questioned him in a raised sure voice and felt bold enough for a confrontation. She had always hated her husband’s battering in front of the children. She persevered since she was hopeless and with no family members on her side. Being an only child and an orphan, with no relatives, she knew she had no option but to remain in the marriage for the sake of the children who were young and innocent of the circumstances.
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Peter had an idea at the back of his mind. It was as if someone had just whispered the thought to him. He kept quiet as she raised more accusations feistier to him; he pretended not to care. When she was through, or he thought she was, she went towards the bedroom to pick a few coins she had left, so that she may at least purchase some vegetables. She hoped that Peter will sympathize with her loneliness in life and provide some too; for she knew he had money only that he intended to misuse it for his own selfish gains.
He walked to the bedroom stealthily, and with his left hand, he covered her mouth so tight she couldn’t utter a sound, and using the knife in his right hand she slit her throat open! Blood oozed from her neck as she struggled to free herself from the tight grip in her mouth and the knife that now slaughtered her neck mercilessly. Sounds of despair escaped her cut windpipe as she finally gave up and heaved her whole weight toward him.
She raised her face towards the mirror that hung before them so as to just have a farewell glimpse of her cruel husband. As she slowly and painfully embraced the next world, she recalled when their love was young and the dreams they had cherished together. She had loved him as a husband; saw him as a father and a brother she had all her life yearned to have. She breathed her last and lay motionless on the floor; eyes wide open with tears of unbelief streaming down her cheeks.
The leftovers at the bar
He was breathing heavily when someone knocked on the front door. He took the money off her wife’s dead right-hand grip, quickly shoved the dead body under the bed, washed his bloody hands at the kitchen sink, and went out. It was his step-brother, Juma.
“You’re left too?” he asked, surprised and his voice slightly shaking with fear. He shut the door behind him and locked it. “I was going out,” he continued when he noticed Juma wasn’t responding. “Want to join me?” he asked, not at all caring. Juma nodded his head and they made their way toward a bar in the neighborhood.
It was now around midday and, at last, they could now see the sun high above them. It mockingly shone its bright rays on a world engulfed in spiritual darkness.
“We are the leftovers!”
“Give them a round of Guinness on my bill,” said a drunken young man when he saw Peter and his brother entering the bar. “Let us be glad for we, the leftovers, have nothing to lose,” he smiled at Peter, who sat next to him on the only seat that wasn’t occupied. The bar was brimming with both young and old, men and women, and Peter could hear their conversation centered on the events of the day. He noticed the young man was Ken, the son of a pastor.
“I tell you they are gone! Vanished in the thin air!” he said. “My dad, mum, and my younger bro, they are all gone! I am left alone young and rich… I have all the money guys, drink your worries off. I will pay.”
“Oh! It’s Peter and Juma!” he exclaimed when he noticed them. He seemed to have had too much to drink and with nowhere else to go, he now hangs in the bar buying beer for everyone.
“What luck!” thought Peter, when Ken ordered two rounds for them. “Do you know that Mark is gone too?” continued Ken, his heavy head resting on the table. He tried to raise it but it seemed heavier so he maintained it in the initial position. “Mark always told me the Messiah is coming. My dad and mum too. Now it’s too late. Let’s drink since we don’t know what’s the next horror!”
Peter Kills Another Leftover!
Two hours later, Peter and Juma made their way home supporting Ken in their midst, who staggered pathetically, muttering to himself. It wasn’t easy to leave with Ken from the bar for everyone wanted him to stay so that he may buy them more beer. However, due to Peter’s muscular and threatening body, they managed to convince the crowd that Ken was their neighbor.
They headed towards Ken’s home, which was next to Peter’s. His primary idea had been to sell his household goods and then head in search of the prophet of God; hence, he had removed the only blockage in his way, his wife. Now it crossed his wicked mind that he can get what he needed without selling his stuff. All this while, he had hidden his intentions from his younger brother, Juma. They opened the door and placed Ken, who was now snoring, on a couch in the lounge.
“What are you doing?” asked Juma, alarmed when he saw Peter searching Ken’s pocket and removing a roll of cash. He proceeded to the bedroom where he spent some minutes, came back to the lounge, and swept his eyes curiously around the room. Juma headed for the door, but Peter stopped him.
In need of cash, not the bible!
“It’s the only hope we have,” he assured his brother. “We have to find the Prophet if we want to survive and make it to heaven.”
“But we have the Bible, we can read it and believe in Jesus for the salvation of our souls!” replied Juma.
“The Holy Spirit, who was to convince us, has left with the church. He’s now only in the Two Witnesses of Revelation and I know the Prophet is them. I think with enough money we may be able to trace him,” he said to his confused brother. “I’ve tried reading the Bible but it seems like a storybook to me,” he continued as they made their way out of the big house.
Peter had managed to rob Ken of thousands of shillings and had placed the money in a small traveling bag. He had no plan of going to his house for he had taken his wallet, which had his identification card and driver’s license.
“Do you have your I.D.?” he asked his brother who shook his head in reply that he didn’t, as they headed to the bus stage. He felt sorry for his younger brother when he remembered he wasn’t eighteen years yet (the minimum age requirement for applying for an identity card in his country.)
Juma’s Story
Juma was an orphan living in the streets and Peter’s dad, a pastor, had decided to adopt him at the age of fourteen. He was living in the streets with other homeless boys around his age and decided to go to a crusade that was taking place next to their ‘sleeping base.’ He grew up knowing that no one cared for him and his street brothers. He had heard there was a God; nonetheless, he never cared much to know about Him.
When the preacher made an altar call in the crusade to receive Jesus, Juma walked forward not knowing what he was going to receive. He wasn’t sober as he repeated the salvation prayer and later on his expectancy heightened when the preacher said he wanted to see him after the crusade. He had then extended an offer of assistance to him. He was to provide all the basic needs to him, and in return, he was to maintain the faith of his salvation.
consequences of unbelief!
The pastor assured him of any assistance he needed and since Juma had never been to school, except the Muslim religious classes (Madrassas) in his early years, he taught him farming. Juma became a regular churchgoer, but he didn’t believe in the ‘Christian stuff’, as he called it, with his whole heart. He was sure that no one could die and live again as Christians believe.
He also thought that no God would allow him and his brothers to suffer as they did in the streets with no one to care for them. As a result, he never studied the Bible except read it on Sunday service during a sermon. He unconsciously did this to please his foster dad rather than seeking to please the God who had rescued him from the jaws of the wicked street life!
The Journey In Search of The end time Prophet
The events of the rapture had left him in an immense shock! At the bar, he refused to drink beer and asked for a soft drink instead. He got lost in his thoughts when Scripture after Scripture, the Sunday sermons about the end of days came floating in his mind. As they approached the stage, he still wondered if all those who were missing had really gone to heaven. A place where there was neither sorrow nor death. “Is it already too late for me?” he almost sobbed, as they came to the bus stage.
The earthquake had dislodged several buildings on the bus stage and it seemed a lot of accidents had happened that day. Crashed windscreens were almost everywhere as cars had knocked each other and much blood was visible on the tarmacked ground. The stage was filled with a crowd of passengers who were eager to travel to their loved ones and know their conditions as all phone networks had jammed hence no communication.
They went inside a bus booking office and had to wait almost half an hour in a long queue of leftover passengers. At last, they received the tickets and were on their way to the city where Peter hoped to find the prophet who had the everlasting gospel of salvation.
