The common understanding of "apocalypse" suggests End Times, Armageddon, and the end of the world. But the Greek word apokalypsis means none of these things. What it does mean is uncovering, disclosing, and revelatory. That "apocalypse" is so widely misunderstood as predestined disaster isn't due to natural evolution in meaning. To penetrate the misuse of apokalypsis is to discover mythic misrepresentation. That is, "apocalypse" doesn't generate End Times but--just the opposite--End Times compels apokalypsis. The actual threat of End Times--explicitly so with weapons of mass destruction and Anthropocene climate change--forces thoughtful people into a search for fundamental causes: Where do these destructive energies originate? Why are we so reluctant to recognize the obvious consequences and resistant to embrace available remedies? Why do we persist in denial and indifference? In these essays, Paul Gilk explores the underlying cultural and religious conventions (both "conservative" and "liberal") that constitute our resistance and refusal. To disclose and uncover those conventions, to dissolve our oblivion, is to awaken to apokalypsis and to realize the depth of our captivity within prevailing mythology, both religious and civilizational. If End Times is the disease, apokalypsis is the cure. .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

The Children of The Iroko Gods is a partial fictionalization of an African story, it is ridden with history, mystery and suspense, treachery and tragedy, and African culture and traditions all humorously conjured to appease the mind. It is an intriguing fictional narration of the intimacy between a people and their gods, the betrayal of that intimacy, the impending doom on the people as a consequence of that betrayal, and the peoples quest and stampede to avert those consequences. This is a fictional narrative of the intimacy between a people and their gods, yet the essential portions of it contain grains of history and humor, mystery and drama, treachery and tragedy, all baked, wrapped, and served to entice and to intrigue the minds of those who yawn for old time African stories. A nostalgia for the lovers of old time African stories, night time stories: stories told under the moonlights. This is a work of fiction with few anecdotes. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The God of Time wants to destroy Eternity. A mysterious immortal seeks vengeance. And a reclusive deity does what no god should ever do: she answers a prayer. As punishment, she is stripped of her powers and trapped in a mortal's body. Now a Wyrd – a fated god – she is haunted by the memories and thoughts of her host and must hide her true identity in order to survive in Niflheim, the rival Norse Underworld. There she discovers the afterlife is not quite what it used to be. Niflheim's new ruler threatens the precarious balance of a world overrun with outcast deities and mortals alike. To save her own sanity and find her way back to the stars, she must help the other Wyrd overcome their grievances to defeat this enemy, but those who would be her allies appear to have motives as hidden as her fragmented consciousness. And yet it seems the greatest threat to her freedom comes from within, and the prize it seeks is her immortal soul...

Our country doesn’t have a partisan problem, a political problem, a social problem, or an economic problem. We have a spiritual problem. What in the world is happening? To many Americans, it feels as if reality itself has been turned upside down. Speaking truth, or even suggesting such a thing exists, is labeled as oppression and cause for social banning. Judeo-Christian values once taken for granted are not only routinely ignored, but openly attacked. Why is America being fundamentally transformed before our eyes? As Christianity has been pushed aside, the Progressive Left has developed a new pagan religion complete with all the trappings: creeds, confessionals, sacraments and mantras, liturgies, shunnings, sacred books, redemptive rituals, and priests and priestesses. But the radical roots of the new secular religion are ancient. We’ve seen it all before. In You Shall Be as Gods, Erick Erickson traces the religion’s roots from Paganism and Gnosticism through the Age of Enlightenment all the way into the Postmodernism of the 21st century. At the heart of the ancient religion is a self-centered culture. The Christian church today has been weakened by compromising with the neo-pagan religion, leaving the faithful confused and ill-prepared to counter the claims of society’s present-day doctrine. Yet there remains a significant remnant, perhaps even a silent majority, in America that refuses to bow to the rising belief system. Just as in Rome and countless societies throughout history, the religions present two opposing stories of reality which necessitates conflict. In an era where the “Christian thing” to do seems to be to go along and get along, Erickson makes clear that the two cultures cannot peacefully coexist and calls the reader to speak the truth in love.

Relates the undercover work of George Rowe, who infiltrated the Vagos motorcycle gang, spending three years working to take down the gang from the inside.

How can a loving God send people to hell? Isn’t it arrogant to believe Jesus is the only way to God? What is up with holy war in the Old Testament? Many of us fear God has some skeletons in the closet. Hell, judgment, and holy war are hot topics for the Christian faith that have a way of igniting fierce debate far and wide. These hard questions leave many wondering whether God is really good and can truly be trusted. The Skeletons in God's Closet confronts our popular caricatures of these difficult topics with the beauty and power of the real thing. Josh Butler reveals that these subjects are consistent with, rather than contradictory to, the goodness of God. He explores Scripture to reveal the plotlines that make sense of these tough topics in light of God’s goodness. From fresh angles, Josh deals powerfully with such difficult passages as: The Lake of Fire Lazarus and the Rich Man The Slaughter of Canaanites in the Old Testament Ultimately, The Skeletons in God's Close uses our toughest questions to provoke paradigm shifts in how we understand our faith as a whole. It pulls the “skeletons out of God’s closet” to reveal they were never really skeletons at all.

When Kanbara Kanata is whisked away from his mundane life to a world of adventure, he inadvertently offends the all-powerful being who brought him there. As punishment, he is sent to the bottom of the most dangerous dungeon without a single special power or ability! He is sure that he's a goner until he meets a lich girl named Lunaère--an undead powerhouse who hates humans, but grudgingly decides to assist him all the same. With Lunaère's help, Kanata may just grow into someone truly incredible!

Complete 4-eBook Boxed Set Praise for The Gods Within: "...a magical world of witches, wizards and war in this high-energy first installment of an epic-fantasy series...A fine fantasy novel that will provide readers with a good weekend escape from reality" — Kirkus Reviews Child of the Sword: Kindle Book Review Editor's Pick Child of the Sword: "This book grabbed from the start. I finished it and had to pick up the 2nd one right away."—A. C. Rat is no ordinary Thief A small feral child, he steals what he can to feed the gnawing hunger in his gut, though nothing can satisfy the hunger in his soul. But he has a special talent that the wizards and witches of the clans covet, so Clan Elhiyne abducts him and gives him the name Morgin. Can he escape the scheming of the clan's calculating and manipulative leader, the matriarchal old witch Olivia? And as he grows into manhood, can he survive the inter-clan rivalries, and the hatred that smolders between Olivia and her arch-enemy Valso, leader of Clan Decouix? A can't-put-it-down read. Pick it up today!

BEYOND THE SEA OF DREAMS Life had not been kind to Joe and Marge. Now, according to the strangers who met them on a road that wasn't there, they were due to die in nineteen minutes, eighteen seconds. But the ferryboat that waited to take them across the Sea of Dreams could bring them to a new and perhaps better life. There lay a world where fairies still danced by moonlight and sorcery became real. Joe could become a mighty-thewed barbarian warrior. Marge could be beautiful and find her magical self. But there was much more than they realised to this strange land. This was a world where Hell still strove to win its ancient war and demon princes sent men into battles of dark magic. It was a world where Joe and Marge must somehow prevent the coming of Armageddon.

A circle broken and laid at your feet, accident, perhaps? A part suspects the circle broken intentionally to represent a broken trust. No sooner than the word normal escapes lips, a new threat takes its place. An evil fog covers the world, slowly taking shape and grasping for small amounts of power it can find. New bonds mend and new hostilities break with no end in sight. A broken path appears on the edge of our heroes minds but they will not travel down unfamiliar territory. Broken. The word keeps repeating, broken. A broken shield tarnished by lies and tempered in secret remains in the hands of the future crown. A power long believed lost returns to take what it claimed by right thru the warmth of gold. Words stop writing and the pages grow fewer with each turn.