The Torchbearer – by S.J. Knight
A junior version of A Time To Act, this story of Paul was written for younger readers. This second edition has been reprinted in paperback.
Who was Paul before he became an apostle? What kind of person was he? He was born hundreds of miles away from the Holy Land, so how did he end up in Jerusalem, bent on destroying all the followers of Jesus? What happened to him after Jesus stopped him in his tracks on the road to Damascus? What was life like back then, two thousand years ago? How did he and his friend Barnabas manage to spread the gospel over hundreds of miles of Gentile territory?
This fictional story, depicting his life from birth to the end of his first missionary journey, suggests how it might have been.
Author’s Note: (copied from book preface)
Scriptural narrative is usually economical in its use of words. It is this which gives it such power – and forces us to think. However, it is sometimes difficult for us to see the people in the Bible as real. It is hard to realise that they also had mothers and fathers, they experienced childhood, they had to learn, and grow up.
They were not mere actors on a stage, only appearing in certain Bible scenes, but they lived full lives – eating, sleeping, working, talking, crying and laughing – in an everyday environment. Though their culture was very different from our own, they were people just like us.
The events in Acts are the foundation of this fictional story about the great apostle Paul. Everything else is supposition, based on what is known about the times in which he lived. Imagination is used to paint a picture of his early life, to help the reader to relate to Paul as a real person, a friend to love, and an example to follow.
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