Steve Bryan
It seems to me that there is a great gulf between what people say they believe in with their head and what they know to be true in their heart and experience. This gulf is the difference between theory and reality.
Generally, theory or ideas come first but experience should catch up in due time. Where views have matured there should be no difference between faith and practice.
Where there is a persistent gap in these two things a fertile ground for a whole mountain of problems opens up. This book demonstrates how and why the gap exits, what happens if the gap is not closed and more importantly, how to close the gap.
In the early church, evidence that theory and practice went hand in hand was very evident. Signs and wonders following the preaching of The Word were common occurrences.
This book explains how the gap between theory and reality brings about fanatical behaviour that spills over into extremism. From here it is a short step to the birth of the terrorist. This book is therefore directly relevant to the world in which we live today. Governments all over the world are seeking a solution to this problem. If the church can bring these two things together we have the answer. It is the only answer.
This book is not about new theology; it is not about getting you to change your viewpoint. It is about getting you to think about what you really believe. It is about living truthfully with yourself. Once you have a clear view of what you really believe it is then about living it, regardless of any peer-pressure to conform to another way. It is about ‘letting the chips fall where they will.’
I am just another you.
If you passed me in the street there would be nothing that would cause me to stand out from the crowd. However, I am unashamedly proud of my uniqueness.
As the second child of four I have on occasions referred to myself as ‘second in line to the throne.’
I am of West Indian descent born in Coventry in the mid 1950’s, educated in the comprehensive system and graduated in Biochemistry, which I read at Kent University.
I have always had an insatiable appetite to know things for myself. I need convincing. It is a fact that the struggle a caterpillar undergoes as it seeks to break free from its chrysalis, is what gives the power to the wings for flight. No struggle no flight.
I have had the benefit of Godly parents who put me well and truly on the road to knowing. However, if we are to arrive at our own true understanding, we need to check for ourselves.
I have struggled to know truth for myself. This book, ‘The Duel’ is about the struggle to break free to be our own unique Self.
If you read this book it may become another point along the way that helps you discover, no matter what your place of birth, the colour of your skin, your politics or religion, that you are another me.
Perhaps from the birth of Humanity one thing has evaded mankind, lasting peace. Real lasting worldwide peace has seemed like the illusive ‘Scarlet Pimpernel’. People and nations from all times have sought it here, there and everywhere, perhaps even caught up with it at times, only to discover it evaporating right in front of their eyes.
Any sort of peace achieved has been full of uncertainty and suspicion. Here we are in the 21st Century with generations of scientific achievement and education under our belt but still real lasting peace appears outside our grasp.
The whole world is like a very dry tinderbox waiting to go up in smoke. Outbreaks of fire spring up almost at random in different areas of the planet and governments of the world rush to put them out. Ironically in the dash to do so, they seem to generate more fuel for uncertainty, tension and war.
On the front page of the Independent newspaper on the 17 January 2007, an article by Robert Cornwall revealed that the Doomsday Clock would be moved forward for the first time in five years, indicating that the world was at its most unstable in its history. For 60 years it had depicted how close the world was to nuclear disaster and scientists moved its hands forward to show that we are facing the gravest threat in 20 years.
If the general question is asked “What causes war?” I suspect the average man and woman in the street would say religion and politics. In some respects I concur with this, as does history.
Religion and politics have served to galvanise people into groups. Warring factions that believe their point of view must prevail over all others.
Although large numbers of people choose the groups they belong to, this is not true for the majority. For most people what group we belong to is chosen for us. Many factors play a part, but by far the biggest factor for this placement into a group, is where we are born.
In itself, the group we belong to is not the problem directly, but it is the attitude, the control and the effect the group has on its members that is the problem.
The solution I believe is easy! It is the subject of this book.
Ironically, we will never find peace. Peace will find us. More precisely it is already on the way. It is for this very reason that we may think that peace is further from our grasp than ever before. Take heart it is coming and cannot be stopped.
Transition always causes major upheaval. If you have ever had an extension built onto your house you will know just how this feels. Before the work starts the house is often ok and inhabitable but you decide to make it better for the future. The plans are drawn up, approval granted and then the work begins. No matter how well prepared you are the messy transition period tempts you often to wish you had left things as they were. The only thing that keeps you moving forward is the knowledge that you can’t go back and that things will be better when the work is finished.
From the time of Christ up until the turn of the Century we have been living in the era of Pisces. This era is characterised by group dominance. The average person is not capable of thinking for himself and must be told what to do.
With the heralding in, around the start of the new century, a new era, the era of Aquarius began. This era is characterised by people understanding truth and thinking for themselves.
The transition period is causing great upheavals in the groups. Religious and political groups that have dominated are not exempt.
