Recommendation: Inside the Revolution by Joel C. Rosenberg

Rosenberg's sequel to Epicenter was packed to overflowing with comprehensive facts and information that you won't get anywhere else.  The full title is "Inside the Revolution: Why the Followers of Jihad, Jefferson, and Jesus are Battling to Dominate the Middle East and Transform the World", and this is exactly what the book is about.  If you're not familiar with Rosenberg, check out my review of Epicenter first to give you a frame of reference.

In this book, Rosenberg describes the three major philosophies driving the conflicts in the Middle East.  The first group is the Radicals, those who practice jihad to bring about an iron-fisted Islamic rule over the entire world.  He calls the second group the Reformers, and they are Muslims who subscribe to (or are at least friendly to) Jeffersonian democracy, and reject the violence of jihad.  The final group is the Revivalists, who are made up of born-again Christians who are spreading through the Middle East in amazingly increasing numbers and supernatural fashion.

Rosenberg traveled to many countries and conducted hundreds of interviews with defense experts, world leaders, and local folks in the process of writing this book.  He goes into depth on all three philosophies, filling in background, motivations, primary leaders, and history to give the reader a complete picture of how each came about and what its intentions are.  Using dozens of personal stories, Rosenberg also shares anecdotal evidence that supports the over-arching themes of those three philosophies.  If you want to learn about what makes the Middle East tick, Rosenberg is the guy to read.

He finishes the book with some answers to questions that he is commonly asked about what  Christian Biblical prophecy predicts in terms of the future and the next war.  While it may be tempting to skip ahead to that section, the answers will be much more meaningful if you have the understanding gained by reading through the entire book first.

Bottom line: I cannot recommend this book highly enough!  The one-two punch of Epicenter and Inside the Revolution is an expert tutorial on how the Middle East affects the entire rest of the world, explaining current events in the light of a Biblical worldview, introducing key world leaders, and predicting future events that will literally have global impact.

If you've ever wondered what the future may hold, and why, this is where to start.