Door in the Dragon\u2019s Throat, pp. 107-112<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s bad. It\u2019s all bad.<\/p>\n As if to acknowledge the horrible news Gozan had just revealed, another bolt of lightening zigzagged down the sky and exploded in a ball of white light right outside the window, sizzling in the trees and breaking several panes of glass.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n There\u2019s a curse on. Or something<\/em>.<\/p>\n As a number of readers have commented, the core of this story makes no sense at all. If there\u2019s a pit full of demons locked behind a door waiting for the end times, why would God allow it to be opened early? Remember, God is supposed to be all powerful and all knowing. The idea that anyone<\/em> could open that door early and let those demons out flies in the face of everything evangelical Christianity is supposedly based on.<\/p>\n Add to that that our protagonists\u2014who have been trying to open the door\u2014are Christians. Why wouldn\u2019t God tell them not to do it? Sure, God doesn\u2019t usually speak out loud, even in evangelicalism. But he does sway people\u2019s hearts. He could have led Dr. Cooper to specific Bible passages suggesting that this was a job to turn down. He could have given Dr. Cooper a sense of foreboding surrounding the project. But he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Instead, the only people trying to sway Dr. Cooper from opening the door were nonbelievers. They were Gozan, with his native \u201csuperstitions,\u201d and the shaman. Speaking of the shaman, he was appointed by Shandago (whom Dr. Cooper identifies as Satan) to keep the key and prevent anyone from opening the door. So\u00a0Satan<\/em> wants to keep the door locked up tight \u2026 but God can\u2019t take a moment to tell Dr. Cooper not to take the job in Nepur?<\/p>\n The shaman tells Jay and Lila that when his father, and his grandfather, tried to open the box containing the key, they died tragically, the result of the curse that guards the box. Jay poo poos the idea of a curse, but after he opens the box, all hell breaks loose. The weather turns, a lightening storm appears out of nowhere, and there are earthquakes. What\u2019s the force behind the curse? Is it God, trying to prevent the door from being opened?<\/p>\n But wait\u2014we were told that it was God<\/em>\u00a0who protected Dr. Cooper\u2019s team from death at the site of the Door, while all other teams suffered mishap and death! Why would God first\u00a0protect<\/em> a team trying to open the door, only to rain down fire as soon as they get their hands on the key?\u00a0It doesn\u2019t make sense.\u00a0<\/em>None of this makes sense!<\/p>\n The earth continued to reel and shake, and the chandeliers were now slapping and tinkling against the ceiling.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can help, Gozan,\u201d Dr. Cooper shouted. \u201cYou must let us help you.\u201d<\/p>\n Gozan stumbled to his knees from the shaking and began to grovel pitifully. \u201cYou \u2026 you all bear the name of Jesus. Can you save us from the evil?<\/p>\n \u201cIf we don\u2019t act immediately it will be too late! Put down the gun!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Why does God need Dr. Cooper\u2019s help to keep the Door shut until its appointed time? God should have had Lila get appendicitis, necessitating a trip to the hospital in the capital, and then a flight back to the U.S. for recovery, at which point Dr. Cooper would read something in his Bible that would make him think that Lila\u2019s emergency was a sign that the Door in Nepur was not the project God wanted him working on. Easy peasy!<\/p>\n The key was safe with the shaman until Dr. Cooper\u2019s money-grubbing Christian kids converted him to Christianity so that they could gain his trust and swipe the box from him under the pretenses of destroying it. The door would not have been at any<\/em> risk of being opened if these greedy, careless Christians hadn\u2019t blundered into the picture.<\/p>\n What with Dr. Cooper\u2019s urging and more scary lightening, Gozan finally decided to put down the gun.<\/p>\n There was no time for discussion. The Coopers and the old man dashed past Gozan\u2019s fallen form and ran out the door.<\/p>\n Gozan curled up tightly on the floor, covering his head with his arms and cowering. \u201cJesus, great God, please save us!\u201d he pled.<\/p>\n The four hurried, staggering their way down eh rocking, reeling marble hallway to the big front doors that were now swinging and slamming wildly. The wind carried sticks, leaves, papers, and streaks of rain in a firer, sideways torrent that almost knocked them over as they ran for the jeep.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Remember that it was Gozan who first warned Dr. Cooper off of the Door. It was Dr. Cooper who insisted on blundering ahead, proclaiming to all who listened that hiss God would protect him. After being warned again, and again, and again that the Door was dangerous, Dr. Cooper read a Bible verse that changed his mind about the Door when no one else could\u2014and set out lecturing everyone around him about the dangers of the Door as if he had not spent the previous four-fifths of this book trying to open the door and ignoring all caution and warning.<\/p>\n No one ever tries to convert Gozan, despite Gozan\u2019s earlier statement that their God is powerful and his call here for Jesus to protect him. No one cares a whit about Gozan\u2019s soul.<\/p>\n This is the last we ever hear of Gozan.<\/p>\n Ugh.<\/em><\/p>\n So, our crew of selfish, heedless Christians, plus newly converted ex-shaman, head for the jeep and drive like heck back to the site where the Door is. The pass \u201cfrightened, cowering citizens\u201d and eventually arrive in the desert, where they can see a \u201chellish, red glow.\u201d At this point Peretti finally explains Revelations 9.<\/p>\n The awesome scene reminded them all of the terrible words of Revelation, chapter 9.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key of the shaft of the bottomless pit;<\/span>\u00a0he opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. <\/span>Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. \u2026<\/span>\u00a0their torture was like the torture of a scorpion, when it stings a man.<\/span>\u00a0And in those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death will fly from them.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Hmm. Ellipses. What was taken out? This:<\/p>\n \u2026<\/span>\u00a0they were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree, but only those of mankind who have not the seal of God upon their foreheads;<\/span>\u00a0they were allowed to torture them for five months, but not to kill them, and \u2026<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Huh. On the one hand, removing this shortens the passage up, which might be the only motivation. On the other hand, removing this removes a reminder that this is something that\u2019s only supposed to happen in the end times, and not something that should be able to happen outside of its appointed time.<\/p>\n Peretti goes on:<\/p>\n Demons were captive in the Dragon\u2019s Throat!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n They didn\u2019t need the Bible<\/em> to tell them this,\u00a0Gozan <\/em>told them this way back in the beginning of the book! Yes, demons! Imagine that! Who could have seen that<\/em> coming?!<\/p>\n When they finally arrive at the pit, they see it is putting off a \u201chideous, crimson glow\u201d and that even the \u201cboiling clouds in the sky\u201d were tinged red.<\/p>\n The camp was in shambles. The tends were collapsed and shredded, the supply sheds blown over and splintered, the equipment scattered and tossed like litter. Jeff, Tom, and Bill were nowhere to be seen and apparently had fled.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s the last we ever hear of Jeff, Tom, and Bill. It\u2019s like they weren\u2019t really characters, just cardboard cutouts that said \u201chowdy\u201d and tossed explosives when you wound them up. Peretti has a talent for abruptly dispensing with characters he doesn\u2019t need anymore. Of course, it\u2019s possible this could be seen as adding nuance\u2014after all, Jeff, Tom, and Bill were presumably Christians, so it\u2019s no longer just native people cowering and fleeing. This actually makes their flight seem more<\/em> odd, though, because Peretti doesn\u2019t care about creating nuance. Why did they flee?<\/p>\n When Jay opened the box and took out the key the weather changed, but that wouldn\u2019t have caused the red glow in the Dragon\u2019s Throat. Did a sudden lightening storm cause Jeff, Tom, and Bill to flee? If not, the three of them should have been more than enough to stop the president when he showed with the key. Sure, he could have said he wanted to see the Door, and they would have had no reason to stop him\u2014they don\u2019t know about Revelation 9\u2014but in that case I would have thought Jeff, Tom, and Bill would have gone down into the cavern with him.<\/p>\n Did they go down with the president, let him try the key\u2014since he was the one who commissioned the team and they didn\u2019t really have a good reason to stop him\u2014and then<\/em> flee? This seems odd, because they\u2019re supposed to be Christians\u2014at least, I\u2019d assumed they were, since they happily join in prayer. If they\u2019re Christians, couldn\u2019t they have helped pray the door closed again, as soon as they realized something was amiss?<\/p>\n When did they flee, and why?<\/p>\n I realize that this isn\u2019t all that<\/em> important, but this book has so many fuzzy logistics I find myself less willing to overlook them than in other books. To me it feels like Peretti just wanted them out of the way, so that he could have the president successfully open the door, only to have Dr. Cooper, Jay, and Lila arrive and attempt to put the genie back in the bottle. To do this, he needed to dispense with Jeff, Tom, and Bill somehow<\/em>. Ergo the fleeing!<\/p>\n Dr. Cooper finds a limousine near the cavern, with footprints they assume belonged to the chauffeur leading away from the spot with a spacing that \u201cindicated he\u2019d run like a madman.\u201d They can see the president\u2019s tracks too\u2014leading toward the cavern. (Apparently these are the only tracks to be seen in a busy, lived-in camp site.)<\/p>\n So, what to do?<\/p>\n Dr. Cooper huddled close and shouted, \u201cWe\u2019ve no choice. We\u2019ll have to go down after him. We\u2019ll have to face this thing.\u201d He shouted to the old man, \u201cYou may flee to safety and wait for us if you wish.\u201d<\/p>\n The old man was very shaken with fear and nodded in agreement. \u201cIt would be best. I can remain above and pray to our God.\u201d He embraced them quickly and then ran out into the desert to a safer distance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is the last we hear of the shaman.<\/p>\n