The author shares the prophetic leanings fueling his new thriller series.
In Terry Brennan’s Empires of Armageddon series, Diplomatic Security Service Regional Security Officer Brian Mullaney has been tasked with an incredibly dangerous mission—to deliver the Vilna Gaon’s second prophecy, along with the deadly box that protects it, to the rabbis at the Hurva synagogue in Jerusalem. When a synagogue is destroyed by an explosion, both the prophecy and box are buried in the rubble along with the answers Mullaney so desperately needs.
How can he discover the meaning of the centuries-old prophecy now? Why are he and the ambassador he’s assigned to protect being targeted? Is there any way he alone can thwart a nuclear arms race?
In this interview, Brennan shares more about the series, talks about the spiritual warfare his hero faces, and reveals the prophetic inspiration for his story.
Can you give us a quick introduction to the Empires of Armageddon series and what took place in book one, Ishmael Covenant?
Three ancient empires are rushing toward a collision in the volatile Middle East, an official high in the US State Department is conspiring with a foreign power against the US president, a centuries-old prophecy is unveiled that heralds Christ’s imminent return, and malevolent, created, eternal beings—fallen angels—are determined to invalidate biblical prophecy so they can manufacture a different ending to the Bible, reversing the outcome of the battle of Armageddon.
In Ishmael Covenant, Diplomatic Security Service agent Brian Mullaney is banished to Israel to protect the new US ambassador, Joseph Atticus Cleveland. Mullaney and the ambassador are thrust into the cauldron of Middle East conflict—political, personal, and spiritual conflict. They come into possession of an ancient, lethal metal box that supposedly holds a second prophecy that could both threaten the nascent peace treaty between Israel and all its Arab neighbors—the Ishmael Covenant—and also reveal the insidious plot of their evil enemies.
Mullaney finds himself fighting for the life of the ambassador and his daughter, for his own crippled marriage, and in a spiritual battle (for which he is unprepared) against the agents of evil who are determined to destroy the box, the prophecy, and the Middle East as we know it.
Where does the second book, Persian Betrayal, pick up the action? Will readers be able to join in if they haven’t read the first installment?
The story in Persian Betrayal commences exactly where Ishmael Covenant ends, with the destruction of the Hurva Synagogue in Jerusalem by agents of the Turk, an otherworldly servant of evil. The Turk and his men are still trying to destroy the prophecy of the Vilna Gaon and the box that protects it.
I believe the story would be more deeply understood and appreciated by reading Ishmael Covenant before Persian Betrayal. Even though the entire trilogy has one overarching narrative story, each book in the series is complete in itself. Each contains a compelling and rewarding story arc, but each book also ends with a cliff-hanger conclusion designed to propel the reader further into the following book.
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