Title: The Jesus Ring
Author: Daniel Harry
Publisher: Dan’s Scribbling.com
ISBN: 979-8446235902
Pages: 388
Genre: Christian fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, horror
Interviewer: Lily Amanda
Today, Lily Amanda is talking with Daniel Harry, author of The Jesus Ring.
HBR: Does one of the main characters hold a special place in your heart? If so, why?
I can’t have a single favorite character. Peter, our US veterans and, of course, God. They hold a special place in my heart. Though, God must surely be disappointed in humankind by now. Peter and the other eleven apostles were chosen and gathered for a single purpose, to lead the “believers” through the events leading up to the apocalypse. While Satan and his minions cannot harm the “believers”, they can entice the “non-believers” to do their dirty work. There is dirty work involved and the apocalypse that was foretold would be fulfilled. Peter was chosen as the launch for the end times, similar to the pale horse. Once the ring found Peter, it marked the beginning of the forecasted Tribulation period of the end times. I have a huge allegiance to the US veterans and felt they would have a significant role in the events leading up to the final battle. This is why Peter and the other chosen disciples were all veterans and most of God’s Army were veterans. As a veteran myself, I couldn’t think of a better group to enlist to fight the final battle. The dirty work, meaning Satan’s murder of billions, would require believers in God’s requirements that would not cringe or run from the horrors that will surely take place. I don’t have that much faith in the courage of current generations in the face of the terror to come. I pray they prove me wrong.
HBR: What was the inspiration for the story?
I was fishing early one morning in Galveston Bay in late summer of 2019. It was early enough to watch the dawn turn from gray to full sunrise and it was beautiful. It was so peaceful and the natural beauty that was all around me made me marvel at all God’s creations. I had listened to the news the night before about the tremendous unrest going on in the world: the wars, the natural catastrophes, murder, and general chaos that were happening at that time. The thought occurred to me that “This won’t last”. The end of times has been foretold in the Bible and the book of Revelation, it had been foretold by Matthew, Mark, Timothy, Luke, John, and Daniel. Matthew warned us to “watch and be ready”. The apocalypse is inevitable and, once started, my days of peacefully enjoying a sunrise may be over. Daniel talked about the current ills that could set the events of the Apocalypse to churning. We are starting to see the events that were forecast that will eventually lead to Armageddon. The “wars and rumors of wars”, earthquakes in places that have never quaked and far from any tectonic plates, volcanoes that have become active after thousands, and sometimes, hundreds of thousands of years of inactivity, the unrest, famine, diseases never seen before, and the worldwide disgust for Christians. These, among others, were all predicted and they were coming to fruition.
I got the idea to write The Jesus Ring that morning. The Jesus Ring is not a loving and friendly book similar to the Left Behind series. There are horrors coming and unimaginable death, suffering, and misery for humankind. The Jesus Ring follows the events of the Bible’s Book of Revelation. The Jesus Ring is more of a horror than a Christian fiction.
HBR: What is the key theme and/or message in the book?
The Apocalypse that was foretold is going to happen, it may have already started. Whether it happens similar to what transpires in The Jesus Ring is yet to be seen. The harvesters mentioned are basically symbolic but, one way or another, non-believers will become fodder for Satan and his minions. True believers will be killed by the non-believers. This is happening now.
HBR: What do you hope your readers take away from this book?
Actually, I hope it scares the Hell out of some, literally. The Jesus Ring is a fictional take on the events leading up to, and including, the battle of Armageddon. It is meant to be frightening and a loose play on the scriptures, but the scriptures don’t really portray Satan with his own army with the use of technology, and his own Tartarians hungering for human flesh. I am not a theologian, a Christian scholar or ,probably, not even what is defined as a good Christian. I claim to be a Christian and got saved at the ripe old age of 34. I most wholeheartedly accept Jesus Christ as my Savior. One of the main things I would like my readers to take with them after reading The Jesus Ring is to keep fighting the evil that has almost permeated our society. I noted one startling result after first publishing The Jesus Ring. The very mention of God or Jesus will get an immediate refusal from every traditional publishing house without even opening the manuscript. I hear so much about how the “media” has their own agenda and the truth be secondary. Christianity is the largest religion the US today at about 64% but in the 1970s it was at 90%. That is a huge drop in Christians and it dwindles more every day. The negative publicity we see every day from the “news” outlets portrays Christians as religious zealots and always in an unfavorable light. Regardless if Armageddon unfolds similar to The Jesus Ring or not, the end times will be more terrible than any can imagine.
HBR: What is the significance of the title?
When I first started writing The Jesus Ring, I had to come up with a way that God could actually have a physical presence to interact with humans. According to teachings, God is light, there is no darkness in him at all. In Exodus it says “You cannot see My face and live”. To me, we cannot look upon God without every atom in our body exploding. God is that powerful. For a being that is so powerful, He can actually cause the atoms to collide and increase mass, turning the tiny hydrogen atom in the heaviest elements known. This is a being so powerful, that it is pure energy with the ability to make the universe and all that is in it. Yet with the inability to dim its own energy to be able to show itself, face to face, to its own creations without utterly destroying them. It seems as though so many people do not see the power it would take to build a solar system that could sustain the many lifeforms we have here on earth. This is my reason for God making a gold ring that Jesus and others wore that carried a tiny bit of God’s true essence, that could be shared with the chosen few, changing them physically and giving them an avenue for direct communication with God.
HBR: Tell us about the process for coming up with the cover.
I wanted the cover to indicate the storm that was coming. Light clouds and dark clouds signifying good against evil with God’s power emanating from the ring, God had made, to bring his physical essence to the humans he loves so dearly. The original cover I designed had Peter and Satan facing off with a storm surrounding them without the Ring but I really didn’t care for that cover. I finally came up with the two different storm fronts divided by the power of the Ring dividing them, with the base showing a beach front with the Ring leaning against some seashells, where it found and chose Peter. Few people have noticed the Alpha/Omega lettering on the ring in the final book cover.
HBR: What were the key challenges you faced when writing this book?
Most of the challenges concerned the sciences but if God is giving us a gift to help his chosen through the harsh times of the tribulation, these were the best I could come up with:
Manipulating molecules for the food processors and medical machines. Molecule manipulation was first performed by IBM in 1989 using 35 individual atoms of xenon gas to spell the IBM logo, making the science possible. Regeneration of missing limbs, replacing diseased organs, massive injuries, eradicating diseases, etc. is all science fiction. The human DNA knows it should be there but develops scar tissue quickly to retain our bodily fluids, negating the ability to regenerate limbs. Eradicating diseases is similar in that the DNA can identify and fight the disease but depends on our autoimmune system to get rid of it and make antibodies to prevent reoccurrence. DNA would have to take the time to identify if the bacteria, virus, or whatever is friendly and a necessary addition to one of our organs and, if not, to change its own structure. The body would never be able to change that fast so the solution…kill them all and let God sort it out. My heart has always gone out to our maimed veterans and pray there could be a medical apparatus that could perform just such miracles.
Flying aircraft using magnetic fields. Magnetic fields have many bands regardless of the magnetic magnitude. Originally, I thought of using gravity but gravity only attracts, not repels. Magnetic field lines can be bent but they are resistant to bending and will pop back to their original position. This is why I used magnetic fields for the magnecraft. Science can identify a magnetic field but have not figured a way to bend a specific magnetic string in such a way as to become part of it. A more precise magnetometer or Gaussmeter that could identify the frequency of specific magnetic line, mimic that frequency, bending the line to a specific instrument then releasing the bending of that frequency, would be required and science hasn’t come that far yet. This theory would require a very precise instrument that would alternate the bend/release action. Otherwise, the instrument would bounce back to the original line position at such a high rate of speed, the instrument and, of course any human passengers, would be obliterated by the speed and pressures experienced during the trip. I finally took care of this in the book by hopping to the final destination, going from one magnetic line to the next. It would take a super computer to perform the calculations needed to identify, merge, and ride the magnetic field. This is science fiction but is a science possibility.
Power generation was a challenge as there is currently no other sources other than generators using fossil fuel, hydraulic, or wind. With any of them, either continuous generation or massive power storage is required. Fusion requires huge, constant supplies of pressure, heat, and hydrogen, like the sun, which does not produce the highly radioactive fission products. This is not something you really want in or near your house. Fission produces a high amount of radiation in the electromagnetic spectrum. I decided on using Roentgenium that has a half-life of about 26 seconds (supposedly a synthetic but if humans made it, I am sure God made it first). The fast spontaneous decay rate produces a constant electromagnetic supply which could be stepped down for human use and the crystals negated the radioactivity to non-harmful light.
Portals are theoretically feasible and, supposedly, is a matter of bending space. However, Satan and his fellow fallen angels know the secrets to the universe and how to manipulate them. One of my “theories” is when God cast Satan and the others out of heaven, he was no longer incorporeal with the ability to change from energy to matter. With that ability gone, he has to depend on generating portals. His malevolent and rebellious actions got him and his cohorts tossed out of Heaven and sent to Tartarus or Hell. His knowledge of the secrets of the universe weren’t taken from him and he uses them. Creating portals would become a necessity for him and his kind. Creating life would be another of the secrets of the universe and I am sure Satan has used it to create his monsters, like the dinosaurs?
Creationism vs Evolution. I never have and never will believe that humans evolved from the slime in the ocean. I could never believe we evolved from monkeys. God created all life and was specific about humanoids. I contend that the earlier humanoids were simply God’s prototypes and made improvements as He took more of the instincts away and replaced them with the ability to think and learn. I feel he will do it again to increase our intelligence, in the event humans survive our constant attempts to kill each other. However, I do not feel He will ever negate the right of “choice” when it comes to good/evil. God has only 10 Laws. If we live strictly by those laws, we would most certainly have a wonderful society.
Plasma and Ultrasonic weapons are already a thing but all are experimental. The technology is extremely expensive and are directed more toward destroying large targets than troops on the ground.
HBR: What was the highlight of writing this book?
I truly enjoyed writing The Jesus Ring. For me, the highlight was tricking Satan into committing to the final battle. This being similar to the way Jesus used Judas Iscariot in tricking Satan into influencing Pontius Pilate to put him to death. I personally cannot believe that Jesus was so inept as to be deceived by Satan and by one of his own Apostles. There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus orchestrated the “betrayal” to save the souls of humankind. Jesus foiled Satan’s plan when He said “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. This was not a plea to forgive his tormentors or his executioners. This was a plea for an avenue for humans to be forgiven and allow them a place in Heaven. Without it, none of us could find grace with God and would be forever barred from Heaven.
Some of my readers have commented on the brevity of the battle of Armageddon in The Jesus Ring. but I needed it to be brief as I really don’t think God will want a long drawn out confrontation with Satan. The weapons designs He gave Peter were more for the harvesters than the non-believers.
HBR: Are you working on anything at the present you would like to share with your readers about?
I am about 90% complete with a new novel called “Hell From the Heavens”. I originally was going to name the book “Red Tide” until I googled how many books had Red Tide in the title. There were a LOT. I learned the hard way about book titles with Shadows – The Myth Awakens. I didn’t research how many books had Shadows in their title until after it was published. Big mistake. There were hundreds.
I have some of the chapters for it on Kindle Vella and they have had some great response. In this book, the women of the world inherit the task of saving humankind after most of the male mammals are stricken with a bacteria so destructive, they are almost all wiped out. I hope to be completed and ready for publishing by the end of 2024.
I am approximately 30% into a war novel called “Insignificant”. This is a genre I haven’t tackled yet but I am excited about writing it. This novel is about the government recruiting young men below the draft age and training them for specific missions in southeast Asia toward the end of the Vietnamese conflict. If you don’t trust the government now, you most surely won’t trust them after reading “Insignificant”. I hope to be completed and ready for publishing by the May of 2025.
I am putting together more short stories for “Ramblings of an Old Poot Part II, Still Pooting errr…Rambling”. More humorous short stories of how life teaches you wisdom when you weren’t looking for the lesson. I hope to be completed and ready for publishing by the end of 2024.