Book Review :: Petrus Romanus – by Tom Horn and Cris Putnam

Book Review by Terry James

petrus-romanusThis world system, so antithetical to God’s blueprint for humanity, is winding up for the consummation of history by every measure examined by students of Bible prophecy who hold to a pretrib, premillennial view.

Global politics, government, and socioeconomics are gushing in the prophet Daniel’s end-times flood (Daniel 9:26) toward the end of the Church Age (Age of Grace). But no signal of the approaching apocalypse presents a more laser-like, focused view of the end-of-days dynamics than do religious rearrangements taking place locally, nationally, and especially worldwide.

The departure from biblical Christianity is so rampant and moving at such a furious pace in American neighborhoods and on a nationwide basis that even the most ardent,futurist student of end-times matters is sometimes stunned by developments. While the astonishing breadth and depth of material covered within this book take the reader into regions far beyond our local and national boundaries, the journey culminates in, I think, the reader achieving a much more profound understanding of where Americanchurchianity stands within the doomed rush toward the harlot religious system of Revelation 17.

The story of St. Malachy injects intriguing speculations and possibilities into the world’s rush into last-days ecumenism. The twelfth-century Irish bishop of the Roman Catholic Church, canonized by Pope Clement III in 1190, presented a most fascinating line of predictions that many believe were visions leading to the man who will be the final pope.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux was St. Malachy’s biographer. Clairvaux wrote in his book,Life of Saint Malachy, that Malachy was said to have the gift of prophecy. It is claimed that St. Malachy predicted the exact day and hour of his own death.

Enter into the end-times turbulence Planet Earth is experiencing this most riveting volume, Petrus Romanus.

Authors Tom Horn and Cris Putnam have dramatically exposed to the light of examination St. Malachy’s enigmatic prophecies about the succession of popes leading to the very last, Peter the Roman.

Hal Lindsey (author of The Late, Great, Planet Earth) wrote for WorldNetDaily (WND) upon the death of Pope John-Paul II, in 2005, regarding St. Malachy’s papal predictions: “According to his biographer, St. Malachy was visiting Rome in 1139 when he went into a trance and received a vision. Malachy wrote down this extraordinary vision in which he claims to have foreseen all of the popes from the death of Innocent II until the destruction of the church and the return of Christ.”

St. Malachy wrote briefly, in Latin, on each succeeding pope of the future, and then gave the document to Pope Innocent II, who had it placed in Vatican archives where it remained for several centuries. It was rediscovered in 1590 and published.

Lindsey wrote: “[Malachy] named exactly 112 popes from that time until the end. The interesting thing is that scholars have matched the brief 110 descriptive predictions with each of the 110 popes and anti-popes that there have been since Innocent II. Though they are a bit obscure, they have fit the general profile of each of the popes.”

The bottom line is that the last two popes, John-Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, fit the profile that running string of papal succession seems to accurately predict. Number 112 is supposed to be the pope who will head the Roman Catholic Church during the great time of trouble–the Tribulation, according to the Malachy prophecy. He will be, the prediction says, Petrus Romanus (Peter the Roman). Pope Benedict XVI is number 111.

Hal Lindsey wrote further: “Now, if St. Malachy is accurate, there will be only two more popes before the end of this world, as we know it and the Second Coming of Christ. I do know that the whole prophetic scenario of signs that Jesus Christ and the prophets predicted would come together just before His return are now in view. So what St. Malachy predicted is certainly occurring in the right time frame.”

Neither Tom Horn nor Cris Putnam–nor I, as your reviewer of this book—claims that St. Malachy was a God-inspired prophet in the sense of an Old Testament or New Testament prophet. He was not. However, I will tell you without reservation that the little-known and sometimes previously undiscovered facts these researchers have uncovered and constructed into an enthralling picture of the one who will likely be the last pontiff are absolutely spellbinding.

Book Review :: Revelation Road – by Bill Salus

Book Review by Terry James

revelation-roadIsrael is back in its God-promised land after almost 2 millennia of diaspora just as foretold. That nation is under incessant verbal assault by its hate-filled neighbors, the mainstream news media, and the international community. As has been Israel’s plight throughout history, it is the focal point of satanic rage. Its ancient enemies are aligned precisely as predicted, preparing to make their final attack. These facts constitute proof for many that Bible prophecy is in the process of fulfillment

Author Bill Salus has, in my opinion, fashioned a unique and riviting literary look at Bible truth concerning God’s chosen people and these last days. He cobbles together fiction with nonfiction in such a way as to make what we see in our daily headlines truly seem to come alive. One senses he or she is living the experiences of the story’s protagonists, and the range of emotions engendered keeps the reader anxiously turning pages.

Iran’s nuclear threat, the Arab Spring, the toppling of long-ruling despots, and the power vacuum left in the wake–the realism presented vacuums the reader’s attention ever-deeper into the story. Israel’s security under attack from hostile powers abroad and wavering support by the U.S.–the nation that helped midwife the Jewish state’s birth into modernity–all are powerfully presented within this transfixing adventure through history we are in the process of living day by day.

I couldn’t better synopsize this novelistic look at things that are about to take place in reality than they way it’s given in the following description from a promotion piece for Revelation Road:

Modern dangers? Yes, but calamities foretold in the Bible thousands of years ago. Revelation Road explains the events occurring on our darkening horizon and their Biblical significance. America’s economic house-of-cards and political instability, the Rapture of the Church and the void created by its disappearance and the subsequent rise of a world religion. Experience the End Times through the eyes of the Thompson family.

George Thompson believes his grandson Tyler lives in the final generation. Lovingly, he prepares the lad for the treacherous road ahead. All young Tyler wanted was a chance to join his sister at Eastside Middle School in the fall, but Middle East war and nuclear terror in America turned Tyler’s world upside down.
Join them on their journey and discover how their gripping story uncovers the silver lining of hope against the backdrop of global gloom and doom.
Bill Salus has crafted a unique novel with a non-fiction commentary, that serves as an eye-opening herald call to all believers and non-believers alike!
Read Revelation Road and ask yourself, ‘What would you and your family do?’”

This is a book I can recommend with great enthusiasm.