Image of the Beast

Diane Bradford:
Rotten little religious fanatic! My grinning face is gonna be the last thing you ever see before your head falls in the basket!

Patty Myers:
Sandy, I don't want to be here.

Sandy Stevens:
Patty, we don't want you to be here, either! My sister just threw her life away for a God that doesn't even exist! Can't you see, Patty? Life is real! That guillotine is real! Take the Mark, Patty. Please.

Billy:
[about Heaven] What's it like there?

Leslie:
Well, I made a little storybook for you. It doesn't have any pictures and it doesn't have any words, but it's the most wonderful story in the whole world.

Billy:
How can it be any, a good story if it doesn't have any pictures?

Leslie:
Let's see how it ends first. This gold page tells us all about Heaven. It's God's home, filled with brightness and glory. The Bible says that Heaven has streets made of pure gold like glass. No one is ever sick and no one dies and everybody's happy.

Billy:
Does everybody go there?

Leslie:
Well, God would like everybody to go there but there's one thing that can never be in Heaven.

Billy:
What's that?

Leslie:
Sin.

Billy:
Sin? What's sin?

Leslie:
It's when you and I do things our way instead of God's way. It's doing, thinking or saying bad things, anything that makes God unhappy. That's what this black page reminds us of; sin in our lives. When it's dark we stumble and can't find our way. And sin, Billy, is what separates us from God.

Billy:
What's on the next page?

Leslie:
This red page shows us the way God made for you and me to have our sins forgiven, or taken away. God sent His son Jesus from Heaven to take our punishment for sin. Wicked men nailed Jesus to a cross, and God put all our sins on Him.

Billy:
You mean all our naughty stuff?

Leslie:
That's right, our lies, our meanness. And the Bible it says the blood of Jesus is what cleanses us from sin.

Billy:
What color's the next page?

Leslie:
The next page is white. You know what that means?

Billy:
No.

Leslie:
It means we can be made cleaned from our sin.

Billy:
You mean everybody; my mom, me and David?

Leslie:
If they believe that Jesus died for them, they can.

Patty Myers:
When's your due date?

Kathy:
Oh, 3 long weeks.

Patty Myers:
[giggling] You'll make it.

Kathy:
That's easy for you to say.

Patty Myers:
Are you sure you want this book?

Kathy:
It's about computers isn't it?

Patty Myers:
It's a religious book about people who worship computers. One of the stock boys read it though, he said it was really scary.

David Michaels:
Good, you have to scare some people just to get their attention. Should we allow these people to find themselves in the Tribulation period, scared to death? Or get their attention now while something can be done?

Patty Myers:
Like what?

David Michaels:
Like receiving Christ.

Kathy:
I'll read the book, honey, but I'm like you, Patty, I just find all this prophecy stuff to be a little hard to believe.

David Michaels:
You know, I'm afraid unless both you girls open up your minds, and your hearts, you're going to be in for a rude awakening.

Kathy:
How'd you get that uniform?

David Michaels:
Somewhere out there, ladies, lies a soldier in the mud, his only earthly possessions being his government issued underwear, and his RFD code in his right hand.

Leslie:
Did you kill him?

David Michaels:
I'm not sure. If I did, it was self defense.

David Michaels:
The only benefit of being a believer these days is where we go if they win.

Kathy:
What if one were not a believer?

David Michaels:
My advice to that person would be stay alive as long as possible.

Kathy:
Then you've got to get us out of here.

Kathy:
But I went to church, I even taught Sunday school.

Leslie:
I know. I worked with handicapped kids. And all that's alright, but when we say 'I', 'I did this' and 'I did that' like I did. It proves we left out the only thing that really matters.

Kathy:
What's that?

David Michaels:
Jesus Christ.

Leslie:
That's right. You and I and millions of others like us tried to work our way to Heaven our way.

David Michaels:
Jesus said in John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth and the Life, and no man cometh to the Father, but by Me."

Leslie:
The Bible says it's a gift.

Kathy:
What's a gift?

Leslie:
Eternal life.

David Michaels:
I'm curious, if you're not a believer, why haven't you taken the mark yet? [Kathy hands him a book] Computer Prophecies. Hmm, you uh, know anything about computers?

Kathy:
Uh huh, I used to be a computer analyst, and there's a chapter in here called 'The day of the Beast'. It says that if a person takes the mark, that he is selling his soul to the devil, and he'll be tormented forever. [Billy coughs] I won't take it, I'd rather die first.

David Michaels:
Well, that could be any minute if we don't get out of here. That chief goon is mean enough to be Satan himself.