Joel C. Rosenberg

Joel C. Rosenberg (born 1967) is an American communications strategist, author of the Last Jihad series, and founder of The Joshua Fund.^[3] An Evangelical Christian, he has written five novels about terrorism and how he says it relates to Bible Prophecy, including Gold Medallion Book Award winner The Ezekiel Option,^[4] along with two nonfiction books, Epicenter and Inside the Revolution, on the alleged resemblance of biblical prophecies and current events. He and his wife, Lynn, have four sons and reside near Washington, D.C.

Early life

Rosenberg was born in 1967 near Rochester, New York. Rosenberg has stated that his father is of Jewish descent and his mother was born into a Methodist family of English descent.^[5][6] His parents were agnostic and became born-again Christians when he was a child, in 1973.^[7] At the age of 17, he became a born-again Christian and now identifies as a Jewish believer in Jesus.^[5] After graduating in 1988 from Syracuse University,^[3] he worked for Rush Limbaugh as a research assistant. Later he worked for U.S. Presidential candidate Steve Forbes as a campaign advisor. Rosenberg opened a political consultancy business, which he ran until 2000, and claims to have consulted for former Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Natan Sharansky and then-former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu where he claims to have garnered much of his information on the Middle East that he would later use in his books.^[1][8]

Writing career

Following Netanyahu's loss in 1999, Rosenberg decided to retire from politics altogether and begin a new career in writing.^[9] His first book, The Last Jihad, was the first of a five-part fictional series involving terrorism and how it may relate to Bible Prophecy. The book was written nine months before the September 11th attacks, (a revised edition takes the event into account) and was published in 2002.^[10] When published, The Last Jihad spent 11 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, reaching as high as number seven. It also appeared on the USA Today and Publishers Weekly best-seller lists, and hit number four on the Wall Street Journal list. The book was followed by The Last Days, which spent four weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List, hit number five on the Denver Post list, and hit number eight on the Dallas Morning News list. Following the successes of his first two novels, The Ezekiel Option was published in 2005, The Copper Scroll in 2006, and the final book, Dead Heat in 2008.^[2]

Rosenberg also wrote a non-fictional account of current events and Bible Prophecy in the book Epicenter.^[11] It was published in September 2006 and an accompanying DVD was produced in the summer of 2007.^[12] His second non-fiction book, Inside the Revolution, which talked about the different sects of Islam in the Middle East and asserted that significant amount of moderate Muslims are converting to Christianity in the region was released in 2009 and also made it onto the New York Times best-seller list, reaching as high as #7 as of 27 March 2009.^[13] His 2011 book, The Twelfth Imam, also deals with terrorism and Iran gaining nuclear power.^[14]

The Joshua Fund

Rosenberg is the founder and President of The Joshua Fund, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit charity^[15] that seeks to "Bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus, according to Genesis 12:1-3."^[16]

Criticism

Media Matters for America, a progressive media watchdog group, criticized Rosenberg's July 31, 2006, Paula Zahn Now, CNN appearance that "featured a segment on 'whether the crisis in the Middle East is actually a prelude to the end of the world,' marking the third time in eight days that CNN has devoted airtime to those claiming that the ongoing Mideast violence signals the coming of the Apocalypse."^[17] It featured Rosenberg comparing apocalyptic Scripture in the Bible to modern events, which he views, in addition to the lenses of politics and economics, through what he calls "a third lens as well: the lens of Scripture."^[18]

Rosenberg's views on the War of Ezekiel 38–39 involving Gog and Magog are in line with dispensationalism, one of several Christian theological systems involving eschatology. Partial preterist Gary DeMar has debated Rosenberg on this subject.^[19]

Bibliography

• The Last Jihad (2002) (novel) ISBN 978-1-4143-1272-9
• The Last Days (2003) (novel) ISBN 978-1-4143-1273-6
• The Ezekiel Option (2005) (novel) ISBN 978-1-4143-0344-4
• The Copper Scroll (2006) (novel) ISBN 978-1-4143-0346-8
• Epicenter (2006) (non-fiction) ISBN 978-1-4143-1135-7
• Dead Heat (2008) (novel) ISBN 978-1-4143-1162-3
• Inside the Revolution (2009) (non-fiction) ISBN 978-1-4143-2626-9
• The Twelfth Imam (2010) (novel) ISBN 978-1-4143-1163-0
• The Tehran Initiative (2011) (novel) ISBN 978-1-4143-1935-3
• Israel at War (2012) (non-fiction digital short) ISBN 978-1-4143-8374-3
• Damascus Countdown (2013) (novel) ISBN 978-1-4143-1970-4

References

External links

• Joel C. Rosenberg Official Site
• Miller, John J. (26 March 2008). "Joel Rosenberg on Dead Heat". National Review Online. Retrieved 31 May 2009. 
• "Joel C. Rosenberg". Tyndale House. Retrieved 30 May 2009.