Book Review–Crisis in Jerusalem

About the Book:

Book: The Last Disciple: Crisis in Jerusalem

Author: Kurt Brouwer

Genre:Christian Historical Fiction

Release date: November, 2022

He was the Beloved Disciple…

…and he would be the last.

The mantle to tell the whole story has fallen on him.

From the cross, Jesus entrusted John, the youngest disciple, with the welfare of Mary, Jesus’s mother. Over thirty years later, as Jerusalem becomes a cauldron of explosive tempers, he receives a calling he doesn’t want.

Will he listen and follow?

And if he does, will it be too late?

In 62 AD, the Jewish high priest executes James, the brother of Jesus, triggering a bitter fight for power in Jerusalem that shatters the quiet life of John. The Jewish people he loves are making dangerous choices that will change the land of Israel forever.

Should he stay in Jerusalem and help hold off the Roman onslaught? Or is it time to reach out to those beyond Israel’s borders?

If he chooses to leave, what will be his message to these foreign believers? What new words of comfort could he possibly share?

Set against a backdrop of actual events, The Last Disciple: Crisis in Jerusalem is the first novel in a new series based on the Bible and Christian history.

Follow along while John faces multiple crises and comes to understand what it is to stand alone and lean on only the Lord.

Your heart will embrace The Last Disciple: Crisis in Jerusalem because John’s story is the story of our hope and promise.

My Thoughts:

When I read the description of this book, it sounded like one I would be interested in. I’m always a little wary of Biblical fiction, because quite often I have found books in this genre not accurate. I have come across some really good ones, though, so I was hoping this one would be. Rereading the description now, I see that I missed one phrase that would have clued me in that I would not be interested in this one. One line in the description says that John had to decide about helping “hold off the Roman onslaught”. Several times in the story,  both John and Bartholomew either defend themselves or talk about defending themselves from physical harm threatened against them. John carried a staff to protect himself, and used it. At the same time, he occasionally thought about Jesus’ words about loving his enemies. These two attitudes do not go together. If you read  the Bible carefully, and if you read early Christian records, you’ll see that the early Christians did not believe in self defence. Because of this, I cannot recommend this book. That makes me sad, because it is a period of history I would love to  read more about. As far as the basic storyline, it was quite interesting to try to imagine the early Christian world this way, through the eyes of one of the disciples, who was travelling around to encourage the church. On the other hand, the writing style  didn’t work very well for me. There are frequent incomplete sentences, and the punctuation made it difficult to tell who is speaking. So, while I appreciated this author’s attempt to bring to life the history of a tumultuous time in Jewish history, I won’t be reading any more in the series. 

I received a review copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it. Links may be affiliate links, which will benefit Esther’s website if purchases are made through them.

About the Author:

It all started the morning I learned that the Gospel of John was published fifty years after Jesus died. Fifty years! What did John do all that time? Where did he live? Why did he wait? Frankly I got a little obsessive about this man who became the last disciple.

Living in Hawaii

For the past 20 years, I’ve been a member of a Bible-based Christian church in Hawaii. About eight years ago, our pastor, Kahu Billy Mitchell, challenged our Elders group to pray and read the Bible for one hour every morning.

It wasn’t as though we were not reading the Bible or praying every day, but he challenged us to take our devotions up a few notches. So, I did just that.

During one of those early morning sessions, I was studying the books of the New Testament in a broad sense. Who wrote them and when? What were the broad themes covered in each?

I found out that a huge gap of 50 years elapsed after the ministry of Jesus and the publication of the Gospel of John. That morning something else hit me–John outlived all the others to become the last disciple. I couldn’t stop thinking about how lonely it must have been to be the last one standing.

A few years later, I began writing The Last Disciple Series of Christian historical novels about the life of John.

The Last Disciple Series

The Last Disciple is a series of Christian novels based on the Bible and Christian history. The first in the series: The Last Disciple: Crisis in Jerusalem, begins in the year 62 AD. In it, you walk with John through the streets of Jerusalem. With him, you face multiple crises and come to understand what it is to stand alone and lean only on the Lord.

This book, The Last Disciple: Exile in Ephesus is the third in the series, following The Last Disciple: Escape to Antioch (book two) and The Last Disciple: Crisis in Jerusalem (book one).

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