The Jesus Inquest by Charles Foster

I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com <http://booksneeze.com/> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review.

This book is an apologetic debate with a difference as both sides are argued by the same guy! Charles Foster says he read ,The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel and didn't like  the approach Strobel uses, interviewing lots of smart guys who are Christians without letting smart non-believers make their case. He believes both cases should be made, that the evidence should be presented for both sides. Charles Foster claims that he has argued both sides so the book could be more comprehensive as he has read widely on the area of Jesus' resurrection.  He believes as  a lawyer he can argue both sides without letting his bias get in the way. It's quite a claim, does he pull it off? Well no, as his bias comes out, in terms of comprehensiveness the answer is yes and no! Yes, if by comprehensive he means that he has read every book on the shelf of his local secular bookstall on this issue. No, if he means he has gone to a good theological college and read all the books on the issue in their library. The book itself takes on some of the arguments made popular by Dan Brown, the Jesus family Tomb etc. These arguments themselves are weak and are not taken seriously by those who have taken the time to investigate. However since I started reading this book the conversations I have had with non-believers relate to these issues. If they have heard anything it is via Dan Brown or Simcha Jacobovici's Jesus family tomb and the arguments that they go for are precisely the ones made popular by them in their books and TV programmes. It's a shame that he took these arguments seriously and yet  takes a superior tone over arguments that are equally ridiculous. That said, Foster's book  could be a useful book and for the most part it is very readable.  However I struggled with the book precisely because Foster is one man. He calls himself x when he takes the non-Christian argument, and Y when arguing as a Christian. I found it silly that there was a joint statement between X and Y and frustrating when X and Y attacked "each others" intellectual honesty or abilities. If you can get over that then it might be worth reading, but I couldn't.

God Bless
Stephen <><

In my place condemned He stood- Barabbas' story

All of the Gospels tell us of the trial of Jesus of Nazareth and His crucifixtion. They also tell us of a criminal who was tried and found guilty but was ultimately freed. His name was Barabbas, he was guilty of murder and causing an insurrection, maybe the men crucified on either side of Jesus were Barabbas co-insurrectionists. Most people have heard of Barabbas, yet what most Christians might not be aware of is that in the early manuscripts (and more reliable?) of Matthew's Gospel we are told that his first name was Jesus. It likely that this is true as it is more likely that a later editor took out the name Jesus Barabbas (for pious reasons) than added it. Also the name Jesus was very common in the Second Temple period. Barabbas means Son of the Father, as Pilate asked the crowd whom shall I free, Jesus, Son of the Father from Nazareth or Jesus son of the father, the insurrectionist?  I wonder if Barabbas thought it was a one horse race as he must of heard of Jesus the wonder worker and knew that many people had been healed by Jesus. Maybe he had heard the commotion on the first day of the week when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey to shouts proclaiming Him as the Son of David. How shocked he would have been then when the crowd shouted out "free Barabbas!" Did he hear Pilate pleading for the innocent Jesus? Barabbas knew he was guilty of his crime, and Jesus was innocent. Did Barabbas know that Jesus died in His place on that first good Friday? Do you know that He stood in your place as he suffered and died and His Father poured out His wrath on Him? 

God Bless You through His Son!

Stephen <><

The Wordsmith, the Kid and the Electrolux by Clifford Leigh

 I don't read many novels but I have recently finished an excellent novel, it's well written, griping and thoroughly orthodox. It tells the story of a boy called Corey, Corey is angry with his dad and this leads him into a life of crime,  and selfish indulgence, stealing from his dad's box of change to fulfill his craving for ice cream. Corey becomes more and more self-centred and yet nothing can fulfill his desire or stop him from his crime. That is until he is swept away quite literally by the vacuum cleaner which leads him into a magically world under the family tree. The world he enters is a world of pictures, he is somewhat confused until he meets Benjamin Endbend and his twin brother Ben Endbend they have been here before and Benjamin is able to interpret the pictures for Corey. Corey is drawn to Benjamin but finds his take on this new world both breathtaking and challenging and realising he has more in common with Ben, who is on a complete downer. The gang goes on  an adventure through several pictures and in the process Corey changes to become more like Benjamin. In one of the pictures he encounters the wordsmith who is the creator of this picture, whilst in the wordsmiths shop, the boys encounter a couple of tourists who cannot see the wordsmith and are convinced that Benjamin and Corey are mad and need help. The tourists take the boys to their home town, a place that used to be called Vanity Fair where Faithful died a short while ago. Vanity Fair is no longer a fair but a sprawling metropolis called New Dragonstoy.This is where the adventure really kicks off and where Corey's life is changed for good. If you enjoy C .S Lewis' writings then you'll also enjoy this as the style is similar ,the theology however is much more orthodox as it is both  robustly reformed and evangelical. I hope in time it becomes a best seller and I commend it to you. 

God Bless

 Stephen <><