* AUTHOR’S NOTE

The characters in this story are fictional with one exception, Clifton O. Erickson. He was a tent evangelist during the early fifties, a contemporary of Oral Roberts, W. B. McKay, Bob Dewese, William Branham and several dozen others. As a child I was privileged to hear many of these men preach. Of them, Erickson, Dewese and Roberts stand out. I personally met Erickson and Dewese. They were men of God as were others of this era. They loved God, loved people and wanted to bring them into a better life. Erickson, like the apostle John was a man of love. Although his tent seated only four thousand while Roberts’ seated nearly sixteen thousand, as a young boy I saw him as a giant in the Kingdom of God, and still do. Some of his sermons are alive to me today. The man still lives in my memory.

This story was conceived in the late summer of 1993, several months after the siege of the Branch Davidian cult in Waco Texas as an answer to the question, “what if they had come out shooting?” It took about six months to complete. Over the next year it languished on my word processor while I tried to come to grips with whether it was plausible. Then came April 18, 1995, Oklahoma City, an explosion in front of the Federal Building. Everything in the story was more than a possibility. Oklahoma City didn’t change the story, it made it real to others.

This is also a story of leadership in God’s Church, the good and the bad. I have seen both, and although I have seen pride selfishness and control I have never seen it up close to the degree that it is depicted here. But I will ask you this, “Does God condone ‘a little sin’ or ‘small sins’? What about a few affairs, or just a couple of bank robberies? I think not. In our minds we can justify the little, but the scripture says, “It is the little foxes that spoil the vines.” And I know Satan’s game plan. If he can convince the world that the church isn’t any different from the world, then he can convince people that “It is vain to serve God.” I assure you, it is not, and anyone who fails to show God’s love is failing.