Any contemporary novel is a blend of both fact and fiction. Simply by setting a story in an actual city or rural location, or if the hero’s occupation or circumstance is germane to the story, then you can be sure the author has strived to get things right in the descriptions of people, places, cultures and any mechanics or logistics.
This is true of Whisper of the Seventh Thunder, as well.
Other than the new Columbia Center Hotel and Conference Center, which is totally a fictional conceit, everything that happens in Washington D.C. is based on what you’ll find there and, with some plot-related exceptions, what goes on there.
Other reality-inspired locations are found in the novel, as well. The airport in Weed, California is there, you come within 200 yards of it when you bisect Northern California on 1-5. The community where Gabriel lives as the story begins – Lake of The Pines, just east of Auburn, California – is real (the author’s sister and brother-in-law live there), including Gabriel’s house itself, which really did once house John Travlota and his family while they were filming Phenomenon in the late 1990s.
None of that is remarkable. What is perhaps remarkable, though, or at least noteworthy, are two other aspects of the novel that, if not completely mirroring reality, were inspired by it.
The Bible Code
In the opening chapter of Whisper, we witness the beginning of a computer search into the original-language (Aramaic) manuscripts of the New Testament of the Bible, using a de-encryption program that applies all known coding matrixes in search of mathematically-symmetrical and interpretable codex.
That much is fiction. The notion behind it, though, is very much based on truth.
In 1998, author Michael Drosnin published a fascinating book called The Bible Code, where he reports on similar decoding efforts conducted on the first five books of the Old Testament, or the Jewish Torah. That experiment was first conducted in the mid 1940s, exposing embedded messages that foretold many actual events that would not transpire for thousands of years.
Those predictions accurately included the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, several natural disasters and the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Raban on November 4, 1995. That message – a “skip code” using every fifth letter in the original translation to create a new phrase – showed the words “assassin who will assassinate” in proximity to Raban’s name.
This and other messages, which Drosnin dubbed “the Bible code,” were discovered by Dr. Eliyahu Rips, a leading expert in group theory mathematics, and have been confirmed by researchers at Harvard, Yale and Hebrew University. Drosnin’s book presents a fascinating case, though skeptics have surfaced in an effort to debunk the theory, as is usually the case where prophecy is concerned.
The author of Whisper of the Seventh Thunder took that premise and ran with it.
In his story, computer scientists working at a prestigious Tel Aviv university create a very powerful supercomputer optimized for de-encryption, and turn it loose on the book of Revelations. The result is a heart-stopping moment that ignites an apocalyptic fuse, and a spine-tingling connection between the Word of God and the intention of God, as spoken through prophecy.
The Brethren
In the novel we are introduced to an ultra-secret group of highly devoted Christian men, whose membership reaches to the highest level of government and industry. The call themselves The Brethren, and while we meet only a handful of characters associated with them, it is their mission that provides the primary antagonistic force in this story.
On the surface these men pursue a purpose of telling the world’s leaders about Jesus Christ, toward a goal of global peace based on faith and prayer. Below the surface, however, some of these men take their ambition to extreme and even deadly lengths.
When Gabriel Stone’s soon to be published manuscript – containing an interpretation of John’s vision from Revelation 10:4 – promises to expose their plan, they set out to stop the project before it goes public, and at any cost.
Why? Because what Gabriel wrote as a fictional interpretation of what John saw in that cave back on Patmos is, in fact, a startlingly accurate description of a radical plan these men have well underway to proactively bring about a war that will result in the end of terrorism and those who advocate for it forever.
If the government won’t declare and mount an actual and definitive war on the terrorists, then The Brethren will.
In reality, though, there is no group called The Brethren.
But… there is a highly secret Christian group composed of the rich and powerful based in Washington D.C. Their existence isn’t secret – they openly sponsor and operate the National Prayer Breakfast each February – but their meetings and the internal culture certainly is.
They’re called The Fellowship, and are often referred to as The Family. It is run by a man named Doug Coe, with his son right behind him in the leadership hierarchy. Members have included Congressmen, governors, giants of industry and commerce, and even Presidents. Invitation to the Prayer Breakfast is private, and usually includes an address by the President. They operate out of a residential complex near Capital Hill called The Cedars, which is staffed by member volunteers (including the wives of members, who stay across the street at a girls-only complex), and include regular visits from dignitaries and foreign statesmen.
This group is somewhat controversial because of their penchant for secrecy, and some out-of-context quotes and interpretation from a cynical press. Harper’s Magazine successfully infiltrated the group in the late 1990s, resulting in a scathing article about the daily rituals and cultural norms that define life at The Cedars.
You can read one of those cynical articles here, and there are many other sources available online: Download PDF - click here
From Fact to Fiction
The author of Whisper was made aware of this group through two close friends and professional peers, both of whom have been participating members in The Fellowship, and are strong examples of Christian living. They assure him the group exists for one purpose, and one purpose only – to bring Jesus to others, especially those in power who might be touched by His message of love, compassion and giving.
The author holds nothing but the highest respect for this group and the people who are associated with it, and implies nothing at all about their mission or activities in a remotely negative or dark way in the novel. The Brethren is a fictional entity of his creation, inspired in form only by what he’d learned and been fascinated by relative to The Fellowship.
That said, he’s not expecting an invitation to the National Prayer Breakfast any time soon.
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