America, America: God Shed His Grace on Thee: Patriotic Documentary About God and Government

An inspirational exploration of the nature of faith and its role in American government, past and present, hosted by Hollywood actor, producer and director Nick Searcy.

The story begins with Nick Searcy, notorious, shocking and controversial Hollywood celebrity (all these, simply because he is a conservative Christian in Hollywood) watching television and being overwhelmed by the godless political disintegration of our culture into madness and riots. And all of it, celebrated by the dominant left-wing media complex and Democratic Party. So he sets out on a “journey” to Washington D.C. to find out what the heck happened and what role does Christian faith really have in politics and government from our founding to the present.

It’s content that is certainly not new, but Searcy brings a fresh take on the material with his entertaining personality and presence. He is well-known for his part as US Marshal Art Mullen in the series Justified. But he has also garnered recent fame for his whimsical conservative humor on social media. He carries that with him in a good-natured way in this film, which definitely makes him one of the better narrators of the slew of conservative documentaries out there.

The trailer shows some of the nicely understated comedic moments of Nick trying to call various Congressmen, Congresspersons and Congress-nonbinaries, to get interviews with them. The pursuit is of course in vain, but not without a few friendly shiv-like moments. Like when he tries to phone Joe Biden’s office for an interview and we hear him respond, “Well, do you know where he is? Does HE know where he is?” To Representative Ilhan Omar’s staff: “Do you know when she’ll be in? Well, is her brother there? Or her husband, or whatever?”

We are then introduced to a series of those he could get ahold of, like politicians Ted Cruz, US Rep. Louis Gohmert, Richard Grenell and HUD Secretary Ben Carson; political and cultural commentators like Alveda King, Ben Shapiro, Dennis Prager, Brigitte Gabriel, David Horowitz and various faith leaders and pastors. He even interviews a wonderfully winsome Herman Cain in his last sit-down interview before his death. Searcy dedicates the film to him. Cain steals the show.

We learn about how Christian faith influenced the founding of the country in leaders like Washington, Madison and others and how freedom was secured through Christian principles and values. He explores Jefferson and the “wall of separation” mythology, the abolition of slavery and Jim Crow and the achievement of civil rights through MLK’s biblical principles, and more.

So how did we arrive in this present era of godless violent leftism taking our culture hostage? Searcy’s experts and scholars walk us through the legacy of atheism, evolutionary materialism and how the collectivism of Socialism and Communism breaks down the family and individual rights, and ultimately comes after the religious freedom of Christians: The COVID shutdown as an excuse to target churches, Jack Phillips’ infamous Supreme Court case about baking cakes that promote values against one’s conscience.

But this isn’t just a litany of conservative complaints of how old days were better. Searcy also seeks to find a way back to justice and freedom. It begins with the Gospel saving individuals rather than controlling society top-down. But it requires principles and tactics that we should all consider seriously if we want to save our civilization from chaos.

America, America: God Shed His Grace on Thee is a welcome uplifting antidote of hope in the midst of culture of chaos and despair.

Sign up to see the movie free on October 10, here.

 

Silent Cry: Documentary About the Darker Side of Sex Trafficking.

A documentary examining the spiritual and cultural toll that sex trafficking and its evil sibling pedophilia has on our humanity. Untold secrets, suppressed truths and occultic ties of this diabolical system are uncovered within a hopeful conclusion of redemption.

The filmmaker Josh Peck is involved in podcasts and ministries that often deal with fringe topics of the paranormal and end times beliefs. But in this documentary, he approaches a subject we should all be concerned about, and he does so with sensitivity and insight that will help to both educate and activate viewers in the mainstream as well.

The story is about his own journey of discovery along with the stories he tells of the victims and victors of this labyrinth of pain and suffering. He describes how, as a Christian informed about moral battles within the culture war, even he discovered he was woefully unaware of just how deep the hole of darkness that sex trafficking is.

We are first introduced to a story about the Finders, a religious cult in the D.C. area that was discovered to be a ring of child abuse in 1987. But in the course of legal proceedings, the case is strangely suppressed and disappears from public memory (Have you ever heard of them?). This leads Josh on a chase after the international network of connections with the rich and powerful elite that are involved in the horrors of pedophilia and sex trafficking.

Among other examples, Peck addresses the most recent, most disturbing and most relevant story of Jeffrey Epstein and his network of rich and famous celebrities and their involvement in this great evil.

Two of the most fascinating of the interviewees are Ilonka Deaton and her brother Jaco Booyens, both South African activists against sex trafficking. Ilonka tells her heart-wrenching personal story of childhood abuse at the hands of an older trusted teacher. But this is not voyeurism or exploitation. There is just the right balance of hard truth and creative restraint so that we learn without being exploited.

And her story is not without redemption. And we are talking bold, clear Christian redemption that brings true hope through the injustice. This testimony alone is worth the entire documentary.

One of the elements not usually addressed by the mainstream approach to reporting on pedophilia and child abuse is the occultic connection (for obvious secular reasons). Now, I have to admit, I am skeptical about a lot of the “Ritual Satanic Abuse” theories that originated in the 1980s with, among others, the McMartin preschool trial, which proved to be a psychologically manipulated hoax.

Secondly, I am very wary of the temptation to attribute human evil to external supernatural forces, when in fact, human nature is sufficiently evil to provide the actions from pedophilia all the way to genocide. In a way, hasty attribution to demons reflects an unbiblical false image of humanity incapable of such evil on our own. As if thoughts of “murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” do not have their origin in man’s heart of depravity (Jesus, Matthew 15:19).

However, that does not mean that there is no demonic aspect to some of these experiences. There are after all, really people who do worship Satan or engage in pagan religious rites that result in demonic influence and even possession. Each case must be examined on its own merits. And that’s what Peck tries to do. I thought that he made a very careful and non-sensational case for considering the possibilities of the occult connections without falling into the pit of “demonic reductionism” that so often plagues some Christian circles.

Peck models that balance by acknowledging the frauds of the past, such as the John Todd case, where a criminal posed as an ex-Satanist in order to fleece the faithful with his sensational demonic conspiracy theories.

But as I wrote, not all the stories out there reduce to simplistic natural explanation.

All in all, this is a well done educational and inspirational undertaking. It’s a bit long at 2 full hours, reminding me of one of those great sermons that goes on a bit too long in church. Not that it’s boring, but more that it’s taxing on the endurance of such heavy material (And maybe we do need to hear things repeated a couple times for them to sink into our thick skulls).

Also, the interviewees are a bit heavily weighted toward amateur researchers than the experts like Ilanka and Jaco, but they are all sharp and provide evidence beyond mere sensational claims.

That said, I recommend checking it out at Amazon here.

The Last Days of God’s Temple, AD 70: Great review of Chronicles of the Apocalypse. Even better podcast interview.

This is one of the best book reviews of my novel series Chronicles of the Apocalypse.

The reason is because the reviewer, Jerry Bower, is both responsibly knowledgeable on the material AND read all the books.

PLEASE note, that the podcast link at the bottom of the page is even better than the review and one of the BEST interviews on the series ever. We talk about the historical event of the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, Josephus, the origin of the book of Revelation, 666, various interpretations of the end times and how they fail, false prophets of today, but also the supernatural dimension of the unseen realm as described by scholar Michael S. Heiser. I explain how I incorporate Heiser’s divine council and Watcher paradigm and how it fits into Revelation in the first century.

Read the review here.

(And don’t forget to click the link at the bottom of the review to listen to the podcast)

If you want to go straight to the podcast online to listen, click here.

Book of Revelation Scholar Endorses My Chronicles of the Apocalypse Novel Series!

Kenneth Gentry, a significant scholar of eschatology and the book of Revelation endorsed my Chronicles of the Apocalypse.

See what he wrote here.

This is significant, because he is coming out with a commentary on the Book of Revelation THIS YEAR called “The Divorce of Israel.”

It is a game-changer on Bible prophecy and Revelation. I am not exaggerating.

It was Gentry’s scholarship that opened my eyes to the eschatological viewpoint in my novel series. And I footnote him a lot in my novels from that new commentary because he gave me an advance copy of it to read.

His books on the subject are already classics. Check out “The Beast of Revelation,” “Before Jerusalem Fell,” “The Book of Revelation Made Easy” and others at www.kennethgentry.com

His blog post on my series.

 

Book Review: Rock Gets Religion-The Battle for the Soul of the Devil’s Music

Mark Joseph’s fascinating third book in a trilogy about the difficult and oftentimes damaging relationship of Christian musicians with the worlds of mainstream secular music and Christian music.

I’m a friend and colleague of Mark Joseph, so when he asked me to read his book and give an honest review, I was a bit worried. I’m always worried in these cases because I face a potential conflict: If the book is good, no problem. If the book is bad (or worse, boring), I won’t lie and say it’s good. I owe that to God, the writer, and the public. But if that’s the case, then I worry about my relationship with my friend whose book I’ve just trashed.

So I just pray that it’s good and hope that they prefer honesty to boot-licking.

Whew. Rock Gets Religionis not only good, it’s excellent. It’s a well told tale, or rather an episodic series of entertaining tales about some of the most popular musicians in mainstream music and their struggles with integrating their Christian faith or background into their music.

We’re talking the likes of Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Lacrae, Chance the Rapper, Megadeath’s Dave Mustaine, Kendrick Lamar, Avril Lavigne, Kay Perry, Miley Cyrus and others.

That’s right, fascinating details about the spiritual journeys of some who I never realized were Christians, and others who have, shall we say, somewhat altered their beliefs after becoming famous.

But there are also many insightful stories about so-called cross-over artists who were able to bridge the gap into the mainstream with their music despite their explicit “Christian” expression: Mercy Me, Switchfoot, Stacie Orrico, Evanescence, Mumford & Sons, The Fray and others.

Full disclosure, I was raised on the original Christian Rock of the 1970s and early 80s: Larry Norman, Randy Stonehill, DeGarmo and Key, Stryper, Daniel Amos, Steve Taylor. But I lost interest in that world in the 90s and have not kept up with any Christian music beyond the popular worship songs that show up at my church. I saw some of the changes going on but I just haven’t cared much about it. Not for any spiritual reason. I just changed in my musical interests.

But what I found fascinating about Rock Gets Religionwas how author Joseph chronicles the very important philosophical/religious/moral struggle that artists go through in bridging those worlds of faith and music.

Sure, he addresses the moral fall that so often accompanies the consequences of success within the mainstream world of secular entertainment. And the all-too-common loss of faith exhibited be some of those very artists listed above.

But more importantly, this book wrestles with the philosophical struggle of what it means to integrate your Christian faith into your art, without being compromising or propagandistic. Every Christian artist knows this struggle.

One quote sums up the insightful exploration of this generational struggle well: Continue reading

Check out this Thrilling First-Century Epic & Meet the Apostle John on Patmos

I have to say I am truly humbled by this review of my newest book Remnant: Rescue of the Elect.

It is written by Kevin Ott at Rockin’ God’s House.

Here is a quote from him: “you get an intensely vivid sense for what it would have been like to be a Christian in the mad house that was the first century.”

You think we’re in a madhouse now? You have no idea. First century Roman empire led the Great Tribulation.

Check out what Kevin said about the novel, and the series!

Read it here.

 

American Gods: Secular Man Still Worships & the Gods are Crazy

The Starz network series, American Gods, based on Neil Gaiman’s horror novel is a supernatural story of the “old gods” who immigrated to America with various people groups rising up in war against the new gods of technology and culture that now rule our society.

It’s a great creative idea that in some ways reflects what I have been doing in my own universe of fictional writing. So I was naturally fascinated by the premise.

Unfortunately, it turns out to be a great idea gone bad. A mixed bag of profound spiritual wisdom and depraved humanist blasphemy.

Disenchantment

American Gods focuses on a convict, Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle), just released from prison only to discover his wife, Laura (Emily Browning), and his best friend died in a car accident while in an adulterous affair. On his way to the funeral, Shadow meets a peculiar old man, named Wednesday (Ian McShane), who hires him as a bodyguard of sorts. Shadow soon discovers that Wednesday claims to be a chief of the old gods who once laid claim to America through those who found their way here in the past, willingly or not. And we see vignettes in each episode of these gods arriving on America’s virgin shores—or really, raped shores. Odin with the Vikings, Bilquis and Anubis with some of the slaves, a Leprechaun with the Irish, Jinn with Muslims and others. In the story, these are real beings with real, though limited supernatural powers.

It’s a common fantasy theme about the “disenchantment” of the natural world that science and technology creates in modernity. The “old gods” represent the sense of wonder that the ancients had of the life in a world interpreted as containing a goddess of spring, a god of storm, a goddess of sex, and so on. In modernity, and in this story, these gods have become like neglected elderly homeless who scrounge around in lives of squalor as the new gods of technology, like “Media,” “Technical Boy,” and others occupy us with obsessive entertainment and electronic diversion that amounts to sacred devotion to the profane. We’ve lost the “magic” and “wonder” of life. We think we’ve become enlightened and put behind us the ignorance of religion, but we remain decidedly religious creatures who worship new gods under the guise of secularism. The goddess Media sometimes appears as Lucille Ball, sometimes as Marilyn Monroe, icons of worship no less religious than Bilquis the old god of sexuality who calls upon her sexual partners to verbalize worship to her as they engage in sex with her.

Spiritual Profundity

And that is the brilliance of the story, as in the original book by the same title (Although in this case, the show is better than the book). It brings alive a profound truth that modern secular man seeks to deny, namely that secular modernity is just as much a culture of religious worship as the old world. We humans are homo religicus, worshipping beings. And the world of media that traffics in narrative imagination is just as much an artificial creation of the human craving for the transcendent as are the religions of old. We have replaced one mythology with another mythology and mistaken the latter as progress.

Ah, but therein lies the rub… Continue reading

Dragon King: 1st Place Winner Multicultural Fiction 2016 Best Book Awards

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I know, I know, it’s almost an insult to be in a “multicultural” category, since that is usually about identity politics.

But not in this case. Trust me.

The story is an East meets West historical fantasy about a Greek warrior meeting the first emperor of China.

The Greek’s secret reason is because he’s heard there are dragons in the mysterious East. But what he finds is even more dangerous.

It is a clash of kingdoms. But there is a higher kingdom that both East and West are inferior to.

Check out the novel here on Amazon.

And here for iBooks, Kobo, Nook and others.

 

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