The Divine Conspiracy (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

This is the second best book I have ever read. Dallas Willard has captured so much wisdom in one volume that it is amazing. Buy this book if you cant afford it sell your car,house just get a copy, read it and read it again.

Dallas looks in a fresh way at the reason we are alive, he looks at the beatitudes from new and inspirational perspective.

He looks at the key disciplines to becoming a true student of Christ and how to become a person through wholm natural works of rightousness flow, not through effort but as a natural process of a transformed life.

Excellent

Dr. Dallas Willard has peered into the glorious canyon of the heart and mind of God - and in his book he tells us not what he has read about, but what he has personally seen. Thus, this book was not written by a scribe but by a prophet. It smacks of another dimension that is all around us, also known as the kingdom of the heavens. We learn we're made for this "other" world, that our souls long for it, and that we're never at rest until we're fully oriented in this invisible, but real, dimension. This explains why most people live lives of "quiet desperation". The whole point of the book is that humans were made for a superiour hidden reality and that Jesus uniquely stands as both the Gatekeeper and Guide because, as a fact, only Jesus has experienced this hidden country. In his role as Sacrificial Lamb he lets us in the Gate, but in his role as Master Teacher, he is our Guide to living life - here and now. We learn that for years we've ignored Jesus' role as our Life Teacher. Is it any wonder we don't really know how to live? Is it any wonder our world is so messed up? And, in Jesus' absense as Life Teacher, we had to learn from someone - our blind world - on how to live, its principles, its habits, its lifestyle...and we have paid dearly. Dr. Willard eloquently pleads that we start learning how to truly live and that only Jesus has demonstrated standing in history to teach us. Fortunately, Jesus is still taking students, also known as disciples. We learn the call to make disciples in the Great Commission is in essence simply an invitation to learn how to live right - how to live in God's invisible country which is already here - and which is our true home. After reading it for the third time (something I've never done before), I realized how homesick I am (my own life of 'quiet desperation' - though I have good family and job, etc.) for my true home, the one which I was given a soul for -- yet the home I've been ignorant of even though I've been "located" in my home all the time...I was just blind to it as a reality. THIS is why Jesus said to "repent": as to WHAT constitutes ultimate reality: is it this world as we know it through our five senses or is it a multidimensional world, a kingdom of heavens as Jesus called it, and its corresponding rule and power. Jesus knew, then and now, that humans died to God and his kingdom in the Fall. Humans have been shut off from understanding and entering into this ultimate reality. For those who've had enough of a world that is dead to God - a world humans were never designed for, then the Divine Conspiracy can help shed the scales...maybe for the first time. Thanks be to God that His Son Jesus is still calling...calling us to himself, calling us home today. This is a call that can be fulfilled before we physically die too. This was precisely Jesus' intent. This is truly Good News. Thank you Dr. Willard for sharing with us what you've seen.

This book has been hailed by many as ground-breaking, classic stuff. I certainly think it's worth reading, but have to be slightly more reserved in my praise; and I don't think it deserves to sit alongside CS Lewis's works, for example.

The book essentially explains Willard's contempt for 'cheap grace': the idea that salvation is all about the afterlife- and once we are 'saved', we can do what we like (an idea which seems to be fairly popular in the States, I think). He turns this on its head, and a large chunk of the book is taken up with looking at the Sermon on the Mount: what is this, asks Willard, but instruction to strive to live a better, more moral life for God- here, before we die?

His look at the Sermon on the Mount is refreshing and engaging, and a lot of people seem to get a lot out of it: it is not at the academic end of the scale, and is very practical (as the Sermon itself is, of course). However, if you want a commentary, I wouldn't get this book.

After reading the book I felt a strong desire to really live out my faith. For this alone, the book is worth commending. But I was slightly worried by Willard's approach on a lot of things; he seems to assume a fair amount about the nature of God, and quotes thinkers who I would have second thoughts about (John Hick, for example). I imagine that anyone solidly focused on the Bible as their final authority might find a couple of problems with this book. And if you are unclear about what the 'gospel' is, this book won't make it any clearer. However, as I've been a Christian for a while, I could ignore these bumps in the road and get a lot out of reading it.

This book will help you to develop as a Christian, if you have been a believer for a while already: but I don't think it will help new Christians very much, to be honest. And it is a bit longer than it really needs to be!