Shovels Against a Clock

Special Master Wright nods, and Peter rises from his table. He awkwardly carries out a large poster board with an easel under his arm, heading not to the podium but to open floor in front of the jury.

PETER

Good morning, Your Honor. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the jury.

He sets up the easel and turns the poster to face them. It’s the Mission: Impossible poster — the one with the glacier.

I saw this one opening weekend. My wife will tell you, I don’t miss these.

A few jurors smile, recognizing it.

I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it — there’s a glacier involved, some contaminated water, stakes on a global scale. But I can tell you this one gave me a knot in my stomach for two hours. Typical Tuesday for Tom Cruise.

A beat.

But that’s not actually the scene I want to give you today. Instead, the kind of scene that Paul and I dreamed — and perhaps still dream — of producing about the end times.

He sets the poster aside.

Here’s what we’ve covered so far. On May 14, 1948, the fig tree was replanted. On June 21, the Tree of Knowledge was replanted as well. Coincidence? Two trees — one dormant for two thousand years, one absent since the Garden of Eden — born on the exact day Jesus pointed to in the parable of the fig tree, replanted thirty-eight days apart. And forty-six more trees, sprouting in that same single year.

A beat.

Now, why would he plant all forty-seven at once? Why not spread them out? Take his time?

Having made many movies, I know how film scripts work. Almost every one follows the same shape — and the ending usually explains everything that came before it. So let me start with the ending.

He picks up his Bible and holds it in front of him. He paces in front of the jury.

A beat.

Picture the last scene of the movie. The bad guy isn’t hiding anymore. He’s not negotiating. He’s standing in a room somewhere with the whole world watching, and he says it plainly: hand me the keys to this planet — or in one hour, twenty-three nuclear and biological weapons are released, targeting the twenty-three largest cities in the world. It would be the end of civilization as we know it.

He lets that sit.

Not one bomb. Not a threat to one city. Twenty-three, everywhere, simultaneously. Because he’s not trying to win anymore. He’s trying to make sure that if he goes down, everyone goes down with him.

He looks at the jury.

That’s not a villain who thinks he’s winning. That’s a villain who knows the clock ran out — and he’s decided if he can’t have it, no one gets it. Especially his arch enemy.

SPECIAL MASTER WRIGHT

Is counsel giving us a movie pitch now?

PETER

No, Your Honor. I’m telling you the scene we’re actually standing in.

A beat. He lets that land, then turns back to the jury.

Because I want to tell you about the night I was late for that Mission: Impossible movie. I’m not usually late for things — sometimes it’s my fault, because I’m a poor planner, and sometimes it’s not. For reasons that are about to become obvious, I can’t tell you which one it was that night.

I was supposed to meet my wife at the theater. It was another one of the almost uncountable Mission Impossible movies. I rarely missed one — same as Indiana Jones and James Bond.

Anyway, I braced myself because I knew I was late. Very late. I knew the moment she glanced over and saw me coming that my wife was not pleased. Not even a bit happy to see me.

A few jurors smile.

I asked her what was going on in the movie. She looked at me, didn’t say a word, and turned her head back to the screen.

So I had to figure out where we were in the movie myself. It was getting toward the end, so I immediately knew that the good guy was Tom Cruise, and the one he was battling was the bad guy. But I didn’t have a clue what the story was. I knew Tom’s situation looked entirely desperate. I saw his team watching countdown clocks, counting toward something I still wasn’t sure of.

And you know — because most of us have seen enough movies to know that Tom is going to win. Still, we all sat there with our hearts in our throats, like there was a real chance he’d lose.

I thought I’d watched long enough that I reached over for some of my wife’s popcorn. I didn’t get that either.

The jury is smiling and nodding again. There is restrained chuckling from the gallery.

But really I’m not here mainly to talk about movies. That’s a hard thing for me to resist. The reason I raise it here is because so many people jump straight into the study of end-time events. It’s big, dramatic stuff, and we can all see it playing out around us. But many people are like I was that night — coming into the movie late. They focus on the prophecy without knowing the story that led to it. They are forced to make up their own context as they go.

We can’t do that here.

He holds up his Bible.

The climactic end of this book is the final confrontation between God and Satan. The bad guy is losing, and he knows it. The situation looks desperate — like that villain with the keys and the twenty-three weapons of mass destruction. If he can’t have the planet, he’ll take it down with him.

In a sheer state of panic he decides that destroying God’s creation earns him at least a tie. If there is nobody left, why would Jesus return?

He turns to the exhibit monitor.

That fury — that’s not something I made up for a movie pitch. It’s in this book.

PETER

Great wrath. Because he knows his time is short.

That’s not a villain plotting quietly. That’s a villain who just realized the clock ran out — and decided that if he’s going down, he’s taking everything with him. Forty-seven trees, planted in a single year. Not because he had time to spare. Because he didn’t.

He switches hands and extends his left arm out.

But let me tell you the part of the movie you missed — the part before the ending. It began before time itself. Lucifer led a rebellion against the very God who created him. He stood up and said, in effect, “Who died and made you God?” Lucifer decided he was equal to — or even greater than — his Creator. He launched a coup in the heavens. And a third of the angels joined him.

PETER

In film terms, that’s the catalyst.

Peter sweeps his arms dramatically into the air.

The moment in Jaws when the shark explodes out of the dark with the screaming girl in his giant teeth.

The Special Master, who has been leaning forward without realizing it, is startled by Peter’s sudden gesture and knocks over his glass of water. He looks up at the gallery and smiles sheepishly.

SPECIAL MASTER WRIGHT

I got to say that scared the daylights out of me. I did exactly that — knocked my drink clean off the armrest — first time I saw that film in the theatre.

A beat. He straightens his robes.

Proceed, counsellor.

There is warm laughter from the gallery. Peter waits for the room to settle, then continues.

PETER

Or the moment in Jurassic Park when we see the first dinosaur. It changes everything. Our story begins there too — at that rebellion in the heavens.

He bends his arm at the elbow.

Then comes the first turning point. In our movie, it’s the Garden of Eden — when Lucifer offered Adam and Eve the same thing he’d already demanded for himself in the heavens. Not a calculated deception. His manifesto. It has never changed. Not once.

PETER

In his own eyes, he wasn’t lying to Eve. For him — it was his manifesto. The same declaration he’d already made in the heavens — I will be like the Most High — he simply offered it to her as a gift. You will be like God. He believed it then. He believes it now. And the men building the digital tree of knowledge believe it too — whether they know his name or not.

That is still the lie at the heart of the reborn digital tree of knowledge. If you keep your eyes on that you will see that tree in a way you can never un-see. It is the core of Satan’s end-time plan. Same tree. Different appearance. Same lie.

He lowers his Bible slowly. The courtroom is quiet.

It all begins with a fig tree. And Satan answered with forty-seven more — every one planted in a single year, by someone who knew the clock was already running out.

And forty-five more to come.

End of Satan’s 2nd Countermove

Satan’s 3rd Countermove follows.