Agenda

By David Miller

The Four Horsemen of the Bible begin their work paving the way for the final apocalypse.

An Israeli missile with a biological payload is sabotaged and launched against Jordan bringing the Middle East to the verge of an all-out war.

Global financial markets are turned on their heads when the oil-producing nations of the Gulf launch a new currency – the Gold Dinar which all nations have to use to purchase Middle East crude. Meanwhile, the discovery of some ancient scrolls written by a little-known sear threatens to expose secrets held by the Vatican for two millennia.

As lies merge and fates clash, can the relentless march towards Judgement Day really be prevented?

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Miller
• Release date: Nov 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9789811805851

David Miller

David A. Miller is the vice president of Slingshot Group Coaching where he serves as lead trainer utilizing the IMPROVleadership coaching strategy with ministry leaders around the country. He has served as a pastor, speaker, teacher, and coach in diverse contexts, from thriving, multi-site churches to parachurch ministries.

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PROLOGUE

Extract from the novel Advent by David Miller:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON D.C. –DECEMBER 18, 1022 HOURS

Kelly Yee studied the document in her hands, trying yet again to read between the lines. The letter from the Pontiff had been brief and yet disconcerting, to say the least:

Dear President-Elect Yee,

The events of the past weeks have indeed been deeply troubling. Both the United States and the Vatican have been forced to make some difficult choices.

I can only imagine the anguish your nation must have felt in having to deal with last month’s terrorist atrocities in Indonesia and Singapore.

The situation on the Temple Mount in Israel and the tumultuous developments in the Middle East with the introduction of the Gold Dinar would undoubtedly be defining challenges facing your new administration.

While the Vatican has over the years, endeavoured to remain neutral in the political arena, the Church now finds itself in an untenable position to respond to these apparent conflicts of faith in the Middle East which have caused such terrible violence, distrust and uncertainty around the world. I fear the darkness of the coming weeks and months and I pray the United States will respond with utmost vigilance and restraint for the sake of peace for all mankind.

My advisors have warned me that going forward the greatest peril in our midst is the uncertainty over the global financial system. I therefore, urge you to be cautious in your dealings with the Middle East as I fear their true motives have yet to be discerned and these could extend far beyond mere economic or political gain.

My prayers for peace remain with you.

From the Vatican, December 18

Petrus PP. II

EASTERN STAR RESERVE BANK, DOHA, QATAR –DECEMBER 18, 1834 HOURS

Kelly Yee was not the only one feeling overwhelmed by the recent events as she read the Vatican’s letter. Hassan also felt that he was quickly running out of options. He had done everything that was asked of him and the stage had been set. Still, he knew not how the final act would be played out.

He is still too innocent, simply too young and inexperienced to take over from where I have to leave off. He should have been told long ago so he could prepare himself. How can he still not know, after all of this? There is so little time left and this is how he spends it, thought Hassan as he watched Saeed trying unsuccessfully again to chat up one of the many pretty young aides in his department.

At least outwardly, Saeed appeared to have matured somewhat over these past few weeks. He looked dapper in his new dark grey suit and stylish haircut. It was obvious that he had been working hard to polish his image to match his new role which was to oversee the external relations of the central bank. But his view of the world and his role in it was still myopic in both substance and form.

Saeed, called out Hassan. A moment please if you are not too busy.

The young woman who had been leaning against Saeed’s desk chuckling over what must have been some insipid joke, quickly scrambled away trying to look busy when she heard the commanding voice of her boss behind her.

Embarrassed that he had been caught flirting, Saeed offered a meek apology. Err sorry boss, we were just talking ...

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON D.C. – DECEMBER 18, 1034 HOURS

Your Holiness, began Kelly as she cradled the telephone against her shoulder and held up his letter. Thank you very much for writing to me and for taking this call at such short notice. I am trying to understand what exactly your concerns are at this point.

I am glad that you called Madam President-Elect. Some things are hard, even foolish perhaps, to put down on paper, began the Pontiff. But to put it bluntly, there appears to be enormous scope for this grouping of 10 Arab countries and their central bank to manipulate the global currency market by adjusting the exchange rate for their new currency, the Gold Dinar and thereby inflating the price of oil and with it, just about everything else. The repercussions could be potentially catastrophic, to say the least.

Said the President-elect: We are well aware of the seriousness of these recent developments and the United States is working hard to resolve these complex political and economic issues. However, in your letter, you mentioned that their motives may appear to go beyond economic or political gain. What exactly do you mean by that?

Your world, replied the Pontiff, is the political arena while mine is to uphold, protect and spread the faith. May I ask you a personal question … are you a religious woman, Madam President-Elect?

Please call me Kelly and no, sorry, I believe in a greater being but I guess I’m not as religious as I ought to be.

I see Kelly, but are you familiar with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?

EASTERN STAR RESERVE BANK, DOHA, QATAR –DECEMBER 18, 1835 HOURS

Tell me Saeed, began Hassan, how do you feel the world is taking to our new currency?

It has been going better than we could have hoped for. Already we have almost 30 nations actively using the Gold Dinar to buy our oil and to compete for various business projects across the Gulf. Even the Americans, at least the American oil companies, are also using it. It has only been a few weeks but already we have built up a very healthy accumulation in terms of our foreign currency reserves. With all the construction work going on here, the economies across the region are thriving and it is all thanks to you and your great vision.

Hassan ignored the transparent attempt at flattery. He had more important things on his mind. You and I, Saeed, were put on this earth for a very specific reason. Man and the Bible would see all of this – the events of these past few months – as a clash of religions, maybe even a battle of good versus evil and you and I are most certainly not on the side of good.

Huh? The Bible? Sorry boss, I don’t follow you, replied Saeed, the polite smile on his face fading.

Listen to me, Saeed. You need to know the truth, here and now. My time is running out and I shall not be with you much longer but your time, it is just beginning.

What? But where are you going? Are you being transferred? But why now? We’ve just started work here and everything is going so well, said Saeed in protest.

"Where I am going, it does not matter. But what is to come next, that matters. This plan I have spoken to you about, we – you, me and there will be others, we were sent here to complete a mission almost as old as time.

Saeed have you heard of the End of Days, the Apocalypse and the Four Horsemen who are to come?

The Christian book? Do you mean like the movie ‘The Omen’? Vaguely … I mean, I took a course at the university on theology and yeah it mentioned something about the end of the world but I …

Oh no, it won’t be the end, not for a while yet. Now listen very carefully to what I am about to tell you and this is for your ears only. The Four Horsemen will pave the way for the Coming. The Advent is upon us. I am the first messenger. The Bible calls me the Rider of the White Horse. Look at the back of that dinar note in your pocket. I am that rider. I am the one the old book calls Conquest. That is what I have done and my mission now is almost complete.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON D.C. – DECEMBER 18, 1036 HOURS

Sadly I believe Kelly that we are now in the End Times as the Bible has predicted.

Your Holiness, are you talking about the end of the world and the emergence of the … what … the Anti-Christ? said Kelly as she felt the blood draining from her face. To anyone else, she would have scoffed at the very thought of it, the sheer absurdity of it all. But she was talking to the leader of more than one billion Catholics around the world and Kelly could not dismiss his concerns so easily.

"No, he will come later. First, the Evil One will send four emissaries – harbingers of the Last Judgment. The first will be a rider on a white horse and he is called Conquest. The second called War will ride out on a red horse. The rider on the black horse called Famine will come next and he shall be followed by Death, riding on the pale horse.

"Kelly, I believe the first one is already here. Everything that we have seen happen in the last few weeks in Indonesia, Singapore, Israel and elsewhere leading up to the introduction of the Gold Dinar, these were all planned with the goal of conquest.

Take a look at the Gold Dinar. His unholy image is there …

EASTERN STAR RESERVE BANK, DOHA, QATAR –DECEMBER 18, 1837 HOURS

Is this some kind of sick joke? We are not of the faith foolishly held by the infidels. Why do you now speak of the Bible? How could you even say such a thing? It is blasphemy to speak of such things!

Listen! screamed Hassan as he grabbed Saeed by the collar dragging him out of his seat and pinning him down over the conference table in his office. Listen to me and to what I have to say. Open your eyes. You know it is all true. Now … can you feel that burning sensation gripping your heart – that fire, that eternal inferno of the damned? It is only going to get stronger until it consumes you to the very dust from which you were made. Go ahead – tell me – tell me you don’t feel it now.

But Saeed had indeed begun to feel something unusual stirring deep inside him as Hassan spoke. There was a slight pain in his chest, a slow-burning sensation that was only getting stronger the more he heard.

What have you done to me? Is this some kind of a trick … a poison? Something is wrong, let me go! I need to see a doctor said Saeed attempting in vain to push the larger man away.

Do you still not understand? Doctors cannot help you – there is no escape. That pain – it is only just starting, it will never go away but it will not hurt you, not as long as you fulfil your destiny.

My destiny?

I am Conquest. I have prepared the way for you. You are the second rider. Your name is War.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON D.C. –DECEMBER 18, 1038 HOURS

But I don’t understand. If all this is planned, if as you say, that all this is ordained, foretold in your Bible, then what do you expect me to do? asked Kelly.

I am sorry, said the Pontiff. Truly I am, Kelly. I do not have all the answers. All we have are the murky predictions of that which is yet to come and our faith which binds us eternally to the Cross giving us hope in eternal salvation.

But who exactly are you now warning me about? Hassan from the Central Bank? Is he the one you fear? pressed Kelly. Immediately she corrected herself. I am sorry Your Holiness, I meant to ask if he was the one you were referring to?

You were right the first time, said Pope Peter II. He then went on to relate to the President-Elect the biblical signs as Father Jacque had reported to him a few days earlier. He told her of the terrible things to come – of faith and fate which could no longer be ignored.

EASTERN STAR RESERVE BANK, DOHA, QATAR –DECEMBER 18, 1839 HOURS

Even after Hassan explained to him the events of the past weeks and how they all led to a conquest of the world’s financial system, Saeed was still troubled.

But I don’t understand. Why couldn’t we just have issued this new currency at the start if that was the goal? Why was all this deception necessary? Did all those people really have to die in those terrorist attacks in Indonesia? All those innocent kids and a nuclear bomb, for God’s sake in Singapore? You did that … I don’t understand …

"Don’t you see, it was the only way, Saeed. We needed to push America and Israel into a corner and force their hands while the Muslim world united against them. Many people tried unsuccessfully over the decades to introduce the Gold Dinar and they all failed. Mu’ammar Gaddafi in Libya proposed this new currency. Within weeks, he was dragged out into the streets and assassinated in a US-stoked uprising. Saddam Hussein of Iraq tried to get support for the Gold Dinar within the Arab world and look what the US did to him.

We needed to ignite the religious passion of our people across the region, to put aside their internal differences and band together against the Americans and Israel. Getting the world to use our currency whether by choice or by necessity to buy our oil, that was the first goal – it was a conquest, an economic conquest. This was the only way to get it done. It would never have worked otherwise.

The destruction of the Dome of the Rock – that was one of ours – one of our most holy sites. You planned that?

No, as I said before, I was not privy to that part of the plan but I can see it now. It made sense to force the hand of the Jews to go ahead and rebuild their temple.

And why is that so important? It’s just a building.

No, it is much more than that. The building of the temple was a marker outlined in the bible as one of the signs of the coming end. But there is more for beneath its sands lie many secrets. There is a library filled with ancient scrolls. It had been locked away, sealed, for a very long time because what they foretold was simply too terrible to be disclosed. But soon that too will come to light. The horrible, greedy secrets of the Church will be revealed.

Present Day

1

EASTERN STAR RESERVE BANK, DOHA, QATAR – FEBRUARY 29, 1025 HOURS

Waiting – that was always the hardest part of any mission. The men had done all they could. Judging from his report, Saeed had accomplished his first solo mission in Israel well and without any major hiccups.

He had established contact with the operatives arranged by Hassan and gave them a detailed briefing along with the stolen launch codes. Now all Hassan could do was sit tight and wait for the fuse to be lit. Once set in motion, there would be no turning back. Their fate, just like everyone else’s, would be sealed.

Hassan was glad to have Saeed back in his office in Qatar after his long trip to Jerusalem. In some ways, Saeed seemed like a changed man. He was no longer the boyish aide, a green and inquisitive assistant, one full of questions, eyes full of wonder. His cold desert sojourn in the Negev seemed to have done wonders for his self-assurance. Now he walked with an air of confidence, like a young man who finally knew his place in the world. This was the way it should be, thought Hassan and yet Saeed was obviously still deeply troubled by all he had seen and done.

Could those scrolls have been wrong? Or maybe it’s the interpretation? he said at last as he played with his near-empty glass. Nearly everything they said, it was just so different from what had been written before in the Bible. I don’t know Hassan, perhaps it was all a ruse or something that we weren’t meant to understand or maybe even these were just stories written by this Saul of Cyrene whom for all we know, could just have been a madman.

If that were so, responded Hassan, why would they be hidden away by the Church and their Crusaders and the Jews for hundreds of years? No, Saul was an observer, a first-hand eyewitness to the Jewish Messiah, a man who was actually there. He worked alone and wrote all that he saw and what he heard with his ears. No one was there to edit his work, to cut out any parts that would be uncomfortable for the early Church. It has to be true, and that’s why the Vatican has been trying to silence him and his words ever since.

Yeah, but Hassan, you weren’t there with me in that cave under the Temple Mount. You didn’t read his scrolls for yourself. It’s terrible – frightening. So many parts are still missing but still …

The rest of those scrolls, at least those that have been found, are probably in the Vatican, locked up somewhere in their secret archives if they haven’t been destroyed over the centuries. The Church would never want his accounts or his prophecies to be revealed, replied Hassan.

Saeed nodded, still deep in thought. "You know sometimes when I stop and think