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Escaping the Great Deception
121 pages, Unknown Binding
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 16, 2018
I was loaned this book by some friends of mine who found themselves highly in agreement with the book's material with some minor exceptions. I must admit that I found more to question within the book, but at the same time the book was a good one overall, dealing with the tricky subject of anti-Semitism within Christian church culture [1]. This book is a case where an author has a good idea but he hasn't done quite enough research to fully defend his thesis or to place it in its proper historical context and where he lacks the sort of biblical knowledge to make this a truly excellent and monumental book. As it is, this book gets most things right, but somewhat by "luck" instead of by firm knowledge. Even so, there is much to approve of and appreciate here, as the author shows himself to be a staunch foe of replacement theology, and that is definitely something to appreciate. Given that the book is so short and mostly on point, this is a book to recommend with some reservations (see below) but generally a book to appreciate.
This book is somewhat strangely organized. It contains six chapters and five appendices that are bizarrely labeled as "footnotes," perhaps because the authors seem not to be very familiar with the naming conventions of books. At any rate, the six chapters in the book refer to a vision that the author claims to have had (1), a situation where the vision was put to the test in looking at the history of the Church Fathers and the Protestant Reformation (2), and the author's attempt to penetrate what he calls the great deception (3). After this the author seeks to sow the seeds of truth (4), protect and nurture the truth (5), and prepare for the harvest of righteousness when Jews finally believe in their Savior (6). The five appendices of the books examine the problems with replacement theology (1), why Jesus hasn't fulfilled everything yet (2), what happened to the law (3), who the land of Israel belongs to (4), and the need for repentance (5). The author seems like someone who wants to have a ministry and has the germ of a good idea but needs both a deeper understanding of biblical law and a better understanding of Church History to really drive that point home.
Unsurprisingly, it is precisely these two areas where the book loses a little bit of its luster. For one, the author appears unable to address the proper place of the law. He wants to show himself obedient to the law as it is interpreted by Jesus Christ in the Gospels, itself a very noble and worthwhile goal, but there is too much of the influence of Hellenistic antinomian language for him to express himself well-enough. And indeed it is that Hellenistic Christianity that represents the "great deception" that the author laments but does not quite know how to define. We see in this Hellenistic Christianity a consistent hostility to Judaism, something which shows up as early as the late first and early second century AD among those who professed Christianity in the proto-Orthodox tradition. The author wants to point to later developments alone, but one can find this tendency in the writings of Ignatius, Barnabas, and others from only a generation or two removed from the Apostles. Anti-Semitism crept in rather early in the history of the Church and the author would do well to do a bit more research into this subject. That said, the book gets most things right and is at least aiming generally in the right direction, and that is worth a lot.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
This book is somewhat strangely organized. It contains six chapters and five appendices that are bizarrely labeled as "footnotes," perhaps because the authors seem not to be very familiar with the naming conventions of books. At any rate, the six chapters in the book refer to a vision that the author claims to have had (1), a situation where the vision was put to the test in looking at the history of the Church Fathers and the Protestant Reformation (2), and the author's attempt to penetrate what he calls the great deception (3). After this the author seeks to sow the seeds of truth (4), protect and nurture the truth (5), and prepare for the harvest of righteousness when Jews finally believe in their Savior (6). The five appendices of the books examine the problems with replacement theology (1), why Jesus hasn't fulfilled everything yet (2), what happened to the law (3), who the land of Israel belongs to (4), and the need for repentance (5). The author seems like someone who wants to have a ministry and has the germ of a good idea but needs both a deeper understanding of biblical law and a better understanding of Church History to really drive that point home.
Unsurprisingly, it is precisely these two areas where the book loses a little bit of its luster. For one, the author appears unable to address the proper place of the law. He wants to show himself obedient to the law as it is interpreted by Jesus Christ in the Gospels, itself a very noble and worthwhile goal, but there is too much of the influence of Hellenistic antinomian language for him to express himself well-enough. And indeed it is that Hellenistic Christianity that represents the "great deception" that the author laments but does not quite know how to define. We see in this Hellenistic Christianity a consistent hostility to Judaism, something which shows up as early as the late first and early second century AD among those who professed Christianity in the proto-Orthodox tradition. The author wants to point to later developments alone, but one can find this tendency in the writings of Ignatius, Barnabas, and others from only a generation or two removed from the Apostles. Anti-Semitism crept in rather early in the history of the Church and the author would do well to do a bit more research into this subject. That said, the book gets most things right and is at least aiming generally in the right direction, and that is worth a lot.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
August 11, 2019
Love it! And the movie with Kevin Sorbo too! Be forewarned that this is a high level overview of the topic which is presented dramatically, rather than scholarly, to match the movie. So, to go deeper, the next step is The Everlasting Covenant 6 week study. There is also a lot more on their website. The movie is called Let The Lion Roar and it's free on You Tube now. Either watch the movie or read the book because they're both the same thing, except the book has extra notes at the end. I did both. The main message is against anti-Semitism in the 2000+ year history of the Christian Church and for Israel and why this matters to a Bible-believing, Jesus-following Christian who hasn't even considered this topic in their walk of faith much less is aware of the issue confronting Jewish believers in Jesus, such as my husband.
June 7, 2020
This book was included with my eBay purchase of LET THE LION ROAR, a Christian documentary featuring cameos from actors, singers, etc. well-known in Christian circles. But despite being intrigued by the movie's overall message, I found the film to be awkward, amateurish, and lacking in self-awareness. In short, an embarrassment.
Thankfully, the book comes off much better. Unlike with the movie, there's no bad acting, no obvious CGI backdrops, and no fake-looking beards to contend with. The only major issue that remains is the sense (right or wrong) that author Derek Frank suffers from delusions of grandeur, in that he sees it as his God-given mission to "complete the Reformation," presumably by releasing the near-unwatchable LET THE LIONS ROAR. Personally, I wish creators of Christian content would stop claiming their work is directly inspired by God, since it sounds self-important and often forestalls honest, constructive criticism.
In his bio, Frank mentions being on an airplane and praying that God would send his future wife to sit in the empty seat next to him. When a young Jewish kid sat there instead, Frank realized God was telling him he was supposed to be "married" to the cause of Israel. Um, OK. Heck, maybe he's right, and God sent the kid as a message. However, for me, the fact that Frank expects readers, who don't know him from Adam, to automatically buy into such statements damages his credibility.
But setting the messenger aside, the message is a good one, though not nearly as revolutionary as Frank would have you think. (In the documentary, he comes across as Morpheus mentally preparing Neo to be red-pilled.) I've always been taught, both at home and at church, that God still has future plans for Israel, and the antisemitism of Church founders such as Luther, Calvin, and Augustine is something of which I was well-aware. What ESCAPING THE GREAT DECEPTION really taught me, however--and the reason I'm giving it four stars instead of three--is that the Church was always meant to be grafted onto Israel, and not the other way around. I have to admit that I'd never been particularly interested in Jewish traditions, since my perception was that the Church had basically supplanted them. This book convinced me that they still have power, and that the modern Church has become too "Westernized."
Thankfully, the book comes off much better. Unlike with the movie, there's no bad acting, no obvious CGI backdrops, and no fake-looking beards to contend with. The only major issue that remains is the sense (right or wrong) that author Derek Frank suffers from delusions of grandeur, in that he sees it as his God-given mission to "complete the Reformation," presumably by releasing the near-unwatchable LET THE LIONS ROAR. Personally, I wish creators of Christian content would stop claiming their work is directly inspired by God, since it sounds self-important and often forestalls honest, constructive criticism.
In his bio, Frank mentions being on an airplane and praying that God would send his future wife to sit in the empty seat next to him. When a young Jewish kid sat there instead, Frank realized God was telling him he was supposed to be "married" to the cause of Israel. Um, OK. Heck, maybe he's right, and God sent the kid as a message. However, for me, the fact that Frank expects readers, who don't know him from Adam, to automatically buy into such statements damages his credibility.
But setting the messenger aside, the message is a good one, though not nearly as revolutionary as Frank would have you think. (In the documentary, he comes across as Morpheus mentally preparing Neo to be red-pilled.) I've always been taught, both at home and at church, that God still has future plans for Israel, and the antisemitism of Church founders such as Luther, Calvin, and Augustine is something of which I was well-aware. What ESCAPING THE GREAT DECEPTION really taught me, however--and the reason I'm giving it four stars instead of three--is that the Church was always meant to be grafted onto Israel, and not the other way around. I have to admit that I'd never been particularly interested in Jewish traditions, since my perception was that the Church had basically supplanted them. This book convinced me that they still have power, and that the modern Church has become too "Westernized."
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews