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REVIEWS
TITLE INFORMATION
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ISBN: 978-0-692-86312-1 (sc)
ISBN: 978-0-692-86314-5 (e)
WHY YOU WERE BORN
BOOK REVIEW
According to debut author Pope, The authentic teaching of the Bible has either been dismissed by academic historians or hijacked by deceitful churches and religious institutions. Pope aims to offer a rigorously empirical interpretation that clarifies the plan the Bible offers humankind, functioning as a kind of spiritual handbook. The author's approach is breathtakingly ambitious----he covers virtually every major theme and personage in the Bible, offering a series of iconoclastic revisions of conventional interpretation. For example, he believes God created the Earth, but the existence of dinosaurs preceded the emergence of man. Also, while Pope harbors suspicions about evolutionary theory, he does find compelling evidence that there was a war between God and the angels approximately one million years ago.
In general, Pope attempts to achieve a harmonization of modern science and biblical theology; for example, discoveries within medical science regarding invisible frequencies seem to confirm the existence of a soul. Also, the author writes, there is ample evidence of supernatural interventions into the natural world, however stubbornly dismissed by professional historians. Pope readings can be provocatively original---he hypothesizes that the Book of Job was written during the time of Joseph, and that Job was an Egyptian Pharaoh. Further, the author's attempt to rescue the decocted, vital spirit of religion from institutional calcification is commendable.
He finally reveals the grand plan of the Bible for each of us: "The reason I was born is the same reason you were born; to become a literal born of the spirit child of God with a spiritual and eternal existence with the Invisible Creator God who designed this process for us to reach our intended destiny!"
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