Book Description
Women are turning up dead, and Lisa O'Malley has a habit of walking into crime scenes, curious. She's a forensic pathologist, and mysteries are her domain. U.S. marshall Quinn Diamond has found loving her is easier than keeping her safe. Lisa's found the killer, and now she's missing too.
Introducing the O'Malleys, an inspirational group of seven, all abandoned or orphaned as teens, who have made the choice to become a loyal and committed family. They have chosen their own surname, O'Malley, and have stood by each other through moments of joy and heartache. Their stories are told in CBA best-selling, inspirational romantic suspense novels that rock your heart and restore strength and hope to your spirit.
Customer Reviews:
Vintage Dee Henderson.......2007-09-30
Book three in Henderson's O'Malley series. Lisa O'Malley is a forensic pathologist. Quinn Diamond is a U.S. Marshal. They find their lives intersecting both personally and professionally as they investigate related murder cases. The mystery element is juxtaposed against the real-life touches of humor and family. Lisa's journey to Christ and her romance with Quinn form intriguing supblots.
Good Suspense story........2007-03-13
Lisa O'Malley is a forensic pathologist who has a difficult time with Jesus' resurrection. Quinn Diamond is Marcus O'Malley's partner in the U.S. Marshal's Service. He's been trying to get Lisa to go out with him. Unfortunately, pursuing Lisa is going to be almost impossible because he's already asked out her other sisters!
Their paths cross when the cases they are investigating become intertwined. I love how we get to continue to follow the O'Malleys we already know and how we are able to get to know the others before we read their stories. I wish my family was as close as theirs is.
The other O'Malley novels are: The Negotiator, The Guardian, The Truth Seeker, The Protector, The Healer, The Rescuer. Each is a wonderful read!
Love this series!!!.......2007-01-11
I loved this series! I wasn't sure about reading a Christian Romance but this is so much more. Dee Henderson has a way of making you feel as though they are the real deal and you are right there with the O'Malley's. You'll laugh, cry, and everything in between. Enjoy!!
Book 3 in the O'Malley series.......2005-11-18
Women are missing.
Amy Ireland disappeared twenty years ago without a trace. For U.S. Marshal Quinn Diamond, it's a case that has never closed. He's still searching--determined to learn the truth.
They are turning up dead.
Lisa O'Malley is a forensic pathologist; mysteries are her domain. She has worked crime scenes in Chicago for years. Examining a sea of evidence, the connections between victims are so faint they they fade into ill-defined wisps as she searchs for a pattern.
Lisa O'Malley is running out of time.
The threads are pulling Lisa's and Quinn's cases together. And where they intersect there's a killer who will stop at nothing to see his secret remain buried.
And now she's missing, too...
Quinn wanted Lisa's help. He never planned to put her in danger. She didn't expect him to invade her heart...or his God to change her life. And while Lisa understands death and darkness all too well, she's about to discover love and the Resurrection.
The Truth and Death unravels.......2005-09-29
Lisa O'Malley is a Forensic Pathologist in Chicago with a secret past. She works with the dead and it doesn't seem to bother her. When U.S. Marchall Quinn Diamond comes to town to uncover a decade old murder Lisa gets involved. That was when things go totally wrong. Notes start showing up at Lisa's, and when the O'Malley's get involved to stop him the murder attacks the only safe place she feels safe, her home. They burn her out of her home and kills her animals, but when Lisa goes missing like the other women can Quinn find her and solve the case? Read the book to find out the exciting ending.
I really liked this book. It seemed that every time Lisa and Quinn got close to finding the killer would try to scare them or to get them off his back., but when the killer tried to kill Lisa I knew that he had gone to far and that no matter what the price Quinn, Lisa, Jack, Jennifer, Marcus, Kate, Stephan, and Rachel will stop at nothing to bring down the killer. I also liked the fact that during all this Quinn and Lisa had a past secret that they would not tell and through all they were trying to get the other to talk about it.
I would recommend this book to a person that likes a good mystery and a little romance that hits pretty close to home for most of the characters. You need to read the other books in the O'Malley Series to understand all that is happening in the book.
Book Description
Few historical figures were as controversial as DeRobigne Mortimer Bennett (1818-1882). And few Americans were as courageous—and suffered more—in the search for truth and in the cause of "free speech, a free press, and mails free from espionage and Comstockism." D. M. Bennett was the most revered and reviled publisher-editor of the Gilded Age. Loyal supporters lauded Bennett as the "American Voltaire" while his Christian adversaries called him the "Devil's Own Advocate." Inspired by Thomas Paine, Bennett founded the Truth Seeker in 1873, devoted to science, morals, and freethought. Bennett promoted birth control, supported women's rights, and opposed dogmatic religion. In less than a decade, he became the country's leading publisher of liberal literature. Mark Twain, Clarence Darrow, and Robert G. Ingersoll—"the Great Agnostic"—were only a few of the illustrious freethinkers who subscribed to the Truth Seeker.
Bennett took great pride in debunking the Bible and exposing hypocritical clergymen. He was the first editor in America to routinely report the misdeeds of ministers, compiling a list of crimes by clergymen that he published as "Sinful Saints and Sensual Shepherds." A prolific and provocative writer, Bennett was vilified by religionists for denouncing Christianity, which he called "the greatest sham in the world."
Bennett's publications were censored, prohibited at newsstands, and denied access to the US mail long before the expression "banned in Boston" was heard. At the same time Bennett began publishing the Truth Seeker, free speech came under attack by Anthony Comstock, the US Post Office's "special agent" and America's self-appointed arbiter of morals. Comstock, who bragged of driving fifteen persons to suicide in his "fight for the young," was the chief vice-hunter of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, an organization founded by wealthy and powerful purity crusaders including soap tycoon Samuel Colgate.
Bennett's opposition to religion and puritanical obscenity laws infuriated Comstock, the self-proclaimed "weeder in God's garden." Comstock arrested Bennett for publishing his incendiary "An Open Letter to Jesus Christ" and entrapped the elderly editor for mailing a free-love pamphlet. Bennett was prosecuted, subjected to a widely publicized trial, and finally imprisoned in the Albany (New York) Penitentiary. "The charge is ostensibly `obscenity,'" Bennett wrote. "But the real offense is that I presume to utter sentiments and opinions in opposition to the views entertained by the Christian Church."
Based on original sources and extensively researched, this in-depth yet accessible biography of D. M. Bennett offers a fascinating glimpse into the turbulent period of late nineteenth century America, a time when our nation was controlled by pious politicians, powerful manufacturers, and censorious clergymen. Roderick Bradford follows Bennett's evolution from a devout Shaker to an unremitting skeptic and America's most iconoclastic publisher. He chronicles the circumstances that led to Bennett's historically significant New York obscenity trial and the monumental, though ultimately unsuccessful, petition campaign for a pardon that went all the way to the White House. Bradford examines Bennett's prominent role in the National Liberal League, his affiliation with abolitionists, suffragists and the National Defense Association (a forerunner of the American Civil Liberties Union), and his flirtation with spiritualism and theosophy.
Bradford has written a valuable historical contribution, a long-overdue tribute to a free-speech champion, and a colorful depiction of memorable characters and events during a period of great change in American history.
Customer Reviews:
Brave freethinker.......2007-04-18
Bennett was a brave 19th century freethinker, and Bradford tells the story in an easy, engaging style. I learned a lot about Bennett's arch foe, Anthony Comstock. I also learned that Bennett disagreed with the great 19th century freethinker Robert Ingersoll on matters of personal morals, Ingersoll being far more conservative than Bennett.
The only mistake I could find is that Bradford refers to the lake near Ingersoll's Dresden, NY birthplace as "Lake Seneca"; it's actually Seneca Lake.
Highly recommended.
It's piece of history not to be missed.......2007-04-11
Bennett was 19th century America's most controversial publisher and promoter of free speech, founding the 'blasphemous' NY periodical THE TRUTH SEEKER in 1873, which was widely banned. This biographical considers his influences, life, achievements, and the sentiments of his times, offering a far-reaching and insightful glimpse into the ideas and ideals of his times. More than just a biography, it's piece of history not to be missed by any serious college-level American history holding; particularly those specializing in free speech rights and issues.
A Valuable Piece of American History.......2007-02-06
Roderick Bradford of Allentown, Pennsylvania, author of the complete biography of DeRobigne Mortimer Bennett (1818 - 1882), is a freelance writer and independent video producer who has also written articles for American History magazine, The Quest, and American Atheist.
Bennett, the first of three children to poor farming parents, encountered differences in faith at a young age, with a father who was "moral" but didn't attend church and a mother who was a devout, church-loyal Methodist.
His ethic of hard work developed when he was very young; he began working for a publisher of mostly Bibles when he was twelve years old. When his father abandoned his family, he shared his 1830 salary of $1.50 per week with his mother.
His life changed when he joined the Shakers, a communitarian, strictly celibate offshoot of the Quakers. Officially, the Shakers were known as The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, or more simply, The Millenial Church. Originally from England, the group became known as the Shakers due to their ecstatic and often violent shaking contortions during their religious services. The less respectful of society called them the Shaking Quakers, although they preferred to be known as the Alethians, for "children of the truth."
Occasionally the vows of celibacy, harshly enforced by the Elders, did not mesh in young minds, and the urge for companionship outweighed the safety of the simply, communal life of the ever-productive Shakers. On September 12, 1846, Bennett shocked the Shakers, who denounced him for leaving them to elope with Mary Wicks, another heretic Shaker, when he was twenty-seven years old. DeRobigne and Mary visited the Shakers without exception every five years thereafter.
The mid-1840s, a time when the orthodoxy was strong, and the Victorian-style Christian, God-fearing Idiocracy was in control of the religious and a majority of the secular media, was an unsettled period if there ever were one. In 1848, the first women's rights movement organized in Seneca Falls, New York, under Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, both public critics of the Bible.
People were reading Thomas Paine and Voltaire, of all people.
The year 1848 also saw the beginning of the spiritualist movement, led in Rochester, New York, by Margaret and Kate Fox. The beginning of the movement quickly led to a national pseudoscientific craze, which wasn't appreciated by the orthodoxy either.
When the women and many of the men began embracing feminism, the orthodoxy became further perplexed.
Anthony Comstock, America's "self-appointed arbiter of morals," began, with the sanction of the City of New York, to clean up the mails by arresting those who would dare send obscene (PG-rated by today's standards) materials through the U.S. Postal Service. Comstock, an icon among conservatives, had thousands of people arrested during his career, including Bennett, with nary a second thought: "Some of the country's most powerful and pious citizens backed Comstock, who bragged about driving fifteen people to suicide in his Christian-sanctioned mission to `save the young.'"
Bennett considered himself a freethinker as of 1850. Freethinkers at that time were called "infidels," defined by Webster as not-faith, not faithful, or not full of faith. Freethinkers at that time called themselves "liberals," and were the founding fathers and mothers of the Liberal party. A liberal during the post-slavery Reconstruction Period was defined as "one who does not acknowledge the authority of the Bible or admit the supernatural character of the Christian system," and was not limited to far-left politics or atheism but also included free religion and agnosticism.
When in 1859, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was published, the conventional Victorian society was shocked, the intellectuals were stunned, and the religionists were infuriated.
After the election of President Grant, the alarmists began to sound their bells: "Some of the nation's most widely read publications printed articles about the frightening prospects of an irreligious world."
D. M. Bennett added to the irreligious world by founding the Truth Seeker in 1873. He and it were devoted to science, morals, freethought, and human happiness, and he and it were inspired by Thomas Paine. The literal title of the publication was the "Truth Seeker: Devoted to Science, Morals, Freethought, Free Discussion, Liberalism, Sexual Equality, Labor Reform, Progression, Free Education, and whatever tends to elevate the human race. Opposed to Priestcraft, Ecclesiasticism, Dogmas, Creeds, False Theology, Superstition, Bigotry, Ignorance, Monopolies, Aristocracies, Privileged Classes, Tyranny, Oppression and Everything that Degrades or Burdens Mankind Mentally or Physically."
He worked from pre-dawn to late at night seven days a week, and the length of his periodical's title is characteristic of his writing: his premise on most platforms became known in the occasionally retrospective, often descriptive, occasionally mud-slinging, and frequently inflammatory articles. He was outspoken with a gift of gab, and developed friends and enemies in high places.
His issues were many, his thoughts well documented. Often embroiled in heated arguments with his opponents in the press, he left diplomacy behind and let his enemies receive his temper with both barrels. He was both revered and reviled.
Bradford gives this biography special impact with his expertly handled flow of words, a precise, rhythmic literary zoom into the character and back out to society to give the reader a seamless, omniscient view of the man and the culture. I highly recommend this action-packed book to the lover of biographies as well as the lover of history, and especially freethought history.
We Could Use a Man Like Bennett Today.......2007-02-04
In this day and age it seems that the right wing Christians are in control of the country, and we wonder how this happened. We also tend to suspect that this is unique in American history. Unfortunately this is not true. The US swings back and forth from a heavy Christian attitude to a more liberal view.
One previous heavy religious time was in the late 1800's, especially when Anthony Comstock, the U.S. Post Office's 'special agent' in weeding out anything non-Christian.
At the other end of the scale at this time was DeRobigne Bennett. Bennet founded the 'blasphemous' magazine Truth Seeker in 1873 and presented stories such as identifying the wrong doings of religious leaders, free thinking, and denouncing Christianity, which he called 'the greatest sham in the world.'
Eventually Comstock won, by getting Bennett convicted of various crimes that today would be laughed out of court.
This is a well written history of what happened to a man we could use today.
America's Free Press Martyr.......2006-11-05
D. M. Bennett was a great free speech advocate and reform campaigner whose career was an important milestone in the struggle for the freedom of the press. But The Truth Seeker is more than a biography. It also a tale of religious persecution, of an "American Inquisition." Bennett was targeted by the infamous postal censor, Anthony Comstock, a man who openly bragged of the innocents who he drove to suicide and ruin. But Bennett fought back and his legal case, The United States v D. M. Bennett, led to a landmark decision based on the Hicklin Standard that established the precedent for obscenity well into the late twentieth century. Bennett paid a high price for his defiance. At sixty years of age he was sentenced to hard labor in the Albany State Penitentiary. He only lived about a year after his release. In our own age of worldwide political and religious upheaval, it is more important than ever for historians to help rebuild our knowledge and sense of connection to the great democratic currents of the past. Roderick Bradford's book is an important contribution to that goal and a groundbreaking biography of the man he calls America's "free-speech martyr."
Book Description
Discover Life-Altering Insights From the author of the best-selling The Secret of Letting Go
How would you like the keys to a new kind of consciousness that never sabotages itself and always knows the right thing to do in every moment? Seeker's Guide to Self-Freedom, the new work from Guy Finley, offers encouraging, helpful guidance about the inner work needed to wake up and realize your secret True Self.
Each chapter in is filled with spiritually empowering insights and special techniques to move you closer to higher happiness. With this guidebook, you will discover how to:
-Take a true measure of your spiritual growth
-Let the love of truth give you a fearless life
-Break the cycle of suffering
-Make three choices that will dismiss any dark condition
-Realize the power of the present moment
Customer Reviews:
beautiful and helpful.......2002-03-07
I enjoyed this book very much and learned a lot from it. It's easy to read, but I recommend reading it slowly as I did. I read a chapter or two and then sat quietly, trying to practice what the book teaches.
Guy Finley isn't the best writer, but this book will still touch your heart. It has a simple beauty to it.
Product Description
The bodies of five women who mysteriously disappeared are being discovered and Lisa O'Malley is determined to find the killer.
Book Description
This collection of tales, discussions, teachings, letters and lectures is a handbook, inviting the reader to re-examine the assumptions of his particular culture; assumptions which are responsible for his conditioning and his outlook on life. It is precisely because of the unreliability of vision, of memory, of wanting to believe, of induced belief ... that the Sufis say that an objective perception must be acquired before even familiar things can be seen as they are. "Seeker After Truth" goes beyond the familiar "first do this, then do that" style of handbook, transporting the reader to new ranges of perception, according to his or her capacity. Among the many assumptions questioned are: the objective worth of deep emotional feelings; the superiority of man's social habits over those of rats, and the origin of those habits; the evils of deceit ... The magazine Literary Review said about it: "This book ... is food for many different kinds of study - a book unlike anything our society has produced until recently, in its richness, its unexpectedness, its capacity to shock us into seeing ourselves as others see us, both personally and as a society."
Customer Reviews:
four and a half stars, actually.......2007-08-30
It is, after all, only ink on paper... but it has spiritual value nevertheless. Anyone who would give any consideration to the concept of buying this book would be well advised to do so. Someone, I mean, who knows at least some Nasrudin tales and who knows that "the bases and essentials of Sufi teaching" are that you value truth over excitement, and that you make your way to the Teacher.
An Exposition of Human Perception Centers.......2004-05-29
This handbook is another fine rattle for those of us with a tenacious grip on our beliefs and habituation.
Worth mentioning, as a personal observation, is how the effects of sufi dictums presented by the Shah corpus produces feedback depending on a person(s)/ culture(s)/ race(s) mental, emotional and spiritual disposition. I find that, like with most learning materials, assistance of a living teacher is often necessary. I harbor little hope of attaining a mastery in martial arts, yoga, or academia, solely from books, or even from aspirants of those books. An overt reliance on literature, or of testimonies & interactions of aspirants might make one scholarly (or pedantry) on the subject of Sufism.
My own readings of this, and other Shah titles, have often prompted many inquiries and a need for clarification on presented ideas. In such cases, I much prefer seeking out a Sufi teacher, well-versed in "sufi cipher", than adopt an approach of dogged persistence. Such contact with a teacher actually helped me tune out many distortions introduced by my biases and unexamined assumptions. So, my experiences in discovering my "beingness" has definitely been enriched (even if alot of those discoveries were very painful).
Excellent Introduction to & Overview of Sufi Literature.......2001-07-23
An excellent introduction to and overview of Sufi literature: this Handbook contains anecdotes, question-and-answer interchanges, mini-lectures, and many outstanding tales including some of my favorites (The Skill that Nobody Has, Fahima and the Prince, Elephant-Meat, Intelligence and Obedience). But don't take my word for it; you really should check it out for yourself.
Reality Based Reading.......2001-07-18
A fascinating collection of question and answers and narratives of various lengths. Most of the material appears straight forward, but a rereading (especially after some time has passed) will often reveal new insights and levels which can be surprising. The breadth and depth of the material will make this a rewarding book for anyone with an interest in reality.
A mirror into ourselves.......2001-07-17
Reading Seeker After Truth is an exercise in the exploration of ourselves. The stories and narratives are designed to provoke us into seeing hidden motivations and patterns that normally go unnoticed. The stories are deceptively simple and disarming because of their emphasis on people and events that seem at first glance distant and not particularly relevant to our lives. But as the material is read and re-read, patterns begin to emerge which were previously overlooked because of our emphasis on other things. In time, the people and situations in the stories begin to take on new meanings that help us reflect on our daily activities with more insight and clarity. I would recommend this book for all people who would like a secret glimpse into the inner workings of our minds.
Book Description
An expose of the bestselling novel. Readers questioning The Da Vinci Code can "fact check" with this book of terms, events, people and places.
Customer Reviews:
Thorough and Credible.......2007-03-29
When the author of the wildly popular "The Da Vinci Code" insisted that his novel was factual, he lit a firestorm among academics and theologians. One response, "Cracking Da Vinci's Code," shot to the top of the bestseller lists. As the film soared to the top of the box office, pastor and theologian James Garlow returned with a dictionary style listing of information that readers and moviegoers will need, if they're interested in the facts, and just the facts. Thorough and credible.
It Helps You Break the Code.......2006-06-01
Even though I am predisposed to dislike "The Da Vinci Code," reading James Garlow's book has given me many more reasons. It is an easy dictionary for names, places, and terms referenced in or related to Dan Brown's novel. Though it appears to be written for the reader who is already familiar with the novel, I haven't read it all yet and didn't find The Code Breaker less easy to understand.
Garlow says that hosts asked him during interviews for his preceding book, Cracking Da Vinci's Code co-authored with Peter Jones, why he was attacking a work of fiction. The reason is Brown claims that only the story is fiction. All the historic details, he says, are true. Garlow says the average reader can't tell the fiction from the fact, which I can understand completely because so many tiny details are untrue.
1. Do you know who founded Paris? A Gallic tribe called Parisi. Brown gets that wrong.
2. Do you know how many glass panes are in Le Louvre Pyramide? It isn't 666. The museum reports 673.
3. Brown describes La Pyramide Inversée as having a tip "suspended only six feet above the floor"; below it is "a miniature pyramid, only three feet tall." The tips of these two structures are "almost touching." Doesn't a yard's distance seems a little far for "almost touching"?
4. That miniature pyramid is described as coming "up through the floor," but a close observer can see that it actually sits on the floor and can be moved aside for sweepers.
5. Leonardo Da Vinci did not name his famous painting Mona Lisa, so he wasn't sending a message through the title. Brown says L'isa is an alternative name for Isis. The Code Breaker states that it isn't. The English name Mona Lisa was given to the painting by a Da Vinci biographer many years after the artist's death.
6. Leonardo made notes while painting The Last Supper in which he refers to the figure at Jesus' right hand as a man, clearly from the artist's context to be the Apostle John, not Mary Magdalene.
Details like these wouldn't make up the text of many books if Brown hadn't boasted his accuracy at the start of his novel and in interviews afterward. I don't doubt he believes the hoax and that he thought he got many minor details right; but The Da Vinci Code and his other novels suffer, at least a little bit, from careless research.
But The Code Breaker reveals more disturbing errors or hoaxes which many people will assume to be true. Why make up stuff like this?
1. The Vatican, which Brown says ruled Christianity and suppressed the true accounts of Jesus' life in the fourth century, existed only as a simple church at that time. It was not building its new power base, as Brown claims.
2. The books and letters which make up the New Testament were not declared God's Word by a council. Most of them had been accepted by disciples of Jesus since the time they were first circulated.
3. Brown says English is a pure language, free from the corruption of the Vatican. This is idiotic. The English language comes to us from the German language, so wouldn't German be far more pure than it? Also, many English words were imported from Norman French.
4. Finally, in a section which makes me laugh from a literary perspective, main character Robert Langdon states the church burned five million women as witches over several centuries. The Code Breaker points to sources which record only 55,000 witch trials which resulted in executions and over 20% of the convicts were men. Many of these trials were done by common people, not the Catholic Church.
The Da Vinci Code Breaker calls itself "an easy-to-use fact checker," and I agree. Not only does it include corrections to the novel, but it also describes why the Gnostic writings were rejected, how the Bible was assembled, and other writings or recordings on the issues distorted in The Da Vinci Code.
An Essential Resource.......2006-05-21
The Da Vinci Code Breaker is the first reference style response to The Da Vinci Code. Formatted much like a miniature encyclopedia, it claims to provide information on over five hundred facts and terms.
Entries in this book range from one sentence to several paragraphs. They cover historical persons, church councils, and even contemporary writers and their critics. It also covers early church, Gnostic, and other apocryphal writings and concepts. Charts are provided periodically for help in breaking down complex topics, such as the content of the Nag Hammadi Library. For a few select individuals, timelines are constructed highlighting important points in their lives. At the back of the book are a few maps and advertisements for additional resources.
Not only is The Da Vinci Code Breaker unique in its format, it's also unique in quality. It covers every issue, item, and person relevant to the subject in an accessible and informative manner. It helps delineate the facts from the fiction in an easy-to-use format, as it claims. Whether it's used on its own or in conjunction with other responses to Dan Brown's novel, The Da Vinci Code Breaker is a necessary resource for those who seek to be informed about the truth.
Provides anwers to the most asked questions.......2006-05-21
In The Da Vinci Code, author Dan Brown presents a mix of fact and fiction certain to lead many to question the Bible's integrity and Christianity's impact on history. Since fact checking does not seem to be a strong suit for Brown, this reference guide, The Da Vinci CodeBreaker, provides well-researched answers, both theologically and historically, to questions raised after reading Brown's book.
The topics are in alphabetical order. Maps, charts, photos, and symbols help discern fact from fiction in a clear, concise manner. Even if you've never read The Da Vinci Code or seen the movie adaptation, you'll still find great information in the book. The chart explaining when and why each book of the Bible was canonized is especially helpful.
The Da Vinci CodeBreaker by James L. Garlow (with Timothy Paul Jones and April Williams) is perfect for anyone who seeks to know the historical truth about Jesus and the Christian faith. This book will have you prepared to provide answers when someone asks you about the claims made in the novel and the film.
Fact finder: Encyclopedia of terms and ideas in Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code'.......2006-05-17
There have been roughly 14 books that spun off the writing of Dan Brown's novel, 'The Da Vinci Code.' Some are commentary, some are scathing commentary, and some discuss the facts and fictions of the book and movie. This book does the latter.
This is not a commentary on Gnostic or Christian thought, although the authors are a pastor, a doctor of theology and an art historian. The book serves as a reference discussing the proposed facts by Dan Brown, who has caused confusion in some when saying in his novel that the facts within his book, The Da Vinci Code, are accurate and well researched.
The book is laid out in an encyclopedic format, discussing topics alphabetically that may weigh or have been discussed in Brown's book and movie. The authors' theology is that of conservative evangelicals. For those who are not of this theological persuasion: this book shows little in the way of slant, so don't be turned off by this. The main area where non-evangelicals might disagree is in the discussion of the Canon, but otherwise, this book is neutral in its defining of terms and ideas from the movie.
Since Brown's work centers around art to a large extent, having an art historian as co-author lends credence to this work discussing Brown's proposed facts. Several glaring mistakes by Brown are described in detail in this book.
This book does a superb job as a research tool to discern fact from fiction in 'The Da Vinci Code,' which is the stated purpose of the writing. In fact, I gave this book 5 stars because it fulfills its stated task so well. So, if you are interested in finding out where Brown was right and where he was wrong, this would be one of the first and easiest places to go.
Customer Reviews:
excellent support for a true and positive change in life.......2006-11-03
clear, clean and simple messages to be read without forcing the mind to understand the subtilities : the messages will naturally work out their way soon or later.
The ultimate understanding of Life.......2003-09-17
I cannot expound on Mr. Harwood's excellent, to-the-point review. What I will say is that, as a person who has over 2,000 books in her home library -- mostly to do with Truth-seeking -- this is the ultimate book on understanding what Life is about, how It works, and the human's place in it. I am ever-grateful that the book and "I" were ready to meet and that Ramesh Balsekar wrote it so succinctly. The long shipping time can be a period of wild anticipation.
Two Thumbs Up.......2000-02-07
These 365 jewels, one for each day of the year, are classic Ramesh--fresh, stimulating, profound, and just plain fun. I laughed out loud several times while reading the book. The path to enlightenment, of course, is not a path. It is a progressive letting go of ideas until nothing obscures the truth. The truth confronts us every moment, but we are attached to so many silly ideas. In this book, Ramesh shows us his realization. Of all the spiritual masters alive today no one is deeper than this. If someone has not already encountered Ramesh, he or she should read "Consciousness Speaks" or one of Ramesh's other books first. Many people are shocked when they first read his writings (What? It doesn't matter what I do? I can't do anything to get enlightened? My spiritual practice won't get me there?) After having these last spiritual props knocked out from under oneself, then there is nothing left to do but relax and enjoy the show. Those who reach this stage of understanding will know that the one who is writing this review, the one who is reading this review, and Ramesh himself are all One. This is the way We entertain Ourself. For those who haven't yet given up the tiresome burden of reflective thought, or those who still think that they are entities, this book will be a wake up call. Ramesh is saying, "This is a play, and we're so lucky that it's not the kind of play most of us imagine." Today Ramesh is 81 years old and lives in Bombay, India. Fortunately, we don't have to travel to Bombay to play with him. To slightly alter the last line of one of Ryokan's poems, "Look around. This is what IS!" Indeed..
Product Description
This book presents a challenge to all believers to rediscover the true faith and come out of the confusion left us by our ancestors.
Customer Reviews:
Scripture over Tradition........2007-01-22
This is a book that a reader will either find offensive or revealing.
Regardless of that,it is well-written and documented.
Mr.Koster gives detailed quotes in the book,like "the Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday,a day which we never sanctify."-Cardinal Gibbons in "Faith of our Fathers".
The author wrote about some errors in certain Bible translations and that's something that has been known for some time. What may not be so well-known is the background of some of the "early church fathers". Fascinating information!
I investigated a statement in this book with the Jersualem Bible.
Rev 17:5 does indeed have a footnote regarding "Babylon the Great" in that passage."Babylon is the symbolic name for Rome" is the footnote.
He quotes numerous Scripture pertaining to the Name of God.
Mr.Koster also discusses the motive for claiming the resurrection occured on a Sunday. An upright stake being used in the crucifixion is something I have read about previously.
An excellent book if you want study traditions in the light of Scripture and history!
One Star For Poor Writing Style and Structure.......2005-01-10
C.J. Koster's COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE was given to me by a lady who left our church for the radical Messianic Jewish followers such as Koster and Michael Rood. I read the book with great doubts about the book since most serious Messianic Jewish Gentiles I have met were simply bizarre. This book did nothing more than confirm this view.
Koster appears to have taken most of his information from the cult, the Assemblies of Yahweh. His insistance upon using the various Hebrew names for God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit go from poor understandings of the Greek language to flat out denials. His writing style is poor and the structure of the book appears to not have been very well thought out. Koster appears mad throughout the book at the "established Church" and he seems mad enough to essentially condemn anyone who calls the holy Scriptures "the Bible" or calls Yahushua "Jesus" or has a cross up in their meetings or calls their assemblies "church" or who worship on Sunday (or some other day other than Saturday and dare not call the days or months by its Greek names!) than they are going to burn forever. Further, any follower of the Messiah not keeping the entire Law of Moses is lost! Ironically, few Jews have "converted" to Messianic Jewish roots despite Koster's belief that this will usher in a great harvest of Jews into the kingdom of Elohim. Could it be they see the error of the Sacred Name Movement as do many Gentiles such as I?
For me, Koster and the rest of the radical Messianic follwers are nothing more than the Pharisees of Acts 15. They seek to add to the salvation given to us by Jesus Christ (Acts 15:9-11). They want us to keep the Law of Moses but not one person (including themselves) is capable of doing so (Galatians 3:11). How sad that these men have dived into a works salvation that focuses on rules rather than on Christ's atoning sacrifice (Colossians 2:11-23). I for one thank God that I am free from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13-14) and that Jesus brings no condemnation (Romans 8:1-4; Galatians 5:1-13).
You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!.......2004-09-17
The previous reviewer, "Roy" obviously approaches this text from the "cheap seats" as opposed to the "playing field" of textual and biblical criticism. The assertions set forth by Koster in Come Out of Her My People as they relate to language, custom and tradition are true. What has been spoonfed to the masses as Chrisitanity is not the historical, scriptural faith of Israel or its Messiah. Whether we want to believe it or not, the Almighy has a specific Name on those ancient Hebrew scrolls, (and it is not God or LORD) as does the one mis-called "Jesus". These are matters of textual and historical fact. The church doesn't like these kinds of things Koster presents, as they lay bare the church's roots as having much more in common with ancient pagan Rome than ancient Scriptural Jerusalem. The scrolls say what they say-and they communicate a specific ancient Hebraic faith in the Redeemer of Israel.
Take it from a former baptist preacher and seminary student-you need to read this book. I came upon this book after beginning my own research into the roots of Christianity. Upon reading this book, I saw further documentation of disturbing facts I had already dug up, as well as new information and perspectives on many I hadn't yet seen. Bottom line: You need to question why you believe what you believe and Come Out of Her My People is a great primer. The book essentially asserts that Christianity was not and is not the faith that was communicated by a Jewish Carpenter 2000 years ago. His name was not "Jesus", but Y'shua. "Jesus" being a later Greek corruption and not even translatable back into Hebrew and Aramaic, which were the languages of the Messiah, His followers, and Judean detractors. The faith of this band of Galilean fisherman was simply Judaism realizing the promise of the Messiah. Evidence of this is clearly seen in Acts 24:5 & 14. Here Rav Shaul (the Apostle Paul) answers his critics who have accused him of being a leader of the sect (or denomination) of the Natsarim (Nazarenes), a denomination of Judaism following the carpenter from Natsaret (Nazareth). Shaul answer their charge by affirming that yes, according to the Way that the Pharisees and Saduccees call a sect, the Natsarim, he, Shaul, does follow the Torah (Law of Moses) and the Neviim (the writings of the prophets-Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc.) and keeps the faith of his fathers (Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Moses, etc.). So we see that Paul continued to be and live and practice as a Jew, as did all of the first century believers up until the persecution by Rome
that resulted in the destruction of the Temple and the separation between Jewish and Gentile believers around 70 A.D. According to the scrolls of Scripture, in spite of our translations over the past 1900 years, there is no such thing belonging or relating to the Almighty known as "the church". Forget the whole "Bride of Christ" trip. The Messiah has had the
same bride for 4000 years. Her name is Yisrael.
Yisrael was the name given to Jacob by the Almighty and became the general name for the people and land. Scripture however clearly presents two houses within this House of Jacob (Yaacov): The House of Yahudah (Judah, southern Yisrael) and the House of Yisrael (Ephraim, northern Yisrael). Because of faithlessness to the covenant they made with the Almighty at Sinai, Judah and Ephraim were split into northern and southern kingdoms and both were eventually taken into captivity in Babylon. Judah repented and made it back to Yisrael and rebuilt Jerusalem, Ephraim and the House of Yisrael did not and the curse of their years in Babylon multiplied 7 times over, which doing the math, would extend the time of their being scattered among the nations out of the land of Yisrael to the late 20th, early 21st century. Many of these "Lost Tribes" are seen in "Churchianity" today. The Almighty promised to send after them "fishers" to bring them back to the covenant and land of Yisrael, reminding them of who they are. "Come Out of Her My People" is part of that fishing for Yisrael happening today.
Read the book and let the blindness fall away from your eyes. Also, the book is heavily footnoted so that you may doublecheck the info presented therein.
Product Description
The awe-inspiring adventures of an advanced seeker in the Himalayas and plains of India reveal profound truths about the role of the Satguru and the Yoga path to Enlightenment. Revised edition printed in India.
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