Book Review: The Original Jesus by Daniel Darling

Jesus Christ is the most talk about person in history. More books have been written about him than any other person. More t-shirts have been made with his "likeness" as well as paintings. They have even made movies about him. Some were good while there were some that were bad. People love to talk about Jesus, but they only talk about the Jesus of their own mind.

When it comes to the Biblical Jesus, people don't want to follow him. He makes people feel uncomfortable, Christian or non-Christian. We have traded the Biblical Jesus for a Jesus we just made up. Daniel Darling, in his book, The Original Jesus, takes a look at ten myths about Jesus and finding out what the Bible really says about him.

Darling looks at the truth of the Easter story in regards to the Resurrection and the hope have as Christians. Darling also talks about Jesus and God speaking the same language because many Christians love to separate the Old and New Testament. Reason for that is in some Bibles, the words of Jesus are in red which I am not sure when that started, but was used for our benefit.

Darling continues with the idea that Christians had political ideals which is not nonsense. There is an ideal of making Jesus all about America. Some believe that America is the new Jerusalem and that is not true, even though, people in our day may push that further even more. Jesus is about calling people to become one with him in salvation and one with the church in fellowship. We have also equated Jesus with being as a self-help guru along with someone that is a means to an end in giving us an abundance of things, which Darling does a great job debunking through the passages of the Bible.

Even though our culture is turning hostile towards Christianity it is important that Christians get the facts about Jesus correct. We get to know him through the Bible. Yes, theological books are important, but the Bible is our final answer when it comes to the true Jesus. I highly recommend this book for all Christians to read either as an individual or group study. This maybe a good thing to go over with a new believer.

Thanks Baker Books for letting me review this book.