General Editor Ted Byfield developed a method by which teams of writers, illustrators, and academics could produce a multi-volume history of the Christian faith in a remarkably short time.

Assigning the Writers

Mr. Byfield recruited Calvin Demmon, a former journalistic colleague and Monterey, California, columnist and editor, to help him direct, edit, and write the nine chapters in the first volume and those in the volumes to follow. Together they lined up some eighteen writers, mostly journalists, from across the United States and Canada. They then planned the subject matter of each chapter and the content of the sidebar stories running with the chapters.

The Writers for The Veil Is Torn:

The book opens with the Pentecost experience. Ted Byfield wrote the initial copy for Chapter 1 which reviews the ministry, trial and death of Jesus Christ as these appeared, not to his followers but to other contemporaries. Calvin Demmon wrote Chapter 2, on the first steps taken by Jesus' followers in Jerusalem.

Gary Thomas of Bellingham, Washington, author of three current Christian books and a contributor to Christianity Today magazine, produced Chapter 3, covering the persecution of the church in Jerusalem, the expulsion of Jesus' followers, and the consequent spread of the Gospel throughout Judea, Samaria, the coastal towns and Antioch.

Stephen Hopkins, director of publications at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, and a former executive editor of Alberta Report, produced Chapter 4, the first of the three chapters on Paul, describing his conversion and his first mission with Barnabas. Byfield produced the second Pauline chapter, 5, on Paul's ministry in Greece and Asia Minor, and Demmon produced the third and final Pauline chapter, 6, on Paul's ordeal in Jerusalem and consequent voyage to Rome, with a summation of the eternal debt of Christians to that man.

Charlotte Allen, a Washington, D.C,. journalist and author, contributor to the Atlantic Monthly, Washington Post and New Republic, produced Chapter 7, on the emergence of the three Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, and the reason these books have informed and shaped the lives for Christians for two thousand years.

Mark Galli, of Wheaton, Illinois, managing editor of Christianity Today magazine, produced chapter 8, on the founding of the Christian community at Rome and the horror that was inflicted upon it by the crazed emperor Nero, who blamed the little Christian congregations there for setting the fire that would destroy most of the city, then put them to hideous deaths as scapegoats for a deed for which many were blaming the emperor himself.

Frederica Mathewes-Green of Linthicum, Maryland, columnist for Christianity Today, contributor to Touchstone magazine, author of several Christian books and commentator on National Public Radio, produced the magnificent final chapter, 9, on the fall of Jerusalem and the dire fulfillment of Christ's prophecy for the city.

New Writers to the series for A Pinch of Incense:

Ian Hunter, from London, Ontario, is professor emeritus of law at the University of Western Ontario. He has written biographies of Malcolm Muggeridge and Hesketh Pearson; his most recent book is Brief Lives: Heroes, Mountebanks and lawyers. He is a frequent contributor to the Globe and Mail and National Post.

John David Powell of Houston, Texas, is a former print and broadcast journalist and former public radio network commentator. He is an executive speechwriter and award-winning Internet columnist.

Dave Shiflett of Midlothian, Virginia, has written for The Wall Street Journal, Reader's Digest, the Los Angeles Times, and Manchester Guardian, among other publications. He is the author of The America We Deserve (with Donald Trump) and co-author of Christianity on Trial.

Steve Weatherbe of Victoria, British Columbia is a former teacher, former staffer of Report newsmagazine and currently is a columnist for Sterling News Service.

Joe Woodard is for many years, religion editor for the Calgary Herald and currently edits the Western Standard Newsmagazine. He has taught politics and philosophy at universities in both Canada and the United States, and researched social policy for both Canadian and US governments.

New Writers to the series for By This Sign:

Vincent Carroll of Denver, Colorado, a journalist and author, is the editor for the editorial pages of the Rocky Mountain News. He is the co-author (with David Shiflett, also a contributor to this series) of Christianity on Trial: Arguments Against Anti-Religious Bigotry.

Eleanor Gasparik of Edmonton, AB, has worked as editor of Cooking at Home magazine, and has written for Template magazine, Alberta Woman, Western Living, and the Alberta in the 20th Century history series.

Eddie Keen of Smoky Lake, AB, was for 17 years a reporter and editor at the Edmonton Journal, and then for twenty years a highly popular commentator on CHED radio in Edmonton, during which time he also wrote a column for the Edmonton Sun.

John Muggeridge is a journalist and retired college professor of English and history, living in Toronto, ON. He is married to writer Anne Roche and is son of the English journalist and author, Malcolm Muggeridge.

Paul Sullivan, of Vancouver, BC, has been a columnist for the Globe and Mail national Canadian newspaper and a former managing editor of the Vancouver Sun. Also a former morning show host for CBC radio in Vancouver, he now runs an Internet consulting company.