Enjoy The Captivating Time Travel Novel Centered Around The First Christmas Story

Can you imagine going about your normal life, washing dishes at your own sink and watching your favorite shows, minding your own business by all means and suddenly finding yourself in the first Christmas story? Authors Therese and Rose Marsh have and they want to take you with them as they explore the possibilities in their new novel, Peace Versus Passion.

You may remember these authors from their last time travel book, Charity Versus Tyranny. In their new novel, three very different characters from the 21st century are about to learn valuable lessons when they suddenly appear in Israel 2,000 years before their time. 

The story begins with the opening of the 2023 NFL season. Quarterback Garret O'Neill and perhaps his team’s biggest fan Rachel Sanders are about to find themselves with more things in common than a love for football when they both find themselves suddenly in a foreign and ancient land.

A land they soon discover to be ancient Israel.

Here they meet an Idaho politician by the name of William Gregson who is also lost and "traveling" in the new land he finds himself in. But they do not stay together very long as Gregson is quickly parted with the other time travelers. Then all three are about to experience the most important moment in the history of the world firsthand each with a role to play in the Christmas story.

Peace Vs Passion Drives Home The Importance Of The First Christmas Story

Unique for the fact that it is a time travel novel, Peace Versus Passion takes an interesting outlook on a story we may sometimes take for granted. The story has a powerful expression of the reactions of the various characters. And the message is also very powerful: it is not for us to take the humility and grace of the first Christmas for granted.

Remembering what the Jewish people expected in the Messiah really drives the fact home. They expected a king to arrive in glory and many blew off the possibility of Him being the humble Child born in the stable as a preposterous notion. 

Experience The Awe Filled Event When God Became Man

This story follows three time travelers from the 21st century as they try to navigate life in first century Israel. Along the way, they meet key characters in the Christmas story including Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and even King Herod.

Garett O'Neill "Gary" likes to play football. In fact, there isn't much else he really cares about in the world. During a stressful NFL game, he is confused to suddenly be transported to quite a different time and place. Being placed in ancient Israel in "the time when BC and AD met", he now finds himself wishing he had cared a little more about the Christmas story.

In this new place and time, he meets Rachel, a young fan, who seems to be much surer on her feet in the wrong time than he since she is able to draw on her knowledge of the place and time familiar to her from being a Catholic. The whole experience gets Gary wondering if God really is just a Person up in the clouds who doesn't care about His creatures and what they do or if He really did send His Son into the world "veiled in flesh, the God-head."

Rachel Sanders is a young Traditional Catholic woman who enjoys watching football and cheering for her team. She also is abruptly thrown into new surroundings. After being in something of a daze trying to figure out what happened to her, she soon begins to connect the dots and realizes that she is now in Nazareth in the first century.

Here too she also meets Gary whom she finds to be much more abhorrent when living in close quarters than when she's cheering for him from her living room.

Although unhappily disenchanted to find her hero to be such a sad person without religion, Rachel seizes the opportunity to help him find God and the True Faith.

Hearing about Caesar's census starts to get her suspicious and she is in for the shock of her life when she not only meets the Holy Family but is invited to travel with them to the city of their fathers, Bethlehem. There Rachel is able to get a firsthand and front row seat when she witnesses the birth of Christ.

The third time traveler has perhaps the most interesting experience. Although well educated, William Gregson can tell that there is something familiar about the events taking place in his changed environment, but he can't put his finger on the momentous event that took place at this period.

Having been taken prisoner by a wealthy merchant, Gregson gets to see the side of ancient Israel that Gary and Rachel do not. He sees how politics in this era worked which is fitting since he is a US Senator. With his master, he not only gets to enjoy and experience what traveling in a caravan is like, but also enters the ominous and terrifying presence of King Herod. 

This Time Travel Novel Portrays A Momentous Event With Charm

Peace Versus Passion

This book was especially powerful and well-written during the Christmas scene itself. The authors did a very good job of selling the idea of what is actually happening. 

Rachel is actually present when Christ is born and the portrayal is, of course, the Catholic portrayal with much light and a supernatural birth as opposed to a more humanistic focus on a very natural and not supernatural birth we sometimes see in Christmas films produced by non-Catholic Christians.

Gary on the other hand is with a group of shepherds when the glad tidings are brought. He has a personal experience when his Guardian Angel speaks to him.

Both of these scenes were filled with the emotions that it is only natural the characters would feel and I think this is certainly one of the strengths of the book.

I would like to issue a word of warning, however. There were several things in the book which were a little bit mature. For example, Gary and Rachel find a child wandering in the desert. Quite naturally, they bring him along in hopes of finding his parents in the next village. Despite their efforts, no one turns up to claim the child. There is then a few crude comments from the villagers discussing that the child must be Gary and Rachel's. And this is an ongoing thing that the characters struggle with throughout the story. 

Another adult theme is that there is some discussion of a married woman trying to tempt a married man by being quite provocative at a Hollywood party. 

As far as being true-to-life, I think that the characters were very believable. I was especially impressed with the vibrant life seen in the character of the baby. It was obvious from the way that the authors were able to capture this character that they have had ample opportunities to study young children. 

The reactions and emotions of the other characters were also very well thought-out, especially those of Gary and Rachel as they endeavor to work things out and survive in a land with only the companionship of someone vastly different from themself.

Vivid depiction was another strength of the novel. There were exciting moments like a wolf attack, calm moments like the stable just before Christ's coming, and a radiance you could almost feel when the angels appeared. This scene was very dynamic as can be seen with this quote from Chapter 39. "The forms of thousands of angels became visible...which formed a kaleidoscope of unfathomable beauty. Each angel was unique...One radiated power and strength mixed with intense love, another seemed to diffuse a softer pastel blue color out into the sky around it."

It goes on, but for the sake of brevity, I will leave you with just this taste of the descriptions. 

As far as rating goes, I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5. And the reason I say this is because I really was quite disappointed that the content wasn't 100% family- and kid-friendly. Other than the problems I already mentioned, the story was interesting. It had a unique twist, it just was a little too adult.

I feel that the authors' intention with this book was to give something to everyone. With the character of Rachel, they were telling a story about a young woman who really wishes she could plan her life out and have a clear roadmap. This unexpected wrench of time-travel teaches her to let go of things and to let them be what they are. If something is going to happen, it will happen.

With the character of Gary, I am reminded of a line from the movie Nefarious when the demon says something like, "Just because you don't believe doesn't mean I don't exist." Now I know this might be a bad analogy, but the same goes for all things supernatural. Gary goes into the story not truly believing that Jesus is the Son of God. When he experiences the visit of the angel his entire view on life and religion changes.