Army of Children Read online

Army of Children

  by Ron Parker

  The darkness was intense, almost tangible. It was silent.

  Through this quiet darkness moved a child. A child who by conventional standards should have been long in bed.

  A child who, if it had been possible to see him, looked too young not to be afraid of the black darkness.

  But this boy was no ordinary child.

  He had wandered the earth far longer than the eight or nine years of age he looked. Where he came from, there was no time. No one aged.

  Few people on earth had seen Michael’s unblemished, silk-like skin, his beautiful fair hair, or heard his wonderfully melodic voice.

  Those who did have this privilege never forgot his angelic appearance. Fewer still realised this angelic appearance was literally that of an angel.

  This boy was none other than the Arch-Angel, Michael. The very one who cast Satan out of heaven.

  But that battle was far from over. The revolution in heaven had been put down, certainly, but Satan and his accomplices were still extremely active.

  Michael’s chore was to prevent Satan’s re-entry into the heavens and to curtail as far as possible his activities on the earth.

  The angel used no weapons but the grace of God, and worked through the chosen inhabitants of the earth.

  Michael did not always appear as the child whose form he now took. Indeed, rarely did he appear at all. But often he spoke into the minds of people. Comforting those in need, answering prayers when he could, sowing the seeds of great ideas.

  But he had a rival. Someone who also spoke into the minds of men, causing them to do evil and to destroy, even to destroy each other. The rival was Michael’s arch-enemy, Lucifer.

  The battle had gone on since the creation of the earth. There could be no winner, Michael knew, until the earth’s end, at which time it was hoped the devil would repent, and God would forgive.

  Until then, and only God could decide when that would be, Michael wasn’t able to prevent all the disasters on earth caused by his foe, but he would do whatever he could as he was charged by God.

  He sometimes wished God would give him the wisdom to know which earthly disasters to prevent, for he often thought he made the wrong decisions. Even an angel cannot be in more than one place at a time, and Michael was elsewhere when Satan was sowing evil in the minds of men to cause the two great wars, the Vietnam War, other great disasters. Only God knew why He had not guided Michael to preventing these things.

  In earth time, it was now the night of June the 6th 1999 and Michael knew the greatest disaster of all was about to take place unless he could stop the devil from accomplishing his task.

  The intense darkness told Michael he wasn’t far from the place where evil waited.

  Then from the darkness a flame appeared suddenly, and he knew he was being attacked by Rantonious, the great red dragon which Satan kept as his guardian.

  This was the dragon which occasionally appeared to the mortals of the earth and was the basis of many fairy tales and legends. It wasn’t the first time the dragon and Michael had met in conflict. Michael was present, unseen, to assist St. George. But the dragon had not been slain as was supposed.

  But tonight was different. Michael knew Satan was gathering his legions to attack the earth, and if he could overcome this obstacle, his next target would be Heaven itself.

  Rantonious remained invisible in the pitch darkness except for that intense, threatening flame.

  The angel knew that in his present guise as a child he had no hope of defeating the dragon, for as such he also had only the strength of a child.

  “Lord, let me be something stronger,” he called. For his appearance could only be changed if God Himself willed it.

  But his prayer seemed to be unanswered.

  Michael was defenceless as the dragon approached. He did not fear for himself for he had never known fear, but for the earth, he wept.

  Then, just as it seemed the dragon would devour him, it was suddenly light. Rantonious drew back startled.

  Michael turned his head. God had not deserted him after all, for standing behind the angel were children. Thousands of children. They were the many who had become as children in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

  Michael was no longer alone.

  Overwhelmed by such numbers, the dragon fled.

  Michael led the army of children on towards their greatest foe.

  Before they went much further, they were in sight of the enemy, whose shield of darkness had been destroyed.

  Michael halted his army. Before them they could see many warriors.

  Satan himself suddenly appeared in front of Michael. He laughed at the boy as he spoke to him.

  “Do you think you can defeat my great army with children? Take these little ones back to your God before we are forced to hurt them.”

  “Good will always triumph over evil,” Michael shot back.

  “You mean God will triumph over the devil! Not so. Haven’t I proved that many times on the earth? Now it is time for the final proof. It will start in China, then soon, the whole world will be at war. Not only armies will fight, but the whole population of earth will die.

  “It will not be a quick death, there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Just as your God’s prophets foretold,” he mocked.

  “With God’s help, we’ll stop you,” said Michael.

  The devil laughed again. “With these babes! Go back so we don’t have to burn their souls.”

  “We fight. God will protect us,” Michael responded.

  “If you must, you must. I suppose it will provide a little light entertainment for my men.” Satan returned to where his army waited.

  Michael turned to face his juvenile army. Many of their faces showed fear, but Michael was glad to see that most of them shared his faith in the Lord.

  “We cannot lose, for we have God on our side,” he addressed them. “The odds look much against us at present, but all things are possible to the Lord. Has He not already given us light in the presence of the Prince of Darkness?

  “I cannot promise that some of us won’t be cast into the eternal fire for only God can decide that, but I know that we must win the battle for we are fighting for God.”

  A small boy stepped forward, his face white with fear, contrasting with his head of jet black hair. He seemed about to speak but remained silent until Michael addressed him.

  “What is your name?”

  “My name is Anthony,” came the reply. “During my earthly life I was an evil person, and I sinned many times. Is it to be my punishment to be burned in the eternal fire?”

  “Did you repent of your sins?”

  “Yes, with all my heart.”

  “I can make no promises but God is a forgiving person, and those who were truly evil on earth are now in Satan’s army.”

  “But we are only children against strong men. How can we hope to defeat them?”

  “Put your trust in God. Remember that even though we have the physical appearance and strength of children most of us have had long experience of battles on earth.”

  As Michael instilled confidence into his army, the voice of Satan boomed from the distance to destroy this confidence.

  “By tonight, many of you will be food for my dragon.”

  The children turned to Michael for reassurance this would not be so, but their leader, regretfully, could give no such assurance.

  Instead, he decided to open the attack before Satan further diminished their confidence and their already faltering faith in God.

  He led his army directly at the enemy. The men laughed as the youngsters approached them.

  “What do we do, kill them or spank them?” they jeered.

  Then the
children reached them and they were in direct combat. The children’s physical strength was not greatly increased as many of them, including Michael, expected it would be, and they were quickly overpowered by the superior power of Satan’s men.

  None were killed for as they were already dead bodily it was impossible for them to die again unless their souls themselves were wiped out.

  This could be achieved in two ways, being consumed by the dragon or by unholy fire.

  However, even though death was no threat at present, the children were not immune to pain, and many were hurt.

  “Why hasn’t God come to help us?” pleaded one boy.

  Michael did not answer. He knew that God would help in his own time. He did not understand why He allowed these children who fought for him to be beaten and humiliated by Satan’s men, but he was sure there must be a reason. Just as sure as he still was, even now, that they would win the battle.

  He was forced to withdraw his troops for the time being, to the further jeers and taunts of the enemy.

  When they re-grouped, Michael discovered that about a hundred of his army had been captured. These were the ones he feared for, because if they did not rescue them quickly there was no doubt that after being tortured they would either be cast into the eternal fire, or be fed live to Rantonious when the dragon returned.

  “We must surrender, or we’ll all be taken,” it was the boy, Anthony, who had spoken.

  “Have you no faith in God?” Michael asked him.

  “He didn’t help us that time.”

  Michael paused before asking. “What happened to you in the battle?”

  “A large man grabbed me and beat me, then let me go.”

  “Then consider that beating your punishment from God for your earthly sins. Then think of your brothers and sisters who were not let go.”

  “They were sinners too?” Anthony asked.

  “Very likely, but now we must rescue them because I don’t believe that God wants them to have the everlasting punishment.”

  “But how?”

  “That is what I propose to ask God. My mistake last time was in not waiting for His word.”

  The first raindrops fell some while later, during which time Michael was absent from the battlefield. He returned as the rain increased.

  “Now we attack again,” he instructed.

  The children’s army were more reluctant to go forward this time after their sufferings, but Michael shouted encouragement and insisted God was with them.

  As they reached the enemy this time, a fierce bolt of lightning struck in the midst of the men. No ordinary lightning for it swept the area and men were mowed down like ninepins. Encouraged, the children charged. Amazingly, they found that the men left standing were now as weak as themselves. God was with them after all, instead of giving them the extra strength they expected; He had weakened their foes. Soon only Satan himself was left to fight and he fled back somewhere into the bowels of the earth.

  Amidst the cheering of the victors came a great roar. Rantonious had returned to find his master.

  The dragon was no longer frightened, for the children were now dispersed over a wide area because of the battle and they were no longer the menace they had been to Rantonious when they faced the dragon together.

  The silence that had fallen after the dragon’s roar was shattered by the scream of the nearest child to the beast who turned to flee. As he did so Rantonious stretched out his long neck and seized the boy by a leg with his teeth.

  Nothing could be done to help the victim. Faces turned away screaming to avoid watching the dragon eat its prey.

  At that moment, the lightning struck again, this time hitting Rantonious who let out a furious roar dropping the child, unhurt from its mouth.

  The dragon rolled over twice, flame spitting from its mouth, then died.

  The children went back to their victory celebrations. Only Michael did not join them. His job was unfinished. He knew that Satan would one day try again to remove that barrier between Heaven and Hell, the earth.

  The End

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