THE UNEXPECTED JOURNEY

Author Information

The author of “The Unexpected Journey”, Thom S. Rainer holds a PhD from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and is the founding dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions. Thom S. Rainer is also the president of Church Central. One of the activities that he partakes in frequently is speaking at conferences and seminars. Thom S. Rainer has served as a pastor and interim pastor in ten churches and is president of Rainer Group Church Consulting. He has penned various works to include: “The Unchurched Next Door” and “Breakout Churches”. (Rainer, Cover Biography)

Content Summary

The “Unexpected Journey” is a book about a series of separate interviews where the testimonies of twelve individuals who have come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and are coming from different religions or belief systems are given, to include; Mormonism, Judaism, Hinduism, Atheism, Jehovah’s Witness, Agnosticism, Wiccan Paganism, Buddhism, Unitarianism, Astrology, Islam, and Satanism.
The interviews are conducted by Thom S. Rainer and his wife Nellie Jo and begin in Salt Lake City ending in Augusta Georgia a year later. The author is clear to inform the reader that this book is not an “apologetic book” in defense of the Christian faith, nor is it an “exhaustive account” of the details surrounding the former beliefs of the participants, but he has attempted to educate the reader with general and elementary knowledge and facts surrounding the faiths or belief systems.
The first interview involves a convert to Christianity from the Mormon belief system. It takes place at the home of Rauni and Dennis. Rauni gives her account of how she lost her parents at an early age and was left with no family besides her Aunts and Uncles. Rauni later became a Mormon through a friendship that she made with a female who told her that she could be reunited with her family and friends forever if she joined Mormonism. Not only did Rauni join the faith, she became a Finnish translator and became very acquainted with the tenets of the faith. Rauni would go on to marry Dennis, a sixth generation Mormon. After some serious study Rauni and Dennis came to the conclusion that Mormonism did not make any sense and was full of contradictions. It was Rauni’s work, as a translator, and Dennis’s thorough familiarization with the tenets of the faith, as a sixth generation Mormon, that set the conditions for a closer look at apparent contradictions. Mormonism came about “In 1823 when Joseph Smith claimed to receive a revelation from God that all churches were corrupt. He said that the angel Moroni appeared to him in upstate New York and revealed to him the location of gold plates that contained the history of God’s people on this American continent and the fullness of the true gospel. Mormonism began with teachings of the Book of Mormon that Smith claimed he had “translated” from the Reformed Egyptian hieroglyphic characters on the plates.” (Rainer, PG 19). Rauni and Dennis eventually were excommunicated from their Mormon church which meant that their businesses would be boycotted by the Mormon community and eventually fail. Rauni and Dennis would go through a period of believing in nothing until Rauni began listening to some audio tapes of the Gospel of John and convinced Dennis to listen also. The story ends on the miraculous note of Rauni, Dennis and their three daughters being set free through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The next interview in the book involved a Jew and former believer in Judaism. The encounter took place at a restaurant in Chicago and the gentleman with whom they would be speaking with was named Steve. Steve was very enthusiastic and communicated his family’s orthodox roots, which went many generations back. The three major divisions that exist in Judaism, as communicated by the author are as follows:
- Orthodox Judaism is the oldest and most conservative branch. Orthodox Jews strictly adhere to the original form of Judaism with all of its customs and practices.
- Reform Judaism is the liberal and more permissive side of Judaism. Reform Jews follow the ethical laws of Judaism but ignore other traditional customs such as diet and apparel.
- Conservative Judaism is a compromise between the strict adherence of the Orthodox position and the permissive stance of the Reform perspective. (Rainer, PG 33).

Steve went on to explain that you can be just about anything in relation to a Jew, (Jews are tolerant of many things), except a Christian because of the animosity that has existed over the years with Christians accusing the Jews of killing Jesus. The Jews even associated Hitler with Christians because of his opposition to them during the Holocaust. Because of the ambiguity and tolerance of so many different things Steve was confused and lived a secular life until he met back up with a former girlfriend who had become a Christian and insisted that he go to Church with her where he was convicted of his need of a savior. Steve is now a leader in a church that incorporates traditional Jewish customs into the realization that Jesus is the Messiah that so long has been sought after by the Jewish faith.
The next story involves a man by the name of Dr Ravi who was a Hindu worshiper born into a very financially wealthy family that later rejected him because of a disability that resulted from an infection with polio as a youth. Dr Ravi’s family’s rejection eventually led him to run away where he met a man at a train station who presented the Gospel to him and told him of a Christian boarding school where he accepted Christ fourteen months later. Eventually Dr Ravi’s mother and father both became Christians.

Hinduism has countless gods in its belief system. But as the religion has developed, some of the earlier deities have disappeared and are no longer mentioned. Today there are three main gods among the many:
1. Brahma is the main god. He is also known as the Impersonal Absolute and the Ultimate Reality.
2. Vishnu is the god of all good causes. He has taken on human forms, the most popular of which is Krishna. Hare Krishna is the name of the movement that propagates this god.
3. Shiva is the god of creation and destruction, among other roles. (Rainer, PG 51).

The remainder of the interviews follows a similar format and each one concludes with the conversion of a new believer from a different faith.

Evaluation

The Unexpected Journey was a book that was full of demonstration after demonstration of how man can try to draw near to God through the practice of man made religion, but yet be unfulfilled in his desire to know God. God has declared in his word that the only way to know him is through Jesus Christ and this became evident to those individuals who were interviewed as they accepted Jesus as their personal savior. The Unexpected Journey is a powerful book and can be used to witness to individuals of a different faith as they are exposed to other people who thought that either they had the right way to God or that all roads lead to God. I will be passing this book over to my wife for her digestion, to the glory of God.

Bibliographical Entry
Rainer S. Thom: “The Unexpected Journey”, Zondervan Publishers, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530, 2005.

Tagged as: agnosticism, atheism, Bible, Christian, conversion to christianity, faith, god, hinduism, jehovah's witness, jesus, judaism, mormonism, orthodox jews, rainer s. thom, salvation, satanism, the unexpected journey, wiccan paganism