Bulletin of Prophetic Historicism

25 June 2018                                                                            Editor and Proprietor

                                                                                                  Edwin de Kock

Bulletin #35    

     At last our printers in Benton Harbor, Michigan, have produced two thousand copies of Cristo y Anticristo en la Profecía la Historía, the Spanish translation of Christ and Antichrist in Prophecy and History, and shipped them to their various destinations in the United States. A little more than half of them are now here with us in our home.

     For background, the reader is invited to reread our previous Bulletin (19 March 2018). As promised, 100 copies have already been sent off to South Carolina as a gift for our members in Cuba, who lack the wherewithal to pay for them.

     Our chief concern is now to market or distribute Cristo y Anticristo. Perhaps you, dear reader, can help us. There are very many Spanish-speaking people in this country. You may want to make a gift to one or more of them. Please let us know.

      Within the borders of the United States distributing the book is fairly easy. We use media mail, which is relatively cheap, and Hispanics who would like to read the book can easily afford it. Its retail price is $19.95, plus shipping and handling.

     Beyond our borders, however, it faces a number of serious problems. One of them is that the postal system in some Latin American countries is not trustworthy. Added to this are disorders caused by upheavals which occur there from time to time. For instance, a few days ago an expatriate friend who lives in Nicaragua, to whom we wanted to mail a copy, e-mailed us to say that “lights, phones, Internet, transportation, etc. are all affected” by what is happening there. “Don’t send it now,” he said.

     Another problem is that $19.95 is a stiff price for many who live south of the border, though educated people may still afford it. For them, we can reduce the price to $10.00.

     A formidable deterrent is the fact that the postal services from the United States have abolished surface mail. Small parcels can no longer be sent by ship, as used to be the case. Nowadays everything must go by air. For example, to both Australia and El Salvador the postage is $23.50 per book! This brings the total price for each up to $43.56. Even to Canada, a neighboring country, it is not much cheaper.

     We need ways of circumventing such hindrances. A precious friend of ours, an expatriate American, has already taken some books across our southern border. Readers planning a trip to Latin-America may be able to take a few with them. If so, please let us know you may be able to help.

                     A Christian Epic Poet

     Edwin, now 88, a world-famous poet in Esperanto, has just completed his masterpiece, La Konflikto de la Epokoj (The Conflict of the Ages). It is a vast work of 400 pages, a little longer than John Milton’s Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained combined. With these it has a certain affinity, though not the tediousness which at times characterizes the former epic.

     Today there are about two million Esperantists in many countries of the world. The vast majority of them are highly educated and idealistic, with many different cultural back-grounds. 

     Esperanto was launched in 1887 by Dr. Ludwig L. Zamenhof, as an international means of communication, with a vocabulary largely based on words that are common to major languages like English, French, Italian, Spanish, etc. These roots are, so to speak, glued together by a marvelously ingenious grammar, which is easy to learn. It is very simple, yet it can also express fine shades of meaning. This has made it a splendid literary medium. For more than a century, much original poetry has been written and published in it.

     Some of it has been so good that Esperantists have at different times suggested—though unsuccessfully—that two of their poets should receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, especially William Auld (1924-2006), whose masterpiece was an epic called La Infana Raso (The Infant Race). This was published in 1956 and has been translated into several languages, including English. Auld was an atheist and evolutionist.

     Edwin de Kock, the writer of La Konflikto de la Epokoj, is a Seventh-day Adventist Christian. According to Carlo Minnaja, an eminent critic in Italy, he is “certainly, if not the first, among the two or three most significant representatives” of Esperanto poetry.

     This epic is concerned with the Great Controversy between Christ and Satan as well as the plan of salvation. It also deals with all the main doctrines of Protestant Christianity and what Seventh-day Adventists believe. Much indebted to both the Bible and the writings of Ellen G. White, it dwells on the great loving-kindness as well as the justice of the Lord.

     Its episodes move rapidly. The poet is conducted through space and time by five guides, four of them Bible characters. The last one is Abdiel, his guardian angel. It is a fascinating tale with many surprising events, related in powerfully metaphorical language and striking figures of speech, which characterize Edwin’s poetry.

     During 2015, Testamente, his complete original works in Esperanto up to that time—a hardcover book of almost 700 pages—was published by Mondial in New York. It included half of La Konflikto, but the epic had not yet been completed. Instead, since 2001, he was writing books on Biblical prophecy and history. But in 2016 his poetic creativity returned. What follows is a sample from Chapter X, Book 3, translated into English. The poet, puzzled as to just why our Lord would consent to incarnation and to die for us, asks Ezra, one of his guides, who replies.  

                                                             “Ezra, God

is so much greater than the universe,

and we so tiny, on a world at the cosmic

edge of things. Why, then, despite all that,

would he, the Son, yet sacrifice himself,

and deign by a body to be forever chained

to the bungling human species, also to

materiality and space and time?”   

“Because of a love beyond the reach of thought,

unplumbable, more than the universe itself. . . .

“For God, a single human being has greater

worth than a galaxy which burns away,

and life for everyone redeemed will last

forever in the ceaseless joy of the Lord.”

     A European publisher has already promised to print this masterpiece, but because poetry sells very slowly we may have to subsidize the enterprise. The book cover and dust jackets are being designed by a brother in India. He is a self-supporting worker and would appreciate not payment but a love gift. For all of this we do not yet have the money but are moving forward in faith. Perhaps you, dear reader, may be willing to help.

                             Health Report

     As related previously, Ria has been plagued by poor health for many years. Almost nine months ago, she had back surgery when two of her vertebrae were fused. Apart from painful spasms from time to time, the operation seems to have been a success. Unfortunately, however, she has also since then been very weak and continuously troubled by persistent sinus and lung problems.

     Eventually she was referred to a sinus specialist, who discovered the reason for many of her troubles: she had been infected with pseudomonas aeruginosa. This is a dangerous bacterium, which Wikipedia describes as “a multidrug resistant pathogen recognized for its ubiquity, its intrinsically advanced antibiotic resistance mechanisms, and its association with serious illnesses.” Not infrequently it is picked up in hospitals. It can cause pneumonia and various sepsis syndromes.

     Thirty-two years ago in South Africa pseudomonas and related problems necessitated serious surgery: the removal of a third of Ria’s right lung. She has had to use a nebulizer every morning, after which Edwin uses percussion to assist her in coughing to clear up her lungs. This has most probably saved her life. The sinus specialist confirmed that the germ was “sucking the energy out of her.” Therefore, she has had to be treated for it aggressively.

     From May 30, wonderful Home Health nurses visited her twice a day to administer cefepime intravenously for twenty-one days. Tomorrow she must revisit her sinus specialist, to find out whether or not the treatment has been a complete success. Please continue to pray for us both and the work that we are doing for the Lord.

Web Site Linkage

     Many more details about Edwin’s publications, our activities, and previous Prophetic Bulletins appear on our Web site: www.propheticum.com. We can be contacted by e-mail at edwdekock@yahoomail.com, or snail-mailed to Edwin de Kock, 12916 Los Terrazos Boulevard, Edinburg, Texas 78541, U.S.A. Please, we need your help in promoting these doctrinally and prophetically sound books through your recommendations, personally or by e-mail. If you have a Web site, kindly mention us there and supply a link to ours.

Here's where you can enter in text. Feel free to edit, move, delete or add a different page element.