Gene Edwards was one of the world’s most beloved Christian storytellers, a pioneer in unveiling the mystery of Christ and His Church. He authored over thirty books—many translated into multiple languages—including modern Christian classics such as A Tale of Three Kings, The Divine Romance, and The Prisoner in the Third Cell. His extensive body of biblical fiction includes The Highest Life, The Secret to the Christian Life, The Inward Journey, The Chronicles of Heaven series, and The First-Century Diaries.

Born in east Texas on July 18, 1932, to Blackie Edwards, an oil-field roughneck, and Gladys Brewer Edwards, a schoolteacher, Gene had a life-altering encounter with the love of God at the age of seventeen—an experience he once described as “liquid love.” From that moment, he devoted his life to proclaiming that, in Christ, believers are the focus of God's eternal love and the very purpose of creation.

Gene earned a Master of Divinity in Biblical and Theological Studies from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1954 at just twenty-one years old. That same year, he married Helen Rogers, beginning a remarkable seventy-four-year romance—sixty-eight of which they shared as husband and wife. Helen served as Gene’s closest ministry partner and primary editor throughout his career and continues to steward his legacy today.

Gene’s ministry spanned over seventy years and included roles as a city-wide crusade evangelist, pastor, church planter, author, public speaker, publisher, and scholar of church history. He was a leading voice in the restoration of the Church to its original, organic expression—meeting in homes, centered on Christ, and free from religious hierarchy. Through conferences and personal discipleship, he helped believers across the U.S. and abroad experience church life as it was practiced in the first century.

He went home to be with his Lord in December 2022, leaving behind a profound spiritual and literary legacy that continues to inspire generations of Christians.