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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780385495103
ISBN number: 0385495102
Label: Image
Manufacturer: Image
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 272
Printing Date: October 17, 2000
Publishing house: Image
Release Date: October 17, 2000
Sale Popularity Level: 82256
Studio: Image
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Product Description:
Joseph Girzone wrote his parable in 1983 and published it himself with neither accompanying fanfare nor expectation of the extraordinary effect it would have on people around the world. With only word-of-mouth for advertising, and by virtue of its siniple message of love, Joshua became an international force of spiritual strength. after its modest beginnings, Joshua and its sequels have millions of readers around the world and continue to bring hope and peace to all who seek nourishment. When Joshua moves to a small cabin on the edge of town, the local people are at very first mystified, then confused by his presence. A quiet and simple man, Joshua appears to seek nothing for himself. He supports himself solely by carpentry and woodworking, and he charges very little for his services. Yet his work is exquisite. Even more exquisite, and even more mysterious, is the extraordinary effect he has on everyone he meets. All who come in contact with him can't help but be transformed by his incredible warmth. The acceptance and love in his eyes and in each actions amazes the townspeople. Who is Joshua and just what is he up to? The answer to that question amazes them almost as much discovery of that same transforming power in each of their own hearts.
Amazon.com Review:
Joshua: The Homecoming is Joseph F. Girzone's sequel to the immensely popular Joshua. The title character, a kind and solitary carpenter, returns to the small town of Auburn after a 20-year absence. Joshua finds that many of his old friends have died, and he sees in the new generation a pervasive fear and spiritual insecurity. Many of the anxieties that plague the citizens of Auburn stem from millennial hysteria; and when signs of the Apocalypse begin to appear (such as a great earthquake just before the turn of the new year), Joshua soothes their fears by reminding them that God is love. 'My father does not follow people's calendar,' Joshua says. 'If he decides to bring the world to an end, it will be when the work of His creation is perfected.' Eventually, it becomes clear to Joshua that he must leave Auburn to preach his powerful message to the rest of the world. Like all of Girzone's books (including Never Alone and A Portrait of Jesus), this novel exudes empathy for its characters' loneliness and fears, and gives readers a strong sense of what it means to live in an intimate relationship with God.
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Rated by buyers 
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Although the title of the book is somewhat deceiving in that Joshua's homecoming to the book's original setting is short, I felt this book returned more closely to the original formula of the series. While "Joshua and the City" seemed to be recycling themes in a new location and "Joshua and the Shepard" seemed to be more of a vehicle for Girzone to forward his views on the state of the ministry, this book sees the Joshua character returned to the people. With the panic of the new millennium reaching its peak, Joshua visits several cultures of American society reminding them that Jesus is the way.
Many will recall the hysteria of a new millennium and the belief that a round number would equate to the end of the world. This is a major reason for the popularity of the "Left Behind" series and others like it. Joshua continually repeats the theme that "the world will not end until His Father's creation reaches its perfection." Some reviewers will object to Girzone contradicting the book of Revelations. However, much like "Left Behind", this is fiction. Further, Girzone qualifies his work in the last sentence: "After All He is God: it is not our perogative to restrict His freedom to our interpretation of scripture."
As Joshua crosses the American landscape, he defuses a cult, visits remarkable church leaders, sees the death of the pope, and watches San Francisco fall into the ocean. Girzone was not trying to predict the future in these passages, only employing images that are feasible to us.
Girzone makes Jesus into an empathetic human in the Joshua character. Often the image of an angry, vengeful God are too common and frighten people from the church. Girzone is obviously very liberal in many of his Christian ideas which may turn off some readers. Others will find his take refreshing. The tone of the series is dynamic as the Joshua character would grow stale if Joshua stayed in the same city from the very first book and repeated many of the same scenarios. However with two more additions in the series since this book, even I would like the series to cease before it loses its sense of novelty and jeopardizes the standing of any other works of Girzone.
Rated by buyers -
My mother gave me this book when it was very first published in 1999. In all honesty, I thought it was the original book "Joshua" by Joseph Girzone. Since I had already read the original I didn't bother picking it up until now. I am doing this review for my English 101 class and I thought, since it had been quite some time since I read "Joshua" that I would read it again.
I am at a point in my life that I needed a spiritual uplifting and I knew the book had provided me with this before. I was completely taken by surprise when I started the very first page and realized this was a continuation of the Joshua story. It did indeed give me the uplifting that I was expecting. It also gave me a new insight in to thoughts on the Bible and "The End Time".
I especially enjoyed when Joshua was speaking with the elders of The Church of God in Christ about the Bible. He says: "To go back to the book alone is to deny the Holy Spirit's two thousand years of guidance, and all the growth in understanding that has taken place in those two thousand years." (p. 152) I do believe in reading the Bible, and I don't believe that Mr. Girzone is implying that we should not read it, but that this should not be the sole source of our Christianity. I also enjoyed Mr. Girzone's description of "The End Time", something that has entered my mind on many occasions. He says that the world will not end, by God's hand, until "His creation is perfected." (p. 26) and "if evil things happen, it will be the work of human beings, not the work of my Father." (p. 26)
I am very grateful this assignment came up because I would have probably left the book in my closet a lot longer than I have. I would recommend this book to everyone. Especially those that might need a more clear understanding of a loving, compassionate, and forgiving God. It has been an excellent read for me and it provided me everything, and more, that I was looking for in spirituality. I thank you Mr. Girzone, for sharing your wonderful insight.
Rated by buyers 
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I have read all the books in the Joshua series and a couple other books Joseph Girzone has written. My favorites are JOSHUA and JOSHUA AND THE CHILDREN. JOSHUA AND THE CHILDREN really moved me and affected me deeply, giving me a deeper appreciation for the finer things in life. I was really looking forward to reading JOSHUA THE HOMECOMING, the latest book in the series.
What a huge disappointment! The Joshua of JOSHUA THE HOMECOMING is not the same Joshua who appears in the other books in the series. The author says he is, but he's not really. No, the Joshua in this book is really just a puppet that the author uses to express his own beliefs and philosophies, some of which are not even Biblical. Now, there's nothing wrong with an author using a character he has created to spew forth the author's beliefs. However, Joshua isn't just some character. Joshua is supposed to be Jesus. Jesus isn't just a character and he shouldn't be treated as such.What made the very first few Joshua books so enjoyable, memorable, and meaningful is that Joshua was Jesus. Girzone seems to have forgotten that. Instead, Joshua has become a mouthpiece of Joseph Girzone.
No longer does Joshua hide the identity of who he is, but now he lets people in on the "messianic secret" sometimes even telling them point blank who he really is. Not only that, but this Joshua claims that the Bible really isn't God-breathed but is an embellishment made by men. According to this Joshua: the claims of Christ about when the world would end aren't true and a prophecy might never reach it's fulfillment; macro-evolution is a fact of life; and we should all be blindly listening to scientists because they are the new prophets. This is just a sample of the teachings from the new Joshua.
I enjoyed reading all the other Joshua books, but JOSHUA THE HOMECOMING was a struggle to get through. The book isn't very long and the language is simple, yet it drags. Instead of caring what was going on with the story, I found myself wondering how long the book was going to drag. What a disappointment.
Rated by buyers 
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This is one of those rare books that has a message so well delivered, using a story for that message that is warm and interesting that one may overlook any minor technical problems or lack of sophistication. A good read.
Rated by buyers -
I was given this book to read by a friend, who loved its content and was uplifted by its story.
While I do indeed agree that the path to G-d is a personal relationship, talking to Him as your "Daddy", I have real problems with other sections.
The fact that the author states that there will be no "end times", that all that is happenings around us are natural events, and that as a loving father, G-d will not "play tricks on His children" is just one of the areas I cannot swallow. If this is the case then what the author seems to be saying is that the book of Revelation is a lie or fabrication. Also, the statements on pages 196 - 198 which contain references to the "Hebrew Scriptures" are insulting. He states that "most of those (the Hebrew scriptures) accounts were embellished by the storytellers. As stories were passed down from generation to generation, around the campfires, the were expanded on", and "Whenever anything happened in nature to those simple people, it was G-d who did it." I should be so lucky to be one of those "simple people" and live in the actual presence of G-d every day. Excuse me, is the author now saying that the Bible is not the inspired word of G-d? That it is as the atheists have said a fake, a fantasy? Yeshua (the Hebrew name for Jesus) himself stated that nothing should be added or subtracted from G-d's word for then it would no longer be G-d's word but the work of man. The author seems to have forgotten that Yeshua himself taught from this "embellished" Hebrew Scripture or the fact that He was one of these "simple" Hebrew people. Perhaps we can gain insight as to why this man is no longer in the priesthood.
G-d is indeed in control of everything and nothing is outside of His authority. But He is NOT the Good Humour Man. He is the creator. He will NOT let His creation drift too far from its creator before He steps in and makes His sovereignty known. He WILL step in, and to those who do not call upon His name, it will be frightening indeed. As it was in the time of Noah and of Sodom and Gomorrah. These times are not a dirty trick on His children, He has warned us in HIS book. Complete and perfect in content and meaning.
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