4.9 Stars Out Of 5
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  1. GC
    Canada
    Age: 18-24
    Gender: Female
    5 Stars Out Of 5
    Scandalous.
    June 27, 2013
    GC
    Canada
    Age: 18-24
    Gender: Female
    Meets Expectations: 5
    This review was written for Iscariot.
    It is late as I pen these words. The light should have been long turned out but I'm afraid I won't be able to call it a night with these thoughts pressing in my mind and begging for release after turning the last page of Lee's Iscariot. The first thought that honestly came to mind was: I'll not be taking this journey again anytime soon. It took me one transforming month to go through it and let me warn you that this mere, five star review does not do the book justice. I was not even planning on reading Iscariot at first, until I saw the trailer and a question the author asked ringed in my head: Would I have done the same as Judas?

    Scandalous, tenebrous, yet nonetheless grandly written, Iscariot is a masterpiece that unfolds through the broken pieces of hearts, transcending even my wildest comprehension of what we call the Gospel. It refuses to be limited by religious barriers. It is unlimited, restless and wild in its search for peace. It challenges the reader time and time again and you will not be able to avoid the questions it asks. Tosca Lee proves with this work that she is a force to be reckoned with in Christian fiction.

    The Judas presented in this novel is a man who constantly wrestles with doing his or God's will. A strict follower of the law, a man starving for the approval of others, of someone, of God, he suddenly throws all caution to the wind when he chooses to follow a mysterious Man, desperately seeking for a sign that The Lord has not abandoned him. Rumour has it that this Jesus is the Messiah. Elation and fear both claim Judas as he beholds what no man in Israel has seen before. Miracles ranging from healing the sick, to calling the dead, the demon-possessed out of the mouth of captivity. Desperation, confusion and pain are Judas and the disciples' companions many days. The Son of man comes, wreaking havoc in every last piece of security and sanity they were hanging on to in trying to do the right thing, and giving no hint as to what He is about to accomplish, Jesus simply tells the disciples to follow him. Judas feels torn between his loyalty to this new Lord, his family, the law. He constantly reasons within himself : I am unclean. My past is unclean, my heart is unclean, following this man, according to the law, is unclean.... but this is where freedom is. Where Love is. Where this manner of Man named Jesus is. An unpredictable man. A man carrying more sorrows than any man should ever be allowed. Oh- so- needed according to Judas, who refers to him as His greatest friend. Jesus is compassion. Jesus reaches out and understands, but He's also as dangerous as fire. He is danger, repeatedly thinks Iscariot as the disciples carry him away from crowds ready to stone him, because of his parables and brazen words. Yet in the midst of the pain, confusion and dizziness, to the bone-weary followers He constantly asks : Do you love me? This question among many other elements in the story sprung to my eyes like tears many times. Iscariot is a battle between Heaven and Hell. Between the destiny and the destined. Between my will and His. A love story forgotten but brought back to life. A story between Him and me.

    Exceptional writing. Funny moments many times throughout, and overall a very powerful tale.
  2. Shai
    Norfolk, NE
    Age: 35-44
    Gender: female
    5 Stars Out Of 5
    FANTASTIC
    February 3, 2014
    Shai
    Norfolk, NE
    Age: 35-44
    Gender: female
    Quality: 5
    Value: 5
    Meets Expectations: 5
    This review was written for Iscariot.
    Is it possible to give a 10 star rating on a 5 star scale? If not, it should be, because Iscariot deserved it! What a fantastic read! I loved the way Tosca Lee presents Judas without ever glorifying him and yet she totally glorified Jesus. The story caused me to fall more in love with Jesus just by her representation of his amazing love and devotion. Ms. Lee is an amazing author already, but Iscariot took her writing to a new dimension of outstanding. This book will knock the socks off any reader.
  3. L Steinert
    5 Stars Out Of 5
    excelent book
    January 20, 2014
    L Steinert
    This review was written for Iscariot.
    This book is well written and makes the reader think. Tosca Lee has a way of bringing the characters to life and drawing the reader in. This is one of the few fictional books that I have recommended to my husband to read. Well-researched and awesome for bible studies.
  4. Amber McCallister
    5 Stars Out Of 5
    Tosca Will Make You See Judas Like Never Before
    November 15, 2012
    Amber McCallister
    Quality: 5
    Value: 4
    Meets Expectations: 5
    This review was written for Iscariot.
    Riveting....explosive.....revolutionary are just a few meager words that describe Tosca Lee's latest literary masterpiece. She has immersed herself in the life and time of the well-known disciple of Jesus Christ known as Judas Iscariot. She brilliantly succeeded in humanizing this notorious traitor of Jesus Christ. She skillfully and intricately laid before our eyes an intimate, less traveled path of the motivations and desires that Judas passionately followed to the end of his life.

    We are granted the honor to have such an intimate experience with Judas as we walk alongside him as his life is turned upside down and forever twisted and altered by the effects of the cruel and brutal Roman occupation of Jerusalem and the surrounding Jewish cities. My heart broke at seeing all of the horror and evil that Judas and his family had to endure when he was a young boy. Seeing such ugliness that most of us only read about in books at such an impressionable age transformed him into the driven and empty man that he became.

    The sum total of Judas's existence in light of the Jewish law and religious elite of that time was to strive to find out for himself if God truly existed and to be cleansed by Him and made pure. If we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that this is also the same ruthless pursuit that we all tirelessly struggle to answer. No matter how much we might like to separate ourselves from Judas, we find that more and more we are just like him. We are all lost in the darkness stumbling around on our hands and knees with tears streaming down our faces screaming and whispering out to God desperate to know if He is real and how He will save us from ourselves. Frighteningly enough, the darkness that surrounds Judas and us is not from the pit of Hell like we would convince those around us that it is, but in reality it is leaking and bubbling up from the depths of our own heart. The madness and evil that haunted Judas and haunts us still is born from the evil that lives inside us that can only be expelled with the light of God's radiantly pure love. However, no amount of persuasion of others can make us understand this. Just like Judas, we have to see this for ourselves no matter how long it takes us to blindly stumble upon this shocking revelation.

    Jesus message at that day and time was just as radical as this piece of haunting truth. He turned the religious community on its ear with his teaching, His words, and his strange yet simple parables. He drove people into madness as He taught love rather than the harsh, skin-deep hollowness of what had become of the Jewish law at that time. It was this mad, revolutionary idea that God loved them and wanted them to love each other including their Roman oppressors that the religious elite and learned men like Judas were dumbfounded and either driven deeper into their pious depravity or dared to be changed and remade by the desperately deep craving that they had for His love. I believe it was the overwhelming light of Jesus message of love which laid bare the base desires of the religious elite that led to their ravenous calling for His death. Evil can't stand when good shines its light on it and reveals its ugliness not only to others but especially to itself. It will do anything to hide itself in the shadows once again while destroying the light that exposed itself.

    At the end of this journey that we have taken with Judas, we find that we have one question to answer - the same question that has been posed for the past 2,000 years. Why did Judas betray Jesus? Tosca gently yet decisively leads us to the answer of this question. She lays before us the consideration that Judas is no different than any of us. In fact, I believe that she proposes that we are all Judases in the depths of our hearts, and we need to beware that we do not fall into the same traps and pitfalls that he did. We need to be sure that we choose love over the law - that we choose life over death/power/influence.

    I don't believe that Judas hated Jesus. Rather, I believe that Judas was transformed by Jesus and His message of love, but I also believe that the evil in us fights for control of us just as vehemently as Jesus fights for our love. It's this battle that was at the heart of Judas's betrayal. When we don't give our whole hearts to Jesus to be filled with His love, we allow the darkness to silently creep in and slowly take control back. I believe that the answer to the accusation of guilt lies in Judas's fear of giving Jesus full control over his heart. While he reveled in and marveled at the intensity and completeness of Jesus's love for him, he didn't believe that Jesus could love such a man as him. He held back his heart, and in so doing allowed the darkness from his past to overcome him and give up control of his heart to the teachers of the law who wanted to remain in the luscious darkness of their selfish ways. He allowed these evil men to unknowingly work through him to quash the light that was brought into their world for a short time, but they unknowingly did us an immense favor in ushering in God's new kingdom of devastating love and unfathomable forgiveness for the benefit of all mankind.

    Instead of condemning Judas, we need to learn from him. We need to see him in ourselves and strive to become what he deeply longed to become but was so terrified to allow himself to embrace. We need to realize that Judas is all of us. He is every man, and we need to come to the understanding that we have to die to ourselves in order to live for and with Jesus in this time and in His coming kingdom.

    This is a story that will not only transform your heart but will also pour the intoxicating light of God's love into your life. You will never be able to think of Judas or yourself in the same way ever again. Even though our culture is so far removed from the Jewish culture of 2,000 years ago, in our hearts, the human race is still the same band of men prone to great evil and yet who desperately search for their own salvation and tirelessly crave the love of the almighty Creator of the universe. This book is a must read for those who desire to be led into the past by a master storyteller who skillfully creates a glorious tapestry filled with rich culture, human frailty, and unrestrained love to unmask this man of loathing and deceit in order to deepen our own relationship with God.

    Tosca gently wipes away the stale, Sunday school understanding from both our eyes and our heart and offers up a fresh take on Jesus, His life and work, and how it touched Judas and the other disciples around him. She breathes life into Jesus and His powerful effect on those around Him. This story will have you gasping for air and reeling at how you feel you have missed knowing Jesus at this depth your entire life. Your heart will long for the same meaningful and palatable relationship that Judas had with Jesus, and it will leave you refusing to settle for anything less.
  5. Mariposa
    5 Stars Out Of 5
    Iscariot --WOW
    February 16, 2015
    Mariposa
    This review was written for Iscariot.
    My first by Tosca Lee. Astonishing and affirmative 5 Stars PLUS PLUS! Wow. can't wait to read another of her well researched, amazingly scripted novels. Superb work. Absolutely will share this book with many friends.
Displaying items 1-5 of 23
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