“Carl, I watched his eyes. His eyes told it all. I don’t know if you noticed, but they actually changed. One minute they were the eyes of President Mark Beaulieu. But the next, they were the eyes of a demon. Beaulieu can seem very kindly, but I believe that if anyone crosses him, he will be capable of exploding in an uncontrollable demonic rage.”

“But, Jack,” Carl said, “surely you must be basing your opinion on something more than that. I watched his eyes and sure, I saw some very animated and even contradictory expressions, but—the eyes of a demon?”

“Perhaps you’re right, Carl,” John Edwards said, sitting on the edge of the sofa. “I saw his eyes and the red dot on his palm. But, also, I feel clearly that the Lord told me in my spirit that this is the man.”

“This guy is the president of the United States of America,” Manuel spoke up after listening quietly to the ongoing debate. “How can the U.S. president be some character in a book by the apostle John?”

“Manuel,” John replied, “I have absolutely no biblical authority to back me up on this part. Much that John wrote in Revelation about the Antichrist makes it look like he would be a Roman emperor more than anyone else. But there’s one thing to keep in mind. All the modern European nations are continuations of the Roman Empire. The United States is the offspring of Great Britain, France, and Spain, not to mention Germany, Italy, and other European countries whose people settled here. The U.S. is the end and the greatest expression of Western civilization that sprang from the Roman Empire. The world has looked to the United States for leadership for almost a hundred years; so why wouldn’t our president be the most likely candidate for world leader—or world emperor?”

“Pastor Jack, I have a question too,” Cathy said looking across at John Edwards. “What do you mean that demon power is going to be released on earth?”

“Revelation predicts five months of demonic torture for everyone on earth who doesn’t belong to the Lord,” he answered. “That means we in this room are all safe, but it will be hell on earth for everyone who is not a believer in Christ for the next five months. Chances are, the entire world is going to seem like a giant lunatic asylum. We saw the signal just now on television. I believe that was the very moment in which the demon hordes were released to torment people all over the earth.”

THE MORNING AFTER HIS SPEECH, President Beaulieu sent the nominations for his new cabinet to the Senate. Without question, it was the strangest assortment of nominees ever presented for confirmation in U.S. history.