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Final Departure: A Christian Apologetics Novel Exploring Faith, Logic, and Near-Death Experiences

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Benjamin Franklin Silver Award Winner from the Independent Book Publishers Association.

First Place Grand Prize Winner in the Christian Author Awards Competition.

Readers Favorite International Gold Medal Winner.

eLit Gold Medal Winner.

TopShelf Magazine Gold Finalist.

Two Silver President Awards - Florida Author and Publishers Association.

"An absorbing and inherently fascinating read from beginning to end..." - Midwest Book Review

" An irresistible read... I was fascinated by Walton's expert sleuthhound work...his meticulous research and documentation are neatly compressed in each chapter..." Ric P, Chief of Operations, CIA Counterterrorist Center (Retired)

"A must read for adults of all ages! Final Departure is a sobering and introspective look at life, death and beyond..." Mark Clookie, Director, NCIS (Retired)

DEATH IS NEVER ON TIME

NCIS veteran Dan Lucas is a man of few words. He spent a career keeping his nation's secrets safe and his personal life--including his faith--private. But when a routine flight home turns into a chaotic nightmare when a lethal storm strands Dan and thousands of passengers inside a dark and clammy airport terminal - he's forced to act.

Dan is secretly carrying a massive cache of information that he never planned to share with anyone. But that all changes when an atheist professor chooses the seat next to him... and sparks begin to fly. A caustic battle of the minds erupts between the seasoned spy catcher and the cynical secular Jew that grinds on into the wee hours of the night. What does Dan reveal to the tenured academic during a gut- wrenching night of mayhem and death? Can it save the professor before it's too late?

Their all-night marathon ends with a sudden series of crushing events. Who dies and who survives? What unbelievable miracle is the final result?

244 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 26, 2016

264 people are currently reading
116 people want to read

About the author

Jeff Walton

2 books3 followers

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5 stars
230 (64%)
4 stars
87 (24%)
3 stars
23 (6%)
2 stars
9 (2%)
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10 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
Profile Image for David McClendon, Sr.
Author 1 book23 followers
April 27, 2017
We were sent a copy of this book by the author for the purpose of writing a review. We are a strong military family. Every male in our family who was physically able to serve in the military has done so.

The author, Jeff Walton, is a former Navy man. Our oldest son is a chief petty officer in the navy. Our youngest son is a corporal in the United States Marine Corp (oorah). As you may know, the Marine Corps is a department of the Navy. The Men’s Department!!

Final Departure is a great book. We rate books on a scale of zero to five stars. Zero is absolutely terrible and five stars means the book is wonderful. Five might mean the book is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

If we could, we would give this wonderful book 490 stars. Since the most we can give it is five stars, that is what it gets.

The pace of this book is a little slow, but there is reason that the book is a little slow. Jeff Walton uses the slow pace to present the case for believing in the Bible.

Throughout this book, scientific facts are presented that back up the validity of the Bible. We are both Bible-believing Christians and we were not aware of many of these facts.

The Bible tells us in Matthew 5:17 NIV
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

This is an important verse to remember when reading Final Departure. It will help to make much of what you read understandable.

We find this book to be very sound doctrinally. If you are a Christian and you struggle with how to explain Christianity to non-Christians, this book might very well give you the information you need to help you explain your beliefs.

If you are a non-Christian but you want to understand why your Christian friends hold on to the Bible and their faith, Final Departure might give you the information you seek.

We enjoyed the book immensely. It is suspenseful and entertaining. We hope you enjoy it. If you would like to send us a question or comment, please drop us an email to: gindysvideos@gmail.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel and we thank you.
Profile Image for Linda Chiong.
1 review
October 1, 2017
Very entertaining!  My thoughts that places me between Lucas and Chernick.  My molding years with RVM sisters and entire college in a Dominican convent school, I was bombarded by Religion and Theology courses all through.  By the time I got done with school,  I'm a semi-fall out and relied on the golden rule.  I am grateful to Walton for writing this book.  Imagine me as the third character that I wouldn't know which side I'm on.  But, at the end of it all, Walton's message was clear.  An intellectual read and highly recommended.
Profile Image for David McClendon, Sr.
Author 1 book23 followers
April 27, 2017
We were sent a copy of this book by the author for the purpose of writing a review. We are a strong military family. Every male in our family who was physically able to serve in the military has done so.

The author, Jeff Walton, is a former Navy man. Our oldest son is a chief petty officer in the navy. Our youngest son is a corporal in the United States Marine Corp (oorah). As you may know, the Marine Corps is a department of the Navy. The Men’s Department!!

Final Departure is a great book. We rate books on a scale of zero to five stars. Zero is absolutely terrible and five stars means the book is wonderful. Five might mean the book is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

If we could, we would give this wonderful book 490 stars. Since the most we can give it is five stars, that is what it gets.

The pace of this book is a little slow, but there is reason that the book is a little slow. Jeff Walton uses the slow pace to present the case for believing in the Bible.

Throughout this book, scientific facts are presented that back up the validity of the Bible. We are both Bible-believing Christians and we were not aware of many of these facts.

The Bible tells us in Matthew 5:17 NIV
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

This is an important verse to remember when reading Final Departure. It will help to make much of what you read understandable.

We find this book to be very sound doctrinally. If you are a Christian and you struggle with how to explain Christianity to non-Christians, this book might very well give you the information you need to help you explain your beliefs.

If you are a non-Christian but you want to understand why your Christian friends hold on to the Bible and their faith, Final Departure might give you the information you seek.

We enjoyed the book immensely. It is suspenseful and entertaining. We hope you enjoy it. If you would like to send us a question or comment, please drop us an email to: gindysvideos@gmail.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel and we thank you.
Profile Image for Skye Taylor.
Author 23 books32 followers
August 20, 2017
Well written and especially well researched. This book will make you think and rethink your convictions both faith based and not. It's not an easy read, but then introspection and facing self doubt is not an easy task. An interesting setting and a great ending.
Profile Image for Rick.
3 reviews
October 27, 2019
Brilliant!

At 57 years old, I learned more reading this book, than almost all the other Christian books I have read combined.
If you are struggling with your Faith, are New to Christianity, or, haven't any Faith at all. This book is for you!
Profile Image for Lydia Woodbury.
60 reviews1 follower
February 26, 2024
I almost gave this book 3 stars, and here's why!
I chose to read this book because it was a Christian Thriller. I was hoping for a thrilling tale with Christian aspects woven into it. And though there were indeed some thrilling parts to this book, I would not classify it as a Thriller. This book is more of a fictional, apologetic-theological novel that has a few thrilling aspects to the plot. Originally, my frustration with the lack of a thicker plot line & thriller action sequences led me to give this a 3 star rating. However, upon finishing the book I realized that I truly liked the book overall. Even though I was craving a more stirring plot line, the book still impacted me with some key moments of good character development and beautiful arguments for God.

I definitely did not agree with every point made in this book, like the modernized take on Calvinism that was sort of mixed with classic Armenian views. That part just didn't work for me and didn't logically flow. It felt like more of a pandering to both sides of the argument. There were a few more aspects that I didn't agree with but the biggest argument that drove me up the wall was the constant blubbering on and on about NDEs. The author sort of killed the ending of this book because he pumped this NDE argument up to the point of aggravation. Even the other main character in this book seemed frustrated with how often it came up, and you almost knew as the reader that he or someone was going to die, or nearly die, and then be resuscitated and recall an NDE experience. This ruined the ending for me, and kind of killed the majority of the book's conversations that were fighting to uplift the existence and need for God. If all that was truly needed for this atheistic character to believe was a near death experience, then why sit and chat with him literally all night in this freezing cold airport? I'm not at all saying that it was wasted, as I believe these conversations are seeds being planted within an unbeliever's heart so that they may hopefully one day see those seeds come to a fruition of faith. I think that these conversations on their own are worthy of being useful, powerful and a way for God to move. But by having the atheist character ultimately have his moment of belief only after he had a NDE, you remove the impact and importance of the hours and hours the main character spent pouring life and love into the unbelieving character. I don't discredit the power of NDEs, and I know there are lots out there that are likely true, because Jesus loves meeting with his children, and also those who are not yet believers. But there was too much weight placed on NDEs for me to feel more comfortable with the truth and power of the conversations that took up 90% of this novel. And though I enjoyed the intellectual sparring (mostly), I was craving some balanced story telling to this so called "thrilling" plot line. Perhaps if these other elements were more evenly balanced and distributed throughout the story, I wouldn't have been so thrown off and upset with the obsessive NDE focus.

Overall, I don't dislike this book, I did enjoy it. And I want to support and do support literature like this, where we can speak the truth about God and present logical & biblical facts to further uplift the Kingdom of God. This book is no failure in my mind, it just could have used a stronger plot line or perhaps a renaming of the genre for this book. I did appreciate the boldness of this author, despite my thoughts about the plot or the couple things I didn't agree on theologically. We need more authors like this, who are willing to write truth like this in a world where truth is being attacked.
6 reviews
January 25, 2023
Incredibly Interesting!

I'll begin by saying that a lot of this book consists of dialogue, with the protagonist doing most of the talking and the antagonist mostly asking short questions to give a sort of platform for a large amount of factual information to be disseminated.

That being said, this book is fantastic! I'm not going to say that I agree with every single point Mr. Walton makes; on the crucial ones, however, I do. Also, despite the large degree of dialogue, the story is still fascinating, with plenty of twists and turns. It is fast-paced, believable, and the characters are extremely likeable as well as relatable.

One of the most fascinating things about this book is the factual material. Much of it sounds as though it would be impossible; you will find yourself asking, "Is that really true or did he invent it for the book?" and "If that's true why don't more people know about this?" As someone who has come across all of the facts this author has and which he includes here, I can attest to the truth of what is written in this book. I also think it's -- the only word that comes to mind is "insane" -- that facts such as these have remained obscure. It also strikes me as ironic that Christians (authentic Christians, at least) are considered feeble-minded and weak with all of the evidence that's readily available pointing to the truth of God and the Bible as a supernatural, supportive document. I'm incredibly grateful to Jeff Walton for writing and sharing this book; the information in this book needs to be far more widely known.

I would also like to plainly say that this book is a page-turner. I could not put it down. I also bought the sequel as soon as I read the last page of this book. I'm so grateful for Amazon for linking to the sequel so I became aware of it and could immediately possess it!

I think one thing I was only slightly disappointed with was that some of the situations were left unresolved. They helped the story to be told, which was their purpose, but human nature being what it is, we want to see all of the details, have our every question answered, and understand what happened to so-and-so in the end. Despite this, it is still a very satisfying read. I was not left feeling as though things were left unresolved. It hasn't frustrated me.

I know I will re-read this and its sequel, Divine Return, many times, as well as begin a file on the factual content for the purpose of my own research. Mr. Walton's research was truly flawless. He has given me some great ideas and leads to follow. I've got large sections highlighted for this very reason. I also plan on buying a large quantity of copies of both this and the sequel to gift to family members and friends. This book has definitely left me wanting to know more. I can't wait for more!

Oh, and I already read the sequel. I couldn't put it down long enough to write this review!
39 reviews
February 6, 2021
Unexpectedly Better Than I Thought It Would Be

Having never read this author, I purchased this book because it's plot seemed intriguing and it was a single book rather than part of a series.

Intertwined within its plot is a conversation that makes up the bulk of the book's content. And while it at times it seems a bit contrived, the information conveyed is fascinating and touches upon areas most people pass by or brush aside.

I found myself drawn in over the course of the book into a fascinating take on the Bible and Christianity that provided some interesting new concepts and interpretations that made the read very worthwhile.

The objections of the protagonist to the main characters take on Christianity were realistic and honest. The responses were the same.

I even ended up feeling some unexpected emotional responses to the character events at the end .

A good read, entertaining and thought provoking in enough ways to recommend it to those with a curiosity about the topic of our mortality and purposes here which we all must face in one way or another some day, like it or not.
Profile Image for Teresa Rollen.
234 reviews7 followers
January 13, 2024
This book was so entertaining and so interesting. It centers around a Christian man named Dan who is stranded at an airport due to bad weather. He befriends a man there who is an atheist professor. This man starts asking him a lot of questions about his faith. I listened to it on audio and couldn’t quit listening. I listened to it in one sitting.

I learned a few things about some performers that I didn’t know. I found this to be a great book on the Christian faith. The professor asks a lot of good questions and Dan explains the answers in a way that anyone can understand. This makes this a good book for a new Christian or someone who is just curious about the Christian faith.

I highly recommend this book. It was a great read and I didn’t want it to end. I was thinking that I wish this book would continue with another book. Then at the end of the audio the author mentioned that there was indeed a second book that picks up where this one left off. I immediately went and bought the Kindle edition. The second book unfortunately doesn’t have an audiobook.
8 reviews
March 19, 2024
Amazing!

I got this book on my Kindle. I love reaching fiction stories of Jesus and the end times. I thought this was another one. Boy was I wrong!! This book got to my soul. I could not stop reading it. I have been through stop much pain on the last ten years and have been stuck in a major Depressive state for the last ten months trying to vett help and being stopped three times because of insurance. This book made me feel something, something i had let go of because of my pain. My relationship with my God and my savior, Jesus Christ. I JUST now finished the book and I'm already ready to renew that relationship..
Do something really good for your soul. READ THIS BOOK!
Thank you, Mr. Walton for writing this amazing, soul affecting book.
Profile Image for Flora Reigada.
Author 10 books17 followers
June 13, 2024
If you enjoy apologetics and want to learn more, this is the book for you. It is well-written and well-researched.
The story basically consists of two men in an airport, waiting for a flight delayed by a storm. They start to talk and the conversation leads to faith. One is a believer; the other is not. The believer presents his argument par excellence, while the unbeliever does not contribute much to the conversation. That is my only question about this book. The unbeliever seemed too passive. I have plenty of them as friends and family. They would not sit quietly while I presented my argument. Still, I give this book 5 Stars. It convinces. Good work.
44 reviews1 follower
May 19, 2022
Awesome book, A great read, Be prepared for a long read You want to put it down.

I have read many Christian books over the last 5 years And this is 1 of The best coherent stays on point easy to understand And also verified facts. It was more than just a pleasure to read it though Like a bible study class It's fiction not.
I can't I can't wait to buy the next book And see what Dan's up to again. God bless you and all of you Take it all to parts Are you reading do not ever know what time our time is up.
14 reviews
February 22, 2020
There was a good story laid out in all the facts,

I enjoyed the story, actually especially enjoyed the story line, when I began to recognize it. God brings together ❤with needs. The need to hear what the other said. The connection supernatural , would have ended, had not Dan's heart accepted the challenge with great joy, and trying circumstances, even so, God brought about the necessary helps to grow one, while going back for another soul. Being ready at all times Karen
Profile Image for Christine Thomas.
9 reviews4 followers
January 11, 2021
Great read Christian or not!

I’m new to reading Christian fiction and wasn’t expecting a good story but that is what I found in this book. I was really pleased by the various characters that you got to know and understand within the book. I also really enjoyed the conversation between the two main characters. For being a book mostly about a conversation between two people this book had me riveted !
1 review
March 13, 2024
I really did not like this book. I actually did not finish it for 2 reasons: 1) it was very hard to follow. 2) it’s supposed to be CHRISTIAN suspense! But it contained profanity. That was an absolute shock and massive disappointment. The Bible says that no corrupt communication should proceed out of our mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying. (That’s in Ephesians 4). Profanity is not edifying.
295 reviews
August 8, 2020
Not your everyday Christian fiction

A wonderfully written story of sin and redemption and everything in between. A huge gathering of facts and faith! The story is interesting while teaching the truths of the Bible. I’ve been a Christian for over 40 years and I learned things I’d either never heard or didn’t understand. God bless Mr. Walton!
9 reviews1 follower
September 10, 2020
Being an author myself, I was intrigued at how well written this book is. I am still pretty new to the arena and other works are helping to better my writing. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

You had a lot of accurate biblical truths in your book. Keep up the good work. For this list and dying world that we live in, God's name can't be announced enough.
Profile Image for John.
22 reviews1 follower
November 20, 2020
Truly Fun Read That May Change You

This is a simply good story that does a great job of presenting a case for Christ. Regardless of if you believe in God or not, I do by the way, you will not only this to be an entertaining book, but also proactive and even eye opening. God is not dead...
98 reviews
February 8, 2021
This is worth your read !!!!

I really enjoyed this book. You are a Blessed man.
When reading a book I normally read through them quickly
This book was a different read. There were different reasons. Stop, make supper. Stop, feed the cat. All the stops made me have time to think. This is now my favorite book.
1 review
November 20, 2021
Great Story that runs full circle to an amazing conclusion

The concept that a near death experience could help "prove" a spiritual other world that we was bible believing Christians are called to "believe" and "have faith" was captivating and exhilarating. Thank you for sharing with the Christian community. Interested in learning more.
5 reviews
February 16, 2024
Very Good Read

I believe in demons! In fact I believe I had an encounter with one a few weeks ago! I am 73 yrs old and have been saved since I was 6. I always believed in demons but a few weeks ago was my first and I pray my only encounter with one. Praise the Lord He helped me through it!! Your book was very interesting to me and I look forward to more from you!!! LAP
200 reviews1 follower
May 31, 2020
Very Thought Provocative

I will admit at times I had to get out my Bible and check a few items out but found sound Biblical backing for the items in question. Thank you for writing a time relevant book. I look forward to reading rhe next one.
12 reviews
March 9, 2021
Bias runs both ways. God and Science do coexist and support each other!

What a drag! Thought this would be a good novel. Not so. Blatantly biased with minimal rationale for the position of the protagonist. Would rate a zero if the system allowed!
1 review
April 14, 2021
I enjoyed reading Final Departure very much. I t is a great book.

I think your idea of writing a book to tell people that God is real and Jesus died to save them is a wonderful ideal .
Profile Image for June Reginald.
1 review1 follower
January 19, 2022
Salvation

Wonderful and up lifting. I would recommend this book to everyone. Jeff as taken a rather difficult task of explaining God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in a way that brings them in reach of everyone
15 reviews
January 1, 2023
Good book that does a good job defending the Christian faith.

Great book. It certainly gives concrete info on defending the Bible. It has a good storyline, too. Well worth reading.
65 reviews
February 29, 2024
No--sorry, apologetic lectures strung together within a poorly written story line does not a novel make. I'm entirely in support of Christian fiction/thrillers, but one must still have a credible, well-crafted story.
1 review
June 16, 2025
Kept the interest of a selective reader

I enjoyed reading this book. The mix of mystery and theology was blended well into not only an intriguing tale but has piqued an interest in NDEs for me.
1 review
April 23, 2020
Very informative





I was having a conversation with a person who wasn't sure it there is a God. When God led me to this book. WOW, now I have a lot more information to share.

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