The Divine Romance (Inspirational S)

I love it, highly recommend for inspiration. The Love of our Lord God is undiscriable. The Divine Romance (Inspirational)

In every way, this book stands as a modern classic. It is one of the few "must read" books that I direct people to. There are few books as captivating as this one to usher you through the depths of God's redemptive tale.

Magnolia was very prompt. The book was used, and was in GREAT condition. Hardly seemed used. I was very pleased with Magnolia-Avenue,and will seek them out in the future. I've ordered from other's where it took nearly three weeks to receive my purhcase. I received it from Magnolia in about 4 days. Thanks.

I ORDERED THIS TO BE DELIVERED TO MY GRANDSON, WHO IS AWAY AT SCHOOL & FELT A NEED FOR SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE. TRACKING SAID AN ATTEMPT WAS MADE TO DELIVER.; YET 2 OF THE 5 BOOKS THAT I ORDERED WERE DELIVERED.

Beautiful. Intimate. Romantic.

These words spring to mind as the author paints the heart of God as it could be.

In this lovely book, the author tells the story of God and of mankind, starting with creation and culminating with the Church being reunited with Jesus Christ when she is presented to Him as His bride.

Yet Gene's perspective is unique in that his focus is on God's yearning for a love relationship and on His loving actions in crafting this relationship by giving up of Himself.

Gene artfully tells the story of how Adam's loneliness before Eve prepared Him to have a piece of Himself removed to be fashioned into his mate which then returns to Him as the two become one flesh in marriage. He then paints the history of mankind as he traces God's preparation of mankind for becoming His bride. Gene reveals how the Church is formed from Jesus Christ in the same manner that Eve was formed from Adam. Yet as Eve became bone of Adam's bone and flesh of his flesh, since she was made from Adam's flesh and bone, Christians have become Spirit of His Spirit since our new birth is a result of His Spirit indwelling ours and giving it life.

Let me say that again in case you missed it.

God fashioned Eve from Adam by taking his flesh and bone and forming her into a new being. When she became his bride, Adam declares they are one again since she is bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. This is the beauty of the marriage relationship that God has instituted and ordained, that two become one. Yet God fashioned the church from Jesus Christ by taking His Spirit and placing it inside of each believer so that the deadness of their human spirit could spring to life in Christ. This makes us one spirit with Jesus Christ, and all who are indwelt by the Spirit of Jesus Christ are part of His Church, and are little versions of Him, so that we are called Christians. Yet even more beautifully, we are His bride since we were fashioned from Him and for Him so that we can have a loving, passionate relationship with God Almighty through His Son, Jesus Christ who bought us with His blood and who fashioned us with His own Spirit.

This is true love. This is true romance. This is true passion. ...and we can partake in it by surrendering to Him and by becoming a part of Him.

Wow. Five thumbs up.

Feel the passion. Seek Jesus Christ. Fuel your desire by reading Gene's book.

The Divine Romance is a unique re-telling of eternity's story in a theological perspective. Edwards's rendition of the gospel narrative places the reader "behind-the-scenes" of human history and tells the tale according to God Himself. While this is a purely imaginative work, you will have a hard time convincing yourself that the author was not in the presence of the Almighty and is only writing what he himself witnessed directly. The author writes from a perspective unknown to any other being in the universe, describes the indescribable, and imagines the unimaginable. No other book has taken the paradox of God's relationship to man and explained it in easier terms. A story in simple language is written on the pages for all to read and understand; however, the depth of the Divine Romance's message is found in your own pondering of Edwards' account. Allow yourself to meditate on the principles of God's love set forth in the Divine Romance, and, I promise, you will discover truths about God that you never considered but were always in front of you.

The Divine Romance was... well... um... divine! And, gosh, the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because there's a few other favorite titles I've read that impacted me more intensely than this one in particular. I realize that this may make it seem I don't regard this book as a "hot" title, but nothing could be further from the truth. I really did almost give it 5 stars. This was a fantastic read and I highly recommend it to anyone, Christian or not!
Gene Edwards is a remarkable story teller and has the wonderful ability to draw the reader into reality through fiction. I don't know how else to put it. The Divine Romance is a fictional story (based completely on the reality of spirit life) about the creation of the world and God's intent for man from before the world was made. It illuminates a most spectacular description of the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ and God's romantic passion for her. The reader in turn is drawn into a rich encounter with Christ that is far from fiction. I felt the Lord's presence immensly while reading this book. It made me want to pray and to cry and to get really serious about my relationship with Jesus.
Gene's account wholly gels with Scripture, but he uses his imagination which is sparked by his deep love for Jesus to paint this incredible picture for the believer to understand how God really views His children. If you're a biblically technical critic, you might struggle a bit with this book because it is largely Gene's imaginitive insights into the Scripture and the reality of Christian life, more than it is verbatim Scripture. I found it delightful, and though it is fiction, it's almost impossible to just shelf it as a mere fictional story because, in reality, Gene is telling the Gospel truth. This book will grip your heart and set it ablaze with an increased desire for more of Jesus. It will also, more than likely, make you discontent with your present spiritual condition and cause to grow hungrier for a more intimate relationship with God. It will also convict and stir your heart to be more mindful of your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ as you start to see them a the Lord's beautiful bride. The themes of grace and the romance of God for His people flood through the pages of this book.
Ok, I'm starting to feel guilty about my 4 star review (grin). Maybe it should have been five. This is a remarkable book! Worth reading indeed, as are any of Gene's books. Some of his titles have some controversial elements about them in that they do not necessarily encourage Christians to get all wrapped up in the "business" of doing church. Gene focuses on real, intimate, life-changing relationship with God and places this quest on the highest pedestal. Everything else is insignificant and pales in comparison to the mindset of becoming completely filled with God and completely dead to self and religion so that Christ can live His life through us... So that we can truly become that beautiful bride of Christ.
Ok... after all that, I'm starting to think 5 stars is a bit low. Please excuse me while I go read this book again. ;)

It must be considered, for a fair analysis of this book, that Gene Edwards, when he is on form, is remarkable to read. His potential is very great and could be helpful to preachers and believers, especially since so much of preaching involves representing difficult truths in ways simple enough to understand.

Now to consider the good points first. The Opening Section (Part One) of this book - of which there are four - was absolutely terrific. You have my personal recommendation that Part One is a must read for every believer. So stunning is the description that it really is very difficult to put down. Plus, this first part is biblically based. Of course, it is not perfect, but it does provide a reasonable commentary on the Genesis account. Adam and Eve's love affair is beautiful and Edwards does succeed in trying to put across a little of how God might feel concerning his Bride.

Part Two is also good, but the book noticeably starts to decrease in power from here on. Nevertheless, there are here also some interesting perspectives.

Parts Three and Four were a let down for me in quite a big way. The first negative is that this is only a novel. It is not the Bible, neither is it 100% in line with what the Bible teaches. There were certain problems I had with parts of it. For example, perhaps the largest problem is the crucifixion account. I am yet to read a biblical novel which emphasises that Jesus Christ appeased the full wrath of God for sinners, thus making forgiveness a certainty for those for whom Christ died. This is known as propitiation (I do not mean to assume you definitely do not know this, but this doctrine has been almost entirely lost in the modern preaching of the gospel and yet it is the heart of the biblical gospel). Edwards paints a picture of the crucifixion which, although well told, I had never previously heard of and had neither read in my Bible. Edwards seems to believe that rather than Christ bearing the sins of "many", he suggests that every person who has ever lived was put into the bosom of Christ (by angels, I might add) whilst on the Cross. With regards to the angels carrying the people into the Son of God, this seemed nonsense to me, since it was God who placed the sin of many upon Jesus - not angels. Edwards also establishes that Lucifer was put into the bosom of Christ. This I do have a problem with, because it seems clear to me that Edwards so wants to get across the point that the old creation died in Christ, that he emphasises even Lucifer having died in Christ. On the other hand, the Bible teaches that Lucifer has no redemption whatsoever. This is very important. I do not believe Edwards has done this to deceive people on purpose, but his book needs to be read in the light that some of his teachings have no warrant from Sripture and are at points touching the heretical. This led me to believe that Edwards could be a universalist. This is the belief that every man and woman who has ever lived will be saved and this can go further, as it did with Origen (a very early theologian), that even demons were redeemed in Christ and therefore will also be saved. This is how the account comes across, anyhow; I do not know for sure that this is the view he holds.

I will not judge the character of Edwards - but I will warn you about his unbiblical ideas concerning the Cross and Redemption. The Cross is so central to the Christian faith and yet without a true understanding of what really happened, I believe Edwards has done what so many of us do when we preach the Cross: we appeal directly to the emotion and rather than exalting an awesome Lord and Christ, we make man the centre of attention. We should stop this because it is a form of humanism. The Cross is about the Glory of Jesus Christ in the face of His Father, as he himself says constantly through-out John's gospel. I was waiting for the climax - our dear Father condemning our precious Christ as "he became sin" in our place and therefore "crushing Him" (2 Cor. 5.21; Gal. 3.13; Isa. 53.10). Yet, I did not see this as I read Edwards' account. It's absolutely central to the Cross and the gospel. If a preacher or Christian writer misses this point, then I am convinced that he has lost the whole point of why God sent Jesus Christ into the world. Unfortunately, more theologians and Christians today are either denying propitiation or they are simply ignorant of it.

Overall, I believe 3 stars is a fair rating. Although well written, the biblical truths concerning the Cross are right at the centre of our gospel and I do not think that this book does a good job of representing what went on on the Cross of Christ. I would not recommend giving this book to an unbeliever - I think that would be inappropriate. This book, it seems very clear to me, was fashioned for believers.

I would further recommend "100 Days in the Secret Place" as further reading by Edwards, concerning the deeper Christian life and intimacy with God. He has been influenced by Guyon and Fenelon and I like these writers. May you be blessed by their works, but be careful as you read them. Yes you can learn a great deal about prayer, holiness and love for Christ - but there is that possibility of falling into some serious error also, especially if you are new in the faith.

If you are a new believer, go for something far more doctrinal - you need doctrine. The Shorter Catechism is still excellent and it is short (but the answer to Question 95 I may have to object to). If you have an Ipod, Wayne Grudem is available for podcast download. He has gone through his entire Systematic Theology book - a real blessing to the church of Christ, especially if you do not have much time for reading. Load your Ipod and enjoy!

This is the hardest of Edwards books to rate that I have read. I alternately hated it and would want to throw the book away and loved it for the insipation it was giving me. It is poetry in the sense that it uses images to move your emotions. I have read about 5 of Edwards books. He is great at getting you to think differently about the Christian Life and how things could (and often should) be different. However, he often takes what would charitably be called "poetic license" when he uses the Bible to support his ideas. In this book, he took the most poetic lisence of all, even changing the timing in the creation story to move Eve to day 8. Since it is a poetic book, some poetic license seems OK, but it would often drive me crazy. many of the ideas are hard, so even a couple of months later I am not sure if I loved the book or hated it.

This book puts forth a beautiful message of the love between God and His creation. Edwards also does an excellent job of explaining the mystery of the Church as the Bride, as well as stepping out of time and space to try to view the universe as God does. However, I am only rating the book with four stars due to several questionable beliefs which Edwards seems to state as fact. Readers should consult with the Bible before blindly accepting these views. First is Edward's statement that Eve was created on the eighth day (after Creation) rather than on the sixth day along with Adam. I have never heard of this view before and I believe Genesis is very clear that God created male and female both on Day 6. Secondly, Edwards writes that God only wants man to love Him in return and does not require obedience to the law or adherence to any church practice including prayer. While it is certainly true that love is paramount in man's relationship with God, to negate the importance of prayer and the commandments is a disservice to the reader. Jesus Himself taught His disciples how to pray and told them to keep the commandments. In summary, I recommend this book as a good way to examine God's love for creation and to meditate on the salvation in Christ, but readers should realize this is a fictionalized account based on Biblical truth, and thus should not look to it as the Gospel itself.

This story is beautiful in its depiction of God's love for humanity, as a "romance." The problem is that it depicts woman as a lesser being than man, that woman is not in God's image, only man is. The idea that God is Male and Adam is therefore in God's image in a way Eve is not, I find unbiblical and personally abhorrent. I found that this depiction of the nature of woman, largely ruined the rest of the allegory for me.

Despite not being a fan of "allegorical " or "fictional" storytelling based on biblical truths, I found this book a valiant attempt to put into words a marvelous truth in the Bible. God wants to get married! While I find many readers tend to get stuck in the allegory, some may discover something that they may have never considered before... the Bible is actually a book detailing a divine romance between God and His creation. It is easy to see how the ministry of Witness Lee (titles also available on the store) has influenced Gene's understanding of the Bible and contributed to his realization of the divine romance. One warning though, don't get stuck in the allegory-- let this book open your eyes to what may be a fresh perspective to God's plan for His chosen people.

This book was fascinating and faith building. Although it was a work of fiction, it showed the heart of God in ways that I had not considered before. I have only recently discovered this author have read his book "The Tale of Three Kings". He has a unique gift of divine storytelling. I highly recommend this book and this author for those looking to have more intimacy with God.

I enjoy being a Roman Catholic, and I enjoy learning about my faith. However, I find it difficult to find and read an entire spiritual book. It is something I am working on. So when someone recommended Archbishop Fulton Sheen's down to earth/ easy to understand explanations of the mysteries of our faith, I jumped at it. I took this book to prayer with me and was overwhelmed at the spiritual nuggets and the grace that I received. This is a short book, that has short chapters, easy to pick up whenever, and such a simple way of stating such important topics. I recommend this to anyone remotely interested in Theology! And now I can't wait to get his other books and read them!

This was perhaps one of the greatest explanations of telling of the Love GOD has for mankind that I have ever read. When I read this book years ago I wanted to share it with every woman I knew. Now that I am marrying I want to gift this at my shower. I am considering it for all the women there.

Excellent illustration of God's great love for us. He masterfully describes the eternal presences of the cross and its redemptive power to save us past, present, and future. I will be reading more Gene Edwards books as a result of this one!

This book is so amazing. You know those times when you feel sort of distant from God? You know He is there, and you are trying to live by His word, but you just don't feel close to Him. When you get to that point, read this book. Everytime you feel this way, read it again. It makes you fall in love with our bridegroom all over again, deeply intimately in love.

Any review I would provide of this book would diminish its revelation of the beauty, power and grandeur of the story of God's incredible orchestration of time, space and events to provide us a way into relationship with Him. This book is so powerful in the way that it relates God's love for us that I found myself totally awestruck and blubbering shamelessly (in an airplane no less!) as I read of His love for us! Truely an incredible book that you will read like lightening. Get ready to weep, joy, exhalt and worship as you read this book! There is only one other Christian author I have read that can paint a picture with words as Gene Edwards can - of course, John Peretti and the Piercing the Darkness series.

The Divine Romance is one of the most profound books I have ever read. The author, Gene Edwards, masterfully weaves the message of the Gospel into an beautiful romance between God and His Church. I found new revelation on every page! This is a must read - again and again and again!

This book changed my life. Edwards did a masterful job of making the love of God.What better way to make His love tanglible than by using a human perpective to show divine romance. I love this book and have given it as a gift on numerous occasions. Read it and weep...and rejoice!

This book really helped me to see things from God's point of view. Too often, way to often, we see things only from our point of view. Having such a self centered point of view causes us to miss seeing GOD's heart in the bible. Edwards does such a good job of putting God's heart before.

This book is beyond fabulous. It captured my heart. Written from the perspective of our Savior it truely shows that the Lord died for us so that we might have a relationship with Him. Thank you Father. Gene Edwards did an amazing job.

Gene Edwards takes far too much liberty and in my opinion fictionalizes about God and creation to a point that actually contradicts the Word. My advice is stay away from this book. Go to the real Bible for all you need to know.

I wish the store would develop the capability to give negative stars. This book deserves one!

So the Bride of Christ turns into a white woman huh? Why not Asian or African woman. How about a woman that blends all races to make them inderterminable.

And what's supposed to happen now? Are they supposed to have sex?

This book is so on the verge of heresy!!!!

I had the misfortune of running into this book at a local bookstore and decided to give in a try only to be heavily disappointed and frankly, worried to pieces about the other people who may try to read this book.
As I began the book, I continued to think something was wrong. I stopped every few paragraphs and would pray that God show me His face in reading - but the feeling that I was reading something dangerous only grew stronger. I had to stop reading completely after the first 13 pages.
The next day I began research on the author and the book. Unfortunately, what I uncovered was nothing short of a writer who is the closest description to a cult leader. As a former Evangelical Baptist preacher, Mr. Edwards has found solace in starting "home churches" - he has the background to write a book, but looks as if he's gone after the wrong genre. Maybe he should try fiction...
I looked at the reviews from the store and saw only good things - so I thought something was wrong with me. But (while there are MANY things wrong with me), disliking this book is not one of them.
Mr. Edwards fills the pages with lengthy descriptions as if he is (trying) to mimic one of the great classical writers of our pasts (i.e Shakespeare, Dickens). Dear Mr. Edwards, people will still see past you even though you use fifteen more words when trying to write something that only takes six.
I grew tired trying to see past all of the words to find out what he was really trying to say. However, when I did look past the words to see what the book was really trying to say, it was, "I'm going to retell the beginning of man, in MY own words (which are about 15 billion), make God a flat character and I'm going to charge you $11.99 in the process." There are also never any biblical references.
The book reminded me of "The DaVinci Code" - not in story or technique - but in the instance that a writer took historical and biblical truths and turned them into a completely different story.
I would NEVER recommend anyone read this book - don't waste your time! Just read the first chapters of the Bible to get what really happened!

(The only reason this got one star is because I could not rate it "no star" or "negative 5 stars")