Sometimes it only needs permission.

And permission is rarely acknowledged as something we’ve given.

Evil rarely storms the gates. More often, it enters quietly—through hesitation, silence, or the belief that someone else will intervene.

In my previous post about The Permission, I explored the disturbing idea that evil often progresses through human consent. But the novel also grapples with another question—one that echoes the ancient story of Job.

The book of Job has been studied and debated for centuries by Christian, Jewish, and Muslim thinkers. It confronts what theologians call the problem of evil—the question of why suffering exists in a world governed by a good God.

It wrestles with suffering, justice, and the sovereignty of God, and asks one of humanity’s deepest questions: if God is good, why would He permit something He has the power to stop?

Most of us eventually face that question—not in philosophy books but in hospital rooms, at funerals, in broken families, and in moments when faith feels painfully silent.

Rather than attempt another scholarly study of Job, I chose to explore that question through a modern suspense thriller—allowing the power of story to bring it into the present.

John Cain is a pastor who once seemed unshakeable—until the year everything broke.

His wife is depressed after their young daughter’s death. His teenage son is distant and silent, and the church Cain dedicated his life to is fracturing. He is questioning every decision he’s made as a husband, father, and shepherd.

As Cain staggers under the weight of grief and collapsing ministry, a sudden coordinated attack strikes both America and Israel. His church is attacked by terrorists, a tour group from his congregation disappears in Israel, and a major American city faces an imminent biological threat.

And Cain—exhausted, disillusioned, and unsure he can still hear God at all—is thrust into the center of a conflict that spans continents. He is confronted with a rising wave of terrorism, and wounds he has avoided for years—and the faith he fears may be slipping away.

The Permission, the first book in The Cain Family Chronicles, explores evil, consent, and the moral courage of a man who has lost nearly everything—and finds that the fight for his own soul might be connected to the fate of many others.

In the weeks ahead, we will launch the second book in the series, Asset Delta, and continue the story that raises the stakes even higher.

THE PERMISSION – available now on Amazon in paperback and eBook.