Donna VanLiere is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author with more than 3 million books in print. Her books have been adapted for the screen, including CBS’ The Christmas Shoes and The Christmas Blessing. In her latest book. The Day of Ezekiel’s Hope, the anticipated followup to The Time of Jacob’s Trouble, New York Times best-selling author Donna VanLiere, does what she does best, combines a powerful fictional story with the end-time prophecies that she has studied and taught for years. Readers who are fans of The Time of Jacob’s Trouble join Emma Grady, as her story continues in The Day of Ezekiel’s Hope. Readers will be immediately drawn in by the fast and energetic pace that takes them all over the globe–from New York to Israel. Millions of people have just vanished into thin air, which is just the beginning of the chaos that is to come. In New York City, Emma Grady and her growing family of outcasts must find a way to survive. And in Israel, Zerah Adler, finds his beloved homeland of Israel on the cusp of annihilation, where everywhere he turns, he is surrounded. How will they ever survive? Where will they put their hope?
FF: You are a novelist, but you also include a substantial amount non-fiction section in the book. How do you feel that enhances your fictional story?
Several years ago, I was sitting in church and realized I had probably heard that same message at least thirty times in my life. But I had to check my spirit and thought perhaps someone there hadn’t heard that same message. I found myself thinking those same thoughts quite often and one Sunday it dawned on me what message I hadn’t heard since I was a child and that was about the return of Christ. It seemed that somewhere along the way that message was shelved and most pastors were no longer teaching it. I thought, “If I haven’t heard this message in decades, what about the Millennials or Generation Z?” I began to study the Old and New Testament prophecies of the return of Jesus and couldn’t understand why most churches had abandoned this vital teaching. The world isn’t spiraling out of control as we often think, but things are actually looking up! They are looking up to the return of Jesus! One Sunday, I was sitting in church and felt that God deposited the idea into my heart to write a book that was both fiction and non-fiction so Millennials and Generation Z who weren’t aware of Bible prophecy could be drawn in first by a story and then taken into scripture at the back of the book to understand the truth behind the story. I am so grateful because I’m hearing from young people who are saying, “I didn’t know this was in the Bible,” “I’ve never heard that before,” or “I never learned this in church.” From the beginning, I never wanted to leave the reader with just a fiction story. I wanted to take them into the pages of the Bible and have them read the prophecies themselves. The books would be nothing but a story without the truth of the Bible behind them.
FF: The Day of Ezekiel’s Hope is the follow-up to The Time of Jacob’s Trouble. Tell us where one book leaves off, and where the new book picks up.
The timeline for The Time of Jacob’s Trouble is just a matter of days. The world is reeling after Jesus snatches away all those who are in Christ and is left trying to figure out what happened. There are all sorts of theories flying around and one crazy theory is that Christians had believed that one day Jesus would snatch away those who belonged to Him. The reader meets Emma Grady in New York City who begins to pore over the Bible of a rehab patient in search of answers and follows her journey, along with two Jews named Elliott, who also lives in New York and Zerah Adler, in Israel. They all go on a search for truth and it is fast-paced as they try to discover what has happened in the world. In the meantime, a governing body has formed of international leaders and one man named Victor Quade seems to outshine all the others and capture the globe’s attention. He is a rising star at the end of The Time of Jacob’s Trouble, but is plagued by two crazy old men in Jerusalem in The Day of Ezekiel’s Hope. These two men continue to preach repentance and salvation in Jesus and have the audacity to call out someone’s sins to their face. The Jews beloved temple is finally being built in Jerusalem and in what should be a time of rejoicing for Israel, these men continue to preach sin, repentance, and Jesus and their message is infuriating. They have the power to afflict the world with any plague and time after time the planet is affected and universal anger and hatred toward the men builds. Unfortunately, they are unable to be killed so the world has to suffer through the afflictions they cause. The Day of Ezekiel’s Hope continues to follow Zerah Adler in Israel, Emma and her friends in New York City as they rescue children and teens from the street, and Elliott as he travels from one location to the next. Again, the world is reeling, but for those with ears to hear, things are looking up!
FF: The world is in quite a different place than when you started writing the book, have the changes affected your writing?
Things are moving at breakneck speed now. It’s hard to keep up with everything that’s happening in our own country, let alone the world, but the Bible tells us that things will and must happen. In Isaiah 46 God tells us that He declares the end from the beginning. From the very beginning, God has laid out for us how everything would play out so there wouldn’t be any surprises. We know that wars, earthquakes, famines, and conflicts between races will accelerate. We know that love will grow cold. We know that lawlessness will increase. We know that people will become lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. We know that all nations will one day come against Israel. Those are just some of the things that the Bible tells us about the “end of the age,” there are so many others. In writing the books, I had to be careful not to include too many current world stories in the Where in the Word section at the back of each book because things are happening so rapidly in the world that the book would read as dated. It’s so easy today to read something in the news and think, “That is so 8 hours ago!” That’s how fast things are moving. I had to be aware of the speed as I wrote and that made me very aware of the urgency of the hour. We are closer today than we were yesterday to Christ’s return.
FF: What message of hope do you want readers to take away from reading The Day of Ezekiel’s Hope?
It often feels like the world is crumbling around us and it is hard to watch. It’s hard to hear Christians that we know and love turn their backs on faith in Jesus. It’s maddening to hear them justify things that the Bible says separates us from God or to hear faith leaders who teach another Jesus and different gospel. But the Bible tells us that things are going to happen and when they begin to happen to look up because our redemption is near. That redemption is the return of Jesus to make all things new. Everything that is sin sick about this world will be totally transformed and we will rule and reign with Him. I can’t imagine what this earth will look like when God transforms it or what our lives will be like. It’s beyond comprehension! It is difficult to see and hear the things that are taking place but we know that they are leading to the soon return of Jesus, who is going to set all this mess right!
FF: Your books have a fast, energetic pace to them. How are you able to write that way?
The quick change of events and going from one location to the next keep the books moving along at a rapid pace. I wanted to take the reader to different locations around the world so they could get a feel of what is happening in the lives of different people as the world tries to make sense of what has happened. Deception is rising, violence is escalating, fear is mounting, and confusion is swirling. Those things will always make a book pulsate. But I never want to leave the reader with that feeling of anxiousness. The reader has to know that the story is not just spiraling down into chaos, but is actually headed somewhere hopeful. In the midst of turmoil there is hope for all those with ears to hear. As the reader follows the main characters, they feel the hope of Jesus and will hopefully feel the urgency to tell others about Him because things aren’t spiraling out of control but are looking up to His return!
Book Summary:
Millions have vanished…
War has erupted around the globe…
Cities have been ransacked and overrun with lawlessness…
Yet this is only the beginning of the chaos that is to come.
Emma Grady has seen civilization collapse and New York gutted by nuclear attack. Amidst this international crisis, she and her growing family of outcasts must unravel the meaning of these strange and horrifying events, even as they struggle to survive.
On the other side of the world, Zerah Adler finds Israel surrounded by invaders intent on total annihilation. In Jerusalem, two men have the power to stop the rain and call down plagues of every kind. Are they sorcerers, or do they have the power of God? And a magnetic new leader has emerged, promising to provide peace and even salvation to the globe.
In the gripping follow-up to The Time of Jacob’s Trouble, bestselling author Donna VanLiere explores the end times through the journeys of Emma, Zerah, and others who face unprecedented danger. In the final chapters, you’ll discover what God’s Word says about our world’s future and yours—and realize that things aren’t spiraling downward but are actually looking up!
The Day of Ezekiel’s Hope
Donna VanLiere
Harvest House
Genres: Suspense, End Times
Release Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN-10 : 073697881X
ISBN-13 : 978-0736978811
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