"The Beast is Dead,
Yet Lives On."
Yet Lives On."
Author - Hank Hanegraaff and Sigmund Brouwer
Publisher - Tyndale House Publishers
Age Group - 17 and up
Content - *May Contain Spoilers* Nero is a creep and gave me the shivers just mentioning some of the stuff he did. Something gross was mentioned almost every time he was (that is all I can say if I want to keep this blog post PG-13). Vitas had much hate for Nero because of what he tried to do to his wife so Vitas carries desires for revenge with him. Many spoke of God and the new Christians, giving advice when needed. Vitas yearns to have the faith of those people. Many are invited to comit suicide instead of being executed. Vitas tries to do the honorable thing in all situations and is faithful and loyal to those he loves.
Personal Opinion - Before reading this book, I had heard only two interpretations of the Book of Revelation. The dominate one I heard was the end of the world for us and it hadn't happened and the Left Behind movie (I also heard Catholics don't believe in the Rapture theory so I never thought about that one much). I had also heard that there was a theory that Revelation was about the 2nd fall of the Temple. I didn't know much about that event so I just listened and had no idea what I thought, founding Revelation confusing but willing to hear the theories. After this book, I might be more inclined to the Revelation prophesying the fall of Jerusalem but will still study the different ideas.
Now about the book. The story really pulled me in. Vitas was a sympathetic, honorable hero that I just connected to. He, as well as all the other characters, was well developed and realistic. The building of the story as also good, slowly working up to the exciting, action parts and mystery unfolding just enough to keep the reader wondering what was going to happen. There were times I got confused and didn't understand all the connections but the intricacy kept me involved. I was almost not happy with the ending. The action went really close to the final page and I thought there wouldn't be enough time for a wrap-up. But, it was done beautiful and left with some hope for the characters in the future.
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Links - Learn more about the books and authors here.
Special Notes - This is Book 3 in a series.
Book 1, The Last Disciple, Review - Coming Soon
Book 2, The Last Sacrifice, Review - Coming Soon
Disclaimer - In exchange for an honest review, I received this book for free from the Tyndale Blogger Network.
GIVEAWAY - Courtesy of the publisher, I receive a certificate to give to one blessed winner to receive a copy of The Last Temple by either go to their local Christian retailer with the certificate to redeem or sending to Tyndale where they will mail the book. This giveaway is only open for a week because the certificate expires on October 1, 2012 so I want to get this to the winner as soon as possible. The winner has 24 hours to respond to the email I send out announcing that they won before choosing a new winner if I don't hear back from them. Enter using the Raflecopter below and please read the Terms and Use before entering. Good luck to all who enter and make sure you chew on a good book today. :)
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I like the part in Revelation where the 7 angels go through the 7 vials and each vial is a different plague or something. I find it super interesting! :D Thank you for the giveaway! I love your blog!
ReplyDelete(Thanks, Linda. Check out this unusual web piece. Kayli)
ReplyDeleteCatholics Did NOT Invent the Rapture !
Many assert that the "rapture" promoted by evangelicals was first taught, at least seminally, by a Jesuit Catholic priest named Francisco Ribera in his 16th century commentary on the book of Revelation.
To see what is claimed, Google "Francisco Ribera taught a rapture 45 days before the end of Antichrist's future reign."
After seeing this claim repeated endlessly on the internet without even one sentence from Ribera offered as proof, one widely known church historian decided to go over every page in Ribera's 640-page work published in Latin in 1593.
After laboriously searching for the Latin equivalent of "45 days" ("quadraginta quinque dies"), "rapture" ("raptu," "raptio," "rapiemur," etc.) and other related expressions, the same scholar revealed that he found absolutely nothing in Ribera's commentary to support the oft-repeated claim that Ribera taught a prior (45-day) rapture! (Since the same scholar plans to publish his complete findings, I am not at liberty to disclose his name.)
Are you curious about the real beginnings of this evangelical belief (a.k.a. the "pre-tribulation rapture") merchandised by Darby, Scofield, Lindsey, Falwell, LaHaye, Ice, Van Impe, Hagee and many others?
Google "The Unoriginal John Darby," "Pretrib Rapture Diehards," "X-Raying Margaret," "Edward Irving is Unnerving," "Walvoord Melts Ice," "Thomas Ice (Bloopers)," "Wily Jeffrey," "Deceiving and Being Deceived" by D.M., "The Real Manuel Lacunza," "Roots of Warlike Christian Zionism," "Pretrib Rapture Politics," "Pretrib Hypocrisy," "Famous Rapture Watchers," and "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty" - most of these by the author of the 300-page nonfiction book "The Rapture Plot," the highly endorsed and most accurate documentation on the long hidden historical facts of the 182-year-old pre-tribulation rapture theory imported from Britain during the late 19th century.
Interesting lesson. I had never heard that someone said that Catholics came up with the Rapture. Thanks for the info on that. I only brought it up because that is one of the theories that I had heard of on Revelation but I also knew that it was not taught in the Catholic Church, which is my denomination.
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