First Century History

Xi Jinping has made his ambitions for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) perfectly clear, first, that China should become a "great maritime power" and secondly, that the PLA "become a world-class armed force by 2050." China as a Twenty-First-Century Naval Power focuses on China's navy and how it is being transformed to satisfy the "world class" goal.

HarperCollins and John C. Maxwell are celebrating the milestone anniversary of Maxwell’s bestselling The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, with the publication of a revised and updated 25th anniversary edition. Included are insights from Maxwell on each law and how they have impacted his life as a leader and mentor. There will also be stories from some of today’s most impactful leaders, like IT Cosmetics' Jamie Kern Lima, Maxwell Leadership CEO Mark Cole, and author and marketing expert Jeff Henderson, on how they have applied these laws to their own success journeys.

If you think you know Bible history, you could be stunned by many findings in this book. From what Trinity means, to the day Jesus died, to mislabeled silent years, it will shock the senses with omissions in Bible studies and church services. From misguided preachers to those in it for celebrity status, radio programs, book deals, and speaking engagements, Jesus would admonish many churches and leaders for lack of discipline and rigor. You might be outraged that what is routinely taught covers less than 50 percent of the New Testament, and far less of the Old Testament.

War Transformed provides insights for those involved in the design of military strategy, and the forces that must execute that strategy. Emphasizing the impacts of technology, strategic competition, demography, and climate change, Mick Ryan uses historical and contemporary anecdotes to highlight key challenges faced by nations in a new era of great power rivalry. Just as previous industrial revolutions have advanced societies, the nascent fourth industrial revolution will have a similar impact on how humans fight, compete, and build military power in the twenty-first century.

The Christian church of the early centuries spread throughout much of Asia, Africa, and Europe, spoke many languages, was situated within diverse cultural settings, and had varied worship practices; yet it maintained a vital unity on core teachings. In The Global Church - The First Eight Centuries: From Pentecost through the Rise of Islam, author Donald Fairbairn helps listeners understand both the diversity and unity of the church in this pivotal era.

The author of the classic best seller Lincoln on Leadership answers the question: How would President Lincoln handle the pressing crises of our modern world? Abraham Lincoln is recognized as one of history's finest leaders, a great president when the United States was under tremendous strain. But suppose he were alive today. How would Lincoln deal with today's high-pressure issues, from politics to business?

The Horn’s First Master is the gripping true story of a man who took on the deadliest sea on Earth. In 1834, Croatian-born Captain Pietro Giacomo Leva steered an Austro-Hungarian brigantine through the world’s most feared waters and into legend. With towering waves, freezing winds, and brutal conditions, Cape Horn was the ultimate test of skill, courage, and command. Leva passed that test — and carved his name into the history of both his island and his empire. Blending vivid maritime history with sharp-eyed narrative, The Horn’s First Master charts Austria’s unlikely bid for ...

How did the first believers in Jesus know that the Gospel was true? Acts 17:11 says, "The Bereans…received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” But which “Scriptures” were they examining? Paul was teaching at a Jewish synagogue, so the scriptures were the Tanakh, which we call the Old Testament. Thus, to be "true", everything Paul said had to agree with the Old Testament!

INTO THE AMERICAS (A novel based on a true story) is a gritty, real-life adventure based on one of history’s greatest survival stories. It was inspired by the diary entries of young English blacksmith John Jewitt during his time aboard the brigantine The Boston and also during his sojourn at Nootka Sound, on North America's western seaboard, from 1802 to 1805. Written by father-and-son writing team Lance & James Morcan (authors of The World Duology and The Orphan Trilogy), INTO THE AMERICAS is a tale of two vastly different cultures – Indigenous North American and European civilization ...

In the dense, rain-slicked woodlands of ancient Germania, two men would define the fate of empires. Arminius and Varus: A Clash of Leadership in the Teutoburg Forest is a gripping historical account of one of the most pivotal and devastating ambushes in Roman military history. In 9 AD, three Roman legions were annihilated in a brutal, cunningly orchestrated attack by Germanic tribes under the command of Arminius—a man trained by Rome, yet loyal to his homeland. His adversary: Publius Quinctilius Varus, a seasoned Roman general whose misjudgment and misplaced trust would lead to ...

"Hamilton's novel centers on a fascinating, little-known figure from history - Elisabeth Samson emerges as intriguing and distinctive. An intriguing fictionalization of circumstances with an ample romantic angle. Hamilton's prose style is warm, even, and voice-driven." - The BookLife Prize In the 18th century Dutch plantation colony of Suriname, where wealth is measured by the number of slaves one owns, the educated Free Negress Elisabeth Samson, owner of several flourishing coffee plantations, desires the one thing her wealth cannot buy: a legal marriage with her consort, a White colonial ...

This book pulls no punches. We have been lied to about the origins of the New Testament, the Church, and the historical record. But what really happened? The Second Crucifixion of Jesus peels back layers of historical development to reveal the original message the Romans and the Roman Catholic Church never wanted us to see. Evidence from the Bible, contemporaneous histories, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, is meticulously documented – but presented in a narrative that anyone can follow.

Major George Eyster V comes from a family of military officers dating back to the Revolutionary War. His tour of duty in Iraq, however, left him disillusioned and questioning. Then he accepted a posting to J-PAC, an elite division whose mission is to fulfill the most solemn promise of the military code: bring all fallen soldiers home to the country for which they gave their lives.

From the creative minds of the scholarly group behind the groundbreaking Jesus Seminar comes this provocative and eye-opening look at the roots of Christianity that offers a thoughtful reconsideration of the first two centuries of the Jesus movement, transforming our understanding of the religion and its early dissemination.

In The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire, seasoned defense analyst Edward N. Luttwak reveals how the Romans were able to combine military strength, diplomacy, and fortifications to effectively respond to changing threats. Rome's secret was not ceaseless fighting, but comprehensive strategies that unified force, diplomacy, and an immense infrastructure of roads, forts, walls, and barriers. Finally, as barbarians began to penetrate the empire, Rome filed large armies in a strategy of "defense-in-depth," allowing invaders to pierce Rome's borders.

An overview of the historical and theological development of these two confessions, with a comparison of content and analysis of them. These two Baptist confessions were written and published by men living in the tedium of life unique to them – in their culture, period of history, and the theological development of their beliefs. While many books have been written by Baptists on the topic of confessions, the preponderance of those books are academic and biased towards the 1689 London Baptist Confession. My intention is to present a non-academic overview of how these confessions came to be...

Deep in the Vatican archives, a treasure was recently discovered. A document purporting to be written by the Magi themselves has surfaced in recent years. You likely have not even heard about this even though the translator published his work in 2010 while defining a valid chain of custody with references to this work before the fifth century perhaps as far back as the second. The find has been all but silenced as it demonstrates the Vatican knew the wise men were holy, sagacious kings (yes kings!) who originated in the Far East beyond India from the land of the Garden of Eden and never ...

An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of the Scriptures. Explore this biblical text that serves as a bridge from the Gospels to the Epistles, and introduces the birth of the Christian church and the experiences of its leaders as they spread the good news of salvation by faith from the Jewish to the Gentile communities. The entire text of the Bible are presented with intermediate commentary that includes the background, context, and exposition of each passage. Organized as twenty-seven sequential and individual Bible studies that are each intended for about 30 minutes of personal Bible ...

In this book, historian Robert C. Stern analyzes the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first major fleet engagement where the warships were never in sight of each other. Unlike the Battle of Midway, the Battle of the Coral Sea has received remarkably little study. Stern covers not only the action of the ships and their air groups but also describes the impact of this pivotal engagement.

The year was 1922: World War I had just come to a close, the Ottoman Empire was in decline, and Asa Jennings, a YMCA worker from upstate New York, had just arrived in the quiet coastal city of Smyrna to teach sports to boys. Several hundred miles to the east in Turkey's interior, tensions between Greeks and Turks had boiled over into deadly violence. Mustapha Kemal, now known as Ataturk, and his Muslim army soon advanced into Smyrna, a Christian city, where a half a million terrified Greek and Armenian refugees had fled in a desperate attempt to escape his troops.