PageOneLit.com: Where did you grow up and was reading and writing a part of your life? Who were your earliest influences and why?
Maurice A. Williams: I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. I was always an avid reader. By time I was in high school, I tried my hand at writing. I was also always interested in nature, always inquisitive about animals and woodlands, and I read many books about these topics. I had a typical youthful interest in being free and being part of nature. In my youth, I was very much influenced by authors such as Ernest Thompson Seton, Martin and Osa Johnson, Ivan T. Sanderson, Immanuel Velikovsky, Jack London, and Ernest Hemingway, among others.
PageOneLit.com: Why do you write?
Maurice A. Williams: I like the challenge of writing. I like the opportunity to contribute my thoughts and experiences for others to examine and consider. I hope what I write is as entertaining and informative to them as writings by other people have been to me.
PageOneLit.com: Briefly describe your book "Revelation: Fall of Judea, Rise of the Church"?
Maurice A. Williams: The Book of Revelation has been interpreted many different ways throughout history. "Revelation: Fall of Judea, Rise of the Church" focuses on three concepts from Scripture: John the Baptist announced who the Messiah is; those who try to destroy the Messiah's mission will themselves be destroyed ( Judea ceased to exist as a nation from A.D. 135 until recent times); and Satan will be released after one thousand years to deceive the nations. Unlike many popular interpretations of Revelation that predict a future rapture and tribulation, I propose that many of the predictions happened during the early Church age as unbelievers tried to destroy Christ's Church. Satan, as predicted, was released to deceive the nations approximately one thousand years after the Church was firmly established. As a result, the world today is filled with thousands of conflicting Christian sects and with non-Christian, occult, even anti-Christian movements that have propelled humans to as dangerous a rebellion against God as the one before the flood.
PageOneLit.com: Discuss your experiences and research that helped and motivated you to write "Revelation: Fall of Judea, Rise of the Church"?
Maurice A. Williams: I had a conversion experience in 1978. My view of life had been a contradictory mixture of revealed religion and scientific theories of evolution. I earned a degree in biology, so I have had more than a cursory introduction to evolution. I was also educated in church-sponsored schools, so I was well-informed about Scripture. I could never reconcile the two in my mind. Finally, I reached a crisis in my view of reality where I had to decide what is really true and what is conjecture. I started reading books by Hal Lindsey and wound up reading most of them. I was very much impressed with his books, and he did lead me back to God, but I had reservations about the rapture, the tribulation, and the future millennial kingdom to be established on Earth with Christ reigning in the flesh.
PageOneLit.com: "Revelation: Fall of Judea, Rise of the Church" is very well written -- Who was John the Baptist? Who were the Judeans?
Maurice A. Williams: John the Baptist is the prophet who preceded Christ by a couple years. His mission was to prepare people to recognize Christ when Christ began his ministry. He is the prophet who baptized people in the Jordan River and criticized Herod Antipas for marrying his brother's wife. Herod's wife encouraged her daughter Salome to request the Baptist's head on a platter. I deliberately used the word "Judeans" to signify the Jews living during the time of Christ. I didn't want to use the word "Jews" because too much prejudice has already been directed against the Jews, and I didn't want my readers to think I am implying that today's Jews are in the slightest way responsible for the decisions other people made two thousand years ago. I found out after my book went to press that "Judahite" would have been a better word. It would have been specific to people who, at that time, descended from the tribe of Judah, just as "Israelite" is specific to people who descended from Israel (Jacob who was given the name "Israel" by God) who was the patriarch from whom the twelve tribes of Israel descended.
PageoneLit.com: From your perspective what makes "Revelation: Fall of Judea, Rise of the Church" different and new compared to other books in the genre of religious interpretation?
Maurice A. Williams: I'm one of the few authors who argue that many prophecies in Revelation were meant for the people who first heard the prophecies preached and that there are historical events that show how many of those prophecies were fulfilled in first and second-century Judea. I'm the only author who includes an account of Bar Kochba in my commentary. Bar Kochba led a rebellion against Rome in A.D. 131-35. Unlike the rebellion in A.D. 65-70, the Judeans were unified under the single leader Bar Kochba and liberated all of Palestine early in the rebellion. Rome crushed the Judean nation in A.D. 135, killing most of the combatants, exiling most of the non-combatants, and bringing in different peoples to settle in Palestine. I argue that this is the fulfillment of the third woe "the end is here!" Judea ceased to exist as a nation of people settled in their own land. As late as 1856, there were only 10,500 Jews residing in all of Palestine.
PageOneLit.com: What did you learn from writing "Revelation: Fall of Judea, Rise of the Church"?
Maurice A. Williams: I learned a lot of history and enjoyed reading many interesting early historical writings. I have a much better perception of early Roman history now that I had when I finished my schooling. I also came to a better understanding of Scripture and why God has let humans experience so much grief during our earthly lives.
PageOneLit.com: What do you hope to achieve with "Revelation: Fall of Judea, Rise of the Church"?
Maurice A. Williams: I hope to encourage a reexamination of what the Book of Revelation might really have predicted.
PageOneLit.com: What's next?
Maurice A. Williams: At the moment, I have no plans for another book, but I plan to continue writing book reviews and posting my thoughts on forums and blogs.
PageOneLit.com: What was the last book you read?
Maurice A. Williams: The last book I read was "The Upright Ape" by Dr. Aaron G. Filler. I posted two differently worded book reviews about this book, one on BookIdeas.com, the other on Revish.com.
PageOneLit.com: Do you have any hobbies? What are they? How do they enhance your writing?
Maurice A. Williams: In my younger years, my hobbies were hunting, fishing, taxidermy, photography, and bookbinding. Now my hobbies are reading and writing. I especially like non-fiction writings that explain what nature is all about. I'm still very interested in nature, science, and, later in my life, religion, in the sense of "What did God really reveal?" I write and post book reviews both fiction and non-fiction. I think all the study and experience I gained through my hobbies very much shape my perception of the books I review, and, of course, my own creative writing.