Trying to remember a short novel I read years ago. Probably written in the 50s I would say due to the way they talk about nuclear weapons. I think it may have been one of those books they published (at least in the US) where they would put 2 novels that were a little too short for their own book, together in one book. One side would have the front cover, then flip it upside down so you were looking at the back, and the back was the cover of the other book, with the stories printed upside down with each other.
Two adult men, one an atheist (and I believe a doctor) and an ex child evangelist who has lost his faith go on the run from a small town (I believe the town was in Kansas) when aliens invade earth and their town. The aliens also have bombed our base on the moon and I think killed the ex evangelist's son. One or other of the men's wife was also killed when the aliens invaded their town. While trying to evade capture the men discuss religion (this was the most interesting part to me). Near the end, the atheist sacrifices his life to save the evangelist. The evangelist sneaks back into town and finds out that altho the aliens can disable the auto-timers on our nuclear weapons, we have people "riding" the bombs into the aliens spaceships and blowing them up manually (and themselves to), so we're beginning to push them back. Then he finds himself in a building the aliens have set up as a "temple" and inside finds himself in the presence of god, and realizes god has broken the covenant he had with Abraham and aligned himself with the aliens. At the very end he is back in his house when he looks in the mirror and sees the look in his eye that he had when he was a child and everyone regarded him with awe when he spoke. It ends with him getting ready to tell everyone that the covenant with god has ended, but god has made himself a powerful enemy and may end up regretting the day he decided to forsake humanity.
Two adult men, one an atheist (and I believe a doctor) and an ex child evangelist who has lost his faith go on the run from a small town (I believe the town was in Kansas) when aliens invade earth and their town. The aliens also have bombed our base on the moon and I think killed the ex evangelist's son. One or other of the men's wife was also killed when the aliens invaded their town. While trying to evade capture the men discuss religion (this was the most interesting part to me). Near the end, the atheist sacrifices his life to save the evangelist. The evangelist sneaks back into town and finds out that altho the aliens can disable the auto-timers on our nuclear weapons, we have people "riding" the bombs into the aliens spaceships and blowing them up manually (and themselves to), so we're beginning to push them back. Then he finds himself in a building the aliens have set up as a "temple" and inside finds himself in the presence of god, and realizes god has broken the covenant he had with Abraham and aligned himself with the aliens. At the very end he is back in his house when he looks in the mirror and sees the look in his eye that he had when he was a child and everyone regarded him with awe when he spoke. It ends with him getting ready to tell everyone that the covenant with god has ended, but god has made himself a powerful enemy and may end up regretting the day he decided to forsake humanity.
