Customer Reviews

The Bible or the Axe: One Man's Dramatic Escape From Persecution in the Sudan

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Bible or the Axe is the testimony of William Levi. It tells the story of his struggle against oppression and religious persecution in Sudan. It tells a story of hope, family, responsibility, and dependence on God. It tells the story of one man's calling. If you have a heart for the persecuted church, this book will touch you in ways you can't imagine.

What struck me even more than the gut wrenching opening, or even the torture this man endured, was the unmistakable message of God. I repeatedly had to stop and mark passages in the book to come back to. They were passages that touched me deeply and conveyed profound spiritual lessons.

The wisdom that flows from William Levi throughout this book is a gift from God. His understanding of scripture will touch you and change you. His struggle will give you strength and make you think. It will cause you to question the very fabric of your convictions and ask yourself where you stand. You will also ask yourself - will it be the Bible or the axe?

In a time of war and distress between nations and religious groups, this book could not have come at a better time. It is one thing to know what the Bible says and quite another to see it firmly in practice. William Levi met the call to love his enemies with service and strength of conviction.

To tell you that I enjoyed The Bible or the Axe would be to understate my real feelings. This book is profoundly touching. If you can put it down without feeling changed, without seeing the message God is sending through the words of William Levi, then you haven't opened your heart and paid attention. This book is a must read.

This is a very interesting and powerful autobiography which tells the story of William Levi's childhood in South Sudan, and his subsequent escape from religious persecution there and ultimate journey to America.

I found the early parts of this book fascinating, particularly where Levi talks about the history of the Sudan and the long Jewish and Christian heritage of that part of the world. I must confess my relative ignorance about the history and current events this country, and Africa in general, and this book has inspired me to learn more. For quite a while now I've had it on my heart to visit and perhaps do some work in Africa one day, and this book has further kindled that flame.

In some ways this book is reminscent of 'Hotel Rwanda' (one of my favourite movies) however in that setting it was Christians of different tribes fighting each other. In this story it is Islamic persecution of Christians, and their imposition of Shari'a law, that is the problem. Despite the injustices he faced, Levi manages to convey a sense of understanding and love towards Muslims - in this he is truly living up to Jesus' command to love your enemies. Levi's respectful religious discussions with a Turkish Muslim, and the attempts by some Egyptian Muslims to convert him (in a 'good cop, bad cop' kind of way) are some of the compelling episodes in this book.

The biggest disappointment I had with this book is that the story ends quite abruptly. There is very little written about what happened with Levi's 'Operation Nehemiah' ministry for the Sudanese which he started after a few years in America. And even more of a let down was that he didn't tell us what happened to his family in Sudan - did he ever get reunited with them? Did he ever return to the country himself? And the story of meeting his wife and having children in America would have been interesting to hear also. So although this was a great book, there were too many loose ends for me to be completely satisfied with it. The narrative just didn't go the full circle.

Even so, this book has further kindled my interest in Africa in general, and specifically to find out more about the Sudan, and Operation Nehemiah.

Exile, persecution and tortue. Jesus told His followers that they should expect this type of treatment from the world. Those of us who live in the Western world often lose sight of the difficulties that Christians face in other parts of the globe. It is books like The Bible or the Axe, the biography of William Levi, than tend to shake us up a little bit, reminding us of the inestimable blessing of having freedom of worship.

William Levi is a Messianic believer from an African Hebrew tribal group in Sudan. When only a child his family was forced to flee religious persecution and they settled as refugees in the wilderness of Uganda. They lived there happily as subsistence farmers, growing all they needed for their survival. When the time of persecution seemed to come to a close they returned to Sudan, but after only a short respite the Muslim leadership began a new program of systemic persecution against Christians. Levi, when only a teenager, was arrested and tortured as his captors sought to convert him to Islam. He refused, trusting that the promises of God were worth far more than his life. While being taken to his place of execution he made a miraculous escape and eventually made his way out of the country and to the United States of America.

In the years since coming to America, Levi founded Operation Nehemiah Missions International and has told his story to millions. He continues to bring awareness to the persecution faced by believers in Sudan and elsewhere.

The Bible or the Axe is quite an interesting book. It is well-written and is sure to bring attention to a group of believers that desperately need our prayers. There were one or two places where I had small concerns about the author's theology, especially in his understanding of the differences between Protestant and Roman Catholic theology, but this did little to detract from the impact of this stirring story. I have no trouble recommending it.

William Levi has an amazing story to tell. Mr. Levi was born a Messianic Christian in the Sudan, exiled to Uganda, returned to the Sudan as persecution and bloodshed began again, and was miraculously brought out of the Sudan by God in order to help his country rebuild.

I know I am sheltered. I am a white, Christian American, and I have not experienced suffering like Christians in other parts of the world. I forget, sometimes, that our freedom to worship is something other believers do not enjoy.

I did not realize that there is a Christian presence in Africa that dates back to the early church. My ideas of Africa have been shaped by our Western culture and media. Africa is somewhere we send missionaries to, not somewhere I expect to see Christianity as old as the church. And yet Africans have been worshiping God the Father as Jews for thousands of years. The same African Jews were brought the good news of Jesus Christ and believed. And they have suffered for their belief.

This book has a message that needs to be read and shared. It is too easy for us to turn a blind eye to the suffering endured by our sisters and brothers in Christ. Stories like Mr. Levi's make it personal.

God brought William Levi out of the Sudan to receive an education and to help his nation in ways he never could have if he had remained. And he is helping and giving back, not only through this book, but through his ministry, Operation Nehemiah.

The Bible and the Axe does more than tell Mr. Levi's story. It explains the history of the religious war in the Sudan in a way that I had never understood before. Anyone whose heart break's over what's happened in the Sudan, and is still happening in the Darfur region, needs to read this book. It will renew your desire to pray for our brothers and sisters around the world, and prompt you to help in any way you can.

Great book, well written, did not want to put it down. It opens your eyes to what's really going on in Sudan and the adversity that they face.

Wow... great story. Have a new appreciation for the religious freedom we have in America.

This was given to me as a gift for the purpose of review in November 2005.

I'm so glad I got this book to review.
This is a wonderful book. I love the style of story telling, the way the author describes his personal experiences. The book reads like a novel, but is an autobiography packed with information. After each chapter, I wanted to read more. Only put it down because I had to go to work and to sleep, but kept reading whenever I got a break.

This book is about much more than the persecution of Christians in Sudan. I liked the background of Sudan's history from William's point of view. He really brings to life the value of an education, and his passionate desire to get one. William wanted and needed to get an education to be able to help his people in the Sudan. He shows compassion instead of anger to people who may be his enemies. At one time, he is even tortured, but he continues on his path. Reading about the many ways God teaches William to rely solely on Him can teach and motivate us to do the same.

Here's a quote from the book which is William's father's advice to his son: "You will always be with your family, because your family is the Body of Christ. Wherever you go, find your family first."

I would definitely recommend this book.

A copy of this book was given to me by blogforbooks dot com by Stacy Harp and provided by the author William Levi, my most grateful thanks to both for making me aware of the book and allowing me the opportunity to read it.

I received it Thursday night and read it Friday morning over coffee. Engrossed, subdued by the painfulness of the narrative, a little off the beaten track for me as it is a first person account of his life upto about 1993. But attracted to the snippets of reflection and theologizing that accompanies what is a straightforward tale of trust in God in the middle of a cruel war. Simply put God is good and is worthy of our trust but don't expect Him to be safe and protective from the unpleasantness of life and sin in this fallen world. Our battle is with the darkness of evil and with an evil one, who will who will crush and devour us if he is able to, the only security and hope is in the hands of God preserving us not from trials but from spiritual death and ultimate separation from Him.

Dear Mr. William Levi,

I am sorry to have read of not just your trials and wanderings but of the death and destruction of your people of Southern Sudan, not just for a short period of time but for several generations. I honestly can not explain your hopefulness and joy in the future except as a gift of God not just for your benefit but for ours as well. Materialism and a superabundance of toys has sapped the strength and vitality of the American church for any type of discipline or chastisement by the Lord. We expect God to be safe and to make us safe to continue to accumulate more while not only sharing little but understanding even less of how hard it is to claim the name of Christ in much of the world. The jolt that your book provides that here you are safe in America but spending all your time and energy on Operation Nehemiah when you could be enjoying yourself as do we, is as unwelcome as it is necessary.

I am sure that the energy and trust of God so evident in your book will continue to bring you true joy as it enables you to bring help to your countrymen and women who have suffered so much over the last 30 years. In your task i wish you the best of not successfulness but of Godliness and Goodness. Thank you for what must have been very difficult to share your life with strangers as you wrote this book.

sincerely,

We each have our own story to live out in this world. Some short and bitter, some like William's sad on the surface but joyful underneath. He is the descedent of Hebraic tribesmen who preserved the Hebrew faith in the Horn of Africa for 2 millennium and who became Messanic Christians with the first Western missionaries. But the ugliness of civil war based on religion, the jihad of extremeist Islamatists in Khartoum have killed 2 million and exiled 5 million of his Southern Sudanese countrymen. To retain one's faith at all in these circumstances is amazing, but to prosper, to thrive in the face of murderous and destructiveness of Shar'ia enforced at the point of an AK47 is simply a work of God. To escape from all this, to fight for a university engineering degree and go back to there to struggle is on the surface certifiably crazy behavior. But perhaps that is the final chapter, crazy for God's work is not irrational but trusting in the ultimate trustworthiness which even in death rescues the believer from the evil one's snares. Understanding this world not to be ultimate but preliminary gives a certainty and a trust that the secular and materialist can not comprehend but need belittle as the underminding of all they believe.

We fight on different fronts but it is the same battle, his faith and trust are good examples of how American Christians ought to hope in God's strong right arm and not their own. It is a gentle read, even breezy, worthwhile the time for anyone interested in either spiritual things or the battle between Islam and Christianity in Southern Sudan. It is not preachy but rather low keyed observations that ought not to put off even the secular reader, who has much to gain by understanding William's journey.

Finally a book that spans the gap between the suffering and persecuted Africans of Sudan and the western world. This is a book that every American and indeed, every Westerner should read. In the midst of being the very honest and personal story of William Levi's life, the book also has adventure, the romantic descripton of growing up in the jungles of Uganda, the powerful testimony of a very supernatural deliverance and the needed educational information about Sudan - the backdrop upon which the story is cast. I pray that this book finds its way into the hands of many people who have the various resources, the passion, the compassion, and the energies necessary to bless the African people of Sudan. Having zero relationship with the author or anyone involved in his ministry, I encourage anyone who is considering buying this book to buy five and give them to people you know. I was truly touched by this book and I'm sure you will be as well.