What Darby had proclaimed and others embellished was the story of an Earth in turmoil now in the last of seven periods or dispensations that will end with the rapture of true believers suddenly pulled into the sky to be with Christ. Next follows the seven-year tribulation, when the satanic antichrist will arise in Europe and seize world power. At its end Christ and his armies will triumph in a great battle in Har-Megiddo, near Haifa in what is now Israel. From Jerusalem Christ will proclaim the start of a one-thousand year reign of peace.

Ralph wasn't sure he believed in the rapture story but it sure made good special effects to show on the wide screen behind him when he preached. Those Hollywood boys really knew how to jazz up the imagery. Every time he could see the fire in believers' eyes, even from the podium. On a good day they would be rolling in the aisles in minutes, slapping themselves silly, their eyes popping and their hallelujahs echoing. On a bad day it would just take longer. The result was the same, the deafening noise several dBs more intense than that of any of the football games in the old stadium.

He rarely had to finish the sermon.

There was a knock at the door. Without getting a response, Nate Smith entered.

"I could have been here with Melanie," snapped Ralph.

Like Great grandpa he often enjoyed showing some of the female support staff how to achieve a different kind of rapture. He had no regrets about it. His wife was merely a show piece, a quiet mouse that did what he told her to do. The SBC had quite a reputation for keeping women in their proper place, something he wholeheartedly approved.