The Curtain. David T Maddox

being put in place over a period of years and is almost ready to be launched. The enemy is among us preparing to strike. The information is credible and cannot be ignored. Somehow we have to ascertain the details and prepare a defense.”

      As the group struggled with how to respond to the limited information they now had, the forces of light and darkness gathered to advance their competing agendas through those who were now players on what had unknowingly become an eternal stage.

       Contrasting Consultations

      Two other meetings of significance were being held in Williams. They were different in that only one person was visibly attending each. In a garage apartment close to the campus, a young woman shut down her computer, having gathered the bus schedule for the park and ride in a neighboring city. She was ready to continue the game tomorrow, but it was getting a little boring. It was too easy now. She was searching for something more challenging and dealing for the first time with an internal conflict. She was troubled and didn’t know why. Beyond her sight, in the invisible, a Keeper and a Guardian were in conflict. The Holy Spirit had begun to open her eyes so that she may see herself what she was doing.²⁹ She would have choices to make.

      The other meeting was being held in a room in a converted warehouse beside the railroad tracks, down a couple of blocks from College Church, and within two blocks of Kingdom Day Care. There, the Bookseller prayed alone – or so it appeared. In reality, the forces of light in Williams were centered there. Argon feared this old man more than any other in the City of Williams. The Dark Master had told him that the Bookseller was one of the five most dangerous people in America. They had been trying to inspire the shooter to kill him, but this man lived under the protection of the Enemy. Argon sent Zaccur back to the Dark Master. This time, he sought instructions. The message was simple, “How can I neutralize the Bookseller before he interferes with your plan?”

       Samantha is Stirred

      Samantha had not been able to shake Paul’s dream from her consciousness. It was as if someone or something had burned a desire deep within her to know what the dream meant.³⁰ What were these creatures? Were they after her too? Did they already have her?

      The dream was real to Paul and it was increasingly becoming real to her. She was glad that they would be going out in a few hours. Perhaps he would have some answers after his discussion with Professor Thompson. She had to know. It was important, although she didn’t know why. It seemed as if the search was drawing her closer to Paul.

       Paul Continues His Search

      The discussion with Professor Thompson had helped some. Clearly these creatures were demons and what they appeared to be doing would fall under the broad category of demonic activity against humans. But what was it exactly that they were doing and what was their effect on the humans? He agreed with Professor Thompson that the people he saw in the dream were not demon possessed. The argument that not everyone is demon possessed was convincing. Beyond that, however, as he understood demon possession, a demon inhabited the body of a human so that the human effectively ceased to exist other than in the flesh, and the demon lived as it wished through the body of the one possessed. It was kind of like putting on someone else’s suit of clothes. Contrasted with his dream, where the demons were pictured as being outside the human’s body except for the fingers reaching into the skull, what he saw was not demon possession, but it certainly was demonic and it appeared to be forced unknowingly upon humans.

      Paul couldn’t get the picture of the huge hands reaching for him out of his mind. He had a strange conflicting sense of peace in the midst of fear of what he did not yet understand. Professor Thompson was a beginning, thought Paul, but he apparently didn’t know much about demons and was obviously uncomfortable with the subject. Hopefully, Chaplain Forrest could provide some additional illumination to all this darkness. It seemed that the answer must lie somewhere in an understanding of things religious. The search continued.

       Chaplain Forrest

      Chaplain Forrest was guided by the light within, but it did not burn brightly within him, for he chose to listen to other voices as well. What made Argon so comfortable with him speaking to Paul Phillips was that Forrest had become a victim of his own fears. Having embraced the temptations of fear, doubt and worry, Chaplain Forrest had opened himself to the continued attacks of Tempters by the same names. Though the forces of darkness did not have a Keeper to place the Dark Master’s influence into his head and heart, the Tempters he had accepted gave them the opportunity to control or negate Chaplin Forrest’s service of the Enemy, and when necessary, to protect the Dark Master’s agenda. They had done well over the years. He was not considered a threat.

      For eighteen years Derrick Forrest had been the Chaplain of Williams College. He had five years until retirement and surviving until then had become his real motivation. Things had changed over the years. The students were different with different values; their parents demanded more and would put up with less. Large donors to the college had their own agendas on social issues which they enforced by the power of the purse. Professors openly ridiculed the teachings of scripture and the president of the school, although a professed believer, was using his position to advance a political agenda. He felt naked and unprotected, no longer free to teach or preach as led.

      Worse yet, Chaplain Forrest had come to doubt his own faith. When his adult kids rebelled against what they had been taught and openly renounced their faith, he was not only crushed, he began to wonder what was true and what was nothing but the teachings of man. There were no simple answers and simple is all anyone wanted to hear. He felt dry and burned out. People were unwilling to listen, so he had stopped saying what he had always believed. The gospel of this generation was spelled “t-o-l-e-r-a-n-c-e” and so rather than boldly proclaiming what scripture taught and create conflict, he turned away so he would not see and have to confront what he knew in his heart was wrong.

      There had been a time some ten years ago when he thought that he was part of a great movement of God. A group of college students from Texas had come and spoken at a regular chapel. Something happened that could not be explained. Suddenly, kids were in tears rushing down to the stage to take a microphone and confess what in the old days was considered sin (lust, fortification, pornography, cheating, stealing, lying, homosexuality, etc.).³¹ They asked for forgiveness and prayed together. This went on day after day for a week with breaks, only late at night to allow for some sleep. More people came and emotions were high. Everyone wanted the microphone. It began to be a contest for who could “confess” the worse sin. Fellow students began to excuse the sin with a blanket, “Don’t feel so bad, everyone does that.” He hadn’t known what to do, so he did nothing. It ended. The school term ended, and the students left. It did not appear to have made any long-term change in any of the student’s hearts. How could that be? How had he failed?

      His doubt and confusion were real. It had been carefully crafted and encouraged by the servants of darkness over many years. Having embraced it, he allowed it to control him and to negate his usefulness to the Father. He now looked to his own fears and had ceased listening to the light within. As a result, Chaplain Forrest had become blind to the activities of the forces of light. “Wrong choices with negative consequences,” thought Barnabas. Fortunately, wrong choices were not necessarily permanent choices. It was time to seek to retrieve this man to usefulness, and so another battle in the invisible began.

      Paul entered his office and introduced himself. “How may I help you,” asked Chaplain Forrest. “You can tell me what my dream means,” and with that, Paul went through the same description he had given Professor Thompson. He had seen wisps of darkness with fiery orange eyes, bright yellow skin and huge hands with enormously long fingers, the hands encircling the heads of most all of the people, the long fingers seeming to pierce the skulls as if they held the brains of the people in their hands. The eyes of the people became crusted over. He had awoken screaming when he saw hands reaching for him. His questions had not changed. “What did I see? Why are they after me?”

      “What did Professor Thompson tell you?” asked Chaplain Forrest. He knew that Paul has just left Professor Thompson’s office because Thompson had called to tell him that Paul was probably on the way to see him.

      “Professor