C.A. Gray's Blog, page 31
February 18, 2022
Review of The Reckoning
My mom read this one to me when I was probably in middle school, and for a time it was my favorite novel. I’d all but forgotten about it, but since I’m revisiting books I recall from that era of my life, decided to see if it still held up. It mostly did, though as an adult and an author myself now, I think I saw it a lot differently. The story is a thriller, which isn’t (now) usually my genre. Technically it’s considered Christian fiction, though really that was almost peripheral to the story.
The story follows ex-Delta special forces operative Jonathan Gage, who is described ad nauseum throughout the story as being practically superhuman: unbeatable, unkillable, unstoppable. Many characters, and indeed, many entire chapters, seemed to exist only to tell the reader yet again how awesome Gage is. (In retrospect, I see that this was probably why I loved the story so much. I’ve always been drawn to those superman kinds of characters.) Gage was recruited out of Delta, selected as one of the best of the best to be in a secret group called Blacklight, where they were sent by their superiors to commit sanctions on various targets around the world. But eventually, Gage started to get suspicious — none of their targets made sense to him. They were powerful but they weren’t the kinds of threats that should have required sanctioning by such a multi-million dollar, super secret and elite team as theirs. He started to create layers of fake identities for himself, stored money in various security deposit boxes all around the world and bought property way off the grid, intending to vanish as soon as he could. But he never got the chance: someone sold him and his team out, and most of them died except for him (and two buddies of his who show up about halfway through the story to help him). A priest found Gage and nursed back to health, and became like a father to him. Through the priest, Gage found God. But Gage is very much a man of action; nowhere in the entire story does he say much of anything about his faith. We just know that he’s not the man he was.
Through the priest, Gage learns of a millennia-old manuscript that a secret order has been trying to find, which reveals the identity of the antichrist. (Here’s about the only place where Christianity is important as a motivating factor, even though it’s kind of just a pretext for the action.) The order wants to learn who the antichrist is so that they can prepare his kingdom for him and just hand it to him on a silver platter, rather than waiting for him to build it himself. The priest gives Gage the clues he needs to find the manuscript before they do. Gage goes after it, but he gets side-tracked, having to save a girl named Sarah who also nursed him back to health when he was wounded in the desert, and whom they now know they can threaten in order to get to him.
I really did love the “superman” aspect of the story, even though this time around I thought it was pretty overdone… even to the point of thinking the book would have been about half as long if people weren’t constantly raving about how amazing Gage is. The fight scenes were terrific too, though the motivation for them felt a bit flimsy. Characterization could have been better. Sarah’s and Gage’s relationship is literally all about Gage and his past demons; she’s utterly fascinated by everything about him and he never shows any interest in her aside from the need to save her. They have this kind of “understood” romance, but it’s never spoken of or demonstrated, because Gage doesn’t want to get distracted. The FBI man, Kurtzman, who first hunts Gage and then ends up helping him, was probably the most complex character in the story. But, that was all kind of okay, because this isn’t a book about the characters–not really. It’s a story about an amazing warrior who meets his match, and has to keep going when he’s already past the point of endurance. And he wins in the end. That made me cheer in middle school, and it still does.
My rating: ****
Language: none
Violence: plenty, but it wasn’t reveling in the gore or anything
Sexual content: none
Political content: none
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The Messenger, Thomas Horn
This week’s podcast review comes from this blog review of Thomas Horn’s The Messenger.
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February 11, 2022
This Present Darkness, Frank Peretti
Check out this episode!
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Review of The Messenger
This was a hard book to rate, because certain parts were an easy 5 stars, while other parts left me muttering in confusion, “Wait… what?”
The book starts with the cover postulate: there is an asteroid headed to earth called Apophosis, destined to hit in April 2029. Horn speculates that this is the biblical Wormwood described in Revelation (and then he tells you why he thinks so). It if is, that means that April 2029 will be mid-tribulation. Calculate backwards 3.5 yrs and, if he’s correct, that puts the beginning of the tribulation around October 2025.
With that jaw-dropping hook, he then launches into a very in-depth analysis of the Jewish feasts. It’s fascinating, and some of the insights he pulls out were equally astounding. (For instance: I had never heard before that the way the Passover lamb had to be prepared to prevent breaking any of its bones required one wooden stake driven up and down through it, and the other across its arms… in the shape of a cross.) He went way out into the weeds on some of it, and while I rarely saw the connection to the asteroid, it was fascinating enough that I didn’t really care.
Then at some point he changed gears and started talking about the World Economic Forum, the Great Reset, and prophesies of the last pope. From there he went into Prince Charles’ connection with the WEF, and — while he backed all of his points well — I started to wonder about the point of the book. It felt more like a series of unrelated subjects, aside from their shared eschatological focus.
I don’t know what to think about end times theological speculations, anyway. Jesus Himself said that “no one knows the day or the hour” (Matthew 24:36) of the end–not even Him, but only the Father. Then again, He also gave His disciples an entire discourse on how they could recognize that the end was near (Matthew 24), so clearly He didn’t mean for us to have NO idea. Maybe the meaning there was literal — no one knows the DAY or the HOUR, but we can get the year or even the month right? But, the early Christians were certain that Jesus would return in their own lifetimes. Apparently the Crusades in the Middle Ages were partially inspired by the expectation that the end was near. In Isaac Newton’s day they thought the end was eminent. I’m sure nearly every believer thought Hitler was the Antichrist at the time. Apparently there were even believers who suspected that Kennedy would come back from the dead (he was shot in the head, after all) and become the world’s rallying point. Seems every generation speculates that theirs is the one. But, someone will have to be right sometime, right?
My rating: ****
Language: none
Violence: none
Sexual content: none
Political content: heavy
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February 4, 2022
Review of The History of Christian Theology
Check out this episode!
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February 3, 2022
Review of The History of Christian Theology
This is one of the best Great Courses I’ve ever taken. I was hesitant to purchase it, since most of the Great Courses professors tend to be liberal, overtly atheist, and condescending towards anyone who holds a different worldview. But I read the reviews before purchasing, and was assured that if Phillip Cary wasn’t actually a believer himself, he was at least sympathetic towards believers. As I listened, I became increasingly convinced that he shared the Christian faith, and that was finally confirmed toward the end of the course.
Aside from the professor’s attitude toward the material, I also found the course itself very enlightening. Church history is not actually taught in churches for the most part, so what I knew beyond what’s written in the scriptures themselves was a little of this and a little of that, but nothing sequential and clear. I knew of Martin Luther’s 99 theses leading to the creation of the Protestant church, and the horrible abuses in the church prior to that, but very little about the differences between various Christian denominations, or how some of the various doctrines that we take for granted today actually came about.
What struck me most as Cary enumerated the theological arguments through the ages was how many of them, to me, arose from overthinking. Cary made the point that the text cannot interpret itself, and, granted, everything requires interpretation to some degree. And I usually could see on some level why each side felt that their point was worth arguing, and why it became even critical to them, because of what theological implications logically flowed from one conclusion or another. I’ve had similar thoughts myself from time to time. And yet, I have to say even from my own experience in that dogmatic camp that in hindsight, in most cases, it’s just splitting hairs. I believe in a co-equal Trinity, for instance, because I think the scriptures strongly imply that, though they never say so in so many words. But if the Holy Spirit was a created being, or the Son was a created being before time–what would that really change? I can see how the dogmatic might say it could change everything because if this thing were true, then this, that, and the other clearly unbiblical doctrine must logically follow… but since we know none of those clearly unbiblical doctrines that we’re trying to avoid ARE really the case, why go to such lengths to argue what ultimately comes down to a point of logic with your Christian brother? If your brother majors on the majors and gets those right, even if their logic in arriving at those conclusions don’t seem perfect to you, so what? Let’s not bother arguing about what amounts to minutiae just for the sake of logical consistency.
Also, many of the great names in church history seemed to turn themselves into mental pretzels of theological angst with ideas such as, what if I lose my salvation later in life, but there’s absolutely nothing I can do now to guard against what I might do in the future? Or, then there’s the utter self-loathing that came from theological persuasions emphasizing sin and not the redemption of Jesus, even in such illustrious people as Martin Luther, or many of the Great Awakening preachers from whom we get the concept of preaching “hellfire and brimstone.” (Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God” sermon comes to mind. How terrifying, even though I can see that he truly meant well.) Grace is all over the scriptures, and yet so many of these great men of the faith apparently didn’t see it. That awareness took century upon century of theological understanding to be passed down through the ages, even though it was there in the scriptures all the time.
It was likewise enlightening to hear how certain ideas that seem so central to the Christian faith I’ve always been taught had a clear origin from one person at a moment in time, who was (in my view) the first to read the scriptures and really see what they said. I’m thinking of Phoebe Palmer, who began the holiness movement, focused upon having a pure heart and the transforming power of God’s grace in helping us to become holy. It was also her influence that served as a foundation for listening for the leading of the Holy Spirit’s “still small voice” (though like everything in its early days, that too was taken to absurd extremes.) All of these ideas are found in scripture, and it’s amazing to me that it wasn’t until the Civil War era that they finally came to the forefront of the protestant church.
But I suppose it should come as no surprise that in every generation, imperfect people got a lot right, and also got a lot wrong. I’m sure the same will be said of us one day.
My Rating: *****
Language: none (nonfiction)
Violence: none
Sexual content: none
Political content: none
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January 28, 2022
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
Today’s podcast review comes from this blog review of Death on the Nile.
The post Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie appeared first on C.A. Gray.
January 21, 2022
Review of This Present Darkness
My mom read this book to me when I was probably in middle school. I’m on a kick at the moment to rediscover some of those old favorites, which I remember liking but little else about them.
Peretti definitely does not suffer from what I’ll call the Christian fiction malaise: the work of so many Christian authors or filmmakers ends up coming off cheesy, because they’re so focused on the message that they neglect the story. Peretti definitely does not. He writes a compelling, intricately plotted tale with good characterization for the most part, and beautiful prose.
The story follows two main characters: Hank Busche, the pastor of the little town of Ashton, and Marshall Hogan, the local newspaper editor who moved from New York to try to get away from the fast pace, only to find himself immersed in the story of his life. Meanwhile, the nefarious plot in Ashton plays out on both the physical and the spiritual plane. A powerful worldwide group known as the Universal Consciousness Society, which is really just a conduit for the occult, has slowly infiltrated all of the most powerful people in Ashton. Through demonic channeling and possession, they engage in extortion, blackmail, brainwashing, coerced suicides, murder, and human sacrifice, though no one outside of their circle can prove any of this. Anyone who gets too close and refuses to join, or who was originally a member and attempts to expose their corruption either has their life systematically ruined in ways that cannot possibly be traced back to the society, or else winds up dead. Very dark stuff, really–and it almost certainly wouldn’t be the kind of story I’d want to read, except for the fact that Peretti emphasized the power of prayer to drive back the darkness the whole way through.
And that’s just what’s happening on the human side. On the spiritual side, we see the various ranks of the demonic forces against the angelic warriors with a similar structure of power, whispering to and influencing their humans for good or ill. For his part, Hank perceives the spiritual elements but cannot figure out what they’re trying to accomplish in the natural realm. Marshall, on the other hand, isn’t a believer for most of the story; he’s just following the trail of corruption, determined to expose it. When the two finally meet about 3/4 through the story (in prison, having apparently succumbed to the nefarious plots of the Society), Hank exclaims that now they can finally each share with the other what’s going on on the other side.
I knocked off a star, though, because while the story made me stop and think critically about the dynamics of spiritual warfare (which the Bible doesn’t really talk about in very great depth), it seemed logically inconsistent to me and because of that, somewhat theologically confusing. I couldn’t follow the rules of “his” world as they pertained to angels, demons, and prayer. It seemed that the demons had the ability to deceive by the power of suggestion, to possess those who were willing, and to drive them to commit evil acts, as well as to fight directly against the angelic forces. So far so good. They had great power, but as soon as a believer (Hank) commanded the demon to leave a human body in the name of Jesus, they had to go–except, sometimes they didn’t, and I wasn’t clear what made the difference. The angels, meanwhile, seemed to have very little power unless the saints were praying. In the midst of a battle, they gained strength and started to win when the saints were praying, and started to lose when they weren’t. But if the saints were the ones who had the power to command the demons to go in the name of Jesus, and the angelic power was entirely from the prayers of the saints too, why were the angels even necessary?
At any rate, this started me on a Bible Study to see what the scriptures say about angels, since I’ve really never thought about it much before. So that can only be a good thing.
My rating: ****
Language: none
Violence: present, but not gratuitous
Sexual content: there’s attempted adultery but definitely not gratuitous
Political content: none
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Apollyon by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B Jenkins
Today’s podcast comes from this blog review of Apollyon.
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January 17, 2022
Review of Death on the Nile
I just finished reading this aloud with my husband, though I’d read it once before. Some 15 years ago, I was in the stage adaptation, as the heiress/murder victim (though I’m nearly sure my name in the play was Kate Mostyn, not Linnet Ridgeway/Doyle. But the play was also called “Murder on the Nile,” so perhaps they changed other things too.) I was surprised that all I remembered from reading it was who dunnit, but not any of the rest of the details.
My husband, for his part, thought the story was frightfully dull and full of ancillary characters that he didn’t care about and couldn’t keep straight. I’d have to agree–characterization wasn’t nearly as important in the 1930s as it is today, I suppose. He never gives up on anything, and yet he was just about to throw in the towel on this one when Linnet FINALLY died, halfway through–only then did the story become mildly interesting.
As with most of Christie’s murder mysteries, everyone has a motive, and nobody really likes the victim. That’s what makes it interesting. It’s a quick and easy read, and while it ends the only possible way it could, Christie sets you up to think the obvious answer is impossible. I do like the fact that hers are “polite” murders–they’re not terrifying thrillers or gratuitously violent or anything like that.
My rating: ***
Language: none
Violence: none (for a murder mystery)
Sexual content: none
Political content: none
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