Tribulation Game

It had been a long day. Danny Baker had gone to school at 8:00 am, taken three very difficult tests, had a grueling hour and half long soccer practice, and had barely made it home in time to shower, dress, and head back out the door. He was not happy about having to head back out again, but his mother insisted that he go to church every time she did and it was Wednesday night and she was going. Instead of sitting back and relaxing, and watching TV, he was going to youth group. He would have stayed home, but he was only thirteen years old and had very little choice in the matter.
It wasn't that youth group was boring. He actually quite enjoyed it, as long as he was feeling up to it. He had been a Christian since he was four years old and had said the sinner's prayer in Sunday School and he loved Jesus with all of his heart. Well, most of it anyway. And the youth group wasn't that bad. The music was cool, almost as good as a real rock band. The other kids were friendly, though a little tame for his tastes. The youth pastor, Pastor Rick, was very cool. He was about thirty years old, but he knew how to act like a teenager. He never wore a suit or tie, he listened to rock and punk and hip hop, said things like "dude" (and sounded genuine when saying them, not like some other poser adults trying to sound cool), and even had an earring. If Danny was feeling a little more rested, he would have really wanted to be there.
But this night he wanted nothing more than to just stay home and watch some mindless sitcom. Instead, there he was in the fifth row in the youth room singing and clapping and trying to look like he was enjoying himself. The church was pretty big, averaging about a thousand people a week, and there were over a hundred teenagers in the room. The youth room was about the size of his school's gymnasium with a small stage at one end on which the praise team was playing, ten rows of chairs all filled with worshiping kids, and couches, chairs, and a couple of pool tables in the back.
He sat between his friends Larry and Kevin. They were his church friends. He went to a public middle school and they both went to a private school. He only hung out with them at the church, but while he was there they were his two best friends. The worship team was playing an upbeat chorus and Danny was getting into it, almost forgetting the stress of the day. Sometime during the second or third song he really began to feel what he believed to be the presence of God and he knew that something important was going to happen that night.
It was during the fourth song that it happened. Pastor Rick practically ran onto the stage, grabbed the microphone that was waiting for him on the small wooden pulpit between the worship team's lead singer and the bass player.
"Stop the music," he said into the mic. A couple of the five musicians on the stage looked at him strangely, but they kept playing. "Stop! Stop the music!" The first one to stop was the bass player. Then the acoustic guitarist, the keyboardist, and finally the electric guitarist and drummer awkwardly stopped playing when they realized they were the last two. They looked confused by Pastor Rick's actions. Everyone in the room looked confused. He had never done anything like this before and he wouldn't have interrupted worship for no reason. Something must have been wrong.
Pastor Rick looked out at the more than a hundred teens in the youth room and said, "The tribulation has begun. Persecution has started. This church is closed." He dropped the microphone on the floor causing a loud booming noise and the brief whine of feedback, and walked off the stage, leaving a hundred kids with a hundred questions.
Danny suddenly felt sick. Was this for real? Had things happened so quickly that the Antichrist had taken control and outlawed Christianity during the half hour between his leaving his house and Pastor Rick's announcement. It didn't seem possible, and he soon realized that even if that had happened, Pastor Rick would have said more than those three short sentences. He would have given more information and instructions. This must be some kind of game or a lesson or something. But that didn't quell the sinking feeling in Danny's stomach. He was actually scared.
"You heard the man!" the worship team's singer told the kids. "This church is closed!"
They didn't know what to do. The youth just stood there for a moment staring blankly at each other.
"What's going on?" Kevin asked Danny. "Is this for real?"
"I don't think so," Danny said. "I think it's some kind of lesson."
"What do we do?" Larry asked. "Do we leave?"
Everyone was asking the same questions. A few were actually headed towards the door. Then a girl about seventeen years old stood up and approached the stage.
"What are you doing?" the singer asked her.
"I won't leave," she said. "You can close the church, but you can't stop me from worshiping!"
Every eye turned to her and most of the kids fell silent. The ones who were leaving turned back to watch. She walked right up to the stage, which doubled as an alter, and bowed down. She assumed a posture of prayer. A few other kids joined her. Danny and his friends were about to go up as well when an older boy came up to them.
"Hey, guys, looking for a place to go to church?" he asked.
"Uh, yeah, I guess," Danny said.
"A few of us are meeting back at the pool tables," the boy said. "Come join us. But keep it quiet!"
As Danny, Kevin, and Larry followed the senior boy to the back of the room Danny realized that this was indeed some sort of lesson, and the seniors, or at least a few of them, were in on it. The boy, a blond skater named Nick, led them to a spot between the two pool tables where half a dozen kids were already in a circle on the floor with their open Bibles in their laps. Feeling a little silly, Danny and his friends joined them.
"Let's open our Bibles to John chapter three," Nick said. They did. Nick began to read about Jesus and Nicodemus in a hushed voice as if he didn't want to be overheard. Danny noticed three other such groups forming around the youth room. Two of them were also led by a senior member or two, but one was formed completely of middle schoolers and Danny guessed that they just decided to form their own group after seeing the others.
"What are you doing here?" came a gruff voice. Danny looked up to see the bass player from the praise team, a large black man named Jeff who was usually very friendly. He looked downright angry and he was standing over them with his arms folded. Even though he knew he was doing nothing wrong, Danny suddenly felt guilty.
"We're just reading," Nick said. "Is there a problem?"
"You're reading a Bible!" Jeff barked. "That's illegal! We're going to have to confiscate those books! Give them here!"
Jeff reached down and took Nick's Bible from him. Then he collected the other Bibles from the rest of the group.
"Break this little group up before I have you all arrested!" Jeff yelled, and he walked over to another circle of kids.
"What do we do now?" Larry asked Nick.
"We pray," Nick said. "Join hands, everyone."
Just a moment after the kids had all joined hands and bowed their heads Jeff returned. He had put the Bibles somewhere and now his hands were free to reach down and yank Nick to his feet.
"You're under arrest!"
Nick didn't resist. Jeff was very convincing as he dragged their leader off towards the door where the sound equipment was stored.
"Don't stop praying!" Nick said. "Don't give up! Keep the faith!"
"Shut up, you Jesus Freak!" Jeff shouted, and he threw Nick into the storage room. "Anybody want to join him?"
There was a commotion at the stage as two other youth leaders were "arresting" the girl who had refused to leave. She too was put in the storage room, along with a few others.
Danny was really getting into this. He knew that it was just a game, a sort of what if scenario about what the members of the youth group would do if the persecution described in Revelation suddenly hit them, but it seemed very real to him for some reason. He had totally forgotten not wanting to come to church that evening. Now he was totally immersed in the fantasy and he could tell by the actions and attitudes of the other kids that most of them were too.
"What are we supposed to do now?" a girl in their circle asked.
"Keep praying," Danny said. "Come on. They can't stop us."
They bowed their heads and began to pray. The scenario was false, but their prayers were real. They all prayed silently, and while Danny couldn't know what the others were saying to God, he felt called to pray for the people around the world who were already facing the reality of the persecution that they were only playing at.
He wasn't sure how long he had been praying, but he was pulled out of it instantly when he felt two hands grabbing him from behind. Jeff had come back to their little underground church (and he was surprised to find that he really thought of it in that way) and had chosen him this time to make his example.
Jeff was dragging him towards the storage room. Before they got there, Larry had run up to the stage and grabbed the microphone.
"Listen to me!" he said. "Everybody listen to me! We have something that they can't destroy! We have faith! They can arrest us! They can beat us! They can even kill us, but..."
"Larry!" it was Pastor Rick. He had unplugged the microphone and was swinging the end of the cable in a circle. "Sorry, but you're dead."
"What?" Larry asked.
"You were just executed for speaking out against the state," Pastor Rick said. He ushered Larry through the double doors that led down the hallway to the youth classrooms. "Anybody else want to join him?"
Danny didn't see what happened next. He was thrown into the storage room with the other kids who had been imprisoned in this little game. There were about twenty in there by now. Half of them were just sitting around waiting for the game to end so that they could leave, but the other half were standing in a circle praying. Danny decided to join them. He moved towards the circle, but the door to the storage room opened again and two of the senior youth members, a boy and a girl, came in. They went right to the circle and broke their way in.
"Who started this little prayer circle?" the girl demanded.
"I did." It was the girl who had first refused to leave.
"Come with me!" the senior girl said. "You are to be executed for inciting a riot in prison!"
"A riot?" another kid asked. "Does this look like a riot to you?"
"Him too," the girl told the other senior. They took the two kids out of the storage room. Before they left, the boy turned back.
"If we catch anybody praying in here again, you'll be killed too!"
As soon as the door was closed, the circle reformed, with Danny now a member of the group. They began to pray, glorifying and worshiping God, and once again Danny felt led to pray for those around the world suffering the same abuses in real life. He also couldn't help but think about what he would do if something like this really happened to him. Would he as brave when threatened with real imprisonment or execution? He could only hope so.
After a few minutes, the kids in the fake prison heard the sound of singing from out in the youth room. Dozens of voices were joining in and singing the song that had been interrupted about a half hour earlier by Pastor Rick. They could also hear the youth leaders and some of the seniors yelling at them to be quiet and disperse, but the singing only got louder.
"What's going on out there?" someone asked.
Then the door opened and two more prisoners were thrown in. The seniors who had arrested them went back out to the youth room without closing the door behind them and those in the storage room went and looked out. Even though Danny knew that this whole thing was pretend, he didn't think that he had ever seen a more beautiful sight. There were about sixty kids who hadn't been arrested or killed and they had joined in a circle around the youth room. They were all holding hands and singing praises to God while those kids and youth leaders who were playing the authorities in this scenario tried to stop them. They were moving around the circle yelling at the kids, but they were ignored. A few were taking kids out of the circle, but whenever one was arrested the circle just closed around the gap and the singing got louder.
Short of arresting and/or killing every kid in the room, there was nothing that the authorities could do to stop it. The frustration in the faces of the authorities, even though they were all faking, was evident as they lost control of the situation. But one man stood on the other side of the room looking very pleased. It was Pastor Rick, and he was smiling at his young congregation as they came together against their adversaries. Finally, he went up to the stage, grabbed a microphone, and stood behind his pulpit.
"Okay, everybody," he said. "That's enough. You can all take your seats again. Somebody let the kids out of the prison, and go and raise the dead while you're at it."
This caused a bit of laughter (though more than half of the kids were in tears) as the prisoners were released and the kids in the hall were let back into the youth room. Everyone sat down and faced Pastor Rick expectantly. He smiled down on them.
"I'm proud of you all," he said. "You did very well in this game of ours. Even better than I had hoped you would. I'm sorry that I sprung this on you without warning, but it was more effective that way, wasn't it?
"Some day the game that we played here today may become a reality for all of us. Even now, all over the world, there are those who face persecution and death for their belief in Jesus, and things are happening here in America that seem to indicate that our own personal tribulations may not be that far off. If the persecution does begin in our own country, there will be many who are imprisoned or killed for their refusal to deny Jesus. Sadly, there will also be many who chose to deny Christ in order to save their own lives. But, I have confidence that if it really did start tonight, most of you kids out there would react the same way you did tonight, by joining together and refusing to renounce your faith."
The youth began to applaud this statement. Danny clapped as hard as he could, wondering what really would happen if he was faced with persecution. He would like to think that he would remain faithful, but tonight's lesson made him question his faith as he had never done so before. He decided then and there to make an effort to make sure that his faith was strong and true. He would much rather be ready to face trials with an assurance of where he stood, than to try and make the decisions when faced with them.
"And one more thing happened tonight that I didn't even plan on," Pastor Rick continued when the applause died down. "I think that we all saw the power of a church that comes together in unity. While you were all meeting on your own and making your individual stands, you were showing your faith and initiative, but you were easily dealt with. Only when you all came together as one and refused to stand down were we powerless to stop you. That's an important lesson for all of us, and one I didn't even expect to have taught tonight.
"And finally, I know that there's a question on some of your minds. Many of you have been taught that the Church will be raptured before any of us have to face some of the things we played out tonight. I'm not going to get into a rapture debate, and personally I believe that we will be gone before the Tribulation, but as a leader I would be very irresponsible if I didn't prepare you for the chance that it may not happen that way. There is some question to it, and you will never hear me preach a pre-trib sermon from this pulpit because if we are all still here in those days I don't want anyone coming to me and saying that you were never warned. Also, even if we are taken away before the last days, we may still face some sort of persecution some day, and I want all of you to be ready for that eventuality.
"Now, if the worship team will come back up here," he finished, "I believe that we were in the middle of a song!"
Danny had forgotten all about not wanting to go to church that night. Now he was very happy that he was there. He had learned more from that little game than he would ever learn from a sermon. He knew that the youth group would be talking about this for a long time to come. Now, as he began to worship again, he knew that no matter what happened in the future, he would remain faithful to his God.
Pastor Rick went to the back of the youth room where the senior pastor, Stephen Markham, was waiting for him with his four year old daughter Meghan sleeping in his arms.
"Well," Pastor Markham said, "how did it go?"
"It was awesome," Rick said. "I think that they really learned a lot."
"Something tells me, Rick, that very soon these kids will have to put what they learned her into practice," Pastor Markham said. "Well, it's getting late and I have to get Meghan to bed. Good night, Rick."
"Good night, Stephen."
Pastor Markham left for the long drive to his cabin near the mountains and Rick stood and watched the youth worship God for a long while, pondering what the pastor had said.