This book will make you think and question your current beliefs about WHO Jesus Christ is. We usually assume Jesus is God and so Jesus wouldn't have all our gross or weak human traits, but Patrick Henry Reardon's book is all about pointing out those things that we aren't comfortable considering. Although we quickly admit Jesus was fully man also, we are not comfortable really thinking about Him like this. Example: Being fully human, Reardon and Russell D. Moore point out that Jesus would probably get sick, get an upset stomach, vomit, etc. Of course, to most of us, this sounds blasphemous, if not just disrespectful to consider. But, that's what this book is about. Seeing Jesus as fully human and attempting to fill in some of the blanks in Jesus' life story, growing up as a child, and how Jesus developed into a powerful man of God.
When I saw Russell D. Moore wrote the forward to this book, I assumed this would be a good book. But I enjoyed this book. It was slow, boring and I had to re-read some parts just to get through it, as my eyes kept glazing over. I didn't really find much in this book that wasn't said before - many times over. In fact, the author starts off the book saying that he hopes nothing in this book is new. Well, he did a good job of accomplishing that. There was not much new in this book and that made it boring.
One neat part was when the author drew the conclusion that Matthew and Luke must have gotten the Nativity and Jesus' early years stories from Christ's mother, Mary. He assumed this because Mark and John don't include these stories and Mary or Joseph would have been the only witnesses. This was a neat idea, but not worth reading the book for! I didn't care for how the author assumed "Joseph died". I couldn't find that story in my Bible but I certainly heard it among Catholic legend. I had hoped such an indepth analysis of Jesus' missing childhood would stick to the Bible only, not legend. And if the author was going to mention legend, he should tell us his source. Instead he just writes "Jesus remained at home with Joseph, eventually taking over the workshop when Joseph passed away." Next Reardon declares "If Jesus really was the Messiah, there was no outward sign of it." I cannot agree with this statement at all! If Jesus was sinless and a perfect human model of God, ever action or lack of action would be screaming signs to his entire family! Not only did his parents know the prophecies, meet the angels, be inpregnated by the Holy Spirit, but they knew their son was the destined Messiah. And Jesus was the only one of their sons and daughters who was sinless and perfect. How could a parent not notice this?
In the end, this book is an interesting read because it challenges your current ideas about Christ, but I feel the author was not careful enough in his conclusions and statements. I also feel he didn't back up enough of his statement with good solid logic and bible verses or references. Slow and boring but not without some benefit in challenging us to think outside of the box.
Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge from the publisher but I am not required to give a positive review in exchange for the book. This is my critical review of the book as if I had bought the book with my hard earned money.
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