Is the Vilna Gaon a fictional character, and are his prophecies a product of your imagination?
The Vilna Gaon, Rabbi Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, was a real person who lived from 1720 to 1797 in Vilnius, Lithuania. A lifelong student of the Jewish scripture, the Gaon authored voluminous and accurate notes and explanations of Talmudic and other texts.
He was internationally revered as one of the most familiar and influential figures in rabbinic study since the Middle Ages. A vigorous Talmudist and kabbalist, the Vilna Gaon was the foremost leader of non-Hasidic Jews of his time, and his followers remain active in Jewish scriptural interpretation and debate to this day.
In late March 2014, Rabbi Moshe Shturnbuch, the Gaon’s great-great-grandson, actually revealed a prophecy written by the Gaon in 1794. In part, the prophecy said, “When you hear that the Russians have captured the city of Crimea, you should know that the times of the Messiah have started, that his steps are being heard.”
About a month earlier, on February 27, 2014, in the midst of political upheaval in the Crimea, Russian special forces seized the buildings of the Crimean Supreme Council and Council of Ministers. Russian flags were raised over these buildings, fulfilling the 210-year-old prophecy.
While the Gaon’s actual prophecy is written into my fictional series, the story of the second prophecy is a product of my imagination.
What mission is Brian Mullaney tasked with?
Brian Mullaney is a highly regarded, nineteen-year veteran of the Diplomatic Security Service, the 2,500-person armed force that protects American foreign service personnel overseas and the most widely represented law enforcement agency in the world. Presenting a danger to a rogue US State Department deputy secretary, Mullaney is banished to Israel as regional security officer and assigned to protect new US Ambassador Joseph Atticus Cleveland and all the foreign service personnel in Israel. Mullaney, however, is also enlisted into another task.
Through the influence of the massive angel Bayard, and the insistence of aged Rabbi Mordechai Herzog, Mullaney finds himself responsible for a metal box, emblazoned with kabbalistic symbols, that has gruesomely killed anyone who touches it. Originally the protective container of the Vilna Gaon’s second prophecy, the “box of power” now has a mission of its own, a mission that will put both Mullaney’s life and the life of Ambassador Cleveland at risk and transport Mullaney into the darkest depths of hell on earth.
How does Brian’s faith prove a challenge in his work? Does he feel a pull between serving God and doing his job?
Brian Mullaney is a get-in-touch-with-God Christian. It’s not until the third book that his church is even mentioned. But his close, personal connection to God is evident throughout the series as he prays urgently and fervently on several occasions, pleading for God’s help and direction in the massive challenges facing him.
He seeks God’s guidance on how to resurrect his marriage to Abby and rescue his family even though he’s nearly halfway around the globe. He prays to be faithful to his duty as the DSS’s top security officer in the Middle East and the man most responsible for the life and safety of Ambassador Cleveland. And he must rely on God in coming to grips with the daunting spiritual responsibility others want to place on his shoulders and in learning to live with the recent loss of his father and the wounds that were never healed.
In Persian Betrayal, Mullaney begins to suffer through the agonizing choices he needs to make while dealing with nearly constant attacks from a group of Turkish terrorists who have put all their lives at risk. Desperate to get home and repair his rocky marriage, yet determined to faithfully serve Cleveland and fulfill his duty, Mullaney must face one of the most crushing moments of his career while he awaits God to answer his pleas.
What pressures does Brian experience from home? Would he be able to step away from the situation even if he wanted to?
Abigail and Brian Mullaney have been married for nearly twenty years. The first ten were great. The second ten were not so hot as they endured the consequences of moving eleven times from one assignment to another. But Brian promised Abby this was it—his assignment to Washington, DC, was the last move. They could settle down, and the girls could go to the same school. When he got unfairly booted out of DC and dispatched to Israel, Abby refused to go with him.
Mullaney was caught between promises—one to himself that he would never shirk his duty or betray a confidence, and the second to Abby that she would never have to move her family again. Abby had a simple question for her husband: “Who’s more important, Brian? Me? Your daughters? Or your job at the State Department?”
To Mullaney the answers were “Yes” and “Yes,” but he knew that would never fly at home. Was his only option resignation from the Diplomatic Security Service? Could he turn his back on his duty? The answer to that question could cost him the most precious people in his life.
The Empires of Armageddon series is categorized as end-times fiction, as it features prophecies and an epic battle. Many people believe everything that has been going on in 2020 are prophetic signs. What do you think personally of all this talk?
Wars and rumors of wars. Famine. Now a global plague the likes of which hasn’t been seen in a century. And an unprecedented, mammoth invasion of locust ravaging the African continent. Sounds ominous, all right. The moral decline in our nation—where what was once illegal, and always immoral, is now celebrated openly in the streets—has been precipitous. The cultural persecution of Christians is more subtle but growing ever more virulent.
I blame myself. I was born in 1947 and went to college from 1964 to 1968 in the midst of the cultural revolution that reversed the ethical and moral compass of America. I marched and protested, trampled the faith of my youth, and lived a free life. I sowed the seeds for the moral disaster we are watching unfold today.
Do I think we’re looking at end-times harbingers today? If not now, it won’t be long. The clock started ticking with the 1948 birth of the nation of Israel. More than seven decades have already count down. Are we closing in on our final hours? I don’t know. But I think the alarm is ringing.
One of your endorsements describes the series as a look at the dark world of political corruption. Is any of that element of the story based on actual events?
Not in the sense that we would normally think of political corruption. I’m not writing about bribes and backroom deals, rigged elections, graft and embezzlement, conflicts of interest, or abuse of power. But there are definitely some dark deeds in the halls of power. The only actual event referred to in the series is what’s known as the Iran nuclear deal.
But in this fictional world, there is a traitor in the State Department who’s trying to prevent the deal from being consummated, not because of a political agenda but because a billionaire banker doesn’t want to lose the $2 billion in Iranian funds frozen in his banks since the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979.
In the book there is a coup overthrowing a legitimate government, a number of international double crosses, and power-driven men intent on resurrecting ancient empires, regardless of the cost. Not unlike actual events but, no, not based on any truth that I know.
Can you give us a sneak peek into the final installment of the series, Ottoman Dominion?
How not to give away all the good parts? Let’s just say that after Mullaney endures a devastating loss at the end of Persian Betrayal, all the diverse plotlines converge when Ambassador Cleveland decides to take the situation into his own hands. He determines to go AWOL from Tel Aviv without his security detail and flies to Ankara to confront Turkish president Emet Kashani.
But when Cleveland finds his life and soul in mortal danger, Brian Mullaney must find a way to fulfill all the missions God has rested upon his shoulders—rescue the ambassador, resurrect his marriage, and fulfill the destiny of the box of power. Ottoman Dominion is nearly nonstop action that comes to a remarkable, unexpected, and very personal ending.
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Ishmael Covenant
Empires of Armageddon #1
Terry Brennan
Kregel Publications
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His marriage in tatters and his career ruined by lies, Diplomatic Security Service agent Brian Mullaney is at the end of his rope. Banished to Israel as punishment by his agency, he’s assigned to guard a US ambassador and an insignificant box. Little does he know that this new job will propel him straight into a crisis of global proportions.
Inside the box is a messianic prophecy about the fate of the world. And a dark enemy known as The Turk and the forces of evil at his command are determined to destroy the box, the prophecy, and the Middle East as we know it. When Ambassador Cleveland gets in the way, his life and his daughter’s life are threatened–and Mullaney must act fast.
Now agents of three ancient empires have launched covert operations to secure nuclear weapons, in direct defiance of the startling peace treaty Israel and its Arab neighbors have signed. And a traitor in the US State Department is leaking critical information to a foreign power. It’s up to Mullaney–still struggling with his own broken future–to protect the embassy staff, thwart the clandestine conspiracies, and unmask a traitor–before the desert is turned into a radioactive wasteland.
Fans of Joel C. Rosenberg, Steven James, and Ted Dekker will relish the deadly whirlpool of international intrigue and end-times prophecy in Ishmael Covenant–and will eagerly await the rest of this new trilogy.
Persian Betrayal
Empires of Armageddon #2
Terry Brennan
Kregel Publications
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How much can Brian Mullaney risk to serve God and save lives—without losing his own?
DSS Regional Security Officer Brian Mullaney has been tasked with an incredibly dangerous mission. When a synagogue in Jerusalem is destroyed by an explosion, burying the second key prophecy Mullaney is hunting–and the deadly box that protects it–the answers he desperately needs are also crushed. 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? And is there any way this lone man can thwart a nuclear arms race between three ascendant empires of the past?
An otherworldly servant of evil known only as the Turk is maneuvering all three nations into an intricate dance designed to undermine prophecy about the end times. And he won’t let Mullaney or anyone else get in his way.
Wounded in a bloody shoot-out, pressured by his wife to come home, and mourning the death of his best friend, Mullaney doesn’t need a powerful enemy. Who is he to save the Ishmael Covenant, the treaty promising peace in the Middle East? Despite angelic intervention, Mullaney wants nothing to do with his final assignment. But without him, evil will win the ultimate struggle . . . and humankind will have no hope left.
Ottoman Dominion
Empires of Armageddon #3
Terry Brennan
Kregel Publications
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Diplomatic Security Service agent Brian Mullaney wants out. He’s been drawn against his will into a dangerous international mission with world-ending implications–and his final assignment is going to pit him directly against the terrifying, evil entity known only as the Turk.
But when the Turk’s minions breach the US embassy in Israel and the American ambassador disappears, Mullaney has no choice. He must accept his role as the final guardian of a mysterious box, his only weapon against the powers of darkness bent on preventing the second coming of the Messiah, no matter who or what they annihilate to accomplish their goal. Can this man who’s already lost so much find the strength and faith to save the world–and fulfill the prophecy of peace?
The final volume of the Empires of Armageddon trilogy will have fans of Joel Rosenberg, Ronie Kendig, and Frank Peretti on the edge of their seats up to the final page.