When most people write their thoughts on something that came from the mind of Johnny Cash it is usually about his music. I love Johnny Cash's music, he is by far one of my favorite all time musicians.
However this is not the case with this blog. I just finished reading Johnny Cash's novel "The Man In White" which is about the conversion of the Apostle Paul. I was not sure if a country musician writing a novel about Paul would intrigue me or be accurate to history. I was so wrong.
This novel is fiction, it is based on how Johnny Cash imagined these events taking place. However, he works in actual events and does a very good job of showing how society worked at the time that Paul was converted.
The novel picks up with Saul obtaining his letter from the high priest that allows him to persecute Christians. Cash even gives a couple of accounts of these events. When the novel ends Paul has just changed his name and is getting ready to leave to go back to Tarsus.
This books is incredibly well written. It is historic, poetic, and though provoking all at the same time. I highly recommend this book to anybody.
It is amazing to see the similarities of these two men (Paul and Cash). Both had a hard time convincing people that their faith and salvation were real and authentic due to their past actions. Both suffered from a thorn in the flesh, although we are unsure what Paul's is we know that he did not hide it from people but spoke about it openly. With Cash we are all aware of his drug problems and he also spoke openly regarding these issues.
Cash put a lot of himself into this story. To read it is to not only get an idea of the historical context that Paul lived his life, but to also understand the mentality of a man who has had a very real experience with a very real savior and desires to move forward with a new mission of talking about his conversion.
READ IT!!!
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