Lee Harmon's Blog, page 10

A Man Called Jesus, A Novel

by Rick Herrick

★★★★

Herrick’s new book is more than fiction; it’s a controversial, studied picture of the Jesus of history. Just as the Gospel writers set about to convey the nature of Jesus in story, so does Herrick. His Jesus, however, is human and fallible. The man we call Jesus fell into his place in history through good intentions and a bit of naivete.

Buy this book for a thoughtful portrayal of a driven, compassionate man who lived 2,000 years ago. Herrick’s prose is a bit passive; this b...

Matthew 12:22-24, The Battle With Satan

Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.”

//Let me start today’s topic with a quote from Rick Herrick’s new book, A Man Called Jesus, that I’ll be reviewing in the next few days:

“The understandi...

Matthew chapters 13, 20 and 22: Parables of the Kingdom

The kingdom of heaven is like…

//Hello again, friends! Thanksgiving was wonderful, but it’s good to be settling in at home again. To get our blog back on track, I chose the parables of Jesus as a grounding topic.

It’s been argued that the most authentic statement of Jesus is “The kingdom of heaven is like.” The parables he told are original, they contain Aramaic idioms (the language of Palestinian Jews), and they reflect the culture of rural life. And almost all of them are about the coming Kin...

Matthew 23:33, The Authoritarian God

Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

//Paul Froese and Christopher Bader published a book in 2010 called America’s Four Gods. It was based on a 2005 study that divided American believers into four categories, depending upon how they pictured God. These four types are the authoritarian God, the benevolent God, the critical God, and the distant God.

Of these four, the authoritarian God is the one which seems to me most spiritually harmful. This is the God...

Luke 6:20, The First to Enjoy the Kingdom

And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.

//I’ll shortly be reviewing a novel titled A Man Called Jesus by author Rick Herrick, and there’s a statement Jesus makes in his book that I haven’t forgotten. Jesus says that the first people to experience the new Kingdom of Heaven on earth will be the poor.

Readers of my own latest book, titled The River of Life, know that I emphasize how much Jesus cared about the poor, so I felt an imm...

Book review: The River of Life

Here’s an incredibly generous review of my latest book, written by fellow author Judy Croome. For a closer look at Judy’s work, visit her at http://www.judycroome.com/

★★★★★

Although short, this thought-provoking book packs a powerful punch. As one of the “spiritual but not religious” folk Harmon mentions, I found myself thinking if the priests of my childhood had presented the Bible, God and the Christian faith the way Harmon does, I’d probably still be spending my Sundays on a church pew.

Clea...

Matthew 5:39, Matthew’s Unique Jesus

But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

//Today’s teaching is found only in one book of the bible: The Gospel of Matthew. In fact, a good number of our Christian teachings come only from Matthew. A person, then, who rejects Matthew as not carrying apostolic authority would have a much different view of what it means to be a Christian.

This is exactly what Joshua Woodward argues for in his book, God of Fire: The...

Galatians 4:30, Cast aside the Law

Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.”

//One of the most interesting “arguments” that takes place in scripture is this matter of whether the Old Testament law is to be heeded or ignored. Scholars recognize Matthew to be the gospel most sympathetic to the Jewish law. It’s in this book that Jesus promises that “not one jot or tittle shall pass from the Law till all be fulfilled....

1 Corinthians 12:27, The Body of Christ

Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular

//This is Pauline theology, and it’s an interesting concept. The Church, says Paul, is the body of Christ.

I’ve mentioned before that the word Christ is a greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah, and both mean anointed, or “the anointed one,” named after the oil of anointing worn by kings. In Greek, oil for hair is Chrism, and the title for Jesus becomes Christ.

So we are the body of the Messiah in today’s world. Put another way, the...

God of Fire: The Hope Reformation

by Joshua Woodward

★★★★

Who is God, really? A fire-breathing tyrant? A loving Father? Woodward wants to reintroduce us to a God whose purpose is love. Yes, there’s fire in scripture, but God’s fire is for refining, not punishing. Everyone goes through the fire, not just the uncooperative guys.

For everyone will be salted by fire –Mark 9:49

But what about the book of Revelation, which promises everlasting punishment in a lake of fire? What about the gospel of Matthew, which seems especially hung u...