Oh my, "true" christians, beware - you'll have to think !!
347358
Simply, I was shocked --  and laughed, laughed and laughed.  The puns on jewish customs, the basis for jewish new york chinese on christmas day, among other things, Biff himself, left me in stitches. Their lives in the east, the miracles, who knows, but wonderfully worth fantasizing upon.  I enjoyed it...It proves religion can be dealt with in a serious/funny manner and to heck with the "true believers."
1813888
Joni Eareckson is undoubtedly a genuine and great Christian; but unfortunately this book is rather one-sided. If you are suffering from some serious illness, this book could leave you in despair and without hope.

There is a fallacy underlying this book; Joni Was Not Healed And Therefore God Does Not Heal Any More.

That is completely false and presumptuous.

Yes, it is true that God will not heal everyone; yes, there are burdens you will have to carry that might not be lifted away from you. Yes, the Health and Wealth Charismatics go to another extreme and demand prosperity and healing and comfort.

But You *can* approach God in faith asking for healing and (yes!) God just might heal you.

Rita Philip was diagnosed 8 years ago (in India) with a stage 4 cancer which kills 90% of women. It had spread to lungs, liver etc and she was given 3 months to live. She approached God in faith for healing. Though she *did* undergo surgery and chemotherapy, her remission was so dramatic that it amazed the doctors. Even today in the USA, atheist oncologists and doctors are amazed and say she is "very fortunate to be alive".

Joni chooses to ignore the Jehovah Rapha (healer) nature of God. This is unfortunate. If you read the Psalms e.g. Psalm 22, David pleads with God again and again, to deliver him from enemies, disease etc. Each time he passes from pleading and frustration, to putting his trust in God and confidence that God will deliver. If it were David's lot only to suffer, then he would never have put his confidence in God's deliverance. Instead, he would have trusted in himself only.

Sadly, as another reviewer on this website pointed out, this book could have been a wonderful resource but has instead become unbalanced.
Update (March 2012): critics of my review (in August 2002) say that (reviewer 'mmmm' below)""Joni was not healed and therefor God does not heal anymore??" That fallacy is found nowhere in this book, and is entirely presumptuous. Yes, you can approach God and God just might heal you! Yes! And that very possible thing would be wonderful and most welcome."

Everyone believes that God can heal - in the abstract. It would be a basic contradiction of the definition of God if you believe otherwise. The real test is - have you ever laid hands on anyone and prayed to Jesus for them to be healed - and have they felt some degree of healing? Has anyone done likewise with you, and you felt some degree of healing?
That is the real test of whether we believe in divine healing. The fact that Joni was not physically healed herself does not mean she cannot pray for other people to be healed - they can be healed if she takes the step of faith and if it is God's will. Read more by doing and internet search for terms like Vineyard, Gary Best, Healing.
1720050
Beware of this book. It was written by a former Elder of the Local Church which has been proven to be a Cult by Dr. Walter Martin and other prominent Christian leaders; and, after much research of their theology, was added to the Encyclopedia of Cults.

The Local Church has also lost numerous legal battles trying to prove that they are not a Cult, and no longer have legal options available. They have been classified a Cult by all proper authorities.

Please search for Dr. Walter's message on Witness Lee, Henry Hon's mentor, and the Local Church on you tube prior to purchasing this book; and, especially before reading it as it contains teaching that can brainwash someone into a different person that family and friends will not recognize.

The author's approach is nothing short of an extension of Local Church Cult doctrine, which the author is now presenting as his own and attempting to start his own movement with. It is a very dangerous book for any Christian to read as it not only teaches division, but it also teaches passivity which is to relinquish the control of your mind for control by unknown spiritual powers, which is where the personality and character changes will come to pass!

Please do your due diligence read up on the Local Church, and watch Dr. Walter's video on the Local Church before giving blind faith to Mr. Hon. Mr Hon was an Elder in the Local Church, and taught their doctrine for over 30 years! Watch out!
661290
David E Taylor's book is a lie. Jesus clearly tells us in John 20:29 "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." This book puts way too much attention on dreams and visions of Christ Jesus and not on the fact of faith alone in Christ Jesus is greater faith. Deuteronomy 13:1-5, talks about false prophets who tell the future of others and walk in dreams and visions. If they come to you and tell you a sign and a wonder and it happens, but on the contrary they lead you astray by exalting themselves and leading you into idolatry, this person a false prophet. David E. Taylor is exactly this. I have experienced his staff treat him as if he is some kind of God and he allows man worship to take place within his inner circle. This man is a wolf!!! He comes across as extremely humble but he is a wolf. Please don't support him at all!! I know this personally. If I were you, I would throw his book away and warn your family and friends to stay away from him!!! His ministry is a true cult!!! Here is a book I recommend. It is the story about cult leader Jim Jones. I see a lot of similarities in David Taylor<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Raven-The-Untold-Story-of-the-Rev-Jim-Jones-and-His-People/dp/1585426784/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People</a>
3491642
According to the authors, only "a small minority ... have come to know their true identity in Christ," whereas "the whole Christian world accepts the lie." (p. 90)  Gosh, that's a mighty bold statement.  Color me skeptical.
The authors describe the life of a believer as being like a swing in which the believer's soul swings endlessly back and forth between good thoughts and feelings and bad thoughts and feelings.  The authors believe that it is a mistake to try to stop that swing.  Indeed, they assert that God set the swing in motion and wants us to experience those occasional evil thoughts and feelings.
They provide no scriptural support for this analysis.  Indeed, Scripture contradicts this view.  Most explicitly, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that it is sin to be angry at your brother and it is sin to have lustful thoughts about a woman.  I'll take Jesus's word over the authors'.  Gaining mastery over those bad thoughts and feelings is our Christian obligation.  If we give them free rein, eventually we will succumb to them.
The authors frequently misuse Scripture.  For example, on page 91, the authors posit that there were two trees in the Garden of Eden (the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) and that man had to choose to eat from one or the other of them.  This analysis is in clear contradiction with Genesis 2.  There surely were more than two trees in the Garden and no such choice faced Adam and Eve.  They had been told not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Their choice was to obey God or disobey God, not to pick one or another of two trees.
I could go on.
While this book aptly emphasizes the believer's union with God, it charts an erroneous course by overlooking our obligation to pursue holiness.  "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.  Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm."  (Eph. 6:24)  God does not want us to let our soul "swing" through evil desires; we are to stand firm.
987591
Wow what a thought provoking book!  Certainly challenged me!  I am not sure I agree with all of it, as I am sure the Author doesn't expect the readers to agree with everything.  But when you are talking about the Bible, we must as Christians be careful in "deciding" what is truly God spoken and what is God breathed (meaning the culture at the time is in play).  This book is a tough one; its issues are really really hard to deal with.  There is a LOT of speculation in the book.  The Old Testament is portrayed as a story about the Israelites with God involved, but not necessarily orchestrating the events (i.e. the book of Judges).  The author keeps coming back to "Who is God?  How do we know what He means?" and his answer is to look at Jesus and His life and who He was and we will be able to know who God really is.  I agree with that part, but it is difficult to take passages of the New Testament and try to figure out what was "really meant."  This would be a great book for a Bible Study!!!!!!!!!!! and pray pray pray about it!
4572509
something blipped and I did not finish my comments.  We still live in a country that allows all religions (I am not a Christian, and would probably
be called a pantheist as see "god" in all creation, and believe that "god is love" & "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" ...as my primary "religious" beliefs.  I worry that our so-called Christian country is rapidly destroying the very "creation" given to us with full abandon (& denial).
I also see the current "Christian" Republican party as rampant with hatred....very disturbing and frightening.  This is NOT Christianity, and it is
not the R. party my parents belonged to in the 50's.  Look up the l953 R. party platform and you will see how far the current party has
moved to the extreme right.  The author's militarism (and our country's as well) also disturbs me.  What do we model to the world as we sell military
weapons all over the world?  And why is it seen as wimpy to try an negotiate vs. use diplomacy?  Enough....too depressing.

havoc in the world with our aggressive militarism, and 9/11 was blowback for our arrogance.  Enough....
4675837
If these weren't spiritual matters it would blow me away that the authors of these Mary Magdalene books can so easily create doctrines and write off the Gospel of the New Testament based on obscure and questionable documents that only recently "surfaced." While writing off the faith of the historical and majority of Christiandom which is based on the Bible, they set forth a gospel of their own, decrying Biblical Christianity as ignorance while projecting their own views as "educated" and "scholarly". Their Gospel is definately different than that declared by Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, and other in the New Testament. The Gospel of the New Testament has the power to save. Jesus came to earth to die in the place sinful humanity so that whoever would put his only hope of being made right before God (justification) can have eternal life through Christ taking our punishment on himself. Paul has something to say about this sort of thing in his letter to the Galatians: "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting &#65279;him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to &#65279;a different gospel-not that there is another one, but &#65279;there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, &#65279;let him be accursed (Galatians 1:6-9)"
171617
Well, here we go again. Yet another ridiculous book on the never ending  guessing game, "who is the anti-christ" that defies even the very term, "anti-christ" now mixed in with some Islamic philosophy that itself has a very weak basis for an "anti-christ", or better yet "messiah", which is a more contradictory term. The author obviously wishes to jump aboard the guessing game. Well, I have read and re-read a book that I purchased some time ago, Memoir of AntiChrist, which is, I think, also listed here on Amazon, read that book first if you want to have yourself knocked off your feet, then read this book and others like it, and you will see the difference between what seems to be an authentic book on the subject and the rest of the herd.
669308
I just finished this attempt at defense of the "Original Autographs Only" position. This pretty much sums it up--
"If the tomb of Jesus were definitely found, we would have to give up believing in Christianity." He thinks that science can tell us that God does not exist. He does not understand that the Bible has to be considered the basis of knowledge. We cannot know that it is wrong, or we have abandoned the basis for having any knowledge at all.
~
These OAOs insist that we have no final authority about what the Bible says, and that we don't need one, because all of the major doctrines are in all Bibles. But they still insist on correcting the King James, as if they know it is wrong from some higher authority, which is nothing but their preference.
780551
I don't know if this guy went through this or not but, as a few have pointed out, there are some red flags here.  Who are all these tortured people?  I believe the bible says all the unrepentant are reserrected at the beginning of 1,000 years of peace & given another chance BEFORE they're judged.  I also believe I've already caught this guy in a lie.  I think he says in the book he wasn't a devoted Christian before this experience but I saw him on TV & he said he had been.  The fact he uses so much scripture is also a little strange, almost like he's trying a little TOO hard to make his point.

I want to leave everyone reading this some advice I SERIOUSLY suggest you take, religious or not.  Go to [...] and download or order for FREE a book called 2008: God's Final Witness & have everyone you know read it.  The author claims to be one of God's final 2 end-time prophets & I believe him.  Apparently, Jesus IS coming VERY soon.  It may save your life & those you love.
4227167
A friend loaned us this video (which we are now purchasing for ourselves and our congregation.) As pastors of a small-town church we feel we are called as Watchmen. When the twin towers fell there were a few Evangelical Christians who spoke up and declared that this was God's judgment on America but the populace as a whole rejected them and - in essence - forcem them to retract their statements. Many of them did out of fear for their livelihoods. Some of us did not ... When this video was brought to our attention we KNEW it was from God. It is a warning - a stern warning - to America. Yes, we need to pray for our country and for our leaders, but it's all to no avail unless we begin REPENTING as a nation! I read some of the 1-star reports here and just have to shake my head at how blind some of us are as Believers. Too many feel we are not called  - ever - to suffer for the Gospel's sake. (I have to wonder if they have ever really read Hebrews Chapter 11?) We need to WAKE UP AMERICA!
4312200
Books!! Which books you might ask? Well all those books tracking the Knights Templar and the geneology of Jesus.
This book is quite a shocker and if the author is right, then she will really put the cat amongst the pigeons. This title restricts itself to the Old and New Testaments (though the word restricts should only be used in relation to such titles as "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail etc.) and only touches on the south a France briefly. Her theories on who Jesus was and what he stood for is a revelation in itself. Though, to be honest, this book is really so much more than just the life of Jesus.
I have gone through her hypothesis and I do believe that logically, it holds a lot of water. So, without giving away the bottom line so to speak, if you would like to be tempted with a total paradigm shift, then this books is for you. If, however, you have fundamentalistic views on Hebraic/Christianity, then stay well away!
3216187
Have you ever read a book recommended by someone only to be crushingly disappointed?
That's what happened to me! I was expecting the philosophy to be closely tied to exactly how the Bible is to be on its own terms understood. But this turned out to be a different, hetero-philosophy than the Bible could allow: God being ignorant about any subject.
The subject the author picks is: future free choices. This is a mystery to God's omniscient mind. He cannot know it except as "maybe this and maybe that or maybe not after all". Most of what God supposedly knows about our free futures is a big divine Maybe?
After all the casemaking and all the arguments and intellect and Bible quoting, I came away with "Maybe?" in the mind of God. In all my years as a Christian, I never imagined a deity who is limited in awareness of anything at all.
If you were to ask me before reading this, "Does anyone claiming to be Christian sincerely believe that anything is a Mystery, an Unknown or Unknowable to God?",I would have said no. I admit I was wrong. Looks like this writer is leading a small minority of renegade, fugitive, wayward seekers into just this system of philosophy.
I can only pray for the Holy Spirit's loving intervention to reach these brothers & sisters with what God Himself thinks about free futures, including theirs! Kyrie Eleison!
3400673
After researching some of Gothards and IBLP teachings and studying the Scriptures, I was convinced that their teachings are incredibly dangerous.  This book took things abit further and opened up areas I had not yet researched.  I have to be honest....I could only read this book bit by bit at times, as sometimes some of it was so difficult for my heart as I saw more of the hurt and damage to people's faiths and lives that Gothard and IBLP teachings created.  I pray for those who have been led astray, and hope that more people will be more diligent about what they choose to belief....that it may always be based on their own interpretation of the Scriptures as to avoid falling into the crafty trap of false teachings.

I am not sure if it's demographics or simply the times that we live, but it seems that the majority of Christians think that if Scripture is referenced in a work of some kind, that somehow what is said about it and how it is used is accurate.  They do not take the efforts to prayerfully consider things by researching their own Bible.  Maybe it is laziness, possibly a false depth in their faith?  I do not know...but it is something I see so repeatedly that it highly concerns me.  As this is exactly how good, christian people fall into dangerous and destructive false teachings.  We are clearly warned in the Bible to be alert to false teachings and to use the Bible as our guide.  Do people think that false teachers never claim to be believers themselves?  The deceiver deceives, and the deceived becomes a deceiver.  It's a horrible cycle.

May their be an awakening in this land for TRUTH prayerfully seeked from God's Word!  Amen!

As for 'A Matter of Basic Principles'...it too should not be taken at face value, but rather a guide in your Biblical study of Gothard and IBLP teachings.
4644641
Even if a person takes the bible as literal history, not the parables most mainline (non fundamental) Christians interpret it as, I question that person has ever actually read the bible.  There's no mention of dinosaurs.  Denying the fossil record and carbon dating as the devils work are we?

Be my guest, buy this and read it to your kids as the literal truth of God.  That will only make the children less equipped to compete with my children in this ever technological scientific world.

Also be aware that you are creating a child who will never trust their parents to tell them the truth since that child has been lied to them about everything from Santa Claus to the Tooth Fairy.
1238620
Like everyone else, I guess I was curious as to what the big "secret" was.  The secret is they're ripping you off, people.  What a load of bull!! You have to be kidding me!  It saddens me to know that people actually believe in this.  I guess it just goes to show you the kind of world we live in (especially in the U.S.) and what their values are:  money, power, material possessions and looks. Not many people believe this but none of these things can make you happy.  There's more to life than just "getting what you want".  How childish.  How about growing as a person and using your life to benefit the world and making a difference?  What about God?  Not even mentioned - I guess He/She has nothing to do w/ any of this.  Oh wait matter fact, now I remember - we are God!!  Yeah, homegirl, you wish.  Check out this chick's picture - if that's God, we're all in trouble.  I believe that God is within us, but in and of ourselves, we are not God.  How grandiose can you get?  And lemme ask you a question - if we're all "gods" and can have anything we want and live the life of our dreams just by thinking positive thoughts, what's the point of being alive?  Huh?  I mean really, why are we even here?  I believe we're here to learn and grow our spirits, and that God is in control, always has been and always will be.  How self-important to imply we know better than God what we need.

She actually claims that even children and babies attract bad things to them with their thoughts.  What about babies who aren't even old enough to think yet?  What about babies who die shortly after being born- it's their own fault for "allowing in" negativity?  Yeah homegirl tell that to any mother who's lost an child - good luck not getting the s*** kicked out of you.  I'd like to expand on this though - she also claims that if you believe something with all your heart and soul, it will happen.  Well what about crazy people?  I've worked in mental institutions and anyone else who has can back me up on this - no one believes things that aren't true more than these people do.  For example - old, dirty, drooly, smelly bums who believe they're highly attractive and can get any girl they want.  I'm sure there's also crazy people who believe they're millionaires, or famous!  No one can convince them they're not - so why doesn't it ever come true??  Can you explain this?

Also - I've tried this whole "positive thinking" thing many, many times and it has never worked.  It seems like every time I think good things are going to happen and truly expect that they will, something bad happens and I'm disappointed.  Whenever I go into a situation expecting the worst, I am usually pleasantly surprised.  Can you explain this, Ms. Byrne?

Anyway, to sum up, save your money.