"Tim LaHaye - Left Behind Kids 03 - Through the Flames" - читать интересную книгу автора (LaHaye Tim)

A Line in the Sand




JUDDThompson and the other three kids liv-ing in his otherwise abandoned suburban house sometimes
felt as if it was just them against the world. Judd, at sixteen, was the oldest. Then came the redhead,
Vicki Byrne, a year younger. Lionel Washington was thir-teen, and Ryan Daley, twelve.

They were the only ones left from their families. Judd's parents and his twin younger brother and sister
had disappeared right out of their clothes a few days before. Vicki Byrne, who had lived in a trailer park
with her parents and little sister, had seen the same thing happen at her place. Her older brother, who had
moved to Michigan, had disappeared too, according to one of his friends.

Lionel Washington had lost his parents, his older sister, and his little brother and sis-ter. His uncle, the
infamous andr├й Dupree, was thought dead, but Lionel now knew he was alive somewhere--- but where?

Ryan Daley had been an only child, and now he was an orphan. His parents had not disappeared. They
had died in separate acci-dents related to the worldwide vanishings of millions of people--- his father in a
plane crash, his mother in an explosion while in her car.

The kids knew what had happened. At least the three older ones did. Ryan wasn't sure yet. All he knew
was that he had been left alone in the world, and he didn't much like the explanation the other three had
come to believe.
 All three of the older kids had had parents who were Christians. They believed not only in God, but also
in Christ. And they weren't just churchgoers. These were people who had believed that the way to God,
the way to heaven, was through Christ. In other words, they did not agree with so many people who
believed that if you just tried to live right and be good and treat other people fairly, you could earn your
way to heaven and to favor with God.

As logical as all that may have sounded, the parents of Judd and Vicki andLionel believed that the real
truth, the basic teach-ing of the New Testament, was summarized in two verses in the book of Ephesians.
Chapter 2, verses 8-9 said that a person is saved by grace through faith and that it is not as a result of
anything we accomplished. It is the gift of God, not a result of good deeds, so nobody can brag about it.

They also believed that one day, as the Bible also foretold, Jesus would return and snatch true believers
away in the twinkling of an eye, and they would immediately join him in heaven. That was what had hap-
pened, Judd, Vicki, and Lionel realized, since most of the people in their churches had dis-appeared too.

But what convinced them more than any-thing was that they themselves were still here. Judd had never
received Christ, though he had grown up in church and knew the Bible. Vicki had hated it when her
parents had become Christians two years before, and she didn't want anything to do with it, even though
her older brother and younger sister had also believed. She had seen the changes in her family and
realized there was some truth to what was going on. She had an idea they were onto something real, but
she wasn't willing to give up her lifestyle or her freedom to join them in their faith.

Lionel had been more like Judd, having been raised by a Christian family and having gone to church