Book reviews for: The Second Coming of Jesus Christ   Dear Kevan and Terri, Many thanks for sending me your book on the "Second Coming." You did an outstanding job in shipping it. I received it in France within five days of my ordering it and for an extremely reasonable cost! Despite the fact that I am a life-time member of the LDS Church and a BYU alumni, I have learned more on the Second Coming through reading your book than through any of my previous readings. What impressed me most about your comments is the fact that none of these prophecies would happen instantly but would extend over many years if not centuries. This includes the organization of the New Jerusalem, the preparation of the war of Armageddon, and even the process of the First Resurrection. Besides being validated by scripture and statements from prophets, your explanations make a lot of sense. I teach a Family Relations class in Sunday School and introduced "The Second Coming" to my students. Right away, one of the brethren in the class, who is in charge with the recording of Church broadcasts in dozens of languages in Western, Eastern Europe, and the Middle-East, asked me if he could take it with him on the occasion of a trip he is undertaking this week. It took him only seconds to realize that the book was of great worth! I would still like to mention one thing I was not comfortable with: you make the statement that the Israeli army is the third most powerful one in the world because they have the atomic bomb. The Israeli army is indeed well trained and everything tends to confirm that they indeed have atomic bombs, which they intend to use in case they would be overwhelmed by their adversaries. However, this does not make them the third most powerful army in the world. Without massive assistance from the U.S. and other nations, they would have never survived any attack from their Arab Neighbors. Back in 1967, during the "Six-Day War", their victory was part miracle, part strategy, but also the excellent "Mirage" fighter jets delivered by the French. During the Kippur War of 1973, an aerial bridge was formed with U.S. aircraft landing and taking off every minute to deliver much-needed ammunition. As a result of this timely assistance, more tanks were destroyed during the few days the war lasted than throughout all of WWII. Israel is only one among dozens of nations being equipped with the atomic bomb. China has a population of 1.2 billion people and does possess the atomic bomb. The Chinese can even launch rockets into space, which is not the case with Israel. India has a population of 800 million people and does also possess the atomic bomb. So does Pakistan, with its 200 million inhabitants, etc. Both France (60 million inhabitants) and Great Britain (55 million) maintain a massive nuclear capability, which includes ICBM silos, jet bombers, and nuclear submarines. In addition, France, along with its European neighbors has a space program, which includes the future launching of space shuttles. Actually, the French have obtained a better rate of success in launching satellites into space than the U.S. Soon, the European Union and its 300 million+ members will form an army under single command (there is already a Franco-German military unit, which functions quite well). This army would be equivalent in military capability to that of the United States. The European Union is now extending further towards Eastern Europe and will soon include Islamic nations such as Turkey. The day will indeed come, very possibly over the next ten years, when the European Union will extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Eleven European nations are already under single currency and I can see how excellent synergies would take place between Western and Eastern Europe. The West would provide much-needed capital and technical know-how, the East would provide cheap manpower, natural resources and their high level of expertise in military and space technology. This maybe be how the Anti-Christ will become so quickly powerful. He would manage to take the lead over the European Union. There is already a surge of neo-Nazi like politicians in several European countries, including France, Austria and Holland. Who knows where this will eventually take us? Back in the early 1930's, the German Ambassador to London had declared that "the German people would never bring to power a man such as Adolph Hitler." To conclude, you are right to mention that the State of Israel has powerful means to repel its invaders, including the use of the atomic bomb, but this does not make them the world's third largest military power by far. They are still very limited if compared to many other nations in terms of number of soldiers and equipment. In addition, they are still far behind several nations (i.e. European Union, China) in their space program. You may want to discuss this with someone well-versed in International Relations, but making such a statement somewhat weakens the otherwise powerful impact of your research. Your book gave me an additional incentive to prepare for the Second Coming and especially to build up a solid base of faith and commitment to the gospel with my three young children. There is indeed a good chance that they will live to see the unfolding of all the events mentioned in your book. This also made me realize what special souls the Lord has entrusted to my care. Thank you for your remarkable work. I am looking forward to reading more of your works. Sincerely, Charles Defranchi Paris, France ___________________________________________________________ Howdy, I've never felt so "in control" of the doctrines surrounding the 2nd coming as I do now.  Up to this point, it's always been something I've feared but can truly say that because of Kevan's book, I honestly feel that it will be a "great and dreadful day" and that I'm looking forward to learning of my role in those events. Thanks tons, Chris Hopkins Warrington, Pennsylvania (Terri's brother--I know, I know but family always reads the books first!)   ___________________________________________________________________________   *****An Insightful View January 6, 2007 By Logan (Louisiana) I really enjoyed this book. It was very easy to follow and read. I especially liked the authors use of sources beyond the commonly read scriptures. He links many works of prophecy and modern day revelation with Bible predictions of old. Overall, a well researched compilation and an interesting conclusion. ____________________________________________________________ Tiffany rated it: ***** 08/02/07   Read in January, 2006 recommends it for: LDS A fantastic book! It has puts all the events from the scriptures in chronological order so simple minds like mine can understand them ;) It's very well written with tons of scriptural references (which I like), and handy charts in the back that make it as simple as possible. It's a great book, I recommend it. ____________________________________________________________________________   LDS Freedom Forum, Mark, Aug. 18, 2008   I picked up a book recently by Kevan Clawson titled "The Second Coming of Jesus Christ". It has some good info and quotes from many of the earlier brethren in it. Some of the stuff is open to interpretation which may vary but it was informative.  ____________________________________________________________________________   The Second Coming of Jesus Christ   Reviewed by: Millie Holyoak Association for Mormon Letters    In writing his book, The Second Coming of Jesus Christ, Kevan Clawson seems to be trying to be this generation’s Bruce R. McConkie. Even the table of contents looks a lot like the Messiah Series.    Clawson begins by explaining that there are too many scriptural references to use them all, which, of course, there are, so he’ll pick just a few. He also says he’ll use commentary from modern day prophets. He doesn’t stick to that goal, as will be pointed out. He says it’s impossible to know the exact order of events and that the order doesn’t matter anyway.  Then, throughout the book, he proceeds to give the order in which things, in his opinion, will happen.    Mostly, he uses scriptures to support his conclusions, and they are logically supported. However, sometimes it appears that he has an opinion or attitude about when or how some event will occur and has hunted down whatever reference he could find to support it. Many of these references are quoted from General Authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints whom he has quoted without identifying. It is a concern when a statement by a member of the twelve apostles in Joseph Smith’s time is quoted with no other references to support the statement. The reader is not told in what context the statement was made. It would have helped if he had more than one source for his statements and conclusions.    When Clawson begins the “woes” as he calls them, he begins with 3 lengthly quotes from a person named Immanuel Velikovsky. He says nothing about this person but bases much of the remainder of his book on his quotes. Velikovsky is a questionable source at best and certainly is not a prophet, which references the author has promised to use. Quoting him, especially without any reference to his background and ideas compromises the veracity of many of Clawson’s ideas and time lines. Perhaps Clawson hopes the reader will just accept whatever he writes and not check on his sources.    The proofreading was poor. There were typographical errors throughout, an incomplete sentence, and errors in syntax that were far too numerous for a book of this length.  These problems made the book more difficult to read.    I started reading this book with enthusiasm, looking forward to some good information. However, his timelines, adding having a comet slingshot the earth around the sun,  thus burning only the wicked and sending it (the earth) on a long journey through space to Kolob while the earth continues to go about living and having wars and then the second coming happening, just didn’t ring true with me.    This book would be an entertaining reference for those who want to have a starting place for their own research into the subject. The author certainly does look outside the box.    The average reader, however, looking for a definitive reference on the subject,  would be better advised to find a book by a more inspired author who can back up his information with more dependable sources. Bruce R. McConkie has already treated the subject of the second coming in his Messiah series so thoroughly that Clawson quotes from him extensively in his book.  This would be a better place to find information explained from the scriptures. ______________________________________________________________________________      To order: The Second Coming of Jesus Christ   <<< back    next >>>