Source: Order and Chaos Publisher: Nick Brady | Author: Nick Brady Published: February 11, 2026 | Archived: March 31, 2026

This is Part 3 of a series. Read Part 1 and Part 2 to fully understand the context.

It was almost ten years ago when I first sensed the invitation—for lack of a better word—to start this “Henolith” website. And I would have probably gotten right on it, given the impulsiveness and idealism of my twenties.

However, a series of events occurred which put things indefinitely “on hold.”

Stephanie and I suffered some spiritual abuse and manipulation from a contact of ours, which brought us to a very dark place in its aftermath (maybe a story for another day… or maybe not). We also had such strong hopes and expectations for the immediate future with regard to whatever ministry God had for us that it almost put us into a regular state of frenzy.

Furthermore, as we slowly figured out life in that little camper on the farm, it turns out that I had steadily been becoming very controlling myself. I was making demands upon our family to strive higher and higher and to purify our lifestyle more and more for the sake of what I had perceived to be the call of God.

It was a well-intentioned mess.

This all came to a head in the months to follow. By the all-benevolent grace of God, I crashed and burned in a very short period of time. I entered into one of the darkest periods of my life—a place where all I could think or feel when it came to God was fear and judgment. A place where I was so low, that the words that our merciful Father had to speak to me to gently guide me out of the depths of my despair was not, “I love you”—but rather, “I don’t hate you.”

These four words—which I heard from the carpet of the 5 AM living room floor—caused me to weep like I hadn’t in years. Possibly ever.

Over time, the Lord revealed to me that what I had been “taking” from him—this fear of failure and insecurity regarding his love—was really what I had been “dishing out” to others. Despite my sincere desire for truth and holiness, I was demanding it on my terms, according to my standards, on my timeline… and my family was suffering for it. It was time for me to suffer for them—as was my call as a husband and father.

So our life radically changed course. Within the span of a year or so, we moved out of that camper, bought a fixer-upper house in Lexington, NC, and I ended up going back to school to finish my bachelor’s degree.

Life became much more “normal.” At least in some respects. *wink*

My original purpose in sharing all of the above was to give a *quick* account of the transition to the next phase of our life, where “Henolith” began to take on a new meaning. That kind of got out of hand. 😅

I can’t say that I was anticipating writing all of the personal details. They just, sort of, spilled out. My prayer is that someone will be encouraged by it, even if it may be a high-level summary.

But now, at least, we can understand the scenery for the next “act.” I was commuting back and forth to Charlotte, NC to obtain my history degree, while simultaneously fixing up a historic home for my family in uptown Lexington.

I had chosen to study history for two reasons.

The much more “practical” reason was because I suspected that being a history teacher would be a good fit for a career path for me. (And I still think this, even if that career hasn’t ultimately panned out.)

The other, much deeper rationale, was because even though my family had exited the tumult of “super-spiritual-camper-life,” we were still in the wilderness with regard to knowing our place within the body of Christ and understanding the truth regarding so many aspects of what we were to believe and how we were to live. I still hungered to know the truth in its fullness.

Though I would not have phrased it this way at the time, I think the instability of that previous season of life had shown me that it was not good to rely merely on “the Bible + private Holy Spirit guidance” to discern the Christian faith. I needed to also use my God-given faculty of reason to understand the facts of history. What had our forefathers believed throughout the past millennia? How have things changed? How have they stayed the same? How have Christians lived faithfully through time? How might the historical context of Scripture help me to better understand its teachings?

All of these questions—and more—were driving me as I went about my studies.

One of the many ways in which my understanding shifted during this season of life was growing to appreciate more and more the vast chasm in worldviews between ancient peoples and ourselves, and how much we miss when we read the Scriptures because we tend to approach it with a modern, scientific, naturalistic understanding of the world.

Before I had the right words to express what I was undergoing, this paradigm shift was beginning to lead me deeply into all things “apocalyptic.”

And you may be thinking, “Woah, Nick, you got out of one weirdo spiritual condition and jumped right into another!”

I may be weird, but not in the way you think.

By “apocalyptic,” I do not mean, “obsessed with end times speculation and newspaper prophecy,” as many people tend to associate the word. (Although the “end times” does factor into it.)

By “apocalyptic,” I mean, at least in part, what biblical scholars have come to describe over the past several decades as being the dominant worldview of first-century Jews and Christians. The word also can refer to the genre of literature that includes books of Scripture like Daniel and Revelation (it is taken from the Greek title of Revelation, “ἀποκάλυψις”), as well as many other Second Temple Jewish texts like Enoch.

When I am speaking of the “apocalyptic”—particularly of the Christian variety—I am referring to that ancient perspective which assumes beliefs such as the following:

1. The reality of our cosmos goes deeply beyond the visible/material. There are complex, unseen forces, both good and evil, that are always at work, and which always are influencing both things we could call “natural,” as well as the course of human events—from the political to the personal.

2. Symbology and numerology are not human fictions. Within them there are profound truths which reveal deep aspects of the reality that proceeds from the mind of God and how he has so ordered creation and the human/angelic consciousness. (There are evil distortions of them, to be sure, but this only further affirms the existence of the ongoing cosmic battle.)

3. History is not a meaningless, deterministic sequence of cause and effect, but it has a purpose and an end determined by the God who created time and space. It is structured into ages which each have their own significance in the great cosmic story. It has cyclical patterns which repeat themselves again and again, even as everything progresses toward its ultimate conclusion.

4. The rise and fall of geopolitical powers should be valued and interpreted in the light of God’s sovereign intentions and eternal purpose for humanity—particularly the preservation of his own chosen people—and not for temporal human agendas, however noble these might be.

5. The evil and suffering that humans have endured in this life shall ultimately be redeemed, and the chaos of this world brought about by sin shall ultimately be brought to order under God’s rule.

As I began immersing myself in the subject matter of ancient apocalyptic thought (both at the scholastic level, as well as in popular-level podcasts), another meaning of the word “Henolith” began to manifest itself.

As a result of the content I was consuming, I was frequently being exposed to “-lithic” words.

As I’m sure many of you are aware, historians and archaeologists have often divided up human history by the materials that people primarily used at those times. There’s the “bronze” and “iron” ages, but then there’s also “paleolithic,” “neolithic,” etc., referring to the “old” and “new” stone ages.

Furthermore, “megaliths” or “megalithic structures” are ancient, “giant stones” used for the construction of various monuments, temples, etc.—e.g., the pyramids, Stonehenge, Gobekli Tepe, etc. These usually reveal ancient beliefs regarding cosmology and eschatology, and are deeply mysterious to us in nature.

For me, what I was coming to understand is that Christ himself is the “Henolith”—the “one rock”—which gives ultimate meaning to ALL of “history”—that is, all of the ages of the cosmos. He is the one who unifies time and space into a cohesive narrative. He is the purpose for which the universe exists.

This understanding is reflected in the logo of this Substack. I’m not going to break down all of the details at this point, but I’ll let you try to figure it out for yourself for now.

Tomorrow, I will explain the final and most unexpected meaning of “Henolith,” which I discovered in the years to follow.