My name is Carol Byers, and I am a writer.  I’ve always enjoyed reading and writing.  As a child, I read Trixie Belden adventure stories and as a teen, I enjoyed reading historical romances by Jude Devereaux.  I aspired to become a novelist, writing about romance within an historical setting, just like Devereaux.  As a high schooler, I wrote short stories and did very well in English composition. 

 

It seemed I would never realize my dream of writing until I became a born-again Christian.   It was then that I read the entire Bible from cover to cover.  Not once, but now 43 times in the past 22 years.  I learn new things every time I open the Bible and read and contemplate what I’ve read.  I have been inspired by the Holy Spirit of God to write about things in the Bible.

 

The first paper I wrote after becoming born-again was Be Ready—He’s Coming on a Cloud!  I always have loved clouds so I was intrigued about how clouds were a focus of important events in the Bible, like the cloud that led the Israelites during the day, the glory cloud that appeared at the dedication of Moses’ tabernacle of the congregation and at the dedication of the temple by King Solomon, and even the little cloud that appeared on the horizon as the prophet Isaiah prayed that signaled the end of a 3.5 years drought in Israel.  I had an opportunity to teach the Bible to 26 Asian Indians for three years, 2006-2009.  It was then I wrote Bible studies to teach them each month how to study the Bible (not just one way).

 

I’ve written several Bible studies about things in the Bible such as Prayer, Angels--God’s Messengers, Heaven and Hell, the Holy Spirit, Knowing God, How to be an Effective Servant for God, the Sanctity of Life, the Kingdom of God is Within You, What Brings Jesus to Tears?  I’ve written short stories for Mother’s Day (Where Are You Going and Whatever He Says, Do It) and Father’s Day (The Legacy of a Father), and Christmas:  The Greatest Gift and Why We Celebrate Christmas.  I’ve written about salvation:  Salvation, A Matter of Life or Death.  I’ve written about  Zipporah, a Wife Comes to the Aid of Her Husband; When Everything Goes Wrong: Between a Rock and a Hard Place; The Curse Causeless Does Not Come; Do You Want to be Made Whole?, Empty Nest (for parents facing children going on to further education and marriage), and God’s Covenant with Israel and the Arab-Israeli Peace Process, among other things.

 

In 2020, I published a book with Xulon Press called What Is TRUTH?  The Bible vs. The Koran.  It took seven years to write and three years to edit.  I wrote every morning on the train on the way to work, about two hours daily, when I did my devotions, and God would speak to me guiding me as to what to include in the book. He gave me the outline in which I was to compare doctrine of the Bible and doctrine of the Koran, which included individual topics.  I added things that I thought should be included in the Appendices.  I spent a lot of time making lists of books in the Bible and in the Koran, charts of topics in the Bible and topics in the Koran, citing their books and Suras.  I included things such as An Examination of the Medical Evidence for the Physical Death of Jesus Christ and How Jew, Christians, and Muslims See the Last Days. I wrote it like a text book, so you could choose a topic and not have to read straight through, although that would be desirable.

 

I read 39 books about Muhammad, Islam, and the Koran.  I read books about people who had left Islam and became Christians.  I also read hundreds of articles about the Koran, Muhammad, and Islam.  The back cover of my book indicates that the book can be a reference for the Christian, the Jew, or the Muslim.  It is written like a textbook—you can read any chapter or read it straight through.  It contains 200 cites, including Bible verses, Sura verses, and articles.

 

The first book I wrote was An Evangelical Response to the Teacher and the Preacher.  On a tour of the Holy Land, we visited the Shorashim (in Hebrew, Roots) Shop in the Old City of Jerusalem, and Rabbi Moshe Kempinski talked to our tour group about building bridges between Christians and Jews.  He encouraged us to read a book, The Teacher and The Preacher: A Dialogue by Ben Baruch (I think a pen name) and asked me to let him know what I thought about the book.  His book was 142 pages, and I thought to would read it on my flight home. 

 

I responded to him by email, but the LORD asked me to write a book in response to his book as I took issue with it.  I thought it was Jewish apologetics for why Jesus is not the Messiah.  The LORD wanted more than the email I had written.  I balked at the suggestion that I should write a book, but He said He would help me.  I wrote a defense, according to the Bible, why Jesus is THE  Messiah the Jewish people are waiting for.  My response was 187 pages, and the Holy Spirit asked me to take it to him.  It was during the season of Purim, so that was an educational experience for me.  God awakened me at 12:30am on the morning I was to take the book to Moshe Kempinski and told me exactly what he would say to me.  I went to the Internet Café around the corner and typed up the LORD’s words.  I took the book, which I had bound in Jerusalem and gave it to Moshe after he served a customer, and he said exactly what the LORD had told me he would say.  That was the only confirmation I had that the LORD had spoken to me to write the book, so I was happy and enjoyed the Purim holidays, the costumes, and delicious hamantaschen.

 

My second published book is JOAB: Commander of King David’s Army But Not One of His Mighty Men.  This was written because my Pastor David Messick said one night after church when we were sitting around in conversation that if he ever wrote a book it would be on Joab.  I had to find out why.  The book is scheduled to be published in November 2024.

 

I want to continue writing as the LORD leads.