A highly detailed and readable, albeit controversial, account of a literal interpretation of the book of Revelation.
From debut author Gray, an investigation into the book of Revelation and the second coming of Christ.
Gray says at the outset that the importance of examining the book of Revelation comes from the fact that we live in “a world that is rapidly fulfilling scripture regarding the end-times.” Passage by passage, sections are relayed and commented upon and often relayed again as this extensive work examines this famous biblical text, from the “Lord’s words to the seven churches” to the final invitation of Christ. The overall message centers on the inevitability of apocalyptic events and the importance for all of humanity to accept Christ as savior. “No matter where man is, no matter how hard life has been, no matter what you may be passing through right now,” he writes, “you can still be in the Spirit.” Venom is reserved for the United Nations and the “secular world,” members of which have “shown their snarling teeth toward the Christian faith. They have managed to have prayer removed from our schools.” Citing other portions of the Bible as well as like-minded writers (e.g., theologian Donald Barnhouse), the book is dense and explanatory. Gray is certain Christ will return—“He is coming back one day to claim that which is rightly His”—and that the end times will not be easy: “The events…anticipate the holocaust of divine judgment that is about to be poured out on the sinful, rebellious earth that is under the curse of sin.” Faithful readers might be pleased that a day will come when “the sorry events of human depravity will arise no more,” but the doubting among us will need more persuading. After all, will the end of the world truly come about when the Antichrist seizes control of the United Nations? Is it true that “Humanity has many faults, but perhaps there is none greater than the sentimental love many have toward God”?
A highly detailed and readable, albeit controversial, account of a literal interpretation of the book of Revelation.Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2013
ISBN: 978-1491704288
Page Count: 542
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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