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59 of 74 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful philosophy, but its a fabrication, March 9, 2002
The prose and style of the book is quite beautiful, and there are wonderful spiritual truths in it, but the sad fact is that it isn't what it claims to be- it's a fabrication. Here's the big giveaways I found while reading it:1) Almost no information is provided about "the messenger" Levi Dowling. "of his personality we are permitted to write but little" claims the introductions. The most that can be gained is that he was a big time student of world religions and served a bunch of posts both in protestant churches and as a chaplain in the civil war. Considering the enormous importance of character in determining whether or not a medium is who they claim to be, a refusal to provide evidence/background for supposedly spiritual reasons is a big warning flag. 2) Herod Antipas is written to be the ruler of Jerusalem at the time of Christ's first few years. Wrong Herod- the Herod of Judea was Herod the Great. Herod Antipas was the tetrarch of Galilee. Somewhat understandable mistake, but when one is claiming to have it "to the word"... 3)The journeys that the gospel alleges are too perfect. Jesus singlehandly manages to hit all the major religious centers of the time and to comment on all the traditions and how they interact with Christianity. Reading through the account, you feel that its too good to be true- the locations are too ideal, the journey too perfect. 4)A story is related about Abram, saying that his father and him were heretic brahmin priests that fleed persecution- even so far as saying that Terah named his son after the Brahma. While I tend to be more skeptical of the Old testament than most people, it is still worth noting that Abram is hebrew for prince, and that the whole concept of changing his name to Abraham, king, doesn't make any sense if he was named after Brahma. On top of this, Ur, the city of Abram's birth, was under the dominion of the Sumerians at the time, who had a very powerful religious system in themselves. While Hinduism has been powerful, historically it hasn't spread much beyond modern day Pakistan. Saying it got all the way to the fertile crescent is a stretch. 5)Jesus is alleged to have stayed and studied with Hindu priests at the Temple Jagganath in the Indian Province of Orissa. According to the Encarta Encylopedia, scholars have dated the start of the worship of the Jagganath of Krishna to the 4th century CE. While that is somewhat debatable, the temple which is obviously referenced wasn't even begun to be constructed until the 6th century CE, and the practice of the Juggernaut car that Levi has Jesus poke fun at wasnt' around yet for sure. 6)One chapter has Jesus declaring the falseness of evolution to a Buddhist priest. While the beginning part of it is mostly an attack on animal-to-man reincarnation (you weren't a bird in a past life), from there Jesus goes on to attack the doctrine of "survival of the fittest". People didn't even start having that philosophy up until the last century! The style clearly gives away that it was designed to be a refutation of Darwinism, hardly an ancient belief.
7)Jesus is reported to have met with the Confucian scholar Meng-tzu (Mencius) in a Tibetan monastery. It is a historical fact that Mencius died in the last years of the 3rd century BCE. At this point, I put the book down. I will admit, I think that Levi's intentions and spirit were pure. I agree with about 98% of the philosophy he has Jesus expound, and his style and prose are beautiful- there are some very emotional scenes. But as a fair scholar striving for truth, I have to say that its a fake. The guy was incredibly intelligent, and I can see that he drew on a number of sources in his writing, include apocryphal texts for accounts of the early years of Christ. He was definately out to try to prove Gnostic truths. But he was trying to use a false vehicle to do it. His crime was the same as Paul of Tarsus- spread Gnostic truths, but change and alter Christ into a vehicle you can use for your teaching style. Defeats the purpose. To the say the least, I was bummed.
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