Sometime in 1998 approximately 35,000 feet above Tokyo, John Harmer got out his laptop and started writing. He didn’t stop until the plane was touching down in Los Angeles, almost nine hours later. Since taking off from Pudong Airport in Shanghai, he’d started out reading in the Doctrine and Covenants, searching through various sections, following two themes regarding the Second Coming.

The first theme was that the Second Coming would take place “when the cup of iniquity was full.” The second was the repeated promise that the Savior would “come quickly.” It was at this point in his reading that he looked down upon the sea of lights spreading out from Tokyo and wondered about the millions of people there and elsewhere in the world who knew nothing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ or the prophecies regarding the Savior’s return. “If divine justice would no longer wait, what would happen to all of these people?” he wondered. And this is where the laptop came out.

Click to Buy

Though much of what he wrote on the flight from Shanghai didn’t end up in the book, that’s where the seed for Ere His Floods of Anger Flow was planted. But it wasn’t until the fall of 1999 that he took up the laptop again. This time it was on a plane leaving Moscow, Russia. As an attorney representing U.S. interests, Harmer had spent six hours inside the U.S. Embassy receiving a briefing regarding how the Soviet Union had prepared to use germ warfare against the United States during the late 1970s through the ‘80s. The briefing was given in a very matter of fact way, but the content was mind-boggling. The enormity of what would have taken place if the missiles containing those germ warheads had ever been launched kept him awake all night, asking himself the haunting question, “Where will it all end?” And out came the laptop again.

After a couple of weeks of writing, the project went on the back burner again for nearly two years. Then during the next six years he would work on the book on occasion, then would leave it for months at a time. It’s not that he wasn’t writing during this time period, however—he actually published three non-fiction books during this same interim: A War We Must Win (Bookcraft, 1999); Reagan, Man of Principle (Cedar Fort, 2002); and The Sex Industrial Complex, (The Lighted Candle Society, 2007).

“While writing this last book which summarizes the growth of the secret combinations that finance, produce and distribute pornography,” Harmer said, “the data that had been gathered seemed to scream out to me that indeed ‘the cup of iniquity was now full.’ After 40 years of being involved in many capacities in the fight to preserve our moral heritage, I knew that now was the time to finish my project once and for all.”

As compelled as he was to write this story, he did not feel compelled to tell anyone about it, not knowing if anyone would want to read it. In fact, even his own wife did not know he had written a novel until he had completed the first draft late last year. He knew she’d be surprised—the man hadn’t read a novel in over thirty years!

Spoiler Alert (Not)

Just so you’ll know, reading the rest of this article will not reveal any critical plot twists or how the final curtain falls on Ere His Floods of Anger Flow. But just to be sure you’ll understand the discussion that follows of why and how the book came about, it makes sense here to reprint a few paragraphs from the prologue to catch you up to speed and, hopefully, whet your appetite:

In less than two weeks the entire world went from “eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage” to a world of despair, fear, and total and complete loss of all earthly treasures. Without warning and with no time left to prepare, the world experienced the floods of anger of a God and Father who had been as tolerant and long-suffering as divine mercy would allow.

Now divine justice was to exact its toll. The technological advances that the world had extolled as making “the good life” a reality suddenly collapsed. Mankind’s feeble creations were no match for the powers of an offended heaven, and the new millennium’s promised great leap forward collapsed in ruin.

The 40 Years’ Fight

The “40 years’ fight” John referenced involve his years of experience as an attorney, an elected public official and an individual citizen working in opposition to the production, distribution and consumption of pornography. He served as lieutenant governor of California under Ronald Reagan and has served in the California State Senate. He has collaborated on many legal briefs presented to various courts on pornography cases, including the Supreme Court of the United States. He now serves as chairman of the Lighted Candle Society, a non-profit entity that is bringing together a nationwide community of concerned citizens dedicated to the eradication of pornography. This background in public service contributed richly to the characters and story lines incorporated in Ere His Floods of Anger Flow.

Through the lives of twelve main characters who are set in various locations throughout the world, John has woven a plot that captivates readers from the very first page. “Most of the characters in the book, both good and bad,” said Harmer, “are based upon experiences I have had with people that I really know.” On the 1998 trip to Tokyo he got acquainted with a Japanese businessman, serving as bishop of his local branch. This man became the inspiration for Yoshihiro Kato, a dominant force in the story line regarding the international banking crisis.

John’s travels to Central America really did bring him into contact with the inspiration for another key character in the book—a corrupt, real-life Prime Minister of Antigua, along with his vulgar, crude brother, who provides a little comic relief in the intense action that takes place in Antigua.

Harmer’s experience in Russia learning of the germ warfare that, mercifully, had not been unleashed, triggered the idea for the E. coli pandemic he wrote into the book. According to Dr. Gerald H. Ross, former president of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, “The portrait John Harmer paints of a worldwide pandemic is no mere fiction. Looking at the history of similar events—and at scriptural prophecy—sooner or later a deadly infection will likely sweep the world as a flood.”

Scientist and Scholar of the Scriptures

Harmer has always been fascinated by astronomy and has subscribed to two respected astronomy journals for many years. He’s made a collection of articles that most intrigued him and that also play heavily into the story line of Ere His Floods of Anger Flow. In the four-drawer filing cabinet where the true-life scientific reports of sunspots and gamma ray bursts reside, you’ll also find articles on hurricanes, mega-storms, economic instability, mathematical algorithms, E. coli bacteria, the effects of genetically altered seeds, archaeological digs and the methodologies for acclimatizing ancient documents. All of which (and more) make their way into this book. And all of which are scientifically valid.

“Everything that takes place in this book could actually happen in the real world,” says Harmer emphatically. In fact, it’s his belief that all the scenarios that take place in the apocalyptic two-week period in his book will indeed unfold as the world is facing the final days before Armageddon. And it’s also his belief that the events can—and may—unfold just as quickly as they do in his book; hence, his earlier references to the Savior coming quickly, which he used to interpret strictly as meaning that the Savior will come soon, in the relatively near future. Now as he reads D&C 112:24, “Behold, vengeance cometh speedily upon the inhabitants of the earth,” he sees another more frightening interpretation—when the day of vengeance does come, it will take place very quickly upon the whole earth.

Besides scientific proof, Harmer cites scriptural proof as well. A real student of the scriptures—particularly of late those regarding the Second Coming—he leads each chapter in the book by a scriptural prophecy, and, once again, backs up all of his narrative with sound scriptural authentication. “Read the Book of Revelation,” says Harmer, “or Isaiah, Ether, or the Doctrine and Covenants. According to scripture, these events will all take place. It’s just a matter of time.”

Samuel Johnson said “The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new.” John Harmer has done just that in this book. We’re all familiar with the warnings of our Latter-day Prophets and with scriptural prophecies. But John has blended these two together in a totally new way, in a most thought-provoking—as well as entertaining—way.

Kieth Merrill, Academy Award winning writer, producer, and director—famous for such hits as Windwalker and The Great American Cowboy, as well as The Testaments, said:

“The best stories take you places you have never been. Good writing creates word pictures that unwind like a blockbuster movie in the theater of your mind. Great characters are those in whom we find ourselves. In this provocative exploration of the apocalypse and personal examination of where we stand, John Harmer has managed to do all three of the above. Few books in recent memory have gripped me like Ere His Floods of Anger Flow.”

Everyone who reads this book will find some parts of themselves in these characters. Some more literally than others. In fact—word to the wise—if you’ve had any association with John Harmer in the last ten years or so, you may want to read the book just to see if you show up, and if so, how you come out in the end.

Although the book offers a compelling read with believable characters and an intriguing plot, Harmer states he did not write it solely as entertainment. “I am personally convinced,” he said, “that for mankind the time has now come when, as revealed to Joseph Smith, The day has come when the cup of the wrath of mine indignation is full . . . And at that day when I shall come in my glory, shall the parable be fulfilled which I spake concerning the ten virgins. For they that are wise and have received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived—verily I say unto you, they shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire, but shall abide the day” (D&C 43:26; 45:56-57).