Issue 47

A person either accepts the revealed truth of Scripture through Jesus Christ, or they don’t; there’s no middle ground. An increasing number of "good" Christians are unknowingly choosing the latter option.

False teachers in the Church are nothing new; they have shown up all throughout history. Jesus even predicted their appearance in the Bible. Unfortunately, such people are not easy to spot, then or now. They don’t wear signs around their necks saying "I am an evil person. Don’t listen to me." The modern-day Emerging Church movement asserts that God is actually some sort of unknowable force in the universe, which is about as far from Church teaching as one can get.

Among the lesser-known, and shorter, Books in the Bible is the Book of Jude (not Judas). Originally, it was going to be all sweetness and light, but Jude turned it into an alarm against false teachers and heretics in the early Church. The author spends considerable time talking about the Evangelical movement. He has no problem with churches occasionally bringing outside trends into the Church. But, a church that jumps from pop culture trend to pop culture trend, forgetting what "church" is supposed to be all about, should be viewed with great alarm.

Christians should learn to pick their battles; don’t engage in a life-or-death struggle over every little religious disagreement. But, when the stakes are big enough, don’t be afraid to fight back, hard. Which is worse, ruffling some feathers and damaging some egos, or losing the Word of God?

For anyone in the evangelical church, pastor and churchgoer, this book is very much recommended. Those in mainline churches should also read it, and keep an eye out for false religious teachers.

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Eons ago, alien beings called the Anunnaki came to Earth to plant man’s genetic seed. They came from a planet called Nibiru, which is part of our solar system, but takes 3,000 years to complete one trip around the sun. As a spacefaring race, they built a spaceport and a mission control, in the Tigris/Euphrates river valley, in present-day Iraq. It was destroyed in The Deluge (from the Bible).

The spaceport was rebuilt in the Sinai Desert, with Mission Control in Jerusalem, and the pyramids at Giza used as landing beacons. Remember the Tower of Babel? It was the first major structure built after The Deluge, back in the Tigris/Euphrates valley, and was intended as an alternate launch platform.

There were many disputes and power struggles among the Anunnaki, leading to an attack on the "sinning states" of the West by the East. In approximately 2020 BC, five cities built just south of the Dead Sea, including Sodom and Gomorrah, along with the Sinai spaceport, were destroyed by nuclear weapons. There are a number of ancient Sumerian texts that talk of an "evil wind" that sickened everyone, and that no door or wall could keep out (sounds a lot like nuclear fallout). In historical terms, the Sumerian civilization disappeared overnight; invaders are the usual reason. Here is another explanation.

It would be easy to snicker to at this book if it were just some New Age speculation, and not based on years of archaeological study and actually reading the ancient texts. As a history buff (and a science fiction reader) I loved this book. It is my first exposure to Mr. Sitchin, but it won’t be my last.

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The philosophy behind "The Secret" is nothing new. The New Thought movement was popular in America from the 1850s to the 1950s. It was an offshoot of the Age of Enlightenment, which swept through Europe in the 1700s, and led to advances in law and science. New Thought asserts a monistic theory of the universe; One is All, and All is One. It is still as heretical to established religion as it was 300 years ago. The book that started it all and is a New Thought classic is called "The Science of Getting Rich" by Wallace Wattles (a complete copy is included in this book). The ideas in "The Secret" are generally those of the Unity Church, which today has about 2 million members.

There are short profiles of many of the teachers featured in "The Secret." Some of them are more oriented toward science and technology, others are more corporate-oriented, and one embraces the occult.

A big controversy involved the appearance in the film of Esther Hicks, channeler for a group consciousness named Abraham. She was to appear in the film, but ended up on the cutting room floor, due to a dispute with Rhonda Byrne, the brains behind "The Secret." A person might wonder what the reaction would be if a major inspiration for "The Secret" came from a disembodied consciousness.

This book is well worth reading for skeptics and true believers. It doesn’t attempt to prove or disprove The Law of Attraction, but it will give the reader a lot to think about.

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He made his living, such as it was, with his pen, so he did all sorts of writing. He wrote satire, comedy, poetry, adventure and gothic stories. He was also one of the originators of the mystery genre, along with being an inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle. Poe was also known as a literary critic; others may have disagreed with him, but they could not discount his arguments. He did not write easy-to-read, "tabloid" fiction; his stories required some effort on the part of the reader.

The stories that one would expect in any Poe collection are here, like "The Purloined Letter," "The Cask of Amontillado," and "The Masque of the Red Death." Included is one of his many satires, looking exactly like a newspaper article describing a successful trans-Atlantic trip by balloon. In the 1840s, the public was abuzz with talk of balloon trips across the Atlantic greatly shortening the travel time. Poe simply took that national obsession and ran with it.

With illustrations by Harry Clarke, this book is very much worth reading. It’s good for scholars and researchers looking for lesser-known Poe works. It’s good for those who enjoy 19th Century writing. It’s also good for those who like a variety of really good writing. It gets two thumbs-up.

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Gage is an American and protege of Benjamin Franklin, so he knows something about electricity. He puts his knowledge to use more than once, including during a major French siege of the city of Acre (present-day Lebanon). Gage switches sides between the French and British, more than once, and not by choice. He cheats death more than once, mostly because there are enough people who hear that Gage is looking for an ancient scroll and automatically think "gold and treasure."

Throughout much of the book, Gage has a big hole in his heart. At the end of the previous book, he watched Astiza, his Egyptian lover, fall from a hot-air balloon into the Nile River, in the clutches of Count Alessandro Silano. They are presumed dead, but Gage has to know for sure. In this story are also Jewish mysticism, the Knights Templar, the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, and enough action and narrow escapes to satisfy anyone.

Here is an excellent piece of writing. For those who like their thrillers to be historically accurate and swashbuckling, look no further. This will keep the reader very entertained.

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The ancient Hindus called their ages "yugas." Their cycle starts with a Golden Age, then a Silver, Bronze and Iron Age, where civilizations became less and less sophisticated. Consider mankind’s journey from, say, Ancient Egypt to the Dark Ages. Then the cycle reverses itself, and humanity becomes more and more sophisticated, culturally and technologically (good news; humanity is now on the upslope).

The author asserts that Earth is part of a binary star system, and that the two stars have a cycle of 24,000 years. Precession of the equinox is due to this solar companion, not due to a wobble in the Earth’s orbit. When the two stars are closer together, human civilization becomes more sophisticated. When they are farther apart, mankind declines, and loses much ancient wisdom.

Many stars make "noise" of some sort, whether it’s by emitting radio waves, other electromagnetic energy or visible light. If a star is really that close to Earth, it should not be hard to find. Just because it has not yet been found, does not mean that it does not exist.

Another possible cause for mankind’s historical cycles is that, in its travels through the galaxy, Earth enters, and leaves, fields of electromagnetic energy. It’s been scientifically proven that electromagnetic energy can have noticeable effects on the human brain.

There are plenty of things in this book to rattle one’s worldview. It’s interesting, it’s not too technical, and I enjoyed reading it.

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The programs have names like Eyemorph 1.0, DeMirage 24.5, Poker Face 83.4b and AntiSleepStim 124.7. The average person has thousands of such programs in their bodies, courtesy of microscopic robots placed at or before birth. Natch is a master of bio/logic programming, who has risen to the top with little more than brains and sheer determination.

For many years, Margaret Surina, ancestor of Sheldon Surina, the inventor of bio/logics, has hinted about this new technology called MultiReal. She enters into a partnership with Natch and his fiefcorp to bring it to market immediately. It can take months to understand and develop a new technology, get it approved by Dr. Plugenpatch (a set of databases that constitute the quality control system), keep it away from the competitors, and then bring it to market. Natch and his colleagues have to do it in three days. The reason for the very short time frame is to also keep MultiReal away from the Defense and Wellness Council. It’s a secret and unaccountable government organization that handles all military and intelligence affairs.

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The author’s son, Ben, is married and living in Florida. One day, she gets a phone call saying that Ben has attempted suicide. He will be in the hospital for a day or two, then he will be put out on the street. Ben’s wife and her family are no help at all, due to accusations that Ben tried to hurt their newborn baby. It’s around this time that the author meets a new patient, an 88-year-old woman named Gertrude.

Gertrude lives in one room in her daughter’s house, with all her belongings stuffed into a dresser. Most times, Gertrude acts like the average patient with dementia, ornery and not very cooperative. When the author tells Gertrude about Ben, and about her upcoming emergency trip to Florida, out of the blue, Gertrude says "I’ll pray for you."

The author experiences a genuine miracle or two flying to Florida, allowing her to get Ben, bring him back and nurse him back to health. She begins to think that maybe there is such a thing as a Higher Power, and maybe Gertrude has somehow tapped into it.

Here is a short and heart-warming story about good people showing up in unlikely places. When life gets difficult, this will give a much-needed dose of hope and optimism.

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Despite Lobo’s lack of morality, he does have a code of honor, being scrupulously honest. He also has a crush on Darlene, a waitress at a burger joint on an asteroid.

Meantime, somewhere in the interstellar middle of nowhere, an artificial intelligence called The Alpha hatches a plan to wipe out all life in the universe. When Lobo delivers J’onnzz, with Superman not far behind, all three are thrown in prison. But, this is not your average prison. The walls in Superman’s cell are impregnated with kryptonite; Lobo and J’onnzz are similarly trapped. The only thing that all three have in common is that they are the last of their race (in Lobo’s case, it was intentional).

The Alpha plans to dissect them and use that emotional energy to create an invincible fighting force. Their release, and stopping The Alpha before it wipes out any more civilizations, depends on a crime boss named Xemtex. Lobo cut Xemtex’s brain out of his head, and it now controls Lobo’s space bike.

Coming from a comic book "mentality" (for lack of a better word), it’s a very fast and entertaining read with plenty of action. It’s recommended, especially for those who don’t consider themselves comic book readers.

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The author was part of a mission trip to Russia to set up a summer camp for local orphans. While he was there, he was propositioned by a Russian prostitute. He declined her offer, and she ran away in tears. She later told him that he was the first person to ever say no to her. In high school, he, along with several others in his class, was inconsiderate to a female classmate who was unprepared for a test. Two hours later, she was dead in an auto accident.

A young man from a rich family went on a pilgrimage to Rome. Tired of a life of partying, he took a lifelong vow of poverty. The family was not pleased, but he stuck with it, despite many attempts to bring him back to "reality". The young man became St. Francis of Assisi. God’s creation is always better than man’s creation; one day, the author was flying a radio controlled airplane. It was attacked by a hawk, and eventually crashed.

Everyone bows down to, or worships, something, whether it’s God, music, fashion or the human intellect. Cathedrals, whether plain or gaudy, all point to the past. They encourage visitors to see God in all His glory.

This book is recommended for anyone, religious or not-so-religious, who is looking for a relationship with God. It does a good job of showing how faith can be found in the mundane things of everyday life.

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At least nine billion dollars in cash have been unaccounted for since the early days of the Iraq occupation. Today, there are 27 million slaves in the world, more than at any other time in world history. They are not just in the Third World, but also in the developed world. Elliot Spitzer was not removed from office because of "personal indiscretions." He was target of a Wall Street and White House operation to silence an increasingly vocal critic of their handling of what became the present financial crisis.

It seems that there just was not enough air time or newspaper space for these stories, but there was abundant space for Lindsay Lohan, Brad and Angelina, Jessica Simpson, Alec Baldwin and David Hasselhoff. This book also explores the media coverage of the Military Commissions Act, healthcare and the 2008 campaign, American media bias against the lawfully elected Hamas Government in Gaza, the marketing of Gardasil as a "cure" for cancer, when it really isn’t, Winter Soldier and the Pentagon’s targeting of young people (including children).

This is an excellent book that shows just how "dumbed down" American news media has become. It is eye-opening reading and is highly recommended.

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Told through the eyes of a fictional physician named Wallis, this looks at the political and social climate of the time. Traveling all around the Aegean and Adriatic Seas, he brings food that is desperately needed by an Athens suffering from a major drought. He organizes the Merchant’s and Artisan’s Guild of Athens into something like a labor union; together they can get better prices for their wares than separately. Trained as a physician by Hippocrates himself, Wallis (also known as Daneion Pelos) heals the sick as best he can.

Wallis spends much of his time worrying about Olympias, a Princess of Epirus. She is living in the court of Philip II, and she is pregnant with Alexander the Great (the gods have said so). It’s no secret to anyone that it would not be good for Olympias to produce a female baby. Wallis gets word of a very high-level plot brewing in Philip’s court. If Olympias produces a male heir, it will be switched at birth with another newborn. At some point, Philip will publicly decree that this is his rightful heir. Suddenly, the real heir will be produced, Philip will be publicly humiliated, and will be forced to give up the throne. During all this, Olympias will mysteriously "die during childbirth." Wallis is Olympias’ only friend in the area, so it is up to him to keep anything peculiar from happening while Olympias is busy with giving birth.

This is a good piece of historical fiction. My only problem with this book has nothing to do with the actual book. When reading a series, I am one of those who has to do it in order; I don’t like starting in the middle (this is Part 2). For those who are interested in ancient history, this has plenty of good writing, and is worth reading.

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Professor Bernhard Freedomhowler’s Internationally Acclaimed Traveling Exhibition of Medicinal Wonderment consists of a very disparate group of individuals. Calliope is a boy with smooth skin, a snout-like nose and a tail, who can whistle from his mouth, his nose and even his ears. Norris is part-human and part-dog, who is brought on stage as a snarling, ravenous beast ready to tear out someone’s throat. After he is given a dose of Freedomhowler’s Pan-Herbal Restorative Elixir, he immediately turns into a calm, erudite person quoting Shakespeare.

Lady Bodicaea (real name: Heather McInnerney) is Scottish, and the show’s strongwoman. Grenadine is an English nurse who is the show’s medium/fortune teller. The leader of the group is Bernhard Freedomhowler (his real name is Tarbottom), an American from Kentucky. He learned the business as part of Wild Bill Hickok’s Perambulatory of Astonishing Wonders. Wild Bill has become a figment of Freedomhowler’s imagination, and constantly talks to him.

The group spends much of its time just trying to make enough money to eat and to make it to the next town or village. There is the always-present need to make a quick exit should the local townspeople decide that the group has worn out its welcome. Freedomhowler also tries to stay away from Drake, part of the American forces, who orders him to give up the medicine show and return to America (Freedomhowler is an ex-spy).

With any collaborative novel like this, some chapters will be better than others. It’s a good story, and for those interested in the history of World War I, this book is worth checking out.

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