"It is SO-O-O time!"

Did you see Close Encounters of the Third Kind? Sure ya did. I'm not here to talk about UFO's, alien abductions, or how I kinda ended up marrying Teri Garr. (Geez, where did THAT come from...) I'm here to talk about Devil's Tower.

"Mr. Spielberg, I'm ready for my closeup now..."
Remember the scene where Roy Neary was building the model of his vision in the living room... And there, behind him on TV was a news article about nerve gas in Wyoming. He turns to see the sidebar piece about Devils Tower... and it all clicks. He knows what he has to do.

So, too...
Today, I was listening to public radio for news on the financial turmoil of October 2008, so far. Suddenly, in a Speilbergian moment, I am listening to a broadcast that made me wonder if I am being filmed for a movie. I feel as if I am Roy Neary, rapt by the broadcast. Just as Roy is "supposed to" see Devils Tower on the tube, so too does it seem like I am "supposed to" hear this broadcast.

"Is there a divine hand in the Dow?"
We've yet to spot a guy walking around with a sign that says "the end is nigh," but the chatter on Armageddon and Rapture Web sites is heating up. Sean Cole decided it was time to check in with a few "end time economists."

I'm not making this up. This is NOT a quote from my book. This is direct from the Marketplace radio program, broadcast just hours ago. See for yourself.

Excerpts:

• "Armageddon is where Jesus and the Antichrist battle it out at the end of world. It's an actual place, in fact. And as it turns out, scripture says financial Armageddon and Armageddon Armageddon might be related."
• When the financial crisis really started to take hold, I got to thinking what I often think in times of crisis: that people who already believe the world is coming to an end must be feeling pretty vindicated right now
• The Rapture, if you're not familiar, is when all of Christ's followers ascend to heaven. This is supposed to happen before, or after depending on who you ask, a seven-year period of great tribulation. The Antichrist enslaves humanity.
  
• Paradoxically though, the tribulation is also supposed to involve a unified global economy, with a common currency. You might think all of this is crazy, but it's not something these folks made up. It's biblical interpretation. Revelations 13 for instance says no one would be able to buy or sell unless they had the mark of the beast, meaning the Antichrist. Some folks take that to mean we'll all have tiny, scannable credit cards implanted in our skin. And some folks, thus, think that kind of technology is evil. But Wilfred Hahn says it's only the Antichrist that's evil.
• "That individual and groups of individuals working with him will just use the systems that are available to them at that point in time for evil purpose"
  
  "I see. So it's not one world economy per se that's bad, but a bad dude."
  

Dude! I know that dude's name!
I must say... it takes a real set of... ummm... biblical references to write a book about topics of Antichrist, the Rapture, Armageddon. And there are days when even ***I*** think I'm crazy to be writing on these topics. And there are no end of days when others think I'm crazy.

But when you are listening to public radio and they do ALL of your reader education and background legwork for you... well, I felt like Roy Neary, covered with mud and clay in his living room. What is stranger than the fact that this broadcast was made, is that I was right there, a la Spielberg, to hear it.

And so, I say again... It is time!
It's not the financial armageddon that public radio spoke of that makes it time. It's not election season, or even that next September is 9.9.9 ;-) It's that all of these things are seeping into the public's consciousness. Granted, public radio was mocking the Rapture Ready. But the message is getting out. The mood is being built. When Judas Christ hits the book stands, the public will find something very familiar about this Judas. And like Roy's vision, which is just out of reach, the TV and Google news will pop it into focus.

"...and today on Marketplace, we interview... The Antichrist"
In Judas Christ, I portray news programs announcing inexplicable events. It's an easy, if not effective, way to explain to the readers in a way that can be precise without being pedantic. As Matt Pallamary often said at SCWC "Show me, don't tell me." Meaning, take the explanation out of the narrator's head and put it into the mouth of the characters. Marketplace just DID that for me. Which raises an interesting question...

If Marketplace commentators are going to raise the specter of Antichrist, and link him with the "one world economy", they have set themselves up. Someday, if these things come to pass, they will be interviewing "The Bad Dude." Will they recognize who he is or not?

I have tried to stay ahead of the curve. I always try to write the events of Judas Christ so that they are 20 minutes into the future. But it's getting harder. The events are coming faster than I can write. The flip side of the "3 choice question" of my previous post is this... If my pace is 'just right', then it infers that the events i'm writing about will come to pass right about the time I get published, or finish the series. And so, I say, more than ever, "It is time."

And if so...
...then it won't be long before my writings and events resemble each other. This one did. Reading it afterward, it bore the same smarmy thumbprint as my fictitious news broadcasts. Will news interviews sound remarkably like some chapters in my book? If they do... one of us will have to worry about copyright infringement!