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Prophet’s Son - Kenneth John Marks, Author

Posted in 2007, Authors, Entrepreneuers by Administrator on the November 15th, 2007

Prophet's Son:

The Prophet’s Son trilogy shines a powerful light on the evil that fills the world. It shows how purposeful evil, which lives in the person of Satan, finds its expression in Man’s fallen nature. Yet it also shows how faith in the God who loves us can defeat the devil, who seeks Man’s destruction. It reinforces the hope that if anyone will turn from his sin and seek forgiveness from his loving God, He will save him, as He ultimately saved the story’s protagonist, Phinehas.

Phinehas was the son of a great (fictional) Jewish prophet named Eli, who lived in Jerusalem during the early days of the Persian Empire (in the 6^th century B.C.). Eli called the Jews to repent of their sin or be destroyed. Like all the prophets before, Eli was murdered, as was the rest of Phinehas’ family. As a result, the prophet’s son harbored hatred and bitterness in his heart. As the story starts, Phinehas meets a man named Judas, Satan’s servant, who hated Eli, and who eventually goads Phinehas into making some choices which have tragic consequences for him and his wife and daughter. Prophet’s Son also shows how Phinehas’ evil choices affect not only him and his family, but also his friends and acquaintances; even people unknown to him who live hundreds of miles away in the wilderness east of Jerusalem.

My book is also intended to be searing commentary on our society. In this post-modern, quasi-delusional culture of ours, all types of vile and demented behavior tend to be excused away: she murdered her children because she was abused as a child, for example. And whenever something bad happens, it is always someone or something else’s fault; we have therefore become a society of “professional” victims who can never take responsibility for what happens to us. With this in mind, Phinehas only finds redemption when he takes personal responsibility for the evil things he has done and the tragedy that resulted.

Prophet’s Son was written with a poetic touch. The language is highly descriptive and metaphorical. It is work of art (modest to be sure); but one that requires the reader to invest his mind and soul in it, as does all art. No one who’s been moved by a work of art simply lets it go; rather they reflect on it as it changes them in a fundamental way. The trilogy is not a quick read; but the serious reader will not mind that, because the book will speak to his or her soul. For example, several of my readers have said that the first book, Descent to Darkness, made them uncomfortable because as Phinehas was falling into a deep pit of darkness, it reminded them of times in their own lives when they too stared down into that darkness. But they also found hope and joy as Phinehas comes to terms with the evil he as done (Sojourn in the Desert), repents of it, and then is redeemed (Return to Grace); all by the work of our loving God in his life. One reader said that after she got over her initial discomfort, she literally could not put the book down. She told me that it was one of the most important books she had ever read. My prayer is that this will be the case for many others.

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, attended college at the University of California at San Diego, where I earned a liberal arts degree, concentrating in mathematics and the humanities. I have been studying biblical history for many years. I am especially devoted to studying the people and events of Old Testament times. I began writing the Prophet’s Son trilogy in 1996. It was published in 2005. I am currently working on two more books, one an anthology of short stories based on Biblical themes; the other based on Revelation 12, the rebellion of the angels. Both should be available in 2008.

You can find the Prophet’s Son trilogy on line at http://www.ProphetsSon.com and at all the major on-line book sellers. (Search keyword “Kenneth John Marks”.)

Kenneth John Marks