About this deal
Buy a set of books as gifts to battered women’s shelters, prisons, rehabilitation homes and the like where people might be really encouraged by the story and its message. one of the reasons it makes no sense to you is because you have such a small view of what it means to be human. You and this Creation are incredible, whether you understand it or not. You are wonderful beyond imagination. Just because you make horrendous and destructive choices does not mean you deserve less respect for what you inherently are - the pinnacle of my Creation and the center of my affection.” And He said to all, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it." (Luke 9:23-24) Divine intervention comes by way of an invitation to the place where his little girl breathed her last. Masochism, curiosity, and a longing for answers and closure compels him to go alone to the spot. God appears, taking three forms: You do this because you don’t believe. You don’t know that I love you. The person who lives by their fears will not find freedom in my love. I am not talking about rational fears regarding legitimate dangers, but imagined fears, and especially those into the future. To the degree that those fears have a place in your life you neither believe I am good nor know deep in your heart that I love you. You sing about it; you talk about it, but you don’t know it.”
Yet, even amongst Christians there are many differences in theology. This author focused largely upon one of those areas where different denominations have varying beliefs -- free will vs. predestined fate. The author was clearly in the "free will" camp. Not surprisingly, readers who fall in the "predestined fate" camp will take issue with one of the major premises of the story. Case no. CV 10-3246 JFW (JCx) Plaintiffs' opposition to defendant William Paul Young's motion to dismiss the first amended complaint". US District Court, Central District of California, Western Division . Retrieved 30 July 2011. Papa is one facet of the three-part God depicted in the novel (the others being Jesus and Sarayu). Papa also calls herself “Elousia,” which Jesus explains means “the Creator God. She fills the role… A parent struggles with his worldview after a family camping trip ends in the abduction of his daughter by a serial rapist/killer.Case no. CV 10-3246 JFW (JCx) First amended complaint ..." US District Court, Central District of California, Western Division . Retrieved 30 July 2011. I won't give away the story or the message, but I will say that is resonated strongly with me. At the core it is about God's unfailing love for his children. His desire to draw every one of his children to him. How this love transcends our hurts and tragedies. How he ususes even the worst situations as avenues of redemption. I can suspend disbelief in books about zombies, vampires, genius eleven year old girls, chimera, reasonable Republicans (okay, that one was difficult) but I couldn't do it with this book, or other books like it, because these books have a agenda to make you believe in the stuff they are writing about and that makes my stomach turn. At the beginning the ever narrating narrator narrated (and I paraphrase) 'You may not believe in Mac's story here. He doesn't care, maybe this book isn't for you'.....okay.....'But then again maybe it is!' ***drama sting****
I'm also not what I would consider to be a very religious person. I don't offend easily and I respect the views of others. I was raised as a Methodist, but I'm not a devout follower by any means. As far as the theological aspect goes I think he presents God in a way that challenges our notions of who exactly we think he is. It seems to be done in a deliberate way and to be honest it sometimes made me uncomfortable. This was written by someone who believes in the Trinity but was making attempts to show how they function separately. All of the characterization of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit and their interactions with each other felt off to me. However the conversations they have with the main character provided some amazing insight to me as to the love God has for us and just exactly how arrogant we can be in our judgements of God's decisions whether those judgements be conscious or not.As an aside, the disrespectful way Jesus was portrayed drove me nuts. He was God in the flesh, not a mere clumsy human. ...I cannot go into all of the errors in this book today. I don't have the time. It reminded me of when Jesus was tempted in the desert and satan twisted scripture at every turn. Jesus, as the Word of God, was more than able to contradict the enemy's lies and silence him with scripture. The entire beginning of the book bored me and seemed second rate. The characters and conversations didn't ring true to me. I only kept at it because I had heard that something amazing would await me later in the book. Also, I never forgot that this was a book and a story that someone made up. When my attitude towards the book changed as it became more meaty, I still felt that story-wise, it was cliche, predictable, and even hokey. When it came together at the end, I did have a greater appreciation of the way the plot elements came together, but most of the time I thought certain components of the story weren't very well done. And this about lies (not the lies people tell to stay out of trouble, but the lies we believe about ourselves or others as a defense mechanism):
I had to read this for book club and I did not like it. Bad theology wrapped up in a sappy soap opera type book. While most of my friends seem to have a love or hate relationship with this book, I can't say that I do. I am the rare reader that didn't have a strong opinion about this book, one way or the other. I found it to be good and entertaining enough, but I didn't find it to be life-changing or especially inspirational for me. It was certainly a change from my usual type of story, so that was refreshing in a sense. However, in the end it was in the "good but not great" category for me. It's also pretty obvious the author has trouble with authority of any kind, but most especially Church authority. It just made me wonder who has hurt him so deeply that he just throws out the baby with the bathwater.So many of my friends have recommended this book that I knew I would read it and feel strongly about it. That's an understatement. There are no Spoilers in this review. This book is pure drivel. As I was going through it I thought that it had to be a first effort from this author. Bingo. At the end of the book there was a note from the author in which he said 'I had never tried my hand at creative writing before.' Inconsistencies of plot: In one scene, the narrator - who is supposedly writing down what the main character told him - tells us what is playing on the television while the main character is passed out. How can he possibly know this? Second, why does it matter? The plot is full of these little annoying inconsistencies. The biggest and most annoying is this vague reference to a possible murder of his father. Couldn't the boy just run away from home? Did he really have to spike the dad's beer with rat poison? Did the dad die? If he does, why haven't the police come after him? If he doesn't, what is he apologizing for in the great forgiveness sequence? As I said, these inconsistencies are glaring. At the center of the book is the most difficult of all theological dilemmas: the goodness of God and the problem of evil. Where is God in the midst of pain and suffering? How can a good God allow the kinds of horrific evil that humans and other creatures experience? Why doesn’t He do something to stop it? Why does God seem so unconcerned about suffering and injustice? Intense and complex, these questions have almost universal appeal.
If you are able to appreciate a story that has strong religious themes that may or may not align with your beliefs, then you might enjoy this one. I found it to be a good story, but I would have liked to feel more of a sense of justice. Things at the end were too nice, tidy and convenient for me. When Mac is telling his guests about his family and stops saying, "Now here I am telling you about my kids and my friends and about Nan, but you already know everything that i am telling you, don't you? Several significant problems exist with this understanding of the incarnation. First, it is not true that Jesus “had no power within himself to heal anyone.” Jesus, as the God-man, did, and does, possess full and complete deity (Colossians 2:9). Young’s view sounds like kenotic Christology, that Christ gave up His deity when He became human. If He did not retain full deity on earth, He is not fully divine. Second, no other human is like Jesus in being fully divine. No other human has the power of deity as Jesus did. The incarnation of Jesus is one of a kind. And it certainly is not the case that all humans possess the life of God in them, as Papa’s statement implies. Case no. CV 10-03534 JFW (JCx): First amended complaint-in-interpleader". US District Court, Central District of California, Western Division . Retrieved 30 July 2011. Sloppy synonyms: No one outside of bodice-rippers uses the word "visage" for "face". I lost count how many times this word is used. It is an example of the author reaching for the thesaurus when he got bored. Elementary writing classes teach "In dialogue, use the words "he said" instead of "he opined" or other such synonyms". I would gladly pay for Young to take a writing course in lieu of Jacobsen editing another of his books.Actually, we wanted you to give up trying to be righteous on your own. It was a mirror to reveal just how filthy your face gets when you live independently." If you are as taken with the message of this book as we are, you may already have some unique ideas as to how you can best let others know about it. Here are some ideas to help you about ways to let others know about this remarkable book. Personally, I didn't feel any great sense of peace or satisfaction while reading this story. While I can see why some people felt that this book restored their faith and gifted them with a greater sense of empathy, it just didn't work that way for me. I saw where author was going, I just wasn't jumping on board that train. I'm a lover of well written novels and it was well over a decade ago that I decided there were way too many books being published every year, not to mention the thousands and thousands of good books previously written, to spend time reading a poorly written one. This book is an exception to that rule. It isn't the writing that kept me going, it was the content.