[Mr.Trip Williams]

So… had an idea that went….. (BOOM! oooooh…… C. O. O. L. !)

But then, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if it would be rejected or questioned or looked down upon within the Christian community…. here’s the basic premise of the idea…

 

The mythology of my world starts after revelations occurs on earth… I know it’s kinda heretical – so not biblical at all… but it is fantasy…. sooooo…… satan loses, the earth is burned in fire, and the new heaven and new earth descends. God’s people live in the new Jerusalem with Jesus as King and God wins! Right! Right. Up to there, it’s biblically sound…

But…. before satan is thrown into oblivion, he makes one last challenge to God… (so, yeah… this is where it becomes fantasy… and completely off-biblical….) Satan claims that God interfered too much with the humans on earth, so of course it ended up the way it did. (Loosely based this idea on how Satan challenged God when it came to Job…)

Satan then claims if God had really gave humans the free will to choose, they wouldn’t need his interventions. So a new challenge is issued and Kaphar is created and a few of God’s people volunteer to go, and Satan asks for a few unbelievers to be sent there as well (maybe? there are ancient dark forces that exist in Kaphar that stem from this origin…).

Then Satan further challenges that people are too weak, that’s why they needed God’s interventions in the first place, and thus the people are given the capability to manipulate the world around them – thus the essence system was created (Kaphar’s version of magic)… so… yeah.

By the time my novels roll around, this history is all but lost to ancient legends and myths and or completely forgotten by time. The only race who has sort of kept some of the teachings of Maaterra (or Mother Earth – ie. the teachings of Jesus…) are a race whose lives are practically immortal compared to the other races – the L’entians. Yet even for them, most of the teachings have been lost and to top it off, there are very few L’entians left alive…

However, the plan is throughout the series, more and more of these legends are revealed.

The question I have is… is it too close to real? Even though it is fantasy, does changing a bit of revelations seem heretical or in bad form? so to speak… what do you think? Fun and interesting? Or too close to real and heretical sounding?

Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried. ~ G.K.C.

[solanelle]

@jared-williams I have a few thoughts regarding this!

So for me personally, I wouldn’t feel comfortable writing it, but I don’t think I’d have an issue with reading it, since I know you’re a Christian and you’re dedicated to following Christ (you don’t come across as lukewarm at all XD).

In my opinion, the more prominently God and the Bible feature in a Christian’s work, the more responsibility they have to portray it accurately.  For example, in the Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan is a great symbol of Christ, and a good allegorical representation of Him, but at the end of the day he is a lion, and Jesus isn’t.  I think this degree of separation allows for more creativity in the series, if you will, because it’s already established that it’s not supposed to be a 100% accurate portrayal.

However, if a person were to directly include God as a character…I really think that can be dangerous ground tbh.  It’s something I’m still questioning and wrestling with, because inaccurate portrayals of God Himself are extremely careless and irresponsible imo, and might cause a brother or sister to stumble.

One thing I would caution against is portraying Satan as having too much power – imo a lot of Christians are getting trapped in a cycle of fear because they give the works of darkness too much credit and forget how powerful God really is (I also blame the news – it’s good to be aware, but it’s very easy to buy into fearmongering and start seeing the horrific events portrayed as representative of all the world around us.)  It’s one reason why I’m skeptical of Christian horror – our focus is supposed to be on Christ, not darkness.  By all means, we should portray darkness, but our stories should never be without hope, because that’s such a huge, essential part of the Gospel!

I guess the main issue I see is that by writing a sort of mythology where Satan challenges God and God responds in that way – it “gives” Satan the power to redirect God’s original plan, and I think the implications for this world would be pretty grim.  If God says that He’s going to restore all things and make everything right, and then makes a new cycle of sin and despair…what hope have we?  What hope do we have if our God isn’t true to His word?  Obviously I know you intention isn’t to be heretical, and I really do appreciate your openness to advice, but those are some pretty weighty implications (especially when it has such a strong connection to our world.)

Could you create an allegorical world?  Imo a lot of the things you’re including could work perfectly fine in a completely made up world – your could have an apocalypse, this epic battle between light and darkness, and then the Satan figure challenges the God figure…There’s also some interesting concepts here of a post apocalyptic fantasy world, which I think is really cool XD

I would pray over it, and ask God how He wants you to represent Christ in your writing.  It’s something I’ve should do too – tbh it’s a question I struggle with.  I’ve prayed over touchy subjects on my own writing, and God has already given me peace over some of them.  And I know He’s going to answer the rest, even if it takes a while.

Anyways, this is just my take on it!  Hope this helps 🙂

*laughs as one fey*

[Mr.Trip Williams]

👍 tremendously helpful! some times we are our worst critics…. other times we are our biggest blind spots. 😄 thanks for holding the mirror up for me (so to speak)

Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried. ~ G.K.C.

[solanelle]

Of course!  I’m so glad I could help 🙂

*laughs as one fey*

[BookDragon]

if a person were to directly include God as a character…I really think that can be dangerous ground

This^^^

I love what-if stories about Scripture. In fact, I’m planning a series that plays with the apocalypse. Where I question this concept is where it concerns God’s character. Would God respond to Satan’s challenge like this? Would He even acknowledge it? Why would He?

I don’t see anything wrong with exploring life post-apocalypse, but whatever you write will have implications about the character of God.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by BookDragon.

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