Author: Ronnie Carter
Located in: Valley, AL
Submitted: November 21, 2025
Tell us a little about yourself. I'm a retired civil engineer who has been a Bible teacher for over 50 years, which has taught me to have both a love and reverence for this all-time number 1 best seller. I am absolutely convinced that it is the inerrant Word of God both from the internal evidence contained in its pages, the historicity of its writing, and the historicity of Jesus' life, as well as its ability to change lives. It changed mine! My salvation came about by my reading this book, and my life since has been molded by its precepts.
What was your motivation behind this project? My motivation for this project was to share what I have learned about the fascinating subject of messianic prophecy. Early on in my initial reading through the Bible, I discovered an amazing fact that I had not been taught, that aside from Eve whose name means "mother of all living," the first person listed in Jesus' prophetic genealogy (His genealogical ancestors who were identified as being people the Messiah would be descended from) was Abraham, and the absolutely amazing "coincidence" that he would be commanded by God to do for God the very thing that God would do for man - offer his son as a human sacrifice. The combined fact that Abraham was willing to do this, and that he was the first person chosen from the sea of humanity to be in Jesus' prophetic genealogy was to me an astounding fact. That was the seed thought for this book.
What do you hope folks will gain from this project? My sincere hope for this book is that its readers will (1) have a greater appreciation for the Old Testament, (2) be encouraged to read and enjoy the OT more, (3) have a more comprehensive understanding of who Jesus is through the fascinating tapestry of revelation about Him in the pages of the OT, and (4) to see this incredible multi-facetted prophetic picture of Christ and its fulfillment in the NT as a compelling proof of God's authorship of scripture.
How were you personally impacted by working on this project? I was impacted by this project in a number of ways: (1) I learned that there is a huge chasm between merely teaching the Bible versus writing a book about it; (2) I learned the importance of hammering out a good outline before writing the text; (3) I experienced the ongoing necessity of prayer in all phases of the book from developing the manuscript through the iterative submission process with the publisher, and that God has faithfully answered my prayers both in getting the book written and published as well as in getting it before people. Despite the difficulty of getting a book in the public square if you're an unknown author, I have been very pleased with the book's reception from those who've read it.
Who are your influences, sources of inspiration or favorite authors / artists? An early influence in my life insofar as Christian apologetics is concerned was Josh McDowell. His book "Evidence That Demands a Verdict" was a huge influence. I was privileged to hear him speak at Auburn as a student and at LSU. C. S. Lewis' book "Mere Christianity" has also been a huge influence.
Anything else you'd like readers / listeners to know: As a retired civil engineer, one thing I bring to the table as an author is a love of data and its organization. As an artist, I also have a concern for things to be visually attractive. In this regard, this book has a lot of data in the form of tables, timelines, spreadsheets, genealogies, diagrams and illustrations. This makes the book valuable as a Bible reference book as well as covering the subject of messianic prophecy. In closing, I would like to express my appreciation to Christianbook for allowing me to submit this author review on my book.
