The Last Christian
Chapters (58)
Cover
Other Books by This Author
ALSO BY DAVID GREGORY
FICTION
Dinner with a Perfect Stranger: An Invitation Worth Considering
A Day with a Perfect Stranger
The Next Level: A Parable on Finding Your Place in Life
NONFICTION
The Rest of the Gospel: When the Partial Gospel Has Worn You Out
(coauthored with Dan Stone)
Title Page
Copyright
THE LAST CHRISTIAN
PUBLISHED BY WATERBROOK PRESS
12265 Oracle Boulevard, Suite 200
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921
Scripture quotations or paraphrases are taken from the New American Standard Bible®. © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org). The NET Bible ®, copyright © 1996–2005 by Biblical Studies Press LLC, www.bible.org. Used by permission. all rights reserved. The Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
The characters and events in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to actual persons or events is coincidental.
Copyright © 2010 by David Gregory Smith
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York.
WATERBROOK and its deer colophon are registered trademarks of Random House Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gregory, David, 1959-
The last Christian : a novel / David Gregory. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-45906-0
1. Artificial intelligence—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3607.R4884L37 2010
813′.6—dc22
2009046392
v3.0_r1
Dedication
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To my dad
Acknowledgments
My heartfelt thanks go to Bob and Jan Mugele for schooling me on missionary life and to Bob for his assistance with the Inisi language; to Lisa Stewart, Rex Campbell, Todd Herder, Doug Reed, Rod Pauls, and Glade Diviney for their invaluable comments on the manuscript; to Drs. Robert Cockrell and Dana Penner for their insight on medical procedures and terminology; and to Dr. Gary Ferngren for helping me understand the professorial life. I am indebted to my editors, Shannon Marchese, Steve Parolini (noveldoctor.com) and Carol Bartley for forming a team that made this a much stronger book than my solo effort would have produced. Thanks finally to my wife, Ava, for your continual support and encouragement and advice to keep cutting.
My thanks to David Hazard for the painstaking work required to make the writings of the early Christian disciples accessible to today’s reader in You Give Me New Life: A 40-Day Journey in the Company of the Early Disciples, from which I borrowed several quotations. Hazard’s entire Rekindling the Inner Fire series is a spiritual gold mine.