I am the director of Equipping Church Leaders-East Africa. East African church leaders (and most Christians everywhere) are interested in eschatology (the study of the “last things”). I have been fascinated by this subject for decades, particularly since I attended a church that took eschatology seriously. After a time, however, I realized that something was amiss in that pastor’s understanding of eschatology. That motivated me to study eschatology on my own and begin compiling an extensive library on the subject. While pursuing my M.Div. at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, I wrote two major papers on the subject and now have written the most comprehensive synthesis on biblical eschatology currently available.
B. J. Oropeza’s 99 Reasons Why No One Knows When Christ Will Return was written in 1994 when there was rampant speculation in some circles that the year 2000 would be prophetically significant. Nevertheless, the book remains a worthwhile corrective against end-times speculation and date setting. Each of his reasons deals with popular speculations concerning the soon-appearing of Christ. Each reason is concisely stated (1-3 pages, except for reason 40 concerning the return of Israel to Palestine [5 pages]). Oropeza deals with multiple reasons why date-setting is counterproductive and concludes with a chapter on what we canknow about the future and guidelines for interpreting prophecy. While somewhat dated, the book is enjoyable and makes one shake one’s head that people could have had such bizarre eschatological views.
First it was Y2K and the foreboding year 2000, then a Christian radio show predicted the end in 2011, and then the Mayan calendar set the date for December 21, 2012 --- what will be next? A crescendo of predictions arise from Bible-believing Christians, from cult groups, and from self-appointed prophets. We all know that the Bible says Christ will come back and the end of the world will take place. The questions that millions have asked is – When? With every failed forecast, however, a trail of people is left behind, people who become disillusioned with Christ and Christianity.…
My imagination has always been captivated and fired up by reading traditional myths and fairy tales, as well science fiction. Growing up in the ’80s, I was particularly steeped in cinematic masterpieces such as Bladerunner and The Road Warrior, but I also loved reading classic sci-fi, as well as British literature, particularly the Brontes and Jane Austen. I enjoy and write speculative fiction because I believe it offers some of the best, creative ways to explore the timeless, universal truths underlying the human experience. Whether that exploration happens in subtle scenes of interpersonal interactions, or in the epic events woven in threads of dark and light across the tapestry of history, it’s all valuable and relevant.
Literally one of the most ‘apocalyptic’ stories ever penned, this unusual tale follows the main character of a priest as he navigates a hostile secular culture and investigates what might finally be the arrival of the long-predicted Antichrist. The story is prescient in its predictions about technology, as well as political and cultural trends. The un-ironic steampunk vibes (which would have been cutting edge at the time of writing), are a fun plus.
Benson's dystopic vision of a near future world in which religion has, by and large, been rejected or simply fallen by the wayside. The Catholic Church has retreated to Italy and Ireland, while the majority of the rest of the world is either Humanistic or Pantheistic. There is a 'one world' government, and euthanasia is widely available. The plot follows the tale of a priest, Percy Franklin, who becomes Pope Silvester III, and a mysterious man named Julian Felsenburgh, who is identical in looks to the priest and who becomes "Lord of the World".
As a writer or horror and suspense books myself, I’ve always sought out exceptional works in the genre that are able to scare me and keep me on the edge of my seat. As a student of the horror film genre as well, a number of the books recommended on my list were made into thrilling movies as well, including Phantoms, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and The Tommyknockers.
If you’re awake at night due to paranoia, thenThe Servants of Twilightcomes highly recommended. The book creates an atmosphere of paranoia much like the movieThe Invasion of the Body Snatchers.In the book single mother Christine Scavello tries to save her son from cult members of “The Twilight,” a cult led by the evil and delusional Grace Spivey. Grace accuses Joey of being the antichrist after bumping into him at a local mall. Christine enlists the help of Private Detective Charlie Harrison to protect her and Joey from the cult. However, Grace’s followers are everywhere. Even police officers follow Grace’s orders to destroy the young boy, forcing Charlie, Christine, and Joey to run for their lives against a seemingly unbeatable foe.
To his mother, Joey seems an ordinary six-year-old boy - special to her, but to no one else. To the Servants of Twilight, he is an evil presence who must be destroyed - an Anti-Christ who must die.
The terrifying ordeal for Joey and his mother begins in the supermarket car park where an old woman accosts them and pursues them with her terrible threats. Christine's world is turned into a nightmare of terror. Only her love for her child, and the support of the one man who believes her, gives her the chance to survive the Servants of Twilight...…
I'm a professor of history at the Graduate Center and Queens College at the City University of New York, where I'm also director of the Irish Studies program and the MA program in Biography and Memoir. My specialty, covered in five books that I’ve authored or co-edited, is English and Irish history in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; my new book represents the culmination of a decade’s research devoted to Ireland. In addition to teaching British and Irish history, I offer more unusual and wide-ranging classes including the history of the devil, the history of crime and punishment, and the history of the body. My life is divided between New York City and mid-coast Maine.
I was always interested in how the emperor Nero was associated from antiquity onwards with the Antichrist: the world-destroying and tyrannical son of Satan who would prevail until the final victory of God. Only Judas matched him as a villain in the Christian imagination. Malik traces the Nero-Antichrist “paradigm” across centuries, exploring the ways in which Christians viewed Nero as an arch-fiend, the beast in the Book of Revelation, and a figure of evil who tested their mettle and faith. While recent scholars have softened the traditional picture of Nero, his afterlife continues to wield its menacing power, based in no small part on these Christian traditions.
It has traditionally been assumed that biblical writers considered Nero to be the Antichrist.. This book refutes that view. Beginning by challenging the assumption that literary representations of Nero as tyrant would have been easily recognisable to those in the eastern Roman empire, where most Christian populations were located, Shushma Malik then deconstructs the associations often identified by scholars between Nero and the Antichrist in the New Testament. Instead, she demonstrates that the Nero-Antichrist paradigm was a product of late antiquity. Using now firmly established traits and themes from classical historiography, late-antique Christians used Nero as a means with which…
I've been an avid reader across many genres since I learned to read as a child and have wandered into all sorts of categories to find literature I love. Fantasy became my first love, but that didn't mean I had to abandon everything else. I like finding great books that don't make the big publisher lists with their generic output. Since the rise of indie publishing, I've developed a habit of sampling anything that sounds like it might be interesting and have found some amazing and very original stories!
This one is classed as YA, and might actually fall under Fantasy but with a difference. The protagonist is the antichrist, normally the stuff of Horror, but he's in high school and trying to fit in as best he can and gather friends rather than followers. What could go wrong?
Well, falling in love with a girl with religious parents might be an error in judgment and the local Satanist groups trying to enlist him doesn't help. It's a story of a teenager at the heart of it, albeit one with special powers and demons harassing him, but it's a fun read and has some great humour when it comes to dealing with bullies or misguided young Satanists trying to sacrifice a duck. Trust me, the duck is okay.
Incarnation bestows free will and the Antichrist is waging a teenage rebellion!Lucas doesn't want to grow up to be like his father. What teenager does? But for Lucas it's not the same because his father is the devil himself and Lucifer expects his incarnated son to embrace his destiny as the Antichrist. Lucas has other ideas.A California high school is the perfect environment for an adolescent boy with special abilities to play down being 'different' and seek friends, rather than followers, but what teenager could resist using his powers to get to class on time or deal with the school…
Ever since I was very young I had an interest in Bible prophecy. I thought it was fascinating that someone could predict the future and wondered if the prophecies would come true in my lifetime. It all started with an old audio recording from Alexander Scourby reading the Book of Ezekiel. After that I read the Book of Revelation several times but didn't know what the symbolism meant. Decades later, I picked up the interest again and used my work experience of analytical skills to help interpret its meaning. Most people focus on the Antichrist or Mark of the Beast, yet there are more warnings about the False Prophet than any other character.
Some of the big topics within Bible prophecy are the Great Tribulation Period with the Antichrist at the helm, and whether Bible believers will be raptured before or after this period of distress. The authors tackle this tough question with sound biblical evidence to support their claims.
Unfortunately, their findings go against many popular opinions of the modern Church and there is great debate amongst believers about the Rapture. This is why their book is very important to provide much needed information for those who hold differing views.
Despite the popular theology of our day, Christians should not expect to get out of experiencing the tribulation or the end times. Nowhere in the Bible does the Lord promise us this, say Michael Brown and Craig Keener, two leading, acclaimed Bible scholars. In fact, they say, Jesus promises us tribulation in this world.
Yet this is no reason to fear. In this fascinating, accessible, and personal book, Brown and Keener walk you through what the Bible really says about the rapture, the tribulation, and the end times. What they find will leave you full of hope. God's wrath is…
The deeper I looked into Nero’s history the more references I found to astrology about which I knew nothing except that it was a “pseudo science”. Then an idea hit me like the proverbial lightning bolt. It didn’t matter that astrology was mere superstition. All that mattered was that Nero and his contemporaries believed in it. Nero’s birthday and time are known so it must be possible to re-create his horoscope. With this mysterious wheel in hand, anyone familiar with ancient astrological lore should be able to make some very intelligent guesses about what Nero’s astrologer would have been advising his imperial client on perhaps a daily basis.
This book by the renowned nineteenth-century biblical scholar is a great read because it epitomizes the traditional anti-Nero bias to the point of parody. Renan writes that “Nero’s actions float between the black wickedness of a cruel dunce and the irony of a cynic. He did not possess an idea that was not puerile. The sham world of art in which he dwelt had made the veriest fool of him.”
