Review by Anushree_B -- Who Told You That You Were Naked?

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Anushree_B
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Review by Anushree_B -- Who Told You That You Were Naked?

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[Following is a volunteer review of "Who Told You That You Were Naked?" by William Combs.]
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3 out of 4 stars
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Book title: Who Told You That You Were Naked? A Refreshing Reexamination of the Garden of Eden. – By William E. Combs

I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars.

Let me start with why I picked this book. I am a former atheist. As a child, I could never bring myself to believe that there was a God. I won’t go into details about my life or the situation around me, but it was well into adulthood that I even started to warm up to the concept that, perhaps, in spite of all that happens in the world, God does really exist.
Let me also mention that I am not a Christian. The reason I am mentioning this is because it changes the way I see and interpret this book.

Coming to the book itself, I am glad I discovered this lovely little gem of a book. Even though I don’t have a Christian background and have not read the Bible, I am, like many others around the world familiar with the tale of Genesis.

Summary: Adam and Eve are happily living in Paradise with God. They are to freely take from all trees, except one – the apple tree. One ill fated day, Eve gets tempted by the serpent and thus falls prey to the forbidden fruit. On the suggestion of his wife, Adam also follows suit. For this act, they are ousted from the kingdom of God. Thus humanity falls from grace, to suffer sin and many harsh miseries.

This book follows a story like approach and it breathes fresh, new life into what happened in God’s kingdom – from the creation of Adam and Eve, to their eventual fall from grace, to how it affects human life today.

What I liked about the book: It opened my eyes to a whole new perspective when I understood why God asked the question ‘Who Told You That You Were Naked?’ instead of something like ‘Why did you eat of the forbidden fruit?’

So far my understanding of sin, according to what my Christian friends have explained to me has been transgression. I always wondered why there was so much focus on obedience in Christian teachings. This book took me much deeper of what is the actual meaning of sin in the eyes of God and I would encourage everyone, whether of Christian faith or otherwise, to read this book and find it out.

This book gently navigates through the consequences of eating the forbidden fruit, what is actually the knowledge of good & evil which was gained once the forbidden fruit was consumed by mankind and how God’s compassion was present even through the seemingly harsh punishment of Adam and Eve being banished from God’s kingdom.

I found the initial chapters make the most impact and the rest of the book provided much needed guidance into the true meaning of faith as well as the way of life God expects of us. There are study questions at the end of every chapters as well as personal anecdotes and stories woven throughout the book of Author Bill Comb’s and his wife, Miriam’s personal experiences with the Divine Christ.

What I did not like about the book: The only shortcoming I saw was that the author does not seem to have taken into account that this book will be appealing to a non Christian audience as well. There is no noticeable effort to simplify the book for such an audience. I struggled with many Bible references and would have greatly appreciated some simplification, like explaining the context from where the reference is taken etc. for my better understanding.
There are also times when the book gets a little repetitive. This is the reason I did not give this book a 4 out of 4.
But I am nevertheless thankful I read this book.

Final Verdict: It's a wonderful book. I would recommend it to everyone regardless of faith.

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Who Told You That You Were Naked?
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