First of all, if you've purchased either of my books, thank you. You have helped pay the bills, and I appreciate that. More than that, though, you've read them, which is, of course, the main reason for writing them; no one writes a book they don't want read. That, and it's fun to research and compose thoughts.
And, overall, the books have gotten very good reviews, lots of positive feedback, some excellent questions from inquisitive readers. Every so often, I get an e-mail from an alert reader (yes, I just stole that from Dave Barry) who offers some really good insight into these topics. It's interesting that something that is so niche and so odd - comparative mythology isn't exactly mainstream - really seems to resonate with people. I mean, it obviously resonates with me, but I'm a little odd myself, so that shouldn't surprise anyone. The fact that a relatively large number of people also seem to connect with these books, however, is startling, and immensely humbling. So, for those of you who have read and enjoyed the books, thank you for sharing in my passion. I'm always excited when I uncover an old text that supports the Biblical accounts, and it appears that many of you are, as well.
Having said all of that, there is one criticism that is frequently leveled at the books, and that is that they don't mention the Gospel. I don't talk about Jesus in them; I don't discuss His life, death, or resurrection. That is true, I don't, and I think there is validity to that criticism. I spend a good deal of time on this blog talking about the fact that Jesus is everything, but then I don't mention Him in my books. Seems a little contradictory, doesn't it?
Therefore, if you'll indulge me, I'd like to briefly explain why I wrote them the way I did. With Flood Legends, my goal was never, ever to hit people over the head with the Bible. Waving it around, saying, "It's true!" doesn't actually get anywhere with people who summarily reject it before you even open your mouth. After years and years of talking with atheists, agnostics, self-proclaimed skeptics, and the like, one common theme emerged: there's nothing believable about the Bible, and in order to believe it, you must shut off your brain, shut down your intellect, and believe in magical fairy-tale coincidences that point to a pretend invisible god. So before we even get to "The Bible is the Word of God," they've already decided it can't be.
The group of people I most wanted to reach was the atheists who feel that believing the Bible is intellectual suicide. I didn't want to convince them to believe the Bible - most of them are too hardened and stubborn to just crumble like that - but I wanted them to realize that it was okay not to reject it. There are historical and scientific reasons to believe that the Bible may be true. Now, obviously, the Bible is the Word of God, it contains the revelation of God, and reveals the depths of God's love for all of us, as demonstrated through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, but, as the saying goes, you have to crawl before you can walk. Unfortunately, so many atheists are intellectual infants, and they can barely even roll over, let alone crawl. So the attempt was to give them a reason to crawl.
What most "creationist" books out there do, however, is give them just enough information to consider rolling over, and then, at the end as sort of a coda, say, "Oh, and believe Jesus." To continue my analogy, that's like saying, "Oh, you're almost rolling over. Good! Now sprint a 100 meter dash." This isn't to say that all other books are bad, or have no place, that just wasn't my aim; my aim was to help them get out of their own way, and actually learn how to think.
With Giants, I wanted to be more forceful. I wanted to demonstrate how the mythology does point back to the Scriptures, highlighting the themes presented in Genesis, I Samuel, and so forth. I wanted to show that, in spite of all of the bizarre stories out there and the differences in various cultures, there are central truths the run throughout the nations and the ancient accounts of those nations, and that these truths are found and stated in the Scriptures.
If, by the grace of God, my next two books get published, we're going to delve deeper into the Scriptures, look at archaeology and philology, and see how, over and over, the Scriptures can be trusted on numerous points. And then, because we can intellectually know that the Bible is the Word of God and can be trusted, we can then know that the Gospel can be trusted. We can know that when Jesus claimed to be God, that's because He is God. When we read that He died for our sins - when we read that we are sinful - we can honestly reflect on and admit that truth. Why? Because instead of viewing the Bible as an archaic book of fiction, we can look at it with the realization that nothing could be further from the truth.
So, while the criticism is accurate - and I believe it is fair - it's based on a lack of understanding. I did not convey my motive very well, and so it bears a little explanation. For those of you who were . . . upset by my lack of the Gospel, I am sorry. I hope you this clears it up for you. Of course, if you still have questions, you can always e-mail me at charlesmartinjrauthor@gmail.com, or send me a tweet @cdmartinjr_jr.
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