If really wanting someone to "drop dead" counts as murder, there isn't a Commandment I haven't broken. But today I'm in my 80s, and I try not to break any of the Commandments. Still, I can hardly condemn those who do, having been one of them! Indeed, I've become proficient at truly not judging my fellowmen, though I sometimes have trouble with self-satisfied people who are contemptuous of everyone they consider morally or socially "beneath them." When I find myself in their company, they are likely to hear the very sharp tongue I was born with and which I have spent a lifetime trying to control — since life has taught me that when I use my tongue wrongly, my wrongs will return upon my own head. And you can be sure I am conscious of that truth when I choose my written words.

I was born in St. Louis, Mo. in 1927 and raised in a moderately orthodox Jewish home, which means there were many rules to obey! I didn't like the rules and broke them whenever I thought I could get away with it. Nor did I like the way those rules set me apart from the Christian children in my school. So, I began to regret being Jewish. My childish regret proved to be of great importance to me, for it made me acutely aware, from an early age, of the different beliefs about the God Who had always seemed very familiar to me. From the time I was six years old, I had a strong sense of God's nearness, and His understanding and forgiveness of human frailties — which I would come to be grateful for, when I finally recognized all the Laws I'd broken! In my adolescence, my constant awareness of what others believed about God led me to begin reading the Sacred Scriptures of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. I soon became amazed and repulsed by some official interpretations of those written Scriptures, which the organized religions developed and preached as Truth!

In my youth, I never expected to write the book I've now written. For the most part, my life, like my book, has been a total surprise to me. Only in my later years did I realize that practically everything worth noting about my life — especially the persons I purposely set out to meet, from the highly respected to the scorned and imprisoned — had given me a broad understanding of the bewilderment and confusion that the teachings of organized religions impart. My understanding was expanded during the two years I lived in Jerusalem, among many "devout" Jews, Christians, and Muslims, who were so certain of their own religion's superiority they barely concealed their contempt for each other!

When I was in my 30s, I wrote a book about God, having long since learned that my familiarity with Him was not something everyone experienced, as I had naively assumed in my childhood. My premature effort to write about Him ended in failure, and I never expected to try again. But, thirty years later, I started to write a short "essay" about Him for a troubled friend who had lost all faith in Abraham's God. Ten years later, I ended the "essay" that had become a book! I stopped writing, not because I thought I had spoken as clearly as I could, but because I suddenly felt it was time for the book to be published. Evidently my feelings were right, since Of Promises and Previews was released a few months before 9/11, when the whole world would finally begin to seriously think about the nuclear warfare my book discussed.

This synopsis of my life means that I didn't prepare to write about God by seeking college degrees in religion that could recommend me to persons only impressed by scholastic credentials. In fact, I never consciously prepared to write it, and I offer only one reason for people to read it. The combined teachings of all the Prophets could make believers and skeptics, alike, wise enough to avoid the "gross darkness" explicitly described in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, a darkness that could now be nearer than we want to believe! At the least, my book could help readers maintain their sanity while they struggle to endure the "darkness," which, if we must endure it, we're promised will end when the sun rises "with healing in its wings" (Mal. 3:20).

We urgently need to help each other recognize — and resolve — the arguments that threaten to severely interrupt our generation's life on earth! If enough people, one person at a time, become involved, we CAN CHANGE OUR WORLD, which is one thing everyone agrees sorely needs improvement! I sincerely invite you to express your honest opinions by Contacting the Author

I urge you to learn about Abraham's God in Of Promises and Previews: Urgent Old Messages for a New Millennium. TO ORDER THE BOOK, click on the Amazon icon below.

To glimpse the contents read About the Book.