It's 2096. Scientists work to protect a baking planet. What a drought-stricken Europe needs is rain. What it gets is a messiah. Eli is born in a suburb of Prague. A rainstorm heralds Eli's birth. He dies young. Was he for real? Eli's brother Marek is now old. He works at spreading his brother's teachings. When a young women joins Marek's community she startles him with the joys of the body. But what's the worth of human love when the world is collapsing?"--Publisher
"Brother Love: Murder, Money, and a Messiah details the incredible rise and fall of Yahweh Ben Yahweh (born Hulon Mitchell, Jr.) and his Nation of Yahweh. In a section of town rotten with drugs and violence and torn apart by riots, this self-proclaimed messiah captivated thousands of black men and women who hungered for a leader. Under his rule they seemed able to bring order and discipline to a place where there had been none, and Yahweh Ben Yahweh was hailed as a savior of the ghetto by Miami's power elite. But the hope that the black messiah brought ended in turbulence and death. Yahweh Ben Yahweh's story reveals much about modern American opportunism and hypocrisy, violence and religious fanaticism, and the search for identity and solidarity in the midst of our ongoing racial malaise."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Reveals the true role of James, the brother of Jesus, in early Christianity • Uses evidence from the canonical Gospels, apocryphal texts, and the writings of the Church Fathers to reveal the teachings of Jesus as transmitted to his chosen successor: James • Demonstrates how the core message in the teachings of Jesus is an expansion not a repudiation of the Jewish religion • Shows how James can serve as a bridge between Christianity, Judaism, and Islam James has been a subject of controversy since the founding of the Church. Evidence that Jesus had siblings contradicts Church dogma on the virgin birth, and James is also a symbol of Christian teachings that have been obscured. While Peter is traditionally thought of as the leader of the apostles and the “rock” on which Jesus built his church, Jeffrey Bütz shows that it was James who led the disciples after the crucifixion. It was James, not Peter, who guided them through the Church's first major theological crisis--Paul's interpretation of the teachings of Jesus. Using the canonical Gospels, writings of the Church Fathers, and apocryphal texts, Bütz argues that James is the most overlooked figure in the history of the Church. He shows how the core teachings of Jesus are firmly rooted in Hebraic tradition; reveals the bitter battles between James and Paul for ideological supremacy in the early Church; and explains how Paul's interpretations, which became the foundation of the Church, are in many ways its betrayal. Bütz reveals a picture of Christianity and the true meaning of Christ's message that are sometimes at odds with established Christian doctrine and concludes that James can serve as a desperately needed missing link between Christianity, Judaism, and Islam to heal the wounds of centuries of enmity.
What if your brother was the most controversial figure in the history of the world and your job was to protect him? That's the challenge faced by Rabbi James of Jerusalem, whose kinsman, the Nazarene prophet, Jesus, is stirring debate and anxiety. James' only hope of fulfilling a deathbed promise to his father, Joseph, is his relationship with Pilate, the Roman governor, who turns to James for guidance in matters of Jewish law. Protecting Jesus becomes the focus of James' life as his brother runs afoul of temple authorities, and Zealot rebels attempt to exploit his growing popularity--their goal to foment a revolution against the hated Romans. But even such a widely admired man of honor and learning as James can't calm the fears of change aroused by Jesus and his movement, or counteract the forces of greed, corruption and violence that loom over a nation ready to explode.
Did Jesus Really Exist? The search for the historical Jesus continues to be headline news. Any speculative theory seems to get instant attention as the debate rages about His real identity and the claims made in His name. Did Jesus really exist? Is there real historical evidence that demonstrates that He lived and actually said and did the things the Gospels record? Is there any validity to the speculative claims that the Jesus story was a myth, borrowed from a variety of pagan cultures of the ancient world? In this follow-up to the book God’s Not Dead (that inspired the movie), Man, Myth, Messiah looks at the evidence for the historical Jesus and exposes the notions of skeptics that Jesus was a contrived figure of ancient mythology. It also looks at the reliability of the Gospel records as well as the evidence for the resurrection that validates His identity as the promised Messiah. Man, Myth, Messiah will be released concurrent to the God’s Not Dead movie sequel, which will cover the same theme.
The story I am going to tell may seem fantastic, yes, even crazy. But it must be told because it is true, and because the world desperately needs to know the real meaning of King Kongs death. Let the mockers mock, let the scoffers scoff. I am confident that the truth will eventually triumph.
Passionate, forthright and enthusiastic, Carlos Magdalena is a world-renowned horticulturist - known both for his charisma and his conservation work. The Plant Messiah follows Carlos' dreams and disappointments; from his days as a school boy in the death throes of General Franco's Fascist dictatorship, to his advent as The Plant Messiah at the forefront of conservation, backed by the reputation and resources of The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and enthused by the potential that lies beyond. The book discloses for the first time the details behind his 'codebreaking' exploits and the secret stories behind his work; his genius, lateral thinking and steadfast belief that everything is possible.
The early Christian Church was a chaos of contending beliefs. Some groups of Christians claimed that there was not one God but two or twelve or thirty. Some believed that the world had not been created by God but by a lesser, ignorant deity. Certain sects maintained that Jesus was human but not divine, while others said he was divine but not human. In Lost Christianities, Bart D. Ehrman offers a fascinating look at these early forms of Christianity and shows how they came to be suppressed, reformed, or forgotten. All of these groups insisted that they upheld the teachings of Jesus and his apostles, and they all possessed writings that bore out their claims, books reputedly produced by Jesus's own followers. Modern archaeological work has recovered a number of key texts, and as Ehrman shows, these spectacular discoveries reveal religious diversity that says much about the ways in which history gets written by the winners. Ehrman's discussion ranges from considerations of various "lost scriptures"--including forged gospels supposedly written by Simon Peter, Jesus's closest disciple, and Judas Thomas, Jesus's alleged twin brother--to the disparate beliefs of such groups as the Jewish-Christian Ebionites, the anti-Jewish Marcionites, and various "Gnostic" sects. Ehrman examines in depth the battles that raged between "proto-orthodox Christians"--those who eventually compiled the canonical books of the New Testament and standardized Christian belief--and the groups they denounced as heretics and ultimately overcame. Scrupulously researched and lucidly written, Lost Christianities is an eye-opening account of politics, power, and the clash of ideas among Christians in the decades before one group came to see its views prevail.
