The Bible tells one story. Humanity growing up.
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In the summer of 2005, I joined AmeriCorps to deliver a literacy program for at-risk youth in Cleveland. Every morning, my students gathered for breakfast. Cereal was the top choice, with milk as the natural pairing. But there was one student who always skipped the milk, pouring a glass of water on his cereal instead.
Soon my curiosity boiled over, and I asked, “Why don’t you use milk?” He shrugged back a simple answer, “I got used to water, ‘cause my family couldn’t afford milk.”
I never forgot that conversation, etched in memory as a heartbreaking truth about the broken system we inhabit. I felt driven to fix what made this tragedy possible, but I knew I needed help. So, I thought to engage a community I’d encountered growing up in America. I recalled a community that cared about peace, love, and justice: the Christian community.
When I started visiting churches, I expected an organized movement making measurable advancement in social good. What I found were great intentions drowned in a toxic mixture of academia, mystery, and ignorance — potent enough to stifle any meaningful progress.
There were many common dead ends.
For years, I sought answers to these questions, hoping to unlock a secret that could help me better tap into the Christian community. I went from church to church, local and online, talking to pastors, elders, small group leaders. They’d smile and politely entertain my questions, but invariably the conversations yielded no satisfying conclusions.
It appeared that no one knew the answers. And some believed that no one ever would.
Can it be true? That God has an unknowable plan for all of us? That evil and injustice are just facts of life, until one unpredictable day we are suddenly saved?
Something didn’t make sense. I started to understand why people were leaving religious organizations. But I either couldn’t or didn’t want to abandon a growing belief in a higher power that had our best interests in mind. So, I took to analyzing the Bible on my own, reconciling what I’d heard and read from religious authorities.
Eventually a story emerged, one that felt internally consistent with itself and externally consistent with the observable world. That story — that mission — is presented between these covers.
I hope this book clarifies what the Roman Empire had corrupted. After you close the book, please tell me what you think. At worst, your feedback will help me refine the message. At best, you will join forces to build peace on Earth together.
In any case, thank you truly for reading.
Marty…