A messiah is an individual appointed by God to a specific task of importance, and elevated to a level of far greater authority than a prophet by leading (or claiming to lead) a group or movement. The movement comes to be uniquely centered on his or her teachings, and the messiah claims spiritual and temporal authority over its followers. This book is an examination of both males and females in the Judeo-Christian heritage (excluding Jesus of Nazareth) who either claimed to be the messiah, were viewed by contemporaries as such, or are considered by a significant number of scholars to have been motivated by messianic goals. The work is arranged chronologically, with details about messiahs from before Christ through the dawn of the technological age at the end of the nineteenth century. It covers nearly 100 individual messiahs, including such Old Testament figures as King Hezekiah and Herod the Great, as well as later messiahs both obscure and historically renowned (even Queen Elizabeth I and King Charles I were touted as messiahs by certain devoted followers). Meticulously researched, the book includes an extensive bibliography.

Consummation of the ages vol III deals with the subjects of demons, devils and false messiahs and the growing apsotasy in the christian churches.

The new edition includes more than 4,800 resources available at more than 10,000 Internet sites that provide information on a range of biblical study topics including Bible translations in English and other languages, audio translations of the Bible in English and other languages, commentaries, dictionaries, and other resource materials including ones in Greek, Hebrew and other ancient languages. The author also has adopted a new method of referencing and cataloging the most widely used web pages to facilitate a major expansion of resources without increasing the physical length of the book itself. In cases when ten or more resources are listed on a single web page, the author has assigned the web page a three-digit code. The code is used to identify this web page as a major resource within the main text, while any needed instructions for use of the site are cross-referenced separately in the final chapter. In adopting this concise method, the author was able to add hundreds of additional or updated web resources, a surprising number of which can be downloaded onto a hard drive for immediate and continued use.

In 100 A.D., Christianity was practiced only by a small, oppressed minority. Three hundred years later, Christianity had become one of the world's major religions. But this change did not happen easily. The imperial government of Rome, intellectual tradition and battles within the church itself influenced the transformation. Every viewpoint had its champions and opponents and whether they were "defenders of the faith" or those whom history later labeled heretics, they were part of the early evolution of Christianity. This volume discusses more than 50 figures who played a role in the transformation from primitive Christianity to early Medieval Catholicism. As it examines the lives and influence of imperial rulers such as Constantine, proponents of the intellectual tradition including Gregory of Neocaesaria and Julius Africanus, and early Bible translators such as Tatian, Origen and Jerome, the work provides a fascinating look at Christian history.

Modernist thinkers once presumed a progressive secularity, with the novel replacing religious texts as society’s moral epics. Yet religion—beginning with the Iranian revolution of 1979, through the collapse of communism, and culminating in the singular rupture of September 11, 2001—has not retreated quietly out of sight. In Fiction Beyond Secularism, Justin Neuman argues that contemporary novelists who are most commonly identified as antireligious—among them Orhan Pamuk, Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood, Nadine Gordimer, Haruki Murakami, and J. M. Coetzee—have defied assumptions and have instead written some of the most trenchant critiques of secular ideologies, as well as the most exciting and rigorous inquiries into the legacies of the religious imagination. As a result, many readers (or nonreaders) on either side of the religious divide neglect the insights of works like The Satanic Verses, Disgrace, and Snow. Fiction Beyond Secularism serves as a timely corrective.

For a variety of reasons, recent literature that focuses on the rationality of belief in God and the viability of the Christian worldview fails to stimulate critical thinking in the general population of believers. Nietzsche Was Probably Right succeeds where many of these other works miss the mark. It educates rather than coerces; it focuses on issues critically relevant to the vast majority of Christians; most importantly, it does not "preach to the choir," but instead offers a balanced, objective, comprehensive overview of the issues. Its tone and inclusive, unbiased approach welcomes nonbelievers and believers into this important conversation, offering a perspective that will satisfy anyone seeking a critical understanding of the Christian faith and its deity.