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Epicenter: Why the Current Rumblings in the Middle East Will Change Your Future
Joel C. Rosenberg
Tyndale House Publishers, 2006
ISBN: 1414311354
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Is Joel C. Rosenberg a modern-day prophet? As the publisher’s blurb on Epicenter claims: Rosenberg did predict a “kamikaze attack on the U.S., a war with Saddam, the death of Yasser Arafat, and Iran’s nuclear threat against Israel.” And now, with the publication of Epicenter, we have “10 new predictions that will change your world.”

A former political columnist for World magazine, Rosenberg is a successful author and communications strategist who has worked for some of the world’s most influential people in both the business and political worlds. Indeed, it is claimed that Rosenberg provides information “found nowhere else.” Rosenberg is also an evangelical Christian from an Orthodox Jewish background.

Many readers will recognize the Rosenberg name from his four novels: The Last Jihad (Forge Books, 2003), The Last Days (Tor Books, 2005), The Ezekiel Option (Tyndale, 2006), and The Copper Scroll (Tyndale, 2007) which hit the stands after the appearance of Epicenter. There are more than one million copies of these New York Times best-sellers in print. Numerous references to these novels left me, at times, wondering if Epicenter was as much about bolstering already healthy sales of the novels as it was about providing important information for my life going forward. Regardless, Epicenter is fascinating reading.

Anecdotes, declassified CIA documents, interviews with world leaders from Israel, the Palestinian territories and Russia, personal testimony and biblical reflections all combine to produce ten major predictions about coming events centered in the Middle East.

Prophecy buffs will quickly realize Rosenberg views the Middle East through a dispensational, premillennial lense. Like many of his premillennial predecessors, Rosenberg sees Russia as a major force, along with Iran and the Arab world, in the future eschatological conflicts portrayed in Revelation.

Without question, Middle East events profoundly affect daily life “from gas prices to your bank account” in the words of one reviewer. Whatever your prophetic views, Rosenberg is a skilled communicator with contacts and connections most of us can only dream about. This is a book worth reading.
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This review first appeared in ChristianWeek (May 9, 2008).

You can purchase this book now by clicking on the title or cover scan below.

Epicenter: Why the Current Rumblings in the Middle East Will Change Your Future
By Joel C. Rosenberg / Tyndale House