HIDDEN CHRISTMAS: THE SURPRISING TRUTH BEHIND the BIRTH of CHRIST (audiobook) by Timothy Keller



Published by Penguin Audio in 2016.
Read by Sean Pratt.
Duration: 3 hours, 26 minutes.
Unabridged.

This short book takes a fresh look at Christmas by going back to its roots. Keller correctly notes that Christmas is unique in that it is our most popular secular holiday and our most popular religious holiday. And, the secular holiday focuses on Christmas as a moment of hope - "Peace on Earth and Good Will Towards Men" can happen.

Keller asserts that the religious tradition of Christmas says just the opposite - mankind is irredeemable and God had to come to mankind and provide the way out of its mess - through Christ. He tells it with a lot of eloquence. 

 The best part of the book, though, is the discussion of Jesus' pedigree in the Book of Matthew. Keller looks at why certain people were mentioned and why others were not. For example, "David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife" points out the fact that David (Israel's greatest hero) is an ancestor, but that he committed a horrible sin by betraying one of his best soldiers by having him killed so that he could take his wife. It also mentions a prostitute, a foreign woman and a wife who was married to her husband by trickery. It's a convoluted family line - not a line that a proud king would point to.

Sean Pratt read the book. I enjoyed his reading style - scholarly yet relaxed.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: HIDDEN CHRISTMAS: THE SURPRISING TRUTH BEHIND the BIRTH of CHRIST by Timothy Keller.

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