Authors: Rob Stennett
The End is Now
Also by Rob Stennett
The Almost True Story of Ryan Fisher
a novel by
Rob Stennett
ZONDERVAN
The End Is Now
Copyright © 2009 by Rob Stennett
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ePub Edition June 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-56135-4
Requests for information should be addressed to:
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stennett, Rob, 1977 –
The end is now / Rob Stennett.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-310-28679-0 (softcover)
1. Armageddon — Fiction. 2. Goodland (Kan.) — Fiction. 3. Satire. I. Title.
PS3619.T476477E63 2009
813'.6 — dc22 2009005157
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Holy Bible, Today’s New International Version
™. TNIV®. Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
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Holy Bible, New International Version
®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
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I, Rob Stennett, would like to thank the city of Goodland for being so friendly to me when I visited. If you ever get the
chance, you should visit their fine town. Wonderful people. I recommend the diner at the Goodland airport. And I’d also like
to remind everyone that this is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, rapture predictions, and/or apocalyptic
events is entirely coincidental or for fictional purposes.
Interior design by Beth Shagene
Edited by Andy Meisenheimer, Becky Philpott, and Jared Winkel
09 10 11 12 13 14 • 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
THE ALMOST TRUE STORY OF RYAN FISHER
In memory of Marjorie “Ginga” Stennett
& Grandpa John McGuire.
I’ll see you on the other side.
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye,
at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
1 C
ORINTHIANS
15 : 51 – 52
There are certain rules to surviving a horror movie… Never, ever, ever under any circumstances say, “I’ll be right back.”
Because you won’t be back.
J
AMIE
K
ENNEDY
,
S
CREAM
One week from tomorrow, at precisely 6:11 in the morning, the rapture or apocalypse or Armageddon or whatever else you’d prefer
to call it, is going to occur.
But only in Goodland, Kansas.
The rapture will not take place anywhere else in the world. It will not crash the stock market, cause cars to wreck, or leave
planes without their pilots. Husbands will not leave for the kitchen to grab a jar of pickles, only to come back to the living
room and discover that their wives are now nothing more than piles of clothes. Power plants will not shut down, leaving televisions,
light bulbs, street lamps, and hairdryers without electricity. Running water will not stop, forcing citizens to take baths
in rivers and wash their clothes in lakes. Meteors will not crash into the ocean and create tidal waves. Nuclear missiles
will not be launched from the USSR, North Korea, East Germany, or any of those pesky countries in the Middle East. Barcodes
will not be tattooed onto wrists or foreheads. The number
666
will be nowhere in sight except for those rare instances when a customer at McDonald’s buys nothing but a Filet O’ Fish and
a medium strawberry shake, and the total including tax comes out to be six dollars and sixty-six cents. A world government
will not be formed. Computers will not melt down because they are confused about what the year 2000 actually means. Aliens
will not blow up the White House.
Nothing like this will happen.
That is, nothing like this will happen anywhere but in Goodland.
This goes against conventional wisdom. Most people think that when the end comes it will be widespread: Trumpets will sound
and horsemen will appear and it will be a whirlwind of all kinds of tribulation — from pre-trib, to post-trib, to middle-trib.
But that doesn’t make sense. It’s just not how such things work. It’s not true to the pattern of how other miraculous destruction
has occurred in history.
There are always warning signs.
God didn’t simply destroy Nineveh — Jonah was swallowed by a whale and then sent to warn Nineveh of its impending doom. Moses
warned Pharaoh before the plagues hit — and even the plagues started out innocently enough, simple stuff like frogs and locusts
before the heavy hitters like blood rivers and death angels. Peter warned Ananias and Sapphira, Lot warned Sodom and Gomorrah
— and in the end they were all destroyed to warn others about the dangers of wickedness.
This is what will happen in Goodland. Their rapture will be a signal to the world. They are a warning. A sacrificial lamb.
It makes sense. Once everyone sees how powerful the rapture is, they will be afraid, or excited; they will hit the floor and
repent of their sins. Everyone, everywhere, will know the truth. Not only that, but this event will provide God a chance to
see how things go. He can look at the rapture and see what worked and what didn’t. He can watch the good, the bad, and the
ugly of the apocalypse so He can know how to improve it when He takes it global.