Terry Brennan’s new series is sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats


International Intrigue and
End-Times Prophecy Collide
Terry Brennan’s new series is sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats

What if three ancient empires were poised to rise again and begin an epic battle for the land they once occupied in the Middle East? What if this battle was the fulfillment of a prophecy that would set into motion the end of the world as we know it? Those questions were the launching point for award-winning author Terry Brennan as he began writing his new series, Empires of Armageddon. The series begins with Ishmael Covenant (Kregel Publications/February 18, 2020/ISBN: 9780825445309/$15.99), a fast-paced, modern-day international thriller.

At the center of the action is Diplomatic Security Service Special Agent Brian Mullaney, who is assigned to protect Joseph Atticus Cleveland, the newly appointed US ambassador to Israel. Mullaney is at the end of his rope as not only is his marriage in trouble, so is his career. Now he’s been banished to Israel as punishment by his agency where he is supposed to be guarding the ambassador and what he considers to be an insignificant box. Little does he know that his new job will propel him straight into a crisis of global proportions.


Inside the box is a messianic prophecy about the fate of the world. A dark enemy known as the Turk and the forces of evil at his command are determined to destroy the box, the prophecy inside, and the Middle East as we know it. When Ambassador Cleveland gets in the way, his daughter’s life and Mullaney’s life are threatened.

The agents of three ancient empires have launched covert operations to secure nuclear weapons, in direct defiance of the startling peace treaty Israel and its Arab neighbors have signed—the Ishmael Covenant. Not only that, a traitor in the US State Department is leaking critical information to a foreign power. It’s up to Mullaney to protect the embassy staff, thwart the clandestine conspiracies, and unmask a traitor—all before the desert is turned into a radioactive wasteland.

The inspiration behind Ishmael Covenant started with one idea: that three ancient empires of the East—Persian, Ottoman, and Islamic—appeared to be on the cusp of rising again. The idea caught fire when he was introduced to the Vilna Gaon, Rabbi Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman, who was the most revered Talmudic scholar of the late eighteenth century. In 2014, his great-great-grandson revealed a prophecy the Vilna Gaon wrote two hundred and twenty years before: “When you hear that the Russians have captured the city of Crimea, you should know that the times of the Messiah have started, that his steps are being heard.” Only months before that, Russian troops had invaded Ukraine and swept through the Crimean Peninsula. Brennan took the idea of the rising empires and the premise of an unexpected treaty between Israel and all its Arab neighbors, wrapped it up in the Vilna Gaon’s messianic prophecy, speculated about a second prophecy that was yet to be revealed, and started writing.

Not only does Empires of Armageddon borrow from numerous threads of actual history, Brennan did an extensive amount of research into the US State Department, NATO policy, and the Diplomatic Security Service to make sure all aspects of the story were as accurate as possible. However, Brennan hopes readers will find even more within the pages of Ishmael Covenant.

“I hope that readers of Ishmael Covenant understand that Christians are in a real, tangible war. Believers in Jesus Christ are engaged in what the notes in my NIV Study Bible for Ephesians 1:3 call a ‘titanic conflict.’ The notes go on to say that ‘as a result, the spiritual struggles of the saints here and now are not so much against ‘flesh and blood’ as against the great spiritual forces that war against God in heaven,’” Brennan shares. “I was struck by the idea that there are great spiritual forces that war against God in heaven. More sobering is the idea that my spiritual struggles here on earth have, in some way, an impact on that war in heaven. Not all of us will come face-to-face with evil incarnate, as Brian Mullaney and the other characters do in Ishmael Covenant, but agents of evil are at work in the world today, just as they have been since Lucifer’s rebellion was crushed and banished to earth.”

Brennan continues, “Through digging deeper into the concept of spiritual warfare for this book, I’ve learned that I need to reach beyond the personal conflict of good and evil in my life and be more conscious of the vastness of this titanic conflict around me. I need to be an example, a reflection, of Jesus and his love for all souls. And I need to stand up for light—to be a warrior-ambassador for light—in a dark world that often seems to be getting darker. But the bottom line is inevitable. Good triumphs. The end of the Book will never change.”

Fans of Joel C. Rosenberg, Steven James, and Ted Dekker will relish the deadly whirlpool of international intrigue and end-times prophecy in Ishmael Covenant and eagerly await the rest of this new trilogy. Readers won’t have to wait long for the second installment of Brian Mullaney’s story. Persian Betrayal will be released July 28, 2020.

Advance Praise

“Terry Brennan’s new release is an engrossing ride into the dark world of political corruption that feels too close to home. In the epic unfolding of bib­lical prophecy, Ishmael Covenant catapults you across a landscape you’ve only imagined—on both a global and personal scale.”
~ Cher Gatto, award-winning author of Something I Am Not
“James Rollins meets Joel Rosenberg in Terry Brennan’s Ishmael Covenant, first of his new trilogy, the Empires of Armageddon. An only-too-plausible, high-octane plotline, superb research, and a powerful spiritual message make this a must-read for any fan of end-times thrillers—or student of current-day global politics. My only complaint is that it ended too soon. When do we get the sequel?”
~ Jeanette Windle, award-winning author of CrossFire, Veiled Freedom, and Freedom’s Stand


About the Author


Terry Brennan is the award-winning author of The Sacred CipherThe Brotherhood Conspiracy, and The Aleppo Code, the three books in The Jerusalem Prophecies series. His latest release, Ishmael Covenant, is the first in his new Empires of Armageddon series.

A Pulitzer Prize is one of the many awards Brennan accumulated during his twenty-two-year newspaper career. The
Pottstown (PA) Mercury won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for a two-year series published while he led the team as the newspaper’s editor.

Starting out as a sportswriter in Philadelphia, Brennan became an editor and publisher for newspapers in Pennsylvania, Illinois, and New York and later moved to the corporate staff of Ingersoll Publications (four hundred newspapers in the United States, Ireland, and England) as executive editor of all US newspapers.

In 1996, Brennan transitioned into the nonprofit sector, spending twelve years as vice president of operations for The Bowery Mission and six years as chief administrative officer for Care for the Homeless,  both in New York City.

Terry and his wife, Andrea, now live in Danbury, Connecticut.


More on Brennan can be found at
www.terrybrennanauthor.com. He is also on Facebook (Terry Brennan) and Twitter (@terrbrennan1).



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