The Crusades is an authoritative, accessible single-volume history of the brutal struggle for the Holy Land in the Middle Ages. Thomas Asbridge - a renowned historian who writes with "maximum vividness" (Joan Acocella, The New Yorker) - covers the years 1095 to 1291 in this big, ambitious, listenable account of one of the most fascinating periods in history. From Richard the Lionheart to the mighty Saladin, from the emperors of Byzantium to the Knights Templar, Asbridge's book is a magnificent epic of holy war between the Christian and Islamic worlds, full of adventure, intrigue, and sweeping grandeur. Read more

The Bible, as we hold it today, is esteemed by many religious institutions and especially Conservative Christians to be the inspired, inerrant Word of God. This doctrinal position affirms that the Bible is unlike all other books or collections of works in that it is free of error due to having been given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works (2 Tim. 3:16, 17). While no other text can claim this same unique authority, the Book of Enoch is an ancient Jewish religious work, ascribed by tradition to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah, which played a crucial role in forming the worldview of the authors of the New Testament, who were not only familiar with it but quoted it in the New Testament, Epistle of Jude, Jude 1:14 15, and is attributed there to "Enoch the Seventh from Adam" (1 En 60:8). The text was also utilized by the community that originally collected and studied the Dead Sea Scrolls. While some churches today include Enoch as part of the biblical canon (for example the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church), other Christian denominations and scholars accept it only as having historical or theological non-canonical interest and frequently use or assigned it as supplemental materials within academic settings to help students and scholars discover or better understand cultural and historical context of the early Christian Church. The Book of Enoch provides commentators valuable insight into what many ancient Jews and early Christians believed when, God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets (Heb. 1:1). As Dr. Michael S. Heiser in the Introduction to his important book Reversing Hermon so powerfully notes: For those to whom 1 Enoch sounds unfamiliar, this is the ancient apocalyptic literary work known popularly (but imprecisely) as the Book of Enoch. Most scholars believe that 1 Enoch was originally written in Aramaic perhaps as early as the 3rd century B.C. The oldest fragments of the book were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls and dated to roughly the second century B.C. This places the book squarely in the middle of what scholars call the Second Temple Period (ca. 500 B.C. 70 A.D.), an era more commonly referred to as the Intertestamental Period. This book will use the more academic designation ( Second Temple Period ) [...] The Watcher story of 1 Enoch, as many readers will recall, is an expansion of the episode described in Genesis 6:1-4, where the sons of God (Hebrew: beney ha- elohim) came in to the daughters of man (Gen 6:4; ESV). Consequently, Watchers is the Enochian term of choice (among others) for the divine sons of God. While the story of this supernatural rebellion occupies scant space in Genesis, it received considerable attention during the Second Temple Period [...] The Enochian version of the events of Gen 6:1-4 preserves and transmits the original Mesopotamian context for the first four verses of the flood account. Every element of Gen 6:1-4 has a Mesopotamian counterpoint a theological target that provides the rationale for why these four verses wound up in the inspired text in the first place. Connections to that backstory can be found in the Old Testament, but they are scattered and unsystematically presented. This is not the case with Second Temple Jewish literature like 1 Enoch. Books like 1 Enoch preserve all of the Mesopotamian touchpoints with Gen 6:1-4 when presenting their expanded retelling of the events of that biblical passage. The Book of Enoch is therefore intended to be an important supplemental resource for assisting serious researchers and students in the study of the Bible. Read more

In The Pagan World: Ancient Religions Before Christianity, you will meet the fascinating, ancient polytheistic peoples of the Mediterranean and beyond, their many gods and goddesses, and their public and private worship practices, as you come to appreciate the foundational role religion played in their lives. Professor Hans-Friedrich Mueller, of Union College in Schenectady, New York, makes this ancient world come alive in 24 lectures with captivating stories of intrigue, artifacts, illustrations, and detailed descriptions from primary sources of intriguing personalities. In the ancient Mediterranean area, religion was not separate from daily life. To the contrary, religion was daily life. The many dozen gods of this ancient world were everywhere, with spirits inhabiting every crack and crevice of life. These polytheists believed they had a strict contract with their deities: If they took care of their gods, their gods would take care of them (or at least not harm them). Consequently, they built extraordinary temples to honor their deities, brought food and wine to them, sacrificed animals for them, and held sacred meals with their gods. In fact, they followed numerous rules and regulations that circumscribed almost all aspects of life both inside and outside the home - anything and everything to keep the gods happy. Consequently, the religious practices of the ancient Mediterranean make a wonderful lens through which to develop a deeper understanding of their world. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio. Read more

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Discover the completely unique qualifications and accomplishments of Jesus Christ--the Creator of everything, the King who will set you free, and the best friend you could ever have.Over nearly five decades of walking with God, podcaster, author and Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson has learned a thing or two about why Jesus is the only one worth following. Of all the things we could put our trust in, only Jesus has the answers to our questions and the solutions for our problems.Plenty of people claim to have the answers for a better life. Politicians claim they can fix our nation. Scientists and technologists trumpet the latest and greatest discoveries that'll make everything right. Self-help gurus offer one pathway to peace after another. But it's no secret that our world is increasingly divided and broken--and we've got the fear, anxiety, and hopelessness to prove it. Jesus alone can make good on the promise of lasting peace, real freedom, and life eternal.With his trademark directness, humor, and insight, Phil will help youexperience Jesus as the Creator and all-powerful Sustainer of all creation;reconcile your own brokenness and sinfulness with Jesus’ unending well healing, forgiveness, and peace;develop the eyes to see Jesus for who he really is: the friend who will always be there for you, no matter what mistakes you've made; andlook to the Bible to get to know Jesus and better understand His grace and love for you.Politics won't save you. Science can't give you the power to sidestep death. The pleasures and joys of this world are fleeting at best, damaging counterfeits at worst. But Phil has good news for you: Jesus offers life, joy, and peace, and he's never more than a prayer away. Look for additional bold, biblical content from Phil:UncanceledJesus PoliticsTheft of America’s SoulYour Daily Phil Read more

Since he was a small boy, Mosab Hassan Yousef has had an inside view of the deadly terrorist group Hamas. The oldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founding member of Hamas and its most popular leader, young Mosab assisted his father for years in his political activities while being groomed to assume his legacy, politics, status...and power. But everything changed when Mosab turned away from terror and violence and embraced instead the teachings of another famous Middle East leader.In Son of Hamas, Mosab Yousef—now called Joseph—reveals new information about the world’s most dangerous terrorist organization and unveils the truth about his own role, his agonizing separation from family and homeland, the dangerous decision to make his newfound faith public, and his belief that the Christian mandate to “love your enemies” is the only way to peace in the Middle East. Read more

Instant New York Times BestsellerOne of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of the YearAn Economist and Air MailBest Book of the Year"Brave and absorbing." -- New York Times“Alberta is not just a thorough and responsible reporter but a vibrant writer, capable of rendering a farcical scene in vivid hues.” -- Washington Post“An astonishingly clear-eyed look at a murky movement.” -- Los Angeles TimesEvangelical Christians are perhaps the most polarizing—and least understood—people living in America today. In his seminal new book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, journalist Tim Alberta, himself a practicing Christian and the son of an evangelical pastor, paints an expansive and profoundly troubling portrait of the American evangelical movement. Through the eyes of televangelists and small-town preachers, celebrity revivalists and everyday churchgoers, Alberta tells the story of a faith cheapened by ephemeral fear, a promise corrupted by partisan subterfuge, and a reputation stained by perpetual scandal.For millions of conservative Christians, America is their kingdom—a land set apart, a nation uniquely blessed, a people in special covenant with God. This love of country, however, has given way to right-wing nationalist fervor, a reckless blood-and-soil idolatry that trivializes the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Alberta retraces the arc of the modern evangelical movement, placing political and cultural inflection points in the context of church teachings and traditions, explaining how Donald Trump's presidency and the COVID-19 pandemic only accelerated historical trends that long pointed toward disaster. Reporting from half-empty sanctuaries and standing-room-only convention halls across the country, the author documents a growing fracture inside American Christianity and journeys with readers through this strange new environment in which loving your enemies is "woke" and owning the libs is the answer to WWJD.Accessing the highest echelons of the American evangelical movement, Alberta investigates the ways in which conservative Christians have pursued, exercised, and often abused power in the name of securing this earthly kingdom. He highlights the battles evangelicals are fighting—and the weapons of their warfare—to demonstrate the disconnect from scripture: Contra the dictates of the New Testament, today's believers are struggling mightily against flesh and blood, eyes fixed on the here and now, desperate for a power that is frivolous and fleeting. Lingering at the intersection of real cultural displacement and perceived religious persecution, Alberta portrays a rapidly secularizing America that has come to distrust the evangelical church, and weaves together present-day narratives of individual pastors and their churches as they confront the twin challenges of lost status and diminished standing.Sifting through the wreckage—pastors broken, congregations battered, believers losing their religion because of sex scandals and political schemes—Alberta asks: If the American evangelical movement has ceased to glorify God, what is its purpose? Read more

Mensajes Secretos y Profecias escondidas de la Santisima Virgen MariaDesde 1986 al presente, el Vaticano ha mantenido el mismo mensaje traído desde el Cielo por diferentes mensajeros a través de largas distancias y continentes. Este mensaje es un eco de las graves amonestaciones y llamadas a la humanidad para que se conviertan y encuentren refugio a través del lenguaje de la verdad , el cual amenaza a la paz en el mundo.Actualmente, en el 2024, el mensaje de La Virgen de la Salette, La Fraudais, Tilly, Fátima, Garabandal, Akita y Medjugorje, y sus secretos, revelan un significado de divina importancia, al igual que las prevenciones entregadas por la santísima Virgen Maria que advierte sobre un catastrófico desastre global que ahora es inminente. El temor de la iglesia al asustar a las masas, la falta de acción y la decisión del silencio romano - fundado más en miedo que en cuidado - ha llevado a millones creyentes a la oscura ignorancia, y esto ha conllevado a la falta de conversión, oraciones, y intersección por la paz.Este libro es una propuesta para relevar la luz, y cuestionar a la humanidad para reaccionar a la llamada de advertencia de nuestra amada madre quien compasivamente busca la salvación de sus hijos. Read more

Now updated with a new preface by Michael Pollan and an exclusive bonus chapter. This audiobook also includes a foreword written and read by Graham Hancock, the New York Times bestselling author of America Before: The Key to Earth's Lost Civilization.THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERAs seen on The Joe Rogan Experience! From the host of Netflix’s Ancient ApocalypseThis program includes a Foreword written and read by Graham Hancock, the New York Times bestselling author of America Before: The Key to Earth's Lost Civilization. A groundbreaking dive into the role psychedelics have played in the origins of Western civilization, and a real-life quest for the Holy Grail.The most influential religious historian of the 20th century, Huston Smith, once referred to it as the "best-kept secret" in history. Did the Ancient Greeks use drugs to find God? And did the earliest Christians inherit the same, secret tradition? A profound knowledge of visionary plants, herbs and fungi passed from one generation to the next, ever since the Stone Age?With an unquenchable thirst for evidence, Muraresku takes the listener on his twelve-year global hunt for proof. He tours the ruins of Greece with its government archaeologists. He gains access to the hidden collections of the Louvre Museum to show the continuity from pagan to Christian wine. He unravels the Ancient Greek of the New Testament with a Catholic priest. He spelunks into the catacombs under the streets of Rome to decipher the lost symbols of Christianity’s oldest monuments. He breaches the secret archives of the Vatican to unearth manuscripts never before translated into English. And with leads from the archaeological chemists at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he unveils the first scientific data for the ritual use of psychedelic drugs in classical antiquity.The Immortality Key reconstructs the suppressed history of women consecrating a forbidden, drugged Eucharist that was later banned by the Church Fathers. Women who were then targeted as witches during the Inquisition, when Europe’s sacred pharmacology largely disappeared. Have the scientists of today resurrected this lost technology? Is Christianity capable of returning to its roots? A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press Read more

An urgent call for Christians everywhere to explore the nature of the kingdom amid the political upheaval of our day.Should Christians be politically withdrawn, avoiding participation in politics to maintain their prophetic voice and to keep from being used as political pawns? Or should Christians be actively involved, seeking to utilize political systems to control the levers of power?In Jesus and the Powers, N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird call Christians everywhere to discern the nature of Christian witness in fractured political environments. In an age of ascending autocracies, in a time of fear and fragmentation, amid carnage and crises, Jesus is king, and Jesus’s kingdom remains the object of the church's witness and work.Part political theology, part biblical overview, and part church history, this book argues that building for Jesus's kingdom requires confronting empire in all its forms. This approach should orient Christians toward a form of political engagement that contributes to free democratic societies and vigorously opposes political schemes based on autocracy and nationalism. Throughout, Wright and Bird reflect on the relevance of this kingdom-oriented approach to current events, including the Russian-Ukraine conflict, the China-Taiwan tension, political turmoil in the USA, UK, and Australia, and the problem of Christian nationalism. Read more

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NATIONAL BESTSELLER"An intimate window into the world of American evangelicalism. Fellow exvangelicals will find McCammon’s story both startlingly familiar and immensely clarifying, while those looking in from the outside can find no better introduction to the subculture that has shaped the hopes and fears of millions of Americans." ―Kristin Kobes Du Mez, New York Times bestselling author of Jesus and John WayneThe first definitive book that names the growing social movement of people leaving the church: the exvangelicals. Growing up in a deeply evangelical family in the Midwest in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Sarah McCammon was strictly taught to fear God, obey him, and not question the faith. Persistently worried that her gay grandfather would go to hell unless she could reach him, or that her Muslim friend would need to be converted, and that she, too, would go to hell if she did not believe fervently enough, McCammon was a rule-follower and―most of the time―a true believer. But through it all, she was increasingly plagued by fears and deep questions as the belief system she'd been carefully taught clashed with her expanding understanding of the outside world.After spending her early adult life striving to make sense of an unraveling worldview, by her 30s, she found herself face-to-face with it once again as she covered the Trump campaign for NPR, where she witnessed first-hand the power and influence that evangelical Christian beliefs held on the political right. Sarah also came to discover that she was not alone: she is among a rising generation of the children of evangelicalism who are growing up and fleeing the fold, who are thinking for themselves and deconstructing what feel like the “alternative facts” of their childhood.Rigorously reported and deeply personal, The Exvangelicals is the story of the people who make up this generational tipping point, including Sarah herself. Part memoir, part investigative journalism, this is the first definitive book that names and describes the post-evangelical movement: identifying its origins, telling the stories of its members, and examining its vast cultural, social, and political impact. Read more

A major new history of the Crusades with an unprecedented wide scope, told in a tableau of portraits of people on all sides of the wars, from the author of Powers and Thrones.For more than one thousand years, Christians and Muslims lived side by side, sometimes at peace and sometimes at war. When Christian armies seized Jerusalem in 1099, they began the most notorious period of conflict between the two religions. Depending on who you ask, the fall of the holy city was either an inspiring legend or the greatest of horrors. In Crusaders, Dan Jones interrogates the many sides of the larger story, charting a deeply human and avowedly pluralist path through the crusading era.Expanding the usual timeframe, Jones looks to the roots of Christian-Muslim relations in the eighth century and tracks the influence of crusading to present day. He widens the geographical focus to far-flung regions home to so-called enemies of the Church, including Spain, North Africa, southern France, and the Baltic states. By telling intimate stories of individual journeys, Jones illuminates these centuries of war not only from the perspective of popes and kings, but from Arab-Sicilian poets, Byzantine princesses, Sunni scholars, Shi'ite viziers, Mamluk slave soldiers, Mongol chieftains, and barefoot friars. Crusading remains a rallying call to this day, but its role in the popular imagination ignores the cooperation and complicated coexistence that were just as much a feature of the period as warfare. The age-old relationships between faith, conquest, wealth, power, and trade meant that crusading was not only about fighting for the glory of God, but also, among other earthly reasons, about gold. In this richly dramatic narrative that gives voice to sources usually pushed to the margins, Dan Jones has written an authoritative survey of the holy wars with global scope and human focus. Read more

A "marvelous" (Economist) account of how the Christian Revolution forged the Western imagination. Crucifixion, the Romans believed, was the worst fate imaginable, a punishment reserved for slaves. How astonishing it was, then, that people should have come to believe that one particular victim of crucifixion -- an obscure provincial by the name of Jesus -- was to be worshipped as a god. Dominion explores the implications of this shocking conviction as they have reverberated throughout history. Today, the West remains utterly saturated by Christian assumptions. As Tom Holland demonstrates, our morals and ethics are not universal but are instead the fruits of a very distinctive civilization. Concepts such as secularism, liberalism, science, and homosexuality are deeply rooted in a Christian seedbed. From Babylon to the Beatles, Saint Michael to #MeToo, Dominion tells the story of how Christianity transformed the modern world. Read more

A riveting account of current events as foretold in the mysterious Book of Revelation.Are we teetering on the edge of the end of time? Look at the daily news and you’ll see stories about plague, famine, unexplained deaths, artificial intelligence, looming nuclear war, inflation, transhumanism, wokeness, cancel culture, gender identity crises, and mass shootings. Is this the end of the world? Or are these just precursors to the end of the world? To answer that question, biblical prophecy expert Paul Begley and former investigative journalist Troy Anderson team up to compare today’s headlines with the events foretold in the book of Revelation. Their findings? Not only are signs of the end times accelerating dramatically, but a catastrophic economic collapse and global conflagration could be the next major events on the prophetic timeline before the rise of the Antichrist, the emergence of the False Prophet, and the installation of the “mark of the beast” economic system. They also explore evidence linking the popular transhumanist movement, artificial intelligence, and top-secret government and military programs with prophecies of the last days. Revelation 911 offers hope and comfort through the power, protection, and provision of the Holy Spirit. Many believe these cataclysmic shakings will be accompanied by the greatest awakening in history as the world races toward the return of Jesus Christ, who will defeat the powers of darkness at the Battle of Armageddon and usher believers into an eternity of unimaginable wonders in the New Heaven, New Earth, and New Jerusalem. Read more

Occult Feminism: The Secret History of Women's Liberation dives deep into the occult roots of the movement, detailing the lives of some of its most prominent figures and the esoteric beliefs that inspired and motivated them. Since the 1970's, everything we learn about the history of the women's movement has been subject to gatekeeping by radicals who run women's studies departments in universities. But there's an entire history which has been obscured from public view. Rachel Wilson brings this history to life, filled with incredible true stories of demon worship, spirit mediums, magic mushrooms, witchcraft, CIA spies, and sex cults, there's nothing boring about the real history of feminism and its all here. In modern society, it is simply assumed that women’s liberation was a good thing. But what if it was never an organic, grass roots movement for social justice? Did feminism liberate women from an oppressive, evil patriarchy? Or did it rip away the fundamental structures that afforded them stability, security, and purpose- turning them into wage slaves for corporations and tax revenue cash cows for governments? What if feminism left women more vulnerable than ever by destroying the family? What if it's a cunning deception which has tricked women into abandoning their God-given identity to serve a new world order and one of the oldest belief systems in the world?People deserve to know the whole story about the biggest social revolution of all time. A revolution that left no aspect of modern life unaffected and claims to be for the good of women everywhere. This must-read book goes beyond the propaganda to deliver the fascinating truth. Read more

Learn from one of our leading conservative voices how we can return to the biblical values our nation was founded upon, especially the vital importance of the family, in order to secure a prosperous future for generations to come.Does America no longer feel like home? Widespread divorce rates, the erosion of traditional marriage, the popular rise of radical ideologies, attacks on faith, and government interference are only a few of the factors contributing to the struggles of families in our culture. And because of the importance of healthy families to every part of our national life, the breakdown of the family threatens to rob us of the country we love. But it doesn't have to be this way.Like many of us, Dr. Ben Carson fears we are losing the country we love. In this provocative and ultimately hopeful book, he gives us the facts, inspiration, and theory-to-action answers we need to restore a key foundation of America: the family.The Perilous Fight equips us to understand:The hard data behind the breakdown of the family and its effects on our society, including poverty, crime, and deteriorating educationThe core biblical beliefs that led our nation into unprecedented freedom and prosperity--and why abandoning those beliefs led to the social decline we see todayThe fresh ideas and public policy options that could reverse negative trends impacting the family while maintaining a balance between constitutional freedoms and governmental involvementThis is a practical and inspiring book for anyone who:Feels discouraged about the state of our country and its institutionsNeeds hope that there are commonsense, attainable solutions that we all can practiceAppreciates a conservative, Scripture-based approach to restoring faith, liberty, community, and life in AmericaStrong families are the cornerstone of strong communities. Strong communities build a strong nation. Only when we prioritize the family as an institution established by God will we proudly remain the land of the free and the home of the brave. Read more

Join a cold-case detective as he uncovers the truth about Jesus using the same approach he employs to solve real murder cases.Detective J. Warner Wallace was skeptical of the Bible's claims about Jesus. But he'd investigated several no-body homicide cases in which there was no crime scene, no physical evidence, and no victim's body. He wondered if the truth about the historical Jesus could be investigated in the same way.In Person of Interest, cold-case detective and bestselling author J. Warner Wallace describes his own personal investigative journey from atheism to Christianity as he carefully sifts through the evidence from history alone, without relying on the New Testament.In this book, you'll:Understand like never before how Jesus—the most significant person in history—changed the world and why he still matters today.Learn how to think like a cold-case detective by using an innovative and unique "fuse and fallout" investigative strategy, which you can also use to examine other claims of history.Explore and learn how to respond to common objections to Christianity.Creative, compelling, and fully illustrated, Person of Interest will strengthen the faith of believers while engaging those who are skeptical and distrusting of the New Testament gospel accounts. Read more

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The internationally bestselling definitive history of the Arab world, named a best book of the year by the Financial Times, the Economist, and the Atlantic -- now updated to cover the latest developments in the Middle East In this groundbreaking and comprehensive account of the Middle East, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan draws extensively on five centuries of Arab sources to place the Arab experience in its crucial historical context. This landmark book covers the Arab world from North Africa through the Arabian Peninsula, exploring every facet of modern Arab history. Starting with the Ottoman conquests of the sixteenth century, Rogan follows the story of the Arabs through the era of European imperialism and the superpower rivalries of the Cold War to the present age of American hegemony, charting the evolution of Arab identity and the struggles for national sovereignty throughout. In this updated edition, Rogan untangles the latest geopolitical developments of the region. The Arabs is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the modern Arab world. Read more