EDITOR’S NOTE: This groundbreaking series is being offered in celebration of a previously top-secret project and now unprecedented new 3-Volume book series (over 10-years in the making) from best-selling scholar Dr. Thomas Horn and acclaimed biblical history and theology majors Donna Howell and Allie Anderson: THE MYSTERY OF JESUS FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION—YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND TOMORROW
What is the meaning of life? Everyone has their own answer to this question. However, for the Christian, no matter where the answer starts, it ends by acknowledging the supreme manifestation of God’s will and plan.
Folks, we’ve reached that climax. The enemy has been forever bound; Antichrist and his pathetic beast-prophet are gone; people have observed the eschatological victories of Christ—three times (cross; Revelation judgments; Battle of Armageddon)—and have seen Him reign; the Great White Judgment Day is passed…and we’re about to watch as the entire earth melts away and gets replaced by a world grander than even that of Eden.
But before we give our own opinions and reflections, we will let the wholly inspired Word of God do the talking:
John watches as a New Heaven and a New Earth appear in a vision. The first heaven and earth are passed away, and the sea is gone. The holy city, Jerusalem, comes down from out of heaven, looking as new and innocent as a bride ready for her husband. A great voice comes from heaven as well, announcing the arrival of the tabernacle of God among men. Now, God, Himself, will dwell with the people. He will be their God, and the people will be His. God will wipe away all the tears from their eyes, and there will be no more death, sadness, crying, or pain, because the things of the old world are passed away. The One on the throne says, “Behold! I make all things new!” Then He says to John: “Write: for these words are true and faithful.… It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.” The One on the throne goes on to say that He will give the water of life freely to all who are thirsty. These overcomers, He says, will now inherit all things; He will be their God, and they will be His children. But those who were unbelieving—the fearful, the abominable; murderers, adulterers, liars, sorcerers, and witches—have inherited the lake of fire and brimstone, which is the second death (Revelation 21:1–8).
One of the seven angels that had a bowl judgment filled with plague comes up to John and speaks with him, telling him that he will show him the Bride, the Lamb’s wife. He carries John away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, showing John a view of the Holy City, Jerusalem, while it is coming down from heaven. It is filled with the glory of God, and her light is like a precious gemstone, such as Jasper or crystal. There is a giant wall with twelve gates with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel written on them—three gates to the east, three to the north, three to the south, and three to the west—and at the gates are twelve angels. The wall has twelve foundation stones, labeled with the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb (21:9–14).
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW VIDEOS:
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The angel that walks with John has a golden measuring stick to measure the city, its gates, and the wall. The city is in the shape of an enormous square, as long as it is wide, and each side is fourteen thousand miles long. By man’s measurement, the walls, which are made of jasper, are 216 feet thick. The rest of the city is made of pure gold, which sparkles like glass. The foundations of the city wall are decorated with all manners of precious stones: jasper, sapphire, chalcedony (or agate), emerald, sardonyx (or onyx), sardius (or carnelian), chrysolyte, beryl, topaz, chrysoprasus (or chrysoprase), jacinth, and amethyst. The gates are each carved from a single pearl, and the streets of the city are gold, sparkling like clear glass (21:15–21).
John does not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of the city! No sunshine or moonlight is needed, because the glory of God and the Lamb are the light source of the city! The inheritors of salvation amidst all the nations will walk in the light of the New Jerusalem, and the kings upon the earth will walk into the city in glory and honor. The gates will never shut at night, because there is no night, and all the nations will walk into the city in glory and honor. Never again will anything defile Jerusalem—no abomination of any kind, or any deception—because only those whose names are written in the Book of Life will be a part of it (21:22–27).
John is shown a pure river, filled with the water of life, clear as crystal. It flows from out of the throne of God and the Lamb and into the main streets, and on either side of the river, the Tree of Life grows, which bears twelve kinds of fruit. Each month, the fruit is harvested, and the leaves of the tree are keep everyone healthy (22:1–2).
The throne of God and the Lamb will be in this place, and there will be no more curses. God’s people will serve Him. They will see His face (finally!), and His name will be in their foreheads. There will never be need for light, like the sun or candles, because the light will always come from God, and the citizens of God will reign alongside Him forever and ever. The angel with John says that this vision of the New Heaven, New Earth, and New Jerusalem is all a true and faithful report, and the God of the prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things that must be done for all of this to transpire (22:3–5).
This is the view of heaven eternal, right here, on earth, in its never-ending and abounding glory. Every sin-stained reality we know today will cease forever.
John’s Closing Remarks (Revelation 22:6–21)
For the remainder of the last chapter, we are brought back to a historical setting for John’s closing remarks. The voice is largely in the present-tense, meaning that this is the advice John was giving to the readers of his day:
John switches gears from his reflection on the visions, and writes to the readers, directly, that Jesus will come back soon, and that all those who read the book of Revelation and keep the prophecies therein sacred will be blessed. John then writes that he both saw and heard all of these things. He falls to worship the angel who showed him everything, but the angel refuses worship, because he is a fellowservant of John’s brothers and sisters, the people who keep the book of Revelation holy, so he instructs him to worship only God. Then, the angel says that the book of Revelation and all of its prophecies should never be sealed shut. The time is now to share them. Let people continue to make decisions about how they want to live (22:6–11)
John now states the words of Christ: “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last” (22:12–13).
To the reader, John writes that those who choose to carry out the Commandments of God are blessed because they will have the rights, and the access, to the Tree of Life, and will be welcome to enter through the gates of the city. People that are like dogs—sorcerers, witches, adulterers, murderers, idolaters, and those who live a lie—will never be welcome to the city (22:14–15).
Again, John states the words of Christ: “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star” (22:16).
To the readers, John wraps up his statements: The Spirit and the Bride say “Come.” Let him who has ears to hear say, “Come.” Let him who is thirsty come, and whoever desires to, let him come and drink of the water of life freely. John testifies personally to anyone that hears the prophecies of this book: If any man (or woman) adds to this book, God will add to him the plagues that are written in it. If any man (or woman) takes away from the words in this book of prophecy, God will take away his name from the Book of Life, and his inheritance in the holy city, and from all the other wonderful things that are written in this book (22:17–19).
John’s final words to his readers are these: “He which testifieth these things saith, ‘Surely I come quickly.’ Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen” (22:20–21).
Thing is, the Lord will come quickly. By “quickly,” Christians have historically grown impatient, comparing every part of God’s plan to their own linear concepts of time. But as we have repeatedly discussed, a day is like unto a thousand years to God, and vice versa. When the Father tells our Bridegroom that that glorious Day of the Lord has come—that the hour has arrived when the Bride-sheep will be separated from the Babylon-goats—what will you, personally, be able to say about your own readiness?
This is the end of all things—the end of the revelations of Christ to John concerning the last days, the end of all pain, suffering, disagreement, strife, weakness, illness, destruction, and evil—and the end of the Word of God on the whole matter. For those who reject Christ, this “end” is a terrifying and eternal separation from God. For the rest of us…what does it mean regarding our Christian duty today, in light of the imminency of Jesus’ return?
At the very beginning of this work in Volume 1, Donna Howell shared a testimony of something she strongly believes that the Spirit told her on the balcony in an Arizona hotel about a Great Spiritual Awakening that is on the very cusp of exploding in our own time. If you recall, what she did not share with you, was the other half of that message—the portion that came between the pronouncement of the next Great Awakening and the moment that her request to know what she must do was met with only silence.
Turn the page.
Conclusion to this Online Series[i]
“Is that You, Holy Spirit?” I, Donna Howell, asked several years ago. “Are you telling me You are going to start the next Great Awakening just as Tom Horn, Larry Spargimino, and I predicted a couple of books ago in Final Fire?”
“The Great Awakening has already begun,” was my answer. “It’s in the beginning phases. Only those with eyes to see and ears to hear will see it and hear it. It’s starting with My people, My true people, while a good portion of the Church and the world around it are asleep and unaware.”
This was not the first or the last time I would experience something I call a “download.” I use that term because, in the two or three total times this kind of epiphany has dawned upon me, the information comes like pop-up windows on a PC—a thousand at once—flooding my mind and soul with information that I never could have had time to contemplate or invent.
In the blockbuster-hit film, The Matrix, the female lead, Trinity, is on a rooftop in a simulated reality with mayhem all around and her only escape is via a helicopter she doesn’t know how to fly. As her real body and brain are in another building plugged into a computer mechanism, she communicates to her team that she needs a pilot program, and her assistant in the other location uploads the program directly into her consciousness. Her eyelids flutter, and two seconds later, she’s an expert pilot. An entire flight curriculum, complete with emergency protocol, was literally “downloaded” into her brain and thoughts, opening within her instantly with the knowledge of a skilled and “practiced” aviator.
This “download,” for me, came in a similar fashion. Though I still saw and felt what was literally in front of me—a warm, Arizona breeze and the heat of the midday sun glittering off the glass of commercial city structures and the surface of the hotel pool below—a spiritual flash drive “opened” in my mind.
I saw riots in the news, buildings on fire, folks huddling underground in hiding. I felt the palpable hatred of brother against brother, smelled the sickening stench of human deception, and tasted the bile of the bloodshed of the innocent. Crosses were taken down from churches. Bibles were burning. Pastors were sleeping at the pulpits while their people were screaming. Grandparents were praying in tears and on their knees while their young grandchildren were porn addicts. White powders and needles were scattered around in dumpsters in the alley and nobody cared. Disease and pandemic were spreading like a brushfire and nobody was immune, while women of the night continued to sell themselves for a meal. Busses and other public transportation vehicles were floating slowly downstream in a dirty flood filled with uprooted, dead plants. Military troops fired guns at will. Earthquakes destroyed immense buildings and monuments. Weather maladies of all kinds rained down on vulnerable humanity. Chaos, anarchy, disorder, and confusion were the norm, while hands in high places were shaking on foreign deals from every platform in government.
…And all of this flickered through my head before the year 2020 brought even a fraction of this picture to fruition.
My fingers tightened around the railing as I blinked the pictures away. They left as soon as they had come: in an instant. Yet I truly do believe the Lord had said just prior to that moment that a Great Awakening was coming.
What could I possibly do with that contradictory imagery? Which was it? A Great Awakening or a tragic, destitute future for man? What was actually coming?
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I’d give almost anything to offer up a poetic and picturesque ending—or a dire and sure warning like the prophets of old who spoke with the authority of God, Himself, distributing His will to the people in clear-cut terms and instruction—but if you read my testimony at the beginning of this project, you already know what happened next: “What do I need to know?” I asked desperately in my mind. “What’s the first move? Tell me what I’m to do and I’ll do it!”
There was never a definite answer. In 2020, when I thought for a while that events would escalate to what I had seen and felt, I wondered if I had been given a prophecy that was unfolding in my own time. Then, when things calmed back down, I did what a lot of Christians do: I doubted the whole balcony experience. I never asked for a vision or any such revelation from God, and I wasn’t letting my mind wander to terrifying things, telling ghost stories at a campfire, or being spiritual. If you’ll remember, at the beginning of the testimony, I was struck mid-thought, while dealing with a publishing company production drama that had escalated that morning. Out of absolutely nowhere, I was told that an Awakening was coming while simultaneously receiving an overwhelmingly muddled mountain of startling images.
But surely, I’m human, right? Maybe I caused it after all…? I mean, if there was no answer from the Spirit, then what did all of this amount to?
After my husband and I opened that church in our home (the one I detailed in my testimony opening this book series), and I began to cook for some strong men and women of God while in fellowship and circles of prayer, I was encouraged to hold onto what I had seen and heard. One particular friend of ours gave me great advice, reminding me that sometimes the Lord gives us only partial pictures of His knowledge and plans only to clarify years later. If that balcony experience was nothing, then it wouldn’t hurt me to remember it anyway just in case…but if it was something, then I better never forget it. Now, though I still don’t have all the answers, I feel more certain in my bones that the flash-flood warning has meaning, and that it will continue to reveal aspects of what the Spirit is trying to get across to His people in these times.
I can’t help but see how Jesus “appears” in sixty-six books in a row and think that, perhaps, part of the juxtaposition between an Awakening and total societal madness was precise and intentional for such a time as this. Following the terrorist attack of 9/11, religious polls were taken all over the country that showed intense spikes amidst unbelieving populations in belief in God, prayer, and church attendance. Those who had already believed in Jesus before the attacks professed stronger faith and practice than before. A poll from Positive Psychology Online showed that “respondents reported significantly higher levels of spirituality and faith in the two months after 9/11 than respondents who took the survey prior to that date.”[ii] An astronomically high “90 percent” of Americans reported to rely on “prayer, religion, or spiritual feelings” as a direct result of the attack, and “44 percent” within that number admitted that these “coping mechanisms” were “relied heavily” upon.[iii] Another stated that “nine out of ten Americans reported that they coped with their distress by turning to their religion” after 9/11.[iv] When COVID-19 hit, similar statistics flooded in. One report states: “Organized religion has been on the decline for decades in the United States. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers found that online searches for the word ‘prayer’ soared to their highest level ever in over 90 countries.”[v] Another poll by the Pew Research Center, in a report titled, “Americans Far More Likely to Say Coronavirus Crisis Has Strengthened Their Faith, Rather Than Weakened It,” showed that COVID made 24 percent of Christians’ faith in the country stronger, while 47 percent said it didn’t affect their faith at all.[vi] Yet another report called “Non-believers Turn to Prayer in a Crisis, Poll Finds,” regarding tragedy in general two years prior to COVID, shows that “among the non-religious, personal crisis or tragedy is the most common reason for praying, with one in four saying they pray to gain comfort.”[vii] Natural disasters are another factor: “Religiosity has increased nine times more in districts across the globe hit by earthquakes compared to those that were spared over the period 1991–2009.”[viii]
These statistical reports could go on for pages…
I am not suggesting that the madness-imagery that infiltrated my thoughts is what will cause the Great Awakening that I believe is in its beginning phases, but I know world events are getting very unstable right now, and Jesus’ return is partially reliant upon the actions of His people. And no, I’m not about to tell you that we have to make this wicked world perfect so it is worthy enough for the Messiah to come back.
In Matthew 24:14 and Mark 13:10, Jesus made it clear that His Second Advent comes only after the Gospel has been preached globally, so the responsibility to evangelize the world and usher in the Messiah’s return is ours. The early Church knew this as well, as 2 Peter 3:12 states that they were “looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God” (emphasis added). Like many verses we’ve reflected on, the translation here is a little ambiguous. The Greek word for “hasting” is speudo, and it means more than just being in a hurry or looking forward to a grand event. In this context, most scholars agree, it refers to cooperating with God “in the redemption of society.”[ix] In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus made it clear that we should ask for the coming of His Kingdom (“Thy kingdom come”; Matthew 6:10), and in the future, those very prayers are what ushers in the Father’s motion to the send the Son back to earth again (Revelation 8:4). Certainly, this doesn’t mean it’s up to us to “Christianize the world” and aggressively proselytize, shoving mere “religion” down the throats of those who are already on the fence about us “crazy Christian conservatives.” Jesus personally warned against that kind of “witnessing” when He said that endeavor only produces a false believer who is “twice the child of hell” as the insincere, apostate Pharisees (Matthew 23:15). Nor does it mean we have to bombard the local voting offices with picket signs and vehemently curse anyone whose social ideas or politics don’t please God. Jesus, too, as we discussed throughout the Intertestamental Period and the Gospels, was personally given the opportunity to rise up like a supersoldier against Rome and “Christianize the world” in His day, and He repeatedly refrained from having anything to do with challenging the leaders of the land, even encouraging His followers to respect and pay proper taxes to politicians (Matthew 22:15–22; Mark 12:17). He also explained that no person will ever be able to accurately predict when He returns (Matthew 24:36), so it’s not for us to set out with the intention of “kick-starting the Second Coming” through agitating the world that is already less and less tolerant of our beliefs every day.
But the true, life-giving Message of the Gospel will not spread itself. It’s clear throughout the New Testament that the Church was built through people who were sensitive to the guidance of the Spirit. And God’s Word is ripe with proof of a theology called “the delay of God’s wrath,” meaning that, like the Ninevites of Jonah’s time, we can stave off the judgments of Revelation—and the terrifying things I saw on that balcony—by Holy-Spirit anointed evangelism to the lost.
By far, the most popular verse in the Word of God is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The Gospel never changes, and its directives are solid. Christians are never “off the hook” from having to minister to the “whosoever will.”
The New Testament was written two thousand years ago and we are still waiting for Christ’s return while watching for the signs. But remember the words of Peter: “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8). When Paul, the writer of Hebrews, James, Peter, Jude, and John the Revelator spoke of Jesus coming “soon,” I’m sure it ignited a feeling within the early Church that the Coming of the Lord would be within their lifetime. Perhaps they looked up every time they walked outdoors, scanning the clouds for any unusual activity. It’s probable that some pastors of the fledgling Body used the Epistles from their teaching platforms as they railed passionately about how their listeners should get their things in order and wait prayerfully because Jesus was going to appear in the next few days. Maybe followers said their prayers extra fervently each night, reverent of the notion that it could be their last prayer before something split the heavens apart with a mighty roar during their slumber. And look what happened! These men and women turned the world upside down with the news about Jesus, a “religion” (though I hate to call it that) that would never die!
Following this New-Testament model, the imminency of the Lord’s return should not inspire our wish to “kick-start the end”—nor should it cause us to fear the end to the point of evangelizing just to delay God’s wrath for a while as did the Ninevites. Both of those are human responses to the excitement or fear of the wonderful or scary events in Revelation.
The true motive behind the nervous-yet-exciting imminency of Christ’s return should be that we are so committed to reaching every last soul we can before they have no time left to make that eternity-altering decision. The focus of our energy in feeling that Christ could literally come back at any second should be in the interest of gathering every soul possible into the circle of saints before any one of them would ever have to make that decision under Antichrist’s regime!
Hundreds of thousands of books have been published over the last two millennia discussing the signs of the coming of the Lord. Many interpreters of Scripture have claimed specific dates or years with confidence, only to face embarrassment when their predictions were incorrect. Others have made prophecy charts, showing that most, if not all, of the signs have already been fulfilled, and are warning the world that Christ’s return will be this year or the next—especially considering all the headlines regarding Jerusalem’s Temple today alongside such heavy, global persecution against Christianity. Though we cannot date-set, and it’s best to leave the day and hour to the Lord, with all this waiting, it’s easy to understand why some of today’s Body have stopped acting as if it could happen any second. One central message of the New Testament is the imminency of Christ’s return, and it appears as if many within the Body don’t believe Jesus’ appearance in the clouds is “imminent” anymore.
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It’s crucial that we, the Body, are never guilty of being the scoffers mentioned in 2 Peter 3:3–7 who shrug and say the promise of His coming is old news and things are never going to change. We must never allow ourselves to become the scoffers who “deliberately overlook [the] fact that the heavens existed long ago” (ESV), and that we belong to a space and time segregated from the unfathomable workings of heaven that could manifest themselves on earth in a twinkling of an eye (1 Corinthians 15:52). We will never know the day or hour, and we’re not supposed to (2 Peter 3:10). But we are commanded: “Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish” (2 Peter 3:14; emphasis added). Note that this verse doesn’t say, “Start getting ready pretty soon, guys.”
We aren’t supposed to just “get” ready, we are to “live” ready, meaning at all times.
So what does a reader do after he or she has been shown how Jesus was reflected in every single book of the Word?
If you’ve read Final Fire, then you already know what leads to Great Awakenings. This on-fire scenario has happened before, via revival-hungry men and women throughout history who “lived ready.” To them, ministering was about following 2 Peter 3:14 with a diligence to always live in a state of glorious expectation that Christ absolutely can and just might come at any moment (the very definition of “imminent”). There is a reason “living ready” is biblical, because by living ready, we remain on fire, and the lost are irreversibly reached!
I beseech you all. Live as if there really is no guarantee of tomorrow, whether that be on a personal or a global scale. Live as if the next conversation may be the last you ever have with that man or woman. Live as if the next ministerial move you make—the next song you pick for your roster, the next sermon you put on schedule—is the last one you will ever sing or preach. Live as if the next action you take is in preparation—personally or for others—for the return of Christ. Apply your patience to your internal, unquenchable fire, knowing that “patience” doesn’t mean tranquilly staring at a clock; it means carrying out your passion for the Gospel whether you have reason to believe the Second Coming is soon or far away in your own limited concepts of the time/space relationships heaven employs here on earth.
Be accountable to each other for wrongs you commit, treasuring friendship and love above all other acts of holiness. Intercede for each other, not just to put a checkmark on your duty list, but until we see the prayer answered and people are healed of physical, emotional, and spiritual malady. Don’t say “I’ll pray for you” like the world says, “let’s do lunch sometime.” If we “live ready” for the return of Christ, we will observe the very powers of the Almighty God like nothing our planet has ever seen before! Regardless of the unknown date of Christ’s Coming: If we truly directed ourselves in a matter that reflected our belief in the imminency of Precious Yeshua—giving ourselves over completely to New-Testament-heroes-style worship and daily conduct—this current generation would raise leaders of the Church whose legacies will be documented as changers of the world. And every generation in the future will be inspired to keep the on-fire, heart-on-the-floor, sold-out, radical energy of revival every day, in every minute and every hour, that we exist in this human condition until the sweet Messiah blazes down upon the earth, parting the clouds with a roar!
Things gets serious for the Body when the Body takes things seriously.
Can you hear it?
Can you see it?
Do you feel it?
Do you want it?
Is it pulsating within your blood like it is in mine?
When you close your eyes, do you hear the cheering of uncountable masses who are falling to their knees with weeping and laughter and testimony of the power of God like they did in James McGready’s tent revivals of Kentucky in the 1800s? When you close your eyes, do you see the potential future droves and masses of precious people rising out of wheelchairs and jumping across stages like they did in Kathryn Kuhlman’s church, or the fifteen thousand teenagers in one single service surrendering their lives to Christ like they did all over the country during the Jesus People Movement of the counterculture era? When you close your eyes, do you, like millions of others talking about it today, “sense” something is in the wind, like an invisible harbinger of conflagration sweeping over the people, preparing to separate the passionate from the apathetic, the sleepers from the leaders, the phonies from the faithful like the Holy Spirit did in D. L. Moody’s day?
The Second Advent promises every imaginable and unimaginable relief to our anxious anticipations. Our sins are pardoned. We are forgiven, redeemed. Our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. A nod of welcome comes from Peter after death proves to have no sting. Pearly gates open wide to welcome us in to the Holy City that never sleeps and never knows darkness. The throne of God lingers ahead while we walk down a street of pure gold, listening to the deafening praises of the angels about the entrance.
Where there will be no danger.
Where there will be no physical pain.
Where there will be no emotional hurt.
Where there will be no night.
Where there will be no fear.
Where blessing and honor and glory and praise will be lifted to the Giver forever and ever, amen.
The worse things get in the world around us with quarrels between social groups and kingdoms unable to stand as they fight against themselves, the closer we get to the day Jesus Christ comes to take us all home, and the saints must evangelize. If this moment in time and space is the moment in which Christ has positioned you, then believe that God knew you have what it takes to be here, and God has a mission for you. Yes, the world is filled with sinners. Yes, you are one of them. And yes, it is the very experiences you’ve had in your life—including your mistakes and past baggage—that uniquely qualify you as the likeliest soul to reach the lost in your arena of expertise.
The Great Awakening is already begun.
This means you have a job to do.
We trust you have been blessed by this online series. To read all of the insights not included in this very limited web summary, get the new three-volume set from best-selling scholar Dr. Thomas Horn and acclaimed biblical history and theology majors Donna Howell and Allie Anderson that everybody is calling their Magnum Opus! THE MYSTERY OF JESUS FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION—YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND TOMORROW
[i] Some material from this conclusion was taken from: Howell, Donna, Radicals, Conclusion.
[ii] Uecker, Jeremy, “Religious and Spiritual Responses to 9/11: Evidence from the Add Health Study,” June 20, 2011, National Library of Medicine, last accessed May 15, 2022, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3118577/.
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] Bentzen, Jeanet Sinding, “Natural Disasters Make People More Religious,” October 8, 2019, Oxford University Press Blog, last accessed May 15, 2022, https://blog.oup.com/2019/10/natural-disasters-make-people-more-religious/.
[v] Morford, Stacy, “Do People Become More Religious in Times of Crisis?” May 5, 2021, The Conversation, last accessed May 15, 2022, https://theconversation.com/do-people-become-more-religious-in-times-of-crisis-158849; emphasis added.
[vi] “Americans Far More Likely to Say Coronavirus Crisis has Strengthened Their Faith, rather than Weakened It,” Pew Research Center, April 30, 2020, last accessed May 15, 2022, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/30/few-americans-say-their-house-of-worship-is-open-but-a-quarter-say-their-religious-faith-has-grown-amid-pandemic/ft_2020-04-30_covidworship_01/.
[vii] Sherwood, Harriet, “Non-believers Turn to Prayer in a Crisis, Poll Finds,” January 13, 2018, The Observer, last accessed May 15, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/14/half-of-non-believers-pray-says-poll; emphasis added.
[viii] Bentzen, Jeanet Sinding, “Natural Disasters…” https://blog.oup.com/2019/10/natural-disasters-make-people-more-religious/.
[ix] Green, M., 2 Peter and Jude: An Introduction and Commentary: Volume 18 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press; 1987), 164.
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