Book Review - The Ezekiel Option by Joel C. Rosenberg
Category Book Reviews
One of the blog readers recommended the book The Ezekiel Option by Joel C. Rosenberg after my review of the Apocalypse series. This one was *far* better than I had hoped for, and in some ways was even better than the Left Behind series. This reads like something right out of CNN...
Erin McCoy and Jon Bennett are White House advisors who were pivotal in securing a Middle East peace agreement when massive oil reserves were discovered beneath Israel and Palestine. Now both sides are prospering, the Middle East is relatively quiet, and all seems to be going well. Of course, all that is about to change. Iran is building nuclear weapons, and a coup in Russia (prompted by the United States shooting down a civilian airliner headed for the White House) puts the government in the hands of a leader who is highly critical of Israel and the Jewish race. The new leader uses the United Nations processes to launch sanctions against Israel for their nuclear weapons, and puts down a deadline for compliance. The failure to comply means that Russia will invade much like the United States did against Iraq. Nearly every nation surrounding Israel has joined the coalition, and even the United States is forced into a position of neutrality. As the timeline counts down, Israel considers the "Sampson Option", which is the use of all their nuclear weapons to take everyone else down with them. But based on the prophecies in the book of Ezekiel, Bennett and a few influential voices are advocating for the "Ezekiel Option", which is waiting for the supernatural intervention of God to protect them. Bennett has even more at stake here, because he and McCoy (his fiancee) were in Russia during the coup. Both were injured, he was released, but she's being held hostage in an unknown location. He wants to rescue her before the impending destruction of Moscow...
This book takes the view that the prophecies in Ezekiel are a precursor to the Rapture, and most of the books that have been written of late about the End Times seem to skip over this event. The storyline that Rosenberg presents is pretty plausible, and he does a good job of weaving in the historical background that would make all this work out. It's even more attention-grabbing when you consider the current events in Iran, and how Russia is not keen on backing sanctions against them. The only thing I thought might have been a bit over-the-top is how McCoy escapes from her captors after being shot in the stomach and drugged for many days while being held in a Russian prison/hospital. But even with that, it was still a book that didn't last very long once I got started...
I thought it worked better than Left Behind in that it was much tighter without nearly as much filler. Granted, it might be like comparing apples (a single book) to oranges (an entire series), but sometimes I felt like I was marking time with some Left Behind volumes. The Ezekiel Option started strong and didn't let up...
One of the blog readers recommended the book The Ezekiel Option by Joel C. Rosenberg after my review of the Apocalypse series. This one was *far* better than I had hoped for, and in some ways was even better than the Left Behind series. This reads like something right out of CNN...
Erin McCoy and Jon Bennett are White House advisors who were pivotal in securing a Middle East peace agreement when massive oil reserves were discovered beneath Israel and Palestine. Now both sides are prospering, the Middle East is relatively quiet, and all seems to be going well. Of course, all that is about to change. Iran is building nuclear weapons, and a coup in Russia (prompted by the United States shooting down a civilian airliner headed for the White House) puts the government in the hands of a leader who is highly critical of Israel and the Jewish race. The new leader uses the United Nations processes to launch sanctions against Israel for their nuclear weapons, and puts down a deadline for compliance. The failure to comply means that Russia will invade much like the United States did against Iraq. Nearly every nation surrounding Israel has joined the coalition, and even the United States is forced into a position of neutrality. As the timeline counts down, Israel considers the "Sampson Option", which is the use of all their nuclear weapons to take everyone else down with them. But based on the prophecies in the book of Ezekiel, Bennett and a few influential voices are advocating for the "Ezekiel Option", which is waiting for the supernatural intervention of God to protect them. Bennett has even more at stake here, because he and McCoy (his fiancee) were in Russia during the coup. Both were injured, he was released, but she's being held hostage in an unknown location. He wants to rescue her before the impending destruction of Moscow...
This book takes the view that the prophecies in Ezekiel are a precursor to the Rapture, and most of the books that have been written of late about the End Times seem to skip over this event. The storyline that Rosenberg presents is pretty plausible, and he does a good job of weaving in the historical background that would make all this work out. It's even more attention-grabbing when you consider the current events in Iran, and how Russia is not keen on backing sanctions against them. The only thing I thought might have been a bit over-the-top is how McCoy escapes from her captors after being shot in the stomach and drugged for many days while being held in a Russian prison/hospital. But even with that, it was still a book that didn't last very long once I got started...
I thought it worked better than Left Behind in that it was much tighter without nearly as much filler. Granted, it might be like comparing apples (a single book) to oranges (an entire series), but sometimes I felt like I was marking time with some Left Behind volumes. The Ezekiel Option started strong and didn't let up...
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