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.

Click here to get your copy!

MY THOUGHTS

Kurt Brouwer has written a book about the last disciple, John. The book is a work of fiction that is well-researched and well-thought-out. It gives us an idea of what life might have been like for John and some of the other disciples, but it is not a factual account.

The author acknowledges that he had little information about the later part of John’s life since there is not much mentioned in the Bible. Therefore, he had to use his imagination to fill in the gaps. The book aims to fill the void of what life was like for the twelve disciples, later known as apostles, and in particular, what John’s life was like after Jesus’ death.

It is important to remember that Jesus is all and in all (Ephesians 4:6), and Peter tells us that we have everything pertaining to life and godliness in His Word, in Jesus (1 Peter 1:3-4).

The author’s attempt to give the reader a glimpse into John’s life is commendable, but it would have been better if he had clearly defined where he got some of his information. For example, he mentions Ananus the high priest, a character not mentioned in the Bible. It would have been helpful to know the source of this information.

While the writing style and content are good, in my opinion, there are too many embellishments on the Word of God. Although the book references the Word of God, it is best to stick to what is actually in the Bible. God has given us everything we need, and there is no need to know more from the Biblical account. We may start to add things that are just not there and believe they are truth.

Overall, if you enjoy Biblical fiction, this book is worth reading. However, if you prefer factual accounts, be aware that this is a work of fiction. The author’s view of what could have been is an imaginative look at real people and real events.

I received a complimentary copy from the author through Celebrate Lit, for my honest opinion.

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).