The author
Joseph Hill
A believer. A husband, father, grandfather, and son. A builder of companies, an inventor, a mentor, and for nearly a decade a deliverance minister. A man who spent fifteen years chasing a question he could not shake — and who wants what he found in the hands of every Christian willing to test it. He lives in McCall, Idaho with his wife Kelly and their dogs.
“I am not a professional theologian, nor do I claim any special authority beyond that which belongs to every believer who diligently studies the Scriptures.” That sentence, from the preface, is the posture of the whole book.
The work began in the early 2000s, feeding the homeless on the streets of Westwood in Los Angeles. There he met a man in a paisley vest and purple glasses with no lenses — a former family man who had given up wife, children, and every comfort to wait among the destitute for a tribulation that would never come. Hill came to call him the Westwood V.P.P.: Vision, Purpose, Plan. The man had all three. Every one of them was built on a theology barely two hundred years old.
That encounter would not leave him. He read Josephus cover to cover. He studied the Syriac manuscripts. He traced dispensational theology back to Darby and Scofield. He built timelines, compared commentaries, and wrestled with passages that challenged everything he had been taught. The notes became the book he wished someone had handed him when the questions first started.
McCall, Idaho
Light on the high country
He lives here with Kelly — “the love of my life. My biggest critic and most ardent supporter” — and their dogs, where the mountains still teach the same lesson as John 1: the darkness does not get the last word.
Acknowledgments
The people who sharpened the sword
- Kelly. Biggest critic, most ardent supporter.
- Erik Joseph Larson. “Thank you, my friend, for helping me sharpen my sword.”
- Melissa Radford. First person he could trust to read the draft objectively.
- Joe Eisenbrandt. Pastor at Mountain Life, who read the first two chapters when encouragement was the thing required.
- The Westwood V.P.P. Vision. Purpose. Plan.
The posture
Test everything
He offers the book not as the final word, but as an invitation to read the Bible again with fresh eyes. The Bible alone is the infallible and final authority. His interpretations remain the work of a fallible human being. He urges every reader to examine what is written in the light of Scripture, testing all things and holding fast to that which is good.
And to the AI research partner who helped organize fifteen years of notes: “Thank you, Kid. We did the work.”