The Remnant by Monte Wolverton

About the Book:

The Remnant (Plain Truth Ministries, August 2016)

In the year 2069 the Apocalypse came and went, but Jesus didn’t show up, as some expected.

Instead, a cataclysmic war, natural disasters and pandemics eradicated 90 percent of earth’s population. Now, in 2131, a totalitarian government rules the world from the majestic, opulent capitol of Carthage, Tunisia. Blamed for igniting the war, religion and religious books are banned. Citizens who will not renounce their religion are sent to work camps.

Grant Cochrin, imprisoned in a bleak petroleum camp in what was once North Dakota, leads his family and friends to escape and embark on a long, dangerous quest for a Christian community. Their resource in this journey? A cherished page torn from the now banished Bible—a remnant of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount handed down from Grant’s grandparents.

What if there were an Apocalypse and Jesus didn’t return? What if the survivors found themselves living in a world ruled by a totalitarian government, where religion is forbidden and all religious texts have been destroyed?

In The Remnant, award-winning author Monte Wolverton tells the tale of a band of concentration camp escapees who trek through the lawless American wilderness on a quest for authentic Christianity, only to come face to face with an unthinkable dilemma. The Remnant is a fast-paced story punctuated with dry satire, memorable characters and hard questions about religious institutions.

Learn more and purchase a copy.

 

About the Author:

Monte Wolverton is an award-winning author and syndicated editorial cartoonist. He is associate editor of CWR magazine. He is an ordained minister and holds a MA from Goddard College in Vermont. Along with his wife Kaye, he makes his home in southwest Washington State.

Margie’s Comments:

The Remnant is a true dystopian novel, a future world that is generally worse than the one we currently live in. Yet we can learn much of how to live in our world now by reading dystopian novels. And I found that to be true in reading The Remnant. If this type of fiction appeals to you, you’ll enjoy The Remnant. Journey with Grant and his group of escapees from a detention camp in Minot, South Dakota, as they search of a community of Christians they can identify with. The only thing I didn’t like about the book is the cliffhanger with which the author ends the book. We have to wait until 2018 to read the sequel in order to find out what happens.  (Or you can join the Facebook group page at The Remnant—CWRpress.)

A More Christlike God by Bradley Jersak

About the book:

A More Christlike God (April 2015)

What is God like? A punishing judge? A doting grandfather? A deadbeat dad? A vengeful warrior?

Believers and atheists alike typically carry and finally reject the toxic images of God in their own hearts and minds. Even the Christian gospel has repeatedly lapsed into a vision of God where the wrathful King must be appeased by his victim Son. How do such good cop/bad cop distortions of the divine arise and come to dominate churches and cultures?

Whether our notions of 'god' are personal projections or inherited traditions, author and theologian Brad Jersak proposes a radical reassessment, arguing for A More Christlike God: a More Beautiful Gospel. If Christ is "the image of the invisible God, the radiance of God's glory and exact representation of God's likeness," what if we conceived of God as completely Christlike---the perfect Incarnation of self-giving, radically forgiving, co-suffering love? What if God has always been and forever will be cruciform (cross-shaped) in his character and actions?

A More Christlike God suggests that such a God would be very good news indeed---a God who Jesus "unwrathed" from dead religion, a Love that is always toward us, and a Grace that pours into this suffering world through willing, human partners.

Purchase a copy: http://bit.ly/1JHG9yp

About the author:

Brad Jersak (PhD) is an author and teacher based in Abbotsford, BC. He is on faculty at Westminster Theological Centre (Cheltenham, UK), where he teaches New Testament and Patristics. He also serves as adjunct faculty with St Stephen's University (St. Stephen, NB). He is also the senior editor of CWR (Christianity Without the Religion) Magazine, based in Pasadena, CA.

Find Brad online: website, Facebook, Twitter

Margie’s Comments: I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started reading A More Christlike God by Bradley Jersak, but as I read and processed what I was reading—this is not a “quick-read”—three scriptures came to mind:

[Christ] is the exact likeness of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible]. Colossians 1:15 amp

[Christ] is the sole expression of the glory of God [the Light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine], and He is the perfect imprint and very image of [God’s] nature. Hebrews 1:3 amp

 For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life. John 3:16 amp

The author begins the book by revealing some of the false images of God mankind has created. Then the discussion moves on to how Jesus is the exact image of God. He is the flesh that allows us to “see” God. Finally the images of a judgmental, even cruel, God that many of us have formed from the Old Testament are held up to the light of Jesus Christ’s character and shown to be false or, at least, misinterpretations of a whole.

While many of the conclusions Jersak comes to are mine as well, it was interesting to ponder the different means God uses to teach us more of Him, to give us a complete picture rather than a distortion based on too few facts. To understand more of why Bradley Jersak wrote A More Christlike God, read this interview that Litfuse did with the author: http://litfusegroup.com/blog/story-behind-a-more-christlike-god

When I finished reading the book, I came away with a sense of awe and a renewed belief in God’s love, mercy, and grace as revealed in His Son, Jesus Christ. I know that these truths about God will remain with me for a very long time. Of course, no one will ever fully comprehend the enormity of God’s love in our short lifetimes, but then we will have all of eternity to rejoice in Him.