Apocalypse of Jude

“You ask me how it will end? I know what you’re thinking in your minds. You’re thinking, hurry up please, it’s time. Do not desire the end because you wish to see it. For it is a time of woe unlike anything yet seen. Desire rather for Christ and remember that we do not know when it will end.”

The old woman looks at a group gathered around her in her living room, the afternoon sun filtering its diffuse golden light around them.

“Nevertheless, let me tell you as the Word describes it. The dragon will arise and the abomination set forth on its road to perdition, throwing by the wayside the false prophet who performed miraculous signs on the beast’s behalf, signs which deluded people to receive the mark of the beast and worship the beast’s image.

“The dragon will gather with it the beast and the kings of the earth along with their armies to make war against the rider on the white horse and his army who have reigned with their resurrected king for a thousand years, and who have been given authority to judge the earth because they have not worshipped the beast or his image, or received his mark on their hands or foreheads. They need not fear the second death for it has no power over them.

“But soon the time to reign is coming to its close, and Satan will go forth into the world and deceive all the peoples of the nations to gather for a battle. They will come from the four corners of the earth and settle around the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire will come down from heaven and devour the beast and dragon and throw them into the lake of burning sulphur, which is the second death, to be tormented forever. The armies of the beast will be killed by the sword coming from the rider on the horse. And he will leave them to the birds to gorge themselves on their flesh.

“This then is the great supper of God, and He Himself will come down seated on His great white throne, dispatching earth and sky from his presence, for there will be no more room for them. And all the dead will be there, great and small, prostrate before the throne as the book of Life is opened. The sea will give up her dead, and death and Hades will let their dead go, so that they may come be judged according what deeds of theirs are recorded in the Book. Death and Hades will be tossed into the self-same lake where the Devil, his whore and his beast drown in eternal torment. And if anyone’s name is not found to be written in the Book of Life, he too will be thrown into that lake of second death. That is how it will end.”

Wasteland Mix: Fragment 51