14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Warning! Don't read unless..., May 26, 2002
This review is from: Revolution: The Story of the Early Church (Paperback)
WARNING!
Don't read this book unless:
* You have at least two uninterrupted hours because you won't put it down. Once started, you will want to finish it then and there.
* You are willing to re-think your perceptions of the first church. The challenges,dilemas, and victories of the apostles and the first church fathers are brought to life in unexpected ways with fresh insight.
* You are hungry for more of God and less of the ritual, formality, and dead, stale churchiness which passes for worship in too many of our churches in our generation.
If you meet these three criteria, then you will blessed. Prepare to look at your church in a whole new way!
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Utterly Amazing!!, December 25, 2000
This review is from: Revolution: The Story of the Early Church (Paperback)
I just got this book for Christmas. I read it in one day. All I can say about this book is WOW! I had never even heard of Gene Edwards before I stumbled across some of his books on Amazon and asked for some of them for Christmas. This guy is the real deal! My soul absolutely delighted in reading Mr. Edwards account of the Church from Christ's resurrection up until just after the founding of the Antioch church (47 AD).
Edwards details exactly the historical atmosphere of the early church in Jerusalem, Judea, and into the Gentile world. This book REALLY makes the book of Acts come alive for me. Edwards is so utterly amazing in his extrapolation of truth out of God's word!
Even though one reviewer said he did not like Edwards' interjections of comparison between the early church and the church today, I found them stunning and extremely insightful! I am a relatively new believer and my favorite part of this book is how he shows how all of the apostles and early church fathers (EVEN CHRIST HIMSELF) all had a period of "wasted" time in their life when they were becoming rooted in God. Edwards' point is to show that today's church is so worried about soul-winning that most do not even really know the Lord and do not really know the Holy Spirit because they have not spent this time of seeking God. Edwards shows that it took most of the original church founders at least 8 years of tutorage under the Apostles to become rooted in God and Christ. It can be assumed that even Christ himself underwent this period of time prior to his ministry! I thought that was a sweet point!
Would I buy this book with my own money? YES! I can almost guarantee that the Holy Spirit will move powerfully within you while you read this book! This book is phenomenal! Peace. ~ajm
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good read!, December 21, 2009
This review is from: Revolution: The Story of the Early Church (Paperback)
Revolution: the Story of the Early Church was the first book ever written that fully recounts the development of the first churches. This book tells the story of how the first "churches" ever came to be, the first real persecution that the church as a whole ever had to suffer, and how churches came to be all over the earth. This story recounts the first seventeen years of the early churches from 37-40 a.d.
Everything began around Passover, 5 weeks after Christ's crucifixion. The Apostles and about 150 believers had gathered in Jerusalem where they fasted and prayed, waiting for the Lord to come to them and tell them what He desired them to do. Christ came to them. His spirit filled them. So mighty was He that everyone in Jerusalem was shaken and new that something miraculous, something glorious had just happened. The apostles went to the people and began to teach them about the wondrous thing which had just happened to them and the people were so interested that the apostles began to proclaim the message of Christ to all of them. Convicted and overjoyed at the message they were hearing the people sold everything they had, left their homes in other cities and moved to Jerusalem. The first church was then born.
There were over 3,000 believers sharing houses or living on the streets of Jerusalem. These people learned to live together just like a family, only with 3,000 members. They ran into small difficulties, but never anything to big to be handled. How can this be? Well, because all of those 3,000 people loved their neighbor better than themselves. They were all ready to give up their own comfort for someone else's.
It astounds me that this is how the first church ever was. When reading about the joy that they had and the struggles that they overcame, I wished so badly that the churches today would do this. How many people really care about the rest of the congregation in their church? How many people are actually totally committed to following Christ, so committed in fact, that they would die just so they could be with their Lord? The answer: very few. The answer for the amount of people in America: even fewer.
This book is convicting, especially when you read about the persecution and the joy that Christ gave these people. But what I like most is that there is joy in the work of the Lord. If we could at least be joyful for what we have been given, for the history of our people, we would be doing a lot better than we are now.
I think that this is a good book for people to read. I don't know if it will convict people or give them better ideas for their church or even their families. No matter what response people get out of this book, I believe that everyone should read it just so they understand their heritage. A.P.
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