Out of Egypt (4th Day 78)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I want to share with you a wonderful book. It is Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice. You may be familiar with Anne Rice for her fictional writings of the supernatural about witches and vampires. One of her books, Interview with the Vampire, was made into a movie staring Tom Cruise.

Her latest book is about the unrecorded years of Jesus as a child of age seven, beginning with his family's return from Egypt to Galilee. (If you remember, an angel told Joseph to flee to Egypt to avoid Herod's murder of all children under two.) It is a wonderful story of the child Jesus. To say any more will spoil it for you. You must read it, but first you should read the Author's Note at the end of the book.

The Author's Note is Anne Rice's story of renewal as she does the research for the book. Again, you must read it for yourself. I will say though, that like Lee Strobel in The Case for Christ and even C.S. Lewis (and even Saul of Tarsus), Anne shares with them a common experience of disbelief and is later convinced beyond faith in the authenticity of Jesus.

I say beyond faith because those of us who believe by faith will always dismiss the arguments of skeptics and the non-believers, no matter how convincing. But when someone confronts the unbelievers with facts and critical analyses that would be demanded of any other historical claim, and finds that Christianity withstands such challenges and more, it is joyous to hear that our Lord vanquishes all.

And since I have mentioned C.S. Lewis, let me save for next time discussing the phenomenon of the renewed interest in The Chronicles of Narnia as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe hits the theater this Friday.