The Beginning of the End Lorana Hoopes (the snowy day read aloud TXT) 📖

The Beginning of the EndA Christian Speculative Fiction

Lorana Hoopes

Copyright © 2021 by Lorana Hoopes

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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Note from the Author

Thank you so much for picking up this book. Though this is the third book in the “Are you listening?” series, it is different from what I normally write. These books often take me longer because I feel they are so important that they have to be truly inspired.

This was not my original plan for the 3rd book. As book two ends with the rapture, my plan was to have Raven and the others dealing with the Tribulation in much more of a post-apocalypse way.

Then Covid-19 hit and my life, like yours I’m sure, was changed forever.

While on lockdown from my job and my gym, I began to research this virus a lot. I looked at both sides as I teach my students to do, and I traveled down some rabbit holes. One of those holes was a video of a woman talking about the Human Implantable quantum dot micro-needle vaccination delivery system supposedly patented by a famous philanthropist who will remain nameless here, and it made me wonder what if…

What if they could put this on Band-Aids? What if they could infect us without us even knowing? The original story was going to focus solely on Lily and the view of a high schooler, but as things in the world kept happening, I began to wonder if what we are seeing now is part of the end times.

I know there are a few views of the end times, and none of us really know for sure. I tend to believe the rapture will happen first because I have a hard time believing God would allow Christians to suffer through the tribulation, but there are others who believe the rapture will happen half way through and others who believe the rapture will happen at the end of the tribulation. There are still others who don’t believe a rapture will happen at all.

Even though I wanted to write about the world today (and I don’t believe the rapture has happened), I felt that this book should pick up where A Spark in Darkness left off, right after the rapture. One of my ARC readers said she had trouble with this part because like me she doesn’t believe the rapture has happened yet. So, I’m asking you to imagine with me a little.

This book is mainly fiction, but I have included elements that actually happened to me and are based on research I have done.

Some will not agree with the premise of the virus in this book that is close to Covid and that’s okay. I do understand that while I have not been affected severely by it, others have. However, I also know there have been exaggerations and false claims surrounding it.

Some of you will not agree with my feelings that this vaccine may not be safe, and that’s okay too. I pray daily for the safety of everyone affected by Covid and those who feel the vaccine is in their best interest, including many of my own family members. I pray that some of the things I’m reading about it will turn out to be false.

As I said before, this book is fiction laced with truth, but like many speculative authors before me, I hope that I’m wrong, and that my fiction does not prove reality. However, I have included as many links in the back as I can to what I did research. Regardless of what you decide, I urge you to do your own digging, and if you can’t access some of my sites, then try using DuckDuckGo as your browser. Google censors a lot.

I have seen enough in this last year to tell me that we can no longer trust the media - either side. At least, not completely. In some cases, we cannot even trust what we see and hear, but we can always trust the still small voice inside of us that is the Holy Spirit. Use that as you search for the truth, and I have no doubt you will not be misled.

And if, after reading this, you feel the need for a lighter, feel good story to lift you up, you can sign up for my newsletter and get the first book in my Sweet Billionaires series for free.

Sign up for Lorana Hoopes’s newsletter and get her book, The Billionaire’s Impromptu Bet, as a welcome gift. Get Started Now!

Contents

1. Just after the rapture

2. The following Sunday

3. Two months later

4. One month later

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

12. Two Months later

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

It’s not quite the end!

21. A Free Story For You

22. The Billionaire’s Impromptu Bet Preview

The Story Doesn’t End!

About The Author

1

Just after the rapture

“Raven, where are you going?” Jason stood a few feet from the entrance to the gym, a purple bruise already forming on the side of his face. He was an amazing trainer and fast as lightning, but he’d obviously been hit by something when the car crashed through the window. “Brian’s called an ambulance and the police. He wants everyone to stay put until this gets sorted out.”

Raven shook her head. “I have to get to Kat’s house. She left me something that explains all this. Something I’m going to need.” She turned back to assess her options. The main entrance to the gym parking lot was no good. People wandering around aimlessly blocked it, and an accident filled all four lanes of College Street less than a block from the exit. Perhaps the back entrance would be