Seven Times

The book follows a number of strands; a re-evaluation of ancient historical events in the Middle East in light of modern geoscience and cosmology, a philosophic and spiritual journey and a personal travelogue around the Eastern Mediterranean. It then moves into an analysis of biblical prophecy and eschatological predictions through to 2031.

Personal memoir is restricted to family and a school anecdote, a meeting as a young man with a key player in the ‘six day creation’ movement, and adult life in exploration geoscience. The travelogue component is interwoven throughout the historical and prophetic discussion and is based on the author’s holiday / research visit to Egypt, Greece, Turkey and the Holy Land immediately prior to the Arab Spring uprising.

The narrative begins with a brief look at the story of Abraham and the city of Harran, his home town in today’s Turkey and reviews the 11,000 years old ‘Eden temple’ archaeological findings at Gobekli Tepe just 50 kilometres from Harran. Extraordinarily, there is also a retrospective time cycle built into the Daniel timeline that identifies the exact year Abraham set forth from Harran and by default the Exodus as well. This is explored toward the end.

The focus then shifts further back to discuss the issues relating to the Creation account of Genesis 1, and suggests its original source was a visionary and prophetic one because of the parallels to modern cosmology, geology and palaeontology. This is followed by a discussion of the last ice age and the nature of the flood epoch which occurred thereafter, before diving into an analysis of language prompted by the Egyptian hieroglyphs.

A description of the Thera (Santorini) eruption beginning around 1600 BC ensues and its direct impact on the Hebrew Exodus analysed and supported. The author’s experience on the Sinai peninsula of volcanic dust from the  Icelandic eruption in 2010 provides a surreal, if muted parallel to Mosaic times and their escape route.

The second half of the narrative focusses on the visions of the Jewish prophets in the Tanakh and New Testament and the prophetic interpretation rules that are revealed.

The timeline extends from the First Temple Period of David and Solomon ca. 955 BC, through to the Babylonian exile. The ‘seven times’ of Daniel is then explored to the Roman Empire and Daniel’s ‘abomination of desolation’. This event begins the extended Islamic period and a further ‘time, times and half a time’ which ends in 1967 and the Six Day War in the region.

This later period and beyond to 2024-2031 is described in amazing detail in the Revelation to Saint John and includes World War 2 and the Holocaust and the prophesied ‘foreign fighters’ Gog and Magog who come from the four corners to kill and pillage. It is also about the ‘kings of the east’ who derive from Asia, Iraq and...