An Unlikely Trio

John:

A fisherman from the Lake of Galilee, grown old, exiled to a small island off what is now the Turkish coast where there was no hope of escape from his powerful Roman captors, the last surviving apostle of Christ, his eleven colleagues dead, one a suicide and the other ten martyrs, living at the conclusion of the first century a.d. and claiming to be the recipient of a remarkable set of visions from God which he recorded in the biblical book of Revelation, author of another four books of the New Testament—one an account of Christ’s life and three pastoral letters—long since dead, he is a man unknown apart from Scripture.

Ellen Harmon:

A young woman, born in an obscure farm house north of the village of Gorham, Maine, in the United States on November 26, 1827, seriously injured at the age of nine, her injury effectively terminating her formal education at the third grade, and yet becoming arguably the most prolific author of all time, her elegant literary style read by millions on all continents and translated into over 130 languages, the author of over five thousand journal articles and numerous books encompassing prophetic exposition, health, education, biblical history, family life, the history of the Christian Era, theology and many other disciplines, more than twenty-five million words in all—she is the most unlikely member of this trio.

Pope John Paul II:

Judged by many to be the most powerful and influential man of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, grown old in office, physically weakened by the ravages of degenerative disease, a Polish octagenarian, highly educated, widely traveled, nearing the end of his pontificate, universally acclaimed, sits upon the Papal Throne, ruling as a worldwide emperor, with unquestioned authority, an authority unmatched by any other ruler of his era.

Initially it would appear that these three individuals have nearly nothing in common but their having lived beyond their eightieth birthdays. And yet, each in a decided manner is intimately bound up with the other two.

As the remarkable interaction of these three lives of differing centuries unravels, an intriguing, fascinating and highly significant insight into the present course of history, politics and religion emerges. The events of the twenty-first century come into focus and become explicable.