Author Charles Martin, who’s behind the novel-turned-movie The Mountain Between Us, has written a book on Jesus’ life and ministry through a storytelling perspective.
What If It’s True?: A Storyteller’s Journey with Jesus, which will be released on Jan. 29, explores the fundamental question: “What if every single word of Scripture is absolutely true and I can trust it?”
Martin, who has released 14 books in his career that spans more than 20 years, uses a storyteller’s imagination to place the reader in some of the most gripping and important scenes of the New Testament — from Jesus’ crucifixion to His miracles.
The reasons for why he undertook this endeavor is something he explores not only in one of the first chapters, but throughout the entire book, sharing numerous moments from his own life where he could feel Jesus’ Words at play.
Martin, 41, told The Christian Post in a phone interview that he grew up in a house “where my mom and dad loved the Lord.”
“I don’t ever remember not knowing Jesus as Lord,” he said of his background as a Christian.
“I have known the Lord a long time. It doesn’t mean I have always been obedient, but I’ve known Him,” he added.
The author said that the inspiration to write a book like this, one that immerses the readers in striking detail in the life and ministry of Christ, came to him two novels ago.
He explained that for many years in his career, he had simply been moving from one novel to the next, and he was known by everyone for his day job as a writer.
Martin told CP that for over 10 years now he has also been leading a Bible study group.
“Once a week I meet these guys and try to unpack Scripture for them. And so part of my life for the last decade or so has been teacher, somebody who spent a lot of time in the Word,” he noted.
“Two novels ago I am sitting there and I thought ‘Lord, I would really like to put some of these teachings together in a book, if I could just figure out how to do it.’”
He said he wanted to write a book about why he walks with Jesus, because he has seen “what the Lord has done through His Word as we’ve studied it for the past decade, for the past 12 years.”questions
He reflected that his past novels have often raised deep and profound questions. When it comes to What If It’s True?, Martin said that he thinks “it answers most, if not all of the questions that have arisen in my fiction.”
His books have reached millions, with the 2011 romance-disaster novel The Mountain Between Us turned into a movie in 2017, featuring major Hollywood stars Idris Elba and Kate Winslet.
Martin positioned that the success of the novel has not changed anything about what he writes or how he writes it.
“I’m still writing love stories with a character who is very much broken,” he said, with the story arks exploring “how do I get this character from broken to not broken? That is my question; that is why I write the fiction that I do.”
What If It’s True? begins with what Martin described as “the single most important event in the history of mankind,” namely Jesus being led through the streets by the Roman soldiers to Calvary, where He is crucified on the cross.
The author noted that the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus is the “pin upon which everything hinges.”
He said that it’s not correct to say that Jesus was just a “good moral teacher.”
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SOURCE: Christian Post, Stoyan Zaimov
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