Customer Reviews

Michael, Michael, why do you hate me?

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I read this book with interest and an appetite to learn about a Jew who fought to convince his Christian wife that he had converted. Being a Christian, I thought it would be completely different. I expected it to be a story where a Jew was missing something in his life and found that conversion to Christianity was the answer. It made sense to me. But as I read, I realized that it is a lot to ask a person of the Jewish faith to simply accept that Jesus was the Son of God and our Redeemer. I do love the way that Michael uses his education in languages and his knowledge of the Bible to fool people and convince them that he has converted. It is amusing and ironic how he can do this and yet learn that God is always there waiting and His Son will always be willing to take on your sins and pay for them. He goes a long way to fight it and in the process learns to trust and to believe in this new to him faith. It is a well written easy read and I think you will enjoy folling Michael Esses through this journey.

Michael Esses was, at the time this book was ghost-written for him by his former wife in 1973, "An extremely popular Old Testament teacher and scholar ... Dean of the Melodyland School of the Bible and Professor of Biblical Hebrew in the Melodyland School of Theology." He claimed to be a former rabbi, who converted to Christianity.

Unfortunately, his story was all a LIE---see his former wife's expose, Survivor of a Tarnished Ministry. But in the meantime, he fooled a lot of well-meaning Christians (including famous ones like Walter Martin, Ralph Wilkerson, and Pat Boone).

Nevertheless, for what it's worth, here are some quotations from the book:

"All Israelites are Jews, but not all Jews are Israelites. A Judean Jew is a Jew who is of the tribe of Judah. By oral tradition handed down from father to son in our family, even today we know who we are and what tribe we are from... We Judean Jews have always looked down our noses at our fellow brethren of the people of Israel. We felt we were the aristocrats of the Hebrew people." (Pg. 10-11)

"When I look back at my childhood, it is very painful to me, even now that I am a man. Unconsciously, we all think that a child should be at least reasonably happy, but searching through my memory as hard as I can, I can't come up with even one happy moment." (Pg. 23)

"I take authority granted unto me by the Lord Jesus Christ. I hear myself saying, with a boldness that I don't possess, 'In the name of Jesus Christ, Irvine, I command your spirit to come back to your body.' ... Yes, Irvine is healed with the most perfect healing of all. He is where we all want to be." (Pg. 118)

"I reflected upon what it would have been like if I had still been an Orthodox Jew. I would have had to sit on the floor for seven days. I would have torn my clothes; I wouldn't shave for thirty days. I would have cried, and wailed, and mourned as one with no hope, because without Jesus there would have been no hope." (Pg. 131)

"When I was speaking at the University of Oregon, I was told that two of their computer scientists had run this problem through the computer. The odds against ONE man filfilling these 333 (Messianic) prophecies were 67 to the tenth power, a figure so astronomical that it approaches infinity. What an answer for the intellectual inquiring about the validity of Jesus!" (Pg. 137)

I read this book in 1976 and I can still remember much of Michael's story. I was broken inside and hungry for more at the end of the book and re-read it several more times before giving it back to my brother. It's a simple story of a not-so-nice man who met Jesus in a very real way and that meeting changed his life, just as God changed mine through this book. It's easy to read and no literary masterpiece...except that God used it in my life to come face to face with Him. In that context I guess I could say it's a masterpiece, after all, since it fulfilled it's purpose in bringing a lost soul back to her Creator.

I would recommend this to anyone.

This is a story that will edify many Christians. And it's got an easy-to-read style.

There's only one thing wrong with it. Much of it is just not true.

Anyone with a bit of knowledge of Jewish life, and some common sense, can spot the more obvious of the falsehoods.

So, fascinating as an example of a hoax, but avoid it if you're looking for spiritual food.