The Trigger by Hon Hoh

The year is 2034 and the time is nearing the end. One event remains – preaching the gospel to the last people group. Satan and his workers are out to make sure that does not happen. The Deceiver has given the approval of the unveiling of the last of all the antichrists. The details are left to Apollyon.
Josh is a successful pastor of a large church. A visiting preacher challenged the congregation, one that was spending 90% of the church budget on staff and ministries of the church itself. The church staff has agreed to redistribute the church budget so 50% can go to missions. Josh wants his lay leadership to adopt an unreached city as a mission project. Yangon, the capitol of Myanmar, is chosen.
A major terrorist assault in 2029 against eight U.S. embassies revealed the ineffectiveness of the United Nations. The U.S. Proposes changes, increasing the size of the Security Council and calling the new organization the United Global Foundation. The president of France opposes the change – until he is possessed by Apollyon. When he agrees to the new form, he also accepts being its first head. The new Security Council has ten members. Could the UGF be the beast of Revelation? Could the French leader be the Antichrist? One of his first acts is to ask the UGF to outlaw the declaring of Christ as the only way.
Josh contemplates is own church. If tribulation would come, how many would renounce their faith? Some hope a rapture would take away believers before the tribulation is intense. Is that really what the Bible teaches?
Coordinated terrorist attacks occur in the major cities of the world. The UGF wants every person to be implanted with a chip as part of a universal identification and monitoring system. Josh understands: the mark of the beast.
Mysterious plagues run through the world, painful but not deadly. The virus is a complex structure, with the appearance of a head, neck and tail. Christians are untouched And the UGF President accuses them of being involved. The global persecution of Christians begins.  Will the last people group be reached in time?

I appreciated the lengthy discussions around the biblical nature of the pre-trib rapture, as well as the possibility of interpreting Revelation in a symbolic way (e.g. the locusts of the fifth trumpet being viruses). It was refreshing to read an “end times” book where Christians did not get raptured out before all the trouble begins!

It was disconcerting to read of the angels have a conversation about “what if” the trigger will succeed as planned. Raphael asks Gabriel, "What if the trigger fails?” (80) Hoh does not seem to have a sense of the sovereignty of God with respect to earthly events. The future is determined by the decisions of man, not the plan of God.
It is hard, I think, to predict 25 years from now what the political situation in a nation like China will be. Hoh has the nation very communist and very anti-Christian. Who is to know what China will be like then?
The reader does learn a great deal about people groups and the supposed Christian advances in them by 2034

Author: Hoh has been a pastor in Australia for over ten years and is gifted in preaching, teaching, and visionary leadership. He is a graduate of the University of Melbourne (Psychology), the Swinburne Institute of Technology, the Bible College of Victoria, and the Harvest Bible College (M.A. Ministry). Hoh worked in the field of social welfare prior to entering pastoral ministries.

Author website: www.livingimpact.org/ 

Watch the trailer for The Trigger.

List Price: $19.99

Paperback: 368 pages

Publisher: Living Impact (May 16, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0578071959

ISBN-13: 978-0578071954

I received an egalley from The B&B Media Group on behalf of the author for the purpose of this review.