The Bible is not by any means a shallow book, yet most of us encounter only its surface.
Between the familiar passages and the Sunday morning sermon lies a deeper conversation; one that few preachers or teachers are willing to have, and fewer congregations are prepared to hear. It runs beneath the well-worn verses like a deep, underground current, threading through centuries of history, prophecy, and mystery, connecting truths most readers will pass over without ever noticing.
Those are the spaces where I do my best work.
I tend to wander between the lines. I pull at the finer threads. I ask what the phrase, “And war broke out in heaven” really means. I trace it backward from Revelation to the beginning, then follow that thread all the way through the scriptures. What emerges is something vast: vistas of time and eternity, dimensions filled with powers beyond our sight, and a tiny planet at the edge of creation where Heaven and Hell converge. In my novel, The Oubliette, I called that meeting point “the very conjunction of Heaven and Hell.” That is the world or worlds I write about.
The people who populate my stories are the same people who populate history and scripture, men and women separated from their Creator, straining to close a distance they did not choose. Some build bridges. Some burn them. All of them struggle, as we do, to keep from going under in the storm of wind and waves born of a spiritual battle most of us are not even aware of.
In that vein, my grail quartet entitled, Gray Empire, a series of high-stakes archaeological thrillers, introduces Rick Townsend, a treasure hunter and researcher, as he unravels a centuries-old mystery hidden in the depths of Oak Island. Partnered with the brilliant paleographer Dr. Monica Scott, Rick discovers that the infamous Money Pit isn’t just a treasure vault, it’s a doorway to something far more sinister and important. For centuries, in the darkness beneath Oak Island, an ancient evil waits patiently for the “one” who is to come, the one who will unlock an apocalyptic prophecy.
Rick’s quest leads him and his team from Green Turtle Cay to the ruins of Rosslyn Castle, where they uncover evidence of an ancient schism between the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller, a feud over sacred relics with occult powers. As Rick, Monica and Arthur Jones piece together clues from ancient coins, cryptic symbols, and mysterious journals, they come to realize they’re not just hunting for treasure, they’re contending against Powers, Dominions and secret cabals who will stop at nothing to possess a mysterious treasure known to them as the True Grail.
Gray Empire is Indiana Jones meets The Da Vinci Code, a place where the line between archaeology and mythical powers becomes blurred by the gray mists of an illusory empire, a misty world of shadows that lies somewhere between darkness and light.
I thought it would be interesting to share some of the research I did for the series in the form of a downloadable paper. I hope it will provide insight, interest, and a warning about a great heresy, a lie that has been foisted on the world, and about the secret cabals who are behind it.
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