Spoiler alert!
The content of this section of the website will be appreciated more by readers AFTER they have read the novel. This section contains background information, thought-provoking ideas and concepts, and an extended analysis of the story. Reading this information before reading the novel will take much of the fun out of the journey, but it will add value to your reading experience after you’re finished.
“Then my people will live in a peaceful habitation,
and in secure dwellings
and in undisturbed resting places.”
“He who listens to me shall live securely,
and shall be at ease from the dread of evil.”
Zech. 2:10—Rev. 22:3
The Bible
Zinovy’s Journey is set in a post-apocalyptic world. Details of the physical environment were drawn from descriptions of Christ’s millennial Kingdom as portrayed in prophetic passages in the Bible.
Many biblical references describe a new world that will be supernaturally recreated at the end of the present age. The city of Jerusalem will be the seat of power in this new world. Here, Jesus Christ will reign, bringing peace and true justice to the earth, thus fulfilling the proclamation the angels made at his birth.
Though many of the Scriptural references that speak of the “end times” could be taken metaphorically, in Zinovy’s Journey, those Scriptures were interpreted as literally as possible, because that approach made for an interesting physical backdrop for the story.
Some Scriptures that speak of the new Kingdom are:
Revelation 21:1-3
“Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.’”
Revelation 21: 22-27
“I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
Revelation 7:17
“For the Lamb at the center before the throne will be heir shepherd. He will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Ezekiel 47:9b, and 12
“…so where the river flows everything will live.”
“Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.”
Isaiah 11:6-9
“The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together, and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, and their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. Infants will play near the hole of the cobra; young children will put their hands into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
Isaiah 51:11
“Those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”