The Last Christian

I've read Dinner with a Perfect Stranger, Day with a Perfect Stranger and The Next Level by David Gregory and jumped at the chance for a review copy of his newest book. I had a feeling it would be something special. I wasn't disappointed.

After reading the prologue, dated April 2088, I knew I was on a completely fresh, incredible, serious journey with David as he whisked me into this Sci/Fi thriller. I buckled up, regrouped and tuned into this high-tech scenario. David reveals amazing computer gadgets, a mainstream super highway, and the absence of the Christian influence in the world.

I could imagine this incredible high tech world with the help of seeing movies like the Star Trek and The Matrix. This author shows how technology can change the world and do great things, but along with the benefits there are serious ethical and moral consequences. Neuron implants are put into people in the form of a chip that allow them to surf the grid (much like the web-but more remarkable) so they can spend most of their lives in VR (a virtual reality world of their making).

This is not a comfortable, warm fuzzy read with a happily ever after ending. It's a book that made me think about life, in relationship to Christ and the people around me. I knew that after I finished the last page of The Last Christian, I would keep whirling the characters dilemma and the deep message David gave over and over in my mind, heart and soul. David's books do that to me. .

Abigail Caldwell was the only one to survivor a virus that wiped out her whole village. She's an American Missionary trying to make sense of a sixteen year old message recently received from her Grandfather in America.

When Abby arrives in the USA she discovers Christianity is gone. Not because the government stripped it from society but humanity had changed. Science and technology became more important to them. It replaced the need for God and Christianity. Abbey thought, Could one person make a difference? She soon found out people weren't interested in the message of forgiveness through Christ in this foreign land.

Someone says to Abbey, "I found that out long ago. That's because they no longer sense their need to be forgiven. People didn't believe in absolutes anymore, in right and wrong. So what is there to be forgiven for?"

This author challenges everyone to evaluate how they are living this Christian life and how they share Jesus. I have to say I was pierced by the Holy Spirit to re-evaluate some things in my own life. Wow, what a story. You'll definitely have to check this one out!

Nora St. Laurent The Book Club Network www.bookfun.org

David Gregory's The Last Christian was another pleasant surprise: a Christian novel that is not cheesy, not preachy, but well-written and explicitly Christian. Gregory paints a convincing picture of the not-too-distant future, while weaving a suspenseful story of faith and the nature of humanity itself.

After a brief prologue in which we witness the replacement of a human brain with an electronic brain, we meet Abby, who, at 34 years old, has known no other life than living among a stone-age tribe in Papua New Guinea. The daughter of American missionaries, Abby and her family chose to remain among their tribe even after the government declared the tribe off-limits, so they have been cut off from technology and culture for decades. The United States in the late 21st century is a foreign culture to her.

The Grid (Gregory's name for the beefed up internet) is ubiquitous. Many people have neural implants and communicate and enjoy entertainment in virtual reality. Most foreign of all is the nearly complete absence of Christianity. Churches have been abandoned or turned into schools or museums. Criticism of other faiths is a jail-able offense. But Abby has come to the U.S. with a mission: after her emergence from the jungle, she received an old video message from her grandparents, who told her of the rapid decline of Christianity in the United States, and that they had a dream that Abby would be the one to bring Christianity back to America.

Her task is not as simple as she thought it might be, especially when it turns out that her grandfather had helped develop the artificial brains, and that he was the recipient of the artificial brain in the prologue. Abby's cousin is a congresswoman whose campaign for senate might be derailed by her association with her outspoken cousin, Abby the "religionist." And the company behind the artificial brains happens to be behind a fiendish plot to get their brains into everyone.

The story is fun and thought provoking. In some insightful passages, Gregory gives an interesting look into our possible future. One example is his take on the so-called "Google effect." (He, of course, doesn't use that phrase. It's from a Science article published July of 2011 [here], which, of course, was after the publication of The Last Christian, demonstrating Gregory's foresight!) Abby meets up with a college history professor, whose father happens to have been a friend of her grandfather. He and Abby discuss the way the Grid has changed learning. He tells Abby, college students "can access the information anytime they want in fact form and use it in formulating questions for tests." "You mean formulating answers." "No. Formulating questions. No one test for answers anymore. No one is expected to retain much knowledge. . . . Facts are available on command. The Grid can stream you to any answers you want. The key to education is in formulating the right questions. Asking questions that will bring you useful answers--that's what we're trying to teach our students." You can see this today. Ask someone a factual question, they pull out their iphone and google it.

More importantly for Christian readers is the demise of Christianity. In Gregory's future, it takes only a couple of generations for the practice of Christianity to die out. In a lecture in his American culture class, he outlines the causes. I think they are worth reproducing here.

The five causes of "the decline and disappearance of Christianity in twenty-first century America."

Scientific progress. Evolutionary theory, especially. The culture war. "The more strident that religionists became in their attempt to control government, the less others were attracted to Christianity." "The backlash against religion in general due to Islamic fundamentalism." A philosophical shift rejecting absolute truth and seeing all truth as social construction. "Lack of distinctiveness." Behaviors of religious and nonreligious people became indistinguishable. The megachurch movement "was the beginning of the end, a last gasp of the Christian religion. . . . They adopted a new marketing strategy, using their gatherings to appeal to outsiders with popular entertainment and practical life helps. But . . . that didn't produce a lifestyle any more distinctive than before."

Look around you, Christian. Do you see some or all of these 5 forces at work? I do not despair of the future of Christianity, but it's not too hard to imagine these trends worsening and continuing to weaken the church and its witness in the world.

So The Last Christian manages to tell a great story while giving a prophetic warning about the future. That's a rare combination. Maybe it's not a great work of literature--it is written as popular fiction--and maybe it's not a great work of theology--again, it's a suspense/sci-fi novel--but it combines those two efforts successfully. A recommended read.

Artificial Intelligence. Virtual Reality. These are familiar terms now, but what significance will they have in the not-so-distant future? The Last Christian by David Gregory uses these concepts to depict a future United States where Christianity has been replaced by technology and selfish motivation. The people no longer believe in absolute truth so they don't see a need for forgiveness; nor do they understand how to have a personal relationship with Jesus.

I don't ordinarily read this type of sci-fi/futuristic novel, but I did find this story compelling. The idea of Christianity being eradicated in this selfish, technology-driven culture that we have here today in the U.S. is not so far-fetched. The deeper spiritual truths of effectively sharing the Gospel with others and evaluating our own personal relationships was a common theme throughout the book. It really made me think about how I communicate with non-believers and how I can better talk about absolute truth and the power of knowing Jesus personally.

There were some confusing transitions between Virtual Reality and "real time" events, as well as some point of view shifts that were a little difficult to follow. Overall, I enjoyed this book even though it is not my usual favorite genre. I recommended it to my husband, who does like this kind of book and he'll be reading it next.

a work of fiction from the author who brought you Dinner with a Perfect Stranger and The Next Level, neither of which i've read, but if you have, then you also have a frame of reference for Gregory's latest book...

the book takes place about a few generations from now, in 2088, where the majority of the world's population has internet access embedded into their brains via microchips and world-renown innovator Bryson Nichols has just unveiled his latest invention, a silicon-based brain to replace the human brain and grant the owner eternal life...

The scene takes place amidst a "Judges 2:10? generation - one who "knew not the Lord, and the works which he had done" - that has all but done away with religion... and spends more time in virtual reality than actual life...

and then there is the protagonist... Abby, the daughter of life-long missionaries to the unreachable Inisi tribes of Papua, New Guinea, who has recently emerged from the jungle hoping to save her village from a strange disease... then, she gets a strange message from her grandfather, commissioning her to bring Christianity back to the US... and when a local doctor begins to investigate the disease, that's when it all begins...

The Last Christian is a gripping tale of interwoven storylines and "DON'T OPEN THAT DOOR!" moments (you know, when you think you can prevent the character from doing what is certain to spell their doom)... plenty of twists and turns keep this adventure rolling along while readers keep reaching for that next page to turn... I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but i'm pretty sure i got more than i could've expected... certainly a good read...

I must confess, I had trouble with this book at first. After a confusing start, it became interesting, and then collapsed into a bit of confusing. Part of the trouble was that there were several plots, happening all at once, and so it was like starting to read four or five books at exactly the same time. Read part of a chapter of one, skip to the next, and then to the next, and so forth. Because of that, I almost didn't continue the story. A part of me just wanted to be done, but once the stories began to converge in tangible ways, it wasn't work to read the story, and then by about half-way through, I was engrossed.

The fascinating part of this futuristic novel is how similar some parts are to my own novel I wrote last year, Volition, and how other parts are so drastically different. At first, I became concerned that mine would be too similar in some of the reality issues, but fortunately most is not so I doubt anyone but me would see any similarities.

I really can't explain the story without giving away plots. There were parts I loved, other parts I hated, and as much as I hate it, the ending was absolutely perfect. The message of the book, however, is the key. I really think that every Christian in America needs to read this novel. Its message is powerful and simple. The Christian life isn't something you live. The Christian life is what Jesus lives through you. It sounds like the same thing, but as this book so brilliantly demonstrates, they are not.

Read the book. If you don't win it from my blog, go to amazon.com, to your local store, or to the library and get the book. Wade through the beginning... I bet most people didn't have the trouble I did, but even if they did, it's worth it, and read the book. Compare what the author teaches through the story with scripture. Be a Berean. I promise you, you will not be disappointed. Well, unless you want a Pharisaical life filled with human attempts to live a life that only Jesus can do for you.

My daughter didn't want to read it, but I insisted. Can I just say that she sings its praises every time it is mentioned? I'm not the only one who still pulls it out and rereads parts that I need to sink back into my soul.

This book was provided for review by Multnomah/Waterbrook. The opinions are mine.