Bill O'Reilly wrote about Jesus because God told him to

Verbal flagellator and dubious historian Bill O'Reilly has revealed the true inspiration behind his upcoming history book, "Killing Jesus": God.

In a forthcoming interview with "60 Minutes'" Norah O'Donnell, O'Reilly emphasized that "there's no religion in the book" and "it's all about history," but the work is absolutely a vision from God. "All of the ideas come to me in the middle of the night and one night, I just woke up and I went, 'Killing Jesus,'" he told O'Donnell. "And I believe because I'm a Catholic that comes from the Holy Spirit. My inspiration comes from that...so I wrote 'Killing Jesus' because I think I was directed to write that."

Evidently God's ideas are profitable, too: Publisher Henry Holt and Co. awarded O'Reilly and co-author Martin Dugard, who have published two other best-selling history books, with an almost $10 million advance.

O'Donnell's interview with O'Reilly airs on "60 Minutes" on Sunday, Sept. 29 at 7 pm ET.