A New World

Chapter 25 - History

Shayo flipped to the book of Revelation and began reading from chapter twelve verses one to six, "Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads."

"His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days."

He handed the book to Emilie to re-read. "You and Rouge already figured out that I and the other glorified humans are the 'child' in Revelation twelve, but as I'm sure you see now, that's only a small part of the bigger picture," Shayo explained.

Hayato was able to gather that from his previous dreams, he was already familiar with the dragon, the woman, and child. However, what Shayo just read through was more complex than what he originally anticipated. Although the events themselves were reminiscent of what he himself dreamt of, the extra components in the chapter added another layer of mystery that was still too early for him to decipher with his current level of knowledge.

As if reading Hayato's thoughts, Rouge chimed in concerning her qualms with the new information presented to them, "Much of this is similar to what Hayato's told me, but there's so many extra elements here, the sun, moon, and stars, this strange birthing process, the multiple heads on the dragon..."

Rouge peered over Emilie's shoulder to quickly gloss over the passage, confirming her doubts, "This could take forever for us to figure out."

"That's what I was worried about as well. But you know what, the added difficulty makes this even more fun, don't you think?" Hayato couldn't help relish in his humor after receiving a light-hearted eye roll from Rouge. She had almost forgotten she was dealing with a bookworm who loved to absorb himself in a plethora of information. It came as no surprise that this of all things would excite him.

"Believe me when I say this will take some time to fully understand. In your dream Hayato, millions of people disappeared from the earth in an event known as the rapture of the church. Emilie, can you please flip backwards until you get to the book called First Thessalonians?"

"What are you looking for?" Rouge asked Shayo as she helped her sister navigate to the chapter.

"I want you three to see the full picture here, but to do that I will need to reference a couple more passages."

"Ok, we're there."

"Now go to chapter four and verse thirteen. I want you to read all the way to verse eighteen for me Emilie."

"Sure!"

"But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep."

"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words."