The Journal Of An Eternal Book I The Begining

A Summer/Fall 2018 Indies Introduce Debut Fiction Selection When Samuel Johnson dies, he finds himself in the body of the man who killed him, unable to depart this world but determined, at least, to return to the son he left behind. Moving from body to body as each one expires, Samuel’s soul journeys on a comic quest through an American half-century, inhabiting lives as stymied, in their ways, as his own. A ghost story of the most unexpected sort, Martin Riker’s extraordinary debut is about the ways experience is mediated, the unstoppable drive for human connection, and the struggle to be more fully alive in the world. Martin Riker grew up in central Pennsylvania. He worked as a musician for most of his twenties, in nonprofit literary publishing for most of his thirties, and has spent the first half of his forties teaching in the English department at Washington University in St. Louis. In 2010, he and his wife Danielle Dutton co-founded the feminist press Dorothy, a Publishing Project. His fiction and criticism have appeared in publications including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, London Review of Books, the Baffler, and Conjunctions. This is his first novel.

Somewhat controversial, The Power of the Eternal Now opens Christians’ minds in a unique way to the truth of God outside of time. Prophet Jeremy Lopez calls believers to live in the now reality, putting aside inaction and passivity and truly grasping hold of the truth that God speaks about their lives. God exists in the eternals, which is exactly where you are called to live as well. “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6 NIV). Time is an illusion when it comes to our nature as children of God. The reality of our true identity in Christ is found in the now. But often we don’t want to deal with our many problems, so we look at the clock and “invent time” as a way to avoiding them. We are more than conquerors—now! We are holy, chosen, beloved, accepted, redeemed, justified, and cleansed—now! These are not future wishes and dreams. These are not time-based actions. These are realities of our true identity in Christ and they are found in the now.

William Earl McLellin (1806-1883) was born in Smith County, Tennessee. He married Cinthia Ann in 1829 in Illinois. She died in about 1830-1831 in childbirth. In 1831 William joined the LDS Church and went on several missions. In 1832 he was excommunicated for a short time but was rebaptized and, in 1835, was one of the first members of the Twelve Apostles. By this time he had married Emeline Miller they had six children. He and his family settled in Jackson County, Missouri and suffered the persecutions against the Mormons. By late 1836 William and his family had left the LDS Church and settled in Illinois for a short time before returning to Missouri.