Ray Ruppert

I really wanted to like this book; I requested an ebook copy from the author for review. It just didn't quite live up to my expectations.

It was a bold attempt to visualize what the Reign of Christ described in Revelation 20:1-10 might actually look like. Admittedly I have not studied pre-millennialism doctrine much, as this was rejected by the Catholic Church in 373 AD; however, recalling the [book: Left Behind] series, I was very interested in how this eschatological time would be portrayed. Given the wide variance in the interpretation of the governing scriptures, the author sets himself up an extremely difficult task. The basic story elements comply with the specific milestones that I am aware of:

1. Satan is bound/imprisoned for the duration,
2. Christ will rule the earth with his Saints.
3. Satan will be released/escape for a final conflict at the end.

The story arc only covers that last few years of the Kingdom trying to illustrate how we build up to the final battle ... Which is the biggest strike against the book. It is ALL build-up with no climax; not even a cliff-hanger ending. Nothing at all to pull me into the sequel [book: The Sovereign's Last Battle], which hopefully has a lot more action. Of the three plotlines, the only one that was truly interesting was the space exploration branch where Mr. Ruppert introduced some very original ideas about divinity. Unfortunately he also does some rather basic info-dumps that were irritating ... Probably because I was already very familiar with the topics presented; I tended to disagree with some of the material presented as well. The other two plotlines left me feeling like I had just finished reading an infomercial for evangelicals. The character development was somewhat stilted and shallow; used primarily as a means to introduce some of the more objectionable components of what amounts to a totalitarian government under Christ's control. Perhaps this was by design so that the reader would potentially identify more with rebels ... if so, he succeeded.… (mere)